Reviewed: More cozy crime on the Chelsea beat with Adrian Scarborough

THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE: SERIES 3

Acorn, cert 12

DVD 2-disc set £27.99 & on Digital

It may be one of the poshest areas in London, but DI Max Arnold isn’t one of the Bentley brigade. Not on a Met cop’s salary.

His beat may be snooty Chelsea, but he rides to work on his trusty bicycle, and lives on a battered Thames riverboat.

He’s also involved in a messy divorce wrangle with distinctly more upper class art dealer wife Astrid (Anamaria Marinca). Opposites attract and all that!

Max has proved to be a great late career part for veteran Adrian Scarborough, who’s pictured above with his trusty sidekick DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme). This latest set of four two-part cases is enjoyable, and typical of Acorn’s light and breezy cozy crime series that are hugely popular around the globe, and it is a hit here on the U&Drama channel.

The opening case sees a botanical horticulturalist and her son digging up a surprise amongst the veg in an allotment they’ve taken over - a human skeleton. Clues lead Max and Layla to believe it’s the remains of a missing bodyguard to American ambassador Emily Morgan ( a big hurrah for an appearance by Alex Kingston!) Suffice to say, Morgan has little time for snoopy London coppers treating her like a potential suspect, and things get rather difficult. Meanwhile, on the domestic front Max goes on a date and wouldn’t you just know it, he bumps into acid Astrid who’s also on a potential romantic liaison. Cupid takes flight!

Other cases involve the mysterious death of a faded popster, the murder of an antiques dealer and a climate scientist found dead in a stolen car.

9/10

FEAR BELOW

Signature, cert 15

DVD £7.99 & on Digital

It wouldn’t be summer without a new shark terror swimming into view, to make you think twice about getting into the ocean.

This one’s different from the usual dumb American teens running foul of a monster great white in the Caribbean. The setting’s Australia in the 1940s when a gang of thieves run a lorry load of stolen gold into a river where a bull shark lurks.

Only the team of divers hired by the crooks to retrieve the bullion don’t know about the shark, until they’re on its lunch menu, and they have to fight for survival in old fashioned heavy diving gear without modern underwater weapons. And they can’t trust their treacherous customers either.

8/10

BOGIEVILLE

Reel2Reel, cert 15

On Digital

The setting’s the American deep south where a rundown trailer park has become a vampire compound - but, surprisingly it’s a Brit B-horror from actor/director Sean Cronin.

A couple of wanderers, Ham (Arifin Putra) and Jody (Eloise Lovell Anderson) think they’ve stumbled on the perfect hideaway when they stumble into Bogieville, get temporary (very) jobs, and shrug off the creepy caretaker’s warning about not leaving their accommodation after dark. Yes, they can check out anytime they like, but they can never leave. They soon wish they could as they encounter their bloodthirsty neighbours who come calling in search of fresh blood.

Put aside the dubious Southern accents and it’s a bit of a hoot.

7/10

BOOKS: Reviews Alex Gordon

WHISTLE

Linwood Barclay; HQ £20

Woo..woo.. beware the lonesome whistle of a phantom train at dead of night…because bestselling Barclay’s bound for Stephen King country.

In this nightmare tale you’ll meet slithery Edwin Nabler, known in his small upstate New York town as Mr Choo-Choo. He sells toy train sets. That’s where the story begins, when widowed children’s book author Annie Blunt arrives in town to start a new life, and son Charlie finds a train set in a locked shed. So, an unstoppable fright ride into horror begins.

10/10

WE LIVE HERE NOW

Sarah Pinborough; Orion £22

Home’s where the fear is in this hair-raising ghostly story. Emily’s still recovering from a coma after a hiking fall and she and husband Freddie hope a new start’s what they need. But, when they first see mist-shrouded Larkin Lodge on Dartmoor, Emily’s heart sinks. And once she sees inside, the shiver up her spine sends a warning - something terrible happened here. Soon Emily questions her sanity as the malevolent house seems to hate her. A peek-under-the-bed read!

9/10

AN ENEMY IN THE VILLAGE

Martin Walker; Quercus £22

There’s little festive joy for Chief of Police Bruno in a Christmas visit to Dordogne’s St. Denis hamlet. In the popular series blending crime with French culinary delights, Bruno finds the body of concierge Monique Duhamel in her car. An overdoes and farewell letters point to suicide. Or is it? Meanwhile, there are politically explosive complaints against a well-connected police officer, and a bid to smear Bruno.

8/10

SMOKE AND EMBERS

John Lawton; Grove Press £17.99

The Cold War is threatening to burst into flames again in 1950 when Chief Insp Troy is intrigued by the activities of Jay Fabian who’s connected to a big-time gangster and contributes to all three major political parties. Fabian claims to be a Holocaust survivor, but without proof. This is a spy humdinger of deception, lies and danger.

9/10

NO MERCY

Max Connor; HQ £9.99

Despite the name, this is Neil Lancaster author of explosive Scottish crime thrillers, and his fingerprints are on this action blast. When Marine veteran of the Falklands War, Frankie Chapman dies during a home invasion in which his medals are stolen, the crooks don’t realise what they’ve done. They’ve galvanised Frankie’s four mates from the Falklands, to get his medals back, and they’re joined by his daughter Jose who wants revenge. Buckle up for a wild ride!

*8/10