crime novel

The first book of the trilogy, Mr Mercedes is a chilling crime thriller that is pretty disturbing to say the least. The opening scene of the car driving through everybody is probably up there with my favourite book scenes of all time. The cat and mouse game throughout that follows the psycho Mr Mercedes as the 'mouse' and Bill Hodges as the 'cat', it is a gruesome and real depiction of events that really showed King's messed up mind, how he is able to not only create this characters, but live them out and create their personalities and their actions. This book is not for the faint hearted, but it is well worth the read.  Author: Stephen King

The follow up to Cuckoo's Calling, the Silkworm had high expectations from me, and it surpassed them. With his new found fame, there aren't any money issues in this book, which actually relieved me as I felt for the complex character of Strike that Rowling created. An author goes missing, and this missing persons case suddenly turns into a gruesome murder scene with the whole scene being a complex message being sent out. This suddenly throws everybody under the scope of Strike, and again Rowling nails the whodunnit book, leaving me on the edge of my seat guessing and wondering who the murderer is. A complex and well fleshed out book with a satisfying ending, this is probably my favourite of the series and one of my favourite crime books to date.  Author: JK Rowling (Robert Galbraith)

    After the previous two books took a step back to the past, the Ink Black Heart is very much set in the present, with a murder mystery surrounding a viral tv show turned video game. I really enjoyed this book and the use of modern technology without being outdated or 'cringe'. It is a really great story that had me hooked from the beginning, and is probably tied first with The Silkworm with my favourite books in the series. The idea that Anomie is claiming to be the killer and has this online presence whilst they try to find the real killer in real life, it was just a really cool and complex book, that had a whodunnit theme so well I was questioning whether the 13 year old child was the killer. Again, Rowling tortures us with Strike and Robin to the point now where it is painful to read, but you can't stop because you just want to see them flourish. Overall, a really great book with some really funny scenes like the comic-on and some real intense scenes like the crossove...

  The introductory book in the crime series following Cormoran Strike and Robin, it does an excellent job establishing the characters, the relationships between them and the strains they endure, as well as create an excellent whodunnit book. Most whodunnits are pretty sloppy or poorly written in my opinion, but this one was far from it however, as it makes you fall into a trance where you don't even realise what is happening. The characters are awesome, Strike's grizzly personality is refreshing to read and his disability adds tension and uniqueness to the story. Robin's flawed relationship with her husband is frustrating and gets evermore so throughout the series. The biggest surprise in this book is the ending, finding out that JK Rowling wrote this under a pseudonym. Made me think no wonder it was such a good book. Author: JK Rowling (Robert Galbraith)

  Usually after a couple of good books in a series, the third one becomes stale, repetitive or just not as good as the previous two. Career of Evil is interesting as it has the same elements of what made the previous books good, the whodunnit style and the complex characters and their dialogue, however what Rowling did to make this book remain fresh and interesting is that the crimes are targeted towards Strike himself. Someone from his past is going after Strike with Robin caught in the crossfire. It is a very interesting read, thrilling from beginning to end, however the most compelling parts throughout the book is the romance between Robin and Strike. Rowling puts her creativity and knowledge of relationships on show as she creates scene after scene of tension between Robin and Strike. It is interesting to me how Strike has so much love and care for Robin and doesn't want her in danger throughout the whole series, shows his true nature and feelings for her. Also, her husband is ...

 This is yet another cold case, however this one was more interesting to me for some reason. It's almost as if Rowling learnt what was boring from the previous book and made improvements to it. Maybe because the crime and the case was more interesting in this book or maybe because I could not figure out how she disappeared throughout the book so I was so intrigued. Regardless, this book was an improvement to the last one and was very good crime book to read. The relationship between Strike and Robin has me wanting to yell at the book to make them just drop everything and get together, but Rowling just wants to keep me and all the readers on edge I guess. Author: JK Rowling (Robert Galbraith)

 This is a solid crime book that keeps you on edge, trying to guess who the murderer is until the end. It is investigating a crime from the past, which usually does not fare well for this genre, but it pulls it off in a way that is interesting.  Author: Karin Slaughter

I see what the book was trying to do with this one, however I think it missed it mark. Lethal White was a book where Strike and Robin had to solve a crime from years in the past. I have read a few crime books with a similar plot, and much like this one, they don't really cut it for me. There is no thrill or drama in solving a crime from so many years ago, so the spark and life from the first few books seems to be lost in this one. It is still a good read due to the interpersonal relationship and the drama that goes on with Robin and her love life, however the crime aspect of this book is not the best. I see what Rowling was trying to do, to keep doing different things to keep the novels fresh and unique, however the problem with this is that sometimes it might not work which it didn't to me with this one.  Author: JK Rowling (Robert Galbraith)

  I enjoyed parts of this book and was just not interested with parts of this book. The good qualities for me was the imagery and insight into Sweden, the international setting made this book global and interesting. The book also increasingly became more interesting, the last chapters of the book where surprisingly high action and entertaining. The depth of the character of the Pasha was also a highlight, the dichotomy of his religion and his evil actions. What brought this book down was the boring bank talk and the mundane work that is consistent throughout the first half. The whole idea of him trying to find his father's killer seemed forced to me, his actions of leaving his girlfriend and uproot his life to find a potential killer where to me unjustified and illogical which kind of made me think what's the point the whole time. The cliche ending was also pretty lame, woo hoo we saved the world just in time. Regardless, a decent read that had it's ups and downs. Author: C...

Following a coal mine accident, an investigation reveals the true nature of the incident and its implications on the local community. This crime/thriller book has a lot of boring mining talk. In a sense it was interesting to read about new things, something I have never really thought about before in mining, but it just ends up being flat and a bit of a boring read. I had no real connection with Amos and thought of him as being emotionless and a big brute, his whole storyline of his involvement with the drugs loosely weaved throughout the book. The redeeming factor of this book is the ongoing storyline of Will and his wife, the fake divorce and the complexities of their relationship was what kept bringing me back to the book but all the mine talk dragged it out longer than it should have.  Author: Gardiner Harris