Strange Gods
Written by Annamaria Alfieri– Strange Gods opens in 1911 in Kenya – the British East Africa colony and we meet 20-year-old Vera McIntosh. Vera has grown up in Kenya as the daughter of successful coffee plantation owning missionaries. No longer a child, Vera’s fraternisation with the locals…
The Hanging Tree
Written by Ben Aaronovitch — The Hanging Tree is the sixth book in the highly entertaining Rivers of London series, which debuted back in 2011. Police procedural is mixed rather nicely with a heavy dose of urban fantasy, and a side order of humour. PC Peter…
The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories
Written by PD James — Christmas makes many people want to return to old family traditions and the comfort of the familiar. And what could be more comforting than relaxing and knowing you are safely in the hands of one of the greats of crime fiction?…
The Mine
Written by Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston — Janne Vuori, an idealistic investigative journalist on the staff of Helsinki Today, has a thankless job and a failing marriage. These factors ensure he is easily lured into a very big story that arrives via an anonymous email tip. The country’s…
Maigret's Dead Man
Written by Georges Simenon, translated by David Coward — With ITV planning to air another new episode of Maigret on Christmas Day in the UK, we decided to take a look at the print version and check out what’s in store. The 1948 novel has recently been retranslated and…
The Girl From Venice
Written by Martin Cruz Smith — Martin Cruz Smith is the multi-award winning author of the Arkady Renko series which began with Gorky Park in 1980. Set inside Brezhnev’s Russia, it was made into a movie starring William Hurt and Lee Marvin. With The Girl…
The Collection
Written by Lance Charnes — In this first-person caper, set in the present day, narrator Matt Friedrich encounters a whole clockwork factory ticking toward deadlines, with the emphasis on ‘dead’. If he doesn’t find certain stolen art, the women in his life will be dead at…