Rosy & John by Pierre Lemaitre

Camille is one of my favourite detectives, I love his quirky nature, his unusual view of the world and his utterly reliable nature.

This is a short, clever novel, just exactly what I’d expect from this author, no messing around, just straight into the action. A bomb explodes in a Paris street, a young man confesses almost immediately to setting it and then tells the police that there will be a bomb explode every day until his mother is released from jail and they are given safe passage to Australia. The police are determined to make him break down and confess to the location of the bombs, but this young man is not telling. Not now, maybe not ever. Disaster may not be able to be avoided.

Of course Camille is central to the storyline, as this story twists and turns you see his clever mind whirring away, sifting through the threads.

It is great. A little gem. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me access.

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed, stories by Helene Tursten

Maude might look like a sweet old lady, but she is quite the most single minded and murderous little old lady I’ve met in a book. This is the second of this series and I thoroughly enjoyed it, maybe not quite as much as the first, but it is engaging and I raced through it having a lovely time. Maude is so extremely murderous, and the problem with that is that the very annoying police are constantly irritating her looking for her victims.

In this outing we get to find out more about Maud and her back story. Of course that isn’t at all comforting because she has been murdering people right and left all her life. People can be just so irritating and she and the world are better off without them, so she knocks them off.

You’ll enjoy this if you like a short entertaining read. It is unlike anything else and a really good time. How can a book where the main character just kills those who irritate her? I really don’t know but it is definitely the case with this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this.

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

If you’re after a good-hearted, full of enchanting characters, then get hold of one of T.J. Klune’s books. They make me ridiculously happy. Our hero is Wallace Price, a fabulously unpleasant man, a nasty piece of work. He dies. Yep, we open with our main character’s death. Crikey he is angry about that, he has stuff to do, he is important, it absolutely does not suit him to be dead. Worse he is able to observe people mourning him, but not enough, there just isn’t enough of an outpouring of grief at his demise for his taste. The Reaper comes to collect him and takes him to what’s next. That turns out to be an unassuming house that seems to store people who are transitioning from one phase of death to the next. It’s a kind of purgatory. While he is there he is going to learn a lot about his fellow humans, a bit late because he is dead right now!

As Wallace comes to terms with being actually dead, he begins to transform, to deal with some of the things that made him so angry and unpleasant in his life, and to accept people. All this while dead! This all sounds quite strange, but it is written beautifully and while it is full of lessons about acceptance and diversity, it’s funny and sad and poignant and a great deal of fun.

I think this would be a great book for the school library, something a bit different, I definitely thought there would be a YA audience for it. Now that I’ve read two of this author’s books I’m going to hunt out some more. They have such a light touch they make for a very good reading experience. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to this gem.

Blood On Vines by Madeleine Eskedahl

Quintessentially kiwi, Blood on Vines is the first book of Madeleine Eskedahl and I hope it isn’t the last, and the signs are good, book 2 in this series is on the way we’re told at the end of this one. Set in the gorgeous wine growing area of Matakana near Auckland, it is a lovely place to go for great food, warm weather, nice beaches and a warm vibrant community, all that comes across in this novel. This is the story of a group of friends who were there working on a vineyard during their uni holidays. Time has passed, they have families and settled down, or they have high flying jobs. Time as gone by, some keep in touch, some not so much. When a human hand is found under one of the friends houses it seems creepy but nothing to do with them, but as bodies start to mount up, threatening notes are left and generally things get creepier and nastier, there is cause for a great deal of concern. Something connected to their experience in their youth is putting them in grave danger. Things are getting very dark. This puts pressure on the team of two police officers, one of whom is best friends with a victim. I so enjoyed reading about the police officers, the young rookie and the sage older man.

It is a nicely complex mystery. I thought I had it figured out, then I didn’t, ah ha I thought, got it, but no. Fooled again! I did figure it out in the end and was very satisfied with the red herrings laid and clever management of the reveal. This book is an excellent beginning to what I hope if a great crime writing career. If you like your crime novels nice and dark with some great gore, this’ll make you very happy. Y

Thanks so much to the author who sent me a copy to review. I really enjoyed it and will look forward to the next one. ou can follow her on Instagram @madeleineeskedahlauthor