Reviews

Jun 24, 20131 min read

123. R. J. Ellory - A Dark And Broken Heart

My Kindle miraculously revived, but I am afraid that this book suffered in comparison with no.122. Rookie cop caught between his job and...

Jun 24, 20131 min read

123. R. J. Ellory - A Dark And Broken Heart

My kindle miraculously revived, but I’m afraid this book suffered in comparison with Burgess. Rookie cop caught between his job and his...

Jun 20, 20131 min read

121. Peter Robinson - All The Colours Of Darkness

Wanted to re-read this as it is the one that precedes 'Bad Boy' and I had forgotten bits of the plot, which is 'Othello' transposed into...

Jun 14, 20131 min read

116. R. J. Ellory - The Devil And The River

Great, big book - post Vietnam meets Raymond Chandler (the end is very Chandler-esque - serious wealth and serious corruption). Small...

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...

Mar 16, 20131 min read

86. Arnaldur Indridason - Black Skies

Not one of the better ones; this features Sigindur Oli who is the least likeable of the trio of detectives. Corruption amongst Icelandic...

Feb 28, 20131 min read

82. Arnaldur Indridason - Silence Of The Grave

Another old murder; this time from WW2 Reykjavik. Hints of a fairy story about it; particularly the family suffering from the very...

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 12, 20131 min read

78. Arnaldur Indridason - Voices

Much better than no.76, more like no.75. This guy is quite good; original plotting, three quite interesting cops, especially Erlendur,...

Jan 26, 20131 min read

74. Maj Sjowall & Per Wahlöö - The Terrorists

The last one in the series and pretty good. There is a wonderful lawyer whose name I can't remember who speaks I am sure with the authors...

Jan 11, 20131 min read

72. Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - Cop Killer

Same schizophrenia. Main plot good; woman murdered in town inhabited by two different murderers who appear in no.54 and no.55, so both...

Dec 22, 20121 min read

65. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - The Abominable Man

The 7th and best so far. I like the way they fit different (in this case a very nondescript one) detectives around Martin Beck. A book...

Nov 25, 20121 min read

60. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - The Fire Engine That Disappeared

Pretty good, again. A book about an absent (for most of the book) criminal, the police spend most of the time looking for a murderer who...

Nov 19, 20121 min read

58. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - The Laughing Policeman

Very good, again; I do like these books (obviously). There is quite a gang of policemen, all with their individual quirks, and because...

Nov 14, 20121 min read

56. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - The Man On The Balcony

This one is very Ed McBain police procedural. You get to know a lot of Beck's colleagues a lot better. Child sex murderer loose in...

Nov 10, 20121 min read

54. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - Roseanna

The first Martin Beck novel was written by a Swedish communist husband and wife team in the 1960's. Well dramatised on Radio 4 recently,...

Oct 5, 20121 min read

47. Peter Robinson - Watching The Dark

The latest. Good but not one of the best. Too many characters are absent. Banks in Tallinn investigating two (of course) closely related...

Sep 26, 20121 min read

45. Kerry Wilkinson - Vigilante

Similar to no.41 and although Jessica Daniel's character had developed, I didn't think it was as good (or maybe it was better, but hadn't...

Sep 15, 20121 min read

41. Kerry Wilkinson - Locked In

Police procedural with female cop (Jessica Daniel). Set in Manchester. I thought this was pretty good and could merit a TV series. Feisty...

Aug 22, 20121 min read

35. Stephen Leather - Hard Landing

By far the worst book I have attempted to read (ever?!), didn't finish it. Luckily only cost a few pennies. Characterless characters, if...