Tag: witness

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…

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

‘Eight Detectives’ by Alex Pavesi

My next new release for 20th August is ‘Eight Detectives’ by Alex Pavesi. This is a seriously impressive and clever debut novel that plays around with our expectations of detective fiction.

This book offers a range of short stories all held together with an extended interview between a fictional writer and editor about the nature of murder mysteries. The stories explore some of the main permutations of classic crime that people will be familiar with from writers like the great Agatha Christie, but the plots and devices are then discussed and dissected.

The stories are framed by the discussion between Julia Hart, a book editor, who has travelled to an island in the Mediterranean to interview a writer, Grant McAllister, with a view to republishing his 30 year old book, ‘The White Murders’. Each of the 7 stories in this book is presented and discussed by Julia and Grant, the latter sharing his mathematical analysis of detective fiction – sets and subsets of victims and detectives and killers which allow for unlimited combinations in the imagination of the crime writer.

It is a really clever idea and I liked the stories and the analysis generally. I thought it was an interesting premise for a book and it opened my eyes to some of the ‘formulas’ used by writers I admire very much – I’d never really thought of it in these terms before. However, I did feel like some of the stories were so open that there weren’t really enough clues for the reader which did undermine my investment in the stories a little – I don’t know whether this would be an issue with all short stories, but I really like character development and lots of red herrings to think about!

I can see that lots of people will read and love this – it is clever and engaging. Personally, I like a bit more emotional investment in my detective stories that I didn’t always find here – I’m not sure if it was the short story element or the mathematical approach that stopped me from engaging fully.

Overall, I would say that this is definitely worth a read for fans of detective fiction as it is unusual and surprising. It is inventive and will keep you guessing from beginning to end.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you would like buy this book, the link is below. I may earn commission on this at no extra cost to you.

Photo by Samantha Hurley from Burst