Eeny Meeny

As usual DI Helen Grace has arrived early to work in Southampton.  Her DS, Mark Fuller, immediately presents her with a new case.  A girl has claimed that she has killed her boyfriend.  Along with DC Charlie Brooks they go to meet her.  Both she and her boyfriend had been reported missing.

The young woman tells a story of being captured by a woman and imprisoned in a dry, deep swimming pool.  Evidence there seems to prove her story, as does the autopsy on the victim.  DI Grace accepts her story as true.  While she is at the autopsy, Fuller brings together an investigative team, and Brooks stays with the young woman.

As Grace is preparing to meet with the team, Brooks brings her news that two men have gone missing.  She is sure that this case is connected to the other.  Especially when the forensic team discovers a home in the gas tank of the car the men were driving in.  They now realise that the men had been stalked, and their kidnapping planned.

When one of the men is found alive, he gives a description of a woman who had picked the pair up.  He describes the place where they were held.  He had killed the man they were with.  However, when Grace goes to the site, the victim is not who she expected.  It is someone whom she had dealt with before.

Just after Christmas a mother and her handicapped daughter were found dead in their home.  They had been locked in, deprived of food and water.  Grace had known both of these victims.  What is going on?

A break occurs when one of the victims identifies a suspect, but unfortunately, there is not enough to go on.  They get a break when they go through the suspect’s computer.  However, before they can arrest her, she disappears.

Author M. J. Arlidge has written a tremendous psychological thriller in the first of a series involving DI Helen Grace.  This is a book that the reader will find hard to put down.  I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.

Murder on Black Swan Lane

The Reverend Josiah Holworthy has been brutally slain.  His face splashed with something that caused disfigurement and his throat slashed.  Due to an ongoing feud via letters in the newspaper, it would appear that the Earl of Wrexford is the likely culprit.  A print has been distributed by an artist called A. J. Quill, which depicts the scene quite graphically and accurately.  Wrexford wants to meet with the artist.

Wrexford’s valet, Tyler, helps him begin his own investigation into the murder.  However, he first he wants to find Quill, who has now printed another drawing of Wrexford accurately depicting him and his friend Sheffield looking at the previous drawing in his house.  He is surprised to discover that A. J. Quill is not a man, but is in fact A widow, Mrs. Charlotte Sloane.

They strike a deal to work together.  Charlotte explains to him how she gathers her information for her drawings.  She has two young lads who occasionally help her, brothers Raven and Hawk, who are not her children.

The following day, Wrexford and Tyler are on the verge of entering a chemist’s lab when it unexpectedly bursts into flame.  They manage to put the flames out, and find the chemist on the floor.  As Wrexford lifts the man up, he finds his hand sticky with blood.  It is at this time that Griffin, a Bow Street Runner walks in.

Fortunately, Wrexford has an explanation, which undeniably proves he is not the killer.  Wrexford is also sure that the chemist’s death is related to that of the late reverend. How can he prove it?

Speaking with Charlotte, They come to realise that there is a connection to a group called The Ancients.  While Wrexford continues his investigation, Charlotte will attempt to provoke them with her drawings as A. J. Quill.  That drawing brings surgeon Henning to the pair, and an idea from him leads to a potential suspect.  Now, the question is, how to get the Bow Street Runner to apprehend the culprit?

Author Andrea Penrose has some excitement set up for Charlotte, Wrexford and the two lads in the concluding pages of this thriller.  This is the first in a new series and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I’m looking forward to reading the sequels.

Triple Jeopardy

Daniel Pitt hasn’t seen his sister, Jemima, for some time now, and he is a bit nervous to meet her, her husband, Patrick and their two daughters.  However, things go quite smoothly.  Patrick is a policeman in America and he asks Daniel for help in prosecuting a diplomat who assaulted a young woman in the states.  The man had returned to England claiming diplomatic immunity.

Shortly after this, Patrick informs Daniel that the diplomat has been charged with embezzlement.  He wants Daniel to prosecute the case, but Daniel points out to him that he is unable to.  However, his firm would be able to take on the defence of the man.  Kitteridge, in Daniel’s mind, is just the lawyer to handle the case, and he could act as his second.  However, he is surprised when the head of the law firm, Marcus fford Croft, assigns the case to Daniel alone.

Meeting with the accused, Daniel promises him the best defence possible.  Is it possible that the young man has been framed for the embezzlement?  On Kitteridge’s insistence, Daniel turns to Miriam fford Croft, a scientist who had helped them in a previous case.  She determines that some of the documents the prosecution will present have been forged.

The court case had just begun when Patrick comes to inform Daniel that a potential witness in Washington has been murdered.  Could Daniel’s client have killed him before he left?

In order to get more background information, Daniel and Miriam travel to Alderney.  There, Daniel, with the help of Miriam, comes up with a solution.

Author Anne Perry, has woven another tightly knit thriller in “Triple Jeopardy”.  This series is definitely a good one and I look forward to reading the next book.

Death at La Fenice

Guido Brunetti, a commisario of police for Venice, has been called to the Teatro La Fenice, where the maestro of the orchestra has been found dead in his dressing room.  Doctor Barbara Zorzi has been called from the audience to examine the man before Brunetti arrived, and she told him that she suspected cyanide poisoning.

The first priority for Brunetti is to learn more about the victim, and who would want to harm him.  Could it be someone from the distant past?

Speaking to many people who knew the victim, Brunetti is able to find the true culprit in this case.  Author Donna Leon sets the reader up for a surprising conclusion.  A good quick read.  This is the first book in a long series I look forward to reading.

When Falcons Fall

Viscount Devlin and his wife, Hero, are in Ayleswick, Shropshire to deliver a gift to an old woman, courtesy of her now deceased grandson.  The young justice of the peace, Squire Rawlins, has approached Devlin to have him investigate an apparent suicide, which Rawlins feels isn’t a suicide.

The young woman was only twenty-seven, and travelling throughout Shropshire sketching various scenes.  It doesn’t take Devlin long to state that she had been murdered.  To get to the body, both he and Rawlins had muddy boots.  There was none on hers.

Hero helps Devlin by going through the victim’s room.  The only thing missing seems to be her reticule.  They also discover her sketch book, which contains many portraits of the local community members.  However, her sketchbook containing drawings of local buildings is also missing.

The victim’s maid had only been with her for a short time, and when questioned stated that she felt the victim really wasn’t who she said she was.  The local doctor confirms what Devlin had noticed, bruising around her mouth.  The victim had been smothered.

Later that evening, while talking with a man in the employ of Jarvis, a shot is fired at the pair, killing the man.  Was the shot intended for Devlin?  The man had been watching Lucien Bonaparte, brother to Napoleon and now held hostage by the British government.

When young Lord Seaton returns to the village, he is able to identify the young woman.  As thought, she was not who she claimed to be.  As Devlin sets about investigating the background of the young woman, Hero delves into the deaths of two young women a couple of decades earlier.  Could those deaths be tied into the current case?  As Devlin and Hero discuss their cases, they come down to two suspects.

Author C. S. Harris has woven a fabric so tight that it is impossible for the reader to determine who the killer is.  A definite surprise for the reader at the conclusion.  Another thoroughly enjoyable read by this author.

Murder Below Montparnasse

Aimee Leduc has just helped her godfather achieve a sting against the Corsican mafia.  Unfortunately, she can’t share the victory with Rene, her partner.  He has taken the opportunity to move to Silicon Valley in California.  She does still have Saj de Rosnay, their part time hacker available.

As Saj is driving Aimee for a meal after the sting, a man wanders into their path and is hit by the car.  Saj is taken by the police for questioning, however Aimee has questions of her own.  Why is there no blood from the man?

Prior to the accident, Saj had given Aimee an envelope containing five thousand francs.  She had no idea who the money had come from, but the mystery man appears at the accident.  When Aimee goes to his nearby home, they find that he has been robbed of a special painting.

At the hospital Aimee learns that a relative of the accident victim was trying to get at Saj, but fortunately, he was prevented from doing that. 

As her investigation progresses, Aimee is sure that there might be two groups interested in the painting.  Before she can learn more, the mystery man is murdered.  He had told Aimee that he knew her mother, whom she hasn’t seen for years.  And not long after the man he had appraise the painting dies.

Things turn ugly when Aimee is physically threatened.  This time they are trying to get at her mother as well as the painting.  Aimee has no knowledge of either. 

Aimee won’t have to do things on her own, as she has a very good intern and now Saj is back.  But it won’t be easy, as none of her investigations are.  Author Cara Black makes Aimee work hard for every answer.  This particular thriller ends with a couple of surprises for Aimee.  A good read.

Twenty-one Days

Daniel Pitt’s father, Sir Thomas Pitt, had asked for his son to be the defence attorney for a former policeman, Roman Blackwell, who has been accused of murder.  The gun used in the murder had been clean of fingerprints, but Daniel realised that the shell casings hadn’t been wiped.  They did not have the prints of Blackwell on them, rather someone else.

Assisting in another case, Daniel and his lead defence, Kitteridge, lose.  Their client is found guilty.  They have twenty-one days to find evidence for an appeal.  Daniel is tasked with finding out who the real killer is.  Although both Daniel and Kitteridge both feel that their client is guilty, they need to go through with the appeal.

At the home of the client, Daniel learns from the butler that the client was about to inherit a vast estate.  The butler wonders if the estate would pass on to the client’s son.  He also learns of a man that the client was researching for an upcoming biography.  The more Daniel learns, the more he develops a distaste for the subject.  Unfortunately, the person is not named.  However, he later does come across the name, and it has a family connection to his father!  If the information were to be published, it would destroy his father!

Daniel is told to use the help of Miriam fford   Croft, daughter of his boss.  She is a scientist.  She is sure that there is more to the killing than the police know.  Upon exhuming and examining the corpse, Miriam is sure that the body, is not who it is supposed to be.

As Daniel continues the investigation, author Anne Perry has him discover more relevant information.  He can now save their client, but much more is to happen.  Perry, as usual has written an intriguing mystery, introducing fans of hers to a new character.  Thoroughly enjoyable.