August 15

The IT Girl – Ruth Ware

Everyone wanted her life
Someone wanted her dead

It was Hannah who found April’s body ten years ago.
It was Hannah who didn’t question what she saw that day.
Did her testimony put an innocent man in prison?

She needs to know the truth.

Even if it means questioning her own friends.
Even if it means putting her own life at risk.

Because if the killer wasn’t a stranger, it’s someone she knows…

 

 

Ruth Ware always delivers! The IT Girl is another clever, twisty thriller which takes the reader deep into the lives of the characters and has you wondering which of the players in this drama can be considered trustworthy as the moving finger of accusation slides around seeking the rotten apple in the barrel.

This is Hannah’s story – the “then” and the “now” – events take place in present day where Hannah the bookseller in Edinburgh is expecting her first child and has just received some shocking news. But it is also Hannah’s story of “then” when, ten years ago, she was a new student at Oxford and finds herself sharing rooms with April.

April who died.

April who was murdered by the man that Hannah’s testimony helped put into prison.

The man who has died in prison.

The man that a journalist now suggests may have been innocent.

Hannah is tormented with the possibility she may have been instrumental in sending an innocent man to prison and she begins to reevaluate everything she saw on the fateful night April died. However we know from the “then” timeline that the man charged with April’s murder wasn’t quite so innocent and Hannah had some concerns over his behaviour. Watching the history of Hannah’s time at a Oxford play out while also reading of the consequences of everyone’s actions is fascinating and makes for an intense read.

The chapters flip between past and present and Ruth Ware’s control over the flow of facts and information is spectacular. You can’t know what will be important, misleading or character defining for Hannah and her friends so, as a reader, my opinion of characters and their level of guilt would wildly fluctuate on a regular basis.

If you want a book which will spirit you into the seemingly incomprehensible traditions and lifestyles of  students Oxford Uni then The IT Girl will show you how a gaggle of students cope (or don’t) with the death of one of their own. You may like or loathe some of the people but you will absolutely want to know what happens to them and that keeps the pages turning.

You can’t go wrong with a Ruth Ware thriller!

 

The IT Girl is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-it-girl/ruth-ware/9781398508354

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July 5

The Dark Remains – Ian Rankin and William McIlvanney

In this scorching crime hook-up, number one bestseller Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DI Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.

If the truth’s in the shadows, get out of the light…

Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong type of people. Now he’s dead and it was no accident. He’s left behind his share of enemies, but who dealt the fatal blow?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, Laidlaw needs to find out who got Carter before the whole city explodes.

 

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the tour for The Dark Remains. I am also grateful to Canongate for a review copy.

 

Laidlaw. Is this where it all began? For almost ten years I have been lurking around the fringes of the Bloody Scotland Crime Festival and the names “Laidlaw” and “William McIlvanney” are mentioned at most panels. The McIlvanney Prize is given to the best Scottish crime book of the year. Laidlaw’s shadow looms large over all current writing – that is a legacy to hold in reverence. It is 2022 and a new Laidlaw book is being released to the paperback market. The name McIlvanney is joined by that of Ian Rankin, that duo is a USP beyond measure.

But for many (myself included) Laidlaw is not a character they may have read before now. So does The Dark Remains capture the character of Laidlaw? The book cover states this is Laidlaw’s First Case – will The Dark Remains introduce a new generation of readers to the original books?

I honestly cannot answer either of these questions. Having not read any of McIlvanney’s books I don’t know how well the character of Laidlaw may compare to his original outings. On that front I can say that I adored how he comes across in The Dark Remains. There are quirks in his character, a deep level of thinking and an odd apparent indifference to his family. He commands respect from the low level hoods he meets in Glasgow’s streets and bars and he battles with a boss who clearly hates him. His presence dominates this story and it is magnificent.

Will readers of The Dark Remains pick up the original books?  I will be. For years I have promised myself I will read McIlvanney’s books – after reading The Dark Remains I immediately got myself the other books – holiday reading locked in.

But what of the story its-self? Bobby Carter is found dead in an alley behind a pub. Glasgow is divided up amongst rival gangs, each with their own influencial figurehead controlling his troops. Bobby Carter was found in the “wrong area” so was he killed to send a message or did someone over-step their remit and take action into their own hands?

The police know all the players in the city, who owns pubs and bookies, who the dealers report to and where the trusted members of each “family” can be found. But this time nobody seems to be talking but all the evidence which comes to light suggests it may be one of Bobby’s own who sought to end his life. But can the police trust the evidnece or is someone playing them for fools?

Laidlaw is not inclined to take everything at face value. While his colleagues are chapping on doors and seeking witnesses, Laidlaw is talking to people who knew Bobby Carter and people who saw Bobby in places where he should not have been.

The Dark Remains is a terrific read, Ian Rankin has brought McIlvanney’s unfinished manuscript to a delighful and thoroughly enteretaining completion. I enjoyed the characters, the dry quips and the depiction of Glasgow more than I have any police procedural for some time. It flowed with apparent effortless grace and I did not want to leave the world when the story ended.

The Dark Remins is one of those rare “must read” stories.

 

The Dark Remains is now available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-dark-remains/ian-rankin/william-mcilvanney/9781838858810

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June 28

London In Black – Jack Lutz

A TENSE, TICKING-BOMB THRILLER SET IN A GRITTY NEAR-FUTURE LONDON

LONDON 2027

Terrorists deploy London Black, a highly sophisticated nerve gas, at Waterloo Station. For ten percent of the population – the ‘Vulnerables’ – exposure means near-certain death. Only a lucky few survive.

LONDON 2029

Copy-cat strikes plague the city, its Vulnerable inhabitants kept safe by regular Boost injections. As the anniversary of the first attacks draws near, DI Lucy Stone, a guilt-ridden Vulnerable herself, is called to investigate a gruesome murder of a scientist. Her investigation soon unearths the possibility that he was working on an antidote – one that Lucy desperately needs, as her Boosts become less and less effective.
But is the antidote real? And can Lucy solve the case before her Boosts stop working?

 

My thanks to Tara at Pushkin Press for the opportunity to join the blog tour for London in Black. I am reviewing a purchased digital copy of the book.

 

I have read a few dystopian stories for this blog and too often the blurb on those books made the book sound edgy and terrifying but the story just did not deliver on that early promise. So it was a genuine pleasure to discover London in Black was graphic, edgy and sufficiently nasty to tick all my boxes.

The cause of the apolcalypic event in this story was a toxin attack on London. Large numbers of the population were not harmed by the gas but for the vulnerable amonst them infection meant a prolonged and terrifying slide towards a painful death. A very small percentage of those vulnerable are hanging on to life, their bodies dependant upon a drug developed by scientist Flinders Cox and manufactured by his firm. But Flinders Cox has been murdered and DI Lucy Stone is on the case. Except she isn’t because she has been suspended from duty.

Lucy is one of the vulnerable who relies upon the drug Cox developed. She monitors her reistance to the effects of London Black (the toxin) and takes a daily booster to keep her alive. But the booster seems to be losing efficiency and with each hour her monitor shows her defences against infection are falling. If Cox has been killed then who will be able to continue his research and develop an antidote? Why was this prominent scientist killed and who benefits from his death?

London in Black takes a fast paced murder investigation and throws in the drama of the lead character constantly battling to avoid potential exposure to toxins which could kill her. The prospect of Lucy’s daily booster failing her and losing effectiveness over each day means she is in a real race against time to solve this case and uncover what Cox had been working on at the time of his death. Could it have been an antidote which would cure her?

I really enjoyed the duplicity and red herrings littered through this story. I thought I was doing well in unpicking motives and identifying possible suspects but Jack Lutz had other ideas and kept me on my toes with revelations and surprises which totally caught me off guard. Despite my abject failure at guessing where this story may take me I was fully onboard for the ride. At the end of the book I was only disappointed it was finished – I could easily have spent more time reading about this near future London.

If you want a thriller which offers a high tempo and edgy, gritty storyline then you should look no further.

 

London in Black is published by Pushkin Press and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09YN2YPGV/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

 

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June 19

Up Close and Fatal – Fergus McNeil

On the road. With a serial killer.

It begins with a list of names – past and future victims. When struggling reporter Tom Pritchard receives it in the mail, he’s scared, though he knows this could be the story he needs to save his career.

Especially if he can help the police to catch the killer.

But this isn’t a typical murderer. This is someone patient and ruthless, someone who’s been planning for years. Soon, the tables are turned and Tom finds himself trapped on a terrifying road trip across the US, racing from victim to victim. His only hope of saving his family is to understand the killer but, to do that, he’ll need to be close. And although he doesn’t know it yet, that’s exactly where the killer wants him to be.

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the tour. I am reviewing my purchased copy of Up Close and Fatal.

 

 

Tom Pritchard is an English journalist working in the US. He has had some success but the opportunties are not coming thick and fast and he has seperated from his partner who now looks after their five-year old son. Tom isn’t in a great position and his life is going to become so much more complicated.

Tom arrives home to find a strange letter. Inside is a list. Numbered one to ten. But just three names on the list (points four, six and nine). The other seven points are blank and at the foot of the list is a single word: WAIT.  Ever inquisitive Tom opens a search engine and looks up one of the names – a murder victim. Both the other names on the incomplete list match murder victims too but Tom cannot see any link between the three.

Wait was the instruction and Tom soon recieves a further communication. A telephone call from someone who asks if Tom recieved his letter. This call offers Tom the opportunity to write the biggest story of his career but he has to be prepared for everything that comes with accepting the challenge. The Killer (for it is a serial killer that has reached out to Tom to write his story) wants Tom to meet and dicuss the list and the background to the names on the list.

Tom realises he has an opportunity to help catch a killer if he agrees to the meeting. He enlists the help of a friend in the police force and when the time of the meeting draws near Tom is fully tracked, followed and supported by a team of officers. However the killer is far smarter than any of them suspected and all does not go to plan. When Tom’s guard is down the killer pounces and Tom finds himself travelling across country, captive to a man determined to bring his series of killings to its conclusion. And Tom has front row seats to the last murders which will complete that list of names.

Fergus McNeil has given us a serial killer road trip and it is a hell of a ride. Tom is brilliantly realised and he faces a real dilemma over his continued participation in the project his captive outlines. The killer is also wonderfully depicted by the author – he is the key to the whole story and also displays a full range of emotions as his story is told. Two very different characters and each get a turn in the spotlight as the author balances their contribution to this story.

It’s unusual to see a story putting the killer and the “hero” of the book together for so much of action. Yet Fergus McNeil makes it work. Both characters are motivated by their own agenda and though they are going to the same place (even if Tom does not know where this is) each has a different plan for how their trip will end. Unfortuantely for Tom his travelling companion has had a long time to prepare and he has left nothing to chance. Unfortunately for the killer – well you know what they say about the best laid plans…

I breezed through this fast paced thriller in just two day – highly recommended.

 

 

Up Close and Fatal is available in paperback and digital format and can be bought here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09WXNDCF1/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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June 18

The Chemical Cocktail – Fiona Erskine

 

 

I recieved a review copy from the publishers and was invited to join the blog tour by Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours. My thanks to both.

 

In 2021 I spent 11 months of the year praising a book written by Fiona Erskine. I read it in February and in December (to nobody’s surprise) called Fiona’s book the best book I had read in 2021. When the opportunity came to read the next book Fiona had written I could not resist.

The Chemical Cocktail is the third Jaq Silver thriller and despite there being some hints at past events you don’t need to have read the previous books in the series to enjoy this one. And you WILL enjoy this book as it’s an action thriller which spans continents, has some particularly nasty bad guys lurking in the background and we get more than a few tense moments for Silver as she tries to investigate a secret from her past.

Early in the story the reader learns Silver’s mother has died and Jaq has come into posession of the last of her mother’s posessions. Within the documents she finds information which will turn her world upside down. Events thereafter give the readers an insight into the background of Jaq Silver, an understanding of how she became the woman she is but also expose some of the most secret elements of her past. I imagine for returning readers this will be a welcome look at the background of a loved character but for a new reader to the series (me) it was a wonderful way to meet the character.

The information Silver received in her mother’s posessions will kick off a frantic race against time chase which stretches from England to Brazil, with some stops in Europe along the way. There is little respite for Silver as she tries to elude pursuers without understanding why she is being pursued. The reader is also kept in the dark as to what the “prize” at the end of this chase may be – not knowing what was behind the attempts to capture Jaq Silver really held my attention and kept me reading.

Silver is a terrific lead character and I understand why some reviews have drawn comparisons to a James Bond type figure. She is also an expolosives expert and the author brings the science to the story in a way which is accessible, educational and entertaining.Rembmber how Tom Clancy books would suddenly jump from the action to delivere ten pages of technical specifications on a missile? Well in The Chemical Cocktail Fiona Ersine will slip in two informative and accessible paragraphs and keep the action flowing. Both styles show the author is in total command of the information and subject matter but, sorry Tom, only one is actually fun to read.

The Chemical Cocktail is sharply written with short, punchy chapters and the constant thrill of a chase and evade makes for an exciting story throughout. I loved the time I spent getting lost in this adventure tale and now need to find time to read the first two books in the series too.

 

The Chemical Cocktail is published by Point Blank Crime and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09JPH6CV1/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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June 8

The Lost Ones – Marnie Riches

The girl is sitting upright, her dark brown hair arranged over her shoulders and her blue, blue eyes staring into the distance. She looks almost peaceful. But her gaze is vacant, and her skin is cold…

When Detective Jackie Cooke is called to the murder scene, she is shocked by what she sees. Missing teenager Chloe Smedley has finally been found – her body left in a cold back yard, carefully posed with her bright blue eyes still open. Jackie lays a protective hand on the baby in her belly, and vows to find the brutal monster who stole Chloe’s future.

When Jackie breaks the news to Chloe’s heartbroken mother, she understands the woman’s cries only too well. Her own brother went missing as a child, the case never solved. Determined to get justice for Chloe and her family, Jackie sets to work, finding footage of the girl waving at someone the day she disappeared. Did Chloe know her killer?

But then a second body is found on the side of a busy motorway, lit up by passing cars. The only link with Chloe is the disturbing way the victim has been posed, and Jackie is convinced she is searching for a dangerous predator. Someone has been hunting missing and vulnerable people for decades, and only Jackie seems to see that they were never lost. They were taken.

Jackie’s boss refuses to believe a serial killer is on the loose and threatens to take her off the case. But then Jackie returns home to find a brightly coloured bracelet on her kitchen counter and her blood turns cold. It’s the same one her brother was wearing when he vanished. Could his disappearance be connected to the murders? Jackie will stop at nothing to catch her killer… unless he finds her first…

 

My thanks to Bookouture for my review copy and to Sarah Hardy for the opportunity to host this leg of The Lost Ones blog tour.

 

There are some authors I always enjoy reading. If you look back over my past reviews you will see I have read (and always enjoyed) many books written by Marnie Riches – she seems to nail that perfect balance of pacing, humour, darkess (oh what darkness) and tension packed thrills. Anticipation ahead of reading The Lost Ones was high. I was not disappointed.

The Lost Ones is the first in a new series which features Detective Jackson (Jackie) Cooke and we first meet her in a state of some discomfort, very pregnant, at a murder scene and without her regular partner who has finally secured a long-overdue holiday. The murder is a particularly nasty one; a young girl has been left posed in a location where she will be easily found. Her body has been mutilated and some of her limbs are missing.

Jackie cannot help but be reminded of her own brother who she lost many years earlier when he vanished when he and Jackie were both children. Her brother never returned and Jackie’s mother and her often absent father struggled on with a constant feeling of loss and heartbreak. The family dynamic is fractious and Jackie’s own family are seemingly also chaotic. She has many plates spinning in her home life and with a third child, their happy accident, on the way there seems no let up.

The murder investigation takes the majority of the story and it’s a great police procedural – even if the team are not the best at following orders. Jackie’s boss (and apparent nemesis) wants to bench her but is struggling to cover her position. Her colleagues are too busy to give the case the attention Jackie thinks it needs and she does not rate their ability to investigate this unusual murder properly.

We see Jackie covertly trying to keep working on the murder case and enlisting some willing colleagues to support her. An astute reader will definitely have that impending feeling of something about to go badly wrong, it certainly kept me reading!

I read The Lost Ones in two sittings, didn’t want to stop as there was always something in the story which kept me pushing through “one more chapter”. It’s got more than a few dark moments as I have come to expect (and look forward to) when I read Marnie’s books and this new cast of characters were wonderfully realised as I felt I had been reading about them for more than one book.

The Lost Ones is out now and I cannot think of a single reason as to why you shouldn’t buy a copy immediately.

 

 

The Lost Ones is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09TWCJ33M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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May 24

The Daughter – Liz Webb

I lean in and whisper the question I have never let myself utter in twenty-three years. “Dad, did you murder Mum?”

Hannah Davidson has a dementia-stricken father, an estranged TV star brother, and a mother whose death opened up hidden fault lines beneath the surface of their ordinary family life. Now the same age that Jen Davidson was when she was killed, Hannah realises she bears an uncanny resemblance to her glamorous mother, and when her father begins to confuse them she is seriously unnerved.

Determined to uncover exactly what happened to her mum, Hannah begins to exploit her arresting likeness, but soon the boundaries between Hannah and her mother become fatally blurred.

 

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy of The Daughter which I received through Netgalley

 

Hannah has returned to her family home to care for her ailing father. He has taken a fall and been hospitalised so Hannah is dividing her time between the challenging hospital visits and staying in her childhood home surrounded by all the memories which this brings back. Her dad’s dementia means he is not always aware of what is happening around him and he often seems to believe he is living in the past if his reference points and stimulus bring his memories to periods long gone.

This is how Hannah finds herself on a dangerous and traumatic spiral in The Daughter. Hannah had been going through a very difficult time in her personal life and the combination of stopping her medication and not taking proper care of herself means she has lost a lot of weight. Hannah’s father had not seen her for a while before his fall and hospitalisation and when he looks at his daughter from his hospital bed it appears his dementia leads him to believe that Hannah is actually her mother Jen. Jen died when she was the age which Hannah is now and Hannah’s father was the primary suspect in her murder.

From his hospital bed Hannah’s father sees his “wife” and with a flash of apparent lucid thought he tells Hannah he is “sorry”. Sorry for what? What has her father felt he needs to apologise to her dead mother for? Could it be that he is *finally* confessing to her murder and showing remorse as his life draws to a close?

Hannah decides she must discover the truth about her mother’s death. The incident which effectively destroyed her family and set their lives on an unforseen path. To do this Hannah needs to connect with her estranged brother (now a successful TV star), engage with her creepy and over-familiar neighbours, chase down old friends of her mother (who do not want to be known as such) and even speak with the policeman that was convinced her father was a murderer.

The Daughter is a web of lies, scandal, tragedy and secrets. Hannah herself has skeletons in her closet and as she digs deeper into the life of a mother she barely knew someone may turn her own mistakes against her.

Liz Webb has done a great job keeping this domestic drama a tense and engaging read throughout. I knew with certainly at least three times where the story was heading and I was wrong each time. I got there in the end but I definitely enjoyed being wrong and revisiting my suspicions.

Scandals, secrets and lies all make for great stories – this is one such story.

 

 

The Daughter is published by Allison & Busby and is available in hardback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-daughter/liz-webb/9780749028756

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May 19

Six Wounds – Morgan Cry

To make the perfect Spanish whodunnit cocktail, take one dead gangster, mix in six shifty expats, add one ruthless baddie and garnish with a suspicious police officer . . .

Daniella Coulstoun has recently moved to the Costa Blanca. When the dead body of a prominent London gangster is discovered in the cellar of her bar she quickly becomes the number one suspect.

With the police closing in, the local expats turning on her and a psychotic rival to the dead gangster in the background, Daniella knows she needs to nail the real killer, and fast.

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Six Wounds tour and to Gordon Brown for an early review copy.

 

Six Wounds is the follow-up to last year’s Thirty-One Bones which saw Daniella Coulstoun ripped from her life in Glasgow (where she worked in a call centre for an insurance firm) to the Costa Blanca. Daniella had recently lost her mother and, as a consequence, inherited a murky pub frequented by an odd collection of ex-pats who were a thoroughly disreputable crowd. You do not need to have read Thirty-One Bones to enjoy Six Wounds (and I am sure you will enjoy Six Wounds) but knowing the background of the main characters is always nice and Thirty-One Bones is a thumping good read too. Either way, there are good books here to be enjoyed so you can decide where you want to jump in.

In Six Wounds Daniella has a whole new series of problems to contend with. She already knew her mother was involved in numerous dubious schemes and she was someone that had her fingers in many pies. But now Daniella is running Se Busca and it seems some of her mum’s former contacts expect Daniella to continue facilitating the same activities and enterprises – whether she wants to or not.

But before the reader catches up with Daniella’s latest dilemmas and predicaments there is a more dramatic incident to propel the reader back into her world. The book literally begins with an explosion of energy, chaos and destruction as Se Busca comes under attack for reasons as yet unknown. When the commotion has settled there is one unwelcome object left behind and it will bring the police to Daniella’s door.

Unfortunately for Daniella the police are going to be playing a large part in her life while this story plays out. She is not in control of events which are going on around her and her home and her bar are both being used by persons unknown who will try to gain leverage against her.

In Thirty-One Bones I felt Daniella was sharp and keeping well on top of her new surroundings. She was a savvy operator and I loved how she was able to handle what was being thrown at her. But now she seems less assured, the full implications of her sudden relocation to Spain is hitting in. Her mother has left her more problems than she can comfortably cope with. The pub is failing and needs major investment. Her co-owners are a dubious and duplicitous bunch and Daniella knows she can’t trust them but more importantly will they side with her when the chips are down? It all does seem to be getting too much for one person to contend with.

What did strike me as I read Six Wounds was how quickly Morgan Cry managed to grab my attention and nothing else I was reading at the time came close to matching that level of focus. I read Six Wounds over a weekend, everything else was ignored as I was totally engrossed in the events on the Costa Blanca. The story zips along at a slick pace and mixes tension and humour with some devious plotting. I was hooked.

 

Six Wounds is published by Polygon and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/six-wounds/morgan-cry/9781846975707

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May 13

Requiem in La Rossa – Tom Benjamin

In the sweltering heat of a Bologna summer, a murderer plans their piece de resistance…

Only in Bologna reads the headline in the Carlino after a professor of music is apparently murdered leaving the opera. But what looks like an open-and-shut case begins to fall apart when English detective Daniel Leicester is tasked with getting the accused man off, and a trail that begins among Bologna’s close-knit classical music community leads him to suspect there may be a serial killer at large in the oldest university in the world. And as Bologna trembles with aftershocks following a recent earthquake, the city begins to give up her secrets…

 

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Requiem blog tour

 

Housekeeping first – Requiem in La Rossa is the third book in The English Detective series by Tom Benjamin. Daniel Leicester is a private investigator working in Bologna and he prevoiusly featured in A Quiet Death in Italy and The Hunting Season. Requiem in La Rossa is my first encounter with Daniel Leicester but I didn’t feel I was struggling to keep up with characters or background events having missed the first two novels. Purists may wish to read the series in order – based on the quality of the third novel I think that would be a very enjoyable experience – but you can absolutely jump straight in with Requiem too.

So to the book. Bologna in the summer. Temperatures are high and the city is being rocked by a series of earth tremors which initially had residents diving for cover but now seem to be more of an irritation than a cause for panic. But for one professor the heat and fears of earthquakes are no longer a concern, he has been killed during an altrication with a young drug user.

The police consider the issue closed. The killer is in custody and there seems no reason to believe there is anything further to investigate, they have their man. But Daniel Leicester is asked to look into the issue. The killer is a former student, a very talented classical musician who spectacularly and unexpectedly failed in his exams and was let go from his studies. Leicester gets the opportunity to speak with the boy and finds his explanation of events is inconclusive but does not indicate the actions of a murderous individual.

Adding some complexity to Leicester’s investigation is the fact there is more than one individual connected to the professor and the classical music scene who has met an unexpected death. Leicester finds the body of a young musician who has hanged herself leaving no message or explanation around why she took her own life. Unfortunately his discovery will get him on the wrong side of the vindictive Commisario Miranda. Their verbal sparring was very much a fun element to the story.

This is a cleverly written, slow-burn thriller. The pacing of the story lends itself well to the opressive summer heat and the time we spend with the characters lets them develop very nicely to ensure I am invested in their lives. Too many books zip along from incident to incident and the cast suffer as a consequence, it’s hard to be upset about the death of a character who we know very little about.

One slightly surprising consequence of reading Requiem in La Rossa was the realisation I know very little about Italy, the Italian language and their police and political structures. I loved discovering more about Bologna through the story (it is wonderfully presented by the author) and I almost felt I was learning as I was reading.

All in this was a very enjoyable read. I welcomed the slower pacing which accompanied this well told tale and the characters shone through.

 

Requiem in La Rossa is available in paperback, audio and digital format and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/requiem-in-la-rossa/tom-benjamin/9781472131645

 

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May 12

May God Forgive – Alan Parks

Glasgow is a city in mourning. An arson attack on a hairdresser’s has left five dead. Tempers are frayed and sentiments running high.

When three youths are charged the city goes wild. A crowd gathers outside the courthouse but as the police drive the young men to prison, the van is rammed by a truck, and the men are grabbed and bundled into a car. The next day, the body of one of them is dumped in the city centre. A note has been sent to the newspaper: one down, two to go.

Detective Harry McCoy has twenty-four hours to find the kidnapped boys before they all turn up dead, and it is going to mean taking down some of Glasgow’s most powerful people to do it…

 

My thanks to Canongate for my review copy and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the May God Forgive blog tour.

 

It’s hard to know where to start with May God Forgive as the Harry McCoy books by Alan Parks are among my most anticipated releases each year. I had been looking forward to reading this book almost from the moment I finished last year’s The April Dead. The good news is that the wait was absolutely worth it.  May God Forgive swept me up and folded me back into McCoy’s Glasgow of 1974 – it’s dark, brutal, unflinching and lots of other adjectives which you want from a story in the Glasgow of old.

If you are not familiar with Harry McCoy then the most important advice I can offer at this stage is go and grab a copy of Bloody January and start reading. If you want to jump straight in with May God Forgive then you can do this too as key characters, relationships and important events are all smoothly introduced by the author which should ensure no new readers are disadvantaged. For returning readers you can easily slip back into McCoy’s life, share the pain of Wattie’s sleepless nights with a teething toddler and tense when Stevie Cooper is in the scene as you never quite know when he may kick off!

Events in May God Forgive take place just a few weeks before I was born so I can’t claim any prior knowledge of how Glasgow was at this time. What I can confirm is that Alan Parks makes the old city and its hard reputation feel incredibly vivid and realistic. It’s the time of gangsters controlling their turf, of backroom pornographers snapping racy pictures of hard-up housewives, of violent attacks, cheap booze and a growing market in dodgy pills. And Glasgow’s finest are not a slick operation that can keep the city a safe place for its residents.

As we join the story the city is in outrage and mouring. An arson attack on a commercial property in the city resulted in the deaths of several women and children. Killing kids is never tolerated so the police recieved a tip-off as to where the perpretrators could be found. Three teenage boys are being brought to the court for sentencing and the crowds are out braying for blood. They want the death penalty brought back, they want the culprits released into their “care” so justice can be swiftly delivered. It’s chaos and it’s McCoy’s first day back at work after a period of enforced absence. Our main man has been convalesing as a stomach ulcer kept him in crippling pain but that’s nothing compared to the problems which are about to land in his lap.

McCoy’s ulcer is possibly one of the few lighthearted elements to the story, his slugging of pepto bismal when juggling his smoking, drinking and fried breakfasts sees a man caught in the horns of dilemma. There are few laughs elsewhere. Gangsters are flexing and posturing. An old acquintance of Harry’s has met a nasty end but leaves more questions than anyone could have expected. Wattie has been tasked with identifying the body of a young girl who was found dead in a city graveyard and those arsonists are in more trouble than they could ever have anticipated. Who will protect the murderers when a whole city wants them dead?

I am faced with a problem. How can I keep finding new ways to describe the absolute reading pleasure I get from this series? Each book delights and delivers thrills, tension and tramatic drama. I give each book a five star review and I wonder how Alan Parks can match it the next time out. Only he doesn’t just match the quality of the previous titles – he improves on them. Each book seems better than the last – how is this possible if there isn’t some sort of witchcraft involved? Magical. That’s what I am going with this time…”magical”.

 

May God Forgive is published by Canongate and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/may-god-forgive/alan-parks/9781838856748

 

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