Favourite Reads of 2024 (Part One)

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I don’t normally post a list of favourite novels, but this was the first year I haven’t participated in many blog tours, leaving me free to read exactly what I wanted! I carefully noted all the books I read on StoryGraph, and these – in no particular order – are my most memorable reads of the past year – although I should add a caveat that they may not all have been published in 2024.

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Nightwatching – Tracy Sierra (Viking)

Early in the year, this book scared the bejesus out of me. Our narrator wakens in the middle of a stormy winter night, convinced that someone else is in their snowbound house with her and her three young children. She manages to move quickly enough to hide them away from the Intruder, but is aware that she needs to summon help. Also running through the book is the insinuation that women can let their imaginations run away with them, and become hysterical. It’s an impeccable debut – I’m really looking forward to what Tracy Sierra has for us next!

I’ve put the original (and better, I think) cover above. With thanks to Viking for the eARC.

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Everybody Knows – Jordan Harper (Mullholland)

Written by a successful showrunner and Hollywood insider, this book will shock you with tales of a thinly-veiled Hollywood – most of which would never have made it to the media, thanks to the work of Mae Pruett and her fellow “black bag” publicists – the ones you call when the sh*t has hit the proverbial. But after Mae’s boss and mentor is shot, she has a rethink about her life, and with the help of her solid mass of muscle that is her “friend with benefits” they decide to attempt to spill some secrets about the self-declared great and the good. With a teenage hostage they hide away from the crack team of private investigators (of which her partner was one) who are looking for them – men who will kill to save a reputation, if you’re willing to pay plenty. In the town where no-one talks but everybody whispers, their lives now depend on using what they learned when they were on the Dark Side. A stunningly original, very high-octane thriller.

Own purchase.

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First Lie Wins – Ashley Elston (Headline)

This is on loads of, “best of…” , lists, and it’s not surprising as the revelations are non-stop in this fantastic new take on the psychological thriller by the YA author. I just hope she continues writing for adults! She has real chutzpah in coping beautifully with what is a highly original idea and a complex storyline, which she handles with aplomb. A con-woman living under an assumed identity is shocked when, at a party at her and her mark’s home, a woman introduces herself using her real name. When she is killed in a car accident after leaving the party, she decides it’s time to leave her life of dishonesty behind her – if she can…

With thanks to Headline for the eARC.

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Moscow X (& Damascus Station re-read) – David McCloskey (Swift)

Unusually for me, I quickly re-read a couple of books this year, as I wanted to re-immerse myself in the world of CIA stations and operations, of which McCloskey is experienced, having worked as a CIA analyst before writing Damascus Station. As is standard (le Carré did the same even for many years outwith the service), the document must be passed by the Agency as not revealing any trade secrets. Both books are absolutely excellent if you’re a fan of spy fiction, although for me his debut, Damascus Station, just edges it. It’s about a handler and his asset who fall in love. This is obviously forbidden, and they’re desperately trying to keep their secret while still gathering intel. His third is out this month, so time to crib up on the first two if they haven’t crossed your path yet!

With thanks to Swift Press for the ARCs.

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Hunted – Abir Mukherjee (Vintage)

I absolutely adore this author’s Wyndham and Bannerjee series – although having saved the fifth as a treat, I’m now hoping he doesn’t end the series there! It’s set in ’20s India, and is absolutely brilliant. But Mukherjee shows his versatility with this present-day set book about a terrorist cell setting off bombs across America, and two unlikely parents whose children have been radicalised. They’re desperately trying to track down their children before the FBI, who they know won’t hesitate to pull the trigger. They’re an unlikely pair – a British father looking for his daughter, and an American woman searching for her ex-serviceman son. It’s non-stop tension, with the story swapping between the parents, desperately driving to find their children; the terrorist cell, which is beginning to unravel slightly as the members try to ask awkward questions of their strict leaders; and an FBI agent who is starting to question who is really behind the attacks. High-octane all the way, this is a book that will keep you gripped from start to finish! This has made a lot of, “Best of…” lists this year, and absolutely deservedly so!

With thanks to Vintage for the eARC.

Okay, so that’s five down, another five to go – what do you think of my choices so far? Have you read and enjoyed any of them?

Keep an eye out for my next five!

#TeamTennison4 – August 2024 – Murder Mile – Lynda LaPlante

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We’re back with Jane Tennison now, and things are getting more serious, case-wise, as she investigates the most heinous crime of all…

I’m still loving this series, and kicking myself for not having bought a copy of one of the Tennison books sooner – but I suspect you fellow bloggers know all about the (amount of books) > (time disparity) equation!

However, to return to Jane…we’re now in 1979, and I’m starting to recognise some of the shop names mentioned in the books. La Plante is careful that everything is spot on, accuracy-wise.

Two women are found in a car, murdered, but have little in common regarding age, social background – they couldn’t be more different, so what is the link? Then when a third woman’s body is found nearby, again a very different type of victim, the press inevitably start wondering if there’s a serial killer on the loose, and the area of London in which they were discovered becomes known as Murder Mile…

Jane’s now a Detective Sergeant, so is starting to get more interesting jobs investigating serious crimes.

She’s highly professional, very motivated and has excellent observational skills. But by the time they figure out who they culprit is, Jane could have put herself in serious danger…

crimeworm verdict: As ever, La Plante will keep you on your toes until near the end of the book – an author who’s forever impossible to second guess! Thrilling stuff!

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Author Lynda La Plante

BLURB: February, 1979, ‘The Winter of Discontent’. Economic chaos has led to widespread strikes across Britain.

Jane Tennison, now a Detective Sergeant, has been posted to Peckham CID, one of London’s toughest areas. As the rubbish on the streets begins to pile up, so does the murder count: two bodies in as many days.

There are no suspects and the manner of death is different in each case. The only link between the two victims is the location of the bodies, found within a short distance of each other near Rye Lane in Peckham. Three days later another murder occurs in the same area. Press headlines scream that a serial killer is loose on ‘Murder Mile’ and that police incompetence is hampering the investigation.

Jane is under immense pressure to catch the killer before they strike again.Working long hours with little sleep, what she uncovers leaves her doubting her own mind.

Blog Tour – July 2024 – Cabaret Macabre – Tom Mead

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Inspector Flint and his unofficial investigative sidekick Mr Spector return, in the third of Tom Mead’s Golden Age homages, with Spector’s classic “impossible” locked room mysteries, as well as other seemingly impossible murders.

These involve the Blunt family, at Marchlands, their country home, at the Chtistmas family gathering. Spector has come along to discreetly investigate, as murder and threat surround the family – High Court “hanging judge” Sir Giles Drury, his second wife, their mid-twenties sons Leonard and Ambrose and Lady Blunt’s son from her first marriage, plus, somewhat out of the family circle, Sir Giles’ older illegitimate son.

First of all a body is found in a boat, floating in the middle of a frozen lake.

Then, someone is shot by a shotgun in a room that was locked from the inside, with the window warped. And the shotgun isn’t there…

To add to the mix, three inpatients from a local insane asylum have escaped, two sentenced by our judge who lives 9 miles away, and one has a very personal score to settle….

I thoroughly enjoyed this – I loved the other two books too. Mr Spector’s odd tricks here and there, and Poirot-ish style and vanity, gave him charisma and personality. Flint is your classic-looking imaginary late-’30s career detective, but one willing to try anything to get the right result. The Blunt family all have their secrets to hide, but who is the murderer?

All the period detail, too, seemed spot-on – although I’d be very surprised if Mead didn’t investigate utterly everything to ensure that was the case!

They were so much more inventive in the Golden Age when it came to murdering people! It’s a subject I suspect Tom Mead is an expert on. We are lucky to have writers of his calibre, still paying homage to Golden Age crime, but this is in fact better and more inventive than many of the books of that era – although it’s not a case of either/or – we’re lucky enough to enjoy both.

crimeworm verdict: The perfect read for those who enjoy their 1920s-30s detective fiction.

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Author Tom Mead

BLURB: Sleuth and illusionist Joseph Spector investigates his most complex case yet in this gripping new locked-room murder mystery, set in an English country house just before the Second World War.

Hampshire, 1938. When prominent judge Sir Giles Drury starts receiving sinister letters, his wife suspects Victor Silvius, a man confined to a sanatorium after attacking Sir Giles. Meanwhile, Silvius’ sister Caroline is convinced her brother is about to be murdered… by none other than his old nemesis Sir Giles Drury.

Caroline seeks the advice of Scotland Yard’s Inspector Flint, while the Drurys, eager to avoid a scandal, turn to Joseph Spector. Spector, renowned magician turned sleuth, has an uncanny knack for solving complicated crimes – but this case will test his powers of deduction to their limits.

At a snowbound English country house, a body is found is impossible circumstances. Spector and Flint’s investigations collide as they find themselves trapped by the snowstorm where anyone could be the next victim – or the killer…

Book Review – July 2024 – The Perfect Guest – Ruth Irons

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Yes, I have a weakness for quality psychological thrillers – and this certainly qualifies as one! WOW! (I’m clearly on a lucky reading roll!)

It’s one of these books that it’s hard to say too much about without straying into spoiler territory – let’s just say it all begins when Dinah is invited on a Friday to Sunday Airbnb trip to the most beautiful house she’s ever seen. She’s there with three friends from their Oxford Uni days. But almost immediately it’s clear there’s a world of difference between the way she lives, and how her friends’ lives have progressed since those days. They’ve all got glittering careers, high-earning husbands, lovely houses, children, and expensive wardrobes and haircuts. Whereas Dinny lives in a poky grotty flat she hates and works in a cafe to (try to) make ends meet. And she’s single, with no family.

Dinny’s pretty spiteful about her friends, believing she was only invited out of sympathy due to a late cancellation, but she’s harsh and bitchy when thinking about them, and really not a very likeable character. The most gregarious of her friends, Megs, is lovely, but she quickly tires of Priya’s “head girl” passive-aggressiveness, and Rachel complaining about her first weekend away from her baby.

But the property, Riverdean, blows her away, and she is of the impression that this house – which belongs to a family who let it out when on holiday – is the sort of place she would be living if things didn’t keep going wrong. Why is a woman in her late thirties with an Oxford degree working in a cafe?? The clues are peppered throughout the book, but there are hints of obsessive behaviour and mental health issues.

The book started relatively slowly, but I was soon gripped by Dinny and her story. The assumptions she made about the perfect family in the beautiful house, “living their best life”, are soon revealed to be full of holes – a lot of holes, as we get to know Isaac, Sarah and Cam(ellia) and their neighbours, best friends, and business partners, Duncan and Vangie, and son Freddie.

It’s a collision of worlds. The more you learn about Dinny the less spiky and more sympathetic she becomes as a character. Yes, she might have done stupid things, but she has a stronger moral compass than many of the characters in the book who would judge themselves as superior to her, simply because they’re richer.

I don’t want to write any more about the plot, as the best bit of the book is the curtain getting drawn back on everything; that’s done superbly…but there are plenty of surprises and twists in store for readers in this classy psychological thriller. There’s plenty in the tank in terms of the storyline, and it’s complexities, and the cast of characters are all really well-drawn and three-dimensional (I’d cast Tim McInerney as Duncan, and Sienna Miller as Sarah-of-the-perfect-house. Maybe James Norton as Isaac…?)

Dinny is the sort of character the Beatles lyric, “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” was written about – that’s her main problem, but she doesn’t rectify it at all well, like being friendlier with her workmates, and fails to understand that she has to take responsibility for the path her life has led her down.

There’s also some deliciously cringeworthy moments from Dinny – particularly when alcohol comes into the mix. But the “thriller” aspect of the book does soon arrive, first with dropped hints, then with a fabulously unexpected twist, and the mandatory danger at the end – although it may surprise you exactly who is in peril!

It’s hyped as, “THE unputdownable psychological thriller of 2024”, and I’d have to concur with that description (thus far at least!) It’s very different from many in this packed genre, and all the better for it. If you enjoy a psychological thriller, I’m pretty sure you’ll finish this feeling your money was well spent (it’s 99p on Kindle at the mo, I see.) And the fact that it’s a debut only increases the plaudits this book deserves.

crimeworm verdict: The perfect twisty-turny read to enjoy in the sun (unless you’re in Scotland where you’re probably staying in out of the rain!) Potential aplenty from an exciting new author!

With thanks to publishers Black & White and NetGalley for my ARC, which has not affected this review which reflects my honest opinion. Also to Compulsive Readers for the blog tour invite – due to illness it’s slightly late.

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Author Ruth Irons

BLURB: She stayed in your house. Now she wants your life . . .

We all have that friend – the one who doesn’t quite belong. Dinah Marshall is that person and knows it. After someone drops out, she’s invited to spend the weekend at a luxury holiday home with women she’s known since university. However, the gulf between them has widened since then, and Dinah is conscious of being the only one with no money, career, partner or children. Feeling like an outsider, she takes to snooping around the house. She’s fascinated by its owners, Sarah and Isaac Rivers – and when she discovers she can secretly stay an extra night, that fascination quickly spirals into obsession.

When Isaac Rivers meets ‘Diana Malone’ at an exclusive members club, he introduces her to his wife and friends, and she’s soon welcomed into the group. She seems to be trying a little too hard, however, and as her somewhat intense behaviour starts to raise both eyebrows and questions, one of her new acquaintances begins to suspect she isn’t who she says she is. For Diana – or is it Dinah? -this is a disaster: she’s worked hard to get where she has, and these suspicions threaten everything. But Diana isn’t the only one with secrets, and if she’s going down, then she might just take everyone else with her . . .

Blog Tour – July 2024 – Bay Of Thieves – Megan Davis

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What a treat, getting such a run of great thrillers! Her first novel, The Messenger, showed originality and promise, and a side to Paris we don’t generally get to see. This book is set in Monaco and its surrounds, amongst people who are rich beyond most people’s comprehension. The source of many of these fortunes are shrouded in mystery – the saying, “behind every great fortune lies a crime” personifies this tax-free haven.

Vanessa has been working as a lawyer in Monaco for 10 years, under her demanding manager Rob. His demands are illegal much of the time. It started small – “baby steps” into dubious deals, until before she knew it se was in over her head, and losing her licence to practice was the least of her worries – she was committing serious white collar crimes, punishable by prison. She feels stuck: abandoned by her ex-husband, she needs her income to keep her son in private school. And she enjoys the lifestyle her work gives her – designer clothes, entry to the most exclusive bars, clubs and restaurants, life in the sun. However that little voice in her ear, her conscious, means she relieves the stress of her illegal dealings with too much alcohol, sleeping with strangers, and wasting any spare cash in the casinos – sometimes more than she can afford. Monaco is full of the young and beautiful, and at 45 Vanessa feels as though she no longer fits in quite as well as she did.

Rob sends over a new lawyer who will be working close to Vanessa at Meritus’ satellite office – Kate. She has an even more crucial (and genuine!) need for money – to finance her mother’s care home fees. Somewhat naive for a lawyer, when Vanessa takes her out and shows her around Monaco the two women grow closer. Kate is clearly troubled by one particular case she is being asked to “fix” – that of some older men who suffered hearing damage while working for an F1 team now owned by our villain,pp Amir, the nephew of a high-ranking Belarusian politician. Having met many of those affected, when she’s ordered to forge a document which makes it look like these men accepted loss of hearing as a possible side-effect of their work, she’s in a quandary (she clearly has way too much empathy to be a lawyer!) She’d met many of the men, and feels guilty conning them out of what they’re entitled to – and it’s not as if our arch-villain can’t afford to pay up.

Things accelerate as it looks as though Amir’s going to be sanctioned, like their neighbours and allies in Russian business. His girlfriend, Elanka, persuades Rob to transfer the huge villa on the beach just outside of Monaco into her and her mother’s names – from the Baltic states, they’re safe from the threat of sanctions. However, Rob does this against the wishes of his client, who wants it to be transferred into his wife’s name, with whom he shares a son. However, Elanka, who plays the vacuous trophy girlfriend to a T, is way smarter than most of the men in the book, and promises Rob she will ensure Amir heavily invests in his new cryptocurrency scam – which is lower than a snake’s belly, and which even Vanessa finds unbelievably repugnant. There seems no limit to the depths to which Rob will sink to make more money.

However, as sanctions freeze Ami’s assets, and it looks like the lawyers at Meritus could get their comeuppance, Vanessa and Kate both come up with daring schemes to ensure no blame can be apportioned to them for any illegality. The question is, will they succeed? And will Elanka get to keep her dream home?

This is a chunky, complex thriller, which more than succeeds in making the work of a lawyer exciting – no mean feat; it’s difficult to make paperwork exciting but Davis does it wonderfully. The setting is perfect – a place where the only rule is that you must look, and be rich. Behind the picture postcard-setting there are some truly heinous characters who will draw the line at nothing – even murder – to ensure their secrets are kept and their money remains safe. It’s great that the three characters you really root for are women, too.

Whether they make it all out safe and sound is something you’ll have to read the book to find out. I thought it was stunningly original, highly topical, and shatters any doubts that The Messenger was a one-off brilliant thriller – if anything, this is a more confident piece of work, probably aided by the fact that Davis herself is a lawyer. It’s a pretty chunky novel, but I tore through it in two or three days – and am still thinking about it a couple of weeks later! It will undoubtedly be one of my favourite books of the year, and I’ll be desperate to see what Davis comes up with next. Formidable!

crimeworm verdict: Yet another superb thriller – audacious and stunningly original, this is sure to linger in your minds long after you – reluctantly – close the book!

With thanks to Zaffre Publications for the ARC – this has not affected my review which reflects my honest opinion.

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Author Megan Davis

BLURB: Money wrote the rules on the Côte d’Azur and the real locals were those who understood this.

Vanessa and Kate live a glamorous life in the South of France helping the rich stay richer by hiding their money. While they know it’s wrong, that their clients are corrupt, they are professionals and good at their jobs. Plus, there is the money . . .

When their boss draws them deeper into his web of corruption, the chic veneer of their existence falls away, along with their excuses, leaving both women dangerously exposed to the lures of greed, gambling and hazardous liaisons. Vanessa and Kate become desperate for an escape route, a way to beat the system without destroying themselves, but the only ones available make them worse than those they are seeking to evade. While one woman pulls away from corruption, the other is drawn in. But just how far will each of them go for money – their clients’ and their own – before someone is killed?

Amid the opulence of the Côte D’Azur, Bay of Thieves explores the distorting power of wealth and its ability to destroy beliefs held over a lifetime.

Book Review – June 2024 – The Shame Archive – Oliver Harris

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Well, as if my heart rate wasn’t high enough after Hunted, I read The Shame Archive which did nothing to calm it – if anything I think it made it worse!

This is THE best book I’ve read this year (thus far, anyway) – it’s incredibly tense, reads authentically, and I swallowed it down in two huge greedy gulps. Yep, it’s utterly addictive.

Someone has got their grubby hands on what the Russians would call kompromat – compromising material that can be used to blackmail influential people, which was gathered in a special operation by MI6. (I thought this was possibly inspired by the real-life antics of J Edgar Hoover, the cross-dressing FBI boss who ruled it from its inception to the early 70s, when he died. He gathered so much dirt on well-known Americans, from film stars to politicians, that he was probably the most powerful man in America.) This MI6 material should never have got into the hands of anyone in the public domain – but a highly elusive character calling themselves Eclipse has it all, and is using it to demand large amounts of cryptocurrency from some of those who appear in the videos, photos and documents. If they don’t pay up, the material will be released to their families, friends, work colleagues, bosses – and if they’re high profile enough, to the media.

Our two main characters are Rebecca, who once worked as a high class call girl in a difficult period in her life. She was intending to give up that sort of work but on what she hoped to be her last job, at a New Year’s Party, something dreadful happened – she has flashbacks to a sexual assault, a knife, cleaning blood off her hands. Did she kill someone? And what about the policeman she spoke to? Why is there no record of that? She’s now living a totally different life, with a new surname – married to ambitious MP Robert Sinclair, with a daughter, and is the very picture of respectability. Then Eclipse gets in touch…

She’s a fabulous character, and Eclipse has clearly underestimated her. She’s ballsy, smart, tenacious, creative, and is determined not to bow to Eclipse’s demands – even if she will end up being ultimately exposed as once being a working girl. I found myself rooting for her all the way.

Our other main characters are Elliot Kane, and his partner Juliet Bell. He’s ex-MI6, and was well aware of much of this trove of material – because he and his ex-partner Christian were involved in gathering it, as well as other distasteful “black ops” at MI6. He now lives with ex-investigative journalist Juliet Bell and her son Mason, and together they run a private investigation agency, working mainly for corporate clients – essentially private spies, digging up dirt for whoever is willing to pay. It’s highly lucrative, and the skills the two of them have learned in their past careers dovetail perfectly. He’d met Rebecca, but hadn’t seen her since that fateful New Year party that saw the end of her career as a sex worker. He seems to be trying to redeem himself for his past misdeamonours for Queen and Country, being a great father figure to Juliet’s son, and helping her financially after her divorce cleans her out. He’s also highly likeable, and, unbeknownst to Rebecca, is on the trail of Eclipse too, with Juliet. She’s not unlike Rebecca – clever and versatile, using all her contacts to try to lure Eclipse into the open with the promise of telling his side of the story – for a large fee, naturally…

As the net tightens, it becomes apparent that Eclipse plans to flee the country with more kompromat with the intention of selling it to a hostile state. I’d figured out who he was – I think most will – but at this point it’s the thrill of the chase that’s really exciting, with the whole thing going right to the wire.

It’s marvelously entertaining, and there’s action right from the off, which continues throughout the novel – it’s like le Carré on speed. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the Eliot Kane books, as well as his other series, featuring cop Nick Belsey.

crimeworm verdict: A top-notch thriller that will keep you glued to it until the very end. I guarantee it.

With thanks to Abacus Books and Netgalley for the ARC of this novel. This has not affected my opinion, and this is an honest review.

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Author Oliver Harris

BLURB: How does a secret service confront its past, when its secrets must never be revealed?

Buried deep in MI6’s digital archives is the most classified directory of all. It doesn’t contain war plans or agent profiles, but shame: the misdeeds of politicians, royalty, business leaders and the service’s own personnel.

There are seven decades’ worth of images and recordings, usually acquired for the sake of assessing risk, sometimes as a guard against betrayal, often engineered by MI6 for their own purposes. They are the most sensitive two thousand terabytes of data in the Service’s possession. When material from the archive begins appearing online, panic spreads through the Establishment like wildfire.

At first, the security breach only manifests itself in apparently random events: a suicide, a disappearance, a breakdown. But when it’s discovered that the individuals concerned were all contacted by the same anonymous person, a connection comes into focus. The archive has been leaked. The hunt is now of unprecedented urgency before the entire political and business systems are fatally weakened. That’s when they call for Elliot Kane…

Book Review – May 2024 – Hunted – Abir Mukherjee

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Well! *wipes sweat from brow!* This is an uber-tense thriller from the author of the Indian-set Wyndham & Bannerjee series of historical police procedurals. Proving he has a lot more to offer than one string to his bow, Mukherjee takes us into the tense world of American politics, terrorism, desperate parents, an unlikely love story, and an FBI agent who goes rogue in a desperate attempt to stop more people getting hurt. And wow! It’s absolutely great: exciting, fast-moving, with a great ending – ticking every box in my “great thriller” template!

It’s told from three points of view – Shreya Mistry, our FBI agent; Sajid, the father of one of those believed to be part of a future terrorist attack (he’s teamed up with Carrie, the mother of another); and her son Greg, who, with Sajid’s daughter Aliyah are fleeing the cult who call themselves Sons of the Caliphate and have already claimed responsibility for one attack and are assumed to be planning more.

The huge explosion in a shopping mall in Burbank, California is the start of their terror spree, and as one Muslim girl, Yasmin, is found dead and CCTV shows her – inexplicably – attempting to leave the mall with the explosive device just as it explodes, killing many and injuring a great deal more, the FBI make the assumption it’s an Islamic terrorist group, and the group’s name seems to bear that theory out. With a presidential election that’s too close to call just over a week away, the Feds pull out all the stops to track down the cell and prevent further attacks.

But desperate parents, and something of an odd combination, Carrie and Sajid are also on their tail, and they might just have the edge when it comes to information about where the group are holed up. Their problems start when Sajid is assumed to be a terrorist too, in the States to help, not stop his daughter, and soon finds himself plastered over 24-hour news channels. As he and Carrie get closer to the terrorists’ base, it seems that Shreya, something of the traditional “maverick agent”, may just have beaten them to it.

Meanwhile, two of the terrorists are crossing the country, but is it to set off another attack, or is it to escape the cell, who seem to have tentacles everywhere? Multiple games of cat-and-mouse ensue, keeping the tension rammed up to the max as well as ensuring a varied and intriguing group of characters. It’s a real tour-de-force, and although I do miss Wyndham and Bannerjee, this is an amazing yarn – well-placed, thrilling, and one to keep you guessing until the inevitable tense – and unexpected denouement! Perfect summer reading if you enjoy thrillers with a touch of politics, a chewy complex plot (but not overly so), and a great cast of characters, all of whom, it seems, have a surprise or two up their sleeve.

The whole book is an utter triumph, and I’ll be really surprised if it isn’t one of the books of the summer – it certainly deserves to be! What will Mukherjee write next? On the evidence of this, he can turn his hand to anything!

crimeworm verdict: A thrilling ride that doesn’t slow down – bravo!

With huge thanks to Harvill Secker and Vintage, plus Netgalley, for an early read of this – this has in no way affected my opinion and this is an honest review.

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Author Abir Mukherjee

BLURB: It’s a week before the presidential elections when a bomb goes off in an LA shopping mall.
In London, armed police storm Heathrow Airport and arrest Sajid Khan. His daughter Aliyah entered the USA with the suicide bomber, and now she’s missing, potentially plotting another attack.
But then a woman called Carrie turns up at Sajid’s door after travelling halfway across the world. She claims Aliyah is with her son Greg, and she knows where they could be.
Back in the US, Agent Shreya Mistry is closing in on the two fugitives. But the more she investigates, the more she realises there is more to this case than meets the eye and suspects a wider conspiracy.
Hunted by the authorities, the two parents are thrown together in a race against time to find their kids before the FBI does, and stop a catastrophe that will bring the country to its knees.

#TeamLyons – Last Witness – Lucie Whitehouse

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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):

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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.

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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?