Murder on the Brighton Express

The Railway Detective, DI Robert Colbeck and his DS Victor Leeming have been called to an accident on the London to Brighton line.  The railway inspector is sure that the accident is the fault of the driver of the express, however, Colbeck is not so sure.  He feels that the accident was no accident, but deliberate sabotage, resulting in deaths.

Colbeck presents two theories to Superintendent Tallis, one of which is Leeming's.  Firstly it was caused by a disgruntled ex-employee or secondly it was intended to target a person that was on the train.  A third possibility exists, that combines the two previous theories. 

As their investigation progresses Colbeck and Leeming come to the conclusion that there are two people that someone could have wanted dead.  One is the Brighton MP, and the other an important person associated with the railway.  They also come up with two suspects, it is just a matter of catching them.

Author Edward Marston has a few surprises in store for the reader as he draws this Victorian murder to a close.  A good, quick read.

Dying Bad

Frustrated by losing a child paedophile case, DI Sarah Quinn and DC Dave Harries have been called to a murder scene.  They are both hoping that it is the ring leader who got off.  No such luck.  However, later Jas Ram is pulled in on a drink driving charge and refusal to provide a sample.  Unfortunately the police can't hold him, although they know he is a groomer.

Meantime, Quinn and her team have a series of muggings to attend to.  The attacks are becoming more frequent and violent.  When two suspects are pulled in she and Harries question one of them while her DCS, Fred Baker questions the other.  Unfortunately he ends up in a physical altercation with the suspect.

Caroline King is a journalist who will go to great lengths to get a story, including interviewing Jas Ram and his victims, the latter under false pretenses.  When she is attacked and beaten, Quinn wonders if it is tied to Ram or the muggings.  As it is, they have two of the muggers in custody, yet three unnamed attackers are still at large.

Author Maureen Carter has put together another very good thriller.  Fast paced throughout.  A good read.

The Suffocating Sea

DI Andy Horton and Sergeant Barney Cantelli have been called out to a fire on a boat in the Portsmouth marina.  There is a corpse, whose charred remains indicate murder, as the head was crushed in on one side.  The pathologist informs Horton that the victim was suffering from advanced stages of cancer.

The victim is a financier from Guernsey.  Earlier in the day of the fire, he was visited by a solicitor from the same island.  When Horton contacts a police colleague on Guernsey, he finds out that the solicitor, a reputable man, is missing.  Later that night there is another fire, this time on Guernsey.  Another victim is found; the missing solicitor.

The first victim had been seen in a church, so when Horton questions the witness, he discovers that the church's priest had died a few hours before the first victim.  The witness is sure it wasn't a natural death.  Horton wonders what ties them together.  He receives an urgent call from the new vicar to the church later in the day.  Upon arrival, he discovers the body of the vicar and finds himself locked in the vestry and seconds later the room is fire bombed.

As Horton delves deeper into the investigation more questions arise.  The night that Horton's boat with him in it is fire bombed, he is sure he is on the right track.  Author Pauline Rawson creates a lot of tension as she builds the story in the final chapters.  A very good read.

Last Reminder

DI Charlie Priest is on his way in when he receives a call from dispatch.  He finds that four swans have been brutally murdered in Heckley Park.  Shortly after getting in to work, he is called out to a murder scene.  The victim is a financial advisor who had recently gone bankrupt.

Later after the fraud squad have gone through the victim's computer in search of potential murderers, and after receiving the pathologist's report, Priest finds that he is on a different track entirely.  The victim had been converting investors' money into diamonds.  Further information Priest gets points to a missing gold bullion shipment.  How are they tied together?  By drug money being laundered?

Another murder of a young woman throws Priest for a loop.  He had arranged to meet her, only to arrive at her house to find her dead.  Things get worse when his car is vandalised and his girlfriend is threatened.  Priest has a couple of suspects in his mind, it is just a matter of proving which one it is.

Once again, author Stuart Pawson has written an intriguing murder mystery.  I also like the way that Pawson throws in a bit of comic relief from time-to-time.  A good read.

Strange Bird

A pigeon racing enthusiast on the island of Gotland finds a strange pigeon at his pigeon coop so he entices it in.  He discovers, from its band, that it is from Eastern Europe.  No wonder it looks so bedraggled.  Unfortunately the next day it is dead, and he is feeling unwell.  So unwell, that he asks a neighbour to look after his pigeons.  Before long she is unwell, the enthusiast and his pigeons are dead.

Shortly after the pigeon arrived, DI Maria Wern is called to a gruesome murder scene.  The victim had been camping, and no one seemed to know anything about him.

More people become ill before Dr. Jonathan Ericsson realises that they may have a serious bird flu situation on their hands.  He is forced to quarantine the soccer school where Wern's son Emil is in attendance.  The country has limited resources if this is a major flu outbreak, those who came into contact through the initial vector are also quarantined.  Health officials confirm that it is the bird flu.

Another murder is discovered during this time of crisis, which Wern has to attend to.  The victim is a young woman.  As more deaths occur from the bird flu, panic arises on the island.  Later it is discovered that the man the second murder victim was associated with has gone missing.

Author Anna Jansson gives the reader a complete surprise at the end of this murder mystery.  Although at times the story seems disjointed, the author does tie the threads of the story together well.  A good read.

The Iron Horse

1854 Victorian England and DI Robert Colbeck has been requested to travel from Scotland Yard to investigate a head found in a hatbox in luggage at the railway station in Crewe.  Colbeck is to take his sergeant, Victor Leeming with him.

The hatbox leads them to Lord Hendry, but Colbeck is suspicious of the answers he receives to questions he put to Hendry.  He sends Leeming off to Cambridge to check out the hotel that Hendry claims to have stayed in.  Meantime, Colbeck is off to Ireland, despite Superintendent Tallis' discomfort.

In Ireland, Colbeck finds out that the victim was a horse groom with aspirations of being a jockey.  The head was intended as a warning to the owner of a racehorse.  Colbeck surmises that the owners of the three main contenders of the Derby are being placed in positions so that they will blame each other for anything that happens.

Colbeck and Leeming continue to put pressure on the three men in hopes that one will slip up.  However, Colbeck also feels that someone else is influencing the situation.  The problem is, he doesn't know who.

Author Edward Marston throws a lot of action at the reader in the last few pages of this Victorian murder mystery.  A good read.

The Bomber

Victoria Stadium in Stockholm has just experienced a bombing, and is now in flames.  Annika Bengtzon has been awoken by her editor and told to attend the scene.  Through her connections, she is able to determine that the security alarms had been turned off and that there was a body blown to bits in the stadium. 

As the news team plans how to attack the story, questions arise, such as is this an attempt to prevent the Olympics from going on?  Why was the security compromised?  Who was the body?  Was it a murder, a suicide, or an accident?

When Annika's team look for information on the Head of the Olympics, Christina Furhage, they discover that her information is blocked to them, which is very unusual.  However, later at a police news conference, it is announced that the victim of the bombing is indeed Furhage.

Bengtzon's delving into archives turns up the fact that Furhage had been married before and has a son, besides a daughter.  What she learns leads to some speculations.  Although Bengtzon had fought against the terrorism angle, that is thrown out the window when a second bombing occurs.  A man, possibly associated with Furhage, is killed.  Bengtzon's source at the police tells her that they are close to making an arrest.  Shortly before Christmas a third bombing occurs.

Author Liza Marklund builds tension in this novel right up to its ultimate conclusion.  An exciting read.  I am looking forward to reading the next in the series, 'Vanished'.

Grounds for Appeal

Two university botany students are taking core samples of Borth Bog, when one of the samples that comes up from three feet down has what appears to be human flesh in it.  Is it another Bog Man, or is it more recent?  The police call in Richard Pryor's forensic group to do further examinations.

DI Meirion Thomas organises a group of uniforms to dig at the site under the supervision of a local archeologist, Eva Boross.  Pryor and his locum, Priscilla Chambers have joined the team.  It is a long process as water from the bog keeps filling the hole despite being pumped out.

Once the uniforms have dug down to the body, Pryor begins an examination.  It is definitely human.  However, is it a recent corpse or one of an earlier time?  As the body is uncovered by Eva and Priscilla, it is discovered that it is headless.  A tattoo of Batman on the shoulder skin reveals that it is a modern body and with wrists tied and a ligature around the neck area confirms that it is a murder.

The case gets put on the back burner because of lack of progress.  Meantime, Pryor is requested by Douglas Bailey, a lawyer in Bristol to help with an appeal on a murder case.  After studying the case file, Pryor is sure that the appeal can be won.

Although the Bog Man case has gone cold, rumours of a pickled head in Birmingham point the investigation from Aberystwyth in that direction.  The Birmingham police do find a head in the possession of the former owner of a pub.  Now they just have to make connections.  They arrange for Pryor to come and examine the head.

Throughout this novel, author Bernard Knight, gives excellent details of forensic investigations, police work and the legal system of thr UK in the 1950s.  An excellent read.

The Death of Kings

Sulla, Dictator of Rome, has demanded that Cornelia, wife of Julius come to his palace.  He wants to have his way with her.  Julius is away, fighting pirates, and Sulla can do as he pleases.  Until somebody murders him, that is.

Cornelia doesn't know that Julius has been captured by the very pirates he has been sent to fight.  Meantime Julius' friend Brutus is in Greece, scrambling for his life.  Cinna and Pompey are now in charge of Rome, while Brutus and Julius have to somehow make it back home.

Ransomed, Julius doesn't want to return home.  He wants to gain retribution on the pirate who had captured him, regain the lost money of his legion and the ransoms.  Achieving that goal, Julius finds that Sulla is dead and that Mithridates has risen in rebellion.  He and his ragtag army set out to punish the rebels on behalf of Rome.

Successful in defeating Mithridates, Julius now heads for Rome.  However, there are some in the Senate who are against him such as Cato.  Fortunately Pompey speaks in his favour.  Soon the Senate has another problem on its hands; slaves have rebelled in the north.  They are led by a former gladiator, Spartacus.  The Senate must send troops to quell the rebellion.  Julius and Brutus are among the legions sent north.

Badly outnumbered the legions are unable to defeat the slaves who now turn south towards Rome.  The legions follow in hot pursuit.

Author Conn Iggulden has written a fast paced historical novel based on the life of a young Julius Caesar.  He shows how Caesar grows as a leader of men, and what the life was like for ordinary Romans of the time.  A very good read.

A Question of Identity

It is 2002 and Alan Keyes has just been found not guilty on three different counts of murdering elderly women.  His wife is afraid to return to their home, but she must.  Meantime Keyes has been taken into police custody for his own safety.  The crowd outside the courthouse is baying for his blood.

The story moves on to a period ten years later.  A small community for senior citizens has been built.  It isn't long after moving in that an 80 year old woman is found strangled in her home.  DCS Simon Serailler, just returned from a two week leave, finds himself SIO.  The murderer obviously knows his way around because no evidence has been left behind.

It isn't long before the police apprehend a suspect, and announce it to the public.  However, shortly after that another murder occurs in the same housing subdivision; the same MO.  Later DCI Nathan Coates calls Serailler and informs him of a case that has been tucked away, with only a few in the know about it.  The MO is exactly the same as Serailler's two current cases.

The team comes to the realisation, after extensive investigation, that the killer's ID is known to them, however, all documentation of him has been hidden to protect his identity.  How to get that information and then get the culprit?

Author Susan Hill, despite getting this murder mystery off to a very slow start, has created a tense thriller.  A good read.