New Reviews: Baylis, Brett, Charles, Connor, Corbin, Janes, Staincliffe, Weaver, Wilson

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog since last time, and six are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey reviews The Tottenham Outrage by M H Baylis and she liked it very much;

Rich Westwood reviews Simon Brett's Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx, which is now out in paperback;

Mark Bailey reviews Paul Charles's The Lonesome Heart is Angry, set in Northern Ireland;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Bosch Deception by Alex Connor;

Michelle Peckham reviews Now That You're Gone by Julie Corbin;


Terry Halligan reviews Tapestry by J Robert Janes, the fourteenth in the St-Cyr and Kohler series set in Occupied Paris;

Laura Root calls Cath Staincliffe's Letters to My Daughter's Killer - "a little gem";

Susan White reviews Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver, the fifth in his David Raker series and




Terry also reviews Robert Wilson's You Will Never Find Me, the second in his Charlie Boxer series.





Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Arjouni, Hayes, Kasasian, Malliet, Muir, L Russell, M Russell, Smith, Staincliffe

This first set of reviews for 2014, added to the Euro Crime website today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog in the last few weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

Euro Crime took a break over the festive period in terms of reviews however the review team revealed their favourite discoveries of 2013 in a series of posts. Currently we are part-way through unveiling the review team's favourite reads of 2013. After the individual lists have been posted I will tally them all up and reveal the overall favourite Euro Crime authors, titles and translators of 2013.

NB. Keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey reviews Jakob Arjouni's final book, the fifth in the Kayankaya series, Brother Kemal, tr. Anthea Bell and she recommends it to "to all lovers of mean streets and wily detectives";

Terry Halligan reviews one of the "big" books of 2013, I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes calling it an "absolutely tremendous book";

I review The Mangle Street Murders by M R C Kasasian which is my favourite discovery of the year;

Susan White reviews the seasonal A Fatal Winter by American author G M Malliet which is perhaps one more for cosy fans;

Michelle Peckham reviews T F Muir's Life for a Life the fourth in the St Andrews-set DI Andy Gilchrist series, saying it's a "great read";

Amanda Gillies reviews Leigh Russell's Cold Sacrifice which is the first in a spin-off series featuring DS Ian Peterson;

Geoff reviews The City of Strangers by Michael Russell, the second in the Stefan Gillespie series, set in 1939;

Terry also reviews Anna Smith's Screams in the Dark the third in the Rosie Gilmour series, set in 1999



and Rich Westwood reviews the second of the Scott & Bailey novelisations, Bleed Like Me by Cath Staincliffe.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Bolton, Cotterill, Delaney, Keating, Nesser, Staincliffe, Sutton, Toyne, Vowler

Nine new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today. We say goodbye to Sarah Hilary as a reviewer today but look forward to her debut novel Someone Else's Skin which is released in 2014. Thank you for all your contributions Sarah. Her final review, below, is of Tom Vowler's What Lies Within:

Michelle Peckham reviews Like This, For Ever by S J Bolton in which Lacey Flint and co are in pursuit of a serial killer of ten-year-old boys;



Lynn Harvey reviews The Woman Who Wouldn't Die by Colin Cotterill, the ninth outing for the elderly Laos Coroner Dr Siri;


Terry Halligan reviews Luke Delaney's debut, Cold Killing which introduces DI Sean Corrigan;


I recently reviewed the audio book of Into the Valley of Death by H R F Keating writing as Evelyn Hervey;



JF reviews Hakan Nesser's The Weeping Girl, tr. Laurie Thompson which focuses on Ewa Moreno a former colleague of the retired Van Veteeren;


Susan White reviews Blink of an Eye by Cath Staincliffe, an author who "never fails to impress";

Rich Westwood reviews Henry Sutton's My Criminal World;



Amanda Gillies reviews Simon Toyne's The Tower, the final and best part of the Sanctus trilogy

and Sarah Hilary reviews Tom Vowler's debut crime fiction novel What Lies Within.




Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Bruce, Clark, Haas, Jones, Kallentoft, Niven, O'Connor, Staincliffe

Here are 8 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website:

Following on from last week's review of The Calling we have Susan White's review of Alison Bruce's latest, The Silence: "This is the fourth outing for DC Goodhew and his colleagues and it doesn't fail to delight" ;

Terry Halligan reviews Cassandra Clark's A Parliament of Spies the fourth in the Abbess of Meaux series;

I review Wolf Haas's Brenner and God tr. Annie Janusch the first (but not the last thankfully) book by this Austrian author to be translated into English;

Lynn Harvey reviews Chris Morgan Jones' debut An Agent of Deceit now out in paperback. Published in the US as The Silent Oligarch;

Maxine Clarke reviews Mons Kallentoft's Summertime Death tr. Neil Smith;

Michelle Peckham reviews John J Niven's thriller, Cold Hands;

Terry reviews Niamh O'Connor's second Jo Birmingham investigation: Taken set in Dublin, and now out in paperback

and Susan also reviews Cath Staincliffe's Split Second also now out in paperback.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Bass, Bates, Casey, Dean, Gillies, Hauxwell, Henry, Orford, Staincliffe

There were no reviews last weekend as I was away at CrimeFest and I've written up a few of the panels here.

Don't forget to vote in the International Dagger Polls.

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Jefferson Bass's, The Bones of Avignon, published in the US as The Inquisitor's Key;

Maxine Clarke reviews Quentin Bates's Cold Comfort the second in his Icelandic series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Jane Casey's The Last Girl the third in the DC Maeve Kerrigan series;

Terry Halligan is very impressed with Jason Dean's debut The Wrong Man set in the US;

I recently reviewed, on the blog, Andrea Gillies's, The White Lie a tale of family secrets, set in Scotland;

Susan Hilary reviews Annie Hauxwell's debut In Her Blood;

Susan White reviews James Henry's Fatal Frost the second prequel to R D Wingfield's beloved series;

Lynn Harvey reviews Margie Orford's, Daddy's Girl, the third in her Cape Town series which has just been released in paperback

and Rich Westwood reviews Cath Staincliffe's prequel to the Scott & Bailey tv series, Dead to Me and he hopes there will be more.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Cotterill, Crouch, Griffiths, Johnstone, MacBride, Marston, Nykanen, O'Brien, Staincliffe & new Competition

New month, new competition. During May (closes 31st) you can enter a competition to win a copy of Tessa Harris's The Anatomist's Apprentice. The competition is open to UK residents. Answer the question and fill in the form here.

Here are this week's reviews of which there are 9 again. There are also more updates to the new releases pages (see below):

Michelle Peckham reviews the delightfully named Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach by Colin Cotterill, the second in the Jimm Juree series set in present-day Thailand;

Susan White reviews last month's competition prize, Every Vow You Break by Julia Crouch set in New York state;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the paperback release of Elly Griffith's A Room Full of Bones the fourth in this North-Norfolk set series;

Amanda Gillies may have found her top read of 2012 in Doug Johnstone's Hit & Run, set in Edinburgh;

Staying in Scotland, Lynn Harvey reviews Stuart MacBride's standalone, Birthdays for the Dead;

Down in Devon, Terry Halligan reviews Edward Marston's The Stationmaster's Farewell where railway detective Robert Colbeck is sent to Exeter;

Moving to Finland, Maxine Clarke reviews Harri Nykanen's Nights of Awe, tr. Kristian London the first in the Ariel Kafka series, set in Helsinki;

Terry also reviews Martin O'Brien's The Dying Minutes the seventh in the Jacquot series set in the South of France

and Maxine also reviews Cath Staincliffe's Split Second.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year. Titles by Tony Black, Bernadette Calonego, Alexander Campion, Rebecca Cantrell, Donato Carrisi, Karen Charlton, Alys Clare, Lesley Cookman, A J Cross, Victor del Arbol, Thomas Glavinic, J M Gregson, Wolf Haas, Max Kinnings, Priscilla Masters, Carol McCleary, Catriona McPherson, Barbara Nadel, Ann Purser, Pauline Rowson, Gerald Seymour, Linda Stratmann, Stefan Tegenfalk, Will Thomas, Kerry Tombs, Morley Torgov, Peter Tremayne, Neil White and Edward Wilson have been added to these pages this week.

Scott & Bailey - on tv & in print

The successful ITV series Scott & Bailey starring Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp, returns with a new series of eight episodes, starting (I believe) on Monday 12th March on ITV1.

A month later, on 12 April, Cath Staincliffe's prequel to series one, Dead to Me, is published by Corgi.


Official blurb:

A prequel to the hit TV series Scott and Bailey, and a chillingly authentic story of murder and hunting killers on the mean streets of Manchester

A daughter's death

A teenage girl is found, brutally murdered in her squalid flat.

A mother's love

Her mother is devastated. She gave her child up to the care system, only to lose her again, and is convinced that the drug-pusher boyfriend is to blame.

Two ordinary women, one extraordinary job

DC Rachel Bailey has dragged herself up from a deprived childhood and joined the Manchester Police. Rachel's boss thinks her new recruit has bags of raw talent but straight-laced DC Janet Scott, her reluctant partner, has doubts.

Together Scott and Bailey must hunt a killer, but a life fighting crime can be no life at all...

Cath Staincliffe is no stranger to tv work as she is the creator of the hugely successful Blue Murder series and also novelised two of the episodes.

New Reviews: Ashton, Clements, French, Godwin, Moss, Staincliffe, White

Do please vote in the International Dagger polls (top right of blog).

Here are this week's reviews:

I review two Inspector McLevy Mysteries (radio plays) now released on audio book, written by David Ashton: Servant of the Crown & The Picture of Innocence;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest "John Shakespeare" outing in Rory Clements' Prince, the third in this Tudor series;

Maxine Clarke reviews the first in a series from Nicci French, Blue Monday which features psychoanalyst Frieda Klein;

Amanda Gillies reviews Richard Godwin's Apostle Rising;

Michelle Peckham reviews Siren by Australian author Tara Moss;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Cath Staincliffe's thought provoking Witness (currently 99p on UK Kindle)

and Terry also reviews Michael White's The Art of Murder the second and latest in the DCI Pendragon series.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Cregan, Desai, Kitson, Nesser, Pears, Staincliffe

Two competitions for August and one is open internationally closes 31st:
Win one of three sets of Lockdown and Deadlock by Sean Black (Worldwide)
Win one of five copies of Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer by Luigi Guicciardi, tr Iain Halliday (UK & Europe)

Here are this week's reviews, which include several novels which, though crime-related you may have to hunt in the fiction section for...:

Paul Blackburn reviews the urban gothic thriller, The Levels by Sean Cregan, which is set on the East Coast of America;

Maxine Clarke goes to India in Kishwar Desai's Witness the Night writing that "Although the book does not hold up too well as a crime novel, it is excellent";

Amanda Brown reviews Bill Kitson's second DI Mike Nash book, Chosen concluding that it's "a good addition to the rich wealth of British crime fiction";

Geoff Jones review the latest paperback release in Hakan Nesser's "absorbing series" - Woman With Birthmark, tr. Laurie Thompson;

Terry Halligan reviews the lengthy Stone's Fall by Iain Pears writing "this is historical fiction par excellence"

and I review Cath Staincliffe's The Kindest Thing which technically has a crime in it but is more about love and loss (hankies may be required).

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews on Euro Crime

As usual, a quick reminder of this month's competitions:

Win one of five copies of 'Haggard Hawk' by Marcus Barr (UK & Europe)

Win one of five copies of 'Cross' by Ken Bruen (No restrictions)

Win one of ten copies of A Greater Evil/Evil is Done by Natasha Cooper (US, UK & Europe)

Win one of two sets of Seasons 1-3 of Wire in the Blood on DVD (R1) (US only)

This week's new reviews are:

The Death of Dalziel by Reginald Hill, reviewed by Karen Chisholm, Dead Simple by Peter James, reviewed by Geoff Jones, Carte Blanche by Carlo Lucarelli reviewed by me and Hit and Run by Cath Staincliffe, reviewed by Sunnie Gill.

Bibliographies have been added for - Fred Johnston, John McAllister, Joe Stein and Camilla Way - and updated for - Michael Dibdin, Ian Rankin and Ruth Rendell.

The news page was updated yesterday with links to the previous week's UK reviews and articles.

Details of all the updates can be found on the site progress page.