Someone Else’s Skin – Sarah Hilary
With ‘Someone Else’s Skin’, Sarah Hilary debuted with a bang on the crime fiction scene, winning one of the UK’s 2015 top crime-writing awards, the Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year. And deservedly so: it’s rare to find such a rich, balanced mixture of knife-edge plotting, tense suspense and clever characterisation in a ...
The Jump – Doug Johnstone
‘The Jump’, Doug Johnstone’s sixth crime novel, tells the tale of a mother’s harrowing journey from her teenage son’s suicide into another family’s disturbing secrets. It’s a gripping read with skilfully portrayed protagonists, permeated by a powerful sense of place: the Firth of Forth and South Queensferry, where for all its industry and technology mankind ...
Target Churchill – Warren Adler, James C. Humes
Literally hundreds of books have been written about Winston Churchill. From history to biography to politics, works about the great statesman cover several genres. A daunting prospect for anyone wishing to write about him, but Warren Adler and James C. Humes, authors of ‘Target Churchill’, have taken up the gauntlet and produced a unique and ...
In Bitter Chill – Sarah Ward
There’s always room on my reading shelf for a good police procedural novel, and ‘In Bitter Chill’, crime fiction debut by Sarah Ward, turned out to be a fine read indeed. Ward has taken an apparently unglamorous setting – a small town in Derbyshire, peopled by ordinary people and policed by ordinary coppers – and has ...
Snow Blind – Ragnar Jonasson
‘Snow Blind’, the debut novel by Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson, sensitively translated by Quentin Bates, has clearly been written from the heart. It’s filled with affection for an utterly unforgiving and compellingly beautiful corner of the world, the tiny town of Siglufjörður, perched on the edge of a deep fjord in northern Iceland, 25 miles ...
London Rain – Nicola Upson
‘London Rain’ is the seventh instalment in the series Nicola Upson has created featuring the crime fiction author Josephine Tey. In real life Tey was a prolific writer both before and after World War 2, and Upson takes full advantage of her character’s interesting circumstances to devise crime novels that are both fascinating for the skilfully-rendered ...
Someone Else’s Conflict – Alison Layland
‘Someone Else’s Conflict’ marks the authorial debut of literary translator Alison Layland, and what a fine debut it is. A highly original contemporary thriller, featuring unusual, engaging characters, and a plot that’s not shy in tackling thorny issues at the personal and social level, nor to observe, from the outside but with a sharp eye ...
Camille – Pierre Lemaitre
With ‘Camille’, French author Pierre Lemaitre (translated by Frank Wynne) has brilliantly completed the trilogy begun with ‘Irène’ and continued with ‘Alex’: chapeu! Both of its predecessors are first-rate crime novels, but ‘Camille’ stands out as one of the best I have read in recent months. It contains all the essential elements of great crime ...
