Friend or Foe? - Ken Lussey

 

New entry in the Bob Sutherland WW2 series, 

out July 14th from Arachnid Press

Ken Lussey returns with Bob Sutherland and Monique Dubois with another thrilling, fast-paced tale set amidst the height of World War Two in Scotland.

It’s late June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland’s journey home from Malta is interrupted, first in London to hear Soviet claims of a German spy in Scotland and then by a shoot-out between US military units in Lancashire.

 

Having returned to Edinburgh, they remain only briefly before travelling with a Military Intelligence 11 team to Galloway to track down the spy. How best to catch a ghost who may already have uncovered vital military secrets? Can they find him before it’s too late? 

When two Soviet agents arrive in Galloway to help, Bob and Monique need to work out the difference between friend and foe. Does the German spy exist, or is he a Soviet invention intended to lure MI11 into danger?

Lussey as ever writes with such an assuredness in proceedings ranging from rations and the ability to drink champagne during wartime. This is thanks to his diligent research which even touches upon precise train times in Scotland. It is these details that help elevate this work above mere folly/

The most enticing entry of the book is the beginning when the Battle of Bamber surfaces; a real life occasion when Black American GIs had a fight with British civilians. This melding of fact and fiction always raises Lussey's works to that of importance and how we should look to the past to better understand our present, and how little has been learnt in nearly 80 years of passing.

Enticing and frantic, Lussey has again written a thrilling book of action set in real-life incidents a melding of fact and fiction in great unison. Another pleasing entry in this unique and special series.

Friend or Foe? is available from Arachnid Press now 

Dead Man's Shoes - Marion Todd

 

Marion Todd returns with another instalment in the DI Clare Slater world

Having followed Todd's career - a second career as her life as a novelist started in later years - it has been a joy to see this writer grow as an author creating a world she is happily swimming in as the crime washes up on the nearby shores in St Andrews.

This most recent adventure follows the death of a young man found dead near a nightclub. The marks on his neck are indicative and a symbol of a serial killer in the North of England, labelled 'The Choker', a killer who targets gay men.

From that death, another death follows and on and on and with further attacks on men happening, Slater must again balance the extremes of work pressure with the crucial home-life balance with a fellow member of the Police force. 

It is always difficult to find new problems or obstacles for a character in a continuing series without it becoming old hat or sound like you are repeating yourself. In this edition, Todd gives Slater the difficulty of a back injury sustained in the line of duty meaning she becomes a passenger driven to crime scenes and has to slow down while trying to get the same results.

Written as ever with such enthusiasm and with a great ear for dialogue in the workplace, Todd again has written a winner of a crime read. 

Dead Man's Shoes is released on 9th January 2025 from Canelo Crime

My thanks to them for the pre-approval on NetGalley

Thicker Than Water - Ken Lussey

 

Brand new novel by prolific author Ken Lussey

Lussey has been quite the prolific author since just before the pandemic, this is his 10th novel in nearly six years.

Lussey first came to this reader's attention in the summer of 2018 when he released his first book EYES TURNED SKYWARDS which merged historical fact and detective fiction to create a rip-roaring narrative with a new sort of hero in RAF pilot Bob Sutherland who becomes a Thaw like detective when investigating the actual crash of King George VI's younger brother the Duke of Kent. The intrepid former police officer uses his wits to find out what caused the crash and avoid the cover-up. This is itself the birth of a special branch of Military Intelligence where Bob must come to grips with a new sort of political espionage all while co-operating with a new partner, Madame Monica Dubois, a double agent. Together they forge a passionate and honest relationship of secrets and lies, where the only thing true is their burgeoning love for each other.

Over five books, this reader has followed the paths of Bob and Monica from restricted Scottish highlands to chases in Stockholm and most recently their honeymoon spy tour in Malta in THE EYE OF HORUS.

Whilst writing those books, Lussey has also written two books starring Callum Anderson, a former Metropolitan Police officer who following a bitter divorce has returned to his roots in Scotland to become a private investigator. He is now courting a doctor, Jenny Mackay, who is overcoming her own alcoholic demons and yet the unlikely pair (like Bob and Monica) have found solace together when the chance for love may have gone in their eyes.

Lussey has taken the bold and brave decision to melt his two universes (1940s war-time and modern day detective) together in a story about place and how history can tie a place to two separate occasions when one act takes place. This is not a time-travel story but a place-portal story. 

It is the season of Hogmanay, Callum and Jenny visit Sarclet Castle in Caithness where they are asked to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman in 1943, whose ghost is believed to haunt the castle. A cold case to begin with but not the first woman to be stabbed in nearby Sarclet Broch; there was another murder nearly two thousand years earlier. And upon their arrival, a third fatal stabbing occurs. Can Callum prove anything on a case eight decades old while avoiding danger in their hunt for the contemporary killer.

Callum in his third appearance comes across as a more stable protagonist not too dissimilar from Bob Sutherland - methodical, patient and intelligent, yet it is the growth of Dr. Jenny that is the most impressive portion of the book. Jenny is treated as an equal to Callum, they slowly are forming a working as well as a personal partnership that will hold them in good stead in books moving forward.

Lussey has attempted something grand and he has achieved success, crafting a thrilling cat and mouse with his usual admiring travelogue with snippets of history. Like whiskey, this is a wonderful blend of escapism, entertainment and education

Thicker Than Water is published by Arachnid Press on all formats.

The Eye of Horus - Ken Lussey

Fifth book by Ken Lussey released by Arachnid Press released 18th June 

Ken Lussey returns with another tale in his RAF series featuring Bob Sutherland and secret agent Monique

Starting the series in 2019 and based around the true story of the mysterious death of King George VI's cousin, Duke of Kent, Lussey took historical fact and weaved in an interesting premise of a detective with life skills imperative to tracking down the truth and one not without his obstacles to overcome. Bob Sutherland our loyal captain and main protagonist was a fine pilot with many messerschmidts as notches on his belt, yet a flight one night during the Battle of Britain cost him the sight in his left eye grounding him permanently from the war effort but still able to fly in daytime. 

Sutherland found his calling belonged in the Military Intelligence Service, and so the series of books have found him investigating cases amidst the rich Highland landscape with his now wife, Monique for company.

The problem any writer of a series would attest to, is the restrictions of their limited landscape has upon a character's growth, the confinement of war and the familiarity of problems may restrict other writers. However, Lussey has overcome this with great initiative. 

One book in the series was entitled, The Stockholm Run, where Bob and Monique took on the guises of Mr and Mrs Cadman to take over 

The new book starts us off with the couple in good spirits having just got married in secret. They are in the midst of enjoying their honeymoon - time away from work, relaxing as best you can during a war - yet that tranquility gets disrupted when an old friend of Bob's tells him of a missing relative on the island of Malta. Having been missing for nearly a week with no rhyme, reason or body to show; the colleague asks Bob and Monique to go to the island via Gibraltar and investigate.

Combining elements of war-time set films such as The Guns of Navarone and The Third Man; Lussey weaves another welcome addition to the Sutherland Series. Lussey's eye for historical period detail gives the reader a history lesson (such as the note that a third of young children died in Malta in 1942 due to the aerial bombardment and lack of medical supplies entering the island - sounds familiar as war carries on in the Middle East) and a reminder of how privileged we are to live in peace time in our country currently.

By the book's end, Lussey has again concocted a thrilling cat and mouse thriller helped by the limitations of the small island's geography and the ever impending threat of an aerial attack by the German air force.

For fans old and new, my hope is that these books do find the larger audience they so richly deserve.

The Eyes of Horus is out from Arachnid Press on Tuesday 18th June on all formats. 

Bridges to Burn - Marion Todd

 

Brand new thriller in continuing series by Scottish author Marion Todd

Todd has crafted a thrilling series of novels based around her hometown residency of St. Andrews, based around the central character of DI Clare Mackay, who with her trusted team of police officers solve the crimes that fall on their tranquil doorsteps month-to-month.

Embracing the ethos of write what you know by placing the action in her hometown, Todd mixes a wealth of local knowledge with meticulous police research and a smidgen of admiration for Midsomer Murders. After eight books surely people should stay away from this town yet we as a reader keep returning for more and more of the same.

This book revolves around quite sensitive content as it starts with the suicide of a young female teenager and then the murder of a former local councilman who may or may not have taken bribes when in the position of local authority to get planning permission approved. 

As always two inextricably linked cases are somehow entwinned and Mackay must navigate the two cases along with a DCI who she does not get along with and a very green Family Liaison Officer who she rubs up the wrong way.

This reader has been with Todd every step of the way and has thoroughly enjoyed the growth of not only Mackay as a character but Todd as an assured plotter of narrative. Her strength is remaining in control of the multiple plates she has spinning, at the start of the book the sensitive nature of the teenage suicide is linked to porn websites which is a bit unsettling but then the councilman's murder helps crank up the tension and narrative thrust. 

Any worries that was being endured where thrust asunder with the breakneck pace of the final quarter of the book being both rip-roaring and thoroughly enjoyable. 

Another pleasing aspect of this book was the matriarchal role Mackay has slowly grown into since her debut in See Them Run in 2019. In five years a lot can happen yet the responsibility you have to those you work with remains and the relationship Mackay has with Chris on the eve of his wedding is such a well-handled notion of friendship and respect.

She also has the confidence to bring up old cases and returning periphery characters such as the journalist from In Plain Sight  (2020) which feels neither nostalgic or ill-judged; this is a writer at the top of her powers.

For fans old and new, this is a book I shall be recommending to crime readers. As I have previously stated Ms. Todd deserves a wider audience for her books. 

BRIDGES TO BURN is out on 7th March from Canelo Crime, whom I thank for the approval on NetGalley for.

A Tangled Web - Ken Lussey

Brand new Contemporary novel by Ken Lussey out 15th November

Prolific Scottish based author, Ken Lussey, returns with his second contemporary set novel of the calendar year. Starring his new creation, Callum Anderson, a Metropolitan Police officer, whose life has taken a strange turn and finds himself out of familiar water in the Scottish Highlands.

Callum is investigating the mysterious death of Iain Mackay, husband to Dr. Jenny, whose disappearance was first mentioned in the first novel The High Road. Callum is getting more firmly cemented into his new surroundings and in being quite taken with Jenny as a new romantic avenue to pursue.

The first book that introduced Callum had a bit more emotional baggage to navigate as he had to overcome the end of his marriage in London and separation from his twin sons, yet we followed his navigation of finding a new lease of life and purpose in the Scottish landscapes. 

This second novel, shows our protagonist as more an investigator than a policeman, delving into the dodgy dealings of Iain before his unseemly end in a lay-by. Fans of the television series Shetland will notice and wonder how such nefarious things can follow a man around small towns.

Yet for this reader, Lussey remains a capable and prestigious talent of maintaining narrative hold of the proceedings, never wavering in terms of pace and thrust of the cut that finds our lead characters in worrying moments of peril.

Lussey again weaves in historical facts of long lost locations (Drumbeg Castle) and paints wonderful pictures of lovely landscapes Callum and Jenny encounter. At times it can feel like tourist information but Lussey writes with such a passion for the history and feel of a place it does not feel like exposition and not at all unnecessary.

Written with such a verve and intelligence that it is commendable he can write with such authority and assuredness release upon release. Another great addition to his catalogue, if not completely matching previous heights, of which he has set a very high standard though.

A Tangled Web is release from Arachnid Press on all formats from 15th November.

My thanks to them for the review opportunity.

THE HIGH ROAD by Ken Lussey

 

New contemporary novel by Scottish based author Ken Lussey from Arachnid Press

This reader has followed the career path of Ken Lussey since he published his first World War 2 novel back in 2018. A writer who is both prolific and knowledgeable in his depiction of fictitious espionage tales in historical accurate settings. 

This time we see him take a different tact as writers of series are prone to doing such as Brian McGilloway does from time to time. This time the story is about a cop Callum who returns to his Scottish roots following the death of his father to scatter his ashes. The disappearance of a cousin, Alexandra, leads to him staying in central Scotland and the North-West while serving a suspension from the Met Police. 

Lussey has always been fond of Scotland and takes pleasure in the landscapes and transposing the lush vistas to parchment, with a keen eye for mood and atmosphere. Here the road less travelled is key to the narrative of Callum as he must follow hunches and visit towns he has never heard of to find the missing persons.

Callum shows himself to be a deft detective, capable of inducing information from people and overcoming obstacles when necessary such as several guns pointed in his direction. The criminal underworld comes to the surface on occasion, and Callum reeling from his wife leaving him for his boss, finds affection in the arms of female policewomen. 

Yet there is growth and development for the character as the narrative progresses, he grows as the roads get narrower further up the western coast line.

The story is well told and at a pace familiar to readers of Lussey's other works, the concluding shoot-out and fallout is handled delicately and you admire the moxie of a character like Callum, a man who is not necessarily outside of his comfort zone but he is dealing with this almost notion above his station with aplomb and getting his mojo back in more ways than one.

The film ends on a high and it calls to mind the film Local Hero, where a fish out of water finds that this is his best place to live. And in the author's note, there is a promise of a sequel.

THE HIGH ROAD is out now from Arachnid Press, my thanks to them for the review copy

Hide and Seek - Ken Lussey

 

Fifth book in the Bob Sutherland series by Scottish based author, Ken Lussey, out 26th May from Arachnid Press.

It is April 1943. Set in and around Stirling Castle, Bob and his bride-to-be Monique Dubois are attending a secret meeting at the castle to discuss details of national security.

Meanwhile, medical student Helen Erickson is followed from London to her aunt's farm in Perthshire, why is she being followed? Is it about the work her mother is taking part in at Bletchley Park?

An old adversary is murdered mysteriously whilst the secret meeting is taking place, Bob and the MI11 team are called in to investigate when everyone has a motive to the victim.

Lussey has in the past six years created this quite wonderful world of World War Two espionage and mystery surrounding this lone central character of Bob Sutherland and yet in each book through the four previous (Eyes Turned Skywards, The Danger of Life, Bloody Orkney and The Stockholm Syndrome) there has been perpetual growth of Bob as an officer and a gentleman, he and Dubois have grown closer together from flirting to close to being married and in the last book Bob killed a man with his gun breaking his virginity.

What is so good about this book in comparison to others previously, is that there is a genuine sense of not coming next. While others have followed traditional narrative paths, for instance in the Stockholm Syndrome the daring pair are in the Swedish capital meaning the action is contained within that city. Here we start in Stirling Castle, yet there was a short prelude where German crew seek asylum and land in Scotland. We then go to Stirling Castle and after the murder, Monique is on the trail of Helen while Bob must investigate the murder himself. 

The separation of the pair for narrative reasons is cleverly done because again it helps to let the pair grow, but Monique's chase of Helen across the Scottish Highlands and train tracks means it is her story we are more engrossed upon. The scene where Helen and Anthony discover the carnage at the aunt's farm was to this reader reminiscent of the opening to No Country for Old Men told with such assuredness that comes from a writer confident in the characters he has created.

While that is daring and driven, Bob's castle death is closer to an Agatha Christie novel and those famous drawing room murders where everybody is a suspect.

Drawing from a wealth of influences and his own Royal Air Force career, Lussey has again written an entertaining page-turning novel that delivers in spades of enjoyment and tension.

Hide and Seek is out in Paperback from Arachnid Press on 26th May 

The House with 46 Chimneys - Ken Lussey

 

The new original story by Scottish based writer/novelist, Ken Lussey, tells the story of three children enraptured by the history of their surroundings during an enforced seclusion away from the city whilst the Coronavirus pandemic takes hold.

The story starts in late March and ends by the first week of April - a short period of time but incorporates the children's Easter holidays. The three children - Kaleb, Jude and Quoia (short for Sequoia) - are moved from their home in Edinburgh to a relative's home not far from Stirling in the countryside, Aunt Fliss, faraway from the bustling throngs of the city to the quietness of the rural landscape.

The children naturally do not like the new surroundings, but whereas in other favourites of children literature, boredom can be avoided by the use of Wi-Fi to be entertained and a diligent aunt who would like to help the children appreciate the nature that surrounds them more. Fliss is an artist with commissions ongoing, and for one hour a day she asks her nephews and nieces to draw and reflect.

The children still love to explore, and with the ruins surrounding them of long ago Scottish kingdoms with castles ready to be explored so long as government guidelines allow them to be entered. The children explore through actual haunts such as Dunmore Park including the iconic Dunmore Pineapple as well as the aforementioned House with 46 Chimneys where the dramatic action in the final third of the book takes place.

The children become friendly with contemporaries of the same age next door, whilst maintaining social distancing of course. Lussey does well to convey a changing world for all the characters, from the three children's parents who are key workers to the sanitising of badminton rackets ahead of a garden party.

Lussey is more known for his two Bob Sutherland novels - Eyes Turned Skywards and The Danger of Life incorporating a rich love of World War 2 history and warfare here in the United Kingdom specifically the untold story of Scottish branch of the RAF - a third book in the series is coming soon.

 

Yet here Lussey shows his versatility as a writer, harking back to books of his youth from Enid Blyton's Famous Five to the Railway Children - incorporating familiar tropes such as children evacuated from a major city, familiarising themselves with new surroundings and unfamiliar family members and making friendships and moments that will stay with them forever.

Taking a deliberate but fantastical detour in the third act focusing on family trees and lineage, Lussey never loses our attention and keeps us gripped as the children become embroiled in the tribulations of a ghost story.

The House with 46 Chimneys is out now from Arachnid Press on all formats.