Book Reviews: ICYMI a roundup of books from 2017 before we head into the New Year

What a year 2017 has been for fantastic crime fiction.  I've read so many fab CF books and i haven't managed to get round to reviewing them all. So, here's a sixtet of books I loved in 2017 and just didn't get round to reviewing. - there are more to come in early January as I 'm running well behind on  my reviews. 

Available here

Sirens by Joseph Knox

Don't you just love a flawed protagonist and don't you just love them more when the odds are stacked firmly against them?  With Aiden Watts your heart is in your mouth throughout.  This is a fast paced, brilliantly formatted book with convincing scene setting and a fab hero - you'll love it.

Don't Look Behind You by Mel Sherratt

Available here 

Everything Sherratt touches seems to turn to gold and Don't Look Behind You, is no exception.  Tense, brutal, fast paced and compelling it's absorbing from beginning to end.  Eden Berrisford is in the thick of it.  Her compassion to the women victims is laudable, her commitment to her job amazing.  A story about women victims told sensitively and with no holds barred. Loved it!

Available here

Blood Tide by Claire McGowan
I love books that take you back to the main protagonists past. That feeling of unfinished business always leaves a heavy feeling of mounting pressure - it adds another dimension. When Paula Maguire is required to return to Bone island to investigate the disappearance of a young couple during a storm she soon comes to believe that the islanders are hiding something crucial to her investigation.  With a brooding darkness throughout the novel this is a compelling read.  the added time limitations of the approaching storm just ratchets things up another notch. Loved it!

The Sixth Window by Rachel Abbott

Available here

Discovering a dodgy link on her new partners laptop, Natalie moves with her daughter to 'safety'.  Of course all is not as it seems and soon, Natalie's daughter, Scarlett is drawn to the next house and the dangers that await her there. Combined with this is the recent suicide of a young girl.  This is a multi faceted, nuanced and addictive read.  Once you start you won't be able to put it down - so - be warned - allow yourself time to savour it.

Available here

Written In Bones by James Oswald
Set in Edinburgh, Oswald's Detective Tony MacLean books never fail to appeal to me.  They are beautifully, almost, poetically, written in parts and this, the seventh in the series is brilliant.  A body is found in a tree in The Meadows in Edinburgh and seemingly it fell from a great height. As ever the slight paranormal element to these books enhances the prosaicness of the normal police procedural.  i always feel I've experienced another side of Edinburgh when I read his books.  Brilliant!