by NRB | 31 Jan 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
The fourteenth instalment of Barry Maitland’s groundbreaking Brock and Kolla crime series is also the last. Scottish-born, English-raised and, since 1984, Australian-based, Barry Maitland published the first Brock and Kolla novel, The Marx Sisters, in 1994. On his...
by NRB | 9 Jul 2015 | Crime Scene |
Murder, drugs, sex, politics, history and geography provide the substance of Brian Stoddart’s fast-paced first novel set in India. In 1920 a young woman’s body is found floating in the ‘putrid shallows’ of the Buckingham Canal in Madras: She lay on her back,...
by NRB | 19 May 2015 | SFF |
This original and exciting police-procedural trilogy poses ethical and moral dilemmas as the end of the world draws near. The Edgar-Award-winning first novel in this series, The Last Policeman, introduces us to Henry (Hank) Palace, a recently promoted detective in the...
by NRB | 14 Aug 2014 | SFF |
This police-procedural urban fantasy is a celebration of contemporary and mythological London. Broken Homes is the fourth in the wonderful Rivers of London series. Rivers of London, Music of Soho, and Whispers Underground are the first three. It would be possible,...
by NRB | 7 Feb 2013 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
The lives of paramedics entwine with a police investigation to remind us just how good Australian crime writing can be. Web of Deceit, the sixth book by ex-paramedic Katherine Howell featuring Detective Ella Marconi, continues to build a solid, clever...
by Jean Bedford | 19 Sep 2012 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
A sinister series of student deaths ignites this gripping thriller. In Cambridge, unprecedented numbers of students seem to be killing themselves, or attempting to; more of them than could be expected from peer-emulation cluster suicides. There is clearly something...
by Jean Bedford | 17 Jul 2012 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Iceland’s economic crash gives texture to two crime novels. Arnaldur Indridason is a well-known and best-selling Icelandic author, many of whose novels have been translated into English. His books are police-procedurals, usually featuring detective Erlendur Sveinsson...
by Jean Bedford | 14 Jun 2012 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Murder and malice at a writers’ retreat. This is the fifth novel in a series featuring Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope of the Northumberland police. Like many of the more successful English crime series, these books depend heavily on a sense of continued character...
JUNE WRIGHT Mother Paul series. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm6 December 2024June Wright has faded from view, but in 1948 her novel Murder in the Telephone [ … ]
ANDREW O’HAGAN Caledonian Road. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey5 December 2024This new novel from the author of Mayflies is set in London, but Glasgow is [ … ]
IAIN RYAN The Dream. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith3 December 2024Iain Ryan’s latest novel continues his fascination with 1980s Queensland and [ … ]
MARINA YUSZCZUK Thirst. Reviewed by Ann Skea28 November 2024Argentinian writer Marina Yuszczuk puts her twist on the vampire novel in [ … ]