SUJATA MASSEY The Satapur Moonstone. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Sujata Massey’s 1920s crime series featuring lawyer Perveen Mistry continues in the absorbingly tangled mystery of The Satapur Moonstone. India 1922: The Crown Prince of Satapur, Jiva Rao, is only 10 years old. His father and his elder brother have died, so he...
CHRIS HAMMER Silver: extract
This week our extract is from Chris Hammer’s second crime novel, Silver. It again features investigative journalist Martin Scarsden, who readers first met in Scrublands where – among other things – he fell for the beautiful Mandalay Blonde in the small Riverina town...
ADRIAN MCKINTY The Chain. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Adrian McKinty has won multiple awards for his crime novels featuring Belfast detective Sean Duffy. With The Chain he moves into new territory, producing a flat-out thriller. This is one hell of a ride. If you’re looking for a book to keep you up and turning the...
JP POMARE Call Me Evie. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Who is Evie? JP Pomare’s taut debut thriller has already been shortlisted for crime writing awards. A man holds a young girl against her will. She bolts, reaching the front door of the house, but the man catches up and drags her back inside. He forcibly...
JAMES LEE BURKE Cadillac Jukebox; Sunset Limited. ADRIAN McKINTY Gun Street Girl; Rain Dogs (Sean Duffy 4 and 5). Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Burke writes about Louisiana, McKinty about Belfast, but these two crime writers have more in common than you might think. Over the last weeks, I’ve been reading Irish-Australian writer Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series (you can read Karen Chisholm’s...
Crime Scene: JAYE FORD Darkest Place. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Darkest Place is Australian thriller writer Jaye Ford’s fifth book of stand-alones involving women under threat who are definitely not victims. In 2011 Jaye Ford released Beyond Fear, telling the story of a girls’ weekend away at an isolated country hideaway....
Crime Scene: HERMAN KOCH Dear Mr M. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
Metafiction is pushed to the limit in Dear Mr M, a sardonic and self-conscious thriller. This is a multilayered story told with conviction through multiple viewpoints: the jaded downstairs neighbour of ageing bestselling author Mr M, the writer himself and the...
Crime Scene: FRED VARGAS A Climate of Fear. Reviewed by Derek Dryden
This enjoyably quirky and nourishing police procedural is typically Vargas. The Inspector Adamsberg series, of which A Climate of Fear is the eighth instalment, all contain a delicious quirkiness and sense of fun that springs from the pen of this best-selling French...
Crime Scene: LS HILTON Maestra. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
A new femme fatale is born in Maestra, an addictive erotic thriller set against the glamorous backdrop of the European art world. Meet Judith Rashleigh: sexy, educated, poised. By day she is employed as a junior art expert at British Pictures, one of London’s best art...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on an ABC of crime writing
A year or more ago, in an idle hour, I came up with the idea of writing an ABC of crime fiction. It wasn’t intended as a ‘how to’ exercise, there are enough of those around, but as a survey of the elements, themes and ideas central to crime fiction. I wrote a...
Crime Scene: PD VINER The Last Winter of Dani Lancing; LESLEY THOMSON The Detective’s Daughter. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
The not always benign power of memory, and the vagaries of coincidence: these two recent British crime novels are shining examples of the flexibility of the genre. Every now and then crime novels come along that bend the genre and take it into new possibilities. The...
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