I find some of my best new mysteries from these lists: The Booklist Year's Best Crime Fiction Debuts

This annual list includes crime fiction reviewed in Booklist since last Year's Best Crime Novels list (essentially from May 2012).

Booklist's Top 10 Crime Fiction Debuts 2013
The mini-reviews are from Booklist

The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderberg 2013
Suspense. Sophie Brinkman trilogy # 1

Swedish author Soderberg claims the coveted Booklist Mystery Showcase daily double by placing on both our crime fiction top 10 lists. FYI: Stieg Larsson didn’t do that.
Here is the Booklist mini-review:
Superficial similarities to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008) aside, this gripping Scandinavian crime novel, the first in a trilogy, deserves to stand entirely on its own. Sophie Brinkman seems an unassuming nurse and single mother, but after she finds herself in the middle of a Swedish gang war, she steps up and shows her Lisbeth Salander mettle. A fast-paced thriller whose multi-stranded plot holds together as exquisitely as finely wound silk.
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The Beggar’s Opera by Peggy Blair 2013

Blair’s exciting debut stars Inspector Ricardo Ramirez, the troubled head of Havana’s Major Crimes Unit, who has a hot potato of a case on his hands involving a Canadian policeman suspected of murder. Blair interweaves the stories of cop and suspect beautifully, but she also invests Havana geography (with its decaying buildings and rusted American cars) with new vigor.
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Black Fridays by Michael Sears 2012

A sad-sack investment broker goes to prison for fiddling the books, then loses his wife, and now finds himself trying to raise his autistic son on his own. Then a job comes along: investigate someone else fiddling books. The writing is fresh and vivid, and the portrait of pension-stealing Wall Street greedheads is harrowing.
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East of Denver by Gregory Hill 2012

Stacey “Shakespeare” Williams returns to the family farm in eastern Colorado to bury his cat and winds up planning a bank robbery with “a paralyzed asshole, an anorexic fatso, and my prematurely senile father.” A little country noir and a lot of black comedy equal a terrific opening salvo from a very talented writer.
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Ghostman by Roger Hobbs 2013

Like Alexander Soderberg, Hobbs pulls off the daily double, landing on our overall top 10 and our top 10 crime debuts. Nicely done for the twenty-something Hobbs, who sold his novel to an agent on the day he graduated from college.
Here's the Booklist mini-review:
Jack White is the Ghostman, a pseudonymous loner living far off the grid who specializes in disappearing. After high-level heists, he makes sure that all traces of the capers vanish. Except one time it didn’t work, and the organizer of that job wants Jack dead. First-novelist Hobbs possesses that rare ability for first unleashing and then shrewdly directing a tornado of a plot, but he also evokes Elmore Leonard in the subtle interplay of his characters.

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A Good Death by Christopher R. Cox 2013

PI Sebastian Damon travels to Bangkok to investigate the death of a Laotian refugee who ultimately became vice president of a Boston bank. So begins a story that channels Conrad, Kipling, and Francis Ford Coppola. An insightful, transcendent adventure.
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The Old Turk’s Load by Gregory Gibson 2013

It’s 1967, and a shipment of the world’s finest heroin goes missing en route to Angelo DiNoto, New Jersey’s top crime boss. Gibson’s elliptical, ever-evolving plot combines Raymond Chandler complexity and Donald E. Westlake comic haplessness into a thoroughly original whole.
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Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason 2013

Mason hooks the reader with her first sentence, “There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard.” Even less when the bodies keep piling up, but their provenance remains murky. An astonishingly accomplished debut.
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The Thing about Thugs by Tabish Khair 2012

At first glance, this slim Victorian thriller seems no more than an exposé of British imperialism wrapped in a Kill Bill plot. Soon, though, the reader is drawn into a deeply thought-provoking literary suspense novel that evokes Collins and Dickens.
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The Twenty-Year Death by Ariel S. Winter 2012

Former bookseller Winter tells an epic tale in the form of three novels written in the style of three different crime-fiction legends: Simenon, Chandler, and Jim Thompson. What might seem at first like an amusing exercise for mystery buffs becomes by the end immersive, exhilarating, and revelatory.
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## Related MBTB post: Booklist: The Year's Best Crime Novels
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posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Coroner
by M.R. Hall

Book # 1 with Jenny Cooper, a small-town lawyer newly appointed as Severn Vale District Coroner, in Gloucestershire, England

Description: When lawyer Jenny Cooper is appointed Severn Vale District Coroner, she's hoping for a quiet life and space to recover from a traumatic divorce, but the office she inherits from the recently deceased Harry Marshall contains neglected files hiding dark secrets and a trail of buried evidence. Could the tragic death in custody of a young boy be linked to the apparent suicide of a teenage prostitute and the fate of Marshall himself? Jenny embarks on a lonely and dangerous one-woman crusade for justice which threatens not only her career but also her sanity.

This is one of my favourite lists: The Booklist Year's Best Crime Novels

This annual list includes crime fiction reviewed in Booklist since last Year's Best Crime Novels list (essentially from May 2012).

Booklist's Top 10 Crime Novels 2013
The mini-reviews are from Booklist

The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderberg 2013
Suspense. Sophie Brinkman trilogy # 1

Superficial similarities to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008) aside, this gripping Scandinavian crime novel, the first in a trilogy, deserves to stand entirely on its own. Sophie Brinkman seems an unassuming nurse and single mother, but after she finds herself in the middle of a Swedish gang war, she steps up and shows her Lisbeth Salander mettle. A fast-paced thriller whose multi-stranded plot holds together as exquisitely as finely wound silk.

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The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny 2012
Canadian police procedural. # 8 with Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, in the village of Three Pines, in southern Quebec

Penny’s latest begins when the choir director of a monastery in a remote corner of Quebec is murdered. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir are charged with finding a killer among a group of largely silent monks, whose recording of Gregorian chants has made them famous. Roiling human passion set against the sublime serenity of the chants produces a melody of uncommon complexity and beauty.

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Dare Me by Megan Abbott 2012

Cheerleading noir? In Abbott’s bloodstained hands, why not? When a new coach upends the power structure behind a high-school cheer team, the ousted captain lashes back with stunning ferocity. This is cheerleading as blood sport, Bring It On meets Fight Club — just try putting it down.

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Ghostman by Roger Hobbs 2013

Jack White is the Ghostman, a pseudonymous loner living far off the grid who specializes in disappearing. After high-level heists, he makes sure that all traces of the capers vanish. Except one time it didn’t work, and the organizer of that job wants Jack dead. First-novelist Hobbs possesses that rare ability for first unleashing and then shrewdly directing a tornado of a plot, but he also evokes Elmore Leonard in the subtle interplay of his characters.

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 2012

When Nick Dunne’s beautiful and clever wife, Amy, goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary, the media descend on the Dunnes’ Missouri McMansion with all the fury of a Dateline episode. In the year’s biggest crossover best-seller, Flynn combines a corkscrew of a plot with her own twisted sense of humor. A compelling thriller and a searing portrait of a marriage.

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Live by Night by Dennis Lehane 2012

Lehane’s latest historical thriller continues the author’s propulsive narrative train ride across twentieth-century American history. This time the train stops during Prohibition, and the individual focus is on Joe Coughlin, a Boston cop’s son by birth but a gangster by choice. A magnetic re-imagining of the great themes of popular fiction—crime, family, passion, betrayal—set against an exquisitely rendered historical backdrop.

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The Rage by Gene Kerrigan 2013

If you like hard-boiled Irish thrillers in the Ken Bruen mold, and you don’t know about Kerrigan, you’re at least two Guinnesses behind. This tense, thoughtful thriller about an armored-car robbery gets into the heads of both the robber and the Dublin copper who tracks him. Start the word-of-mouth going: Kerrigan is the real deal.

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Shatter the Bones by Stuart MacBride 2012
British police procedural. Book # 7 with Logan McRae, a detective sergeant in Aberdeen, Scotland

MacBride’s seventh Logan McRae novel, starring the Aberdeen, Scotland, police detective, may be the most harrowing yet—and that’s saying something. The crimes (two kidnappings) are breathtakingly awful, the pacing is breakneck, and the stakes are higher than ever. There’s little comfort in the bleak ending, but still: Brilliant. Bloody. Brilliant.

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Suspect by Robert Crais 2012

Two PTSD sufferers — Scott, an LAPD cop, and Maggie, a German shepherd veteran of the Iraq War—bond during tryouts for the department’s K-9 unit and soon join forces to solve a murder. Who would have thought that the most multifaceted and appealing new protagonist in crime fiction this year would be a hard-boiled dog?

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What Comes Next by John Katzenbach 2012

An abducted teenager. A perverted villain (or villains). A chase to save the victim. These are not unfamiliar ingredients in crime fiction, but Katzenbach reinvents the formula several times over in this absolutely gripping novel. Combining the intricacy of psychological fiction with the pulse-pounding narrative of plot-driven suspense, this is certainly among the most original thrillers of the year.

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Watch for upcoming post Booklist Top Crime Fiction Debuts, coming soon.

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
Scratch Deeper
by Chris Simms

British police procedural

Book # 1 with Iona Khan, a feisty detective constable in the Counter Terrorism Unit, in Manchester, England

Description: Detective Constable Iona Khan investigates when a Sri Lankan student begins asking suspicious questions about Manchester's tunnel system prior to the start of the Labour Party conference.

The Mystery Memo is a log of all of my mystery reading, with brief comments and a star rating for each book read. It is published every 4 to 6 weeks.

This Mystery Memo has one perfect read: Sara J. Henry's Learning to Swim, described below.

The following selections from my Mystery Memo # 116 features crime solvers who are not paid investigators like private eyes or police officers of any kind. They include journalists (Jan Burke's Irene Kelly, Julie Kramer's Riley Spartz), workers in forensics (Kathryn Fox's pathologist Dr. Anya Crichton, Ellie Griffith's forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway) and just plain amateur sleuths (Charles Todd's new series with World War I nurse, Bess Crawford and Sara Henry's young protagonist Troy Chance who sees a child fall off a ferry)

Click here to download the entire Mystery Memo # 116 and see all 16 mysteries.

Jan Burke: Disturbance (2011) ****
Journalist/investigator
Book # 11 with reporter Irene Kelly in southern California
The serial killer in Bones (# 7 in series) has recovered from a serious injury and escapes from prison, determined to take vengeance against Irene. Half way through the book, he kidnaps her with the help of several of his sons. This was a fine action/adventure mystery, but it would be best to read at least Bones before this one.
First book: Goodnight, Irene
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Kathryn Fox: Death Mask (2011) *** ½
Forensics.
Book # 4 with freelance pathologist and forensic physician Dr. Anya Crichton.

Anya has been invited to give workshops to professional football players about sexual behaviour. After several young football players with a connection to the same high school end up dead, she helps investigate. A complex plot but with less forensics than the others in the series.
First book: Malicious Intent

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Elly Griffiths: The House at Sea’s End (2011) ****
Amateur detective/British police procedural.
Book # 3 with Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist.

Several bodies found in a seaside cave turn out to be German soldiers from WW2. A German researcher comes to town claiming he knows who they are but then he is murdered. Someone is determined to keep the secret of who killed these men, but Ruth and her sometime lover DCI Nelson are on the trail. This series is strongly character-driven with good archaeology content.
First book: The Crossing Places
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Sara J. Henry: Learning to Swim (2011) *****
Amateur sleuth
Book # 1 with Troy Chance, a young woman who works in Lake Placid, NY.

While on a ferry trip across the lake, Troy thinks she sees a child fall from a passing ferry. Without thinking, she jumps in and yes, a 6-year-old boy has been tied into a sweatshirt and is underwater. She rescues him and heroically swims to shore. The pace hardly slows down after she traces the boy’s father to Ottawa and accompanies the child back home. Troy is determined to get to the bottom of who threw the child in the water. Enthralling writing style, a good balanced character in Troy and an interesting narrative voice. A great read.
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Julie Kramer: Silencing Sam (2010) *** ½
Journalist.
Book # 3 with television journalist Riley Spartz

Riley is the main suspect in the murder of a local gossip columnist. While trying to prove her innocence, she also tackles stories at a wind farm troubled by bombs. I find Riley’s point of view interesting.
First book: Stalking Susan
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Charles Todd: An Impartial Witness (2010) *** ½
Historical/Amateur sleuth.
Book # 2 with war nurse Bess Crawford, set in England during WW1.

After Bess travels to England with a seriously injured pilot who constantly carries a photograph of his beloved wife, she sees the woman from the photo having an emotional scene with another man at the train station. When the woman is soon found murdered, Bess comes forward to the police with her information and gets involved looking into the woman’s life.
First book: A Duty to the Dead

posted by Sharon

WHAT I'M READING NOW:
The Devil's Dust
by C.B. Forrest

Canadian police procedural/investigator

Book # 3 with Charlie McKelvey, a 30-year veteran Toronto police detective, newly retired.

Description: Retired Toronto detective Charlie McKelvey runs from a cancer diagnosis and the violent memories of the big city and retreats to his hometown. A small declining mining centre in northern Ontario, Ste. Bernadette offers McKelvey a chance to resolve old family issues, including his fathers involvement in a deadly wildcat strike in the late 1950s.
When the local police force enlists his help in tracing an upswing in youth violence and vandalism, McKelvey stumbles into the hornets nest of a crystal meth industry....
First book: The Weight of Stones

Lee Child recently received the the Diamond Dagger Achievement Award. See the article in The Guardian.

This award is given by the Crime Writers' Association for a Lifetime's Achievement.

Here's the series listed in order on Stop, You're Killing Me! with Jack Reacher, ex-military policeman in the USA:
First book: Killing Floor

The most recent: A Wanted Man # 17
Book description: Nebraska - and Jack Reacher, huge, hulking and with a freshly busted nose, is still trying to hitch a ride east to Virginia. He's picked up by three strangers - two men and a woman.
Immediately he knows they're all lying about something - and then they run into a police roadblock on the highway. But they get through. Because the three are innocent? Or because the three are now four?
Is Reacher a decoy?

## Related posts:
MBTB review of Bad Luck and Trouble # 11

MBTB review of 61 Hours # 14

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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

This list was published in the Globe & Mail December 7, 2012.
The mini-reviews following the book titles are Cannon's.

GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn

One of the best mystery plots I’ve ever read. Unexpected, unguessable, altogether great.
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DEFENDING JACOB, by William Landay

Brilliantly plotted, with great characters and an unforgettable ending.
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THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY, by Louise Penny
# 8 with Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, in the village of Three Pines, in southern Quebec

Murder in a monastery. The book mixes music and history, and is Penny’s best to date.
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CREOLE BELLE, by James Lee Burke
# 19 with Dave Robicheaux, a deputy sheriff in New Iberia, Louisiana

A master class for all aspiring crime writers, as Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel fight personal demons and unravel a murder.
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STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN’S GRAVE, by Ian Rankin
# 18 with John Rebus, a detective sergeant in Edinburgh, Scotland

John Rebus returns to duty to solve a very cold case.
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MISSION TO PARIS, by Alan Furst

It’s Paris in 1938, and a Hollywood star is spying on Hitler’s Germany. The best espionage novel of the year.
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UNTIL THE NIGHT, by Giles Blunt
# 6 with John Cardinal, a police detective near Algonquin Bay, Ontario, Canada

John Cardinal returns in another Algonquin Bay mystery, and Blunt remains one of Canada’s best crime authors.
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THE IMPEACHMENT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, by Stephen L. Carter

One of the best alternative history novels ever, period.
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THE VANISHING POINT, by Val McDermid

Riveting tale with a complex plot and unforgettable characters.
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BEASTLY THINGS, by Donna Leon
# 21 with Guido Brunetti, a police commissario in Venice, Italy

One of the best of the Guido Brunetti books. Leon never disappoints, but this one is special.

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Watch for the upcoming post Sharon's Top Mystery Reads 2012
posted by Sharon

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.
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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.

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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 are two "first books" in promising new series. They both have a Scotland Yard connection. I read both of these last weekend:

The Yard by Alex Grecian **** ½

Historical British police procedural
# 1 with newly appointed Scotland Yard detective Walter Day, London.

Here's what the Booklist review had to say: In his debut novel, Grecian powerfully evokes both the physical, smog-ridden atmosphere of London in 1889 and its emotional analogs of anxiety and depression. It’s the year after Jack the Ripper has apparently stopped his depredations. Among the Ripper’s victims were the London police, especially the 12-member “Murder Squad,” which endured ridicule from both “Saucy Jack” and the public for its bumbling failure to solve the case. But the squad is still at work investigating homicides as Grecian’s tale begins.
Mixing fact and fiction (the Murder Squad did exist), Grecian has one of the squad’s own, Detective Christian Little, discovered rolled up in a steamer trunk in London’s Euston Station, his eyes and mouth sewn shut. The newest (fictional) member of the squad, Detective Inspector Walter Day, is assigned to investigate, aided by the first forensic pathologist in Britain, Dr. Bernard Kingsley (based on Dr. Bernard Spilsbury). More murder, both of police and of a chimney sweep, and more outrage follow. Grecian’s infusion of actual history adds to this thriller's credibility and punch. A deeply satisfying reconstruction of post-Ripper London.

MBTB mini-review: Victorian London comes to life in this historical police procedural. The characters are appealing. I found myself rooting for newly appointed Scotland Yard inspector Walter Day, Constable Hammersmith, brilliant beyond his station, and the ground-breaking pathologist Dr. Kingsley. I'm sure the beginning of evidence-based police work came together a little slower than we see in the book, but it was a great read. It reminded me a bit of Caleb Carr's The Alienist.

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Walking Into The Ocean by David Whellams **** ½

British police procedural
# 1 with semi-retired Scotland Yard detective Peter Camamon. This book takes place in a small coastal community.

Here's what the Library Journal review had to say:
/* Starred Review */ Semiretired Scotland Yard detective Peter Cammon is called to help an overwhelmed Dorset police department. An apparent husband-and-wife drowning murder-suicide is not resolving cleanly since the husband's body has not been recovered. Meanwhile, an elusive serial killer is steadily moving up the picturesque English coastline, ever closer to this area, killing teen girls at a systematic clip. When Peter teases out the connections between the missing husband and a shady car-export business, he finally gets the break needed to open up that case. An unexpected trip to Malta adds to the swelling adventure tone, but when Peter returns to Dorset, the loose threads from both cases come together in a stunning conclusion.
VERDICT Don't miss this engrossing and complex debut, the first volume in a projected trilogy. Rich prose, literary allusion, and a strong nod to women's intuition provide a romantic touch to a crack police procedural. It's perfect for those who love travel and history mixed with crime.

MBTB mini-review: I found the quirky character of Peter Cammon appealing. I'm in the midst of watching all the Poirot series on DVD and Cammon reminded me a little bit of Poirot, in a good way. Cammon still likes to investigate in the old way, observing the evidence, interviewing people, and following his hunches.

posted by Sharon