Crime File: Lonely avenger Jack Reacher is back in the army in a labyrinthine prequel, writes Vincent Banville
The Enemy is the eighth Jack Reacher novel and, as it is set in 1990, it acts as a kind of prequel to the others. Here our hero is still in his twenties, still in the US army and still with friends and family. But all that is about to change, sowing the seeds of the lonely avenger lifestyle that Jack will assume in future episodes. A two-star general is found dead in a compromising situation and Reacher, the senior army policeman available, begins investigating. The usual can of worms is unearthed and soon conspiracies reaching right to the top brass are rising like yeast. Jack and a female sergeant plough a determined furrow, ignoring protocol and knocking down anyone who gets in their way.
Lee Child writes a good story, twisting it into labyrinthine folds and keeping his readers guessing right to the end. He has obviously done his research into the environment of the US army and, although English himself, seems to know how that huge monolith works.
Robotham's thriller works the old chestnut of the upright man who suddenly finds himself accused of a crime that he didn't commit, but also manages to give it a few curls and spins to gloss it up more than usual. Joe O'Loughlin has a successful career as a clinical psychologist, a loving wife and daughter and standing in the community. However, after he finds out that he is in the first stages of Parkinson's disease, he goes off on a bender and has a liaison with a prostitute. When a woman that he once treated is found killed, these events come back to haunt him, and it takes all of his ingenuity to prove that he is innocent of her murder and to uncover the real culprit.
The Suspect is this author's first novel and it augurs well for his continuance as a writer of engrossing suspense thrillers.
The name Nicci French hides the identity of the husband-and-wife team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, and this latest offering of theirs comes with a bellyband announcing that someone answering a simple question and filling in a tiebreaker can win £10,000. Who puts up that kind of money, the publishers or the authors? Anyway, it's bound to increase sales for Secret Smile, a suspense novel in which a woman named Miranda Cotton is being menaced by a charming stalker called Brendan Block. Cast off by Miranda, Brendan then goes after her sister, Kerry, and our heroine has finally to resort to extreme prejudice to get rid of the slimy Brendan. The book is quite entertaining, but the money is even more so.
Paul Charles has been chronicling the cases of Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy for a while now; The Justice Factory is the seventh in a series that has been quietly gaining in popularity. Here the good cop has to deal with a body already in a grave awaiting its rightful occupant, a jealous girlfriend (why is her name, ann rea, always written in small letters?), an amorous WDC, a Detective Sergeant in love with a serial killer and accusations of child abuse. Then, as if things couldn't get any worse, he is attacked and almost killed, only saved through the love of a good woman. In spite of all the turmoil and violence, our author manages to inject a steady stream of offbeat humour into his books, which enlivens and energises his work.
Doctored Evidence is another of Donna Leon's excursions into the more seamy side of Venetian society. And her usual protagonist, Commissario Brunetti, is again to the fore. Here he is investigating what appears to be a cold case, where the murderer of an elderly woman - her Romanian maid - has been killed in a train accident as she attempted to flee back to her own country. However, it then turns out that the timescale for the murder is all wrong and it couldn't have been the maid who perpetrated the deed. Brunetti begins delving into the victim's background and family, and soon comes up with some new motives for this violent killing. Leon comes up with nothing new in the way of original plot, but her descriptions of Venice and her eccentric hero add a certain exoticism to her work. Nicely done, at the very least.
Robert B. Parker's Spenser books are incredibly popular all over the world, but they've always set my teeth on edge. The smooth Boston private detective, his urbane girlfriend Susan Silverman and his sidekick, the unflappable Hawk, are all just so goody two-shoes that they make me want to puke. I like to think that Susan bites her nails, Hawk goes to sleep at night sucking a soother, and as for Spenser, God knows what he gets up to.
Bad Business sees them involved with a wealthy woman named Marlene Rowley (the blurb refers to her as Marlene Cowley) whose husband Trent is cheating on her. When Trent suddenly pops his clogs, Marlene is afraid she'll be accused of his murder and hires Spenser to find the real culprit.
Various eccentric characters then appear on the scene, Spenser delivers his usual quota of one-liners, and we have to wade through such PC episodes as, "Dr Silverman and I looked at the Gainsborough exhibit all morning at the Museum of Fine Arts. Then we went for lunch in the museum restaurant. Susan had salad. I had fruit and cheese. We shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio." Yeugh!
Finally, I'd like to mention the reissue, by New English Library, of all Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey novels. They are in paperback at £6.99, and for aficionados and new readers should be great fun.
• Vincent Banville is a writer and critic
The Enemy By Lee Child, Bantam Press, £12.99
The Suspect By Michael Robotham, Time Warner, £9.99
Secret Smile By Nicci French, Michael Joseph, £16.99
The Justice Factory By Paul Charles, The Do-Not Press, £7.99
Doctored Evidence By Donna Leon, Heinemann, £15.99
Bad Business By Robert B. Parker, John Murray, £17.99