Peter Grainger is the best author I can name who doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.

His 2024 book ➙ The Late Lord Thorpe: A DC Smith Investigation — is as brilliant as all of the rest.

DC Smith is one of my favourite characters of literature.

Dry British wit. I laugh out loud.

No gun shots. No car chases. No profanity. No sex, please, we’re British.

Instead you get a meticulous procedural. The slowest of slow burns.

This is DC Smith’s third investigation with the Diver and Diver Associates agency. He works for them part time, being retired from the police.

They have been asked by a member of Norfolk’s aristocracy to look into the tragic death of her younger brother, Freddie, the late Lord Thorpe of the title.

The inquest verdict was of misadventure, but it isn’t long before Smith begins to suspect there has been a serious miscarriage of justice.

This book is only available on Kindle and Audio. I highly recommend it.

The Black Cat (2010) is quite good.

One of the series of Richard Jury mysteries.

Several weeks have passed since Richard Jury was left bereft and guilt-ridden after the tragic accident of Lu Aguilar. Now she lies in a coma, and Jury wants to stay near her.

Instead, he has been tossed a case outside of his jurisdiction, in the village of Chesham, where a beautiful young woman has been murdered in the grounds of a pub called the Black Cat. And the only witness to the murder is … the black cat. …

Given her gown–Yves St. Laurent–and her shoes–Jimmy Choo, Jury wonders, Was she rich or wed to riches? She carries no identification, and no one in the village has a clue as to who she is.

Then in London, another murder, another beautifully-got-up woman, this time shoes by Louboutin. And then a third. Jury is stumped: he knows these killings are connected, but if this is a serial killer in London, why commit a murder in Chesham?

The book is average. But it’s impressive to see how great writers can improvise into someone else’s plot.

The private eye is Perry Christo, a divorced dad and one-time NYPD homicide cop who’s been running on fumes (and parental guilt) since a corruption scandal cost him his career, his marriage, and, most importantly, time with his beloved daughter Nicky.

So when a loaded Upper East Side matron Julia Drusilla offers a load of cash for what seems like a no-brainer wandering-daughter job Perry jumps at the chance.

But tracking down the 20-year-old heiress Angel isn’t quite the slam-dunk he expected—it turns out everyone has a different reason for finding the troublesome party girl—or making sure she’s never found. …

Amazon

Jonathan Santlofer envisioned this book:

 I started by asking a bunch of writers if they were willing to participate in the project and for a good cause – in this case, donate their royalties to a charity of my choosing, (again, I was calling the shots). I chose Safe Horizon, an organization that helps victim of violent crime and abuse. I figured that writers who made money writing about crime (often violent crime) should want to give something back – and every one of these writers enthusiastically said YES. …

Mystery Fanfare

Mark Billingham
Lawrence Block
CJ Box
Ken Bruen
Alafair Burke
Stephen L. Carter
Mary Higgins Clark
Marcia Clark
Max Allan Collins
John Connolly
James Grady
Bryan Gruley
Heather Graham
Charlaine Harris
Val McDermid
SJ Rozan
Jonathan Santlofer
Dana Stabenow
Lisa Unger
Sarah Weinman
Introduction by Lee Child
Afterward by Linda Fairstein

The 15th book (2016) in the Charlie Parker series is not his best.

Too long. Too slow.

The most interesting characters are Charlie’s sidekicks/bodyguards, Angel and Louis. They are not given enough time in this book. Nor is lawyer Moxie Castin.

John Connolly is an excellent author. But his story telling skills are far inferior to Stephen King, for one example.

Connolly writes gritty crime fiction with supernatural elements. Much violence.

In this book, one of Charlie’s clients is killed.

His investigation leads him to weird, creepy, cult-like group who call themselves the Cut. 

A Time of Torment: A Charlie Parker Thriller