Carefully crafted crime: THE FINAL VOW by M. W. Craven, THE CUT THROAT TRIAL by S. J. Fleet, THE CORPSE LIGHT by Lesley McEvoy
By GEOFFREY WANSELL
Published: | Updated:
The Final Vow is available now from the Mail Bookshop
WASHINGTON Poe may be a grumpy detective sergeant but he is also – without question – one of the most engaging detectives in crime fiction, especially when he teams up with fearsomely intelligent profiler Tilly Bradshaw.
In this sixth book in the series featuring them both, they are called in to help track down a sniper who is killing at random from long range, not least brides on their wedding days, but who never leaves a trace.
What drives him, and how does he choose his victims? There seems no logic to the killings. Added into the mix is the unexpected fact that Poe is about to marry the daughter of a marquess at her family’s estate. Could she be in danger? Poe’s eccentricity grows with each and every story, rendering him ever more endearing.
The Cut Throat Trial is available now
THE Secret Barrister has written a string of non-fiction books about the brutal realities behind the intricacies of the criminal bar – with great success – but now, writing as S.J. Fleet, he turns his hand to fiction.
As a practising junior barrister himself, he clearly know the ways of the law and explores them in meticulous detail. Three young men are charged with murdering a 74-year-old happily married pensioner.
Did they all do it, or did one inspire the others? What is the truth? Fleet handles the case with exemplary care, reminding the reader that although the law may be blind, it nevertheless takes great pains to see justice done.
Gripping and often poignant, it carefully paints a stark picture of what a murder trial is like and how dramatic, and unexpected, its conclusions can be.
The Corpse Light is available now from the Mail Bookshop
FORENSIC psychologist and profiler Jo McCready and her on-off boyfriend DCI Callum Ferguson team up again for this fifth book in McEvoy’s excellent police procedural series.
The pair are investigating the appearance of strange lights above a tarn in the Yorkshire dales that has freaked out a young hiking couple in their igloo tent. At the same time a body turns up at a waste recycling plant not far away. Could the events be linked? Then a young woman McCready met on the bleak moors is abducted and raped not long after their encounter. But McCready has a dark secret. She is in the thrall of a jailed local crime boss, but can’t let on.
The Yorkshire moors are beautifully evoked – as much a part of the story as the characters – and McEvoy has become one of our most interesting crime writers
Daily Mail
