Killing Time

Killing Time is a new crime and mystery novel from the pen of author Ian McFadyen.

A local newspaper journalist receives a text message that contains the taunting claim that the person who is responsible for sending them the text message is also responsible for something a lot more serious. Two local murders.

Detective Inspector Steve Carmichael wonders about the test message and what its contents portend.

Did the text message originate from the mind of a sick and very unpleasant hoaxer? Or did it originate from the mind of a far more sick and even more unpleasant serial killer who is lurking within the normally sleepy Lancashire hamlet of Hasslebury?

After all, the likelihood of the two deaths being murders and linked together is an incongruous proposition.

An unknown tramp mown down by a speeding car? An artist struck and killed by a train? How or why could they be classed as murders, as they were both seemingly totally unconnected tragic, but accidental deaths?

But when a third corpse is discovered, Detective Inspector Carmichael realises that a cunning, intelligent and malevolent mind might, in reality, be orchestrating the deaths.

What link was there with Betty the Hedgehog Lady? And what did Dennis, the handsome RSPCA man know, if anything?

Where the murders unrelated? Or was there a link that Detective Inspector Carmichael would have to dig deep to discover?

There a plenty of twists and turns in the plot to keep the average mystery fan turning the pages and at a very modest £8.99 from The BookGuild this latest in the series of novels featuring the irritable but loveable Detective Inspector Carmichael it will make a splendid Christmas present for the crime and mystery lovers in your family. Or why not treat yourself to a copy?

You can buy it via the That's Books and Entertainment book shop which you will find to the right of this review.

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Public Face Private Vice

Public Face Private Vice is the new novel by Keith Wainman, again featuring Chief Superintendent Charlie Smith, the Bentley driving head of the Murder and Serious Crimes Squad.

This time Charlie Smith has the death of a BBC TV presenter to investigate.

But there is a problem. Gerald Parkin had made so many enemies with his somewhat unfortunate and aggressive attitude toward anyone who he viewed as an inferior (which would be pretty much everyone he encountered during his personal and professional life) that finding the killer could prove to be more than a little problematic.

And why is it that wherever Smith looks he seems to spot people who have something that they would rather keep hidden?

Smith and his team penetrate the very heart of the BBC in their attempts to track down whoever was responsible for the bludgeoning death of Parkin within his own -locked- Docklands pad.

Smith begins to suspect that the killer is always just one step ahead of himself and his team. But how can this be?

And what, exactly, had the incredibly odious Parkin actually been up to?

From where had his killer emerged? From his professional life or his personal life?

And what was the actual motive behind Parkin's murder?

Discover that and discover the killer! But can Smith work out what the motive was?  Can he then deduce who the killer was?

This is an intriguing mystery novel and will make a welcome present for any crime fiction buff, and as it is only £11.99 for this Matador book of 524 pages, it's certainly gonig to be flying from the shelves of the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, available on the righthand side of this website.

My Gentleman Jim

My Gentleman Jim is the biography of football's legendary player and commentator, Jimmy Hill.

It is written by his wife, Bryony Hill. And after all, who but a wife can really know their husband, inside out?

He began his football playing career with Brentford and then moved over to Fulham.

His career in football spanned all levels. From a professional footballer he became one of only a few players who went on to become a manager of a football club, then progressing to being a member of the board of directors, a managing director and then, ultimately, chairman.

Bryony reveals how he removed the maximum wage for footballers and was actually the man who brought in the three points for a win rule. He was a highly effective and innovative chairman of the PFA.

Jimmy was also a keen huntsman, a very useful golfer, an amazing and highly dedicated charitable fundraiser and all this is besides his TV football punditry!

He was also wrote footballing songs used by Coventry and Arsenal!

He was also a skilled MC, qualified as a referee, an accomplished musician who performed with Johnny Dankworth as a  favour when the trumpet player fell ill at a gig by the RAF South Cerney Band, of which Johnny Dankworth was the band leader.

The book is an emotion tour through the relationship of a man who lives for football and his devoted wife who pretty much hates football and, by her own admission, probably only spends ten quid a year on her hair.

It looks back through Jimmy's life story, revealing how and where he first learned the craft of being a footballer (88 Boys Brigade, Balham) the first clubs he was associated with (Dulwich Police Team, where he assisted, plus Sutton Home Guard and the Balham League) until he was called up for his National Service with the RASC, after finding himself a job at the London Stock Exchange for a short time before his conscription.The book is profusely illustrated with many photographs from throughout his life from the earliest days right throughout his life.

After he finished his National Service he returned to the London Stock Exchange for a time, signed amateur forms with Reading FC before moving on to Brentford, but this time as a professional.

The book is well-written and it is clear that Bryony has a deep and abiding love for her husband, Jimmy.

Sadly, Jimmy has developed Alzheimer's and unfortunately it was eventually realised that he needed the specialist help that is only available within a care facility, a subject that Bryony carefully and lovingly writes about.

It is published by the Book guild in hardback at £15.99 and is an ideal Christmas present for lovers of biographical books, football fans and those who followed Jimmy's career as a footballer and as an erudite and knowledgeable Television pundit.

It is available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop which you will find to the right of this site.

Treasure Trove

Treasure Trove is as new novel by Alistair Lavers.

Treasure Trove is dedicated to Barry Sheene and is proclaimed to be a part of the Whitborough novels. (It is actually the first book in the series.)

It starts at Whitborough Castle in July 1645, as the armourer for the Royalist garrison at the castle, Christopher Miller, is seeking out a key to the magazine and powder room.

But a young man bursts into the room and tells him that his attendance at a meeting is urgently required. The news is grim, Parliamentary forces will soon take the castle. They must attempt to flee the castle using secret tunnels to take them to boats for their escape.

But there is the matter of a strongbox liberated from a Spanish galleon, which had been part of the ill-fated Spanish Armada, 75 years before. It must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the rebel forces of Cromwell, so it will be hidden from their covetous grasp!

Time marches on and it is eventually the Easter weekend of 1983 in the now upmarket Yorkshire coastal resort of Whitborough on Sea.

It should be an idyllic time for the townsfolk and their tourist visitors. Bit something has gone wrong. Something has gone very badly wrong, indeed.

The Spanish Armada treasure is found and is quickly lost, again.

Has an ancient curse been re-awakened?

How is the Royal Navy ship adopted by the town sunk by a genuine Civil War cannonball?

Are these events really as unconnected as it appears? Or is there a thread that, somehow, connects, them all together?

But they are only the harbinger of much worse troubles for the town, as catastrophe afflicts the authorities and puts the forces of law and order under a very real threat for their existence.

But who is behind these events? Some say Russian saboteurs, others blame Irish terrorists, still others blame local criminals who have startec events that they are no longer in control of, having got completely out of their depth?

However, all is not quite what it seems. What are the staff of the record shop exactly up to? Do they know what is happening? If so, what are their intentions?

This is a truly interesting novel. It is published by Matador at £7.99 in paperback and will be available via the that's Books and Entertainment bookshop. It is on the right hand side of this site.

Whitborough on Sea. It's good to be able to read about, but I certainly wouldn't want to visit that town!

Just buy the book, read it and you'll concur with me, I am certain!

A Nasty Business

A Nasty Business is a book by S. M. Barron that describes the difference between justice, the law and legal process.

Indeed S. M. Barron begins his 400 page book with a rather telling quotation by Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet and attorney who, as a US Supreme Court Judge was quoted as saying: "This is a court of Law, young man, not a court of justice."

So, asks S. M. Barron, where do we go for justice?

The author describes the attempts of people to obtain justice through the courts and, unfortunately, of the attempts of the other side to thwart their attempt to obtain justice often by gaming the legal system. Especially if the other side also happen to be lawyers.

However, S. M. Barron (a pseudonym for a consumer activists, representative, trainer and teacher) points out that it does always have to be like this and that there are already other options for people to seek legal redress that do not include going to court.

It also points out some practical changes that could be implemented to improve access to justice.

It also offers advice that can be used currently to speed up access to justice, how to save money and how to get the help and assistance that you require should you find yourself taking someone to court.

The book is filled with references and costs £19.99. It is published by Jarndyce & Jarndyce, a legal joke which will be appreciated by all fans of Charles Dickens.

It is distributed by Gardners Books and the ISBN is 978-0-9575745-0-2 and is available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, to be found on the righthand side of this site.

Ane Compact of Villany

Ane Compact of Villany is a short and utterly fascinating book by Lindsay Campbell.

It is a thorough and compelling and extremely well-researched and well-written book that relates the story of a criminal gang that plagued Argyll during the 17 century.

It looks very carefully at a gang who operated between the 1680s right through to the 1700s who stole from their own neighbours and kin and who are described as: "early Jacobites, thieves housebreakers and highwaymen."

They brought misery and fear to the populace of the area, and, despite the fact that the Argyll hill country was already ravaged by a famine, they ran protection rackets, rustled cattle, stole horses, kidnapped members of rival clans and so-forth.

They were the scourge of the authorities and they seemed to be able to operate with impunity.

But the plight of a poor widow woman enraged one working man who became so enraged by the gang's wickedness that he determined that he would take down this band of 'stouthrieves' and bring them to justice.

Eventually the gang begins to make mistakes and they were almost all captured and subjected to a trial and the ignominy of a mass execution in full view of many of their fellow countrymen and countrywomen who they had so grievously hurt for some two decades.

This book is short, under 100 pages, but it is filled with references as a good history book should be, but it is not a dry and dusty narrative, for in her book, Lindsay Campbell bring this tumultuous and troubled time back to life.

It is an excellent book for those who love tales of days gone by, for those who want to discover the true facts of their Socttish family tree -warts and all!- or for students of history, especially of the early Jacobite times.

It is published by Matador at £9.99 and will make an excellent stocking filler. It is available from the that's Books and Entertainment book shop. You will find it on the right hand side of this website.