Anthony, the narrator (a barely fictionalized version of the author), is approached by ex-Detective Inspector Hawthorne, with whom he worked on a television series.
Hawthorne, who is in need of money, proposes that Anthony write a book about him and one of the cases he is working on in exchange for a 50/50 split of the advance and royalties.
The case involves a woman who, six hours after planning her own funeral, is found murdered. Initially reluctant, Anthony agrees and proceeds to document Hawthorne’s solution of the case.
Next in Line (2022) is the 5th and most recent book in the popular William Warwick series.
London, 1988. Royal fever sweeps the nation as Britain falls in love with the ‘people’s princess’.
Which means for Scotland Yard, the focus is on the elite Royalty Protection Command, and its commanding officer. Entrusted with protecting the most famous family on earth, they quite simply have to be the best. A weak link could spell disaster.
Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick and his Scotland Yard squad are sent in to investigate the team.
Maverick ex-undercover operative Ross Hogan is charged with a very sensitive – and unique – responsibility. But it soon becomes clear the problems in Royalty Protection are just the beginning. A renegade organisation has the security of the country – and the crown – in its sights. The only question is which target is next in line …
Great debut murder mystery 2021. John McMahon is already being listed with the best.
A complicated and fascinating plot.
P.T. Marshwas a good detective.
Then his wife and son were killed in an accident.
Months later he’s not so good — drinking, blacking out.
Late one night he agrees to help out a woman by confronting her abusive boyfriend.
When the next morning he gets called to the scene of his newest murder case, he is stunned to arrive at the house of the very man he beat up the night before.
He could swear the guy was alive when he left, but can he be sure?
What’s certain is that his fingerprints are all over the crime scene.
Not bad. This book is intriguing to start. But doesn’t maintain that throughout.
On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner.
Sharing one too many martinis, the strangers begin to play a game of truth, revealing very intimate details about themselves.
Ted talks about his marriage that’s going stale and his wife Miranda, who he’s sure is cheating on him. Ted and his wife were a mismatch from the start—he the rich businessman, she the artistic free spirit—a contrast that once inflamed their passion, but has now become a cliché.
But their game turns a little darker when Ted jokes that he could kill Miranda for what she’s done. Lily, without missing a beat, says calmly, “I’d like to help.” After all, some people are the kind worth killing, like a lying, stinking, cheating spouse. . .
Special agent Kathryn Dance—a brilliant interrogator and body language expert and her partners at the California Bureau of Investigation hunt down escaped killer Daniel Pell, a self-styled Charles Manson.
Both Dance and Pell are fascinating characters.
Jeffery Deaver creates plots with so many twists and turns they could “hide behind a spiral staircase” (People), and The Sleeping Doll has Deaver’s trademark twists in spades. It is guaranteed to keep readers guessing right up to the breathless end.
16 years after The Road, McCarthy published The Passenger (2022).
It’s literature — not easy to follow.
Perhaps I’m not smart enough to appreciate the plotless long sections of dialogue — with no action.
Philosophical. Diversions into the stupidity of the Vietnam war. The potential of science. Physics. War. The assassination of JFK. Formula 2 racing. Smart stuff that doesn’t relate in any way to the story.
Following a salvage dive to recover any survivors from a submerged airplane, Western discovers that the pilot’s flight bag and data box are missing. Within a few days, he returns to his apartment to find two agents of some kind who ask questions …
Bobby goes on the run.
The love of his life was his sister Alicia, a mathematical prodigy and paranoid schizophrenic, who killed herself years before.
Guardian critic Xan Brooks praised the novel, calling it a “glorious sunset song of a novel… It’s rich and it’s strange, mercurial and melancholic.”
I probably won’t read the short sequel, Stella Maris.
In the novel published 2022 Bosch is older. Grumpier. Long retired.
LAPD detective Renée Ballard had quit the force, as well, in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape.
But Renée’s convinced to return and rebuild the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.
With no budget, she recruits volunteers. Who’s #1 on her list? … Harry Bosch.
Two cases play out in parallel. As always, Bosch is the worst kind of underling. But certainly keeps momentum to try to solve the cases. Ballard needs him.
One thing I love about Bosch books is how they include their mistakes. And never downplay the challenges of Los Angeles traffic. It makes these meticulous police investigations feel much more real.
Not the best of Connelly’s procedurals, but nobody else does them better than his second-best.
Rick McCharles 