Books Reviews - 2025

 

Another year, another list.. 😏

Book	Comments	Score (out of 10)
	Best of the three so far I thought..  Lieutenant Peter Harding is one of the most successful commanders in the Fleet. But no man’s nerve can last forever – and Harding’s is beginning to crack. But the Admiralty has its own ways of securing Harding's continued service as it has one further task for Trigger and her crew. An allied agent and a brilliant scientist who is vital to the success of the top secret Manhattan Project is on the run in Italy. It's up to Harding to take Trigger deep into enemy waters to ensure the agent’s safety – no matter what the cost...	9
	Not so sure this wasn't a book too far really..  should have ended the series at the end of the previous book..  this one features not so much Peter Harding as his old 1st Lieutenant enjoying his first command and eaten up with envy that the war may end before he can rack up the same successes as his old skipper..  in the meanwhile somewhat improbably, Harding has switched to the Fleet Air Arm...  errr...no.. me either..  😏	7
	Wallander witnesses, and then has to discover why a teenage girl doused herself in petrol and burned herself to death leaving no clues as to who she was. Shortly after a former minister of justice is killed in a bizarre murder that proves to be the first by a serial killer who strikes again and again using hand axes. Are the cases linked and are the victims linked - and Wallander keeps getting sidetracked by different areas of investigation...	9
	Montalbano and his colleagues are stumped when two bombs explode outside empty warehouses - one of which though is next to the flat of a known big-time drug dealer. Meanwhile, in his personal life Montalbano is a bit preoccupied with an attractive woman supposedly in an open marriage who is trying slightly too hard to seduce him..  why?? In the meanwhile false leads are being planted left right and centre... but when all else fails there's always Adelina's Arancini..  😁	9
	Vigàta's elite are targeted in a series of perfectly executed burglaries, and Montalbano reluctantly takes the case. It soon becomes clear however that they all know each other and have been present at each others houses and parties... Montalbano finds himself taken with one of the victims, the beautiful Angelica but as the detective's attraction grows a series of strange, anonymous letters claiming responsibility for the thefts begin to arrive and challenging him to solve the crime . . .	8
	Best Maigret yet I think (and there have been some crackers!). A wealthy aristocrat is found dead in his home with multiple gun shot wounds, the first of which clearly killed him, and Maigret is called in to investigate. He finds himself in an old fashioned world where everyone he speaks to as part of the investigation, is old school aristocracy either moneyed or not, and where everyone is close lipped to protect each other. After interviewing everyone concerned, the inspector is at a loss to the identity of the perpetrator but as part of the investigation  he comes across a series of letters spanning decades between the victim and a widowed woman. As Maigret uncovers the details behind the pair’s relationship, he gets closer to discovering the tragic truth behind the official’s demise. The description of Maigret's navigation of these class divides and his own position in society are brilliant - love the way he dives in to the nearest bar for a beer when ever he leaves one of these interviews!	10
	I love procedurals..  books with loads of detail about a specific subject and this is one of them - the story of the build, commissioning, and war service of the imaginary cruiser HMS Antigone. From her build in pre-WW2 Belfast at Harland and Wolf, we meet and get to know the crew, before peace-time cruises to show the flag in Gibraltar, Malta, and then the Caribbean and Latin America, before war breaks out and she goes to the Atlantic to prove that all the training and expense was worth it..  cracking..	10
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