Friday, January 02, 2015

Favourite Euro Crime Reads of 2014 - Mark

In today's instalment of the Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2014, Mark Bailey reveals his favourite Euro Crime titles:

Mark Bailey's favourite reads of 2014

Of the new releases in 2014, I would strongly recommend (in alphabetical order by author as I don’t want to choose an order):

Paul Charles - The Lonesome Heart is Angry
I still don’t really think this is a crime novel in the marketing sense but it is a brilliant literary analysis of the day-to-day life in a small Northern Irish town half-a-century ago when the world was changing with excellent characterisation of people with complex emotions and motivation.

Christopher Fowler – Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart
(The 11th book about Arthur Bryant, John May and their Peculiar Crimes Unit.) This is a good place for a new reader to start engaging in the weird and wonderful world of the Peculiar Crimes Unit with their move from being part of the Metropolitan Police to being part of the City of London Police.

John Harvey - Darkness, Darkness
(The twelfth and last Charlie Resnick novel.) This has Charlie Resnick haunted and damaged by the events of Cold in Hand – dark, thought provoking and deeply emotional.

Adrian McKinty - In The Morning I'll be Gone
(The 3rd Sean Duffy novel set in 1980s Northern Ireland.) The trilogy is now at least a tetralogy with Gun Street Girl being published in January 2015 with Duffy now a Detective Inspector investigating a double murder in Whitehead.

Kerry Wilkinson - Crossing the Line
(8th in the series of novels featuring Jessica Daniel (now a Detective Inspector) but being pitched as the start of ‘Season 2’.) This was the first in the series I read but I am half way through the rest now; I liked it because Jessica Daniel is an engaging lead character who is developed by the author during the novel so you do get to know her.

If I had to pick just one to recommend then it would be Darkness, Darkness by John Harvey.

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