The Birdwatcher by William Shaw
The first lines of this contemporary police procedural set up the defining characteristics of the protagonist: “There were two reasons why William South did not want to be on the murder team. “The first was that it was October. The migrating birds had begun arriving…
Behind Dead Eyes by Howard Linskey
Tom Carney, true crime author, keeps receiving letters imploring him for help. These are no ordinary pleas, the writer no ordinary person. The letters are from convicted killer Richard Bell who is languishing in prison for murdering his lover. Bell claims he’s innocent and believes…
A Tapping at My Door by David Jackson audiobook
Narrated by Jonathan Keeble — The early chapters of this police procedural are tremendously intriguing. A woman copper in Liverpool is murdered in her back garden, with a dead raven splayed over her face. Only when the crime scene investigators remove the bird do they…
Death Do Us Part by Steven Dunne
Detective Inspector Damen Brook of Derby CID is back, with a new case and a new set of troubles. An old couple are found dead in their house, in a quiet Derby suburb. Holding hands, both are smartly dressed, their favourite piece of music playing…
Angel by Anita Waller
A good measure of how much a book affects you is how much of it stays with you months, or years, later. Anita Waller’s debut Beautiful, which I reviewed here for New Talent November last year, is full of the kind of scenes that you…
Little Sister by David Hewson
This third police procedural in Hewson’s Netherlands series again features Amsterdam police brigadier Pieter Vos and his misfit Frieslander colleague, Laura Bakker. The story centres on the plight of Mia and Kim Timmers, orphaned twins – originally from a set of triplets – who have…
The Vanished by Soren and Lotte Hammer
Translated by Martin Aitken — Scandinavian crime fiction has given us some amazing strong, anti-social women as lead characters. Think of Lisbeth Salander, Smilla Jaspersen, Sarah Lund and Saga Noren, for instance. But it’s also has a reputation for quiet old men, usually with health problems. If…