Book review: Just Take My Heart - Mary Higgins Clark

Title: Just Take My Heart

Author: Mary Higgins Clark

FICTION

Genre: Crime.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Take-Heart-Higgins-Clark/dp/1849834717/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Star rating: 7.0 out of 10.0

Buy: No

Borrow: Yes

Summary: After famous Broadway actress Natalie Raines is found in her home, dying from a gunshot wound, police immediately suspect her theatrical agent and jealous soon-to-be-ex-husband, Gregg Aldrich. But no charges are brought against him until two years later, when a career criminal on a burglary charge claims Aldrich had tried to hire him to kill her. 

The case is an important assignment for 32-year-old assistant prosecutor Emily Wallace. She spends long hours preparing for the trial, and unaware of a seemingly well-meaning neighbour’s violent past, gives him a key to her home to care for her dog. 

The high-profile trial makes headlines — especially when she experiences sentiments that defy all reason and continue even after the jury decides Gregg Aldrich’s fate. 

But little does she know, now her own life is at risk.

Main review: 

When Natalie Raines, famous Broadway star, is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound, her former husband, Gregg Aldrich, whom she was in the process of divorcing, is the chief suspect. What no one knows is that, only days before she was murdered, Natalie accidentally came face to face with the man who killed her former roommate, Jamie Evans several years ago. 

Two years later, career criminal Jimmy Easton, comes forward to claim that Aldrich hired him to kill his wife, but he turned the job down. Based on Easton's testimony, Gregg is charged with the murder of his wife. 

Handling the case is Emily Wallace, a 32-year-old widowed assistant prosecutor. As Aldrich's trial is making headlines, Emily's boss, Ted Wesley, warns her that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant. And, during the trial, Emily experiences sentiments which defy all reason and continue after Gregg Aldrich's fate is decided by the jury. 

In the meantime, she does not realize that her own life is now at risk.

Further reading suggestion: All Dressed in White - https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Dressed-White-Under-Suspicion/dp/147114870X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Book review: Off Minor - John Harvey

Title: Off Minor

Author: John Harvey

FICTION

Genre: Crime.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Off-Minor-Resnick-John-Harvey/dp/0099585693/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Star rating: 6.5 out of 10.0

Buy: No

Borrow: Yes

Summary: Six years old Gloria Summers’ body has been found by an abattoir worker on a date, hidden inside two plastic bin bags in a disused warehouse. Somewhere in the city, a child killer is on the loose, free to strike again. 

Then Emily Morrison - also six - vanishes on a sunny Sunday afternoon from her back garden. A week later there are still no clues. Inspector Charlie Resnick is as appalled as everyone else. But years of patient police work have taught him that those who jump to easy conclusions are often the last ones to solve a crime.

Main review: 

Two months after she disappears, a six-year-old child is found dead.

Raymond Cooke is looking for revenge. It’s been six weeks since the gang of four young punks attacked him, since the one with the knife slit open his belly and left him to die on the street. After that Raymond bought a knife of his own, and has spent his nights lurking in Nottingham’s worst pubs, hoping for a chance at vengeance. Instead, on a date with someone new one night, he encounters a smell that reminds him of his work at the abattoir. It’s coming from the body of Gloria Summers.

For over two months, police inspector Charlie Resnick has looked for the missing six-year-old. Now that she’s been found, Raymond Cooke becomes Resnick’s chief suspect. But to find the killer, the detective may have to look within the girl’s own family.

Eventually someone is caught and confesses to the murder of Gloria.  But he swears blind that he had nothing to do with Emily.  So, who took Emily and is she still alive? You will have to read this to find out!

"Off Minor is a police procedural story plotted on acts of gross inhumanity yet infused with common humanity. These characters are breathing entities, so convincing and so compelling that crime detection and absorbing personal dramas become one and the same.” —New York Daily News

Further reading suggestion: Cold in n Hand - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Hand-Resnick-John-Harvey/dp/0099505649/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Book review: The False Inspector Dew - Peter Lovesey

Title: The False Inspector Dew

Author: Peter Lovesey

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/False-Inspector-Dew-Peter-Lovesey/dp/0751553573/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Summary:  The book is set in 1921, and Alma Webster, a florist and reader of romances, thinks she is passionately in love with her dentist, Walter Baranov. There is only one foreseeable outcome: the murder of his wife, Lydia.

Inspired by the real-life Dr Crippen case, they plot a way to achieve it perfectly aboard the ocean liner, Mauretania. 

With a fine sense of irony, Baranov takes the identity of Inspector Dew, Crippen's nemesis. But when a murder is reported aboard the ship and 'Inspector Dew' is invited to investigate, life becomes very complicated for Walter.

Main review: 

The False Inspector Dew takes place in the early 1920s. Alma Webster, a florist, is a romantically-inclined woman of 28 and no experience with the opposite sex, falls madly in love with her dentist, Walter Baranov. Walter is married to Lydia a demanding, self-centered and wealthy actress and comes to appreciate the unswerving devotion of Alma. There is just one obstacle to their grand passion - Lydia. When she announces her plans to give up the stage in England for an imagined career in the growing American film industry; and that those plans involve Walter leaving his dentist practice (which she paid for) and joining her in America, Walter and Alma hatch a plot to remove her. 

Lydia sets about selling the dental practice and their home, packing up their belongings, and booking passage on the Mauretania, but Walter tells her he refuses to go. He then books his own passage under a false name - choosing by a quirk of humor to sail under the name Walter Dew, the name of a retired famous Scotland Yard Inspector. Alma, who fortunately resembles his wife, will sneak aboard and stand ready to take Lydia's place once Walter kills her and stuffs her through a convenient port hole. 

Things seem to have gone smoothly - Lydia is gone, Alma slips into her shoes, and Walter prepares to spend the voyage in the obscurity of second class. But then their plans fall apart ... a woman's body is spotted in the water, a couple of card-sharpers get involved, "Inspector Dew" is called upon to help the captain and his crew get to the bottom of things, and someone takes a potshot at the "detective" as he does his best to live up to his namesake's reputation. 

Lovesey provides plenty of twists and turns as it seems that few people on board the Cunard vessel are really who they seem to be. It will be a clever armchair detective, indeed, who anticipates the final twist. Lovesey expertly sets the reader up for certain scenarios and then, with a quick flick of the wrist changes things up in the most logical manner. 

Further reading suggestion: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008K5T42W/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Book review: A Good Day to Die - Simon Kernick

Title: A Good Day to Die

Author: Simon Kernick

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003JTHFRA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Summary:  Ex-detective Dennis Milne's best friend has been brutally executed, and Milne wants to know who did it - and why; and to seek revenge.

However, London is a dangerous place for a man like Milne. Because although his former colleagues don't know he's back in town, it soon becomes clear other people do. And that they'll stop at nothing to get him out of the way.

From the relaxed beaches of the Philippines to the mean streets of London, a hunt for justice becomes a terrifying struggle for survival.

Main review: 

When Dennis Milne - now living under an assumed identity in the Philippines- learns that his old friend and police colleague Malik has been gunned down in a restaurant, he decides to go back to the city he once called home and bring the murderer to justice. 

Milne arrives in a pre-Christmas London that is cold and hostile. But he is no longer a policeman; no longer charged with keeping the peace and upholding the law. Although his old friends at the King's Cross police station do not know that he is back in town, it soon becomes clear that his arrival has been expected by men who are after his blood. 

Hungry for revenge and determined to uphold his own very rough brand of justice, Milne searches for the person behind his friend's demise, involving the help of a crime reporter interested in the same set of crimes - and leaves a trail of death and destruction more wide-reaching than even he could have expected. 

The climax is somewhat unexpected but nonetheless logical and not contrived. That's the power of Kernick's writing.

Further reading suggestion: The Witness - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witness-Simon-Kernick/dp/0099579154/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1476360972&sr=1-1-spell

Book review: The Man Who Smiled - Henning Mankell

Title: The Man Who Smiled

Author: Henning Mankell

FICTION

Genre: Detective, thriller

Ranking: 7.5 out of 10.0

Buy: Maybe

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Who-Smiled-Kurt-Wallander/dp/0099571722/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Summary:  The Man Who Smiled begins with Wallander deep in a personal and professional crisis after killing a man in the line of duty; he wants to quit the Ystad police force. However, a lawyer who had asked Wallander to look into the death of his father winds up dead himself, shot three times. Ann-Britt Hoglund, the department's first female detective, proves to be his best ally as he tries to pierce the facade of his prime suspect, a powerful multinational business tycoon. But just as he comes close to uncovering the truth, the same shadowy threats responsible for the murders close in on Wallander himself. 

Main review: 

Spiralling into an alcohol-fuelled depression after killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Kurt Wallander has made up his mind to quit the police force. 

When a lawyer seeks Wallander's help to investigate the suspicious circumstances in which his father has died, Kurt hesitates. But when his contact turns up dead, shot three times, Wallander decides he needs to do something. 

He returns to work and is welcomed back and asked to head a double murder case. An reclusive business tycoon seems to be the common denominator in the two deaths. But while Wallander is on the trail of the killer, somebody is on the trail of Wallander, and closing in fast.

All of Mankell's talents as a master of the modern police procedural--which have earned him legions of fans worldwide--are showcased in The Man Who Smiled, which is the fourth of the Wallander books. Sadly, Makell died in 2015.

Further reading suggestion: The Return of the Dancing Master - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0031RS79A/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Book review: Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin

Title: Knots and Crosses

Author: Ian Rankin

FICTION

Genre: Detective, thriller

Ranking: 7.5 out of 10.0

Buy: Maybe

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knots-Crosses-Rebus-Novel-Rankin/dp/0752883534/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Summary:  The brutal abduction and murder of two young girls takes place in Edinburgh. And now a third girl is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer.

And then the messages begin to arrive: knotted string and matchstick crosses - taunting Rebus with pieces of a puzzle only he can solve.

Main review: 

The first Rebus novel from the No.1 bestselling author. Rebus is now a very successful TV series as well.

The brutal abduction and murder of two young girls takes place in Edinburgh. Not a common occurrence. And now a third girl is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter, Samantha, spirited away by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer.

And then the anonymous messages begin to arrive: with knotted string and matchstick crosses - taunting Rebus with pieces of a puzzle. His girlfriend Inspector Gill Templer figures that in fact John is part of the solution.

He was a soldier and in the SAS before he became a policeman and somewhere in that past is the clue. When his wife is beaten on the head and Samantha is also kidnapped, John agrees to be hypnotised by his brother Michael, a professional hypnotist, to uncover whatever he has kept hidden even from himself.  What comes out is the solution to the puzzle, but we will not tell you in order not to spoil it for you.

Further reading suggestion: Even Dogs in the Wild - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Even-Dogs-Wild-Rebus-Novel/dp/1409159388/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Book review: Prophecy - Peter James

Title: Prophecy

Author: Peter James

FICTION

Genre: Thriller

Ranking: 8.0 out of 10.0

Buy: Yes

Borrow: Yes

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prophecy-Peter-James/dp/1407217054/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Summary:  Frannie Monsanto bumped into a handsome widower and his son on her way north to deliver a double bass to a friend.  She could scarcely believe it when she saw the advertisement by him asking to see her again. Frannie had no reason, when she replied to the ad, to connect the aristocrat with the obscure prophecies from her university days - until strange things start to happen.

Main review: 

Frannie Monsanto bumped into a handsome widower and his young son on her way north to deliver a double bass to a friend.  She could scarcely believe it when she saw the advertisement in Private Eye by him asking to see her again. Frannie had no reason, when she replied to the ad, to connect the stranger - who turns out to be an aristocrat (Lord Oliver Sherfield) - with the obscure prophecies from her university days using a Ouija board with six friends - until strange things start to happen.

Unexpectedly, one by one, her friends experience their prophesied future. For example, one had 'dark' as her future and she caught a rare eye disease in South East Asia and went blind. Another fell down a lift shaft and his prophecy was' humpty dumpty'. Apparently, Oliver had an ancestor who was a devil worshiper and, amazingly, he used what turned out to be her parents' cafe cellar as his den. And that was where they used the Ouija board.

After several more deaths and accidents, Frannie finally realises that she is the conduit for this evil monster and seeks the services of an exorcist. The ending is good for Frannie, Oliver and Edward.

Peter James keeps the pace going and although taken together all the vents defy logic, he manages to keep your disbelief suspended as you read on.

Further reading suggestion: The Perfect Murder - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Murder-Peter-James/dp/144726603X/