Reviews

Best British Mysteries 2006 – Ed by Maxim Jakubowski

‘…there is something here to everyone’s taste!’

Synopsis:
Here is a collection of the best short stories of 2006. We have a definite mixture of writers within the covers of this book. The themes of the stories include the comical dark goings on in a bingo hall, a new adventure of Sherlock Holmes through the eyes of Mrs. Hudson and a dark tale about killing for a piece of music and the repercussions it can have. Truly a very mixed bag!

Review:
This collection is like a box of chocolates. Some, like toffee or nougat, take a bit longer to digest whereas others that are shorter are soft centred and easily melt on the tongue. Of the longer tales, I loved Four Calling Birds by Val McDermid, which is such a cynical, twisted tale that you cannot stop inwardly sniggering. Also, there is a fabulous tale by Christopher Fowler who delivers a superb ‘new’ Holmes.

Of the shorter tales my absolute favourite has to be by Peter Lovesey. He is such a master at delivering a story in the most precise prose with a stunning ending, and with his tongue firmly in his cheek! The Margaret Murphy tale is also a very harrowing tale of our time. This would make a great Christmas gift as you can simply dive in and out of this collection as and when time allows. Certainly, like that box of chocolates, there is something here to everyone’s taste!

Reviewed by: C. S.

CrimeSquad Rating

Anne Perry – A Christmas Guest

‘This is a short moral tale that will keep you happily engrossed and quiet for a few hours over the hectic Christmas period.’

Synopsis:
When Mariah Ellison is unceremoniously shipped off to what she claims to be the back of beyond, she just knows she is going to have a dreadful Christmas. Not only has she been abandoned by her granddaughter in preference for the better climes of France, but she is also being forced onto her daughter-in-law and her new husband, an actor who is twenty years younger.

Mariah just knows it will be damp and she will suffer, as she seems to every day of her life. She also makes sure that everyone else knows about it. Once at her holiday abode, Mariah has another shock. As if she didn’t have enough to deal with, the household is to have yet another guest. Mariah takes an instant dislike to the woman, Maude and her incessant tales of her escapades abroad. It takes a tragic incident for Mariah to visit Maude’s family home, and for Mariah to uncover some nasty undercurrents that have terrible repercussions forty years later.

Review:
This is Anne Perry’s third Christmas novella. These stories try to bring to her main protagonists a sense of understanding for their fellow man but also have a mystery lying at the heart of the story. Mariah is a woman who exasperates people with her grouchy attitude and she loves to make people’s lives a misery. As the story develops, you begin to understand that it is the misfortunes of her own life that have made her the woman she is.

The mystery is quite ‘light’ but that’s not really the main focus. The pivotal point of the story is to show Mariah’s understanding of another human being and her realisation that there is always someone worse off than you. It is a very humane story and I greatly enjoyed it. This is a short moral tale that will keep you happily engrossed and quiet for a few hours over the hectic Christmas period.

Anne Perry’s previous festive novel, A Christmas Visitor is now out in paperback.

Reviewed By C.S.

CrimeSquad Rating

Jonathan Kellerman – Rage

‘A must for all Jonathan Kellerman fans!’

Synopsis:
Alex Delaware, psychologist and consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department, receives a call relating to a disturbing old case. Nine years ago two young boys killed Kristal Malley, a toddler out shopping with her mother. Now Rand Duchay, one of the young killers, has been released from prison and contacts Alex Delaware to set the record straight. However, Rand is killed later that evening and, as Alex starts looking further into this disturbing and complex murder, it becomes clear that the case is far from closed…

Review:
Alex Delaware and his LAPD friend and colleague, Milo Sturgis, make a welcome return in this excellent novel. The case is satisfyingly complex and unlike many of Kellerman’s previous books the murderer is not revealed at the end of the novel but is uncovered gradually. We follow Alex and Milo as they try to unravel a case where the main characters are now dead or missing and where the guilty seem to have already been punished.

Jonathan Kellerman is not just concerned with the central plot but also with developing the character of Alex Delaware and his circle of friends, The book had a wistful quality in parts and at the end you are left with the tantalising prospect of further change in Alex’s life. A must for all Jonathan Kellerman fans!

Reviewed by: S.W.

CrimeSquad Rating

Henning Mankell – The Man Who Smiled

“Lovers of Henning Mankell and his irascible detective, Wallender, will love this book.”

Synopsis:
Mankell’s famous Swedish detective, Kurt Wallander, is in Denmark recovering from a breakdown brought about by his killing of a suspect in a previous investigation. He is visited by Sten Torstensson, a solicitor from his hometown of Ystad, who is convinced that his father’s recent suicide was, in fact, murder.

Still in a fragile mental state, Wallander is unable to help, until five days later Torstensson is shot dead in his office. This brutal event spurs Wallander into action and he returns to the Ystad police force to dig deeper into the mysterious world of a local multi?millionaire.

Review:
This is a classic Henning Mankell mystery first published in Sweden in 1994. Many of the characters that feature in his later novels are here, from new recruit Ann-Marie Holgrund to the insomniac Svedburg. Even Kurt Wallander appears as a younger figure, mentally exhausted and considering retirement, but fired up with enthusiasm over taking charge of an investigation again.

The book reflects the preoccupations of early 1990s Sweden. Mankell makes reference to the real-life murder of Swedish Prime Minister, Olaf Palme, whose murderer was allowed to flee justice due to police ineptitude early in the investigation. The reverberations of this incompetence overshadow Mankell’s book, as Kurt Wallander is forced to justify to his superiors his handling of every aspect of the case.

Wallander is reassuringly the same detective of later novels, downbeat, impatient but a dogged seeker of the truth. Lovers of Henning Mankell and his irascible detective, Wallender, will love this book.

Reviewed by: S.W.

CrimeSquad Rating

The Detection Collection – Edited by Simon Brett

‘…will guarantee to render the recipient of this book quiet for a few hours..’

Synopsis:
To celebrate the supposed 75th anniversary of The Detection Club, (evidently there is some ambiguity as to when it was actually formed), Simon Brett has rallied round and got eleven well established crime writers to write a short story for this collection. These stories take us through revenge for being bullied at school, to obsession whether it is with a person or an object. From a confidence trickster to a bizarre incident at an American hotel where six candidates vie for a high profiled job in a large corporation.

Review:
It is always great to read something brand new from a favourite author. In this collection we have eleven stories, which have never appeared in any other publication. You can’t really go very wrong when you have such grand masters of the art of crime writing in the form of P.D. James and Reginald Hill, both of whom give us such excellent stories in just a little over ten pages. I loved the Robert Goddard and seeing a new Colin Dexter albeit without Morse, is always a celebration. As always, the great man doesn’t disappoint. The Clare Francis is also a delight when it looks so dark for her main protagonist and yet ends on such a satisfying note. As with all collections, there are a few weak ones, which is a shame from such a high calibre of writers. Nevertheless, this is a small yet significant collection and will guarantee to render the recipient of this book quiet for a few hours while the turkey is cooking on Christmas Day!

Reviewed by C.S.

CrimeSquad Rating

Michael Jecks - The Butcher of St Peter’s

“This is a tightly woven story made up of intricate subplots. The details of medieval life are well researched and really interesting.”

Synopsis:
Set in fourteenth century Exeter, this story begins with the murder of Daniel Austyn, an official of the city who has been investigating the corruption of a prominent member of the city’s Freedom. This individual, Jordan le Bolle, has power and influence throughout the city but has also made many enemies in his pursuit of wealth through prostitution and gambling.

Sir Baldwin De Furnshill is Keeper of the King’s Peace and is in Exeter recuperating from a serious wound. His hatred of injustice leads him on to investigate this and subsequent murders. The story is set against a background of unease because of a possible civil war, feud between sections of the Church based on a desire for power and money and relationships between husband and wife, which are less than idyllic. Baldwin does finally unravel the complicated sub plots to discover the truth.

Review:
This is a tightly woven story made up of intricate subplots. The details of medieval life are well researched and really interesting. Although this book is one of a series in which Sir Baldwin De Furnshill is the key to solving the murders, I felt that he played a fairly low-key part in this story. However the other characters are well developed and their treachery and plotting makes this book a very compelling read.

Reviewed by S.D.

CrimeSquad Rating

Lev Grossman – Codex

“The action was well paced throughout and towards the end of the novel it was a genuine ‘page-turner’ to see who ultimately ended up with the Codex.”

Synopsis:
A New York private banker is asked to catalogue a collection of private books for a client. A task that he finds both mystifying and demeaning. However, he is soon drawn into the search for a missing mediaeval book. An investigation, that seems to have strange parallels with a computer game he has been given by friends in the cyber community.

Review:
Although I approached this book in some trepidation it turned out to be a really good read. My concern was that it seemed very much in the vein of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” or Perez-Reverte’s “The Dumas Club” and that it would not stand up well in comparison to these excellent books. But Lev Grossman has introduced the cyber element to his novel and I found his accounts of entering the world of the computer game MOMUS as interesting as the search for the ancient codex.

The action was well paced throughout and towards the end of the novel it was a genuine ‘page-turner’ to see who ultimately ended up with the Codex.

Reviewed by: S.W.

CrimeSquad Rating