Book Club

The Investigation

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Korean crime fiction is something of a rarity, so this translation by Chi-Young Kim is a find. It is 1944, and a mixture of criminals, anti-war activists and Korean partisans are being held in Fukuoka Prison, a Japanese POW camp. The guards have a particularly…
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Book Club

Dog Will Have His Day

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The Three Evangelists appeared in English in 2006, and this is the long awaited sequel by Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau, AKA Fred Vargas. The story opens with the bizarre discovery of a human toe bone in a random dog turd. Louis Kehlweiler is the sharp-eyed observer. He…
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Book Club

Necropolis

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If you are amused by cruel humour, then a word to the wise – don’t read this book on the bus or the train, as you will be reduced to fits of giggles. Main character Dyson Devereux is an acerbic and savage commentator on the…
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Book Club

Land of Shadows

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There’s certainly no shortage of fictional LA cops and PIs. Marlowe, Rawlins, Bosch and Cole, to name but four, have all trodden the mean streets. Elouise Norton is the new kid on the block in this taut procedural. Her new partner, Colin Taggart poses a…
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Book Club

The Lying-Down Room

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“I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles”, goes the old song. Certainly, the August heat is a trial for Chief Inspector Serge Morel as he tries to solve a puzzling and brutal series of murders. Not only is Morel finding the temperature a…
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Book Club

Borderline

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The sexual violence that occurs here and there in Lawrence Block’s short stories may be borderline gratuitous, but if you’re looking for some classic pulp from the author’s back catalogue, you’d be borderline insane for not picking up this Hard Case Crime edition. Inside are…
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Book Club

Kill Your Boss

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In addition to a title that’s hard to resist, Kill Your Boss has an excellent premise behind it. What if a hired killer could nestle within a company as an unpaid intern, biding his time until the right moment arrives to execute a high-paid executive?…
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Book Club

Sorrow Bound

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We interviewed former journalist David Mark after his previous novel Original Skin won universal praise in crime fiction circles. The intriguingly named lynchpins of that book, Aector McAvoy and Trish Pharoah are back. Their stamping grounds remain the unlovely Humberside port of Hull. In an…
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