Vicki Weisfeld

Contributor at Crime Fiction Lover

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The Murder Show by Matt Goldman

1 week ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

Author Matt Goldman is part of that tribe of television writers who have made a successful jump into print. These authors have in common their ability to establish steadily rising action with no lulls and visual imaginations that let them describe scenes so that readers can easily picture them too. And they aren’t reluctant to deploy a little authentic humour. Goldman’s first book, Gone to Dust, was nominated for a number of awards. The Murder Show, will likely garner equal attention.
Hunkeler’s Secret by Hansjörg Schneider

1 week ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

Translated by Astrid Freuler — We’ve been reviewing Hansjörg Schneider’s entertaining stories about the frustrations of Peter Hunkeler, an aging and cynical detective (now retired) of the police force of Basel, Switzerland, ever since The Basel Killings was translated into English in 2021. Basel is located so close to Germany and France that Hunkeler has a second home in Alsace, and the area is almost another character in the stories.
The Railway Conspiracy by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan

2 weeks ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

Second in this talented team’s genre mashup, The Railway Conspiracy builds on the characters so expertly introduced in last year’s The Murder of Mr Ma. Set in London in the mid-1920s, the series’ main character is Judge Dee Ren Jie, inspired by not only on a real-life Tang Dynasty jurist but also on the traditions of Sherlock Holmes.You’ll also meet Lao She, a university professor who plays Watson to Dee’s Holmes; Sergeant Hoong, owner of a shop selling Chinese goods and a handy presence when...
Falls to Pieces by Douglas Corleone

2 weeks ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

If you’re a fan of stories set in an earthly paradise, you might enjoy Douglas Corleone’s new thriller, Falls to Pieces, about a woman and her teenage daughter living off the grid in Hawai`i. Kati Dawes (her new name) fled from New England with her daughter Zoe (ditto) to the island of Maui two years before the story starts. She fled not only to escape her abusive husband, Jeremy, but also because she had reason to fear she’d be a suspect in the death of her wealthy and tyrannical mother-in-law.
Down and Out in the River City by Wm Stage

4 weeks ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

This third crime thriller by Wm Stage is a refreshing change of pace in both setting and characters, with a strong feel of gritty reality. Contemporary society’s schisms and Americans’ careless assumptions and prejudices are on full display in this well-paced thriller, which puts St Louis special process server Francis Lenihan in the precarious position of having to break the law if he wants a devious serial killer to get justice.
Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch

1 month ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

Hannah Deitch’s debut, Killer Potential, is one of those stories that sneaks up on you and before too many pages have turned has its claws in you good and solid. The story is a first-person narrative in the voice of Evie Gordon, a 20-something whose early academic promise has fizzled out, leaving her with a part-time, barely-keeping-the-wolf-from-the-door job. She’s a tutor for high schoolers whose wealthy parents can’t see the possibility of failure as something that will work for them.
Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow

1 month ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

No doubt many crime fiction readers have eagerly anticipated Presumed Guilty, Scott Turow’s new legal thriller. I know I looked forward to seeing what his character, Rusty Sabich, is up to, now that he’s in his 70s. Rusty, you may recall, was the protagonist of Turow’s first mega-hit, Presumed Innocent, the 1987 bestseller that became a film starring Harrison Ford in 1990.
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

2 months ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

Virginia Feito’s new gothic thriller, Victorian Psycho, has attracted the attention of readers and commentators not only for its originality, but for its in-your-face macabre violence. It’s graphic. It’s bloody. And in this book, the first-person narrator is the serial killer. She doesn’t murder at a discreet distance, either. No poison here. When toward the end of this 190-page book she tells you she’s holding a cleaver, well, you know . . .
The Weekend Guests by Liza North

2 months ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

The plot of Liza North’s psychological thriller The Weekend Guests is reminiscent of the many stories that are heirs to the Agatha Christie favourite, And Then There Were None. You know the gist: a once tight-knit group of old friends, sorority sisters, wedding guests, spa guests, or the like travel to some distant, remote place and due to weather, earthquake, transit strike – whatever – find themselves isolated with little to do but resurface old grudges and secrets. Mayhem ensues.
Pele’s Prerogative by Albert Tucher

2 months ago | crimefictionlover.com | Vicki Weisfeld

Had it with wind, winter, and the dark? A Hawai`i vacation might be just what you need. Albert Tucher’s new Big Island Mystery, Pele’s Prerogative, provides plenty of local colour to make you think you’ve vacationed in that island paradise, but without jet-lag or the dent in your family budget! This is the fourth book in his Big Island Mystery series; we’ve previously reviewed another of them, Blood Like Rain, as well as a 2017 thriller involving some of the same characters, The Place of Refuge.