Venom

Rating:
Summary: Great new British sleuth
Review: I read this book as an e-book and I'm going to order it in hardback for a friend of mine. Bored of the same old sleuths? Tired of nosy old ladies and hard-bitten cops? Then buy Venom! The heroine Kate Sparrow is different. She is young, intelligent (a post Grad psychology student) and can defend herself; she's a brown belt in the martial art Aikido. Kate is drawn into a world of suspicion and mystery when a young undergrad is found murdered in the quiet (fictional) English university town of St Peters. Kate becomes involved when her friend - the gorgeous bronzed Australian student Josh Cranfield- is suspected of murder. Without giving it away, the plot involves greed, revenge and the animal rights movement. The characters are well written and the ways in which the deaths occur in the book are well researched. The ingredients of the book include a cup of no nonsense grit that we expect from a British writer, and a good spoonful of humour. All in all, a good book to snuggle down with on a chilly fall evening.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling read.
Review: Young graduate student Kate Sparrow is dragged unwillingly into a world of murder and mayhem, when the tranquil University library in which she normally studies is unexpectedly the scene of a brutal murder. Suddenly, everyone on the campus is a suspect, and even those closest to her have more in their lives than meets the eye.

The victim is Lucinda Boothby-Wells, a very attractive, promising student - and an heiress. Chief Inspector Jameson is a policeman of the old school. He blunders his way through the investigation, jumping to conclusions and making hasty and inaccurate deductions. His intelligent young assistant, Nigel Meyers, has more than a passing interest in Kate Sparrow. As the two become a team to unravel the mystery, the evidence becomes shocking.

The medical examiner who performs the autopsy reports the cause of death as snake venom. Chief Inspector Jameson's prime suspect is a young Australian from the Art Department, Josh Cranfield. By co-incidence, the snake identified is only indigenous to Australia, and Jameson gleefully hounds the innocent Josh, eventually placing him under arrest. When a second victim is found dead from a deadly spider poison also indigenous to Australia, all hell breaks loose.

However, the true motives for murder prove to be the oldest in the world - money and revenge. Readers will witness a superb twist in the tale as the real murderer is caught red-handed trying to inject Kate Sparrow with deadly poison. A compelling read.