Mysteries Recent Picks
August 2010
The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.
Storm prey, by John Sandford. (2010)
"Starred Review. At the start of bestseller Sandford's superb 20th Lucas Davenport thriller (after Wicked Prey), the getaway vehicle from a botched early morning robbery, which results in a pharmacy employee's death, almost collides with the car driven by Lucas's surgeon wife, Weather Karkinnen. Weather, who was on her way to work at the Minnesota Medical Research Center, becomes a key witness. Sandford masterfully handles both sides of the equation as the thieves—planner Lyle Mack, his brother, Joe, and their henchmen—work to cover their crime. The investigation belongs to Minneapolis deputy chief Marcy Sherrill, but Lucas of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension pulls out all the stops to protect his wife. Sandford creates additional drama throughout as Weather and a skilled team of doctors perform an operation to separate twins joined at the skull. Sharply drawn characters, intricate plotting, and smooth dialogue make this a sure-fire winner." (Publishers Weekly)
The killing place, Tess Gerritsen. (2010)
"Tess Gerritsen’s new book The Killing Place is markedly different from her usual fare, but sports all her usual narrative acumen. The well-established page-turning abilities that marked out such earlier Gerritsen novels as The Mephisto Club and The Bone Garden are fully in evidence here, and the characters remain as sharply defined as ever – welcome news for followers of Gerritsen’s much-loved series heroines, forensic anthropologist Maura Isles and detective Jane Rizzoli. In Wyoming, the quaintly-named village of Kingdom Come is snowed in, and twelve identical houses are abandoned and in darkness. Cars, similarly, are abandoned. Where are all the human inhabitants? The snowstorm has marooned Maura Isles – and the private road that took her to the village has also led her into a frightening and disturbing puzzle. Subsequently, Jane Rizzoli arrives to find a car containing four bodies, all burnt to a crisp. Is one of the corpses Maura Isles? Rizzoli and Isles often find themselves investigating gruesome and baffling murder mysteries – very much the case here, but with Isles missing from the investigative team. As the tension is screwed ever tighter, it’s clear that, as ever, Tess Gerritsen has the full measure of the crime genre at her fingertips. Both her heroines – women who have to fight to remain at the top of their professions – are capable, but it’s Jane Rizzoli who is, in The Killing Place , stretched to her limits." (Amazon.co.uk)
The mapping of love and death : a Maisie Dobbs novel, by Jacqueline Winspear. (2010)
"Set in 1932, bestseller Winspear's endearing seventh Maisie Dobbs novel (after 2009's Among the Mad) centers on Michael Clifton, a young American cartographer during the Great War, whose remains turn up in a French field. Evidence suggests to Maisie that Michael, rather than dying in a shell blast, was murdered. Michael's parents arrive in London with letters from an unnamed English nurse that raise disturbing questions about the nurse's relationship with their son. The plucky inquiry agent embarks on a search for this woman, following a trail that leads to Chatham, home of the School of Military Engineering, which Michael attended. There she learns about the vital role that cartography played in the war. At times, subplots involving socialite James Compton, a frustrated suitor, and the family problems of Maisie's assistant, Billy Beale, slow the pace. As often in this winning series, the action builds to a somewhat sad if satisfying conclusion." (Publishers Weekly)
The good thief's guide to Vegas, Chris Ewan. (2010)
"Ewan, whose earlier Good Thief guides have visited Paris and Amsterdam, continues on his merry way. Charlie Howard, the crime writer who moonlights as a thief (or maybe it's the other way around), is in Sin City, planning to make off with healthy cache of casino chips belonging to a third-rate illusionist. But the dead body in the magician's bathtub ain't no illusion, and now Charlie has to pull off the toughest robbery of his career or face the consequences. The comic caper novel isn't exactly something new (Donald Westlake was doing them 40 years ago, and he didn't invent them, either), but Ewan, through a combination of engaging characterizations, suspenseful stories, and sharp writing, makes the Good Thief novels feel fresh and exciting. The comparison to Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series, also full of comedy and also starring a good-hearted thief, is entirely appropriate, though Ewan is no mere Block imitator. This novel will definitely appeal to fans of comic mysteries and caper novels." (Booklist)
Sizzling sixteen, Janet Evanovich. (2010)
"Stephanie Plum, half-Italian, half-Hungarian, a shrewd mixture of smarts and dumb luck, works for her cousin Vinny as a bail bondswoman in Trenton, New Jersey. Vinny, however, is in deep faecal matter, owing too much money to the very scary guys who have kidnapped him. Stephanie, office manager Connie, and Lula, plus-sized and focused (if not on the job at hand), manage to spring Vinny (more than once) and find a lot of money to pay what he owes. Along the way, they facilitate a cow stampede and an alligator escape; are assisted by a bunch of Hobbit con-goers; and find their office going up quite thoroughly in flames. Stephanie wrecks the usual car and ping-pongs between the hot and dangerous Ranger and the hot and domestic Morelli. Ranger says the “love” word to Stephanie, but it is Morelli at the end, offering her a pink, lacy thong. In the first few pages, Evanovich both catches readers up on the hilarious and cockeyed history of the preceding 15 books and gives fans a little more of everything they want, including the return of beloved stoner Mooner. Funny, scary, silly, and sweet." (Booklist)
The killer's art, by Mari Jungstedt ; translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally. (2010)
"It is a cold wintry morning in the picturesque port town of Visby when art dealer Egon Wallin’s battered and naked body is found hanging from a gate in the town’s old city walls. His was a very public death, but who killed him and why? As Inspector Knutas begins his investigation, Egon’s secrets quickly begin to come to the surface. He died on the eve of leaving his wife. Is his death a spurned lover’s revenge? And when a painting by a new cause-célèbre artist is stolen from his gallery, more questions are raised. Another theft and another death, this time in Stockholm, widens the search for the killer. As the police piece together the clues, one scandal is followed by another and Inspector Knutas will discover that beneath the patina of glamour, the high-society world of art collecting hides many secrets – some worth killing for." (Amazon.co.uk)
Entanglement, Zygmunt Miloszewski ; translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. (2010)
"The morning after a group psychotherapy session in a Warsaw monastery, Henry Talek is found dead, a roasting spit stuck in one eye. Public prosecutor Teodor Szacki, world-weary, suffering from bureaucratic exhaustion and marital ennui, feels that life has passed him by. But this case changes everything. Because of it he meets Monika Grzelka, a young journalist whose charms prove difficult to resist, and he discovers the frightening power of certain esoteric therapeutic methods. The shocking videos of the sessions lead him to an array of possible scenarios. Could one of the patients have become so absorbed by his therapy role-playing that he murdered Telak? Szacki’s investigation leads him to an earlier murder, before the fall of Communism. And why is the Secret Police suddenly taking an interest in all this? As Szacki uncovers each piece of the puzzle, facts emerge that he’d be better off not knowing, for his own safety." (Amazon.com)
Random, Craig Robertson. (2010)
"Glasgow is being terrorised by a serial killer the media have nicknamed The Cutter. The murders have left the police baffled. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason behind the killings; no kind of pattern or motive; an entirely different method of murder each time, and nothing that connects the victims except for the fact that the little fingers of their right hands have been severed. If DS Rachel Narey could only work out the key to the seemingly random murders, how and why the killer selects his victims, she would be well on her way to catching him. But as the police, the press and a threatening figure from Glasgow's underworld begin to close in on The Cutter, his carefully-laid plans threaten to unravel - with horrifying consequences."(Amazon.uk)
A razor wrapped in silk : a St Petersburg mystery, R.N. Morris. (2010)
"St Petersburg. 1870. A child factory worker is mysteriously abducted. A society beauty is sensationally murdered. Two very different crimes show up the deep fissures in Russian society of the late tsarist period. The first is barely noticed by the authorities. The latter draws the full investigative might of St Petersburg’s finest, led by magistrate Porfiry Petrovich. The dead woman had powerful friends - including at least one member of the Romanov family – so when the tsar’s notorious secret police becomes involved, it seems that both crimes may have a political – not to say revolutionary – aspect. A trail of missing children leads to a shocking discovery that takes Porfiry inside the Winter Palace for a confrontation with the Tsar himself. The usually incisive magistrate grows increasingly unsure what to believe, who to trust and how to proceed. His very life appears to be in danger, though from whom he can’t be sure ..." (Amazon.co.uk)
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