ANDREW DAVIE - PAVEMENT (2019)

Synopsis/blurb....

McGill and Gropper are unlicensed private investigators who operate out of a diner and do whatever it takes to get a job done.

When a trucker attacks a prostitute, her pimp turns to McGill and Gropper for protection.

But taking the job means crossing dangerous and well-connected criminals who will stop at nothing to settle the score.

Another top read from All Due Respect, with Andrew Davie's one sitting read - Pavement.

Our two main men - McGill and Gropper encountering pimps, prostitutes, a head sick trucker getting twisted kicks, illegal loads, a family business expanding in a new direction, a new player in town making some noise, and a Miami-based Cuban old-timer trying to set things straight for his boss with some tasty consequences for all involved. Mostly Gropper the do-er and McGill with his butt welded to a chair and stuffing his face with fast food.

Not a lot to say really. Fast-paced and my kind of book. Outsiders crafting a living on the wrong side of the tracks, which in my opinion makes for more interesting reading than ordinary Joes. Enjoyable setting - an unnamed location off the I-95 south (unless in my haste to turn the pages I missed it) and a splash of Miami.

Action, violence, and plenty of victims along the way, some deserving of their fate, some unfortunately not. Ticks in all the boxes. I especially liked the references to the Millwall brick, harking back to the 60s and the terraces.

My cup of tea.

4.5 from 5

I'm definitely interested in what this author does next.

Pavement's been saved for a re-read when I need to blast away some cobwebs in the not so distant future when my reading hits a wall.

Read - December, 2019
Published - 2019
Page count - 114
Source - purchased copy
Format - paperback

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: K IS FOR ...... KING, KOREA, KEEPER

Week 11 on my alphabetical journey through my collection of books and it's the turn of the Ks.

K is for ......

King......... Stephen or John or Danny and Jonathon

Danny King it is and one of his standalone novels which might be more of a laddish book than crime.

I did enjoy a few entries in King's series of diary books many years ago....... Burglar, Pornographer, Hitman and Bank Robber.

The last thing I read from him was a short collection of stories - A 4-King Cracker

Blue Collar (2009)

What happens when white van man meets gold card girl? Charlie's great. She's everything Terry has ever dreamed of in a woman and more. She's sophisticated, intelligent, funny and beautiful. She enjoys dinner parties and hanging out in the West End's trendiest night spots. She is, for want of a better word, wonderful. Terry simply can't believe his luck. And neither do the lads on Terry's building site. As far as they're concerned this Charlie's just out for a bit of rough. And they're loathe to see Terry fall for such a trickster, particularly after his recent heartbreak. Charlie's own friends seem just as wary as Terry's. They can see this Jack the lad's just after her money. Why can't she? When North London meets South, gastro-pub meets local boozer, and white collar meets blue, Charlie and Terry's love is built on the shakiest of foundations. But it'll take a reality film crew to bring the whole thing down around their ears.

K is for .....

Jonathon King - an American author and not the dirty, disgusting paedophile DJ - has a seven book series featuring Max Freeman under his belt. Pretty sure I've read and enjoyed one of them a few years ago - the title of which escapes me.

Acts of Nature is the fifth. I do like books set in Florida.

Acts of Nature (2007)

Hailed for his "extraordinary" writing (Publishers Weekly) and his "incisively chiseled characters" (The New York Times), Jonathon King returns with a chilling new thriller featuring Max Freeman, the most thoughtful, well-read, and multilayered private eye hero since Spenser" (Booklist, starred review).


Craving some quiet time together, Max Freeman and Detective Sherry Richards retreat to Max's shack deep in the Florida Everglades. No television. No cell phones. No neighbors. It seems like the perfect getaway until a violent hurricane rips through South Florida, obliterating everything in its path. And that is just the beginning of the nightmare. With Sherry severely injured and no way to call for help, the couple begins a treacherous trip back to civilization only to find that the hurricane's devastation is the least of their worries. The isolation they sought becomes a deadly enemy as undesirables invade the Glades. Some have come to pillage and loot what remains, while others are desperate to protect secrets. All are willing to kill to get what they came for, and Max and Sherry are smack in the line of fire. Evoca- tive and gripping, Acts of Nature traces their race against time and the elements to escape before it's too late.


K is for ......

Korea

Funny enough I haven't come across any Korean crime fiction authors in my collection of books so far, I'm sure there are some out there. Next best thing is a police detective series with the unlikely setting of North Korea

Author James Church (a pseudonym) is an American and a former Western intelligence officer. He has six books in his Inspector O series, which provide "a vivid window into a mysterious country".

A Corpse in the Koryo (2006)

A Corpse in the Koryo is the first in the series.

Sit on a quiet hillside at dawn among the wildflowers; take a picture of a car coming up a deserted highway from the south. 

Simple orders for Inspector O, until he realizes they have led him far, far off his department's turf and into a maelstrom of betrayal and death. North Korea's leaders are desperate to hunt down and eliminate anyone who knows too much about a series of decade's-old kidnappings and murders---and Inspector O discovers too late he has been sent into the chaos. This is a world where nothing works as it should, where the crimes of the past haunt the present, and where even the shadows are real. 
Author James Church weaves a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart after decades as an intelligence officer. 

“. . . an outstanding crime novel. . . . a not-to-be-missed reading experience. ” 
---Library Journal (starred)

“Inspector O is completely believable and sympathetic . . . The writing is superb, too . . . richly layered and visually evocative.”

---Booklist (starred)


K is for ....

Keeper - the first in an untried series by Greg Rucka featuring bodyguard Atticus Kodiak
Finder is the second

Keeper (1996) Finder (1997)

Keeper (1996)

In a heartbeat, a crowded auditorium or a city street can become a killzone, where life and death are separated by a split second. For AtticusKodiak, professional bodyguard, the object is to keep people alive, and thereis no margin for error. Now Kodiak faces his toughest challenge: to protect awoman and her daughter from a killer with a fanatic agenda of his own....
Tense, taut, and as brutally real as this morning's headlines, "Keeper" marks the debut of a talented young writer of tough, unflinching prose--and thebeginning of an electrifying new series.

"An impressive debut... "Keeper" is one to hang on to."

"--People"


Previous Alphabet entries.....

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - J IS FOR ....... JAPAN, JACK CARTER. JELLO SALAD

2 BY WALTER MOSLEY

A couple from prolific author Walter Mosley and his Easy Rawlins series.

I used to love those Serpents Tail covers from their early days in publishing. I used to buy their books based on the cover alone.

Mosley's Easy Rawlins series is 14 books long and I think I've only read the first couple. I did like them but I never seem to be able to keep pace with authors whose work I enjoy.

The last time I read Mosley was back in 2013, a re-read of the first Easy book - Devil in a Blue Dress
It's been way too long

White Butterfly (1992)

The police don't show up on Easy Rawlins's doorstep until the third girl dies. It's Los Angeles, 1956, and it takes more than one murdered black girl before the cops get interested. Now they need Easy. As he says: "I was worth a precinct full of detectives when the cops needed the word in the ghetto." But Easy turns them down. He's married now, a father -- and his detective days are over. Then a white college coed dies the same brutal death, and the cops put the heat on Easy: If he doesn't help, his best friend is headed for jail. So Easy's back, walking the midnight streets of Watts and the darker, twisted avenues of a cunning killer's mind....










A Little Yellow Dog (1996)

It's 1964, and Easy Rawlins has given up street life, and has a job as a high school janitor. One
morning, Easy is seduced by a teacher with a dog. By evening, the teacher is gone, leaving Easy with her dog, and a corpse. A murderer is running loose and a little yellow dog is plotting revenge.

MARK EKLID - SUNBEAM (2019)

Synopsis/blurb.....

John Baldwin has been on a downward spiral to self-destruction since the day he witnessed the murder of his best friend, Stef. It has cost him his marriage, his business and his dignity.

One year on from the day that turned his world upside down, he sees Stef again. John fears he has finally lost his mind but Stef is there to pull his friend back from the brink, not tip him over it. He offers John a fresh start; a new destiny.

John rebuilds his life. He has everything again but there is a price to pay. The killer is still on the loose and Stef wants revenge.

Sunbeam is a story of a bond of friendship like no other, with a fast-paced plot which will keep you guessing at every twist and turn.

A novel with some unexplainable, supernatural, other wordly undertones, which isn't usually my thing but here worked well enough for me.

John Baldwin blames himself for the death of his friend. For the year after his death he wallows in self-pity drowning in drink and losing his marriage and home. A visit from his dead friend, Stef introduces a sea change in his life and things improve ..... he gives up the drink, he starts looking after himself and his flat, he embraces work instead of going through the motions and in return he gets self respect, and in the course of time, romance and some purpose in life helping a fledgling charity off the ground.

In the mean time his dead friend visits on occasions without ever totally articulating what it is he wants from John......justice and revenge on his killer obviously, but to what extent.

I really enjoyed the characters...... John - the main, Stella - the work colleague turned love interest and Jas - the bereaved partner of his best friend Stef. I liked the positive changes in John's life and how he put the pieces back together. I was enjoying the upturn in his fortunes.

I enjoyed the depiction of the workplace romance, the uncertainty of when to tell colleagues, the insecurities about trust and commitment. I was convinced about the depictions of loss and bereavement, the depth of grief and the feelings of guilt that accompanied it. Eklid writes well about the everyday emotions of life.

Towards the end of the book and John's story, the wheels come off and there is a certain ambiguity about how John's future is going to play out. He faces a stark choice and there is no real certainty as to what course of action this good man will decide on. It's a conclusion which worked well for me.

I was kind of less convinced about how dead Stef was conducting the orchestra and manipulating events in John's life without being able to directly influence the outcomes for those that had wronged him and John, without resorting to using John as a sort of patsy. That said it didn't mar my enjoyment of the book, nor cause me to lose any sleep over this slight bump in the road.

Eklid tells a good tale and the smooth writing had me racing through the book to see what was going to happen next. I'd be curious to see what he turns his hand to next.

4 from 5

Read - February, 2020
Published - 2019
Page count - 257
Source - review copy from Reedsy Discovery
Format - PDF file

GLENN McGOLDRICK - ROSEBERRY TOPPING (2019)

Synopsis/blurb.....

When I got on top of Roseberry, I saw an old couple walking a poodle. I waited until they left, then went to the edge and looked over.

This was the way she went. It would be my way too. But not yet. I still had a few things to do.

In this chapter of the Dark Teesside series of short stories with a twist, the events unfold in Thornaby and Cleveland...

Introducing Roseberry Topping, one of many dark stories from the pen of award winning author Glenn McGoldrick.

I've enjoyed some of Glenn McGoldrick's short stories in the past and was interested enough to bag a copy initially from him direct then subsequently on Amazon when his latest one dropped.

Loss, bereavement, pain, guilt, regret, an intended action, some loose ends to tie up and then the deed.

I liked it well enough. McGoldrick sets his tales in his native North East sometimes urban, sometimes in the countryside. Here there's a bit of both.

I was sympathetic to the main character, felt his sense of loss and his lack of desire to go on.  It might be one of those stories that should carry a tag at the bottom stating that if you're feeling vulnerable or low seek help, along with a contact number for the Samaritans.

Not much cheer to be had here I'm afraid, but it gives you pause for thought, especially considering the fragility of life.

3.5 from 5

Previous Glenn McGoldrick stories enjoyed are Dead Flies (2017), Red Marks (2017), Breaking Spirits (2017)

Read - January, 2020
Published - 2019
Page count - 14
Source - purchased copy
Format - kindle

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: J IS FOR ...... JAPAN, JACK CARTER, JELLO SALAD

Week 10 and I'm up to J

J is for.......

Japan

To be fair I've only ever read a couple of Japanese crime fiction books and the results weren't especially rewarding. It would be unfair to write of a whole country's crime fiction without giving it a fair go. I remain optimistic.

There's a few in the collection that will hopefully prove a bit more satisfying ...... Ryu Murakami, Koji Suzuki, Fuminori Nakamura..... time will tell

Ryu Murakami

In the Miso Soup (2004)

From Wikipedia

In the Miso Soup (イン ザ・ミソスープ, In za Misosūpu) is a novel by Ryu Murakami. It was published in 1997 in Japanese, and in 2003 in English. The novel won the Yomiuri Prize for Fiction in 1997.

Plot summary

Twenty-year-old Kenji is a Japanese "nightlife" guide for foreigners—he navigates gaijin men around the sex clubs and hostess bars of Tokyo. On December 29 he receives a phone call from an American named Frank, who seeks three nights of his services. While Kenji has promised to spend more time with his girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Jun, the money is too good to pass up. He finds himself closing out the end of the year accompanying Frank around Shinjuku, wondering if his strange, plastic-skinned patron could be responsible for the gruesome events recently reported in the news.

Fuminori Nakamura - The Thief (2012)

The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn't even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections.... But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can't refuse. It's an easy job: tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.


J is for........

Jack Carter. Carter was the creation of British author Ted Lewis. Who could ever forget Get Carter with Michael Caine? 

Lewis went on to pen a couple more Carter books - Jack Carter's Law and Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon 



Jack Carter and the Law (1974)

The author of Get Carter returns to his greatest invention, a smooth-operating hardcase named Jack Carter, who is about to burn a city down in order to silence an informant

London. The late 1960s. It's Christmastime and Jack Carter is the top man in a crime syndicate headed by two brothers, Gerald and Les Fletcher. He's also a worried man. The fact that he's sleeping with Gerald's wife, Audrey, and that they plan on someday running away together with a lot of the brothers' money, doesn't have Jack concerned. Instead it's an informant - one of his own men - that has him losing sleep. The grass has enough knowledge about the firm to not only bring down Gerald and Les but Jack as well. Jack doesn't like his name in the mouth of that sort.

In Jack Carter's Law Ted Lewis returned to the character that launched his career and once again delivered a hardboiled masterpiece. Jack Carter is the ideal tour guide to a bygone London underworld. In his quest to dismantle the opposition, he peels back the veneer of English society and offers a hard look at a gritty world of pool halls, strip clubs and the red lights of Soho nightlife.


J is for.......

Jello Salad

Jello Salad is the second book by Rochdale author Nicholas Blincoe. I've not got around to reading him yet - only twenty plus years on the TBR pile. Plenty of time yet. There's a few more from him on the pile....... Acid Casuals, Manchester Slingback, probably something else as well.

Oh well one of these years.....

Nicholas Blincoe - Jello Salad (1997)

A dangerously moreish mix of Tarantino violence and Almodóvar camp

They’re opening a new restaurant in Soho tonight. Susan Ball’s the owner, and she’s funding the joint with the money she ripped off from her gangster husband, Frank ‘Ballistic’ Ball.

Hogie’s the cook. He’s from Manchester and his long blond locks have made him a natural TV chef. The trouble is, he’s also a screaming pervert.

Cheb’s the Maitre D. He’s just back from Goa and he might not say his brains were completely drug-fried, but everyone else would. Oh, and I wouldn’t trust him with your credit card…

‘This black comedy of modern bad manners aims at outrage and hits the bull’s eye every time… a must-read’ Val McDermid

‘Ultra hip, manic, funny, hugely imaginative… Blincoe is a terrific talent’ The Times


‘A riotously good read’ Observer



Previous entries

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO

2 BY CATHERINE FEARNS

A couple of books from another new-to-me author who has been on my radar for a while...... Catherine Fearns

Fearns has written three books in her Reprobation series....... Reprobation, Consuming Fire and Sound


From her author page at Amazon....... 

Catherine Fearns is a writer from Liverpool, UK. Her first novel, Reprobation, was published by Crooked Cat books in October 2018, and the sequel Consuming Fire is forthcoming (February 2019). She writes music journalism for Pure Grain Audio, and her short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Offshoots, Toasted Cheese, Succubus and Metal Music Studies. She has a degree in History from Oxford University and a Masters from the London School of Economics.


Her website is here
She's on Twitter - @metalmamawrites

Everyone needs a dose of Scouse crime in their life.....

Reprobation (2018)

Are you one of the elect?

Dr. Helen Hope is a lecturer in eschatology – the study of death, judgement, and the destiny of humankind. She is also a Calvinist nun, her life devoted to atoning for a secret crime.

When a body is found crucified on a Liverpool beach, she forms an unlikely alliance with suspect Mikko Kristensen, lead guitarist in death metal band Total Depravity. Together, they go on the trail of a rogue geneticist who they believe holds the key – not just to the murder, but to something much darker.

Also on the trail is cynical Scouse detective Darren Swift. In his first murder case, he must confront his own lack of faith as a series of horrific crimes drag the city of two cathedrals to the gates of hell.


Science meets religious belief in this gripping murder mystery.


Sound (2019)

Can you hear it?

A professor of psychoacoustics is found dead in his office. It appears to be a heart attack, until a second acoustician dies a few days later in similar circumstances.

Meanwhile, there’s an outbreak of mysterious illnesses on a council estate, and outbursts of unexplained violence in a city centre nightclub. Not to mention strange noises coming from the tunnels underneath Liverpool. Can it really be a coincidence that death metal band Total Depravity are back in the city, waging their own form of sonic warfare?

Detective Inspector Darren Swift is convinced there are connections. Still grieving his fiancé’s death and sworn to revenge, he is thrown back into action on the trail of a murderer with a terrifying and undetectable weapon.


But this case cannot be solved using conventional detective work, and D.I. Swift will need to put the rulebook aside and seek the occult expertise of Dr. Helen Hope and her unlikely sidekick, guitarist Mikko Kristensen.