The story is set in Inverness and the surrounding rural area of the Scottish Highlands. An escalating series of fatal road accidents on straight sections of the A9 road are beginning to interest Detective Inspector Alec Mc Kay, of Inverness’s Major Investigation Team, (MIT). He starts to think these accidents are being deliberately caused, to kill or injure the occupants of the targeted vehicles. However, there doesn’t seem to any common factor regarding the victims or connection linking them to each other. Interwoven with this investigation is a press campaign casting doubt on a twenty year old murder conviction. The murder was investigated by Detective Superintendent Rory Grant the late husband of the current head of the MIT, DCI Helena Grant. Helena Grant, is concerned that the campaign will defame the reputation of her late husband. Investigating the murder story and employed to write ghost articles for rabble rousing campaigner Iain Pennycook; is veteran free lance reporter, Craig Fairlie. The outcome is unpredictable in every respect.
This crime fiction story is fast-paced, engaging and well-told; I raced through it and will seek out other books by Mr Walters. This is an excellent book.
This book had been lurking on my TBR pile for a while, I wish now I had got to read it sooner. I met Christine at an Indie Author’s book fair in Huntingdon’s Commemoration Hall. I liked the title and being a lover of crime fiction After a brief chat with the author, bought a signed copy of “Make You Sorry.”
Detective Inspector Nick Morgan has relocated from the Met in London to the South Coast and Gullhaven Cove. He has slept overnight, downstairs in the family’s new home, Cliffside House, belonging to his mother-in-law. The family is due to move in that day, and the furniture van is on its way when Nick discovers the body of a dead teenage boy in the master bedroom on that Friday Morning. Although not due to start his new job until the following Monday, Nick finds himself thrown into the fray three days early. From this point on, a succession of bodies turn up; in the main, singly but not always. The killings seem to be linked but finding the link is difficult. The plot is twisty with the growing number of murder investigations complicated by, difficulties finding temporary accommodation, marital problems and a very troublesome interfering mother-in-law.
I enjoyed the book immensely and will be exploring other books by the same author, I’m pleased I stopped and spoke to Ms Rae Jones and bought the book.
I am interested in Crime fiction as both a reader and writer. When I saw the exhibition, Murder by the Book at Cambridge University Library advertised, I decided to visit. The guided bus from St Ives seemed the best option for travelling to Cambridge, it was just a question of timing my journey to be late enough to use my bus pass but early enough to arrive in time for the 11 am pre-booked slot.
My route on foot, from the Round Church bus stop, planned mainly courtesy of Google maps started in St, John’s Street, which led into Trinity street followed by a left turn into Trinity Lane. A little way along Trinity Lane a right turn took me into Garret Hostel Lane the lane narrowed as it approached the Garret Hostel Bridge over the river Cam, Trinity Hall’s Jerwick Library sits more or less on the bridge on the left. Punts were moving along the river tour guides working the poles as they pointed out places of interest on the banks, to their passengers.
Guided punt tours.
The bridge heralded a change the walk was no longer flanked by buildings but after the bridge the lane was tree lined.
Garret Hostel Lane after the bridge
At the end of Garret Hostel Lane, the route took me across Queen’s Road into Burrell’s Walk. Before long I was at the gateway gazing at the imposing University Library Building and facing it to my left was Clare College.
It is difficult to show the size of the library building, if I remember correctly this tower houses the crime fiction collection. If that is the case, somewhere within lurks Arnold Lane, Marvin and of course Sylvia.
The entrance to the library
Once I was through the imposing entrance I made my way to the exhibition. The first thing I noted was a quote by PD James, one of many of hers within the collection.
P.D. James telling it like it is
The exhibition started with a chronological history of crime fiction with copies of some of the very earliest works Wilkie Collins The Lady in White and an even earlier work whose title I didn’t note.
Unsurprisingly Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books featured prominently in early British crime writing. Slightly later came Dorothy L Sayers and of course Agatha Christie. On display were several exhibits relating to Agatha Christie, her Dictaphone which came into use when she broke her arm and her portable typewriter. However, the items relating to Agatha Christie which held most interest for me were her notebooks, a separate one for each book it seemed. That is one idea I might borrow.
Agatha Christie’s dictaphone.
I took a leisurely stroll around part 1 of the exhibition, many of the authors were familiar to me PD James, Dorothy L Sayers, Sir Athur Conan Doyle and of course, Agatha Christie but there were others unknown to me including, Martin Blake, Ellen Wilkinson, Cyril Hare, Nicholas Blake and Celia Fremlin.
Another P.D. James quote and totally accurate.
Further along were some more contemporary authors H R Keating, Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, Lynda La Plante and Marjory Allingham. I looked for books by Raymond Chandler but didn’t see any of his displayed, although he was based, as was his writing in America, he was an Englishman.
More contemporary crime fiction.
Having completed the circuit of part 1, I stowed my bag in the locker room and made my way upstairs to the gallery and the other parts of the exhibition to find books by authors I had met. For me, Alison Bruce’s D C Gary Goodhew, could well fit the bill as Cambridge’s iconic detective, a possible answer to Oxford’s Morse but he wasn’t elevated to this position by the powers that be. However Cambridge Blue had a well deserved prominent position as did books by Sophie Hannah and Ellie Griffiths two other authors I have had the pleasure of meeting.
On the first floor part 2 of the exhibition.
When I had seen all the exhibits I sought refreshment in the café situated on the first floor at the end of the gallery. The mistake I made was not bringing my tablet computer in with me in a clear bag I like the quiet of libraries to write in and with generous-sized desks or even in the café, this quiet place would have been ideal. However, on this occasion as I hadn’t used the clear bag for my laptop it would have to be the Central Library.
An ideal place to write.
This picture of just one of many corridors leading off in different directions and on several floors gives a glimpse of the size of the building.
I retraced my steps to Trinity Street and then made my way through the city to the Central Library, on my way along Kings Parade I came across students, well graduates now, in white trimmed black gowns together with their families emerging from a graduation ceremony. It was I am sure a proud moment for all those concerned.
A graduation, one of many in Cambridge during the summer a moment of pride for all concerned.
All in all, after a short stint of writing at the Central Library and the return trip on the guided bus, it was a great day out.
Thin Air is set in The Shetland Isles the story centres on a wedding and a legend of the ghost of a young girl lost to the sea in 1930. When one of the wedding guests, a bridesmaid is reported missing Jimmy Perez and Sandy Wilson are sent to help find her. The discovery of the missing woman’s body in a loch turns a hunt for a missing woman into a murder investigation. Willow Reeves joins Perez and Wilson to lead the investigation.
I read a lot of crime fiction as well as writing some. Thin Air is the first of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series I have read; I found it a difficult read. The story seemed to take a good while to get into its stride. I had the impression the author started the book stopped then took up the story later fitting bits in as she went. It is an interesting story set in the far North of the British Isles, a part I would like to visit. Although the pictures of the weather, terrain and communities are well drawn there seems to be a tiredness in the telling of the story. The plot is interesting and convoluted, and the characters are believable but it took me a long while to read it.
I don’t know if all the Shetland stories are written in the same way a steady gathering of threads or if this one is less lively than some of the others, I will have to see. Ann Cleeves writes well but I preferred other Ann Cleeves books I have read.
My daughter knowing of my interest both as a writer and reader of crime fiction gave me a copy of The Killing Code as a birthday present.
I had not read any of J D Kirk’s books before and this was my first encounter with Glasgow’s DCI Jack Logan.
It is always a difficult thing to write a review you want to give a reader a sense of what the book is about but give away as little of the plot as possible.
The story gripped me from the start. After the murder of a nurse, Logan’s desperate search for a brutal killer; kept me metaphorically on the edge of my seat. I raced through the pages, hoping Logan would find the murderer before another death occurred.
I really enjoyed this book it was well written, engaging and credible. I am really grateful to my daughter for introducing me to JD Kirk and DCI Logan; I shall be back to read more books from Mr Kirk.
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