Killing Share - Ben Rawlinson

Excellent English set private eye book this one. Reminded me of a good Dick Frances story. Told humorously through the eyes of an ex-army private detective, this is the story of a murdered client. The victim, a very wealthy businessman was convinced he was being followed and had gone to the PI for help. So naturally after his death the PI follows up on the story and gets sucked into a story of stolen guns, dodgy detectives, horny widows, and general chasing around London.

A good read only adversely affected by a few of the character traits of the P.I. You won’t find jack Reacher obsessing about the shoes he wears or the watch he has on, let alone the merits of not wearing Chelsea boots with a suit. The author just made the guy sound a bit of a ponce really. And what is the obsession with authors in general going on about how great their characters’ food or cooking is – I don’t care how he cooks his pasta!!

4/5 (not five cos of the cowboy boots!)

Sandman – Morgan Hannah MacDonald

Book starts well, some dude is surfing Trestles – this should be right up my street – being a surfer. Then “surfing  is his religion”, he is “at his church” …oh oh surf clichés, maybe not so good…but it quickly recovers and turns into an excellent serial killer yarn. There is the rough tough cop with..wait for it, wait for it..a sad back story, i.e. a dead wife and an alcohol problems. Seriously is there a literary cop in the world who is just normal, nice wife, couple of kids and piles. No thought not.

Anyway, this turns into a really good serial killer book, there is a girl, maybe the one to turn this cops life around, she just happens to be fit of course. And the serial killer is after her. The story rolls along at a great pace and comes to a good climax.. actually the climax bit sums up the end very well!!

So in summary, many of the usual serial killer angles, but a really good book. Would read more in this series.

5/5

Never Buried - Edie Clare

Bit of a girlie book this one – soft core murder mystery maybe. Two sisters are sharing a house through one of their pregnancies when they find a body in the garden.. – not just any old body, this one was..wait for it…”Never Buried”.. So they start to try and track down where the body has come from, who it belongs to and why it has “get out of my house” written on it.

Then more stuff happens to try and persuade the girls to move out but of course they resist, even when their female but rather manly police lady friend tries to persuade them otherwise. The book meanders on, shit happens to them, they resist and on and on all the way to the unravelling of an old unsolved murder and ultimately to a climatic finish.

Read it, finished it, was ok, bit girly for me really.

2/5