Reviews: You’ll love Lucy in the cosy crime hit

MY LIFE IS MURDER: SERIES 4

Acorn; cert 12

DVD 2-disc set £27.99 & on Digital

While on this side of the Atlantic we are hooked on American cop shows from Blue Bloods (sadly ended, but Donnie Wahlberg’s character Danny Reagan will star in the follow up Boston Blue) to Chicago PD and the Bosch universe, there’s a huge, and growing, American audience for quirky crime that oozes the US’s idea of Britishness.

Much of the credit for this must go to the Acorn production and streaming company which can take credit for starting this particular ball rolling at speed with Midsomer Murders.

Today they have a myriad of such cosy shows, usually featuring offbeat private eyes, and have expanded their roster to include New Zealand hits like this one, and Australian and South Africa shows too, although the same basic themes run through them all. Here our sexy sleuth with a twinkle in her eye is Alexa Crowe, a former homicide detective who serves up cases with comedy and cookery, and this series drew its usual huge audiences to the U&Drama channel. Of course every Holmes needs a Watson and Madison Feliciano (Ebony Vagulans - pictured left with Lucy) is on hand with technical and digital world knowhow.

Whether it’s investigating homicidal hairdressers, brutal ballet dancers, wicked widows or even a case of suspicious stir-fry, Alexa digs in until she gets a result in these eight new mysteries, More often than not, it is helping Harry (Rawiri Jobe) her detective friend bring a baddie to justice.

The cases are twisty enough to keep armchair sleuths happy, but generally speaking everybody (including the cast) just has a good time.

8/10

THE SILENT HOUR

Signature, cert 15

On Digital

This is a tense, nerve-sawing, thriller, featuring Joel Kinnaman, that was inspired by writer Dan Hall reading about a real-life police officer drummed out of the NYPD when he lost his hearing in an incident on the job. Hall thought that was outrageous and he’s created a memorable character in Boston detective Frank Shaw (Kinnaman) whose hearing loss results in him interpreting for Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf witness to a gangland slaying. The killers want Ava silenced for good and trap her and Frank in a condemned apartment building. Two deaf people who can’t hear hitmen coming…it’s a tricky life-or-death situation that’ll have you on the edge of your seat. Brilliant!

8/10

NEUROVENGE

Reel2Reel; cert 15

On Digital

A teenager beset by domestic tragedies and money problems is chosen for her computer science background to take part in a mystery organisation's beta testing programme of a new AI digital assistant they’ve named ‘Jackie’. Jill (Isabelle Shibuta) is thrilled and sees this is an opening to a new future and a chance to put family tragedy behind her. At a company house the candidates are provided with a strict set of rules and everything in the building is controlled through the company’s Homebox, and ‘Jackie ‘even comforts Jill over her bereavements. However, having seen sci-fi movies like this before, we know it’s just a matter of time before everything goes wrong. And, sure enough…

7/10

BOOKS

Reviews:: Alex Gordon & Janet McKechnie

THE INSIDE MAN

Trevor Wood; Quercus £20

If you like dark, gritty, bluntly Northern thrillers you’re going to love this follow-up to the first DCI Jack Parker book The Silent Killer. Parker’s still keeping his Early Onset Dementia diagnosis secret, or he’ll be taken off Newcastle’s major crime squad, Jack’s mission, while he can, is to find the killer of one of his team, but is his judgment flawed? He’s let DS Emma Steel set-up a honeytrap, snuggling up to the gangster who may have killed her predecessor. Packed with tension and earthy humour.

10/10

PARTY OF LIARS

Kelsey Cox; Hodder £16.99

Like a thriller that tangles you up in twists? Then this is for you. There’s nothing like a dead body crashing off a balcony onto the dance floor to spoil a party. But that’s what happens when a snobby ‘Sweet Sixteen’ bash at a reputedly haunted old Texas mansion goes horribly wrong with a teenager’s death. There’s a cast of suspicious characters and a cool Christie vibe as someone plans a killing spree to keep a secret buried.

8/10

FIVE DAYS IN PROVENCE

Simon McCleave; Storm £8.99

When five friends gather in sunny Provence to celebrate Steph’s birthday, they little realise that wildfires aren’t the only danger in their midst. When the smoke clears one day, someone is dead. Hatred has obviously been fanned by the heat. The four survivors huddle in a simmering mood of suspicion while the French police suspect everyone. A crime cracker from the ever-popular McCleave.

8/10

THE DACRE DILEMMA

Rebecca Tope; A&B £22

The Lake District is a hotbed of crime and murder in the bestselling series featuring florist and part time PI Simmy Brown. When auctioneer hubby Christopher asks Simmy to deliver a thank-you bouquet to a helpful expert in the village of Dacre, it makes a pleasant distraction for the mum-to-be. Until the body of a young man in the churchyard provides a puzzling new case for Simmy.

8/10

THE MAGUS OF SICILY

Philip Gwynne Jones; Constable £22

The Welsh writer lives in Venice, which inspired his bestselling crime novels. Now he sets his sights on simmering Sicily, Godfather and Inspector Montalbano territory.

The laughter at an open-air pantomime ends when a body’s pulled from the Ionian Sea. Rookie reporter Nedda Leonardi sees the story as her big break, but re-formed con artist and self-styled Magus, Calogero Maugeri fears it’s the end of his low-key new life when he’s linked to the dead man. A delight.

9/10