Crime – Page 6 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: The Quiet People, by Paul Cleave

PUBLICATION DATE: 25 NOVEMBER 2021 | ORENDA BOOKS | PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £8.99

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful New Zealand crime writers, happily married and topping bestseller lists worldwide. They have been on the promotional circuit for years, joking that no one knows how to get away with crime like they do. After all, they write about it for a living.

So when their challenging seven-year-old son Zach disappears, the police and the public naturally wonder if they have finally decided to prove what they have been saying all this time… Are they trying to show how they can commit the perfect crime?

Multi-award winning bestseller Paul Cleave returns with an electrifying and chilling thriller about family, public outrage and what a person might be capable of under pressure, that will keep you guessing until the final page…

TBR Review: The Creak On The Stairs, by Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir

I enjoy an Icelandic Noir, Scandi Noir in general, and books from Orenda Books especially. The team have excellent taste and employ brilliant translators. I also collect first editions, usually of sci fi and fantasy from Goldsboro Books, but this was a special case – a new author from Orenda! I was intrigued buy the blurb and ordered it to support the author and publisher. I am so pleased I did.

I bought it when it first came out and started reading it but other books and work took precedent, so I put it down. Then I got the second book, which I was ever more intrigued by. I reviewed it for the blog tour, and have the same special edition. I read that quickly and promised myself I would read the first book. And today I have.

I don’t regret spending several hours today reading, it’s been rather relaxing reading a book because I want to rather than because I need to for blog tours or work. I had time to really get into it.

It was a tense read, as Elma navigates both her complex relationship with her family and her new colleagues in Akranes CID. Then an unknown woman is found dead on the beach by the lighthouse. It takes a lot of digging to find out who she is and how she ended up in the sea by Akranes. The investigation drags up 30-year-old secrets, crimes against children, and an unexpected killer.

I was so engrossed I was late for a coffee date with a friend I haven’t seen in six months. and then once I got back I settled down with a mug of hot chocolate to finish reading the second half of the book. It was gripping. I really needed to know who did what, but also found Elma a fascinating and complex character. Her willingness to sidestep her boss when she identifies his unwillingness to upset and important family. Elma doesn’t care, her years away from Akranes have broken any connections she might have had, had she stayed. Her mother’s gossip is actually helpful.

I found the ending a bit frustrating, because the killer is caught but the instigators escape punishment. I know things continue in ‘Girls Who Lie’, but if I’d read this one first I’d have been a bit unhappy.

I recommend getting both, blocking out your weekend and settling in with snacks, coffee/tea/hot chocolate and possibly a commode, because you will not want to be disturbed.

Review: Cold As Hell, by Lilja SIGURÐARDÓTTIR

PUBLICATION DATE: 28 OCTOBER 2021 | ORENDA BOOKS | PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £8.99

With rights sold in 14 countries, Cold as Hell is the first in the riveting, atmospheric and beautifully plotted five-book series An Áróra Investigation, from one of Iceland’s bestselling crime writers.

Estranged sisters Áróra and Ísafold live in different countries, and are not on speaking terms. When their mother loses contact with Ísafold, Áróra reluctantly returns to Iceland to look for her. But she soon realizes that her sister isn’t avoiding her … she has disappeared, without a trace.

As she confronts Ísafold’s abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend Björn, and begins to probe her sister ’s reclusive neighbours – who have their own reasons for staying out of sight – Áróra is drawn into an ever-darker web of intrigue and manipulation.

Baffled by the conflicting details of her sister ’s life, and blinded by the shiveringly bright midnight sun of the Icelandic summer, Áróra enlists the help of police officer Daníel, to help her track her sister ’s movements, and tail Björn. But she isn’t the only one watching…

Review: Death In The Woods, by Jo Allen

Death in the Woods

A series of copycat suicides, prompted by a mysterious online blogger, causes DCI Jude
Satterthwaite more problems than usual, intensifying his concerns about his troublesome
younger brother, Mikey. Along with his partner, Ashleigh O’Halloran, and a local
psychiatrist, Vanessa Wood, Jude struggles to find the identity of the malicious troll
gaslighting young people to their deaths.
The investigation stirs grievances both old and new. What is the connection with the
hippies camped near the Long Meg stone circle? Could these suicides have any
connection with a decades old cold case? And, for Jude, the most crucial question of all.
Is it personal — and could Mikey be the final target?

Purchase Links

Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09BG9BY1N

Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BG9BY1N

Review: Bad Apples, by Will Dean

Published by POINT BLANK 7 October 2021
Hardback £14.99

A murder
A resident of small-town Visberg is found decapitated in the forest
A festival
An isolated hilltop community celebrates ’Pan Night’ after the apple harvest
A race against time
As Visberg closes ranks, there could not be a worse time for Tuva Moodyson to arrive as deputy editor of the local newspaper. Tuva senses the scoop of her career, unaware perhaps that she is the story…

Set in Sweden’s Halloween season, when the forests are full of elk
hunters and the town of Visberg is thick with the aroma of rotting fruit, BAD
APPLES is a thrilling introduction for readers new to the series, and for
die-hard #TeamTuva fans, a heart-stopping rollercoaster…

YouTube: Will Dean – Forest Author

Extract: Feeding The Gods, by Elizabeth Harrison

RELEASE DATE: 28/03/2021
ISBN: 9781913551636 Price: £9.99

Female writing duo ‘Elizabeth Harrison’ releases a powerful thriller that addresses the issues women face through life and the readiness of the drug
companies to provide a pill for every problem.

Roberta, Rosie, Sandra and Linda meet at college in the 70s and remain constant friends, despite life’s up and downs. The sudden death of one of the friends leads the others to suspect that a slimming drug she had been taking was perhaps to blame.
Was this a wonder drug or a threat to life?
The friends start to uncover long held secrets and betrayals – both personal and professional, but the pharmaceutical industry is not yet finished with them.

Feeding the Gods is a thriller that addresses friendships, the different roles a woman must take on through life and the power of the drug giants.

“Feeding the Gods is a triumph of strong female voices. Posing tough questions and packed with character, it’s bold, witty and thoroughly engaging.” – Miles Hawksley

Review: Girls Who Lie, by Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir

PUBLICATION DATE: 22 JULY 2021 | ORENDA BOOKS | PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £8.99

At once a startling, tense psychological thriller, and a sophisticated and twisty police procedural from a rising star in Icelandic literature.

When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, it is assumed that she’s taken her own life – until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?

Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to tragedy.

Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the list of suspects grows ever longer and new light is shed on Maríanna’s past – and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others…

Review: The Beresford, by Will Carver

Just outside the city – any city, every city – is a grand, spacious but affordable apartment building called The Beresford.

There’s a routine at The Beresford.

For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine, prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building.

Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate Smythe no longer does. Because Abe just killed him. In exactly sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends.

Perhaps lovers.

And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door.

Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell
rings…

Review: Sandraker, by Heide Goody and Iain Grant

Sandraker

The aristocracy abide by a different set of rules…

…or so it seems to Sam Applewhite when her job brings her to Candlebroke Hall, the stately home. The burglary definitely wasn’t what it appeared to be, and the subsequent accidents suggest that it’s a dangerous place to spend time.

Sam is caught up in events as she tries to protect the interests of young Hilde Odinson, part of the local viking family. The Odinsons insist on doing things their own way though, with scant regard for the law. In the meantime, Sam starts to understand that while many people would kill to live at Candlebroke Hall, maybe there are others who would kill to get away from it

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B095LV3F8T

US – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095LV3F8T

Review: Doggerland, by Heide Goody and Iain Grant

Doggerland

There’s something very wrong at the Otterside care home.

When Sam Applewhite tries to help a friend who’s lost a beloved pet she finds that it’s just the first in a series of seemingly unconnected deaths. Is it her imagination, or do all of them somehow point back to the same residential home for seniors?

Sam’s skills are in demand elsewhere however, as she must orchestrate a safety drill with animal actors, cook dinner on an abandoned oil rig and keep an eye on those vikings who are building a longship.

When the police don’t see the pattern, it’s all down to Sam, and the closer she gets to uncovering what’s going on at Otterside, the more danger she’s in

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B095LT3KZ5/ref=series_rw_dp_swUS – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095LT3KZ5/ref=series_rw_dp_sw