Tag Archives: Crime/Thriller

The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith

Once again published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm is JK Rowling’s second crime novel featuring the private detective Cormoran Strike, and picks up several months after the events of The Cuckoo’s Calling. After an unwanted moment in the spotlight for his work on the Lula Landry case, Strike finds things getting back to normal when he takes on a case from Leonora Quine, whose husband Owen, an author of dubious taste and talent, has gone missing. As he begins his investigation it quickly becomes clear that there is more to Owen’s story than a man hiding away from his wife, with the inflammatory manuscript for his latest book having been circulated amongst his publishers and peers just before his disappearance.

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The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith

What do you do if you’re one of the most famous authors on the planet, but want to try something different, and for people to judge your writing purely on its merits? You write under a pseudonym, that’s what – and that’s exactly what JK Rowling did when she quietly released her first crime novel under the name of Robert Galbraith. It didn’t take long for the secret to be revealed, at which point sales went through the roof as expected, but the question remains – can Rowling come out from under Harry Potter’s shadow and cut it in the crime genre? The answer is that yes, she certainly can. Keep reading…

The Norfolk Mystery – Ian Sansom

Classic literary detectives are often dreadful know-it-alls. Hercule Poirot? Know-it-all. Sherlock Holmes? Definitely a know-it-all. It’s no surprise really, as their extreme levels of intelligence, which endow them with the required powers of observation to fulfil their roles, result in a propensity to be insufferable windbags. It’s hard to imagine sometimes how difficult it must be for their long-suffering assistants to put up with them. Ian Sansom has channelled this very problem in his novel The Norfolk Mystery, as Stephen Sefton, traumatised and shaken from his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, struggles to cope with the eccentricities of his new employer, Professor Swanton Morley.

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Solo – William Boyd

Ian Fleming’s final James Bond book – Octopussy and The Living Daylights – was published in 1966, two years after his death. Since then a variety of authors have taken up the 007 mantle, including Kingsley Amis, Sebastian Faulks and Jefferey Deaver. The latest novel, Solo, comes from the pen of William Boyd and follows Deaver’s modern-day update with a return to 1969 and the classic era of Bond stories.

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Headhunter – Michael Slade

Some books are initially deceptive, and deliberately don’t give you much in the way of clues to their contents from their title, cover or blurb on the back. Others are completely up front about what you will find within their pages. With a title like Headhunter, and a cover showing a severed head on a spike, this one falls firmly into the second category, and it’s not too hard to work out that this book is going to be a little bit gruesome.

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Crown Fire – David Annandale

A crown fire is a specific type of wildfire where it’s specifically material at the canopy level that burns, such as tall trees or vines. It’s an apt name for David Annandale’s first Jen Blaylock novel, the focus of which is Blaylock’s pursuit of those at the top of the corporate tree responsible for the deaths of her family.

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