Latest book, DVD and digital releases reviewed

MY LIFE IS MURDER: SERIES 3

Acorn, cert 12

DVD 2-disc set £17.99 & on Digital

Cosy crime - nothing too gory or scary - has become all the rage on TV and in books, and nothing is cosier than this Australian hit.

When she stopped earning a crust as a big city cop in Australia, Alexa Crowe (Lucy Lawless - pictured) moved back to her New Zealand hometown of Auckland and envisaged baking bread and putting her feet up in early retirement. No chance. She’s been roped in to helping local cop DI Harry Henary (Rawiri Jobe) solve his trickiest murder cases.

Like The Brokenwood Mysteries, My Life Is Murder has grown into a hit around the globe on the Acorn TV screening service, and is also shown on Sky’s Alibi channel. Audiences obviously like the mix of sourdough and sleuthing and it’s marked a change of pace for star Lucy from shows like Xena: Warrior Princess and Parks and Recreation. Of course every private eye needs a skilled buddy, but in Series 3 Alexa’s computer whiz sidekick Madison (Ebony Vagulans) is in Paris, but her pal Beth (Tatum Warren-Ngata) a Navy cryptologist steps into the breach and sticks around when Madison returns. Quirky cases include the body of a crime novelist being found encased in a sculpture; a mystery death at a retirement village which is complicated by the involvement of Alexa’s ex-jailbird brother; a thoroughbred racehorse being unfairly blamed for the death of its handler; and a bride’s death on her wedding day may not have been caused by a bee sting after all. And close to baker Alexa’s heart, a murder victim’s found to have rare flour in his lungs.

8/10

CHRISTMAS AT THE HOLLY DAY INN

101 Films, cert U

On Digital

This is a charming seasonal British rom-com with some familiar faces. Emma Holly (Tamla Kari) becomes disenchanted with her high-flying career and decides to go home to help dad Ben (Colin Baker) at his country inn, To her shock however, things have been so bad since her mum died that dad’s struggling. Meanwhile, handsome young Oliver (Kevin Leslie) is sent undercover by his boss to wheedle his way into the family’s good books and persuade Ben to sell the inn to property developers…boo! But, soon sparks are blazing like a log fire between Holly and Oliver, and Ben’s falling for local cafe owner Molly (Anita Dobson) as a very merry Christmas lies ahead.

7/10

HEIR OF THE WITCH

Miracle Media

On Digital

If gothic and supernatural horror is your brew of choice then this should hit the spot. It’s rooted in tales writer/star Victoria U Bell used to hear in her native Moldova about bloodsucking vampires in Romanian folk tales which gave rise to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Yikes! The opening scene is hair-raising as fog covers a Moldova graveyard and a woman wakes in a coffin. Turns out it’s Anna (Bell) having a nightmare, but horror lies ahead for the young seamstress looking after her bedridden aunt in America when she tries to escape a family curse and her destiny as a witch. Not so easy when you’re being driven mad by visions and voices.

THE FIRST 48 HOURS

Simon Kernick; Headline £20

Detective Keith ‘Fish’ Fisher’s so bent he’s hunting himself! In Kernick’s latest hit. He’s chasing kidnap/ransom gang The Vanishers, but is masterminding the crimes. I loved his hench-woman, scheming man-eating funeral parlour embalmer Delvina. Their plans of getting away with a fortune are shattered however when they grab the daughter of high profile defence lawyer Emma Barraclough. A potent brew of black humour and thrills.

BLOOD DEBT

Tom Wood; Sphere £22

Victor, the ice-cool assassin for hire, is the ultimate anti-hero in Wood’s terrific thrillers. His 11th appearance goes great guns as Victor’s in uneasy debt to the Russian Mafia. When his boss’s murdered in London he’s the prime suspect. Not good news as a brutal power struggle erupts, and Victor’s in everyone’s sights. Terrific!

THE WEATHERMAN

Royston Reeves; No Exit Press £18.99

This is a twisty treat. Will’s going home after drinks with mates when a stranger staggers into his path and falls to the ground. To Will’s horror he’s dead. Will decides not to get involved with the police. Nobody will suspect his involvement. But, somebody knows, and so a nightmare begins.

Reviews: Alex Gordon

8/10

VITA AND THE BIRDS

Polly Crosby; HQ £9.99

When Eva Blakeney returns to the Suffolk coast in 1997 to clear her late grandmother Dodie’s art studio she discovers letters from the ‘30s revealing secrets of Dodie’s life, her bullying brother, and vivacious Lady Vita the woman who transformed her life. Despite local suspicion and rumours that Vita and her brother are behind young people disappearing, Dodie moves into Vita’s glass ‘Cathedral’ surrounded by water and reeds, and here she feels free as the canaries that escaped Vita’s bird cage, but return to eat from her hand.

8/10

THE SQUARE

Celia Walden; Sphere £20

The promise of her debut thriller hit Payday is fulfilled in this slow-cooker of a thriller that builds to lots of surprises in the end. Behind all the trappings of wealth and power, the residents of smart Addison Square in Hammersmith, are sitting on a powder keg of secrets that brash newcomer Leila stirs up, until it inevitably ends in murder. One person knows all the secrets of the square however, Collette, the virtually invisible IT consultant who solves everyone’s computer glitches. But knowledge could be dangerous.

8/10