Reviewed by Ian Lipke Another crime story, a handsome hero (beautiful heroine, if you prefer), regulation plot, and a vicious killer that must be put away – we all know the drill. But not this time. S.R. White has broken the mould. Hermit is a very different crime story – in fact, it has
Reviewed by Rod McLary The title of this latest thriller from Val McDermid may conjure up for a new reader images of paintings of fruit and flowers by the Old Masters. If that is what has happened, then it is not entirely wide of the mark. Paintings and artists do appear in the novel but
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve More than thirty novels later, Ann Cleeves has presented her millions of followers with another thrilling tale – this time featuring, for the ninth time, Vera Stanhope. Her skill does not seem to falter. With apparent ease, Ann Cleeves has written an engrossing crime novel which, although it has the time-honoured
Reviewed by Ian Lipke New readers of John Connolly, if such exist, will find the writer’s style annoying, even frustrating. He uses a multiplicity of words when fewer would have done the job. Born in Dublin in 1968, John Connolly’s first book Every Dead Thing launched his career in a spectacular start. He was in
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Fiona Cummins has produced a winner with the publication of her When I Was Ten. She shows that somewhere in a society like ours – or indeed in ours – evil flourishes beneath the bland, smiling faces of people we would never suppose to be anything but good. In like vein
Reviewed by Ian Lipke The Girl in the Mirror has been described as ‘an addictive thriller about greed, lust, secrets, and deadly lies.’ You’d better believe it. And I mustn’t give too much away. It is that type of yarn that makes readers want to share its secrets. This story is about a set of
Reviewed by Rod McLary Cry Baby is the latest novel by one of the great names in the crime genre and particularly in the tradition of British crime fiction. The author – Mark Billingham – has now written seventeen novels with his protagonist Tom Thorne at the heart of each. In an interesting twist, Cry
Reviewed by Rod McLary Alfred Hitchcock once said ‘I enjoy playing the audience like a piano’. He meant that in the best possible way, of course, and it succinctly anticipates what T W Ellis has achieved in his first psychological thriller. There are enough twists and turns in this story to engage the most jaundiced
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Michael Connelly has a name among writers for producing crime fiction in a style that is balanced, thorough, and exciting. Reviewers who are prone to analysing his stories soon discover that a Connelly story could realistically happen in the way that he says has happened. Being factually accurate and written in
Reviewed by Rod McLary Perveen Mistry is a lawyer – in fact, she is the first and so far the only female lawyer in Bombay – and in The Satapur Moonstone she is called on to resolve a dispute over the education of a young crown prince. The prince’s father and older brother have died
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The latest fictional account of her hero private detective, Alex Clayton, appears in Katherine Kovacic’s The Shifting Landscape. The story of a bickering family, located on a sheep station in western Victoria, is interesting enough. It would not carry the Kovacic stamp if it were not heavily laden with reference after
Reviewed by Gerard Healy There are arguably only a handful of top-ranked crime writers who can bring a lighter, humorous touch to the grim business of investigating death. The late, great Italian writer, Andrea Camilleri was one such. In his Inspector Montalbano series, set mainly on the island of Sicily, he gives us a cast
Reviewed by Rod McLary The epigraph to this novel is the first lines of a poem by Emily Dickinson: We grow accustomed to the Dark – When Light is put away – Dickinson is writing about the loss of a loved one and how she must now live her life in darkness. This quote is
In October 2016, The Dry was first reviewed in these pages. Since then, the author Jane Harper has published two further books as equally acclaimed as this one was. QRC now offers a second review by a different reviewer. Reviewed by Gerard Healy This is a great debut crime/ mystery novel from Jane Harper. It
Reviewed by Ian Lipke A very clever idea guides the momentum of Peter Swanson’s Rules for Perfect Murders. Create a series of unsolved murders that share an eerie resemblance to crimes that have appeared in well-regarded mystery novels. Toss in FBI agent Gwen Mulvey who shares a resemblance to Clarice M. Starling, a fictional character