The Promise by Katerina Diamond

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Avon Books UK in exchange for an honest review.

I will start this review by saying I requested this ARC a long time ago before I realised police procedurals weren't really my thing, so take my opinion with a pinch of salt. Having said that, The Promise is a fairly decent addition to the genre which mostly suffers from having quite a lot going on.

The Promise is the story of DS Adrian Miles and his partner Imogen Grey, who get involved in a serial killer case where the murderer is finding women through a dating site to strangle to death. Parallel to this, we are told a story about a teenage boy named Connor who has recently moved to the UK and is being physically abused by his dad. There is also a set of chapters from an unknown female POV of a woman telling the story of how she met her abusive partner.

You might already be able to tell that this is a lot but sadly, it isn't enough to hide the solution of the serial killer mystery. I had it worked out by 50% of the way through and it became very linear from there as I waited for the characters to catch up with me. I am not familiar with this series and so I also found it difficult to work out if Adrian or Imogen was meant to be the protagonist. From the blurb I see it was meant to be both of them, but Imogen felt more like the main character and Adrian's parts felt a bit intrusive as a result. It added even more to a story which already had three POVs.

The strengths of this book were that I felt it handled the police procedural stuff well and I didn't feel as bored as I normally do with the genre. Connor's storyline provided a lot of the heart and depth to the book and, though it was predictable, I still think his sections added a lot and were probably my favourite of the bunch. The characters were solid and well-written throughout, and the detective team had some nice interactions. It was also paced pretty well. It maybe could have been a little shorter but it was clear, easy to follow and the plot kept moving.

Overall, The Promise is a decent example of its genre. It's not the most groundbreaking thriller but Diamond clearly has talent and I had a better time reading this than some procedurals. If you're a fan of the genre, you will almost certainly love this more than I did.

Overall Rating:

Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin UK - Michael Joseph in exchange for an honest review.

Oh wow, what a treat this book was! I adore detective fiction and this was just one big love letter to it. Eight Detectives is the story of an old crime author named Grant McAllister and a young editor named Julia. Years ago he published an academic essay on the mathematical formula for writing murder mysteries, accompanied by several short stories as examples of this formula. It had little success but Julia has rediscovered this collection and wishes to publish them again, expecting a much more successful run. As she reads through the stories though, she begins to find hidden references to an unsolved murder and she suspects something sinister may be going on.

The format of this book made it a joy to read. It alternates between one of the short stories, followed by Grant and Julia discussing it afterwards. Each short story is brilliant within its own right and many have homages to famous detective fiction (for example, one is essentially a twist on Christie's And Then There Were None). All homages are acknowledged within text by Grant and so this prevented the stories from just being rip-offs, and all the stories had their own flavour and energy which made for delightful reading.

These stories on their own would make this book great but amazingly, there is a fantastic plot beyond them. Julia soon starts to spot inconsistencies in Grant's stories and these begin to add up to a bigger mystery. The whole thing is clever, delicious and fantastically done. I simultaneously wanted to power through this book and languish in the sheer brilliance of it all. I kept waiting to be disappointed but I never was. And this book actually scared me at several points as well! I am rarely scared by books but a few of the short stories truly unnerved me to the point where I didn't want to be alone.

Overall, this book is a must-read for any fans of murder mysteries. The love for genre spills onto every page and the result is possibly one of my favourite books of all time. Everything is crafted so carefully and executed so well. Pavesi has some serious talent to hit the balance so well and I could not have wished for more from a book like this.

Overall Rating:

This Little Piggy by Rob Ashman

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Bloodhound Books in exchange for an honest review.

 I will preface this review by saying gory serial killer books aren't really my thing. I requested this ARC way back when I joined NetGalley and I was excited by the prospect of new thrillers, without really pausing to stop and think if I actually wanted to read those thrillers. Having said that, This Little Piggy really surprised me with how enjoyable it is. This is a very good example of its genre.

As expected, this book has a fair amount of graphic gore and that was a little off putting. However, it also had a brilliant main detective character. It isn't often I find myself actually connecting with the police in police procedurals but Ashman did a great job of creating someone who was capable of driving the book beyond the basic serial killer plotline. The serial killer themselves is similarly well-written, never veering off into the cartoonish or unbelievable. All in all, I was very impressed by the writing.

This is not a thriller for people who enjoy a lot of twists or turns, but if you want a solid police procedural with a suitably gruesome premise, this is the perfect book to pick up.

Overall Rating:

.5

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

I received a free copy of this book for review thanks to publisher William Morrow and Edelweiss.

This book was like a flame to me. A thriller book about someone recreating 'perfect' murders from literary crime fiction? Fantastic! I was a little nervous it wouldn't live up to my expectations but thankfully my fears were for nothing. Eight Perfect Murders is the story of Malcolm, a crime bookshop owner who has been living a relatively unassuming life. One day an FBI agent shows up on his doorstep because they believe someone has been recreating a list of 'perfect' fictional murders he wrote about for a blog once. As he gets involved in investigating, he starts to wonder if someone is targeting him specifically.

I loved this book. It does spoil the plots of quite a few famous mystery books (the ones in the blurb on Goodreads plus The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie) so be warned but for any crime/murder mystery fan, this was a beautifully-done homage. One thing I really liked is it addressed the possibility for an unreliable narrator fairly early on, which was such a relief. I thought just from reading the blurb that Malcolm being behind the murders might be used as a last-minute twist but instead, it gets introduced as a possibility near the start and then is neither confirmed nor denied until the end. This might sound a bit odd but it is done in a brilliant way and it stopped me being impatient, allowing me to properly get invested into the story.

The characters are pretty good as well on the whole. Swanson does seem to struggle a bit with having characters act like real people, and one or two do suffer from that in this book. However, it is nowhere near as prominent as in some of his other works. The main character was interesting and keeping things from the reader was actually incorporated into his personality which I liked. The eventual ending and solution to everything is satisfying and done pretty well.

On the whole, this is a brilliant thriller and has quickly become one of my favourites. It takes a fantastic premise and manages to deliver on it with a gripping story full of fun tidbits for crime fans. I definitely recommend!

Overall Rating:

.5

Midwinter Mysteries by Assorted Authors

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Sapere Books in exchange for an honest review.

I really really love the idea behind this anthology. As far as I can tell, the publishing house behind this book has gotten a bunch of mystery/crime authors to write some short stories showcasing their characters in order to promote the series they write. This is a very cool idea and I think it's a great way to potentially find a new series you might really enjoy. Sadly most of these stories ended up not being for me.

I would say loosely that almost all of these are either a) police procedurals, b) historical mysteries or a c) a combination of both. With the exception of the very first story, I probably enjoyed the historical ones slightly more since I tend to lean towards historical crime fiction (unlike thrillers where I like modern day). My main problem with these is they were all incredibly short. This made it very difficult to get into the stories and also to get a taste of what the authors' true styles were. It felt like a story was just getting going and then it would end abruptly, sometimes without a sense that there had been an actual mystery involved.

Perhaps because of these stories using pre-established characters, there was also a lack of introduction of most of the cast and/or plot elements surrounding the stories themselves. This didn't help with getting into the stories either (again, the first story actually did introduce people fairly well and was one of my favourites for this reason).

Overall, this is a decent but all too brief collection of stories. They all fall a little short in various ways but the anthology was still moderately enjoyable and I do really like the idea behind it. I just wish everything was a little bit longer.

Overall Rating:

.5

Dead Famous by Ben Elton

Confession time-I enjoy reality TV. Not all reality TV but a hefty chunk of it. Any show that has a strong focus on people interacting with each other (so think Love Island, not X Factor)  really appeals to me. Blame the psychology degrees. Anyway, this is a murder mystery based around a reality TV show which meant I HAD to pick it up, and I'm so glad I did.

Dead Famous is a pretty unique mystery in that you get about halfway through before you find out whose been murdered. Rather than being annoying, it's actually quite fun to try and work out who is dead and why. It adds another layer to the mystery which is a good thing given that I found the actual ending pretty easy to predict. However, despite the predictability I enjoyed every second.

Ben Elton's writing style is phenomenal. Every character in this is written perfectly. All of the reality stars are familiar caricatures but they have the depth necessary to prevent them from being uninteresting. The police characters take the back seat but in the way that they should. Every character has their own motivations and these are both clear to the reader and usually sympathetic or at the very least, understandable. The general pacing and other writing elements are similarly well done. This is fairly long for your average mystery but it certainly doesn't feel that way when reading it. The fact that everyone has a motive for the murder is also done well and it's no easy feat to pull off.

Sadly, this wasn't quite perfect enough to make it into the 5-star read category. The ending was very predictable and while it didn't exactly drag, there was a long time before you found out the identity of the murder victim and it may have been slightly too long. I would still strongly recommend this book if you enjoy mysteries or humorous social commentary. I don't hear enough people talking about it and it's a shame.

Overall Rating:

Dying Truth by Angela Marsons

I received an ARC from Net Galley and publisher Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.

I had yet to read a book by Angela Marsons, although I had heard very good things from her from several people. Unfortunately this perhaps isn't the best book to showcase her talents. This is a perfectly acceptable, fairly interesting crime thriller but I was not blown out of the water by it. The plot starts off quite gripping and I like most of what it does but the biggest problem by far is the writing.

For starters, this book is far too long. It could have easily been condensed without losing anything and that might have helped with me being engaged with the plot. The author also has the annoying habit which I call 'the Goosebumps effect'. That is, often a chapter will end on an artificial cliffhanger, created only by people acting like no one ever has in real life. For example, one point a character says something along the lines of 'And you won't believe what I'm about to tell you'. Who would ever say that? Why wouldn't someone just say the actual thing, especially when both people are part of the police force and working on the same case?

Honestly aside from the writing, there isn't much to fault here. The characters managed to be interesting on the whole, although they all had a slightly unsettling air of apathy to the situation about them. However, if you know you like Marsons' writing then it might be worth checking this out, especially if you are a fan of the series. It hasn't put me off reading her other works and there are definitely some on my list to check out.

Overall Rating:

Follow Me by Angela Clarke

This book has got some nerve.

For 330 pages I stuck with this book. It's not that it's not good or well-written, far from it-I actually enjoyed it a fair bit. It's just that it felt long to read and not much new was happening. It definitely dragged a lot but I was hoping the ending would make it all worthwhile. I should have been smarter.

Not only was the ending not worth it, it royally pissed me off. It ripped off Agatha Christie! Not only that, but the author pointed it out themselves in the same way a comedian might point out how unfunny they are. Newsflash-it doesn't make it okay. It just points out how blatantly unoriginal you are being. Also having someone on the inside do the crime? I've only started reading modern crime recently and I'm already sick of this cliche.

Of course, this book has many other flaws for me to pick at. The weird subplot between Nas and Freddie that never ends up amounting to anything. The total lack of suspects which means the crime element is limited to police investigation, incidentally my least favourite part of the crime genre. Speaking of the police, how can anyone be this unaware of Twitter? The police are presented as total idiots throughout and it's basically an excuse to justify the main character being a part of the plot.

This is lazy writing without any effort. I was going to give it kudos for at least having interesting characters and a reasonably compelling narrative voice but it's not worth it after the total ripoff of an ending. Do yourself a favour and just read Christie-she did it much better.

Overall Rating:

.5