Review: HINDSIGHT, Melanie Casey

• first published 2013, Pantera Press
• ISBN 978-1-921997-34-1
• 356 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Publisher)

Cass Lehman has a terrifying ‘gift’... She sees what others can’t...

The youngest in a family of extraordinary women with supernatural talents, Cass is cursed with the not-so-sexy gift of seeing the past... but not just any past; she sees death.
For years she's hidden herself away in her family home. Now desperate for a better life, she ventures into sleepy Jewel Bay, only to stumble upon murder and mayhem and a killer at large who's been lurking in their midst...

Taking a chance, Cass volunteers to assist Detective Ed Dyson with the investigation. Will Cass be able to save the latest victim... and herself?

My take

This is the first novel in Casey's Cass Lehman series set in Adelaide's Fleurieu Pensinsula and Adelaide.

Cass Lehman is psychic, more precisely she has the ‘gift’ of retrocognition … the ability to spontaneously re-live the last minutes of a person’s life. She has spent nearly a decade as a recluse, living quietly with her mother and grandmother, both of whom have similar gifts. Now she has decided that she should be using her gift more productively: perhaps she can be of assistance to the police in homicide cases.

Ed Dyson's pregnant wife Susan disappeared without trace two years ago and since then Ed has been keeping his own case files on missing women. But it takes Cass to see a pattern that he has missed.

This novel does a good job of introducing the people who will be the main characters of this series, and, while not everything is entirely plausible to me, the story is interesting.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.5, MISSING

New to me authors, January to March 2016

About half of my reading this year has been from new to me authors.

Some like Tami Hoag, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Barbara Nadel are really authors I should have tackled before.

Others like Australian authors Nigel Bartlett, J.M Green, Cath Furla, L.J.M. Owen, and Melanie Casey are new on the scene. As always I am indebted to publishers for review copies of these novels.

1. 4.4, KING OF THE ROAD, Nigel Bartlett
2. 4.3, GOOD MONEY, J. M. Green
3. 4.5, EDGE OF WILD, D.K. Stone 
4. 4.8, THE BLOOD STRAND, Chris Ould
5. 4.3, GHOST GIRLS, Cath Ferla   
6. 4.2, THE UNFUR-TUNATE VALENTINE'S SCAM, Alannah Rogers 
7. 4.4, OLMEC OBITUARY, L.J.M. Owen 
8. 4.4, THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS, Erle Stanley Gardner 
9. 4.3, MURDER ON THE HOUR, Elizabeth J. Duncan 
10. 4.9, WHAT SHE NEVER TOLD ME, Kate McQuaile 
11. 4.4, BOGMAN, R.I. Olufsen 
12. 4.8, TWISTER, Jane Woodham 
13. 4.5, MISSING, Melanie Casey 
14. 4.7, ENOUGH ROPE, Barbara Nadel 
15. 4.1, SMALLBONE DECEASED, Michael Gilbert 
16. 4.9, ALL THE BIRDS, SINGING, Evie Wyld 
17. 4.8, THE WIDOW, Fiona Barton 
18. 4.4, FATAL ERROR, Michael Ridpath 
19. 4.4, A RISING MAN, Abir Mukherjee 
20. 4.5, THE BITTER SEASON, Tami Hoag 

Review: CHANCE DEVELOPMENTS, Alexander McCall Smith

• subtitle: Unexpected Love Stories
• first published in Great Britain 2015
• ISBN 978-1-84697-329-1
• 236 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (back cover of book)

It is said that a picture may be worth a thousand words but an old photograph can inspire many more. In this beguiling book, Alexander McCall Smith casts his eye over five chanced-upon photographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories, why are they smiling, what made them sad?

What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship in a variety of settings - an estate in the Highlands of Scotland, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, a village in Ireland, and the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. Some will find joy and fulfilment - others would prefer happier endings. Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters.

My Take

First of all, I need to point out this book is NOT crime fiction. It is part of ploy to widen my reading horizons although of course McCall Smith, the creator of Precious Ramotswe, is already an author that I enjoy.

What the author has done is to take five black and white or sepia photographs and imagine the stories that might be behind the photos. His stories make you look more closely at the photos, perhaps even to curse their fuzziness and the fact that you can't enlarge them. And yet each story seems very appropriate to the particular photo.

Just five short stories. So it is a pretty quick read, and an interesting one at that.

My rating: 4.5


I've also read

TEA TIME for the TRADITIONALLY BUILT
THE MIRACLE AT SPEEDY MOTORS
THE DOUBLE COMFORT SAFARI CLUB
4.5, THE SATURDAY BIG TENT WEDDING PARTY
4.5, THE LIMPOPO ACADEMY OF PRIVATE DETECTION
4.6, THE MINOR ADJUSTMENT BEAUTY SALON 

What I read in March 2016

March 2016

I've done some lovely reading this month - a lot of British authors.

Crimes are committed but my pick of the month ALL THE BIRDS, SINGING by Evie Wyld is not strictly crime fiction.
It is set in the UK and Australia and won Australia's Miles Franklin award for literature in 2014.

THE PRICE OF LOVE by Peter Robinson is a collection of short stories, while  A RISING MAN by Abir Mukherjee introduces an interesting sleuth in Calcutta in 1919.

Looking for an Australian author? - try DARKEST PLACE by Jaye Ford and if you've never read any Peter Lovesey why not give THE STONE WIFE a go?

• 4.7, ENOUGH ROPE, Barbara Nadel
• 4.1, SMALLBONE DECEASED, Michael Gilbert 
• 4.4, CHARLES PARIS: MURDER UNPROMPTED, Simon Brett 
• 4.6, DARKEST PLACE, Jaye Ford 
• 4.9, ALL THE BIRDS, SINGING, Evie Wyld
• 4.2, CHARLES PARIS: CORPORATE BODIES, Simon Brett 
• 4.8, THE WIDOW, Fiona Barton
• 4.4, FATAL ERROR, Michael Ridpath 
• 4.4, A RISING MAN, Abir Mukherjee 
• 4.4, THE PRICE OF LOVE, Peter Robinson
• 4.5, THE BITTER SEASON, Tami Hoag  
• 4.0, MAIGRET IN NEW YORK, Georges Simenon
• 4.5, LITTLE GREY CELLS: The Quotable  POIROT, Agatha Christie (edited by David Brawn) 
• 4.7, THE STONE WIFE, Peter Lovesey  

See what others have picked this month.

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month March 2016

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2016

Many crime fiction bloggers write a summary post at the end of each month listing what they've read, and some, like me, even go as far as naming their pick of the month.

This meme is an attempt to aggregate those summary posts.
It is an invitation to you to write your own summary post for March 2016, identify your crime fiction best read of the month, and add your post's URL to the Mr Linky below.
If Mr Linky does not appear for you, leave the URL in a comment and I will add it myself.

You can list all the books you've read in the past month on your post, even if some of them are not crime fiction, but I'd like you to nominate your crime fiction pick of the month.

That will be what you will list in Mr Linky too -
e.g.
ROSEANNA, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - MiP (or Kerrie)

You are welcome to use the image on your post and it would be great if you could link your post back to this post on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.

---

Review: THE STONE WIFE, Peter Lovesey

• This edition published in 2014 by Soho Press
• ISBN 978-1-61695-393-5
• 358 pages
• source: my local library
• #14 in the Peter Diamond series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

At an auction house in Bath, England, a large slab of carved stone is up for sale. At the height of what turns into very competitive bidding, there is a holdup attempt by three masked raiders who are trying to steal the stone. They shoot and kill the highest bidder, a professor who has recognized the female figure carved in the stone as the Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The masked would-be thieves flee, leaving the stone behind.

Peter Diamond and his team are assigned to investigate, and the stone is moved into Diamond's office so he can research its origins. The carving causes such difficulties that he starts to think it has jinxed him. Meanwhile, as Diamond's leads take him to Chaucer's house in Somerset, his intrepid colleague Ingeborg goes undercover to try to track down the source of the handgun used in the fatal murder.

My take

Another good read from Peter Lovesey with a sprinkling of humour.

When a would-be buyer of a massive stone carving thought to be of the Wife of Bath is shot dead in the middle of the auction, Peter Diamond becomes the temporary custodian of the carving. She squats on her "ambler" in the corner of his office, and occasionally he finds himself talking to her.

The investigation into the murder takes Diamond and his team into some very strange territory indeed. The victim is an English professor, not particularly well-liked by his students or colleagues. There is no shortage of possible suspects: the victim's wife former husband is an extremely wealthy property developer; then there is an ambitious academic who would never become professor while the victim was alive; and what about the "fixer" who supplied the gun? 

I really like the way Lovesey can create an interesting plot with lots of red herrings from almost nothing.

Looking for cracking British crime fiction? Then try Peter Lovesey.

My rating : 4.7


I've also read
MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY
SKELETON HILL
THE REAPER
5.0, STAGESTRUCK
5.0, COP TO CORPSE
4.5, THE HEADHUNTERS
4.8, THE TOOTH TATTOO
4.7, DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN

Meme: New to Me Authors, January to March 2016

It's easy to join this meme.

Just write a post about the best new-to-you crime fiction authors (or all) you've read in the period of January to March 2016, put a link to this meme in your post, and even use the logo if you like.
The books don't necessarily need to be newly published.

 After writing your post, then come back to this post and add your link to Mr Linky below. (if Mr Linky does not appear - leave your URL in a comment and I will add to Mr Linky when it comes back up, or I'll add the link to the post)
Visit the links posted by other participants in the meme to discover even more books to read.

This meme will run again at the end of June 2016
 

---