Peter Grainger is an under-appreciated, great writer.

Still — I couldn’t get through the second book in this series ➙ One-way Ticket.

Arcadia the 3rd book in the Willows and Lane series.

They are an unlikely couple of detectives:

Emily Willows is middle-aged, widowed, wealthy, and bored.

Summer Lane is a new neighbour. It turns out she’s a skilled former police D.I. — but wants to remain anonymous, if possible.

Emily wants to form a Detective Agency with Summer, … who is reluctant.

In this book they are somehow convinced to investigate the disappearance (?) of a wealthy couple’s daughter. She’s reportedly out of communication in an eco community on a Welsh island.

An audio only original novella by an excellent writer.

It’s 1927, and the most devastating flood in American history has swelled the Mississippi River to a width of eighty miles.

In an attempt to save a family trapped by the rising water, four men in a tiny rowboat battle the treacherous flow: three are convicts, on loan from the local prison and pressed into service; the fourth, the leader of the team, is driven by his own hidden motives.

But to their surprise upon arrival at Ballymore, an ancestral home protected by a high, circular levee, not everyone in the family feels the need to be saved.

Pride, greed, loyalty, and even love create their own complex currents behind the massive wall.

As the threat from the flood increases and time ticks away, the crew and the family must decide on a course of action, and a desperate plan is hatched to save the weakening levee and all it was built to protect.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Dervla McTiernan (born c.1977) is an Irish crime novelist.

She was a practicing lawyer before giving writing a go.

The Ruin (2018) is her debut novel.  A critically acclaimed international bestseller. It won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, the Davitt Award for Best Adult Fiction and the Barry Award for Best Original Paperback, and was shortlisted for numerous other prizes.

Cormac Reilly is about to reopen the case that took him twenty years to forget …

Responding to a call that took him to a decrepit country house, young Garda Cormac Reilly found two silent, neglected children – fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack. Their mother lay dead upstairs.

Since then Cormac’s had twenty high-flying years working as a detective in Dublin, and he’s come back to Galway for reasons of his own. As he struggles to navigate the politics of a new police station, Maude and Jack return to haunt him. …

Betrayal is at the heart of this unsettling small-town noir and the Ireland it portrays. In a country where the written law isn’t the only one, The Ruin asks who will protect you when the authorities can’t – or won’t.

dervlamctiernan.com

Personally, I felt the story telling was not great. Too many peripheral characters. Too slow.

Burial Hour (2017) is 13th in the Lincoln Rhyme series.

And it’s as diabolical and intricate as any.

As usual, it’s the bad guy that’s most intriguing. The Composer.

Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are called in to investigate a bizarre murder in NY City. But Composer escapes and flees to Italy.

Lincoln and Amelia were finally planning to get married. But instead of a honeymoon, they hopped on a private jet to continue the pursuit.

They enlist the assistance of an an endearing Italian Forestry Services officer, Ercole Benelli, to help translate and navigate the Italian police system.

Another great book.