Search
May 27, 20131 min read
109. Henning Mankell - The Dogs Of Riga
This is a really good book; Mankell is a cut above most thriller writers. It gathers pace, a bit like a lot of films where more attention...
May 22, 20131 min read
106. Jeannie Faulkner Barber - Taste Of Fire
Mistook "good quality crime" on some website for Mills & Boon. Complete tat. Get this on Amazon
May 10, 20131 min read
103. Henning Mankell - Faceless Killers
Mankell can write, unlike Billingham. This is a short and quite slight book, possibly the first Wallander novel, but Mankell creates...
Apr 23, 20131 min read
101. Mark Billingham -Scaredy Cat
The 2nd book. I can't get a clear fix on this guy - they're lurid, over violent, with a fairly unlikeable hero, but clever and well...
Mar 29, 20131 min read
91. Jay Stringer - Runaway Town
Conned by Amazon's marketing, but I wanted a cheap thriller, so this is what I bought. Not bad as such - the hero is a Roma ex-cop,...
Mar 20, 20131 min read
88. Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
A very modern thriller, about a couple whose marriage has disintegrated, and he (Nick) may have killed her (Amy) and disposed of the...
Feb 24, 20131 min read
81. Arnaldur Indridason - Hypothermia
I am hooked on these now. Found this one hard to get into initially (no murder, just a clear cut suicide) but so cleverly done that you...
Feb 2, 20131 min read
76. Arnaldur Indridason - Arctic Chill
Sounds a bit like a frozen pudding. Elinborg has become a minor character in this one, her boss Erlendur is the major one. He is a rather...
Jan 7, 20131 min read
71. Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - The Locked Room
8/10 in the series ( I have just bought 9). The locked room is apparently analogous to a chess puzzle; how has someone been shot dead (in...
Dec 8, 20121 min read
63. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - Murder At The Savoy
Another excellent book in this excellent series. It is hard to characterise what I enjoy in these books; slightly sardonic humour and...
Dec 3, 20121 min read
62. Val McDermid - Killing The Shadows
I must have read this before in Crete (the bookmark gave it away) but could remember nothing about it. About a serial killer who targets...
Nov 28, 20121 min read
61. Eliza Graham - The History Room
One of P's. Very good part-thriller about sinister goings on at an English boarding school, which all have their origins in the past. Not...
Nov 12, 20121 min read
55. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
The 2nd book in the series. Wonderful descriptions of Budapest, when Beck sent over there and very much a spy story while he is there...
Sep 17, 20121 min read
42. Rachel Heath - Part Of The Spell
One of P's library books; she thought it was a thriller, but it isn't. A bit 'chic lit' for me, about small-town life in Saffron Walden,...
Aug 24, 20121 min read
36. Lawrence Block - Out On The Cutting Edge
Haven't read one of his for ages. Block is a much better writer than many of the cheap and cheerful (?) detective novelists above. His PI...
Aug 19, 20121 min read
34. Peter Robinson - Past Reason Hated
This is the first Peter Robinson I ever read, not one of his best as the characters haven't matured, but a good story. I had forgotten...
Aug 9, 20121 min read
31. Sinclair Macleod - The Reluctant Detective
The first in a series of which no.30 above must be the second. The plot is a bit more obvious and the writing is not as good. But quite a...
Jun 14, 20121 min read
19. Graham Greene - Brighton Rock
I hated this; just couldn't get into it at all. Green should have stuck with the tortured Catholic middle-class world that he knew (or...
Jun 5, 20121 min read
13. Peter Robinson - The Hanging Valley
I loved this perhaps largely in contrast to no.12. Beautifully told 'classic' (dare one say it) English detective story, simple and...
Jun 4, 20121 min read
12. Jo Nesbo - The Leopard
Airplane reading en route for Spain. Not a lot shorter than George Eliot, except on quality. Nesbo seems to be billed as the next Steig...