Marleen Kennedy
Valentina, by Evie Blake
Reviewed on October 23, 2012
The year is 2012 and Valentina, a photographer, is living in Milan with her lover Theo. Although she and Theo have been together for a year now, Valentina can’t commit to the relationship. While Theo clearly wants to take things with Valentina further and would like to introduce her to his parents, she retreats into [...]
Carnival for the Dead, by David Hewson
Reviewed on October 21, 2012
“Sometimes a mask is there to fool others. Sometimes to fool oneself.” Forensic pathologist Teresa Lupo has travelled from Rome to Venice to look into the disappearance of her beloved and rather bohemian aunt Sofia. It is February, and in cold and wintery Venice the Carnival is in full swing. When Teresa and her mother, [...]
Me and Mr. Booker, by Cory Taylor
Reviewed on October 19, 2012
Martha is sixteen years old, living in a small town where nothing ever happens with parents who are separated, a brother who has moved away and a father who is mad. Martha is waiting for the rest of her life to begin when her mother invites Mr. and Mrs. Booker to a party. The Bookers [...]
Eighty Days Blue, by Vina Jackson
Reviewed on October 16, 2012
“Doms, subs it happens gradually, almost without your being aware of it. Until the day comes when you assume it fully, accept it, banish the personal doubts. It’s nature, not nurture, you see.” Except that in reality it is never that simple. Rarely do we grow into something new without some obstacles getting in the [...]
In Too Deep, by Portia Da Costa
Reviewed on October 14, 2012
Gwendolynne Price is thirty years old, not at all skinny, recently divorced and working as a librarian. She loves her job but wouldn’t call it exciting until, one day, she opens the suggestions box in work and finds a letter addressed to her. The letter is explicit and sexy. Somebody, calling themselves Nemesis, has taken [...]
The Uninvited, by Liz Jensen
Reviewed on September 29, 2012
It starts with one child, a young girl, taking a nail gun and killing her grandmother before injuring her father for no apparent reason. It seems to be a random occurrence, a one-off event, tragic and shocking but unique. Hesketh Lock hears about this murder while on his way to the airport. He is travelling [...]
The Mystery of Mercy Close, by Marian Keyes
Reviewed on September 27, 2012
Helen is the youngest of the Walsh sisters and going through a bit of a rough spot. Working as a private investigator was great while the economy was up, but now that the Celtic Tiger has gone and died there just isn’t any work available. And no work means no income which means no money [...]
Haven of Obedience, by Marina Anderson
Reviewed on September 20, 2012
Natalie Bowen is in her twenties and a very successful young lady. The magazine, aimed at single women like herself working high-powered jobs, she started only 18 months ago is a huge success and although she works long hours, her working life is very satisfactory. The same can’t be said for her private life though. [...]
Serpent’s Kiss ( Witches Of The East, Book 2), by Melissa de la Cruz
Reviewed on September 15, 2012
North Hampton is a town in New York state, but it is off the map, not completely part of the rest of the world, although by no means separate from it either. In North Hampton the three Beauchamp witches are trying to live their lives in a quiet way, using their magic to help those [...]
Eighty Days Yellow, by Vina Jackson
Reviewed on September 7, 2012
Summer Zahova is a violinist from New Zealand, living in London where she is in a frustrating relationship with a man who can’t meet her needs and struggling to make ends meets. While busking in the underground, Summer gets caught up in a scuffle between rival football supporters which damages her violin beyond repair. Dominik [...]
Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr. Moreau, by Guy Adams
Reviewed on September 5, 2012
Just when Sherlock Holmes is convinced that there are no interesting cases for him to investigate, he and Dr. Watson are visited by Holmes’ brother Mycroft. Bodies have been turning up around London. Bodies which show signs of having been attacked and murdered by ferocious creatures that don’t belong in London. Mycroft is sure that [...]
Beautiful Disaster, by Jamie McGuire
Reviewed on September 4, 2012
Boy, what a story. Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She is 19 years old and in her first year at Eastern University with her friend America, determined to leave her past behind her and create a promising and peaceful future for herself. The last thing she needs in her life is someone like Travis [...]
The Little Shadows, by Marina Endicott
Reviewed on September 4, 2012
The year is 1912 and after the death of their father and baby brother the three Avery sisters, Aurora, Clover and Bella hit the road with their mother to start their career as vaudeville stars. Flora Avery, the girls’ mother, worked in vaudeville before she married their father and gratefully uses contacts from the old [...]
The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller
Reviewed on August 28, 2012
It has been nine years since the flu wiped out most of humanity, nine years since Hig lost his wife and unborn baby. Ever since then Hig has been living in a hangar on a small abandoned airport with only his old dog Jasper for company. He shares the airport compound with Bangley, a gun-tooting [...]
A Name in Blood, by Matt Rees
Reviewed on August 23, 2012
Rome in 1605 is a place where powerful families are in competition with each other and not even the Pope has enough power to control everybody and everything. In a world where the mighty live in grand palazzos, surrounded by wealth, Caravaggio is a painter and as such considered a lowly craftsman. Although Caravaggio’s work [...]
Vanished, by Tim Weaver
Reviewed on August 15, 2012
David Raker has made a career finding the lost. A former journalist, he has spent the past four years finding the missing for those who want them back. When he is first approached by Julia Wren and asked to find her husband the case doesn’t appear too complicated. Sam Wren took the tube train into [...]
Heaven’s War, by David S. Goyer & Michael Cassutt
Reviewed on August 6, 2012
After two simultaneous but separate missions to an unidentified object in Earth’s orbit go horribly wrong Zack Stuart is the only astronaut staying behind in its interior. Four of his colleagues and rivals are on their way back to earth, the rest have died on the object affectionately named Keanu. Meanwhile on earth 187 random [...]
Shadow of Night, by Deborah Harkness
Reviewed on August 4, 2012
The story in this book picks up exactly where the first book, A Discovery of Witches, left off. Diana Bishop, witch and Matthew Clairmont, vampire, have timewalked to London in 1590 where they hope to find Ashmole 782, the book Diana accidentally accessed in the present and which appears to hold the answers to the [...]
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes, by Marcus Sakey
Reviewed on July 24, 2012
On a cold and abandoned beach a man comes to. He is naked and throwing up seawater. He is very cold and has no idea who he is, where he is, why he is there or why he is not wearing clothes. All he knows is that he will have to get warm or he [...]
Existence by David Brin
Reviewed on July 21, 2012
In a near future (the 2050’s or thereabouts) everybody in the world is connected with each other and their surroundings through a virtual network, inter-active glasses and various implants. At this time, during which space exploration has been suspended, Gerald Livingstone is an astronaut whose job it is to collect and dispose of the space [...]
The Yard, by Alex Grecian
Reviewed on July 20, 2012
Walter Day has only recently been appointed as an Inspector with New Scotland Yard and is unsure why he deserved this promotion and if he is up to the job, when a gruesome discovery is made in a London train station. The repeatedly stabbed body of Inspector Christian Little is found inside a suitcase, his [...]
Kiss the Dead, by Laurell K. Hamilton
Reviewed on July 17, 2012
Anita Blake is an equal-opportunity executioner. She kills every vampire, regardless of apparent age, race, sex or religious affiliations. As a vampire hunter, necromancer and US Marshall Anita Blake is always on the trail of the dead, the un-dead, the not-quite-dead and the not-quite-human although most of those closest to her fall in exactly those [...]
Eeny Meeny Miny Moe, by Joanna Price
Reviewed on July 13, 2012
Lauren Hampton used to be a famous model; in fact, many regarded her as Britain’s first supermodel. Those years are far behind her now and there is little left of her beauty when she’s found in her house, dead with a plastic supermarket-bag over her head. When Detective Sergeant Kate Linton receives the call summoning [...]
The Houdini Specter, by Daniel Stashower
Reviewed on July 6, 2012
The year is 1898 and Harry Houdini is twenty-four years old. Because theatre agents in New York are still convinced that there is no market for or interest in escape-artists, Houdini continues to be confined to dime museums where he performs tricks that frustrate him and leave him feeling humiliated. Something comes along though to [...]
Cursed, by Benedict Jacka
Reviewed on July 5, 2012
Alex Verus is a mage, a diviner, who owns a shop; ‘Arcana Emporium’ in Camden, London and when the story starts life is going smoothly for him. He is on reasonably good terms with the Council and occasionally working for them, and the work with his cursed apprentice Luna is proceeding quite nicely as well. [...]
The Ninety Days of Genevieve, by Lucinda Carrington
Reviewed on July 1, 2012
Genevieve Loften is young, ambitious and determined to get James Sinclair to sign an advertising contract with the company she works for. James Sinclair is rich, arrogant and used to getting what he wants. When, at the end of her third sales presentation Genevieve asks him if there is anything else she can show him [...]
Dragon’s Time, by Anne & Todd McCaffrey
Reviewed on June 30, 2012
Thousands of years after humans colonised Pern and genetically modified dragons to help them fight the dreaded Thread the world finds itself on the brink of disaster. The dragon’s sickness has left Pern with perilously low numbers of Dragons to fight the deadly Thread with. Although Lorena found a cure to the sickness, the cure [...]
Alice Bliss, by Laura Harrington
Reviewed on June 27, 2012
Alice Bliss is fifteen years old when her father volunteers to go to Iraq to fight a war Alice doesn’t believe in. While her mother, Angie, her eight year old sister, Ellie and Alice herself are all fervently against this idea, Matt Bliss can’t be dissuaded. He feels the need to do something useful and [...]
2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Reviewed on June 25, 2012
The year, as the title suggests, is 2312 and humanity has branched out all through the solar system. Technology has made it possible to live on planets, moons and in between, allowing for the creation of habitats and the recreation and preservation of whole species. However, all these advances have not improved humanity’s nature in [...]
Dare Me, by Megan Abbott
Reviewed on June 24, 2012
Addy Hanlon and Beth Cassidy have been friends for years, inseparable and invincible they face the world side by side; Beth the leader and Addy her lieutenant. Both girls are tough and both girls are bad, they are in control of their world and the people around them as only teenage girls can be. When [...]
E.L. James’ Fifty Shades Completed
Reviewed on June 23, 2012
So I like the Fifty Shades trilogy, bite me… I’ve enjoyed reading the Fifty Shades books and it took me almost 200 pages into the second book to freely admit that. That realisation made me stop and think. Why was/am I so reluctant to ‘confess’ how much I like these books.
The Armageddon Rag, by George R.R. Martin
Reviewed on June 18, 2012
During the 1960’s Nazgûl was a hugely popular hard rock band, the voice of a generation. But in 1971, when a bullet ended both the life of the charismatic lead-singer and the future of the band, an era came to an end. During those years Sandy Blair was in the midst of the action. An [...]
Fifty Shades Freed, by E.L. James
Reviewed on June 17, 2012
After all the trials and tribulations in the previous two books Ana and Christian, her Fifty Shades, are married. The honeymoon to Europe is wonderful, but all too soon it is back to the real world and the realisation that getting married doesn’t mean that existing issues suddenly disappear. For starters, Christian is still as [...]
Ghost Flower, by Michele Jaffe
Reviewed on June 9, 2012
Eve Brightman has been in and out of foster-families ever since she lost her mother. She is tough and knows how to look after herself, but it isn’t easy. Living in a cheap hotel and working in a Starbucks for little money and under a creepy manager, her prospects are bleak. When she is approached [...]
The King’s Blood (The Dagger and the Coin 2), by Daniel Abraham
Reviewed on June 8, 2012
Troubled times lay ahead in the Kingdoms. In Anthea, Geder Pallaiko, protector of the crown prince is elevated to regent when the king dies. From noble but lowly beginnings, Pallaiko wasn’t raised to be a ruler, and finds himself in his elevated role almost by accident. Relying heavily on Basrahip, High Priest of the Spider [...]
Fifty Shades Darker, by E.L. James
Reviewed on June 2, 2012
Warning: If you haven’t read the first Fifty Shades book but intend to do so, you probably shouldn’t read this review since it will contain references to and possible spoilers for that title. So I wrote my review of Fifty Shades of Grey earlier this month and, even to my own ears, I sounded rather [...]
Half-Sick of Shadows, by David Logan
Reviewed on May 31, 2012
This has to be one of the strangest books I’ve ever read even if it started straightforward enough. Edward lives in The Manse, at the end of The Lane where a cemetery is the back garden with his twin sister Sophia, his parents and two older brothers. Edward’s home is so isolated from the rest [...]
Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
Reviewed on May 26, 2012
Anastasia Steele, a young literature student, is reluctantly drafted by her friend Katherine to interview Christian Grey, a very successful and even more attractive business man. When she literally falls through his office door and subsequently makes a mess of some of the questions she’s supposed to be asking she is convinced that the man [...]
Fear in the Sunlight, by Nicola Upson
Reviewed on May 15, 2012
“Fear of the dark is natural, we all have it, but fear in the sunlight, where it is so unexpected – that is interesting” Alfred Hitchcock London 1954, and Chief Inspector Archie Penrose, about to retire from Scotland Yard, is visited by an American investigator who wants to know about events that took place in [...]
Arcadia, by Lauren Groff
Reviewed on May 5, 2012
It is the 1970 and a group of idealists, lead by Handy, a charismatic musician, establish a commune near an old and dilapidated house called Arcadia. Here they want to create their ideal community free from commercialism and violence. Ridley Sorrel Stone is born to Hannah and Abe, two of the original Arcadians. Since he [...]
The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis
Reviewed on May 2, 2012
Nina Borg is a Red Cross nurse working in a refuge centre in Copenhagen where she tries to keep the vulnerable safe from those who would use and abuse them. A job that is often futile and frustrating, especially since Nina is in the habit of taking every case personally and getting involved with them [...]
Dark Angel, by Mari Jungstedt
Reviewed on April 26, 2012
A new conference centre is officially opened in Visby, Gotland and everybody who is anybody is present, including Inspector Anders Knutas and his wife. It appears that the evening has been a huge success until the next day, when the body of Viktor Algard, the glamorous party-planner, is found in the centre by cleaners. It [...]
Fated, by Benedict Jacka
Reviewed on April 22, 2012
Alex Verus runs the Arcana Emporium in Camden. On the surface a new-age shop, both Alex and his shop are a lot more. In fact, Alex is a mage, a diviner. He can look into the future investigate the various options open to him and take the path that suits him best. In a world [...]
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:The Titanic Tragedy, by William Seil
Reviewed on April 15, 2012
The year is 1912 and Dr. Watson is living alone in rooms in Piccadilly, writing historical novels, while Sherlock Holmes has retired to the South Downs where he keeps bees and conducts scientific experiments. For both men, the time of mysteries and adventures seems very firmly a thing of the past. On the 9th of [...]
Feted to Die, by Roger Keevil
Reviewed on April 11, 2012
It is time for the annual fête at Dammett Hall and a few people are gathering together for a pre-opening drink. Present are Sandra lady Lawdown, her daughter Laura Biding, family friend Seymour Cummings, famous author Helen Highwater, local lawyer Robin Allday, clairvoyant Horace Cope and his cousin Albert Ross. When Horace Cope is found [...]
The Floating Lady Murder, by Daniel Stashower
Reviewed on April 4, 2012
This is the second book in the Harry Houdini Mysteries and events in this book take place not too long after those in “The Dime Museum Murders”. Although Harry Houdini enjoyed a short period of notoriety after his adventures in that earlier story, his fame didn’t last and he is back to struggling to make [...]
The Company of the Dead, by David J. Kowalski
Reviewed on March 25, 2012
It is April 1912 and Jonathan Wells is travelling on the Titanic towards New York. Armed with knowledge that he shouldn’t be able to have he is on a mission to save the ship from the iceberg that would make the maiden-voyage also her last. His action will have shocking results for the world, results [...]
The Dime Museum Murders, by Daniel Stashower
Reviewed on March 23, 2012
The Dime Museum Murders is the first book in a series introducing the famous Harry Houdini as an investigator of crimes. The year is 1897 and Harry Houdini is still a struggling magician in New York. While he is determined to become a world-famous escapologist, New York and the world are not yet ready to [...]
The Gods of Gotham, by Lyndsay Faye
Reviewed on March 20, 2012
It is the summer of 1845 and in New York City the NYPD is born. On the other side of the Atlantic, in Ireland, the potato blight brings the prospect of starvation to thousands and those who can, flee their home country for the land of opportunity, landing in New York where they’re anything but [...]
Russian Winter, by Daphne Kalotay
Reviewed on March 18, 2012
Nina Revskaya is a retired ballet dancer and teacher. When she decides to sell her jewellery collection she does so in the hope that it will put the past behind her once and for all. Much to her distress she finds that her action achieves the complete opposite though. Suddenly memories she has been able [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Mark Oldfield
Mark Oldfield has worked in criminological research for over 20 years. He has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Kent and has carried out research in the areas of risk assessment and prediction and as well as evaluative research on policing, prisons and probation. He has also taught in various Universities on research, crime and criminal justice.
