Sleeping in the Ground

The unthinkable has hit Eastvale. Someone opens fire on a wedding party killing and injuring people. And, worse for Banks, Cabbot, Masterton et al, is that DS Winsome Jackman was a guest at the wedding!

Adding to Alan Banks’ woes is the fact that Jenny Fuller is back in town.

It becomes a race against the clock to find a deranged killer before the body count rises.

Peter Robinson adds a dose of whimsicallity to this book with a few off the cuff observations.

“Sleeping in the Ground” is possibly one of the best Alan Banks novels in years.

The Missing and The Dead

“The Missing and the Dead” is the first book by Stuart MacBride that I have read.  It will not be the last.

In his protagonist, Logan McCrae, MacBride has created a very interesting character.  An Acting Detective Inspector for four years, he’s back in uniform as sergeant and posted to the arse end of nowhere in Scotland.  The body of a little girl washes up, and all kinds of hell is let loose, and various serious crime squads, and McCrae’s former boss, DCI Roberta Steele, all converge on the area.

This is a very in depth book for a police procedural, almost 600 pages!  But it is damn near un-put-downable.  As well as the major crimes, we get a look at Scottish regional policing at its down and dirtiest.  There are wonderful supporting characters in the form of Janet, Deano, and Tufty – MacRae’s little team of hapless coppers.

It is rare for a novel like this to have more than a few moment of levity, but Stuart MacBride captures the dark, twisted, nature of the cop sense of humour perfectly.  I literally laughed until I cried on many occasions.

A gorgeous gem of a novel.  I look forward to extending my acquaintance with Stuart MacBride’s work.

From The Dead

“From the Dead” by Mark Billingham is an excellent British crime novel.

In DI Tom Thorne, Mark Billingham has created a detective as interesting and as readable as Ian Rankin’s Rebus, or Peter Robinson’s Banks.

The Tom Thorne books are mostly set in London, for those who like their reading in familiar locales.

In “From the Dead” a woman who has served ten years for conspiring to murder her husband is released from prison.  Then someone starts sending her photos of her husband… her still very much alive, husband.

From that point onwards the book becomes a roller-coaster ride of action and murder.

This book has, quite frankly, more twists than a corkscrew!

Fantastic read.  Highly recommended.

Bless Her Dead Little Heart

“Bless Her Dead Little Heart” by Miranda James marks the start of a new series by the author.  The sleuths in this new book aren’t librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel.  This time around the amateur detectives are Misses An’gel and Dickcee Ducote, whom we have meet in previous books.

I have to admit I wasn’t sure about the idea, but I have fallen in love with this pair of anti-bellum Miss Marples.

When the Ducote sisters sorority sister comes to them for sanctuary claiming her family are trying to kill her, An’gel and Dickcee are initially skeptical.  Until there is a suspicious death right before both their eyes.

It is now a race against time to work out who is doing the killing and who the real target is before the body count reaches epidemic proportions.

Face paced, witty, and absolutely delightful.  I am eagerly waiting for the next volume in the sister’s sleuthing career.