Review catch-up

In an effort to clear the review pile, here are three shorter reviews of some of my outstanding pile!

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

I read relatively little historical fiction, but occasionally an author grabs me as Laura Shepherd-Robinson has done. I loved her previous novel The Square of Sevens, a Georgian mystery, and I loved her latest The Art of a Lie even more – it made my 2025 Books of the Year. Again, set in Georgian London, it’s the story of a widow who will come into some money after her husband’s murder and those who would separate her from it.

Posh sweetshop proprietor Hannah Cole is visited by a friend of her husband, William Devereux, a investment consultant! Even before the introduction of Devereux into the narrative, we’ve already had one big shocking twist. Once he is on the scene (for he is a con man playing the widow’s game – that much is obvious), the twists and turns multiply in a multi-layered way. Add magistrate Henry Fielding (the author himself, who did become a lawman) into the mix, who is suspicious of everyone, and we have a truly thrilling romp told with panache and fantastic attention to detail to bring the period to life.

I can’t say any more as ‘twould spoil, other than to totally recommend this thrilling novel.

Source: Own copy. Mantle hardback, 2025, 297 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK+ P&P)

Sounds Like a Plan by Pamela Samuels Young & Dwayne Alexander Smith

Faber find some interesting American crime thrillers to add to their lists as paperback originals (viz Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper) and this one from summer 2024 is no exception. Written as a double-hander by two long-established crime writers, we meet private detectives Jackson Jones and Mackenzie Cunningham. Both black, both hard working, but at different ends of the PI spectrum: Smooth Jackson wears sharp suits, has a Venice Beach loft and drives a Mercedes – out to impress his clients with style. Sassy Mackenzie has a shared office above a Chinese Takeaway in a strip mall and she drives an old jeep.

Both are visited separately by a lawyer named Richard Patterson, who engages them on a high value case of such importance and time constraints, they must agree to work on it alone. The case concerns a missing girl, estranged from her family. Her mother is dying and wishes to reconcile. Soon the pair keep bumping into each other much to each other’s annoyance, and they soon discover he hired a third PI too. However, when the third PI turns up dead with the body of the missing girl, they realise they’ve been played and must team together to discover who is behind it really before they meet a similar end.

I’m guessing the two authors wrote one character each, sticking to their genders. It works really well. There is chemistry between the pair of PIs, and we’re kept wondering if they’ll get together, but at first the rivalry outweighs any working together. A good page-turning read, and they’ve done a second volume.

Source: Review copy – thank you! Faber paperback 2024, 293 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK+ P&P)

The Suspect by Rob Rinder

I enjoyed Rinder’s first legal thriller, The Trial, featuring the lawyers of Stag Court, and in particular the young barrister in training Adam Green. in which a celebrated DI died in the witness box of botulinum poisoning as he was giving evidence against a hardened criminal. So I was slightly disappointed when his sequel begins with a rather similar murder – in that national treasure of morning TV Jessica Holby dies of anaphylaxis during a live cooking segment when given a mouthful of what should have been ‘nut-free’ nosh to taste.

All eyes are on the chef Sebastian Brooks, and Suzy Benton-Joslin at Stag Court is representing him. When the junior assigned to the case goes ill, Adam is picked to take his place. Unfortunately Stag Court’s Patience Foster is prosecuting and Georgina, Adam’s friend and rival in the baby junior barrister stakes is on her team. It appears an open and shut case, especially once the rumours of Jessica and Sebastian having an affair surface and are confirmed, and Sebastian having binned the food tried to transfer his cash to his family in Venezuela. But Jessica may have been a treasure on screen; off she was anything but. Adam is sure that Sebastian is innocent.

Although the modus operandi of the murders was similar, I felt this second novel was better developed than the first. It was good fun, and doubtless I shall read his third, The Defence, out in a few months time.

Source: Own copy. Century hardback 2024, 325 pages. BUY in pbk at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link, (free UK+ P&P)