The Noveltea Corner: genre: crime

Book Review

Two Kinds of Truth Review

7:29 PM

Title // Two Kinds of Truth

Author // Michael Connelly

Publication Date // October 2017

Publisher // Allen & Unwin

Readership // Adult

Genre // Crime

Australian RRP // $32.99

Rating // ✭✭✭☆

Synopsis

The 20th Bosch novel: Harry Bosch searches for the truth as an old case from his LAPD days comes back to haunt him in this gripping thriller from mega-bestseller Michael Connelly.

Harry Bosch is back as a volunteer working cold cases for the San Fernando police and is called out to a local drug store where a young pharmacist has been murdered. Bosch and the town's three-person detective squad sift through the clues, which lead into the dangerous, big business world of prescription drug abuse.

Meanwhile, an old case from Bosch's LAPD days comes back to haunt him when a long-imprisoned killer claims Harry framed him, and seems to have new evidence to prove it. Bosch left the LAPD on bad terms, so his former colleagues aren't keen to protect his reputation. He must fend for himself in clearing his name and keeping a clever killer in prison.

The two unrelated cases wind around each other like strands of barbed wire. Along the way Bosch discovers that there are two kinds of truth: the kind that sets you free and the kind that leaves you buried in darkness.

(Allen and Unwin)

Review

Two Kinds of Truth is the second Michael Connelly book I’ve read this year, and the first of his Bosch series that I’ve picked up. In true crime series fashion, it’s fairly easy to pick up and read despite being the twentieth book in the series (which is great if you read random crime books, just like me). Connelly gives readers just enough backstory to fill in any necessary gaps, while still moving the story along at a reasonable pace.

Harry Bosch is a former LAPD officer working cold-cases in San Fernando as a volunteer for the local police department. Bosch, and the three full-time detectives are called out to investigate the death of a young pharmacist, leading to a wider investigation of the world of prescription drugs and the cartels who traffic them. Parallel to this, a former case comes back to haunt Bosch when a criminal he put on death row claims Bosch framed him and has the evidence to back it up.

It was really interesting to read a two-crime story, wherein both storylines are constantly weaving around one another, with their only common point being Bosch, but never actually meeting. Bosch, as a character, juggles both these pressing cases, but handles each of them very differently. It’s easy to see where he’s been in previous books, and to assume the growth of his character since then, as his actions have repercussions for both himself and the people around him.

Two Kinds of Truth is not the fastest paced crime novel I’ve read - in the middle, there’s a lot of information given to readers that does slow the book down a fraction - but the two cases are compelling, and you want to see both resolved, to whatever end. I was particularly fascinated by the look at prescription drug-running, which is not something I’ve thought much about, but Connelly details it in such a way that makes the whole storyline feel raw, gritty and real.

This is definitely a book for those people who enjoy a good crime story that will leave you guessing up until the end.

I gave Two Kinds of Truth 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of Two Kinds of Truth from Allen and Unwin in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Book Review

Good Friday Review

5:30 AM

Title // Good Friday (Tennison #3)

Author // Lynda La Plante

Publication Date // August 2017

Publisher // Bonnier Zaffre

Readership //Adult

Genre // Crime

Australian RRP // $32.99

Rating // ✭✭✭

synopsis.

From the creator of the award-winning ITV series Prime Suspect, this is Jane Tennison's story, from rookie police officer to fully-fledged detective.

In the race to stop a deadly attack just pray she's not too late...

March, 1976. The height of The Troubles. An IRA bombing campaign strikes terror across Britain. Nowhere and no one is safe.

When detective constable Jane Tennison survives a deadly explosion at Covent Garden tube station, she finds herself in the middle of a media storm. Minutes before the blast, she caught sight of the bomber. Too traumatised to identify him, she is nevertheless a key witness and put under 24-hour police protection.

As work continues round the clock to unmask the terrorists, the Metropolitan police are determined nothing will disrupt their annual Good Friday dinner dance. Amid tight security, hundreds of detectives and their wives and girlfriends will be at St Ermin's Hotel in central London. Jane, too, is persuaded to attend.

But in the week leading up to Good Friday, Jane experiences a sudden flashback. She realises that not only can she identify the bomber, but that the IRA Active Service Unit is very close to her indeed. She is in real and present danger. In a nailbiting race against time, Jane must convince her senior officers that her instincts are right before London is engulfed in another bloodbath.

(Allen & Unwin)

review.

Good Friday is my first foray into the world of Lynda La Plante’s iconic female detective, Jane Tennison, following her early career before she begins to rise within the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Service.

Set in the mid-1970s, amid a spate of IRA bombings, Jane Tennison is desperate to prove herself a capable detective in a field where female detectives are looked upon with skepticism and more than a little sexism. Tennison finds herself a key witness in an underground bombing that kills several people and injures many more, and at risk when the media publicise her involvement in assisting the injured at the scene. She’s persuaded to attend the annual Good Friday dinner dance by her colleagues, despite the inherent danger.

Good Friday is a solid British crime drama. There’s a lot of detail and a lot of background included, that is no doubt there for long-time fans of Jane Tennison. At times the sheer amount of information included, such as basic daily jobs, slowed down the pace for me and there were a few scenes I struggled to get through because of lack of interest. It’s a slow-burn crime novel and I wish I’d known that going in to reading it. That said, I can appreciate the level of detail La Plante goes to in order to highlight the common place sexism that Jane Tennison would have faced as a young female detective in the police force in the 1970s. At times it’s quite confronting and, as a modern day woman, it made me very uncomfortable - and yet it was a reality for so many.

Overall I gave Good Friday 3 out of 5 stars.

(Thank you to Allen & Unwin for sending me a copy of Good Friday for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

Book Review

Just go with your gut | a No Limits review

5:30 AM

Title // No Limits

Author // Ellie Marney

Publication Date // August, 2017

Publisher // Bearded Lady Press

Genre // #LoveOzYA, Crime

Rating // ✭✭✭✭✭

Boozer, brawler, ladies’ man – nineteen-year-old Harris Derwent is not a good guy.

His one attempt to play the hero – helping out his old flame, Rachel Watts – has landed him in hospital. Now injured, broke, and unemployed, he’s stuck back in the country, at his father’s mercy. Harris needs to pay off his dad’s debts, and fast. But working as a runner for a drug cartel is a dangerous path – especially if Harris agrees to narc…

Eighteen-year-old Amita Blunt is the perfect police sergeant’s daughter – practical, trustworthy, and oh-so responsible. Getting involved in Harris’s case was never part of the plan. But working at the hospital, she’s invisible – which makes her the ideal contact for a boy feeding information back to the police…

Harris and Amie’s connection is sizzling hot – but if the cartel finds out about them, things could get downright explosive. Backed into a corner, with everything at stake, it’s time for Harris and Amie to find out if love really has no limits…

(Good Reads)

No Limits blew me away.

I don’t say that lightly; I’ve read a lot of books that I’ve adored this year, and this is right up there at the top of the list because it encompasses so many things that I appreciate in books that I read: there’s a hell of a lot of character development, the suspense is on from the moment you start reading, and it’s Aussie as all get-out.

Harris Derwent is recovering from being shot in the leg at the end of Every Move (the third book in the Every series) and during his stay in hospital he encounters Amita Blunt, the daughter of the local police sergeant and current hospital employee. The two strike up an unlikely compromise for the sake of Harris’ recovery, which goes beyond what either originally intended. Amie and Harris’ relationship develops from there, being put to the test when Harris decides to take up a position as a drug cartel runner in order to gather intel for the police.

Harris is an incredible character; when we first met him in Every Move he was a bit of larrikin, in love with Rachel Watts and trying to make it in Melbourne. His injuries see him back home and having to deal with an abusive father and his debts. He’s almost at rock bottom, but there’s a determination to him that drives him to try and make a difference. Amie, by contrast, lives a good life - she’s devoted to her family to the point of putting all her dreams on hold. When she meets Harris, she sees beyond the town’s expectations of him and identifies the strength and kindness and determination to do good that underpins his character. Their chemistry is fantastic and part of the suspense of the book is the will they/won’t they elements of their relationship.

I’ve read a lot of crime novels in my time and it’s genre I genuinely enjoy; there’s a formula that, when done right, throws twists and turns at you that you never see coming and No Limits does that. I also had a personal connection to the places in this book - while I’m not a country girl, I spent some time in my childhood in rural Victoria so the locations were familiar and wonderfully accurate. The Aussie language in the book also sold it; there’s an authenticity to the place that you can’t get without it.

Harris and Amie leapt off the page; they seemed so real, like people I’ve met before and for me, there’s nothing better. I’m so glad that Ellie Marney self-published No Limits because this is a book that I will be revisiting over and over, for sure.

5 out of 5 stars.

You can pick up a copy of No Limits on Amazon.

Book Review

The Late Show

10:28 AM

Title // The Late Show (Renee Ballard #1)

Author // Michael Connelly

Publication Date // July 12, 2017

Publisher // Allen and Unwin

Genre // Crime, Mystery

Price // AUD $32.99

Rating // ✭✭✭✭

synopsis.

A pulse-pounding thriller, introducing a driven, young detective trying to prove herself in the LAPD.

Includes an extract of Two Kinds of Truth, the new Harry Bosch novel to be published in November 2017.

'Excellent series launch ... What follows is classic Connelly: a master class of LAPD internal politics and culture, good old-fashioned detective work, and state-of-the-art forensic science - plus a protagonist who's smart, relentless, and reflective ... once again, he delivers.' - starred review in Publishers Weekly

Los Angeles can be a dangerous city - never more so than in the dead of night.

Renee Ballard works the night shift at the LAPD in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.

But one night she catches two cases she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night.

As the cases entwine, they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won't give up her job - no matter what the department throws at her.

(Allen and Unwin)

review.

The Late Show is the first in a new series of crime-thriller books, featuring female Detective Renee Ballard.

Renee Ballard works The Late Show with her partner, Jenkins - the night shift in the Hollywood division of the LAPD. It’s the shift where most cops are sent when they’ve caused waves that the department wants to go away, which, in Ballard’s case, was a sexual harassment claim against a senior officer. Each morning, Ballard and Jenkin’s hand over their cases from the night to the day shift, but on this particular night, two cases fall into her lap and Ballard doesn’t want to give them up - she wants to see them through.

This initiates the reader in Ballard’s personality - she’s tough, determined and thorough, even when told to back down. Following the case of the horrific beating of a prostitute and a mass-shooting in a nightclub, Ballard goes against orders to follow the leads she finds through to conclusion, even though it puts her at risk - both physically and for her career.

Connelly has written a female detective who is tough in a world that would see her put down, who knows how to navigate the world she lives in by defining it by her own rules. While at times Ballard comes across as aggressive or even off-putting, it doesn’t hinder the strength of her character, or even her likableness - she’s determined to close these cases because she wants to see the victims given justice. Her relationships with those closest to her - her partner, her some-time lovers, her grandmother, her dog - are all very different, depending on how much she lets them in and it makes for a very well-rounded character.

While the narrative does seem to have been written by formula - with a lot of set-up initially to place Ballard within the world she inhabits - once the crimes are established, the novel picks up the pace weaving in clues and misdirection, until it’s reaches it’s conclusion, at which point I was surprised by who was revealed to be behind it all.

Overall I gave The Late Show 4 out of 5 stars - a solid crime-mystery and a great start to the Renee Ballard series. I look forward to future books featuring this strong female detective.

(Thank you to Allen and Unwin for sending me a copy of this book for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own!)

Book Review

Book Review | The Dark Lake

5:30 AM

Title // The Dark Lake

Author // Sarah Bailey

Publication Date // May 24th 2017

Publisher // Allen and Unwin

Genre // Crime

Price // AUD $32.99

Rating // ✭✭✭✭

synopsis.

A hot summer. A shocking murder. A town of secrets, waiting to explode. A brooding, suspenseful and explosive debut that will grip you from the first page to the last.

There were a few minutes when I was alone with her in the autopsy room. I felt wild. Absent. Before I could stop myself I was leaning close to her, telling her everything. The words draining out of me as she lay there. Her long damp hair hanging off the back of the steel table. Glassy eyes fixed blindly on the ceiling. She was still so beautiful, even in death.

Our secrets circled madly around the bright white room that morning. Rocking back and forth on my heels as I stood next to her, I knew how far in I was again, how comprehensively her death could undo me. I looked at Rosalind Ryan properly for the last time before breathing deeply, readying myself, letting her pull me back into her world, and I sank down, further and further, until I was completely, utterly under.

A beautiful young teacher has been murdered, her body found in the lake, strewn with red roses. Local policewoman Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock pushes to be assigned to the case, concealing the fact that she knew the murdered woman in high school years before.

But that's not all Gemma's trying to hide. As the investigation digs deeper into the victim's past, other secrets threaten to come to light, secrets that were supposed to remain buried. The lake holds the key to solving the murder, but it also has the power to drag Gemma down into its dark depths.

The Dark Lake is an addictive crime thriller, a mesmerising account of one woman's descent into deceit and madness, and a stunning debut that is already causing a stir around the world.

(Allen and Unwin)

review.

The Dark Lake is the debut novel of Melbourne-based author, Sarah Bailey, and it delivered on intrigue and pathos, and the harsh realities of grief.

Local teacher, Rosalind Ryan, is found murdered, her body floating in a lake. Local Detective Sergeant, Gemma Woodstock, is assigned the case despite having attended high school with the victim, and the case is an interesting blend of personal and impersonal for her as she tries to unravel who killed Rosalind and why.

The majority of the story is told from Gemma’s perspective - with small minor character interludes that, while not strictly necessary, did provide additional insight and clues into the case - and she is an interesting woman: a dedicated - to the point of obsession - police officer, a mother, a partner, vulnerable and ambitious, and consistently stuck between decisions she doesn’t want to make and the reality of her past. There are times when she is quite unlikeable - which works perfectly for the story being told, because all of her decisions are based on her own self-interests and are very telling of who she is and where she is currently at in both her personal and professional lives.

Set in Summer, The Dark Lake has the same hot, claustrophobic feel about it, especially as the town approaches Christmas with the unsolved murder hanging over it. There’s internal and external pressures exuding forces of Gemma to solve the case to the point where it begins to take over her life and we, as readers, begin to question her objectivity.

This was a solid debut novel and a great crime book, with a victim who is so complex and mysterious that I began to question if she was actually the victim at all.

Overall I gave The Dark Lake 4 out of 5 stars.

(Thank you to Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Dark Lake in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)

Book Review

Book Review | Stalking Jack the Ripper

5:00 AM

Title // Stalking Jack the Ripper

Author // Kerri Maniscalco

Publication Date // September 2016

Publisher // Jimmy Patterson

Genre // Young Adult, Mystery

synopsis.

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

(Good Reads)

review.

Stalking Jack the Ripper is a young adult take on the story of Jack the Ripper and the mystery surrounding his killings in Victorian London.

Audrey Rose is a young woman with ambitions of becoming a doctor and spends her free time (much to the chagrin of her family) apprenticing to her uncle who is a forensic scientist. This is obviously an ‘unsuitable’ profession for a young woman to enter in this time period and the novel addresses this in numerous ways, which was both intriguing and frustrating to read. Audrey Rose is fiercely determined to follow her passion and finds herself embroiled in the mystery surrounding Jack the Ripper, alongside her uncle’s second apprentice, Thomas Cresswell.

I loved the character interplay between Audrey Rose and Thomas - the two are constantly bickering, and yet there is an undeniably chemistry between them. I enjoyed as their relationship evolved as they both learnt to navigate (and negotiate) what begins to develop between them. There are definite parallels between Audrey Rose and Thomas and Sherlock Holmes and John Watson (I’ll leave it to you to decide whom fits whom best).

Overall, the mystery aspect was rather predictable - identifying who Jack the Ripper is was no arduous task for the reader - however I didn’t feel it detracted too much from the story which I felt was more about Audrey Rose trying to find her place in her world on her terms. Ultimately, the final reveal, I felt, was quite gruesome, which I loved, because I wasn’t expecting it at all. If the killer wasn’t a surprise, the motivations definitely were.

The addition of old photographs to set the mood and the location were creepy and wonderful and really added to the book.

I rated Stalking Jack the Ripper 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review

Book Review | Sacrifice

5:30 AM

Title // Sacrifice

Author // Hanna Winter

Publication Month // January 2017

Publisher // Manilla (Bonnier)

Australian RRP // $29.99 AUD

Genre // Crime, Thriller

synopsis.

The chilling first novel in the Lena Peters series from an exciting voice in crime fiction.

The international bestseller for fans of Nicci French, Sophie Hannah and Karin Slaughter.

He must hunt her down. Kill her. Destroy her . . .

In her very first case, criminal psychologist Lena Peters is confronted with a killer on a murderous vendetta. And though she is unaware, Lena will play a prominent role in his deadly mission, because Lena knows what makes killers tick - she also knows all about obsession, for she has been close to the edge herself.

For now she is the hunter, but soon she will become the hunted.

(Allen and Unwin)

review.

Sacrifice, by German author, Hanna Winter, is a crime/thriller novel that is a promising start to a series featuring criminal profiler, Lena Peters. It has been translated into English.

Lena Peters has recently moved to Berlin with few personal possession beyond her cat and a desire to succeed in her new job, profiling a prolific serial killer who removes body parts from his victims. Lena has to navigate the murky waters of her new job, colleagues who are less than impressed with her and her prickly boss while trying to solve a crime.

Sacrifice definitely feels like the first book in a series. Winter is clearly trying to develop the characters and background that will play into future books, as a lot of information is given to readers throughout the story. Occasionally some of it felt like it came out of the blue, which slowed my reading pace a bit, but overall it helped form a picture of Lena Peters - a woman who’s seen and dealt with a lot in life, who’s trying to build a career while coping with the family she has left without many support systems for herself. She’s a bit of a one-woman show who slowly begins to build herself a network of people who can help her out.

Parts of Sacrifice are told from the perspective of the serial killer, Artefix; his methods to stalking and kidnapping his victims is creepy, and disturbing. I wish there’d been a bit more from his perspective to up the ante, however it’s a good effort and an interesting insight into the antagonist.

Overall, I enjoyed Sacrifice and look forward to seeing how Hanna Winter develops her characters and stories in the future. A creepy and suspenseful read for all those who love their thrillers.

3 out of 5 stars.