Review:
 Agatha's Christie's Hercule Poirot: The life and times of Hercule Poirot - by Anne Hart. 
Harper Collins  £5.99 pbk.
At first sight, Hercule Poirot is not an obvious subject for a full-length biography. Agatha Christie created the dapper Belgian detective at the start of her illustrious career and was to tire of him long before he made his final appearance: "There are moments when I have felt: 'Why-Why-Why did I ever invent this detestable, bombastic, tiresome little creature?" Christie's strength lay in plotting rather than in characterisation and Poirot in particular was in many respects a collection of foibles, while some of his early investigations (especially in short stories) drew too heavily upon elements of the Sherlock Holmes canon.
Yet Anne Hart has done an excellent job in putting together this study of Poirot, which first appeared in 1990 and has now been (very slightly) updated. She has not made the mistake of indulging in too much irony, but has read the novels and stories thoroughly with a view to presenting a complete picture of the sleuth who made his debut in The Mysterious Affair at Styles and finally departed the stage in that splendid, although generally under-rated, novel Curtain The result is a soberly written book  which not only traces Poirot's life and career but also provides adequate coverage of the contribution made to the mysteries by that most obtuse of
Watsons, Captain Arthur Hastings, and Mrs Ariadne Oliver who - like Poirot's ultra efficient secretary Miss Lemon - first appeared in Christie's writing as a member of the staff of Parker Pyne, the detective-cum-therapist. There is also a lengthy bibliography and a list of Poirot's appearances on film and television.
Anne Hart has also written a similar book about Miss Jane Marple, who is a cleverly conceived and more sympathetic character, but she rises to the challenge of fleshing Poirot out with a judicious combination of textual comment and quotation from the books. Her industry is to be applauded and it is likely that most fans of Christie's mysteries will find something of interest in this biography.
Martin Edwards

Review:
 Thought for the Day by David Armstrong -
Harper Collins - £15.99
David Armstrong is, to my mind, one of the more interesting crime novelists to have emerged during the past few years. In Detective Inspector Frank Kavanagh, he has created a well-rounded central character who conforms to the conventions of the genre (world-weary, troubled private life, at odds with his superiors) and yet rises above the levels of cliche because his thoughts and actions are portrayed with care rather than by resort to lazy stereotyping. As a story-teller, Armstrong is quirky and offbeat.  His narratives often follow an eccentric course.
The latest Kavanagh novel illustrates Armstrong's considerable strengths, as well as one or two of his limitations. Frank is recovering from the trauma of confrontation with a serial killer and consequent mental breakdown and has transferred to London. His past is lightly sketched and so the reader who has not encountered the series before will be able to start reading here without disadvantage. Armstrong describes in compelling fashion his hero's efforts to come to terms with his new life - relationships with colleagues, relationships with women, his relationship with the capital itself - and in many ways this provides the major appeal of the novel.
The story concerns the disappearance of Martin Foyle, a less than lovable senior advertising executive. Foyle has apparently been kidnapped, but Kavanagh comes to wonder if the kidnap is, in fact, a money-raising scam set up by Foyle himself. The discovery of a body in the Welsh Marches gives urgency to the investigation - but it emerges that the corpse does not belong to Foyle, but rather to a former colleague. When the reader eventually learns the truth, there is a dramatic sequence in which justice is done, albeit in an especially chilling fashion that I found both unexpected and memorable.
The structure of the story is rather strange. Although we learn eventually how the prologue, which introduces Foyle, fits into the overall scheme of things, it does not give us much insight into the man himself. Because Foyle is unappealing, one tends not to care as much as one should about his fate. The police enquiry also takes a meandering course and the tension does not mount until quite late in the book. The brief scenes in which the principal villain appears are compelling to read, but they are grafted into
the story in a slightly clumsy way. As a result, the main interest lies in following Kavanagh's experiences with the lonelyhearts columns rather than in the crime itself. Armstrong nevertheless keeps us entertained, not least with his account of Kavanagh listening to "Thought For The Day" on the radio: "some wimpy liberal...explaining that bad was good..that nothing was as it seemed. 'If we could see all, all might seem well."" Kavanagh doesn't really believe that, and with good reason.
Martin Edwards

Review: That Angel Look by Mike Ripley. 
No Exit Press Bloodlines £8.00
This is the eighth novel featuring Angel, a London cab driver, but the first one that I have read. Angel is a cocky but personable character, rarely lost for an answer and possessed of an unerring ability to meet with trouble wherever he goes.
In this story, he meets three women, Lyn, Thalia and Amy who run a company which produces clothes for women. They hire him as their (unlicenced) cab driver and we are rapidly catapulted into a world of lies, deceit and eventual sinister happenings. Tensions between the Bangladeshi and Turkish communities are explored and Angel finds himself used as a diplomat to try and sort out their differences. The novel becomes progressively more interesting as new strands of the plot appear and the ever-present question is, who's telling the truth and who's lying?
Sell and Stokoe are detectives and a double act whose cheif aim is to establish who killed a photographer called Eugene Sargeant. As Angel was one of the last people to see him alive, the first part of the book concerns itself with an interview between them which is often witty. Angel's romantic interest is with one of the women from the firm, although this doesn't particularly dominate the story.
Springsteen the psychopathic cat is an entertaining addition to the list of characters as is Pete the Printer aka 'Star Trek' who both asks and answers questions using only Star Trek jargon from the original series.
Towards the end,the plot develops to reveal the ugly face of Nazism through an organisation called Web 18. The book reaches an interesting and plausible climax and the ending is satisfactory. When I read a comment by Minette Walters about Angel books in general, the suggestion was that they were hilarious so I was expecting a comedy novel. Part of it made me smile,but generally I would not put 'That Angel Look' into a specific category at all. It's a good story wth plenty of dialogue, a fair bit of action and generally believable characters. Mike Ripley certainly has an eye for detail and (less tastefully) for women's bodies, which was one aspect I could have at times done without. However I will probably read some more Angel books if only to get to know more intimately the surly, yellow-eyed cat.
Lynda Ross

Review:
The Soft Detective by H.R.F. Keating. 
Macmillan £16.99
This is the fourth entry in an unusual series of crime novels. Unusual in that the connecting link is that each book features a detective whose human weakness affects the work he does. It's an intriguing idea from a writer who has come up with an impressive number of intriguing ideas over the years. Previously we have seen The Rich Detective, The Good Detective and The Bad Detective, all of which have earned good reviews. The latest story is, however, probably the best so far and confirms Keating's reputation as one of the most original British crime writers of the post-war era.
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Benholme's soft spot is that he is - well, soft. He doesn't have trouble in seeing "the other point of view" and he believes that his open-mindedness as an asset which enables him to get into the minds of witnesses and criminals. But he is achingly aware that perhaps, had he been different - tougher - his marriage might not have broken up. And his latest investigation tests his nerve to the limit. When he's called out to a "fatal" in King's Hampton, he is quick to deduce that the death of an elderly man is no accident but murder. Soon he discovers that the victim was once a Nobel Prize winner - Professor Edul Unwala. So far so good - but then his inquiries reveal that a prime suspect is his own teenage son, Conor.
Keating handles the tensions between Benholme and his superior, his colleague Sergeant March, his estranged wife Vicky and the troubled Conor with characteristic sensitivity. The police investigation, too, is recounted with his customary skill and economy. But in the end it is the portrayal of Benholme that is likely to stick in readers' memories. Keating's fans are likely to rate this as his finest novel since the splendid Inspector Ghote novel Dead on Time.
A TW Recommended Title
Martin Edwards