Watching the Ghosts

DCI Emily Thwaite has had an intriguing invitation to lunch from a woman she has only met through parent meetings at school.  She and DI Joe Plantagenet are currently working on an unusual case where a man has been breaking into the homes of various women and then stacking furniture in front of the front door.  The latest break in was different in that the person had left a threatening note.

The woman who was to meet with Twaite never showed up.  The following morning she received a call from the husband asking for a meeting.  When she and Plantagenet met with them, he tells them that she was missing and that his step-daughter had been kidnapped.  The kidnapper had called that morning wondering why his wife hadn’t shown up.

The missing woman is found dead, floating in the river.  Her car is found with her bag in it, but no ransom money.  It appears that her killing has similarities to that of a serial killer, but he is dead.  So, there must be a copycat killer at large.  Later, the money turns up, but the child remains missing.

After that, the body count begins to mount. Author Kate Ellis builds very palpable tension for the reader and for DI Joe Plantagenet.  When and how will the death toll come to an end?  The reader will have to push through the pages to find out.  This always an excellent read and hard to put down!

The Connicle Curse

Detective Colin Pendragon has been requested to attend the house of Mrs. Connicle.  Inside a shed in the property, which is surrounded by constables, he and Ethan Pruit discover that blood has been sprayed all over the place.  The lady of the house also wants to know what has happened to her husband as he seems to have disappeared.  However, Inspector Varcoe of Scotland Yard isn’t allowing Pendragon to be involved.

Fortunately, Pendragon has connections in high places, so he is given leave to investigate.  Returning to the estate, the good Sergeant Evans shows them the burned remains of Edmond Connicle.

Once the body had been removed, Pendragon discovers voodoo fetishes under the ground.

Later that evening an Indian gentleman drops by the home of Pendragon, and asks for help in discovering who is stealing jewels from his home.

Early the following morning they return to the Connicle estate only to find that the gardener has been found dead under a tree.  The coroner claims he had fallen from the tree, but Pendragon quickly disabuses him of this idea.  The wife of the gardener had seen something the previous day and she is sure that is what had led to him being killed.  Later in the day she is arrested for the murder of Edmond Connicle.

When the neighbour of Connicle is murdered in the same gruesome fashion, Varcoe comes to Pendragon asking for help.

Can the teaming up with Scotland Yard make the team strong enough to solve these brutal crimes?  Author Gregory Harris has a number of daunting puzzles for the new team before they can get to the surprise conclusion.  A good, quick read.

Kissing the Demons

DCI Emily Twaite and DI Joe Plantagenet have been called in early by their superintendent on a Saturday morning.  It is concerning the disappearance of two fifteen year old girls twelve years ago.  DNA evidence has now pointed to the local MP.  The superintendent wants the pair to handle the man with tact.

The following morning Plantagenet calls Thwaite to tell her of a missing woman, coincidentally missing from the house that the MP was using as an alibi.

Plantagenet has another situation on his hands.  His sister-in-law has turned up and accused him of murdering her sister.

On the Monday morning, the missing girl turned up - dead.  They have a suspect in mind, and bring him in for questioning.  But, he seems to have a solid alibi.

Later the father of one of the missing girls tells Plantagenet that he had seen his daughter coming out of a store that day.  He called to her, but she hurried away.  That evening the body of another woman turned up.  Fibres on both victims indicate that they had lain on a new carpet.  Now they need to find someone who had bought new carpet, it won’t be easy.

Author Kate Ellis’ thriller becomes very fast paced at this point as pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place.  The conclusion is frightening with an unusual conclusion.  A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Started Early, Took My Dog

Jackson Brodie has just taken a small dog away from a man that had been treating it brutally.  He had been taking a break from searching for a woman’s roots in Leeds.  The woman lived in New Zealand now and was wanting to find out about her parentage.  Every where he turned in his search, Brodie ran into dead ends.

He was to meet with a woman who had managed the case file when the New Zealand woman had been adopted.  She never showed for the meeting, however Brodie did manage to find the file regarding the child on her desk, which he surreptitiously borrowed.  In it he discovered the name of another woman who the case file manager was planning on calling.

As he continues with his investigation, Brodie runs into another private detective who seems to be investigating the same situation.  He also encounters a woman with a child who is running away from something.  As a matter of fact, they steal his car from him?  What is going on?

Author Kate Atkinson has several threads running through this novel, however she neatly weaves them into a very good story.  All-in-all, a very good read.

The Nightingale Gallery

Edward III had died.  John Gaunt was regent for Richard.  Richard, nephew to Gaunt, son of the Black Prince, was the new king.

Brother Athelstan, besides being the priest for a church in Southwark, has also been assigned to be clerk and scrivener to Sir John Cranston, coroner of London.  Chief Justice Fortescue has just given them an assignment to investigate the poisoning of Sir Thomas Springall.  He tells them that Gaunt believes that the poisoning is meant to hinder his regency.

They begin their investigation at the home of the deceased.  The clerk of the dead man had been in argument with him and later found hanged in the attic of the house.  Witnesses stated that he had taken a goblet of wine to the victim, therefore he had killed himself in remorse.

Cranston is prepared to declare a case of suicide, but Athelstan isn’t so sure.  The following morning they are informed of another suicide of a member of Springall’s household.  After checking on the second suicide, Athelstan is sure that the suicides were also murders, too.  He can’t say why, though.  And, where was the proof?

They gather evidence of murder, and have suspects, but once again no damning proof.  A few days later another member of the same household is dead.  The investigators are sure that another murder has occurred.

How are they going to get the proof needed.  Author Paul Doherty has Athelstan soul searching, and in the process he comes up with some of the answers.  Together with his heavy drinking coroner friend, they find the solution.  A good, fun read.

Come the Fear

Constable Richard Nottingham has a house fire to investigate.  He is shocked when he finds the body of a woman in the cellar and alongside her was the body of a child, which had been cut from her belly.

Later that day a thief taker arrived from London.  He seemed honest and straight forward when he spoke to Nottingham, yet the Constable felt it was worthwhile to keep an eye on him.

Witnesses tell Deputy John Sedgwick that a man had come out of the house earlier in the day, but are unable to provide a good description of him.  A week on and they were unable to discover anything about the dead girl, that is until a woman came to the jail and asked them to find her daughter.  Based on her description of the girl, Nottingham was now sure that he had an identity for the dead girl.

An alderman who had reported a robbery has had his goods returned by the thief taker.  When Nottingham goes to speak to the alderman, he learns that he has withdrawn his report of a robbery.  This does not sit well with Nottingham.  He turns to a local businessman for help.

Nottingham has a missing child to deal with, too.  How will he ever get enough men together to solve the problems?

Author Chris Nickson has troubles aplenty for Nottingham and his men in this historical mystery.  It also has a shocking conclusion.  The reader must prepare for plenty of tension, and a thoroughly good read.

When Will There Be Good News

DCI Louise Monroe is investigating a man whose amusement arcade has gone up in flames.  He has some shady connections to bad types from Glasgow, yet he is married to a respectable doctor.  That respectable doctor was the only survivor of a brutal attack on her family when she was a child, and the previous day Louise had gone to warn her that the killer had just gotten out of jail.

Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie is on his way home with a clipping of his two-year old son’s hair.  At least he thinks he’s on his way home, the train he caught is actually on  its way to Edinburgh.  Only, the train isn’t going to make it.

When Brodie wakes up in hospital, he doesn’t know who he is.  He is fortunate to have had his blood type tattooed on his chest, because he had lost a lot of blood in the derailment.

The day after Monroe is approached by a young girl who suggests that the doctor Monroe had visited earlier is missing.  She is the doctor’s child minder, however Monroe refuses to believe her.  However, she believes her when she says that she had saved the life of a man by the name of Jackson Brodie, and shows her the post card he had had in his pocket.

Now that Brodie is set to leave the hospital, the girl, Reggie Chase, asks for his help in finding the missing Dr. Hunter.  He is reluctant.

As Monroe finds as she begins her investigation, the plot thickens.  Can she find the missing doctor and nail the husband for arson?

Author Kate Atkinson has stories within stories wound together in a sticky mess, however they do get solved, but not necessarily resolved.  A thoroughly enjoyable read, and hard to put down.  I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

The Enemy Within

PC John Carlyle is up in Yorkshire helping to monitor the Miners’ Strike.  Sergeant Ross has taken him and PC Dom Silver out into a remote field in the middle of the night to guard the body of an elderly woman who had been killed by someone.

The next morning, Silver offers Carlyle some amphetamine to help him make it through the vigil, but Carlyle refuses the offer.  Moments later they are surprised by a woman journalist, Fran Mullin, who quickly informs the pair of whom the victim was.  She was a well known environmentalist.  Mullin is put in her place a few moments later when Inspector Holt arrives on the scene with Sergeant Ross.  Carlyle wonders about the third man with the other two, who is not introduced to them.

It doesn’t take long for Mullin to determine that the third person is from MI5.  Why is MI5 involved?  She asks her boyfriend, Inspector Holt, after he has arrested a local lad for the murder. 

In this novella, which is a prequel to the series, author James Craig introduces the reader to John Carlyle, who will be the main protagonist in the series.  The concluding sentence will be the introduction to the first book in the series.  Although written after the first book in the series, it sets the stage for the series.  There is another prequel following this one.  A very quick read.

Frozen Assets

Gunna Gunnhildur has been rudely awoken early in the morning by the phone.  The caller tells her that there is a body on the beach.  It’s not a good day for her to be shadowed by a young journalist from Reykjavik.  Skuli appears as she is having lunch.

Gunna has to go into Reykjavik to get a firm identity on the victim.  It seems that he was supposed to have been on his way to Denmark for a meeting on the evening when he drowned.  His major project was a new aluminium smelter being constructed in town.  Gunna is able to get more information about the victim from his ex-girlfriend.

Gunna manages to expand her town’s police force by one when Snorri Hilmarsson is added.  She is sure that the victim is a murder victim.  How could a man who had so much alcohol in his system have gotten a hundred kilometres from Reykjavik otherwise?  She requests another police officer, and gets Saevaldur Bogason.  She isn’t as pleased with him as she was with getting Snorri.

It doesn’t take Saevaldur long to get an arrest, however Gunna is sure that he has the wrong man.  She also wants to check out the hit and run, which killed the good friend of the victim earlier.  Are the deaths connected?

Some time later Gunna is told to drop the investigation.  Reykjavik will look after it.  She is to investigate the fires set at the aluminium plant construction site.  However, things change when a blogger disclosed information about the case.  How did the blogger, who is very difficult to find, get the information?  Suddenly, Gunna has more people added to her investigative team.

Surprisingly, it is Skuli who provides a new lead.  The photographer for his newspaper has a series of photographs, which show a man who is a suspect in the killing.  By connecting with European police forces, they are able to identify him as Norwegian.  Now to find him.

Author Quentin Bates has created an unusually wily opponent for Gunna.  His plot twists are unpredictable, creating a challenge for Gunna.  In addition to the search for the killer, Bates has a side plot going on related to the economic crisis that Iceland had been going through at the time.  Quite a good read.  I will be looking forward to reading the sequels.

One Good Turn

Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police is in Edinburgh when he witnesses an assault.  Further damage is prevented by a citizen throwing a backpack at the attacker.  Brodie helps the owner of the backpack, while the perpetrator escapes and the police help the victim, now identified as Paul Bradley.  He is the only one who gets the registration number of the attacker’s car, but Brodie quietly escapes before he is questioned by the police.

Martin Canning, the man who had thrown his backpack accompanied Paul Bradley, to the hospital as he was somewhat giddy from what he had done.  He finds himself in the unenviable position of being regarded as the next-of-kin to the victim.

Gloria Hatter has been called to the hospital.  Her husband had suffered a serious heart attack while with a call girl.  She gets to speak with the woman, who was a Russian and had accompanied her husband to the hospital.  She was surprised to find out what her husband had been doing.

Later, Brodie discovers the body of a woman as the tide is coming in, unfortunately, he is unable to rescue it.  When DI Louise Monroe speaks to him, he wishes that he was the one heading up the investigation.

Author Kate Atkinson takes the threads of each of the above stories and begins to braid them into a single story.  Although the reader, at the beginning, wonders where the stories are leading, Atkinson presents a very good thriller that has a number of surprises at the end.  Well worth the read.

Cold Cruel World

While on his rounds, walking on the outskirts of Leeds, John Sedgwick, deputy to the Constable, discovers the body of a man.  The victim‘s neck had been slashed and his back flayed.  Constable Richard Nottingham recognises him as a retired merchant.

Nottingham and his team must now begin their investigation into why this murder had occurred.  Could it possibly be one of the men that the victim had sacked in years past?  If so, where are they now?

The answer comes when an urchin delivers a book to Nottingham.  The book contains the reason for the killing, and obviously identifies the killer.  It has a couple more shocking revelations, the foremost being that the killer intends to kill three more people.  He doesn’t believe that Nottingham will be able to catch him, thus the warning.

Nottingham is shocked, and must now figure out how to catch the killer before he can strike again.  However, despite being watched by one of Nottingham’s men, a second victim is snatched.  Where did he disappear to?  Is Nottingham going to have to turn to a pimp, who has offered help in searching for the killer?

On the same night that the body of the second victim is found, a Jew is killed.  Two young men had thought that he had gold.  It doesn’t take long to find evidence of their criminality.  However, their father is a powerful merchant.  He has gotten them off in the past for their misdemeanours.  Can he do it again?

Shortly after receiving the second book, an attempt is made on Nottingham’s life.  Injured and shocked, Nottingham is all the more determined to find the killer.

Will justice prevail?  Author Chris Nickson builds up the suspense in this historical thriller before bringing it to a crashing conclusion.  An excellent read, and hard to put down.  It has been seven years since I read the previous book, but immediately Nickson had memories of the previous book flooding my mind.  This is the sign of a very good writer.

Cold Sacrifice

DS  Ian Peterson has been with his wife for some time, but ever since they got married she has changed, expecting him to be available at all times.  They are preparing for a nice evening together when he gets called away because the body of a middle-aged woman has been found.  Along with his DI, Rob Wellbeck, they attend the scene.  The following day, Peterson has to take DC Polly Mortimer with him to the autopsy.  He hates attending autopsies.

Later, dental records help to identify the woman.  The husband of the victim is surly when approached by Wellbeck and Peterson.  Peterson wonders why he hadn’t reported her missing and about his attitude.  The husband is the obvious suspect.

However, the suspect apparently has an alibi.  He was with a prostitute on the night in question.  Peterson isn’t so sure about the alibi, because the woman in question has a ready and pat answer.  A few days later the husband reports his car has been stolen.  Peterson doesn’t believe that this is coincidental.  Shortly after that, the car is involved in an accident.  A body, which turns out to be that of the prostitute is thrown from the boot during the accident.

Later the knife used to kill the first victim is found in the possession of a thirteen year old boy.  It is quickly established that he wasn’t the killer.  Does this mean that the husband is still in the picture?  Then the flat mate of the prostitute is killed.  Three different methods of killing.  Who is responsible and why?

Author Leigh Russell throws up a few suspects for Peterson to investigate, but few of them own out until a witness comes forward with damning evidence.  They have their killer now!  Russell also has a few surprises up her sleeve for the reader.  An enjoyable, quick read.

Dregs

Chief Inspector William Wisting has been called out to the beach where a training shoe had washed up.  The remains of a human foot protrudes from the shoe.  Crime Technician Espen Mortensen joins him shortly afterwards.  This is the second one found there recently.  Both have been the left foot.  That means that there are two corpses still out at sea.

Who could the feet belong to?  Wisting brings together a team, which includes Nils Hammer of the narcotics division and Torunn Borg, plus Moretensen.  They only have a list of four missing people to go by.  They had been missing for some time, but other cases had since intervened.  Three were elderly gentlemen, and the fourth was a woman in her thirties.

A day later another shoe with a foot in it is found.  Once again it is a left foot, but this time the shoe is different.

Wisting is caught off guard when one of his potential witnesses disappears.  When her car is found in the bottom of a small lake, the investigation becomes a criminal one.

DNA evidence helps identify two of the victims.  The third is an unknown.  However, a fourth foot in a shoe soon turns up.  Is it the foot of the missing witness?  If so, they are only three days behind the killer.  It isn’t long before Mortensen tells the team that it is actually a pig’s foot.  Someone had played a trick on them.

There seems to be a connection between the missing people, either directly or indirectly.  Now, to tie them together more specifically.

Author Jorn Lier Horst’s first novel in this series is an excellent read.  As the bodies pile up, Wisting is seemingly as confused as ever.  It is by good police work that he is able to solve the case.  I look forward to reading the books following in this series.

Outrage

Detective Elinborg has been called out to a murder scene in Thingholt outside Reykjavik.  As the head of forensics puts it, the scene is like an abattoir.  The following day a forensics officer tell her and her partner, Sigurdur Oli, that Rohypnol tablets had been found in the victim’s jacket pocket and on the table.

The autopsy reveals that the victim had Rohypnol in his mouth and throat.  As the investigation progresses, Elinborg learns of one woman that the victim had met through his work.  They had also later apparently met randomly at a bar.  He lost interest in her when he found out that she didn’t drink.  Another woman tells Elinborg of her strange relationship with the victim, and how strangely he had behaved with her.

Elinborg feels that every person that she speaks to is a potential suspect.  However, when she does come up with two real suspects, things change.  She uses questioning techniques that tend to confuse the suspect.  However, both suspects continually deny having killed the victim.

Elinborg has another suspect in mind, but she needs proof.  How can she gather the evidence?

Author Arnaldur Indridason’s murder mystery is full of suspense with a very surprising conclusion, leaving the reader caught off guard.  A thoroughly enjoyable read.  It has been some time since I had read one of Indridason’s novels and I am glad that I picked up this one and look forward to reading the remaining books in this series.

Fatal Decision

ACC Kenneth Truelove has a ten year old cold case on his hands.  A sixty-eight year old woman out walking her dog had been brutally murdered.  Unfortunately, to date, no detectives had had any success discovering the killer.  Truelove decides to ask retired DI Gus Freeman to take the case on.

Freeman will be given two sergeants and one more to work with.  Truelove gives him twenty-four hours to consider the job.  His immediate superior would be a man with whom he had not gotten along while active, Geoff Mercer.  However, the two seem to get along as Mercer introduces Freeman to the task and what resources he will have available.  DS Davis is a young and upcoming officer.  DS Hardy is wheelchair bound, but strong-willed.  The third member of his team is Lydia Barre, a recent graduate of forensic psychology.

The team is quick off the start.  Hardy comes up with a list of witnesses to interview, while Davis recognises one name in particular.  As they meet with witnesses, they begin to get new details that weren’t shared at the time.  It is those details that will lead Freeman and his team to the killer.

Author Ted Tayler’s first book in this series is a good whodunit with a surprising conclusion.  A good, quick read.  I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Cruel Justice

DI Lorne Simpkins had a romantic evening planned with her husband, but things weren’t going as planned.  She has been called out because a body has been discovered in the woods.  DS Pete Childs is also on his way to the scene. 

The body is that of a headless woman.  The right arm has also been removed.  Pathologist Jacques Arnaud is convinced that the body had been moved there from elsewhere.  He also thinks that the killing had occurred a month earlier.

The following day, Simpkins’ mentor, DCI Chalmers informs her that he is taking early retirement.  He admits to ill health as being the reason, but won’t give details.

Missing Persons provides the name of three women.  One is too young, and when they meet the sister of the third, Simpkins and Childs realise that they have their victim.  She had been 65 at the time of her death.  Why would someone brutally assault her and then kill her?

With DNA confirmation as to whom the victim was, Simpkins’ team begins their work of finding more out about her and looking for the killer.

That same morning, the team receives news that a sixteen year old girl has gone missing.

The next morning while talking to the sister of the older victim on the phone, Simpkins is shocked to her suddenly being attacked. She and Childs arrive to late to save her.  Why was she attacked?

Not long after this, the missing girl turns up, dead.  It would appear that the same killer has struck again.  Later, the head of the first victim is sent in a box to Simpkins.  Hours later the killer makes contact via phone to Simpkins; he has another victim.  When a second phone call comes through a short time later, Simpkins realises that there is more than one person involved.

To make matters worse, Simpkins is distressed when she meets her new DCI.  Sean Roberts and she have history.  How will things work out with him in charge and antagonist towards her?

M. A. Comley’s thriller is fast paced and full of action.  Simpkins is an independent minded investigator who bends the rules, that will inevitably get her into some kind of trouble.  A very good read.

Songbird

DS Chris Waters has received a very early call from his DCI to attend a crime scene, the very first time that he has been put in charge.  While Waters supervises the SOCOs at the scene and organises the uniforms to protect the area DCI Alison Reeves and DI Simon Terek begin working at the nearby caravan camp.  They also have a tentative identity of the victim.  She had been staying there.

One of the guests at the camp has left early before the police can question him.  Upon checking his name, Terek discovers that he is a registered sex offender.

DC Serena Butler is given the responsibility of attending the autopsy.  She learns that the victim was not sexually assaulted.

Waters has a gut instinct that the brother-in-law of the victim may be involved, but he doesn’t have enough evidence to back it up.  However, the investigation is thrown askew when DNA evidence points to a young man with Down’s Syndrome.  Waters isn’t sure about the direction the investigation is now headed.  He turns to his former mentor, David Smith, for advice.

At this same time, Waters learns that Revves is going on sick leave, and that DCI Cara Freeman will be taking over as SIO.  Will she give Waters the same latitude Reeves had given him in the investigation?

Author Peter Grainger has written a very good “whodunnit”.  I am new to his writing and thoroughly enjoyed this murder mystery.  It was hard to put down.  I highly recommend it.

I will have to read the series that comes before this particular series now, and I look forward to doing that.