Book Club

Hush Hush

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Laura Lippman‘s Tess Monaghan books have taken a back seat to her standalone writing in recent years, but thankfully the ‘accidental detective’ is back in Hush Hush – the 12th in the series. Monaghan now has a three-year-old daughter and this weighs heavily on her mind because…
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Book Club

The Black Eyed Blonde

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Raymond Chandler is no longer around to write new stories starring his archetypal private detective, Philip Marlowe. So here Benjamin Black steps up to the plate with a mystery meant to follow on from Marlowe’s 1953 novel The Long Goodbye. Does it work? Our reviewer…
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Book Club

The Burning Man

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By the time a series reaches its 12th novel, it can lose some of its spark. Not so, it seems, with Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May which features the Peculiar Crimes Unit. In The Burning Man our favourite pair of ageing detectives are dealing with a…
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Love You to a Pulp

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Brownsville is in the state of Somewhere, USA. It’s home to the cynical, solvent sniffing detective Neil Chambers. When Jenkins, the local pharmacist, turns to Chambers for help after being beaten up by his daughter’s boyfriend, our downbeat hero agrees to look for Hoon and…
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Book Club

Blood on Snow

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Norwegian author Jo Nesbo is well-known for his Harry Hole novels. This is not one of them. Instead, Nesbo is trying something new and here we have a short noir novel with a remarkable plot and a very dark and cold atmosphere. The anti-hero of…
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Book Club

Harbour Street

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This novel featuring Ann Cleeves’ character DI Vera Stanhope was the most popular one featured on our site during 2014 and finds its deserving place on our Recommended list. Things get underway with a stoppage – that of a Newcastle metro train which can’t make its…
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Book Club

Elizabeth is Missing

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The industry buzz that preceded this release was more than justified. To say that the main protagonist is unusual, is an understatement. Maud is an 80-year-old woman on the fringes of dementia. Her memory is fallible, but she is convinced of one thing. She has…
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Book Club

Natchez Burning

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This is a giant of a book in length, moral stature, and the  sheer intensity of the writing. Penn Cage is a lawyer-turned-politician in Natchez, Mississipi – a small town with a big history. As the ghosts of the paddle steamers chug silently by on the…
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