Tag: crime

#BlogTour #BookReview The Night Shift by Alex Finlay @HoZ_Books

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Night Shift by Alex Finlay. My thanks to Polly at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today Ashleigh at Ashleigh Mordew Reads.

The Night ShiftAbout the Book

What connects a massacre in a Blockbuster video store in 1999 with the murder of four teenagers fifteen years later?

It’s New Year’s Eve of 1999 when four teenagers working late are attacked at a Blockbuster video store in New Jersey. Only one inexplicably survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, four more teenagers are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive.

In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who is forced to relive the horrors of her tragedy; the brother of the fugitive accused, who is convinced the police have the wrong suspect; and FBI agent Sarah Keller, who must delve into the secrets of both nights to uncover the truth about the night shift murders.

Format: Paperback (320 pages)     Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 3rd March 2022 Genre: Crime, Thriller

Find The Night Shift on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

The first night shift I need to tell you about is the one I put in reading this book until way past my bedtime which should tell you all you need to know about the compelling nature of this book.

The blurb poses the question, What connects a pair of small-town murders that happened fifteen years apart? There are the obvious ones: Ella, the lone survivor of the first massacre, now pursuing a rather unlikely, it has to be said, career as a therapist given her risk-taking behaviour, and Chris, a public defender who also happens to be the brother of the man accused of the original murders. Then there’s FBI Agent Sarah Keller, who despite being eight months pregnant with twins can still be a ‘badass’ when the need arises – and it does.  I loved Sarah Keller as a character and her young assistant Atticus (yes, he is named after the character in To Kill A Mockingbird), keen and highly intelligent but still wearing his ‘L plates’, as it were, when it comes to fieldwork. I must also mention Bob, Sarah’s lovely husband, who ensures she eats a nutritious breakfast before setting off to work and provides her with a healthy drink to sustain her during the day, even if it does resemble green slime.

So three characters with connections to the two massacres but perhaps there’s someone else as well?  In a novel like this when we’re given small details about a secondary character my immediate thought is, why is the author telling me this? Is it to flesh out a minor character or is it concealing a subtle clue? In fact a ‘blink and you’d miss it’ detail did allow me to guess the guilty party. However I find there’s just as much enjoyment from being driven mad by the fact you got it wrong as there is from the smug satisfaction you got it right.

Those who like plenty of action in their crime thrillers will not be disappointed; nor will those who love a fiendishly complex plot and positively enjoy being wrong-footed and surprised.

The Night Shift is a supremely well-crafted, totally absorbing and deliciously twisty crime thriller.

In three words: Pacy, ingenious, gripping

Try something similar: Final Girls by Riley Sager

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Alex FinlayAbout the Author

Alex Finlay is the pseudonym of Anthony Franze, an author who lives in Washington D.C. As Alex Finlay, he writes gripping psychological thrillers such as Every Last Fear. As Anthony Franze, he writes compelling legal thrillers including The Advocate’s Daughter, The Outsider and The Last Justice. He’s garnered national praise for his work as a lawyer in the Appellate and Supreme Court practice of a prominent Washington, D.C. law firm and he has been a commentator on high-court issues for The New Republic, Bloomberg, and National Law Journal.

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#BlogTour #BookReview Unhinged by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst @RandomTTours @OrendaBooks

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Unhinged Blog Tour BannerjpgWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Unhinged by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst, translated by Megan Turney. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Orenda Books for my digital review copy. Do check out the review by my tour buddy for today Claire at bookreviewsforu.

UnhingedAbout the Book

His colleague is dead. His daughter may be next. It’s time to do things his way…

When police investigator Sofia Kovic uncovers a startling connection between several Oslo murder cases, she attempts to contact her closest superior, Alexander Blix before involving anyone else in the department. But before Blix has time to return her call, Kovic is shot and killed in her own home – execution style. And in the apartment below, Blix’s daughter Iselin narrowly escapes becoming the killer’s next victim.

Four days later, Blix and online crime journalist Emma Ramm are locked inside an interrogation room, facing the National Criminal Investigation Service. Blix has shot and killed a man, and Ramm saw it all happen.

As Iselin’s life hangs in the balance, under-fire Blix no longer knows who he can trust … and he’s not even certain that he’s killed the right man…

Format: Paperback (276 pages)           Publisher: Orenda Books
Publication date: 17th February 2022 Genre: Crime, Contemporary Fiction

Find Unhinged (Alexander Blix & Emma Raam #3) on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Described by the Sunday Times as ‘An exercise in literary tag-teaming from two of Norway’s biggest crime writers with a bold new take’, Unhinged is the third in the authors’ crime series featuring police investigator Alexander Blix and young news blogger Emma Ramm. I haven’t read either of the previous two books in the series and I’m kicking myself for not having done so now because there are too many references to events in the earlier books to make it worthwhile. However, that does mean Unhinged can definitely be read as a standalone.

The book opens with Blix being questioned about how and why he came to shoot a man whose identity he claims not to have known. The story then alternates between Blix’s interrogation and descriptions of the events which led up to that moment, including how his daughter, Iselin, came to become involved. As the book demonstrates, actions have consequences – often unintended – and the results can be life-changing. A dramatic event part way through the book threatens to destroy Blix and Emma’s relationship irreparably, a relationship already complicated by their past experiences. It also makes Blix reflect on actions he’s taken in the past, wondering if his interventions have done more harm than good and sending him into a spiral of depression that sees him lonely, isolated and in a very dark place. He is emotionally ‘unhinged’.

Meanwhile, Emma’s journalistic instincts see her continue to investigate just why someone might have wanted to kill Sofia Kovic. What did Sofia know that would make her a target for an execution style killing?  Perhaps someone else out there is also ‘unhinged’ but in a much more destructive way?

At one point Blix describes his approach to a new case: ‘He always looked for things like this in an investigation. Discrepancies. Things that didn’t quite fit.’ When reading crime fiction this reader is the same but the authors are masters in the art of inserting red herrings and laying false trails that you can’t resist following but which usually result in a dead end. The book is full of ‘I can’t believe you just did that’ and ‘I wasn’t expecting that’ moments along with a few ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, Blix’ and ‘I definitely don’t think that’s a good idea, Emma’.

The ending of the book had me cursing and wiping away tears at the same time. But after all, as Thomas Enger confides in the authors’ acknowledgments  – which, by the way, is sheer genius – ‘I know all about cliffhangers’.

Thanks to Orenda Books and the skill of translator Megan Turney, English speaking crime fans can enjoy another fabulous helping of Nordic Noir.  I’m not a fan of the word ‘unputdownable’ and I’m not going to use it now (okay, I just have) but the deliciously complex plot and relentless pace of Unhinged makes it the perfect one sitting read. It’s brilliant.

In three words: Taut, compelling, intense

Try something similar: A Memory for Murder by Anne Holt

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About the Authors

Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger are the internationally bestselling Norwegian authors of the William Wisting and Henning Juul series respectively.

A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense. Thomas Enger is a journalist-turned-author whose trademark has become a darkly gritty voice paired with key social messages and tight plotting. Besides writing fiction for both adults and young adults, Enger also works as a music composer.

Death Deserved was Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger’s first co-written thriller, closely followed by Smoke Screen, and the series has sold more than two million copies worldwide, outselling Jo Nesbo in their native Norway, Sweden and Germany.

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