DP54Cover - Deadly Pleasures

face frilled by white hair”. If ‘bad language’ bothers you as
a reader, steer clear, and there are no-holds-barred
references to the most intimate bodily functions. An
insider’s knowledge of work in the police is used to good
effect (Campbell was a serving police officer). But the
strained relationships between Anna and her new team,
which includes ex-lover Jamie (now married with a wife and
a child), are as gripping as the hunt for the bad guy. A
powerful first time novel from Campbell, who brings a
scorching honesty to the emotional inner-life of her characters.
This will surely be the start of a successful series.
STEEL WITCHES by Patrick Lennon (Hodder
& Stoughton, £19.99). Ex-cop turned private eye, Tom
Fletcher, receives a bizarre phone call from his estranged
father, a call which leads him to the
murdered body of a young physics student
who was moonlighting as a club
hostess. Why was physics student Daisy so
interested in the art painted on wartime
aircraft, and how are Fletcher’s family
connected to the mystery? Modern day
conflicts have their roots in the distant
past and Lennon plays on age old fears
about witchcraft and persecution and
spins marvellous depictions of the
Fenlands and the spooky air-bases, old
and new, that pepper the Fens. As the
country is thrown into the grip of a ferocious
winter storm, with freezing weather
giving way to floods and a ‘psychlone’ on
the way, the conspiracy thriller builds to a
terrific climax. There is a breadth to the
story that is captivating as well as some
finely drawn characters and lovely language
but the star must be the fantastic
landscape as it is battered by the biggest
storm in centuries.
FLESH HOUSE by Stuart MacBride (Harper
Collins, £12.99). The title gives a fair steer as to what
you’re going to find between the covers. MacBride has
penned a gory thriller with human flesh and body parts by
the truck full -- prime cuts which have got into the meat
supply. The Flesher — a serial killer who butchered his
victims -- has served time, been released and is now
missing. Officers originally involved in securing his conviction
are being targeted. And off-shore from Aberdeen a
container is found to be stuffed with human joints.
DS Logan McRae is on the case, trying to avoid
the machinations of his bosses and cope with the inadequacies
of his deeply flawed colleagues, and with the appaling
Aberdonian weather. Whilst such fare may not be to
everyone’s taste, MacBride manages to combine the
darkest of situations with the workaday foibles of his cops
(and their attempts to maintain some sanity in a world gone
barmy) and to make the whole shebang both very funny
and suspenseful.
KILLER TUNE by Dreda Say Mitchell (Hodder &
Stoughton, £6.99). Rap singer Lord Tribulation is about to
make the big time: he’s on the brink of a new recording
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deal and tipped to retain his title in the slamdown for The
Writer in Residence for Ladbroke Grove. Then his life is
rocked to the core. A teenager listens to Lord Tribulation’s
music as he fire-bombs a house, injuring people inside, and
Lord Tribulation’s father, a veteran musician dies suddenly
in an alley. An elaborate plot unfolds linking both incidents
to 1976, a time when the far right was organising racist
attacks, black people were hounded by the use of the ‘sus’
law, radical black groups were emerging in response and
a riot erupted at the Notting Hill Carnival. The narrative
leads to unpalatable truths and secrets and also works as
a coming of age story for Lord Tribulation as he is forced
to make hard choices and deal with his own short-comings.
Steeped in music, and laden with musical references, and
with its own play list appended, KILLER
TUNE is a celebration of a culture and
a community rarely found in crime fiction.
This is the second novel from Say
Mitchell who won the CWA’s John
Creasey Best First Novel Award with
RUNNING HOT.
SMALL CRIMES by Dave
Zeltserman (Serpent’s Tail, £7.99). Excop
Joe Denton is released from prison
after serving several years for a brutal
attack which left the local district attorney
horribly disfigured. Joe gets precious
little welcome when he returns
home. Already estranged from his exwife
and daughters and hurt that his
parents never once visited him in prison,
he now finds himself ostracised by his
former colleagues and most of the town
community. Top gangster Manny Vassey
is dying of cancer and is close to coming
clean: a confession that would send Joe
back inside. Another player gives Joe an
ultimatum: silence Manny or we’ll silence you. Powerfully
tense, reading this is like watching a car crash happen, as
Joe thrashes like a landed fish trying to survive in a world
seriously stacked against him. The characterisation and
mental torment are reminiscent of the insightful psychological
thrillers of Jim Thompson. Stunning stuff.
Martin Edwards Reviews
WHITE NIGHTS by Anne Cleeves (Macmillan,
£16.99). Ann Cleeves’ idea for the Shetland Quartet
featuring the appealing cop Jimmy Perez is that each book
will be set in a different season of the year. Here the
backdrop is summer, the time of the long white nights. The
Shetland setting is beautifully done. Few if any modern
crime writers convey the essence of a rural community as
effectively as Ann Cleeves, and with the islands off the
north of Scotland, she is in her element. There is a lot of
interesting background detail. I now know what the ‘simmer
dim’ is and what ‘singling neeps’ involves, while
RAVEN BLACK introduced me to the tradition of Up
Helly Aa, Europe’s largest fire festival. Reading these