The Crime Warp

You know that contented feeling you have after a delicious meal in good company? That’s how I felt after finishing The Bear Pit. In fact, I enjoyed this fourth book in the series as much as the first. (To read my review of the first, The Seeker, type this into the search bar on the top right of The Crime Warp blog page). I’m not that familiar with 17 th English history, and as the author portraits this period with a lightness of touch and excellent historical writing skills, it’s an engaging way to find out about Royalist plotting, assassination attempts on Cromwell, the Lord Protector, and life in London during this post Civil War period. I particularly enjoy the intrigue – who is a spy, who might be a double agent, who might be persuaded to change allegiance - S.G. Maclean draws interesting characters. I’ve noticed that she doesn’t ever reveal that much about Seeker himself, yet the fans of the series all seem to be intimately familiar with him, some even in love with him...

I have a new guilty pleasure – reading about an amoral killer for hire. I feel guilty for being interested in such a character in the first place, and guilty for feeling intrigued by what makes him tick. This is an action book by any standard, and you might not expect characterisation to be high on the list of attributes. However, in his effective sparse style, the author Tom Wood manages to convey a lot in a few words. We don’t get much backstory about Victor, our anti-hero, only a few hints, dropped like breadcrumbs along the way. ‘He had to be a loner because he was a killer, but he had been a loner long before that.’ Victor is not just your average contract killer, he’s the best. Anytime someone hard-to-get-to needs to be assassinated, a protected politician, banker, weapons dealer, or in this case, a Central American cartel boss, chances are, Victor is your man. I also feel guilty for enjoying such a violent book. Admittedly, it’s top drawer violence if you know what...

You’d think that life in Lochdubh would be simple. But ask Hamish MacBeth and you will find out it can be very complicated indeed. His love life is complex, his job is tricky, his boss a downright nutcase, even his domestic life with his pets is confusing and troubling. To make matters even more challenging, Police headquarters send him a new ‘helper’ in the tall shape of the amiable young policeman Charlie. Everything conspires to stop Hamish from having an easy life. For a character to sustain a 34 th book in a series he or she must be well-drawn and popular. Hamish MacBeth is that, in spades. When he makes sure that justice prevails, even if he doesn’t take or get credit for his endeavours, you feel that all is going to be well with the world - even if only on a small patch on the West coast of Scotland. Still, you get all sorts of mischief makers there, a black mailer, even a murderer or two. When that happens, Hamish has to leave his fishing rod behind and get to work inv...

I can’t say I’ve ever fallen in love with the grandmother of the main protagonist before. I thought mine was eccentric, but this lady is a cracker. In fact, this is the first time I’ve read about a female bounty hunter – the feisty Stephanie Plum, and it’s been great fun. With a witty, pacey style, (first person narrative is so suitable for this kind of engaging mystery) and zombies (another first for me) – I can recommend reading out of the box.  Our American friends might be more familiar with the author Janet Evanovich, a prolific author of too many books to mention, or maybe I just don’t get out enough.  Fate never sends three gorgeous enigmatic and sexy single guys my way to tempt me to breaking point, but heck, that’s why we read about it. I’m so glad Hardcore 24 landed on my bedside table. Hardcore 24 was published by H Review in hardback in November 2017, priced at £19.99.

Sex, drugs, prostitution, violence and an agency, no not Los Angeles 2018, but Victorian London. Mrs Kern, owner of the foremost secretarial agency in London and woman with a troubled past, decides to investigate the suicide of one of her employees. Who would have thought that this investigation would lead her into terrible danger?  Did I mention that Garden of Lies belongs to the genre of Historic Romantic Crime? We know that this means a beau, a swain, a lover - so who is the heart throb who unsettles Mrs Kern while at the same time helping her with her investigation? No other than dashing adventurer, archaeologist and man of mystery – the infamous Slater Roxton. Before the investigation by our feisty heroine is concluded, there will be mystery, an assassin, blackmail and more dead bodies. If you want an entertaining read set in 19 th Century London then look no further.  Jayne Ann Krentz is a prolific American author who has over 50 New York Times bests...

And here I thought that I was up-to-date with Jack Reacher books. Imagine my pleasure when I recently came across The Affair published in 2011, don’t know how I missed it. Lee Child books are my comfort reading when I’m stressed, cheer me up when I am down, and allow me to believe for just a little while in the potential goodness of at least one man . They also keep me company on boring long journeys … I know what to expect and they deliver.    Do you have a series you love? With protagonists who are so familiar they feel like friends? I’ve been pals with Jack Reacher for years now and he’s still the same as ever. It’s like when you move away from home and come back years later, feeling older and wiser or perhaps just jaded, and you meet up with one of your old friends and he hasn’t changed at all.  What I really enjoyed about this particular book is seeing Reacher just before he decided to leave the army, - the inception of his subsequent disposable...

Watching, being watched … observations that prove dangerous or even deadly – it’s all the rage in current crime literature. The Woman in the Window puts a whole new spin on ‘neighbourhood watch’. Imagine a woman with extreme agoraphobia, whose contact with the outside world is limited to her telephone, computer and binoculars. And perhaps this woman doesn’t only have agoraphobia, but perhaps she has a drink problem and is a bit unstable in other ways too. Now, if she told you she had seen something strange through her binoculars, you wouldn’t know whether or not to believe her, would you? Especially if that strange thing is a murder. To complicate matters, there is no body, no bloody knife or anything in fact that would point to the possibility that a murder has been committed. Not even a missing person.  The narrator is in charge of the story, that’s the deal, and the reader has to decide what is true. My grandmother always told great stories, but we all knew to take t...