July 22

The Murder Box – Olivia Kiernan

At first, Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan believes the murder mystery game sent to her office is a birthday gift from one of her colleagues. But when Frankie studies the game’s contents, she notices a striking resemblance between the ‘murder victim’ and missing twenty-two-year-old Lydia Callin.

As Frankie and her team investigate, a series of grisly crimes connected to the game are discovered across Dublin city and Lydia’s involvement with a shadowy network of murder mystery players becomes clear.

On the hunt for Lydia’s murderer, Frankie is drawn more deeply into the game. Every successful move brings her closer to the killer. But the real question is not what happens should she lose — but what happens if she wins.

 

I received a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley

 

I haven’t read any of Olivia Kiernan’s previous novels but the blurb for The Murder Box drew me in so I jumped at the chance to read it. Best decision I could have made – it’s a cracker!  This is also me exploring a new way to say “you don’t need to have read any of the previous books in the series to enjoy The Murder Box”.

Yes, this is the fourth book to feature Frankie Sheehan but (honestly) let me assure you that not having read the first three will not hinder your enjoyment one iota. I do now face the problem of having to find time to go back and read the first three books now that I know about them, but that is a nice problem to have – I always think that discovering a new (to me) author is one of the outcomes at the end of any book.

In The Murder Box Sheehan takes delivery of a murder game.  It arrives for her birthday but she doesn’t know who may have sent it.  Sheehan and her colleagues have been overwhelmed with the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of a local celebrity and Frankie hasn’t had much time to consider her birthday and it seems she doesn’t have many friends she would be sharing her day with anyway.

When Sheehan and her partner open the gift box and examine the murder game inside they are initially taken with the idea and, as detectives, they spend a little time contemplating the murder at the heart of the game. There are “clues” in the game which include an earing from the victim, a pathology slide with what appears to be human tissue under the slide and background reading on the “victim” and her last movements before she met her end.

Sheehan is impressed with the detail of the game which arrived in her Murder Box but is too busy to linger on it for long – that is until a woman arrives at the police station to report the disappearance of her flatmate and Frankie thinks she recognises the name of the missing woman. Lydia Callan isn’t just a character created for a role-play game, she seems to be a resident of Dublin and her current whereabouts are unknown.

The Murder Box is a police procedural and a race against time read.  I really enjoyed this one and not just beacuse I love reading good murder stories and enjoy gaming too (a happy coincidence).  The story is brilliantly paced, the frustration of the police is evident and they are already swamped with work as they try to find their missing celeb while cautiously trying to establish if they have been handed a murder investigation in a gift-wrapped box.

Fun, thrilling and very cleverly constructed. I had several guesses at identifying a murderer and I was wrong each time. It’s great when books do that to me – draw me in, keep me guessing and cleverly fool me. Highly recommended and I want to read more Frankie Sheehan stories now.

 

The Murder Box is available in hardcover, digital and audiobook format and is published by riverrun.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0875RYCVX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

 

Category: Blog Tours | Comments Off on The Murder Box – Olivia Kiernan
August 27

The Alphabet Murders – Lars Schutz

FOR THIS KILLER, IT’S A GAME OF A B C

When the body of a man is found brutally murdered in a wildlife park and tattooed with a letter A, criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea Wyler are thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Later, two more mutilated bodies are found, again with tattoos on their skin – B and C – and it becomes clear that Grall and Wyler are dealing with a brutal serial killer. One who won’t stop until his set is complete.

When Grall’s hotel room is marked with a Z and his girlfriend kidnapped, the race is on to find out who the killer is.

Before it’s too late . .

 

My thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for inviting me to join the blog tour and to the publishers who provided my review copy.

 

A serial killer tale from Germany which had a distinctly claustrophobic feel despite the action unfolding thick and fast.

The story opens with the reader witnessing the attack on a woman who is being held prisoner by an unknown assailant.  He is tattooing something onto her skin and the violence of the “branding” lets us know this book falls firmly into the gritty classification.

Readers are then spun away from this horrific attack to a murder scene – a badly mutilated body has been found in a field of bison.  The beasts are unsettled but not as much as the attending officers who cannot fail to notice a large letter A marked on the victim’s body.

Criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea Wyler are on the scene to assist with the inevitable investigation. The pair, despite being partners, appear mis-matched. Grall is the key figure in The Alphabet Murders and most of the story will be focused on Grall and his involvement in the case.  However, this is a difficult assignment for Grall as he is returning to his home town after a number of years absence and he has to face memories he would rather forget.  Events from long ago have shaped the man he became but now he has to share too much information with his partner so the pair can work to apprehend a killer.  The stakes are raised even higher for Grall when it appears the murderer has targeted Grall himself as a future victim.

I referred to The Alphabet Murders as being claustrophobic, I feel this was partly down to the dark wintry setting.  It gave off a distinctly Se7en vibes at times.  Yet some scenes were unfolding at a rapid pace which seemed at odds with the claustrophobia so the action pinged along and the body count quickly increased.

Pacing issues aside (a minor niggle) I am a sucker for a serial killer story and this one has a good few twists which I certainly enjoyed. Definitely a story for the reader who doesn’t want their crime fiction to be sugar-coated…well worth looking out for if “nasty” floats your boat.

 

The Alphabet Murders is published by Zaffre in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alphabet-Murders-Lars-Schutz/dp/1785768638/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1566929609&refinements=p_27%3ALars+Schutz&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Lars+Schutz

 

Category: Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off on The Alphabet Murders – Lars Schutz