Fear the Darkness: Becky Masterman Sunday, Mar 1 2015 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:09 am

FearDarkness
Becky Masterman took readers by storm with her retired FBI agent, Bridget Quinn, the protagonist of 2013’s Rage Against the Dying, which introduced the feisty newlywed in a suspenseful debut. She returns to Tucson with Bridget and her husband, Carlo, in this year’s Fear the Darkness, and it’s every bit as suspenseful and compelling as the first.

Much has been made of having a 50+ protagonist as the center of a series, and it’s a refreshing change to see a strong woman who knows her own mind and can give as good as she gets in many circumstances. With Carlo’s history as a lapsed priest, Bridget is trying out a church with him, and making friends in the community. Their life with their two pugs is starting to settle into suburban bliss when her ill sister-in-law dies, and Bridget’s brother begs them to take in his seventeen-year-old daughter for the summer to complete the residency requirement for college. The couple’s trip to Florida for the funeral gives readers a glimpse into Bridget’s family and background, and when Gemma Kate arrives, it’s bound to change the dynamic of their home.

With Gemma Kate suddenly thrust upon them, the adjustment period is rocky right from the start. And then one of their beloved pugs almost dies just as Bridget agrees to investigate the death of local couple’s son. Could the pugs illness been a deliberate poisoning by Gemma Kate? Was the boys death a suicide, a tragic accident, or a case of murder?

Bridget and Carlo soon realize they don’t really know the stranger in their midst, family or not, nor what she’s really capable of–and then Bridget starts to have unusual medical symptoms just as her investigation heats up and she will have to call on all of her skills and training.

How the two are connected will come as a surprise to most readers, and that’s one of the skills Masterman employs in this thoroughly satisfying outing. Auntie M enjoyed seeing another side of Carlo, the professor Bridget loves, and how this later-in-life marriage and its adjustments affects them both. Entertaining and quickly read, this sequel is another thrilling winner.

 

Maggie Barbieri: Lies That Bind Sunday, Feb 22 2015 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:36 am

lies
Auntie M enjoyed Maggie Barbieri’s first Maeve Conlon thriller, Once Upon a Lie, and had been looking forward to the sequel. Barbieri keeps up the promise of the first with her second installment of the Westchester baker’s life in Lies that Bind.

Who would ever think that a divorced mom of two teens, running her own bakeshop, could get into the kind of situations that Maeve does, yet once you know Maeve and her life, it all seems more than plausible. With her ex-husband and his new wife and son as part of her blended family, Maeve is very representative of a modern woman in most respects. Just don’t mess with her when she gets angry.

Maeve’s friend and bakeshop helper, Jo, is heavily pregnant, and somehow it’s Maeve taking Jo to birthing classes instead of Jo’s detective husband, Dave. This is just the tip of Maeve’s iceberg when her father, Jack, a former NYPD cop, dies suddenly. Despite his increasing dementia looming over her, Maeve thought she’d have him around a little longer. The two were inordinately close, as Jack raised Maeve after her mother’s death, the story that forms the basis of the plot of Barbieri’s first book, where Maeve unravels the mystery behind her mother’s death with startling consequences.

With Jack’s death blindsiding her now, Maeve receives another blow at Jack’s wake from the two sisters who were her arch enemies in the old neighborhood. One drunkenly suggests that Maeve had a sister she knows nothing about; the other seems to know more than she’s telling. Secrets, terrible secrets, have been kept from Maeve.

Maeve is desperate to find out if she had a sibling, and sets off to do her own investigation just as vandals break into her bakery, her shady landlord disappears, and an amputated finger suddenly appears in her bakeshop fridge. Add to that the usual issues with her daughters,stolen money, and a sudden interest from the local detective to add a little frisson to her missing love life, and Maeve has her hands very full.

The wry humor in this series balances the darkness that Maeve encounters. Maeve is a modern woman, a savvy businesswoman whose business is thriving thanks to her own incredible efforts. She’s a mother who keeps a fake personna on social media pages so she can friend her daughters and keep tabs on both teens. She’s a tiny, spunky woman you can’t help but admire, and it only seems fair that Barbieri allows Maeve to have a bit of a personal life along the way in this one, even as the baker uncovers what turns out to be a diabolical scheme. Nicely crafted fingers of the plot come together into a very satisfying ending. Highly recommended.

 

From The Cradle: Louise Voss & Mark Edwards Sunday, Feb 8 2015 

great read and mystery to die for and new series and Series not to be missed , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:40 am

Voss and Edwards are co-authors of four other novels, as well as over eight solo novels between them. This offering, From the Cradle, introduces DI Patrick Lennon in the first of what promises to be an interesting and entertaining series that Auntie M will be certain to follow. fromcradle

It starts out with a fascinating prologue that sets up Lennon’s home situation, which Auntie M won’t reveal here but which is fraught with anxiety, and will shadow this big case, which starts when several young children go missing.

Three-year old Isabel Hartley is snatched from her home on a tony street, taken from the front room in the middle of the afternoon. Two days later two-year old Liam McConnell is abducted from his car when his mum runs into Sainbury’s to pick up her dry cleaning and returns to find the back door ajar and Liam missing.

Then Helen and Sean Philips go out for a rare evening, leaving their teenaged daughter to babysit three-year old Frankie. When they return that evening, teenaged Alice is zonked out on the sofa, and Frankie is missing from her bed.

There will be a host of witnesses who’ve seen noting and several unreliable narrators along the way as Lennon and his partner, DS Carmella Masiello, head a team in a race against time, trying to find the abducted children. Are these the work of a kidnapping ring? Or are there different reasons for the children to go missing just now?

In a most surprising twist, what would appear to be the end of the case instead turns into an even more involved plot switch. It would give away too much to tell more specifics except to say that nothing is what it seems on the surface as buried secrets from the past will return to haunt several of the main characters and affect the outcome.

Fine characterizations, realistic situations and a compelling plot all make this series one you’ll want to watch for. The second installment is due this fall and Auntie M will be in line. Highly recommended.

 

My Favorite Reads of 2014: 16 Who Rose to the Top Sunday, Feb 1 2015 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:05 am

Auntie M reads between 2 and 3 books a week and last year reviewed 86. Out of those reviewed, these 16 authors were her top picks for those of you looking for an author to follow. In no particular order:

Jill Paton Walsh’s fourth Wimsey/Vane mystery, The Late Scholar, gets the tone of Sayers duo just right as the couple and their two sons have grown and mystery brings them back to Oxford.

Michael Robotham’s Watching You takes psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, one of Auntie M’s favorite characters, to one of his most twisted cases yet, when Marnie Logan asks for his help.

Frances Fyfield continues to write amazing psychological crime novels with strong characterizations that never fail to surprise Auntie M. The Goldigger is a case in point.

Sophie Hannah had a banner year. Her two, Kind of Cruel and The Telling Error are vastly different but both with compelling and complex plots. She was chosen by Agatha Christie’s estate to write a new Poirot novel, and in The Monogram Murders, gets the Belgian detectives voice just right.

Aline Templeton continues her DI Marjory Fleming series with a strong entry in Bad Blood.

Elizabeth Haynes Under A Silent Moon proves that there IS a new way to tell a crime story, with this strong entry into police procedurals that includes the forms used in an investigation to follow the clues.

Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan series is a favorite, with two entries: The Last Girl and The Kill.

Harry Bingham’s DC Fiona Lewis brings her unusual background and personality to Love Story, with Murders.

Nicola Upson continues her Josephine Tey series with The Death of Lucy Kyte, based on a real historical murder, and filled with mid-20th century details.

A D Garrett’s debut, Everyone Lies, launched an unusual crime duo who they will bring back in Believe No One.

Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series keeps getting stronger, as evidence by this 16th offering in To Dwell in Darkness.

James Oswald’s Inspector MacLean series, set in Edinburgh, continues to be a page turner with Dead Men’s Bones.

Tana French has another strong crime novel, this one spanning just one very long day, in The Secret Place.

Tony Parson’s debuted a new series featuring DI Max Wolfe, a single parent to a young daughter, in The Murder Man.

Susan Hill’s Simon Serailler series is a continued delight. She never hesitates to take chances other writers would shy away from, and this is apparent in The Soul of Discretion.

Finally, last but certainly not least of all, we have John Harvey’s last Resnick novel, Darkness, Darkness, a fine tribute to the series of a well-loved detective.

Auntie M hopes if readers haven’t discovered these authors, you will seek them out!

 

Perfect Sins: Jo Bannister Wednesday, Jan 28 2015 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:56 am

Perfect Sins

Jo Bannister departed from her Brodie Farrell mysteries in Deadly Virtues, when she introduced a new series featuring young police constable Hazel Best, and the “Rambles with Dog” character of Gabriel Ash, a former government employee whose life has been turned upside down.

The two return in this compelling sequel, Perfect Sins, along with Ash’s dog, Patience, whose thoughts only Ash can hear, but who makes the kind of measured and sometimes snarky comments that add to the tone. Bannister doesn’t overdo Patience’s comments, either, keeping them to a minimum, but they lighten up what could be a somber tone, as Ash is trying to find out if his wife or two sons, kidnapped by pirates, could possibly still be alive.

Four years have past since their disappearance but Ash remains committed to following up any lead he possibly can in order to keep his fragile sanity and continues to follow his own path of questions. With Hazel still on leave after the shooting that ends Deadly Virtues, they finds themselves visiting Hazel’s father at the gatehouse of Byrfield House, an estate that has been in the aristocracy for generations.

The plot revolves around a mound near the ice house on the grounds belonging to Pete, Lord Byrfield, that is opened by a local archeologist, David Sperrin. Hazel has known Pete for years and considers him a friend, so it’s no surprise she becomes involved when the mound turns out not to be an ancient burial mound, but the more contemporary resting place for a little boy from about thirty years ago. Just who those bones belong to bring up more secrets kept than any of the participants can possibly imagine.

As Hazel is drawn back into the police work she loves, Ash finds his own questioning has stirred up some very nasty consequences for them both that put their lives in danger. One of the nicest things is that Hazel values friendship. Hers with Ash is not a sexually charged relationship, but one that shows that men and women can truly care about each other and remain caring friends without becoming romantically involved.

Intricately plotted, and with a nice touch for the vagaries of family life and relationships, this complex plot has a few surprises to reveal and its ending packs a wallop that will have readers searching for the next installment.

 

Across the Pond for the Holidays Tuesday, Dec 23 2014 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:45 am

This will be Auntie M’s last post for 2014. She’ll be back on January 4th in 2015 with a whole new slew of great books for your reading pleasure.

But before the year ends, consider this: Many of Auntie M’s readers enjoy their mysteries set in England and here are a few of the best. Last minute shopperlooking for gifts for readers? Or just in the mood for a darn good mystery for yourself? Don’t forget to gift yourself this year! Enjoy your holidays and all the new books waiting to be read~ Happy New Year!

UK_Monogram_Murders_jacket
Award-winning writer Sophie Hannah was chosen by Agatha Christie’s estate to write a new Hercule Poirot mystery. The Monogram Murders is a glorious legacy to the Poirot stories, with the Belgian detective in fine form as he investigates the murders of three people at a fashionable London hotel. All have had a cufflink placed in their mouths. What is their connection to the young woman who has interrupted his meal at a local coffee house he’s been frequenting? For she has told him she is about to be murdered and that this will service justice.

1920’s London is accurately represented here, and Hannah gets Poirot’s dialogue just right. Fans will picture David Suchet, the very embodiment of Poirot, mincing his way through the locked room mystery with the aid of Edward Catchpool, a young Scotland Yard policeman sharing a lodging house with Poirot. It is Catchpool who has decided to write down what the calls “the Jennie story” and who learns quickly from the great detective, as the two visit the countryside to unravel the tendrils of this murder plot that has its beginnings in machinations from long ago.
And Then

An interesting gift would be this volume and Willam Morrow’s 75th Anniversary Edition of Chrisit’es timeless murder And Then There Were None, which The York Times has called ” …the most baffling mystery Agatha Christie has ever written.” And The New Statesman chimes in with: ” …The most colossal achievement of a colossal career.” Forget the movie; read the original!

Soul Discretion

Susan Hill returns with the eighth Simon Serrailler case in The Soul of Discretion.
One of there reasons Auntie M enjoys this series so much is the risks Hill takes with her plots and action. There are unexpected and haunting consequences for her characters that follow real life, which sometimes hits us with unexpected happenings, and this is certainly true of Serrailler and his family.

In this outing, Serrailler’s family, who readers of the series have come to know and follow, will be shocked by events that envelop his father, just his sister, Cat, a widow with three young children to raise, is facing her own choices about work. Cat will be left to pick up the pieces as Simon accepts his most difficult case yet: he must leave town to go undercover without disclosing the details to anyone in his family, or to his love, Rachel, who has just moved in with him.

The case will lead him into a prison to befriend to the son of a lord, there because of his involvement with a ring who film children in the throes of sexual abuse. It is Serrailler’s brief to find the head behind the ring to bring it to a close. What he finds will do more than disgust him; it will almost cost him his life.

Hill knows how to wring emotion and capture reader’s attention and bring them to the brink of tears. Highly recommended.

The_Corpse_Bridge
Stephen Booth’s fourteenth in his Ben Cooper/Diane Fry series holds up well to longevity in The Corpse Bridge. Still grieving over the losses from a horrific previous case, Cooper is back at work and finding it difficult to concentrate on what is real and what is an overlay from his grief.

The one thing he knows clearly is the local history and that included the route taken by mourners for centuries to bury their dead across the River Dove, crossing by the old Corpse Bridge, to a cemetery on land now part of the stately home of Earl Manby.

When bodies start to appear on the road to the Corpse Bridge, the case will fall to Cooper, and to a reluctant Fry, helping him to sort out what is the death’s connection to the Earl’s plans to deconsecrate the burial ground for planned holiday cottages whose income will preserve his home, the majestic Knowle Abbey. As Cooper uses the resources of his team, combined with his local knowledge, he will learn that not everyone who offers information is telling the truth. A few surprising twists along the way add interest for readers of the series.

Race to Death

Leigh Russell’s second Ian Peterson mystery, Race To Death, follows the newly-promoted Detective Inspector on his move to York. With his new female DCI seeming to disapprove of most of his decisions, he’s facing pressure on the home front from his wife, Bev, bored and at odds. She finally agrees to take pressure off Peterson and find herself a job, and even though it seems to be beneath her qualifications, it gets her out of the house where Peterson hopes she will make new friends.

And it’s none too soon, as Peterson finds himself saddled with an unusual case with shades of Dick Francis: a young man falls to his death at the races off a balcony. Was it suicide or an accident? There with is brother and his attractive wife, both ideas are disproved by the pathologist, who finds the man was injected prior to his death with a paralyzing agent that would make it impossible to hurl himself over the barrier and off the balcony.

False witnesses abound, as the deaths start to mount up using the same method and Peterson races to find the link between the victims before there can be another death.

Friends to Die For

A British friend recommended Hilary Bonner and I’ve started with her newest, Friends to Die For. What starts as a fairly simple premise soon turns quite complicates: A group of friends meet on Sunday evenings for diner at a Covent Garden restaurant. The Sunday Club group spans varied members: there is the gay club bouncer, Tim and his partner, city lawyer, Billy; the actor, George; a married couple, Greg and Karen; senior waiter at a tony restaurant, Alfonso; Ari, a wealthy entrepreneur; Marlena, an older, highly made-up woman with a mysterious past; and even a policewoman, Michelle.

What do these have in common that would lead to them suddenly being picked on as a series of pranks and tricks occur? But when these incidents escalate to murder, it soon becomes clear that one of the group who is privy to the secrets of the others is the culprit.

The group starts to turn on each other as the fear increases–but will they find out who the murderer is before another has to die?

Dead Men's Bones
Oswald’s DI McLean series are a new favorite of Auntie M and Dead Men’s Bones continues in the strong vein the author has established for this series set in Edinburgh and its vicinities.

In northeast Fife, an influential politician kills his wife and two young daughters before turning the gun on himself. Why would prompt Andrew Weatherly to commit such an horrendous act?

It’s bitterly cold in Scotland, and McLean isn’t dressed warmly enough when he’s called to the site of a man’s body found in the River North. That the man was naked isn’t the most surprising thing noted when his corpse is brought to the shore. His body is covered head to foot, extremities and even genitals, in tattoos, some of them very recent.

This will be a strange case for McLean and his team. Is Super. Duguid starting to thaw towards McLean? With Gumpy Bob Laird as his DS and DC Stuart MacBride on board, McLean must sort through the evidence even as DS Ritchie falls ill to a serious ailment that seems to infect others who come into contact with one of their witnesses.

There will be evidence and clues from a variety of sources, including homeless Gordy and even the wealthy, influential and undeniably sexy Mrs. Saifre before McLean is able to unravel a mystery reaching back decades that will have Special Branch breaking into his house to leave him clues and photographs that spur on is investigation.

With its usual hint of otherworldliness, this complex mystery writer manages to enthrall readers once again. Discover this series if you haven’t yet, or better yet, turn a reader friend on to Oswald and his detective.

** New in Paperback: Moriarty
Michael Robertson’s Baker Street series’ fourth installment, Moriarty Returns a Letter, is now available in paperback from Minotaur. Enjoy the Heath brothers as they sift through the mail that arrives at their law offices at 221B Baker Street addressed to Sherlock Holmes. Enchanting with deadpan comedic touches and that host of Sherlockian influences.

 

Helen Smith: Emily Castle, Alison Wonderland and The Miracle Inspector Sunday, Dec 7 2014 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:07 am

Please welcome UK author Helen Smith, who will describe a most unusual approach to her Emily Castle mysteries.

Three Sisters 225 pixels
Are you on Pinterest? I joined a while ago and wasn’t quite sure what to do on there. I saw lovely recipes from friends. I saw interesting ideas for interior decoration and gardens. I saw clever craft projects and gorgeous book covers. I looked and admired and did nothing with the boards I had set up.

Then one day, after talking about who could play the main characters in my Emily Castles mystery series if it ever got made for TV, I got busy on Pinterest. I realized that Pinterest would be the perfect place to play the “what if” game.

I set up boards with bonus material for my books, including fantasy casting and locations. It’s a brilliant procrastination tool! But it’s fun, too. I have put the links to the Pinterest boards in the back of my books, hoping that readers who have enjoyed my stories and want to know a little bit more about the characters will visit and follow me there.

It’s an ongoing project but so far I have fantasy casting for Emily Castles, my twenty-six-year-old amateur sleuth, and her side-kick Dr. Muriel. They are the main characters in a contemporary British mystery series that starts with Emily’s visit to a party hosted by a mysterious troupe of circus performers in Three Sisters.
Alison Wonderland
I also have casting ideas for my two Alison Wonderland books, including Alison and her boss at the private detective agency where she works in London. I also have casting ideas for my dystopian novel, The Miracle Inspector.
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It’s great fun. The only problem? Finding male actors to play the younger main characters in my books. All my fantasy casting ideas – except for Ben Wishaw as Lucas in The Miracle Inspector – are horribly out of date. I need someone like John Corbett in his Northern Exposure days but twenty years younger to play Alison’s love interest in Alison Wonderland and Being Light.

If you have any fantasy casting ideas for any of my characters, they will be gratefully received!

helensmith

You can find Helen Smith here:

Helen Smith’s blog: http://www.emperorsclothes.co.uk
Helen Smith’s website: http://helensmithbooks.com
Helen Smith on Twitter: http://twitter.com/emperorsclothes
Helen Smith’s books on Amazon: http://smarturl.it/helensmithbooks
Helen Smith on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/emperorsclothes

 

For the Boys: Great Holiday Gift Reads Wednesday, Dec 3 2014 

great read and new series and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:11 am

Auntie M enjoyed the Bette Midler movie “For the Boys” and decided to title this post after that as these books all have suspense and action in common, popular with male readers. This is NOT to say that women don’t read these books–of course they do! But if you’re looking for a gift for a male reader, try one of these.

white lies
Stephen Leather’s Spider Shepherd series are among top sellers in the UK. This year’s White Lies brings Shepherd back for his 11th outing with MI5. When a former trainee is presumed kidnapped in the wilds of Pakistan, he joins the rescue mission with disastrous results. With Shepherd tortured by al-Qeda terrorist, it will be up to MI5 Controller Charlotte Button to rescue him in the most unorthodox way. Fast-paced and action-filled.

Hounded
For the dog lovers on your list, you can’t go wrong with David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter series. The newest, Hounded,finds Andy and girlfriend Laurie Collins arriving at a crime scene discovered by his good friend, policeman Pete Stanton. When the body of ex-con Danny Balfour is found, the victim’s four-year old son and basset hound need care and Pete asks the couple to assume to prevent both boy and dog from going into the system. But once Pete comes under suspicion in the death, he will need Andy to put on his lawyer cap to clear him. A nice mix of humor and sleuthing. Why not get the entire series?

Darkest Hour
Tony Schumacher brings a different ending to World War II in The Darkest Hour, as he the imagines London of 1946 and how it would be if the Nazis won the war and occupied Great Britain. John Henry Rossett is an unlikely hero: a former war hero and policeman whose family died during the attacks on England and has become an alcoholic. Depressed, with little future before him, Rossett works for the SS in the Office of Jewish Affairs, seemingly unaffected by rounding up Jews for deportation–until he finds an 8 yr-old boy hidden in the chimney of a house he raids. Will Jacob be Rossett’s salvation or his downfall? That remains to be seen as the unlikely duo struggle to stay alive and one step ahead of every group after them as Rossett comes to understand he can trust no one. Intriguing and original, an imaginative thriller.

desert god
South African writer Wilbur Smith’s newest entry in his ancient Egypt series, Desert God , is perfect for the reader who enjoys historical epic novels. Focusing on the character Taita, this slave and advisor to the pharaoh finds himself caught up in a quest to destroy the army of Hyksos and for an alliance with Crete. This takes him on a journey up the Nile through Arabia and over the vast seas of ancient times. With shifting loyalties and never knowing whom can be trusted, Taita’s struggle is as action-packed as any present day novel, as it describes the customs and culture of a time from long ago.

And in Paperback:
Lastnight-by-Stephen-Leather

We return to Stephen Leather and his Nightingale series for Lastnight. The newest in his supernatural detective series find Nightingale searching for the killer of Goths who all have a tattoo connecting them to a Satanic child-sacrificing cult. Called the Order of Nine Angles, the Order soon has Nightingale himself in its sights and will do anything to stop him bringing them to earth. His solution is unorthodox and will have readers flipping pages to find the resolution.

Wash Stratagem
Adam LeBor’s new novel, The Washington Stratagem, is the sequel to The Geneva Option, which introduced UN covert negotiator Yael Azoulay. Having a strong and sexy woman at the center of the action is a nice twist, as Yael is tasked with confronting a lobbying and asset management group in Washington, DC, about extensive links to US involvement in Middle Eastern wars. Treading a delicate line, Yael must combine international politics and her life as a spy as she races to root out the corruption she finds. Both novels would make a great gift together.

going-dark
James W. Hall has written 13 Thorn novels, all featuring the fly-tying investigator and his sidekick, and returns with Going Dark,a strong entry in the suspense genre. His nemesis this time is ELF, the Earth Liberation Front, an extremist environmental group whose usual means of damage is arson. This time the stakes are raised when they target Florida’s largest nuclear plant, and they’ve managed to involve Thorn’s newly-discovered son, Flynn. Helping Flynn escape from remote Prince Key while at the same time foiling their attempts will lead Thorn to his craziest idea yet. Look for the newest Thorn, Big Finish, later this month.

Runner
Runner follows Patrick Lee’s strong thriller debut, The Breach, featuring former black-ops soldier Sam Dryden. Running at 3 AM has never been so dangerous for Dryden once he encounters 12-yr old Rachel, who only recalls her last two months in a secret prison. Soon it’s obvious protecting Rachel will be more of a chore than he’d expected, as heavily armed crews drive them both across the nation to find answers to whom is pursing her, and why–and all as Dryden suspects that running into Rachel may not have been a coincidence. Warner Brothers has film rights and this action-packed suspense novel will easily translate to the screen.

Vendetta-hi-res
It’s easy to see why Lee Child calls Dreda Say Mitchell’s first John MacDonagh novel “Breathless from the first word and thrilling to the last.” Mac wakes up in a trashed hotel room without any memory of how it got that way, bloodied and in pain. He soon discovers his lover’s body in the bathroom, and with evidence pointing to him as her killer, Mac must find the real killer even as he races against time and his grief to clear himself. Tracking him down is none other than DI Rio Wray,an ambitious black female detective on her way to the top, even if it means proving her close friend Mac is a killer. Fascinating look at the world of undercover cops and first of a new series destined to be a winner by this award-winning crime writer.

 

Catriona McPherson: A Deadly Measure of Brimstone Sunday, Nov 30 2014 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:53 am

Deadly Measure
Auntie M loves the cover art of Catriona McPherson’s newest Dandy Gilver Scottish mystery, A Deadly Measure of Brimstone. The strong series, among other awards, won the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award in 2013 and 2014.

But she liked the inside even more, as Dandy moves her two sons and husband, all recovering from a bout of the nasty chest illnesses which reach to the staff, to the spa town of Moffat to recuperate. Dandy has her own agenda to install central heating when the family is gone, and has neglected to mention this to her husband, Hugh.

Of course, with Dandy it’s never that simple. She and her partner Alec agree to take on a case to investigate the death of a woman who died suddenly at Laidlaw’s Hydropathic Establishment. Mrs. Addie’s grown children have written to ask Gilver and Osborne to look into their mother’s death, termed heart failue, which her children insist was not Mrs. Addie’s health issue before this visit.

It seems fairly simple: have Hugh and the boys treated and give them time to recover whilst investigating the death. Even aging dog Bunty comes along for the trip. But nothing is ever that straightforward with Dandy,
who soon finds herself disrobing to take saunas, cold baths, and salt rub massages all in the name of finding the evidence they seek.

With Alec also at the Hydro, the duo will find spirits, mediums, an even an after-hours establishment at the Hydro, run by Dr. Dorothea Laidlaw and her brother Thomas, who inherited the spa from their father.

McPherson gets the period details just right, from clothing and manners to the way people spoke in 1929. And Dandy’s humorous and slightly irreverent thoughts are on full display, as when Dandy and Alec endeavor to describe Mrs. Addie: “Thrashing out a description which honored her memory – one could not simply say she looked like a piglet in tweeds …”

Great fun that encapsulates the bygone Golden Age era from this award-winning author.

 

Lake District Murders with Style: Martin Edwards and Rebecca Tope Sunday, Nov 24 2013 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and Series not to be missed , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:53 am

The glorious natural beauty of England’s Lake District, which contains its largest lake, rising fells, and every kind of tree found in the UK, hardly seems to present typical murder landscape. Yet Auntie M has chosen it twice for her own Nora Tierney Mysteries–The Green Remains and 2014’s The Scarlet Wench–and she’s certainly not alone. Two masters have series set in the land of Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.

the-frozen-shroud-by-martin-edwards1With a strong feeling for the history of crime novels, Martin Edwards is the archivist for both the Crime Writers Association and for the Detection Club. His talk this year at St. Hilda’s reminded us that the Golden Age authors had more psychological depth than is generally acknowledged. Edwards’ knowledge of crime novels and history is extensive and he is a fascinating speaker.

Author of stand-alones, short stories and multiple essays on crime, he is best known for two series: the Liverpool Harry Devlin series and  the newer one that explores the Lake District and features DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind.

The Frozen Shroud explores the hidden depths of the small yet remote and diverse locale. Highlighting the landscape and its ability to capture loveliness with menace are the hallmark of this series, confirmed in this sixth offering in the series.

With his vivid descriptions and an overlapping of murders to be solved, The Frozen Shroud capitalizes on a creepy local legend with links to the past and two murders on Hallowe’en that bear the same characteristics. Daniel Kind’s love of research of murder adds to the atmosphere, and Hannah Scarlett’s work situation, fraught with stress and coupled with the the rising tension between these two fascinating characters, adds to the texture of the novel.

There are plenty of red herrings that bring this series along classical lines, making it a totally satisfying and complex crime novel. The dialogue and prose are literate and realistic. Old hurts, revenge, misconceptions and plain old jealousy rear their head as motives. The characters living near the haunted ground of Ravensbank all have secrets with ties to the past, and it would be cruel to tell readers more without spoiling the plot. If you haven’t read this atmospheric series, now’s the time to grab one and then gobble them all up.

 

toprRebecca Tope, journalist and author, has four murder series in print: Den Cooper, Devon police detective; Thea Osborne, house sitter in the Cotswolds; rebecca topeundertaker Drew Slocombe; and now her newest series set in the Lake District and featuring florist Persimmon Brown.

I met Tope at St Hilda’s and again in September at Bouchercon, where her British perspective on the differences of mysteries by English and American writers added to her panel discussions. Warm and lively, Tope seems to find the time to write prolifically while living in rural Herefordshire, on a smallholding situated close to the beautiful Black Mountains. She raises Cotswold sheep along with two elderly dogs. Her evenings are spent spinning, knitting and weaving, and she takes commissions for big  pure wool throws and blankets.  Recently added alpacas will make soft baby blankets available. Now where does she find time to write?

Tope’s mind must be working all the time her hands are busy on new plots and characters. Introduced in The Windermere Witness, Simmy Brown’s Windermere florist shop seems an unlikely setting for involving her in murders. With her unconventional parents living nearby, running a B&B, Simmy is getting used to her new home post-divorce in Troutbeck. Her shop assistant, Melanie, and a smart teen, Ben, with a bent for investigation, form Simmy’s “team,” to the chagrin of the local detective, DI Moxon.    

The Ambleside Alibi, book two in the series, finds Simmy unwittingly providing an alibi for a murder suspect, immediately after delivering a bouquet to a grandmotherly sort, sent from a granddaughter the old woman apparently didn’t know she had.  

Then another elderly woman is found murdered and a host of family secrets will be unearthed that may or may not tie the two women together. Against her better judgement, Simmy finds the peaceful new life she envisioned for herself once more fraught with danger and murder. When an attempt is made on her life, she knows she’s become more involved than she’d ever imagined.

Moxon provides a nice foil to Simmy, a reluctant witness and even more reluctant investigator, as he becomes exasperated in his attempts to protect Simmy while finding a murderer. The relationship between these two seems unlikely yet possibly inevitable down the road, a side aspect to drive readers look for the third installment in the series premiering in 2014, The Conistan Case.

 

 

 

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