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Recent Reviews
Lucy Atkins
Mixed Crime Fiction Lover This is a story driven by character and atmosphere rather than plot. It is not a fast-paced narrative and many of the moments of foreshadowing which avid readers of suspense will spot at once are actually red herrings. However, you will be constantly trying to guess which is which. There are beautiful descriptions of Sussex and the French holiday home idyll, but Atkins has a gift for giving even the prettiest backdrop a sinister tinge ... There are plenty of secondary characters with their own parts to play in the drama, nicely observed spats between couples and friends, humorous pokes at the life of someone thrust into the media spotlight. Underneath the accoutrements of middle class comfort, there are serious issues to be addressed about personal and professional integrity ... the plot itself is not fiendishly complicated and the complex narrative structure being built around it risks overwhelming what is a straightforward storyline. The battle of wits between the two main characters is also in danger of drowning in a wealth of detail about beetles, all-too-vivid nightmares, and Victorian family history.
Karin Brynard
Positive Crime Fiction Lover Brynard...really knows how to present controversial topics that will trigger hot debates among those living in present-day South Africa ... The author could not quite resist a lecture about the history of the Griqua people, which interrupts the narrative flow and is not strictly necessary for the plot, although I enjoyed the education in a nutshell. Nevertheless, this is a very promising start to a series that pulls no punches about the challenges of living in a complicated post-apartheid society, simmering with rivalry and tensions. You will enjoy the complex, believable and flawed characters and the hint of a backstory for Beeslaar which will hopefully be developed in future novels.
Ragnar Jonasson Trans. by Quentin Bates
Mixed Crime Fiction Lover Set about two years later than Snowblind and two or three years before the events in Nightblind, this novel takes place during the short Icelandic summer ... An American tourist gets lost and finds a man brutally beaten to death. The victim turns out to be Elias, a contractor working on a new tunnel that will end Siglufjörđur’s main problem – there’s only one road in and out. He also had a side-job building a house for a disgraced doctor, struck off the register for operating while drunk. Could Elias have been killed by mistake by a relative of one of the doctor’s dead patients? There are many other avenues to explore as well. Elias was not well liked and may have been involved in some shady dealings, laundering money via a charity that he was suddenly keen on helping out ... The style is even more assured and polished than in the debut Snowblind. The author manages to steer us through quite a large cast of characters with a steady hand and minimal confusion. There are a few weaknesses though...if you were expecting to see more of Ari Thor in police action, instead of just vacillating over how best to approach his girlfriend, you may be disappointed ... Nevertheless, this remains a very readable crime series, full of atmosphere, and a lingering sense of sadness.
Haohui Zhou
Positive Crime Fiction Lover Death Notice has a cinematic feel and a frenetic pace... the novel quietly tackles issues which have vexed China in the past ... Not all of the characters are as fully developed as one might wish. This is not uncommon in action thrillers, but perhaps more obvious in a Chinese one, where we struggle to distinguish between many characters with similar-sounding names. Some of the characters do seem to be borrowed from a library of stock characters to include in thrillers ... However, this doesn’t detract from the fun of the intricate plotting and nail-biting scenes involving the entire cast. It might not be wildly innovative compared to American thrillers, but it is pulsating, rollicking entertainment from a country that doesn’t appear all that frequently in our geography of crime fiction.
Karen Dionne
Rave Crime Fiction Lover Karen Dionne’s book turns out to be about so much more than child abduction. It is a tense thriller which will have you nervously peering around the darker corners of your room while turning the pages ever faster. It is also a thoughtful story about the limits of parental love, escaping the past and being at peace with one’s heritage. It is a fantastic book, bursting out of all the artificial constraints the publisher marketing wants to box it in ... It is this ambiguity of emotions which gives the book its lasting impact. The author refuses to see the story in simplistic, black and white terms. Even the most evil man can love and protect his child, even if he goes about it in a way most of us would find totally unacceptable ... a thought-provoking read which lingers in your mind as surely as the sulphurous odours from the swamps.