Crime fiction pick of the month: February 2014

Six books this month…

Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
My first reading of what is possibly Christie’s most famous novel. A stranded train-load of unlikely suspects, an odious victim, and Hercule Poirot working alone to crack the case before the authorities arrive. It’s fun, but possibly too much fun.

Francis Beeding: The Norwich Victims (1931)
The cold-blooded murder of a harmless old lady brings together a Norwich prep school, a London stockbroker and Scotland Yard’s finest. An ingenious inverted mystery story from an undeservedly obscure Golden Age writer.

Philip Youngman Carter: Mr Campion’s Farthing (1969)
Margery Allingham’s Mr Campion is taken up by her husband ‘Pip’ for a case involving vanished Russian scientist Vassily Kopeck.

Philip Youngman Carter: Mr Campion’s Falcon (1970)
In his final adventure (to date), Campion moves into the world of industrial espionage, and finds himself up against professionalised and well-funded criminals – who still contrive to be camply grotesque.

Dick Francis: The Danger (1982)
Andrew Douglas is a professional kidnapping consultant working closely with the families of victims, and often working against the instincts of the local police to get them out alive.

Christina James: Almost Love (2013)
A second outing for Lincolnshire DI Tim Yates. An elderly archeologist goes missing from her cottage, leaving behind a smear of blood in her hall. DI Yates delves into a case which links to hard-right politics and archeological in-fighting in equal proportions.

Pick of the month: The Norwich Victims – and I’m happy that other people seem to have picked up on it as a result of my review.