I thought I would give Jeffrey Archer a go. I have always been a bit prejudiced against him in the past. It is mainly about this Detective Inspector Warwick at the yard and his team. It is also a bit about an undercover officer who used to be in the SAS. DI Warwick has a lovely wife who organises art exhibitions at the Fitzmolean Museum. There is a Mr Big who has a lot of valuable paintings, and his crooked lawyer. Then there are various other London gangsters to deal with. I had a hard time working out when it was based. It seemed to be the 80s because there were no mobile phones or internet ..read more

This is published by Hard Case Crime. I was attracted by the lurid cover. It was pretty good. Not quite as good as all the endorsements on the cover would have it. Still, it was readable enough, and it was a bit different for crime fiction. It was part crime fiction, part war story, part love story ..read more

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this one   just started and excellent so far, I've never really read a thriller like this, it's kind of a rom-com mixed with a murder mystery... anyone else requested?      ..read more

  UK Government Minister, Lord Edward Bellingham, is reported missing on Crete by his wife. This unleashes a high profile, high level search to which Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Louise Mangan is sent as a liaison officer. This takes her away from her regular work in London leading the security detail for high profile overseas visitors while a hitman works though his commissions.    This is a complex mystery that is well told. The setting in particular, London and Crete, feel well drawn and convincing. The reader feels the heat of the Greek sunshine and the breeze ..read more

Did anybody else see this short story in the Guardian?  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/dec/24/extract.originalwriting   It’s set in the world of his Nursery Crime series  ..read more

Jess, Pete and their kids have left their family home in Walthamstow and bought the Maple House, a large, imposing and run-down home in rural Suffolk. It seems that Jess was running away from something - perhaps an intruder she had disturbed in Walthamstow - but something at the Maple House doesn't seem right. Things move, doors that were locked seem to open themselves, and there are glimpses of something in the garden.    This should be a twisty psychological thriller. Sadly, the title rather gives the game away. There is some tension right at the end, and the intrigue of how it al ..read more

Hi everyone! After a long break, I want to go back to reading crime books. So far I have mainly read books by Tess Gerritsen, Stieg Larsson and Agatha Christie. I am now looking for new books that will keep you in suspense to the last page. It's best if they relate to real crimes. Do you have any interesting suggestions for me ..read more

This is the prequel to the Laidlaw Series that McIlvanney wrote.  He was part of the way through it when he died and Ian Rankin was asked to finish it.   Poor man's Rebus, imho. Set in 1970s Glasgow (both of which I know well) DC Laidlaw is investigating a murder. He's married with children but stays in a hotel when working on a case. This particular case is supposed to be gang related/organised crime but comes off as neither. The other characters are neither here nor there either. I enjoyed it enough to finish it - I never finish a book I don't enjoy -  and it was an easy and ..read more

Wake is a solid Australian Noir. WAKE: Wednesday Addams killed Evelyn.    Lane Holland is a small time private investigator chasing rewards offered for solving cold cases. He rocks up in Nannine, rural New South Wales, to see whether he can shed light on the disappearance of nine year old Evie McCreery over a decade ago. Evie disappeared in the night from a remote farm station. Only her sister Mina and the farm manager's wife were on site, and the site is larger than some small countries.    Lane finds Mina McCreery, now grown up, still living at the station. Her father is ..read more

Read One Good Deed by David Baldacci, whose most famous book is Memory Man. It's an airport book really. It's set in America about 1950. The hero has just come out of prison for a crime he didn't commit. He soon gets mixed up in loads of stuff: bad men, bad women, capable coppers, incapable coppers. The hero has just one fault: he keeps going on about the blinking war all the time. Anyway, I was thinking it was a bit hackneyed, but it did misdirect me, and I quite enjoyed reading it ..read more