Thrillers & Crime Fiiction read and enjoyed during May and June

BLACK RUN
Antonio Manzini
Fourth Estate - $29.

Translated from Italian by Antony Shugaar.
Born in 1964 in Rome the author is an actor, screenplay writer, director & author.
This is the first of his two murder mysteries featuring Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone.
This man thinks outside the square and disresepects both his superiors and police regulations..
 I was greatly taken by both the man and the story and eagerly await the translation of the second book.

TRUTH OR DIE
James Patterson with Howard Roughan
Century - $36.99

Another 400 page  blockbuster from the world's most prolific and best-selling author featuring New York Attorney Trevor mann whose world shatters when he receives a phone call to tell him his NY Times journalist girlfriend has been shot dead.



WORLD GONE BY 
Dennis Lehane
Little,Brown - $34.99

Lehane, a Boston-based author, has won and been shortlisted for several awards and three of his have been made into movies. This latest tile features Joe Coughlin, once one of America's most feared gangsters who now moves effortlessly between the social elite, politicians, police and the mob. Until.....

KOLMSKY HEIGHTS
Lionel Davidson
Faber & Faber - UK pds.8.99

I bought this in London to read on the plane because on the cover was the line "Introduced by Philip Pullman - the best thriller I have ever read". If Philip Pullman thought that about it how could I not buy it ?
It proved to be a great read, cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed, and at just on 500 pages it kept me totally occupied for most of one long leg on the flight home to NZ.
Warmly recommended, a cut above most thrillers I read. Thanks for the recommendation Philip Pullman.

SOLITUDE CREEK
Jeffery Deaver
Hodder & Stoughton - $34.99

From one of my most fadmired crime fiction writers comes the fourth electrifying thriller in the Kathryn Dance series.

Busted back to rookie after losing her gun in an interrogation gone bad, California Bureau of Investigation Agent Kathryn Dance finds herself making routine insurance checks after a roadhouse fire.

But Dance is a highly trained expert in body language: her most deadly weapon is her instinct, and they can't take that away from her.

And when the evidence at the club points to something more than a tragic accident, she isn't going to let protocol stop her doing everything in her power to take down the perp.

Someone out there is using the panic of crowds to kill, and Dance must find out who, before he strikes again . . .440 pages, kept me hooked from beginning to end.

PIRANHA
Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison,
Michael Joseph - $37.00

Cussler is the author of a great number of international best-sellers and like James Patterson ofter teams up with co-authors.

May 1902: a volcano erupts on the French island of Martinique with devastating force. But the local population are not its only victims. Also destroyed is a ship carrying a German scientist on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough. More than a century later, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon are about to confront that scientist's terrifying legacy.
Hard to put down with all the shotgun pace and breathtaking plotting that are Clive Cussler's hallmarks.

STATE OF EMERGENCY
Andy McNab
Bantam Press - $38.00

3 AM on a frozen winter's night, only hours after the results of the general election. A small craft skims the Thames closing in on London's most exclusive new riverside hotel. On board is a lone assassin, his target - Britain's most powerful new politician. In a nation threatened by extremist jihadis and torn apart by civil unrest, Vernon Rolt has just been catapulted into government on an extreme anti-terror platform
The third thrilling adventure in the Tom Buckingham series. Gripping contemporary stuff.

THE INVISIBLE GUARDIAN

Dol Redondo
Harper Collins - $34.99

The naked body of a teenage girl is found on the banks of the River Baztán. Less than 24 hours after this discovery, a link is made to the murder of another girl the month before. Is this the work of a ritualistic killer or of the Invisible Guardian, the Basajaun, a creature of Basque mythology?
Best crime novel of the year in Spain, rights sold in 27 territories. Film being adapted by producer Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy. 424 pages of unputdownable tension and suspense.

WHAT SHE LEFT
T.R.Richmond
Michael Jospeph - $38.00

When Alice Salmon died last year, the ripples from her tragic drowning could be felt in the news, on the internet, and in the hearts of those closest to her.
However, the man who knows her best isn't family or a friend. His name is Professor Jeremy Cooke, an academic fixated on piecing together Alice's existence.
Cooke knows that faithfully recreating Alice, through her diaries, text messages, and online presence, has become all-consuming.
But he does not know how deep his search will take him into this shocking story of love, loss and obsession where everyone - including himself - has something to hide . . .
A debut novel of almost 400 pages which has been attracting a lot of review attention worldwide. Not surprising,it is certainly haunting stuff.