Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: murder

  • Maestra

    Maestra

    This book is described on the cover as a thriller. And it is, although the thrilling bits are interspersed with details about clothes and designers, class aspirations, information about the fine art world, the history of particular paintings and large chunks of erotica.  Shades of Grey is so last year!  Despite finding the story disjointed, it was an easy read – a page turner in fact with a trail of intrigue spreading through the flesh pots of Europe.  And between the thrilling bits chapters with the next fascinating expose about the art world, the world of the ultra rich in Europe and another chunk of heavy breathing erotica.

    The heroine has several names as the story progresses but she begins as Judith.  She’s not a likeable person with tendencies similar to some spiders but to say more would be a spoiler alert…….I was amazed at how much she learnt – one assumes from the Internet – about an extraordinary range of topics which wouldn’t have been included in an English degree from Oxford. And reading about the swingers parties was truly fascinating! How the other half lives – perhaps! 

    Maestra is the first of three books and it will be interesting to see if Lisa Hilton can maintain the tension throughout the next two.  Before Maestra she wrote some well respected historical fiction so this new book is a real change of direction.  One wonders if Maestra is part autobiography. Lisa Hilton came from NW England and so does Judith.   They both read English at Oxford and studied art in France and Italy before working with one of the big art dealers in London.  However Lisa describes herself as a sedate single mother with a ten year old daughter.

    Judith is a complex character always trying to be what she isn’t, in class terms. She strives to speak properly, wear the right clothes and has very little empathy for anyone – especially herself.

    No doubt there is much more money to be made from erotica.  In fact the film rights for the book have already been sold. The sedate single mother will be able to afford a different life style now!

  • All These Perfect Strangers

    All These Perfect Strangers

    “Nothing is ever a clean break.  Everything has threads, even if you cannot see them.” These lines exude from the strongly illustrated front cover of this book, and the title is inside.  The main character, Pen, discovers the truth of this saying when she leaves town to begin a new life at University.  She finds the past will follow her always and impact upon the present.

     Pen, short for Penelope, grew up in a very small town.  The family consisted of Pen and her mother.  Her mother was desperate for a partner and, being very gullible, had several poor relationships in her past.  Despite a shocking incident in her teenage years, Pen found an opportunity to escape.  She won a scholarship to a university away from her home town, and settled down to study Law.  It was here that she met a mixed collection of people, many of whom lived to party.  Pen was confronted by a large variety of personalities and was often unable to choose friends discerningly.

     Despite this huge chance to change her life, and to study, Pen’s inability to understand people and their motivations, led her into situations in which she was trapped.  Her subsequent behaviour seemed to indicate that she could never break out of the Victim cycle, and make appropriate choices.  Her need to be part of the group overrode many other decisions that she would have to make.

     This is a tough read about people from a small town who have not been able to fit into society’s standards, and seem unable to normalise their lives.  There is a lack of love, compassion and empathy between the characters.  We understand that these emotions are present in Pen, but even her psychiatrist cannot find out how deeply embedded they are.

     This is Pen’s story, and we are left to ponder her future after such a traumatic past.  

     

  • The North Water

    The North Water

    You can feel the fear; smell the stench of the whaler as she sets out to sea; the hatred and putrid corrosion of the human spirit as you join the ship Volunteer as it heads out into the dark waters, on its journey to the Arctic Circle in search of whales.

    The men on board are hardened men, used to living in the tough and gruelling conditions that go with life on a whaler. On this voyage they have been joined by Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who takes on the role as the ships medical officer.

    Henry Drax is a brutal, bloodthirsty crewman and harpooner, a man who is as bloodthirsty as he is vicious. As the days role into weeks Sumner gets to know the depths Drax will go to achieve his ends; ends that have nothing whatsoever to do with whaling and everything to do with sabotage and death.

    The story is one that is a real as it is gruesome, enthralling and fast paced, involving the reader in totality, as the men on board the Volunteer discover that things on this voyage are far from normal.

    Sumner thought he had seen the worst life and men could stoop too, but realised that there were indeed deeper levels than those already experienced.

    Trapped on the ice in the depth of an Arctic winter the horrific nature of the plotting becomes apparent as he and Drax are forced to face off, leaving one dead and one struggling to survive.

    This is a masterful work, difficult to put down and one that will appeal mainly to male readers as the narrative is descriptive, leaving no misunderstanding about the scenes being created both on paper and the imagination.

    Cruel, fast paced and brutal, life on a doomed Whaler is spelt out in all its magnificence.

  • Deadly Diplomacy

    Deadly Diplomacy

    As a first novel from Jean Harrod this has all the hallmarks of an author who is going to go places as a novelist. Fast moving and well written this is the first in a Diplomatic Crime Series, which if the books to follow in the series are anything like this one, will attract a firm a following of readers.

    Set in Australia in Diplomatic circles, Jess Turner has the task of liaising with families when tragedy strikes their loved one while overseas. Jess has not long been a member of the British Consulate in Canberra when she is drawn into a case of brutal murder; that of British businesswoman Ellen Chambers; a woman who is at the top of her profession, no stranger to Australia and who is also involved in a multi-billion dollar deal between the British, Australians and Chinese to supply LNG to China.

    As if the situation is not already complex enough, when Jess finally speaks with Ellen’s sister Susan, who is working as a reporter with the Echo newspaper, things become even more complicated as Susan appears to be terrified of going to the Police. When she had last seen her sister, Ellen warned her that she was under police surveillance and if anything happened to her, to ‘follow the money trail’.

    Enter DI Tom Sangster, a man with problems of his own, a successful career in policing and an attitude that demands the best from everyone – a man who does not suffer fools and believes in getting the job done quickly and successfully.

    When one brutal murder turns into three in rapid succession, all with links to Ellen Chambers, Sangster and Jess begin to believe there is far more at stake than a deal gone wrong. There also appears to be a psychopath on the loose, unpredictable and dangerous, who appears to know too much about Ellen Chambers.

    Ellen’s Diary holds the key to what has happened but as Susan has it and can’t be found unless she wants to be, Jess and Sangster have to work together to try and find the killer before any more people are murdered..

    Fast moving, riveting action with several storylines running in parallel backed by first-hand knowledge of diplomatic circles sets the scene for a wonderful crime series designed to entice, intrigue and entertain.