CrimeChronicles

Anita Nair: Chain Of Custody – by Howard Jackson.

Chain Of Custody is a good title for this story about the trafficking of children in India.  The practice of using children as a commodity and a means to make money is an obvious perversion of custody.  Chain Of Custody is the second novel by Anita Nair to feature Bangalore policeman Inspector Gowda.  In the previous novel, A Cut Like Wound, the identities of the   

Anita Nair: Chain Of Custody –  by Howard Jackson.

characters were distorted by poverty  and the desperate measures that had to be taken to survive.  Chain Of Custody can be read as a stand-alone novel but the appreciation of the tale is refined if it is read after reading A Cut Like Wound.  Both novels explore a complicated society where serious and decent attempts to address problems coexist alongside indifference and .....read more

Horst Eckert: Wolfsspinne – by Gisela Lehmer.

Horst Eckert liefert einen weiteren Beweis dafür, dass er zu Deutschlands Top Thriller Autoren gehört. Geschickt webt er Skandale und Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre, so insbesondere die NSU Affäre, die Pleite des  traditionsreichen Kölner Bankhauses Salomon Oppenheim  - allerdings in Köln (!) - und aufkommende rechte Strömungen in der Gesellschaft in die Handlung ein.

Howard Jackson: Choke Bay – by Irene Keith.

Choke Bay is the first horror novel by Howard Jackson.  It is his fifth book to be published by Red Rattle Books.  His previous work of fiction was the collection of horror short stories Nightmares Ahead.  After that exceptional debut expectations have been high.  Choke Bay does not disappoint. The novel is stunning, a marvellous mixture of supernatural horror and unrequited love. It somehow disturbs and dries the throat. 

Mario Giordano: Auntie Poldi And The Sicilian Lions – by Howard Jackson.

Gallenzi Alessandro: The Tower – by Howard Jackson.

There is a line of dialogue in the film The Da Vinci Code that soon attracted ridicule.
‘We need to get to a library fast,’ says Tom Hanks.
Not the best way to link narrative perhaps.

Seicho Matsumoto: A Quiet Place – by Howard Jackson.

Stefan aus dem Siepen: Das Seil – by Gisela Kerkloh.

„Die Ähren sind wie das Glück. Wenn das Glück zu groß wird, wird es zu einem Leid“, hatte Bernhards Vater immer gesagt. Und so entdeckt Bernhard während seines Abendgangs in einer nicht näher definierten Zeit („Das Getreide stand hoch, in wenigen Tagen würde die Ente beginnen“) und Welt am Rande des Tannenwaldes eine dunkle Linie, die sich durchs Gras zieht. Ein Seil, weiter nichts und dennoch wird es nicht mehr zur Ernte des Getreides kommen. Am nächsten Morgen haben sich schon einige Dorfbewohner um das Seilende versammelt und es werden immer mehr. Bänke und Tische werden vom früheren Versammlungsort unter dem alten Dorfbaum zum Seilende geholt. Die Männer beschliessen dem mysteriösen Seil auf die Spur zu kommen und ziehen gemeinsam in den Wald.  ...read more

Gianrico Carofiglio: A Fine Line – by Howard Jackson.

‘Beware the world is so constructed today that no one can do what he would like to do.’

This quote by Italian novelist Alberto Moravia is not mentioned by Guido Guerrieri, the counsel for defence and hero in the latest thriller by Gianrico Carofiglio.  There are, though, plenty of quotes in ‘A Fine Line’.  Guerrieri is not only an accomplished counsel.  He reads and thinks.  Smells evoke the past but he is far too civilised to mention Proust.  He does quote Leonard Cohen.  Well, no one is perfect.  The included quotes from Scott Fitzgerald and Dostoyevsky are obvious perhaps but relevant.  As Guerrieri understands, the ability of people to live with contradiction and deceive themselves has consequences for everyone.

Malla Nunn: Tal des Schweigens – by Beatrix Kramlovsky.

Vor diesem beengenden Hintergrund versuchen die beiden Kriminalbeamten, die, hierarchisch getrennt, natürlich persönlich keinerlei Sympathie füreinander hegen sollten, den von Anfang an mysteriösen Fall zu ... read more

Hanns-Josef Ortheil: Die Berlinreise – by Gisela Lehmer.

Claudia Pineiro: Betty Boo – by Howard Jackson.

The publicist at Red Rattle Books has said that Jack Swift has signed a deal with the publishing company that commits him to a zombie novel every year for the rest of this decade.  Zombie fans should have a warm future.  Undead Underneath is, in my opinion, the best British zombie novel ever.

Petra Ivanov: Heisse Eisen – by Beatrix Kramlovsky.

Jack Swift: Undead Underneath – by Irene Keith.

The publicist at Red Rattle Books has said that Jack Swift has signed a deal with the publishing company that commits him to a zombie novel every year for the rest of this decade.  Zombie fans should have a warm future.  Undead Underneath is, in my opinion, the best British zombie novel ever.

Jim Lawler: HATE UNTIL WARM – by Irene Keith.

Hate Until Warm is the second crime novel by Liverpool author Jim Lawler.  I was a fan of his debut novel, Mortal Shuffle.  That book delivered a complex hero and high literary style.   Hate Until Warm is just as ambitious and as successful but in a different way. This time no frustrated over-educated policeman drives the narrative.  The characters of Hate Until Warm are tough but not educated.  It is other people and not life ...read more

Clementine Skorpil: Guter Mohn, du schenkst mir Träume – by Beatrix Kramlovsky.

Lisa Lercher: Faule Marillen – by Beatrix Kramlovsky.

Nichts ist so verführerisch wie eine Idylle mit blutigen Geheimnissen. Die Wachau, in manchen Monaten ein überlaufener Touristenmagnet, wird in diesem Buch zu einem seltsam dunklen Ort voll unterschwelliger Gewalt. Dabei präsentiert Lisa Lercher in „Faule Marillen“ alle Zutaten, die aus der Wachau einen so hinreißenden Landstrich machen: das malerische Südufer der Donau mit seinen ruhigen Auen, ...read more

Esmahan Aykol: Divorce Turkish Style – by Howard Jackson.

Merle Kröger: HAVARIE – by Beatrix Kramlovsky.

Flüchtlinge auf dem Meer, Flüchtlinge unterwegs an Küsten, Flüchtlinge, die angekommen scheinen und doch immer noch davonlaufen vor ihren Familien, 
vor ihren Problemen, vor ihren Lebenslügen. In diesem aufregenden Roman gelingt Merle Kröger ein literarischer Parforceritt, denn sie sprengt alle Genregrenzen; ihre Erzählerstimmen ordnen sich überzeugend und federleicht dem Tempo unter, mit dem sie ihre Helden in die Katastrophe...more

Patricia Melo: The Body Snatcher – by Howard Jackson.

The Body Snatcher is a fine tale and well told.  The book is a pleasure to read and it entertains the reader from the first page to the last.  The story is simple and elegant.   Like the thriller Heaven’s Prisoner’s by James Lee Burke, the plot of The Body Snatcher begins when a plane crashes into a lake.  The hero steals drugs from the dead pilot, and the rest happens. Although translated from Brazilian Portuguese, the prose in English is stylish and has impact.  Both Burke and Melo know how..more

Howard Jackson: Nightmares Ahead – by Irene Keith.

 Nightmares Ahead is the fourth collection of horror stories from Red Rattle Books.  The previous collections have been impressive but Nightmares Ahead raises the bar and by some height. 

Ben Pastor: Tin Sky – by 
Howard Jackson.

In 1949, Howard Hawks made the movie, I Was A Male War Bride.  The Hollywood screwball comedy satirised the bureaucracy of the American Army.  The right wing director was offended by the rigid paternalism of military expediency.  Who knows what the movies of Hawks would have been like if he had been German.  In the Second World War the Germans had an Army, an SS and a Gestapo, all determined to prevail and establish an alternative hierarchy...read more