The missing files

Vanished
The Detective's Daughter
Road Closed
Standing in Another Man's Grave
Watyer Blue Eyes
A Lesson in Dying
Close to the Bone
The Silence
Murder in  mt Backyard
Beautiful Child
Death in Bordeaux
A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy
Truth Lies Bleeding
The  Hanging
The Long Shadow
The Sleeping and The Dead
Killjoy
My First Murder
The Resistance Man
Western Approaches
Original Skin
The Complaints
The Impossible Dead
Lifetime
The Healers
The Baby Snatcher
Missing in Malmo
Linda: As in the Linda Murder
Death on High
Death on Account

Jussi Adler Olsen

Redemption

Detective:  Carl Morck
Location:   Copenhagen
Time:         Current
Genre:       Scandi-Noir

This is the third in the Adler-Olsen Department Q series. The detective Carl Morck is in charge of some form of cold case department. He is assisted by an unlikely team of his cleaner Assad, a Syrian immigrant and a ditzy woman called Rose.

The story begins with a badly deteriorated message in a bottle from a kidnap victim which finds its way to Morck via Scotland 20 years after it was launched. This leads Morck eventually to discover similar crimes being committed. As the reader, one is already following this crime which involves the mistreated son of a religious clique minister preying on families in similar cliques feeling secure in the knowledge that the way he has set up his kidnap and blackmail will ensure his victims will never reveal what has happened.

Jussi Adler olsen's website

Previously Read
Mercy
Disgrace

Ann Cleeves

A Lesson in Dying

Detective:   Inspector Ramsey
Location::    North East England (Heppleburn)
Time:         1990s
Genre:       Police Procedural

This is the first in the Ann Cleeves Inspector Ramsay novels and possibly recently re-published following the success of her later Vera Stanhope and Shetland novels.

The plot is based on the murder of an unpopular headteacher at a small village school and between the staffroom and the parents' association there are a number of likely suspects. When the head's wife is arrested the school caretaker and his daughter (a member of the parents' association) begin their own investigation and after some hesitation Ramsay accepts their support.

Blackmail is uncovered and other deaths follow before the conclusion which has a nice twist.

Ann Cleeves' websie

Jo Nesbo

The Bat

Detective: Harry Hole
Location:  Sydney, Australia
Time:        About 2000
Genre:      Scandi Noir

Yes, a Scandi Noir set in Australia. This is a prequel to the Jo Nesbo/Harry Hole series which begins with Redbreast. and tells the story of his experience in Australia dealing with a serial killer which is referred back to in many of the later novels. 

Hole is in Australia to assist with the investigation into the murder of a young Norwegian woman. His sidekick initially is  an older Sydney detective with Apborigina roots. The novel deals with the place of the Aborigine in Australian society and the detective, who is more deeply involved in the affair than might be obvious gives Hole guidance by usimng Aboriginal myths as guidance. 

Well crafted like the other Harry hole novels.

A+

Jo Nesbo's website

Previously Read
Redbreast
Nemesis
The Devil's Star
The Redeemer
The Snowman
The Leopard

Leigh Russell

Road Closed

Detective Geraldine Steele
Location  England
Time        Present
Genre      Police Procedural

Possibly a viable plot line. A burgling duo leave a victim dead at the bottom of the stairs, They go on to bungle another job and as they escape turn the gas on in the kitchen leading to an explosion and a fatal fire. The circumstances are such that the police may suspect the victims widow. 

Undfortunately the telling isn't convincing. The police procedures come across as loose and the escalation of murders by the main villain isn't credible. 

B-

Previously Read
Dead End

Leigh Russell's website

Peter James

Dead Man's Time

Detective: Roy Grace
Location:  Brighton
Time:        Current
Genre:      Police Procedural

This is the ninth of the Roy Grace series. It concerns the brutal murder of an elderly lady and the theft from her own of both valuable antiques and a valuable watch, the only memento she and her brother have of  their father, a gangster murdered in New York ninety years previously. As Grace and his team seek the killers, the brother, himself a wealthy man begins his own brutal search for the killers and the watch.

At the same time a released convict plans a horrific revenge on Grace for putting him inside for 12 years by plotting an attack on Grace's partner and their new son.

In other aspects of the underlying story arc, we learn more about Grace's first wife who disappeared a number of years ago and who is now living under a new identity in germany, but who may be planning to return to Brighton.

The story builds to a climsx in New York with the elderly man eventually seeking revenge on the descendant of his father's murdered.

A+

Peter James' web site

Previously read
Dead Simple
Looking Good Dead
Not Dead Enough
Dead Man's Footsteps
Dead Tomorrow
Not Dead Like You
Dead Man's Grip
Not Dead Yet

Thomas Enger

Pierced

Journalist: Henning Juul
Location:  Oslo
Time:        Current
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This is the second book by Enger featuring Henning Juul. There is a key underlying arc. Juul  was badly burned and his son died in a fire at his home. He has nightmares about it and the perpetrator is unknown.

In this novel Juul is persuaded to investigate the case of Pulli, a man imprisoned for murder who is proclaiming his innocence. His leverage to get Juul to help is that he promises to reveal what he knows about the fire at juul's home.

This takes him into a murky world of enforcers (bouncers/debt collectors) and the rivalries and jealousies between them.  At the same time a hitman forces a TV cameraman into murdering Pulli. How that resolves itself is a sub plot. the death of Pulli drives Juul to solve the murder for which Pulli was imprisoned in the hope that he can work out what Pulli knew.

This is going to continue in other books.

A-

Thomas Enger Web Page (In Danish)

Previously Read:
Burned

Martin Walker

The Devil's Cave

Detective: Bruno Courreges
Location: "St Denis" in the Perigord, France
Time:       1990?
Genre

This is the fifth in Walker's Bruno Courreges series set in the fictional town of St Denis in the Perigord region of France. While Bruno may be styled the Chief of police, he is the police for the small town. The series in general reflects Walker's fondness for the area and for the relative simplicity of life in rural France.

The crime to be investigated is the death, possibly murder, of an unidentified woman, found floating in a punt towards the town naked and possibly the victim of a black mass. Simultaneously the town council is being persuaded to invest in a holiday village scheme despite the fact that a similar investment by the same developers went pear shaped in a previous town. As Couureges investigates both siutations he finds himself under pressure from government level to drop the matter.

The threads come together effectively, but this is as much a book to enjoy the location, the cast of characters and their continuing development as it is a hard nosed police procedural.

A-

Martin Walker's  Bruno, Chief of Police blog

Previously read
Bruno, Chief of Police
The Dark Vinyard
Black  Diamond
The Crowded Grave

Anne Holt

Death of the Demon

Detective: Hanne Wilhelmsen
Setting:      Oslo
Time:        Mid 1990's
Genre       Scandi Noir

This is the third of the Hanne Wilhelmsen series, set just after Wilhelmsen has been appointed aDetective Inspector.

The crime involves the murder, one evening, at her workplace of the manager of a children's home. the possible suspects include a lover who has been defrauding her bank account, a colleague who has been fiddling the books, a husband who could benefit from a change in her will and a 12 year old boy with an  ADHD problem (defined as MBD in the book) who has gone missing from the home.

The investigation is paralleled by a developing account, set in italics, of the mother's experience with her son and the attempts to get the social services agencies to support her rather than place him in the home.

It seems a dead end case but the pieces come together  with a twist to reveal the murderer and with a final twist in the mother's story about a key piece of evidence.

The back story concerns the challenges facing Wilhelmsen in managing a case after her promotion and her continuing nervousness about colleagues knowing about her long standing lesbian  partnership.

A+

Wikipedia background to Ann Holt

Previously read
Blind Goddess (1)
Blessed are thos who thirst (2)
1222 (8)

Elly Griffiths

Dying Fall

Detective:                   DI Harry Nelson
Forensic Archeologist:   Ruth Galloway
Setting:                        :Preston/Pendle/Blackpool
Genre
Time                            :Current (Set in 2010)

This is the fifth of Elly Griffiths novels featuring Forensic Archeologist, Ruth Galloway and Detective Inspector Harry Nelson  together with a New Age Druid, Cathbad whose empathy with various strands fortunately never crosses into the paranormal.

In this story Galloway learns of the suspicious death of an undergraduate contemporary, dan golding the day before she receives a letter from him asking her to investigate the probity of some bones he has found. The letter indicates there was something frightening him and almost immediately Galloway starts getting threatening texts. Galloway however, together with Cathbad and her daughter (by Nelson) does elect to go to Pendle University.

At the same time Nelson and his wife take a holiday in Blackpool, his home town, part from nostalgia and part to renew his acquaintance with former colleagues in the Blackpool Police and discover information about the death of Golding.

The murder relates to  Golding's discovery of a sarcophagus at Ribchester which may or  may not contain the bones  of King Arthuir. It would appear that a neo nazi organisation might be concerned that the bonesmay reveal something about Arthur they consider unpalatable. But which, if any, of Golding's colleagues may be implicated.

There's a bit of hokum to this one but enjoyable non the less.

The back story of course involves Nelson's sense of responsibility for the daughter he has fathered on Kate, while he maintains his marriage to a wife who has reluctantly learned to live with her husband's one night of infidelity.

B+

Elly Griffiths' website

Previously read
The Crossing Places
The Janus Stone
The House at Seas End
A Room Full of Bones

Liza Marklund

Vanished

Journalist: Annika Bengtzon

Location:  Stockholm, Sweden

Time:       Present (Recent Past: Pub 2002)

Genre:      Scandi Noir

This is one of the earlier novels in the Annika Bengtzon chronology.

The story opens with the murder in a transshipment area of two Balkan immigrants and the dramatic escape of a woman from the assassin. Bengtzon's paper carries the story.

Bengtzon herself is contacted by a woman who want coverage of her organisation which, she alleges can can help people, particularly battered wives,, to disappear completely from Government records.

When Bengtzon takes a phone call from and meets the escaped woman, helping her to avoid the gunman a second time, she decides to help her by putting her in touch with the woman running the organistation.

However Bengtzon is not completely sure that the organisation is completely above board and she starts investigating its probity assisted by a local government finance officer who has challenged his superiors about paying it large sums of money.

At the same time the gunman, clearly involved in Balkan mafia smuggling is still on the loose loking for a lorry load of stolen fake cigarettes.

The themes weave together well. 

The backround story arc involves

a) Bengtzon meeting the man who is to feature as her partner/husband in later novels (the local government officer)

b) The politics of the editorial battle at the Evening Post as an editor with vision begins to position himself to achieve dominance in an attempt to improve the quality and integrity of the paper,

A

Liza Marklund Website

Previously read

Prime Time

The Bomber

Red Wolf

Last Will

Aline Templeton

Dead in the Water

Detective: Marjorie Fleming
Setting:     Galloway
Time:        Present
Genre:      Police Procedural

This, the sixth n the Fleming series, is another cleverly plotted novel by Aline Templeton intertwining a cold case investigation of an unsolved murder from the mid 1980's, the attempted murder  of a TV actor with local roots location shooting a police procedural series in the area and feuding among Polish building workers, not to mention unreasonable pressure on Marjorie Fleming by the acting Procurator Fiscal.

The cold case review, demanded by the Fiscal, is a testing one for Fleming as the original investigation was not as thorough as it might have been and involved her immediate superior and her father, then a Detective Sergeant.  The TV actor could have been involved, the victims mother thinks he did it,  but he had not been interviewed at the time, which necessity draws him into the cold case review. The attack on him could be by the victim's brother seeking revenge, or the result of arguments he has had with an old acquaintance or  the confrontation he had had with one of the Polish workmen.

The false leads are all plausible as is the final denouement when the murderer confesses all in a sort of parody of the way a Poirot might force a killer to confess to a room full of the suspects, although with unfortunate implications for Fleming.

A

Aline Templeton's Website

Previously Read
Cold in the Earth
The Darkness and the Deep
Lying Dead
Lamb to the Slaughter
Evil for Evil
Cradle to Grave

Helene Tursten

The Glass Devil

Detective: Irene  Huss
Setting    ; Gothenburg, Sweden
Time       ; Current
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This opens with the murder of a Swedish Pastor and his wife and also  their son at a nearby cottage. Their are suggestions that the murder may have been committed by Satanists whom the Pastor has been trying to identify through the internet following an arson attack which  destroyed a local church. The only surviving member of the family, a computer expert living in London is too traumatised to offer useful information. 

Irene Huss and her colleagues pursue the possibility of Satanic links but eventually another, less esoteric but sinister motive emerges.

A

Helen Turtsten Website

Previously read
Detective Inspector Huss
The Torso

Karin Fossum

Bad Intentions

Detective: Konrad Sejer

Setting:     Norway

Time:        Current

Genre:      Scandi Noir

Once again, a different tone in a Karin Fossum novel. There is no gruesome killing. There is no race to find the killer before there are too many bodies. For a detective story, one might actually say it was gentle.

A young man staying with two friends by a lake on a weekend's outing from the hospital where he was being treated for depression, falls out of a rowing boat they are all in at night and disappears into the muddy waters. No attempt is made to save him. His friends choose to invent a fiction that he has disappeared from the cabin overnight and may have committed suicide and this is what they report to the police. There are allusions to some nefarious deed the three of them have been involved in.

When the body is fond, the story of the possible suicide does not ring true to Konrad Sejer, but he has no proof otherwise.

Later another body is found in another lake, that of a young man missing for some months. Is this death accidental. How are the three friends connected to it?

The story is well written and the plot unfurls nicely.

Rating A

Web site referring to Karin Fossum  although this book is not listed

Previously Read

Dont Look Back

What the Devil Holds

The Caller

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

Someone To Watch Over Me

Lawyer: Thora Gudmundsdottir

Setting:  Reyjkavik, Iceland

Time:     2010

Genre:   Scandi Noir  

This is the fifth of Sigurdardottir's stories with lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir as the investigating character. As with many Icelandic novels, the consequences of the 2010 recession seep into the plot.

She is asked by a serial killer in a secure hospital to investigate the case against a fellow inmate, Jakob,  who has Down's Syndrome and who has possibly been wrongly placed in the unit  following a fire at the residential home where he lived and which killed five people.

As she investigates, it becomes apparent that both the case pursued against Jakob was not as thorough as it might have been and that other people may well have had motive to raze the residential home, particularly following the discovery that someone had managed to get a comatose patient pregnant.

The plot is tightly controlled and moves to a logical but unpredictable climax.

And of course the serial killer has his own motive for promoting the investigation.

Rating A

Previously Read

Last Rituals

My Soul to Take

Ashes to Dust

The Day is dark

Web reference

Kjell Erikson

The Demon of Dakar

Detective:  Ann Lindell
Setting :     Upsala, Sweden
Time:         Current
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This s a detective story with some interesting aspects. There is a murder of a person related to drug trafficking which leads Lindell and her colleagues into pursuing links to his partner, the owner of a restaurant, the Dakar of the title. However the killer is in many ways the part of a parallel  but related plot which Lindell does not realise until late in the novel.

It was in fact a revenge killing by a Mexican,whose two brothers had been inveigled, out of financial necessity to carry drugs from Mexico to Sweden. One is dead. The other is in a Swedish jail.  The brothers' third word plight is portrayed sympathetically and when the imprisoned brother makes a fortuitous escape that they should both manage to return safely to Mexico seems only right.

The more important thing for Sweden and Upsala is that the owner of the Dakar is caught for his drug activities but not without some covert help from a rival drug baron who is muscling in n the area.

There is currently no website for Kjell Eriksson 

Previously read
The Hand that Trembles
The Princess of Burundi

Aline Templeton

Cradle to Grave

Detective: Marjorie Fleming

Setting      Galloway

Time        Current

Genre       Police Procedural

This is the seventh of the Templeton Marjorie Fleming series with a complex, intriguing and well structured plot. 

 Events centre on a wealthy man's intention to allow the peninsula/headland where he lives to be the venue for an open air pop concert. In torrential weather the bridge to the peninsula collapses, the phone line goes down  (and it's a dead spot for mobiles) and a coastal landslip destroys a ow of cotages on the beach. Fleming and her Sergeant, McNee, are  trapped on the headland as the bridge collapses under their car.

Amongst the people on the headland there is a young woman from the cottages  who has had the good fortune to avoid the landslip. There is something strange about her and something she is apprehensive about. there's the wealthy man of course and his drug dependent daughter and her husband, still in anger mode about the death of their baby daughter, and their spoiltt and obnoxious son. One of his guests is a well known pop star who embarrassingly features in Fleming's past. 

Eventually the bodies start piling up and there's some serious criminal activity surrounding the wealthy man and word s that a hit man has been despatched but to get rid of who?

To add to the complications, Fleming and McNee, normally close colleagues are estranged. McNee develops a bad working relationship with a new fenmale detective who is keeping her personal life quiet. At the same ime McNee is arring his own personal problem.

It all unravels rather nicely.

A

Aline Templeton's Website

Previously read novels 

Cold in the Earth

The Darkness and the Deep

Lying Dead

Lamb to the Slaughter

Evil for Evil

Michele Giuttari

The Black Rose of Florence

Detective: Michele Ferrara

Setting     Florence

Time        Current

Genre      Police Procedual

This is the fifth of Guittari's novels featuring Michele Frrrara, the head of the Florentine Flying Squad. As this was a position that Guitarri had himself held, the first books, dealing with the Mafia and other crime syndicates seemed based on Guittari's own career. It's not so certasin abot this one. Instead of dealing with a Mafia type organisation, Ferrara is up against a masonic/black magic cult and he very nearly steps into Dan Brown territory.

The opening murder which gives the book it's title involves the death of a wealthy businessman's daughter whose body has been left carefully arranges with a black rose between her legs although there has been a previous incident where a woman's body has been disfiogured while she lies in the morgue and soon after there's a riutual murder in a decnsecrated church. various clues at the crimes and a warning note left at his home lead Ferrar to believe he is being sent a message from the killer, or killers.

The novel ends with more than a hint that there will be sequels until the Back Magic group is brought to book.

Previously Read

The Death of a Mafia Don

A Florentine Death

Death in Clabria

A Florentine Deatrh

 Michele Guitari's website

Mons Kallentoft

Savage Spring

Detective: Malin Fors
Setting:      Linkoping, Sweden
Time:         2010
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This is the fourth of the Malin Fors sequence. As with the previous three, the novel is as much about Malin Fors coping with her personal issues, her recovery from alcohilism, her relationship with her daughter and father and coping with her mother's death.  The crime to be solved is a bombing in the middle of Linkoping resulting in the death of two children. Fors and her colleagues pursue investigations into the possibility of terrorist activity, including a brief consideration of an Islamist threat, before the reasons for the explosion take a darker tuirn.

As in the earlier books Kallentoft uses the device of the murder victims  observing  Malin Fors as she pursues her enquiries: a strange perspective but an eerily effective one.

Rating A

Mons Kallentoft's website

Previous novels
Midwinter Sacrifice
Summertime Death
Autumn Killing

R C Bridgestock

Deadly Focus

Detective Jack Dylan
Setting     Urban England, possibly Yorkshire
Time         Current
Genre       English Police Procedural

This is the first of Bridgestock's Jack Dylan novels. I suspect it will be the last I read. The prose is over fulsome and immature and filled with trivial decriptions.

The plot itself is reasonable, concerning the apparently unrelated murder of two school children. Eventually a connection is made between the two crimes which ultimately leads to the arrest of the murderer. This happens relatively early and much of the later half concerns the interview to get a confession. Tackled at length it has some intersst.

Dylan's relationship with his partner is explored in too much detail.

Web referece to author

Alison Bruce

The Calling

Detective: Gary Goodhew
Setting      Cambridge
Time         Current
Genre       British Police Procedural

This is the third in the Alison Bruce/Gary Goodhew series and although Bruce claims in the afterword to be pleased with the plot she has constructed, there are times when it gets a little too convoluted to follow. A serial killer leaves women unmolested, fully clothed, trussed up in remote locations leaving them to die of starvation or exposure to the elements. The likely identity of the killer is revealed early one and the main puzzle in the readers mind is whether or not a key young woman is his victim or his accomplice. This one doesn't quite work. 

Rating B

Alison Bruce's website

Previously read
Cambridge Blue
The Siren

Quentin Bates

Chilled to the Bone

Detective:  DS Gunnhildur Gisladottir
Time          Present
Setting       Reykjavik, Iceland
Genre        Scandi Noir

This is the third in the Gunna Gisladottir Series and is a well crafted novel. A victim of a scam run by a dominatrix dies gagged and tied to a bed. Other victims of the scam are discovered, all too embarrassed to have reported it to the police.  As Gunna and her team try to identify the dominatrix so does an ex-con just returned from prison in Lithuania although his ultimate client is somewhere hidden in the background.  At the same time a Civil Servant is under pressure to find a missing laptop. before compromising Government secrets leak out. To add to the complications a woman is mysteriously following the Civil Servant.

In the backplot, Gunna's son, who works away on the fishing fleet, advises hi mother that he has two women pregnant simultaneously.

Rating A+

Quentin Blake's Blog

Previously read novels in the series
Frozen Assests (1)
Cold Comfort (2)
Winterlude (4)

Aline Templeton

Evil for Evil

Detedtive: Matjorie Fleming
Setting       Galloway
Time          Present
Genre        Police Procedural

The crime that triggers the story is the discovery of a relatively recent skeleton in a cave on an island just off the Galloway coast.  In the local village there is resentment shown to the "incomer" who has inherited a local farm and the island.  The opening of the novel is a bit confused as a cast of characters is introduced including a woman from Mancheste, with something in her past who cladestinely leaves her husband and takes up residence in a holiday chalet nearby.

Once the characters are established hoever the plot builds nicely and as Fleming and her team investigate various options open up and the novel is well crafted although when the villain is revealed I'm not too sure of the credibility of the rationale.

In the backstory the rivalries amongst Fleming's team continues and her personal life is complicated by her daughter's first disastrous experience of university and the pressures her demanding job place on her family in general

Rating A

Aline Templeton's website

Previously read
Cold in the Earth
The Darkness and the Deep
Lying Dead
Lamb to the Slaughter

Mari Jungstedt

Dark Angel

Detective: Anders Knoutas

Journalist Johan Berg

Setting:     Gotland

Time:       Current

Genre:     Scandi Noir

This is the sixth of the Jungstedt Knutas/Borg stories set on the Swedish island of Gotland. All of them allow the issues to be developed between Knutas, the chief detective on the island, and Borg the TV journalist.

The story begins with the murder of an important Gotland social event organiser, although it soon becomes apparent that he is the accidental victim. The intended target had been his lover. The book uses the device of interspersing the current action with the autobiographical reminiscences of an unidentified character. Who this is and how he relates to the main plot is gradually revealed although it is not as one might think.

The previous novels have detracted a little from the detective plot by exploring the developing relationship between Borg and his wife. This is not so apparent in this novel, but Knutas' difficulties in relating to his teenage son forms much of the backplot

Rating A

Marie Jungstedt's website

Previously Read

 Unseen,

 Unspoken,

 Unknown

 The Killer's Art

 The Dead of Night

Bill Rogers

Backwash

Detective DCI Tom Caton
Setting     Manchester
Time        Immediate
Genre       Police Procedural

This is the latest Tom Caton and the first I've read since starting this blog. Set in Manchester the locations are recognisable, which adds to the enjoyment.

This one leads Caton into investigating three murders with a similar MO, all eventually linked to a form of cyber crime and on line bullying. Discoveries of one the victims on line activity leads to a final extra element to the plot with Caton's son from his first marriage exposed to a paedophile ring.

All this is set in the week leading up to Caton's wedding to his current partner. The relationship here has developed gradually through all the novels

Rating A

Bill Roger's website

Previously read
     The Cleansing
     The Head Case
     The Tigers Cave
     A Fatal Intervention
     Bluebell Hollow
     A Trace of Blood
     The Frozen Contract

Torquil Macleod

Murder in Malmo

Detective Anita Sundstrum
Setting      Malmo
Time         2008/09
Genre       Scandi Noire

This is the second of the Anita Sundstrum, Malmo, novels. Sundstrum is returning to work after the controversy which concluded the first book and she finds herself sidelined to dealing with an art theft whilst the rest of the detectives concentrate on the murder by gassing of an advertising executive. It is not until a third murder that the plots start to come together and Sunstrom is reconciled to the main action. At the same time there is a rogue gunman randomly killing members of the Malmo immigrant community. As in other Sedish novels the rise of racist reaction to immigration is an aspect of the plot.  The plot develops well as information is skilfully revealed and there are some well crated twists.

In terms of backplot, Sundstrom is still drawn emotionally to the killer she arrested at the end of the first novel and she still has to handle the advances of a sexist and slimy colleague and professional rival.

A
Torqil Macleod's website

Previous novel 
Meet me in Malmo

Alison Bruce

The Siren

Detective: Gary Goodhew
Setting:      Cambridge
Time:         Current
Genre        Police Procedural

This is the second of Alison Bruce's Goodhew novels set in Cambridge and in many ways is better than the first, particularly in the characterisation of Goodhew, who in the first novel was too recocious a green detective and the presence of his grandmother as his eminence gris is not apparent.

The plot begins with the discovery of a body in a car pulled from the sea in Spain and the death in a fire of one of two women who know something about it and the disappearance of the other one's young child. The direction the story takes is not always predictable and the twists are intrguing.

Rating A

Previously read  Cambridge Blue

Alison Bruce website

Aline Tenpleton

Lamb to the Slaughter

Detective: Marjorie Fleming
Setting:     Galloway
Time:        Current
Genre       Scots Police Procedural

This the fourth of Templeton's, Flaming novels is nicely crafted with puzzling leads and a neat final twist. A dead sheep is dumped in the courtyard of a small town craft centre. The land owner, who may or may not be about to sell the location to a large supermarket chain, is shot at close range with a shotgun on his doorstep. Is there a link, and if so what? And who will benefit from the murdered man's will. The final arrest comes as a surprise, but there's a twist beyond that.

In the backplot Fleming has to cope with the problems of having a teenage daughter and the death of her father, while within her team there is romance and duplicity.

Rating A

Aline Templeton's Website

Previously Read
Cold in the Earth
The Darkness and the Deep
Lying Dead

Dana Stabenow

The Singing of the Dead

Private Investigator: Kate Shugak
Time                        Current
Setting:                    Alaska

Yet another of the Kate Shugak novels. Eleventh in the series. Shugak is hired as a security guard for an candidate in the Alaskan House of Representatives following the receipt of threatening letters to the candidate. The story is paralled by one set in the late 1890's to 1915 during the Gold Rush era concerning the career and ultimately murder of a prostitute who tries to better herself.  

In the Shugak series Stabenow mostly concerns herself with the plight of native Alaskans (Shugak is an Aleut). In this novel between the sub and main plots Stebenow explores the origins of the sate's Anglo population making the point that most of the state's "aristocracy" can be traced back to prostitutes who married well. 

It is whether of not there are skeleton's in the family cupboard of both Shugak's employer and her opponent that drives much of the plot especially after a researcher who has been asked to check into backgrounds is murdered.

In terms of the backplot ARC, Shugak is still coming to terms with the murder of her partner and reconciling herself to the responsibility of looking after his 14 year old sn.

Rating A

Dana Stabenow's web site

Previously read
A Cold Day for Murder
A Fatal Flaw
Dead in the Water
A Cold Blooded Business 
Whisper to the Blood
A Night too Dark
Though Not Dead
Restless in the Grave

Sara Blaedel

Blue Blood
(Also published as "Call me Princess")

Detective: Louise Rick
Time:        Current
Setting:     Copenhagen
Genre:       Scandi Noir

This is the second of Blaedel's Louise Rick novels. It concerns a brutal rape of a young woman  and dwells a lot on the consequences for the victim before there is a second rape, this time resulting in the death of the victim.In order to trace the perpetrator Rick is drawn into exploring the world of internet dating which takes her dangerously close to the villain. At the same time Rick's best friend, a journalist is trying to exploit the problems of the original victim and unwittingly exposes her to further danger.

The background story of Rick's problems with her partner are a little drawn out and slow the pace of the story.

Rating B+

Sara Blaedel's website

Torquil MacLeod

Meet me in Malmo

Detective: Anita Sundstrum
Time:       2008
Setting    Malmo, Sweden
Genre:    Scandi Noir

This is heralded as the first in the Detective Inspector Anita Sundstrum series. An English journalist arrives in Malmo to interview a university contemporary who is now a Swedish celebrity only to walk into his flat to find the film star wife murdered. Until the discovery of the body the pace is slow but it speeds up after this. There are a number of possible leads until the crime is solved and there is a final last page twist. 

Sundstrum is part of a team of detectives with differing personalities, including the almost inevitable over-bearing boss although he can be supportive  of Sundstrum's insights and pursuit of her own theories.

A promising start to the sequence

A

Torquil McLeod's Website

Aline Templeton

Lying Dead

Detective: Inspector Marjorie Fleming
Time:        Present
Setting:      Galloway
Genre       Scots Rural Police Procedural

This is the third of the Marjorie Fleming novels. The plot opens with a prisoner released on licence discovering and moving a  woman's body before he could be incorrectly accused of killing her. At the same time there are libertine goings on amongst the boating set at a wealthy yacht club on the cost nearby. The initial evidence is that the murder victim is from Manchester. However it is eastablished that the murder victim has local links and her previous colourful past opens up a new range of suspects. The obnoxious detective Jon Kingsley, who was introduced in the previous novel, plays a significant role.  Well crafted. Lots of half leads and  an unexpected twist at the end.

Amongst developing themes is Fleming's difficult  relationship with the Stevenson family who were impoverished by the foot and mouth epidemic and will not forgive her for her nforcement role as a police officer during the culling. Another theme in the back story is that of Fleming's father developng dementia and the struggle to come to 

Ailine Templeton's web site

Rating A+

Previously read
The Darkness and the Deep
Cold in the earth

Ann Cleeves

The Shetland Quartet
           Raven Black
           White Nights
           Red Bones
           Blue Lightning

Detective: Inspector Jimmy Parez
Time:        Present
Location   Shetland Islands
Genre        Scots Noir

For novels in the sequence, which I read in quick succession. Set in various locations around the Shetland Isles the stories are nicely constructed, each with a good twist towards the end, while giving an interesting insight into life in this remote part of the United Kingdom. Jimmy Parez is a local lad, descended from an Armada survivor in tue with the crofting traditions of the area.

The back story involves his developng romance with an artist incomer although the story ends in tragedy.

Rating A+

Ann Cleeves Website

Quentin Bates

Winterlude

Detective:Detective Sergeant Gunhilder Gisladottir
Time            Present
Setting:      Iceland; Reykjavik
Genre:        Scandi Noir

This is the fourth of Bates' "Gunni" Gisladottir novels although much of the investigative work in this one is carried out by her assistant Helgi, following up leads in his home village. Interestingly in the first two books Gunni is based in a small town away from the capital and the gets transferred to th city. Hasaving done that ates' seems to feel the need to set his plot back in rural Iceland.

Essentially its a well crafted but simple plot. An ex-con, freed early from his sentence for killing a child in a road accident is found battered to death in a warehouse he owns in Reykavik. The most likely perpetrator, the child's father, has a cast iron alibi as he was at sea at the time of the murder. However he has three brothers living in Helgi's small home town. Did one of them do it and if so which?

Rating A-

Quentin Bates' Blog

Previously Read Novels in the Series
Frozen assets (1)
Cold Comfort (2)