A.A. Abbott

GREAT CRIME STORY WRITER

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Book Review – Broken Windows, by Janet Pywell

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A glamorous female sleuth

Broken Windows Female Sleuth Thriller Book Review
Broken Windows features mystery, action and adventure…

The glamorous Mikky dos Santos is a poacher turned gamekeeper.  She’s been a forger and an art thief, but now she’s turned from the dark side to work for Europol. “Broken Windows”, published on 30th June 2020, is the latest thriller to feature the colourful female sleuth. Mikky’s latest task is to spy on a London drugs gang, who use cultish practices to draw in deprived children longing for love and money. The cult’s talisman is an ancient and valuable dagger, and Mikky is charged with finding it.

Action in Morocco and London

At first, the assignment is fun. Mikky and her sidekick, ex-SAS serviceman Peter, go undercover in Morocco. Saintly charity worker Matt has rescued several teenagers from the cult and kept others from its temptations by training them in parkour. They’re so skilled in the extreme sport that they’re employed to act in a film being shot in Morocco. Mikky and Peter join them there, pretending to be photographers making a documentary.

Mikky learns enough to satisfy her boss, suave Spaniard Joachin, but by now she’s in too deep. Having bonded with the teenagers, she can’t just walk away when she realises the cult threatens their lives. Staying in touch with the youths when they return to their sink estate in London, she risks death to save them.

Everything a great thriller should be

The story not only fizzes with action (and, it has to be said, a touch of jetsetting), but offers interesting insights into both parkour and the high-end art world. There’s also a political angle, with an election looming and politicians desperate to smash the drugs ring and bring the public some good news. With adventure, twists and a happy ending, “Broken Windows” is everything a great thriller should be.

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Do you like thrillers showcasing female sleuths? British mystery thriller “The Bride’s Trail” is one of the best in the genre – click on the cover to start reading.

Book Review – Absolution, by Paul E Hardisty

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Framed for murder…a book review absolution by paule hardisty is a gripping thriller

Paul E Hardisty’s Absolution takes us back to 1997, when hero Clay Straker has just testified about the horrors of South African apartheid to Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In doing so, he’s made enemies who want him dead.

He’s not the only one, it seems. Clay’s former girlfriend, Rania, is devastated by the deaths of her husband and small son. Even worse, someone has framed her for their murders.

Travelling to Egypt to try to discover the truth, she asks Clay for help. He really wants to oblige, but assassins lurk at every port and airstrip as he crosses Africa to join her. Clay needs all his cash, firepower and cunning to survive.

This crime mystery shifts swiftly into an action thriller

Although beginning as a crime mystery with the disappearance and killing of Rania’s family, Absolution is an action thriller above all. Each conflict and slaughter is described in gory, bone-crushing detail. Every weapon is itemised. Clay is a man’s man: a connoisseur of guns, hard-nosed and heavy-drinking, not afraid of a scrap. Despite the scars of war, he is amazingly attractive to women. Here, Hardisty misses a trick: we never find out what it is about this tough mercenary that appeals so much to the opposite sex. Perhaps it’s simply Clay’s steadfastness. He stands by his friends, male or female, when all around are swayed by money. In a tale of government and corporate corruption, Clay is one of the few who cannot be bought.

Suspense

The story moves at a fair clip, with plenty of suspense as the action switches between Rania’s investigations in murky Cairo and Clay’s desperate journey to reach her. Although no travelogue, the places through which Clay passes are well described: the heat, dust and dangers of African warzones and the cramped, polluted metropolis of Cairo. The desert dénouement presents a picturesque, as well as a tragic, scene. Hardisty writes very well and holds attention throughout. Satisfyingly, the book ends on an ambivalent note. Will Clay’s adventures continue?

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If you love a fast-paced story with a sense of place, try The Vodka Trail. When glamorous Kat White travels to the former Soviet Union in an attempt to recover her family vodka business, she doesn’t realise her oldest enemy will hold her life in his hands…