Book Club

IQ

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Brilliantly logical African-American teenager Isaiah Quintabe, private detective, is the protagonist of Joe Ide’s debut novel, which recently won a Shamus award. This street-smart Sherlock Holmes lives in a rough patch of East Long Beach, California, surrounded by colourful characters – especially his dope-dealing, trash-talking…
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KindlePrintReviews

And So It Began

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Written by Owen Mullen — It’s brave of a resident of Scotland and the Greek Islands to write a police procedural set in one of America’s most iconic cities, one with a strong and unique culture, history, and personality. Still, author Owen Mullen took the…
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Features

CIS: Rediscovering Margaret Millar

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It’s not that Margaret Millar was ever completely forgotten. She was admired by Truman Capote, Agatha Christie and Evelyn Waugh. She is often cited by modern crime writers like Laura Lippman and Gillian Flynn as a great influence. Millar features regularly on lists of top suspense or mystery…
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iBookKindlePrintReviews

Black Teeth

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Written by Zane Lovitt — Documentary filmmaker and author Zane Lovitt is a long-time member of the Melbourne crime-writing scene, putting out a bunch of short stories and a couple of novels in a style that can be best described as modern noir with an Aussie…
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Features

CIS: Why Maisie Dobbs is already a classic

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Is it paradoxical to call Jacqueline Winspear’s book a classic when it was first published not quite 15 years ago? Though Maisie Dobbs hasn’t acquired the patina of age, the legion of fans for the 13-book series would no doubt enthusiastically endorse its classic status….
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Features

CIS: The Big Sleep revisited

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It’s impossible to imagine a proper historical survey of noir fiction without reference to Philip Marlowe, the iconic character created by Raymond Chandler in his ground-breaking 1939 debut novel The Big Sleep. Marlowe is the prototypical hardboiled private eye. Street-smart and tough, he reads people and situations at…
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iBookKindlePrintReviews

Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic

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Over the five years I’ve been reviewing for Crime Fiction Lover, some of my most memorable reads have featured protagonists who are that little bit different. There was Maggie Quinn, terrified of the dark in Dianne Gallagher’s Too Dark to Sleep; Alison Gaylin’s hyperthymestic syndrome sufferer,…
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