An Act of Kindness by Barbara Nadel
Set in East London, An Act of Kindness sees PI Lee Arnold and his assistant Mumtaz Hakim struggling for work. It’s 2012 and Olympics fever is in the air. Lee has been hired by an old school gangster to investigate his young wife, whom he…
Death in Florence by Marco Vichi
Translated by Stephen Sartarelli — Italian crime writing, often preoccupied with the country’s cuisine and corruption, is among the best in the genre, yet Inspector Montalbano is really the only detective from Italy who can claim current bestseller status as a series character in the English…
A Treacherous Likeness by Lynn Shepherd
There is a small but growing body of crime fiction featuring real historical people – Jed Rubenfeld’s Sigmund Freud series, for instance, or Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey. In this book it’s the Romantic Poets, particularly Percy Bysshe Shelley, who take centre stage. There is always…
Deadly Harvest by Michael Stanley
Through the auspices of Alexander McCall Smith and his wonderful creation Mma Precious Ramotswe of The No1 Ladies’ Detective Agency fame, I feel as if I’ve visited Botswana on many occasions. Now, thanks to Michael Stanley, I’m back there again, and it suddenly seems a…
Trespasser by Paul Doiron
When winter slowly turns into spring in Maine, they call it Mud Season. It is both a curse and a blessing. Clothes, cars, sidewalks and driveways are covered in the stuff, but at least summer cannot be too far away. Amid the mud Game Warden…
Summertime All the Cats Are Bored
Written by Philippe Georget — Despite the distinctively postmodern title, this book is not a noir-ish meditation on the futility of existence. Instead, it is a straightforward though not to say simplistic police procedural. Summertime All the Cats Are Bored is set in the Perpignan area…