The Valley
Don’t expect a cosy rural crime thriller – the valley of the title is actually a street in suburban London. On the one hand the book is a psychological study of the hopes and fears of the families who live in The Valley, but it…
The Lying Down Room
“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…
The Last Refuge
When Scotsman John Callum arrives in the Faroe Islands, he discovers a place that’s as forlorn and remote as he is. Callum is running from something, but it’s not clear what. For a while, it seems like he might just achieve the quiet solitude he…
The Investigation
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…
The Girl Who Wasn't There by Ferdinand von Schirach
Translated by Anthea Bell — It seems you just can’t avoid books with ‘girl’ in their title, but there’s barely a girl to be seen in this elegant story of art, perversion and courtroom drama. In fact, the original German title was Taboo, which is at…
The Crooked House by Christobel Kent
Following a series set in Florence featuring private investigator Sandro Cellini, Christobel Kent has shifted the action to an English estuary village for her 10th novel. It feels like a fresh start for the author, who’s been taken on by a different publisher. There’s not…
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
With the publisher calling it ‘the new Gone Girl’, this book is one of the most hotly anticipated crime debuts of early 2015 and it has been impossible to avoid all reviews and buzz before reading it. Does it deserve all the hype? Well, yes and…
Runaway by Peter May
Written by Peter May — ‘Would you like to review the latest Peter May novel?’ the CFL boss asked. I replied with a phrase containing the words ‘Pope’ and ‘Catholic’. May is an author who has garnered a huge and incredibly loyal fan base through his…