To The Last Page

Alan Parks' first crime thriller Bloody January started out inspired by a real life incident, and extended into a much wider view of criminality (and associated social deprivation) in his Harry McCoy series set in Glasgow in the 70s. It looks like true historical events connected to the bombing raids on Glasgow during WWII were also the inspiration for Park's Gunner , the first book in his Joseph Gunner series. Inevitably, with Deception coming as the second book in the series, that world is also going to be similarly expanded; and it is - just not in the way I might have expected. It's no great surprise that a second Gunner book has surfaced while Parks takes a sabbatical mid-way through his Harry McCoy series (much as I was hoping for a quicker return to the 70s Glasgow police thriller), as it clearly had the potential to be a series and the sub heading 'A Joseph Gunner Thriller' suggested as much. What is a surprise however is that in Deception Parks has loca...

Cool Machine is the third book in Colson Whitehead's Harlem trilogy, a series that in its second installment was already shaping up to have as important a place in the author's depiction of the experience of the black community in America as his other Pulitzer Prize winning works. Perhaps even more so for the manner in which it extends that vision across the decades of the 60s in Harlem Shuffle and the 70s in Crook Manifesto . through to the 80s now in Cool Machine . The central figure who is witness to the changes and challenges that the years bring is principally Ray Carney in his efforts to become a legitimate businessman selling furniture in his own Harlem store despite the tug of the criminal underworld coming to his door seeking his services as a fence for stolen goods. It's not just underworld connections that Ray has to navigate his way though, some of them genuine friends that he is helping give a leg up through the challenges of trying to survive as a black pers...

The directness of the title ('Mathilde has disappeared' or 'Mathilde is missing') is reflected in the style of the opening chapters of Leno Solveig's Mathilde a disparu , even in the chapter titles which lay out which person's testimony we are getting, the time and the place. Everything is clearly outlined. Apart from the opening chapter ' Fin de l'histoire ', which sets up the conclusion (see what I mean?), the narrative in the main takes a direct procedural approach of the 26-year-old Mathilde being reported missing and the police investigation as it interviews friends, family and co-workers trying to find out what has happened to the young woman. The frantic phone call to the police station in Carvin (north France) comes from Mathilde's worried parents, and as brigadier-chef Rémy interviews the young woman's neighbours, work colleagues and former boyfriend Théo, it quickly becomes apparent that there is indeed good reason for concern. Abdu...