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A COLD HEART by Doug Sinclair

3.5* Misleading blurb, brutal scenes that I didn't expect or stomach too well, but a not-bad tale.  I've only read the predecessor to this book, not the first 2 in the series, but wasn't lost in either. This one follows immediately from book 3, with some personal stuff for Malkie  some possible closure, a possible future with someone he loves, and a case that works, though Elizabeth really didn't have a very good head on her shoulders, nor care much about her daughter, it felt. I mean, doing what she did, handing the offending item to her daughter to be seen with it, risking the adverse publicity that would come with her being found out, risking her daughter now being bullied for 2 things instead of 1 - I mean, really, lady?  The brutality in this book was shocking, especially as it's explicit and against females. There really needed to be a warning about it. But, the events leading to the involvement of the bad guys was mostly plausible (other than who employs some...
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THE OTLEY MURDERS by JR Ellis

3* Feels like a cosy mystery without any real sense of danger or urgency.  This is quite decently written but it bigs itself up to something that the writing doesn't deliver, unfortunately. We are told the characters are great at their jobs, but investigations and the initial prison escape plot were quite mundane and there was no feel of danger or urgency. The cops weren't clever - take Andy, for example. He plans to capture the escaped prisoner when he turns up at an agreed place at 1pm, so he and some cops turn up at 12.30pm, not wondering, seemingly, that the guy would've likely been casing the place.  The reveal of the prisoner's fate was believable. The arc that suddenly appeared around 66% of the tale gone was believable, too, but felt like too much too late, and as if the police should've been detecting and investigating more. Had it not been for the female DC who was good at research, they'd have been at it for years, it felt like. The DI with the Mc sur...
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A CLAIM MURDER by Jean G Goodhind

2* This missed the mark for me. I don't really think the author thought the plot out, just characters that she wanted to use, relevant or not, the best of which was the bengal, followed by Mary-Jane. I really wanted to like this cosy mystery, but it wasn't well-thought-out enough. I'm new to the series, but it wasn't hard to get into the tale, though the start with the boat sinking was a bit wordy and convoluted. Yes, it gave an opening and an intro to the first deceased, but it felt unrealistic that a cop on a sabbatical that'd lasted around 2 years would be straight back in the fold and 'investigating' a murder (he wasn't at all professional and didn't seem in charge) even before being brought up to speed with changes, and with retraining and current events. It was also unrealistic that Honey would be accompanying him on official jaunts, but tbh, with Mary-Jane, she might have done OK by herself as part of an unorthodox investigating duo. Why this ...
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OUT OF THE WOODS by Kate Wiley

5* Everything the finale of this series needed. And it's not the end for Margot and Wes, professionally or personally. Yay on the first, kind of meh on the latter. This series was a bit of a slow burner over the first couple of books, making me wonder if I'd missed seeing Margot in another book by the author. I hadn't, but she had so many issues and had been living with mistrust and fear for so long, that this book was slowly in the making even back then. I'm so grateful to Storm Publishing letting me know as soon as book after book was ready, and for the author being so prolific, and today I dropped everything to read this in under 2 hours.  What. A. Book. A perfect ending to the Ed arc and the serial killer storyline, because of courage on Margot's part for the former and plain good detecting from a character introduced in this last book as a minor character and junior detective, which worked perfectly for the latter. Nothing planted, nothing out of place, just th...
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THE CATCH by Michael Leese

2.5* Full of stilted, uncolloquial, non-contracted speech that belied any urgency in this tale. I'm new to this series, which sounded pretty good, especially as Martha was a working mum and police officer. Unfortunately, I never felt any aspect of danger, as the whole posse seemed to drink endless tea, make meals together, sit around the kitchen table chatting, and the 6yo child came home from having been kept safe??  Harry was the most interesting character, reminding me of the Harry Brown character played by Sir Michael Caine in the film of the same name. Dialogue was pretty awful and unrealistic. At the end of the tale, Martha's newly back ex-husband rushes to hug her and their daughter, saying 'I'm so pleased you are both safe.' - where's the passion, fright, relief? There's more, but this felt the most out of place.  The physical telegraphing of Martha's plan of attack should've been obvious to an ex-copper like Green, after all, we'd been p...
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THE TIPNER LAKE MURDERS by Pauline Rowson

2* After a great intro to Horton, in what I realise now was book 1 (I'm late to the series), this felt too far-fetched. Ugh, I hate to say it, but this book needs a brutal pass by an editor. It's so full of improbable stuff that I couldn't keep track of the 'beautiful Aimee' arc; of who was who; of which cops were okay and which were jobsworths; of whether Horton was still fully living on his boat or not; whether he was with a colleague or not, or just bumping hips. It all felt disjointed and as if too much was crammed in, with clarity being the victim, not Roxanne. I'm sorry but the bullying storyline felt weak and unbelievable. Poor Roxanne got forgotten quite quickly, it felt like. There was too much focus on irrelevant characters to make the book tight and paced correctly for a murder investigation. The actual murderer wss absolutely not believable and to bring that person in when the author did, to reveal a contradicting M.O., was just too about face. I did...
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THE PORTSMOUTH MURDERS by Pauline Rowson

4* Not sure if I've not picked up book 1 in the series - there's a DI coming off suspension that happened in the previous book - but I quickly got into this read. As an intro to this author, this is a pretty decent tale set in Portsmouth/The Solent, with a just-reinstated DI both trying to clear his name and trying to move on/(possibly get back his wife and daughter?), on top of picking up a puzzling case. There were sufficient hints at why he was suspended for me not to be lost trying to figure out his backstory, and his quest seemed reasonable, as did the investigations, although I'm not sure his brain was online over quite a few of his actions. Some of what he did could've landed him in an even bigger mess, and gotten colleagues loyal to him involved in his mess, too.  The storyline was decent but the 'his arch nemesis' arc got killed off too quickly and kind of unbelievably right at the end, without enough shock or fanfare or crowing. The actual killer kind ...
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