The Detective Gone Gray by Jake Needham.

 

342 pages

Rating 3.5 ⭐s

You can buy Detective Gone Gray...here

You can find out more about Jake Needham...here

• The Blurb...

The Chinese foreign minister is speaking at a Bangkok university, and there's a diplomatic reception for him before the speech. Like most diplomatic receptions, it's an occasion that's dull as dishwater.

Until it isn't.

The assembled diplomats discover the main doors of the reception hall have been locked. That's when a masked gunman comes in through the back and opens up with a silenced MP5. It's like shooting the proverbial fish in the proverbial barrel. Thirteen dead and nine wounded, including the British ambassador, the Korean ambassador, and the American deputy chief of mission.

The Thai police are overwhelmed, and they ask Interpol to send a homicide investigator to help them. Interpol doesn't investigate homicides, so the regional office asks the Singapore police to lend them an experienced detective.

Inspector Samuel Tay was once a legendary investigator for Singapore's Criminal Investigation Department, but now he's retired. It wasn't exactly voluntary, of course, but that's another story. When he's asked to help the Thai police, he reluctantly agrees. Bangkok's not his favorite place, and the Thai police aren't his favorite people, but retirement is ... well, dull.

Worse, he's getting old, and it's a melancholy feeling to know he's at the end of his career. Just maybe, he thinks, he's got one more big case in him before it really is time to let it all go.

Maybe he does, but there are powerful forces out there that aren't going to let it be this case. If he gets too close to the secret they've hidden behind the slaughter, they've already decided what they'll do.

They'll just kill Samuel Tay, too.

• Our Review...

Detective Gone Gray is the 8th in the Inspector Tay novels. I have read very little literature based in South East Asia, well actually I haven't read anything based in South East Asia so this was a refreshing change. I have read "fish out of water develops into bromance" novels before but always the protagonists are from the Anglosphere so a collaboration between a staid, serene retired Singapore cop and a big, uniformed, motor cycle riding Thai cop was new one me. Each seemed to represent the cultures that they were from. Singapore logical, steady organised maybe a little  repressed, the other loud, brash and uninhibited. Reading about this culture clash dynamic which I previously knew nothing about was one of the joys of reading this book. It made me realise I need to explore more geographically, albeit from the comfort of reading a novel in an armchair in my home. That is one of the beauties of books. You can broaden your horizons without actually having to go anywhere.

The author does have his little foibles. He tends to describe a lot more than most crime/thriller authors. This is in regards to locations, architecture and even facial descriptions of characters. There does seem to me to have been a trend for a long time to avoid description but I quite like it. It is like going for a meal and not being rushed, and be allowed time to savour every last morsel as opposed to rushing to the end of the meal for the bill. Of course too much is just as bad as not enough. Luckily the author strikes a perfect balance between description and pace.

The character of Inspector Tay is an interesting one, in that he doesn't have any gimmicky flaws eg Poirot was vain, Holmes had huge ego and was possibly bi polar, Kojack was bald and loves lolipops. Tay is absent of drink, drug, family or attitude issues. The nearest thing to a flaw is that he is trying and failing to give up cigarettes. He is just a nice, gentle thoughtful man. He may be a little lonely but this is not brought front and centre but is merely a whisper in the background. It is nice that quiet normal people can be heroes too.

Why then only 3.5 stars then? (By the way that is still between ok and good according to my self created scale, so still very much worth reading.) Well there was a change in the narrative about 80% of the way in. 

Let me explain, In a series of books you can get two types:

1. Episodic. Same characters but different story every book.. Think SherlocK Holmes.

2. Serial. Same characters but with one long story throughout the books. Think Game of Thrones.

This novel was strictly episodic up until it wasn't (to semi quote the author.) I had totally bought into the format only to be switched at the last minute. While both types are similar they are slightly different. It would have been akin to watching my beloved Scarlets play a game of rugby union only for them to start playing rugby league in the last 10mins. It threw me bit. Either style would have been fine on their own. So I think it cost the book half  a star form me. 

Despite this quirk, which is probably a me thing anyway,  I still found this book to be an interesting new avenue of crime/thriller for me. I would gladly read a Jake Needham novel again. It just made me wish that I had started at book number 1

• Selected Quotes...

A suntan in Western countries might be a symbol of wealth and leisure, but it was the opposite in Asia. The only Asians with suntans were those forced to do manual labor outside to earn their living. Pure white, untanned skin meant wealth and leisure, and most Asian women went to considerable lengths to make sure theirs looked that way.

All I’ve been told is that the countries that had people killed or wounded in the attack are clamoring for an arrest, and the Thai police are completely overwhelmed.” Tay nodded. That made sense. In his experience, the Thai police would be completely overwhelmed by too many people parking illegally.

Americans don’t understand how much they’re resented by nearly everyone. They seem convinced that everyone else wants to be them. Almost no one wants to be them. Everyone just wants to have the stuff they have.”

That was the way things worked in Washington. Somebody has to take the fall for screw-ups, and when it was you or the president, it was you.

• If You Liked This, Then You May Like...

The Teenage Textbook by Adrian Tan

The Singapore Sling Quartet by Oon AhPhing

The Inspector Chen Series by Qui Xiaolong

• About The Author...

JAKE NEEDHAM received the Barry Award at Bouchercon 2024, the world's largest convention of mystery readers, for BEST PAPERBACK MYSTERY OF 2024. He is a three-time Barry Award nominee, as well as a nominee for the International Thriller Writers' award for BEST PAPERBACK THRILLER OF THE YEAR.

Needham is an American screen and television writer who has lived in Thailand for over thirty years. He started writing crime novels when he realized he really didn't like movies and television all that much. Since then, he has published fifteen popular mysteries and thrillers in two different series — The Inspector Samuel Tay Novels, and the Jack Shepherd Novels — as well as the international bestseller, THE BIG MANGO.

I Claudius by Robert Graves

 

Rating 5⭐s

416 pages

First published 1934

You can buy I, Claudius...here

You can find out more about Robert Graves...here

• The Blurb...

Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors: from the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia to the sadistic Tiberius and the insane excesses of Caligula. Written in the form of Claudius' autobiography, this is the first part of Robert Graves's brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome.

With an introduction by Barry Unsworth

• Our Review...

Claudius was born into a great family. A descendant of both Julius Caeser and Mark Anthony but alas he was lame, partially deaf and with a stammer. However his curse was also his blessing. Because of his failings he was never seen as a potential contender for the title of Roman Emperor, however due to his family connections he was always in the room. His calling was to be an historian, which puts him in the perfect position for the author to choose him to be our "unreliable" author. The historical record is correct, the names, dates and battles are correct. The only point of conjecture is what the characters thought and felt, and the author conjures up the characters with such tone and personality as to become very real to the reader.

Thus we learn all the court intrigues through three generations of Roman Emperors. Augustus the practical one, Tiberius the depraved one and Caligula the absolutely bonkers one.

We see through Claudius's eyes the life and times of Imperial Rome. There are orgies, and gladiators and plots and depravity. The body count is huge and all through the decades Its feels like we are being given all the gossip from the most powerful family in the world by our mate who is telling us all this over a pint at the pub. 

My favourite character is Livia, Claudius's scheming grandmother. From now on whenever I see a debate about the most evil female character in literary fiction on social media, I am going to throw Livia's hat into the ring. She is the ultimate wrong 'un. For me she takes the crown from Cruella Deville by knock out in the first round. No spoilers, I will let you uncover her wicked ways for yourself.

I must mention the BBC adaption for TV in the 1970s, with a stellar cast of Derek Jacobi, Sian Phillips, John Hurt, Patrick Stewart, Bernard Hill, Peter Bowles, Kevin McInally. It was a wonderful production. I'm afraid that the BBC couldn't do something similar today. But no matter how good the TV show, the book was still better. 

Yes it is 2000 year old history and there are some instances where it is very apparent that this is a very, very different society to todays. However for the vast majority of the tale, the reader feels very "in the moment." Imagine a Tory government cabinet member from in 2010 and the glorious rise to power to the scandal riddled collapse and chaos of 2024. Now imagine this intelligent and eloquent but non descript cabinet member telling you everything that went on from the affairs, scandals and powers grabs. All this from someone who was actually in the room when the big stuff happened. That's how up to date this still feels. Human emotions never get outdated they are timeless.

If you look at the "If you liked this, then you may like..." section you will see that I have recommended Wolf Hall set in the Tudor area of England and The Godfather set in the 1950s of New York. Not very much like Rome AD34 you say? Yes but the politics of family, time, dynasty, power, money and death are very much the same.  There is a reason why Hilary Mantel loves this book. It is basically Wolf Hall set 1500 years earlier.

I first read this book as a 16 yr old studying for my Classical Studies O level. Yes I am that old. This book along with The Iliad and to a lesser extent the Odyssey fired my passion for reading in general and the classical period in particular.

Loved it then. Love it still.

• Selected Quotes...

I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus this-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles), who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as ‘Claudius the Idiot’, or ‘That Claudius’, or ‘Claudius the Stammerer’, or ‘Clau-Clau-Claudius’, or at best as ‘Poor Uncle Claudius’, A.D. 41 am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the ‘golden predicament’ from which I have never since become disentangled.

Augustus ruled the world, but Livia ruled Augustus.

Most women are inclined to set a modest limit to their ambitions; a few rare ones set a bold limit. But Livia was unique in setting no limit at all to hers,

The gift of independence once granted cannot be lightly taken away again.

He was always boasting of his ancestors, as stupid people do who are aware that they have done nothing themselves to boast about.

To use the majesty of the law for revenging any petty act of private spite is to make a public confession of weakness, cowardice, and an ignoble spirit.

• If You Liked This, Then You May Like...

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell

Imperium by Robert Harris

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

• About The Author...

Robert Graves (1895-1985) was an English poet, translator, and novelist, one of the leading English men of letters in the twentieth century. He fought in World War I and won international acclaim in 1929 with the publication of his memoir of the First World War, Good-bye to All That. After the war, he was granted a classical scholarship at Oxford and subsequently went to Egypt as the first professor of English at the University of Cairo. He is most noted for his series of novels about the Roman emperor Claudius and his works on mythology, such as The White Goddess.

Blood On The Broadcast by S.D.W. Hamilton

 

Rating 3.5⭐s

318 pages

You can buy Blood On The Broadcast...here

You can find out more about SDW Hamilton...here

The Blurb...

A Locked Room. An Improbable Murder.

When Private Investigator Jacob Kincaid is approached by mystery podcaster Natalie Amato, he senses a case that matters may have finally fallen across his desk.

The former journalist hires Jacob to investigate the death of a colleague, convinced what was initially written off by police as an accident, was actually murder.

With an unlikely crime and a cult of Ireland’s elite watching from the shadows, Jacob must navigate an increasingly deadly case to get the answers he needs and where every new truth uncovered puts his life, and Natalie's, at risk.

Our Review...

While writing this review I have decided to include a spoiler (well sort of ish) Dont worry before you come to it I will announce it red letters so you have the opportunity to either carry on or look away. 

Set in Northern Ireland. The story focuses on Jacob Kincaid an ex-police officer drummed out of the force for reasons unknown. Now down on his luck he is running a one man (with a secretary) sleazy private investigator business. He is hired by a female, podcast journalist to investigate the death of her colleague who was found dead in a totally locked room after an apparent drunken slip and fall.  At the time she was investigating a shadowy but highly influential cult in Northen Irish society. Add in ex boyfriends, other podcast colleagues, unloving wealthy father, scheming brother and a murky MI5 agent and the gangs all here.

The Northen Ireland (N.I.) setting is interesting with little nods to the past and some colloquialisms. I haven't heard the term Peelers since I was a kid and I still don't know what "hoking" is despite trying to look it up, but the location was a plus. The only downside here was that the author does, I feel, get dragged into too many road names and routes eg.

They came off the motorway at Stockman’s Lane and took Kennedy Way up to the Andersonstown Road,

in the centre lane through Dunbar Link onto Great Patrick Street and saw Natalie follow the road towards the M3 and her home in the East of the city.

through town and onto the M2 motorway. It was only a short distance before they exited and turned into the Harbour estate, following the road down into Sailortown.

circled back onto the M2, following the road until it merged with the M5. As they exited the motorway

crossed back through Writer’s Square. Instead of continuing across the road to Talbot Street, she took a right, heading along Donegall Street.

While reading, these instances of specific directions took my head out the narrative. If you are familiar with N.I. then I am sure it all adds to the ambience. However I feel for an audience not familiar with N.I. a generic description would suffice. 

 As a reviewer one of the prompts i set is "ask the main question." In this case the main question was not Whodunnit? but how they committed murder in a locked room. This question is consistently teased through out the story. More of this later.

The road directions/names thing aside., the writing is simple and concise as befits the breathless pace of the story. The writer did keep me turning the page with the several action sequences including fights, car chases and even even a bit of arson thrown in. It reminded me of the Alaistair McClean stories I used to love as a teenager. This is clearly a strong point for the author.  

This is the author's first novel and as such augers well for a future writing pacy thrillers.

SPOILER (sort of ish) 

As I have stated earlier, the main question asked was how do you commit a murder in a locked room. Again as stated earlier this question was highlighted a number of times through out the texts thereby raising the stakes continually. When the payoff was finally revealed the scenario that kept popping into my head was "Kobayashi Maru" from Star Trek. Where Kirk is confronted with the ultimate no win scenario in a battle situation simulation. No one has ever passed this test but Kirk wins a commendation for his approach to the problem. What does he do? he breaks in the night before and changes the programming of the simulation so what is billed as a " no win situation" isn't really a "no win situation." I remember feeling a little let down by this "cop out." If you are advertising a no win situation then that is what the viewer, wants to see. Similarly in our case the locked room 

mystery isn't really a locked room. You want to see it solved by ingenious but potentially possible methods (some were even suggested in the text) rather than changing the parameters of the security of the locked room. 

As i am writing this it feels a bigger issue than it actually was.. It feels that I may be making mountains out of molehills. and this is a "just me then" issue. I feel It just would have added a little more to what was a very good, engaging first novel.

Selected Quotes..

Old suspicions died hard in Belfast. It was the third time in the last hour Jacob had noticed the twitching of the curtain in the upstairs bedroom. Belfast’s housing estates were still divided by ancient grudges and on a street like this, memories lingered and a stranger in a strange car stood out.

Half an hour ago he had thought the investigation was nothing more than him pissing in the wind. Now, a slow shiver crept up his spine. Not fear, but excitement. It had been a once familiar sensation. The anticipation that came with a sudden crack in an investigation, a previously unseen avenue opening up,

The man was on him. Small and junkie thin,

“And you think they’re capable of murder?” “Any religion is capable of murder. Anyone from here knows that well enough.”

He had read once that coincidence was the word used when you couldn’t see the levers and pulleys.

If You Liked This, Then You May Like...

Country by Michael Hughes

Divorcing Jack by Colin Bateman

Fear is the Key by Alastair McClean

About The Author...

S.D.W Hamilton is a writer from the North Coast of Northern Ireland. 

His debut novel, Blood on The Broadcast, a crime and mystery thriller set in Belfast, released in February 2024.

He has also recently completed his first foray into the Young Adult genre with a mystery novel titled Our Strange Town, and is currently working on the sequel to Blood On The Broadcast.

His writing can also be found in CrimeBits and over at Punk Noir Press.

When not writing, he geeks out over video games and most things Star Wars related.

He lives with his wife, daughter, son, and two doggos in Belfast.

The Gathering Storm by Alan Jones

 

Rating 5⭐s

You can buy The Gathering Storm..here

You can find out more about Alan Jones...here

The Blurb...

The Gathering Storm: Book 1 in the Sturmtaucher Trilogy, a powerful and compelling story of two families torn apart by evil.

Kiel, Northern Germany, 1933. A naval city, the base for the German Baltic fleet, and the centre for German sailing, the venue for the upcoming Olympic regatta in 1936.

The Kästners, a prominent Military family, are part of the fabric of the city, and its social, naval and yachting circles. The Nussbaums are the second generation of their family to be in service with the Kästners as domestic staff, but the two households have a closer bond than most.

As Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party claw their way to power in 1933, life has never looked better for families like the Kästners. There is only one problem.

The Nussbaums are Jews.

The Sturmtaucher Trilogy documents the devastating effect on both families of the Nazis’ hateful ideology and the insidious erosion of the rights of Germany's Jews.

When Germany descends ever deeper into dictatorship, General Erich Kästner tries desperately to protect his employees, and to spirit them to safety.

As the country tears itself apart, the darkness which envelops a nation threatens not only to destroy two families, but to plunge an entire continent into war.’

Our Review...

This is a heart rending cautionary tale of politics gone wrong. It tells the tale of Eric (played in my head by Curt Jurgens!) and Yosef. Childhood friends who saw out the first world war in action together. Now Erich is a General working for German military intelligence and Yosef is his domestic help/driver. However its 1933 in Kiel. Yosef and his family are jewish but not fervently so. This is the first part of a trilogy that encompasses 1933-1945 in total.

We meet both sets of families. Erich's two sons progress from the compulsory Hitler Youth into the Army. Franz honourable and thoughtful like his father, Johann a womanising hot head. We also meet Erich's wife Maria, desperate to be a leading socialite and accepted by the aristocracy. To this end she is seeking a high society match for her oldest daughter.

Yosef's family is less aspirational. His wife is the Kastner's cook. They along with their children live with them in a small servants house on the Kastner's estate.

So now the scene is set we follow the slow, inexorable rising tide of the nazi party.  With each new law, diktat and convention the pressure builds a little more. Step by small step the tension continually ramps up. until it is unbearable. Yosef's family's freedoms and rights are eroded, the thugs both in brown/black shirts and in civilian garb get a little louder and a little closer. How can Yosef protect them without being taken to the camps as a criminal. What can Erich do with being denounced as a traitor. 

This is in part a epistolary novel. The writer is very clever in using telegrams between military intelligence departments and letters between Jewish friends to increase the temperature without telling you that he is increasing the temperature dial. 

Often you see two questions posed about WW2 and the nazis. 

1. How did the German people just go along with the race hatred policies of the nazis?

2. Why didn't the Jewish population do something about it?

If you read this book, it transfers into you by osmosis into the feel of the time and place, you will understand how both these situations occurred. And it is truly horrific and a scenario that one can see playing out around us in populist politics today. 

Any negative things about this book? It felt heavy, serious and important. Although given the subject matter there was no way around this. It was never going to be rainbows and lollipops although perhaps it could have been a little shorter.

However this does not deflect from an excellent book. You really feel for the characters and it's heartbreaking that you now whats coming while they don't.

Like being with a friend who you know has a terminal illness but he is oblivious to it.. This book should be studied in schools in History or English classes to see how media manipulation can lead to societal control. Read this as history and then read 1984 to see the next evolution. 

The research is amazing and the reader would do well to read the appendages to appreciate this mammoth 5 year undertaking.

This is a tour de force and I can give it no higher praise than to say it could be a "Schindler's List" prequel.

Selected Quotes...

The thing is, Yosef, people are disillusioned. Unemployment is soaring, living conditions are worse than ever and our politicians are indecisive and do nothing but bicker and prevaricate. We are being bled dry and treated as pariahs by the rest of the world and our armed forces are emasculated. Is it any wonder that people see him as some sort of saviour?’

We went from a democracy to a dictatorship in a few short months, without so much as a whimper.’ ‘Because deep down, the German people don’t really like us, and if we’re the price they pay for putting Germany back on the world stage, they’ll give him anything.’

He paused again, looking around at the faces of people desperate for guidance, both temporal and spiritual. ‘I am leaving Germany with reluctance because, until recently, I regarded myself as German, and I loved this country. If it were just our leaders who were trying to impose their anti-Semitic views on the nation, I could live with that. But the German people; not all of them, but a significant proportion of them, are embracing those views and, in my view, it can only get worse.’

She gave him a worried smile. ‘You too? It’s getting to the stage when I think everyone is looking at me.’ ‘Maybe we’re just overthinking it all. Surely everyone hasn’t become Jew-haters overnight?’ ‘Maybe they’ve always hated us, but only now do they feel they can show it.’

the alcohol slowly glued the group together, and loosened their tongues,

wasn’t the National Socialists or the government who threw the bricks and lit the fires of Kristallnacht, although they stood back and let it happen. It was the German people who smashed and burned our homes, shops and synagogues.’

Memo: Geh.KdoS. ABW 31/08/39 CAC0842.1 For Attention Only: General Erich Kästner, Abwehr, Kiel office, Abwehr. From: Vice Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Chef der Abwer

The British fleet has mobilised; all leave has been cancelled and all naval ships have been made ready to go to sea. [END]

If You Liked This, Then You May Like...

The Unwanted Dead by Chris Lloyd

The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah

Living With The Enemy by Jack Higgins

About the author...

Alan Jones is a Scottish author with three gritty crime stories to his name, the first two set in Glasgow, the third one based in London. He has now switched genres, and his WW2 trilogy was published in the second half of 2021. It is a Holocaust story set in Northern Germany.

He is married with four grown up children and six wonderful grandchildren.

He retired in 2020 as a mixed-practice vet in a small Scottish coastal town in Ayrshire and is one of the RNLI volunteer coxswains on the local lifeboat. He makes furniture in his spare time, and maintains and sails a 45-year-old yacht in the Irish Sea and on the beautiful west coast of Scotland. He loves reading, watching films and cooking. He still plays football despite being just the wrong side of sixty.

His crime novels are not for the faint-hearted, with some strong language, violence, and various degrees of sexual content. The first two books also contain a fair smattering of Glasgow slang.

He is one of the few self-published authors to be given a panel at Bloody Scotland and has done two pop-up book launches at the festival in Stirling.

He spent five years researching and writing the Sturmtaucher Trilogy.

Shrouded by Solveig Palsdottir

 

Rating 4⭐s

You can buy Shrouded...here

You can find out more about Solveig. Palsdottir..here

This review is by Guest Reviewer  Adele Powell

The Blurb...

A retired, reclusive woman is found on a bitter winter morning, clubbed to death in Reykjavik's old graveyard.

Detectives Guðgeir and Elsa Guðrún face one of their toughest cases yet, as they try to piece together the details of Arnhildur's austere life in her Red House in the oldest part of the city.

Why was this solitary, private woman attending séances, and why was she determined to keep her severe financial difficulties so secret?

Could the truth be buried deep in her past and a long history of family enmity, or could there be something more?

A stranger keeps a watchful eye on the graveyard and Arnhildur's house. With the detectives running out of leads, could the Medium, blessed and cursed with uncanny abilities, shed any light on Arnhildur’s lonely death?

Our Review...

During the opening scene, we meet Arnhildur, a lonely, elderly and reclusive woman. She is reading the newspaper and looking for employment. The author gives just enough information to make the reader wonder why she is looking for employment at her age and why she is a recluse. Arnhildur then attends a seance, again making the reader ask why she would do this. The reader is also not party to what the souls from the other side communicate to Arnhildur through the clairvoyant. This supernatural element continues throughout the book. Again, this all adds to the intrigue and mystery. We then find out that Arnhildur does not make it home that night. The writing from the victim perspective in the opening chapters was excellently executed, we learn about her life and thoughts just enough to care about her wellbeing and give us some insight into potential reasons for her murder. 

We then meet likable detectives Gudgeir and Elsa Gudrún. Both seem down to earth and ordinary people. Having not read the first 3 books in the series, I did find it a little difficult to get to know their lives and feel invested in them as characters. However, reading this book as a stand alone, the author does explain succinctly the family relationships each one has at home. 

Once the detectives enter the picture, the reader is taken on a twisty journey of trying to figure out who was responsible for Arnhildur's demise. I was kept guessing throughout, the plot is intricate to keep it interesting but also written in a way that is easy to follow. This ensures the reader is taken on an adventure with the detectives. During the course of the investigation more than one 'bad guy' emerges, again adding an interesting curveball to the story.

I was not able to identify the killer until the author revealed this to me. In my opinion, this is the mark of an excellent crime fiction novel. The author includes multiple red herrings which are very well presented and plausible as potential killers. The setting of Iceland is also beautifully described and adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the story. I would have liked to have read the first 3 in the Ice and Crime series prior to reading Shrouded to get a better picture of the detectives characters, I'm sure this would have added to the overall experience of reading this book. 

Selected Quotes...

"Words have characters of their own and that affects our mood, try saying it slowly", 

"Shit's still shit" Elsa Gudrún muttered sourly. "Even if we call it poop"

It was quite likely that these people harboured the same inner feeling as she did, a discomfort at being present in this place.

She glanced around, but the street was as deserted as before. Once again, she heard the clear crunch of footsteps coming her way. Someone was coming through the graveyard.

If You Liked This,Then You May Like...

The Faceless Killers by Henning Markell

A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Evardsson

The Axe Woman by Hakan Nesser

About The Author...

Sólveig Pálsdóttir has a diverse background. She’s a trained actor and has performed in theatre, television and radio. She holds a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of Iceland along with a degree in teaching. Sólveig taught Icelandic literature and linguistics, drama and public speaking for many years and has produced a number of radio programmes and managed cultural events.

Her first novel Leikarinn (The Actor) was published in 2012 to rave reviews and weeks at the top of best-sellers lists. It is now being developed as a motion picture. The second novel, Hinir réttlátu (The Righteous Ones), was published the following year, and also became a best-seller. Both novels have been published in Germany by Aufbau as Eiskaltes Gift and Tote Wale. Her third novel, Flekklaus (Pure), was published in March 2015.
Her fourth book, Refurinn (The Fox) also made its way to Iceland’s best-seller list.

All her novels have been shortlisted for the Icelandic Crime Fiction Awards and have been praised for their narrative, attention to detail and sympathetic characters.

Fjötrar (Silenced) was published in 2019 and won the Icelandic Drop of Blood award for the year’s best crime novel, and was shortlisted for the Nordic Glass Key Award.
Sólveig lives in Reykjavík and is married with three children and two grandchildren.

Chrysalis by Harrison Murphy

 

Rating 4.5⭐s

303 pages

You can buy Chrysalis...here

• The Blurb...

An implant with the potential to save humanity, but only in the right hands.

Not long after a disease leaves thousands dependent on blood transfusions, the UK’s blood reserves are stolen overnight.

The government’s response? Make blood into currency.

The stolen blood is sold by dealers being controlled by a mysterious implant.

Ginley and Sara, two rival political journalists with opposing agendas, cover the government’s handling of a country thrust into crisis. As they find out more about the blood heist and the implant, a political story turns personal, and they have to put their differences aside and work together to unravel a colossal conspiracy.

*contains some traumatic and disturbing scenes

• Our Review...

Well what an unexpected gem this was. This is type of book is the reason why i not only review big, posh, shiny famous books but also the little quiet ones that nobody hears. Most of the quiet ones are exactly that, but every now again one starts to whisper in your ear as you begin reading. It gradually grows to become an ear-worm and by the end it's up there with the big boys, solidly ensconced in your head. 

The story is set in the near future after another global pandemic. This one affects the body's ability to clot blood, so basically air-borne haemophilia.  It is known as hemo. It's traits are only hinted at up until you are 20% into the book, which, if I'm honest, I found very frustrating and why I'm telling you upfront! On top of this the country's blood supply is stolen. Thus uninfected blood becomes super valuable. Blood replaces £s as a currency. As intriguing as this scenario is, it is only the starter. 

A back street trade in blood soon develops. However all these new blood dealers have one thing in common. A powerful microchip implant that ensures that they are under surveillance 24hours a day. In addition to this the implant also acts as a kill switch. So with this the scientific premise is set. I will divulge no more of the plot for fear of spoilers. 

However the book is far more than a scientific think tank. It is a critical look at politics and politicians. It holds a mirror up to the dark hearts of society in showing how inventions or institutions that can be used for the benefit of the whole planet are eventually always used as tools to make the rich and powerful even more rich and more powerful. Think how the potential for nuclear power or the NHS has been corrupted from its altruistic inception and used as a resource to lever power for the few and you get where the author is trying to get to.

The author is obviously a keen observer of British politics and all the subtle and not so subtle dark arts within. He marries it well with the currently just out of reach technology that is just around the corner. It reminded of a Michael Crichton novel albeit a UK version, a bit darker on a smaller, somehow more seedier scale. The blend of short range science fiction and contemporary political corruption makes for a heady blend. Like having a vision of a car crash your about to be in.

 Wonderful book

• Selected Quotes...

As the bigger picture becomes increasingly bleak, the people who can afford to, and I include those of a left-wing persuasion in that description, the ones who claim to be full of compassion and empathy, they’re going to start ignoring the bigger picture and do only what they need to do to survive.

Lightfoot wanted to emulate what Starmer had done, and surround himself with competent, if unexciting, people. He wanted the X-Factor days of politics to be over. For voting to be about competency again, rather than a popularity contest. It would be easier to extinguish the fires if all the arsonists were out of the picture.

By learning the lessons from Covid-19, Lightfoot prioritised lives over the economy. Whereas, during Covid-19, the Tories had tried to prioritise the economy over lives, yet still managed to trash the economy.

Does it really matter? Think of all the evil bastards that run companies. Mum often writes columns about them. The kind of bastards that run fashion chains which have sweatshops in Bangladesh and use materials that are bad for the environment, or the sportswear chain that abuses those awful zero-hour contracts, or the pub chain that treats their staff like the shit on the soles of their shoes, or just all shareholders and directors in general, getting away with not paying their taxes even though they have billions in the bank whilst the little guy gets shafted. Why is the money going to an ‘international crime syndicate’ so bad? It’s just a different kind of crook, innit.”

• If You Liked This, You May Like...

Prey by Michael Crichton

Blind Faith by Ben Elton  (review here)

The Ministry of Time by  Kaliane Bradley

• About The Author

Harrison Murphy is a writer from Motherwell, Scotland. His Chrysalis trilogy focuses on the societal impact of an fictional (yet conceivable) implant which revolutionises the 2030s. It allows for something akin to cosmetic surgery, but for the mind. He released Chrysalis in March 2022, Dandelion in November 2022, and Elephant in April 2023. He is now working on three standalone works loosely inspired by the afterlife, reality TV and Rapunzel.

Flames of Anarchy by Leslie Scase

 

Rating...4⭐s

288 pages

You can buy Flames of Anarchy...here

You can find Leslie's face book page...here

You can find out about Crime Cymru...here

• The blurb...

After a plot to assassinate the Czar of Russia is foiled by government agents, Inspector Thomas Chard is tasked with finding a lone assassin who may be being protected by a gang of anarchists somewhere in Glamorganshire. Having just returned to Pontypridd from Shrewsbury, where he was fighting to clear his own name, Chard is more concerned with rebuilding his career. But events soon overtake this aim and Chard’s efforts to find the assassin are frustrated by a series of apparently random murders. As the anarchists plot to promote unrest, the body count begins to grow. Soon a local politician is amongst the dead. Tensions rise as the anarchists fight amongst themselves, with one group’s actions becoming increasingly more extreme. Still the killer's true objective remains a mystery... one that Chard must solve, and quickly.

• Our review...

This is the fourth outing for our flawed, Victorian police offer Inspector Chard. This is the third one I've read and as I sat down to begin reading I realised it felt like I was looking forward to settling down to and old friend and an entertaining evening. A bit like when Bake Off comes back on the telly in the autumn. 

We find Chard a free man  and back in Ponty after his experiences in Shrewsbury in Sabrina's Teardrop. He may be free and back but he is still in the doghouse both with his boss and his colleagues. Luckily for Chard before he returns home a home-office fixer taps him up to do some "special branch" type work in South Wales where the is a suspected terror cell being formed. Chard is charged with locating a former college friend who may or may not be involved. As always with Leslie's writing the past reflects the present and with current spate of rioting with a religious/ethnic background his finger is again bang on the pulse. Just swap islam/asian/MDL or christain/white/EDL for catholic/Irish/Fenian and you've gone from 1895 to 2024 by the end of the page. Thus proving the old adage "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes."

Chard must keep his MI5 secret while he goes about his day job. His current task being to develop a report into the feasibility of a plain clothes CID force in Glamorganshire. Thus he is able to travel throughout the county with impunity. As he draws closer to the quite frankly embarrassing attempts at revolution by the hapless band of Glamorgan anarchists (for those of  a certain age think Citizen Smith and you get the picture) as series of seemingly unconnected, grisly murders take place that are loosely linked to the crew. Is there an assassin hidden their ranks.

As Chard uncovers clue after clue pressure mounts from the Home Office and the pace increases to a frenetic chase. The authors two main attributes are research and plot and he displays both to the maximum in this novel. The Victorian method of CPR is an eye opener! Another enjoyable romp from the Welsh Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Selected Quotes...

And there's the problem. People like that in charge, firing whoever they want.It's the same everywhere.Those who have no common sense lording it over us. Poverty and destitution for all working men. That's what they want.

As  you are aware the participants are allocated an argument to defend, and they do so regardless of  their own personal beliefs. the object is to win the debate. That's all that matters. They carry that principle on to the House of Commons. Whether an issue is right or wrong is of no concern..

• If you liked this, then you may like...

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

Victorian Murders by Jan Bondeson

The Malvern Murders by Kerry Tombs

• About the author...

Leslie Scase is the Shropshire-based author of  the Inspector Chard Mysteries, crime thrillers set in the heyday of Victorian Britain. The first novel Fortuna’s Deadly Shadow was published in 2020. The second, Fatal Solution, was published in May 2021. Sabrina’s Teardrop, a thriller set mainly in Shropshire and Birmingham was published on 10th October 2022. An advocate of the ‘classic’ murder mystery genre, Leslie is also a keen historian, which is reflected in the authenticity of his novels.

Born and educated in South Wales, Leslie worked in local industry before travelling widely across the UK during a career in the Civil Service. His first novel was inspired in part by his Italian and English ancestors having settled in South Wales in the late nineteenth century. A keen fly fisherman and real ale enthusiast, he lives close to the Welsh border, in the county town of Shrewsbury