Review: London's Glory: The Lost Cases of Bryant & May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit

London's Glory: The Lost Cases of Bryant & May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit by Christopher Fowler
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Review: LONDON'S GLORY by Christopher Fowler

The dapper duo of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, the personable May and the irascible Bryant, appear in a collection of stories published together for the first time. Appealing both to readers who focus on character and to readers who enjoy the spooky aspects, LONDON'S GLORY presents a good cross-section of the investigations of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, and a fine introduction to the series.

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Review: Skully, Perdition Games

Skully, Perdition Games by L.E. Fraser
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: SKULLY, PERDITION GAMES by L. E. Fraser

A most engrossing psychological suspense novel focusing on depth psychology, relationships, and the intricate chokehold the past maintains on the present, SKULLY, PERDITION GAMES is an electrifying thrill ride also resonating with elements of horror, both human and supernatural. I couldn't stop reading nor turn away, and I definitely must read the first in the series also.

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Review: Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: LOST GIRLS by Robert Kolker

LOST GIRLS is the single most engrossing true crime account I have read. Author Robert Kolker, who specifically avoids fictionalizing any portion of his account, introduces readers to a much-maligned, often misguided, sometimes greedy but other times simply clawing at survival, societal construct: sex workers, specifically prostitution conducted via the Internet. Long Island, Eastern Connecticut, and upstate New York, as well as New York City, are the locales for this narrative of unrelenting woe: the hard lives and untimely deaths of several young women, whose ultimate consequence was encountering the wrong customer.

True justice would include discovery of this serial killer, and subsequent trial and conviction. For now, the only closure for the women's families is the discovery of their bodies, and the knowledge that their loved ones are no longer missing, but deceased.

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Review: The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton

The Three Deaths of Magdalene Lynton by Katherine Hayton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE THREE DEATHS OF MAGDALENE LAYTON by Katherine Hatton

A superbly engrossing and absorbing mystery operating on multiple levels, THE THREE DEATHS OF MAGDALENE LAYTON is a marvel penned by an accomplished author. I don't even know where to begin to summarize. Suffice it to say, the reader's heartstrings will be repeatedly wrenched, and there will be in turns surprise, shock, and grief. Many characters suffer, and yes, some few are constructed of the stuff of monsters. Author Hayton, a New Zealand native, frequently references factual local crimes [which I looked up], adding to the fictional story both local color and human interest. Rest assured, this is an unforgettable novel.

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Review: Scary Out There

Scary Out There by Jonathan Maberry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: SCARY OUT THERE

Edited and introduced by author Jonathan Maberry, SCARY OUT THERE collects stories of fears--which, as Mr. Maberry points out, are precise and individualized. In these stories and poetry, tour a wide variety of fears, as penned by these accomplished authors. Perhaps you'll find your own.

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Review: Prime Evil

Prime Evil by Maynard Sims
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: PRIME EVIL by Maynard Sims (DCI Jack Callum #2)

Return to peaceful green Hertfordshire, England, in the 1950's, an era recovering from World War II, yet already experiencing early reverberations from feminism, equal employment for women, and the cultural onset of television. Detective Chief Inspector Jack Callum' s formidable integrity shines a beacon at his station, appealing to dedicated colleagues, disgruntling others. This time he is tasked to investigate an actor's torture killing, uncovering familial dysfunction, and bonds to London's criminal underbelly.

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Review: Song of the Dead

Song of the Dead by Douglas Lindsay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: SONG OF THE DEAD by Douglas Lindsay
(DI BEN WESTPHALL #1)

The prolific author of the Barney Thomson series and the DCI Jericho series institutes a brand-new series protagonist, burned out, worn down, DI Ben Westphall of Scotland. Sent to investigate a strange situation in Estonia, Ben may be in over his head. Years ago, two UK tourists visited Eastern Europe. The man disappeared, and shortly his corpse was pulled from a lake and identified by three people. His girlfriend dropped out of sight. Now a man has entered an Estonian police station, claiming the identity of the dead man, explaining he had been confined and subjected to organ harvesting.

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Review: We Are Death

We Are Death by Douglas Lindsay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: WE ARE DEATH by Douglas Lindsay [DCI Jericho #2]

The electric second installment in the series focusing on depressive Detective Chief Inspector Robert Jericho, WE ARE DEATH catapults Jericho on an international manhunt, to find a sniper-assassin who never fails. In the shadowy background still is The Pavilion, the centuries-old secret society which seems to move Jericho and his Detective Sergeant, Stuart Haynes, as pawns on a global chessboard. But the stunning conclusion will upend everything Jericho--and the reader--knows.

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Review: We Are The Hanged Man

We Are The Hanged Man by Douglas Lindsay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: WE ARE THE HANGED MAN by Douglas Lindsay

A superbly plotted and deeply characterized mystery, WE ARE THE HANGED MAN is the first in a new series by Douglas Lindsay, a prolific and excellent author. Its protagonist, Detective Chief Inspector Robert Jericho, of Somerset and Avon Police, I venture to say, is in a class by himself. Nine years as a virtually unneeded DCI in the tiny low-crime community of Wells, Jericho had formerly been a hot-shot detective with London's Metropolitan Police. After the inexplicable and unsolved disappearance of his wife Amanda, he fell into a black hole of depression and transferred to Wells.

Jericho despises shallow "popular" culture and reality television shenanigans, yet he is tapped for consultant-judge on a new pilot called "Britain's Got Justice," and his taciturn--and high integrity--result in his being targeted: by a covert organization, by his own Superintendent, by a sociopathic killer he arrested 30 years earlier.

If you enjoy British crime fiction, or special protagonists, or just superb writing, do not miss WE ARE THE HANGED MAN or the continuing series.

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Review: My Sister's Grave

My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: MY SISTER'S GRAVE by Robert Dugoni

A stunning crime novel, cleverly plotted with an unshakable framework, MY SISTER'S GRAVE kept me enrapt. I refused to stop reading till I finished. My emotions were wrenched, my heart flipped, and my mind stretched. This is not a story easily forgotten. By the end, my emotions had been excavated. Author Robert Dugoni expertly navigates the ways of crime, sociopathy, family bonds, love, companionship; and leads readers on an unforgettable path.

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Review: Bicycle Requiem

Bicycle Requiem by Juli D. Revezzo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: BICYCLE REQUIEM by Julie D. Rezko

Truly delightful horror! A fast-paced novella, jam-packed full of horror laced with humour, BICYCLE REQUIEM relates the story of a perfectly ordinary young woman, living in Florida, who works too many overnight shifts, and one early morning, unintentionally causes a tragic fatality. Instead of reporting the accident, she leaves the scene. Immediately her life becomes unending horror, because the deceased is something other than just plain human.

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Review: Tongues

Tongues by Sam Joyce
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: TONGUES by Sam Joyce


TONGUES is a novel of full-on horror, extreme yes--but it's not gore and kinked sensuality for its own sake. TONGUES is Horror with a message, riding on a foundation of hair-raising (and effective) occult terror. Here magic works: in Mexico, in L.A., in a small Texas community. It centers around Carmen, a talented practitioner of Palo Mayombe, and the consequences when the powerful forces on which he calls spin out of control.

Recommendation: Do read. Don't read after dark, or alone.

18+

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Review: Sacrifice Island

Sacrifice Island by Kristin Dearborn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: SACRIFICE ISLAND by Kristin Dearborn

Author Kristin Dearborn successfully delivers tautly plotted, well-characterized horror stories. She well knows how to thrum the chords of horror to chill our spines, stand our hair on end, linger in our minds. SACRIFICE ISLAND is a very scary [human scary as well as creature scary] tale of a dangerous but beautiful island in the Philippines, once a religious retreat, abandoned for decades. Well, not completely abandoned....

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Review: A Mixed Bag of Blood

A Mixed Bag of Blood by David Bernstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: A MIXED BAG OF BLOOD by David Bernstein

Author David Bernstein possesses an imagination which leaves me awestruck. His newest short story collection, A MIXED BAG OF BLOOD, crosses the range. It's not thematic, and much is unexpected ["how does he imagine these things??] but it's unremittingly excellent writing, and completely horrifying. Something for everyone here, and a good introduction to this fine author.

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Review: Woman in White

Woman in White by Kristin Dearborn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: WOMAN IN WHITE by Kristin Dearborn

A superb and very scary horror tale, WOMAN IN WHITE blends terror, science fiction, domestic violence, and small-town madness in a story that kept me riveted and on seat' s edge. In the quiet little community of Rocky Rhodes, Maine, in the dense woods, change has arrived. Citizens are disappearing, but only men. Forensic analysis of vast quantities of blood reveal it is human, but altered and degraded--unidentifiable. And the truth is scarier than you could ever imagine...

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Review: In a Dark, Dark Wood

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: IN A DARK, DARK WOOD by Ruth Ware

An incredibly complex and convoluted novel of psychological suspense, deep emotion, emotional disorder, mystery, and police procedural, IN A DARK, DARK WOOD is the debut novel by author Ruth Ware, and an exceptional one it is. Solitary by nature crime novelist Leonora Shaw, against her intuition, agrees to participate in a hen party for a former friend she's not seen in ten years. Before the excursion ends, tragedy will occur, friendships will crash and burn, and nothing and no one will remain unchanged.

I read this in a matter of hours, heart in mouth, eyes glued to page. I shan't forget this special novel.

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Review: The Travelling Companion

The Travelling Companion by Ian Rankin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE TRAVELING COMPANION by Ian Rankin
(A Bibliophile Mystery)

An exciting novella illustrating art' s imitation of life, and the weight of the past extending into the present, THE TRAVELING COMPANION relates the story of a young man, newly graduated from the University of Edinburgh, who spends a summer in Paris before returning to commence his Ph.D. work on the author Robert Louis Stevenson. Working at a bookshop, a collector informs him of an existent manuscript of THE TRAVELING COMPANION, a lost Stevenson work. As the narrator's experiences expand, so does his latent psyche, with electrifying and disastrous consequences.

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Review: The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum

The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum by Kirsten Weiss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

REVIEW: A PERFECTLY PARANORMAL MUSEUM by Kirsten Weiss

A "perfectly" delicious cozy mystery with an endearing undertone of recognizing self-identity and life purpose, A PERFECTLY PARANORMAL MUSEUM was a one-sitting, I-can't-stop read. Truly delightful! I would love to see this extended to a series_especially as our heroine Madelyn comes to term with her paranormal experiences, and expands her mind

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Review: VOID

VOID by David M. Staniforth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: VOID by David M. Staniforth

VOID is not "Alice down the rabbit hole." VOID is reader as Alice trailing narrator as Mad Hare throughout Dante' s "Dark Wood," an iconographic landscape of clues to identity and personal history, where each tree, cave, and hill contains revelations to unspeakable Truth. Ostensibly the landscape of modern Sheffield and of Surrey, the real ground we traverse is the landscape of the human soul, in the company of a Virgil absent of his own identity.

I would do justice to this novel; but though I value my own wild and vivid imagination, the stratospheres of author David M. Staniforth ( as those of Charles Stross and Peter F. Hamilton) are beyond my reach, and I can only stand and admire.

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