My Week – 15 May edition (just a wee bit late)

Looking back at last week where I managed to both do some reading and get out into the big wide world….

What I finished:

I managed two this week, a bit of entertaining true crime and an engrossing mystery

Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants: Britain’s First Female Crime Syndicate by Brian McDonald

I was listening to an episode of the Dirty Sexy History podcast hosted by Jessica Cale (well worth a listen if you are interested in stuff that is a bit outside the mainstream history we mostly get taught) when this book was mentioned, and remembered that I had picked up the Kindle edition some time last year. It’s a very entertaining, extremely detailed and fast paced dive into mostly female criminality in south London, with some social history thrown in and lots of dodgy male offenders as well. I really liked it but the title is a bit misleading as we don’t get to Alice until we are quite far into the book, and what we do get was clearly insufficient for some reviewers on Goodreads who expected a full biography of the lady herself.

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

I really enjoyed Hallett’s first novel (The Appeal, which I didn’t review but should have because it was just excellent) and if anything this is even better. The narrative device this time is the use of transcriptions of voice recordings made by our protagonist Steven, who is recently out of prison and has become obsessed with trying to solve a mystery from his childhood – the disappearance of his teacher after a school outing where the investigated clues in the works of Edith Twyford, an out-of-fashion children’s author based loosely on Enid Blyton. Almost everything we read comes from Steven’s perspective and we are in potentially unreliable narrator territory here; I won’t say more because watching it all unfold is part of the joy of the book. The clues are all there for the reader to solve, and now that I know how things turn out I am almost certainly going to read it again to find the clues I missed. I really recommend this if you want something a bit different, and am looking forward to what she might do next.

What I’m currently reading:

The Fall of Paris has gone onto my Set Aside for Now stack; I will definitely be going back to it later in the year.

Girl 4 by Will Carver – this is the first novel from Carver who has become one of my favourite authors, largely due to his excellent DS Pace trilogy (which I loved so much and intend to read again). This is the first in a series of novels involving a police detective, January David, who specialises in very violent crimes. This first tale is a serial killer targeting young women (which is what they do) with the first victim hitting very close to home for our protagonist. I’m just over a third of the way in, so shall say no more.

Unmasked by Paul Holes – the cold case investigator whom I first came across via Michelle McNamara’s excellent I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (as mentioned here) and numerous mentions on the My Favorite Murder podcast , as well as his own investigative podcast with Billy Jensen, The Murder Squad. I have only just started this and it looks like a mix of cases he has worked on and the impact his career has had on his family and so far so good.

New books worth mentioning:

In honour of finishing the TV adaptation Slow Horses and the publication of the latest Slough House novel Bad Actors, I treated myself to all of Mick Herron’s series in one fell swoop. Will bereading the fifth entry in the series very shortly.

Last week I mentioned Under the Banner of Heaven which I had just finished, and had an interesting conversation with Kathy at Simple Tricks & Nonsense where she recommended Heaven’s Ditch about the building of the Erie Canal and religious stuff around it; now ordered and awaiting its arrival.

Most of this week’s book spend was focussed on the Book God’s birthday list, so my recommendation will be out of sync for the next wee while.

Other stuff:

So this week I finally got back to Sadler’s Wells, my favourite venue for all things dance, to see the Northern Ballet perform Casanova. I had such a good time; the costumes and sets were gorgeous and a quick glass of prosecco at the interval added to the fun. But oh, so many people on public transport were not wearing masks (I was fully masked the hole time) and that did make me feel uncomfortable, especially on the Tube which on the way home in particular was so crowded. This is how it will from now on I suppose….

Until next time I hope you are all well and have a great reading week!

It’s time for another book haul

I’m trying quite hard to cut back on buying new books. Long-term readers will be aware that I rarely buy physical books now because there is no more shelf/floor/window sill space chez Bride, but it’s just so easy to click that order button when browsing Kindle editions, so I need to work on that even though it goes against every fibre of my being 😀

These are the things that have made it onto my virtual (with one exception)stack so far in April:

My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood

Life is hard enough for a teenage girl in 1950s suburbia without having a mother who may—or may not—be a witch. A short story by Ms Atwood is not to be missed.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

This was a pre-order. I’ve read several (but not all, and not in order of publication) of Jennifer Egan’s books starting with Goon Squad and I understand that this new book builds on that earlier work & might even be a sequel.

Watch Me by James Carol

I mentioned in my last post that I had read and quite enjoyed the first Jefferson Winter serial killer thriller Broken Dolls and thought I would give the second one a go to see if its a series with which I want to continue

Jane’s Country Year by Malcolm Saville

Mr B and I sadly attended the funeral of a friend and former colleague a few weeks ago, and on of her interests was the work of Malcolm Saville, a children’s author from the mid-twentieth century who was completely new to me, so I thought I would pick one to try out, and this tale spoke to me the most. Originally published in 1946.

Business as Usual by Jane Oliver

I can’t resist a story constructed from letters, so when I cam across this novel from 1933 I thought I should give it a try, especially as it concerns a young woman from Scotland trying to make her way in London by working in what is clearly meant to be Selfridges.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel

Sea of Tranquility is a novel that investigates the idea of parallel worlds and possibilities, that plays with the very line along which time should run.

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch

The ninth entry in the Rivers of London series; I am so far behind in reading these but I know I’ll get to them eventually. Plus this is one of the few authors I read in hardback and I have a lovely matching set, which counts for a lot in my world.

Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul

Gwen John is one of my favourite artists and I thought this book, by the artist Celia Paul would be interesting, though I understand that its likely to be more about Celia than Gwen…

Hide by Nell Pattison

I can’t remember where I saw this mentioned (another blogger? a newsletter? a website recommendation?) but it involves hiking, a group trying to rekindle the friendship and a murder. Known as Nowhere to Hide outside the UK I think, looks like fun.

Agatha Christie’s Poirot by Mark Aldridge

From Agatha Christie’s earliest conceptions and publication history, to forays on the stage and screen, the story of Poirot is as fascinating as it is enduring. Mark Aldridge tells this story decade-by-decade, exploring and analyzing Poirot’s many and often wildly different appearances, following the detective to present day when he is enjoying a worldwide renaissance.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

I have already started reading this, having bought it because of a reference in the afterword to Adam Nevill’s Last Days and seeing information about the soon-to-be-released TV adaptation starring the wonderful Andrew Garfield. Murderous fundamentalist Mormons are fascinating it seems. To me at least.

Have you read any of these? Are they already on your TBR list? Or is this the first time you’ve heard of these titles? Let me know in the comments.

Stay safe everyone!

April so far…..

How did we get halfway through April without me posting anything (yes, I know my posting “schedule” is always erratic at the best of times)?

I’ll tell you why – coming down with the dreaded lurgy, that’s why.

Saying that, I should make it clear that I am not talking about Covid, just your common or garden spring head cold with added allergies (tree pollen is going mad at the moment) but it’s the first cold I’ve had since long before the pandemic and I was wholly unprepared, though in a (misguided) generous impulse as I recovered I gave it to my husband.

So I basically spent the last seven days or so slumped on the sofa. The good news was that I didn’t have any headaches so I was able to read…

A few thoughts on the books I finished:

Broken Dolls by James Carol – I am unable to resist a hunter of serial killers and this is the first in the Jefferson Winter series. I enjoyed it enough to buy the sequel, but this is clearly the introduction to a new character and suffered a tiny bit from that, but like I said, intriguing enough for me to want to read more.

Mimic by Daniel Cole – talking about serial killers, Mimic is the latest novel from Cole, who wrote the Ragdoll trilogy which I liked very much (but don’t ask me about the TV adaptation unless you really want a bit of a rant). This is a standalone novel, set initially in 1989 then jumping ahead to 1996. So no mobile phones or any other whizz bang technology, just good old fashioned police work. I liked it.

Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan – possibly my favourite author name in recent years; I can’t remember on whose recommendation I got this, but it’s a very atmospheric novella set on a prison planet where Bee, a telepath, is being held for crimes she can’t remember. It’s a strange book but was quite moving and beautifully written.

Suspects by David Thomson – better known for his non-fiction work on the history of the movies, this is the first of Thomson’s novels that I’ve read and I found it really intriguing. It’s basically a biographical dictionary of about a hundred (I didn’t count) characters from film noir, giving them backstories and often details of their probable future taking place outside the films in which they appear. I can see that a lot of people wouldn’t like this because there isn’t really an easily discernible narrative but I found it fascinating, though I definitely got more out of the characters whose films I had seen.

Currently reading:

The Cabinet by Un-su Kim – a literary work from South Korea, I’m not sure if it’s a novel or a set of linked short stories but it is definitely interesting and I just need to remember to pick it up…
Unquiet Spirits by Bonnie MacBird – the second in her Sherlock Holmes series, all about ghosts, murder and of course whisky; I’m struggling with this a bit because I’m just not in a Holmesian mood at the moment, so will probably set it aside and come back to it later….
Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald – as much about general London lawlessness as it is about this all woman shoplifting syndicate, I’m not quite a fifth of the way in and haven’t yet met Alice….
The Fall of Paris by Alistair Horne – the Franco-Prussian War, the siege of Paris, the fall of Louis Napoleon and the Commune; if you’re at all interested in French history, especially where it intersects with war then you should definitely read Horne’s work
Last Days by Adam Nevill – independent filmmaker is hired to make a documentary about a cult focussing less on the disastrous ending of the group and more on the potential supernatural elements; definitely not going to end well and I probably shouldn’t have started reading it at bedtime….

What I’ve been watching:

No films this month(so far), but I really enjoyed working my way through:

Peaky Blinders S6: the last outing, on TV at least, I had never watched this series before though the Mr B has been encouraging me to do so. The presence of Diana Mitford as a key character got me interested and I was hooked. Will be going back to the very beginning to watch the whole thing
The Ipcress File: I remember watching the sixties movie starring Michael Caine which in some respects can’t be beaten, though this was a very stylish and well acted version of the story; I hope they adapt the remaining Harry Palmer books

Hope you are all staying safe. How is your April going so far?

The Chestnut Man – Soren Sveistrup

If you find one, he’s already found you

I have had this book in my TBR pile for a while and just hadn’t picked it up (all of this being virtual because it’s on my Kindle app, but you know what I mean..) but then the Book God spotted that it existed as a Netflix series.

We have both become fond of police procedurals from Europe and he felt this was definitely one for us, but I put my foot down (not really, it was more of a gentle suggestion) that I would like to read the book first because that is who I am – not something I always do but if I already have the book then I know that if I watch the adaptation I’m not very likely to read the thing which is a bit of a waste.

Anyway, to the Plotmobile!

We are in Copenhagen, classic Scandi-noir territory, and a murderer is leaving little handmade chestnut men alongside his gruesomely mutilated victims. There is a connection to a young girl missing presumed killed the previous year. Our protagonists have to work together to figure out what the dolls mean, how the seemingly random victims are being selected and of course who is committing the crimes (and why).

I enjoyed this very much but it’s fair to say that it has not exactly a formula but there are certain trends that are completely recognisable from other books/TV series in the genre. Sveistrup is the writer of The Killing which was such a sensation back in 2007 – that seems so long ago! – so perhaps this isn’t unexpected, and to me it had a very cinematic quality. What are these trends?

Do we have an influential but vulnerable politician whose role in the story seems straightforward but might be more complicated?

Do we have a pair of detectives thrown together to solve the case but who can barely tolerate each other?

Is one of those detectives a woman with a slightly unconventional private life trying to make her mark in a male-dominated career?

Is the other a disgraced maverick with a tragic past who resents being dumped onto this case while his long-term fate is being settled elsewhere?

Is at least one of them in personal danger as we move towards a solution?

If you answered yes to any or all of these then you are dead right, but like I said above that doesn’t mean that the story isn’t compelling and the solution satisfying and worth your time.

I will be very interested to see how the Netflix series handles this. Recommended.

My Week – ending Sunday 9 May

Otherwise known as a better late than never post!

Last week we had so much rain but I have turned into a person who says that “at least it’s good for the garden” – what have I become 😀 ?

I also had my second Covid-19 vaccination and all is well. My arm was a bit sore and I was very, very tired but all of that passed within 36 hours and I’ve been raring to go ever since.

I’ve also been trying to get back into walking daily, and part of the fun of that for me (besides listening to podcasts or audiobooks) is interacting with local pets and wildlife. I’ve been noticing a greater variety of birds in our garden, but our neighbourhood black cat resolutely ignores me whenever I see him on his daily patrol. I was sleepily regarded by a small fox curled up in the warm sunshine. We don’t normally see them during broad daylight, but it was a gorgeous animal and I’m glad I spotted it, though I wish I’d taken a photo

Yesterday (Tuesday) after a visit to the dentist I walked part of the way home along the Thames. Lovely.

But onto the books

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and finished two novels, the first in the Ava Lee series by Ian Hamilton and yet another in the Robert Hunter series by Chris Carter.

I really enjoyed reading about Ava Lee, a Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant who goes after missing money for private clients. It was fast paced and took the reader from Toronto to Hong Kong to Guyana to the British Virgin Islands and back again. I loved all the money stuff and the technicalities of finding out where it might be hidden, so much so that I managed to overcome two of my pet peeves which appeared right at the beginning of the story – irrelevant information about Ava’s breast size and the use of the word panties; I loathe that word. Anyway, I have already bought the next book and I expect to continue with the series.

I’m currently reading the very next Robert Hunter thriller and will round up the series when I have finished all 9, or is it 10. Still enjoying them but they are not for anyone who can’t handle graphic violence. 50+ years of reading horror has been good practice.

I’m also currently reading Greg Jenner’s Dead Famous, a book about celebrity over the ages and how as a concept it’s not as modern as we might think it is. Great fun and thought provoking, and I’m looking forward to seeing how his theories develop. A wee taste:

CELEBRITY (noun): A unique persona made widely known to the public via media coverage, and whose life is publicly consumed as dramatic entertainment, and whose commercial brand is profitable for those who exploit their popularity, and perhaps also for themselves.

So that’s more or less my week. Hope you are well and staying safe!

Chris Carter’s Robert Hunter Novels #1-3

Whenever I see the name Chris Carter I immediately think of the X-Files but this Chris Carter is not the creator of the Truth is Out There, but the author of several (I haven’t gone to look at exactly how many) crime novels featuring his homicide detective and all-round whizz-kid Robert Hunter.

Hunter’s expertise is such that he gets all the really weird and gruesome murders that are almost always carried out by serial killers.

Earlier in the summer, I read the first three novels in the series, which are:

The Crucifix Killer – the body of a young woman is found in an abandoned cottage; tattoo on her neck is the signature of said Crucifix Killer but surely it can’t be him because he was caught, convicted and executed. More deaths follow. Did Hunter get the wrong man?

The Executioner – the body of a priest is found in his church on the altar steps, grotesquely mutilated and with the number 3 written on his chest in blood. More deaths follow, all numbered. What links the victims and who knows what they fear the most?

The Night Stalker – a woman has been abducted and murdered in a deeply gruesome way. More deaths follow. What links the victims and why are they being killed like this?

First things first, I really enjoyed these novels. The style, which is very straightforward and almost journalistic, is reminiscent of two other favourites writing in the genre – Richard Montanari and Chelsea Cain, both of whom I love.

The key to whether you’ll enjoy these books, assuming you are willing to accept without flinching the descriptions of murder and mutilation, is whether you like Robert Hunter or not. He has a very specific set of characteristics:

he is super-intelligent, a child prodigy who raced through school and college and whose unpublished thesis is, of course, required reading by those in the field
he is damaged – of course he is – for him it takes the form of insomnia
he self-medicates with single malt whisky so he gets extra points from me for that 😀
he is extremely good looking, and every woman he comes into contact with flirts with him
he is empathetic
he is attracted to strong women but these relationships do not end well, usually for the woman but just as often for him
people around him often get hurt; it is risky being his colleague
is there anything he doesn’t know and did he really learn it all from books?

At the moment I like him, and also the author’s style with one exception – his tendency to be overly specific about cars; I will definitely be reading the whole series.

Sunday Salon | Books read in May so far

So here we are after a break of 3 weeks and I thought it might be fun to look at the books I’ve finished so far this month.

It’s been a fairly good month for reading but not a great one for blogging; what can I say? More mini-reviews are likely to follow, but let’s stick with these six for now, along with an update on what I’m currently reading and some other stuff that might be of interest.

Somewhere Beneath Those Waves by Sarah Monette – a collection of short stories missing fantasy & science fiction which I really enjoyed, especially as it includes a Kyle Murchison Booth story (see my review of her collected Booth stories here)

Follow Me by Angela Clarke – an enjoyably fast read, a police procedural with social media right at the forefront. I read it in one sitting and have bought the sequels

Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky – a very creepy sci-fi novel which was almost psychedelic in its language and imagery. Very unsettling. So good.

The Love-Charm of Bombs by Lara Feigel – as I’m getting older I’m finding that my interest is shifting from WWI to WWII, especially social history and the home front. This is a joint biography of several authors (namely Elizabeth Bowen, Rose Macaulay, Henry Green, Graham Greene and Hilde Spiel) who were all based in London in the Blitz. It was fascinating to find out about their complicated personal lives.

The Last Book on the Left – from the guys who write & present the Last Podcast on the Left, this is a quick trot through the lives and crimes of several very well-known serial killers. Now, if you’ve been here for any length of time you will know that I cannot resist true crime and I follow many podcasts (I’m a proud Murderino for example) but I’ve never found this one particularly engaging. The book is fine but the comic interjections just didn’t work for me.

The Killing Streets by Tanya Bretherton – another true crime read, this covers the story of what appears to be the first known serial killer in Australia. Set in the 1930s in Sydney, the main interest for me is the social history elements – the expectations on women, the behaviour of the police and so on – but I wasn’t totally convinced that these murders of young women were connected.

In terms of what I’m currently reading, I seem to be stuck in the middle of several books and not making much progress.

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch – the seventh in the Rivers of London series, I started this in January and have been making very slow progress for reasons I don’t understand, but I do want to finish it because I have three more to read 🙂

The Outsider by Stephen King – enjoyed what I’ve read so far and really want to know how it turns out so this will get finished

True Detective by Max Allan Collins – the first Nathan Heller novel, I picked this up because the Book God has read many (if not all) of the series and thought I would enjoy it and so far he has been spot on.

As none of these titles is on my list for this year’s Twenty Books of Summer challenge, I need to make an effort to finish them by June 1.

As if that wasn’t enough, my need for non-fiction has led me to start a book about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, which ticks so many boxes for me it isn’t true.

And I have finally succumbed and signed up to Audible so that if nothing else I can listen to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman when it launches in July.

Being indoors apart from forays for groceries and exercise, we’ve been watching more films – I miss going to the cinema more than anything else – and some great TV. Killing Eve hasn’t finished yet so I’m reserving judgement, but last night, so much later than everyone else, of course, we finished watching DEVS. I loved it so much. I think Alex Garland is an amazing writer/director and the series was thought-provoking and beautiful. A highlight of this year so far.

How are you guys holding up in these unusual times?

December Books | Impulse Buys

It is a fact that I am not supposed to buy books in December because gifts, but as we share wishlists I know the range from where my presents will be drawn.

That’s a complicated way of saying that if a title wasn’t on my wish list it was fair game. Here we go.

The Pre-Orders

Beast by Matt Wesolowski – because I love the Six Stories series and the podcast format makes for compelling reading
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer – because any new book by this author is a must-buy for me

The True Crime

American Predator by Maureen Callahan – if you’ve seen my earlier post you will know that I have already read this, and will be looking into this awful serial killer more in 2020
Dark Dreams by Roy Hazelwood – Sexual Violence, Homicide and the Criminal Mind because who doesn’t want some light reading…
The Forest City Killer by Vanessa Brown – I heard an interview with the author on a recent podcast and had to find out more about this Canadian case

The Other Non-Fiction

The Pulse Glass by Gillian Tindall – a personal and global history in objects; I love this sort of thing
Good Morning, Good Life by Amy Schmittauer Landino – I follow Amy’s YouTube channel but bought the book specifically for an online book club read; I’m already behind…..

The Fiction

Intensity by Dean Koontz – I don’t think I’ve ever read any Koontz; this is serial killer rather than horror
Gallows Court by Martin Edwards – murder in 1930’s London, the first in the Rachel Savernake series
We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory – Harrison is the Monster Detective, a storybook hero. What happens when he and others like him join a support group?

That should keep me busy for a while 😀

Sunday Salon | Books Read

Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday season. In getting ready for 2020 I thought I would write up some short reviews of (most of) the books I’ve read recently. All links are to Goodreads btw.

Ghoster by Jason Arnopp

I shall declare an interest here as I am one of Jason’s supporters on Patreon so obviously think he is a top bloke. Ghoster is the first full length novel by Jason that I’ve read and I really enjoyed it, although as an Old I had to look up what ghosting actually meant – you, young reader, are probably way ahead of me. Kate has met Scott, fallen in love and is driving to another city to move in with him. She’s given up her flat, transferred to another employer (she’s a paramedic) and is well on her way to future happiness when she realises that she can’t contact Scott. At all. And when she gets to his place it is empty and he isn’t there. But his phone is……

I spent a lot of time during this creepy book inwardly yelling to Kate not to do the thing that she was about to do, but of course it wouldn’t be a horror novel if the protagonist was sensible so it is only to be expected that things do not go well. Great fun.

Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore by Terry Newman

With an iconic image of Joan Didion on the cover and a blurb that stated I would find out about the “signature sartorial and literary style of fifty men and women of letters” thus combining two of my favourite things – fashion & books – it was obvious that I would get this.

It’s quite a slight volume and doesn’t entirely deliver on the sartorial stuff – not enough detail about what they actually wore for my taste – but there were enough tidbits to satify my curiosity.

That Virginia Woolf worried about bad hat days is also a comforting fact for the dedicated reader and follower of style.

American Predator by Maureen Callahan

I’m not sure exactly where I came across the name of Israel Keyes. It must have been one of the true crime podcasts that I listen to (yes, more than one, don’t jusge me) but I can’t for the life of me remember which one. However I found out about him, I was immediately fascinated by how this man could have carried out so many awful deeds without anyone knowing about it. The subtitle of the book says it all:

The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

He is of course a deeply disturbing and horrible figure who killed all over the USA during a period of fourteen years, burying kill kits for future use, many of which have never been found. This book focusses mainly on the somewhat flawed investigation into his crimes, and I will be following it up by listening to yet another podcast – True Crime Bullshit – which is only about Keyes.

An American Story by Christopher Priest

This is a very well-written novel with a sympathetic (mostly) protagonist and one of the most momentous events of the past few decades in the shape of the 9/11 attacks as context. Ben is a freelance journalist whose then girlfriend died in the attack on the Pentagon; she wasn’t supposed to be on the plane that crashed into the building and like many others her remains were never found, so Ben begins to wonder if she ever really died and if she did whether the accepted story told the whole truth.

There are too many of these inconsistencies to be ignored. At every step of the 9/11 story there is doubt, or there are unanswered questions, or simple logical gaps.

If you concentrate on this story being about loss and in particular the pain experienced when no body is recovered, so there is no certainty and no resting place where one can grieve and find solace, then this is a powerful novel. The 9/11 conspiracy theories work for that reason and that reason only but I still find them very disturbing.

The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff

[..] in The Only Plane in the Sky, award-winning journalist and bestselling historian Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet.

An incredibly moving companion piece to Priest’s novel, it covers the events of that day from a wide range of sources. Extraordinarily sad, powerful reading.

Chase Darkness With Me by Billy Jensen

More true crime (sorry, not sorry) this time from the perspective of a journalist who stopped writing about crime and started trying to solve cold cases as a citizen detective. It is a fascinating book, and you can follow Billy’s work alongside his co-host Paul Holes on their podcast Murder Squad. A must-read for all Murderinos, though if you are a Murderino you’ve almost certainly read this already.

The Vanishing Season

A recent abduction becomes an unexpected link to a decades-long spree of unspeakable crimes.

This is the fourth entry in what was originally The Collector Trilogy which last year turned into The Collector Series. I had been quite sad when I finished The Summer Children (number 3) because I enjoyed this series so much, a feeling that turned to pleasure when I realised there was going to be a fourth book, and now I’m sad again because the changes that occur to a number of the main characters in The Vanishing Season are sufficiently significant that any additional books would require a major shift.

But at least the series gets a proper conclusion, and for that I should be grateful.

An eight-year-old girl, Brooklyn, has gone missing. Not only does this happen on the anniversary of the disappearance of FBI agent Brandon Eddison’s little sister, but the girls are also the spitting image of each other making this case particularly difficult for everyone involved. The Crimes Against Children team investigate and Agent Eliza Sterling quickly comes to the conclusion that not only are the two cases linked but there are many other cases going back decades.

Can they solve it? Yes, they can.

I really enjoyed this novel. It is well-written, nicely paced and although the crimes are awful the author doesn’t dwell on the nastiness too much, focussing instead on the procedural aspect of the investigation, and I’m a sucker for that sort of thing so this was very much in my wheelhouse

The series as a whole has developed nicely, moving from a story about victims in The Butterfly Garden which border on horror to the focus on the CAC team in the latest volume. This is a change that has happened gradually and organically but without losing any of the key people from the earlier stories.

I can’t recommend these books enough.

Series Details

Tnis is my first completed read for #20BooksOfSummer