Crime Fiction Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: A Killer’s Grace by Ronald Chapman

Many people seek out books as a form of escape – a chance to leave the world behind and live in another person’s thoughts for a time. In A Killer’s Grace, author Ronald Chapman introduces readers to a life they probably don’t understand, but the difficult, probing and personal questions raised throughout this book don’t leave readers much room to escape.

From the very first chapter, we are introduced to Kevin Pitcairn and Daniel Davidson, a journalist and a serial killer, the two key characters that drive this story forward. It all begins with a letter from Davidson, pleading […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T08:40:41+02:00June 28th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Crime Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Last Train (Detective Hiroshi Series Book 1) by Michael Pronko

Hiroshi Shimizu could be mistaken for one of any number of the faceless salarymen in Tokyo. With a stable desk job and a wage that gives all the small luxuries one can expect to enjoy from it, he can swallow his past regrets and the warm hazy memories of not so long ago. But Hiroshi isn’t just any old desk jockey; he’s a detective, specializing in white-collar crime – a serious problem with the inhumanly-efficient paperwork fever dream of modern Tokyo. And things are about to get a lot more complicated.

When Hiroshi’s mentor calls in a favor in investigating […]

James Grimsby2019-02-11T08:40:32+02:00June 15th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews, Detective Fiction Book Reviews, Noir Book Reviews|

Review: Winchester’s Bargain (Bart Northcote #4) by Murray Lee Eiland Jr.

Taking on the world’s financial elite – and threatening the one thing they hold dearest in the world – is no small task, but Bart Northcote never backs down from a challenge. In Winchester’s Bargain, the fourth installment in this PI series by Murray Lee Eiland Jr., the stakes for Northcote and his investigative team have never been higher, and the writing itself has never been better.

A mysterious man named Winchester Lee approaches Bart Northcote with some disturbing news: the New York Stock Exchange is being controlled by a shadowy Chinese cabal with trillions of dollars at their […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T08:40:16+02:00May 16th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews, Detective Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Tipper Lake: A Tyler Monroe Mystery by Walter Thomas Geer

There is a strange allure to the Deep South that has captivated authors and readers alike; life moves slower, but mysteries seem to run deeper. In that beloved tradition, author Walter Thomas Geer presents a new halfhearted hero, Detective Tyler Monroe, in Tipper Lake. This novel unrolls like a slow Southern drawl, but the scenes and characters are edged with danger, betraying something more menacing just below the surface.

After a judge is murdered in what appears to be an open-and-shut case, Tyler Monroe moves down to a temporary post in Georgia, where his New York background is far […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T09:11:04+02:00May 10th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews, Detective Fiction Book Reviews, Mystery Book Reviews|

Review: The Ishtar Cup (The Bart Northcote Series #1) by Murray Lee Eiland Jr.

★★★★★

As far as private investigator novels go, there are certain expectations and traditional themes that seem to always pop up. There is usually a mysterious femme fatale, a gruff PI who marches to the beat of his own drum, and enough twists to keep a reader tearing through the pages.

In The Ishtar Cup, Book 1 of the Bart Northcote Series by Murray Lee Eiland Jr., some of these commonalities seem to appear almost instantly, but with a flavor all its own. While there is comfort in convention, this book also offers a different tone and a more […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-12-23T05:49:06+02:00April 4th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews, Detective Fiction Book Reviews, Noir Book Reviews|

Review: University of Life by Daley James Francis

★★★★★

It’s the summer of ’97: Prime Minister Tony Blair’s first year of office, Princess Diana’s unbeknownst final weeks, the year the Backstreet Boys were “back, alright.” When London crime boss Eddie Daniels unexpectedly loses his courier on the job during a car crash, it becomes his prerogative to recover the suitcase of cocaine about to be taken with him. Complicating matters is Chloe Holmes, university student and – all of a sudden – one of the most wanted people in the south of England as she flees the site of the accident after particularly egregious instance of someone taking […]

James Grimsby2017-03-13T05:16:31+02:00February 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Let There Be Linda by Rich Leder

★★★★½

Let There Be Linda by Rich Leder begins with a poodle being thrown out of a window on an L.A. freeway. Brothers Mike and Dan Miller, one an almost-respectable accountant and one a completely crooked talent agent get embroiled in a caper with many angles: a missing $75,000, a brutal loan shark swarf and his much bigger sidekick, a coke-addled dentist, and other denizens of the sweat-infused San Fernando Valley. Add to that a girl who can raise the dead and you have a novel that’s part crime fiction, part satire, and the strangest supernatural story you’ve ever read. […]

Henry Baum2020-12-23T05:49:41+02:00July 5th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews|

Reaper: A Lucky Dey Thriller by Doug Richardson

Reaper: A Lucky Dey Thriller by Doug Richardson takes place in a scorching Los Angeles summer, in which South Central murders are on the rise. Sheriff’s deputy Lucky Dey has something of a checkered past, skirting the line between good and bad guy, and wants to clean up a part of the city that’s been left to disintegrate.

An accomplished screenwriter (“Die Hard 2″ among others), Richardson writes with a cinematic quality – not in the sense that Reaper reads like a screenplay, but in how it establishes setting and character without slowing down the story. Richardson is especially good […]

Henry Baum2016-04-29T04:54:52+02:00April 28th, 2016|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|