The Empty Room - Brian McGilloway

 

Brand new thriller from novelist Brian McGilloway out from Little Brown Group

McGilloway returns following last year's excellent BLOOD TIES with another standalone novel, this time focusing on the disappearance of a daughter from her small Northern Irish village, leaving her Mum distraught at the thought she may have been abducted and subsequently murdered.

McGilloway is a writer of high intellect and all his novels are paced so well. In this novel it is written from the point of view of the mother Pandora, we follow her as we find out about the daughter, Ellie, missing and then the investigations by police before news comes to shake her to her core; from the dissolution of her marriage to the loss of friendships. The plot tells us as much about instant coverage of media and calls to mind other abduction scandals that have hit the headlines in this social media age, for example, Shannon Matthews.

Written with clarity and precision, McGilloway does not disappoint again with his new work, at times gut wrenching in the emotional pull of the narrative, the depiction of walking grief for Pandora is so brilliantly handled you can only hope the book reaches a wider audience.

THE EMPTY ROOM is available now on all formats.

Thanks to the author for arranging a review copy.

The Law of Innocence - Michael Connelly

THE NEW LINCOLN LAWYER NOVEL OUT 10TH NOVEMBER

Highly enjoyable entry into the Mickey Haller universe with guest appearances by half-brother, Harry Bosch.

Ordinarily with Haller stories, he is facing down the law on the side of the victim, chasing for clues and crooked cops as he seeks justice for the person he is defending and sometimes those he defend are not all they seem.

In this new story from the prolific Connelly, Mickey - the famous Lincoln Lawyer so well adapted in the 2011 thriller directed by Brad Furman and written for the screen by John Romano, and famously portrayed by the smooth-talking Matthew McConnaughey - is himself charged with murder after a routine traffic stop finds a body in his trunk, one that Mickey cannot explain but as the victim is a former client of his who owed him money it gets all a bit convoluted. 

The book descends into more a courtroom tussle, and puts Mickey in a difficult situation. He has to prove that he is not innocent just not guilty which is the law within the courtroom, he is worried that his professional career will suffer if he is not properly acquited and wishes an apology from the court and District Attorney if possible. Constantly the law of innocence is asked as Mickey staves off the first degree murder charges against him.

                                  

The swiftness of plot and effortless character arc and narrative is second to none; the inclusion of Bosch is deliberate but not overbearing, as a secondary character from his own universe may overtake proceedings but Bosch serves as an important part of Mickey's defence team to seek the truth.

I spent the whole time with the voices of Matthew McConnaughey and Titus Weliver in my head; this would be a tale ripe for adaptation - and Connelly makes it very much of the here and now with the tale taking place over November 2019 to March 2020 with the threat and worry over a possible pandemic incoming to the populus of Los Angeles, with little touches such as people wearing masks and general unknowingness of an impending doom.

As a fan of Connelly's work and the Amazon Prime original series Bosch this is thoroughly enjoyable fare of the highest order from a writer working at full speed and the top of his game.

The Law of Innocence is published on November 10th from Orion Books

When The Past Kills - MJ Lee

Book Five of the DI Ridpath series is out on September 24th from Canelo

MJ Lee has developed quite a niche in recent times, his creation Detective Ridpath first appeared in the latter part of 2018 and since then Lee has written with a breakneck pace of regularity providing the fifth tale of his cancer survivor Detective Inspector who has to overcome office politics, his own career aspirations and the criminals of the Manchester underworld.

From the second tale Where The Dead Fall, which was this reviewer's introduction to the series, Ridpath has this relatable everyman quality that comes across in the page; not once in the second book did this reader feel left out of a secret club with the first book narrative being relayed quickly and called back at times without leaving the reader none the wiser.

In this new book When The Past Kills, Ridpath is centre to an investigation where people who wrongly jailed an innocent man before getting the guilty coroner are being subjected to assaults, scare mongering, one by one a chain of command is being followed including online deaths to the dark web, hangings by live feed - Ridpath is in a race against time before he becomes the next victim of the serial attacker.

Lee writes with such a whipcrack rhythm full of short chapters incorporating a range of character arcs, story development and dialogue which is both expositional but gripping; set amidst the gloom of Manchester - Lee is at pains to paint this city as much of a character as his protagonists.

Every Ridpath book is one to relish, as it serves up tales that are full of tension and enjoyment - a sense of satisfaction is apparent and this book also features one hell of a cliffhanger, leaving his reader eagerly anticipating Book 6 which will hopefully drop

When The Past Kills is out on 24th September from Canelo Publishing and all formats

Lies To Tell - Marion Todd

The 3rd book in the DI Clare Mackay series is released from Canelo on 25th June, written by Marion Todd

Marion Todd is a Scottish writer, which is perhaps wrong to put here in that stable of Scotland as a writer, but the book she writes is so of the region that it makes sense to attach that stigma to her.  Todd is also what you would consider no spring chicken, and is a writer making up for lost time.

Her Clare Mackay character has now appeared in three books, and each book has appeared within the last 15 months in a brilliant period of publishing by Canelo which they have done before with MJ Lee's DI Ridpath series which has had four releases in as many years.

This is not unusual for writers to be prolific, John Grisham and Lee Child the biggest selling writers on the planet release a new work like clockwork with James Patterson operating now a factory line of consumption for thriller readers.

Yet, this is not like pulp fiction or dime novels, Todd is writing a character that is both relatable, honest and eye-opening; to get a woman of a certain age writing about a woman of a certain age who is good at her profession yet struggling with the perception that she should be settling down for a family in the eyes of other people and society.

Mackay showed in the second book In Plain Sight, that she is an industrious individual, pragmatic and believable, respected by her peers in the pursuit of rescuing an abducted child.

Lies To Tell finds Mackay again at the crossroads of her relationship status, her love Geoffrey (a professor) has moved to Boston for his work and Mackay is enjoying her work, work is busy as always in the police force yet the action picks up straight away with her being picked up by her superior Alan to go to a meeting with a mysterious computer specialist Gayle, who may or may not know about a possible leak in the St. Andrews squad in relation to an ongoing trial.

Gayle asks to be positioned in the headquarters to try and sniff out the leak, then a sub-plot of students going missing yet with lots of money in their bank accounts open up a can of worms.  This is coupled with Mackay succumbing to temptation with Alan her superior, and becoming friendly with Gayle. If Todd did not take the plot so seriously, the narrative of Mackay having two very heavy sessions at home would be played for comedy yet Mackay knows this is a break in character and a sign of weakness which her partner, loyal Chris mentions to her.

Personally, this reader found the book a bit harder to get into compared to the two previous books written by Todd, this may have been my personal circumstances yet my adage is start slowly but finish strong especially in crime or thriller tomes - and this rings true of the plot for this novel with Todd cleverly painting this ominous air of paranoia and fear for Mackay as she gets deeper into understanding the source of the leak and for this Todd should be praised. The ending is dynamic and gripping which is exactly what you need and for this reader expects of her after three novels now.

Lies To Tell is out on 25th June from Canelo Press.

Fair Warning - Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly returns with a new gripping thriller for the page turner this Summer.

Connelly the writer behind Harry Bosch, returns with another character he has written before - Jack McEvoy; a journalist for a consumer website who is on the hunt for a serial killer of women.

McEvoy himself has his baggage, a broken relationship with his love who was his source and she lost her job for that, to save him jail time.

Connelly as ever is in the Los Angeles setting as his milieu and playground; traversing from Downtown to Hollywood to Pasadena to Cedars Senai. These landmarks are all prevalent in our minds eye so a well read reader will be able to picture most of the action, it is down to Connelly to keep us entertained.

That he does in bundles as McEvoy has to combat two policemen who have it in for him as a suspect when a body pops up not far from McEvoy. That sets in motion the wheels for the narrative of a story that involves genetics and genealogy as the plot revolves around women with broken history looking for a link for their past which they believe to be an answer in their own DNA, using those online DNA profiling.

The twist is that the dark web gets ahold of this private information, and then sell it to women-hating cell groups who then pick off women who are risky propositions and then easy targets for a serial killer.

McEvoy untangles this dark web of intrigue and uncovers a conspiracy involving unsavoury characters whose motives are nothing but welcoming, culminating in a showdown with the character calling himself 'The Shirke' so named after a carnivorous bird, a man who believes himself to be atop of the flighted food chain.

Connelly cleverly writes his narrative to build McEvoy as both an investigator but also the fear of being a suspect, and how closely the police work with the awareness and fear themselves of making mistakes a theme familiar to viewers of the Bosch television series.

As ever, Connelly writes with a swiftness and clarity which is refreshing as ever and will be enjoyed by old and new fans alike. One of the world's best thriller writers has done it again.

Fair Warning is out now on all formats.

In Plain Sight - Marion Todd

The Second DI Clare Mackay thriller by Marion Todd is out on 20th February from Canelo Press

Marion Todd burst onto the scene in the latter part of 2019 with her debut novel SEE THEM RUN published by Canelo Press, a story about a woman re-adjusting her life at the ten year point in her career as a police detective having to re-locate from Glasgow to the smaller surroundings of St. Andrews.

See Them Run is a nice introduction to Mackay as a character, you are with her throughout the process of a case that involved hit and run vehicular crimes in the serene lush landscapes near the illustrious home of golf.

Todd sets up the lead protagonist, as her role evolves and she has to encounter different people from the city, as well as familiar gender and sexual politics of the workplace environment. The first novel moved at a clip but you got the sense that it was an opening salvo for more to come.

Marion Todd - Back with a bang

It is so pleasing to hear that Todd has not sat on her laurels, and in the follow up In Plain Sight, she has written a better book, the difficult second album bug has been shaken off by this author who at the age she is making up for lost time clearly.

The action kicks off from the outset, a charity run is cut short by environmental protesters and in the vicinity of that a young baby is abducted with no-one in the crowd able to ascertain who had kidnapped her.

What follows is a book that is swift and moves at a breakneck speed; yet it is not all police work, we bear witness to Mackay's attempts at a lasting relationship with Geoffrey, a professor from the area, a more dependable partner than Tom whom she left in Glasgow following her move.

Mackay is utmost sympathetic to the plight of the parents of the missing child, despite not being a parent herself, her procedure of working embraces teamwork and the use of this breaks open the case with leads being jumped upon through hunches being followed and good detective work.

In Plain Sight is out on all formats from Canelo Press on 20th February 2020.
My thanks to them for the review opportunity

Sirens

Debut novels are all the rage in this the early part of 2017, new crime voices are making big strides and in recent months I have reviewed thrilling bows from A. A. Dhand with Streets of Darkness and the impending arrival of Daniel Cole's Ragdoll.

Whilst Ragdoll is that mixture of genuine thriller writing, good plotting and the page turning abandon you find in Lee Child or Dan Brown novels; there is another new voice on the block. Joseph Knox is here to make himself heard and Lee Child himself, has been most praiseworthy of this debut novel.

Sirens tells the story about DI Aidan Watts, a disgraced policeman in the Manchester Police Force, who whilst on suspension is asked for a special undercover role in finding a politican's daughter's whereabouts; but when Watts gets further into the loyalties of a crime lord he the past becomes murkier and the present day darker.

Knox in an interview with Radio 5 Live's Phil Williams last week said it took him the best part of seven years to finish the novel which prompted a bidding war between 10 publishers, with Doubleday/Transworld Publishers coming out on top.

Knox writes with a real verve and creates a foreboding atmosphere of a darker side of Manchester, much like Dhand did with Leeds and Bradford in his work.  The author has a keen eye on little details which he shares with Watts from the politician not wearing his wedding ring when away from his wife to the way people share looks and talk too loudly at house parties.

In the radio interview, Knox promised another novel starring Watts is in the works.  Whilst the line between good and evil is tread with fear by our protagonists, Knox is not afraid to take you to these places and his admiration for Manchester is clear to see. Should he continue to write with this flair and character, it will not be the last we hear of him.

Sirens is out from on Thursday 12th January from Doubleday Press/Transworld Publishers

Ragdoll

With thanks to Orion Books for the review copy of this book before the February 2017 release date.

Written by debut novelist Daniel Cole, Ragdoll started life as a unproduced television pilot before Cole put it in a drawer somewhere and after many rejections decided to in his own words, 'do the selfish thing and write a book that I would love myself'.

Ragdoll tells the tale of the Ragdoll killer a serial killer who having already stitched together six victims to make a ragdoll of a corpse - separate head, torso, arms, legs. The head belongs to the infamous Cremation killer, a serial peadophile who would abuse young girls before disposing of their bodies in the aforementioned manner.

One detective William Fawkes stood up to his belief that one man Naquib Khalid was the killer, and this belief led to him attacking Khalid in the dock at the Old Bailey.  Now the case is brought back from the past, Khalid's own head is that of the Ragdoll, and Wolf is being used as bait by the Ragdoll Killer.

A man who is gripping the nation as he has provocatively claimed he will kill seven people on a specific date, with Wolf the last on the list. This showmanship of stating when and where he will complete his next murder is fitting for the current world fixated with multi-media platforms, the ultimate embodiment of 15 minutes of fame even for the victims. 

So begins a huge game of cat and mouse between the Metropolitan Police and the Ragdoll killer who is seemingly one step ahead of them, as the police try to put every next victim in witness protection, the killer beats them to the punch.

Daniel P Cole - the author

For a debut novel, Cole takes telling risks in his narrative by flirting with the possibility of following a tried and tested pattern yet then doing an about face which is as ingenious as his master villain. The risks are not restricted the narrative development, our allegiances to Wolf who is part Maverick, part wind-up merchant, part charmer is a risk taker himself, and our empathy for him is tested throughout culminating in the test of plausibility by the book's third act.

Yet Cole writes with such confidence and panache transferring from set piece to set piece whilst sustaining a romantic sub-plot and the growth of periphery characters coming front and centre by the conclusion.

The ending is both resolutory and yet ambiguous to the degree that there promises more to come from Wolf in whatever guise it may be. Whatever Cole chooses to do next, whether it is with or without Wolf, this debut novelist is certainly one to watch.

Ragdoll could possibly be the literary event of 2017.

It will be released by Trapeze Press on 23rd February on e-book edition and Hardback.

Life Or Death - Book review

It is rare to write a book review for a book that has already been published in both hardback and paperback, yet for this reader and writer it is pleasing to write a heartfelt passionate review of a pleasing read without the necessity of having to beef up words for a pre release review.

The book I am reviewing is entitled Life or Death and is written by Australian author Michael Robotham and won the 2015 CWA Golden Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year.

Michael Robotham - 2015 CWA Golden Dagger Winner

I was given the book as a gift by my girlfriend and it took me a while to get round to it due to other reading commitments. However, once I started reading the novel I must have read the entire 500+ pages in less than two weeks.

The reason for this gulping down of the book is a testament to the quality of Robotham's write which is brisk, gripping and page turning much like his contemporary Lee Child.

The comparison between Robotham and Child is interesting in that there works are predominantly based in America yet neither man lives in America. Child lives in the UK and Robotham resides in Melbourne, Australia; yet both use their vast wealth of research to base their stories in the heartland of America, with great detail paid to the interstates the characters drive upon, the dingy motels they sleep in and the way people live in these small towns.



Life of Death - US cover

Robotham uses two locations - California and Texas - in this story across two different chronological times, a challenge for any writer to maintain the intrigue and suspense wanted for this story. In this story we meet Audie Palmer, a man who has been imprisoned for armed robbery for the last 10 years, who chooses to escape from prison on the day before his release.

We follow Audie as a fugitive trying to maintain his anonymity whilst trying to clear his name through the back woods and high rise of Texas, the chances Audie takes in the face of his pursuers is not so much death wish but come and get me mentality.  This narrative is coupled with the storyline as to Audie's background 11 years previously and how he came to be imprisoned.

As Audie takes chances so does Robotham withholding certain information here and there using Special Agent Desiree Furness as his investigating conduit, when she discovers something so do we. This is further enhanced by the character Moss Webster, Audie's closest friend in jail who is picked by the conspiring group to find Audie before the cops; Moss also acts as gumshoe in finding little tidbits here and there like Furness.

The moment when the reveal came to this reader produced genuine goosebumps on my arms as the realisation of Audie's involvement in the armed robbery became clear and how the life and love he made in California is something he would never return to.

All in all the book is written at a whipcrack pace, forcing you to keep reading to find out not only what happens next but how Audie got into this mess.  We have had a trend of page turning frenzy in the last 15 years led by Lee Child and Dan Brown, but while Brown was devoid of intelligent writing in spite of conveying a smarter than the reader subject matter, treating the reader as stupid whereas Robotham treats his readership with affectional respect.

Lee Child's books use Jack Reacher as the smartest guy in the room, always one step ahead of the rest. In this novel, we have a character Palmer who might not be able to clear his name due to the powers conspiring against him in a quest for justice.

A thriller in the same vein as The Fugitive and the wrong man thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, this book could easily translate to the big screen if done correctly and does justice to the characters.

Life or Death was a joy to read from beginning to end and this reader will seek out the other novels of Robotham, because if this first encounter is anything to go by he will not fail to disappoint.

Life or Death is published by Sphere in the UK
Follow Michael Robotham on Twitter @michaelrobotham

American Crow - Book review

 

English freelance journalist Jack Lacey has released his first self-published novel on Amazon.co.uk. Entitled American Crow, this is the first release in a series of books called The Missing Series featuring the lead character Sibelius Blake.

Whilst unashamedly endebted to the work of Lee Child and his novels featuring the iconic character of Jack Reacher, this is most definitely the work of one author seeking to get his workout in the bigger world with his uniqueness.

Whilst Child is also an English author, he is one who has very much become an Americanized author with Reacher going from state to state like Child is touring the nation. From coast to coast, valley to mountains; Reacher overcomes all comers due to his immense size and even bigger intelligence.

Blake in contrast is a battered investigator suffering from the trauma of the death of a family member. Vowing to finding missing people as a promise to the dearly departed, he is coaxed into one last job which means going back to America. A country where a warrant remains for his arrest.

Arriving in a snowy Canada and then ushered into the USA by being smuggled in the underbelly of a lorry. Blake encounters many characters in search of a missing girl which brings it all too close to home for our hero.  The brilliance of Blake is that he still maintains an everyman quality, having to think on his feet in some tough situations; whereas Reacher is the sort of guy who is the smartest guy in the room, and will act upon any mistakes made by his enemies.

Lacey excels in the briskness and pacing of the novel. From exposition to dialogue to set pieces, Lacey has a good eye for detail and painting an effective picture of the world Blake inhabits whilst still doing a good job of keeping Blake as the fish out of water protagonist, borrowing a trope from traditional crime fiction in that Blake is like us the reader sometimes noticing things for the first time; we share his surprise and shock in response to events.

Also embedded by Lacey is an environmental sub-plot into the narrative with an evil mining tyrant who is ripping the heart of the Kentucky mountains so as well as moral implications to the characters there are also wider social leanings to impact the people.

American Crow is a page turner that I digested in three sittings, at times enthralling and at times funny, Lacey has created a character in Sibelius Blake this reviewer cannot wait to read more of.

You can purchase American Crow on Amazon.co.uk here 
Jack Lacey is on twitter @JackLaceyBooks

Keep your eyes peeled for a forthcoming interview with the author, exclusively on NextToTheAisle