Release Date: 30/01/14
Publisher: Mullholland Books
SYNOPSIS:
Three brutal attacks. One near-fatal beating. And a deadly score to settle. DI Jack Brady is riding high after the successful outcome of his previous case, but his world is about to come crashing down. There's a serial rapist plaguing the streets of Whitley Bay. Three young women have been horribly abused, and his boss and the press are screaming for answers. Everything seems to point to his old friend and foe, gangster Martin Madley, though Brady still struggles to believe he's capable of such acts. With time running out before the villain strikes again, Brady must follow every scrap of evidence. But there are forces at work he knows nothing about, and his persistence is leading both him and those close to him ever further into danger...
REVIEW:
I love a crime story that hooks me from the get go and that’s what exactly what Danielle does in this, the third outing for Inspector Jack Brady. It has some solid twists, characters that the readers can believe in alongside carefully constructed plot line that has realistic crime solving which when backed with an overall arc alongside authorly talent that continues to grow with each subsequent title all round gave me an experience I was more than pleased I had.
Release Date: 23/06/11
SYNOPSIS:
NUMBER OF ACCIDENTAL DEATHS PER YEAR
By suffocation: 3,300
By poisoning: 8,600
STAGED BY PROFESSIONALS: You have no idea.
Ex-cop Charlie Hardie's latest job is guarding an isolated mansion in LA's Hollywood Hills. But it comes with an unwanted guest - a D-list actress who says she's being hunted by professional hitmen.
Charlie thinks she's just high and paranoid.
But he's wrong.
The killers are real.
They've tracked her to the house.
And they're not letting anyone out alive.
REVIEW:
The second book release from the newly formed Mulholland Books and one that demonstrates that they’re not prepared to take prisoners. This title is high octane from start to finish, it’s outspoken, it has solid lead characters and when backed with solid spartanesque prose it’s a title that is all about the journey of survival without any fancy twiddly bits.
Add to this that it makes no bones about being a crime survival story from start to finish and whilst the lead male character takes knock after knock it’s a title that would translate well to the big screen. Finally, if you want a story that is gripping, has similarities to a Jack Reacher or Joe Hunter, but pulls no punches with a hero who believes that any which way you can survive is acceptable, then this title is definitely one for you. Great stuff.
Release Date: 12/05/11
SYNOPSIS:
A Deputy DA specialising in high-profile cases, Rachel Knight is addicted to her work and fiercely loyal to her friends. But when her colleague Jake is found dead in a seedy Los Angeles hotel room next to the body of a teenage male prostitute, Rachel realises she might not know those around her as well as she thinks.
The police want to write off Jake's death as a straightforward murder/suicide. Rachel doesn't believe it's that simple. Warned off the case but determined to track down her friend's killer, the investigation takes her through the dark and tangled city from its wealthy suburbs to its seamy downtown heart.
And a truth so dangerous it could kill her.
REVIEW:
Guilt by Association is a debut novel for Marcia Clarke and is set following DA Rachel Knight as she crusades through her most important cases to her, the sexual attack on a politically connected man’s daughter and the murder of her friend and colleague Jake who is found dead with a teenage rent boy.
What Marcia does well in this title is bring the crimes to the reader’s attention as well as maintaining the linear requirements for an investigation and whilst there are twists that throw the principle characters for a loop they all help get to the bottom of the relevant cases in order to make sure that justice is done. The prose is reasonable, the investigation plausible and when blended with an authoritative look at the law system (well she was the lead prosecutor for the OJ Simpson case) keeps the reader going with enough material to make it hard to leave for long.
However that said, in my opinion, I absolutely detested the authors overuse of romantic descriptive clichés alongside an over fondness for going into detailed descriptions of the clothing. Personally, when I read crime I don’t care, I want a story that shows not tells me what happens rather than throwing me for a loop and getting off track on inane detail about the characters ensemble, just say that she got dressed and headed to the office.
All in, for a debut novel it was satisfactory and I think that Marcia clearly has a gift to bring it all to the fore, add experience into the story and it’s definitely a tale written based on what the author knows. I hope that the problems that I had are fixed in subsequent titles but if you can look past the descriptive errors then it’s a book that whilst perhaps not the best debut out there certainly one that deserves to be read.
