Dead Wood by Chris Longmuir

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought:

Dead Wood is the second in Chris Longmuir’s Dundee Crime series, and a winner of the Dundee International Book Prize.

Kara thinks it’s bad enough that two thugs are after her because her waster of a boyfriend owes their boss money. That is, until she escapes their clutches in the hands of the man who drags her into Templeton woods in the middle of the night.

What she finds there has strange echoes of a murder case from the 1970s. And for some of the police and social workers caught up in the case, it will drag them back into boyhood nightmares.

Inspired by a real life case from 1979, Dead Wood is a smart, scary and fast-paced police procedural. The novel makes effective use of multiple points of view to ramp up the drama. We see Kara, the young mother at the heart of the story, running scared from the thugs, from the killer, from the authorities. The drugs boss, who now has more than one reason to track Kara down. The police who, as past collides with present, may have reason to suspect one of their own. And peppered throughout, glimpses of the killer, whose warped mind serves as the will of Templeton Wood itself.

With so many characters at play, it would be easy for them to become two dimensional. But Longmuir creates strong individuals with their own quirks. Just when, like one of the young female coppers, we dare to feel sorry for the drugs boss Palmer, she finds a way to remind us how unpleasant he really is. The working girl Kara turns to for help is kind, but no ‘whore with a heart of gold.’

As all the best crime novels should be, Dead Wood is deeply rooted in its location. Even if we have never been to Dundee, we walk its streets along with the characters, explore its dark alleys, climb its hills, crawl through the dense undergrowth of Templeton Wood (and possibly feel the need for a good wash afterwards).

And excellent read for all lovers of Tartan Noir.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Love: Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Gillian E Hamer

Avoid If You Dislike: Creepy serial killers

Perfect Accompaniment: A glass of good malt whiskey and a slice of Dundee cake

Genre: Crime

Available on Amazon

Acts of Violence by Ross Harrison

Reviewer: JW Hicks author of Rats

What we thought: This dark, noir-type thriller shot through with a scintillating vein of science fiction, is a plot-driven adventure speed-way which drives the reader towards a totally unexpected, yet thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Jack Mason is a failed cop living on a poverty-stricken colony planet way off the beaten track, where he earns a meagre living as an unlicenced PI complete with counterfeit badge.

Framed for murdering a bargirl working for criminal boss Cole Webster, Mason’s on the run from not only Harem PD, the United Planets Security Force, but also the masked gunmen who ‘rescued’ him from interrogation to force information from him – information he doesn’t possess.

Mason, needing to clear his name before the UPSF track him down, must solve the mystery of the bargirl’s murder and in doing so becomes mired in corruption, double dealing and the extreme violence of a mob against mob takeover bid.

His investigations expose layer upon layer of secrets, and as he peels back each disturbing layer he is forced to confront not only the unpalatable truths of how his planet is run, but has to learn to face the equally unpalatable truth of his troubled past.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: The books of Lee Child and David Baldacci

Avoid if you don’t like: Violet confrontations, murder and mayhem.

Ideal accompaniments: A stiff whisky or a box of expensive chocolate liqueurs.

Genre: Hardboiled noir fiction

Available from Amazon

Darkness Becomes You by M Cid D’Angelo

Reviewer: JW Hicks author of Rats

What we thought: This novel could be aptly summed up with this tagline taken from the text – It was time to place a haunted past to rest.

I came to this second offering from D’Angelo without having read his first, Dark Running. Thankfully it wasn’t necessary as D’Angelo insinuates the backstory with subtlety.

Artemus Dark, AKA the Big AD, is a metaphysician extraordinaire. In his world the paranormal is an accepted part of life, existing side by side with everyday normality. The Big AD is a psychic investigator par excellence – a self-proclaimed occult scientist who investigates crimes perpetrated by the shade community.

His latest case concerns two psychics being blasted with an identical blast of psychokinetic energy, resulting in mental meltdown. One of the psychics is his old pal Eddie de Winter, the other – Big AD himself. Turns out it’s no coincidence but the result of a direful happening they experienced in the past.

Add to the mix a dark-magic hit man hot on AD’s trail, plus the visions of a spectral zero-Fahrenheit ice-woman haunting his dreams, whispering ‘Come back to me...’ and you have the ingredients for a real terror ride.

Overall, Darkness Becomes You is a thrilling read, though in some places the pacing falters a tad, forcing a speed-read to catch up on the action. But despite this nit-pic D’Angelo’s novel spins the reader into a dark world-scape that both perturbs and fascinates. Darkness Becomes You is a gripping read and a supernatural TV hit in the making.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Paranormal thrillers akin to Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt vampire series and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files.

Avoid if you don’t like: Ghouls, evil spirits and psychic phenomena.

Ideal accompaniments: Halloween treats – Dead Man’s fingers, Marshmallow Ghosts and a Bloody Mary.

Genre: Horror. Noir thriller.

Available from Amazon

The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black

Reviewer: Barbara Scott Emmett, author of The Land Beyond Goodbye, Don’t Look Down and Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion. (http://barbarascottemmett.blogspot.co.uk/)

What We Thought: The Black-Eyed Blonde is the follow up to Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, except it isn’t by Chandler. It’s by Benjamin Black who is, of course, John Banville by another name. Writing in the style of such a cult writer can’t have been easy, even for Booker prizewinner Banville. Chandler is a hard act to follow and his devotees are difficult to please. I know, because I’m married to one.

So when I say this book is a success, you can believe me. If it hadn’t been a reasonable pastiche my husband would have abandoned it halfway through. When I came to read it myself, I had my doubts at first. Could Black/Banville capture the wry humour, the sardonic one-liners, the world-weary essential goodness of Philip Marlowe? Well, he’s done a pretty good job of it.

It’s probably best to have read The Long Goodbye before approaching this book – but then, who would read a ‘new’ Chandler without having read the originals? The Black-Eyed Blonde features many of Marlowe’s previous sparring partners – villain Mendy Menendez, police officer pals Bernie Ohls and Joe Green. The plot is reminiscent of The Long Goodbye but I won’t say too much about it for fear of giving the game away.

There’s a femme fatale of course, the black-eyed blonde herself, who Marlowe falls for; there’s suspicious death in the form of a hit and run, there are vicious Mexicans and high-powered wealthy men who aren’t as squeaky clean as they could be. All the elements are there. It’ll never actually be Chandler, but in the absence of a discovery of a long lost manuscript, this will certainly fill the gap.

You'll enjoy this if you like: Raymond Chandler and other noir detective fiction.

Avoid if you dislike: Reports of gruesome deaths; violence against women (and men).

Ideal accompaniments: A bottle of bourbon hidden in a desk drawer.

Genre: Crime, Noir.

Available from Amazon.

Blood Diva by VM Gautier

Reviewer: JW Hicks, author of Rats

What we thought: The prologue sets the tone; hunter traps victim. But this weak-seeming victim proves to be an experienced, far more successful killer. A sweet turnabout, indeed, and it’s not the only one you’ll find in this intriguing novel.

The successful killer, Alphonsine, is a forever youthful divo, a hedonistic, blood-sucking vampire, one of the society of undead living cheek by jowl with their unsuspecting human prey. Through the ages vampires have used their powers to amass wealth, hide crimes and make inquisitive humans disappear.

Blood Diva tells of Alphonsine’s turning in 1846, and of her flamboyant life leading to the present day. With her we experience the vampiric joy of drinking sacramental blood. We taste of the victim’s soul – the sweetness of a child’s, the candied grape flavour of young men, the remnant of innocence-lost in the blood of a serial killer, and the sadness and defeat in the blood of the old. We learn how human death can be softened, made easy, even joyful by the venom secreted by their killer. Alphonsine presents the sympathetic face of vampirism.

But modern times bring changes. Twenty-first century vampires, being in a minority and practically defenseless in the daytime, keep a low profile. And the myth of not being captured on film or video is exactly that – a myth. This means that with the rise of internet use and the spread of social networks, photographic images remain a permanent record of this long-living species; threatening exposure. Also, with the highly sophisticated medical tests adopted by police forces, vampires have to acknowledge that detection is inevitable.

How long will they be able to remain invisible? Is the new technology the ultimate threat to the vampire way of life?

When Alphonsine falls totally in love with a human, she becomes aware of the futility inherent in a stagnant, never changing existence, and starts to think the unthinkable – vampires are not the superior beings. For the first time in many blood-soaked years, she sees vampires from the human point of view: sordid killers seeking discountable prey – prostitutes and down-and-outs. She has hunted humans in a ravening pack, both in dark streets and at sacrificial blood-feasts. She has killed children, killed uncountable lovers. How dare she imagine herself superior?

Loving Dashiell, she sees exactly what she has become, and contemplates a shorter lifespan. She decides to endure the harrowing, possibly fatal treatment that will return her humanity, and allow her to marry Dashiell and spend her final years with her lover.

But when her past catches up with her, all bets are off.

Blood Diva is a compelling tale that walks with Alphonsine from decadence and pleasure seeking to despair and a desperate search for purpose that will inject meaning into an unsatisfying existence.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: The novels of Anne Rice and Freda Warrington

Avoid if you don’t like: explicit sex scenes written in deliciously lubricious prose

Ideal accompaniments: a box of luxury chocolates and a well-lit room.

Genre: Literary fiction, Noir, Vampire chic

Available from Amazon.

Snowdrops by AD Miller

Reviewer: JJ Marsh, author of The Beatrice Stubbs series

What We Thought: The eponymous snowdrop refers to a body buried under the winter snow which only comes to light in the thaw. The image is relevant both literally and metaphorically to AD Miller’s Moscow tale of corruption and moral erosion.

The book is ostensibly a letter from Nick to his fiancée, cleaning the slate by confessing his past. During the early years of the millennium, he’s working as a lawyer in Moscow, where he meets Masha and Katya, and so begins his decay.

It’s difficult to talk about the book without giving too much away, but it makes you think. The author uses the setting of wintry Moscow, and the period just before the credit crunch, to great reflective effect. Nick’s moral choices are underpinned by a sense of ‘Right here, right now, this is just how it works’. But one day, the snow will melt ...

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Gorky Park (Martin Cruz Smith), Closer/Notes on a Scandal (Patrick Marber), Icon (Frederick Forsyth).

Avoid if you don’t like: Dubious decisions, unreliable narrators, erosion of morality.

Ideal accompaniments: Stolichnaya, fishy dumplings and Polyushka Polye by Origa.

Genre: Literary fiction, Noir