criminolly's reviews
2378 reviews

V Castro’s reworking and expansion of one of her early books (‘The Erotic Modern Life of Maninalli the Vampire’) is fast-paced, very spicy and a lot of trashy fun. It features a sexy female vampire on a mission, an enjoyably detailed historical back story and a lot of sex. A lot. 
There’s a brilliant energy to V Castro’s writing in everything I’ve read by her, you can tell when you’re reading her work that she had a good time writing it and that she wants the reader to have a good time too. I don’t think this is her best book, but it’s definitely an entertaining read. 

This is an early-ish standalone from Ed McBain that feels quite different from his 87th Precinct series. Published in 1965 (along with 2 87th novels) it's much more of a thriller than a mystery. At 300 pages it's also long for a McBain book. It doesn't feel long though, it moves at a good clip from page 1 and the broad cast of characters serves the story well. McBain had become used to juggling a lot of voices in the detectives and patrolmen of his police procedurals, and he uses those skills here. 
The setting is a small Florida key that gets invaded by a militia group with a grander plan in mind, one that gradually becomes clearer as the plot progresses. The action focuses on both the militia and the local inhabitants, especially the harbourmaster, as they start to fight back. It's tense stuff, with many boating scenes that no doubt draw on McBain's experiences in the Navy. 
Certainly not my favourite of his books, but it's well done, gripping and enjoyably different from the work he's best known for.  

Despite knowing nothing about NASCAR beyond what I can remember from watching ‘Days of Thunder’ years ago, I keep coming back (sorry) to these Harlequin NASCAR romances. They’re light and fun and really well crafted. This one was no exception, with a sweet co-worker romance between a gruff driver trying to make a return to the sport and the determined PR consultant assigned to work with him. 
The romance is the highlight -  a nice slow burn with a decent level of tension. The setting works well too, with a large cast of supporting characters (there are loads of books in the series that all knit together, even though they can be enjoyed individually). There’s sibling rivalry, career/romance conflicts and some fun racing action. The book also plays entertainingly with gender roles, with the driver entered into a Bachelor contest and judged on his looks for large parts of the book. 
The whole thing feels like a Sunday afternoon TV movie, but one you’d quite happily watch on a rainy day. 

An enjoyably tense slice of noir from the 50s, ‘The Vengeful Virgin’ has all the elements you’d expect (lust, murder, revenge, betrayal) and some juicy prose to boot. The plot is reminiscent of Cain’s ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, featuring an illicit affair and a murder plot. This time the femme fatale is young woman trapped looking after her invalid, wealthy stepfather. When she seduces the local TV repairman the result is MURDER. 
It’s definitely a book from the 1950s, with language and attitudes to match, but nothing you wouldn’t expect in a vintage crime novel. The plot isn’t desperately original, but the twists and turns are entraining, the prose is strong and the end is absolutely great. 

The Deep is a book that manages to be less than the sum of its parts. It's a sci fi horror novel about a terrible new disease threatening humanity and our efforts to defeat it. The only cure seems to be a weird substance found at the deepest point of the ocean floor and a brilliant scientist is sent to a secret lab in the Marianas Trench to research it. When contact is lost with the lab, his brother is recruited to go and find out what has happened. 
There are many great things about this book, some fantastic scenes of body horror, some deeply creepy parts, an unsettling back story for the two main characters and some claustrophobic deep sea action. 
The problem is the knitting of all of those elements together into a satisfying whole, which Nick Cutter fails to do. The book pivots frequently from one style of horror to another, and whilst they're all effective on their own, the constant shifting is dizzying. The various strands of the plot pull against each other, and Cutter's attempts to force them back together at the end requires a twist that I found ludicrous. A shame, because parts of this book are superb. 

Not the best of the Agatha Raisin books, but still an entertaining diversion. This one features ramblers, the death of a local landowner and the continuation of the main romantic sub plot. If you’ve read any of the books you know what to expect, a little humour, a decent mystery and Agatha’s enjoyable abrasiveness. 

A strange mix of a book, for me at least. I loved some of the writing but disliked the overall experience. On the face of it the plot of two outlaws on a mission for their ruthless boss sound like something I’d love, but this isn’t really a book that’s about it’s plot. I’m not sure what it was really trying to achieve, but whatever it was, it didn’t achieve it for me. 

In many ways (in fact in most ways) this is a terrible book. It’s ludicrously cliched, to the extent that at times it reads like a parody of a tough LA cop hunting a serial killer novel. I guessed the twist half way through (and I never guess twists!) and the prose is awful. The book has so much unnecessary description of irrelevant details that it could probably have lost 100 pages without losing any story. 
And yet it is kind of fun. It’s so easy to read that you could do it when you were asleep and it has the same kind of pulpy appeal as a Doc Savage book. You know it’s stupid but sometimes that’s alright. 

God only know why I read another TNT book after not enjoying the first one. But I did and it wasn’t any better. 
In this one super agent TNT goes up against a fascist group and attempts to find El Dorado. Along the way there’s a smattering of not very exciting violence and a LOT of slightly weird sex. TNT is literally insatiable and proves it a number of times. 
If I was to compare the books to anything I suppose it would be to some kind of salacious 70s Euro comic, only without the diversion of sexy pics. 
Do not recommend. Need to resist the masochistic urge to read the other one I have. 

This seems to be a book that gets widely varying reviews from readers. I suspect that’s because it’s somewhat misleadingly marketed as folk horror, publishers’ desire to constantly pigeonhole books is often unhelpful. There is some horror here, but only enough to fill a thimble. What you get instead is a charming, affectionate and engaging written story of a 13 year old girl from a loving but slightly dysfunctional family trying to negotiate life in a new environment. She and her family move to a country village when her father gets a job at the local Manor House. The book is set in 1960 and packed with lovely detail of the rural northern England of the period. It’s cosy and amusing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The elements of horror (focusing on a haunting and the Green Man of the title) are fun too, but I think this is a book best enjoyed as a nostalgic coming of age tale. To put it another way, this is a horror story I think my mum would like.