Crime

Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

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The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (UK edition cover)

Title: The Silkworm (A Cormoran Strike Novel, 2)
Author: Robert Galbraith
Genre: Crime, Detective Story, Mystery
Publisher: Sphere (19th June 2014)
Blurb:

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days – as he has done before – and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel is published it will ruin lives – so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before . . .

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

THE SILKWORM is the second book in Robert Galbraith’s CORMORAN STRIKE series, Life has returned somewhat to normal after the events of the first book in the series THE CUCKOO’S CALLING (review), and Strike is busying himself with cases of suspected cheating when Leonora Quine, the wife of author Owen Quine, steps into his office and asks Strike to locate her husband for her. THE SILKWORM tells the story of Strike’s search for Quine, and then the hunt for Quine’s killer when the author is found murdered in peculiar circumstances.

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Review: The Pleasures of Autumn by Evie Hunter

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The Pleasures of Autumn by Evie Hunter

Title: The Pleasures of Autumn (Pleasures #3)
Author: Evie Hunter
Genre: Contemporary, Crime, Erotica, Romance
Publisher: Penguin Ireland (31st October 2013)
Source: Penguin Ireland
Format: Finished Copy
Blurb:

Passion must have its way . . .

When Sinead O’Sullivan is charged with stealing the Fire of Autumn – a dazzling ruby with a notorious history – investigator Niall Moore is hired to stop her fleeing and to find the jewel. Though Sinead needs to convince Niall of her innocence, telling him everything she knows exposes secrets she is desperate to keep hidden.

Sinead and Niall may not trust each other an inch, but they find it impossible to ignore the fierce carnal heat between them. Niall, an expert interrogator, uses every trick of the trade – and every weapon in his erotic armoury – to get the truth. Sinead, a fast learner, counters his every move with one of her own. Thief and thief-taker fight for dominance and there can be only one winner.

But what happens in their red-hot game of cat-and-mouse when criminals chasing the precious jewel come after Sinead . . . and the stakes become deadly?

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

THE PLEASURES OF AUTUMN by Evie Hunter is the third book in the PLEASURES series. It tells the story of Sinead O’Sullivan a museum curator who stands accused of stealing the Fire of Autumn, and of Niall Moore who is charged with returning the ruby to the museum it was stolen from. From the beginning things do not look good for Sinead, although she continues to plead her innocence.

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Review: The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

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The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

Title: The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike #1)
Author: Robert Galbraith
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Publisher: Sphere (18th April 2013)
Blurb:

When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case.

Cormoran Strike is a war veteran – wounded both physically and psychologically – and his life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model’s complex world, the darker things get and the closer he gets to a terrible danger . . .

A gripping, elegent mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London – from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho – The Cuckoo’s Calling is a remarkable book. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J. K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

THE CUCKOO’S CALLING introduces us to Cormoran Strike, a private investigator who is experiencing some bad luck, until the brother of Lula Landry arrives at his office and asks Strike to investigate her death, which he believes to have been murder.

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Review: Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin

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Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin

Title: Sins of the Angels (The Grigori Legacy, #1)
Author: Linda Poitevin
Genre: Crime, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: ACE (27th September 2011)
Blurb:

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bulletproof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an angel . . .

Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial-killer case – a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell.

Aramael is a Power – a hunter of the Fallen Angels. A millennium ago, he sentenced his own brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother is back and wreaking murderous havoc in the mortal realm. To find him, Aramael must play second to a human police officer who wants nothing to do with him and whose very bloodline threatens both his mission and his soul.

Now, faced with a Fallen Angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse, Alex and Aramael have no choice but to join forces, because only together can they stop the end of days.

Rating: ***(3 stars)
Review:

Sins of the Angels and The Grigori Legacy have been on my want to read pile for a while, I just never added it to my Amazon basket for various reasons. Knowing Linda Poitevin through Twitter made me feel a little guilty about it, but it just wasn’t the right time. When I did get my hands on a copy of Sins of the Angels I was really looking forward to starting it.

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