investigation Archives - The Quick and the Read

Book Review: ‘A Stranger in the Family’ by Jane Casey

I absolutely love this series! This is Book 11 in the DS Maeve Kerrigan series – and it’s yet another brilliant, tense and precisely-plotted police procedural. You’ll want to clear the diary for this one as you won’t easily put it down.

The story opens with Maeve being called to what seems to be a murder-suicide of an older couple, the Marshalls. However, things don’t quite make sense at the crime scene and the investigation soon becomes a double murder. This would be tragic enough, until the couple’s links to a child’s disappearance 16 years previously are uncovered – and it seems that the motives for the double murder lie in the earlier tragic event. It’s up to Maeve to unravel the truth about the Marshalls and the cold-case of the missing child – as the answers are inextricably joined.

Book Review: ‘Dark Rooms’ by Lynda La Plante

It’s that time again – an update on #TeamTennison and the mission to read all of the Tennison series before the publication of the latest book in summer 2024!

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for my spot on the team and to Zaffre Books for my review copies of the novels. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

So, we’ve got to Book 8, ‘Dark Rooms’, and it’s another gem. It does feel like every book in the series is different and unique – we are a long way from formulaic here!

Book Review: ‘Unholy Murder’ by Lynda La Plante

Thanks to Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for my place on #TeamTennison! It has been a delight to read the Tennison series, following Jane Tennison from her first police job to her role here as a Detective Sergeant. Thanks for my copy of the book for review – opinions are entirely my own.

In this – the seventh in the series – Jane is called in to investigate the death of a young nun found inside a sealed metal coffin by a group of builders developing an old convent. At first, nothing seems amiss – but closer inspection of the body suggests that the woman could have been murdered. As senior police officers try to write it off as a cold case, Tennison is not so convinced and works to uncover the identity of the nun – and how she came to be in the ground.

Blog Tour: ‘Blunt Force’ by Lynda La Plante

I’m delighted to share my review of ‘Blunt Force’, the sixth book in the excellent series featuring Jane Tennison in her early career – way before her ‘Prime Suspect’ days.

I’m reading this series as part of #TeamTennison – thanks to Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for inviting me on to the tour and for my copies of the books for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

In this book, Jane Tennison has left Flying Squad and is now stationed in Knightsbridge – not exactly a hub of violent crime in comparison to some of her previous postings! Just as she’s beginning to worry that her career is going nowhere, a brutal murder is committed and Jane joins the investigative team. However, the case is far from straightforward – the victim, Charles Foxley, was a theatrical agent who was well-known, not always above board and had some powerful enemies…

Book Review: ‘The Mystery Guest’ by Nita Prose

Happy publication day!

Having 2022’s ‘The Maid’ and been charmed by Molly the Maid, I was very happy to be granted an advance copy of ‘The Mystery Guest’ for review. This is Molly’s second outing and a lovely sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book starts with Molly Gray – now Head Maid – preparing for a big event at the Regency Grand Hotel. A famous crime writer has a big announcement – but, before he can make it, he drops dead on the floor of the tea room. Molly, with her quirky ways and ability to be in the wrong place when it counts, immediately comes under suspicion as the police start digging into secrets in the hotel. However, Molly knows that she has important information – even though it means confronting some truths about her past…

Book Review: ‘The Dirty Dozen’ by Lynda La Plante

It’s time for my review of Book 5 in the Jane Tennison crime series by Lynda La Plante!

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to read the series as part of #TeamTennison and Zaffre Books for my review copy of the book. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

I’ve really enjoyed this series to date, so I was looking forward to see what came next in Jane Tennison’s (1970s) Metropolitan police career before the events of the ‘Prime Suspect’ TV series with Helen Mirren. Each of the books have been so different, with Jane involved in traditional police procedures, forensic murder investigations, undercover police work, lots of different teams in different areas of London and even the aftermath of a major bombing.

In this instalment, WDS Jane Tennison has finally gained a spot in the famous Flying Squad, also known as ‘The Sweeney’. She knows it’s going to be tough, especially as the first female detective there, but nothing can prepare her for the dramatic events of his first day when she attends the scene of an armed robbery on a bank. As the investigation progresses, it seems both that the gang involved have a bigger target in mind, and that Jane’s maverick policing techniques may just get her in a lot of trouble…

Blog Tour: ‘Last to Leave’ by Lucy Martin

Thanks to Random Things Tours for my place on the blog tour and copy of this book for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

The Blurb:

When Hannah Lloyd falls from her third-floor balcony at the end of her birthday lunch party, suspicion falls immediately upon the three guests who had only just left the apartment, alongside Hannah’s estranged husband Adam and a jealous neighbour with an axe to grind. But as the investigation develops, so does the network of suspects, eventually revealing a chilling connection between the crime and those in charge of preventing it. Forced to work alongside her arch-nemesis DCI Matt Preedy, DS Ronnie Delmar finds herself looking over her shoulder at her own colleagues and questioning the motives of those she thought she trusted.

My Review:

Book Review: ‘The Murder Mile’ by Lynda La Plante

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me onto the #TeamTennison project and to Zaffre Books for my copy of this – the fourth in the series covering Jane Tennison’s life before Prime Suspect.

As always, opinions are my own.

In this book, Jane Tennison has been made Detective Sergeant and is working in Peckham CID, in a tough part of London and in a policing team imbued with the all-too-familiar misogyny and racism that we’ve seen before in the series. When a young woman is found killed in Bussey Alley, Peckham, Jane Tennison is first on the scene and keen to find the killer. A second body with no obvious link to the first other than physical proximity throws Tennison’s team into confusion…and a third murder on their patch tests them further. The newspapers begin stirring up panic about a serial killer in Peckham – as Tennison uncovers some baffling links and leads…

Book Review: ‘Good Friday’ by Lynda La Plante

Here’s my review of ‘Good Friday’, the third in the series to feature a young Detective Constable Jane Tennison way before her ‘Prime Suspect’ years.

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to join #TeamTennison and read the whole series. Thanks too to Zaffre Books for my copy of ‘Good Friday’ to review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

Book Review: ‘I Did It For You’ by Amy Engel

Happy publication day (3rd August) to ‘I Did It For You’ by Amy Engel!

Having enjoyed ‘The Roanoke Girls’, I was pleased to be granted an early copy of ‘I Did It For You’ for review. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, HQ Stories – as always, opinions are my own.

This story follows a young woman, Greer Dunning, who returns to her small home town in Kansas. She has been away for over a decade, having left after the murder of her sister, Eliza, for which crime a man was executed. Greer finds her home unchanged in many ways – her family and close friends are there, the town’s rhythms are the same – but a new murder has shaken the inhabitants. The slaughter of a young couple in the same place as Eliza’s murder 14 years previously has raised the prospect of a copycat killer – and Greer finds herself wondering whether justice was truly done for her sister’s death.