Or the Bull Kills You
By Jason Webster

"Either you kill the bull, or the bull kills you." Chief Inspector Max Cámara thinks in proverbs,and he hates one thing above all: bullfighting. One hot afternoon in Valencia, however, he has to stand in for his boss, judging a festival corrida starring Spain’s most famous young matador. That night, he is back in the bullring, and what he finds on the blood-stained sand shocks the city of Valencia to its core. Cámara is roped into investigating a grisly murder while dealing with violent shadows from his own past, as well as confronting the suspiciousness of the bullfighting community and the stonewalling of local politicians in full electoral campaign. To top it all, Fallas, the loudest fiesta in the country, has just got underway. For Cámara, it seems his problems have only just begun... (Book Description)

I really enjoy reading mysteries set abroad because the author tends to bring so much of the local flair and culture, both the good and the bad. I have never been to Spain and all I knew about bullfighting was what I learned from cartoons as a child (i.e.: angry snorting bull, red flag), so Mr. Webster had a big task ahead of him when I picked up this book. He did a fantastic job at explaining the history of bullfighting and the significance it has to the local culture. But the thing I really appreciated was that Webster showed both sides of the issue, the benefits bullfighting for the local economy and spirit (the aficionados), the political aspects of the historical event (both the corrupt and the not-so corrupt), and the environmentalists who are staunchly against the killing of innocent animals. I learned a lot.

That being said, the actual mystery aspect of the book was just so-so, the strength of this novel really was in the rich history and culture of bullfighting. The second book in the series A Death in Valencia is coming out soon.

Posted by Shiela

With St. Patrick's Day fast approaching, it was just coincidence that I picked up Adrian McKinty's The Cold Cold Ground, a 5-star read for me.

This is Book # 1 with Sean Duffy, a detective sergeant in 1980s Northern Ireland, in the Troubles Trilogy.

MBTB mini-review: I enjoyed the young protagonist’s wry sense of humour in a terrible violent time. The case: the discovery of a murdered man with his hand cut off and a different man’s hand left with the body is the beginning of a complex murder investigation. McKinty's description of the time (1981) and the place (Belfast and area) was excellent.

Here's what the Guardian review had to say:
There's food for thought in McKinty's writing, but he is careful not to lose the force of his narrative in introspection. The Cold Cold Ground is a crime novel, fast-paced, intricate and genre to the core. The violence is extreme and the sex is gritty. Duffy's three murder cases are isolated on the surface, but in the dark world of dirty wars, the dead are seldom unconnected, and rarely innocent as they beckon to us from the cold, cold earth...... Read the entire Guardian review here.

Other series set in Ireland that I have liked:
Ken Bruen's series with Jack Taylor, dismissed from the Garda Síochána (Irish police) for drinking, now finding things for people in Galway, Ireland, since “private eye” sounds too much like “informer” to the Irish.
First book: The Guards


Tana French's loosely connected series with police detectives on the murder squad in Dublin, Ireland.
First book: In the Woods

## Related posts:
MBTB mini-review of The Likeness # 2 in the Dublin Murder squad series

MBTB mini-review of Broken Harbor # 4 in the Dublin Murder squad series

Want more? Here's a list in the library online catalogue generated using the key words "mystery stories Ireland"

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Whispering Death
by Garry Disher

British police procedural

Book # 6 with Hal Challis, a Detective Inspector on the Peninsula south-east of Melbourne, Australia

Summary: Hal Challis is in trouble at home and abroad: dressed down by the boss for speaking out about police budget cuts; missing his lover, Ellen Destry, who is overseas on a study tour. But there's plenty to keep his mind off his problems. A rapist in a police uniform stalks Challis's Peninsula beat, there is a serial armed robber headed in his direction and a home invasion that's a little too close to home. Not to mention a very clever, very mysterious female cat burglar who may or may not be planning something on Challis's patch.

If you have an ebook reader, you will have already noticed that a new ebook borrowing site has been added for Regina Public Library card holders:
Freading
Read the description of this collection here, including information about the app you'll need

Here are some tips for finding mysteries in Freading:
- Under Categories, chose Mysteries
and also
- Under Categories, chose Fiction, then scroll to the bottom of the page, and browse through the Subcategories (e.g. Crime, Legal, Mystery & Detective, Suspense, Thrillers)

Overdrive (library2go) is still available.

You can now have more ebooks checked out at the same time (some in Freading and some in library2go). And if you find a book you want in Freading, it is always available to be borrowed - no holds.

Questions? Have a look through the Freading FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Keeper of Lost Causes alternate title: Mercy
by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Nordic noir/police procedural

Book # 1 with Carl Mørck, an experienced homicide detective in Department Q, and his assistant Assad, in Copenhagen, Denmark

from the eurocrime review: "MERCY (also published as THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES) is an excellent debut from Denmark, containing all the elements I like best in crime novels. First, there is a fully rounded detective, Carl Mørck, not only disillusioned, traumatised and lazy but who has lived before the first page, both at work and outside it. Second, there is a believable depiction of the police force, including personal interactions between colleagues and plenty of bureaucracy and politics, infused throughout with black humour. Third, there's a good plot - Mørck is insubordinate and has constantly annoyed his superiors, but cannot be sacked as he's served for many years and has recently been seriously wounded in the course of duty. Therefore he is hived off to set up and run a cold-case department (Q), code for sticking him in the basement and forgetting about him while the mainstream force spends Q's assigned budget on its own investigations. The "cold case" theme has provided a fruitful line for other fictional detectives, and looks set to do the same for Mørck. ..." read more

Not all these books were published in 2012 - my only criteria is that I read them in 2012.
The brief reviews are mine.
Click here to download the entire list and see all 10 mysteries.

Sharon

Graham Hurley: Happy Days (2012)
British police procedural.
Book # 12 with troubled DI Joe Faraday and fellow police officer, now retired Paul Winter, set in Portsmouth, England.

Paul Winter is still working for crime boss Bazza MacKenzie, but wants to get out – he takes an undercover assignment from his friend police officer Jimmy Suttle to get Bazza into trouble. This is the last book in this series, but Hurley has started a new series, using police officer Jimmy Suttle.

First book: Turnstone

* * *

Peter James: Not Dead Yet (2012)

British police procedural.

Book # 8 with D.S. Roy Grace, Sussex, England. Roy’s wife Sandy disappeared years before and he has finally given up looking for her.

Roy is assigned to protect superstar singer Gaia, coming to Brighton to star in a movie. A stalker has not only threatened her, but has already killed her look-alike assistant.

First book: Dead Simple

* * *

Val McDermid: The Retribution (2011)
British police procedural.
Book # 7 with Tony Hill, a psychologist who does criminal profiling for the police, and his friend DI Carol Jordan.

Serial killer Jacko Vance has escaped from prison and starts killing people in revenge for his imprisonment. Carol and Tony are on the list.

First book: The Mermaids Singing

* * *

Ian Rankin: Standing in Another Man’s Grave (2012)
British police procedural.
Book # 19 with the now-retired D.S. John Rebus in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Rebus is now working as a civilian in the cold case unit. The case: the mother of a teenaged girl missing several years ago convinces Rebus to look at the old case. He soon discovers a link to several other similar disappearances of teenage girls along the same stretch of highway, including a recent one. It’s good to have Rebus back.

First book: Knots and Crosses

* * *

Scott Thornley: The Ambitious City (2012)
Canadian police procedural.
Book # 2 with MacNeice, a senior police detective in the fictional Ontario city of Dundurn.
A project to raise a couple ships sunk in the War of 1812 brings several bodies to light – some are very old, but a couple appear to be within the last 10 years. There is also a serial killer attacking and killing young women of colour – we observe some of the killer’s internal conversations – interesting and creepy.

First book: Erasing Memory

## Related posts:

Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2012, part one

and from the previous year:
Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part one

Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part two

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Lewis Man
by Peter May

Investigator/British police procedural

Book # 2 with Fin Macleod, a detective inspector in Edinburgh, returns to his birthplace, the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland

from the eurocrime review: "another fantastic book and every bit as excellent as THE BLACKHOUSE, the first one. Fin McLeod is once again the central character. He has resigned from his job as a detective inspector in Edinburgh and returned to Lewis, in an attempt to rebuild his life, as well as his parents' old house.
Meanwhile, a body has been discovered in the peat. It is originally thought to be one of the prehistoric bog men but the Elvis Presley tattoo on its arm dates it as being rather more recent. ..." read more

Not all these books were published in 2012 - my only criteria is that I read them in 2012.
The brief reviews are mine.

Mark Billingham: Good as Dead (2011)
British police procedural.
Book # 10 with loner DI Tom Thorne in London.

A hostage situation depends on Thorne looking into the supposed suicide of a young man in prison at the request of the hostage-taker, a formerly mild-mannered storekeeper. Even more fast-paced than usual.

First book: Sleepyhead

* * *

Lyndsay Faye: The Gods of Gotham (2012)
Historical/police.
Book # 1 with Timothy Wilde, set in 1845 in New York City. Ex-bartender Wilde is one of the brand new police officers in the new city police force.

The crime was interesting and sad (several bodies of young children have been found buried in a field) but the characters, the city, the politics and the language raise this above the ordinary.

* * *

Charles Finch: A Death in the Small Hours (2012)
Historical/investigator.
Book # 6 with Charles Lenox, consulting detective, Victorian gentleman and new Member of Parliament.

In the countryside seeking privacy, Charles takes a break from speech writing by looking into a series of vandalisms in the village. When a young police officer is murdered, Charles is determined to get to the bottom of it all.

First book: A Beautiful Blue Death

* * *

Tana French: Broken Harbour (2012)
Irish police procedural.
This is one of her books about the Dublin murder squad. This book features murder detective Mick Kennedy.

A young family has been killed in their house in an abandoned development by the beach - the only survivor, the mother, is in intensive care. This is an excellent mix of police procedural and the personal, as Kennedy battles with memories of his childhood connection to the murder location.

* * *

Alex Grecian: The Yard (2012)
Historical/British police procedural.
Book # 1 with newly appointed Scotland Yard detective Walter Day, set in 1889 London.

On his first day on the job, Walter is assigned the case of the murder of a fellow detective, the body found stuffed in a trunk in the train station.

posted by Sharon

Watch for upcoming post: Sharon's Top Mystery Reads of 2011, part two

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Bad Little Falls
by Paul Doiron

Book # 3 with Mike Bowditch, a game warden in Maine

Description: Summoned to a rustic cabin during a blizzard, Maine game warden Mike Bowdich embarks on a dangerous investigation involving a notorious drug dealer, a beautiful woman with a dark past, and her troubled young son. NoveList

The Girls he Adored
By Jonathan Nasaw

Book 1 with FBI Agent E.L Pender

This book appealed to my psychology background and was a real treat. Nasaw does a great job at creating a character who suffers from both the controversial Dissociative Identity Disorder phenomena and all of the implications that go with the disorder, and meshed it so brilliantly with Antisocial Personality Disorder in such a believable way. Max actually reminded me of a new and more twisted Hannibal Lector.

What I loved about this book is the amount of time and detail the author spends developing the antagonist. We go way back into Max’s childhood and learn of the repeated atrocities and abuse that played such a large role in shaping him into the monster he eventually became. You actually felt sorry for the little boy who lost so much at such a young age (which, albeit, doesn’t excuse him from becoming a serial killer when he grew up). So many criminal/forensic/thrillers spend so much time developing the protagonist and focusing on the mere chase of the “bad guy(s)” that they often neglect to fully divulge motives of the killer. Kudos to Nasaw for depicting such a fleshed out antagonist.

Note: Not for the faint of heart

Posted by Shiela

Rebus fans are rejoicing. After a stand-alone (Doors Open), and a couple of books featuring Internal Affairs officer Malcolm Fox (The Complaints, The Impossible Dead), author Ian Rankin has returned to the Edinburgh world of John Rebus, who is now retired from the police force, but working as a civilian on the Cold Case squad.
.

Standing in Another Man's Grave **** ½
by Ian Rankin

Here's what the Guardian review had to say:
Did anyone really believe Ian Rankin was going to stop writing about John Rebus, the cantankerous, alcoholic detective who was retired by his creator, to much mourning, in 2006? In retrospect, we should all have known better: Rankin was always going to find a way to keep Rebus on the page. He's just too good a character to let lie.
In Standing in Another Man's Grave – the book is dedicated to the late Scottish singer Jackie Leven; the title is Rebus's mishearing of Leven's line "another man's rain" – we find Rebus back on the case, working for the serious crime review unit, albeit in a civilian capacity. Still smoking, still drinking, he's looking into cold cases, working "with the long dead, murder victims forgotten by the world at large", when a woman arrives with a story. Her daughter vanished from Aviemore, on the A9, in 1999, and she believes the disappearance of a string of other young women from towns near the road over the next 12 years are linked. She's got nowhere with her theory but Rebus decides to listen, particularly as an ongoing missing person case also has links to the same road. more....

Read the EuroCrime review here.

* * *

See the full series in order here, starting with Knots and Crosses

Related post: MBTB review of Exit Music # 17

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Confession
by Charles Todd

Historical/British police procedural

Book # 14 with Ian Rutledge, a shell-shocked World War I veteran returning to his job at Scotland Yard, in London, England

Description: Declaring he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man evades his questions, revealing only that he hails fromn a village east of London. With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own.

Less than two weeks later, the alleged killer’s body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head. Searching for answers, Rutledge discovers that the dead man was not who he claimed to be. What was his real name — and who put a bullet in his head?

Here's the link to the December 22, 2012 Globe & Mail Crime Fiction review column by Margaret Cannon with the full reviews. These all have Christmas or winter themes.

The Dead of Winter
by Peter Kirby
Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa has brought crime fans a brand-new detective series set in Montreal, and it’s terrific.
Irish-Canadian lawyer Peter Kirby’s Inspector Luc Vanier is just what the readers ordered for a Christmas-themed murder mystery.....read more
.
.
.

* * *

The Snow White Christmas Cookie
by David Handler
Funny, smart and the perfect antidote to the seasonal treacle, The Snow White Christmas Cookie – the ninth novel by David Handler in the excellent Mitch Berger and Desiree Mitry series – turns the Christmas cozy on its head....read more

The series with Mitch Berger, a New York film critic, and Desiree “Des” Mitry, a black police detective, in Dorset, Connecticut starts with The Cold Blue Blood

* * *

A Fatal Winter
by G.M. Malliet
Those who love updated puzzle plots and solid English mysteries need look no further than this superb series featuring Anglican priest/sleuth Max Tudor. Malliet has managed to pay homage to Agatha Christie, while at the same time taking her favoured settings into the 21st century....read more

First book: Wicked Autumn

* * *

All is Clam
by Hilary MacLeod
Mountie Jane Jamison returns in this delightful Christmas confection set in The Shores, that lovely fictional spot just off the coast of Prince Edward Island. There’s not yet snow, but there is murder...read more

Previous books in the Shores mystery series:
Revenge of the Lobster Lover
Mind Over Mussels

posted by Sharon
.
.

Here are a few British police procedurals that looked interesting:

Echoes of the Dead
By Sally Spencer

#3 in the Monika Paniatowski series
Booklist starred review

After serving 22 years for the rape and strangulation murder of 13-year-old Lilly Dawson in 1951 Whitebridge, Lancashire, Fred Howerd, who admitted to the killing, claims his innocence in a deathbed confession to a Catholic priest. Scotland Yard sends Det. Chief Insp. Tom Hall to help Chief Constable George Baxter's team, chiefly Monika, reopen the case, which was the first big case of her retired former boss, Chief Insp. Charlie Woodend, for Scotland Yard's Murder Squad. Monika hopes the truth will clear Woodend or his then sergeant, Ralph Bannerman, of arresting or even framing the wrong man. Spencer unravels a complex cobweb of clues while smoothly flipping back and forth between 1951 and 1973. (Review taken from Publisher's Weekly)

Darkside
By Belinda Bauer

In bleak midwinter, the people of Shipcott are shocked by the murder of an elderly woman in her bed. As snow cuts off the village, local policeman Jonas Holly is torn between catching a brutal killer and protecting his vulnerable wife, Lucy.

When the inquiry is commandeered by an abrasive senior detective, Jonas finds himself derided by his colleagues and ashamed to admit to Lucy that he’s been sidelined. It seems his first murder investigation may be over before it’s begun. But when he receives a series of increasingly sinister anonymous notes, Jonas is thrust back into the center of the case. Someone in the village is taunting him, blaming him for the tragedy. Someone thinks he’s not doing his job; someone seems to know every move he makes. And soon Jonas has to ask: Who’s hunting who? (Book description)

Body Line
By Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

#13 in the Detective Inspector Bill Slider mysteries series
Booklist starred review

Slider's latest case focuses on the murder of Dr. David Rogers, who is killed at home with an execution-style shot to the head. The more Slider and his team investigate, the more puzzling the case gets. Rogers appears to have no next of kin except his ex-wife, who claims she hasn't spoken to him in years. He lived a luxurious lifestyle on a modest income from a company that doesn't exist. He was a womanizer whose numerous girlfriends claim he was a respected doctor, but no hospital has him on their books. Leads are thin on the ground, and motive, means, and opportunity are impossible to substantiate. But eventually the case breaks wide open, and Slider and his team win kudos for solving a crime with international implications. (Taken from Booklist)

Aftermath
By Peter Turnbull

Those with a hankering for a solid police procedural with no distracting subplots will welcome this gripping entry in British author Turnbull's long-running series featuring George Hennessey and Somerled Yellich (Deliver Us from Evil, etc.). When solicitor John Seers inspects the kitchen garden of a vacant mansion while taking inventory, he discovers five mostly skeletal human bodies. Each of the victims was restrained—gagged as well as chained by the wrists behind the back and by the ankle to a large concrete block. The Yorkshire police have a tall order to identify the victims and find out who systematically left them to die a cruel death. True to form, the members of Hennessey's team doggedly search for a common thread uniting the five. (Taken from Publisher's Weekly)

Happy Reading!

Posted by Shiela

I am longing for the days when I was on vacation in London and to keep the memory alive, I have decided to go through my "to-read" list and pull out some mysteries set in England.

A Corpse at St. Andrew's Chapel (2010)
By Melvin Starr

A Medieval Mystery set in Brampton, England
2nd title in a series

This second Hugh de Singleton mystery (after The Unquiet Bones ) once again features Master Hugh, who is both bailiff and physician at Bampton Manor. In this suspense-filled tale, the beadle of the manor sets out to find and bring back anyone breaking curfew, but he never returns home. The officer's wife pleads with Master Hugh to search for clues and solve his disappearance. (Description taken from Library Journal)

The Drowned Ones (2010)
by Melvin Starr

Set in Redditch, Worcestershire England 1827

When the battered and bloated bodies of, first, a lowly servant girl and then a loutish barge worker surface in the fetid waters of the canal outside Worcestershire’s hardscrabble Tardebigge Parish, the unsavory task of investigating their deaths falls to beleaguered Constable Thomas Potts. Armed with a rudimentary knowledge of forensic science, a relentlessly inquisitive mind, and a righteous sense of fair play, the unlikely detective determines that both victims were murdered before being tossed into the drink, a conclusion roundly discounted by his parish superiors. Potts can’t shake the feeling that more victims are at risk, yet he is forbidden from officially pursuing the investigation. As Potts repeatedly risks his own life to bring justice to those who have lost theirs, the violence escalates in sinister and sinful ways. Fraser’s improbable constable is a marvel of cunning and a mass of contradictions: meek yet daring, intelligent yet naive, romantic yet resigned. (Review from Booklist)

Seizure (2010)
By Nick Oldham

Book #14 in the Henry Christie Mystery series
Police Procedural set in Lancashire, England

Newly promoted Detective Superintendent Henry Christie could do without dealing with Felix Deakin, a convicted drug dealer serving a heavy prison sentence, who suddenly volunteers some new evidence that could be crucial in an upcoming murder trial. But things go horribly wrong when Deaken escapes from custody and kidnaps a disgraced ex-cop's some to use as a bargaining chip...(Book Description)

A Nice Place to Die (2011)
By Jane McLoughlin

Historical Police Procedural set in Catacombe, England, 1568

The ancient village of Catcombe, scene of a horrible crime in 1568, is now a modern housing development. It is also the home of a very dysfunctional family, whose children terrorize the neighbors. When the young vicar of the church is murdered while making a house call, DCI Rachel Moody and her colleagues cannot find a motive. It's clear, though, that the residents are keeping many secrets. DCI Moody, new to the area and working hard to prove herself in a sexist department, refuses to give up. A solid procedural and a revealing look at an insular community. (Description taken from Booklist)

The Other Side of the Door (2010)
By Nicci French

Contemporary Thriller set in London

At the start of this pitch-perfect thriller from British author French, the husband-wife team of Sean French and Nicci Gerard, band singer Bonnie finds her summer fling boyfriend and fellow band member, Hayden, dead on the floor of a friend's London apartment. She proceeds to hide the corpse and obliterate every sign of her presence at the crime scene. This course of action is, predictably, full of pitfalls. Hayden's well-known involvement with other women could have provided Bonnie a motive for murder. To complicate matters, at least one more person appears to have altered the crime scene. Told in a tantalizing series of flashbacks, the narrative draws you into the inner world of the protagonist, a tough cookie who nevertheless endures a relationship that's so abusive the reader is never quite sure that she did not, in fact, snap. (from Publisher's Weekly)

Happy Reading!!

Posted by Shiela