Mantle


Books published by Mantle

Riccardino

Inspector Montalbano embarks on his final case after receiving a phone call early one morning asking him to meet someone called Riccardino, but on arrival at the appointed place he finds that the caller has been shot dead and his three terrified friends are huddled nearby.

Reviewed on 19 February 2022 by Sylvia Maughan

The Mobster's Lament

Investigator Ida Davis is called to New York by her old partner, Michael Talbot, to investigate the brutal slaying of four people in a Harlem flophouse for which his son faces the electric chair. As they delve into the case, Ida and Michael realise the killings are part of a far larger conspiracy.

Reviewed on 30 March 2019 by John Cleal

The Root of Evil

Detective Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti receives a letter informing him that a murder will take place in his small Swedish town. And indeed, a man is soon found dead. When more letters arrive, he and his team must try to prevent more deaths.

Reviewed on 30 March 2019 by Ewa Sherman

Blood & Sugar

A body hanging on a hook at Deptford Dock, horribly tortured and branded with a slaver’s mark, propels American war hero Captain Harry Corsham into a dark secret at the very core of British society.

Reviewed on 26 January 2019 by John Cleal

Tombland

Hunchback lawyer/sleuth Matthew Shardlake is sent by Princess Elizabeth to investigate a murder of which a distant Boleyn relative is accused and finds himself unwillingly caught up in the East Anglian rising which became known as Kett’s Rebellion.

Reviewed on 10 November 2018 by John Cleal

The Anthill Murders

1972. A serial killer is hunting young women in Oslo. He strangles them and leaves a cut-out picture of an ant by each body. Brilliant Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen fears that he won’t be able to catch the murderer.

Reviewed on 07 July 2018 by Ewa Sherman

The Missing Girl

The 30 years since Gabriella disappeared has not erased the memories, or numbed the pain. Now her sister Anna is determined to find out what happened.

Reviewed on 28 April 2018 by Kati Barr-Taylor

The Darkest Day

The Hermansson family are gathering to celebrate father Karl-Erik and eldest daughter Ebba’s joint landmark birthdays. But underneath the smiles, tensions are running high. Before the festivities are over two members of the family are missing. Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti must find out what has happened.

Reviewed on 14 April 2018 by Ewa Sherman

Chameleon People

Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen’s quiet evening is shattered when a young cyclist turns up at his apartment. He has run away from a crime scene but proclaims his innocence, even though he’s in possession of a bloodied knife used to kill a prominent politician.

Reviewed on 27 May 2017 by Ewa Sherman

The Death of Kings

Retired Chief Inspector John Madden re-examines a ten-year-old murder amid fears that the wrong man was hanged for the crime.

Reviewed on 18 March 2017 by John Cleal

What You Don't Know

Denver, 2008. Two detectives discover the bodies of 33 murder victims. Seven years later, their killer is on death row, but the body-count is just about to go up.

Reviewed on 18 March 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor

A Life to Kill

Coroner Jenny Cooper has to handle her hardest case to date, the inquest into the death of a young soldier in Afghanistan.

Reviewed on 21 January 2017 by Linda Wilson

Dead Man's Blues

A group of Chicago city leaders is poisoned; a white gangster found dead and mutilated in a poor black area; an heiress vanishes. Pinkerton detectives Michael Talbot and Ida Davis must find the links between the three events which threaten to shake America’s most corrupt city.

Reviewed on 20 August 2016 by John Cleal

The Searcher

Isaac Hammer runs an investigative agency with his partner, Ben Webster. Or, at least he did until, following a raging argument, Webster disappears. Hammer’s office is then invaded by the police with a search warrant.

Reviewed on 20 August 2016 by Arnold Taylor

X

PI Kinsey Milhone receives instructions from a wealthy woman to trace her son, a felon recently released from detention. After completing the task, Kinsey finds that most of what she was told is a lie.

Reviewed on 16 January 2016 by Chris Roberts

The Living and the Dead in Winsford

Maria Holinek takes advantage of an unforeseen opportunity to rid herself of her husband. Can she hope to escape punishment and carve out a new life?

Reviewed on 15 August 2015 by Chris Roberts

Death in the Rainy Season

Commandant Morel is sent to Phnom Penh to investigate the murder of the nephew of the French Minister of the Interior.

Reviewed on 23 May 2015 by Chris Roberts

Angelica's Smile

A series of burglaries occur in the home town of Inspector Montelbano. During his investigations he meets a young woman, but fact and fiction become mixed up in his mind. Will he be able to solve the mystery of the burglaries before there are any tragic consequences?

Reviewed on 04 April 2015 by Sylvia Maughan

The Reckoning

A retired banker goes fishing and is shot dead for no apparent reason. When others die in the same way it becomes obvious that there must be a reason and that the killings are connected.

Reviewed on 07 March 2015 by Arnold Taylor

Lamentation

Henry VIII is dying, the jockeying for power has begun and the religious witch-hunts are in full spate. Lawyer Matthew Shardlake finds his life in danger once again as he seeks to recover a radical religious pamphlet written by Catherine Parr.

Reviewed on 27 December 2014 by Sharon Wheeler

The Night the Rich Men Burned

Two young friends try to escape a pointless life on Glasgow fringes and become involved in the loan-sharking and collection rackets. One rises quickly up the ranks. The other becomes a victim of growing debt and addiction.

Reviewed on 19 October 2014 by John Cleal

The Axeman's Jazz

1919 and a mad axeman is terrifying New Orleans, America’s most racially mixed and vibrant city. Three very different individuals – a police Lieutenant with his own secrets, a disgraced ex-detective and the mixed-race secretary of a detective agency – set out to track him down.

Reviewed on 20 September 2014 by John Cleal

The Investigation

In a wartime Japanese prison a guard is murdered under strange circumstances, and a young soldier is tasked with finding the culprit.

Reviewed on 20 September 2014 by Chris Roberts

The Bone Seeker

The murder of a young Inuit girl uncovers menacing secrets and cover-ups from the past in the High Arctic

Reviewed on 06 September 2014 by Sharon Wheeler

The Burning

Coroner Jenny Cooper has to dig deep for the truth in a horrific case of family annihilation in the Wye Valley.

Reviewed on 12 July 2014 by Linda Wilson

The Treasure Hunt

Inspector Montalbano is short of work – so when a friend asks if a young student might study the inspector’s methods of solving crimes the inspector feels he has no option but to agree. Subsequently he enlists the young student’s help when the crime rate starts to pick up.

Reviewed on 05 March 2014 by Sylvia Maughan

W is for Wasted

PI Kinsey Millhone finds that a man she never met has left her a fortune, but that his death was not as straightforward as it first appears.

Reviewed on 11 January 2014 by Chris Roberts

Identical

A girl is murdered; her boyfriend confesses to the crime and spends twenty-five years in jail, but questions remain unanswered.

Reviewed on 28 December 2013 by Chris Roberts