‘I am,’ said the big man, quietly, ‘your last resort. When all else has failed, the forces of law and order call upon us, the forces of lawlessness and disorder. The big hammer. A final solution. Sir. Ma’am.’ He nodded to them both individually and said no more. So kicks off the action in Fifth…
Frank Westworth has created a cast of characters that are as memorable as they are ingenious and I was enthralled and thrilled right from the start. Having read the first two short stories about Stoner I was eager to get my hands on this full length story and I was not disappointed. There are…
The book’s chief protagonist, JJ Stoner, is an ex-military (currently black ops), no-nonsense gun for hire. Stoner does his government’s deniable dirty work, preferring his kills to be up close and personal. An efficient assassin, his stone-cold brutality is happily at odds with his eloquence. The acid, snappy dialogue here earns comparisons with Raymond Chandler.…
It’s too easy to summarise the protagonist of this hard-boiled contemporary thriller as a smart, sassy, sexy, kick-ass young woman. Angela McGlynn is all of those things, but she’s much more than the stereotypical crime-thriller heroine. The author has created a complex lead character who happens to be a self-assured, completely competent female. McGlynn is…
This atmospheric debut novel is far smarter and more subtle than its slightly clumsy cover title and marketing blurb suggest. I almost left it on the shelf – put off by the suggestion of a serial killer preying on kiddies on international air-flights. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt and was rewarded…
There are some book series where you can join the narrative part-way through, but Lev Grossman’s Magician trilogy isn’t one of them. If you’ve not already journeyed to Fillory, a childhood land of mythical creatures which bears an uncanny resemblance to Narnia, then don’t start here. Go back to the first book, The Magicians, and…
The third JJ Stoner quick thriller mixes matter-of-fact violence, brooding humour and the kind of wry, witty dialogue you normally associate with American hard-boiled noir. It helps to have read the first couple of short stories in the sequence, although the events which take place in Third Person don’t require much of an introduction. As…
Serial killings and strange sisters, hard as nails hit men and shady superiors, sleazy blues and sometimes seedy sex; A Last Act of Charity is about a set of characters loosely connected by a plot that lurks in the shadows of blues clubs, back-street industrial estates and cheap hotels. Investigator JJ Stoner is charged with…
Despite its title, El Nino has nothing to do with global weather systems. It’s a stylish slice of Spanish movie-making and, like a lot of Eurocrime, this drug-smuggling drama leans heavily towards art-house cinema and a long way from outright action-adventure. The two-hour subtitled film explores themes and situations which Hollywood moved on from 20…
This the second in Myke Cole’s magical / militaristic mash-up series set in the near future – and I enjoyed it more than the first, Control Point. The action overlaps between the two books with a new central character, Bookbinder, developing psy-powers at the start of Frontier Fortress. Then we catch up with the cast of Control…
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