#TeamLyons – Last Witness – Lucie Whitehouse

We’re now at book three in this series…

And I’m pretty gutted that that’s it thus far, until Lucie Whitehouse continues the series! (Let’s hope she’s a fast writer!) It’s another great, complex storyline with an ending that knocked me for six – I’m generally not bad at seeing what’s coming, but this book was full of surprises!

The murder victim is a young man, Ben Renshaw,. He left his home the evening before his body was discovered, and he’s found in sprawling woods which are generally deserted in the evening, apart from drug dealers meeting customers, and romantic assignations. He’s known to the police, not because he’s been in trouble, but because he and his best friend Theo gave evidence in a case against a fellow student at their prestigious private school called Alistair Heywood. As a result he was found guilty of raping their friend Molly and given a lengthy prison sentence. DCI Robin Lyons lands the job of finding his killer.

Ben and Theo’s brave decision resulted in a campaign of terrifying violence against them and their families, resulting in Theo being a victim of a hit-and-run, leaving his leg badly damaged. As the Heywoods are a powerful and rich family, the assumption is that they are responsible – but proof is impossible to find. Ben, Theo and Molly set up an online campaign, StrengthInNumbers.com, and give talks encouraging other victims of sexual violence to speak about their experiences on their supportive website. Ben’s charisma makes him the natural leader, and their forum gets plenty of media attention – something he clearly enjoys.

So is his murder a case of the Heywoods getting the ultimate revenge? Or is there more to this murder? When another death occurs, and that case is also given to Robin, she quickly feels the pressure to make arrests.

However, as is always the case with Robin, her family life is difficult – her brother Luke is on remand for a crime committed in the previous book, and her daughter Lennie is becoming increasingly withdrawn (I’m trying to avoid spoilers for those who haven’t read the previous book – but I do urge you to read them all, although this can be read as a standalone novel.) One of the strengths of this series is the attention given to the family, as well as the investigation. Every character is well-drawn and believable. Robin still has the complication of her feelings for Samir, her first love who is now her immediate superior. When she doubts herself, he encourages her to believe in her skills as a detective, which is something she – and her team -have in spades.

The investigation naturally leads them in unexpected directions, without feeling forced or inauthentic. It’s a fantastically original series, and Robin is a likeable but realistically flawed lead character. It also has plenty of amusing lines, to lighten the atmosphere. This series deserves – albeit based on just three books so far – to be as successful as any detective series I’ve ever read. It’s one of those books one rushes to return to, and I read it all within two or three days. The pace never flags – it’s compelling throughout. As for the ending – well, let’s just say I had a very late night, unable to put it down until I knew the full story! Please, Lucie, may we have some more…?

crimeworm Verdict: An absolute must-read for fans of quality police procedurals!

With thanks to Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invitation, and 4th Estate books for the ARC. This has not affected my opinion, and this is an honest review.

Author Lucie Whitehouse

BLURB: One murder, three families destroyed
And a detective guilty of a crime of her own

When 18-year-old Ben Renshaw is found dead in city woodland, DCI Robin Lyons is plunged into one of Birmingham’s most controversial cases.

Months earlier, Ben and his best friend gave testimony that sent a former classmate, Alistair Heywood, to prison for a vicious sexual assault. Before the trial, the boys and their families endured months of brutal witness intimidation, for which the Heywoods, a privileged and influential local family, faced no legal repercussions. Instead, they vowed revenge.

Is Ben’s murder the fulfilment of that vow, the beginning of a bloody new chapter that will go on claim lives on all sides? Or is the truth – as the Heywoods claim – something entirely different?

To solve the case, Robin has to negotiate the city’s networks of power while walking a dangerous line: her own daughter, Lennie, has a secret that could threaten her liberty – and, if it comes out, Robin’s, too. Before long, Robin comes to question whether she knows what justice is at all.

#TeamLyons – Risk of Harm – Lucie Whitehouse

This is rapidly becoming a favourites amongst my recently discovered detective series – it is so good! I absolutely flew through this book, reading more or less straight on from the first in the series, Critical Incidents, and finishing this in less than two days (which is very fast for me, not the speediest of readers!)

Now, we ended the first book with Robin Lyons at a crossroads, with two job opportunities open to her: should she return to her old job in London, the city she and her daughter Lennie lived in for so long and loved so much? Or should she remain in her childhood home in Birmingham, to which she had returned after being forced out of the Met in disgrace? With her parents getting older, and the opportunity of a step-up to a DCI position, she decides to remain in Birmingham, under the command of Samir, her first love, who remains a good friend.

She’s quickly flung into her first murder case, leading the investigation of a girl stabbed to death. She’s in her late teens/early twenties, found in an abandoned factory by an urban explorer, wrapped in an old piece of carpet. They have nothing with which to identify her: no purse, tattoos, or scars; her clothes are utterly anonymous, easily available on any high street in the UK. But someone must recognise her, surely, so they put together a picture of how she would have looked alive, and wait for the calls to come in…except they don’t…

A few days later they have another stabbed girl – Birmingham is in the midst of a knife crime epidemic – just ten minutes walk away from their Jane Doe. This girl is easier to identify – she lives nearby, and was presumably on her way home when attacked. But are the two victims linked? Are they dealing with one murderer, or two? They are both Robin’s cases, and the press do their best to suggest they could be dealing with a possible serial killer, putting added pressure on Robin. They also drag her past mistakes in London into things, as well as the fact she has a new love interest…well, not entirely new; someone from her past…

Meanwhile, her irksome brother Luke is – predictably – causing trouble. He hasn’t changed, constantly needling Robin about the fact that, because she’s had more career success than him, she thinks she’s better than him. When his partner Natalie suggests a trial separation and he loses the plot, Robin reluctantly comes to his rescue – but he isn’t remotely grateful; in fact, the very opposite…

I really enjoy the way the whole Lyons family are included in the book, and the scenes involving them are just as compelling as the police investigation. Robin’s previously fit and relentlessly organised mother becomes ill, and Robin sees a vulnerable side to her mother she’d never seen previously, which forces her to rethink their previously prickly relationship. In fact, throughout this book Robin is made to rethink a lot of opinions she’d previously cast in stone.

There’s also a great deal of racial tension in the city, whipped up by a particularly nasty right-wing vlogger, Ben Tyrell. This all comes to a head with confrontational marches between his right-wing supporters, versus students and other, more reasonably-minded people.

Lingering throughout the book is the mystery of the first victim, and who she can possibly be – after all, if you know nothing about the victim then how can you possibly find out who would want her dead?

This is a fabulous read – possibly even better than the first in the series, now that Robin’s established back in Birmingham permanently and her and Lennie have their own flat, with her daughter growing up quickly. All the characters are believable and three-dimensional, and it has some very witty lines to lighten both the stress of the investigation and the racial conflict in the city. I found the twist in the tale incredibly satisfying, as well as a little bit scary. Like me, I defy you to be able to put this book down once you start reading! Roll on the next in the series…

Final verdict: A superbly written modern police procedural with a chilling twist!

With thanks to Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invitation and 4th Estate Books for the ARC. This has not affected my opinion, and this is an honest review.

Author Lucie Whitehouse

BLURB: Robin Lyons is back in her hometown of Birmingham and now a DCI with Force Homicide, working directly under Samir, the man who broke her heart almost twenty years ago.

When a woman is found stabbed to death in a derelict factory and no one comes forward to identify the body, Robin and her team must not only hunt for the murderer, but also solve the mystery of who their victim might be.

As Robin and Samir come under pressure from their superiors, from the media and from far-right nationalists with a dangerous agenda, tensions in Robin’s own family threaten to reach breaking point. And when a cold case from decades ago begins to smoulder and another woman is found dead in similar circumstances, rumours of a serial killer begin to spread.

In order to get to the truth Robin will need to discover where loyalty ends and duty begins. But before she can trust, she is going to have to forgive – and that means grappling with some painful home truths.

Blog Tour – March 2024 – The Shadows In The Street – Susan Hill

This blog tour is taking place to commemorate the reissue of the Simon Serrailler series to celebrate twenty years since they began, and as a result they’ve all received swanky new covers. The series currently runs to eleven books, and has sold over a million copies – that’s 900,000 each, approximately. Impressive! And here’s the new look books, with apologies for the low resolution (the above image is unfortunately the old one, which is all that is displayed on Amazon at present):

Of course, this isn’t Susan Hill’s only work. She’s well-known for books such as The Woman In Black and Mrs de Winter, as well as many others – deliciously spooky stuff, and arguably even more successful than this series, especially after the film of The Woman In Black, starring Daniel Radcliffe, was well received. I’m pretty sure there was a successful stage adaptation, too.

But let’s look at the Simon Serrailler series, in particular The Shadows In The Street. I’m somewhat embarrassed this is the first book in this series I’ve read, particularly as I already possess the majority of them! Chronologically, this is the fifth in the series. But no matter, the book reads perfectly well as a standalone, with subtle information dropped in about previous characters so you can pick up on the Serrailler family dynamic. They all have a part to play: Simon’s sister Cat is a local GP, and his father Richard a retired doctor. He’s recently remarried to his late friend’s widow, and Cat has became great friends with her new stepmother Judith, who provides babysitting and someone to lean on for her, whose husband died of a brain tumour, leaving her with three young children. Simon, however, has yet to fully accept his father’s remarriage, which he felt was hasty and disrespectful to his mother’s memory. Father and son have a somewhat prickly relationship, with Richard disparaging about his son’s highly successful police career – he’s a DCI – as he clearly feels he should have went into medicine, like the rest of the family.

So that’s the main characters – now to the setting, an imaginary English cathedral city called Lafferton. The cathedral plays a big part in the book, as Cat is a member of the choir and a regular attendee at services. Simon’s bachelor flat is in the cathedral’s close. The book begins not long after the arrival of a new Dean, Stephen Webber, and his wife Ruth, who are determined to drastically modernise the cathedral, against the wishes of much of the congregation. He brings with him Canon Miles Hurley, an old friend who is very much his shoulder to lean on – a reassuring presence, and who’s willing to take services when the Dean has other preoccupations, of which we learn more about as the book progresses.

So what, then, is the crime? Well, someone is targeting the prostitutes of Lafferton, many of whom we get to know throughout the book: Abi, her best friend Hayley, Marie…all will be touched by the presence of a killer on the streets hunting them down. After three attacks, with one surviving but being very ill, the prostitutes have moved to a different area, and another woman is murdered in the previous red light district by the canal – just a normal family woman, with no links to prostitution. The killer is clearly a misogynist, and is out of control. Who’s next? And who is this monster?

It’s an uphill battle for Simon and his team, the transactions involved (and the crimes) taking place, as the apt title suggests, in “the shadows in the street”, away from the protective eye of CCTV. The victims too are reluctant to engage with any authority figures, as many are mothers and fear the involvement of social services in their lives. They are people on the fringes of society, unnoticed by many, looked down upon by others. But they are as of deserving of protection, and ultimately justice, as any other citizen.

As Simon and the other members on the investigation scrabble for a clue, any clue, as to the killer’s identity, it becomes evident that every woman in Lafferton is in danger…and that next time, the victim could be one of their wives, mothers, sisters, or daughters.

Hugely gripping, with a great, well-developed cast – I’d expect no less from a writer of this pedigree – this book makes me even more determined to finally work my way through the Serrailler series. If you enjoy a gripping, well-written police procedural, you really could not be in safer hands than those of the multi-talented Susan Hill. I raced through it.

Final verdict: Bravo! I absolutely tore through this – not to be missed!

With thanks to Vintage Books for the blog tour invitation and the ARC. This has not affected my opinion, and this is an honest review.

Author Susan Hill

BLURB: Two local prostitutes are found brutally strangled. Serrailler is called back urgently from his sabbatical but by the time he reaches Lafferton another girl has vanished. Then the wife of the Dean at the Cathedral goes missing – has the killer widened their net or is there more than one murderer at large?

#TeamLyons – February 2024 – Critical Incidents – Lucie Whitehouse

Wow! This book was really unputdownable, and gave me a couple of ridiculously late nights. So here’s the lowdown…

Robin Lyons, sacked in disgrace from the Met for disobeying her superior’s orders and allowing a suspected murderer to go free, has been forced to move back to her hometown of Birmingham and her parents’ home with her thirteen year old daughter. Fiercely independent since leaving home for UCL and managing an unplanned pregnancy in her final year (with the support of her best friend Corrina), her life seems to be finally going the way she’d always planned until her ignominious departure from the Met.

Butting heads with her mother from her arrival, with her father acting as peacemaker, as well as the smugness of her brother Luke, there’s nowhere she’d like to be less. Working for her mother’s friend Maggie, whose bread-and-butter work is investigating benefit fraudsters and insurance cheats, she feels like she couldn’t have fallen any further from running her own homicide squad.

But Maggie has other work, referred to her by an old police friend – in this case, the disappearance of a young local woman, whose case they take on as she’s not regarded as a minor or vulnerable by the police so they won’t investigate.

Also, within a day of her arrival home she discovers Corrina, her best friend since childhood, has died in a house fire, with her husband missing, presumed responsible. But Robin can’t square this situation with the Josh she’d known since her teenage years. Unable to let the local police investigate alone, she launches her own enquiry into what could have happened – after all, she knows the couple and their son – now seriously ill
in intensive care, having leapt from a window to escape the fire – better than anyone.

This is a beautifully complex case, and everything in the book is highly satisfying: the difficulty of returning to her parents after spending most of her life living independently; the feeling of having let her daughter down by taking her from the home, city and school she loved; the catching up with old schoolfriends; seeing the changes in her home city; and with some seriously witty comments to lighten the load – Robin has a wonderfully dry sense of humour. The whole thing works beautifully, with plenty of twisty surprises, a highly realistic and diverse supporting cast, and, of course, the crucial tense denouement!

This is a departure for Whitehouse, who prior to this was writing superior psychological thrillers in what has since become a saturated market. The change of genre demonstrates that she is a highly skilled writer who could probably turn her hand to any market – but the good news for police procedural fans is that this is the beginning of a new series, and that we will get to spend more time with the headstrong Robin, her daughter Lennie et al – to which I can only say: Hurrah!

One to definitely put on the “must read as soon as possible” list!

With thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to participate in this blog blast, and to 4th Estate for the ARC. This has not influenced my opinion and this is an honest review.

Author Lucie Whitehouse

BLURB: Detective Inspector Robin Lyons is going home.

Dismissed for misconduct from the Met’s Homicide Command after refusing to follow orders, unable to pay her bills (or hold down a relationship), she has no choice but to take her teenage daughter Lennie and move back in with her parents in the city she thought she’d escaped forever at 18.

In Birmingham, sharing a bunkbed with Lennie and navigating the stormy relationship with her mother, Robin works as a benefit-fraud investigator – to the delight of those wanting to see her cut down to size.

Only Corinna, her best friend of 20 years seems happy to have Robin back. But when Corinna’s family is engulfed by violence and her missing husband becomes a murder suspect, Robin can’t bear to stand idly by as the police investigate. Can she trust them to find the truth of what happened? And why does it bother her so much that the officer in charge is her ex-boyfriend – the love of her teenage life?

As Robin launches her own unofficial investigation and realises there may be a link to the disappearance of a young woman, she starts to wonder how well we can really know the people we love – and how far any of us will go to protect our own.

#TeamTennison3 – November 2023 – Good Friday – Lynda LaPlante

So it’s book number three in the #TeamTennison challenge, Good Friday, and I can only begin by saying – WOW! This is one of the most gripping police procedurals I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a ton!)

We’re in the mid-70s in London now, and the IRA are putting the fear of God into Londoners, with small cells of bombers leaving bombs in shops, train stations, pubs, the Underground – basically everywhere. They generally phone in a secret password and the bomb’s location to the police or the press so the area can be cleared of civilians, but little time is given for this, and of course it’s London – there’s people everywhere, at any hour of the day or night.

And it’s WDC Tennison now – Jane is a detective, as was her ambition!

Yup, and she also buys a flat near Baker Street at the beginning of the book, moving out of the police hostel. Things are going well professionally and personally, although there isn’t a man in her life – although plenty seem to be interested!

Jane’s first assignment as a Detective is to to the “Dip Squad”, whose job is catching and charging pickpockets.

LaPlante is great at describing all the different crimes that were particularly prevalent when each book is set – the pickpockets, for example, are often foreign, work in small teams, and use a variety of distraction techniques, sleight of hand, and passing anything they’ve nabbed to an accomplice immediately, so, if stopped, they have nothing on them.

But the bombing campaign enters Jane’s life, by sheer coincidence.

Using the Underground one day, she’s caught up right in the middle of a bomb, and is used by her superiors at Scotland Yard as the face of the attempt to flush out the bombers, as they announce to the media she can identify the man who left the device. Her face appears on the front pages too, and although she has round the clock protection she’s warned about “sleepers”, who may not appear to be Irish but are involved with the IRA…

This is where I really was on tenterhooks – not just at the conclusion, but throughout the book. I really raced through it, desperate to find out if my suspicions were right!

And apart from all the action…

Lynda expertly depicted the ’70s – the clothes, the shops, food, music, cars, the slang. She really is one of the best police procedural writers out there. We’re also starting to know the cast of returning police officers, forensic experts, bomb disposal experts and clerical officers -as well as some attractive men! And the detail was fascinating, particularly when Jane is seconded to the large department across the city which deals with the aftermath of a bomb, and we got some insight into how harrowing some of the work is, as well as dangerous, especially when it came to dealing with the myriad types of bombs they encountered. The entire book was hugely enjoyable, and seeing Jane learn and grow as a police officer makes this a simply wonderful series!

Cannot wait to read the next instalment!

With thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for inviting me on this tour, and Bonnier Books for the ARC. This has not affected my opinion and this is an honest review.

Author Lynda La Plante

BLURB: From the creator of the award-winning ITV series Prime Suspect, this is Jane Tennison’s story, from rookie police officer to fully fledged detective.

Every legend has a beginning….

During 1974 and 1975, the IRA subjected London to a terrifying bombing campaign. In one day alone, they planted seven bombs at locations across central London. Some were defused – some were not.

Jane Tennison is now a fully fledged detective. On the way to court one morning, Jane passes through Covent Garden Underground station and is caught up in a bomb blast that leaves several people dead and many horribly injured. Jane is a key witness but is adamant that she can’t identify the bomber. When a photograph appears in the newspapers showing Jane assisting the injured at the scene, it puts her and her family at risk from IRA retaliation.

Good Friday is the eagerly awaited date of the annual formal CID dinner, due to take place at St Ermin’s Hotel. Hundreds of detectives and their wives will be there. It’s the perfect target. As Jane arrives for the evening, she realises that she recognises the parking attendant as the bomber from Covent Garden. Can she convince her senior officers in time, or will another bomb destroy London’s entire detective force?

#TeamTennison 2 – October 2023 – Hidden Killers – Lynda La Plante

So Book Number Two in the #TeamTennison challenge…how is Jane’s career progressing?

When we left her towards the end of book one, Jane had seen various areas of the police service at work and had her heart set on becoming a detective in the CID. At the start of this book she’s about to begin her secondment to CID when they approach her early, asking her to join them then, as it turns out they need a female for an undercover assignment and Jane fits the bill. To be honest, it’s a wee bit scary, as they’re trying to catch a man who’s indecently assaulting girls around London Fields. I’ll say no more, other than that Jane acquits herself admirably – it’s pretty exciting stuff, and undoubtedly will be good for her career.

How is she coping with how Tennison, book one, ended?

She has a new boss at Bow Street, who has, of course, a different way of working. Jane misses her previous boss and the closeness they shared, as well as Kath, her sparky female mentor. But Jane notices a few things under DI Moran that don’t seem quite – by the book, shall we say? But all she can do is tuck everything she sees away for future reference – she’s learning fast!

And there are lots of investigations going on in CID…

Definitely! Jane’s cut a bit more slack as a detective. She has a case of a woman drowned in a bath which, at first glance, is written of as a straightforward accident, but a few things niggle at Jane as not quite right, and she manages to get DS Lawrence, a forensics specialist, on side – the other detectives are dismissive of Jane’s suspicions. All the possible suspects seem to have alibis – but are any of them breakable? Tennison and Lawrence make a formidable team he’s an intriguing character, who I hope we see more of – but as the investigation heats up, Jane’s disappointed to be left on the sidelines. Edith, the office manager, reminds her that women take second place in the Met, but Jane hates the idea of that glass ceiling holding her down.

How do they do with the indecent assault case?

The man ends up being charged with not only the indecent assaults but a rape too – and this is one occasion where Jane is suspicious of Moran’s way of working (he tells her a few blatant lies, but due to his position she’s unable to question them.) She’s desperate to dig into the rape charge and find out more, but has very little power – she’s becoming aware of how much of an underdog she is, despite having made it into the CID.

So is this book as good as Tennison? Does it look like being a good series?

I wouldn’t say good – I’d say absolutely superb! Jane’s whole life is being well portrayed, including her relationship with her parents and sister, as well as her colleagues. As she’d moved stations it did take me a bit of time to figure out who all the new officers were, but as the series progresses, I look forward to seeing Jane’s career develop and her confidence increase, and more fabulously intriguing cases from the pen of our author – she is, I must say, quite wonderful at creating crimes for the officers to solve. I think that’s the thing I most enjoy – so bring on book three!

Author Lynda La Plante

Another winner featuring Jane Tennison!

With thanks from Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers and Simon & Schuster for inviting me on this blog tour and for the ARCs. My opinions are not influenced in any way and are entirely my own.

#TeamTennison1 – Tennison – Lynda La Plante

So, #TeamTennison…if you haven’t seen this splashed across other blogs or the internet, I shall explain…however, first of all I must apologise that my review is late – I had my final essay for my first OU module due, as I desperately attempt to graduate before I’m, er, 55! I’m back on track now; I can relax and am reading the next book in the series now, and will get it reviewed on time.

To explain, this is a collection of bloggers who will, until next summer, read and review the first nine Jane Tennison books roughly every 4-6 weeks. I’m really excited about this project – I’ve read perhaps half a dozen of Lynda’s books, but none were Jane Tennison ones, curiously. The tenth book will be released next summer. Now, get that picture of the Helen Mirren DCI Tennison out of your heads – as avid fans who read all the La Plante books will already know, these books start with Jane as a 22-year-old probationary WPC straight out of Hendon, and somewhat naive due to a fairly sheltered upbringing. But she’s bright, observant, keen to learn, and when she sees what a detective’s everyday workload is like compared to a WPC’s, which seems to involve standing at the counter to see what complaints members of the public have, or answering the phone, or routine paperwork…well, she’s determined to join the CID – not easy for a “new girl” in the ’70s, when they were mainly expected to look after “toms”, help deal with domestics, and take care of babies and children. (My mother was a WPC in Inverness a year or two earlier than this – a place doubtless slightly quieter than the Met’s territory!)

So how does Jane’s career go?

She gets involved in several different cases – it’s a fairly chunky book for a police procedural, at nearly 600 pages, but it’s introducing us to one of the most iconic female police officers in TV and books. And I can assure you, the tension and excitement do not let up for the whole of the book, and it flies in.

Early in the book Jane gets a lucky break when she helps an older woman who’s dropped her shopping home – she’s inadvertently entered the home of a family of notorious villains, who have a big job coming up. The observations Jane makes help launch one of the station’s biggest ever robbery investigations later in the book.

She has just one female ally, the tough and witty Kath…

Kath has her eye on a CID career too, and in the station they become fast friends, with Kath, who’s been there longer, and is a bit more streetwise and certainly has no flies on her, keeping Jane right about their male counterparts: who’s got wandering hands, who’ll play childish practical jokes on the women, who’ll attempt to offload all the typing and filing onto the “girls,” etc…it’s a detailed picture of life for a WPC in the mid-’70s, and as ever with one of Linda’s books, the research is spot on, in terms of the equipment they have, the cars on the street, the off-duty clothing, the music – it’s definitely got TV potential, which is of course unsurprising, given that’s where Lynda’s career started (she was an actress, before becoming a writer for TV), and how successful her previous book-to-tv adaptations have been (my favourite was the Case Sensitive series, with cop Anna Travis played by Kelly Reilly – now starring in the stratospheric Yellowstone – and Ciaran Hinds as her boss.)

And a hot boss!

DCI Bradfield spots Jane’s potential – and her good looks – fairly quickly, and when Jane moves into the same police accommodation block as he’s in, there’s potential for some discreet hanky-panky…I mean, we have to have a little bit of romance! But Jane’s fallen hard for Bradfield, and Kath warns him that, to Jane, this is more than just a bit of fun – she’s young, fairly inexperienced with men, and Kath’s spotted Jane’s inability to take her eyes off her charismatic superior.

There’s a murder, which Jane has a part in the investigation of.

A 17-year-old girl is found killed, and she’s known to the police as she works as a “tom” to support a drug habit. She comes from a very respectable middle class home, but she only reappears there when she’s looking for money. Some of that money proves to be crucial when the police attempt to track down her murderer.

So there’s loads of cases, some great characters, a realistic taste of the ’70s…

And it all ends with some MAJOR drama, which is nail-bitingly exciting, and clearly inspired by a particularly notorious early ’70s bank job! The detail is superb, but doesn’t hold back the thrills….I was turning the pages as rapidly as I could, and the ending was devastatingly shocking – yes, definitely, made for TV! I can see every talented up-and-coming British actress chasing the part of the young Jane Tennison – and it will definitely make for television that is NOT to be missed, just as this book (and the next one…in fact, I’m betting the entire series!) is not to be missed either!

An action-packed introduction to one of the most iconic characters in British crime fiction – you will NOT be disappointed!

With thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for inviting me on this epic blog tour, and Simon & Schuster and Lynda La Plante.

Blog Tour – August 2023 – Prom Mom – Laura Lippman

This is a book I’ve been excited about since I heard it was coming out, as, for me at least, a Laura Lippman novel is AN EVENT!

Having first fallen for her writing through her PI Tess Monaghan series, now her books are more likely to be standalones: all totally different, and all totally original. Like so many authors, she started her life as a journalist, in her case in Baltimore, the city she still lives, and which she loves – something she reminds us of in every novel. You could probably do worse than take a few of her books as a guide to the city’s eateries, attractions, museums – and areas to avoid!

So – Prom Mum has a girl called Amber Glass waking up in the bathroom of the hotel room her and her date Joe had booked for prom night, with blood everywhere, and a dead baby…

Amber’s mother wasn’t one of the most helpful with advice on women’s things, so when the police arrived at her house the next morning because a dead baby had been found in the bathroom of the hotel room she’d stayed in, she explained how she’d felt ill then blacked out. When she woke up it was all over. The baby wasn’t breathing, so she panicked, and left.

Amber had left the prom downstairs saying she felt sick, and her date, Joe, said he’d knocked on the door but, getting no reply, assumed she was too ill to come to the after party. He couldn’t get in as she had the door’s only keycard.

So what’s Joe like?

We’ve all met types like him. He’s the sort who thinks he can charm the birds from the trees, and the majority of women into doing whatever he wants them to, and who thinks he’s entitled to special treatment, all because he has a cute smile and a twinkle in his eye. He knows how to make them feel like they’re the only other person in the room.

Okay, so then we’re forward 20 years, just before the pandemic. What’s happened in the meantime?

Amber had spent two years in prison before working in the art scene in New Orleans, dealing in outsider art created by others who’d been incarcerated, but on her stepdad’s death decides to bite the bullet and return to Baltimore. Joe’s still living there, working in real estate for his uncle, letting units in shopping centres. Lucrative enough, but his wife Meredith, a plastic surgeon, is the real big earner of the two of them. (They’ve no children, something they decided on when they met – Joe had told Meredith about prom night, something which attracted a considerable amount of publicity and saw him labelled “Cad Dad.” Still, compared to Amber – “Prom Mom” – he got it relatively easy. Meredith had no desire to be a mother so it was an easy decision.) Joe’s desperation for that One Big Score cash-wise to demonstrate to his uncle he can take on more responsibility sees him take some risks with he and Meredith’s savings, but he’s always been lucky and knows he’ll turn it around. When he sees Amber’s back in town, the pair, perhaps surprisingly, strike up a friendship. But Joe has another female friend – Jordan – and that’s definitely NOT platonic! (See what I mean about Joe and women…?!)

Then Covid hits…

Yup, and Joe – with his retail units – runs into a little cash trouble. But he just needs to ride it out; he’s always been lucky. I really loved the way each of the main characters had careers that suited their characters. Amber, always the outsider because of prom night, selling outsider art. Joe, the charmer, letting out retail units with that friendliness that ensures he closes each deal. And Meredith, obsessed with keeping her own body perfect with workouts, helping people become how they want to be, looks-wise. Her and Joe are that shallow, outwardly perfect couple, with a huge house – the epitome of success. But no one’s life is that perfect, and secrets have a way of being found out.

So this was a good read?

This was a great read! I think I read it in three sittings, and when the twists start coming – none of which I’ve revealed above – I really couldn’t put it down. None of the main characters are particularly nice and come out of events particularly well, but there was one who I felt was underestimated, and who deserved a better deal – whether they get it or not, well, you’ll have to read this book to find out for yourself. It’s another triumph from Laura Lippman – but then of course I wouldn’t expect anything less!

With thanks to Faber & Faber for the blog tour invitation and the ARC. This has not influenced my opinion and this is an honest review.

Author Laura Lippman

Check out the thoughts of my fellow bloggers on Prom Mom (see above)

BLURB: FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR
‘When I was seventeen, I gave birth to a baby in a hotel bathroom while attending the prom.’
Two decades ago, Amber Glass’s life changed forever. No-one had even known she was pregnant – including Joe, her date.
Afterwards, she left town for good – and hasn’t seen Joe since. But she knows he hasn’t left, that he’s working for his father’s real estate company, married to a cosmetic surgeon. Child free.
Now Amber is back, and as the two of them tentatively start to renew their once unlikely relationship, will their secrets and motivations finally destroy everyone around them?
Inspired by a true story, this guessing game of a novel explodes with feeling and menace.
‘I read this acid-dipped beauty in two desperate sittings … it moves so fast and so skillfully, you don’t fully grasp what it’s really saying (about men, women, desire) until its final stunning pages.’ MEGAN ABBOTT
‘She is simply a brilliant novelist.’ GILLIAN FLYNN
‘A very special kind of twisted genius.’ SARAH HILARY
‘One of the best crime novelists writing today.’ PAULA HAWKINS
‘Lippmann is fast creating a new genre-busting category full of remarkable writing and dazzling plot lines.’ Daily Mail
‘Laura Lippman is one of my favourite writers.’ MINDY KALING

Blog Tour – July 2023 – Consumed – Greg Buchanan

First of all, all apologies for my absence this last couple of months. I’ve been a bit unwell, plus any spare time I was well had to be devoted to my Open University course. Unbelievably, it was worth it, as I got 90! So I treated myself to reading some fiction – and I’ll get my catching up to do in the next few weeks!

I must say, I really struggled to put this book down. I’ve got Sixteen Horses, Buchanan’s debut, and heard nothing but good things about it. I will definitely be getting round to it asap after this beauty. Greg Buchanan’s prose is utterly pleasurable to read, even when he’s writing about gruesome things being done to animals post-mortem. Gone are the days of coppers and private investigators and the odd pathologist are your main characters – I clearly remember the excitement when Patricia Cornwell and the Kathy Reichs broke the mould there! No, Buchanan’s heroine Cooper Allen is a forensic veterinarian, investigating animals involved in crimes. No, I didn’t know this was a job either…

It of course put me in mind of a case here in Scotland several years ago whereby a man was convicted of murdering his wife – she was seeking a divorce, and would hit him hard in the pocket. After a trial and two re-trials he was re-convicted, and remains in prison.

And the animals and the crime…?

Two pigs, who ate the woman who kept them as pets. Can Cooper find any evidence that there’s anything other than a straightforward accident here? I remember as a child my Dad would warn us to stay well away from the pig pen in case they ate us and I was pretty sure he wasn’t joking! (A working hill farm and two small children’s not the best place for jokes!)

To add to the mystery, the victim, Sophie Bertilak, was a well-known, although now retired, photographer. Creepily, whoever was last in her home stripped all her photo frames of their pictures. And to add to the creepiness, Sophie’s first ever photo, taken the day she was gifted the camera for her birthday, was taken in the countryside near her home, and turned out to portray a girl who’d been missing for three years, accompanied by a man. Neither of them were even seen again. Is there a link to that mysterious picture that set Sophie on what was to come her career path?

This is a fantastic idea for a crime series.

Cooper’s an intriguing character, with an interesting backstory of her own. Her career is a particularly fascinating one too. There’s absolutely no question Greg Buchanan can both come up with an intriguing tale and write it beautifully too. Also, special mention for the wonderful cover art too – it’s so eye catching! I can’t wait to get reading Sixteen Horses…as well as see what’s next for Cooper!

Original crime fiction that I really enjoyed – highly recommended!

With many thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invitation, and Orion for the ARC. These have not influenced my opinion, and this is an original review.

Author Greg Buchanan

BLURB: A slick, smart, stylish – and shocking – thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction.

On a lonely farmstead, a 70-year-old woman falls down outside and, unable to move, is consumed overnight by two of her pigs.

It seems like a tragic accident, except the woman was well-known photographer Sophia Bertilak – and inside her house, someone has removed all her photos from their frames, seemingly erasing her past…

The first photo Sophia ever took remains her most infamous: a missing girl who was never seen again. Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen is drafted in for the post-mortem – and slowly becomes obsessed with the victim, her family, and the crimes she brought to light decades ago.

As Cooper pulls on a dark thread of deception, secrets and lies, she begins to unravel the case – as well as herself…

Blog Tour – May 2023 – When We Fall – Aoife Clifford

Aoife Clifford is an author new to me, but she’s definitely one to watch.

Those who visit this site often (if there are any of you!) will probably have noticed I have recently developed a fondness for Australian crime fiction. (Iceland is my other favourite setting at present, and of course Scotland, which I’ve rather been neglecting – I’ll make that up to you this summer, I promise!) Anyway, the name “Outback Noir” seems to have been given to the books by Jane Harper, Chris Hammer, Garry Disher, et al. They’re all set in the dry, dusty centre of Australia, where farmers pray for rain.

This is a very different kind of small town – it’s called Merritt, and it’s wet, windy weather here. Alex Tillerson, a city barrister whose marriage has collapsed and whose workload is getting worryingly light, has arrived in the town where she was born to see her mother, Denny, who’s suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. Her visit doesn’t start well, as she and her mother come across a woman’s leg on the beach – belonging to Maxine McFarlane, a successful local artist and art teacher. When the rest of her body is retrieved, she’s alleged to have drowned while kayaking – but there’s no salt water in her lungs. Alex learns from locals about Bella Greggs, a teenager who was found two years earlier in a freshwater ravine, but with salt water in her lungs – a death deemed unsuspicious. Maxine nurtured Bella’s burgeoning art talent, and before her death was said to be planning an exhibition which would shock the townspeople, with reference to Bella’s death, and possibly pointing a finger of blame at someone.

Merritt is a small town where people know each other’s business.

Alex left when she was small, so isn’t aware of all the relationships in the town. As Robyn, a busybody-type who runs the local museum, says to her: “People here are a bit like trees, with roots deep in the earth, far more tangled than what’s visible on the surface.” We probably all know places like that; I grew up in one. Alex’s status as a “legal professional,” plus the fact she found Maxine’s leg, means she finds herself persuaded to investigate the two deaths.

This isn’t the sort of crime thriller where I could figure out whodunnit from paying close attention – I found it more a character study of all the main residents of the town, particularly the men, who are all viable suspects. There’s the longtime local policeman, who seems to decide for himself what’s a crime; the handsome young Indian doctor, new to town; the millionaire investor who’s planning to invest a fortune in building an eco-friendly town extension; his young representative, who wants a future that pays more than fishing can offer. There’s also the elderly doctor who was Alex’s grandfather’s partner in the GP practice, recently returned from working abroad. And the friendly chap who runs the kayak club and fills in some blanks for Alex – or Bella’s drug dealing stepfather. I kept picking suspects, then changing my mind!

And of course Alex ends up in a dangerous position – you can see it coming and you’re thinking, “NO! Don’t!”

The past comes back to haunt people, too…

Questions are answered about Alex’s childhood – I felt that storyline could have worked effectively as a separate book, as it was about historical events unknown to me. Clifford has a literary style of writing, and she creates original and compelling characters I really enjoyed learning more about. Her writing is definitely worth watching – so that’s another Australian writer on the “must read” list!

A well-crafted piece of crime fiction which is difficult to put down, peopled with memorable characters.

With thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour, and Ultimo Press for the ARC. This has not affected my opinion, and this is an honest review.

Author Aoife Clifford.

Do check out my wonderful fellow bloggers’ thoughts on this book’s blog tour!

BLURB: In the wild, coastal town of Merritt, Alex Tillerson and her mother make a shocking find on the beach. The police claim it’s an accidental death but there are whispers of murder and that it is not the first.

‘It isn’t strangers you need to worry about here. Blood lines run deep and in unexpected places. Every victim, every accused, we’ll know. The past runs alongside us all the time. Some days it spills into the open.’

Bella Greggs was found dead at the bottom of a ravine but drowned in salt water. Maxine McFarlane was pulled from the ocean but with no water in her lungs. Black feathers were found with both bodies but what do they mean?

As Alex fights for answers to honour the dead, and to discover why her mother fled town as a teenager, good people keep looking the other way, memories become unreliable and secrets threaten to reveal the past. Alex discovers the truth never dies but it can kill…