Chris Roberts
Books reviewed by Chris Roberts
April in Spain
A Dublin pathologist on holiday with his wife in Spain is surprised to see someone supposed to be dead. His call back home provokes a lethal chain of events.
Reviewed on 30 April 2023 by Chris Roberts
The Insider
When a Russian defector is murdered, suspicion centres on a traitor at the heart of the British establishment, and former spy Solomon Vine is brought back to identify the mole.
Reviewed on 29 April 2023 by Chris Roberts
Munich
With Hitler’s territorial demands looking likely to provoke war, statesmen assemble in Munich seeking a settlement to prevent conflict.
Reviewed on 29 April 2023 by Chris Roberts
A Cursed Place
Journalist William Carver notes surprising correspondences between actions by repressive governments and big corporations the world over.
Reviewed on 29 April 2023 by Chris Roberts
The Dark
Kate North takes a job as resident doctor during the winter at a UN research station in the Antarctic. As the darkness closes in, she realises that the death of her predecessor may not have been an accident.
Reviewed on 17 December 2022 by Chris Roberts
Death Threats and Other Stories
A collection of five short stories from various stages in the career of Inspector Maigret, demonstrating different aspects of the famous French detective.
Reviewed on 17 December 2022 by Chris Roberts
Rosy & John
Jean Garnier has hidden seven bombs around Paris and demands the release of his mother Rose from prison as the price of stopping the carnage.
Reviewed on 17 December 2022 by Chris Roberts
Addis Ababa Noir
A compilation of 14 short stories set in Addis Ababa that convey an uneasy picture of life in the Ethiopian capital.
Reviewed on 17 December 2022 by Chris Roberts
Statue for Jacob
Lawyer Kiah Harmon takes on a case to recover a 200-year-old debt from the US Government. With the addition of interest, the liability could amount to hundreds of billions, so resistance is expected to be fierce.
Reviewed on 12 November 2022 by Chris Roberts
Just Thieves
Rick and Frank are recovering addicts and thieves who steal to order and make great efforts to avoid mistakes, but competition for a particular item produces pressures that they did not foresee.
Reviewed on 12 November 2022 by Chris Roberts
Tally Stick
A family recently arrived in New Zealand disappears. Thirty years later the remains of one of them is found, but the discovery just raises more questions.
Reviewed on 12 November 2022 by Chris Roberts
Dust Off the Bones
The McBride brothers, Billy and Tommy, are haunted by the terrible slaughter that ended their childhood. In their own ways, they’re both seeking escape, but sooner or later will have to face the past.
Reviewed on 12 November 2022 by Chris Roberts
Dohany Street
Budapest Detective Balthazar Kovacs investigates the disappearance of an Israeli historian researching Jewish assets stolen during the Holocaust.
Reviewed on 12 November 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Basel Killings
Making his way home on a foggy autumn night, Inspector Hunkeler finds a man he knows, dead on a bench. Popular theory attributes the crime to Albanians, but Hunkeller has other ideas.
Reviewed on 30 September 2022 by Chris Roberts
1979
Allie Burns has recently joined the Glasgow Daily Clarion as a reporter, and in a male-dominated 1979 newsroom needs a scoop to be taken seriously.
Reviewed on 30 September 2022 by Chris Roberts
Edith and Kim
Charlotte Philby gives a fictional dressing to the real lives of her grandfather Kim Philby, and Edith Tudor-Hart, who recruited him to spy for Russia.
Reviewed on 30 September 2022 by Chris Roberts
Cry Wolf
Two poisoned wolves lead police to a dead body with a link to a drug deal where someone got greedy, and someone is looking for payback.
Reviewed on 30 September 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Whistleblower
With a general election looming, a journalist suspects the death of his sister is connected to a web of corruption linking business and government.
Reviewed on 30 September 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Final Round
A surprise final round of a pub quiz poses some very personal questions, and provokes someone to murder.
Reviewed on 20 August 2022 by Chris Roberts
Rat Island
In 1995, the handover of Hong Kong to China is approaching and the Triads are exploring opportunities overseas. The NYPD is fighting back, and infiltrate a Hong Kong police officer into a Triad-linked Irish mob.
Reviewed on 20 August 2022 by Chris Roberts
Razorblade Tears
When a gay mixed-race couple are shot and killed, the fathers of the two boys seek retribution, fuelled by a recognition that they owe a debt.
Reviewed on 20 August 2022 by Chris Roberts
A Corruption of Blood
In 1850s Edinburgh, Dr Will Raven and his friend Sarah Fisher investigate the truth behind two deaths at different extremes of the social spectrum.
Reviewed on 20 August 2022 by Chris Roberts
Too Much of Water
1670. John Grey and his wife journey to Suffolk, where the Sheriff has requested assistance in the matter of the drowning of Admiral Digges.
Reviewed on 20 August 2022 by Chris Roberts
MS-13
The evolution of MS-13, one of the most infamous street gangs on earth is documented through the experiences of former gang members.
Reviewed on 22 July 2022 by Chris Roberts
Phosphate Rocks
A body is found in a chemical factory on Leith Docks, together with ten objects that might provide vital clues to the death.
Reviewed on 22 July 2022 by Chris Roberts
Bad Apples
Journalist Tuva Moodyson returns to Garvick, finds a decapitated corpse in the woods and investigates some strange goings-on in the nearby town of Visberg.
Reviewed on 22 July 2022 by Chris Roberts
Silver Pebbles
When a package of diamonds is lost in a sewer, Inspector Peter Hunkeler fears for the man he suspects found them and sets out to find the originally intended recipient.
Reviewed on 22 July 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Runaway
Returned war veteran Peter Ash helps a stranded woman and finds himself at odds with a man prepared to eliminate anyone who stands in his way.
Reviewed on 22 July 2022 by Chris Roberts
Hermit
Dana Russo has just 12 hours to find the truth by questioning the taciturn man found standing over the dead body of a store owner.
Reviewed on 25 June 2022 by Chris Roberts
Accra Noir
Thirteen stories set in contemporary Accra explore the various ways that human antagonism can quickly bring fatal consequences.
Reviewed on 25 June 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Survivors
Keiran Elliot returns to his beachside hometown where a killing brings past events to the surface past and force him to re-examine the guilt he has been carrying for a decade.
Reviewed on 25 June 2022 by Chris Roberts
Red Traitor
At the height of the cold war a dispute about Russian missiles in Cuba threatens nuclear Armageddon, while spies for both sides desperately try to defuse the situation.
Reviewed on 25 June 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Man in the Bunker
World War II is over, but many believe that Hitler is still alive. Professor Tom Wilde is sent to a ruined Germany to find the truth.
Reviewed on 25 June 2022 by Chris Roberts
Bound
New Zealand detective Sam Shephard returns to investigate a shooting. Her colleagues think this is an open-and-shut case, but Shephard has her doubts.
Reviewed on 30 April 2022 by Chris Roberts
Squeeze Me
The disappearance of an elderly Palm Beach woman might have escaped notice were she not a rich high-profile supporter of the President, who knows exactly who to blame.
Reviewed on 30 April 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Transparency of Time
Ex-inspector Mario Conde returns to help a friend recover a stolen black Madonna, a statue with a history dating back to the crusades.
Reviewed on 30 April 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Killing Hills
Army CID agent Mick Hardin has come back to Kentucky on leave and agrees to help the local sheriff, his sister, with her first murder case.
Reviewed on 30 April 2022 by Chris Roberts
Brazilian Psycho
The lives of a small cast of characters play out against a background of real political events in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.
Reviewed on 30 April 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Last Taxi Driver
Lou Bishoff, a taxi driver in Gentry, North Mississippi, spends a long day moving customers around town pondering their problems, and his own.
Reviewed on 26 March 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Unusual Suspect
The true story of a would-be Robin Hood, a man who robbed banks and betting shops, and for an impressive time managed to evade capture.
Reviewed on 26 March 2022 by Chris Roberts
Bloody Foreigners
A racist attack in London’s Chinatown challenges local police, but luckily the brilliant, troubled, Singaporean DI Stanley Low is in town to help.
Reviewed on 26 March 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Dying Day
Persis Wadia, India’s first female detective, returns to investigate the disappearance of an academic and a valuable copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Reviewed on 26 March 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Foreign Girls
On a break in the north of Argentina, Buenos Aires journalist Veronica Rosenthal is determined to find those responsible for the rape and murder of two foreign girls she befriended.
Reviewed on 26 March 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Conjure-Man Dies
The sudden death of African conjure-man N’Gana Frimbo brings police detective Perry Dart and local physician John Archer to his consultation rooms, who are more than surprised when the victim recovers.
Reviewed on 19 February 2022 by Chris Roberts
House With No Doors
DI Henry Hobbes is called to a death in a labyrinthine old London house and finds disturbing evidence of the bizarre practises of the family who lived there.
Reviewed on 19 February 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Mercenary
A traitor within the KGB known as GAMBIT offers a wealth of valuable information to the West but insists he will deal only with an agent who takes a terrible risk in returning to Russia.
Reviewed on 19 February 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Strangers of Braamfontein
Immigrants from various African countries gravitate to the Johannesburg suburb of Braamfontein, including many from Nigeria, such as the young painter Osas, who find criminality a route to survival.
Reviewed on 19 February 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Cut
Millie Spark emerges from a long prison sentence for a murder she did not commit. A chance meeting with Jerry, a student, motivates her to investigate what really happened.
Reviewed on 19 February 2022 by Chris Roberts
Robert B. Parker's Fool's Paradise
Police Chief Jesse Stone grapples with the case of a man who made the journey from Florida to Paradise only to end up dead on the evening of his arrival.
Reviewed on 22 January 2022 by Chris Roberts
The Little Man from Archangel
When his wife fails to return home one night, Jonas Milk finds himself suspected of murder by neighbours who he always regarded as friends but he comes to realise that what he imagined was acceptance is in truth only skin-deep.
Reviewed on 22 January 2022 by Chris Roberts
Hell Gate
Ingo Finch visits New York in 1904 on behalf of British spy masters to expose the machinations of pro-German agents in the USA.
Reviewed on 22 January 2022 by Chris Roberts
Rider on the Rain
In an out-of-season Riviera resort, a bus brings a solitary visitor who turns the life of housewife Mellie Mau upside down.
Reviewed on 22 January 2022 by Chris Roberts
The House
Labour MP Owen McKenna receives a demand to withdraw a parliamentary question, under threat that his role in the tragic case of a former colleague will be exposed in the press.
Reviewed on 22 January 2022 by Chris Roberts
Blood Grove
Easy Rawlins accepts a case on behalf of a Vietnam veteran against his own better judgement and soon finds himself the target of police, the FBI and organised crime.
Reviewed on 27 November 2021 by Chris Roberts
Cesare
In the feverish atmosphere of wartime Berlin, a young man becomes a legend in military intelligence while pursuing his own agenda.
Reviewed on 27 November 2021 by Chris Roberts
Clean Hands
A phone lifted from a lawyer’s pocket holds documents crucial to a dispute between two banks. Fast recovery is essential.
Reviewed on 27 November 2021 by Chris Roberts
Dark Sky
Game Warden Joe Pickett takes social media mogul Steve Price on a hunting trip, but Price has enemies ready to exploit the opportunity to bring him down.
Reviewed on 27 November 2021 by Chris Roberts
Snow
Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called from Dublin to a country house where a priest has been savagely murdered. As the snow piles up, he struggles to understand the strange family who live there.
Reviewed on 27 November 2021 by Chris Roberts
Bad Debt
Lawyer Robbie Munro agrees to defend a man who assaulted a housebreaker – and finds himself accused of murder.
Reviewed on 23 October 2021 by Chris Roberts
Forced Confessions
William Benson defends a man against a charge of murder, while his friends investigate the circumstances behind his own conviction, for which he served 11 years in jail.
Reviewed on 23 October 2021 by Chris Roberts
Post Mortem
Elliot Rook QC and his protege Zara represent clients who have become the victim of a vicious campaign for supremacy by a London drug tsar.
Reviewed on 23 October 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Chill Factor
In Cold War Iceland, a Russian spy ring fosters local discontent with the American military based there. British spy Bill Conran arrives to help counter the threat.
Reviewed on 23 October 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Coral Bride
A Canadian lobster trawler is found adrift and the captain missing; DS Joaquin Morales is regarded by the locals as an urban interloper, greatly to the detriment of his investigation.
Reviewed on 23 October 2021 by Chris Roberts
Blackwood
The dying rural backwater of Red Bluff, Mississippi, is briefly awoken from its slumber when new arrivals appear in town and locals go missing in the sinister nearby blackwood.
Reviewed on 25 September 2021 by Chris Roberts
City of Spies
SOE agent Elizabeth de Mornay flees Paris in 1943 for neutral Lisbon, where she finds plenty of enemy intrigue to keep her occupied.
Reviewed on 25 September 2021 by Chris Roberts
Hotel Cartagena
A top-floor Hamburg hotel bar with a party of police amongst the guests is invaded by a dozen men with weapons who take everyone hostage.
Reviewed on 25 September 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Glass Kingdom
After defrauding her New York employer, Sarah takes refuge in a crumbling tower complex in Bangkok. The people she meets seem friendly, but she has the impression that someone is watching her.
Reviewed on 25 September 2021 by Chris Roberts
How To Betray Your Country
August Drummond’s service as a spy has been terminated, but he remains in the game as a distraction from his grief over the death of his wife.
Reviewed on 21 August 2021 by Chris Roberts
Island Reich
With the Nazis victorious in France, Hitler is preparing for the invasion of Britain from the Channel Islands with the Duke of Windsor at his side. Agents from Britain and from the USA are working to prevent it.
Reviewed on 21 August 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Heights
When a severed head falls out of a bag on the Tube, Cal Drake makes a connection to the case that led him to leave the police and become a private detective.
Reviewed on 21 August 2021 by Chris Roberts
Facets of Death
A young man joins the Botswana police CID and is immediately caught up in a diamond heist in which three guards are killed in cold blood.
Reviewed on 24 July 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Rapunzel Act
Burton and Lamb return to represent a woman, formerly a male footballer, charged with the death of her ex-wife, in the first televised court case.
Reviewed on 24 July 2021 by Chris Roberts
Triple Cross
Kate Henderson is reluctantly pulled back into spying at the personal request of the prime minister, and then finds that her job will entail unmasking a Russian intelligence asset at the heart of MI6.
Reviewed on 24 July 2021 by Chris Roberts
Verbal
Barrister Ben Schroeder returns to defend a woman accused of warehousing drugs, mired in an international conspiracy that extends to the British police.
Reviewed on 24 July 2021 by Chris Roberts
We Begin at the End
The release of a prisoner after 30 years precipitates a series of deaths and creates challenges for others.
Reviewed on 24 July 2021 by Chris Roberts
How to Kidnap the Rich
Ramesh Kumar scrapes a living in Delhi by exploiting his talent for passing examinations, but when one of his clients does surprisingly well the opportunity for sharing in the rewards is irresistible.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Chris Roberts
Spoils of the Dead
Trooper Liam Campbell and his partner Wy have resettled in an Alaskan coastal town – and have barely arrived before an archaeologist is brutally murdered, in an echo of a homicide some 30 years ago.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Shot
After a year in office, Fidel Castro was sufficiently unpopular for elements of the US Government and the mob to arrange an assassination. However, these things don’t always go according to plan.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Chris Roberts
A Madness of Sunshine
Anahera has barely returned to her remote rural birthplace when a young woman goes missing, and the close-knit local community fear there is a serial killer close to home.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Chris Roberts
Deity
A celebrated but secretive pop star dies in mysterious circumstances; some acclaim him a gentle genius, others see him as a predatory paedophile.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Chris Roberts
Tokyo Redux
The death of a prominent official in post-war Japan remains a mystery to this day, but the circumstances are explored through the lives of fictional characters who were touched by the event.
Reviewed on 25 June 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Last Thing To Burn
A young Vietnamese woman smuggled into Britain is imprisoned in a rural hell and as the last of her possessions are taken from her she desperately seeks a means to escape.
Reviewed on 22 May 2021 by Chris Roberts
LIke Flies From Afar
Self-made businessman Luis Machi has made plenty of enemies, but who dislikes him enough to leave a body in the boot of his beloved BMW?
Reviewed on 22 May 2021 by Chris Roberts
Box 88
Lachlan Kite, working with top-secret spy agency Box 88, is abducted by Iranians and subjected to questioning about events one summer 30 years ago.
Reviewed on 22 May 2021 by Chris Roberts
Double Agent
A Russian foreign intelligence agent offers to defect, bringing evidence that the British Prime Minister is in the pay of Moscow.
Reviewed on 22 May 2021 by Chris Roberts
Killing Rock
Gibraltar-based detective Tamara Sullivan joins forces with a colleague across the border to solve murders from the past and present.
Reviewed on 22 May 2021 by Chris Roberts
Bent
Key episodes in the life of Harold ‘Tanky’ Challenor, in Italy as an SAS commando in WWII, and as a notorious Detective Sergeant in 1960s Soho.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by Chris Roberts
Lightseekers
Three students are seized by a mob, beaten and then burned to death with petrol-filled tyres around their necks. Philip Taiwo is asked to explain this mob violence.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by Chris Roberts
Play the Red Queen
In 1963 Saigon, army investigator Ellsworth Miser is tasked with closing down a female Viet Cong assassin who has already killed three US army officers.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by Chris Roberts
Stone Cold Trouble
Zaq Khan is trying to keep out of trouble when his brother Tariq is badly beaten. Whether this was a problem of Tariq’s own making, or a message from someone in Zaq’s past, Zaq needs to take them down.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Kingfisher Secret
Journalist Grace Elliot seeks to revitalise a flagging career with a biography, but her subject has secrets that are well protected.
Reviewed on 24 April 2021 by Chris Roberts
Crocodile Tears
Diego is grateful to be released from prison when the wife of the man he kidnapped declines to identify him. Unfortunately, his freedom comes with demands quite beyond his capacity.
Reviewed on 13 March 2021 by Chris Roberts
The Last Trial
In his last trial, Sandy Stern and his daughter Marta defend a Nobel Prize-winning doctor against accusations of fraud and murder arising out of the marketing of a new cancer medication.
Reviewed on 13 March 2021 by Chris Roberts
Guilty - Until Proven Otherwise
Judge John Deed finds himself doing battle with ministers of government and at personal risk in his determination to constrain the executive.
Reviewed on 13 March 2021 by Chris Roberts
Pure Narco
The autobiography of Luis Navia, who for 25 years organised shipments of cocaine from Colombia to US and Europe.
Reviewed on 13 March 2021 by Chris Roberts
Blinded by the Lights
Kuba deals cocaine to the wealthy of Warsaw, affects a cool attitude, but under increasing stress plans an overseas holiday, if he can just make through one last week.
Reviewed on 13 March 2021 by Chris Roberts
A Long Way Off
Marc dreams of freedom and abandons his quiet life for a trip with his daughter Anne, but things move in a rather unexpected direction.
Reviewed on 16 January 2021 by Chris Roberts
Bitter Wash Road
Constable Paul Hirschhausen has committed the heinous crime of whistleblowing on corrupt colleagues, and as a reward is posted to a rural backwater where life is a challenge.
Reviewed on 16 January 2021 by Chris Roberts
Your Still Beating Heart
After the death of her husband, Eira Vaughn is adrift. But her life is given new meaning as a result of a chance encounter in Prague.
Reviewed on 16 January 2021 by Chris Roberts
The System
The discovery of a gun used in a shooting leads to the prosecution of two young men, one guilty and the other innocent. The case will change the lives of several people.
Reviewed on 16 January 2021 by Chris Roberts
One Dark, Two Light
Solicitor Sarah Kellerman discovers a police sergeant in a critical care ward, apparently unidentified. When her client is questioned about the officer’s injuries, Sarah has suspicions about the police accusations.
Reviewed on 19 December 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Message
Crucial information is leaked from a wartime intelligence unit. There follows a battle of wits between ‘Ghost’, who leaked the intelligence, and the man sent to uncover Ghost’s true identity.
Reviewed on 19 December 2020 by Chris Roberts
Midnight at Malabar House
In an India still adjusting to independence, a junior female detective is assigned to investigate the murder of a prominent English diplomat.
Reviewed on 19 December 2020 by Chris Roberts
The March Fallen
Gereon Rath and his fiancée Charley Ritter tackle a series of murders involving ex-servicemen, as the Nazis consolidate their grip on Germany.
Reviewed on 19 December 2020 by Chris Roberts
Second Sister
Nga-yee is devastated when her younger sister Siu-man jumps from their Hong Kong tenement flat to her death. She finds someone who can help her satisfy her desire for revenge on the people who drove her to it.
Reviewed on 21 November 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Bramble and the Rose
Policeman Henry Farrell is called in when a body is found, suspected to be the victim of a bear. Events prove there is more than one predator in the woods.
Reviewed on 21 November 2020 by Chris Roberts
Midnight Atlanta
Atlanta 1956. When the black owner of the Atlanta Daily Times is shot and killed, reporter Tommy Smith is determined to find the culprit.
Reviewed on 21 November 2020 by Chris Roberts
House of Correction
Tabitha Hardy is arrested for the murder of Stuart Rees. She has little recollection of the day he was killed, but is convinced she is innocent, although it seems everyone else believes she is guilty.
Reviewed on 21 November 2020 by Chris Roberts
Broken
Six short novels set in the US featuring persons on the wrong side of the law and those who oppose them.
Reviewed on 21 November 2020 by Chris Roberts
City of Ghosts
A young Russian militia lieutenant is called to a nightmarish scene of five corpses and finds that the victims have links to his own past.
Reviewed on 31 October 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Lizard
Student Alistair Haston is in Greece for the summer looking for a change of atmosphere – but gets more adventure than he expected.
Reviewed on 31 October 2020 by Chris Roberts
Two Lives
Seven short stories from China with a dark and experimental feel to them.
Reviewed on 31 October 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Rip
A young woman living on the street comes under threat when someone new shows up and disturbs the precarious stability of her life.
Reviewed on 31 October 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Night of Shooting Stars
Lieutenant-Colonel Martin von Bora is in Berlin in July 1944, directed to investigate the murder of a prominent clairvoyant, but the rumours of political conspiracy suggest that Bora himself is at risk.
Reviewed on 19 September 2020 by Chris Roberts
Hammer To Fall
Joe Wilderness spies for Britain in 1960s Finland and Prague and runs into several people with whom he shares a history.
Reviewed on 19 September 2020 by Chris Roberts
Hitler's Peace
In autumn 1943 the tide of war has turned and Germany is putting out peace feelers. But the response of the allies will be settled in Tehran.
Reviewed on 19 September 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and Monsieur Charles
In his last appearance, Maigret investigates the disappearance of Monsieur Charles, a wealthy lawyer well-known in Paris nightclubs.
Reviewed on 19 September 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Aosawa Murders
The poisoning of celebrants at a Japanese family birthday party is a mystery, even when the culprit admits responsibility. The true story takes years to emerge.
Reviewed on 19 September 2020 by Chris Roberts
Manhunters
The true story of two agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, in the words of the subtitle, telling ‘How we took down Pablo Escobar’.
Reviewed on 22 August 2020 by Chris Roberts
Seven Years of Darkness
After tragic events at a remote Korean reservoir, a young man is persecuted wherever he goes. After seven years he receives a package which reveals the truth about the past.
Reviewed on 22 August 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Honjin Murders
A newly-wed couple are found dead inside a house locked from the inside, with the weapon, a bloody samurai sword, stuck in the snow outside. Renowned detective Kosuke Kindaichi is on the case.
Reviewed on 22 August 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Night Lawyer
Barrister Sophie Angel defends a young man accused of rape while facing some issues in her own life both current and past.
Reviewed on 22 August 2020 by Chris Roberts
Blacktop Wasteland
Beauregard ‘Bug’ Montage tries to extricate himself from money problems by driving for a jewellery heist, but the outcome threatens to destroy his life.
Reviewed on 22 August 2020 by Chris Roberts
Man at the Window
Detective Sergeant Cardilini is assigned the case when a schoolteacher is killed by a bullet. Everyone but Cardilini is sure that the shooting was an accident.
Reviewed on 31 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
This is Gomorrah
Azi Bello spends his life in a shed with his computers, so a real-life plea for help is unexpected and calls for skills in unfamiliar areas.
Reviewed on 31 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Trouble Is What I Do
New-York-based PI Leonid McGill accepts a job delivering a document to a woman establishing her black ancestry, something her corrupt father is unwilling to accept.
Reviewed on 31 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Cemetery Road
Journalist Marshall McEwan returns to Bienville, Mississippi, where he fights local corruption while revisiting the scenes of his youth which impelled him to move away.
Reviewed on 31 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Robert B. Parker's Blood Feud
Sunny Randall’s relationship with her ex Richie is on again, so when he gets shot you know she is going to do something about it.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Long Range
Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett and hawk wrangler Nate Romanowski become entangled when the wife of a judge is killed by a sniper.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Bobby March Will Live Forever
When a young Glasgow girl is abducted, detective Harry McCoy is sidelined by a rival who’s been given charge of the case.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Hard Stuff
A terrorist is in town with some top-quality smack, for which he insists on payment in diamonds. Joe Brody intends to steal them – twice.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Departing Shadows
DI Christie Kennedy investigates a hit-and-run outside the Gomorrhian Embassy and finds his path to the truth entangled in diplomatic complications.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Playing Dirty
A family firm of gangsters finds their territory invaded by a larger gang from out of town. With the police looking over their shoulder they need to play it smart to come out ahead.
Reviewed on 13 June 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Family
The arrival of an ISIS zealot in Glasgow threatens not only the Family, a collective of 12 crime families, but the police and the public at large.
Reviewed on 13 June 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and the Informer
The body of a restaurateur is dumped on a Paris street and an informer points the finger. Maigret exercises his skills to get the evidence needed.
Reviewed on 13 June 2020 by Chris Roberts
Black Rain Falling
On the Caribbean Island of Camaho, young detective Michael ‘Digger’ Digson fights against local thugs and the indifference of the local establishment.
Reviewed on 13 June 2020 by Chris Roberts
Darkness for Light
Deaf Melbourne-based PI Caleb Zelic goes to meet a new client but finds him dead, and is drawn into a dispute he only vaguely understands but with participants prepared to kill wherever necessary.
Reviewed on 23 May 2020 by Chris Roberts
No Fixed Line
The crash of a light aircraft in a remote Alaskan town has significant implications for PI Kate Shugak and her friends.
Reviewed on 23 May 2020 by Chris Roberts
Man on Edge
A rogue Russian colonel plans the assassination of the US and Russian presidents at a summit meeting. Rake Ozenna stands in his way.
Reviewed on 23 May 2020 by Chris Roberts
Degrees of Guilt
Maria Bloxham calls the police to report she has killed her husband, and soon finds herself on trial. The jury are invited to consider whether her husband’s behaviour constitutes a defence.
Reviewed on 23 May 2020 by Chris Roberts
Making Wolf
Weston Kogi returns to his birthplace in West Africa for the funeral of his aunt and is pushed into investigating the death of a revered statesman.
Reviewed on 22 May 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Scholar
Garda DI Cormac Reilly is called by his girlfriend Emma when she comes across a hit-and-run victim, and despite their connection he is assigned the case.
Reviewed on 25 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
Mister Wolf
In 1944, as the allies close in on Germany and Hitler miraculously survives an assassination attempt, Gestapo officer August Schlegel becomes caught up in a scandal thought to be long buried.
Reviewed on 25 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
House on Fire
After the death of an old army buddy, intelligence agent Nick Heller investigates the family behind the pharmaceutical company whose opiate medication lead to his friend’s death.
Reviewed on 25 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
To Kill a Man
A candidate for the presidency aggressively defends herself from assault in her Washington home. White House troubleshooter Maggie Costello is asked to substantiate a defence.
Reviewed on 25 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
A Silent Death
When a British drug trafficker living in Spain is exposed and his girlfriend killed, he vows revenge on the policewoman involved. Investigator John Mackenzie is sent from the UK to help out.
Reviewed on 11 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and the Wine Merchant
When a wealthy wine merchant is shot dead in a Paris street, the lengthy list of people who detested the victim complicates Maigret’s investigation.
Reviewed on 11 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
Stasi Winter
Major Karin Muller is sent to Rugen Island on the Baltic coast to investigate the death of a woman apparently overcome by the savage winter weather.
Reviewed on 11 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Inugami Curse
Detective Kosuke Kindaichi is invited to assist when the head of the Inugami clan dies, leaving a complex will which enrages his three daughters.
Reviewed on 11 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Silent War
Bente Jensen, head of Swedish Intelligence in Brussels, is passed information by a whistle-blower from the local MI6 office. The threat of serious embarrassment generates a determined effort at retrieval.
Reviewed on 14 March 2020 by Chris Roberts
Heaven My Home
Texas Ranger Darren Matthews is sent to Caddo Lake where a nine-year-old boy is missing, the son of an imprisoned white supremacist.
Reviewed on 14 March 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Accomplice
Aaron Wiley visits Argentina to track down a Nazi in hiding who bears responsibility for the death of many in his family.
Reviewed on 14 March 2020 by Chris Roberts
A Death in the Medina
During a hot Ramadan in Marrakech, the body of a Moroccan girl is found dead, dumped in a handcart. Despite distractions, local detective Belkacem persists with an investigation.
Reviewed on 14 March 2020 by Chris Roberts
Hollywood Godfather
The autobiography of Gianni Russo, who lived as a gangster both in real life and in the movies, and also rubbed shoulders with the cream of Hollywood.
Reviewed on 22 February 2020 by Chris Roberts
No Place of Refuge
Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty travel to a Greek island where a friend working to aid refugees has disappeared.
Reviewed on 22 February 2020 by Chris Roberts
G.I. Confidential
US Army CID agents Sueno and Bascom investigate a South Korean bank robbery which has all the hallmarks of military involvement.
Reviewed on 22 February 2020 by Chris Roberts
Mr Nobody
A man is washed up on a Norfolk beach with only vestiges of memory. Neuropsychiatrist Emma Lewis is asked to help, but returning to Norfolk will bring her face-to-face with a past she is keen to forget.
Reviewed on 22 February 2020 by Chris Roberts
One Good Deed
Aloysius Archer is discharged from prison in 1949 to the southern US town of Poca. He is offered work by a local businessman, collecting on a debt, but the job turns out to have complications.
Reviewed on 31 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Bitterroots
Private investigator Cassie Dewell is asked to check the evidence against a man accused of rape. She’s initially unsympathetic, but is surprised at what she uncovers.
Reviewed on 31 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
Death in the East
Captain Sam Wyndham is in the hills of Assam taking a cure for his opium addiction, when events bring to mind his experiences as a young constable in London in 1905, 17 years before.
Reviewed on 31 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
Not Saying Goodbye
Detective Erast Fandorin wakes after three years in a coma in a world he barely recognises – Russia in the throes of revolution.
Reviewed on 31 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
Once a Liar
New York lawyer Peter Caine has built a successful career defending some very nasty people but finds himself as a suspect when his ex-mistress is murdered.
Reviewed on 18 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
Preservation
When in 1797 a vessel is shipwrecked on an island in what became known as Bass Strait, a small group make their way to Sydney, but the few who arrive have different tales about the journey.
Reviewed on 18 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
Maigret and the Killer
A young man with a particular interest in recording the voices of strangers is stabbed and killed in the street during an early spring downpour. The hobby initially proves to be a distraction for Maigret.
Reviewed on 18 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
Guilty Not Guilty
Bill Russell is devastated when told that his wife has been murdered, and things get worse when the police make him their main suspect. Bill is sure his brother-in-law is the culprit, but is there enough evidence to get a conviction in court?
Reviewed on 18 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
A Shadow Intelligence
MI6 agent Elliot Kane is brought home in a hurry when an operation is abruptly terminated. He seems to be under suspicion – and then he receives a message from a friend pointing him to a video of himself, a very clever fake.
Reviewed on 21 December 2019 by Chris Roberts
Death Run
Private detective Jack Barclay is asked to investigate when a man falls from the top of a block of flats, and crushes and kills a woman in a car below.
Reviewed on 21 December 2019 by Chris Roberts
Playboy
Detective Mario Lame is given a tip which means he is standing over a body when the military police arrive to investigate. He needs to find out what is going on before he ends up on the hook for the killing.
Reviewed on 21 December 2019 by Chris Roberts
Breaking Dad
James Lubbock tells the story of his life, of parents whose sexual orientation led them to part, and of his father the drug dealer.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
Maigret's Childhood Friend
An old schoolmate calls on Maigret to inform him of a murder, and expects some allowance to be made for old acquaintance despite the fact that he is clearly the prime suspect.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
C'est La Vie
Writer Jean-Francois Colombier accompanies his son on a trip to Lille and is unexpectedly plunged into a nightmare.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
Man On Ice
A change of leadership in both the White House and the Kremlin provides an opportunity for ambitious men. A miss-step could lead to nuclear annihilation, and a man on the ice becomes the key.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Sound of Her Voice
Detective Matt Buchanan of the Auckland police is traumatised by unsolved crimes involving the murder of young children but discovery of some remains revitalise his determination to find those responsible.
Reviewed on 09 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
Here Is What You Do
A collection of haunting short stories set around the USA and featuring a wide variety of people, but all involving pain or loss.
Reviewed on 09 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
Miracle Creek
A fire and explosion in a therapeutic hyperbaric oxygen chamber kills two and injures others. As a trial begins, the preoccupations of those close to the tragedy fear that personal secrets will be exposed.
Reviewed on 09 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
Black Sun
Major Alexander Vasin of the KGB is sent to a secret Soviet site, which is producing a powerful new bomb, when one of the key scientists dies from radioactive poisoning.
Reviewed on 09 November 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Ringmaster
Detective Sam Shephard fights unfair criticism from her boss as the Dunedin police tackle the murder of a student in the Botanic Garden.
Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Corporation
The non-fiction story of exiled Cubans who contested Castro’s leadership from the USA, and of one who built a lottery-based organisation which moved into money-laundering, drug trafficking and murder.
Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
Call Him Mine
When journalist Andrew and his photographer boyfriend Carlos come across a body in the street, Carlos pushes for answers and pays a terrible price. Andrew is determined to identify those responsible and exact some sort of retribution.
Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
Call the Next Case
Resident Judge of Bermondsey Crown Court Charlie Walden introduces another selection of cases coming under his purview, together with more of the administrative complexities which complicate his life.
Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
Falling From the Floating World
Ray Clemence is an Englishman in Japan. When his girlfriend Tomoe disappears, he suspects the yakusa is involved. His attempts to find out more brings him into their clutches and there appears to be no escape.
Reviewed on 12 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
On My Life
Jenna Burns’ life is turned into a nightmare when she finds herself in prison on remand for the murder of her boyfriend’s daughter.
Reviewed on 12 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Dance of Death
Freiburg detective Louise Boni tries to protect a family under threat from a man who appears outside their house, holding a gun.
Reviewed on 12 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
Bad Day at the Vulture Club
In the latest adventures of the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency, ex-Inspector Chopra and his friends investigate the murder of a prominent Parsee.
Reviewed on 12 October 2019 by Chris Roberts
American Heroin
Lola Vasquez has become a woman of substance in her South LA suburb through the retailing of narcotics, but her continued survival depends upon meeting challenges with some very tough decisions.
Reviewed on 28 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
Surfeit of Suspects
When an explosion at a Surrey joinery kills three of the directors, Superintendent Tom Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate.
Reviewed on 28 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Copy Cat
Inspector Jaap Rykel returns, on leave with PTSD but unable to resist involvement when a murder is reported with features corresponding precisely to a previous homicide for which a man has already been imprisoned.
Reviewed on 28 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
Fixed Odds
Lawyer Robbie Munro returns to represent George ‘Genghis’ McCann, a drug addict on legal aid, and Oscar ‘The Showman’ Bowman, a rich snooker champion.
Reviewed on 28 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
Blood Oath
New York Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper gathers evidence for an accusation of rape of a minor but finds both the victim and herself in danger.
Reviewed on 07 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
Prefecture D
Four novellas depicting occasions of internal friction which threaten the smooth running of the administration branch of the Japanese Police Department.
Reviewed on 07 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
Darkest Truth
Young lawyer Finola Fitzpatrick receives an emotional appeal from a father to investigate his daughter’s suicide – and the man who he believes caused it.
Reviewed on 07 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Fragility of Bodies
A suicide alerts journalist Veronica Rosenthal to the number of deaths on the railways of Buenos Aires, and her research reveals that many of these fatalities are anything but accidental.
Reviewed on 07 September 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun
Dany Longo borrows her boss’s Thunderbird to leave Paris for a trip south, but a liberating trip to the coast becomes a nightmare when strangers along her route assure her that they have already met.
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Cinderella Plan
James Salisbury heads a company pioneering autonomous vehicles in UK. When his car is involved in a horrific crash, lawyers Burton and Lamb come to his defence.
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
Grab a Snake by the Tail
Havana detective Mario Conde is persuaded to take the case when an elderly Chinese man is found hanged, marked with arcane symbols and missing a finger.
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Friend
Jacob Seger, a new recruit to the Swedish diplomatic service in Beirut, meets Yassim at a party and falls under his spell. But is Yassim the photographer he claims to be, or is he mixed up in something far more sinister?
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Horseman's Song
Young German volunteer lieutenant Martin Bora is in a relatively quiet area of the Spanish civil war front when he finds the body of national poet Garcia Lorca.
Reviewed on 10 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
Don't Send Flowers
When Cristina De Leon is kidnapped, her wealthy father recruits ex-cop Carlos Trevino to get her back. Given that she is probably in the hands of one of the murderous local gangs, his chances of survival don’t look too good.
Reviewed on 10 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Last Brother
Morris Raab fights his way up from a poor New York East Side upbringing to be a major player in the rag trade, but gangsters are determined to take a slice.
Reviewed on 10 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
A Knife to the Heart
Cetin Ikmen has fallen into depression after his retirement and his wife’s accidental death, but he’s reinvigorated when he is asked to investigate a case long gone cold.
Reviewed on 10 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
Under the Cold Bright Lights
Acting Police Sergeant Alan Auhl works cold cases in Melbourne, apparently unassuming, but he has a house full of waifs and strays and can go that extra mile when required.
Reviewed on 10 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Elliot Rook, QC, is asked to represent a racist bigot accused of murder and finds it difficult to refuse – his client knows well the skeletons in Rook’s closet.
Reviewed on 27 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
Marked For Death
Barrister Michael Devlin and his partner Sarah Truman become very personally involved when a retired Chief Justice is found murdered in a spectacular fashion.
Reviewed on 27 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone
The disappearance of the three Van Apfel girls from their sleepy Australian suburb in 1992 has been a mystery which still haunts their friends 20 years later.
Reviewed on 27 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Satapur Moonstone
Lawyer Perveen Mistry is selected to advise on the education of a young maharaja in the tiny princely state of Satapur and finds the boy is at the centre of a power dispute.
Reviewed on 27 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
Black Wolf
It is only chance that a body left by the roadside outside St Petersburg in early January is discovered before the snow buries it for the rest of the winter. Captain Natalya Ivanova is assigned the case.
Reviewed on 13 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
Smallbone Deceased
The London legal firm of Horniman, Birley and Craine suffers a blow to its reputation when a client is found dead in an office deed box.
Reviewed on 13 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
Stasi 77
Major Karin Muller of the Volkspolizei is called back from leave to investigate a murder in a state cotton mill, but soon finds that the Stasi have an interest and are determined to block her progress in the case.
Reviewed on 13 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
Stasi 77
Major Karin Muller of the Volkspolizei is called back from leave to investigate a murder in a state cotton mill, but soon finds that the Stasi have an interest and are determined to block her progress in the case.
Reviewed on 13 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Divinities
Detective Sergeant Cal Drake gets an opportunity to restore his tarnished reputation with the help of forensic psychologist Dr Ray Crane.
Reviewed on 13 July 2019 by Chris Roberts
Among the Ruins
Canadian policeman Esa Khattak is on holiday in Iran when he receives an unofficial request to investigate the murder of a political filmmaker.
Reviewed on 29 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
Wolf Pack
Joe Pickett is re-installed as game warden for Wyoming’s Twelve Sleep County, and takes action against a drone operator, which brings him into conflict with the FBI and a team of killers known as the Wolf Pack.
Reviewed on 29 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Elephant of Surprise
Crime-fighters Hap and Leonard rescue a girl targeted by the Dixie Mafia and battle to protect her in the middle of one of the worst storms seen in East Texas for years.
Reviewed on 29 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
Twisted Prey
When US Congressman Porter Smalls’ car is forced off the road, local law enforcement are not persuaded it was intentional. But Smalls knows Lucas Davenport, who he trusts to find the truth.
Reviewed on 29 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
A Long Night in Paris
The disappearance of an Israeli man shortly after arriving at Paris Charles de Gaulle is only the first challenge for Commissaire Leger in what proves to be a very long night.
Reviewed on 15 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
Fade to Grey
Gethin Grey and his Cardiff-based legal team are instructed by a film star to review the case of a black man convicted of the murder of a white girl in Bristol.
Reviewed on 15 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
Metropolis
In Weimar Republic Berlin, Sergeant Bernie Gunther transfers to the murder squad and is designated to investigate a string of murders of prostitutes.
Reviewed on 15 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Mongolian Conspiracy
Filiberto Garcia, a Mexico City police hitman, is assigned to investigate when rumours are heard of an assassination planned for the US president on a forthcoming visit.
Reviewed on 15 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
Into the River
Teenager Ben stands with his weaker friend Fab throughout childhood – and then an opportunity arises for Fab to return the favour.
Reviewed on 01 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
A Killer's Alibi
Mafia boss Jimmy Nunzio is caught literally red handed, holding the knife that killed the son of his rival. Mike McFarland is the attorney hired to defend him.
Reviewed on 01 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
Justice Gone
When ex-marine Jay Felson is beaten to death by police, someone shoots three of the officers involved and suspicion falls on Felson’s buddy Donald ‘Shortstop’ Darfield.
Reviewed on 01 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
99 Ways to Die
Chan Jing-nan becomes involved when his friend Peggy’s father is kidnapped and threatened with death if he doesn’t hand over a new computer chip.
Reviewed on 11 May 2019 by Chris Roberts
Lives Laid Away
Detroit ex-cop August Snow is unimpressed by government action to combat the sexual exploitation and traffic of girls and so takes matters into his own hands.
Reviewed on 11 May 2019 by Chris Roberts
Murder in the Crooked House
In a strange house built at the isolated northern tip of Japan, guests who’ve gathered for New Year start dying. Renowned detective Kiyosi Mitarai is called in to find out why.
Reviewed on 11 May 2019 by Chris Roberts
Lola
The Crenshaw Six are a minnow amongst the gangs of South Central LA, and war between rival drug cartels provides both an opportunity and a threat. Luckily, they have a smart leader.
Reviewed on 11 May 2019 by Chris Roberts
All This I Will Give To You
Novelist Manuel Ortigosa is devastated when his husband Alvaro is killed in a car accident, and astounded when he finds Alvaro is a marquis from a wealthy family.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
Judgment
A rare departure from her normal correct behaviour renders Judge Juliana Brody vulnerable to blackmail. To defeat her adversary, she will need to be as ruthless as they are.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Lost Man
The death of Australian outback farmer Cameron Bright brings his estranged brother Nathan back to the family home, where there are plenty of unresolved conflicts.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Border
While a battle for control of the drugs trade rages in Mexico, a man comes to head the DEA in Washington determined to combat the drug cash that’s buying influence at US government level.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
An Autumn Hunting
Akyl Borubaev is back in the Bishkek murder squad but shooting the Minister for State Security makes him a pariah, and someone of interest to Kyrgyzstan’s top criminals.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
Secret Prey
Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport is called in when a banker is shot during a hunting trip, an event which proves to be just the beginning of a series of attacks.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Plotters
A Korean assassin ignores his instructions and permits a target to die in her preferred manner – the first step away from unquestioning obedience to his fate.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
Blood Orange
Barrister Alison Bailey is married with a daughter but infatuated with solicitor Patrick. She is horrified to receive messages from someone who knows what she is doing.
Reviewed on 13 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself
An aging porn star, a mob widow and her granddaughter meet as strangers, face some problems and find they are stronger together.
Reviewed on 30 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
One Law for the Rest of Us
A revelation of sexual abuse by a child blows open her mother’s repressed memories of the same treatment she suffered – but will the legal system offer her redress?
Reviewed on 30 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
Retribution
In a small farming town in Australia, a few discontented people are drawn together and tempted into taking retribution for wrongs done, real or imaginary.
Reviewed on 30 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Reckoning
After returning to the rural Mississippi town of Clanton, World War II hero Pete Banning drives to his local Methodist church and shot the Reverend Dexter Bell. He has never said why.
Reviewed on 30 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
Death Notice
Chengdu police find it difficult to cope with a man calling himself Eumenides, who acts as self-appointed judge and executioner of those whose crimes have gone unpunished.
Reviewed on 09 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
Only To Sleep
Philip Marlowe comes out of retirement to investigate a man said to have drowned on a Mexican beach, leaving a tidy sum in life insurance to his attractive widow.
Reviewed on 09 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
Night Town
Los Angeles burglar Junior Bender takes on a commission, although the money offered looks a little too good. When a competitor is killed he wants to know why.
Reviewed on 09 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Good Sister
When a 17-year-old girl makes her way from the UK to Syria, her father is determined to find her and bring her home.
Reviewed on 00 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
Baby's First Felony
Criminal defence investigator Cecil Younger’s favour for a client gets him into bad trouble. And when his daughter is kidnapped, he has to take extraordinary measures.
Reviewed on 23 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Janus Run
Coleman Lang awakes to find his girlfriend dead on the bed next to him. When autopsy results show she has been murdered, the police like him for the crime.
Reviewed on 23 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
Dirty John and Other True Stories of Outlaws and Outsiders
Fifteen true stories from a Los Angeles Times staff writer sympathetically exploring the lives of people whose experience has been touched by crime or stress.
Reviewed on 23 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
Bait, Grist & Security
Three novellas combined in a single volume give a very penetrating examination of the worlds of book writers, the cinema, and personal improvement courses.
Reviewed on 23 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Language of Secrets
Detective Esa Khattack and his partner Rachael Getty are on the case of the killing of an undercover colleague who was investigating a suspected Islamic terrorist plot.
Reviewed on 09 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
And Fire Came Down
Caleb Zelic is visited by a girl seeking his help and returns to his home of Resurrection Bay to try to establish what she was running from.
Reviewed on 09 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
Rules of Prey
In his first appearance, Lieutenant Lucas Davenport faces an intelligent serial killer working by rules of behaviour which make it unlikely he will ever be caught.
Reviewed on 09 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
Red Snow
The tiny frozen Swedish town of Gavrik is dominated by the liquorice factory, source of employment but also some weirdness, and a long history of unexplained deaths.
Reviewed on 09 February 2019 by Chris Roberts
Motherland
Captain Natalya Ivanova of the St Petersburg police makes preliminary enquiries when a Swedish girl goes missing, but the case has many complications.
Reviewed on 26 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
Stitch Up
Lawyer Robbie Munro is asked by an old flame to investigate a death, while doing his best to protect his ex-copper father who’s accused of stitching up a child-killer.
Reviewed on 26 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
Shell Game
VI Warshawski is run ragged when the nephew of her closest friend is linked to a murder, and the niece of her ex-husband shows up desperate about a missing sister.
Reviewed on 26 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
Slugger
When a priest is killed in what is made to look like a Jewish atrocity, Harry Kvist has his suspicions. An opportunity for payback is difficult to refuse.
Reviewed on 26 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Burning Hill
An encounter between a young British soldier and a couple of street kids on Brazil’s Copacabana beach has fateful consequences.
Reviewed on 26 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Aladdin Trial
A woman hospitalised for a minor operation is found dead after a fall from the 11th floor. An immigrant cleaner is accused, and defended by Burton and Lamb.
Reviewed on 12 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Bouncer
Joe Brody is a strip club bouncer with a Harvard education and a military career about which no records exist. Against her best instincts, FBI agent Donna Zamora finds him very attractive.
Reviewed on 12 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Ash Doll
Lawyer Charlie Priest has a high-profile case which he looks like losing when his star witness fails to show in court, and subsequently turns up dead.
Reviewed on 12 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
Home Grown Hero
Javid Qasim helped to foil a terrorist attack but neither MI5, who compelled his assistance, nor the terrorists, are prepared to leave him alone.
Reviewed on 12 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
Deadfall
Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper is standing on the steps of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art when her boss is shot dead and collapses on top of her.
Reviewed on 08 December 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Darkness Around Her
Lawyer Dan Grant is asked to represent Peter Box, who has been accused of murder. The evidence looks damning and to make it worse Box refuses to explain what happened.
Reviewed on 08 December 2018 by Chris Roberts
Robert B. Parker's The Hangman's Sonnet
Sheriff Jesse Stone investigates a murder that appears linked to re-awakened interest in a 40-year-old recording that mysteriously disappeared.
Reviewed on 08 December 2018 by Chris Roberts
Rex v. Edith Thompson
An exploration of the famous 1922 Ilford murder for which Edith Thompson and her lover Freddy Bywaters were hanged, along with the attitudes to women revealed in that judgement.
Reviewed on 08 December 2018 by Chris Roberts
Brothers in Blood
Zaq Khan’s criminal record consigns him to a driving job and things get worse when his employer directs him to recover an absconding daughter, or else.
Reviewed on 24 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
Gangster Nation
Mob hit-man Sal Cupertine escaped from Chicago in a meat truck after killing three FBI agents, but hiding out in Las Vegas as a Rabbi has its problems.
Reviewed on 24 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
Like Lions
Sheriff Clayton, the last surviving member of the Burroughs family which for decades ran drugs from Georgia’s Bull Mountain, comes under attack from a rival clan.
Reviewed on 24 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
Maigret in Court
When a woman and child are murdered, Maigret finds himself in court, uneasy with the way human events are distorted through the prism of official proceedings.
Reviewed on 24 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Betel Nut Tree Mystery
Chen Su Lin, assistant to Singapore’s Chief Inspector Le Froy, ends up at risk when a rich young Englishman is found dead, his body soaked in betel nut juice.
Reviewed on 10 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
Memo From Turner
When a young girl is crushed in a hit-and-run the culprit’s rich family conspire to protect him. Warrant Officer Turner is determined that someone will pay.
Reviewed on 10 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Man Who Came Uptown
Michael Hudson is a young man in a Washington DC jail, granted the opportunity to start again, to come uptown, but facing a significant challenge on his way there.
Reviewed on 10 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Piranhas
A group of teenagers from central Naples form their own paranza or mob crew, taking advantage of the vacuum left by the breakdown in the traditional Camorra.
Reviewed on 10 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Ways of Wolfe
Axel Wolfe’s first attempt at robbery does not go well and he ends up doing a long stretch at a Texas state prison, feeling sore about the partner who left him behind.
Reviewed on 27 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Sinners
Sheriff Quinn Colson finds his wedding plans disrupted when two rival drug suppliers come into conflict and disturb the calm of Jericho and Tibbehah County.
Reviewed on 27 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
The First Prehistoric Serial Killer and other stories
A collection of short stories set in or around Barcelona featuring a variety of characters, apparently respectable, who become involved in serious crime.
Reviewed on 27 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
A Summer of Murder
Chief Inspector Louise Boni of the Frieburg Kripo is back on duty and immediately pitched into a major case involving the movement of weapons across Europe.
Reviewed on 27 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
Cult X
Searching for a girl who disappeared after a brief relationship, Toru Narazaki visits an address in Tokyo occupied by a cult and gets drawn into a bizarre world.
Reviewed on 13 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Good Daughter
When a teacher and a pupil are killed in a school shooting, a local legal family take up the defence of the teenager accused but are dogged by memories of past events.
Reviewed on 13 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
Firefly
A young Syrian refugee making his way to the West to make a new life for himself and his family carries information about ISIS, who are determined to stop him.
Reviewed on 13 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
Light It Up
When ex-marine Peter Ash helps an old army buddy by riding shotgun on a truck making legal cannabis deliveries, the job calls for all his military skills.
Reviewed on 13 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Price You Pay
When Jack Price asks around about the murder of a near neighbour he gets a very serious beating. Jack’s thirst for recompense knows no bounds.
Reviewed on 15 September 2018 by Chris Roberts
Nightfall Berlin
British intelligence agent Tom Fox travels to Berlin to nursemaid a British defector seeking to return to the UK. Things do not go according to plan.
Reviewed on 15 September 2018 by Chris Roberts
Don't Eat Me
Police Inspector Phosy Vongvichai investigates a body apparently gnawed by small animals, while Dr Siri Paiboun organises a Lao film version of War and Peace.
Reviewed on 15 September 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Trial of Adolf Hitler
The true story of the 1923 ‘beer hall putsch’ and subsequent trial, which provided Adolf Hitler with a great opportunity for publicity, kick-starting his rise to power.
Reviewed on 15 September 2018 by Chris Roberts
Black Violet
Michael Violet is a skilled pickpocket who uses his talent to lift top-end cars. When his journalist brother is murdered, Violet ends up in a team tracking the killers.
Reviewed on 01 September 2018 by Chris Roberts
Goldstein
In Weimar Berlin, police detective Gereon Rath is assigned to shadow Abraham Goldstein, a New York hit man who has recently arrived in town.
Reviewed on 01 September 2018 by Chris Roberts
A Treachery of Spies
A series of murders in modern-day Orleans appears to be linked to events over 70 years old - the struggles of French resistance fighters battling the Nazis.
Reviewed on 01 September 2018 by Chris Roberts
Bluff
Young magician Natalie Webb is down on her luck and persuaded to use her skills in a bent poker game. However, things don’t go according to plan.
Reviewed on 18 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
Excellent Intentions
When the disagreeable Henry Cargate is poisoned, an accusation of murder is brought against one of four people in a position to have committed the crime.
Reviewed on 18 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
Baby Blue
Stratos Gazis’ friend Angelino has taken charge of Emma, a talented blind girl, who is bitter at the murder of the man who protected her. Stratos gets the job of finding the killer.
Reviewed on 18 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
Back Up
When all four members of a rock band die within a few days, the police seem strangely disinterested. A man who may be able to shed some light on the matter is apparently unable to communicate.
Reviewed on 04 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Good Son
A young man wakes up in his own bed and is confused to find he is covered in blood. Discovery of a body downstairs starts to trigger memories about what has been going on.
Reviewed on 04 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
Incorruptible
Inspector Cetin Ikmen takes up the case when a young woman from a mixed marriage is found eviscerated in an Istanbul backstreet.
Reviewed on 04 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
Last Instructions
Rogue agent 10483 emerges from a nine-year coma to finalise his plans for revenge against The Organisation, plans which include setting off a nuclear device.
Reviewed on 04 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Lady Killer
Ichiro Honda spends his weekday evenings cruising the bars for lonely women who can fulfil his fantasies. Then his pick-ups start dying.
Reviewed on 21 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
A Darker State
Newly-promoted Major Karin Muller is assigned for action when the body of a young man emerges from a river between East Germany and the Polish border.
Reviewed on 21 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
Angel in the Shadows
Journalist Farah Hafez is falsely accused of being a terrorist to undermine her attempts to expose an international web of crime and corruption.
Reviewed on 21 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
Vengeance in Venice
Honorary consul Nathan Sutherland is enjoying a preview at the Venetian Biennale when a critic is decapitated falling from a defective balcony on to glass artwork.
Reviewed on 21 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
Down the River Unto the Sea
Joe King Oliver is a New York PI still coming to terms with being ousted from the NYPD is invited to help a black radical accused of killing two crooked police detectives.
Reviewed on 07 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Execution of Justice
A man of substance walks into a restaurant, shoots a man dead, and strolls out. He is convicted of the crime, but then hires a lawyer to establish his innocence.
Reviewed on 07 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
Escape and Evasion
Joseph Ashcroft steals £1.34 billion from the bank where he works and distributes it to numerous strangers worldwide. Then he goes on the run
Reviewed on 07 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Disappeared
The new Wyoming Governor asks game warden Joe Pickett to investigate the disappearance of a British woman, which is creating a stir in the British tabloids.
Reviewed on 04 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
Hell Bay
A London detective returns to his childhood home overlooking Hell Bay on the Scilly island of Bryher, and when a girl is found murdered on the beach agrees to spearhead the investigation.
Reviewed on 23 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
Greeks Bearing Gifts
Bernie Gunther starts a new career as an insurance investigator, but a trip to Greece to investigate a claim for a lost ship has a none-too-comfortable connection with wartime events.
Reviewed on 23 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
Golden Prey
Lucas Davenport is now working as a US Marshal, and sets out to find a ruthless killer who recently robbed a drug cartel. Unsurprisingly he is not the only one in the chase.
Reviewed on 23 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Drifter
Ex-marine Peter Ash returns home to the US with problems from service in the Middle East, but none sufficient to prevent him helping out the family of a once close comrade.
Reviewed on 09 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Fighter
Jack Boucher, who was abandoned as a child, took up cage fighting as a way to find himself, and after 25 years has reached the end of a very long road.
Reviewed on 09 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
Beside the Syrian Sea
When his father is kidnapped by ISIS, Jonas employs his skills as an intelligence agent. But until now he has been working from behind a desk.
Reviewed on 09 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
American by Day
Police chief inspector Sigrid Odegard leaves her native Norway for New York State to find her brother Marcus, who has gone missing.
Reviewed on 09 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
Blind Defence
Barrister William Benson defends a man accused of the murder of his partner and finds the case extends beyond simple domestic strife to organised criminal activity.
Reviewed on 26 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
Murder at the Grand Raj Palace
Retired police inspector Ashwin Chopra takes on the case of a man found dead in the Grand Raj Palace hotel, while his wife Poppy is kept busy seeking a reluctant bride.
Reviewed on 26 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Devil's Claw
A young journalist returns home to Guernsey, and when a drowned woman is found on the beach finds links to other such deaths stretching back over 50 years.
Reviewed on 24 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
We Were the Salt of the Sea
Detective Sergeant Joaquin Morales, relocating from Montreal to a seaside village, is assigned the death of a local woman who sailed home after years away.
Reviewed on 24 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
Last Will
Robbie Munro is fighting a custody battle over his daughter Tina, but finds himself under severe time pressure seeking a defence for a man accused of murder.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
Fear
The shocking allegations of a creepy neighbour are profoundly unsettling to Randolf and his wife Rebecca, and when the state cannot help the options are limited.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Smiling Man
DC Aidan Waits is still in disgrace and on permanent night duty when his discovery of a body in a moribund hotel gives him a real case to investigate.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Master Key
In post-war Tokyo, the K Apartments for single women accommodates aging residents, many with secrets and some with sinister or bizarre patterns of behaviour.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Chris Roberts
Out of the Ice
Environmental scientist Laura Alvarado investigates an old abandoned Norwegian whaling station in the remote Antarctic and finds signs of recent activity.
Reviewed on 28 April 2018 by Chris Roberts
Name of the Dog
Detective ‘Lefty’ Mendieta is trying to get to grips with a chain of murders of dentists when the death of someone close to a drug boss triggers a war.
Reviewed on 28 April 2018 by Chris Roberts
My Name is Nathan Lucius
Nathan Lucius sells advertising space for a Cape Town newspaper. When his only real friend Madge asks him to kill her, Nathan is prepared to help.
Reviewed on 28 April 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Downside
When the theft of valuable metal ore ends in arrest for Finn and his gang, he smells a rat. A new heist offers opportunities, and the chance to find the man responsible.
Reviewed on 14 April 2018 by Chris Roberts
Jackrabbit Smile
Hap and Leonard take a job from a pair of religious racists to find their daughter Jackrabbit, who they haven’t seen for five years.
Reviewed on 14 April 2018 by Chris Roberts
Resurrection Bay
When friend and employee Gary Marsden is found with his throat cut, boss of PI firm Trust Works Caleb Zelic is traumatised, and desperate to find the man responsible.
Reviewed on 14 April 2018 by Chris Roberts
A Summer Revenge
An ex-girlfriend of the Kyrgyz Minister for State Security has absconded to Dubai with a memory stick he is keen to retrieve. Akyl Borubaev is sent to bring her back.
Reviewed on 31 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Desperation Road
Many years after an event which dramatically changed lives, the two people most affected return to the town but find they still have battles to fight.
Reviewed on 31 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Green Sun
Hanson is new to the Oakland Police, but set apart by age, a stint as a policeman in Portland, service in Vietnam and a master’s degree in English literature.
Reviewed on 31 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Conviction
Journalist Rebekah Roberts looks into a murder conviction over 20 years old, when the New York crime rate was appalling and justice severely compromised.
Reviewed on 31 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Gringa
Detective Leme has gringa Ellie under observation – she enters a building but doesn’t come out. When he follows, he finds a man dead and Ellie gone.
Reviewed on 17 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Righteous
Neighbourhood sleuth Isaiah Quintabe is getting closer to explaining his brother’s death, and is asked to help when a couple of gamblers get into trouble with Chinese triads.
Reviewed on 17 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
District VIII
Romany cop Balthazar Kovacs receives a text showing a dead man, one of the hundreds of refugees crowded into Budapest hoping for a new life in the West.
Reviewed on 17 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Hollywood Hang Ten
Surfer dude and private investigator Ryan Zorn takes his first independent job, locating a missing boy, but finds a connection to the blackmail of Hollywood stars.
Reviewed on 17 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Fallen
A robbery executed with military-style precision at the Jericho First National Bank gives Sheriff Quinn Colson some ideas about the background of those involved.
Reviewed on 03 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Foreign Bodies
Sixteen short stories from round the globe written in the first half of the last century with a focus on crime and detectives in the classic tradition.
Reviewed on 03 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Death on the Canal
Amsterdam detective Lotte Meerman is relaxing at a canal-side bar when a man is stabbed and killed. There looks to be a drug connection, but Lotte is not so sure.
Reviewed on 03 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Greek Wall
Greek Intelligence agent Evangelos investigates a severed head found on the Greek border but finds the truth obscured by the conflicting demands of vested interests.
Reviewed on 03 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
Buried Lies
Stockholm lawyer Martin Benner is visited by the brother of a woman accused of five murders, now dead, insisting that the case against her was flawed.
Reviewed on 17 February 2018 by Chris Roberts
Bled Dry
When a young Casablanca couple are found butchered, detective Hanash is under pressure to get quick results, if only to protect himself.
Reviewed on 17 February 2018 by Chris Roberts
Going Down Slow
Seven short stories featuring the creations of John Harvey, including private eye Jack Kiley and detective Charlie Resnick.
Reviewed on 17 February 2018 by Chris Roberts
Walden of Bermondsey
Resident judge Charlie Walden relates several tales featuring life in Bermondsey Crown Court, both in the courtroom and behind the scenes.
Reviewed on 17 February 2018 by Chris Roberts
Anatomy of a Scandal
A politician close to the centre of government stands accused of rape. The barrister for the prosecution is certain he is guilty and is determined to make him pay.
Reviewed on 03 February 2018 by Chris Roberts
Last Stop Tokyo
Alex Malloy has fled disgrace in the UK to Japan, but his life gets even more complicated when he meets Naoko, who like him has a past she is trying to leave behind.
Reviewed on 03 February 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Absence of Guilt
District Judge Scott Fenney is asked to rule on the detention of suspected terrorists, and becomes involved with a plot to bring down the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Reviewed on 20 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Dead
Investigator Ana Maria Galindez seeks Leopoldo Guzman, who recently reappeared in Madrid after years of dirty work in a shadowy squad created by Franco – even now reluctant to surrender its powers.
Reviewed on 20 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
Lightning Men
In post-war Atlanta, police on both sides of the racial divide struggle to contain criminals exploiting the tension, especially when family and friends are involved.
Reviewed on 20 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
Trinidad Noir
A portrait of Trinidad conveyed through 19 short stories written over the past century.
Reviewed on 06 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
A Promise To Kill
Clyde Barr is drifting in the wilds of Utah when he gets drawn in to a struggle between a small town and a gang of bikers who brook no opposition.
Reviewed on 06 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
East of Hounslow
Javid Qasim is 20-something, lives with his mum and deals a little cannabis. He wears his Muslim faith lightly, until events compel him to become more committed.
Reviewed on 06 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
Fatal Sunset
Valencia Chief Detective Max Camera is moved to the Homicide Section and assigned to a dubious case, but finds plenty in the death to keep him busy.
Reviewed on 06 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
Veteran Avenue
John Frears visits the US for the funeral of an old military buddy, and finds a connection to a girl whose photo he has been carrying in his wallet for over 30 years.
Reviewed on 03 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Rooster Bar
Law students Mark, Todd and Zola are struggling under a mountain of debt. Realising they have been scammed, they start looking for payback.
Reviewed on 16 December 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Last Best Friend
Literary dealer Ned Balfour gets a telegram from his friend Sammy Weiss imploring for help with a terrible decision. The next thing Ned hears is that Sammy is dead.
Reviewed on 16 December 2017 by Chris Roberts
Dark Water
Exiled policeman Makana is induced to visit Istanbul to help British Intelligence prevent a chemical warfare specialist falling into the hands of a dangerous terrorist.
Reviewed on 16 December 2017 by Chris Roberts
Bluebird, Bluebird
Texas Ranger Darren Mathews is suspended from duty but makes his own way to a small East Texas town where a double murder shows signs of being racially inspired.
Reviewed on 25 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Innocents
Quinn Colson returns home and helps his friend Sheriff Lillie Virgil investigate when a young girl is found walking down a highway engulfed in flames.
Reviewed on 25 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins
A storm exposes a body, and the remains of two more killed years ago. Police Chief Jesse Stone investigates an event nobody in Paradise is keen to talk about.
Reviewed on 25 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
Paradise Valley
Cassie Dewell has spent years tracking a serial killer known as the Lizard King. An attempt at a trap goes spectacularly awry so Cassie must find another route to finally bring him down.
Reviewed on 11 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
Buffalo Jump Blues
PI Sean Stranahan is hired by the beautiful Ida Evening Star to find an old flame who knows something about a small herd of bison that went over a cliff.
Reviewed on 11 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Legacy of the Bones
Inspector Amaia Salazar returns to the valley of her birth in Spain to tackle a chain of murders linked by the severed arms of the victims and the one-eyed mythical tarttalo.
Reviewed on 11 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Fortunate Brother
The Now family are crushed by the loss of the eldest son and thrown into confusion when a local man is killed, a man who nobody had reason to like.
Reviewed on 11 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
Night Market
Detective Henk van der Pol is enmeshed in a conspiracy that incorporates senior figures in the justice system, but is unsure in which direction to point the finger.
Reviewed on 28 October 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Mayfly
Lawyer Charlie Priest is approached by tycoon Ellinder to investigate the death of his son Miles, shortly after Charlie escapes an attack from Miles himself.
Reviewed on 28 October 2017 by Chris Roberts
Dr. Knox
A young boy suffering an allergic reaction is brought to Dr Adam Knox’s clinic. His mother, a beaten Romanian woman, takes off, leaving Knox with a big problem.
Reviewed on 28 October 2017 by Chris Roberts
Two Lost Boys
Marion ‘Andy’ Hardy is on death row for the rape and murder of two women. Janet Moodie is preparing a case to convince the courts that he doesn’t deserve to die.
Reviewed on 14 October 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Spy's Daughter
Pearl is an American teenager with a genius-level grasp of developments in artificial intelligence, only recently awakened to her Chinese parents’ plans for her future.
Reviewed on 14 October 2017 by Chris Roberts
Ghost Month
When Jing-nan hears that his high school sweetheart has been murdered, he is determined to get an explanation, especially when he gets warned off.
Reviewed on 14 October 2017 by Chris Roberts
Ghost Month
When Jing-nan hears that his high school sweetheart has been murdered, he is determined to get an explanation, especially when he gets warned off.
Reviewed on 14 October 2017 by Chris Roberts
Dying To Live
A dead bushman is only the first of a series of deaths brought to the attention of Assistant Superintendent ‘Kubu’ Bengu and Detective Samantha Khama.
Reviewed on 30 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
IQ
Asiah Quintabe, known as IQ, is presented with a testing puzzle when he is asked to find out who is threatening rapper Calvin Wright, better known as Black the Knife.
Reviewed on 30 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Since We Fell
Rachel has only a vague memory of a father who left home when she was three, a desertion at the root of her vulnerability. She finds a man prepared to accept her problems, only to discover he is not what he purports to be.
Reviewed on 30 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Warehouse
A Pakistani insurance surveyor is tempted into a lucrative job in a very dangerous part of the country, and is launched into a series of harrowing adventures.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
You Belong To Me
New York immigration lawyer and map enthusiast Paul Reeves gets involved in his neighbours’ marital friction, which generates a deadly struggle and an opportunity.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Ruined Stones
Grace Baxter arrives in Newcastle in 1941 as a junior policewoman and is immediately put to work investigating the death of a woman amongst the remains of a Roman temple.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Safe
Ricky ‘Ghost’ Mendoza cracks safes for the DEA, and when he opens a safe full of cash decides to take it. Not for himself, but for others, in a last chance for redemption.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Shadows and Sun
Retired Paris policewoman Lola Jost and her friend Ingrid Diesel return in a tale of murky political goings-on which threaten valued ex-colleagues.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Vicious Circle
Game Warden Joe Pickett’s history with the Cates clan has given rise to a vicious circle of hatred which pitches his family into a fight for their survival.
Reviewed on 02 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Judge and his Hangman
The murder of a policeman turns out to be the final act in a life-long struggle between Inspector Berlach and his nemesis, a criminal mastermind.
Reviewed on 02 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Fateful Mornings
Carpenter Kevin O’Keefe reports his girlfriend Penny missing and admits to a shooting. County policeman Henry Farrell tries to find out what has been going on.
Reviewed on 02 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Blue Light Yokohama
A young detective assigned to the murder of a Korean family on the outskirts of Tokyo uncovers links to other deaths where the killer left the sign of the black sun.
Reviewed on 28 August 2017 by Chris Roberts
Pill City
The true story of two tech-savvy Baltimore 18-year-olds who created a dark web drug delivery service for legal and illegal opiates across the US.
Reviewed on 19 August 2017 by Chris Roberts
Three Drops of Blood and a Cloud of Cocaine
When old Jimmy Henderson is found dead in his car, mutilated with a knife, both local sheriff Paul McCarthy and Franck, a visiting private detective, take an interest.
Reviewed on 19 August 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Unquiet Dead
A man found dead at the foot of Scarborough Bluffs, a Toronto suburb, proves to have a history in Bosnia, where he played a very active role in the slaughter.
Reviewed on 19 August 2017 by Chris Roberts
Bay of Martyrs
When a body is washed up on the beach of the Bay of Martyrs, the police seem reluctant to investigate. Journalist Clayton Moloney wants to find out why.
Reviewed on 05 August 2017 by Chris Roberts
Camino Island
Writer Mercer Mann is recruited by an insurance company to get close to a book dealer who they suspect is holding stolen manuscripts worth a fortune.
Reviewed on 05 August 2017 by Chris Roberts
Before the Dawn
Detective Inspector Jaap Rykel heads an investigation into a series of murders of young women, a task which draws in his girlfriend Tanya and colleague Kees.
Reviewed on 22 July 2017 by Chris Roberts
Extreme Prey
Lucas Davenport is called in when a presidential candidate is threatened with assassination.
Reviewed on 22 July 2017 by Chris Roberts
Three Envelopes
A notebook held by a law firm for ten years before its delivery reveals a terrifying pattern of mass murders and a pitiless perpetrator who has not finished yet.
Reviewed on 22 July 2017 by Chris Roberts
Good News, Bad News
Criminal defence lawyer Robbie Munro has a new crop of clients, including a junior lawyer on a drugs charge and a dying woman with a lottery win seeking an errant husband.
Reviewed on 08 July 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Book of Mirrors
In Princeton, 1987, a renowned psychologist is bludgeoned to death. It takes 30 years and several attempts at investigation before the culprit is finally identified.
Reviewed on 08 July 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Lighterman
Barrister Charles Holborne takes on the defence of his cousin Izzy, a river lighterman accused of murder, but finds the job complicated by the enmity of Ronnie Kray.
Reviewed on 08 July 2017 by Chris Roberts
A Necessary Evil
India 1920: Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee of the Calcutta police force visit the native state of Sambalpore to investigate the assassination of a Maharajah’s son.
Reviewed on 24 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
Heretics
Retired Cuban detective Mario Conde helps to trace the chain of possession of a Rembrandt portrait that was stolen and disappeared for 70 years.
Reviewed on 24 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Road to Ithaca
Wehrmacht officer Martin Von Bora lands in Crete immediately after the 1941 German invasion and is handed the investigation into a possible war crime.
Reviewed on 24 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Pledge
A detective becomes fixated with a serial killer of young girls, and sacrifices his career and mental health in an attempt to bring the man to justice.
Reviewed on 24 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
Stasi Wolf
Oberleutnant Karin Muller is drafted south to assist in the recovery of two infant twins who have been abducted, a search that eventually becomes very personal.
Reviewed on 10 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Nature of the Beast
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has retired to the small village of Three Pines. He goes back to work when a nine-year-old boy disappears, and discovers something in the woods that represents a threat to world safety.
Reviewed on 10 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star
The Baby Ganesh Detective Agency is called into action once again when an actor vanishes, disrupting the filming of a big-budget Bollywood spectacular.
Reviewed on 10 June 2017 by Chris Roberts
Death Going Down
A beautiful young woman is found dead in the lift of a luxury Buenos Aires apartment block. Inspector Ericort and his assistant Blasi try to find out why.
Reviewed on 27 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
Prussian Blue
Bernie Gunther takes flight from a Stasi apparatchik 1956, putting him in mind of his 1939 investigation into a murder at the Berchtesgaden.
Reviewed on 27 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
The City in Darkness
In 1939, neutrality distances Ireland from the struggle in Europe, but the Irish Special Branch have plenty of concerns about what is happening at home.
Reviewed on 27 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Pictures
LAPD detective Jonathan Craine has spent a career keeping the stars of Hollywood out of trouble, but finds there are limits to his willingness to look the other way.
Reviewed on 13 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Contract
It’s 1967 and Texas Ranger John Quarrie finds evidence of a murder. He follows the trail to New Orleans, where he comes up against a conspiracy at the top levels of society.
Reviewed on 13 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
Road Kill
Club owner Ronnie goes on a road trip across the US with his friend Eli to search for an enemy, while UK employee Daisy tries to hold the club together.
Reviewed on 13 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
Nothing Short of Dying
Clyde Barr is back in the USA after 16 years fighting abroad, the last two in a Mexican jail. When he finds his sister is in trouble he sets out to find her.
Reviewed on 13 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
A Thousand Cuts
Spike Sanguinetti acts for a man accused of assault and finds links to wartime events which even now remain mysterious, with connections to people he knows well.
Reviewed on 29 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
Live By NIght
When Joe Coughlin and the Bartolo brothers raid a back-room card game, they are surprised to find a party of thugs working for one of the biggest gangsters in town. Joe falls in love with the girl serving drinks.
Reviewed on 29 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Drowning Child
FBI Special Agent Ren Bryce is called to Tate, Portland, when 12-year-old Caleb Veir is reported missing, but the locals are reluctant to spill their secrets.
Reviewed on 29 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The House of Four
Inspector Cetin Ikmen investigates the death of four siblings, each living on a separate floor of a single apartment building, stabbed by the same hand.
Reviewed on 29 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Dry
Policeman Aaron Falk returns to his rural hometown for the funeral of a childhood friend and family. But Falk’s investigation into the recent killings is complicated by another death long ago.
Reviewed on 14 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Wicked Go To Hell
A secret service agent is imprisoned with a spy, and instructed to engineer an escape for the pair in the expectation that the spy’s boss will then make contact and be revealed.
Reviewed on 14 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Wrong Case
PI Milton Milodragovitch reluctantly accepts a request from Helen Duffy to find her brother Raymond. The investigation is revealing, if only about Milo.
Reviewed on 14 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Verdict of Twelve
Twelve members of the jury exercise their highly subjective judgement on a woman accused of poisoning her nephew.
Reviewed on 14 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
Sand
Following the murder of four westerners in an oasis town in the North African desert, a man without memory appears, trying to make sense of his location and the various groups pursuing him.
Reviewed on 01 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Acid Test
Detective ‘Lefty’ Mendieta is determined to find the killer of an exotic dancer, while around him the conflict of two rival gangs of narcotics traffickers comes to a head.
Reviewed on 01 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
The History of Blood
The daughter of an assassinated politician is found dead in a Cape Town motel, her stomach full of cocaine. Police establish a link to an extended web of crime.
Reviewed on 01 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
Killer Look
Fashion icon Wolf Savage is found dead in a hotel room, an apparent suicide. Assistant DA Alex Cooper and her NYPD boyfriend Mike Chapman investigate.
Reviewed on 01 April 2017 by Chris Roberts
Devastation Road
A man awakens bereft of memory, and wanders across a Germany devastated by conflict in the company of two others, both also struggling with the upheavals of wartime.
Reviewed on 18 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
Guilty Minds
An on-line scandal sheet threatens to publish a story about a Supreme Court justice and a prostitute. PI Nick Heller has to show the judge has been framed before the story goes live.
Reviewed on 18 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
Summary Justice
Barrister William Benson defends his first client from an accusation of murder, the crime for which he himself was convicted.
Reviewed on 18 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Whistler
Lacy Stoltz, lawyer at Florida’s Board on Judicial Conduct, meets a man representing a whistleblower who claims a judge is in deep with organised crime - the Gulf Mafia.
Reviewed on 18 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
Smoke Over Malibu
One-time screenwriter Lucky gets a call about an old friend who has gone missing, and his boss at Bart’s Olde California is assaulted during the theft of a cookie jar.
Reviewed on 04 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
Sirens
DC Aidan Waites is working undercover to expose a corrupt colleague in Manchester police headquarters when the job is complicated by runaway teenager Isabelle, whose powerful father expects Waites to protect her.
Reviewed on 04 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Killing Room
American pathologist Margaret Campbell returns to China, this time to Shanghai, to assist the police when they discover a mass grave containing butchered women.
Reviewed on 04 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Satanic Mechanic
When a South African bushman is poisoned, an expert in sauces helps with the case, but is threatened herself before the culprit is caught.
Reviewed on 04 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
Athenian Blues
Contract killer Stratos Gazis is contacted by the beautiful actress Aliki: her husband beats her, and she wants him dead. Stratos decides to do a little investigating before he accepts the job.
Reviewed on 18 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
Cruel Mercy
DS Aector McAvoy is visiting New York to trace a traveller, his wife’s brother Valentine Teague. Two members of a rival clan, the Heldens, have been shot and unless Valentine is cleared a long-standing feud may be reawakened.
Reviewed on 18 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
Gathering Prey
Lucas Davenport gets a call for help via his daughter Letty from a traveller whose friend has gone missing. What he uncovers takes him on a wild ride across northern central USA.
Reviewed on 18 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Kingdom
Yurika poses as a prostitute to obtain compromising photographs of men. Life gets complicated when one of her targets turns out to be a powerful man who knows what she has been doing.
Reviewed on 18 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
A Time To Die
A professional killer takes on a difficult target, but his task is doubly complicated when he discovers that someone has offered a contract on him.
Reviewed on 04 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
Crush
In a dull grey town outside Paris, a teenage girl becomes obsessed with a glamorous American who offers the dream of a more exciting future.
Reviewed on 04 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Fourth Sacrifice
American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell assists the Beijing police in their investigation into a series of beheadings.
Reviewed on 04 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
A Dying Breed
An explosion in Kabul is followed by expressions of regret about the death of an American ally at the hands of the Taliban, but journalist William Carver uncovers facts suggesting a different story.
Reviewed on 04 February 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Turncoat
The search for a spy in the Glasgow suburb of Clydebank during WWII becomes all the more urgent when Hitler’s second-in-command arrives seeking to contact Nazi sympathisers in the British establishment.
Reviewed on 21 January 2017 by Chris Roberts
A Good Month for Murder
A factual depiction of a particularly active month for the police homicide unit in Prince George’s County, a suburban sprawl east of Washington, DC.
Reviewed on 21 January 2017 by Chris Roberts
Moskva
In December 1985, with the USSR crumbling, ex-paratrooper Tom Fox has been in Moscow less than a week when the ambassador’s daughter Alex goes missing. Tom makes it his job to get her home safe.
Reviewed on 21 January 2017 by Chris Roberts
House of Bones
Catherine Berlin is asked to locate the victim of an attack by a schoolboy, a Chinese orphan in whom both the British establishment and the Chinese government have an interest.
Reviewed on 07 January 2017 by Chris Roberts
St Ernan's Blues
Inspector Starrett tackles the murder of a young man at a home for retired Catholic priests, most of whom have secrets of an entirely worldly kind.
Reviewed on 07 January 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Borrowed
Six stories detailing feats of detection by Hong Kong police officer Sonny Lok and his mentor, Kwan Chun-dok, over nearly 50 years in the force.
Reviewed on 07 January 2017 by Chris Roberts
Tokyo Nights
PI Colin McCann visits Japan on behalf of a man whose daughter Natasha died under questionable circumstances, in search of her ex-boyfriend Charlie Davis.
Reviewed on 07 January 2017 by Chris Roberts
Chain of Custody
Inspector Borei Gowda investigates the death of a lawyer, and uncovers a connection with the disappearance of the daughter of his cleaner.
Reviewed on 24 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Eskimo Solution
A writer rents a cottage by the sea using an advance on a crime novel in which a man kills his own mother and then other parents, for the benefit of their children.
Reviewed on 24 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Heart Tastes Bitter
A painter undone by the loss of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident is asked by a woman to undertake a portrait of the man who ran down and killed her son.
Reviewed on 24 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Second Girl
Despite a cocaine habit that forced him to resign from Washington PD, PI Frank Marr is still a great investigator, and doesn’t have to play by police rules.
Reviewed on 24 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
Blind Sight
Four bodies are dumped on the mayor’s lawn, one of them a nun, whose brother is also missing. Detective Kathy Mallory ruthlessly follows every lead to rescue the boy.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
Charcoal Joe
Easy Rawlins receives a request to help a young man accused of murder, a request he finds it hard to refuse. However, he soon finds that he’s been given only half the story, and the job could be a lot more dangerous than it first appeared.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
Ghosts of the Desert
Anthropologist Norman is in the Utah desert studying ghost towns when he is made prisoner by a tribe of outcasts whose moral code horrifies but whose outlook he finds ultimately compelling.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Dead Don't Boogie
Glasgow investigator Dominic Queste is hired to find Jenny Deavers. Jenny doesn’t want to be found by Dominic or by others looking for her.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Chris Roberts
Dead Ground In Between
On a cold winter’s night in late 1942, an old farmer goes missing and is later discovered, stabbed, in a secret bunker. Detective Inspector Tom Tyler investigates.
Reviewed on 26 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
Tall Oaks
A small American town gains notoriety when three-year-old Harry is abducted. His mother Jess is devastated, but others have problems too.
Reviewed on 26 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
Waking Lions
Driving in the desert late at night, Dr Eitan Green hits and kills Asum, an Eritrean immigrant. Asum’s wife Sirkit finds Eitan’s wallet at the scene and pressures him to make his medical skills available to those in need.
Reviewed on 26 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
A Spring Betrayal
Exiled to remote Karakol, Inspector Akyl Borubaev of the Bishkek Murder Squad becomes involved when the bodies of seven small children are found together, all bearing wristbands from a Kyrgyzstan orphanage.
Reviewed on 26 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
Off The Grid
Nate Romanowski’s attempt to stay off the grid is ended when two government agents pressure him into undertaking a special mission. Luckily his old friend Joe Pickett is around to give him a hand.
Reviewed on 12 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
Present Tense
Lawyer Robbie Munro gets a visit from old client Billy Paris, who deposits a parcel for safekeeping. Several parties think Munro is in possession of information they are very keen to get hold of.
Reviewed on 12 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
Numero Zero
A journalist, convinced that the death of Mussolini was faked in a conspiracy linked to many subsequent Italian events, is found stabbed.
Reviewed on 12 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
A Cold Death
Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone, still bemoaning the posting from his beloved Rome to the cold northern town of Aosta, investigates an apparent suicide.
Reviewed on 29 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Silent Dead
The discovery of a mutilated body wrapped in tarpaulin on a Tokyo park hedge seems at first inexplicable, and it takes a leap of imagination from Lieutenant Himekawa to make progress with the case.
Reviewed on 29 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Quiet Death of Thomas Quaid
PI Lennox subcontracts ‘Quiet’ Thomas Quaid for a simple theft, but things go awry and Quaid ends up dead. Lennox is determined to find out why.
Reviewed on 19 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
A Midsummer's Equation
Retired Tokyo detective Tsukahara takes a trip to a quiet seaside resort and is found lifeless on the rocks the next morning. Professor Yukawa, another visitor, becomes involved as the background to the death is slowly unravelled.
Reviewed on 19 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
Promises of Blood
Lawyer Daniel O’Connell is distracted from a client’s unusual bequest when his friend Gabe is accused of a knifing, a crime he strongly denies.
Reviewed on 15 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Redeemers
Sheriff Quinn Colson resigns, but still becomes involved when a burglary becomes complicated by the shooting of a deputy, and a battle to retrieve some very revealing financial records.
Reviewed on 15 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
We Were Kings
The discovery of a body in Boston harbour, tarred, feathered and shot, is just the beginning of a savage struggle during a hot and humid summer.
Reviewed on 15 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
Deadly Harvest
Samantha Khama, a new recruit to Botswana CID, takes the disappearance of young girls seriously, especially when it appears that they may be ending up in traditional medicine for those seeking power.
Reviewed on 01 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
Honky Tonk Samurai
When an old lady catches Hap and Leonard on camera assaulting a dog abuser, they feel a little pressure to accede to her request that they investigate the disappearance of her granddaughter.
Reviewed on 01 October 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Invisible Guardian
The discovery of a teenage girl strangled and displayed in a Basque forest awakens fears in the local village that a spirit of the forest is at work. Local-born Inspector Amaia Salazar is put in charge of the case, but has her own demons to fight.
Reviewed on 17 September 2016 by Chris Roberts
A Body in Barcelona
Detective Max Camera is assigned to the murder of a boy, son of a supermarket magnate. He receives information from a source high-up in a government intelligence agency, but is he being manipulated?
Reviewed on 17 September 2016 by Chris Roberts
A Cop's Eyes
Nobuhito Natsume is a detective working in a Tokyo suburb, whose personal brush with crime lies behind both his late entry to his profession, and the special qualities he brings to his work.
Reviewed on 17 September 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Bursar's Wife
The wife of the bursar of Morley College seeks the assistance of George Kocharyan, Cambridge Confidential Services, to check on her daughter. What he finds turns out to be revealing about his own family.
Reviewed on 17 September 2016 by Chris Roberts
Murder, D.C.
When the young son of an important family is found dead, crime reporter Sully Carter thinks the location is key to a number of murders.
Reviewed on 03 September 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Exiled
Detective Wes Raney investigates a multiple murder in New Mexico, his home since his work as an undercover agent in New York messed up his life.
Reviewed on 03 September 2016 by Chris Roberts
Clinch
In 1930s Stockholm, ex-boxer Harry Kvist makes a routine call to collect a debt, and when the man is found dead a few hours later the police have Harry in the frame. Harry sets out to find the real murderer, and clear himself.
Reviewed on 03 September 2016 by Chris Roberts
The People v. O.J. Simpson
A detailed analysis of the infamous trial of a much-feted sports star for the murder of his ex-wife and a friend, a signal event in recent US history.
Reviewed on 30 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
A Quiet Place
When Tsuneo Asai’s wife dies unexpectedly, it is some time before he discovers that an apparent accident is more than it seems, and takes steps against the person he deems responsible.
Reviewed on 20 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
Girl Waits With Gun
When their buggy is demolished by a badly-driven automobile, Constance and her sisters demand compensation. The driver refuses, and initiates a campaign against the trio, using mob methods to intimidate them.
Reviewed on 20 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
Six Four
An unsolved case of kidnap and murder continues to resonate in the Japanese police even after fourteen years, because of mistakes that were made, and worse because those mistakes were never acknowledged.
Reviewed on 20 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Night Charter
The night charter of a sport fishing boat to bring a Cuban dissident to the USA is the first act in a dangerous and bloody dispute.
Reviewed on 20 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Man Who Wanted To Know
A woman murdered in her own flat is known to the attending detective as a rape victim from some years previously. Could there be any connection?
Reviewed on 06 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Fire Maker
Forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell makes a visit to Beijing to give a series of lectures, but is soon involved in a live police case when a man is set alight in a local park.
Reviewed on 06 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
Bird in a Cage
It is Christmas and Albert Herbin, after a long time away, is visiting his old home in one of the poorer parts of Paris. He meets a young and attractive woman in a brasserie and begins to feel hope for the future.
Reviewed on 06 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
Jihadi
The clash of two cultures has a dramatic impact on the lives of a few selected people close to the centre of events.
Reviewed on 06 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
Endgame
A writer takes a liking to a small town, but discovers that disputes between leading citizens result in a high murder rate. He becomes personally embroiled and eventually becomes involved in murder himself.
Reviewed on 06 August 2016 by Chris Roberts
Dead of Winter
Mike Fisher is a taxi driver with little going for him, but when his daughter disappears, rescuing her becomes a motivating preoccupation.
Reviewed on 23 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
Death Zones
In Belorussia in July 1943, a few hundred miles west of the advancing Russians, a German general is killed by partisans. Oberleutnant Heinrich Hoffman is pressed to find the man responsible.
Reviewed on 23 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Fixer
Rick Hoffman’s discovery of a fortune in cash concealed in his father’s old study leads him to an investigation of corruption and a rethink of his own life.
Reviewed on 23 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
Before the Fall
When a private jet goes down, painter Scott and a young boy are the only ones who survive. Several of the passengers had serious enemies – was it sabotage?
Reviewed on 23 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
Apothecary Melchior and the Mystery of St Olaf's Church
After a five-day binge, von Clingenstain is the worse for drink and offers little resistance when someone removes his head. The Tallinn magistrate is tasked with apprehending the murderer, and calls in the town apothecary, Melchior, to exercise his skills in detection.
Reviewed on 09 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
French Concession
In a small French enclave in 1931 Shanghai, gangsters, revolutionaries and spies rub shoulders, and life can get very complicated.
Reviewed on 09 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Exile
In 1954, Comandante Guzman of the Brigada Especial is assigned to eliminate a Basque patriot, but finds his brutal wartime activities in the area are well remembered.
Reviewed on 09 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
An artist is found murdered in a locked room and a note in his desk gives his plans for the creation of Azoth – a mystical figure - from the bodies of six women. Soon after, the plan is put into effect: six of his daughters and nieces disappear.
Reviewed on 09 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
City of Jackals
Cairo investigator Makana is asked to find a young student who has gone missing. The next day a human head is fished out of the river next to the investigator’s houseboat.
Reviewed on 25 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Forsaken
In Jericho, Mississippi, the release from prison of ‘Chains’ LeDoux re-awakens memories of a brutal lynching nearly 40 years ago.
Reviewed on 25 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Other Side of Silence
Bernie Gunther is living a quiet life in the South of France in 1956 when an old enemy reappears, and he is asked to undertake a sensitive task for a distinguished local resident – the writer Somerset Maugham.
Reviewed on 25 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Plea
Lawyer Eddie Flynn is given a proposition by the CIA: he has 48 hours to get hired by a man accused of murder and persuade him to plead guilty, or see his wife go to prison for the rest of her life.
Reviewed on 25 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
Rogue Lawyer
Sebastian Rudd is a US lawyer who takes the cases no one else wants, a policy that leaves him ducking bullets from both criminals and law enforcement.
Reviewed on 11 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Brief
Young London barrister Charles Holbourne is arrested for a murder he didn’t commit. Is the true culprit amongst those in his chambers who hate him, or someone from his professional work?
Reviewed on 11 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
The City When It Rains
Freelance photographer Corman shoots pictures of the scene after a girl falls from a fifth-floor window. He follows up her life story and comes to understand his own life.
Reviewed on 11 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
Too Close To The Edge
Eliette is living at the house in the mountains she restored with her husband, but as a widow finds it lonely and is hungry for companionship. The chance visit of some outsiders soon generates plenty of excitement.
Reviewed on 11 June 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Boy Who Followed Ripley
Ripley is captivated when a young American arrives at his house in France, but finds the boy has serious problems.
Reviewed on 28 May 2016 by Chris Roberts
Inspector Singh Investigates: A Frightfully English Execution
Inspector Singh is posted from Singapore to London to attend a task force on inter-racial policing. Mrs Singh insists on coming along to keep her husband out of trouble.
Reviewed on 28 May 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Peplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
Inspector Chopra (ret’d) is actually present when the Koh-i-Noor diamond is stolen from its display case, and to save an old friend must help to ensure its recovery.
Reviewed on 28 May 2016 by Chris Roberts
Dodgers
When a police raid shuts down a crack house, young lookout East is sent on a trip out of LA for the first time in his life, a voyage of self-discovery.
Reviewed on 14 May 2016 by Chris Roberts
Betty Boo
When Pedro Chazaretta is found with his throat cut and the knife in his hand, some say suicide and some say murder – his wife died the same way and Chazaretta may have had a hand in it.
Reviewed on 14 May 2016 by Chris Roberts
Last Days of the Condor
When the silver-haired spy codenamed Condor arrives home to find another agent skewered to his fireplace, he needs to go on the run to find out who has set him up, and why.
Reviewed on 14 May 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Darkest Heart
Zico is a man for whom killing has become a way of life, so the demand that he kill a nun should pose no problems. But something is telling him that the job is not as straightforward as it looks.
Reviewed on 14 May 2016 by Chris Roberts
Journey Under the Midnight Sun
A pawnbroker is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973. Detective Sagagaki’s initial efforts fail to achieve a result, but after 19 years he is still on the trail of two young people connected to the crime.
Reviewed on 23 April 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Empire of Night
American journalist and spy Kit Cobb travels to Germany early in 1915, on the trail of an English knight suspected of working for the German cause.
Reviewed on 23 April 2016 by Chris Roberts
Gray Mountain
Young New York lawyer Samantha Kofer makes a dramatic career change with a move to West Virginia, where her clients battle rapacious and ruthless mining companies.
Reviewed on 23 April 2016 by Chris Roberts
I'm Travelling Alone
A six-year-old is discovered hanging from a tree in Oslo, with an airline tag ‘I’m travelling alone’ around her neck. Other clues suggest more deaths will follow.
Reviewed on 02 April 2016 by Chris Roberts
Dragon Day
When Ellie McEnroe is asked by Sidney Cao to play detective she can’t say no, but is only too aware that snooping around the rich and powerful of Beijing can be very dangerous.
Reviewed on 02 April 2016 by Chris Roberts
Escape to Perdition
Peter Lowe is in the Czech Republic to monitor possible re-integration with Slovakia, but secretly operating to prevent a merger by any means necessary.
Reviewed on 02 April 2016 by Chris Roberts
Blood Sisters
When a number of elderly nuns are brutally murdered, DS Katie Maguire investigates the convent they served, and finds evidence of criminality on a prodigious scale lasting over decades.
Reviewed on 12 March 2016 by Chris Roberts
Edith's Diary
Edith’s diary records the day-to-day achievements of a successful family. In real life, however, things don’t turn out quite so well.
Reviewed on 12 March 2016 by Chris Roberts
Spy Games
A powerful element within the Chinese administration approaches the British Secret Intelligence Service for reasons initially unclear: involvement could be dangerous, but it offers tremendous opportunities.
Reviewed on 12 March 2016 by Chris Roberts
Asylum City
When a young volunteer at a Tel Aviv immigrant centre is murdered, the confession by an Eritrean is almost universally seen as satisfactory. But Anat Nachmias of the Special Investigations Unit thinks there is more to the story.
Reviewed on 27 February 2016 by Chris Roberts
Stasi Child
The death of a young girl close to the Berlin Wall presents some unusual features, and Stasi involvement is likely to mean trouble, especially for the police officer in charge, Oberleutnant Karin Muller.
Reviewed on 27 February 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
On his final day at work, Inspector Chopra receives a report of a suspicious death. He also inherits a baby elephant.
Reviewed on 27 February 2016 by Chris Roberts
Enough Rope
While his assistant investigates the parenthood of a baby once left in a telephone box, ex-copper and PI Lee Arnold helps out a police superintendent whose son has been kidnapped.
Reviewed on 13 February 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Body Snatcher
A man out fishing is the sole witness to a plane crash, and relieves the dead pilot of his watch, his phone, and a kilo of cocaine.
Reviewed on 13 February 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Savage Hour
The death of an aged woman doctor breaks the long-established pattern of relationships on the rural South African farm she owns.
Reviewed on 13 February 2016 by Chris Roberts
Black Knight In Red Square
In 1980s Moscow, Inspector Rostnikov and his two assistants battle a terrorist determined to impose a bloody embarrassment on the Soviet State.
Reviewed on 30 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Beginning of the End
Raymond Verleaux visits Thailand, where he marries a sex worker he has met on the internet. On his return to Belgium he moves into a seaside villa, while his wife becomes a porn star.
Reviewed on 30 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Dynamite Room
In 1940, an 11-year old girl returns to her home on the Suffolk coast to find the area deserted, and is alarmed when a German soldier arrives, who seems to know all about her.
Reviewed on 30 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
Quota
Lawyer Charlie Jardim visits a remote coastal town to firm up the prosecution case against two men for murder, but finds the locals hostile.
Reviewed on 16 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Blunderer
New York lawyer Walter Stackhouse’s fascination with a murder implicates him when his own wife dies under unusual circumstances.
Reviewed on 16 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
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
And Sometimes I Wonder About You
PI Leonid McGill comes to the aid of the beautiful Marella on a train, who proves to be suitably grateful. Meanwhile, he receives plenty of other new calls on his services.
Reviewed on 02 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
Smaller and Smaller Circles
The poor who scavenge the Payatas dump in Manila don’t rate very highly with law enforcement, so when the eviscerated bodies of boys begin to be found it is a while before anyone sees a pattern.
Reviewed on 02 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Bangkok Asset
Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep of the Thai police is called to the scene when a young girl is killed by extraordinary force. A message to Sonchai has been left in blood on the mirror.
Reviewed on 02 January 2016 by Chris Roberts
Shadows of War
As World War II opens, Britain’s response to German aggression is in debate, and a young Second Lieutenant is caught up in the struggle between those contending for resistance or accommodation.
Reviewed on 12 December 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Pale House
During the German retreat through Yugoslavia in 1944, Captain Gregor Reinhardt comes across a site of mass murder. His enquiries expose a conspiracy involving both the brutal Ustase and senior figures in the military hierarchy.
Reviewed on 12 December 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Bone Orchard
Mike Bowditch has left the Maine Warden Service and now works as a fishing guide, but when his mentor and friend Sergeant Kathy Frost finds trouble, he is compelled to get involved.
Reviewed on 12 December 2015 by Chris Roberts
Taking Pity
Detective Superintendent Trish Pharaoh is hoping that a power struggle between criminals in north east England will give her the opportunity to take a few down, while DS Aector McAvoy tackles a very cold case.
Reviewed on 12 December 2015 by Chris Roberts
Lives Lost
When a young man is found dead from a blow to the head, the woman who gave him shelter is arrested for his murder. But Pieter Posthumus uncovers a few details which tell a different story.
Reviewed on 21 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Flemish House
During a windswept January, Maigret makes an unofficial trip to the Belgian border to investigate the disappearance of a young woman.
Reviewed on 21 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Ways of the Dead
The daughter of a judge is found with her throat cut. Is it a random crime, a revenge attack on her father, or the work of a serial killer?
Reviewed on 21 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
Charlie Martz and Other Stories
Fifteen previously unpublished early stories from the cult writer illustrate the development of the skills that became so evident in his later books.
Reviewed on 07 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Tremor of Forgery
Stranded in a small Tunisian town, American writer Ingham takes violent action against an attempted burglar, but finds himself curiously indifferent to the outcome.
Reviewed on 07 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
Devastation Road
A man awakens bereft of memory, and wanders across a Germany devastated by conflict in the company of two others, both also struggling with the upheavals of wartime.
Reviewed on 07 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
Black Run
When a body is uncovered by a snowcat grooming the piste in Champoluc, cop Rocco Schiavone just knows the job is going to be a pain in the neck.
Reviewed on 07 November 2015 by Chris Roberts
Bull Mountain
For generations, Bull Mountain in Georgia has been home to the Burroughs family and a base for their illegal activities, but law enforcement agencies are planning to close them down.
Reviewed on 24 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
Cocaine
Three stories by Italian writers look at the trade in cocaine from the perspective of individuals within Italian law enforcement.
Reviewed on 24 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
These Are The Names
Migrants end up in a small border town on the Russian steppes, where Police Commissioner Pontus Beg ponders his heritage.
Reviewed on 24 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
Bad Seed
Australian cop Cato Kwong returns to investigate the slaughter of four people, a crime with Chinese connections that brings the detective into closer contact with his heritage.
Reviewed on 10 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
Poisoned Ground
PI Mumtaz Hakim goes undercover in a psychiatric institution seeking evidence that a doctor has manufactured evidence to cover up his crimes.
Reviewed on 10 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Traitor
The discovery of a banker on a popular Venice beach, his throat cut and tongue removed, kicks off an investigation with international ramifications.
Reviewed on 10 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Two-Penny Bar
The night before his execution, condemned man Lenoir tells Maigret of a murderer he was blackmailing – a man who was recently seen at a two-penny bar.
Reviewed on 10 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
Mockingbird Songs
Henry Quinn is released from prison and embarks on a mission to deliver a letter penned by his cellmate to a daughter he has never met.
Reviewed on 26 September 2015 by Chris Roberts
Shots Fired
Ten stories from the foothills of the Rockies, home to game warden Joe Pickett, and all featuring some sort of conflict.
Reviewed on 26 September 2015 by Chris Roberts
Thieves Fall Out
Pete Wells is stranded in Cairo when his money is stolen, and is induced to act as a courier. But he soon realises that he has become mixed up in something very murky.
Reviewed on 26 September 2015 by Chris Roberts
Half The World Away
Graduate Lori Maddox goes travelling and is teaching English in Chengdu when communications home cease. Her parents Joanna and Tom are frustrated by the lack of action in China, and set off to find her.
Reviewed on 12 September 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Defence
Eddie Flynn is pressed into court to represent a Russian mafia boss, and his young daughter is threatened with death if he does not cooperate.
Reviewed on 12 September 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Stolen Ones
When a sheriff’s deputy is shot, and the girl found over the body speaks no English, Kirk Stevens is nearby and is called in to help.
Reviewed on 12 September 2015 by Chris Roberts
A Song For Drowned Souls
A young man is found at the house of a teacher, brutally murdered. His mother asks Commandant Servaz for help. Servaz fears that an escaped serial killer may have been involved.
Reviewed on 29 August 2015 by Chris Roberts
Boxes
Brice Casadamont moves to the countryside in a move planned by his wife, now absent. As his life falls apart, he spends more and more time with Blanche, a local who also has some problems.
Reviewed on 29 August 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Cold Dish
Cody Prichard’s murder looks like revenge for the rape of a local Cheyenne girl. Sheriff Walt Longmire needs to find the shooter to prevent further deaths.
Reviewed on 29 August 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Farm
Daniel hears from his father that his mother has become prey to fantasies, has escaped from an asylum and is on her way to see him.
Reviewed on 15 August 2015 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
Into the Night
A string of headless corpses puts pressure on Inspector Jaap Rykel, especially when the first victim has Rykel’s picture on his phone.
Reviewed on 15 August 2015 by Chris Roberts
A Killing Winter
Inspector Akyl Borubaev of the Biskek Murder Squad is called to investigate the horrific and bizarre killing of a young woman, and soon finds that this is no random atrocity.
Reviewed on 01 August 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Talented Mr Ripley
The father of Dickie Greenleaf sends Tom Ripley to Italy to encourage his son to return to New York, but Ripley has his own agenda.
Reviewed on 01 August 2015 by Chris Roberts
Whiskers of the Lion
Sheriff Robertson is frustrated that he is unable to locate a young Amish woman under threat from a drug gang, and feels worse when her friend is found tortured and killed.
Reviewed on 01 August 2015 by Chris Roberts
Happiness Is Easy
A misunderstanding transforms a kidnapping into an opportunity for the intended target, but extreme danger for a totally innocent party.
Reviewed on 18 July 2015 by Chris Roberts
Helsinki Noir
Under the surface of a peaceful Finnish social democracy lie some disturbing undercurrents, tales of society’s most damaged, in this dark collection of short stories.
Reviewed on 18 July 2015 by Chris Roberts
Silver Bullets
Mexican detective Edgar ‘Lefty’ Mendieta investigates a murder – there are plenty of suspects, but the use of a silver bullet is something new.
Reviewed on 18 July 2015 by Chris Roberts
Kill Fee
When a billionaire is gunned down, police get a good look at the shooter, but his dead eyes and slack face strike them as very odd.
Reviewed on 04 July 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Girl Who Wasn't There
Artist Sebastian von Eschburg is arrested for a murder of a girl, although no body has been found, and the victim can’t be identified.
Reviewed on 04 July 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Star of Istanbul
Reporter and US government spy Kit Cobb has a suspect German under investigation, crossing the Atlantic in 1915 on the Lusitania.
Reviewed on 04 July 2015 by Chris Roberts
Nothing Sacred
Lawyer Daniel Connell helps out an old girlfriend and finds himself landed with a new client, one who won’t take no for an answer.
Reviewed on 20 June 2015 by Chris Roberts
Sleeping Dogs
Lawyer Spike Sanguinetti takes a holiday in Corfu but finds himself involved in a murder, followed by a very dangerous trip to Albania.
Reviewed on 20 June 2015 by Chris Roberts
For The Dead
The purchase of a used phone exposes Poke Rafferty and his family to danger from a man with very powerful connections.
Reviewed on 20 June 2015 by Chris Roberts
African Sky
In a wartime RAF training camp in Rhodesia, a beautiful WAAF is found murdered. Local policewoman Pip Lovejoy thinks Squadron Leader Paul Bryant knows more than he is telling.
Reviewed on 06 June 2015 by Chris Roberts
Murder in Pigalle
When her friends’ daughter Zazie goes missing in pursuit of a child molester, Aimee Leduc begins her own investigation.
Reviewed on 06 June 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Lady From Zagreb
Bernie Gunther’s reputation as a detective gets him a place as a speaker at an international police conference, and a private job looking into a company run by some important names.
Reviewed on 06 June 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
Gun Street Girl
Inspector Sean Duffy, one of few Catholic officers in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, is called to a double murder, tagged a family dispute but with several indications of a professional hit.
Reviewed on 23 May 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Glass Cell
Philip Carter is wrongly imprisoned and brutalised in jail. When he emerges, how will he cope with the realisation that his wife has been unfaithful?
Reviewed on 23 May 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Frozen Dead
The grisly display of a horse carcass in an isolated mountain town initiates a police operation which soon widens when a macabre murder follows.
Reviewed on 08 May 2015 by Chris Roberts
Death in Pont-Aven
Commissaire Dupin is called to the murder of a hotel manager in the picturesque Breton village of Pont-Aven, but finds those closest to the dead man reluctant to tell what they know.
Reviewed on 08 May 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Snow Kimono
Retired inspector August Jovert meets a Japanese man with a tragic story to tell, a tale which resonates with echoes from Jovert's own past.
Reviewed on 08 May 2015 by Chris Roberts
Soil
A Mississippi man determined to become an agricultural pioneer loses his bearings and falls foul of a deluded deputy sheriff.
Reviewed on 18 April 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Convert's Song
Investigator Valentine Pescatore is arrested after a terrorist attack when police find he received a warning on his phone before the event.
Reviewed on 18 April 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Professionals
When four friends carrying out a kidnap operation run into trouble, agents Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere are hot on their trail.
Reviewed on 18 April 2015 by Chris Roberts
Fallout
Maori detective Tito Ihaka is tasked with a very cold case, and combines this with investigations into the death of his own father.
Reviewed on 04 April 2015 by Chris Roberts
Full Measure
A marine returns from Afghanistan to find his parents’ avocado ranch devastated by fire, and many other sources of tension in his hometown.
Reviewed on 04 April 2015 by Chris Roberts
Hold the Dark
Wolf specialist Russell Core receives an appeal from a mother seeking recovery of her son’s body after a wolf attack.
Reviewed on 04 April 2015 by Chris Roberts
Behind God's Back
Ariel Kafka, one of only two Jewish detectives in Finland, investigates a shooting and unearths connections to international finance.
Reviewed on 21 March 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Burning Gates
Investigator Makana is hired by a Cairo art dealer to find an Iraqi war criminal said to have treasures looted from Kuwait, but soon finds that several parties have an interest.
Reviewed on 21 March 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Hunter
Safari guide Hudson Brand is asked by an insurance company to check the details of the death of a woman in Zimbabwe. What he finds embroils him in a story of multiple murder.
Reviewed on 21 March 2015 by Chris Roberts
A Possibility of Violence
Inspector Avraham returns to work after a break which followed a difficult case, but the errors made continue to haunt him and affect his approach to new enquiries.
Reviewed on 07 March 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Sun is God
Ex-military foot policeman Will Prior exiles himself to a 1906 German Pacific Colony, and is asked to investigate a death on an island where a group of sun-worshippers pursue an unconventional lifestyle.
Reviewed on 07 March 2015 by Chris Roberts
Courier
In Nixon era Washington, motorbike courier Rick finds himself in a fight for his life after he makes a delivery of material revealing a conspiracy at the highest levels of government.
Reviewed on 07 March 2015 by Chris Roberts
Bitter Remedy
Commissioner Alec Blume takes a break with a course on Bach Flower Remedies in Monterozzo, but the discovery that he is a policeman from Rome stirs up some activity related to cases of missing persons.
Reviewed on 21 February 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Islanders
After a separation of quarter of a century, Olivier and Jeanne resume their occupation of the island, a notional refuge and the only place offering the pair contentment. But a death is only the start of a series of nightmarish events.
Reviewed on 21 February 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Spring of Kasper Meier
In 1946 Berlin, Kasper Meier is pressured to locate a RAF pilot but his attempts to find out the truth put him in extreme danger.
Reviewed on 21 February 2015 by Chris Roberts
Lonely Graves
Pieter Posthumas is employed to ensure that every death is marked by ceremony, but his dedication reveals a story worth deeper investigation.
Reviewed on 07 February 2015 by Chris Roberts
Massacre Pond
Warden Mike Bowditch is called in when a number of moose are slaughtered, an atrocity seemingly linked with local hatred for the landowner, who is seeking to create a new national park.
Reviewed on 07 February 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Buffalo Job
Wilson’s efficiency at stealing a painting on short notice gets him another job – but something very challenging and bearing a severe penalty if he fails to deliver.
Reviewed on 07 February 2015 by Chris Roberts
Come, Sweet Death
Simon Brenner finds driving an ambulance less stressful than police work, but his boss pushes him back into detection to find out how a competitor is stealing their business.
Reviewed on 24 January 2015 by Chris Roberts
How The Light Gets In
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Quebec Surete investigates the death of a quintuplet, and his battle with corrupt powerful people comes to a culmination.
Reviewed on 24 January 2015 by Chris Roberts
Singapore Noir
Fourteen short stories about the dark side of the lives of local residents that belie the common belief that Singapore is a sanitised and dull place.
Reviewed on 24 January 2015 by Chris Roberts
Malice
When a writer is found bludgeoned and strangled, police suspicion falls on a supposed friend, who may have had a powerful motive.
Reviewed on 10 January 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Lonesome Heart Is Angry
The Kane twins Pat and Joe need female help to run their farm, but the place is too small to afford two wives, so they approach the local matchmaker with a novel proposal.
Reviewed on 10 January 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Neruda Case
Cayetano Brule is enlisted by poet Pablo Neruda to track down a woman who may have given birth to his daughter, and hones his rudimentary detective skills with a diet of Maigret.
Reviewed on 10 January 2015 by Chris Roberts
Bad Monkey
When a tourist fishes up a human arm from the waters off Key West, the local sheriff sees only problems. Yancy, a disgraced ex-officer, is, however, keen to pursue the matter, hoping it will lead to reinstatement.
Reviewed on 27 December 2014 by Chris Roberts
Peril On The Royal Train
London railway detectives Colbeck and Leeming visit Glasgow to investigate a crash and conclude that another atrocity will follow, this time with the royal family as target.
Reviewed on 27 December 2014 by Chris Roberts
Rose Gold
Private investigator Easy Rawlins’ help is enlisted to find a missing woman, but the case turns out to be nowhere near as straightforward as it first appears.
Reviewed on 27 December 2014 by Chris Roberts
Criminal Enterprise
Carter Tomlin is a man driven to bank robbery when he loses his job, but finds it a thrill and his ambition soon becomes overwhelming.
Reviewed on 13 December 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Competition
A high school shooting with multiple fatalities looks to have ended with the suicide of the two perpetrators, but it soon becomes clear that those responsible are still alive, and planning further outrages.
Reviewed on 13 December 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Keeper
When a wife goes missing, her husband looks like the prime suspect. Investigator Abe Glitsky sets out to prove otherwise.
Reviewed on 13 December 2014 by Chris Roberts
A Bright Moon For Fools
Harry Christmas has flown to Venezuela to shake off his crazed stepson whose mother he has relieved of £26,000, but finds escape elusive.
Reviewed on 29 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
I Can See In The Dark
Riktor is a strange man without friends who tortures old people at a home where he works, but is surprised to be arrested for the murder of one.
Reviewed on 29 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Rules of Wolfe
At a Mexican gang lord’s isolated retreat Eddie Gato Wolfe is caught with one of his boss’s girls, and the pair take off across the Sonora Desert in fear for their lives.
Reviewed on 29 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
Borderline
Several uninhibited characters cross paths on the US/Mexico border where a sociopath is on the run in this pulp fiction from the 1950s.
Reviewed on 15 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
Hell's Gate
Maasai detective Mollel is posted to a small town where a number of men have disappeared. His new colleagues are hostile and are certainly on the take - but are they guilty of something worse?
Reviewed on 15 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
If I Close My Eyes Now
Two young Brazilian boys discover the body of a woman and enlist the help of an old man to find out who was responsible for her death.
Reviewed on 15 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
Killer Ambition
Los Angeles Deputy DA Rachel Knight has the difficult job of prosecuting a Hollywood mogul when a kidnapping ends in murder.
Reviewed on 01 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Baklava Club
Ottoman detective Yashim becomes drawn in to a dispute between supporters and opponents of European powers fought in the heart of the 1842 Ottoman Empire.
Reviewed on 01 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Mahé Circle
On holiday by the Mediterranean, the staid Doctor Mahé catches a glimpse of a different life, which gradually becomes an obsession.
Reviewed on 01 November 2014 by Chris Roberts
Act of Fear
A girl is murdered, a policeman on the beat is robbed of everything he carries, and a man goes missing. Dan Fortune is hired to find the man and tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Reviewed on 18 October 2014 by Chris Roberts
White Crocodile
Tess Hardy is clearing mines in Cambodia, trying to find why her husband died, and whether the feared White Crocodile holds the explanation.
Reviewed on 18 October 2014 by Chris Roberts
Parade
Five young people share a small Tokyo flat and similar lifestyles, but how much do they really know about those they live with
Reviewed on 04 October 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Crack
In 1976 South Africa, suspicion and fear opens up a white middle-class family like the crack in their back-garden swimming pool.
Reviewed on 04 October 2014 by Chris Roberts
All Is Silence
Fins, Brinco and Leda are childhood friends in a fishing village on the Galician coast, but events bring them into conflict when they become adult.
Reviewed on 20 September 2014 by Chris Roberts
Night Heron
A British journalist is offered Chinese secret material by a source long thought to be moribund and is drawn into an intelligence operation, with dramatic consequences.
Reviewed on 20 September 2014 by Chris Roberts
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 Ghost Riders of Ordebec
Paris police Commissaire Adamsberg and his team visit rural Ordebec where a girl’s visions of a medieval hoard presage four deaths.
Reviewed on 06 September 2014 by Chris Roberts
Forty Days Without Shadow
When the theft of a valued native drum and the killing of a reindeer breeder occur within a few days of each other, the Reindeer Police face more than arctic winter conditions in their efforts to secure justice.
Reviewed on 04 September 2014 by Chris Roberts
Kill and Tell
DI Will Wagstaffe is desperate to find evidence to exonerate a subordinate of the murder for which he is on remand, but the disappearance of a man with Sicilian ancestry is a distraction.
Reviewed on 04 September 2014 by Chris Roberts
Con Law
Law professor John Bookman visits an old student who is alarmed that his client’s fracking operations are causing serious environmental damage.
Reviewed on 23 August 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Dog Killer of Utica
Eliot Conte’s dubious PI past comes back to haunt him after a series of violent assaults on close personal friends, and their dogs.
Reviewed on 23 August 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Broken Places
Sheriff Colson is unhappy with his sister’s liaison with an ex-convict, but things snowball when prison escapees come his way looking for money they think is owing.
Reviewed on 20 August 2014 by Chris Roberts
After The Silence
When his partner is killed, Inspector Rykel is barred from the investigation, but is assigned another murder which turns out to be linked.
Reviewed on 09 August 2014 by Chris Roberts
Prime Cut
Disgraced detective Cato Kwong is called to a remote Australian mining town to investigate a body thrown up on the beach, but a much older case is reawakened by the police activity.
Reviewed on 09 August 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Verdict
When legal clerk Terry Flynt is assigned to a murder where the accused messed up his life, he needs to decide what outcome he is seeking.
Reviewed on 09 August 2014 by Chris Roberts
Hollow Mountain
When his legal partner is injured in a hit-and-run, Spike Sanguinetti takes over a marine salvage case where the principals are playing for very high stakes.
Reviewed on 26 July 2014 by Chris Roberts
No Regrets, Coyote
Wylie ‘Coyote’ Melville is called in as a consultant to the scene of an apparent double death, but his doubts lead him into trouble with the local police.
Reviewed on 26 July 2014 by Chris Roberts
A Few Drops of Blood
Captain Natalia Monte is assigned the case of two men found murdered and posed in a private garden. Several people have a motive but the trail is cold.
Reviewed on 23 July 2014 by Chris Roberts
Blood Med
In a Spain unsettled by financial breakdown, detective Max Camera and his friend Torres investigate the suicide of a banker and the killing of a woman journalist.
Reviewed on 12 July 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Ghost Runner
Egyptian PI Makana seeks answers to a dreadful murder by visiting the victim’s past in Siwa, an oasis town, but his arrival seems to trigger more deaths.
Reviewed on 12 July 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Man with the Golden Mind
Hamburg detective Maier is hired by a beautiful woman to investigate the death of her father in Laos 25 years ago.
Reviewed on 12 July 2014 by Chris Roberts
A Conspiracy of Tall Men
Linus Owen is a professor of conspiracy theory whose life is thrown into disarray when his wife is killed in a terrorist attack on an aircraft. He uses all his resources to seek answers.
Reviewed on 28 June 2014 by Chris Roberts
Body Count
Istanbul police inspectors Ikman and Suleyman struggle to discover the connection between a series of gruesome murders.
Reviewed on 28 June 2014 by Chris Roberts
Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway
San Francisco PI Claire DeWitt seeks the killer of ex-boyfriend Paul, and re-examines the beginning of her professional life in Brooklyn.
Reviewed on 28 June 2014 by Chris Roberts
The First Rule of Survival
Three boys are abducted and seven years later the bodies of two are found showing signs of serial abuse. Colonel DeVries is determined to find those responsible.
Reviewed on 14 June 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Stone Boy
Retired headmistress Elsa Preau suspects a neighbour’s child is being abused and one way or another, she is determined to put a stop to it.
Reviewed on 14 June 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Strangler Vine
In 1837 Calcutta, Ensign Avery is sent upcountry with a disreputable recluse to discover the whereabouts of a famed writer.
Reviewed on 14 June 2014 by Chris Roberts
A Dark Song Of Blood
Martin Bora, a wehrmacht officer in 1944 Rome, forms an uneasy alliance with Italian policeman Guidi to solve two shocking crimes.
Reviewed on 31 May 2014 by Chris Roberts
Resurrection
Former police inspector Simon Brenner investigates the deaths of two Americans on a ski lift, but after six months is still at a dead end.
Reviewed on 31 May 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Twelfth Department
In 1937 Moscow policeman Captain Korolev is assigned to the murders of two important scientists, but secret police interest complicates his task.
Reviewed on 31 May 2014 by Chris Roberts
Death Money
Detective Jack Yu investigates the death of a young Chinese man and finds a connection to one of the most powerful men in Chinatown.
Reviewed on 03 May 2014 by Chris Roberts
Pietr the Latvian
Inspector Maigret observes an infamous criminal arrive by train, but uncovers a puzzle when the man’s double is found dead in his carriage.
Reviewed on 03 May 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Octopus On My Head
Curly Watkins plays guitar for a modest living, but is persuaded into a repossession job which turns out to have complications.
Reviewed on 03 May 2014 by Chris Roberts
Hotel Brasil
The disparate residents of a Rio de Janeiro hotel all come under suspicion when one of their number is found decapitated.
Reviewed on 19 April 2014 by Chris Roberts
Shovel Ready
In a future New York devastated by a series of bombings the wealthy live in virtual reality, and Spademan offers to kill without asking questions.
Reviewed on 19 April 2014 by Chris Roberts
If You Were Here
A journalist investigating a subway rescue identifies the saviour as a friend who disappeared ten years ago, triggering a reappraisal of the past.
Reviewed on 05 April 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Garden of Burning Sand
When a young girl is raped, human rights lawyer Zoe Fleming is involved in the prosecution of a man with powerful connections.
Reviewed on 05 April 2014 by Chris Roberts
A Fatal Facade
Ex-DCI Jack Bradley suspects the death of an art dealer was murder. If he can prove it he may be able to re-join the police career he abandoned.
Reviewed on 22 March 2014 by Chris Roberts
Night Train to Jamalpur
Captain Jim Stringer is in India in 1923 to counter railway corruption, but a death and a series of deadly snake attacks redirect his efforts.
Reviewed on 22 March 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Wrong Man
Lawyer Jason Kolarich defends an ex-soldier accused of murder. Barred from an insanity defence he has to show his client’s innocence.
Reviewed on 08 March 2014 by Chris Roberts
Long Way Home
DI Zigic and his colleagues from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit find little co-operation in investigating the brutal death of an immigrant.
Reviewed on 08 March 2014 by Chris Roberts
East of Innocence
Danny Connell, a lawyer still immersed in the gangster society where he was raised, has two new clients, both in trouble with dangerous people.
Reviewed on 08 March 2014 by Chris Roberts
A Death in Valencia
Chief Inspector Max Camera is pulled from the murder of a local restaurateur when the owner of an abortion clinic is kidnapped.
Reviewed on 22 February 2014 by Chris Roberts
Baghdad Central
In post-invasion Baghdad, former police inspector Khafaji is seized by the Americans and pressed into unwilling service.
Reviewed on 22 February 2014 by Chris Roberts
Barcelona Shadows
In early 20th century Barcelona, Inspectors Corvo and Malsano seek the monster abducting children for the most grisly of purposes.
Reviewed on 22 February 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Crocodile
Six years ago, Natalie, the love of Jake Fisher’s life, dumped him and married another man. At her wedding, Jake promised to stay away from her, but six years later when he discovers that her husband has died, he finds that promise becomes harder and harder to keep.
Reviewed on 08 February 2014 by Chris Roberts
Shadows of Justice
TV reporter Dan helps the police in their search for a kidnap victim and, following an unsuccessful prosecution, perpetrators of vigilante justice.
Reviewed on 08 February 2014 by Chris Roberts
Inspector SIngh Investigates: A Calamitous Chinese Killing
Inspector Singh from Singapore is sent to Beijing to investigate the death of the son of the First Secretary at the Singapore embassy.
Reviewed on 08 February 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Execution of Noa P. Singleton
A woman is on death row awaiting execution for murder is visited by a young British lawyer to assemble a final plea for clemency.
Reviewed on 25 January 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Silence of the Wave
Carabinieri marshal Roberto Marias is recovering from the psychiatric wounds suffered at work and meets a woman also in treatment.
Reviewed on 25 January 2014 by Chris Roberts
Death in Florence
Florence policeman Inspector Bordelli investigates the disappearance of a schoolboy during the torrential rain and flooding of November 1966.
Reviewed on 25 January 2014 by Chris Roberts
Minotaur
An Israeli spy sees a woman on a bus as someone he has been waiting for to give his life meaning; he intervenes in her life with fateful results.
Reviewed on 11 January 2014 by Chris Roberts
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
Brother Kemal
PI Kemal Kayankaya is employed to find a wayward 16-year-old and to protect an author from attack, but finds the two cases overlap.
Reviewed on 11 January 2014 by Chris Roberts
The Last Alibi
Lawyer Jason Kolarich has a visit from a client who expects to be arrested for murder; six months later he stands accused himself.
Reviewed on 28 December 2013 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
The Cambodian Book of the Dead
German detective Maier, an ex-journalist with experience in the Far East, is sent to Cambodia to arrange the return of the heir to a fortune.
Reviewed on 14 December 2013 by Chris Roberts
I Am Max Lamm
Max Lamm, a young man disgraced in New York, is sheltering in London but when he kills a Pakistani youth he sets off a series of riots.
Reviewed on 14 December 2013 by Chris Roberts
The Anarchist Detective
Detective Max Camera returns home to Albacete when his grandfather has a stroke, but is drawn to investigate crimes with links to the past.
Reviewed on 30 November 2013 by Chris Roberts
The Memory Key
Commissioner Alec Blume investigates the killing of a witness to a shooting of a woman responsible for a bombing decades earlier.
Reviewed on 30 November 2013 by Chris Roberts
The Kings of Cool
Ben and Chon are two young dudes making a good living out of growing premium grade marijuana, but their success attracts sharks.
Reviewed on 16 November 2013 by Chris Roberts
Clever Fox
Assistant district attorney Dani Fox is called to the homicide of the daughter of a local Mafia chief; the prime suspect is his sworn enemy.
Reviewed on 16 November 2013 by Chris Roberts
Little Green
Easy Rawlins, a black PI in 1967 LA, emerges from a coma to find his friend Mouse seeking help to save a young member of their community.
Reviewed on 01 November 2013 by Chris Roberts
My Criminal World
Crime writer David Slavitt is struggling to boost a flagging readership and to get to the bottom of his wife’s apparent alienation.
Reviewed on 01 November 2013 by Chris Roberts
21:37
Criminal profiler Rudolf Heinz is called in when two bodies marked with ritualistic signs are found in Warsaw, but enjoys little cooperation.
Reviewed on 18 October 2013 by Chris Roberts
The Ophelia Cut
When a rapist is bludgeoned to death, the father of the girl is the obvious culprit, but several people will be uncomfortable if he is convicted.
Reviewed on 17 October 2013 by Chris Roberts
A Crack in the Wall
Architect Pablo Simo’s unsatisfying life is disrupted when an attractive caller awakens memories of a crime it was hoped had been forgotten.
Reviewed on 04 October 2013 by Chris Roberts
Generation Loss
Cassandra Neary, a New York photographer, visits a backwoods island to interview an early inspiration, but finds horror and death.
Reviewed on 04 October 2013 by Chris Roberts
The Riot
DI Ted Stratton is posted to Notting Hill in 1958 where racial tension and financial manipulation need to be untangled to solve several murders.
Reviewed on 20 September 2013 by Chris Roberts
City of Blood
When Siphiwe goes to help a stabbing victim he becomes involved with two violent gangs, both of which will kill him for the information he has.
Reviewed on 20 September 2013 by Chris Roberts
