Other Books
A section where we look out towards other authors’ work that we feel Desmond Bagley would have enjoyed. These are a mix of titles we’ve bought ourselves and Advance Reading Copies provided by publishers.
Queen of Poisons
by Robert Thorogood
This is the third outing of the three friends we first met in The Marlow Murder Club, a novel written by Robert Thorogood of Death in Paradise fame. For this latest story we are whisked into the dark doings of a local council’s planning approval committee.
The town Mayor is fatally poisoned at the start of one of their sittings and the only outside witness, Suzie, one of the three friends, believes it must be one of the other committee members. But who was the mysterious tea-room assistant and why was one of the four on the committee conveniently delayed until the very last minute almost missing the proceedings?
There’s much more to be discovered as the three friends – Becks, Judith and Suzie – are officially co-opted into helping the Police as civilian advisers by their fourth friend Tanika, a freshly promoted DCI.
After their previous help in catching murderers their friendship is only stronger, which gets them through many a sticky situation.
All the characters here are well fleshed-out and consistent, the clues littered through the text but not always easy to spot, as you would expect from such an experienced author. The twists and turns keep you on your toes as one suspect morphs into another until you’ve met everyone, know their relationships with the deceased and think you may have an idea of whodunnit!
Truth be known I was foiled (again!) and the murderer, once revealed was a surprise. Excellent! A reader might get pleasure from working out the culprit but it’s equally satisfying to be proved wrong!
There is even a happy resolution for Becks, one of the three friends. I won’t give that away, but it will make you smile.
So all-in-all another excellent read from Mr Thorogood. And interesting news in the postscript too.
Publisher : HQ (18 Jan. 2024)
ISBN : 0008567433
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008567336/
Death Comes to Marlow
by Robert Thorogood
This is Robert Thorogood’s second outing for the four friends living in the home-counties town of Marlow. You’ll know the author as the creator of the monumentally successful Television series Death in Paradise. As well as his writing job on the show, he’s also written four extra novelisations for the original Detective who featured in it, each with a cracking mystery to solve. Last year though he started a new series featuring four ladies living in Marlow, and so far with no connection to the Caribbean island of St Marie! They first came together trying to solve the mystery at the heart of The Marlow Murder Club and now they’ve been fleshed-out and are more comfortable in each other’s company, when a man dies in mysterious circumstances.
A member of the landed Gentry is found dead in his study, a locked-room any murderer couldn’t possibly escape from without being seen or leaving traces. The senior DCI for the local Police force is not willing to accept that it might be suspicious in any way, believing it just an unfortunate accident. Only DS Tanika Malik who was briefly promoted to DCI in the first case a year previously, believes her friends when they are adamant the man has been murdered. The key question remains, who could have done such a thing and left the locked room unseen? Well there’s the victim’s bickering children, an ex-wife, a new wife-to-be and a disgruntled employee to consider. Frustratingly they all seem to have unbreakable alibis.
The many characters and locations involved here are described clearly and easy to visualise. Robert Thorogood is a master at this. He’s also an expert at leaving the clues you need to pick up on if you have a hope at all of guessing whodunnit before the final reveal. And, lest you doubt it, the clues are indeed there, as someone famous once used to say. His writing is fluid and easy-going, never condescending or overly flush with technical jargon. For the reader every page is a pleasure flowing one to the next taking you along for a thoroughly enjoyable ride before the finale when …
But I should stop there. this is a superbly crafted and accessible story that doesn’t accentuate violence, nor trivialise the effects of it. It’s a mystery for entertainment that has been written by someone who knows their craft and delivers on every page.
I recommend this book to crime and mystery fans, In fact anyone who enjoys a well-crafted, escapist read.
Publisher : HQ (05 Jan. 2023)
ISBN : 0008238308
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08TQ81FJQ
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The Marlow Murder Club
by Robert Thorogood
The Marlow Murder Club is a new novel from world-famous author and script-writer Robert Thorogood. It is a departure from his previous projects: the long running “Death in Paradise” television series which he originally created and continues to write for, the parallel series of DIP novelisations featuring his first detective character, Richard Poole, and his work on the South African television thriller series “Trackers”. Now he’s firmly back in England, the home-counties in fact, and following the adventures of three women and a police detective as they come together from different backgrounds to solve a series of baffling murders in the usually peaceful town of Marlow.
Unlike his previous work, this story is seen entirely from a female viewpoint. It must have been tricky for the author because he now has to put his mind inside the heads of four different women, never mind all the sundry extra characters dotted around the place. He has to understand and communicate and interact without stomping a man’s muddy size 10s all over the place. And happily he does this admirably, never sounding condescending or patronising and never offending, with his innate skill to bring characters to life.
As a murder mystery you would categorise this as a “Cosy”, certainly it is ripe for a television dramatisation and Sunday-night viewing. There are murders, obviously, and the reality could easily have been gruesome, but there’s no overt revelling in the gore here, most of the detail being left to the reader’s imagination. Which is just as it should be.
The three friends are a Vicar’s wife, a somewhat lonely dog-walker with a larger-than-life character, and an adventurous old lady well into her seventies, who sees no problem in swimming in the Thames or punting across it. Luckily for us she is happy to stick her nose in places others might quail to do so, fearlessly challenging any barriers she faces.
Reading a book like this I often find myself superimposing characters or actors I already know onto the ones in front of me on the page. For example, at odds with the description we are given I still couldn’t shake the images of actress Anna Massey as Judith Potts, then Clarissa Dickson-Wright, famous chef and countrywoman as Suzie, and actress Camille Coduri as Becks. These three characters become firm friends during the course of the story and form the Marlow Murder Club, along with DCI Tanika Malik who also got the superimposition process in the form of actress Amber Aga. This is just a foible of mine and no reflection on Mr Thorogood’s ability to describe his characters, which he does perfectly. Please insert your own images when you read.
The story is incredibly well crafted and even includes a locked-room mystery of sorts, but that only becomes relevant near the end when Judith finally has a series of revelations that points her towards the guilty party. I won’t give any spoilers but there are red-herrings a-plenty in the plot with connections to antiques, sport, inheritance and Free Masonry, just to keep you on your toes. When the case is finally solved and the clues are being explained, one of our ladies finds herself in serious peril and the others mount parallel rescue attempts so audacious that they will have you on the edge of your seat, and of course, finally cheering their efforts.
As you would expect from such an experienced author, the storylines wrap themselves up neatly, and all is explained. There’s a shock too which has nothing to do with the case. But you’ll have to read the book to find out what the resolution to the locked-room mystery actually is.
This superb story is ideal for a television production, and I hope one is pursued. But until then, buy yourself a copy and immerse yourselves in a cosy world with a mystery to solve. And as you will discover, not everything is as it seems!
Very much a recommended read.
Publisher : HQ (21 Jan. 2021)
ISBN-13 : 978-0008238247
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008238243
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Guilty Minds
by Joseph Finder
(A Nick Heller Thriller)
Nick Heller is now up to his third full-length novel, with two short-stories filling in the gaps. He’s an ex-Special Forces operative who now works as a private ‘agent’ rather than merely an investigator. He’s tough but caring, doesn’t swear and is rarely gratuitous with the violence. He’s intelligent too and works through his problems with in-depth logic that is fascinating to read. There’s a small team on hand to support him on his travels including a secretary back in his office, a technology specialist with a skill-set most hackers would envy, and ex-forces friends he can rely on when the going gets tough. He’s not afraid of many people as far as we can see and can street-fight with the best of them.
A formidable character in the current fashion for righter’s of wrongs. He’s in good company too. We all know Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and as I reviewed recently, new kid on the block Colter Shaw from Jeffery Deaver.
Joseph Finder is a very readable author of many thrillers, some action and derring-do, others more legal-eagle and political. Whatever he turns his hand to you’re in for a very entertaining and engrossing ride. Think you’re in for a quick half-hour read? Think again. You’ll be riveted, unable to put the book down until you’ve read just one more page …
In this story there’s a conspiracy to bring down a Supreme Court Justice. The tool for this is one of the new-fangled Internet news sites that specialises in digging the dirt. A highly-placed Senior Counsel for one of Washington DC’s most prominent law firms hires Heller to discover who is making the allegations because as a friend of the man he’s sure they are false.
But someone goes too far and a young woman is killed. Heller, having met her and realising she is a pawn in some much larger game, completes his paid investigation into the Internet news site and sets out to find her murderer. Meanwhile the Police believe her death was nothing more than a simple suicide and are reluctant to accept anything else, until Heller gets help from an unlikely source.
Mr Finder weaves a twisty tale around the characters and world of intrigue he draws so well. You’ll be engrossed, though if you’re a seasoned thriller reader, the twist at the end might not be too much of a surprise. All the characters are easy to visualise and the depth of research that has been done to fill in the detail of legal procedures, Internet technology, political intrigue and even magnetic lock-picking, is a very absorbing read. I only spotted two mistakes – one factual and one editorial – in the whole book. Considering the ground covered, that’s excellent going.
A recommended read.
Head of Zeus (14 July 2016)
ISBN: 978-1784978532
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784978531
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by Robert Thorogood
(A Death in Paradise Murder-Mystery)
Richard Poole lives on in this the fourth novelisation of the hugely popular television series, Death in Paradise.
Two other detectives have moved to the sunny island of Saint Marie since the original was gruesomely murdered in the television series and exploring more of the original’s career on the island is a marvellous treat for fans.
For this whodunit we learn about an old jewel robbery carried out by a gang of four and involving the murder of a shop assistant. Only the murderer was caught and convicted, serving his time before being released and intent on claiming his share of the proceeds, supposedly kept safe for him as reward for his silence, by the others.
When it is discovered that his share no longer exists, and has been spent, he gets angry and the remaining members of the gang start dying …
Robert Thorogood knows his characters better than anyone and writes with clarity and precision while still displaying his trademark ‘impish glee’ describing the habits and foibles of the story’s hero, an old-school, stiff-upper-lip, middle-class man who won’t remove his woollen jacket while working, for anyone, even in the sometimes oppressive heat of the Caribbean. Or will this be the time he finally lets go?
There is a connected side-story involving a love-interest for the laid-back Dwayne, a Policeman usually comfortable in his job but unexpectedly keen on promotion. And the young Policeman Fidel, is as adept and industrious as ever, getting to grips with most of the tricky forensic work. Poole’s detective partner Camille is the one who manages to keep her superior in line when his straight-laced personality gets the better of him.
All in all this is another very enjoyable crime-solving romp in a glamourous setting. There are twists too and who the murderer is, and why, is not as straight-forward as you originally thought.
As with all of Mr Thorogood’s work I can heartily recommend this latest addition to the back-story of the Television series. It is a splendid read.
ISBN: 978-0008238193
HQ – First edition edition (27 Dec. 2018)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008238197
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Plan B
by Joseph Finder
In Plan B we have a situation that Nick has to get to grips with and resolve – all within a limited number of words. The short-story format is challenging when you have to tell a story, give it enough background to make it interesting and viable and then take the reader through the main action to a logical conclusion. This Mr Finder does with energy and considerable style. I’m not going to offer any spoilers here but the story is based around a kidnap and the subsequent rescue mission. Looking at the whole objectively the twist in the story was probably the only one available given the time constraints, and not too hard to guess.
The title of the story is explained very early on, and as expected, comes into being at the very end.
Of course the story was too short. Everyone is going to think that. But what you get is a lesson in compact story-telling with action and excitement and a proper outcome. There’s knowledge and research a-plenty here but played with a light hand making it flow easily and enjoyably. A great introduction to the character and other titles you’ll want to add to your library.
The first 60% of this Kindle book is the short-story. The remainder is the first chapter of the Buried Secrets novel.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0055OC950
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The Smithfield Murder
by Richard James
This is an introductory short-story by author, actor and playwright Richard James, set in Victorian London towards the end of the 19th-century.
Inspector Bowman, his Sergeant Graves, career adversary Inspector Hicks and a whole raft of well-drawn characters are to be found milling around the famous London meat market after a particularly gruesome murder.
No one they talk to seems to have a good word to say about the victim and finding useful evidence to track down the perpetuator is difficult. But with dogged leg-work and the support of his trusty Sergeant, Inspector Bowman works his way to a satisfyingly detailed conclusion.
The Inspector’s a flawed character who’s suffered a great loss only recently and finds himself still under its influence. Solving a murder is a difficult task for the man who must rise above his own particular traumas to get to the truth.
Richard James has chosen a period he clearly has great affection for as a setting. He revels in the details and in sharing what his characters see and feel around them. It’s a time long-gone now, but in the hands of the author as vibrant and full of life as it must surely once have been.
The great thing about this title is you can read it for free. All you have to do is subscribe to the author’s mailing-list and you’ll be sent a link to download it. Head on over to his website if you’d like to receive a copy.
Richard’s first full-length novel featuring the Inspector is called The Head in the Ice and due to be published on the 4th June 2019.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0874XC6Z4
https://www.bowmanoftheyard.co.uk
This story completes the introduction of a new series character for Deaver called Colter Shaw. He first appeared in the short-story ‘Captivated’ and this new novel expands on the character, pitching him against a deadly, high-tech’ foe.
Shaw is a bit like a bounty-hunter except that he doesn’t like to call himself that, and he has his own set of noble ethics. To make a living he helps find missing persons for people offering a reward for the task, calling his current client the “Offeror”. By the time of this story Shaw has been plying his trade for ten years and is an old hand at it.
With his small team of back-office associates – neighbours in his Florida home town and a Private Investigator – Shaw travels where he needs to in search of clues. The team keep his back research-wise and by the miracles of modern technology ensure he’s updated when necessary.
As the book opens we find Shaw struggling to rescue a pregnant lady from a sinking boat in freezing temperatures. The task seems too much, threatening to overwhelm him and as the situation gradually worsens we flash back a few days to the events leading up to the deadly drama.
This is a well-written and entertaining mix of adventure and detective work, with Shaw and his new acquaintances struggling to stop a serial-kidnapper and murderer from striking again, all set against a backdrop of the highest of technology smack in the middle of the world’s most tech-savvy place – Silicon Valley.
A major clue to finding out who is behind a series of kidnaps is a popular video game. Deaver has obviously done a lot of research in and around the computer games industry. His characters are lively and nicely formed, some more deeply than others. All are troubled in one way or another. There’s a back-story too about Shaw’s upbringing and his family’s paranoid, survivalist training. There are mysteries buried deep there and in a parallel plot line he is struggling to make sense of his eccentric father’s death, hoping against hope his suspicions aren’t true.
To round out the character there’s some love interest here too but it doesn’t amount to much, though it does add more character development and a new set of possibilities for future collaboration.
As the investigation into who the kidnapper is moves towards its conclusion, Shaw’s past comes back to bite him in an unexpected but well thought-out twist, tying-up an earlier part of the plot which by that time we’ve almost forgotten about. A classic “Ah-ha!” moment of realisation.
It’s a double-ending type of story that keeps coming back until the final page and naturally points towards the prospect of another instalment with this enjoyable and dynamic, if slightly dour character.
Colter Shaw is in the same loner-hero mould we’ve come to know well in recent American thrillers, but in fairness to Deaver his creation is no carbon-copy and is his own, fully explored character with a lot of mileage yet to be extracted from his unusual upbringing.
Readers new to Deaver but familiar with American thrillers will certainly enjoy his new creation. Those who have read the author before will appreciate his new direction and character. Those who have done neither will find this a great introduction to a renowned-for-quality, best-selling author.
This is a Recommended read. One I sped through, enjoying the descriptive prose which made for very easy reading.
ISBN: 9780008303723
HarperCollins (16 May 2019)
Robert Thorogood is the creator and driving-force behind the BBC TV’s highly successful whodunit drama Death In Paradise. So you know when he sets his mind to writing a novelisation, it is going to be the real-deal, fleshing-out the characters and locations he originally envisaged. Indeed Robert has so far published three books set on the Caribbean island of St Marie and there’s a fourth due later this year.
The latest you can buy right now is called Death Knocks Twice and follows his previous titles, “A Meditation on Murder” and “The Killing of Polly Carter”. The great thing about all of them so far is that Robert is continuing to develop the original detective from the television series, Richard Poole, who many will remember was portrayed by the besuited Ben Miller to brilliant effect. In the television version we are now onto our third detective.
Death Knocks Twice is an excellent concoction of characters and location, with a classic locked-room mystery at its heart. How and why was Freddie Beaumont killed in a room that apparently no murderer could have escaped from? Was it a member of his estranged family or an outsider seeking revenge for the darker days of his family history, who committed the crime? And why the title’s second killing with the victim apparently pointing directly at their killer?
Robert’s writing style is relaxed and open, easy to pick-up and put down as time allows. But it’s also full of all the necessary detail and subtle clues a whodunit needs, so you need to concentrate. A throw-away remark here or a passing description of an object there, might just be vital.
And of course the characters we know and love are there, just as we imagine them, Dwayne, Fidel and Camille, the Commissioner too. We get to learn more about the island and its history and the dark days of slavery that was at the foundation of many businesses in the area once upon a time. The island may be fictional but the social tensions a real illustration of what must be a reality.
We also get to learn a lot about basic forensics, the type of thing a keen amateur might be able to do without all the high-tech wizardry of modern science. Indeed Richard Poole goes back a long way to uncover a relevant clue, using technology from a bygone era, provided for him by an old FBI manual.
His team are as exasperated as ever at his unwillingness to eschew his formal woollen suit, something he believes befits his character and profession, while around him others dress more casually in the heavy heat of the Caribbean. There comes a point at which this all might change, a see-saw moment of will he, won’t he, just once, for the sake of his own sanity and that of his friends and colleagues. I’ll let you read for yourselves to discover what happens.
Of course at the end DI Richard Poole gets his perpetrator, after having interviewed everyone he can and sifted through all of the evidence. It’s a glorious process and thoroughly enjoyable. Satisfying in its conclusion and true to all the characters involved.
If you’d like a trip to a tropical island where the people and climate are laid-back and friendly, where there’s enough undercurrent to provide the basis for a baffling mystery or two, then anything by Robert Thorogood is to be heartily recommended, and Death Knocks Twice a very satisfying murder-mystery.
ISBN: 9781848455252
HQ - an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd (27 July 2017)
The latest Hercule Poirot reboot by Sophie Hannah, The Mystery of Three Quarters, is an ingenious new outing for Agatha Christie’s famous detective.
Here we have the classic country-house mystery populated by characters whose lives we feel we actually have a window onto, even if we don’t particularly care for them. Because this is a whodunit the author has to put various clues in place, dotted throughout, but not so deeply buried that the reader can’t recall them when the denouement comes and all is revealed.
Sophie Hannah carries this all off with aplomb. She paints vivid pictures of situations that aren’t overly cluttered or confusing but succinct and easy to grasp. The story moves along at pace and never gets bogged-down.
The crime here is initially hard to pin down and the characters sufficiently ‘woolly’ in their plausibility and alibis to all be possible suspects. Even the murder, when it is finally revealed, isn’t quite so straight forward.
This is the author’s third new outing for Poirot coming after The Monogram Murders and The Closed Casket set in the later years of his career, featuring his valet George. The original stories from this period read more darkly than the early ones. Poirot was perhaps more lonely, more solitary, a little depressed. Not so here. He now has lively sidekicks in the form of Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard and the feisty Euphemia Spring, known as ‘Fee’, who runs the local coffee-shop.
The Inspector is a curious construct offering the necessary bridge with the Police system and a friend in the same first-person way Captain Hastings used to be. What’s more he appears to be Watson to Poirot’s Holmes, writing-up the cases for posterity. The coffee-shop is a place Poirot can’t help but return to, both for the quality of the coffee and the company he finds there.
Any criticism? Well nothing’s perfect. Nothing can actually be “Agatha Christie” except the Dame herself. Here the story is narrated partly in the first-person and partly the third. This I found a little odd at times, but over all it managed to work. There are a few scenes early on that I felt were too comedic, more Wodehouse than Christie, and I found them a little strange given the subject matter, but things soon got back on track.
This book and its convoluted plot is easy to recommend for all fans of the genre. The way it has been written is to make it somehow timeless. Yes, there are references to the year it is set in and capital punishment, but not many. The story could easily be set in any decade of the 20th century, even the 21st. That it is set between the wars is not always obvious.
A good, solid and satisfying mystery then, with characters that believe it or not, you feel will carry on their privileged existences outside of the book.
A recommended read for all fans new and old. You’ll find yourself smiling as you hear those famous Poirot phrases once more!
ISBN: 9780008264451
HarperCollins (23 Aug. 2018)
There are three short stories in this timely collection from Penguin Classics. The first is the eponymous:
A Maigret Christmas
A delightful and festive introduction to the Inspector Maigret character for those who may have heard of him or experienced the new television characterisation by Rowan Atkinson but never read any of George Simenon’s work.
Here we have a Parisian Christmas in the middle of the last century. A different time, with a different pace of life when the holiday was a much shorter affair and people celebrated in a simpler, less ostentatious way. Maigret and his wife are gearing up for a slow day of food and relaxation when neighbours bring around a mystery to solve. As the detective digs deeper into this unofficial case we learn much about the mutual respect and intimacy of this husband and wife team.
As with all good detective stories, this one is slow to unwind. Piece by piece the clues are unearthed and put together until the mystery is finally solved. The characters are sufficiently developed to make them interesting and not overburdened with obscure background that might just serve to confuse. There is a simpleness and freshness about Simenon’s writing - and the English translations presented here by Professor David Coward - that belies the clever plotting and detail. The reader is treated with uncommon respect by the author. He doesn’t try to confuse or confound or dig deep in to the human psyche; merely presents a mystery that needs explaining and entertains as he does so.
I’m not going to give the plot away but it works well. The reader doesn’t even know what crime, if any, has been committed at the beginning, just that a mysterious Father Christmas has turned-up in a small, grey flat on Christmas Eve with no sleigh or reindeer in tow. This single fact alone is all Maigret has to go on as he works his way to the surprisingly complex conclusion.
Penguin UK have released this collection in time for those long, cold nights over the Christmas holiday when a warm fire, a comfortable chair and a good book are the perfect way to spend dark evenings away from work, the weather and those High Street crowds. As an introduction to Inspector Maigret and his world, this is a very agreeable collection.
ISBN: 9780241282151
Penguin Classics 2nd Nov 2017
After World War Two there was grey austerity in Britain, a country building a fledgling health service, an expanded education framework, supporting a change in manufacturing from military to civilian, rebuilding transport infrastructure, still crippled by rationing. Not glamourous, not wealthy. And along came escape in the form of thriller writers who took us away from the humdrum and dour, from the cold and wet and gloomy, the workaday and predictable, and catapulted us into a world of fast cars, fast women, the glitz of the casino, the heat of tropical sun and dangerous living.
Mike takes us on a journey, as the cover says, from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed. He tells us about the authors we know and a lot we don't. About stories we wish we'd read and others we're glad we didn't. The appeal of the thriller is that what we the reader expects changes with every generation. Here is a catalogue of those that stuck to the line and those who strayed over it into new territory. There is detail you never thought you needed to know, detail you somehow can't keep on reading without.
A riveting appraisal of a genre that continues to evolve and keep us turning the pages avidly.
Of course the book includes a section about Desmond Bagley and his great influence on the scene.
ISBN: 9780008172237
HarperCollins 18 May 2017
https://www.bowmanoftheyard.co.uk
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The Never Game
by Jeffrey Deaver
This story completes the introduction of a new series character for Deaver called Colter Shaw. He first appeared in the short-story ‘Captivated’ and this new novel expands on the character, pitching him against a deadly, high-tech’ foe.
Shaw is a bit like a bounty-hunter except that he doesn’t like to call himself that, and he has his own set of noble ethics. To make a living he helps find missing persons for people offering a reward for the task, calling his current client the “Offeror”. By the time of this story Shaw has been plying his trade for ten years and is an old hand at it.
With his small team of back-office associates – neighbours in his Florida home town and a Private Investigator – Shaw travels where he needs to in search of clues. The team keep his back research-wise and by the miracles of modern technology ensure he’s updated when necessary.
As the book opens we find Shaw struggling to rescue a pregnant lady from a sinking boat in freezing temperatures. The task seems too much, threatening to overwhelm him and as the situation gradually worsens we flash back a few days to the events leading up to the deadly drama.
This is a well-written and entertaining mix of adventure and detective work, with Shaw and his new acquaintances struggling to stop a serial-kidnapper and murderer from striking again, all set against a backdrop of the highest of technology smack in the middle of the world’s most tech-savvy place – Silicon Valley.
A major clue to finding out who is behind a series of kidnaps is a popular video game. Deaver has obviously done a lot of research in and around the computer games industry. His characters are lively and nicely formed, some more deeply than others. All are troubled in one way or another. There’s a back-story too about Shaw’s upbringing and his family’s paranoid, survivalist training. There are mysteries buried deep there and in a parallel plot line he is struggling to make sense of his eccentric father’s death, hoping against hope his suspicions aren’t true.
To round out the character there’s some love interest here too but it doesn’t amount to much, though it does add more character development and a new set of possibilities for future collaboration.
As the investigation into who the kidnapper is moves towards its conclusion, Shaw’s past comes back to bite him in an unexpected but well thought-out twist, tying-up an earlier part of the plot which by that time we’ve almost forgotten about. A classic “Ah-ha!” moment of realisation.
It’s a double-ending type of story that keeps coming back until the final page and naturally points towards the prospect of another instalment with this enjoyable and dynamic, if slightly dour character.
Colter Shaw is in the same loner-hero mould we’ve come to know well in recent American thrillers, but in fairness to Deaver his creation is no carbon-copy and is his own, fully explored character with a lot of mileage yet to be extracted from his unusual upbringing.
Readers new to Deaver but familiar with American thrillers will certainly enjoy his new creation. Those who have read the author before will appreciate his new direction and character. Those who have done neither will find this a great introduction to a renowned-for-quality, best-selling author.
This is a Recommended read. One I sped through, enjoying the descriptive prose which made for very easy reading.
ISBN: 9780008303723
HarperCollins (16 May 2019)
=======================
Death Knocks Twice
by Robert Thorogood
A Death in Paradise murder-mystery
Robert Thorogood is the creator and driving-force behind the BBC TV’s highly successful whodunit drama Death In Paradise. So you know when he sets his mind to writing a novelisation, it is going to be the real-deal, fleshing-out the characters and locations he originally envisaged. Indeed Robert has so far published three books set on the Caribbean island of St Marie and there’s a fourth due later this year.
The latest you can buy right now is called Death Knocks Twice and follows his previous titles, “A Meditation on Murder” and “The Killing of Polly Carter”. The great thing about all of them so far is that Robert is continuing to develop the original detective from the television series, Richard Poole, who many will remember was portrayed by the besuited Ben Miller to brilliant effect. In the television version we are now onto our third detective.
Death Knocks Twice is an excellent concoction of characters and location, with a classic locked-room mystery at its heart. How and why was Freddie Beaumont killed in a room that apparently no murderer could have escaped from? Was it a member of his estranged family or an outsider seeking revenge for the darker days of his family history, who committed the crime? And why the title’s second killing with the victim apparently pointing directly at their killer?
Robert’s writing style is relaxed and open, easy to pick-up and put down as time allows. But it’s also full of all the necessary detail and subtle clues a whodunit needs, so you need to concentrate. A throw-away remark here or a passing description of an object there, might just be vital.
And of course the characters we know and love are there, just as we imagine them, Dwayne, Fidel and Camille, the Commissioner too. We get to learn more about the island and its history and the dark days of slavery that was at the foundation of many businesses in the area once upon a time. The island may be fictional but the social tensions a real illustration of what must be a reality.
We also get to learn a lot about basic forensics, the type of thing a keen amateur might be able to do without all the high-tech wizardry of modern science. Indeed Richard Poole goes back a long way to uncover a relevant clue, using technology from a bygone era, provided for him by an old FBI manual.
His team are as exasperated as ever at his unwillingness to eschew his formal woollen suit, something he believes befits his character and profession, while around him others dress more casually in the heavy heat of the Caribbean. There comes a point at which this all might change, a see-saw moment of will he, won’t he, just once, for the sake of his own sanity and that of his friends and colleagues. I’ll let you read for yourselves to discover what happens.
Of course at the end DI Richard Poole gets his perpetrator, after having interviewed everyone he can and sifted through all of the evidence. It’s a glorious process and thoroughly enjoyable. Satisfying in its conclusion and true to all the characters involved.
If you’d like a trip to a tropical island where the people and climate are laid-back and friendly, where there’s enough undercurrent to provide the basis for a baffling mystery or two, then anything by Robert Thorogood is to be heartily recommended, and Death Knocks Twice a very satisfying murder-mystery.
ISBN: 9781848455252
HQ - an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd (27 July 2017)
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The Mystery of Three Quarters
by Sophie Hannah
A new Poirot murder-mystery
The latest Hercule Poirot reboot by Sophie Hannah, The Mystery of Three Quarters, is an ingenious new outing for Agatha Christie’s famous detective.
Here we have the classic country-house mystery populated by characters whose lives we feel we actually have a window onto, even if we don’t particularly care for them. Because this is a whodunit the author has to put various clues in place, dotted throughout, but not so deeply buried that the reader can’t recall them when the denouement comes and all is revealed.
Sophie Hannah carries this all off with aplomb. She paints vivid pictures of situations that aren’t overly cluttered or confusing but succinct and easy to grasp. The story moves along at pace and never gets bogged-down.
The crime here is initially hard to pin down and the characters sufficiently ‘woolly’ in their plausibility and alibis to all be possible suspects. Even the murder, when it is finally revealed, isn’t quite so straight forward.
This is the author’s third new outing for Poirot coming after The Monogram Murders and The Closed Casket set in the later years of his career, featuring his valet George. The original stories from this period read more darkly than the early ones. Poirot was perhaps more lonely, more solitary, a little depressed. Not so here. He now has lively sidekicks in the form of Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard and the feisty Euphemia Spring, known as ‘Fee’, who runs the local coffee-shop.
The Inspector is a curious construct offering the necessary bridge with the Police system and a friend in the same first-person way Captain Hastings used to be. What’s more he appears to be Watson to Poirot’s Holmes, writing-up the cases for posterity. The coffee-shop is a place Poirot can’t help but return to, both for the quality of the coffee and the company he finds there.
Any criticism? Well nothing’s perfect. Nothing can actually be “Agatha Christie” except the Dame herself. Here the story is narrated partly in the first-person and partly the third. This I found a little odd at times, but over all it managed to work. There are a few scenes early on that I felt were too comedic, more Wodehouse than Christie, and I found them a little strange given the subject matter, but things soon got back on track.
This book and its convoluted plot is easy to recommend for all fans of the genre. The way it has been written is to make it somehow timeless. Yes, there are references to the year it is set in and capital punishment, but not many. The story could easily be set in any decade of the 20th century, even the 21st. That it is set between the wars is not always obvious.
A good, solid and satisfying mystery then, with characters that believe it or not, you feel will carry on their privileged existences outside of the book.
A recommended read for all fans new and old. You’ll find yourself smiling as you hear those famous Poirot phrases once more!
ISBN: 9780008264451
HarperCollins (23 Aug. 2018)
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A Maigret Christmas - And Other Stories
A RePrint of George Simenon's festive short stories
There are three short stories in this timely collection from Penguin Classics. The first is the eponymous:
A Maigret Christmas
A delightful and festive introduction to the Inspector Maigret character for those who may have heard of him or experienced the new television characterisation by Rowan Atkinson but never read any of George Simenon’s work.
Here we have a Parisian Christmas in the middle of the last century. A different time, with a different pace of life when the holiday was a much shorter affair and people celebrated in a simpler, less ostentatious way. Maigret and his wife are gearing up for a slow day of food and relaxation when neighbours bring around a mystery to solve. As the detective digs deeper into this unofficial case we learn much about the mutual respect and intimacy of this husband and wife team.
As with all good detective stories, this one is slow to unwind. Piece by piece the clues are unearthed and put together until the mystery is finally solved. The characters are sufficiently developed to make them interesting and not overburdened with obscure background that might just serve to confuse. There is a simpleness and freshness about Simenon’s writing - and the English translations presented here by Professor David Coward - that belies the clever plotting and detail. The reader is treated with uncommon respect by the author. He doesn’t try to confuse or confound or dig deep in to the human psyche; merely presents a mystery that needs explaining and entertains as he does so.
I’m not going to give the plot away but it works well. The reader doesn’t even know what crime, if any, has been committed at the beginning, just that a mysterious Father Christmas has turned-up in a small, grey flat on Christmas Eve with no sleigh or reindeer in tow. This single fact alone is all Maigret has to go on as he works his way to the surprisingly complex conclusion.
Penguin UK have released this collection in time for those long, cold nights over the Christmas holiday when a warm fire, a comfortable chair and a good book are the perfect way to spend dark evenings away from work, the weather and those High Street crowds. As an introduction to Inspector Maigret and his world, this is a very agreeable collection.
ISBN: 9780241282151
Penguin Classics 2nd Nov 2017
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Kiss Kiss,Bang Bang
by Mike Ripley
Definitely required reading for anyone interested in the history of the UK Thriller genre. Written by one of the most respected authorities on the subject, Mike Ripley. A writer with a friendly, open and engaging style, himself no mean author.
After World War Two there was grey austerity in Britain, a country building a fledgling health service, an expanded education framework, supporting a change in manufacturing from military to civilian, rebuilding transport infrastructure, still crippled by rationing. Not glamourous, not wealthy. And along came escape in the form of thriller writers who took us away from the humdrum and dour, from the cold and wet and gloomy, the workaday and predictable, and catapulted us into a world of fast cars, fast women, the glitz of the casino, the heat of tropical sun and dangerous living.
Mike takes us on a journey, as the cover says, from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed. He tells us about the authors we know and a lot we don't. About stories we wish we'd read and others we're glad we didn't. The appeal of the thriller is that what we the reader expects changes with every generation. Here is a catalogue of those that stuck to the line and those who strayed over it into new territory. There is detail you never thought you needed to know, detail you somehow can't keep on reading without.
A riveting appraisal of a genre that continues to evolve and keep us turning the pages avidly.
Of course the book includes a section about Desmond Bagley and his great influence on the scene.
ISBN: 9780008172237
HarperCollins 18 May 2017
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