Blogger and legal writer The Secret Barrister has published several best-selling non-fiction books about the law, but this courtroom thriller is their first venture into non-fiction. It too has deservedly earned the ‘best seller’ accolade. It tells the story of … Continue reading →
The story is set in Iceland but could have been set anywhere – only the names of the characters and places show the connection. The book feels like it was written to be adapted for a TV series. It gets … Continue reading →
Nothing to do with Inspector Morse’s sidekick, these three novels are set on the Hebridean island of Lewis, the most northerly of the archipelago. The setting of a small community where everyone knows everyone else is not unusual in crime … Continue reading →
This is the second outing for DI Malcolm Fox in Rankin’s post-Rebus world. I haven’t read the first, but I was disappointed with this book. It has a large – possibly too large – cast of characters but none of … Continue reading →
In this third book featuring lone maverick detective Nick Belsey, he is once again in deep trouble with the Met, facing disciplinary action and a probable charge of murder. Hiding out to postpone the inevitable he accidentally stumbles into the … Continue reading →
It should have been the perfect art heist carried out by art lovers turned amateur criminals. But the real underworld of Edinburgh came in on the act and things turned unpleasant. No Rebus in this novel, but Rankin hasn’t lost … Continue reading →
This is the second of Harris’s books set in present-day London and featuring DC Nick Belsey, described on the cover by Val McDermid as “a beguiling bastard of a hero”. As in the first book “The Hollow Man“ it doesn’t … Continue reading →
“The Hollow Man” is Oliver Harris’s first novel. His central character is a disillusioned, disreputable detective constable whose patch is Hampstead, but who knows the seedier parts of London too. The story concerns a suicide in a house in the … Continue reading →
A series of detective novels of varying merit by a French/American academic living in the city. Titles in order, with date read. Death at La Fenice (07.99) Death in a Strange Country (09.99) The Anonymous Venetian (10.99) A Venetian Reckoning … Continue reading →
I think this is the first book by Ian Rankin I’ve read, and my first Rebus novel. So what better than to start with the last one, set after Rebus has retired from the police force? Anyway, he’s back and … Continue reading →