Tuesday 29 September 2015

CRIME THRILLER REVIEW: The Ghosts of Altona - Craig Russell


Release Date: 04/06/15
Publisher:  Quercus

SYNOPSIS:

Head of Hamburg's Murder Commission, Jan Fabel is used to the dead, but when a routine enquiry spirals out of control he finds himself on much closer terms with death - his own.

As he struggles to process this experience, his first case comes back to haunt him: Monika Krone's body is found at last, fifteen years after she disappeared. Monika - beautiful, intelligent, cruel - was the centre of a group obsessed with the gothic.

When men who knew Monika start turning up dead, the crime scenes full of gothic symbolism, Fabel realizes he is looking for a killer with both a hunger for vengeance and a terrifying taste for the macabre.

A true gothic demon is stalking the streets of Hamburg . . .


REVIEW:

Fabel is one of my favourite detectives since I originally read Craig’s first book, Blood Eagle. I love the way he brings European cities to life for me as well as giving me a crime thriller that not only jumps off the page but delivers cunning criminals alongside a detective team that works through the clues to find the answers.

The prose is sharp, the storyline gripping and when you add cracking pace alongside dialogue that endears the characters to the reader, all round gives you a whole series of books that won’t let you leave until that last page is turned. Magic.

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