N S Ford

Tag: crime fiction

  • Review of ‘Snakes and Ladders’ by Morton R Leader

    I do enjoy a genre-bending book! I loved how Snakes and Ladders began as a crime thriller, then it morphed into pulp science fiction and ended as horror. It was surprising and fast-paced. That’s exactly my kind of read!

    Book cover of Snakes and Ladders by Morton R Leader

    The novel begins with a window cleaner sizing up goods through people’s windows so that he can rob them later. It proceeds like one of those British gangster films which are both gritty and entertaining. We are introduced to a number of characters who then end up at a creepy old manor house and what seemed like a straight-forward crime plot then becomes weird. This is the third of Morton R Leader’s books I’ve read and it’s definitely my favourite yet. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was the ending of the epilogue, which I felt needed more development. I don’t want to give much more away, other than to recommend it if you like genre-defying plot-focused books with horrible characters and a very dark humour.

    Independently published in 2023.

  • Review of ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ by Patricia Highsmith

    Who is Mr Ripley and what are his talents? In this classic thriller novel, first published in 1955, we follow a few months in the life of Tom Ripley, a con artist and murderer. It’s not a spoiler to say he’s a murderer – it was on the back of the book cover!

    Book cover of The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

    I know that a lot of readers enjoyed this book. I’m not one of them. The pace was too slow for me and there were so many uninteresting details. The concept is very good and in a number of ways was unusual for the era. Tom is a closeted gay man and I think the text is partly a commentary on repression. Most of the story is set in Italy, which is a laidback contrast to the emotional turmoil in Tom’s mind. A thriller in which the protagonist is a murderer and gets away with it is still quite a modern idea today. What’s even more interesting is how the author has you rooting for Tom, even though he behaves abominably. I would have liked more background on him and more development of the other main characters, Dickie and Marge.

    Having mixed opinions of this book and of Highsmith’s last work, small g, I’m not convinced her work is for me, but I’m open to trying one more.

    This edition published by Vintage, 1999.

  • Review of ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ by Ira Levin

    Ira Levin was only twenty-three when his debut novel was published. A Kiss Before Dying is a crime thriller set in the 1950s and the characters are mainly college students. It’s a more surprising read than the blurb suggests. I enjoyed it, although not as much as Rosemary’s Baby and a lot more than This Perfect Day.

    Book cover of A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

    The story is about a handsome blonde man who has started college late after being in the Army. He’s from a disadvantaged background and decides he wants to be rich. He fixates on the heiress to a copper mining company, a fellow student. However, when she gets pregnant and the abortion pills he obtains don’t work, he does something villainous and seems to get away with it. Now that others are on his trail, this leads to more evil deeds. Will he be caught and dealt with before time runs out?

    The narrative style was deceptively straightforward, with natural dialogue which I found appealing. There was a classic twist halfway through which I should’ve guessed but didn’t. I could see what was going to happen with the ending, but still, it was quite shocking.

    I would definitely recommend this book for fans of crime fiction in which ordinary people are the detectives and for anyone looking for a 1950s read which isn’t too dated.

    First published in 1954. This edition published in 2011 by Corsair with an introduction by Chelsea Cain.

  • Review of ‘After the Blue, Blue Rain’ by A D Price

    An impressively-researched detective novel set in Los Angeles, 1946. I would recommend it and am pleased to hear that there’ll be a sequel.

    Book cover for After the Blue, Blue Rain by A D Price, showing a woman from the 1940s wearing a hat.

    Kit Comfort is a private investigator whose next case is to track down a missing man, the pregnant girlfriend being the client. What seems like a usual case then becomes something more sinister, involving corruption, war trauma and even Nazis hiding in the city. The plot was really intriguing and the writing style seemed to be (in my admittedly limited experience) of the hard-boiled kind but with a feminist twist, as Kit is a strong character who runs a detective agency and knows how to get information out of people without using her sexuality. I liked how authentic the language was for the era, no political correctness. The atmosphere feels very evocative of post-war urban America, soaked in martinis, choking on cigarette fumes, the social upheaval, veterans returning to civilian life. The only thing I wasn’t too sure about was the ending, which I had to re-read a couple of times. I think it could have been made clearer and expanded a little.

    Independently published in 2022.

  • Review of ‘The Way of All Flesh’ by Ambrose Parry

    An atmospheric historical crime novel from Chris Brookmyre and his wife Marisa Haetzman, a consultant anaesthetist and researcher of the history of medicine. Not to be confused with the book of the same name by Samuel Butler.

    Set in Edinburgh, 1847, the story follows doctor’s apprentice Will Raven and housemaid Sarah Fisher as they investigate the links between the suspicious deaths of women who may have had abortions. Much of the story is occupied with the medical community and debates around the use of anaesthetics; ether and the new discovery, chloroform. The characters of Will and Sarah have their own arcs, too, with Will’s dark past explored and Sarah’s anger at her medical ambitions not being taken seriously. I enjoyed the setting and the historical details very much. I could see everything as if it were a TV drama. The plot seemed to move slowly, however, and I became impatient with it. I found the writing style frustrating as it was very wordy, probably attempting to mirror the fiction of that era, but I found it somewhat pompous.

    I liked this book, yet I’m not sure I’ll check out the sequels.

    First published in 2018 by Canongate.

  • Review of ‘And Then There Were None’ by Agatha Christie

    This was my first ever Agatha Christie read! She wrote so many books that I didn’t know which one to try. The good people of Book Twitter had some suggestions. And Then There Were None was mentioned the most. It’s a standalone novel, first published in 1939. The title we use today is the American one, as the original was offensive (you can find out more about it elsewhere).

    The story is about a group of people who stay at a house on an isolated island, each having been invited for a different reason. They discover that whoever invited them intends to murder them one by one. They then deduce that one of their party must be the murderer, with hints provided by a traditional rhyme. Will any of them survive and work out who the murderer is before it’s too late?

    An intriguing concept, this story emphasises the mystery rather than the murders, which are described sparingly. I did want to keep reading and find out the answer. The plot is certainly clever, but I didn’t much enjoy the reading experience. The characters are mere sketches. The writing is stuffed full of adverbs instead of original description. Dialogue is often ‘[character’s name] said:’ and what they actually say is begun with a new paragraph, which is irritating to read.

    In summary, considering that it has influenced many crime writers since, this book does stand the test of time. However, the writing style was not my cup of tea and it might be a while before I consider reading any more Agatha Christie.

  • Review of ‘The Twist of a Knife’ by Anthony Horowitz

    The fourth novel in this unusual crime thriller series featuring rogue detective Hawthorne and the author himself. After feeling ambivalent about the previous instalment, I wasn’t sure I’d want to read the next. However, I liked the premise of this one, in which Anthony is framed for the murder of a theatre critic. As he points out, it’s usually the critics that kill the authors!

    It was a good read, with twists, suspense, humour and a London setting. We still have a lot of mysteries about Hawthorne, which will no doubt be slowly revealed in subsequent books. I still think it’s ingenious how real details about the author’s life are woven into the fiction. My only criticism for this book is that the language was a little repetitive. For example, Hawthorne looked ‘sadly’ at someone many times.

    I would recommend you read the others in the series first.

    Thank you to the publisher Cornerstone for the advance copy via NetGalley. The book will be published on 18th August.

  • Review of ‘The Apartment Upstairs’ by Lesley Kara

    I really enjoyed Lesley Kara’s previous novels, The Rumour, Who Did You Tell? and The Dare. Her new novel is quite different from these and I’m sad to report that I was disappointed.

    There are two main characters we follow, both narrated in the third person. Scarlett is reeling from the murder of her aunt in the flat (or apartment, as Americans say) upstairs from her. The murder is already solved but her family are acting strangely about her aunt’s possessions. Meanwhile, Dee is a funeral director who meets Scarlett to arrange a service for her aunt. Dee is still grieving for the disappearance of her friend Gina ten years ago and is involved with an awareness campaign to find new evidence. These two mysteries begin to collide.

    There were some elements of the book that I liked. Scarlett has ME and chronic fatigue, the impact of which are explored in the narrative. As with an epileptic character in The Dare, I liked that the author was raising awareness. The inclusion of funeral directors was an unusual choice and sensitively portrayed. The story took a while for me to get into because so many characters were mentioned at the beginning, but once it got going then I was interested to know what would happen, if not completely gripped.

    I felt that the genre was murder mystery, rather than psychological thriller. It was just different from what I’d expected, with no surprising twists until the end and not as much suspense. The narrative perspectives were problematic for me, as they were similar styles which I occasionally confused and I felt distanced from the characters I was supposed to root for. The storytelling could have benefited from a first person narrative or something else to make it feel more dynamic. Also, the coronavirus pandemic was present in the last chapter. I prefer my fiction reading without mentions of lockdown, masks and social distancing. I don’t see why pandemic life had to creep into the ending when it wasn’t relevant to the story.

    In summary, I found it a disappointing fourth novel but I’m still open to reading the next one.

    Thank you to the publisher Transworld for the advance copy via NetGalley. The book will be published on 23rd June.

  • Review of ‘The Maid’ by Nita Prose

    I quite enjoyed this mystery novel. It’s not one of my best reads this year, or even this month, but it has an unusual narrative voice and draws our attention to the experiences of low-paid hotel staff.

    The story is told by Molly, who works as a maid at a posh hotel, I’m not sure which country, as the setting wasn’t that clear. Molly is possibly autistic, obsessive-compulsive, traumatised or all of these. She has a strangely old-fashioned way of speaking, as she was brought up by her grandma, for whom she is grieving. Molly enjoys cleaning, tidying and following the rules. When she becomes drawn into a murder investigation, she finds out who her friends really are and that her ‘other’ status might work against her.

    I felt that the second half of the book wasn’t as strong as the first, probably because the plot turned out to be simpler than I expected. Although the attention to detail impressed me and there was a good twist right at the end, most of the characters were under-developed, so I couldn’t care what happened to them. The book is described by some readers as ‘cosy crime’. To be honest, I’d be put off a book with that label. If you are too, I’d still recommend The Maid. I didn’t find anything cosy about it, other than the endless tea and crumpets that Molly consumes.

    First published in 2022.

  • Review of ‘The Appeal’ by Janice Hallett

    Oh dear. Reading this book was like spending a very long day at the office. I was disappointed after seeing so many rave reviews and it being the Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year. I’m sorry to report that I considered abandoning it several times, but I continued with it in the hope that something would happen to change my opinion.

    The premise of the book is that you, the reader, are sifting through a ton of evidence – mostly in email format – along with two junior lawyers (or law students? I’m not sure) whose boss has given them the evidence to review, but he withholds a lot of information so that they can have fun working everything out, apparently. Anyway, the case does include a murder but unlike a conventional murder mystery, it doesn’t happen until two thirds of the way through. The tagline on the book’s cover – ‘One murder. Fifteen suspects’ – suggests the murder is the main focus of the story, when it isn’t. There’s a lot about fundraising and fraud, a community drama group and overseas medical aid. There’s way too much going on, too many characters (such as they are – many have minor roles and you don’t get to know them), too much repetition. I’m sure it’s very cleverly plotted, but I’m struggling to think of anything I liked about it.

    I didn’t find the book very credible, from the sheer number of emails everybody sends (they always have a good internet signal wherever they are, how lucky), to the use of italics (no one in real life bothers to use italics in emails… do they?), to myriad details about the characters’ actions. Why is so much written down, handy for the lawyers and police to go over later, rather than spoken on the phone or in person? And a character’s username was spelt wrong on a social media post, which wasn’t noted at all by the law students and I have no idea if it’s a genuine error or if we’re supposed to notice and be suspicious.

    In summary, this book had no ‘appeal’ for me. Case closed.

    First published in 2021.