Look out for these! July's summer trio - something for everyone this holiday season

I’ve been blogging less regularly this year because work has been so busy, so I’ve been quite selective about what I’ve been reading.  This trio of novels is about as diverse as you could get but I guarantee that everyone who reads the Crime Warp will find at least one of these to be just up their street.

The Man Who Watched Women – Hjorth and Rosenfeldt – Sebastian Bergman is genius criminal profiler, traumatised by the tsunami disaster of 2004 when his family were killed and he survived.  Bergman kicks against any offer of help, instead abusing alcohol and seducing women to distract him.  He recently found out he has a daughter Vanja, from an old girlfriend.  Vanja offers the tiniest glimmer of normality for Bergman, but he can’t bring himself to reveal his relationship to her, instead he watches her, in an almost stalker like way.  Meanwhile Stockholm is victim to a series of brutal and sadistic killings that are alike in almost every detail to those committed by an imprisoned murderer.  Bergman inveigles his way onto the case, making a shock discovery that begins to open up the case but puts more lives, including Vanja’s on the line.  I’m normally not a fan of the serial killer genre, but this book is written so well, with a tight plot and sharp characterisation that I simply continued reading and reading.  To say this is a solid Skandi novel would be an understatement – it’s a damn good book!

Head or Hearts – Paul Johnston – Quintillian Dalrymple (Quint to his friends) is an investigator in the city state of Edinburgh, set in a dystopian future where Edinburgh has become an independent state based on the principles set out in Plato’s book The Republic and rule by a Council of City Guardians Edinburgh has had its share of problems and now in 2033, has been forced to relax some of the draconian rules instituted when the new City State was founded. Dalrymple quickly finds himself investigating the case of a human heart found in the middle of a football pitch, which leads to him to corruption at the heart of the city (no pun intended) and devious schemes to rig the referendum, which asks whether Edinburgh should at last re-join the state of Scotland.  I was so pleased to find this novel as I’d been a great fan of the Quintillian Dalrymple books – I’ve got all of them on my bookshelf but not seen a new for over ten years, so I was overjoyed to see this one at last.  Reading it was like meeting up with an old pal and finding out about lots of old friends you’d forgotten about – they are all there, even Billy Geddes!  If you’ve read the Quint Dalrymple books before, then you’ll get it straight away.  If you’re unsure because it’s the sixth in a series, I suggest you try one of the earlier novels on Kindle first, rather than missing out on this excellent dystopian detective.

I Let You Go – Clare Mackintosh.  I was immediately gripped at the start of the novel by the tragedy, of Jenna Gray’s five year old son Jacob, killed in a hit and run accident on the way home from school.  I’m sure every parent has had one of those split second lapses in concentration but in this instance, it leads to a simply appalling tragedy. DI Ray Stevens is in charge of the investigation, but the lack of clues slows the investigation, until it’s shelved.  Jenna has decided to put her old life behind her and moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast.  She’s emotionally traumatised, but through her photography tentatively starts to open up, finding a life and a brief glimmer of happiness.  Perhaps she can even escape from her tragic past, or perhaps not.  I Let You Go is a debut novel, but you wouldn’t think it either from the skilful portrayal of the emotions felt by Jenna or the plotting, which leads to what Peter James (yes, that Peter James!) describes as “an astonishing plot twist” at the end.  

That’s it for now – I’ve got a few other really good books that I’ve begun to read and will post my thoughts on them soon – watch out for my reviews of Icarus by Deon Meyer, The Dark Inside by Rod Reynolds and The Moth Catcher by Ann Cleeves – all coming to The Crime Warp soon.  Happy reading!

Romancrimeblogger