Deep Cover by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

The body of a sex worker is found in woodland where she may have fallen and died accidentally but all may not be as it seems. When the team get together to start to look at the evidence Ian Peterson is missing and no-one will say where he's gone although Geraldine's boss clearly has an idea. It becomes apparent that the sex worker's death is suspicious and the hunt is on but the criminal has been very careful. When a second - seemingly unrelated - victim is discovered there is difficulty in finding if, and how, these two cases are linked, and, of course, finding the person or persons responsible.

The reader learns that Ian has gone under cover with the drug squad in London as his face is not known in the London area. Under very close support Ian tries to get in the confidences of the leaders of the drug gang but quickly throws his script away to execute his own agenda - he didn't put his life on the line for the drug squad!

For me the Ian Peterson side of the story (and the two stories could almost be two separate books) just didn't work well BUT was cleverly executed by Russell none the less. It felt too rushed, too sweet and not enough time elapsed in the plot.

BUT, on the other side - the Geraldine Steel side of the story is probably (in my opinion) Russell's best story yet and it's not like there's been a bad one.

Really enjoyed this for the Geraldine Steel side at least and would recommend to any crime story fans. 

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult fiction, crime

Nick by Michael Farris Smith

 Anyone who's read The Great Gatsby, or even just seen a film adaptation, will be familiar with Nick Carraway - Daisy Buchanan's second cousin who accidentally rents a house across the bay from her, and right next to Gatsby's huge mansion - but beyond his role as narrator he doesn't really exist.

For Fitzgerald, Nick seems little more than a convenient plot device, sitting watching a love triangle tragedy unfold around him, privy to the desires and actions of all sides, fully committed to none.

Now Michael Farris Smith has brought Nick into the limelight. From his Mid-West childhood, where his life stretched planned and orderly in front of him, through the chaos of  World War 1 trenches, and a doomed love affair in Paris, to the violent saloons of New Orleans, Nick makes his winding way to a small house in West Egg on Long Island, and the green light shining across the Bay.

I'm normally a bit wary of 'spin off' books, which give characters lives way beyond the ones dreamed of by the original authors, but I read an online article by Michael Farris Smith about the inspiration behind Nick, and it somehow appealed. 

If you saw The Great Gatsby as a romantic tale of unrequited love, played out against a backdrop of fabulous parties, huge mansions, and flash cars, then this probably isn't for you. It's far grittier and more violent - like Hemingway rather than Fitzgerald - but I very much enjoyed it. It's a story that could well have stood on its own - naive young man traumatized by war, and unable to fit back into the world he left behind - but being the story of Nick Carraway gives it an extra twist. We know where he's going to end up; just not how.  

The Great Gatsby is now out of copyright so there are bound to be an endless number of spin-offs. Get in early and read this one. 

The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby

"Birmingham, 1885.

Born in a gaol and raised in a workhouse, Cora Burns has always struggled to control the violence inside her.

Haunted by memories of a terrible crime, she seeks a new life working as a servant in the house of scientist Thomas Jerwood. Here, Cora befriends a young girl, Violet, who seems to be the subject of a living experiment. But is Jerwood also secretly studying Cora...?"

When the reader first meets Cora she's setting out for a new place of employment, in fact it's her first taste of life outside the gaol, workhouse, and, her only previous employment, the asylum laundry. She's out-of-place, awkward, surly, almost determined to fail, but somehow she doesn't. As her story progresses we learn more of her past, of a life spent inside institutions, but, although not told in the first person, events are seen from Cora's perspective - and her memories are twisted and unreliable, so it takes a long while to discover the root of her problems. I must say, I didn't like Cora. She seemed to pick quarrels unnecessarily, to goad others into disliking her - maybe this was a reflection on her upbringing (if her life born into gaol can be considered an 'upbringing'); maybe this is how her character would have developed regardless. These are the sorts of questions that her new employer Jerwood is interested in. Is 'nature' or 'nurture' the more important factor in character and temperament? Is there a criminal 'type'? His research methods seem biased and unreliable to the modern reader, but I assume he's a fairly accurate representation of a Victorian gentleman with an interest in science and social theories. I hope they weren't all as unscrupulous, though, for he puts ambition and the making of his name above any concern for the individuals he uses as case studies.

It's a slow burn of a read, and to be honest, there were many times when I thought I'd give up on it, but I didn't, drawn in more, I think, by writing style than by concern for the characters. 

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - adult historical fiction

Killer Christmas by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

Everyone has plans for Christmas, mostly doing again what we did last year, but Geraldine's plans fall through at the last minute and she is stuck in York on Christmas Eve. On her own. With no-one to share the holiday with.

Sitting in a pop-up bar and having a quiet drink when a murder is committed - except no-one saw it happen and Geraldine was on the spot.

This is the first short story by Leigh Russell that I've read and frankly I had no idea what to expect. The normal format of her stories requires a lot of plotting and blind alleys etc. But in a short story how do you tackle  a murder mystery? Well Russell does it very well indeed. I was very surprised the way it unfolded without compromising the genre yet giving the reader exactly what they want.

This short story is still free on Kindle from Amazon or you can go to the No Exit Press website and purchase a hard copy so if you haven't read any Geraldine Steel yet now's your chance to sample for free.

I really did enjoy this a great deal.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller, Short Story

Class Murder by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

"With so many potential victims to choose from, there would be many deaths. He was spoiled for choice, really, but he was determined to take his time and select his targets carefully. Only by controlling his feelings could he maintain his success. He smiled to himself. If he was clever, he would never have to stop. And he was clever. He was very clever. Far too clever to be caught."

First of all, a confession. For the first time I have missed a Geraldine Steel out of the series so her current situation came as a surprise to me.

Demoted for the rest of her career and sent north to a new area she is once again working with Ian Peterson. A girl is murdered and the crime scene is clinically clean leaving the police almost nothing to go on. The case struggles on when a second murder is committed in the small rural area but there is almost nothing to link the crimes together. With the size of the population the only link seems far too tenuous to be substantial. Then the press find the link and start to make a story out of it. Then there is a third murder...

Russell has really returned to her roots with this story. We enter the head of the murderer without finding out 'why' and learn his cold, psychopathic thinking - and hating him more each time. Rooting for Steel and Peterson but we find Peterson wants to play 100% by the rules and do everything that's expected of him while Steel pushes her neck further and further out to the point...

Does their previous friendship have any real meaning anymore? Is Steel really now alone hundreds of miles from home?

Russell at her very best and Steel crying out to be turned into a TV series. I loved this book as much as any of the previous 8 out of 9 that I've read. I really can't wait for number 11.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Dragonfish by Vu Tran

Review by The Mole

"Robert, an Oakland cop, still can't let go of Suzy, the enigmatic Vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. Now she's disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a violent Vietnamese smuggler and gambler who is blackmailing Robert into finding her for him. As he pursues her through the sleek and seamy gambling dens of Las Vegas, shadowed by Sonny's sadistic son, 'Junior', and assisted by unexpected and reluctant allies, Robert learns more about his ex-wife than he ever did during their marriage. He finds himself chasing the ghosts of her past, one that reaches back to a refugee camp in Malaysia after the fall of Saigon, and his investigation uncovers the existence of an elusive packet of her secret letters to someone she left behind long ago. 

As Robert starts illuminating the dark corners of Suzy's life, the legacy of her sins threatens to immolate them all."

The story is delivered to the reader in two distinctly different styles and paces. The first is the fast, often violent but always menacing pace of the here and now as Robert tries to find out where Suzy has gone and why Sonny wants HIM to do the finding. The second is through the calm and reflective, although still often violent, pace of the letters.

I found the switch in pace and style, which is very significant, disruptive to my reading of the book. I did enjoy the story a lot but when the pace switches it very much feels like an invitation to put the book down and take a breather - this made it a longer read than it should have been.

The characters seem an eccentric mix but the ideas seem to be drawn from the author's own experiences so gain credibility through that. The conclusion is certainly not what I expected but complements the telling very well. Not one for the faint-hearted though.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime thriller

Murder Ring by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

The eighth book in the Geraldine Steel series.

A man is found mugged and murder in an alley by someone going to work. When DNA evidence leads the investigation immediately to a know criminal it seems like an open and shut case but it isn't always that easy. With the suspect under lock and key a second murder is committed - with the same gun. Clearly it's time to find another suspect.

Cleverly plotted this story also brings a major change to Geraldine's search for her birth mother. Is this too much of a distraction at this point in the investigation and will it bring about the peace of mind that she is looking for?

Easy to read, this story will keep you guessing as to where we are going to end up - and it's most enjoyable getting there. While we spend a lot of time in the killer's head it does mark a return to the "whodunnit" format which the last book had moved away from a little although the story ends up as more of a "whodidwhat".

Great compulsive writing that Russell has become known for.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

The Pale House by Luke McCallin

review by Maryom

In March 1945 Captain Gregor Reinhardt finds himself back in Sarajevo after a two year gap. He's got a new 'job', having been moved to the Feldjaegerkorps elite branch of military police, but still has his old conflict between duty to Germany and determination to do right. He's no happier with the attitudes of high-up Nazis running the country and the war, but is increasingly frustrated that there doesn't seem to be anything he can do about it.
Sarajevo is in complete turmoil. Russian and Partisan troops are advancing on the city, refugees fleeing out of the path of the fighting, the German forces are moving out, and their local supporters the Ustase feel free to do whatever they wish. In this chaos, who's going to notice a few extra dead bodies? Well, Reinhardt does. First, in the hills surrounding Sarajevo, he comes upon evidence of a massacre of civilians - but in the same location are other bodies that he believes don't quite 'belong' there. Then five mutilated bodies turn up within the city, again in curious circumstances that alert Reinhardt's policeman's instincts. Even in the midst of so many other atrocities, Reinhardt isn't going to let these past without investigating, and finds himself on the trail of a lucrative scam being run by some of the German troops.
I read the first of this series, The Man From Berlin, back in August, just as The Pale House, book two, came out and, apart from forgetfulness, I can't think why I haven't read this sooner. Reinhardt is a man trying to keep his ideals in a world where precious few of them are left; one of those 'good' men who find themselves caught up in something they don't approve of but powerless against the might of authority. Therefore, the massacre of civilians by the army is something he can do nothing about, but whenever it is possible  he's determined to see justice. Reinhardt's investigations lead through the streets and alleyways of this old city, from theatrical evenings in the company of a beautiful woman to the grim cellars of the Ustase's headquarters, The Pale House, where people disappear without trace.
Although his past is explained, mainly through flashbacks, I feel it probably IS necessary to read The Man From Berlin first to understand both Reinhardt, with his mix of honour and patriotism that pull him in opposing directions, and Sarajevo and its people.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult historical crime whodunnit World War 2

Blood Axe by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

When a 16 year old girl  is found brutally murdered and robbed, killed by a single blow from an axe, the hunt is on for the killer. DI Peterson looks at the only two suspects that are obvious but the question lingers - Who carries an axe unless it's with the intent to murder?

A few days later a jewellery store is robbed and the manager murdered even more brutally and there are only two things that the crimes have in common - stolen jewellery and the use of an axe as the weapon.

With the media making a meal of these killings the police need to get these crimes solved before the murderer can strike again and it becomes a hunt for a serial killer.

Russell, for me, has hardly put a foot wrong in any of her writing although there was a change in style between the early Geraldine Steel's and the later. In the first, the reader knew the identity and was following Geraldine's detection methods and thinking and in the later they became more "whodunnits". In Blood Axe she has combined those techniques extremely well and we spend time "in the head" of the killer (not a pleasant place at all!!) while not knowing their identity - in fact the surprise of their identity is greater than I expected.

DI Peterson is also becoming a more complete character and where I have always felt Geraldine was my favourite - not any more.

We all have moments when we are reading when we want to understand why the detectives don't broaden their search wider or do this or that but I found this to be Russell's best book yet (and there have been a lot of good ones).

If you can stand the tension of being in the head of the killer - whose reasoning is not as balanced as your own, you will love this book - I did.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Killer Plan by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

Following Caroline's brief encounter with a school friend of some 20 years ago her husband is brutally murdered. Caroline suspects the meeting wasn't an accident after all but feels she can't inform the police without implicating herself.

Then one of her identical twins goes missing - she believes he has been kidnapped.

DI Geraldine Steel's boss is looking for a fast close to the case when a second body found - it is that of her colleague, DI Nick Williams. A second murder investigation is opened and, despite sharing an office with Nick, Geraldine insists on being on the second team. But Geraldine is harbouring her own secrets which could jeopardise her career.

Geraldine Steel returns in this her seventh book and is as good as ever - in fact maybe even better. In a return to the style of the early Geraldine Steel books we, as the reader, know full well who has done what and to whom and scratch our heads wondering how Geraldine can find those missing clues to draw the puzzles together.

Russell manages to bring each character to life in a way that defies understanding. Each character we meet has their own little "foibles" with no-one - even the witnesses - being a "stock" character that produces a statement and walks away. The only problem with this kind of story is you get to see inside the head of characters that maybe, just maybe, you would rather not see - it is well worth the look though.

More about Geraldine Steel and her creator, Leigh Russell here

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

The Man from Berlin by Luke McCallin

review by Maryom

Sarajevo, 1943; the murder of young journalist/filmmaker Marija Vukic would probably have been left to the local police if it weren't for the presence of another dead body at the scene - that of a German officer. As it is, Captain Gregor Reinhardt, an ex-policeman now working for Abwehr, German military intelligence, finds himself involved in, and intrigued by, the case. The Yugoslavian investigation seems to be aimed at getting a quick result, not necessarily accurate, and preferably one that will point the finger at the anti-German Partisan movement, but Reinhardt is not at all convinced and persists in digging deeper, in the process annoying both local police and German officials.

The second book in this series is out on Thursday but I thought I'd be better to start at the beginning, and I'm glad I did as I think more of Reinhardt's background will have been explored here. A hero of the first world war, Reinhardt's life since then has not been so happy, his wife has died, he's estranged from his Nazi-indoctrinated son, and he feels his conduct in this second war has been not entirely 'becoming'; he's lost his faith in the people running the country and in the war itself. In this way, Reinhardt is set up as that fairly familiar honest detective, happy to antagonise his superiors, not prepared to go along with orders that don't make sense to him, and ready to take extra risks if necessary to do 'right'. But instead of being part of a modern metropolitan police force, Reinhardt is part of army intelligence in German-occupied Yugoslavia - a country that's a melting pot for many different races and religions, in which it's difficult to keep track of which groups are on the same side. Against this backdrop, almost any murder is bound to have political and military implications, and Reinhardt is happy to take his time, ask his awkward questions and slowly, surely, get to the bottom of the things.
I really enjoyed this mix of whodunnit and historical novel. The time and place are vividly brought to life; the characters, despite a certain superficial similarity with so many from old war movies, well defined and credible; and the plot twists and turns in more ways than you might expect.  I'm certainly looking forward to Reinhardt's further adventures in The Pale House!


Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult historical crime whodunnit World War 2

The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler

review by Maryom 

It's 1915 and American war correspondent Christopher Marlowe "Kit" Cobb is being sent to war-torn Europe with a double mission - to send back exciting copy for his newspaper, but also to do a little spying on the side - after all, no one's going to think twice about a nosy reporter asking questions are they? Sailing on the Lusitania, Cobb's instructions are to keep track of Walter Brauer, a German-American, an expert in Islamic studies lecturing at King's College in London and suspected German spy, but he soon finds himself distracted by the charms of movie-star, Selene Bourgani. Bourgani is as enigmatic as she is beautiful, and seems to have links to Brauer and possibly even be working with him. As Cobb follows the pair to London and on into Europe he uncovers a plot that could change the whole course of the war.....

The Star of Istanbul is a thrilling spy adventure set in the early part of World War 1, before the US involvement so Cobb is able to travel fairly freely throughout Europe. Although he doesn't find himself in any actual war zones, there's danger enough as the Lusitania is attacked (yes, he's on that voyage!), London is bombed from Zeppelins, and the German secret service try to stop Cobb in more personal ways.
There's a dash of Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands and John Buchan's Richard Hannay thrillers, written more or less at the time of WW1, about it all, with glamorous spies, dastardly Germans, and a hero out to foil the bad guys' plot and save his country. Throw in an exotic location - Istanbul - and what more could you want?
It's a tense, twisty read, that takes the reader back to an age before hi-tech spying gadgets, when the hero had to rely on his quick wits alone. As a whole I found it really enjoyable book, full of treachery, intrigue and suspense, but occasionally a little too wordy which slowed down the action. Cobb isn't a 'professional' spy and some of the things he has to do sit uneasily with him, even when they're absolutely vital to his survival. Selene Bourgani though is rather a typical femme fatale style spy, with a mysterious past and deadly agenda, which I found a bit of a shame; I'd have liked to see a more rounded, fully developed character.


I haven't read the first Kit Cobb story, The Hot Country, but found no problems (other than maybe plot spoilers for previous book) in jumping in here.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult historical spy thriller World War 1

Last Bus to Coffeeville by J Paul Henderson

Review by The Mole

Nancy, Gene and Bob met at university as young activists trying to bring about the end of segregation. Gene was studying to become a doctor and Nancy took a shine to him. Nancy comes from the deep south where desegregation is the most stalled. When she takes him home to meet her family she confides the awful truth that Alzheimer's Disease is hereditary in her family - amongst the women - and she manages to get him to promise that when (not if) her time comes he must help her to die rather than suffer the degradation that the disease brings.

On returning  to college later Doc (Gene in the early part of the book) finds a note that Nancy is splitting up with him.

A lifetime later and a call out of the blue from Nancy about meeting up. Their friendship is re-kindled and Nancy explains that the early signs of Alzheimer's are showing.

While this book is ostensibly about their trip back to the deep south where Nancy wants to spend her final days that would be like saying that "War and Peace" is about Russia - there is so much more story along the way that the reason for this group of friends coming together is very much secondary.

The most part of the first half of the book is more like a group of linked short stories. With each character we meet we are treated (a carefully chosen word) to hearing their back story - and every one is an interesting delight. Then when the friends come together and the journey starts the book changes to a proper story telling.

This group of friends is a very diverse group in age, outlook and history and the journey bumps along with incident after incident but frequently returning to that horrific subject of Alzheimer's.

Did I mention the humour? I need to mention the humour... while trivialising nothing and not making fun of the disease or its victims in any way, this story is laced with humour throughout from this eclectic list of characters.

Doc - who's been dealt a bad hand by life but when he does get a good hand then life goes and trumps it. He tends to be a bit miserable.

Bob - an ex FBI hit man - a job he couldn't resign from so now he's hiding from them but despite this he is the most optimistic and realistic of the bunch.

Eric - a 13 year old boy whose parents have died and his guardians have enrolled him in a deaf school. He's not in the slightest bit deaf.

Susan - Eric's exotic dancing cousin and only family.

Jack - an ex weatherman most noted for his on-air resignation and terrified he's losing his hair.

And finally, Nancy - the most normal of the bunch but perhaps normal is overrated.

A brilliant début by this author and I look forward to what he pens next. Funny and sad in equal measure this book will appeal to most adult readers but as for a genre? I have no real idea.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult, road trip, humour

Hold The Dark by William Giraldi

review by Maryom

Wolves have been circling and stalking the remote Alaskan village of Keelut, and taken three young children. While some accept it as a painful fact of Alaskan life, Medora Slone, the mother of the third child, thinks differently. With her husband Vernon away with the US army, she decides to enlist the help of wolf expert Russell Core to track down the wolves and bring back the remains of her son. Core may be familiar with wolves but the snow-bound horizons of Alaska are completely alien to him - and he finds things far worse than wolves lurking around Keelut.

Hold The Dark attracted my attention as I'd just finished Cecilia Ekback's Wolf Winter a tale of wolves, snow and murder set in an isolated community in 18th century Swedish Lapland. This time the action is set in the bleak Alaskan winter, in another remote, insular community but in the present day. Beyond weapons and transport, modern life hasn't made a great impact on Keelut; it feels like a place outside of civilisation, a place with its own rules and laws, that still holds on to older ways and traditions, and that keeps its secrets closely hidden. But the horror that's about to be unleashed there is timeless and the swath of violence that spreads through this tiny community wouldn't seem out of place in a large city.
It's without doubt a gripping read, unfolding in unexpected ways with the ending proving as unexpected as you could want. Just occasionally I felt the author was trying a little too hard to impress with his writing style or technical knowledge, which jarred me out of the atmosphere, but for the most part I was fully immersed in both the 'otherness' of Alaska's barren landscape and the revelations of the story.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Race to Death by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

DI Peterson has yet to prove himself in his new job in Yorkshire when a man falls 5 stories to his death at the York races. Murder or suicide? Because the death occurred in such a public place and at a high profile event there is great pressure to get the case sorted out quickly. But there are no suspects and the body count starts to grow and Peterson can find nothing that they have in common.

Peterson's first case in York and he is working all hours to get it solved as quickly as possible while his wife is bored, friendless and missing her family and friends and so adding to the pressures. But when she gets a job it could help to take some of the pressure off except she isn't as happy with the job as she was in Kent.

As the cases drag on, his private life gets more and more in way of the case. Is this one case too many for Peterson? Can he continue in the police force after all that happens?

In the first DI Peterson book Cold Sacrifice, set after Geraldine Steel moves to London to take up her new post, I found I didn't really warm to Peterson but that all changed in this book. Peterson felt a more rounded character, perfectly capable of leading an investigation and getting results and a great deal more human. It's a long time since I read a whodunnit that surprised me with the result - but this one most certainly did and I loved it for it.

If you like crime books then you will adore both Geraldine Steel and DI Peterson but the early books are not whodunnits - the reader knows who did it and is wishing Steel to solve it. I loved those early books although I also love them now they have shifted towards the whodunnit genre.

Everyone of them is a fantastic read and Leigh Russell is probably the only author that I can say I have read ALL their books and enjoyed everyone of them. I have reviewed some on our blog and some on Nayu's Reading Corner.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Fatal Act by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

After an argument a woman, an actress, storms out of the house of her boyfriend, a famous producer, and drives away in her Porsche only to die in a head-on collision with her boyfriend's van whose driver has disappeared. The question has to be asked as to why this has been referred as a murder investigation? A second actress dies and the common factor appears to be the producer. When the producer's son is murdered then there can only be one name in the frame, surely?

Returning for her sixth investigation, Geraldine Steel once again leads us through the routine encumbered by a boss who has decided who is guilty and wants no time wasted on pointless enquiries. At the same time her sergeant is constantly pushing her opinions and her 'sister', Celia, is trying to get her to maintain her social life and Nick, an inspector that shares her office, is trying to get her to go on a date. Chaos continues to surround Geraldine when DS Peterson - her sergeant from before her move to the met - phones to go out for a drink creating a temporary oasis of calm.

I really did like the way this incident with Peterson is mirrored in "Cold Sacrifice" which is the first DS Peterson mystery; it manages to add a degree of continuity to both stories. I have to say that early on I had figured a feature of the killer - I suspect we are supposed to - but the story is about finding out who and how Geraldine gets to the killer.

Geraldine is one of my favourite fictional detectives and this mystery does nothing to diminish her status. A great read with a twist at the end that I won't even hint at! (Check the murder count - ooops).

I really enjoyed this book and it is sure to please whodunnit readers and Steel fans wherever they may be. We were recently part of the blog tour to celebrate the publication of Fatal Act and Leigh talked about browser history

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Buy Fatal Act (A Geraldine Steel Mystery) from Amazon

Cold Sacrifice by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

A woman is found stabbed to death on the park and she carries no identification. A mugging? Or is it so simple? When is finally identified her husband, Henry, becomes the prime suspect - although he is the only suspect. Then a prostitute - his alibi - is found strangled and so it seems there is only one link between the victims. Then another body is found. Can they link it back to Henry and wrap them all up as one murderer?

In Russell's previous books DS Ian Peterson worked with Geraldine Steel but she has now taken up a posting in London and he is finding his feet working with new people but also waiting for promotion to DI in this the first 'spin off' story.

Once again Russell tells us a story which, unlike some, has very few suspects and we know, as a reader, that the person in the frame is not the murderer but the chase is not about a 'whodunnit?' but a 'how will they catch the right person?'. And once again the author has intertwined the off duty life with the investigation in an extremely frustrating way. Frustrating? Yes, if you've ever had to balance work and home life the way Peterson does then you will truly 'feel' the atmosphere she creates and balances. It's for this reason that I would say that MY preference is for Geraldine Steel but... The next DI Peterson could easily change all that - read the book to find out why.

Another great investigation that carries Russell's hallmark of trying to remain closer to real life than fiction. If you like crime novels and you haven't tried  Leigh Russell's books yet then give them a go - you just might become addicted.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Buy Cold Sacrifice: The First DS Ian Peterson Murder Investigation from Amazon

Stop Dead by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

Geraldine Steel is once again in the middle of a murder investigation. Once again the body count rises and as it does the link between the victims - once strong and seemingly a lead - becomes less and less. All the original suspects are eliminated as the story unfolds because motives and opportunities lose their relevance. When they no longer have any suspects, things start to falter and Geraldine feels the stress like she's never felt it before. Can she find the killer before even more crimes are committed?

And on top of this Geraldine is having difficulty adjusting to the London scene. Her sergeant is friendly and supportive but has personal issues with Nick, the inspector  that Geraldine shares an office with. And then Geraldine starts with similar issues. And while she is loving her work she is also somewhat depressed and missing the camaraderie and friendships she has left behind.

Quite a different story compared to the previous stories where we knew who the killer was and were willing Geraldine on towards a solution, this one is much more of a whodunnit. In this we witness most of the crimes but as each crime occurs we are further away from the scene and far less understanding of the killers 'drive'. Except in one case where the victim survives.. so surely that will lead us to the killer? Wouldn't it be easy to make that the solution? Russell doesn't do 'easy'!

Another fantastic read that will have you guessing for much of the book and trying to 'get inside' the mind of the killer while the personal life of Steel continues to intertwine with story as the mystery unfolds. There is no need to have read the previous books but you will understand Geraldine better if you do. 

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Buy Stop Dead (Geraldine Steel 5) (DI Geraldine Steel) from Amazon