Book Reviews

The Thames Path Killer by Biba Pearce Review

The Thames Path Killer, the first book in Biba Pearce’s Detective Rob Miller Mysteries series, is a white-knuckle thrill ride and a solid police procedural to boot. Read my full review.

4.5 minute read

The Thames Path Killer Synopsis

Detective Rob Miller Mysteries #1

A deranged serial killer targeting brides-to-be. An ambitious young detective. A case that could destroy everything.

A young woman is brutally attacked on her way home. It looks like she was the victim of a jilted — and twisted — ex-lover.

But then two more women, also engaged to be married, are found dead.

The press call the killer the ‘Surrey Stalker’. And there’s a stack of similar cold case files.

The pressure is on for young, ambitious DI Rob Miller.

But with all the time he’s spending at the office, Rob’s also running a fine line trying to keep his fiancée, Yvette, onside as they try to plan their wedding . . .

(Joffe Books, June 2021)

Genre(s) Mystery & Crime, Thriller, Police Procedural

Book Review

Biba Pearce’s Detective Rob Miller Mysteries series has been on my radar for a while now. When I noticed The Soho Killer, the sixth book in the series, on NetGalley recently, it reminded me I still hadn’t read a book in the series. It’s no secret that I prefer starting a series at the beginning, although it seems I’ve begun quite a few at other points recently. But instead of requesting The Soho Killer, I picked up a copy of this one, The Thames Path Killer, the first in the series. Starting at the beginning is always the best way to observe the development of the character arc of the leading character and those of the other recurring characters in a series.

Pearce gives us a sinister foreshadowing in the first chapter as a stalker watches the object of his attention, a young woman, leaving work as darkness descends and it pours rain. Following her along a lonely riverside path, he pounces. After dragging his victim into a stand of thick trees and underbrush, he subdues, binds, and assaults her before strangling her. Then in the next chapter, we meet DI Rob Miller, our protagonist. Miller gets his first chance to lead a murder investigation when his boss, DCI Sam Lawrence, head of the South West London Major Investigation Team phones him at home with an assignment, making him the senior investigator for a murder of the young woman found strangled and possibly sexually assaulted in a wooded area along the Thames towpath. Miller hurries to the scene and links up with his second in command, DS Mallory. After viewing the deceased and the gruesome crime scene, Miller resolves to bring her killer to justice.

Miller is a relatively inexperienced, but ambitious young detective who feels police work suits him perfectly. His dedication to his chosen profession produces much friction on the home front between him and his new fiancé, Yvette. She sees Miller’s job with the unpredictable hours as a threat to her happiness and their relationship. Miller loves Yvette, but can’t help putting his work ahead of the relationship since he sees his first opportunity to lead an important major investigation as the big chance that he has waited for to earn his next promotion. So, he throws himself into the murder investigation, working weekends and long hours despite Yvette’s growing unhappiness. He cannot turn his back on the opportunity to solve his first serious major crime. As he investigates the murder of Julie Andrews, he doesn’t realize there is far more to the case than this single murder. With little evidence to go on, Miller and his team make little progress in the case and default mostly to reviewing hours and hours of CCTV footage, hoping to identify the killer. But even when they find the suspect in recorded videos, the man had carefully concealed his face, making identification impossible. As the days pass and with Miller’s team making little headway, DCI Lawrence warns Miller that the deputy commissioner will soon send in a top major investigation team to take over the case. When someone using an identical modus operandi murders another young woman, it becomes clear Miller and his colleagues may have a serial killer on their hands. Another major investigation team, headed by DCI Jo Maguire, then arrives to take over the investigation. But instead of pushing Miller aside, Maguire includes him in the thick of the investigation and Miller soon realizes he enjoys working with her. Finally, the police make progress but make a chilling discovery. They find proof that Julie Andrews definitely is not the first young woman their suspect has killed. Now in a race against time, Maguire, Miller and their teams continue digging relentlessly into the case while Miller’s relationship with Yvette continues deteriorating. They must find the killer before he finds his next victim—and they are running out of time.

Pearce truly shines with the police procedural aspects of the story. She accurately details the steps the police follow in a murder investigation, making the plot feel authentically realistic. The author also excels at pacing, raising the stakes, and ratcheting the tension up as the narrative accelerates towards the pulse-pounding conclusion. Plus, it’s a pretty solid mystery. Pearce sketched the main characters sufficiently so that they seem relatable and real, although I would have liked more depth, especially regarding Miller the protagonist. Still, this is the debut of the series, so I’ll withhold judgement on characterization until I’ve read deeper into the series. And I’m already keen to read the second book. Overall, The Thames Path Killer is a compellingly crafted, darkly sinister, and suspense-filled story that kept me turning the pages from beginning to end. It’s exactly the type of British crime writing I enjoy reading. Fans of Helen H. Durrant, James Oswald, Joy Ellis, and Angela Marsons are sure to embrace Peace’s writing style and Detective Rob Miller.

Book Rating: ★★★★

The Thames Path Killer (Det. Rob Miller Mysteries #1)

by Biba Pearce

Publisher Joffe Books

Source: Purchased

ISBN 9781789317978

210 pages

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Book Reviews

Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson Review

Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson, a gripping story of secrets, intrigue, and murder set in a small village in Sweden. Read my full review.

4 minute read

Until Thy Wrath Be Past Synopsis

Rebecka Martinsson: Artic Murders #4

On the windswept shore of a frozen lake lurks a faceless killer determined to keep the past buried forever beneath half a century’s silent ice and snow.

The body of a young woman surfaces in the River Torne, in the far north of Sweden. Meanwhile, Rebecka Martinsson is working as a prosecutor in nearby Kiruna. Her sleep has been disturbed by haunting visions of a shadowy, accusing figure. Could the body be connected to the ghostly young woman in her dreams?

Joining forces once again with Police Inspector Anna-Maria Mella, Rebecka is drawn into a murder and missing-person investigation that becomes entangled with old rumors of a German supply plane that mysteriously disappeared in 1943. Shame and secrecy shroud the locals’ memories of the war, with Sweden’s early collaboration with the Nazis still a raw wound.

(MacLehose Press, August 2011)

Genre(s): Crime & Mystery, Thriller & Suspsense

Book Review

When the body of 17-year-old Wilma Persson surfaces in the River Torne in the first thaw of spring, in the far north of Sweden, authorities first believe they are dealing with an accidental drowning. But when pathologist Lars Pohjanen discovers the water in the victim’s lungs is not from the river, it becomes clear someone moved the body. As the evidence mounts, Inspector Anna-Marie Mella investigates the death as a murder, and launches a search for the dead woman’s missing male companion. Eventually District Prosecutor Rebecka Martinsson, our lead character, gets drawn into the case. And the ghostly vision of an accusing figure appears to her in a dream. Could the body belong to the girl in her dream? Soon Martinsson learns the young woman’s death connects with long kept secrets someone doesn’t want revealed. Another murder, staged to look like a suicide, occurs and, as Martinsson presses the investigation forward, she soon finds her own life in grave peril.

“I remember how we died. I remember and I know.”

The first two sentences of the book reveal our narrator is dead, speaking to us from beyond the grave. I felt a stab of disappointment at the realization. I must confess I’m not enamored with and usually avoid books featuring the mystical or supernatural. While I know that there are things in this world we cannot explain, I don’t necessarily want to divert my attention to them when there is already far more going on in our physical world than I have time to focus on properly and worry about.

Nevertheless, having read so many great things about Larsson’s writing and so eager to read her work for the first time, I persevered. As it often does, perseverance rewarded me. Once Larsson shifted to the third person point of view and the story became more the traditional crime thriller I expected, the book grabbed my attention. That describes the bulk of the novel, although Larsson continues to switch back to the first person point of view of the spectral Wilma Persson from time to time, the paranormal aspects don’t overshadow. Larsson meticulously weaves an extremely intricate plot which unfolds in two time frames, the present and decades past, during World War II. The periods are intertwined and we view the action from the perspectives of multiple characters.

The strength of Larsson’s characters makes it very difficult to put this book down. I particularly enjoyed getting to know both Rebecka Martinsson and Inspector Anna-Marie Mella. Both are strong, multi-layered characters, but both battle personal demons from past events that complicate their search for Wilma’s killer.

Martinsson is psychologically fragile from previously killing three men in self-defense, something that contributed to a past mental breakdown so severe she spent time in a mental hospital. Anna-Maria Mella is still badly shaken over circumstances where her impulsive actions nearly killed herself and her detective colleague who still holds it against her. While no antagonism exists between Martinsson and Mella, they both vie to take charge of the investigation, which causes friction between them. Larsson does an exceptional job fleshing out Wilma Persson too, which is quite remarkable since she is a corpse from the start of the book. There is also a cast of other support characters that Larsson makes us feel are relatable and human.

From a beginning that caused me to doubt how much I’d like this book, to my surprise, I loved it and found it both compelling and beautifully written. We often assume there can be no secrets in small villages where everyone knows everyone else, but Larsson reminds us that doesn’t mean there aren’t secrets so well hidden or buried they’re left to fester for years.

Until Thy Wrath Be Past is a gripping, atmospheric, and unsettling thriller that I unreservedly recommend. And it left me eager to read more of Larsson’s terrific writing.

Book Rating: ★★★★

Until Thy Wrath Be Past (Rebecka Martinsson #4)

by Åsa Larsson

Translated by Laurie Thompson

Source: Purchased

ISBN 9780857387493 (eBook)

320 pages

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Book Reviews

Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir Review

Night Shadows is the third epic, breath-taking crime thriller from Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, Icelandic author of the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series. Read my full review.

5 minute read

Night Shadows Synopsis

Icelandic detective Elma faces mortal danger as she investigates the death of a young man in a mysterious Akranes house fire, and a Dutch au pair’s perfect placement turns deadly.

The small community of Akranes is devastated when a young man dies in a mysterious house fire, and when Detective Elma and her colleagues from West Iceland CID discover the fire was arson, they become embroiled in an increasingly perplexing case involving multiple suspects. What’s more, the dead man’s final online search raises fears that they could be investigating not one murder, but two.

A few months before the fire, a young Dutch woman takes a job as an au pair in Iceland, desperate to make a new life for herself after the death of her father. But the seemingly perfect family who employs her turns out to have problems of its own and she soon discovers she is running out of people to turn to.

As the police begin to home in on the truth, Elma, already struggling to come to terms with a life-changing event, finds herself in mortal danger as it becomes clear that someone has secrets they’ll do anything to hide…

(Orenda Books Ltd, July 2022)

Genre: International Crime & Detective, Thriller, Mystery

Book Review

Oh, my goodness. I absolutely and totally loved this book. As much as I enjoyed the first two novels in this outstanding and compelling series, Night Shadows is more convincing proof that Eva Björg Ægisdóttir only gets better and better with each book. This one is the best so far, with twists and turns that leave us feeling we’ve suffered whiplash and keep us guessing until the very end.

“Instead of letting her colleagues know when she was going to see people, she [Elma] had the tendency to act spontaneously on her hunches. More than once Sævar had to remind her that she wasn’t in a TV programme or crime novel: the guidelines were there to ensure their safety.”

Feisty protagonist, Icelandic detective Elma, her colleague Sævar and the rest of the West Iceland CID team investigate a suspicious death when firefighters find a body inside a house someone set on fire. Elma is as gutsy as they come, but also impetuous and her habit of often acting impulsively on her instincts in total disregard of police guidelines lands her in a life-threatening situation this time around.

Elma’s natural curiosity and drive make her an exceptional detective, and a likeable and engaging character lead. It’s this passion that quickly draws others, including her colleague Sævar and her boss Hörður into her orbit, as well as some other beautifully rendered fascinating second-tier characters. Elma is just a little too reckless with her own safety, a behavior that certainly contributes to making Night Shadows a high suspense roller coaster ride.

“Raindrops slid vertically down the window as the bus drove past endless bare fields that were hardly visible in the gloom. It turned out February evenings were pitch black in Iceland, and Lise felt silly to have expected any different.”

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s confident evocation of Iceland’s picturesque yet wild and rugged terrain gives us a strong sense of place. The sense of isolation and almost claustrophobic tension of the realities of small town living where everyone knows everything about everyone else’s business engenders a pressure-cooker atmosphere reminiscent of Ragnar Jónasson’s writing.

Besides two related crimes to solve and an impressive cast of potential suspects to sort out, Elma also faces a personal issue that adds breadth to the story and even more layers to one of the most fascinating lead characters in crime fiction. Elam seems more settled in her hometown of Akranes and a more mature detective in this book.

Night Shadows is a well-paced, breath-taking read that leaves the reader astonished and feeling a little worse for wear after Eva Björg Ægisdóttir capably builds the tension with one gut-punching revelation after another. This is a page-turning must-read for fans of crime thrillers and especially Icelandic crime fiction.

Book rating: ★★★★★

Night Shadows (Forbidden Iceland #3)

by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Translated by Victoria Cribb

Published by Orenda Books Ltd

on July 21, 2022

Source: Purchased

ISBN 9781914585210 (eBook)

276 pages

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Book Reviews

Deceit by Jónína Leósdóttir Review

Deceit is a highly original and satisfying Nordic crime novel with an inimitable protagonist by Jónína Leósdóttir, her first novel to appear in English. Read my full review.

5 minute read

Deceit Synopsis

The pandemic has hit Iceland hard, and half the police force is in isolation.

Reykjavík detective Soffía finds herself struggling to cope with a single-handed investigation into a spate of malicious acts taking place across the city, and enlists help from an unexpected direction.

Her psychologist ex-husband Adam has advised the police before, but with Covid raging in the city, would prefer to stay holed up in his basement flat as he deals with challenges in both his working and private life.

He grudgingly agrees to work with Soffía, as the stakes in the investigation are continually raised.

Working out who bears a grudge that goes deep enough to lead to murder, they unravel complex family ties, lingering enmities and a dark past that the victims would prefer to keep secret, while Adam encounters a young woman in a race against the clock to find the father she has never seen, but for what purpose?

(Corylus Books Ltd, October 2022)

Genre(s) International Crime & Mystery, Nordic (Scandi) Noir

Book Review

Deceit is exceedingly clever and confronting, in terms of social commentary. And I loved everything about this book. It’s achingly fallible protagonist, British ex-pat and psychologist Adam, his strong, pragmatic ex-wife, Reykjavík detective Soffía, and its raw and strikingly authentic representation of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as seen through the lens of Icelandic society. I also much enjoyed how Leósdóttir dives right into the relationship between Adam and Soffía at the outset.

The book unfolds with a phone call between Soffía and Adam, where she asks if she can stop by his apartment to get his opinion on something. Adam isn’t keen since he’s caught up in the Covid hysteria and practicing self-imposed isolation, but reluctantly agrees. Then, once the call ends, his thoughts tell us much about these two people, their post-divorce relationship, and perhaps provide one clue for why their marriage ended.

“Adam ended the call without a word. Soffía hadn’t called to ask if she could come, but to announce that she was coming. There was a good reason why his parents referred to their former daughter-in-law as the Bulldozer.”

When Soffía arrives, she tells Adam she wants his help with a case she is investigating as a psychologist consultant, a role it seems he has filled in the past. Since his practice is suffering because people are reluctant to book appointments because of anxiety over Covid, Adam agrees because he needs the income. Then Soffía reveals the details. Someone has been inserting sewing needles into fresh fruit at a local healthy foods shop, and two non-life-threatening injuries have already occurred. And then the investigation begins and Leósdóttir deftly raises the stakes from there.

Set in cold, dark countries like Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland, emotional chilliness and an overarching sense of despair typically define Nordic crime fiction. The weather is perpetually cold, and the setting bleak, often expressed by brutal murder mystery plots. But Leósdóttir’s plotting and sense of place felt fresh, offering us something different.

Using only a rather innocuous crime, an offense far less serious than the gruesome murders we might expect at the opening of a Nordic crime novel, and the first faltering steps of the investigation, Leósdóttir effortlessly arrests our attention and yanks us into the story. I couldn’t put the book down once I started reading. And instead of giving us the usual climatic cold, bleak Icelandic landscape, and the associated sense of despair as a backdrop, she replaces the expected with the Covid pandemic instead, with its stark blend of stasis and fear. It permeates everything. And she pulls it off brilliantly, offering us the very eerie and desolate setting we expect from the genre. The cleverness and originality of that impressed me as much as anything else about this book. Then, to top it off, Leósdóttir gives us two cases blending into one, but in a believable and not overly coincidental way.

Though I had guessed the major twist concerning Adam before the reveal, it didn’t lessen my interest but only made me more curious to learn how it would play out within the rest of the plot. I think anyone who doesn’t guess that twist early will feel blown away by the reveal. And while she may have dropped one clue too many, which allowed me to work that one out, Leósdóttir still kept a few secrets and tricks up her sleeve.

Strikingly, I realized at this novel’s satisfying conclusion that, with every characterization, even those less than admirable, Leósdóttir achieves an uncommon level of emotional nuance and authenticity in her storytelling. This grounded, real-world quality extends especially to the events that trigger the antagonist’s actions. Leósdóttir clearly understands the human psyche well, and in Deceit expertly mines the fear and dread that a plague-ravaged world evokes. Mental and emotional trauma play a chillingly large role in this story. The book delves into the challenges of Huntington’s disease as well and on its impact for those suffering from the disease and the impact it has on their loved ones and families. This is a book you will remember long after reading the last page. It leaves us to wonder how much our upbringing and early years shape our experiences in later life.

Jónína Leósdóttir’s emotive and deeply thought-provoking crime narrative Deceit is a riveting read, and with only two months to go, definitely one of the best novels I’ve read this year. I’m left hoping desperately that more of her novels will appear in English.

Book Rating: ★★★★

Deceit

by Jónína Leósdóttir

Translated by Sylvia Bates and Quentin Bates

Published by Corylus Books Ltd (English)

on October 21, 2022

Source: Purchased

Genre(s) International Crime & Mystery, Nordic (Scandi) Noir

ISBN 9781916379794

305 pages

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Book Reviews

The Body Falls by Andrea Carter Review

The Body Falls is the eminently entertaining fifth novel in Andrea Carter’s charming An Inishowen Mystery series. Read my full review.

4 minute read

The Body Falls Synopsis

An Inishowen Mystery #5

Bridges Down—Roads Impassable—Killer Trapped

April in Florida and Benedicta (Ben) O’Keeffe is enjoying balmy temperatures during the last few days of a six month stint with a U.S. law firm. A week later, she returns to Glendara, Inishowen, where a charity cycle event is taking place. The town is abuzz with excitement, but it starts to rain, causing the cyclists to postpone the start of their event and stay overnight in the town. The rain doesn’t stop—it becomes relentless, torrential.

In the middle of the night, Police Sergeant Tom Molloy is called out to Mamore Gap, where a body, dislodged from a high bank by the heavy rain, has fallen onto a passing vehicle. It is identified as Bob Jameson, a well-known charities boss and the organizer of the cycling event. Stunned, the local doctor finds evidence of a recent snakebite. Terrible weather persists and soon bridges are down and roads are impassable. Glendara is completely cut off and since there are no native snakes in Ireland, could there be a killer trapped in the community? With no help from the outside world, it’s left to Molloy—with Ben’s assistance—to find out who is responsible for Bob Jameson’s bizarre death.

(Oceanview Publishing, November 2022)

Genre: Crime & Mystery (Cozy Mystery)

Book Review

The story unfolds with Irish solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe finishing up a six-month stint working for an American law firm in Sarasota, Florida. Then she travels back home to Glendara, a village on the Inishowen peninsula in the north of County Donegal in Ireland, arriving the day before a charity bicycle race kicks off. But calamity ensues when unrelenting torrential rains cause widespread flooding of homes and businesses in the area and eventually wash out the roads and bridges, completely cutting the town off.

Not only does the disaster delay the bicycle race, more misfortune occurs when the local vet and Ben’s friend Maeve drives along a road and rushing water causes a dead body to fall from a hillside onto the hood of her car. When the body falls, the police respond and identify the victim as Bob Jameson, the organizer of the benefit race. With the authorities focused on the addressing the serious flooding effects, and reinforcements unable to access the town, Ben and her romantic interest, police sergeant Tom Molloy struggle to solve the case, discovering along the way that Jameson had secrets and may not have been as altruistic as he appeared.

While The Body Falls is the fifth book in the series, it’s the first of Carter’s books I’ve read. I found the synopsis intriguing when I saw the book listed on Edelweiss and requested an advanced reader copy, expecting the book was a traditional mystery. But I quickly realized it’s a cozy mystery when I began recognizing all the earmarks of the crime & mystery sub-genre (lots of tea, cat fancier, small town or village setting, crime solving amateur sleuth heroine with a police officer friend or significant other, etc.). Crime thrillers and hard-boiled detective novels are more my style and I rarely read cozy mysteries. But I wasn’t at all disappointed I chose this book thanks to Carter’s engaging writing style and skillful storytelling. It grabbed me from the first page. I found it a delightfully entertaining read with a well-crafted mystery plot that engages the mind.

I really like Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe, a realistic and relatable character. As I read the book, Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote fame kept coming to mind, although I imagined Ben a younger woman. As a legal professional, she has the life experiences and skills required that equip her to solve crimes as an amateur sleuth. And she is an intuitive, inquisitive, and bright woman, everything you need in a heroine. Having a relationship with Tom Molloy, head of the village two-man police force, makes it convenient for her to find out things that she would otherwise not have access to help solve the crime. Carter’s lively supporting characters are equally important to the plot, many of whom are funny, eccentric, and entertaining secondary characters. The book is fast-paced, with several twists throughout the book which hold the reader’s interest. I couldn’t put it down and read it easily in one sitting.

This is a novel that you could easily enjoy as a standalone, but why deprive yourself with four other books in the series? I know I plan to read more of Andrea Carter’s work. Fans of Carlene O’Conner’s Siobhan O’Sullivan and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple should definitely check this one out.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

Book Rating: ★★★★

The Body Falls (An Inishowen Mystery #5)

by Andrea Carter

Published by Oceanview Publishing

on November 01, 2022

ISBN 978-1-60809-430-1

336 pages

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Book Reviews

Book review: Red as Blood by Lilja Sigurðardóttir

In the taut, fast-paced thriller Red as Blood, a smart, accomplished financial investigator uncovers dodgy financial transactions in the accounts of a local entrepreneur whose wife has gone missing.

In Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s pulse-pounding, twisty thriller Red as Blood, when a wealthy entrepreneur arrives home from work to find his wife missing and a ransom note, Áróra Jónsdóttir and Icelandic detective Daníel and his team get drawn into a web of illicit affairs, family dysfunction, and dodgy financial dealings while investigating an abduction.

Red as Blood (An Áróra Investigation #2)

by Lilja Sigurðardóttir

Translated by Quentin Bates

Published by Orenda Books

on October 13, 2022

Source: Purchased

Genre(s): International Mystery & Crime, Thrillers & Suspense

ISBN 9781914585333 (eBook)

276 pages

From the publisher

Áróra becomes involved in the search for an Icelandic woman who disappeared from her home while making dinner, as she continues to hunt for her missing sister. The second breathtaking instalment in the chilling, addictive An Áróra Investigation series…

When entrepreneur Flosi arrives home for dinner one night, he discovers that his house has been ransacked, and his wife Gudrun missing. A letter on the kitchen table confirms that she has been kidnapped. If Flosi doesn’t agree to pay an enormous ransom, Gudrun will be killed.

Forbidden from contacting the police, he gets in touch with Áróra, who specialises in finding hidden assets, and she, alongside her detective friend Daniel, try to get to the bottom of the case without anyone catching on.

Meanwhile, Áróra and Daniel continue the puzzling, devastating search for Áróra’s sister Ísafold, who disappeared without trace. As fog descends, in a cold and rainy Icelandic autumn, the investigation becomes increasingly dangerous, and confusing.

Chilling, twisty and unbearably tense, Red as Blood is the second instalment in the riveting, addictive An Áróra Investigation series, and everything is at stake…

Financial investigator, Áróra Jónsdóttir, is still in Iceland searching for her missing sister Ísafold, now presumed dead, when her friend and colleague Michael calls from Scotland with a strange favor to ask.

We pick up where we left off at the end of Cold As Hell, and Áróra Jónsdóttir is still in Iceland searching for her missing sister, Ísafold, though now she accepts the reality she is looking to recover a body. She wants closure for her mother, but also for herself because she still feels she had let her sister down.

Áróra is out searching for her sister’s remains in remote and foreboding lava fields when she takes a call from her friend and colleague, Michael. This time, instead of giving her an assignment, Michael asks a personal favor. Then we’re straight into the action as Áróra goes to visit Michael’s client, Flosi. He had arrived home in the evening to find his wife missing, the kitchen in disarray, and a ransom note on the counter. He’d phoned Michael with his story, telling him the note warned about involving the police, so Michael promised to send Áróra to offer support. Sigurðardóttir easily gets us up to speed, so readers picking up this book without having read the first in the series won’t feel lost.

After Flosi relates his story to Áróra and shows her the ransom note, she understands she is out of her depth as far as investigating a kidnapping. So, after overcoming Flosi’s objections, she convinces him to go with her to meet a police detective she knows for advice. That leads to her reunion with Daníel, the detective working on her sister’s disappearance, though that investigation has hit a dead end. During the meeting, Daníel persuades Flosi to let the police take over the investigation of his wife’s abduction, promising to keep their involvement secret in case the kidnappers are watching. I very much enjoyed this. While we learned in the first book that Áróra is a clever and capable financial investigator, investigating a kidnapping isn’t within her skill set, so the story has more authenticity with the police handling the abduction. It also frees up Áróra to do what she does, investigate an associated financial angle.

As the story unfolds, we learn more about Flosi, his adult daughter, the state of his marriage, and the backstories of the other major players Sigurðardóttir introduces us to. Soon we have no shortage of suspects, with motives for involvement in the disappearance of Flosi’s wife. And Daníel and his team methodically sift through them as they work toward understanding the circumstances of the abduction, hoping to identify the perpetrators and getting Flosi’s wife, Guðrún, back unharmed.

As usual, sensory descriptions of the Icelandic scenery and climate set the mood in many scenes. When we first meet Áróra as the book opens, she is driving along rough tracks through ominous, isolated lava fields searching for her sister’s body, and the scene seems a foreboding omen for sinister events to come. Filtered through the lens of Áróra’s thoughts and perspectives of the events feels both jarring and frightening and helps build suspense from the start.

In its reveal of the character’s words, thoughts, and deeds, whether intended by the author or not, the book says much about contemporary relationships between intimate partners and husbands and wives. Relationships marked by deceit and questionable ethics and decisions holding wide-ranging, often painful consequences. This is the theme I found most realistic and relatable in the book. It some ways the relationships described left me feeling somewhat melancholy. Has our society become one where individuals are so selfish and obsessed with seeking personal gratification that we see others, even intimate partners, as nothing more than a means of satisfying our own desires for pleasure? Do their hopes, needs, and desires mean so little to us we use and then readily discard them when they no longer serve our self-interested purposes? It all seems so mercenary, and in the end, it seems the way people often do relationships these days robs them of experiencing any authentic, much less long-term happiness. The relational conflicts as much as anything propelled the novel.

The gloomy bits aside, I enjoyed the book and savored the beautifully rendered prose although I devoured Red as Blood in a single sitting. Kudos here to translator extraordinaire Quentin Bates for his usual masterful job of bringing us the text in English. Sigurðardóttir skillfully combines an endearingly flawed lead, realistic, relatable supporting characters, and jaw-dropping twists to produce an intelligently plotted, fast-paced thriller. She also ends the book with an interesting turn of events, so I’m certainly keen to see what comes next.

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Book Reviews

Book review: The Abduction by John Reid

The Abduction by British author John Reid is the seventh book of the entertaining and suspenseful DCI Burt mystery series set in London.

One thing John Reid does and does well is he constructs gripping, complex plots with multiple threads that he always ties together perfectly at the end. The Abduction is no exception. I enjoyed reading the previous book in this series, The Norwich Murders, and meeting Reid’s likeable and engaging cast of characters. So, I was happy to accept this book for review and to get reacquainted with them.

The Abduction (DCI Burt #7)

by John Reid

Published by Pegasus Publishers

on October 27, 2022

Source: Publisher

Genre(s) Mystery & Thrillers

ISBN 9781800164642

332 pages

A soldier retires from the army and is recruited into a mysterious government unit and a young woman is abducted and murdered. These completely separate events become central to DCI Steve Burt´s latest and most devastating case.

DCI Steve Burt, whose Special Resolutions Unit is under threat of closure by his new boss, is reluctantly given the abduction case which soon becomes a murder investigation.

The abducted girl is the daughter of a high court judge, who is told his daughter will be returned if he finds the defendant in his current trial not guilty, but Steve thinks the man on trial isn’t important enough to have a judge’s daughter kidnapped. Something isn’t right, but what?

The young woman’s death takes the DCI on a journey involving murder and corruption and the team begin to unearth apparently unrelated events that, when put together, draw them back to a previous investigation.

Meanwhile one of Steve´s officers feels there is a different side to the investigation and decides to follow her own course of action without supervision, with disastrous consequences.

DCI Steve Burt, head of the Special Resolutions team at New Scotland Yard, is facing uphill battles on at least two fronts. First, his new boss, Commander Daphne Bloom, who replaced Burt’s old mentor and friend, Alfie Brooks, wants to disband his independent team. Despite the unit’s enviable clearance rate that leads the MET, Special Resolutions don’t fit with Bloom’s organizational chart ideas. And then, Burt’s team draws a politically charged missing person case when Suzan Plough-Henderson, daughter of a High Court judge, goes missing.

The pressure ratchets up when Burt’s team uncovers evidence showing someone abducted the young woman and Bloom continues her unwarranted heavy handed administrative interference while Special Resolutions works to find and free the judge’s daughter. And if there isn’t enough on his plate already, Burt and his team determine that their past major case and some of the same players may bear heavily on their new one.

There’s a lot going on here as Burt and his team revisit a past murder, try to find Suzan Plough-Henderson before she suffers harm, and understand more about how the abductions ties into their most recent major case, made more difficult because of Commander Daphne Bloom’s meddling.

It all works here because it’s all part of the plot (and the same case) so it’s not distracting focusing on several investigative threads at once which miraculously fit together at the end. That’s quite an accomplishment, especially since Reid even adds to the mix a Jason Bourne-like character, a retired British soldier recruited by some secretive clandestine and off the books British intelligence agency to assassinate suspected enemies of the crown. Reid sets a fast pace from the beginning, and it doesn’t let up until the very end. And he offers some very clever twists along the way.

The Abduction is a page turner of the first order that will have readers saying bring on DCI Burt #8.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

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Book review: House of Tigers

A chilling locked room mystery novella that will make your skin itch long after you turn the last page. House of Tigers by William Burton McCormick is dead good.

I’ve been a William Burton McCormick fan since reading his engaging, intelligently written thriller KGB Banker (2021). So, when the publisher offered me his latest novella, House of Tigers, I was eager to read it. This is the third of McCormick’s books I’ve read, and as much as I enjoyed the others, this one is my favorite so far. McCormick takes crime fiction fans places few others do, and this book, set in Siberia, is no exception.

House of Tigers

by William Burton McCormick

Published by Wildside Press

on August 26, 2022

Genre(s) Mystery & Thriller, International Crime

ISBN 9781479466597

97 pages

Ilya Dudnyk, a corrupt but romantic Russian police inspector, is trapped inside his oligarch employer’s Siberian mansion with an unknown killer, a duplicitous Latvian journalist chained to his arm, and an apocalyptic insect plague raging for hundreds of kilometers beyond the smoke barriers and barricaded windows. Can Ilya track down the killer before he is the next victim? Or will the endless swarms find a way inside and all are consumed by a hundred trillion ravenous, blood-sucking mosquitoes? An Honorable Mention for the Black Orchid Novella Award, “House of Tigers” is published here for the first time ever!

As the story unfolds, a corrupt Russian police inspector, Ilya Dudnyk, braves swarms of blood-sucking mosquitoes on an apocalyptic scale to drive to the remote Siberian mansion of the oligarch who employs him to do his dirty work. Torrential rains and abnormally warm weather have spurred a mosquito infestation that is terrorizing the region. We learn the swarms of ravenous mosquitos are murderous. A man exposed to them would die in half an hour from blood loss. So, once Dudnyk arrives safely at the mansion, he must take refuge from the insects there with the mansion’s inhabitants, making virtual prisoners of them all. But to his surprise, he learns the inhabitants have an actual captive who turns out to be a trespassing Latvian journalist. And then, one by one, the bodies drop. With the complication of the interloping journalist handcuffed to his wrist, Dudnyk must investigate multiple murders and identify the killer.

It’s hard to imagine a read better tailored to crime fiction fans who enjoy a murder story where the killer uses far more creative ways of disposing of their victims than the usual gun or knife. House of Tigers combines two of my favorite kinds of crime fiction: suspense and mystery. The concept of a thriller and mystery story set against a foreboding Siberian Wilderness backdrop intrigued me. I couldn’t wait to see how McCormick incorporated the killer mosquitos into the mix, and he well exceeded my expectations. This is a binge-worthy story of suspense with dark and weighty undercurrents. McCormick strikes an excellent balance between the melancholy and gloom of the remote setting and the humor he always includes in his stories, and the breezy pacing keeps the reader turning the pages.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

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Book review: A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin

Flawless plotting and impeccable characterization describe A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin, the new Inspector Rebus novel.

Scottish author Ian Rankin has many series and standalone books under his belt and I’ve intended to read his books for years. However, for reasons unknown, A Heart Full of Headstones, featuring his most famous character, John Rebus, is the first of Rankin’s titles to appear on my to be read pile. I prefer to read books in a series in order. But I kept hearing about this one, probably because it’s the first Rebus novel since 2020 and highly anticipated. So when I saw advanced review copies were available, I immediately requested the book. Happily, the publisher approved the request. About a dozen pages in, I fully realized what I’ve been missing by not reading Ian Rankin until now. He is indeed an astonishingly good writer. Sadly, I can’t say how this Rebus novel stacks up against the past ones. All I can say is this one is so good that I intend to find out. And this time, sooner rather than later.

A Heart Full of Headstones (An Inspector Rebus Novel #24)

by Ian Rankin

Published by Little, Brown

on October 18, 2022

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Genres(s) Mystery & Thriller, Mystery & Detective, Private Investigators

ISBN 978-0-316-47363-7

353 pages

John Rebus stands accused: on trial for a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

But what drove a good man to cross the line?

Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke may well find out. Clarke is tasked with the city’s most explosive case in years, an infamous cop, at the center of decades of misconduct, has gone missing. Finding him will expose not only her superiors, but her mentor John Rebus. And Rebus himself may not have her own interests at heart, as the repayment of a past debt places him in the crosshairs of both crime lords and his police brethren.

One way or another, a reckoning is coming – and John Rebus may be hearing the call for last orders…

Rankin opens with a prologue that shouldn’t have been surprising given the blurb. Had I paid more attention to the summary, I might have realized what was going to happen. Or at least maybe happen. Instead, it shocked me a bit that the book began with Rebus in the dock in a courtroom on trial and facing prison. It shocked me a little initially since I knew he was a retired police detective. But, of course, the opening grabbed my attention and made me want to know more. Rankin then takes us back in time in the first chapter to the beginning of the story that plays out during the rest of the novel. From there, I couldn’t put the book down.

There are several related story lines, which make the plot complex, but the author expertly weaves them together in due time and it all makes sense. Rankin provides all the back-stories and histories we’ll need to understand the plot, jogging the memories of dedicated Rebus fans while adroitly bringing new readers like me up to speed. Even without ever reading another Rebus novel, I never felt lost. He also includes a spot-on rendering of the pandemic experience for both the individual characters and the country. The effects of the pandemic echo through the story, but always in subtle ways. This contributes to helping us feel the story is real life with all its randomness and difficulties.

I found John Rebus an intensely interesting character. By this time, he is a long since retired Edinburgh police detective inspector, but still prowls the grittiest sides of the city as a private detective. And now his past is coming back to haunt him. He is an utterly believable mixture of foibles and messy contours, a flawed, cynical former policeman, often gruff but with a wry sense of humor. He has a strong platonic friendship with his former colleague and protégé, Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke, another intriguing principal character in the book and series. And she is the driving force in the narrative as she leads the investigation into a case that eventually overlaps with a private inquiry Rebus takes on, which makes him a target of both some hardened criminals and his former police colleagues.

A Heart Full of Headstones is a dark, gritty, and engrossing tale that fans of crime thrillers will enjoy. I enjoyed it so much I’ve already purchased the first book in the John Rebus series so that I can start at the beginning with the Rebus character.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

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Book Review: Deadly Shores by Kerry Buchanan

Deadly Shores by Kerry Buchanan is another worthy page-tuner with loads of pain for the characters and loads of thrills and suspense for readers. Buchanan’s writing is again the stand-out for me in this twisty, intriguing tale.

I’ve read both of Kerry Buchanan’s previous books and she gives us something different with each outing. Her latest, Deadly Shores, is no exception. While there is still plenty of suspense, a twisty plot, and the realistic and engaging cast of characters we’ve learned to expect from her, this one seems to lean more strongly into police procedural territory, which I loved. Buchanan has impressive story-telling ability and hits the mark with strong attention to detail every time. She is one author I’m always eagerly awaiting the next book from.

Deadly Shores (Detectives Harvey & Birch Murder Mystery Book 3)

by Kerry Buchanan

Published by Joffee Books

on April 26, 2022

Source: Purchased

Genre(s) Mystery & Thriller, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural

ISBN ‎9781804052303

302 pages

TWO SHIPS IN THE NIGHT.

ANOTHER DEAD BODY.

NO SAFE HARBOUR.

A wave lifts the stern of the boat, rigging groans in protest and a crash comes from down below, as the wails of the cargo rise above the howl of the storm.

It’s a wild Christmas Day on the rugged Northern Irish coast. But there’s no time for turkey and pud with the family for Detectives Harvey and Birch.

DS Aaron Birch leans into the wind and driving sleet. Thick, scudding clouds make the streets of Lisburn almost as dark as early evening

Then he gets the tip-off. Smugglers coming into a boatyard in Bangor.

Birch and DI Asha Harvey head to the marina. They expect to find drugs. But the evidence points to something far, far worse.

When one of the couriers is found murdered in his hotel room, they realize they are facing in a deadly storm of corruption and criminal depravity. Will they sink or swim?

The book opens with a bang as the prologue grabs our attention. A woman named Clara is at the wheel of a boat on a treacherous, stormy North Atlantic passage bound for the northwest coast of Ireland. With the decks awash with saltwater, another massive wave sweeping the deck would have tossed her over the rail into the sea had her lifeline not brought her up short. We’re not sure what this is all about, but a woman alone on an angry sea teetering on the fine line between life and death is more than adequate to grip our attention and get our pulse pumping. Of course, we learn much more about Clara and what she is about as we get deeper into the story and then the thrilling opening makes all the sense in the world.

We’re reunited with DC Aaron Birch and later DI Asha Harvey, the engaging leads from the previous books in the series. Both barely survived encounters with some corrupt police colleagues in the previous book, Small Bones. Buchanan offers adequate backstory from that book so that readers entering the series with this one won’t feel lost. She strikes a nice balance between the crimes-at-hand and past events impacting on recurring characters, so this book can work as a stand- alone. But readers who appreciate a fuller context might want to read Small Bones first.

Our lead characters are no longer partners since Harvey has received a promotion and transferred from the police station where they both worked together under Chief Superintendent Yvonne Patterson to the Bangor station in North Down. To Birch’s delight, after Patterson gets a tip-off from an informant about a large drug delivery destined for Bangor’s patch, she sends Aaron there to liaise with DI Harvey for the investigation, giving him the chance to work side-by-side once again with his friend and former partner.

Birch and Harvey begin their investigation, and it isn’t long before the first body drops when someone murders a suspected drug courier. Immediately, the investigation grows in scope and complexity. Both the action and suspense build from that point, keeping us turning the pages until the satisfying end. Both Birch and Harvey develop romantic interests (in others) in this book, which made for an interesting subplot, but the romance part never overshadows the primary plot which centers on drugs, murder, and bent cops.

Here, Buchanan again offers readers likeable leads, well-drawn, realistic supporting characters, and another intriguing plot with several twists and turns to keep us guessing. As much as I enjoyed her first two books, this one is my favorite of the series so far since it seems to enter the realm of a police procedural (my favorite genre) more strongly than the others. And it’s definitely one of my favorite books of the year. Fans of crime thrillers with a strong police procedural flavor should give this one a read.

I purchased the copy of this book used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

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