Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Killer

  • THE VANILLA KILLER

    THE VANILLA KILLER

    The Charity Shop Detective Agency Mysteries Book 4

    The Vanilla Killer from Peter Boland is one of those cozy murder that has a certain fan base who love a slow moving, somewhat dysfunctional murder, that sees the killer carefully disguised until the final pages, but one who believes in the Hollywood style reveal! One could almost consider the style of cozy murder slightly tongue-in cheek!

    An ice cream seller is murdered and his body is placed in the freezer of his van. He is a young man just starting out in his own business so what was he doing getting himself killed, when he had only been running his own van for a less than a week.

    The ladies of the Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop, Daisy, Partial Sue and Fiona are enjoying their standard brew of tea, when their peace and quiet is disturbed by the off key strains of Greensleeves, and an old, somewhat dilapidated ice-cream van pulls up in front of the shop.

    Bella, daisy’s recently divorce daughter has bought the van at auction and is all set to begin her new business. The ladies are horrified, as they immediately recognise the van and know well the tragic history, but agree to support Bella in her new enterprise. On her the first day things begin to go wrong and slowly get worse.

    It is then the intrepid ladies begin to think there is more to the damage being done to Bella’s van than is apparent and set out, in their carefully discussed style to try and get to the bottom of what is really going on in the world of Ice-cream sellers.

    As they slowly work their way through what seems to be a world of vanilla nothingness, they stumble across someone who, is while not happy to help them, will. That is when they truly realise that what is going on is very carefully orchestrated and undoubtedly very dangerous.

    Join the ladies of the Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop as they set out to catch a criminal as only they can in The Vanilla Killer.

  • Forget-Me-Not 

    Forget-Me-Not 

    Following on from the first book in the What happened to Mia Davis series, Forget Me Not is fast paced, the twists and turns totally believable, the characters clear, portrayed in such a way that they come to life, representative of the people who populate everyone’s world.

    Forget me Not continues the story of Elaine, murdered by an unknown man, someone she knew, someone in her group of friends, someone they all knew, but who. Whoever he is he is very good at covering his tracks, plausible, cunning and ruthless. A psychopath.

    Rachael McGowan has dedicated her skills as a detective to solving the case, and has spent fifteen years tracking the elusive killer. Each time she thinks she has the man responsible in her sights she is proven wrong, but truly believes a string of copycat murders, made to look like suicide, are all perpetrated by the one man; the man she is chasing.

    As she digs ever deeper, she comes across an anomaly; the name of a man who does not exist, but does. Who is he and where does he fit into the past and the present. She comes across some information that seems to fit into her investigation, but once again opens up a number of pathways that all appear to lead nowhere.

    Forget Me Not adds more than one layer to the mystery as very slowly the past is revealed, the horror of cold blooded murder unfolds and the luring of Rachael into a web of deceit concludes in the unthinkable or does it!

    KT Carlisle certainly knows how to turn up the heat and keep the plot addictive, as she deftly, and with murderous intent, steers Detective Rachael McGowan, Catheryn and Elaine into the final book in the What Happened to Mia Davis? series.

    IF you enjoy a fast paced, very plausible murder mystery the What happened to Mia Davis series is for you.

  • Kill Your Husbands

    Kill Your Husbands

    Beware when you begin the dark, intriguing and absolutely terrifyingly good Kill Your Husbands, the latest noir murder mystery from Jack Heath as it is absolutely riveting, but perhaps best not to be read on a dark, rainy, night when the wind is blowing and the temperature dropping.

    How can a weekend away at a remote but beautiful location with friends go so terribly, dangerously, murderously wrong? Three couples, four of whom have known each other since their school days, decide to go for a weekend away which turns out to be anything other that what was expected.

    Carefully constructed each of the friend’s story is told individually, their thoughts and emotions laid bare as they reflect on their friendship, their relationships with their wives, their husbands; but do they really know each other at all, or do they only know the public face of the people they pretend to be.

    When a terrified woman arrives at the Warrigal Police Station, Kiara Lui is sent on the job. When she arrives at the scene she finds two dead men, a terrified couple locked in a room upstairs and one of the wife’s missing.

    This is Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui’s first case as a lead detective; all eyes are upon her to solve the case and solve it quickly. She has her own problems with partner Elise who has been acting in a very unusual manner. This side issue acts as a foil to the ever deepening mystery of who killed who and why.

    Woven with a very skilful hand and light touch, with a somewhat macabre sense of humour strategically added, Kill Your Husbands is the perfect antidote for a hot summers day or cold winters evening.

  • My Husband’s Killer

    My Husband’s Killer

    Close friendships made during student years are often the ones which are sustained throughout life’s ups and downs, however, when that trust is broken it is definitely devastating for all concerned.

     In ‘My Husband’s Killer’, bestselling author Laura Marshall’s fourth psychological thriller, the dynamics in a tight-knitted group are charged with tension as members attempt to keep an aspect of their lives secret from the others.

    On the day of her husband Andrew’s memorial service, grieving Liz makes a shocking discovery which makes her rethink everything and everyone.  She finds herself burning with rage. Which of her oldest trusted friends is lying? Who had betrayed her? Each one of them had lied to her about something. Which hidden secret could provide a motive for murder?

    The author drives this page turning novel by alternating the narrative between the weekend three months ago, when the university friends spent time together at a luxury home on the Amalfi Coast, and post funeral times.  As the atmosphere during their Italian holiday becomes more intense and claustrophobic, the bubbling resentment, shocks and surprises come to the fore to keep the reader totally engaged.

    The group returned home without Andrew, who was presumed drowned. What really happened to Andrew?

    Some readers will find it a little difficult to keep track of the large cast of unpleasant characters, however, astute readers will recognize the red herrings and hints to help them identify with whom the victim was having the affair and who murdered the victim.

  • Unforgiven

    Unforgiven

    Eighteen years ago was the wrong evil peadophile incrassated for the most horrendous crimes against innocent children? Now when bodies are discovered, they appear to have been murdered by Spider, who is languishing in jail. Is this the work of a copycat pretending to be Spider, or is the wrong abuser in jail?

    DI Rachel Langley, who was credited with catching this vile child killer, is now having doubts; did she put away the real Spider? However, Lexi Winter, a survivor of this despicable, infamous peadophile has no such doubts; she is determined to keep him well and truly securely locked up.

    Lexi, ace hacker, is a vigilante who has made it her life’s mission to track down and entrap members of the local, dangerous peadophile ring. Not always remaining within the limits of the law, she is able to penetrate their sites by infiltrating the dark web.  

    Meanwhile DI Langley is under pressure from the government, local press and her colleagues to find the real perpetrator of the recent child murders. Bailee, younger sister of Lexi and local social worker, assists DI Langley by keeping her informed of the valuable information, which Lexi uncovers.   

    ‘Unforgiven’, which is set around Gosford on the central coast of NSW is the latest thriller by Australian author Sarah Barrie. By using flashback to explore the relationship between the much younger Rachel and Lexi, the author gives the reader a greater understanding of why it’s so important to both women to solve the current child murders.

    Although crimes against children do not make for an easy read, readers of crime fiction will find this a page turner; an intriguing murder mystery with strong female protagonists.

  • The Spider and the Fly

    The Spider and the Fly

    Why would an author want to initiate a four year correspondence with a serial killer behind bars, who hid the eight bodies of his victims in the loft of his house in which he and his family continued to live? In September 1998, young reporter Claudia Rowe, while working for the ‘New York Times’ in Poughkeepsie, New York became obsessed with the story of Kendall Francois, a seemingly ordinary community college student who abducted and strangled eight women. What was the killer’s motive in taking these lives!

    ‘The Spider and the Fly’ chronicles her correspondence with the serial killer, Kendall Francois and in the process Claudia Rowe takes the reader along on her journey of self-discovery. The correspondence between the two is also a tedious power struggle as to who has control of the resultant ‘relationship’; the book explores this provocative and dangerous relationship. Meanwhile, those near and dear to the author found her involvement with the serial killer through the letters which later lead to phone calls and eventually to prison visits, difficult to understand and even bizarre. 

    In order to find an answer to the ‘why’ the author interviewed several people; a few teachers and some acquaintances but none had any useful perspective on the question. She was no closer to establishing whether Kendall is just a monster or worthy of some empathy.

    In ‘The Spider and the Fly’ Claudia Rowe generally combines the true crime and memoir genres successfully. The author also provides the reader with some insight into the cultural and political history of upstate New York. However, topics tend to be a little random, which makes it difficult for the reader to make the connection between one event to the next.

    If you enjoy discovering what the killers did, what drove them to do it, and some gruesome details of the crime they perpetrated in some chronological order, this probably isn’t the book for you. However, if you are interested in exploring this relationship between a journalist and a killer, you will find it a worthwhile read.