James Patterson’s recent outing for profiler Alex Cross was, to be blunt, a disappointment. The premise is that Alex Cross has left the DC police and joined the FBI in order to have more time with his family. We’ll leave the obvious point that this is unrealistic and scarcely credible alone, chalking it up to […]

My latest batch of mystery books, by Anne Perry, leave me a little puzzled. I’ve written before about her books (liked the Pitt — Cater Street Hangman — but not the Monk) but I may be changing my mind. To the extent that I may not be able to finish the latter one. The Pitts […]

OK, so the secret is out: I’m addicted to Dutch mystery writers. This one is part of the series written by Janwillem van de Wetering about the two Amsterdam cops Grijpstra and De Gier. But the addiction doesn’t just extend to this series. I’m also in love with Maj Sjowal and Per Wahloo’s output, and […]

It strikes me that I’ve stopped talking about books on the blog. Let’s rectify that now. Double Sin is a collection of Agatha Christie shorts, involving Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, but also including some non-series stories with a gothic taste. The title story, while a Poirot, isn’t the best in the book. Infact the […]