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

 

 

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