Book Reviews

Review: Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra by Paul D. Gilbert

Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra by Paul D. Gilbert—The game is afoot.

More than 91 years after Doyle’s death, Sherlock Holmes continues to intrigue both readers and writers. Once Doyle’s copyrights expired, many fiction authors began writing modern Sherlock Holmes adventures. Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra by Paul D. Gilbert is the latest such book I’ve read.

Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra

by Paul D. Gilbert

Publisher Joffe Books

from September 24, 2019

Genre(s): Mysteries & Detective

ISBN 978-1-78931-204-1

Pages 226

Autumn 1898. London. A scandal in the making.

Dockworkers are stunned by the arrival of the Matilda Briggs, a long overdue tea cutter returning from Calcutta. Abandoned by its crew, the dust-covered vessel has seems to have drifted into a vacant berth guided by an unseen hand.

The only member of the crew aboard is a lone cabin boy in the throes of death, following a murderous attack. The ship’s log has also vanished without a trace. All that remains is a series of indecipherable markings have been scratched into the ship’s decking.

Sherlock Holmes and his faithful Watson are called to divest the Matilda Briggs of its secrets, only to be subtly warned off by the ship’s insurers. Then a young man appears at 122B Baker Street with a mysterious packet from his missing father — who disappeared journeying to London from Calcutta. A confounding conspiracy seems set to boil over.

What was in the cargo besides innocent tea chests? Will the violence and rebellion that follow shift the tides from the favour of the Great Detective?

Is the world finally ready for this tale?

____________________________

Inspired from Conan Doyle’s most famous untold mystery, acclaimed Sherlockian Paul D. Gilbert expands the reach of Britain’s favourite sleuth in his most intriguing tale yet.

At 221B Baker Street in London resides a man named Sherlock Holmes. Of course, almost everyone knows who Sherlock Holmes is. Even those who haven’t read one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories or novels featuring the famous detective have likely at least seen or read one of the myriads of adaptations of Holmes and his adventures.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first introduced his iconic consulting detective character in A Study in Scarlet in 1887. Sherlock Holmes then appeared in a series of short stories that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned and that The Strand Magazine published from 1887 to 1927. Eventually, Doyle’s works totaled 56 short stories and four novels.

Like Doyle, Gilbert’s writing style truly brings Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. John Watson, to life. He also makes Holmes appear to be an actual genius, which I think is difficult to convey through writing. True to the original stories and books, Gilbert presents Sherlock Holmes as an enigma, his deductive thought processes interesting but almost impossible for readers to fathom. Also true to the originals, Gilbert tells this adventure through Watson’s point of view as a memoir about Sherlock Holmes.

As Sherlock Holmes is a consulting detective, police detectives often visit him to help with cases, and that is how this book opens. Detective Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, who appears in several Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, comes to Holmes for help on a case involving a ship, the Matilda Briggs. Dock workers arrived at work to discover the ship occupying what was supposed to be an empty berth and not moored. When they boarded the vessel, the workers found only one crew member on board who was injured and later died. Having no idea what had happened to the rest of the crew or why the ship seemed abandoned, the ship insurers, on Lestrade’s recommendation, hired Holmes to investigate the mystery. As in Doyle’s stories, Gilbert uses the interactions between Holmes and the detective to add some comedy to the mystery story that helps keep readers entertained and to give us more insight into Holmes’ personality.

As Holmes begins work on the “ship of ghosts” mystery, a young man (Daniel Collier) appears at his rooms seeking Holme’s help with his father’s disappearance. Predictably, the two cases turn out related and what Holmes learns from Collier helps him solve the Matilda Briggs case.

Collier’s part of the story is the only part of the book I didn’t like much. Gilbert uses a series of letters Collier had received from his father to provide readers with information that ties the two cases together. This technique used sparingly to provide some backstory is fine. But here, the reader gets far too much of it. I tired quickly of Collier reading the letters for Watson and Holmes’ benefit and frankly even resorted to skimming through the last of it. Despite a few important details, the entire letter bit distracts from the narrative. I’d rather have seen this handled in a different, more effective way. But thankfully, overall, I found the book an enjoyable read despite the lengthy letters, and I found it true to the style Doyle used in the original Sherlock Holmes tales. The modern stories of Sherlock Holmes that remain true to the classics as this one does are quite entertaining to read.

Joffe Books published Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra from September 24, 2019. I purchased the copy of the book used for this review, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Review: Winterkill by Ragnar Jónasson

Winterkill by Ragnar Jónasson—The captivating final installment in the Ari Thór Arason whodunit series.

Winterkill by Ragnar Jónasson is the sixth book and last installment in his Dark Iceland series featuring Siglufjörður police officer Ari Thór. Ragnar, who has built a well-deserved reputation as a master of his genre, delivers another engaging and darkly claustrophobic tale.

This is probably one of my favorite Dark Iceland novels. It starts with something a bit familiar before segueing into something of a surprise that whisks readers somewhere we didn’t expect.

Jónasson offers a strong and pervasive sense of place here, as usual, as he richly describes life in wintry, dark Iceland.

Winterkill

by Ragnar Jónasson

Translated from the French edition by David Warriner

Published by Orenda Books

from October 12, 2020

Genre(s): Mystery & Detective

ISBN 9781913193461

Pages 240

A blizzard is approaching Siglufjörður, and that can only mean one thing…

When the body of a nineteen-year-old girl is found on the main street of Siglufjörður, Police Inspector Ari Thór battles a violent Icelandic storm in an increasingly dangerous hunt for her killer … The chilling, claustrophobic finale to the international bestselling Dark Iceland series. 

Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjörður, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes.

Ari Thór Arason is now a police inspector, but he’s separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air.

Three days before Easter, a nineteen-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes ‘She was murdered’ again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death… 

As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjörður, Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth … one that will leave no one unscathed.

As Winterkill unfolds, we find Ari Thór, a police officer in the small Icelandic coastal town of Siglufjördur, troubled by his separation from his wife, Kristín, and young son, Stefnir. Six months before, Kristín moved to Sweden with the boy to further her medical training at a university there. Ari Thór doesn’t begrudge her pursuing her ambitions even though it means she must study abroad. But he worries how the long separation will affect his relationship with Stefnir. Also, now in his thirties, Ari Thór is contemplating his career, whether he should remain in Siglufjördur permanently, or move to Reykjavík to further his career. Overlooked the first time he applied for the post after his former boss and mentor Tómas transferred to Reykjavík, Ari Thór is now the inspector in charge of the Siglufjördur police.

The book opens on the Thursday before a long Easter weekend, and Ari Thór is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his wife and son, who are on their way back to Iceland for a holiday visit. But he’s distracted from his personal concerns and the impending visit by a death. A passerby finds the body of a young woman lying in the street in a pool of her own blood. It’s clear that the woman plunged to her death from a great height. What isn’t clear is whether she fell accidentally, jumped, or was pushed. Ari Thór investigates and quickly identifies a high balcony of a house fronting the street as the logical place the woman plunged from to her death. Then, as he gathers the evidence, it seems more and more certain the nineteen-year-old woman took her own life.

Initially, I expected a similar story line to that of Whiteout, the fifth book in the series, where a suspected suicide turns out to be a murder. But here Jónasson takes us in a completely unexpected direction. The inciting incident (death of the young woman) segues into three other parallel police inquires, which cuts significantly into the precious time Ari Thór hoped to spend with his family, especially his son. The relatively mundane crime solutions don’t detract from Jónasson’s impressive ability to make human despair palpable and spin a story that keeps the reader engaged. As is often the case when I pick up a Jónasson book. I couldn’t put this one down and finished it in one sitting. This book seemed to have a slightly different tone to the others in series, perhaps because it was translated into English from the French version instead of from the original Icelandic.

I appreciated the writing here and the haunting secrets Jónasson teases out. I’m sure it will appeal to many who appreciate whodunits with a slower pace and atmospheric setting.

Orenda Books published Winterkill by Ragnar Jónasson on October 12, 2020. I purchased the copy use for this review, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

The Murder Club by Nikki Crutchley

The Murder Club by Nikki Crutchley—A scintillatingly suspenseful thriller by one of New Zealand's top crime fiction authors.

Kia ora! Here I introduce you to another book from my personal TBR stack by one of New Zealand’s most outstanding crime fiction writers, and one my favorite authors. The Murder Club is the third book I’ve read by author Nikki Crutchley. It’s a Miller Hatcher novel shortlisted by the Ngaio Awards 2021 for best novel.

The Murder Club centers on three lives—all affected differently by the same murder and who become entwined with a small-town killer desperate for infamy. And what a delightful read it was.

The Murder Club

by Nikki Crutchley

Published by Oak House Press

from August 31, 2020

Genre(s): Detective & Mysteries, Women Journalists, New Zealand Fiction

ISBN 9780473505929

353 pages

A dead body. An anonymous letter. This is only the beginning.

‘Not all evil, on the surface, is ugly and menacing. It doesn’t always lurk in city centres after dark. It mows your lawns, frequents your local pub, takes its kids to school and contributes to communities.’

When the first letter arrives saying that ‘tonight it begins’, journalist Miller Hatcher ignores it. But then the body of a murdered woman is discovered, strangled, a scarf around her neck.

Cassie Hughes has always vowed to find the man who murdered her mother. Cassie knows he’s out there and wants him to pay, and Miller agrees to bring the cold case back into the public’s eye.

Logan Dodds has been obsessed with true crime ever since his sister was murdered thirty years ago. He has turned his obsession into a career and has created the True Crime Enthusiasts Club and his newest venture, True Crime Tours.

The lives of Miller, Cassie and Logan – all affected differently by murder – become entwined as The Scarf Killer, desperate for infamy, and Miller’s attention, makes his mark on the small town of Lentford.

I discovered Cambridge author Nikki Crutchley in 2018 when I read the books shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Awards that year. The committee had selected her first Miller Hatcher book, Nothing Bad Happens Here, as a finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards. I’ve been a fan ever since. So it was a genuine pleasure to again meet journo Miller Hatcher and Detective Sergeant Kahu Parata as they work together on another murder mystery.

Crutchley sets this book in the imaginary town of Lentford, a small rural community near Hamilton. Having spent time in the Hamilton area, I fully appreciated the taut authenticity of the town Crutchley created for this book. Small town crimes have always held a special fascination for readers. Small towns are supposed to be safe—nestled away from the rabble, the violence, and the vice more common in the big cities. But a killer is on the loose in Lentford.

After strangling a young woman (Tamara Jenson) in the murder the book opens with, the suspect delivers a chilling message to Miller. The letter writer takes credit for the murder and says it won’t be the last.

In this sequel to Nothing Bad Happens Here, Miller is still a journo, but after severe problems with alcohol, she has suffered a fall from grace. The New Zealand national magazine First Look editor had dismissed her after an alcohol-fueled incident. So, Miller has taken a job as a reporter for the small local paper Lentford Leader and is trying to make a fresh start. In the letter, the killer makes clear they are after notoriety and familiar with her reporting on the murders in Castle Bay (the first book). They want Miller to tell their story after the killing is done in Lentford.

Miller takes the letter to Kahu, who has come to Lentford to oversee the hunt for the killer. She and Kahu have been friends since the Castle Bay tragedy.

The killer keeps their word, and the murders continue, as do the letters to Miller after each one. More young women turn up strangled inside their homes.

The intriguing subplot of the book concerns another murder that happened years past in Lentford. Someone abducted a woman, and her family never knew for sure what had happened to her until authorities discovered the woman’s skeletal remains buried near an abandoned diary outside Lentford fourteen years later. The victim’s daughter, Cassie Hughes, now an adult, has been obsessed with finding her mother’s killer since the police never solved the murder. Cassie became so obsessed that she ended up in a mental healthcare facility after violently assaulting a man she had mistaken for her mother’s killer. After her release from the facility, she moves to Lentford with her troubled girlfriend Tiff, also a former patient at the facility. Somewhat predictably, we learn as the story plays out, the past murder intersects with the current ones.

Miller Hatcher is a strong but flawed female lead. She is a recovering alcoholic, struggling to remain sober. But she is fascinating and empathetic. After a harrowing incident in Castle Bay and her mother’s death that Miller had trouble coming to grips with, she turned to alcohol for solace, and it nearly ruined her promising journalism career. The job with the Lentford Leader is a second chance, but Miller also views it as a step-down and punishment for her past mistakes. Crutchley excels at the complex characterization required to engage readers, resulting in a book that’s truly impossible to put down. The myriad anxieties her characters feel—fear for their safety, the community’s fear for the safety of young women like the killer is targeting, and the resident’s fear for their community’s reputation—are entirely relatable. A sense of dread and foreboding permeates the narrative. We know more murders are coming, and Lentford seems on the verge of imploding. Her characters are nuanced, complicated, and never stereotyped.

The quick smart pacing, escalating tension, and a truly dramatic finish combine to make The Murder Club a delightfully entertaining read. The book grabs the reader from the start and doesn’t let go.

It’s possible to read this book without having read the first in the series, but you’ll only end up wanting to read Nothing Bad Happens Here because Miller and Kahu are characters that are a pleasure to discover, and you’ll want to capture their entire backstory.

Oak House Press published The Murder Club on August 31, 2020. I purchased the copy of the book used for this review, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: Look Closer by David Ellis

Look Closer by David Ellis—The illusion of a normal, wealthy Chicago couple constructed and demolished on a grand scale.

Look Closer is the first book I’ve read by author David Ellis, and I was impressed with the writing. The novel is cleverly plotted and fast-paced, just what I look for in a suspenseful thriller. It considers complex issues— family, trust, loyalty, and manipulation—and draws on themes around greed, long-standing grudges, and revenge.

Look Closer

by David Ellis

Publisher: Penguin Random House

on July 05, 2022

Genre(s): Suspense & Thriller, Crime Mysteries

ISBN 9780399170928

464 Pages

From the bestselling and award-winning author comes a wickedly clever and fast-paced novel of greed, revenge, obsession—and quite possibly the perfect murder.

Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more normal: a wealthy Chicago couple, he a respected law professor, she an advocate for domestic violence victims. A stable, if unexciting marriage. But one thing’s for sure … absolutely nothing is what it seems. The pair are far from normal, and one of them just may be a killer.
 
When the body of a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s secrets begin to unravel. A secret whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due. A decades-long grudge and obsession with revenge. These are just a few of the lies that make up the complex web…and they will have devastating consequences. And while both Vicky and Simon are liars, just who exactly is conning who?
 
Part Gone Girl, part Strangers on a Train, Look Closer is a wild rollercoaster of a read that will have you questioning everything you think you know.

Look Closer unfolds in multiple time frames with much of the focus on Halloween night in 2022, and the days and weeks before and after. Also, the book focuses on two characters, Simon and Vicky–in the past and present. We learn theirs is a marriage of two people who met when they were both at low points in their lives and came together for mutual support.

“It started with small talk, what she does for a living, how long we’ve been married, and pretty soon I was opening up about Vicky’s childhood, growing up in poverty in West Virginia, running away from home at seventeen, getting hooked on drugs and doing degrading things to support herself. How she was a mess when I met her, but so was I in different ways, both of us adrift and helping each other back to the shoreline.”

This theme of relationships–their flaws and fragility–is also reflected in a third timeline, years before Simon and Vicky met. Ultimately this story is about secrets, lies, and betrayals. Ellis gives us snippets of past events that lead up to and provides the catalyst for things that alter the character’s lives forever.

Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem a more normal and realistic couple. But are they? They seem wealthy with a stable marriage. He’s a respected law professor hoping to become tenured. Vicky works for a Chicago domestic violence victim advocacy organization. Simon loves her, but he knows Vicky doesn’t love him back. Vicky cares about Simon, but isn’t in love with him and knows she isn’t the right woman for him. They both know they are housemates more than a couple. Then some startling things occur, a sea change.

By happenstance, Simon runs into the woman (Lauren), his first love, who broke his heart decades earlier. He hadn’t known she was back in town. Simon avoids her at first but can’t forget her and the memories of their shared past. Then he obsesses about her. Eventually, he engineers a meeting with her. They talk. One thing leads to another, and although they are both married, a steamy affair ensues. Simon contemplates leaving Vicky when he learns Lauren has an unhappy marriage and says she wants to be with him. There’s a sense of irony here in that Vicky has her own plans for the future that don’t include staying with Simon. She’s counting the days until a date she’s been waiting on arrives. Then Vicky can walk away with what she has wanted from the start and truly live the life she wants.

The present here plays out against a backdrop of mutual grief. Although Simon’s mother died (suicide) over two decades earlier, his sense of loss is still very strong. He blames his father for his mother’s death and still holds a grudge, even though his father is long dead. And Vicky feels grief too over her older sister’s suicide, who left behind a husband and two daughters. Vicky struggles with blaming herself for not saving her sister.

Although Ellis offers us a great cast of characters and–ultimately a myriad of twists around the secrets everyone is keeping–the strength for me here is nothing is ever as it seems in this book. And the reader does not truly appreciate that until the end. That’s what makes this book so spectacularly good. The writing is exceptional and the plotting outstanding and imaginative. Ellis grabs your interest by the throat in the first pages and doesn’t let you go until the end.

I found this book a gripping, entertaining read, and I definitely want to read more of this author’s work. For those who love trying to figure out whodunit before the cops in the novel do, remember one thing. In Look Closer, nothing is ever as it seems. And that’s a big reason why it’s one of the best thrillers I’ve read this year.

Penguin Random House will publish Look Closer by David Ellis from July 05, 2022. I received an advance reader’s copy of the book from the publisher via Net Galley used for this review, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: The Match by Harlan Coben

The Match by Harlan Coben—A solid thriller with a host of intriguing characters.

I’m new to Harlan Coben’s books, with The Match being the first I’ve read. But it won’t be my last. His long and celebrated career as a novelist suggests he consistently produces quality work and this, his latest novel suggests the same. The Match, the second book is Coben’s Wilde series, offers a solid and satisfyingly suspenseful plot and a host of intriguing characters.

The Match

by Harlan Coben

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Hatchette Book Group)

from March 15, 2022

Genre(s): Thriller & Suspense

ISBN‎ 9781538748336

352 pages

From the modern master of suspense comes a gripping new thriller in which Wilde follows a tip that may finally reveal the truth behind his abandonment only to end up in the sights of a ruthless killer.

After months away, Wilde has returned to the Ramapo Mountains in the wake of a failed bid at domesticity that confirms what he’s known all along: He belongs on his own, free from the comforts and constraints of modern life.

Suddenly, a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde closer to his past than he’s ever dreamed, and finally gives Wilde the opening he needs to track down his father. But meeting the man leads to more questions than answers. So Wilde reaches out to his last, most desperate lead, a second cousin who disappears as quickly as he resurfaces, having experienced an epic fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare.

Was his cousin’s downfall a long time coming? Or was he the victim of a conspiracy as cunning as it is complex? And how does it all connect to the man once known as The Stranger, a dangerous fugitive with a growing following whose mission and methods have only turned more dangerous with time?

Thirty-five years ago, Wilde, our main character, was discovered living alone in the woods at an age doctors estimated to be between six and eight years old. He had no memory of parents or caregivers. After his rescue, he was raised by foster parents. The book opens with Wilde somewhere between forty and forty-two.

Deciding to learn something about his origins, Wilde submitted a DNA sample to a genealogy website and locates his sixty-one-year-old biological father (Daniel Carter). But when he visits Carter, Wilde discovers his father never knew he existed. Carter says Wilde must have been conceived during a one-night stand during Carter’s military service in decades past. Learning nothing from his father, Wilde tries to follow up with another contact from the genealogy site, and second cousin, who he eventually identifies as Peter Bennett.

Unfortunately, it proves more difficult to connect with Bennett than Wilde expects. Bennett, a one-time reality television star, caught in a scandal and canceled, has disappeared. Bennett’s sister believes he took his life, but Wilde is unconvinced. He keeps looking and enlists the help of his foster sister and his deceased best friend’s mother, a high-powered attorney, to help. When someone murders a retired cop who had trolled Bennett after his fall from grace, Wilde’s cousin becomes a suspect. But Wilde can’t let it go and continues the search, only to end up in the sights of a ruthless killer.

I like that Coben provided the background on Wilde at the beginning for the benefit of readers like me that haven’t read the first book in the series. And I’m sure those who have, also appreciated it since it likely continues Wilde’s character arc from the first book. There are a few other threads in this book beyond the main story—Wilde’s relationships with his foster sister (Rola Naser), David’s (his dead best friend) widow (Laila), his godson (Matthew), and David’s mother, renowned criminal defense attorney Hester Crimstein—that offer readers more access to who Wilde is and the man he is. Another intriguing and important thread concerns a group of six people led by a man named Chris Taylor. The group identifies and wreaks vengeance on destructive trolls they learn about who harass and torment innocent people online. The group plays a significant role in the overall plot.

Coben offers twist upon twist in this face-paced, well-written thriller with an imaginative plot that keeps readers guessing as the suspense builds to the ultimate climax. I found the book hugely entertaining and satisfyingly suspenseful. Now I plan to pick up the first book in the series to catch up before the next one comes out. Fans of other mystery and thriller writers like Baldacci and Crais will feel right at home with Coben’s writing style. I can’t believe I haven’t read him before and appreciate another reviewer friend who recommended Coben to me. If you’re new to Coben as I was, The Match is not a bad place to get acquainted.

Grand Central Publishing publishes The Match by Harlan Coben from March 15, 2022. I received an advance reader’s copy of the book used for this review from the publisher via Net Galley, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir—Intricate plotting explores the deeper psychological dimensions of good and evil.

Girls Who Lie

by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Translator Victoria Cribb

Published by Orenda Books

from May 22, 2021

Genre(s): Police Procedural, Nordic (Icelandic) Noir, International Crime Fiction

ISBN‎ 978-1-913-19373-7

348 pages

This second installment of Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s Forbidden Iceland series examines dysfunctional family connections, and features toxic mother-daughter relationships that lead to murder as we meet girls who lie.

It occurred to me as I read this novel, something I like best about Ægisdóttir’s books is they are as much about human nature—the best of it and the worst of it—as about the solving of crimes. It’s this insight into human behavior that makes her books such addictive reads.

When a depressed, alcoholic single mother disappears, everything suggests suicide, but when her body is found, Icelandic Detective Elma and her team are thrust into a perplexing, chilling investigation.

When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life … until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?

Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy.

Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Maríanna’s past – and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others…

Breathtakingly chilling and tantalisingly twisty, Girls Who Lie is at once a startling, tense psychological thriller and a sophisticated police procedural, marking Eva Björg Ægisdottir as one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction.

I’ve been a fan of Icelandic novelist Eva Björg Ægisdóttir since reading her tantalizingly twisty debut novel, The Creak on the Stairs, which I very much enjoyed. Her latest, Girls Who Lie, is an intriguing read that unfolds in many time frames and from several points of view. Ægisdóttir effectively pulls this off through the use of short introductory sections that precede almost every chapter. They seem almost like prologues and give the reader flashbacks information that compliments the progression of the story, chapter by chapter. These sections are set off from the chapters themselves with italicized print. The narrator isn’t identified, but seems the same person each time. Sill, we can’t be sure since we don’t learn the person’s identity until near the very end.

After the brief chapter introductions, the book then reenters the present and follows an investigation that begins after two young boys staying in a nearby summer house with their parents find a woman’s body inside a cave in the Grábrók lava fields. It’s obvious she’s been there for some time. The authorities suspect the dead woman is a single mother named Maríanna who disappeared seven months previously after leaving an apologetic note for her daughter. Everyone assumes she took her own life. But once the forensics team and pathologist arrive, they determine someone murdered the woman who they identify as Maríanna.

Elma, an Akranes police detective, and her colleague Sævar get to work on the investigation. The police had investigated Maríanna’s disappearance seven months earlier, but since they believed she had disappeared voluntarily, they had put little effort into it. So, Elma and Sævar must again cover much old ground in order to find their footing before pushing the investigation forward.

Elma is a realistic and likeable main character. She is still adjusting to life in her hometown after recently moving back from Reykjavik and still coming to grips with the death of her former partner who took his own life. But she is now looking toward her future and deciding what she wants from it. She is involved romantically with her neighbor across the hall, but only in a casual sense. It’s clear she feels an attraction to her colleague, Sævar, and he seems to reciprocate. But Elma fears taking the relationship beyond friendship could make things awkward if it didn’t work out since they work together.

As much as I liked the debut novel in this series, I liked this one more. It seemed the plotting was more imaginative, the characters richer, and the pacing stronger. There was also more psychological depth as all sorts of mother-daughter implications manifest themselves and play out. As with the first book, there were plenty of tantalizing twists to keep the reader guessing and the pages turning. Also, there were more than a few surprises, especially near the end.

Even though the outcome of the investigation felt a little unsatisfactory in a justice-not-truly-served kind of way, I enjoyed how the book ended on a happy note. That left me eager to read the next novel in the series to see how Ægisdóttir builds on the ending to continue Elma’s character arc. Girls Who Lie is quality writing and an excellent read and further evidence of why Icelandic crime fiction continues to grow in popularity in international markets.

Orenda Books published Girls Who Lie by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir from May 22, 2021. I purchased the copy of the book used for this review, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: For Reasons of Their Own by Chris Stuart

For Reasons of Their Own by Chris Stuart—A formidable display of stunningly written scenes that cohere into a fully satisfying narrative.

For Reasons of Their Own

by Chris Stuart

Published by Original Sin Press

from July 20, 2021

Genre(s): Detective Fiction, Police Procedural, International Crime Fiction

ISBN 9780473514921

309 pages

For the past several years, I’ve read all the novels from the shortlist for the Ngaio Marsh Awards, literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. But this year, several things conspired to prevent me from doing so. Still, I was determined to at least read the books picked as the best novel and best first novel. So, that’s how I came to pick up of a copy of For Reasons of Their Own by Chris Stuart, the Ngaio Marsh Awards 2021, recipient for best first novel.

Stuart was quick to lure me in and before I knew it, I was hooked. She offers a strong female lead—both likeable and complex—but a woman at a tough place in her life for several reasons.

Can the past ever be left behind? Ask a flawed detective, a former refugee and a government desperate to misuse a dead body to reshape Australia’s security policy.

Melbourne is a city on the brink, from arson fed bush fires, searing heatwaves and the potential threat of terrorism.  Detective Inspector Robbie Gray, falling foul of Police bureaucracy, gets called to a body found lying in a rural swamp. When the nationality of the victim is revealed, ASIO take over her investigation and she is sidelined. Convinced they are misinterpreting the evidence, along with a disenfranchised Aboriginal policeman, she secretly digs for the truth and discovers an entirely different motive, one which transcends international borders and exposes corruption in the humanitarian world.  When the killer is arrested, DI Robbie Gray realises that the past contains only hurt and pain and she asks herself whether in certain circumstances, murder may well be justified. 

“For Reasons of their Own,”  is aimed at international readers who love the psychology of crime, who prefer to empathise with a strong female protagonist, who want to learn and understand something quite different about the humanitarian world and who look forward to the next book in the planned series.

For Reasons of Their Own is a bleak chronicle of implacable fate, revenge, and murder set in 2014 in and around Melbourne, Australia, where a tired and frustrated Robbie Gray, a Victoria detective inspector, broods over the assignment her boss (Ted Hobbs) has given her, to attend undercover a week-long International Disaster Conference commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Partly, Gray’s assignment stems from concerns by the Australian federal government over the high number of Muslim conference attendees, considering rising tensions from Islamic fundamentalism in neighboring countries. The government wants an experienced police officer monitoring the conference and participants on the lookout for anyone using the conference as cover for entering the country to commit a terrorist act. But Gray knows the real reason Hobbs has tapped her for the assignment.

During a recent murder investigation Gray’s team had conducted, a large quantity of cocaine went missing. While an internal police enquiry exonerated Gray and her team, a cloud of suspicion still hovers over them all. So, Gray acknowledges the true reason for the conference assignment is that her superiors have lost confidence in her because of the missing narcotics, which she considers a professional slap in the face.

From the international disaster conference, the focus shifts to the discovery of an unidentified body in a wetlands area of the rural community of Acacia Glen near Palmerston. Almost by happenstance, DI Gray gets the case when it becomes apparent the someone murdered the victim. In time, the police identify the victim as Dr. Hasam Alamri, a Jakarta-based UN official and one of the Muslims who had been in Australia for the disaster conference. Painstakingly, Gray and her understaffed team of investigators piece together facts they hope will lead to Alamri’s murderer. The case is rife with complexities from the start. But things become truly convulsed when the Australian federal police and intelligence services establish a tenuous link between Alamri and a terrorist plot. They pull the rug out from under Gray and take over the case. But she can’t let it go.

After gaining the approval of her obstinately uncooperative and politically sensitive boss Hobbs, she doggedly pursues a parallel investigation. The intrepid Robbie Gray, however flawed and troubled, is perhaps the most fully human and sympathetic character I’ve encountered in a novel this year. Stuart’s artful fusion of a murder investigation with the multi-layered obstacles Gray must overcome to solve it—including exorcising her own personal demons—is accomplished using vivid imagery and a formidable display of stunningly written scenes that cohere into a fully satisfying narrative that confers horrific intensity on the escalating chaos, while precisely dramatizing the sense of issues that stalk and punish Stuart’s characters.

This is a strangely beguiling book. On one level, it’s the story of a complex murder investigation. On another, it’s about a strong woman’s faith being tested in a myriad of ways. The closure we’re offered at the end isn’t as complete as I would have liked, nonetheless, this is magnificent writing. And, perhaps it’s not the sort of story where every thread should be wrapped up tidily in a bow.

I’ve read some truly exceptional crime fiction books in 2021, but For Reasons of Their Own is easily my favorite of the year. Anyone who enjoys reading excellent crime, mystery, and thriller writing will love this book. I’m left eagerly anticipating what Stuart will do for an encore after writing such a brilliant and extraordinary debut novel.

Original Sin Press published For Reasons of Their Own by Chris Stuart from July 20, 2021. I purchased the copy of the book used for this review, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: Death by the Thames by Gretta Mulrooney

Death by the Thames by Gretta Mulrooney—Mulrooney demonstrates a flawless touch with characterization and clever plotting.

In this ninth installment of the Tyrone Swift Detective series, a grieving bride-to-be hires Swift to investigate the death of her fiancé that the London police ruled a suicide. I came late to this delightful series, starting with the eighth novel, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As I alluded to in my review of Murder in Pembrokeshire, Gretta Mulrooney demonstrates a perfect touch with characterization and clever plotting. While I fully intend to read all of the books in the series as time permits, one thing I appreciate about Mulrooney’s writing is you can enter this series at any point without feeling lost. Mulrooney does a neat job of offering readers easily digested snippets of backstory that help us understand Swift’s background and give us what’s important to know about other recurring characters.

Death by the Thames

by Gretta Mulrooney

Published by Joffe Books

from December 22, 2021

Genre(s) Detective Mysteries

ISBN 978-1-80405-026-2

Pages 318

One dead bridegroom.

Financier Sam Goddard never made it down the aisle. Instead, his body is pulled from the Thames. Everyone says he rode his bike into the water. And he didn’t die alone . . .

A teen tearaway with a taste for older men.

Riding in his sidecar, there’s an underage girl. On his phone, a text.

So sorry to do this to you . . .

The police know a suicide pact when they see one, and as far as they’re concerned, it’s case closed.

But Toni — Sam’s grieving fiancée — can’t believe it’s true. Desperate to uncover the truth about Sam’s death, she turns to Tyrone Swift for answers.

But is she prepared for the killer secrets he’s about to unearth?

Death by the Thames is a seamlessly crafted, twisty crime thriller that will have you gripped from start to pulsating finish.

When the book opens, we meet Toni Sheringham, a woman in her thirties, on her wedding day. Just as she finishes dressing and puts the finishing touches on her makeup, the police arrive with horrific news. Her fiancé Sam Goddard has drowned in the Thames, and from a text message on his phone, the police are leaning towards suicide as the explanation. As though that wasn’t bad enough, the police also tell Toni that a fifteen-year-old girl drowned with Sam, and they believe she and Sam had shared an illicit affair. Although numb with grief, Toni refuses to accept that Sam had been involved with a teenager or had committed suicide. So, she hires London private investigator Tyrone Swift to investigate and determine the truth.

I really liked the characters Mulrooney offers us here, and it is clear characterization is one of the author’s true strengths. They are so lifelike they almost leap from the pages. But, one thing I struggled with in the first Mulrooney novel I read was again in evidence here, the vast array of characters introduced. The cast is large and, I tend to get bogged down trying to remember who is who (Conor, Lucy, Naomi, Mila, Eli, Jerome, Araminta, Hester, Lexie, Yuna, et cetera). But while keeping track of the cast was a small distraction, every character played enough of a vital role in the overall plot that I can’t say the author should have ditched any of them.

I really like the lead in this series, Tyrone “Ty” Swift. He shares a few characteristics of the archetypical private detective (single, strong and silent type, women find him attractive, but he avoids commitment) but has plenty of other traits that set him apart. As an example, he has a young daughter with a hearing disability from his most significant failed relationship that he dotes on. I love the role his daughter plays in his life. And despite how he seems to somewhat callously discard women he gets involved with romantically when it comes to his friends and clients, he has a heart of gold. While flawed, Swift has none of the stereotypical, contrived flaws we often see in detective mystery fiction. That makes him all the more interesting.

Plotting is another area where Mulrooney shines, and here the plot was more complex than expected with many threads. I’d actually guessed who the murderer was before the end but enjoyed the twists and turns nonetheless, and the motive wasn’t entirely clear until it was. It was more the traits and characteristics that Mulrooney used to paint the character that gave it away for me than any failure to keep the murderer’s identity hidden sufficiently. Despite all the potential suspects, she offered to confuse the issue, this one person seemed the most capable of being a cold, calculated murderer of the lot.

What’s important is whether I liked this book. And yes, I loved it. Those who enjoy Agatha Christie-like detective mysteries will love it too.

Joffe Books publishes Death by the Thames by Gretta Mulrooney from December 22, 2021. I received an advanced reader’s copy of the book from the publisher via Net Galley used for this review, representing my honest opinions.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Whiteout by Ragnar Jónasson

Whiteout by Ragnar Jónasson—A convincing and uniquely Icelandic thriller dripping with tension and suspense.

Whiteout is the fifth book I’ve read by best-selling Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson, who reliably delivers absorbing and suspense filled thrillers with complex plots and multi-layered characters every time. I’ve had this book on my to be read list for a while now, but only just got to it. That’s because it’s a book I purchased. And I always give priority to reading and reviewing the advance reader copies I receive from publishers over titles from my personal collection. But having enjoyed Jónasson’s books so much in the past, I was eager to get to this one. Whiteout is the fourth book (in publication order), or fifth book (chronologically) in Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series.

I’ve commented on the settings of his books before, but I’ll mention it again since Jónasson puts such a strong emphasis on it. The setting—the bleak portions of the natural Icelandic landscape, the bitter cold with snow and ice, the dark winters, and the summers with the midnight sun—becomes almost a character in its own right. That all combines to contribute a sense of foreboding and tension from the moment you start reading. Like Jónasson’s other books, beyond the desolate setting, this novel includes brutal crimes in an otherwise quiet and outwardly safe community, a tortured protagonist, and a strong plot with multiple complex threads and unexpected twists.

Whiteout

By Ragnar Jónasson

Translator Quentin Bates

Published (in English) by Orenda Books

on January 1, 2020 (first published October 20, 2013)

Genre(s): Mystery Thriller, International Police Procedural, Icelandic Noir

ISBN 9781910633892

Pages 240

Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland’s bestselling crime writers.

When the body of a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted Icelandic village of Kálfshamarvík, police officer Ari Thór Arason uncovers a startling and terrifying connection to an earlier series of deaths, as the killer remains on the loose…

Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík.

Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop?

With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim’s mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier.

As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

As a lover of mysteries, thrillers and crime fiction, I knew I had found a new must-read author after reading my first Ragnar Jónasson novel, Blackout. I liked the main character of his Dark Iceland series, Ari Thór Arason, from the moment I first met him in Blackout, and enjoyed meeting him again in Whiteout.

Ari Thór is the quintessential tortured protagonist, a police officer with a painful past. In this fourth book in the series, he is back with his partner Kristin, who is pregnant with their first child. He also teams up once again with his former boss and mentor, Tómas, now assigned to the Serious Crimes Department of the Reykjavik police force, for an investigation. But Ari Thór and Tómas don’t appear until Part Two of the book.

The book opens with a brief but chilling prologue where a little girl falls from a cliff to her death. Then in the first chapter we meet a young woman in her thirties, Ásta Káradóttir, who has returned to visit Kálfshamarsvík and the childhood home she left at age seven. There she renews old acquaintances with people still living in the house that Ásta and her family once lived in when her father was a light house keeper on the Skagi peninsula. There she occupies her old room in the attic, and things take a sinister turn.

In Part One, Jónasson offers us some interesting insight—in snippets—from Ásta about her childhood, when she lived with her family in the house beside the lighthouse. We can’t quite work out why Ásta has returned to the house for a visit, since it seems clear the place holds no happy memories for her. And more than once, Ásta questions whether she should have come.

I appreciated that Jónasson dives right into the action in Part Two. Tómas phones Ari Thór two days before Christmas and tells him there has been a sudden death at Kálfshamarsvík and the local police are too busy with another situation to handle the investigation. Tómas tells him he is coming north from Reykjavik and needs Ari Thór’s help on the case. Tómas assures his junior colleague that the death looks like a suicide investigation they should wrap up before Christmas, but then mentions something ominous about a backstory. In response to Ari Thór’s questions for clarification, Tómas mentions “terrible things that happened to the mother [of the victim] and her daughters” in the past. With the heightened suspense, there’s no question of a lagging plot. This sets the book’s pace and engages the reader from the start as the action moves to Kálfshamarsvík.

Although we realize we’re yet to learn more about Ásta and the ominous past that Tómas mentioned, everything seems straight-forward as the two police officers begin the investigation. But slowly things change and therein lies the strength of Jónasson’s storytelling style. It’s not only about the action. He offers us further snippets of information, providing deeper insight that calls into question the assumptions we’ve made about the death. The plot is twisty and Jónasson, as he always does, throws in a surprise towards the end that he masks well.

As with the other books in the series I’ve read, Jónasson’s major strengths continues to be the relatability of his characters and the ease of his storytelling. I appreciated how he expanded Ari Thór’s arc by continuing to develop his character. My favorite part of this book was unexpected, as I found myself captivated by the relationship dynamics unfolding because of Kristin’s pregnancy. She accompanies Ari Thór when he travels to Kálfshamarsvík to connect with Tómas because she has some personal business to attend in the area. This allows us to see how the pregnancy affects their relationship and insight into how Ari Thór feels about becoming a father considering his own difficult past. Ultimately, this was a satisfying read with a lot of surprises thrown in—many of which I did not see coming. I easily rate it as another 5-star read by one of the best crime fiction writers in the business.

I purchased the copy of Whiteout used for this review, representing my honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: Shaking Hands with the Devil by Bryan J. Mason

Shaking Hands with the Devil by Bryan J. Mason—A satirical tale from a master wit at his quirky, provocative best.

I’ve been remiss in not posting this review of Shaking Hands with the Devil by Bryan J. Mason sooner. It certainly offers something quite new as far as serial killer novels go. As soon as I started reading, I fell in love with the way Mason wrote this book—from the point-of-views of Clifton Gentle, the serial killer—who’s resplendent with quirks and a smidge of mad, and the annoyingly arrogant but inept DCI Dave Hicks.

Shaking Hands with the Devil

by Bryan J. Mason

Published by Pegasus Publishers

Genre(s): Serial Killers, Literature & Fiction

ISBN: 978-1-80016-154-2

Pages 344

‘WE ARE ON THIS CASE LIKE A BONER FIDO BLOODHOUND…
AND MY MEN ARE BARKING AT THE LEASH’

In this darkly comic novel, Clifton Gentle is an ordinary man without much to distinguish him. Not much, that is, apart from being a serial killer who is leaving bits of his young male victims scattered around North London
.
DCI Dave Hicks is the larger than life policeman determined to catch him. His attempts to find ‘the nutter’ through a combination of spoonerisms, personal abuse and a belief that something will turn up don’t go well. All that turns up are yet more body parts.

In a sleazy London dogged by growing squalor and an IRA bombing campaign in the last days of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, the gruesome murders spur an over-the-top media and merchandising frenzy.

The hunt becomes an increasingly personal one and a race against the clock as Clifton, Dave Hicks, a would-be victim, and a copycat killer each try to uncover what – or who – they hold responsible for their own problems.

If you enjoy your serial killer novels with a healthy dose of dark comedy, Shaking Hands with the Devil by Bryan J. Mason is the book for you. I very much enjoyed this book. There’s a definite sense of wit and lightness in it, but it reminds us that our impressions of people may not always be correct, that people’s personalities come in various shades of grey and can often surprise us. This isn’t a whodunit, as we meet villain, Clifton Gentle, our serial killer, on the opening pages. The plot centers on whether the largely inept, and arrogantly and pompously boastful Detective Chief Inspector Dave Hicks, can identify and arrest the suspect, leaving body parts strewn willy-nilly around his patch in London.

What I liked most about Shaking Hands with the Devil was the same thing I like about the movie Dumb and Dumber. While I rarely like slapstick comedy, in the film, the two imbecilic best friends in the film are so relentlessly stupid that it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious. In this novel, instead of two imbecilic best friends, we have Clifton Gentle and Dave Hicks, two quirky men who in their own rights are so relentlessly half-witted that it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious. The deeper into the book we go, the more absurdly cerebrally challenged they reveal themselves to be.

There’s a sense of predictability here and I think readers will clearly see where this book’s going, but Mason also throws in some surprises. I felt the plot probably wasn’t as robust as I typically like, but whatever its flaws, the book gives you no chance to get bored. The characters are uniformly interesting and Mason does a fine job with offering the reader some great background texture and layers of complexity. That helps us understand why the main characters are who they are and behave as they do.

Shaking Hands with the Devil, while a work of fiction, is a bit of a study in culture and society. Bryan J. Mason wrote this novel in the late 1980s, “but reluctantly put it away in a drawer after his agent narrowly failed to get it published.” As you read the book, you notice immediately the story is set at a time before the stifling contemporary onset of political correctness that demands we all conform to accepted language and practices that don’t risk offending the political sensibilities of the overly sensitive.

Pegasus Publishing published Shaking Hands with the Devil on September 30, 2021. I received a print copy of this book from the publisher used for this review, representing my honest opinions.