Tag Archives: Crime

February 7, 2013

A Treacherous Likeness by Lynn Shepherd

By bibliomouse

treacherous likeness

Publisher: Corsair

ISBN: 978-1780331676 

Publication date: 7th February 2013

Tom-All-Alone’s was one of my favourite books of 2012 so I was really excited to see that Lynn Shepherd’s third novel also featured Charles Maddox, the detective and great-nephew of the ‘great thief-taker’ from Murder at Mansfield Park. 

Shepherd’s previous book ended with a man leaving a card for Charles and the elder Maddox being taken ill. When Charles returns the call, he finds that he is visiting Lord Percy, the only remaining child of  Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary, author of the (in)famous Frankenstein who now, frail and elderly, lives with her son and daughter-in-law.The Shelleys want Charles to stop the publication of some letters which would harm the reputation of the dead poet, something that Lady Jane has spent years working to clean up. The letters belong to Claire Clairmont, Mary’s step-sister and one-time lover of Lord Byron, who is reviled and feared for the potential power she holds over the family.

Accepting what he believes will be a relatively simple commission, Charles once again finds that nothing is what it seems and that there is a lot more to the animosity between the two parties than the Shelleys had let on. Suspecting that his great-uncle knows more about the affair, he trawls through Maddox’s case notes from thirty years before whilst the man himself lies insensible, struck down with an illness that is mystifying the household. As Charles gets drawn further into the lies and intrigue that surround the history of Shelley, Mary and Claire, he discovers that there are many reasons that Maddox was so keen to cover up his part in it…

As with Tom-All-Alone’s, Shepherd’s research is impeccable. The atmosphere that she creates feels authentically chilling and she doesn’t shy away from describing squalor and seediness. The pace doesn’t flag throughout the novel and none of the multiple threads of the story ever feel confused or arbitrary. Despite the numerous narrative voices employed by Shepherd, all feel authentic and they work together to create an engaging whole. I particularly appreciated the introduction of Maddox Sr’s case notes as a way of enabling the use  of his voice whilst he is essentially out of action.

Charles is still a great character, naïve and street-smart in equal measure, able to conduct a complex investigation whilst being utterly unaware of what is going on under his nose. I defy anyone to read the novel and not feel an overwhelming urge to shake him several times. Shepherd excels at writing villains, and there are plenty to choose from here, from the unbearable Lady Jane to the twisted Shelleys, each seemingly as bad as the other. There are also genuinely moving moments, especially, as in the previous novel, those involving the fate of infants unfortunate enough to get caught up in the tangled relationships of the adults around them.

The notes at the back give suggestions for further reading and indicate the extent of Shepherd’s research and the love she has for the period. This is turning into a brilliant series and I’m really pleased that Shepherd’s next book will also feature Charles and his investigations.

4/5

Thanks to Corsair for sending me a review copy!

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Historical, Reviews

January 7, 2013

The Beauty of Murder by A. K. Benedict

By bibliomouse

beauty of murder

Publisher: Orion

ISBN: 978-1409144519 

Publication date: 14th February 2013

A K Benedict’s debut is a thriller set in Cambridge which combines murder with time-travel.

Stephen Killigan, a young lecturer just arrived at Cambridge, finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation when he drunkenly stumbles over the dead body of a beauty queen who disappeared a year earlier. The police look for the body and find no sign of it, and Killigan is suspected of either being a hoaxer or a madman. When the body of a young choir boy is found the day after he goes missing but looking as if he has been dead for a year, Killigan is upgraded from a hoaxer to a murder suspect.

Cambridge is a city with enough idiosyncrasies and history to make it an effective setting for a thriller like this, and the author’s knowledge of the city means that the level of local detail is impressive and adds to the atmosphere of the novel. The villain, Jackamore Grass, is well drawn – arrogant and intelligent, he has been waiting for a worthy opponent and, in Killigan, he thinks he’s found him. The use of the different voices throughout the novel keeps the narrative interesting and the plot zips along a good speed.

There were some niggles though – the occasional anachronism grates, especially as most of the novel was well-researched. Some of the characters seem a little flat and underdeveloped – the police inspector, Jane Horne, is a good example of this. There are some attempts to make her a more rounded character by giving her concerns beyond her job, but it feels a little perfunctory. The dialogue is sometimes forced and Killigan himself crosses the line between witty academic and pretentious twit more than once.

It is a largely well-written, easy to read and compelling thriller which would make a good introduction to a series, but isn’t quite as clever as it thinks it is.

3/5

I was sent a review copy by http://www.lovereading.co.uk in return for an honest review. A shortened version of this review also appears on that site.

5 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Reviews

December 9, 2012

Books to Curl Up With, part II

By bibliomouse

It’s getting colder outside, Christmas-scented candles are being lit and we’ve had the first proper snow of the year. It’s obviously time for two more cosy books!

Crooked-House-Christie-Agatha-9780062073532

 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

    ISBN: 978-0007136865

        Publication date: 5th August 2002 (originally published in 1949)

I read my first Agatha Christie aged 9 and, twenty years later, I’ve now read all of them. I wrote my Masters’ thesis on her novels and I can bore people for hours about why I think that she has been unfairly maligned in terms of racism and sexism. Many a  happy Sunday has been spent on the sofa watching David Suchet mince across the screen as Poirot and, had my over-enthusiastic ex-flatmate been quicker than me, the cat would have been called Aggie. In case it’s not clear, I love Agatha Christie* and I think they’re fabulous books for lazy afternoons – they’re short enough to read in one go and somehow reading about murder always makes my living room feel cosier. Make of that what you will…

 Crooked House is my favourite Christie mystery and was one of the author’s favourites too. Its detective is Charles Hayward, whose fiancée won’t get married until the murderer of her grandfather is discovered. I love it because it’s genuinely chilling and unexpected whilst still being non-gory and cosy.

*Even I can’t defend Curtain. Really, I’ve got nothing.

 Publisher: Persephone Books

    ISBN: 978-1903155714

        Publication date: 23rd October 2008 (originally published in 1934).

I admit that this isn’t the best and most exciting photo, especially when you have to have superhuman eyesight to see what the book actually is, but bear with me. Persephone Books are all jacketed in dove grey, which looks lovely when you have several on a bookshelf, and each has a different end-paper and bookmark in a ‘fabric’ design chosen to compliment the book. They’re gorgeous, really.

Although many of the works re-printed by Persephone could be called ‘cosy’, Miss Buncle’s Book by DE Stevenson is one of my favourites. The story of Miss Buncle, an unmarried and impoverished lady in her 30s who writes a novel about her small village and its inhabitants as a way of making some money, the novel is charming, witty and well-written, much like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. If anyone would like to get me Miss Buncle Married for Christmas, that would be lovely, pleasethankyou.

4 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Comforting Reads, Reviews

August 2, 2012

Don’t Look Back by Karin Fossum

By bibliomouse

Publisher: Vintage

ISBN: 978-0099452133

Publication date: 3rd July 2003 (paperback, translation)

I’ve read lots of Scandinavian crime fiction in the last couple of years – Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Jo Nesbø, Stieg Larsson, Camilla Lackberg and Yrsa Sigurdardottir to name a few – but Karin Fossum had passed me by until recently. Don’t Look Back is the first of her novels to be translated into English, although it is her second novel featuring Inspector Sejer, and it won the Glass Key Award in 1997 for Nordic crime writing.

Set in a small town north of Oslo, at the foot of Kollen Mountain, the novel starts with a terrifying scenario – six-year old Ragnhild accepts a lift home from a strange man who promises to show her th baby rabbits at his house. Soon the police are with the girl’s distraught parents, when she arrives home, unharmed. The release of tension when she turns up is immense, only to be shattered a few pages later when Inspector Sejer gets a phone call about a dead body that was found lying by the lake by the search party hunting for Ragnhild.

The dead girl, fifteen-year old Annie Holland, also lived with her parents in the town. A promising athlete and good student who regularly babysat for some of the town’s younger children, she seemed on good terms with everyone who knew her, although she has been withdrawn for her last few months. Initially there are few clues and, as with many small towns, everyone thinks that they know each other, but Sejer and his young assistant Jacob Skarre start to uncover the many secrets and tensions brewing under the seemingly calm surface of the community.

This is definitely a book for fans of the police procedural, and maybe not one for lovers of frenetic action and dramatic chases. Sejer and Skarre painstakingly interview Annie’s friends and neighbours, slowly gathering evidence about her murder, and several suspects emerge as they talk to people. Can Annie’s ex-handball coach explain why she quit the team so suddenly? Why What is Annie’s backpack doing in her on/off boyfriend’s shed? What is Annie’s mother’s first husband hiding? Annie’s death is not the only crime to have taken place in the town of  Granittveien.

I really enjoyed Don’t Look Back, despite its pace being a little slower. This pace actually suits Fossum’s wonderful inspector, Konrad Sejer, who is steady, intelligent and thoughtful without being boring. He has recently been widowed and missed his late wife terribly, lives alone except for his dog, and has a grown-up daughter and a grandson, Matteus, of whom he is very fond. I was afraid that starting with the second book in the series might mean that  it would be hard to get a sense of his character but Fossum is very good at small details which make her characters come alive and I get the sense that we will learn a little more about Sejer, and Skarre, with each novel.

Fossum’s excellent characterisation is also used to convey the devastation caused by Annie’s death. Her family are very well drawn, from her superficial and rather stupid elder half-sister to her rather hideous mother, but it is her father whose reaction to her death is the most upsetting. As with Susan Hill’s portrait of grieving parents in The Pure in Heart, Fossum has created a compelling and heart-rending picture of a distraught father who is struggling to deal with the loss of his child and the changed dynamic of his family.

If you want an excellently-written detective novel with elegant writing and clever characterisation, I would recommend Don’t Look Back. Don’t expect a cheerful read though – there is a quiet sense of sadness that pervades the whole book, though, and the ending is as chilling as that of  Gordon Reece’s Mice. I’m looking forward to exploring more of Fossum’s writing, starting with the first in the Sejer series, In the Darkness, which was published in July.

4/5

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Detective/Crime, Recommended, Reviews, Scandinavian

July 14, 2012

Three bookshops and a bookfair later…

By bibliomouse

I do like living in Newcastle but, due to the ridiculous amounts of rain recently, I’m beginning to get a little bored of going to the same cafes etc. all the time, and staying inside makes me a little stir crazy. With this in mind, Mr Mouse persuaded me that 2 hours on a bus would be a good idea and dragged me off to Alnwick on Saturday, for a day of book shopping. One book fair, two second-hand bookshops and an indie later, we crawled back onto the bus home clutching bags of books. I was quite impressed at how restrained I was really…

I was really happy with what I found, especially with The Song of Achilles, as I’ve been arguing with my copy of the net galley of it for weeks. I’ll be reviewing some of these once I’ve read them, but here’s a bit about them from the blurbs:

Catch Your Death

A terrifying enigma – with the power to destroy…

Twenty years ago, Kate Maddox was a volunteer at a research centre where scientists hunted for a cure for the common cold virus. That summer, Kate fell in love with a handsome young doctor, Stephen, but her stay ended in his tragic death and Kate fled to a new life in the US.

Now Kate is back in England and on the run with her young son, this time from her vile husband. But a chance encounter sets her on a terrifying path of discovery. What really happened at the Cold Research Unit two decades ago?

Pursued by both her estranged husband and a psychotic killer who is obsessed with his prey, Kate must fight to solve the puzzle of the past – uncovering a sickening betrayal and a truth more horrifying than she could ever have imagined…

Heft

Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn’t left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty milesaway, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising sporting career-if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel’s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur’s. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene’s unexpected phone call to Arthur – a plea for help-that jostles them into action.

Through Arthur and Kel’s own quirky and lovable voices, HEFT tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives. It is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places.

The Return of Captain John Emmett

1920. The Great War has been over for two years, and it has left a very different world from the Edwardian certainties of 1914. Following the death of his wife and baby and his experiences on the Western Front, Laurence Bartram has become something of a recluse. Yet death and the aftermath of the conflict continue to cast a pall over peacetime England, and when a young woman he once knew persuades him to look into events that apparently led her brother, John Emmett, to kill himself, Laurence is forced to revisit the darkest parts of the war.

As Laurence unravels the connections between Captain Emmett’s suicide, a group of war poets, a bitter regimental feud and a hidden love affair, more disquieting deaths are exposed. Even at the moment Laurence begins to live again, it dawns on him that nothing is as it seems, and that even those closest to him have their secrets . . .

The Hidden Child

Crime writer Erica Falck is shocked to discover a Nazi medal among her late mother’s possessions. Haunted by a childhood of neglect, she resolves to dig deep into her family’s past and finally uncover the reasons why.

Her enquiries lead her to the home of a retired history teacher. He was among her mother’s circle of friends during the Second World War but her questions are met with bizarre and evasive answers. Two days later he meets a violent death. Detective Patrik Hedström, Erica’s husband, is on paternity leave but soon becomes embroiled in the murder investigation. Who would kill so ruthlessly to bury secrets so old?

Reluctantly Erica must read her mother’s wartime diaries. But within the pages is a painful revelation about Erica’s past. Could what little knowledge she has be enough to endanger her husband and newborn baby? The dark past is coming to light, and no one will escape the truth of how they came to be…

The Song of Achilles

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper – despite the displeasure of Achilles’s mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

Witch Child

When Mary sees her grandmother accused of witchcraft and hanged for the crime, she is silently hurried to safety by an unknown woman. The woman gives her tools to keep the record of her days – paper and ink. Mary is taken to a boat in Plymouth and from there sails to the New World where she hopes to make a new life among the pilgrims. But old superstitions die hard and soon Mary finds that she, like her grandmother, is the victim of ignorance and stupidity, and once more she faces important choices to ensure her survival.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in American, British, Detective/Crime, Historical, Lists, Scandinavian

July 12, 2012

The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill

By bibliomouse

Publisher: Chatto and Windus

ISBN: 978-0701178949

Publication date: 2nd June 2005 (paperback)

The second in Hill’s crime series featuring Chief Detective Inspector Simon Serrailler, The Pure in Heart is another assured piece of sensitive and absorbing writing. Called back from a holiday in Venice when his severely disabled youngest sister, Martha, contracts pneumonia, Simon finds himself heading up the investigation into the disappearance of a nine year old boy, David Angus, who has vanished without a trace. Glad to have something to distract him from the feelings that last year’s shocking murder stirred up, Simon throws himself into the case with the help of Nathan Coates, newly promoted to Detective Sergeant.

As with The Various Haunts of Men, this novel concentrates more on the community of Lafferton and its reaction to the crime than actual police work. Simon himself is far more present in this novel than the first in the series, and he reveals himself to be highly contradictory. He can be generous, lively and amusing but also cold, distant and intensely private, which causes problems when Diana, a woman with whom he had a casual affair in past years, develops possessive tendencies despite his indifference and, indeed, disgust.

Cat Deerbon, Simon’s sister, is the heart of the novel. Pregnant with her third child, she finds herself deeply upset by David’s disappearance, especially in addition to her family’s own situation with Martha. The disintegration of David’s family is also profoundly affecting. The portrait of a grieving family is shown in such intimate detail that it feels almost voyeuristic. Details such as his mother adding cold water because she shouldn’t be allowed the luxury of a hot bubble bath whilst her son is missing are brilliantly and sensitively observed.

As readers might have gathered, it’s not a cheerful book and although I didn’t personally find it as upsetting as The Various Haunts of Men, I can imagine that anyone with children might find the descriptions of David’s captivity and his mother’s grief highly emotive. However, the quality of Hill’s writing prevents the depiction of such naked emotions from feeling gratuitous. There are many loose ends remaining at the end of the novel and this might be frustrating to some readers; for me, it just made me hanker for the next book  (which, luckily, was waiting for me on the bookcase). The Pure at Heart wasn’t as satisfying as Serrailler’s first outing but, as one in a series, it’s a excellent read.

4/5

This review was originally written for New Books Magazine September/October.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Recommended, Relationships, Reviews

July 9, 2012

The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill

By bibliomouse

Publisher: Chatto and Windus

ISBN: 978-1856197144

Publication date: 3rd June 2004 (hardback)

I recently agreed to review the second in Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler series for a feature in New Books Magazine, with a really tight deadline, thinking that I’d read the first book already. It turns out that this was completely imagined and the 560 pages of The Various Haunts of Men were still to be tackled. I have to admit that I was a little daunted at the prospect – I’ve read so many crime novels recently that the idea of reading two more in a fortnight wasn’t exactly appealing. However, I prefer to read series in order so I picked up Simon Serrailler’s first outing and got on with it.

As so often happens, I’m really pleased that I did. Much like Ruth Rendell, who is quoted on the front cover, I loved this book. I should have known that it would be excellent as the other two books by Hill that I’ve read have both been brilliant. The Woman in Black was a novel thrust upon me when I was about 12 as a set text at school and I liked it then; I’ve read it since and picked up so much more atmosphere and detail than the first time around.  Similarly, Strange Meeting was a text on a World War I module for my BA and, despite it being one of several novels that we had to read, it was the one which I’ve since re-read for pleasure. Hill’s writing is always a joy to read and often belies the horror of her subject matter.

Set in the fictional cathedral town of Lafferton, The Various Haunts of Men is ostensibly about the disappearence of a middle-aged woman who vanishes one foggy evening. There are few leads as Angela, the missing woman, lived alone and kept very much to herself. Once these leads dry up, the case is downgraded in priority and only Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham thinks that there is more to the case than meets the eye. She is proved right when there are more disappearences, although the missing persons have nothing to connect them other than vanishing whilst up on The Hill. D.S. Graffham, along with her Detective Constable, Nathan Coates, is determined to find out whether Lafferton has its first serial killer.

I’ve read reviews of this novel which criticise it for the slow pacing and, whilst I recognise that this isn’t the most rip-roaring of novels, I do think that those reviewers are missing the joy of Hill’s writing and plotting. Although the crime aspect kept me interested, the real point of the seems to be the way that the reader gets to know the town and its inhabitants, many of whom will be featured throughout the series.

There’s Angela Randell, who lives alone but is in love with a mystery man for whom she buys expensive and, potentially, inappropriate gifts; Debbie Parker, a depressed young woman who seeks answers in the alternative therapies on offer in nearby Starly, and her flatmate Sandy who worries about her friend being taken in by charletans. Karin McCafferty, a professional gardener, discovers she has cancer but refuses her doctor’s advice and also turns to  alternative medicine, and Dr. Cat Deerbon who has to find the line between being Karin’s doctor and her supportive friend, as well as dealing with tensions surrounding the increase in  Cat’s mother Muriel, herself a retired doctor, is heavily involved in local activities and it is through the choir that she meets Freya Graffham, recently moved from London after a messy divorce. Freya discovers that she already knows Muriel’s son, Simon Serrailler – he’s her D.C.I., and she is also, inconveniently, in love with him. All of these characters are vividly brought to life and, although some are featured more heavily than others, none feel redundant or superfluous.

It’s the strength of Hill’s characterisation and the sense of community that it invokes which makes the crimes in the novel so affecting. And they are emotional, from the disappearances of characters that the reader has come to care about to the shock ending. Ah, that ending. If anyone remembers the first ever episode of Spooks they might know what I mean when I say that the denouement of this novel was shocking. I think it’s fair to say that I was a wreck by the end of the novel, and Mr. Mouse had serious reservations about me reading any more of the series. To be fair, even thinking about Bambi makes me teary, so I’m not the best measure of  the emotional power of anything, but I’d definitely advise you to have tissues to hand when approaching the ending.

I don’t really have anything bad to say about The Various Haunts of Men, which is slightly dull – sorry! As mentioned in my post about my favourite books of the first 6 months of 2012, I promised myself that I’d finishing writing this review before reading The Risk of Darkness, the third in the series. That didn’t happen, mainly because I just couldn’t not read it once it was on the bookcase. Bearing in mind the size of my TBR pile, this says a lot about this series. One word of warning – I would strongly recommend reading these in the correct order as I think the emotional heft would be lessened otherwise.

Go! Read!

4.5/5

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Relationships, Reviews

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