BLOOD ON THE TONGUE by Stephen Booth

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It isn't the easiest way to commit suicide. Marie Tennent seems simply to have curled into a fetal position in the freezing snow out on Irontongue Hill and remained there until her body was frozen over. There's no one to observe her death but the foxes and the hares. Her body has bruises, though. Her death is tragic. Is it also suspicious? Marie's is not the only death the police have to investigate. What about the baby's body that is discovered in the burned-out hulk of a World War II bomber? And the unidentified man who is crushed by a snowplow? Snow and ice have left E Division depleted, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry needs all the help she can get. But her colleague, Detective Constable Ben Cooper, is following a cold trail of his own. In the winter of 1945, a Royal Air Force bomber crashed on the same Irontongue Hill where Marie Tennent's body was found, killing everyone except pilot Danny McTeague, who disappeared with a large sum of money. Now his granddaughter, Alison Morrissey, has arrived from across the Atlantic to clear his name. As Fry and Cooper pursue their respective cases, they must also struggle to work together. Where there once was attraction, there now is distrust - and perhaps something more. Work comes first. . . but life can intervene in strange ways.

RATING:

Booth skillfully intertwines several storyline that overlap & connect in this third entry of his Cooper & Fry series -- richly atmospheric with colorful characterizations, it is an excellent police procedural that will not disappoint.

THE BURNING GIRL by Mark Billingham

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Some fires never go out ... Tom Thorne's got plenty on his plate when he agrees to help out ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain rake through the ashes of an old case that has come back to haunt her. Schoolgirl Jessica Clarke was lit on fire twenty years ago. Now, Gordon Rooker, the man Chamberlain put away for the crime, is up for parole, and it seems there's a copycat on the prowl. Or perhaps it's someone trying to right a serious wrong: Jessica Clarke was the victim of mistaken identity. The intended target was the daughter of a gangland boss, a woman who would grow up to marry the current leader, Billy Ryan ... Thorne quickly identifies a tenuous link between the two crimes, and past and present fuse together to form a new, horrifying riddle. One that involves more killings, violence, greed, and a murderous family with no values -- except gain at any price. When an X is carved into his front door, Tom Thorne realizes that fires, once thought to be out, continue to burn.

RATING:

I've been a huge fan of Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne series since his debut with SLEEPYHEAD so obviously I looked forward to reading the fourth installment with THE BURNING GIRL but unfortunately felt that this entry falls considerably short of the prior three. Billingham still succeeds in writing a wonderfully complex lead character as well as multi-dimensional secondary ones (Carol Chamberlain especially) but the main plot involving two gandland mafia families at war is predictable throughout -- the intertwining story involving "The Burning Girl" is a bit better but as a whole, the story lacks the intense edginess and plain creepiness that Billingham's other novels displayed so well. All in all, a disappointment but will hope for the best with LIFELESS, Billingham's next book.

A TRAITOR TO MEMORY by Elizabeth George

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

When Eugenie Davies is killed by a driver on a quiet London street, her death is clearly no accident. Someone struck her with a car and then deliberately ran over her body before driving off, leaving nothing behind but questions. What brought Eugenie Davies to London on a rainy autumn night? Why was she carrying the name of the man who found her body? Who among the many acquaintances in her complicated and tragic life could have wanted her dead? And could her murder have some connection to a twenty-eight-year-old musical wunderkind, a virtuoso violinist who several months earlier suddenly and inexplicably lost the ability to play a single note?" "For Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, whose own domestic life is about to change radically, these questions are only the first in an investigation that leads him to walk a fine line between personal loyalty and professional honor. Assigned to the case by his superior, Superintendent Malcolm Webberly, Lynley learns that Webberly's first murder investigation as a DI over twenty years ago involved Eugenie Davies and a sensational criminal trial. Yet what is truly damaging is what Webberly already knows and no doubt wants Lynley to keep concealed." "Now the pressure is on Lynley to find Eugenie Davies' killer. For not only is he putting his own career into jeopardy, but he is also attempting to safeguard the careers of his longtime partners Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata. Together, they must untangle the dark secrets and darker passions of a family whose history conceals the truth behind a horrific crime.

RATING:

One of George's most "ambitious" efforts with a 1,000+ page epic that is in my opinion about 200-300 too long. Despite the length issue, George still succeeds in creating a multi-layered story spanning over twenty years from the initial crime -- as always, it is exceptionally written prose with wonderfully detailed characterizations of a truly dysfunctional family & the people involved with them as well as growth & new revelations of the continuing cast (Lynley, Havers, etc.). Highly recommended!

THE HANGING VALLEY by Peter Robinson

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Visitors have been drawn to the beauty and serenity of the Yorkshire countryside. Some never leave — like the hiker whose decomposing corpse is discovered in a wooded valley outside the tiny village of Swainshead. It is the second such homicide to plague the region in recent years, and it is pulling investigating Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks into a dangerous mire of dark pasts, local power, and private shames. Because a shocking truth and a cold-blooded killer are waiting there ... and Banks is determined to walk into the valley of death to expose them both.

RATING:

Fourth in Robinson's Inspector Banks' series, a tightly written & thoroughly engrossing read with the last few pages chilling page turners. My only fault with the book was in fact the rather "abrupt" ending & felt an epilogue was needed. Robinson once again proves his mettle however as one of the best.

TEN BEST READS OF 2005

Another year has come to a close and I was very fortunate to read some wonderfully entertaining books over the year that you may read about here in my entries (and some not-so-great ones as well). Trying to pick ten best of the year is not easy but I decided to do so -- the ten chosen show a bit of diversity (from historical to present day, from the English countryside to the exotic Orient to the gritty streets of Boston) but any and all are highly recommended reading and will not disappoint.

TEN BEST READS OF 2005

(in alphabetical order by author)

Denial (Keith Ablow)

Lazybones (Mark Billingham)

The Angel of Darkness (Caleb Carr)

Rain Fall (Barry Eisler)

Well-Schooled in Murder (Elizabeth George)

The Treatment (Mo Hayder)

Darkness, Take My Hand (Dennis Lehane)

The Last Temptation (Val McDermid)

Dark Fire (C.J. Sansom)

Dissolution (C.J. Sansom)

The Shape of Snakes (Minette Walters)

____________________

Yes, technically there are eleven titles listed but C.J. Sansom's debut DISSOLUTION and follow-up DARK FIRE (probably the BEST book I read in 2005) had to both be included rather than one over the other. To read more about my thoughts on any of these "best of the best", please continue on through my journal for individual entries.

Here's to a wonderful, healthy New Year and continued Happy Reading!