The Drowned Village by Kathleen McGurl
Interesting and well written McGurl weaves a tantilising story. A village is ‘drowned’ to make way for a new reservoir but is it also drowning a secret that could destroy Stella Walker’s family? Years later Stella persuads her grand daughter to return in her place to solve the past.
Reginal Hill that superb author of the Dalzial and Pascoe mysteries wrote about a similar situation, and Kathleen McGurl, though not on Hill’s level – partly because of Hill’s fabulous humour, writes a cracking mystery. As I said, interesting.
The Drowned Billage by Kathleen McGurl pub by HQ £7.99 eBook/Audio
The Tattoo Thief by Alison Belsham is sufficiently taut to hold our interest, and keep us turning the pages, and staying awake when we have to get up bright and early in the morning. Belsham doesn’t spare us in the descriptions of the crime as we read the actions and thoughts of the psychopath (if indeed he/she is a psychopath, but is it a he or she? We don’t know because that part is written in the first person). The plot: tattoo artist Marni Mullins discovers a flayed body, and the newly promoted DI Francis Sullivan needs her help, needs someone who knows the tattoo world, but Marni doesn’t trust the police. Why not? Well, read it and see, but whatever the reason if she manages to identify the killer will she trust Sullivan or pursue the predator herself?
It’s taut, intriguing and all that a thriller should be.
The Tattoo Thief by Alison Belsham. Pub Trapeze pb £7.99 audio and eBook.
One Way S.J. Morden
A thriller or a sci-fi novel? Or both?
Think the Dirty Dozen: all criminals, all with a focus because success will bring freedom for the survivors. But with One Way there is no freedom on offer for these criminals if the mission is successful because it’s to Mars, and that is where they will live, for ever. And must trust one another in order to survive, let alone build the first Mars base
However having been recruited, and arrived, it becomes apparent that one of them is a murderer, and …
No, no more. Chilling, innovative, and well imagined. Keep turning those pages.
Of course, it should be well imagined. Dr S.J. Morden is a bona fide rocket scientist with degrees in Geology and Planetary Geophysics.
One Way S.J. Morden pub Gollanz pb £7.99