Capital Punishment – Robert Wilson

Review from It’s a crime! Or a mystery…

Oh the sense of loss on turning over the last page of the perfectly pitched The Ignorance of Blood, the final book in Robert Wilson’s Falcón quartet.  I remember it well.  To a degree, this loss was alleviated by excitement at the thought of what might come next, and a new series was promised.  This has now arrived with Capital Punishment and its new series character, Charles Boxer.  All the hallmarks of CWA Gold Dagger-winning Wilson’s writing are present: this makes for intelligent reading; with depth, emotion, strong characterisation and good plotting.

Boxer is ex-British army and ex-Metropolitan Police.  Having then moved into security in the private sector, working for the leading company in kidnap negotiation worldwide, Boxer now supplies his specialised skills in a freelance capacity.  And for those clients privileged to be in-the-know, Boxer offers a rare additional service.

In Capital Punishment, Boxer returns to London to the case of Alyshia D’Cruz, kidnapped on her way home after a drunken night out in Covent Garden with friends and work colleagues.  Approaching her mid-twenties, Alyshia is the daughter of former Bollywood actor and now self-made Indian billionaire, Frank D’Cruz and his former wife, literary agent Isabel Marks.  Where Marks may pursue a normally uneventful life, D’Cruz is considered by some to be a ‘…vastly rich ex-actor, who was well worth envying, despising and resenting.’

Quickly, Boxer identifies issues with the progression of the kidnapping, suggesting the kidnappers are more interested in tormenting Alyshia’s parents than in achieving financial gain.  With Alyshia more at risk from torture and murder, Boxer needs to quickly ascertain the motivation behind the kidnapping…

‘What about the long term stuff, for big money?’ ‘You mean the new tax on the rich?’ said Nelson, stabbing his fried egg viciously, as if it were the eye of a banker.  ‘Make them pay for all the shit they’re putting us through.  Steal their kids and give them an alternative education.’

The plotting of Capital Punishment beautifully elicits the highly topical from within our contemporary world of international crime.  Alyshia’s kidnapping is merely the sharp flame that catches the eye.  Soon, the story guides us through the funnel into the expanding hot air balloon, taking in gangs and drugs; the machinations of global finance and corruption in an era of recession; terrorism and counter-terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; sex trafficking; personal grudges and revenge.

Boxer makes an attractive protagonist and an intriguing character.  You’d want him on your side even though he’s not perfect with his ‘rare additional service’.  Skilfully setting up the series, Capital Punishment raises the question but does not conclude on whether this may prove to be Boxer’s Achilles heel.

Mirroring the D’Cruz family relationship finding itself under the microscope because of the kidnapping, we also learn of Boxer’s own family circumstances and his relationship with his spirited teenage daughter.  All the family characters have scope for an enduring presence throughout the series.

With Capital Punishment Wilson again takes up the gauntlet as master of the intelligent thriller.  With Charles Boxer we have an explosion of character in the scene of international crime and specifically kidnap negotiation.  With all probability this will be one of your top thriller reads in 2013, so add it to your chocolates for Easter weekend.

Capital Punishment was published in January 2013 by Orion in the UK.  Find out more about the author here and Charles Boxer here.

The Collini Case – Ferdinand von Schirach

1993, the Head Office of a bank in Munich: ‘Before we go any further, I have to say …’ the man paused to find the right words, ‘I was only a child in the war; I was not responsible.’

I had not expected to hear those words from a new colleague.  In reply I managed ‘I understand’ and the conversation then moved on to the business at hand.  I could understand the meaning of his words, but the emotions giving rise to them were beyond me.  That was the first time I encountered the guilt in contemporary Germany and the Germans’ relationship with it.

A book of note takes hold of the consciousness because of its content, but sometimes its provenance adds to this, embedding deeper meaning and significance.  The Collini Case is an example of the latter and rooted in its provenance is that German guilt.

Ferdinand von Schirach is a prominent defence lawyer in Germany.  His short story collections Crime and Guilt became instant bestsellers and have been translated in over thirty territories.  His novella, The Collini Case is now available in the UK courtesy of a seamless translation from Anthea Bell.

For 34 years Fabrizio Collini was a quiet, hard-working and respected toolmaker at Mercedes Benz.  But one day he walks into an upmarket hotel in Berlin and kills the 85 year old wealthy and renowned industrialist, Jean-Baptiste Meyer.  Collini stays at the scene and admits to the murder.  The case is assigned to newly qualified attorney Caspar Leinen and Collini resists any form of defence.

Leinen soon realises that he knew the victim and is urged to drop the case but is unable to do so because of the legal process.  Another attorney, established and weathered, provides the wisdom of his counsel, reminding Leinen of the nature and difficulties of acting for the defence.

What follows in a concise and tautly paced narrative is the unveiling of the ‘why’ and an examination of the impact of crime.  Ferdinand von Schirach makes intelligent and skilful use of his legal experience in weaving his plot around various laws in operation and the true meaning of justice to be derived from them.  But this is not a dry novel: at its heart The Collini Case is packed with pure, visceral emotion.  Its ending plucks a chord that remains with the reader for a long time, possibly never to be erased as von Schirach does not hide from reality.

On its 2011 publication in Germany The Collini Case prompted a debate on changes made to criminal law in the 1960s and resulted in the Justice Ministry commissioning an investigation in early 2012.

Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth, Reich Governor and Nazi party Gauleiter in Vienna, later convicted of crimes against humanity, was the author’s grandfather.  With The Collini Case the author has worked through his own sense of inherited guilt and produced a remarkable novella that takes its own place in history: for justice, for the victims.

The above review first appeared in the print edition of the Catholic Herald.

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Origin – J T Brannan

Click on the pic for link to Amazon UK.

Originally attracted by mention of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, J T Brannan’s debut Origin proved to be something other than expected.  This is a thriller that leaves little room to catch one’s breath.

In the Antarctic, research scientist Evelyn Edwards and her team discover a body buried under the ice which exceeds even her wildest imagination.  Tests indicate that the body is 40,000 years old.  That alone is astounding enough, but the body is also found in clothing made of fabric of rather advanced technology.   Later, when the team flies home, they are targeted by someone who wants to keep knowledge of this body and its provenance hidden.  Just managing to escape, Evelyn is on the run, alone and desperate.  She turns to ex-husband Matt Adams for help, a former member of an elite government unit.  They are in a race against time, taking them from Area 51 in the USA to the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, as they try to fathom out exactly what is going on and then to save…  [Well, that would be telling.]

Why Origin?  Well the origin of mankind is at the heart of this story, due to that body discovered in the Antarctic.   This is not a traditional crime thriller per se as it crosses over into science fiction.  Now take a deep breath – you’ll need it.   Origin has all the pace and action of Indiana Jones meets the more techno James Bond in the movies, cramming in a multitude of ingenious and bruising escapes in a chase that can be defined as “It can’t go on, can it?” – “Oh yes it can.”  Indeed the pace does not let up at all.

In joining Evelyn and Matt through their assault of escapes, certain elements require more than just a flicker of suspension of disbelief.  In essence, some things are simply just too hard to believe in the ‘grounded in reality’ section, but this is a romp of a thriller in that action movie style, so go with the flow.  If you stick with it to the end – and believe me, that’s easy to achieve – you will be rewarded with an absolutely fabulous denouement that ends on the perfect note (do not cheat here).

If you seek a romp of an action thriller that takes in conspiracy theories along the way, Origin delivers on the wave of a huge adrenaline rush.

Find out more about this debut author at his site here.  @JTBrannan_ on twitter.

Cold Grave – Craig Robertson

Link to Amazon UK.

Where Robertson’s second novel Snapshot (review link) focused on police photographer Tony Winter as the main protagonist, Cold Grave (Amazon UK link) shifts the beam of light onto DS Rachel Narey.

In November 1993, Scotland endures its coldest winter in living memory and the Lake of Menteith freezes over.  A young couple walk across its ice to the historic island of Inchmahome, but only the man returns.  When spring arrives, staff preparing the abbey ruins for summer visitors discover the unidentifiable remains of the body of a girl, her skull violently crushed.

Narey is losing her father to Alzheimer’s but there’s one memory that lingers to torment him: the Inchmahome case that he never managed to solve from 1994.  Strong-willed Narey wants to correct that with the help of her not-yet-public other half Tony Winter and his (retired copper) uncle.  And it all has to remain unofficial at the outset.  Through routine police work, Narey then discovers that the man her father had always suspected has recently died…

Cold Grave is an intriguing, absorbing and moving novel.  With its ensemble of characters it becomes a true wider-family affair pursuing resolution for a cold case.  Robertson excels at creating tension, maintaining pace and painting lively, believable characters with typical Glaswegian mouths.  Allowing humour to bleed in, the sense of reality is strong and the reader feels part of the team on the page.  Glasgow and its surrounds – all the way to Callander in this one – are certainly Robertson’s patch and he’s an observant guide.

Shortlisted for the CWA’s John Creasey Dagger in 2010 for his debut novel Random – an innovation in plotting – this author confirms he’s going from strength to strength with Cold Grave.  For good plots, depth and texture to characters and setting, and more threads in the weave than in your tartan, Robertson’s your man.

The Dark Winter – David Mark

Link to Amazon UK.

Now that the dark nights have firmly set in and the clocks will soon be put back in the UK, you might want to get in the mood with The Dark Winter, the debut from David Mark.   Set in a snowy Hull, two weeks before Christmas, Mark introduces his series copper Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy.  Now don’t groan and click off the page at the thought of yet another series copper because McAvoy is rather charming, and Mark’s writing resides in the upper echelons.

The Dark Winter’s opening prologue is one of the best I have read in a long time.

An old man is aboard a vessel in the North Sea, about the mark the anniversary of a tragedy some 40 years before from which he was the only survivor.  A journalist is interviewing him, and he is re-living the experience through his memories.  As he tells his tale, specks of doubt mingle with the sea spray for this apparently very lucky man.  He is emotional and needs a break.  And on this occasion he doesn’t make it alive back to the shore, he is later found dead in a small, wooden boat.

McAvoy is a family man, out on a Christmas shopping trip in the centre of Hull.  As they await the return of his wife, he forks chocolate cake into the mouth of his young son, Fin.  But the scene suddenly changes.  ‘What’s going on, Daddy?’  First his senses pick up blood, then he hears the screaming.  His professional instinct kicks in and he runs across the square, looks back at his four year old son for a moment, before he sees the blade coming down…

Christmas arrives unusually early for the local mortuary.  Before they can even think of victims of over-indulgence and prime time domestic tensions, they have three bodies in situ, all linked to police investigations.  And a theme develops: those killed were once lone survivors.

The Sentinel – Mark Oldfield

Mark Oldfield’s Spanish-set The Sentinel is the first in a trilogy called Vengeance of Memory.  The author has credentials of credibility: Oldfield has a PhD in Criminology, has worked in criminological research for more than 20 years and is a man who is passionate about Spain and its history.  New publisher Head of Zeus, declares this an ‘ … epic, surprising and brilliantly plotted …’ story, ‘ … into the dark heart of Spain’.

The novel weaves three strands of narrative.  In 2009, on the discovery of 15 bodies at a disused mine we join forensic scientist Ana María Galindez as she starts her investigation and encounters the evil work of Comandante Guzmán for the first time.  Meeting Profesora Luisa Ordoñez at the scene, Galindez is soon drawn to Guzmán’s history, intrigued by the project Ordoñez is leading.  The second narrative strand takes us back to 1953 and enlightens on how those bodies came to be there as we hear the story of Comandante Guzmán from that year.  As Franco’s Head of the Brigada Especial – the infamous secret police – Guzmán’s role was to hunt down and silence Franco’s opponents.  Where this strand focuses on Guzmán’s legend and the events leading up to his disappearance in Madrid’s great snowstorm, the final strand of 1936 takes us further back to the Civil War period and the making of the monster that was Guzmán.

Garment of Shadows – Laurie R King

Review by ScotKris.

In recent years I have, on occasion, been concerned when a number of writers have started consolidating their output by focusing on one series character at the expense of their other work.  Looking back over 30 years of a wide variety of crime writing in particular, no matter how much I enjoyed Ruth Rendell’s work for example, I preferred the variation of her standalone novels to the Wexfords.  I would not have sought three or four Wexfords in succession.

Laurie R King has, over almost 20 years, produced five police procedurals in the much missed Kate Martinelli series; five varied and intriguing standalone novels, and now, with Garment of Shadows, 12 novels in the Mary Russell series – the series which also features the post-retirement Sherlock Holmes.  Recently, King has concentrated on the Russell-Holmes series and Garment of Shadows is the fourth successive novel in four years.  I admit I felt a slight trepidation as to whether my attention would hold.  I had no qualms that I would enjoy the quality of the writing, more that the story would show signs of the series needing a break.  But I needn’t have worried…

After the humorous side-step of 2011′s Pirate King, King returns to a more serious subject matter, taking Russell and Holmes deep into a troubled Morocco and the war between Spain and France over control of the precarious North African country.  As with earlier Russell and Holmes novels, King appears to effortlessly interweave her characters with historical events, and a sign of her skill is to have the reader forgetting that this is fiction mingling with real events.  Decades have passed since the Rif Revolt, but King brings to life the anguish of a country fighting for its independence almost 100 years ago, without ever making this a history lesson.

The story opens with Mary Russell wakening in a strange bed in a strange room, with no memory of who she is or how she arrived in these circumstances.  There is blood on her hands; there are soldiers on her trail; and she has no awareness of Holmes.

Out in the hive-like streets, she discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld, escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks … Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north …

A fascinating trail ensues as Russell uses her wits in her attempts to find herself, as Holmes attempts to track her down.  This is King at her best, showcasing her characters in full swing as individuals before reuniting them and taking the story deep into its main theme.  Utterly believable, wildly improbable, totally plausible, Garment of Shadows is a more than worthy addition to this now long-running series, and comes highly recommended.

Garment of Shadows is now available on Amazon. With thanks to the publisher, Allison and Busby for the review copy.