Meg and Rose Noire assist the police chief and his team with their enquiries, discovering a number of other law breakers along the way. As with other Meg Langslow books animals feature prominently including chickens, geese, sheep, a heifer and dogs. The story is set over three eventful days and is another entertaining addition to previous Meg Langslow books. Murder Most Fowl is number 29 in this series of books byDonna Andrews.
The Fitzroy Football Club was founded in 1883 as part of the VFA (Victorian Football Association). The team became a foundation member of the VFL (Victorian Football League) in 1896-97. In the 1980s teams were formed in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia and in 1990 the VFL became the AFL (Australian Football League).
The death of the Fitzroy Football Club by Russell Holmesby, as the subtitle of the book states, is 'the story of Fitzroy's demise in the words of the men and women who lost their club'. The book focuses on the years from the 1970s to 1996 and contains excerpts from interviews with former players, coaches and administrators from the club as well comments at the time from AFL administrators.
Basically the AFL wanted to reduce the number of Victorian teams in the competion and increase its prescence in other Australian states. South Melbourne had already transferred to Sydney to become the Sydney Swans and after looking at a number of merger options involving several clubs the decision was made that Fitzroy would merge with the Brisbane Bears to become the Brisbane Lions.
Since then many supporters transferred their allegience to the merged team while some now support other clubs. Many have decided not to support any AFL team. The Fitzroy Football Club currently has a team playing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association so the name lives on.
Fitzroy as a VFL or AFL team may be gone but has not been forgotten with references to the club often occurring in novels including the Jack Irish series by Peter Temple.
Fitzroy Football Club – Wikipedia
Australian Rules Football - Britannica
Jim Daley and Brian Scott are kept busy investigating multiple cases that arise at the same time. When a small aeroplane crash lands at Machrie Aiport the bodies of two dead men are discovered on board. It is soon obvious that the men were dead before take-off requiring many questions to be answered. Then Hamish disappears while out on his boat and a full scale search is implemented to find him. Meanwhile Chief Superintendant Carrie Symmington is being threatened by someone from her past. While Jim Daley and Brian Scott attempt to solve these cases, Iolo Harris from MI5 arrives on the scene to investigate possible links to environmental terrorists who are thought to be operating in the area.
There is much tension in this book as the investigations proceed interspersed with humour from time to time. Some of the action occurs across the waters in County Antrim. Although matters appear to be resolved, at the end of the novel the detectives do not have all of the answers they want. They are only too aware of cover-ups being implemented and there is nothing they can do about it.
Another excellent book from Denzil Meyrik, a great story teller.
On TV dramas everything gets tied up, they catch the killer and get resolution. They have a chuckle and make a quip, end credits, tune in next week. (p294)The Big Chill, the second book in The Skelfs series by Douglas Johnstone is a book where there are a number of investigations but although new information is discovered, not all cases are completely resolved.
By the end of the book Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah had " a dead homeless addict whose father refused to acknowledge him because he was gay. They had a woman who had lied to her daughter her whole life. A suicide to end the horror of terminal cancer. And a killer on the loose." (p294)
The novel, set in Edinburgh, is about three generations of women in the Skelf family who attempt to run the family business - a funeral parlour and a private investigation agency. It is a story about the lives of these three women and also about the lives of the people they encounter in their work. The women face many personal challenges which they try to resolve as well as being professional in their work.
A Dark Matter, the first book in the series provides much of the background for The Big Chill. The Great Silence, recently published, will continue the story of this determined family and their attempts to assist others.
When a body is discovered buried in a peat bog, Karen Pierie and Jason Murray investigate. It appears that the body was buried possibly in 1995 and was never reported missing. Found with the body is a new 1940s motor bike. A similar bike is located in the bog nearby. Chapters of the book therefore deal with events occurring in 2018, or 1944 or 1995.
Discovering the name of the murdered man, who killed him and why is only one of the cases being investigated. Karen is also trying to discover the perpetrator of a series of rapes in the 1980s and also help a friend solve a recent murder.
Broken Ground is another absorbing crime novel by Val McDermid - well worth reading.
Set in North Devon, England, The Heron's Cry is the second book in the new Two Rivers series by Ann Cleeves.
When Matthew Venn is called to investigate the murder of Dr Nigel Yeo it is obvious that this is not going to be a simple case to solve. The murder occurred at an art studio used by Dr Yeo's daughter, Eve, and the murder weapon was a shard of glass from a vase that Eve had made. Investigations revealed that Dr Yeo had been researching the treatment of mental patients by medical authorities, including the death of a young man several years earlier. Who would want Nigel Yeo dead and why?
Then another body is discovered also stabbed with a shard of glass.
DI Matthew Venn and his team DS Jen Rafferty and DC Ross May work hard trying to establish links between three probable suicides and the two deaths in order to solve the crimes. They also have personal challenges to resolve.
The Heron's Cry is welcome addition to a new series dealing not only with crimes to be solved but with the lives of the police involved in solving the crimes as well as the life of the local community.
