The Distance by Helen Giltrow

The Blurb On The Back:

I’ve always known the past might hunt me down, despite all my precautions, the false trails and the forged histories and everything else I’ve done to distance myself from it.

But not like this.

Charlotte Alton has put her old life behind her. The life where she bought and sold information, unearthing secrets buried too deep for anyone else to find, or fabricating new identities for people who need their pasts erased.

But now she has been offered one more job. To get a hit-man into an experimental new prison and take out someone who, according to the records, isn’t there at all.

It’s impossible. A suicide mission.

And quite possibly a set-up.

So why can’t she say no?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Helen Giltrow’s debut thriller deals with the murky deals between national spy agencies and freelance contractors in a kind of Smiley meets SPOOKS storyline. It works best in contrasting the Moscow Rules techniques favoured by the old timers with the high-tech solutions of the modern and near-future world and I enjoyed the notion of the Program, which relies on prisoners effectively policing and rehabilitating themselves. Giltrow doesn’t spoon feed you this story – you need to pay attention as she introduces characters and background information without immediate explanation and the pay off won’t be obvious for several chapters. The story kept me turning the pages and it’s not until the end that you realise Giltrow relies heavily on contrivance and coincidence to bring her different plot strands together. Unfortunately, those contrivances did affect my overall enjoyment and while this book leaves with potential for a sequel, I’m not sure I’d rush to read it.

THE DISTANCE will be released in the United Kingdom on 8th May 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.

The Axeman’s Jazz by Ray Celestin

The Blurb On The Back:

”If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people.

One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe …”

New Orleans, 1919.

As a dark serial killer – The Axeman – stalks the city, three individuals set out to unmask him …

Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot, heading up the official investigation, is struggling to find leads. But Michael has a grave secret – and if he doesn’t get himself on the right track fast it could be exposed …

A former detective fresh out of prison, Luca d’Andrea is back working with the mafia, whose need to solve the mystery is every bit as urgent as the authorities’.

Meanwhile, Ida is a secretary at the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and dreaming of a better life, Ida stumbles across a clue which lures her and her musician friend Louis Armstrong to the case – and into terrible danger …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Ray Celestin’s debut historical crime novel is an assured, sophisticated story that’s based on a true crime and delves into the mix of corruption, music and racism that characterised New Orleans during this period. The scenes carry a sense of time and place without being bogged down in exposition and the dialogue has a crisp edge to it in keeping with the period. However I’m not sure that the inclusion of Louis Armstrong as a character really adds anything that couldn’t equally be achieved by a fictional character and Michael’s secret seems to be awfully well known among the police and media, making my question its effectiveness as a motivation. That said I did enjoy the story and particularly liked the way Celestin has his investigators come at the truth from their own respective worlds that only they can navigate. I also felt a great deal of empathy for Ida – an intelligent, mixed-race woman who can pass for white and whose love of detective fiction has given her a burning ambition to bring the guilty to justice. The ending leaves a set-up for a sequel and on the basis of this novel, I would definitely want to read on.

THE AXEMAN’S JAZZ is released in the United Kingdom on 8th May 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.

The Boy With The Porcelain Blade by Den Patrick

The Blurb On The Back:

”‘Why are they here?’ said Lucien quietly.
‘They’re criminals,’ replied Giancarlo. ‘It has been decided that they can go free if they face you in single combat.’
‘To first blood?’ said Lucien, feeling a chill in his veins.
‘To the death.’”

Lucien de Fontein has grown up an outsider; one of the Orfano, the deformed of the Kingdom of Landfall. He is lonely, tormented by his difference and a pawn in a political game. The reclusive king and his majordomo rule Landfall from the vast castle of Demesne, but the walls are no barrier to darkness from without. Or within.

Landfall is a harsh world of secrets and rivalries, where whispers are as lethal as blades, where control is fragile and the peace waits to be broken. Lucien will have to rely on more than just his blade to protect the ones he loves.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Den Patrick’s fantasy novel is a nicely written but slim tale of intrigue and discrimination in a claustrophobic castle where everyone is subject to the scrutiny and malice of their neighbours. The novel’s chapters alternate between Lucien’s final testing and its aftereffects and an account of his childhood, which gives the story an episodic feel. My main issue is that for someone highly educated and politically aware, Lucien charges headlong into trap after trap, reacting to events rather than driving them forward. Worse is the fact that he’s been aware for 4 years that something bad is happening to Landfall’s women and yet does absolutely nothing until the plot requires him to, which made it difficult for me to care about him. This is a shame because Patrick keeps the action moving and I enjoyed the Medieval Italian influences to his fantasy world, however while the book sets up a sequel I’m not that interested in reading on – although I would check out Patrick’s other books.

THE BOY WITH THE PORCELAIN BLADE was released in the United Kingdom on 20th March 2014. Thanks to Gollancz for the review copy of this book.