New Reviews: Crouch, Dunne, Ferris, Hannah, Harper, Kallentoft, Kitchin, O'Connor, Shaw

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

Jut a reminder: I've now set up a Euro Crime page on Facebook which you can like.

Michelle Peckham calls Julia Crouch's Tarnished, an "excellent book";

Geoff Jones reviews Steven Dunne's The Unquiet Grave, the fourth in the Derby-set DI Damen Brook series;

Susan White reviews the paperback release of Gordon Ferris's Pilgrim Soul;

Susan also reviews the paperback release of Sophie Hannah's The Carrier;

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Harper's The Orpheus Descent;

Lynn Harvey reviews Mons Kallentoft's Savage Spring, tr. Neil Smith, the fourth in the Detective Malin Fors series;

Rich Westwood reviews Rob Kitchin's screwball-noir Stiffed;

Terry Halligan reviews Niamh O'Connor's Too Close For Comfort, the third in the Dublin-based Det. Sup. Jo Birmingham series

and Terry also reviews William Shaw's debut, A Song From Dead Lips, the first in a series set in the 1960s.

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.

Review: The Orpheus Descent by Tom Harper

The Orpheus Descent by Tom Harper, May 2013, 496 pages, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 1444731351

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

A simply fantastic story! It was so totally absorbing that I zoomed through it in a few days and was most disappointed when it ended. A lovely mix of fact and fiction; Harper has seamlessly blended together the history and philosophy of mysterious Ancient Greece and Ancient Italy with characters from his own imagination and produced a winning combination. Sometimes the reader is left thinking, ‘Why?” or ”Who??” regarding the historical stuff, and there is definitely not enough about Orpheus to satisfy my appetite, but most questions are answered by the end and any that are not can easily be sorted by a visit to Wikipedia – THE ORPHEUS DESCENT is fiction after all, not a history lesson.

In brief, the story alternates between following the adventures of Plato, as he struggles to accept the execution of his friend and tutor, Socrates, and leaves his home to travel to Italy, in search of his elusive friend, Agathon. He is terrified of the sea and his plans are ruined when the ship he is sailing in is wrecked in a storm. Plato is washed ashore with one other survivor and together they make their way in this strange land. Agathon was seeking a mysterious book, so Plato starts to look for it as well, and his adventures lead him to places he could only have begun to imagine before leaving home. A large number of his more famous letters and laws are based upon this life-changing trip. He returns home a different man.

Interspersed with this wonderful tale about Plato is a modern-day story featuring a young archaeologist, Lily, and her husband, Jonah. Lily is in Italy for the summer, at work on a dig, and Jonah is touring with his band. At the end of his tour he drives his trusty van down south to Lily’s dig so that they can go home together. He arrives safely but then disaster strikes. Lily disappears and nobody seems that bothered about it. All their friends, and the police, think that Lily has ended the marriage but Jonah refuses to believe it and sets off to find her. His journey mirrors that of Orpheus, the legendary Greek musician who was destined to be forever in search of his wife in the Underworld. The reader hopes that Jonah will be more successful than Orpheus, but time is running out and his path is far from easy.

If you like tales of Ancient Greece and archaeology then you are going to love this book. There is just the right amount of factual detail; leaving you neither overloaded and swamped nor wanting so much more that the story is incomplete. THE ORPHEUS DESCENT is Harper’s eighth book (as well as three more as Edwin Thomas) and should prove to be at least as successful as his previous work has been. Personally, I loved it!

Highly recommended.

Amanda Gillies, August 2013.

New Reviews: Akunin, Brophy, Craig, Ellis, Forshaw, Hannah, Harper, Mallo, Robinson

Win 3 Richard Nottingham mysteries by Chris Nickson (UK only) closes 29 February.

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Laura Root reviews the tenth (and final?) Erast Fandorin adventure from Boris Akunin, and translated by Andrew Bromfield: The Diamond Chariot;

Lynn Harvey reviews Kevin Brophy's The Berlin Crossing which is heavier on the love story than the spy story apparently;

Terry Halligan reviews the second in the John Carlyle series from James Craig: Never Apologise, Never Explain;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the newest Wesley Peterson/Neil Watson mystery from Kate Ellis: The Cadaver Game;

Maxine Clarke reviews Barry Forshaw's guide to Scandinavian crime fiction: Death in a Cold Climate;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Kind of Cruel the seventh to feature her detectives Waterhouse and Zailer;

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Harper's Secrets of the Dead, calling it "another excellent book";

I review Ernesto Mallo's follow-up to the CWA International Dagger Shortlisted Needle in a Haystack: Sweet Money, tr. Katherine Silver set in 1980s Buenos Aires

and Mark Bailey wants more standalones from Peter Robinson after reading Before the Poison.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Kate Ellis, Claire McGowan, Peter Robinson and Robert Wilson have been added to these pages this week.

Publishing Deal - Tom Harper

Fromer CWA Chair Tom Harper is moving to Hodder for his next three books:

The forthcoming trio of titles are described as "literary conspiracy thrillers", with the first to be published in March 2013. Harper's previous titles include Lost Temple and The Book of Secrets.

"Tom Harper has been for a long time one of the best young British thriller writers on the scene, writing upscale and completely riveting time slip stories which entertain and educate at the same time. It's time for a quantum leap in his publishing and his profile and I'm delighted to welcome him to the Hodder list."

Read the whole article at The Bookseller.

CrimeFest Day 1 - Random House Competition

Random House are running a new competition each day of CrimeFest, which begins today. The first competition is for 3 books by Tom Harper. Looking at the entry page they appear to be: The Book of Secrets, The Lost Temple and The Lazarus Vault.

Enter the competition here (UK & Ireland only and closes midnight 25th May 2011.

New Reviews: Billingham, Black, Campbell, Ellory, Harper, MacBride

One competition for October and it is open internationally closes 31st:
Win one of five copies of Someone Else's Son by Sam Hayes

Here are this week's reviews (in all but once case the author or the reviewer is Scottish, and in one case both! Plus two of the non Scottish authors are Brummies (where I live)):

The tv series Thorne, starts tonight with the adaptation of the first Thorne book, Sleepyhead. Geoff Jones reviews the ninth in this series, written by Mark Billingham: From the Dead;

Paul Blackburn reviews the fourth Gus Dury from Tony Black - Long Time Dead set in Edinburgh;

Maxine Clarke is in Glasgow with Karen Campbell's Anna Cameron in her third outing: Shadowplay;

Pat Austin is impressed with R J Ellory's latest standalone: Saints of New York;

Amanda Gillies enjoys Tom Harper's latest thriller, which involves the Holy Grail: The Lazarus Vault

and Craig Sisterson reviews Stuart MacBride's most recent DS Logan McRae book: Dark Blood set in Aberdeen.

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

Bits and Pieces (4)

A few things I've discovered recently:

Sony is to sponsor the e-book category prize at next year’s Crimefest.

Tom Harper aka Edwin Thomas will take over the CWA chair in April from Margaret Murphy.

There's a five minute video interview with William Brodrick author of the 2009 Gold Dagger winning, A Whispered Name, on the Whole Story Audio Books website.

The latest edition of Radio 7's Foul Play which is available to listen again/iplayer is The Adventure of the Murdered Heiress - "Crime writers PD James and HRF Keating try to solve the deadly case of a jewel theft. Written and chaired by Simon Brett".

New Reviews: Burke, Cleeves, Creed, Harper, Monaldi & Sorti, Sington

There are three competitions running this month; the prizes are: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke, Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and Blood Law by Steven Hague (some restrictions apply).

Here are this week's reviews:

I review one of this month's competition prizes, The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke;

Pat Austin reviews the paperback edition of White Nights by Ann Cleeves the second in the excellent Shetland Quartet;

Maxine Clarke reviews Suffer the Children by Adam Creed the first in a London based police procedural series;

Michelle Peckham reviews the globe-trotting thriller, The Book of Secrets by Tom Harper;

Laura Root reviews the controversial Imprimatur by Monaldi and Sorti

and Norman Price writes very favourably of The Einstein Girl by Philip Sington.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.