Murder under the Midnight Sun #StellaBlómkvist #MurderUnderTheMidnightSun

By Stella Blómkvist

Translated by Quentin Bates https://graskeggur.com/ @graskeggur

Published by Corylus Books https://corylusbooks.com/ @CorylusB

285 pages ISBN 9781739298944

Publication date 3 May 2024

Murder under the Midnight Sun is the second novel in the Stella Blómkvist series that has been transferred into English. Click on the link to read my review of the first book in the series Murder at the Residence.

Stella Blómkvist has been a bestselling series in Iceland since the first book appeared in the 1990s, and has attracted an international audience since the TV series starring Heiða Reed aired. The books have been published under a pseudonym that still hasn’t been cracked. The question of Stella Blómkvist’s identity is one that crops up regularly, but it looks like it’s going to remain a mystery…

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Ewa Sherman @sh_ewa for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and the Publisher.

The Cover

The bleak beauty of Iceland on show but with a bloody fingerprint. Love it.

My review

A dapper businessman visits Stella with an unusual request of her. His niece Julia MacKenzie was last heard of in Iceland nine years earlier and the police investigation threw up few clues as to her whereabouts. Now his sister is dying of cancer, and they want Stella to re-open this cold case and find out once and for all what happened to Julia, to bring some kind of closure.

Stella’s friend the old hack Máki is busy beavering away for his blog and believes he has hit paydirt. A contact is leaking important documents proving espionage on the island during the Cold War. It has caused a bit of a stir and now the establishment is putting him under pressure to name his sources, so he needs Stella’s professional help.

As if she was not busy enough, Stella gets a call from a desperate TV presenter who she has recently worked with on filming a programme, one where Stella manged to find a severed arm in the ice. Her husband has just been charged with the frenzied murder of her father and her best friend so she’s desperate for help.

Plenty to occupy our heroine and top up her Stella Fund!

Once again, we have a lot of incidents and plot strands packed into a remarkably short novel. It will come as no surprise that the story quickly gets started and from then on progress is relentless. Despite this, there is still room for the characters to develop and express themselves. What is missing is any excess padding; stylistically there is a touch of the hard-boiled but without the detailed descriptions and acute observations. The author paints with a broad brush but with great confidence using bold, decisive strokes. Like her heroine of the same name, she knows what she wants to achieve and how to do it.

Stella is a fabulous central character, certainly arresting, sometimes captivating but perhaps not always completely likeable. Stella is one of life’s determined winners, a go getter with a can-do attitude whose absolute focus can make her seem a little cold or self-centred at times. She is a thoroughly modern, emancipated woman used to getting what she wants, be it in her search for the truth or for a sexual partner. Her sexual appetite is voracious, be it for men or women, and she’s very fond of Jack Daniels. There is a softer side though, as can be seen when she is with her young daughter Sóley Árdís.

To the reader’s great delight, she is also impulsive and headstrong, so we know she is not going to balk at danger, which she inevitably finds herself in. She may be a lawyer but she’s not one for the courtroom, this lady is more like a hard-bitten private eye, and she can deliver a put down.

The plot strands are intricate and quite twisty for such a short novel but come together pleasingly in the end. In Stella’s quest for the truth, she manages to uncover a series of secrets, lies and crimes from the past. Its not just the embers of the political past that is raked over, we discover more about Stella’s early life and there is an unexpected reunion.

The motivations and themes included are complex too, there is love and betrayal, some forgiveness but the driving force is revenge. As a nation that on a world stage still appears close-knit and insular, family and community ties figure throughout.

Great work from Quentin Bates in translating from the Icelandic but capturing its individuality and soul. The quirkiness from the first novel is still there, the car being referred to as the ‘silver steed’, the police as the ‘city’s finest’ as well as her mother’s epigrams on the nature of life. What humour there is, is as black as coal and as dry as a bone.

Murder under the Midnight Sun is cracking Nordic Noir with a compelling central character. Love her or hate her but Stella Blómkvist is impossible to ignore.

Murder under the Midnight Sun can be purchased via the publisher’s web site here

The author

Stella Blómkvist has been a bestselling series in Iceland since the first book appeared in the 1990s and has attracted an international audience since the TV series starring Heiða Reed aired. This series features tough, razor-tongued Reykjavík lawyer Stella Blómkvist, with her taste for neat whiskey, a liking for easy money and a moral compass all of her own – and who is at home in the corridors of power as in the city’s darkest nightspots.

The books have been published under a pseudonym that still hasn’t been cracked. The question of Stella Blómkvist’s identity is one that crops up regularly, but it looks like it’s going to remain a mystery…

The Translator

Quentin Bates is a writer, translator and journalist. He has professional and personal roots in Iceland that run very deep. He worked as a seaman before turning to maritime journalism. He is an author of a series of nine crime novels and novellas featuring the Reykjavik detective Gunnhildur (Gunna) Gísladóttir. In addition to writing his own fiction, he has translated books by Guðlaugur Arason, Einar Kárason, and crème de la crème of the Icelandic crime fiction authors Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Óskar Guðmundsson, Jónína Leósdóttir, Sólveig Pálsdóttir and Ragnar Jónasson. Quentin was instrumental in launching IcelandNoir, the crime fiction festival in Reykjavik.

Don’t forget to check out the other great posts on this blog tour:

Last Testament in Bologna #TomBenjamin #LastTestamentInBologna

By Tom Benjamin https://www.tombenjamin.com/ @Tombenjaminsays

Published by Constable https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/imprint/constable/page/lbbg-imprint-constable/ (an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/ @LittleBrownUK)

294 pages ISBN 9781408715574

Publication date 2 May 2024

Last Testament in Bologna is the fifth book in the Daniel Leicester series.

I was sent a paperback copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.

The cover

A very simple but straightforward cover that shouts out Renaissance Italy. It’s the Fountain of Neptune in Piazza del Nettuno that dates from 1566 and shows the bronze statue of Neptune himself. When you can use picture like this to capture the setting of your novel why choose anything else? It’s simply fabulous.

My review

A strange request in a last will and testament of Giorgio Chiesa leads to a most unusual request of Faidate Investigations. The deceased was an engineer specialising in automotives, whose brilliant invention was stolen and patented by his nemesis and arch-rival. His bequest is a third of his estate to investigate the circumstances of the death of his son Niki in a car crash. People die every day in road traffic accidents, but Niki was an expert driver, destined to be one of the greats of Formula 1, whose car simply left the road. Giorgio never believed it was an accident or suicide. He took his conviction, that it was murder, to his deathbed and his dying wish was for this to be proved posthumously, as a tribute to Niki. This conviction was strengthened by the fact that at his death Niki was employed as a racing driver by Giorgio’s great rival, Massimiliano (Max) Molinari.

‘Comandante’ Giovanni Faidate agrees to fulfil the terms of this legacy to the best of their ability, but as he is heading off to hospital for a hip replacement it will fall to his son in law Daniel Leicester to do the bulk of the investigative work. An assignment that will see him rubbing shoulders with the super wealthy and the criminal classes.

Mention Italy and thoughts that come to mind are fine food and wine, fabulous art and architecture, and very fast cars (though in the 70s and 80s they made plenty of rust buckets). If you do think like this, you are not going to be disappointed, as they all figure to some degree.

Anyone who has experienced the Italy that found away from the coastal sun traps of Sorrento and Rimini, will be captivated by the setting and appreciate the author’s fondness for the city. To counterpoint the glamour of the motor racing world we see the ordinary and mundane of urban life in a city rich in history. The cafes are not those of ‘café society’ but normal places where workers stop for a coffee or breakfast before work, something slightly alien to the British, but just a way of life in Southern Europe. This is captured so well that it had be thinking to my working visits to Livorno. Daniel’s daughter Rose is learning to drive, adding to the driving theme and the descriptions of life on Italy’s road rang so true. On one visit to our surprise, we were driven through a red light to which our driver remarked in the UK it is a command to stop, in Italy it is more of a suggestion!

The plot centres on discovering if Niki was murdered but ends up unearthing much more. Car lovers will love the descriptions of the supercars and the racing at Imola, with the ghosts of the past still there. The spirit of the days when Niki Lauda took on James Hunt are evoked, when Grand Prix were more like a chivalric joust, a contest of man more than machine, which at the time were seen as more fun but were reckless and infinitely more dangerous. Naturally a with such a setting the novel needs to work through the gears until it reaches top speed which it does with aplomb on the track and in the case.

The crimes uncovered are dark but certainly believable. Great wealth is rarely accumulated quickly by entirely fair means entirely. The love of money stimulates greed, the desire for more that leaves the rest of us wondering just how much is enough. There is also as sense that when you can afford anything you want it all becomes a little bit boring and you want the things you can’t buy or acquire.

Organised crime rears its ugly head, and the criminals are suitably nasty. There is jeopardy and danger with a side order of violence, which doesn’t always come from where one might expect it, as we build up to a satisfying conclusion.

Another key aspect of Italian life is the family and at Faidate Investigations they are one big family that live together. If they are not directly related, they are cousins or quickly subsumed as a ‘cousin’. This brings some lovely interactions and the human touch, such as Rose’s little secret that everyone knows apart from her father. There is care and concern as family members sort out their problems together which are touchingly portrayed as Giovanni’s hospital stay throws up complications and Dolores’ drops a bombshell from her past.

In Last Testament in Bologna the glamour and opulence of the super-rich collide with crime and skulduggery on a Formula 1 race track.      

Last Testament in Bologna can be purchased via the publisher’s website here

The author

Tom Benjamin grew up in the suburbs of north London and began his working life as a journalist before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard. He later moved into public health, where he led drugs awareness programme FRANK. He now lives in Bologna.

Don’t forget to check out the other great reviews on this blog tour:

Escape: The Hunter Cut #LADavenport #EscapeTheHunterCut

By L.A. Davenport https://pushingthewave.co.uk/

Published by P-Wave Press https://p-wavepress.co.uk/ @p_wave_press

482 pages ISBN 9781916937055 (EB)

Publication date 6 May 2024

I was allowed access to an electronic review copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank the Blog Tour organiser Heather Fitt @HeatherJFitt, and of course Author and Publisher for arranging this.

From the blurb

In this all-new edition, Escape: The Hunter Cut takes the classic tale of L.A. Davenport’s debut novel Escape and retells it through John’s eyes, as he battles with himself and the events that threaten to overwhelm him.

The cover

A reworking of the original cover of Escape, dropping the female face and concentrating on the central main character. The crumpled paper/card effect to signify it is a reworking perhaps?

My thoughts

I know it has been done before, particularly with ‘fan fiction’, but I’m not sure there are two many books that I would re-read with it written from a different perspective. I can see the attraction for the author, they often go to great lengths to create scenarios and plots, so they might wish to develop the story from different viewpoint. I have not read the original version of Escape so this review will solely concentrate on the novel I have just read, with no comparisons.

The novel starts with a man on holiday, who we eventually discover is Dr John Hunter a surgeon. He is staying in a grand hotel in a glamourous unnamed town in Italy and we immediately discover he is a troubled man. He is constantly reminded of a woman, and questions why it is him who is still alive. His wife has recently died in a freak accident that left him unscathed, physically untouched but completely distraught and wracked with misplaced guilt. He has taken the trip to try to escape his familiar surroundings, to properly mourn his wife and start the healing and recovery process. Solo holidays are not the easiest and he finds himself lost and confused, using alcohol as a crutch.

The hotel guests include the great and the good, all wealthy, and some more odd characters including a slightly sinister Russian man, who John seems to come across wherever he goes. The hotel staff are as we might expect, slick and unobtrusive apart from a rather odd, over attentive manager. A man who initially irritates John, but later become a trusted friend.

One evening when he is out on the town, the demon drink takes over, so when everywhere else closes he ends up in a ‘gentlemen’s’ club. Here he is captivated by one of the hostesses, Jasna, but he’s convinced it’s not alcohol fuelled lust. They quickly develop a friendship away from the club, but this becomes the source of pain, angst and grave danger.

For an action thriller it is something of a slow burn, with the first third of the novel setting up the scenario, demonstrating the depth of John’s sorrow, how drink brings out his inner demons and the ubiquitous presence of Charles the manager. Like a true master of his calling, Charles has a habit of suddenly appearing, like the shopkeeper in the Mr Benn children’s cartoon, just when John needs him. Initially a bit creepy I thought, he turns out to be a rather engaging character.

If you ignore the blurb it takes a little while for the plot to become apparent, though there are markers along the way. Dr John is thrust into the world of the high-end criminal gang, dodgy nightclubs, drugs, prostitution, extortion and violence, a world he has no real knowledge or experience of.

John is an unconvincing action hero and proves to be so as he tries to sort out the mess of his own making. He doesn’t get angry and turn into the Hulk or Rambo, he is a surgeon and not a particularly worldly wise one, so his efforts are somewhat lacking so more realistic. He is a prodigious drinker though, putting so much away that it would have the spirits of Oliver Reed and Jeffrey Bernard nodding in admiration. He is put through the whole gamut of emotions from being distraught, through love to the desire for vengeance. Not the most likeable hero at times but he is a good man who starts questioning himself and his purpose, before he embarks on something of a modern chivalric quest for justice (or is it vengeance). Instead of slaying a dragon he is after a murderous crime boss and like all quests this is not straightforward, his actions result in people around him being killed. This produces more self-doubt that he casts aside.

There is plenty of action for the thriller lover, and the brutal violence that comes with the subject matter. The criminals are thoroughly unpleasant without becoming parody and dish out a severe beating for John.

Jasna is nicely judged, whichever version of her ‘truth’ is correct, or whether it is somewhere in between. The interaction between John and Jasna is low-key and quite touching which is nicely judged considering ‘surgeon falls for hostess on holiday whilst grieving his wife’ is edging into fiction cliché territory. The reader is unsure of their motives or indeed who is exploiting who, so it never ends up as Pretty Woman, more a reminder that there is good in us all.

In Escape: The Hunter Cut Dr John Hunter must conquer his own inner demons whilst he battles for justice.

Escape: The Hunter Cut can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

L.A. Davenport is an Anglo-Irish author and journalist, and has been writing stories and more since he was a wee bairn, as his grandpa used to say. Among other things, he likes long walks, typewriters and big cups of tea

Don’t forget to check out the other stops on this blog tour:

The Midnight Man #JulieAnderson #TheMidnightMan

By Julie Anderson https://julieandersonwriter.com/ @jjulieanderson

Published by Hobeck Books https://www.hobeck.net @HobeckBooks

336 pages ISBN 9781915817365

Publication date 30 April 2024

The Midnight Man is the first novel in the Clapham Trilogy.

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Zoe at Zooloos Book Tours https://taplink.cc/zooloosbooktours @ZooloosBT for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.

The cover

What a fabulous cover! My first impression was that it captured the Film Noir movie posters of the period, but with the wording there are elements of the Pop Art movement. Then there’s the tunnel and hints of a rolling mist, if that doesn’t grab you then what will?

My review

It’s winter 1946 in Clapham and the paths of two young women are about to fatefully cross. Faye Smith is the canteen manager at the South London Hospital for Women and Children, the only hospital of its kind, for women and staffed by almost entirely women. Faye is diligent and hardworking so is likely to do well and get further promotion, which will be useful for her cash strapped family. She is also street smart and misses nothing.

Eleanor Peveril has just returned from Germany, where, as a legal secretary she was assisting at the Nuremberg trials. Now no longer needed, she faces an uncertain future which has already turned bleaker, as she has been conned by a landlady and seen her fiancé Patrick with another woman. With nowhere to go and no cash, she follows some nurses into the hospital canteen to warm up and scrounge any leftovers. She stands out to Faye, who gets people to rally round in support, and there begins an unlikely friendship.

A young nurse goes missing and eventually her body is found in one of the deep tunnels, which were used to shelter in during bombings, behind a locked door. Ellie heard an altercation on the night the nurse disappeared and so feels personally involved and is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. In her new friend Faye, she finds a willing confederate as they face danger and demons in the pursuit of the truth.

The cover suggests period noir, but don’t expect a Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler homage, this is much more with two female central characters and takes a female perspective. The start is a little low key, at least by modern standards, but is constructed to create the meeting and friendship of Ellie and Faye. After this it quickly gets into its stride and moves along briskly like a consultant on his morning rounds before golf.

The setting is an absolute gem, a real place with a fascinating history, but one probably unknown even just a few miles away. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a novel where such a magnificent setting is utilised so well, from the canteen to the staffrooms, from the wards to the boiler room all exploited for atmosphere just like the best film directors would. The author has managed to incorporate snippets of its inspiring creation, history and ethos within the story arc as mere incidentals, but together they show how much the place was loved without derailing the action. The action itself is nicely judged and has the period noir feel about such that one can almost imagine it written at that time.

The use of the deep shelters and underground tunnels are another master stroke, bringing the prospects of mystery, danger, darkness and fear. Again, a real feature incorporated within the storyline that helps to enhance the feeling of time and place. It also brought a sense the film version of The Third Man when Harry Lime tries to escape through the Vienna sewers, and naturally the earworm of Anton Karas’ zither playing.

The period is set in is another excellent choice by the author and one that experienced great change. Its 1946, the war is over soldiers and auxiliaries are returning to a country bombed and battered and still facing rationing and hardship. The country has relied upon women to keep running during the war, working on farms and in armament factories, yet they are expected to make way for the returning men. Ellie and Faye are two women who want to remain in the world of work and not become the wife or ‘property’ of a man. The timing is critical for another reason, the formation of the welfare state and at its core the NHS. With hindsight we see it as one of the country’s greatest achievements, but here the uncertainty around it introduces a degree of angst in some characters, they want it to be better but will it be, but at the same time great optimism in others. The stark cost of illness pre-NHS is laid bare, as suffered within Faye’s family and is something few alive will now remember.

The friendship between Faye and Ellie is the glue that holds the story together. Its one of those odd relationships of opposites in background. Faye is working class and wily whereas Ellie is a vicar’s daughter and naïve, but their core beliefs align; two different women who stand for the same thing and neither want to be constrained by the old social norms. I suspect that men and women will have differing perspectives on their friendship, how quickly they become friends, and the ups and downs may feel unlikely to a male reader, but there are distinct social differences between the sexes.

The character cameos are brilliant, the stern (Paddington) stare of Matron sent a shiver down my spine, and I was just reading about it, the crooks had a menacing edge without being too obvious and Beryl is perfect as the no-nonsense Glaswegian nurse. The dialogue is nicely judged with enough to place it in London without getting all ‘geezer’ or indeed hardboiled. It also eschewed the modernisms we so easily fall into, again giving the right period feel.

I guess with the first book of a prospective trilogy the acid test is, are you ready for book two; I can’t wait!

The Midnight Man is a fabulous piece of historical fiction that melds crime noir with social history and feminist interests.

The Midnight Man can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Julie Anderson is the CWA Dagger listed author of three Whitehall thrillers and a short series of historical adventure stories for young adults. Before becoming a crime fiction writer, she was a senior civil servant, working across a variety of departments and agencies, including the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Unlike her protagonists, however, she doesn’t know where (all) the bodies are buried.

She writes crime fiction reviews for Time and Leisure Magazine and is a co-founder and Trustee of the Clapham Book Festival.

She lives in south London where her latest crime fiction series is set, returning to her first love of writing historical fiction with The Midnight Man, to be published by Hobeck.

Don’t forget to check out the other great reviews on this blog tour:

Imran Mahmood at Hull Noir #ImranMahmood #FindingSophie #HullNoir

On Wednesday 17 April Imran Mahmood @imranmahmood777 was the guest of Hull Noir https://www.hullnoir.com/ @HullNoir to talk about his latest crime novel Finding Sophie and how he manages to juggle a writing career with being a criminal barrister. Host for the evening and the man asking the questions was local crime author Nick Quantrill https://www.nickquantrill.co.uk/ @NickQuantrill a co-director of Hull Noir.

Imran Mahmood in conversation with Nick Quantrill

As a rule, I attend Hull Noir events in person, but this time I was in La Palma enjoying a pleasant spring break in the Canary Islands sunshine. Fortunately, as well as these events being free to attend in person, they also provide a free livestream so there was no reason to miss out. As you will see from the photograph of my laptop screen the picture quality was excellent, as was the sound. Thanks to the wonders of X/Twitter I was even able to reserve a signed and dedicated copy of Finding Sophie from Julie of J.E. Books https://jebookshull.wordpress.com/ @JEBooksHull, our local independent bookseller who can be found at all of these events.

The event, including a Q&A session ran for an hour but there follows a flavour of what was discussed.

Background

In writing Finding Sophie IM wanted to explore the very worst thing that can happen to parents, a child going missing, what their reactions are and how they deal with a sense of grief it causes. Here the reactions of the parents are very different, but he is trying to find the real voice of the characters.

NQ added that he was impressed with the social realism that runs through Finding Sophie, the threats of violence (but don’t kill the dog!), the help of a clairvoyant and how the sex worker was ignored.

Teachers

NQ pointed out that both the parents in the novel are teachers and asks why. IM said that he wanted to acknowledge the role that teachers has played in forming his life, those that have helped and inspired him to achieve what he has. He jokingly remarked that teenagers were terrifying and that teachers have to deal with them everyday at school. It is easy for adults to dismiss teenagers for having it easy, but they must deal with a world that is constantly changing, ever faster, and also come with the physical and mental changes as they go through puberty and into adulthood.

Why crime?

NQ wanted to know why write crime fiction and not some brilliant legal courtroom drama, of which he observed there were so few are set in the UK. Since the days of Rumpole of the Bailey there has been so little which IM puts down, at least in some degree, to all the paraphernalia of wigs and gowns which hide actors on the screen. The main difference he points out is that the UK courts are much slower and less dramatic. A forensically realistic UK legal drama would be a rather boring read IM suggests. When he wrote his first novel, he asked his wife for her opinion on his draft, and she told him to the cut the boring legal bits.

So, he naturally decided to write crime, coming into daily contact with a wide variety of miscreants and creepy characters.  Of course he has some great stories to tell which I won’t elaborate here, as that would be akin to spoiling a stand-up comedian’s act.

Screenwriting

IM’s 2017 novel You Don’t Know Me was adapted for television, he was fortunate to have some input into the production, but it was Tom Edge who wrote the screenplay. IM has since been asked to work on screenwriting, which he is at pains to stress is a whole different skill set to being a novelist. The main difference is that you cannot get into the characters mind and express their thoughts, so as there is a difference between showing and telling, here the screenplay is much more direct and tells you what happens. The actual writing process is different too, particularly when it comes to the editing stage. A novel will have an editor, possibly two and go through perhaps three or four drafts; a screenplay could have the input of as many as fifty people at the editing stage before it is filmed.

Work-life balance

NQ wanted to know how he could manage to juggle two demanding careers. IM said that he has always enjoyed writing, he has done it in some form most of his life and writing late into the night is ingrained. His success has meant that he has become more selective in the legal work he accepts, which allows him a little more time to write and now he is able to produce a book a year.

Finding Sophie can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The blurb

Sophie King is missing.

Her parents, Harry and Zara, are distraught; for the last seventeen years, they’ve done everything for their beloved only daughter and now she’s gone.

The police have no leads, and Harry and Zara are growing increasingly frantic, although they are both dealing with it in very different ways. Increasingly obsessed with their highly suspicious neighbour who won’t open the door or answer any questions, they are both coming to the same conclusion. If they want answers, they’re going to have to take the matter into their own hands.

But just how far are they both prepared to go for the love of their daughter?

The author

Imran Mahmood is a practicing barrister with thirty years’ experience fighting cases in courtrooms across the country. His previous novels have been highly critically acclaimed: You Don’t Know Me was a BBC Radio 2 Book Club choice, Goldsboro Book of the Month and was shortlisted for the Glass Bell Award; both this and I Know What I Saw were longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA Gold Dagger. You Don’t Know Me was also made into a hugely successful BBC1 adaptation in association with Netflix. When not in court or writing novels or screenplays he can sometimes be found on the Red Hot Chilli Writers’ podcast as one of their regular contributors. He hails from Liverpool but now lives in London with his wife and daughters. 

Coming up in May at Hull Noir:

Back From the Dead #HeidiAmsinck #BackFromTheDead

By Heidi Amsinck https://heidiamsinck.co.uk/ @HeidiAmsinck1

Published by Muswell Press https://muswell-press.co.uk/ @MuswellPress

375 pages ISBN 9781739123857

Publication date 18 April 2024

Back From the Dead is the third book in the Jensen series. Click on the links to read my reviews of My Name is Jensen and The Girl in the Photo the first two books in the series.

I was sent a paperback copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.

The cover

What at first appears a bit of a low-key cover, not one that immediately grabs the attention, is a rather good one. There’s the ever-popular silhouette, of Jensen with her bicycle, looking across the Copenhagen waterfront, again another winner, but it also manages to convey a sense of being an outsider and looking in. For me it captures the spirit of the novel.

My review

Its June and Copenhagen is experiencing a heatwave as record temperatures are being recorded, and all crime fiction readers know this leads to frayed tempers. DI Henrik Jungersen is preparing to go on holiday with the family to Italy, something he is not looking forward to with relish. When a headless corpse surfaces in the harbour Henrik just has to get involved. The reader knows what he is doing; his wife is certainly knows what he is up to, but her ire is more dampened to more of a resigned disappointment. Of course, he promises to join them once progress has been made on the case, but she understands the reality of the situation, he’s using it as an excuse to opt out of the holiday.

Investigative reporter Jensen is feeling the heat too in the offices of Dagbladet. They are going through yet another round of redundancies now the newspaper has been bought by a Swedish investment fund. The newspaper industry is in a state of flux as the effects of technology and the internet are felt, but these cuts are deep including the senior crime reporter. Jensen is now placed in charge of crime, something she is reluctant to take on, but the alternative is redundancy for herself.

Jensen’s friend the MP Esben Nørregaard approaches her with a little problem, something he wants dealing with on the quiet, without involving the police. Whilst he has been out of the country his driver Aziz, a Syrian refugee, has disappeared. Esben has been receiving threats by email and hints at some shady past dealings, but fears involving the police will attract undue attention to Aziz and his family. Aziz is a friend of Jensen as is the resourceful coffee vendor Liron (who makes the best coffee in Copenhagen) and she will do anything she can for them regardless of their backgrounds.

A Cracking follow up to The Girl in the Picture and this is one novel where the reader would benefit by reading the earlier stories. Back from the Dead can be enjoyed as a stand alone but as the reader will discover some earlier threads are tied up along the way.

Jensen is a journalist of the old-school rather than the modern, online, clickbait variety. After 14 years in England, she has recently returned to Copenhagen unsure of what the future holds and looking for something solid to anchor her life to. Initially working freelance she is now full time at Dagbladet where her boss Margrethe recognises her value as a real journalist and sees a bit of herself in Jensen. Jensen also provides her with a ready-made ‘babysitter’ for nephew Gustav, who has had to leave school at least temporarily. After a period of irritation Jensen starts to like the foolish, reckless and very keen Gustav and they form the sort of unlikely alliance that give a novel a bit of zing. Gustav provides the humour and the light-hearted moments that a story involving headless corpses needs.

Central to the story is the relationship between Jensen and Henrik. Once lovers they are trying to be ‘friends’ though a rekindling of the past can never be ruled out. Henrik is in a can’t live with, can’t live without position, needing Jensen in his life but at the same time unwilling to abandon his home life and children. Jensen is trying to move on, now being in a relationship with her landlord the billionaire businessman Kristoffer Bro. Henrik doesn’t approve and makes his feelings clear, suggesting that Jensen knows little of him and certainly not of his dark past. She feels that Henrik is being the archetypal spurned lover who is reluctant to give up, harbouring the if I can have you then nobody can attitude. After thinking that she could find happiness with Kristoffer, Henrik has now sown the seeds of doubt. The dynamic of this relationship is critical to the series. It is perfectly judged to produce the right balance between interest in the characters and in the plot.

The story moves along at a brisk enough pace, never so quick that the characters cannot express themselves but when it reaches the conclusion it progresses with appropriate urgency. It is a story where there is always something going on, sometimes in the background away from the action, so the reader is encouraged to keep reading a bit more. Don’t be surprised if that ‘just one more chapter’ means you end up reading much later than intended.

The plot is intricate rather than complex, twisting around so the reader is never quite sure what to expect. The killers are wonderfully dumb, managing to leave a key piece of evidence behind. In crime fiction there is the desire for a criminal mastermind, but most, certainly those that are caught are usually done so due to their stupidity or incompetence. In this case it certainly got a chuckle out of me. The violence is low key and not graphic but there are headless bodies, bloodshed and beatings. The motivation throughout is control over people and how it is achieved, be it emotional, coercive, financial or debt of honour.  

Back from the Dead is another compelling slice of Scandi-Noir with a determined heroine seeking the truth and uncovering much more than she bargained for.

Back from the Dead can be purchased direct from the publisher here.

The author

Heidi Amsinck won the Danish Criminal Academy’s Debut Award for My Name is Jensen (2021), the first book in a new series featuring Copenhagen reporter sleuth Jensen and her motley crew of helpers. She published her second Jensen novel, The Girl in Photo, in July 2022, with the third due out in February 2024. A journalist by background, Heidi spent many years covering Britain for the Danish press, including a spell as London Correspondent for the broadsheet daily Jyllands-Posten. She has written numerous short stories for BBC Radio 4, such as the three-story sets Danish Noir, Copenhagen Confidential and Copenhagen Curios, all produced by Sweet Talk and featuring in her collection Last Train to Helsingør (2018). Heidi’s work has been translated from the original English into Danish, German and Czech.

Don’t forget to check out the other great reviews on this blog tour:

Indie Press Network Spring Showcase – Genre Fiction #IndiePressNetwork

On 10 April the Indie Press Network held its Spring Showcase via a Zoom meeting, which I was fortunate to be invited to join. The presentation was hosted by Marina Sofia of Corylus Books and featured six small independent published talking about their books that are about to be published this spring, or recently published.

To receive more information about the Indie Press Network sign up for their regular newsletter.

Arachne Press

Arachne Press is a small publisher of fiction and poetry by writers who are LGBTQ+, disabled, Global Majority, older women, and/or geographically isolated.

Getting by in Tligolian

The City-State of Tligol is ruled by dictators, holds monthly public executions and is haunted by a benign, fishing, giant, but by and large the inhabitants are content, and the food is amazing. The perfect place for a city break, just as long as you don’t want to leave. Ever.

Language has its own relationship to time.

When Jennifer falls for Sam at his execution, she doesn’t immediately realise that she can still find and live with him; but the city of Tligol has trains that will take her anywhere, including her own past, and future, and multiple possible variations, just as long as she doesn’t leave the city. Jennifer rides the trains, loops around in time and sets an unplanned series of events in motion. For lovers of The City and The City… and Hotel California!

Corylus Books

Corylus Books is a place to discover new voices, translated crime fiction with a social edge.

Corylus had two books to promote, one of which I have already reviewed and blogged (Rodolfo Walsh’s Last Case), the other (Murder under the Midnight Sun) I will be blogging on 10 May.

Rodolfo Walsh’s Last Case

A key figure in the politics and literature of Argentina, Rodolfo Walsh wrote his iconic Letter to my Friends in December 1976, recounting the murder of his daughter Victoria by the military dictatorship. Just a few months later, he was killed in a shoot-out – just one of the Junta’s many thousands of victims.

What if this complex figure – a father, militant, and writer who delved the regime’s political crimes – had also sought to reveal the truth of his own daughter’s death?

Elsa Drucaroff’s imagining of Rodolfo Walsh undertaking the most personal investigation of his life is an electrifying, suspense-filled drama in which love and life decisions are inseparable from political convictions as he investigates the mystery of what happened to his own daughter.
The head of intelligence for Montoneros, a clandestine Peronist organisation co-ordinating armed resistance against the dictatorship, Rodolfo Walsh was also a prolific writer and journalist, seen as the forerunner of the true crime genre with his 1957 book Operation Massacre.

What if beneath the surface of his Letter to my Friends lay a gripping story lost to history?

Murder under the Midnight Sun

What does a woman do when her husband’s charged with the frenzied murder of her father and her best friend? She calls in Stella Blómkvist to investigate – however unwelcome the truth could turn out to be.

Smart, ruthless and with a flexible moral code all of her own, razor-tongued lawyer Stella Blómkvist is also dealing with a desperate
deathbed request to track down a young woman who vanished a decade ago.

It looks like a dead end, but she agrees to pick up the stone-cold trail – and she never gives up, even if the police did a long time ago.
Then there’s the mystery behind the arm that emerges from an ice cap, with a mysterious ruby ring on one frozen finger? How does this connect to another unexplained disappearance, and why were the police at the time so keen to write it off as a tragic accident?
Brutal present-day crimes have their roots in the past that some people would prefer to stay forgotten.
As Stella pieces together the fragments, is she getting too close to the truth and making herself a target for ruthless men determined to conceal secret sins?

Hobeck Books

Hobeck Books, based in Staffordshire, is a family-run independent publisher of award-winning crime, thriller, mystery and suspense books. They publish approximately twelve titles per year.

Hobeck Books also had two books to showcase, one of which I have already reviewed and blogged (Edge of the Land), the other (The Midnight Man) I will be blogging on 1 May.

Edge of the Land

The waterways of the Liverpool docks contain many ghosts and shadows. It’s a place to disappear… or die.

Detective Inspector April Decent and Detective Sergeant Skeeter Warlock fear for the welfare of a vulnerable young man injured in an attack ordered by drug dealers. Originally questioned at the scene, Danny Maynard denies the attack and refuses to co-operate with the police. He soon disappears. Clues to his whereabouts are seeded, a cry for help maybe, but he continues to be elusive.

The team are also dealing with a spate of deaths in the city, with one thing in common: the victims are all homeless and seemingly ravaged by addiction. Once that connection is realised – the hunt for a potential serial killer is on.

Is there a link between the missing man and the other deaths? Could he be the missing piece of the puzzle which will solve the mystery behind the brutal murders?

The Midnight Man

Winter 1946

One cold dark night, as a devastated London shivers through the transition to post-war life, a young nurse goes missing from the South London Hospital for Women & Children. Her body is discovered hours later behind a locked door.

Two women from the hospital join forces to investigate the case. Determined not to return to the futures laid out for them before the war, the unlikely sleuths must face their own demons and dilemmas as they pursue – The Midnight Man.

BEWARE THE DARKNESS BENEATH

Jantar Publishing

Jantar Publishing is an independent publisher of Central European Contemporary Literary Fiction, Classic Fiction, Science Fiction and Poetry based in London.

Newton’s Brain

A genius and trickster, apparently dies at the Battle of Königgrätz in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. However, he has not died and instead is able to procure the brain of Isaac Newton to replace his own. Subsequently, he uses Newton’s knowledge of the laws of nature to overcome them, using a strange device to travel faster than the speed of light, and also to photograph the past. Newton’s Brain was published 18 years before H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, and has been considered a strong influence on Wells.

The author. Jakub Arbes (12 June 1840, Prague (Smíchov) – 8 April 1914) was a Czech writer and intellectual. He is best known as the creator of the literary genre called romanetto and spent much of his professional life in France.In 1867, he began his career in journalism as editor of Vesna Kutnohorská, and from 1868 to 1877, as the chief editor of the National Press. Arbes was also an editor of political magazines Hlas (The Voice) and Politiky (Politics), and a sympathizer of the Májovci literary group. During this time, Arbes was persecuted and spent 15 months in the Czech Lipa prison, for leading opposition to the ruling Austro-Hungarian Empire.[1] He left Prague soon after, spending time in Paris and the South of France as part of the intellectual community there. In France, he was an associate of other “Bohemian Parisiens” such as Paul Alexis, Luděk Marold, Guy de Maupassant, Viktor Oliva, and Karel Vítězslav Mašek, as well as the French writer Émile François Zola.

Sans. Press

Sans. PRESS is a Limerick-based indie press with a love for short stories. Under the motto fresh & weird, we celebrate new voices and narratives.

Stranger

This will be an anthology of short stories and if the cover is anything to go by they are likely to be very strange indeed.

Wild Hunt Books

Wild Hunt Books’s mission is to foster strong and distinct literary voices and those experimenting with narrative, plot, structure, and authors dabbling in darker genres and liminal spaces.

Bear Season

When Jade Hunter goes missing in the Alaskan wilderness, everyone is shocked. She was scheduled to speak at an academic symposium but never turned up. What was Jade really doing in Alaska?  

Blood is found in the woods and suspicion immediately falls on the reclusive survivalist Ursula Smith. She is swiftly arrested and convicted of Jade’s murder – even though a body has not been found.   

Several years later, Jade’s doctoral thesis leaks online, fuelling rumour and conspiracy over the true nature of her disappearance, leading investigative journalist Carla Young to dig through Jade’s life and discover what did happen to Jade Hunter. 

Whitechapel Autumn of Error #IanPorter #WhitechapelAutumnofError

By Ian Porter https://londontownwalks.com/

Published by Matador @matadorbooks

384 pages ISBN 9781805143987

Publication date 24 February 2024

I was sent an electronic copy and selected extract to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and the Publisher.

An extract from Whitechapel Autumn of Error

Nash was quickly on the corner looking on, with just his head peeking out from the side of a warehouse in the square, well hidden in the gloom. After what appeared to be a short negotiation, the man guided the woman out of sight into a dark spot. They had no doubt moved to avoid standing beneath the square’s solitary streetlamp, a little more privacy being required. This was awkward. If Nash moved towards them, they would see him under the streetlight before he saw them. And the square was overlooked by warehouses and a two-storey house. Somebody gawping out of an upstairs window would see him commit the robbery. 

He decided on a different tactic. He would wait for the man to finish his business, after which he would be in a hurry to get away and would leave the woman to attend to herself. She might need to take out her sponge in the privacy of the square as soon as the client had gone. Or if it had been just a kneetrembler, she would want to wash her hands and apron. Either way, she would be looking for a puddle. There would be time for Nash to cosh and rob his prey just after the man had passed by the gas lamp. By the time the woman appeared he would be gone. If she was of a mind to, there would be time for her to give the man a kick in the ribs as she stepped over him. Nash liked to think she would. 

The time dragged frustratingly. 

Blimey, thought Nash, he’s taking his bleeding time. I’m standing here like two of eels!

Nash’s mind wandered, thinking of the most recent occasion he had himself been attacked. It was an occupational hazard for anyone in his line of business. There were always others out there looking to wreak violence for the same reason as him. The hunter became the hunted. There had been two of them. He had left them both lying in pain on the cobbles. It would have been worse for them, but he saw how young and poverty-stricken they looked; just lads with their arses hanging out their trousers, trying to earn a crust.

There was movement. The man had re-entered the lit part of the square and was coming towards him. Nash’s fingers curled around the cosh inside his right pocket. While his mind had been wandering, he had not been his usual alert self, but instinct now told him to have a quick look about him before making his move. 

It was just as well he did. A uniformed policeman was walking towards him. He was not taking any particular interest in Nash and would soon pass by and be gone, so the attack was only postponed for a moment or two. Turning towards the officer, Nash felt in his left pocket for a dog-end and a Lucifer match, both of which he kept there for precisely moments like this, struck the match on the brickwork of the wall at his side, curled both hands around it and lit the cigarette now in his mouth. He then walked towards the policeman, looked straight ahead till almost in front of him before glancing his way casually, momentarily as he passed. It was exactly what an innocent man just going about his business would do. The uniformed man returned the glance but no more than that and continued making his way down the street. Nash feigned the cigarette going out, clicking his tongue with irritation as he stopped to relight it, turning his body slightly as he cupped his hands again, and glanced back. 

The constable stopped suddenly. Nash cursed to himself, but then let out his breath in relief when he saw why the uniformed man had stopped. He was unfurling his raincoat. Another shower had started. Suitably attired against the elements, the policeman turned the next corner and disappeared out of sight. Nash saw no sign of his quarry. He surmised the man had obviously spotted the policeman too and retreated into the darkest part of the square waiting for the coast to clear. 

Nash knew he would have to move quickly now to catch his man in the square. He started to retrace his steps but within a second his prey appeared, looking about him in all directions, eyes wide open, staring wildly. Taken by surprise, Nash averted his gaze, put his head down and carried on walking past. He felt the man’s stare boring in to the back of his neck, before hearing footsteps moving off in the opposite direction. 

Nash crossed the street at once, so he had an angle to look in the direction of the footsteps without turning around. The man was scuttling away, head down just as Nash would have expected. But suddenly he slowed to a stroll and straightened, stretching his neck out like a clerk in a collar a size too small. He was making a conscious effort to appear at ease with the world and his place in. Nash looked on with a grim expression. He thought it amazing what a quick bit of ‘how’s your father’ could do. 

The immediate moment to strike had gone, but Nash would follow him till the moment was again right to pounce. He ducked into the dark part of the square where the man had just had his pleasure, to wait a few seconds before following him again. There was no sign of the woman. She should have been out by now. 

Nash wondered if her client had hurt the poor old cow. 

He stepped quickly along to check on her. He would still have time to return to his slow-moving prey. It was pitch-dark but he could just about make out the dim outline of what appeared to be a pile of scattered old clothes. He took another few steps closer and saw it was the body of a woman. She was dead. 

Nash struck a match. The woman’s sexual area had been attacked with a knife, her throat cut and face slashed. A replacement match enabled Nash to note that whilst there was blood, given the horrendous damage done to the body, remarkably little of it.

He had seen many terrible things, instigated some of them, but this was not right. This was pure evil. He lurched back into the alley, then back to the street and stopped to look along it in both directions. No coppers. Nobody else either, except at the far end of the street, a man in a deerstalker was folding away a large slaughterman’s knife in on itself before slipping it into a coat pocket. 

Nash started to run after the figure, but he could not get his breath. It was like he normally felt at the end of a run round the marshes. He could not make any sense of it. Then his lungs began to fill. But accompanying the oxygen coursing through him was anger and unease in equal measure. 

People notice runners, he thought, especially at night. If you’re running, you’ve been up to something. Dogs bark; chase after you. Coppers get interested. Seen running away from a murder, his neck would be stretched for sure and not like a clerks’ in a tight collar. 

Nash slowed to a walk. The killer, little more than twenty yards away, set off again. Nash took a deep lungful of putrid air through his nostrils and followed. Fearful of losing his target in the darkness, he closed the gap. He was now within the man’s earshot so needed to sprint forward and overpower him before he had time to reach for his knife. Nash was about to strike when he hesitated and stopped in his tracks. A thought had struck him like a lightning bolt. He allowed the man to go on his way, unmolested. 

Nash had made a profound decision. He had chosen not to attack the man the moment it dawned on him that he was following the Whitechapel Murderer. 

The Blurb

Whitechapel 1888; a killer is on the loose and the newspapers are ensuring the nation knows all about not just the crimes but the terrible living conditions in which they are being perpetrated.

Nashey, a tough, scary yet charismatic man of the night, whose mother had to prostitute herself when he was a boy, knows the identity of the killer but keeps it a secret. He believes the publicity generated by the murders is forcing the authorities to address the poverty and degradation in the area. He allows the killer to remain free (whilst ensuring no more women are attacked) so the unsolved murders continue to dominate the headlines. He meets Sookey, an eccentric middle-class slummer and civilising influence. The two of them share a mutual friend, Mary Kelly, a fiery young prostitute whose back-story tells of how she was reduced to such a life.

To fund his surveillance of the killer, Nashey agrees, against his better judgement, to assist an old adversary to commit a daring night robbery under the noses of the huge police presence in the area.

Is it too late for Nashey and Mary to correct their mistakes?

My review

My review will appear later in April.

Whitechapel Autumn of Error can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Ian Porter is a historian, lecturer, public speaker and walks guide. He has a particular interest in women’s history and social history. His novels are renowned for being extremely well researched and historically accurate. Whitechapel Autumn of Error is a typically feminist, social history novel that brings the dark streets of the East End 1888 to life. He has written several other novels including the highly acclaimed Suffragette Autumn Women’s Spring, set during the fight for the vote for women, and a Plague On Both Your Houses, set in both London & Berlin in 1918/19 during the final months of the Great War and the Spanish Flu. Ian is getting on a bit (well, aged 69). His grandparents were young adults living in East London at the time of the Whitechapel Murders.  

Don’t forget to check out the other stops on this blog tour:

Edge of the Land #MalcolmHollingdrake #EdgeOfTheLand

By Malcolm Hollingdrake https://malcolmhollingdrakeauthor.co.uk @MHollingdrake

Published by Hobeck Books https://www.hobeck.net @HobeckBooks

262 pages ISBN 9781915817419

Publication date 16 April 2024

Edge of the Land is the third book in the Merseyside Crime Series. Click on the link to read my review of Catch as Catch Can the first book in the series.

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Rebecca at Hobeck Books and of course the author for the invitation to participate.

The cover

A distinctive local landmark is always a great bet for a cover and this one is magnificent. It’s a clocktower from Liverpool Docks which ends up playing a part in the story. If you visit Liverpool it’s something to look out for.

• 

My review

The waterways of the Liverpool docks contain many ghosts and shadows. It’s a place to disappear… a place to die. (from the blurb)

Well, that should grab the attention of the potential reader and it’s a great summary of the novel.

The death of one homeless alcoholic on the streets sadly is no shock; just another tragic statistic, someone with bad luck, let down by the system or by family and friends. A second death in similar circumstances a couple of days later, registers as unusual with the police, but there seems to be no connection or suspicious circumstances for now. However, it will soon become clear that they have a serial killer on their hands…

Danny Maynard is a young man who is no stranger to trouble and has already served time for drugs offences. When attacked and savagely beaten on the orders of a drugs gang, he denies it to the police and goes on the run. Slipping into the shadows, he is off their radar but DI April Decent and DS Skeeter Warlock are fearful for his safety. Danny does appear to be a survivor though and a resourceful one, as he leaves a series of clues behind like a trail of virtual breadcrumbs.

A two-strand storyline with one baffling and motiveless; the other with a puzzle at its core. The plotting is very clever to make this story come together and maintain the intrigue throughout.

The murder of the homeless people is quite shocking in its callousness, such that the reader will think who would do such a thing and why? This feeling is accentuated by the humanity which the author gives these victims, their circumstances may tragic, but these are people with feelings trying to keep hold of some semblance of dignity. There are sadly many such people on our streets and they all have a story to tell, sometimes it is just bad luck or a need to escape abuse that sees them there.

The puzzle is a cracker, it takes the form of photographs left behind on a mobile phone. These are subtle clues though, the pictures are not easy to decipher as they’re taken odd angles, are close ups or part details. A real rebus for the squad to solve, as they embark on a Magical Mystery Tour of the City requiring a team effort to solve. Different officers latch onto things they recognise, which is more realistic than a Sherlock like supersleuth figuring it all out. It’s all very cleverly assembled and I’m sure that people familiar with Liverpool will enjoy identifying the locations as they read along. It’s a little bit harder for those of us with little knowledge of the city, it’s a shame that these photographs are not reproduced even if just on his website.

One thing is clear though is the affection the author has for Liverpool, which brings a vibrancy to the prose. He doesn’t avoid the grubby, seedy, run down parts of the city, they are used to pronounced effect, as are the waterways of canals and working dock areas. Overall, though, the portrayal is that of a modern, vibrant city, one that is changing but steadfastly proud of its heritage and welcoming to the visitor. Buy the book, organise your city break now and check out the landmarks, statues and musical past.

Another fine aspect is that not all the characters are polarised, but rather shown is shades of light and dark. Danny can hardly be regarded as good, but as the reader discovers more of his background he will be seen in a more sympathetic light, and I found myself rooting for him. A common theme throughout is whether characters possess the capacity to change, to escape their past and even break the cycle of brutality. It has been established that the victims of abuse can go on to be an abuser themselves, but it doesn’t have to be so if other opportunities are presented. It can also fester as a desire for revenge.

April and Skeeter are great central characters, determined but also well balanced and they provide counterpoint to the angst of the storyline. It’s not all about them tough as DC Kasum Kapoor DC Tony Price do much of the leg work, as you would expect their rank to. They also inject banter and light-hearted moments. Overall, the chemistry between the team members becomes believable.

The clues are a fantastic way of controlling the pace of the narrative; no matter what resources and urgency the police introduce there is always a feeling that they are a couple of steps behind. Then the tipping point is reached, and everything unwinds a race against time. Nothing about the story is given away cheaply, so the jigsaw pieces only start to fit together in the final chapters, leaving a satisfying finale that demonstrates we all need a plan in life.

Edge of the Land is an thrilling police procedural packed with contrasts and mystery.

Edge of the Land can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Photograph (c) Tony Bithell

You could say that the writing was clearly on the wall for someone born in a library that they might aspire to be an author, but to get to that point Malcolm Hollingdrake has travelled a circuitous route. Malcolm worked in education for many years, including teaching in Cairo for a while. Malcolm has been happily married to Debbie for over forty years. They met in their first weekend at Ripon college through strange and unusual circumstances. Serendipity was certainly cupid on that occasion. Malcolm has written a number of successful short stories, has twelve books now published in the Harrogate Crime Series. He is also working on the third book of the Merseyside Crime Series which Hobeck will be publishing. The books introduce us to DI April Decent and DS Skeeter Warlock. Malcolm has enjoyed many diverse hobbies including flying light aircraft, gliders and paragliders, learning to fly at Liverpool Airport, designing and making leaded windows and collecting works by Northern artists.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great reviews on this blog tour:

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The Kitchen #SimoneBuchholz #TheKitchen

By Simone Buchholz @ohneKlippo

Translated by Rachel Ward http://www.forwardtranslations.co.uk/ @FwdTranslations

Published by Orenda Books https://orendabooks.co.uk/ @OrendaBooks

276 pages ISBN 9781916788077

Publication date 11 April 2024

The Kitchen is the seventh Chastity Riley novel published by Orenda Books and the second of the Chastity Reloaded series. Click on the link to read my earlier reviews of Blue Night, Hotel Cartegena, River Clyde and The Acapulco.

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.

The cover

Once again, the neon sign style, this time against the backdrop of Hamburg and a lovely variant of the skull and crossbones motif. A great cover.

My review

Chastity Riley is busy preparing for a case against a gang of human traffickers, men recruiting young Romanian women and girls with promises of legitimate work, but which of course ends up as prostitution. After their spirit is broken by rape, they are effectively prisoners expected to service ten men a day. The evidence is strong, but Chastity is determined that the case must be watertight; these men must pay for what they have done.

Hamburg is suffering from a heat wave, with no respite on the dusty streets, conjuring up images of spaghetti westerns to Chastity. Here she imagines she strides like Clint Eastwood, cigarette in mouth rather than a cigar as she brings law and order…

When neatly packaged male body parts are washed up on the river Elbe the police are stumped, they have head, hands and feet but no torso. A policewoman remarks to Chastity that the parcels are too well wrapped to have been done by a man. Then parts of a second body wash up. A pattern developed; both victims were men who treated women abominably.

Klatsche finds Chastity’s best friend Carla in a terrible state, she’s been brutally attacked by two men. Chastity persuades Carla to report the attack to the police, but she discovers that to them it’s just another case number added to a log jammed system. Progress is slow, almost to a state of callous disregard.

Another scorching addition to a fabulous series, one that slices to the heart of the matter, the ill treatment of women by some men. I’m sure it’s happened throughout human history, but in our modern civilised world it is still far too common. A timely novel as women’s hard-fought rights are under threat.   

The author has a very individual style, with pared back prose where all superfluous words and actions are excised, leaving a story with laser like focus. What the reader is left with is a series of remarkable character vignettes, some weird, some funny, whilst others are touching, interspaced with events ranging from bizarre to the mundane. This slightly staccato form may not be to every reader’s taste but it’s never dull or boring. The prose is sharp, concise and at times very witty; the chapters are short and punchy, one being merely a single sentence, but somehow they seem just right. A perfect example where less is actually more, the reader focusing on every single word. Once again Rachel Ward does a wonderful job of translating from German but keeping all these characteristics within a text that flows almost rhythmically at times.

There are elements of the hard-boiled, but there are no detailed descriptions of how characters are dress or a cigarette is rolled, instead there is more of a delve into the character and motivation of the key players. The events of this story having a profound effect upon Chastity who is very much a woman of justice, one who believes in the sanctity of the law. Instead, she is first ambivalent and then seriously conflicted, as can be expected when events affect a loved one or someone close. It’s almost as if we can see her moral compass wilding spinning as events unfold and we are presented with a very different Chastity. A bit of moral ambiguity to be faced up to, the obviously question being what we would do in just such a situation.

It is left to Chastity’s former boss Faller to provide the wisdom of the ages. Every day he sits by the old lighthouse with a fishing rod, though he appears to have little interest in catching anything. Like The Buddha masquerading as a garden gnome as he contemplates long-term retirement, it is Faller who provides the equilibrium Chastity so desperately needs.

The story arc may well become apparent, I certainly had more than an inkling, but dare I say may be more enjoyable because of this. In the way that Oliver Hardy comes crashing through a roof or chimney and is hit by a cascade of bricks, we know there will be one final one a couple of seconds later and still we wait and that’s the biggest laugh. Here we have a serious, painful subject suffused with a some very dark and macabre humour that enhances the message rather than diluting it. The balance is perfection.

The dialogue is a joy, succinct and punchy, buzzing along with a sense of energy. Chastity is a whip smart wit with a knack for the well timed put down or withering rebuke, even when they are not vocalised.

The imagery of life in kitchens and butchery figure throughout, amongst the short diversions are how to eviscerate and prepare a pig along with a recipe for black pudding, actions necessary for the diner to experience sumptuous meals. It also proves to be something of a metaphor for aspects of humanity we try to ignore.    

In The Kitchen violence against women is spatchcocked for all to see and served with a piquant sauce of macabre humour. As they say if you can’t stand the heat…

The Kitchen can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. At university, she studied Philosophy and Literature, worked as a waitress and a columnist, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg. In 2016, Simone Buchholz was awarded the Crime Cologne Award as well as runner-up in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. The critically acclaimed Beton Rouge, Mexico Street, Hotel Cartagena and River Clyde all followed in the Chastity Riley series, with The Acapulco out in 2023. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.

The translator

Rachel Ward is a freelance translator of literary and creative texts from German and French to English. Having always been an avid reader and enjoyed word games and puzzles, she discovered a flair for languages at school and went on to study modern languages at the University of East Anglia. She spent the third year working as a language assistant at two grammar schools in Saaebrücken, Germany. During her final year, she realised that she wanted to put these skills and passions to use professionally and applied for UEA’s MA in Literary Translation, which she completed in 2002. Her published translations include Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang and Red Rage by Brigitte Blobel, and she is a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting.

Don’t forget to check out the other great reviews on this blog tour: