Author: Steven

Before She Disappeared

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Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardener introduces an off beat almost hobo detective.

Frankie Elkin has no possessions, no home, no ties or connections just a passion for finding missing people. She travels from town to town tracking down missing people, up to now she has only found the hidden bodies of victims, is this case going to be any different? Frankie arrives in a rough neighbourhood of Boston on a mission to find a missing Haitian teenager only to discover that neither the family or the police are comfortable with her uncovering what might have happened and the local drug gangs have a few things to say as well.

This is good, it’s twisty and well paced. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to Frankie making a return.

This One Sky Day

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I am not sure how to describe This One Sky Day by Leone Ross except to say that it is magical in every sense.

Set on an island (possibly in the Caribbean) populated with characters that each have a magical characteristic or ability, This One Sky Day is based on the events of a single day with the hero preparing a wedding feast for the president’s daughter while trying to find the spirit of his dead wife and connect with his one true love, meanwhile strange things happen to the women of the island and revolution is brewing.

Confused? Well don’t be, just sit back and marvel at the story telling, the magic, the beautiful characters and wonder how it will turn out. If you crossed the magical realism of Marquez or Allende with a touch of Shakespeare you might get to This One Sky Day.

Brilliant! 5/5

Where Ravens Roost

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Where Ravens Roost by Karin Nordin is a great scandi-crime debut.

Kjeld Nygaard is facing suspension from the police and going through a separation from his partner and child when his estranged father leaves a message for him saying that he has witnessed a murder. The problem is that Kjeld’s father is suffering from insetting dementia and his memory is unreliable. Kjeld travels back to his childhood home in a remote mining village and as he investigates he starts to believe that his father may have seen something but when a body is found it is Kjeld’s father that comes under suspicion. As Kjeld investigates he uncovers his own puzzling family history as he gets closer to identifying the murder.

Where Ravens Roost is fast paced, dark and full of twists. Kjeld is a character that I want to read again and I expect to see in a BBC 4 crime series in a year or two.

Win

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Win is a departure for Harlan Coben, Windsor Lockwood the third was the psychopathic aristocratic friend and protector of Coben’s original detective Myron Bolitar, now he gets his own novel as the lead character.

20 years ago Win’s cousin was abducted and held captive during a robbery of the family home. The two stolen artworks were never recovered until one appears in the home of a murder victim. As Win tries to solve the crime and find the other painting he discovers some disturbing family secrets and interest from the FBI related to domestic terrorism in the 60’s.

I liked Win as a sidekick but he lacks the nuance and charm of Bolitar and overall this is rather meh!

The Coffin Maker’s Garden

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The Coffin Maker’s Garden by Stuart MacBride is the third in the Ash Henderson series. A storm is battering the Scottish coast and part of the garden of a coastal cottage crashes into the sea exposing a graveyard in the basement of the cottage. Who were the victims, how did they get there, where is the owner of the cottage?

With massive media attention, the senior brass are looking for a scapegoat as the evidence gets washed out to sea and Henderson is determined it will not be him. Filled with tough and disillusioned characters, this is classic dark crime that rattles along at a blistering pace. I highly recommend this and the other novels in the series.

Dangerous Women

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Set in 1841, The Rajah sales for Tasmania with nearly 200 female convicts and their children, a new life beckons. Kezia Hayter joins the voyage to guide some of the women to make a special quilt as a way of occupying their tome aboard and learning a craft that will help them in the new world. Early in the voyage one of the women is murdered, the murderer is either one of the convicts or one of the crew. Kezia helps the captain and senior officers to seek the killer.

Hope Adams has constructed a compelling story based on some real events (the voyage and the quilt). The narrative slips between different characters weaving their histories together and delivers a very satisfying surprise at the end. I wasn’t sure about this at the beginning but I am glad that I read it.

3.5/5

The Absolute Book

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A few chapters into The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox I was ready to give up. It didn’t seem to be going anywhere and there was a lot of book ahead of me. One more chapter I thought, and kapow! suddenly the book really lifts off, you start to get an insight into the clever plot threads and then it is a delight.

I don’t know how to describe The Absolute Book without spoiling those first revelations so I will just say, if you enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and American Gods then there is a good chance that you will love this.

4/5

The City of Tears

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Kate Mosse does historical fiction really well, she sets her novels in an interesting period, the religious wars in France and the earlier Albigensian Crusade, and populates them with engaging characters and page turning plots.

The city of Tears is the second in the Burning Chambers trilogy based around the religious wars of the 16th century Reformation. The plot switches between France and Amsterdam, the City of Tears from 1572 until 1594 and spans the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, the overthrow of Catholic leadership in Amsterdam and the coronation of Henri 4th.

This is great history, we all need to understand more about how the Reformation shaped Europe as it is today and a compelling story of family intrigue, religious fanaticism and the enduring power of relationships. Read it after you have read the Burning Chambers.

4.5/5

Like Flies from Afar

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Like Flies from Afar by K Ferrari is a staccato violent novel based on a single day in the life of Mr Machi. If that sounds like it should be a gritty page turner then you may be disappointed.

Machi discovers a body in the boot of his car and spends the day pondering who planted it and why while endeavouring to dispose of the body. The plot is interspersed with incidents from Machi’s violent rise to power and a catalogue of people who might have a grudge against him.

I found Like Flies from Afar to be tedious and pointless, I didn’t care what the end was going to be, only that it would come soon. Thankfully it is pretty short.

According to his publisher

“Ferrari works as a janitor for the Buenos Aires metro at the Pasteur-Amia station on line B. In the 1990s, he was deported from the United States, where he and his wife were trying to find work.”

I wouldn’t encourage janitors across Latin America to give up their day jobs. This may appeal to some and has been heralded as a sensation by some critics, I’d recommend giving it a miss.

2/5

Bobby March Will Live Forever

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Bobby March Will Live Forever by Alan Parks is brilliant. It starts off at a cracking pace and doesn’t let up until the last page, it has several overlapping plot threads which you struggle to see how they will get tied together, it has twists and turns and surprises and most of all it is dark. I loved it.

Harry McCoy is a rebellious detective at war with his ambitious senior officer and excluded from the search for a young girl who has been abducted. Instead he is diverted into two dead end cases, the overdose of rock musician Bobby March and a series of unsolved violent robberies – both lead to unexpected conclusions. Meanwhile his childhood friend, protector and Glasgow crime boss is spaced out on heroin and his empire is in danger of collapsing. How does this all work out? Well worth reading to see.

Alan Parks is a newish Scottish writer (at least to me), his Harry McCoy series will appeal to anyone who enjoys Rebus.

4.5/5