Beloved Old Age - and what to do about it, by Julia Jones and Margery Allingham (publ. Golden Duck)

This is a really unusual book which defies genre boundaries, usually a recommendation in itself. Julia Jones is the biographer of Golden Age crime queen Margery Allingham and as such, has been lucky enough to be entrusted with access to her documents. Among them was an oddity, Allingham's very last book, unpublished, and a departure from her popular murder mysteries. 'The Relay' is about ageing, the problems of ageing, and how to deal with them within the family. Julia Jones has prepared this book for publication but added an enriching layer to it, in interweaving her own account of living with her mother's dementia and the changes it dictates to their and their family's lives. How to deal with ageing - now a hot topic with greater longevity, though there were plenty of tough old birds male and female who'd survived childhood infections and went on living a long long time. Margery had a very highly developed sense of responsibility and though a highly successful novelist, she ended up supporting a useless git of a neither use nor ornament husband and various other family members and hangers-on, while writing her heart out to outrun tax demands and keep them all in the style to which they felt entitled to become accustomed. Still, she never seems to have considered ditching the old dears but ended up evolving a system to enable 'the relay' to continue. By this she means, allowing the experience, wisdom, stories and any other accumulated life material to be absorbed into the family before the old depart.

Uniquely in my experience, she writes of looking after one's own family oldies as a privilege, and a vital part of the family, not just a duty or a burden, though she acknowledges the enormous stresses involved. Poor Margery seems to have had a nasty mother who enjoyed putting her down, but even she gets taken in. So Margery and her sister set up a home for their mother, and two aunts, in a cottage over the road. Margery calls this system a 'dower house' system which nowadays makes it all sound very posh and upper class, but she was referring to an old tradition whereby the older generation live out their days in a nearby house, with support from family. What we'd now perhaps call a 'granny annex' which is patronising rather than posh, not much of an improvement vocab-wise. With great honesty, she describes how to set up such a system - it's vital to have someone professional looking after them, a housekeeper/home help, to take some of the personal stress from family. I was much struck with the points she made, back then when almost everyone had servants who wasn't one, that this person's salary should be the largest part of the expenditure by far, and they should have adequate time off covered by family members. So many people now who work caring for elderly people are on minimum wage. We have no respect for carers either family struggling alone or paid carers.

This would be interesting in itself as a book, but Julia Jones has added her own experiences and her personal responses to her own 'relay race' with her mother in journal-like entries which comment on Margery's writing too.  Many many of us have had to cope with forms of dementia and other disabilities in our older loved ones. Julia writes with searing honesty of when she struggles to cope, when she loses patience, and also of the joys and humour and special moments of intimacy they share. Julia has been co-running 'John's Campaign' with Nicci Gerrard, to fight for the rights of those with dementia to have family or carers with them in hospital to preserve their identities and care for them properly. We still have a long way to run in this race, and this book is fascinating, moving, beautifully written by both Margery and Julia, and really thought-provoking. Sadly, Margery died aged just over 60, worn out, and so didn't become the dowager herself, but her writing passes on the baton of her creativity and thoughts to us now that Julia Jones has written this book and edited Margery's part of it.

I kept wanting to carry on the 'relay', reply to Julia's meditations on Margery's chapters sparked memories of how I coped with my mother's dementia and the research I did into neuroscience to write poetry about it. Perhaps the book could be blogged one day with the facilities for people to add their own wisdom and experience of being old, and being the next one down waiting for the baton. Claudia Myatt who designed the beautiful cover wrote a very moving song about Julia's mum, and so we share our voices and our experiences and express them in art.

Valerie Laws

Black by Rose by Andrew Barrett: reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Black by Rose was a real page turner of a book. It follows several plot lines, and at times I found it difficult to figure out who the main characters were. This was not helped by a prologue that featured a murder for which a woman deliberately takes the blame and serves time in prison to protect her female lover. This plot line then lapses and does not return until much later in the book.

After the prologue the plot features on the murder of an undercover policeman and his family. During the course of the investigation we meet the forensics team, the police and a particularly vicious criminal family. I liked the multi-viewpoint style which allowed me to see into the minds of all of these.

However, the characters who really drew me in were Eddie and Ros and the obstacles to their love for each other. They are both part of the investigation and work in a forensics team with the police.

This is nail-biting stuff, action packed, full of pace and suspense. If it had a fault it was only the delay between the events in the prologue and the follow up of that part of the story.

Chris Longmuir

You can find the book at:-

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Silent Scream by Angela Marsons

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Silent Scream is a thrilling read. It’s an edge of the seat, page turner that kept me engrossed from the first page.

It starts off ten years in the past with five figures forming a pentagram round a freshly dug grave which is not adult sized.

Ten years later a disparate group of people are being killed by a serial killer. It takes time to identify the connection between them which is a burnt out children’s home. The murder victims are all former workers at this establishment. The story develops further when graves are discovered in the field next to the former children’s home, and the mystery becomes one of past and present.

The main character, Detective Inspector Kim Stone, is an offbeat young woman, brought up in the care system who has many ghosts of her own to conquer, including a paranoid shizophrenic mother, and a brother who died due to his mother’s neglect. Needless to say this investigation is one with particular resonations for her, and she is driven by the need to solve it. There are many twists and turns along the way, and I must admit I didn’t see the final twist coming, although I’m quite good at spotting these.

I can’t say any more, other than this is a great read.

Chris Longmuir

Get Silent Scream at Amazonco.uk

                              or Amazon.com

No Rest For the Dead by Jeffrey Deaver, David Baldacci, Alexander McCall Smith, Kathy Reichs et al

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

It was curiosity that led me to this book. Why? Because It is a crime novel written by twenty six different crime writers, all of them best sellers, and many of them my favourite authors. When I discovered the book it set me wondering what kind of novel a multitude of writers would produce, and how would each author's style contribute to the whole when there was such a variety of writing styles.

It is fair to say I read this book in a different way. Normally I would engross myself in the story, not interesting myself in stylistic issues, unless of course they grated. However, with this book I was conscious of each author's style and was giving consideration to how these contributed to the story, and was it in any way detrimental.

There were, of course, differences in style, although these were not obtrusive, and the story flowed well from the start. However, I was astonished when I noticed at least two of these authors indulged in head hopping in all of their scenes.

The story focuses round a woman who was executed for the murder of her husband ten years previously. The cop (it's set in the U.S.) is convinced she was innocent and sets out to look for the evidence to prove it. The book features an intriguing set of characters, and although they are well developed I found it difficult to relate to any of them, perhaps because the development was being done by different writers. Some characters appeared in the early part of the book and then vanished, again probably due to the way the book was being written. But the storyline was good and the plot well developed with each writer following on from where the previous writer had left off. The style of each chapter did vary a bit with some chapters passive and others so pacy it made my heart thump. But there was nothing so different that if I'd been reading the book in a different way would have caused me to stop reading.

My verdict? I like the book, I liked the story, and as an experiment in writing I would say it was successful.

Chris Longmuir

Get the book   at Amazon.co.uk

                        or Amazon.com

The Lion's Mouth by Anne Holt reviewed by Julia Jones

This is the first Anne Holt novel that I have read and I am going back for more. Jo Nesbo is quoted describing Holt as 'the Godmother of modern Norwegian crime fiction' and judging only from identikit cover design – grey mist, loneliness, treacherous ice, snow-encrusted gun, red typeface to hint at fresh blood – readers could be forgiven for expecting another volume of semi-standardised Scandinavian noir.

The Lion's Mouth is not like that at all. It's set in the political heart of Oslo with scrupulous descriptions of politician's offices, newspaper offices and several individual homes. There's scarcely a frozen waste to be seen. Admittedly one dodgy character dies in an avalanche and another swims naked across a lake but the subliminal message of the book is that these are the aberrants, these people and their landscapes are where civilisation and common humanity is not. The meaningful heartbeat of life lies in the city.

There is a striking (and welcome) absence of gore in The Lion's Mouth. It's more a novel of detection than a thriller and has many of the characteristics of a locked room mystery. John Dickson Carr is referenced early on. There are clues – a lost pass, an absent shawl, a filched pillbox and a gun of strikingly unusual design. These are spaced very effectively through the novel keeping the sense of action going without the need for repeated violence. This is not, however, an arid read. Alibis are established without too much minutiae and some of the clues turn out not to matter after all – or rather they matter in the field of human personality and relationships, not criminal investigation.

The Lion's Mouth is a political novel and here Ann Holt writes with effortless authority. She is a lawyer who has worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, the Oslo Police Department and served as Minister of Justice for a few months before ill-health forced her to resign. The Lion's Mouth is written in collaboration with her former Secretary of State Berit Reiss-Andersen, granddaughter of the lyric poet Gunnar Reiss-Andersen and currently president of the Norwegian bar association and a member of the Nobel Committee. This is a novel with pedigree.

Yet once again it refuses to be pigeon-holed. 'A story of lies, intrigue and politics. The Lion's Mouth asks questions about those who hold power and how far they will go to use it.' This is press-a-button blurb writing, about as lazy as the cover design. Yes, there is a sleazy and credible political scandal involving procurement trade-offs with an East German pharmaceutical company and yes, there is one Government minister who is playing the media machine unscrupulously for personal gain but the central theme of the book is responsibility. Idealism even. These politicians are tired and human: they accept the system in which they work and know that this will involve compromise. The bottom line, however, is altruism, not self-seeking. This is not a Jeffrey Archer or a Michael Dobbs. Don't you understand, Ruth-Dorthe, that you are tasked with managing the health service on behalf of 'the Norwegian people'?

I loved this aspect of The Lion's Mouth and would recommend it as a truthful, un-sensational, insider's portrait of working life in government. The grotesque, muck-raking journalist Little Letvik is an additional treat. Her awfulness is completely believable in context but still does not overshadow the main presentation of people doing their jobs within the structure of the state.

The final surprise of The Lion's Mouth, however, is that it is about an individual tragedy, not a power-crazed intrigue. It is this recognition of humanity within the machine that makes sense of the quotation from Gunnar Reiss-Andersen that serves as a preface. 'It's no use being a qualified zoologist once you're inside the lions mouth.'

To understand that quote you have, of course, to read the book. Holt's series detective Hanne Wilhemsen comes closest to guessing the truth though it is not she who reveals it. For me Hanne Wilhemsen was one of the few characters who didn't entirely convince. She is currently living in California with her lover Cecilia and only returns to Oslo in a holiday capacity once she hears that the Prime Minister has been discovered, shot. Her former partner Billy T. – gigantic, farting, back-thumping father of four boys by four mothers – is the much more active investigator. It maybe that I would feel more involvement with Hanne if I had read her earlier cases – or it could be that her pre-eminence as The Series Detective was not fully intended and once again this book is being forced into a convention that it doesn't quite fit.

(this review was first published on The Bookbag site. The Lion's Mouth is available in both print and electronic format)

Behind Closed Doors by J J Marsh

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Original and Exciting Crime Thriller

I loved this book, not only because it is a murder mystery, which is my favourite reading material, but because it was well written, original, exciting, and full of suspense. There aren’t enough adjectives to do justice to how much I was engrossed with this novel.

The characterisation was spot on. Beatrice Stubbs, a Scotland Yard detective sent to Zurich to lead an international investigative team, steps off the page and becomes very real. At times likeable, at others unlikeable, she is far from perfect as a person. Her flaws are realistic and she has an intriguing past I wanted to know more about. Likewise, her team present as realistic characters. I particularly liked Xavier the least experienced member, maybe because he seemed vulnerable in comparison to Sabine, the crime analyst; Keese, the e-crime and IT forensics specialist; Conceição, the DNA advisor; and of course Herr Källin, the uptight Zurich investigative officer who resents Beatrice’s presence. Each character was well differentiated, all with their own persona and traits.

The plot was an interesting and original one. a series of suicides linked by the same person’s DNA found at each scene. The flashbacks to how these deaths occurred was interwoven expertly into the narrative, making sure the reader was always one step ahead of the investigative team, and although the reveal was anticipated it still had enough twist to make it a surprise.

However, when Beatrice herself became a target it wasn’t totally unexpected, and I couldn’t help feeling she’d been a bit naive and trusting. I will say no more, because I don’t want to include a spoiler.

I really enjoyed this book, and because I bought the box set that means I have another two Beatrice Stubbs investigations to look forward to.

 

Chris Longmuir

 

Link for Behind Closed Doors

Link for the Beatrice Stubbs Box Set

Chris Longmuir Author Page

Mr Campion's Fox by Mike Ripley reviewed by Julia Jones

With Mr Campion's Fox Mike Ripley is flying solo. His previous novel, Mr Campion's Farewell, took its starting point from a fragment left by Margery Allingham's husband Pip Youngman Carter who died in 1969. It was, however very little more than a starting point and Ripley's experience and professionalism (as well as his long-standing appreciation for Allingham's work) enabled him to pick up the threads of the Allingham world and produce a lively and humorous continuation. With Mr Campion's Fox he offers more of the same, though this time he shifts the location to a bleak little village on the Suffolk coast which has overtones of Allingham's Mystery Mile (1930) or even her more controversial late work The Mind Readers (1965)

I would guess that Ripley would prefer the comparison to the earlier work. Mystery Mile is one of those books that Allingham herself described as 'plum-puddings' – a joyous receptacle into which to cram every morsel of fun, in-jokes and topical allusions to create novels which are entertaining romps rather than exercises in cerebration or suspense-filled thrillers. Ripley's new larger-than-life figures such as the Sisters Mister or smoke-weathered Eppy Mussett fit well into this category. There's plenty of humour, of course, and inconspicuous Allinghamesque touches such as the village policeman's tendency to lapse into a broad Suffolk accent when he senses things are not going well for him.

The Suffolk coastal location is (for me) a major pleasure of the novel. Gapton Spit is a long stretch of shingle that has extended over the centuries to choke off the village from the sea and transform what had been a thriving small port into a backwater centred round a single pub and a traditional small brewery. (Ripley excels in writing about beer.) There's always another aspect to the East Coast of England, facing as it does across the North Sea to potentially hostile countries. Gapton Spit had been the site of a WW2 listening post and now, in the 1960s Cold War period, the ministry of Defence may be renewing its interest. Not for nothing does Ripley name his new spy-master L.C. Deighton.

The decision to remain in the period where Margery Allingham and Pip Youngman Carter left off was probably an inevitable one. It has its difficulties as Albert Campion approaches his seventies and has already, rather too frequently, talked of his retirement. In Mr Campion's Fox Ripley makes good use of the elderly detective's younger (and anyway ageless) wife. Allingham's fans had a tendency to grumble that she never allowed them enough of the slender, red-haired aeronautical engineer Lady Amanda Fitton. This latest novel has her fully involved from the moment of her first appearance at an ambassadorial reception. She is dressed in a 'black velvet figure-hugging tuxedo suit, the white blouse with Peter Pan collar and cuffs and the square-toed heeled boots peeping out from beneath fashionably wide flares' and she positions herself at her husband's side 'with the smoothness of a closing Rolls Royce door without the accompanying thunderous click.' We soon learn that the suit is an Yves Saint Laurent. If you like a bit of proper class with your detection, Lady Amanda is for you.

And, whether or not you're already an Allingham fan, if you enjoy a re-immersement in the world of eight-track stereos and mini-skirts 'no wider than a blacksmith's belt', without too much overt violence or emotional excruciation, then Mr Campion's Fox is most certainly for you.

Killer’s Countdown by Wendy H Jones

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

I love to read crime novels, I like the mystery element, the puzzle factor, and also the odd bit of gore, and this debut novel met all of my expectations. It was fast paced with an intriguing plot. the body count is high, and there seems no pattern in relation to the selection of victims. And with a lack of evidence, the police have nothing to work on.

 

D.I. Shona McKenzie makes for an interesting new character in crime fiction, and as this book is labelled the first in a series, I expect to meet her again in future books. In this story she is attempting to identify a killer who is stalking the streets of Dundee. And, as the body count increases, she realises she is looking for a ruthless and dangerous killer.

 

The police procedural aspects are realistic, and there is a real sense of police dynamics when working as a team. Characters are convincing, and settings are realistic, and in many cases recognisable, even though the impression is given that the weather in Dundee is always bad, rainy and cold.

The book was a page turner,with a thrilling denouement as the armed police search an isolated area, and Shona comes face to face with the killer in a confrontational scene where the stakes are, kill or be killed.

I think this may be one of the first British police procedurals I have read where the police use firearms, although I am sure there must be others, I just haven’t found them. So this makes for originality in the plot. I look forward to meeting D.I. Shona McKenzie again.

You can buy the book here:

Amazon.co.uk –

Amazon.com –

Chris Longmuir

 

 

House of the Wicked by D M Mitchell

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

I read and assessed many crime fiction novels for my non-fiction book Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution, and House of the Wicked, by D M Mitchell, was one of the books I chose for my chapter on historical crime.

I chose this one after looking at D M Mitchell’s Amazon author page, where his work is compared to a selection of writers including Dean Koontz, who is a favourite of mine. However, when I started reading I had mixed feelings. It was written in a gothic style, and the writing was more literary than mainstream. As a result I was unable to get into the characters. There was also an excessive use of the pronoun ‘he’ which led to some confusion between the characters. Further confusion in the storytelling was caused by the frequent use of flashbacks with no transition between the past and present (in story terms). However, the flashbacks were needed, particularly as the book developed, but I would have appreciated knowing when it was a flashback.

The first part of the book was quite slow, concentrating on the background to the story. It was only after I passed the halfway point I started to become gripped, and it turned into a real page turner. Readers who like their historical fiction written in a historical style will probably find this book to their taste. However, if the reader finds the story slow to start, I would say persevere because the latter half of the book is an exciting read with an ending that surprised even me.

Despite the negatives for me in this book, there were also a lot of positives. Porthgarrow, the setting of the story, is a superstition ridden community. The people are suspicious of incomers and believe Baccan, a mythical creature, influences their lives. The story is atmospheric, and there is a real gothic feel to it as it fluctuates between crime and horror. I particularly liked the mystery surrounding the death of Jowan Connoch’s mother, and the aftermath that had for her son. The author uses language and imagery well which contributes to the overall feeling of doom and gloom, and there was a pervading sense of mystery throughout the whole book, although that did not always lead to suspense in the writing.

On the whole, I am glad I stuck with this book mainly because of the increasing pace in the latter half, the mystery, and the unexpected ending. And interestingly, this last book was the one that stayed with me the longest after I had moved to other categories, which I found surprising, considering my reaction to it at the time.

There is aways an unavoidable subjective element when assessing or reviewing a book, and the negatives for me rose from the fact I don’t particularly like my historical novels written with historical language, and in a historical way, nor do I like literary fiction. I like my crime fiction written in a pacy modern way, even though the story is set in the past. However, many readers like the historic writing style of historical fiction, therefore this book would have many positives for them. All I can say is, that despite my own initial reaction to the book, I would actually recommend it as a good read.

You can buy the book at:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Chris Longmuir

You can find the assessment of many more books in Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution, as well as information on publishing, the history of crime fiction, indie authors, and a description of many genres of crime and mystery fiction.

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Amazon Author Page

Amazon UK

Amazon.com

The Temporary Detective by Joanne Sydney Lessner

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

One of my choices of Cosy Crime for my own book Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution, was The Temporary Detective, by Joanne Sydney Lessner, and once I started to read I was surprised to discover this was an American book. I have read many American authors, and I like their style, which is quite different from most British writing. But I had not previously linked American authors to cosy crime. However, after further investigation, I discovered this is a popular genre in the US.

I loved this book. I thought it an enjoyable light read, probably ideal for the beach, or to read on a journey. It had all the elements of a cosy – an amateur detective, a mystery to solve, a whodunit, no graphic sex or violence, although it was hinted at in the book, and being a more modern cosy it did not shy away from characters who were gay, or cross dressers. The setting was New York, which it could be argued, was not a small community. However, the action took place in the offices of a company which did meet the criteria of a closed community. Above all, it had humour, as well as likeable and realistic characters. This was the first book of a series, so I will be watching out for the publication of the next one.

(excerpt from Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution)

Chris Longmuir

You can buy The Temporary Detective from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

and you can buy Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Crime in the Community by Cecilia Peartree

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

I read and commented on over 61 ebooks in my own nonfiction book Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution. In the resulting book, which is an exploration of electronic publishing in the world of crime fiction, I attempted to assess the quality of a range of subgenres of crime fiction.

In my quest for e-books which could be described as cosy, I managed to find a few. The first one I downloaded was Crime in the Community, by Cecilia Peartree. I had never read anything by her before, and all I knew about this author was that she came from the Edinburgh area. So the Scottish connection influenced my choice.

Crime in the Community was a good read. I loved the characters, members of a community group in the village of Pitkirtly. Their interaction with each other and those they came into contact with was fascinating as they fought progress and tried to keep their group as a small talking shop with its main focus on the alcohol they could consume. However, a new village member, a retired spy of all things, infiltrates their group and suddenly everything changes. Christopher, the chairman of the group, is involved in mysterious goings-on and the group are pulled into the thick of it. One element missing from this story was a body, although there was an ‘almost murder’ which did not get carried through. So, although it met all the criteria for a cosy mystery novel – the small community, amateur sleuth, criminal activity etc, I am not entirely sure it qualified as a cosy crime. I do not think there is such a thing as a cosy thriller, but that is what I would be tempted to call it.

(excerpt from Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution)

Chris Longmuir

You can buy Crime in the Community from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

and you can buy Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

The Filey Connection by David W Robinson

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

One of the books I read and commented on for my own nonfiction book Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution, was The Filey Connection, which is the first book in the Sanford Third Age Club Mystery series, by David W Robinson. Here is what I thought of it:

This is a mystery story, which would probably be considered a cosy. It was quite a pleasant read, but I felt there was too much emphasis on the characters at the beginning of the book, and it was quite a long time before the action started. However, the characters were well drawn and believable as members of a third age club.

Joe, the main character, reminded me of a male Miss Marple. He pokes about, finding out what he can, and then shares it with a police chief inspector who defers to him and values his contribution. I found his relationship with the police somewhat unrealistic, although it was much the same investigative methods Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple used. These methods may have been acceptable at the time Agatha Christie was writing her books, they are less believable in a contemporary crime novel. But readers will probably like this book if their taste is for a nice gentle murder mystery read, reminiscent of an earlier age.

(excerpt from Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution)

Chris Longmuir

You can buy The Filey Connection from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

and you can buy Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

The Death Game by Chris Longmuir; reviewed by Kathleen Jones

T

The Death Game

by Chris Longmuir

Missing children, black magic in a graveyard, and an orphan’s refuge that is anything but . . .  The beginning of Chris Longmuir’s new novel promises a compelling plot. Add in a fascinating historical setting and you know you’re in for a good read.

The Death Game is set in Scotland just after the first world war.  The police force is a male enclave, handling matters deemed unsuitable for a decent woman to know about.  It was still a period when women were treated like children, to be protected and kept innocent and naive - though in reality rendered helpless and ignorant.  But at the end of the war a new women’s police force was set up - called the Women’s Police Patrols, drawing its recruits from the Women’s Police Volunteers and the Voluntary Women Patrols.   Many of the women in these groups were suffragettes.  The Women’s Police Patrols were more formal, wearing a uniform designed by Harrods. Soon its trained members were being deployed to regional forces, although not without a considerable amount of resistance. They were usually given the job of escorting lost children and dogs, dealing with prostitutes and taking statements from women.

Chris’s heroine (I will use that word dammit!), Kirsty Campbell, is sent to Dundee, where she encounters not just the hostility of the men she’s supposed to be working with, but also has to confront one of the most traumatic episodes from her past.  We soon see why she had to leave Dundee and why she chose the police service as a career.

I thoroughly enjoyed finding out about how the first police-women worked and the barriers they had to break down to be accepted (though modern police-women might suggest that some are still there). The historical setting is authentic and well-researched.  Kirsty Campbell is a fascinating character and I’m glad that there are going to be more novels featuring her as one of the first female detectives.  Kirsty’s personal situation is suitably complicated too - another hook to draw the reader into the next book.

A good read and well-recommended.

Chris Longmuir lives in a small seaside town on the east coast of Scotland. She considers herself a Scot because although she was born in Wiltshire she has lived in Scotland since the age of two. She is a crime novelist as well as a short story and article writer and has also published a very well received saga - 'A Salt Splashed Cradle'.   In 2009, Chris won the Dundee International Book Prize with her crime novel 'Dead Wood'.  She admits to ‘a lifetime addiction to the written word’.
You can find out more about Chris and her books at her website which is http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Kathleen Jones writes novels, biography and poetry and is published both traditionally and independently.  You can find her website at www.kathleenjones.co.uk  and she blogs regularly at 'A Writer's Life'.  

Death in Spigg’s Wood, by Linda Gruchy

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

I read a lot of crime fiction and I came to Death in Spigg’s Wood anticipating a good read, particularly as it had lots of good reviews. So what did I think of it?

It starts with a bang in Spigg’s Wood with two men who have been seriously injured, one beaten up and the other shot. The perpetrator of this violence is still on the scene and is arrested by the police, and it is several pages before it becomes obvious that the person who meted out this punishment is female, and is the main character, Meg Rusher.

Meg is an enigma. She is a housewife, but also a kick boxer, and during the course of the novel she fluctuates between being a strong person and a weaker, tearful woman. Despite the men’s injuries, she claims she is innocent and the victim of an attack. This does not prevent her arrest and subsequent prosecution. This, of course, highlights situations where victims are often prosecuted for inflicting damage on guilty parties.

I won’t tell you any more of the plot you’ll have to read it to find out what happens to Meg. Needless to say Linda Gruchy keeps the reader guessing, and I found my opinion of Meg swinging wildly between believing in her innocence, and wondering whether there was something much darker going on, and perhaps Meg was not as innocent as she appeared.

However, Spigg’s Wood is not a character led novel, in fact I found the characters somewhat lacking in depth. In particular, most of the police characters seem to blend together and I found it difficult to differentiate between them. The exception was Brooks, who is so nasty it is difficult not to remember him. However, it was a good plot driven novel with quite a lot of pace, particularly in the beginning and at the end, although there was a section in the middle which was much slower.

There were some police procedural inaccuracies in this book, however I doubt if the general reader would spot them, and Gruchy does say at the beginning of the book that the law and court aspects had been simplified and her aim was to entertain and not inform. On the other hand, I did find it difficult to accept that a professional policeman would refer to a suspect as ‘poor Meg’, he might think it but I doubt whether he would actually say it. I also found it hard to believe that the two men would be prosecuted in a court of law under the pseudonyms the police gave them because they would not divulge their names. However, these are minor issues and I’m sure will not get in the way of reader enjoyment of the book.

On balance, I found this a well plotted story, with an explosive beginning and end, and provided the reader is not looking for a character led novel, they should enjoy this book.

Chris Longmuir

You can buy Death in Spiggs Wood at

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

Where the Devil Can’t Go by Anya Lipska

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Where the Devil Can’t go was a fantastic read. It was part thriller and part crime novel, with an unusual theme. The main character is Janusz Kiszka, a fixer for the Polish community in Britain. On the surface he appears as a tough, working class Polish man who has made London his home. He moves around in the Polish community and knows most of what is going on. He considers himself a trader and imports Polish alcohol which most of the community prefer to the British brands. If there are problems to be fixed, he is the man to ask.

Janusz is, however, a much more complex character. His father was a highly regarded professor of physics at Gdansk university, and Janusz attended university in his native Poland. He is intelligent with wide interests, although this is not apparent to any of his colleagues, or the people who come into contact with him. In Poland he had been involved in the Solidarity movement, and had been a freedom fighter, which seems to be one of the reasons he left his homeland. However, there is a mystery as to why he left his wife and child behind when he came to England, although this is eventually revealed. I found him to be a fascinating character.

Janusz is approached by his priest and asked to trace a young Polish girl, Weronica, the illegitimate daughter of a Polish politician, and there is a presidential election about to take place. According to the priest, the girl has run off with a drug-dealing boyfriend, and it is considered he is a danger to her.

But, there is a second strand to this novel which involves a British police detective investigating the murder of a young Polish girl who has apparently drowned in the Thames. Initially I thought this might be Weronica, but I was wrong. Closely after this another young girl, one of Weronica’s friends, is found murdered, shortly after being interviewed by Janusz.

This is the start of a thrilling story where Janusz frequently finds himself in dangerous situations while, at the same time, trying to avoid the detective. A common thread running through the book is the Polish community’s distrust of the police, preferring to solve their own problems in their own way. Needless to say this results in many twists and turns before the denouement.

It would be unfair to share much more of the story as this would probably result in spoilers. Suffice it to say, I found the book intriguing as it flipped between the police procedural parts and the political thriller parts. It was a book I could not put down until I reached the last page.

Chris Longmuir

You can find the book at:-

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

The Assassins’ Village by Faith Mortimer

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Mystery and Murder

I bought this book because of the crime element, and it was described as a classic detective story, so I was expecting something similar to an Agatha Christie book. But it was far more than that. It was a character study and a literary feast.

The descriptive passages were so real I could imagine I was walking down a dusty road in the heat of a Cyprus summer, and I shared the lives of the characters. To give you some idea of how effective the descriptive passages were, I had to leave the house to purchase a carry out of fish and chips after reading a chapter where everyone was eating. I had planned to have a slimming salad but the narrative about food, which I could smell and almost taste, set my digestive juices flowing and made me hungry for something cooked.

There are a lot of characters in this book and when I started reading I found this a bit confusing, although the reason for my confusion may have been because I was reading it last thing at night before I went to sleep. However, it wasn’t long before I got so engrossed in all the characters’ lives and I couldn’t wait to find out more about them. I found the cultural differences between the expats and the Cypriot natives, fascinating. It was like living in the modern age and in a historical time warp all at the same time.

The build up to the murder was gradual, and it became obvious who the victim would be, but not so obvious who was going to do it. And this was where the book differed from a classical detective story, where the murder takes place, and the sleuth does the detecting. This murder was committed nearer to the middle of the book rather than the beginning, although there was a prologue to alert you that something murderous was going to happen.

The mystery in this book was built up through the character studies and the sense that a murder was imminent.

My enjoyment in this book was two-fold. I enjoyed the murder-mystery element, but I also enjoyed the character driven storyline.

You can buy the book at:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Steps to Heaven by Wendy Cartmell

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

I came to this book with mixed feelings. On the one hand I like crime stories, but on the other I’m not particularly drawn to army settings or army life. Maybe it’s because we see so much in the national news about the army in Afghanistan, which can be quite overwhelming and, although I have every sympathy with soldiers and their lot, I’m not particularly drawn to that kind of lifestyle.

However, as soon as I started to read I was so drawn into the story that I didn’t even register until I was quite some way through the book, that the author was the narrator and she was telling the story, rather than the characters showing the reader what was happening. I’m not a lover of the omniscient point of view because I feel it puts a space between the story and the reader, so it is a tribute to the author that she was writing in this style but it wasn’t immediately obvious.

Her descriptive powers are impressive, whether that be descriptions of the character, setting, or army life. I felt as if I was there, walking the army camps with her, or maybe I should say, with her characters.

The story is set mainly at Aldershot Garrison and centres round the return of a soldier from Afghanistan who murders his wife, and child and then commits suicide. The investigation throws up similar crimes at other garrisons and the growing belief that these are not simply murder, suicides, but something a lot darker, involving the church and possible cults. I will say no more as I don’t want to include spoilers.

Her main character, Tom Crane, an army investigator, is particularly well drawn. His mix of exasperation with army protocols while being very much steeped in those protocols himself, came over very well. I did feel the pent up anger that he exhibited most of the way through the book was at times overdone. For example, when he vented that anger on his wife, treating her in a very macho way and demeaning her role, I lost sympathy with him and positively disliked him. However, bringing these feelings to the fore with the reader is the mark of a good writer. But I would have preferred a less brutal way of treating his wife, although he did redeem himself by the end of the book.

The story was well plotted with believable characters and it kept the element of mystery to the forefront. I must say I did have my suspicions about one character, although I wasn’t absolutely certain until the end. However, as a crime reader and writer I think I am pretty good at detecting the red herrings and misdirection that is all part and parcel of a good crime novel, and I doubt whether most readers would actually guess correctly.

The ending was action packed and exciting, although I couldn’t help thinking that with a different point of view – perhaps Tom Crane’s – the element of suspense could have been ratcheted to a higher level.

In the main, however, this was a well written, absorbing book with enough mystery and action to satisfy most readers of crime fiction.

Chris Longmuir

You can buy the book at:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Hamelins Child by Debbie Bennett

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

In Hamelin’s Child, Debbie Bennett does not shirk from exploring the issues of male prostitution and drug abuse. This dark novel of child abduction and rent boys is the story of Michael, an ordinary middle-class boy, who is drugged and abducted on his seventeenth birthday. Three weeks later he wakes up as Mikey, a heroin addict who is required to service male clients. At first he fights against his new life but soon gives in to pressure from his abductors in order to maintain his heroin supply.

The author pulls no punches in her description of what Mikey has to endure in his new life, and this includes some explicit sexual scenes, ranging from rape to the more sensitive sexual attraction that develops between Mikey and another rent boy, plus all the guilt and embarrassment this entails. This is contrasted with the middle-class ordinary existence of his parents and sister as they try to come to terms with Mikey’s disappearance.

Mikey’s abduction causes chaos within his family, and their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. They also find it difficult to understand, never mind come to terms with, the changes in Michael and his rejection of them. Interwoven into the story is the developing attraction of his sister, Kate, to the detective in charge of the investigation.

This book can be shocking in parts, but at no time is compassion for Mikey lost, even after he accepts his situation, develops an attachment to his captors, and no longer wants to go home. The author is expert at handling Mikey’s conflicting emotions, as well as describing his dependence on his captors and the heroin they supply to him. The reader is desperate for Mikey to find his way back to being Michael, but is left with the feeling that there is no way out for him, and that even if he does find his way home it would be unrealistic to expect everything to be the same.

Bennett handles some very tough issues in this novel which was placed on the long-list for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger competition. It is a well-written, hard-hitting novel of a life that will be unfamiliar to most readers.

A final word of caution, there are some explicit sexual scenes involving male prostitution in this novel.

 You can buy the ebook at

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Chris Longmuir

A Fatal Verdict by Tim Vicary

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

I’m an avid crime reader but must admit I don’t normally read court-room dramas. I’m not sure why that is, maybe it’s because I can’t get rid of the feeling that because the setting is a formal one, this will detract from the suspense of the story. However, I won this book in a competition, so it follows that I had to read it.  Well, I’m glad I did, because this was one of the most thrilling, page-turners I’ve read for some time.

The characters were completely realistic, and I was completely drawn in by Sarah Newby, who was no formal, dry as dust QC. She was a living, breathing character with her own family problems, and dilemmas. She dispelled the image of wig and gown, although she did wear them in court, but she also travelled to court on her high-powered motor bike, and when she was angry she revved the bike and drove dangerously at high speed.

The book starts with the discovery of the body of a young girl in the bath of her boyfriends flat. She is partially drowned and has slit wrists. It soon transpires that she hasn’t committed suicide, she has been murdered, with her boyfriend the main suspect. Sarah has the job of prosecuting him, and the resultant court case is full of suspense.

The girl’s family are destroyed by her death, and when the boyfriend is killed they become the prime suspects, and Sarah has the job of defending the mother who is charged with the murder.

It has to be said that the identity of each murderer is never in doubt, but the events leading from these murders provide enough suspense to satisfy the most dedicated crime reader.

This was the second book in the Sarah Newby series but it is not necessary to read them in order as this book did well as a stand-alone crime story. Needless to say I’ll now read the first book in the series, although I’ll have to buy that one, as it would be a fluke if I won that one in a competition as well.

Chris Longmuir

Buy the book at:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

The Operator, a crime thriller by Valerie Laws

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Available at Amazon

I first met amateur sleuth, Erica Bruce, and her nemesis, Inspector Will Bennett in The Rotting Spot, and I liked the story so much I was pleased to see another book by this author.

The Operator is the name given to a serial killer who is murdering surgeons in a particularly gruesome way, and Erica becomes embroiled in the investigation when she discovers the body of the first victim. It isn’t long before she is crossing swords with Inspector Will Bennett, and their love/hate relationship ensures plenty of sparks will fly.

The Geordie speaking Stacy, also reappears in this book, providing a much needed blast of humour to the proceedings. The romantic element is supplied by Erica’s burgeoning relationship with a youg, half-chinese doctor, and their increasingly sexual encounters, which displeases Will Bennett.

Needless to say, Erica pursues the investigation in her usual dogged fashion and continually gets up the nose of Will Bennett and the investigating team. There are loads of twists and turns along the way, with the final one being a complete surprise. The climax of the book is bound to set pulses racing, as it races to the end at breakneck speed.

I enjoyed this book as much as The Rotting Spot. Valerie Laws has not disappointed with this, her new crime novel, The Operator.

Chris Longmuir