REVIEW El Flamingo, Nick Davies Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Tuesday, July 23, 2024 Regardless of why struggling actor Lou Galloway upped sticks from Los Angeles landing in Mexico, going from attending yet another audition in which he didn't get the job to sitting around in bars with cheap mezcal and no demands, the last thing he expected was to end up at the wedding of the daughter of the infamous crime boss Diego Flores. The grand mansion, the fancy food, elaborate outfits, the drinks, the gorgeous wife Maria-Carla Flores, the pretence that he's El Flamingo. The real ruthless assass ..read more

REVIEW Death of a Foreign Gentleman, Steven Carroll Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Monday, July 22, 2024 The first book in a planned series of post-war literary crime novels, DEATH OF A FOREIGN GENTLEMAN by Steven Carroll was released in April 2024. Not sure when the next one is due for release but I'll be standing by for it when it arrives.  Set in 1947, in Cambridge England, German philosopher Martin Friedrich is riding his bicycle through an intersection when he's hit and killed by a speeding car, which promptly left the scene. The only clues available to DS Stephen Minter ..read more

REVIEW Murder by Natural Causes, Helen Erichsen Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Friday, July 19, 2024 Borrowed this one by sheer happenstance from the library in audio format. Turned out to be an excellent choice, as it was different, and cleverly done. MURDER BY NATURAL CAUSES is told in two timelines. In the current day, Cilla is a 22-year-old contract killer, specialising in "dry" killings - murders that are usually declared by natural causes, with no suspicions aroused. Her main source of work is Vladimir Haugr, owner of an exclusive London based bridge club, she does five jobs  ..read more

REVIEW The Queen of Poisons, Robert Thorogood Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Tuesday, July 16, 2024 THE QUEEN OF POISONS is book number 3 in The Marlow Murder Club, which is also now a TV series. Not at all surprising, it definitely has a "perfect for TV feeling" to the stories, it's quite good fun, and written by Robert Thorogood, the man behind the Death in Paradise series.  The "crime fighting trio" in this series is made up of Judith, a retiree who keeps herself busy setting crosswords for a newspaper, and nude swimming in the Thames that meanders past her ramshackle old mansio ..read more

REVIEW Dark Arena, Jack Beaumont Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Thursday, July 11, 2024 Jack Beaumont is a pseudonym used by a former operative in the clandestine operations branch of the DGSE, the French Foreign secret service. He joined them after being an air force fighter pilot, flying special operations and intelligence missions. Needless to say there are a lot of similarities between the author's background and that of his main character Alec de Payns. Not that the expertise is mishandled in this, now, series of two novels. Beaumont has the knack of providing more than enough ..read more

REVIEW The Shadow Broker, Tina Clough Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Thursday, July 11, 2024 SHADOW BROKER is a standalone novel from NZ based author Tina Clough. It's a thriller in style, set in the future, where individual freedoms have been severely curtailed and state surveillance is omnipresent. When coded messages are found on a burner phone, they reveal a shadowy mastermind, who refers to himself as "The Broker", government corruption, and ruthless politics. Based around a group of three friends, who in an unlikely twist of circumstances, discover the messages on a burner ph ..read more

REVIEW Broken Bay, Margaret Hickey Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Tuesday, July 9, 2024 Mark Ariti is back in the third novel in this series, and for the first time, the setting moves from the bush to the seaside. On a short "break" away in the small fishing town of Broken Bay, on South Australia's Limestone Coast, he seems to be approaching it as less holiday, more purgatory. Ariti is not good at aimless, and is acutely aware he's really hiding from his personal life. His partner Rose is about to head overseas to a new job, and Ariti is stuck. Does he go with her to new horizons and ad ..read more

REVIEW The Dead of Winter, Stuart MacBride Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Friday, July 5, 2024 Have to admit it, THE DEAD OF WINTER jumped the queues. No apologies, it's by Stuart MacBride, I managed to get hold of it on audio and it is a time in my life where I need a Scottish accent and a bit of sweary mayhem for distraction. Readers of other books by Stuart MacBride will be unable to avoid the obvious comparisons, DC Edward Reekie and Logan McRae / DI Victoria Montgomery-Porter and DI Roberta Steel. The similarities are striking, what with Reekie doing a very good line in sotto voce ..read more

REVIEW Ritual of Fire, D.V. Bishop Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Thursday, July 4, 2024 Third in the Cesare Aldo series from D.V. Bishop, RITUAL OF FIRE is set in a time of change for Aldo, his colleagues and his personal life. He's been sent to the Tuscan countryside, hunting thieves and fugitives whilst Florence battles a heatwave, drought and what turns out to be a series of violent murders of rich merchants. Luckily there is a connection between these merchants and the town that Aldo is exiled in, with one of the deaths occuring locally, giving him more than enough reason to i ..read more

REVIEW Chasing the Dragon, Mark Wightman Reviewed By Karen Chisholm Wednesday, July 3, 2024 The second DI Maximo Betancourt novel, set in 1940's Singapore, CHASING THE DRAGON continues his story in close follow on from the earlier novel - WAKING THE TIGER. This novel could work as a standalone, but as with anything where the focus is on a main character, it's probably best to read them in order to get the full backstory and the reasons why Betancourt finds himself in his current professional and personal situation. The Singapore Marine Police is tasked with policing the docks a ..read more