WEB NEWS, FEATURES & REVIEWS

Another Time, Another Life By Leif G.W. Persson Trans Paul Norlen

Successfully blends both a police procedural, and political intrigue together with a dose of very dark humour and satire

Dare Me By Megan Abbott

Dark secrets among the cheerleaders

Death And The Olive Grove by Marco Vichi

contributor: Giles Morgan
This is the third in the series of Inspector Bordelli crime novels by Marco Vichi.The first, Death in August was introduced to UK readers last year. Vichi's protagonist is a character with depth and and a fascinating back story fighting his own demons and possessing an acute awareness of the struggles of the poor and disempowered in a corrupt Italy...

No Sale by Patrick Conrad

contributor: Russell James
Imagine a metafiction serial-killer thriller written by Paul Auster on speed. Imagine an obsessive Flemish professor of film history finding his life increasingly filled with scenes from classic film noir – film noir because scenes and murders from Psycho, Rear Window, Rope, Strangers on a Train, No Escape, Butterfield 8, The Big Heat et cetera are being re-enacted in uncanny detail all about him...

Crime Beat: Irish Times Crime Round-up

Elmore Leonard, Lyndsay Faye, Hesh Kestin, Claire McGowan, Conor Fitzgerald and some bloke called Barry Forshaw

Daily Mail: Thriller Round-up

C J Box, A J Kazinki, Howard Linskey

Cop To Corpse By Peter Lovesey

Cop to Corpse sees the return of the Bath-based Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond in his 12th outing

The Fear Artist By Timothy Hallinan,

The 11th novel featuring Poke Rafferty, a travel writer and long-time resident of Bangkok who seems to have a knack for stirring up trouble

The Killing By David Hewson

Novels based on television series don't hold much promise, but this adaptation of 'The Killing' is a huge success

Alpha By Greg Rucka

contributor: Mark Timlin
This reminds me of the TV show The Unit, which it more or less is apart from the name, and is the first of a series, so presumably the next one will be called Beta . . . and it's great fun throughout

Gone Girl By Gillian Flynn

contributor: Mark Timlin
Like so many crime novels these days, Gone Girl starts off with a disappearance. Well not quite. Before the disappearance we find that the married couple involved (Amy and Nick. she vanishes, he left bereft, or is he?) are not the perfect partnership they might be

Snapshots By Paul Brazill

Snapshots is a collection of 21 of his short stories published on various online magazines between 2008-11

Crime Fiction Round Up: Irish Independent

George Pelecanos, Casey Hill and Leif GW Persson

The Pledge By Friedrich Dürrenmatt (trs. By Joel Agee)

The story – told in first person narrative – of The Pledge explores various themes one of which criticizes detective literature as being "unrealistic" and "deceptive" and goes on to show how

The Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

A gritty psychological thriller set in the psychiatric unit of a Young Offenders Institution

The Dead Season Christobel Kent

contributor: Barry Forshaw
Christobel Kent's intuitive Italian sleuth Sandro Cellini has proved to be one of the most distinctive coppers on the crime scene. Readers may feel that the sweltering heat of Florence offers a refreshing change from the frigid temperatures of the current Scandinavian wave...

The Death Gods Richard S. Prather.

contributor: Graham Andrews
"How soon they forget." The number of once-famous authors whose books and very names fall into oblivion soon after their deaths would take up too much valuable space. It can happen to some authors even while they are still biologically alive. Richard S. Prather is perhaps the most unfortunate examples in mystery fiction – all the more poignant because he effectively destroyed his own career at the very summit of success...

Express: Crime Fiction Round-up

The exotic and the otherworldly are the stand-out themes among the best current crime and thriller novels

The Rage Gene Kerrigan

contributor: Russell James
It's a relief to read an Irish thriller that doesn't bang on about the IRA and old grievances, and which instead gets down to crime in present-day Dublin – present-day as in still reeling from the financial crash and revelations about the clergy (not that either get more than a few mentions). This is a crime thriller, straight and simple, and all the better for it.

Fatal Frost By James Henry

contributor: Mark Timlin
I was sad when R.D. Wingfield died, with only few novels to his name, but now, Frost is a brand written by James Henry, who I must say makes a fair fist of it. The books in the new Frost series are prequels set in the Eighties when Jack was still a Detective Sergeant, but no less of an acerbic sod than he's always been

Driven By James Sallis

contributor: Mark Timlin
The Driver, now behind the wheel of a souped up Ford Fairlane, hits the streets hard. Why not join him. But be careful, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Bloodman By Robert Pobi

Canto XII of Dante's Inferno takes place in the First Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell where sinners who used violence against others suffer for all eternity in a boiling river of blood

The Damage By Howard Linskey

Incredibly enjoyable sequel to the highly successful debut novel The Drop

You Can Jump And Other Stories Mat Coward

contributor: Bob Cornwell
How to suggest – not an easy task – the essential qualities of this beguiling collection of short stories? Perhaps the fact that since 2005 Mat (with whom I exchange an occasional email), has been one of the researchers providing the basic material for QI, Stephen Fry's idiosyncratic TV show? Or, short-changing the work by some margin, that Alia Mondo, Mat's own publishing operation, translates (from Esperanto) as 'other world'?

Murder Mile By Tony Black

The term 'Tartan Noir' might have been coined for Tony Black