I freely admit, when it comes to a book I like closure, real life isn't like that so I like books to be like that. 

12 year old Adam Ryan is found standing in a clearing with his shoes full of blood. The police have been searching for him and his friends Peter and Jamie, they are never found. Adam has no memory of what happened to him or his companions.

Twenty years on Adam is now known as Rob and heading up a murder investigation. An archaeological dig is taking place on the site of the woods his friends disappeared in. A little girl's body has been found on a ritualistic stone table, her name is Katy and she was a star ballerina about to go to the Royal School of Ballet. As Rob and his DI partner Cassie investigate their progress is slow and difficult, but there is clearly something wrong at the heart of Katy's family. Rob's life begins to unravel in the presence of the place where so much unknown horror unfolded in his own life and the tension is ratcheted up and up.

I understood the reasons for Rob's constant reflections along the lines of 'this is how it all went wrong' but it irritated me, as did the lack of resolutions. I like neat ends in books, so sue me!

Sepulchre by Kate Mosse AUDIO

A beautifully written story of a tragic past and present threaded together by a deck of tarot cards.  A contemporary american woman comes to France to research Debussy but in Paris and the mountainous countryside finds instead the answers to a century old mystery and the painful chronology of her own family history.  Good, but the great depictions of French fin de siecle society and a supernatural mystery are marred by repetitions of similie and some failures of form.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Walter Hartright is a young drawing master who gets his break when he is recommended to teach water colours to the two young ladies under the care of a Mr Fairlie of Limmeridge House, but on his way back to London from his mother's house across Hampstead Heath early in the morning he encounters the eponymous woman in white who has an unspoken connection to Limmeridge, and so she, he and a vividly drawn cast of characters are drawn into a complex dance of deception, fraud, love and powerplay. Held me and drove me on until the last page.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale

Summerscale relates the true story of the murder on the night of 30 June 1860 of the youngest son of the family at Road Hill House, throat cut wide open and dumped down the servant's toilet in the grounds of the house. The murder exposes the internal workings of the upper middle class family, jealousy, adultery, guilt, grief and hatred. The Road Hill House case is significant in that it was one of the very first detective investigations undertaken by the fledgling Scotland yard and the story of the murder and the character of the detectives, in particular the lead detective Mr Whicher, directly inspired the early victorian melodramas and penny dreadfuls from Wilike Collins' The Moonstone to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Informed by contemporary developments in psychology, in particular the emerging theories of Freud, this is the classic murder mystery: the germ of the detective and crime novel which traces its routes through Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie to the present day.

I found the book interesting, but not compelling. It is perhaps the point of the book that because of our thorough grounding the present day with regard to forensic psychology which had its origins in the alienists and detectives of this time, that I knew pretty quickly who the murderer was and why. I did finish the book but there was no mystery to it and I found it rather dry and in the end unfulfilling.

Modesty Blaise
Cry Wolf and The Gallows Bird

What great fun! Two collections of the wonderfully dated Modesty Blaise magazine comic strip, great adventures, a slick proto Lara Croft ass kicking mystery solving girl and her hunky rough diamond side kick.

The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

This was a book group book but I was really glad I read it, it's one of those books that inspires you, in my case to read Dante's Divine Comedy as this is the second text I've read that has its roots in Dante. An intriguing mystery sewing together distant past, recent past and present in the atmosphere of Tuscany

AZ: "A haunting tale of murder, love and innocence lost set in post-war Tuscany from the award winning author of 'The Whaleboat House'. Behind a villa in the heart of Tuscany lies a Renaissance garden of enchanting beauty. Its grottoes, pagan statues and classical inscriptions seem to have a secret life of their own -- and a secret message, too, for those with eyes to read it. Young scholar Adam Strickland is just such a person. Arriving in 1958, he finds the Docci family, their house and the unique garden as seductive as each other. But post-War Italy is still a strange, even dangerous place, and the Doccis have some dark skeletons hidden away which Adam finds himself compelled to investigate. Before this mysterious and beautiful summer ends, Adam will uncover two stories of love, revenge and murder, separated by 400 years! but is another tragedy about to be added to the villa's cursed past?"

The Whaleboat House by Mark Mills

The follow up to The Savage Garden, more thriller than mystery but equally well written, AZ: "enthralling literary crime novel set in post World War II Long Island. In the small town of Amagansett, perched on Long Island's windswept coast, generations have followed the same calling as their forefathers, fishing the dangerous Atlantic waters. Little has changed in the three centuries since white settlers drove the Montaukett Indians from the land. But for Conrad Labarde, a second-generation Basque immigrant recently returned from the Second World War, and his fellow fisherman Rollo Kemp, this stability is shattered when a beautiful New York socialite turns up dead in their nets. On the face of it, her death was accidental, but deputy police chief Tom Hollis -- an incomer from New York -- is convinced the truth lies in the intricate histories and family secrets of Amagansett's inhabitants. Meanwhile the enigmatic Labarde is pursuing his own investigation"

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

My AZ review: "I loved this book, not least the quirky outer cover, it doesn't even open like a normal book. The previous reviewer has given such an excellent account of the storyline that I wont add to that. Everyone keeps talking about Roald Dahl (who I adore), it is not like Dahl in feel, yes it's about kids and good and bad adults but the feel is completely different, more like Pullman in its level of sophistication, tight plotting and characterisation and its ability to address issues of childhood loss and the importance of memory. My only complaint is the end which screamed sequel, but otherwise an involving unputdownable read about four extraordinary but believable children."

Puppet Master by Joanne Owen

AZ: "From riches to rags, Milena is growing up in the city of Prague at the turn of the twentieth century. Her parents' once prosperous theatre lies in disrepair and her life seems to be in ruins, and has been since that fateful night her father died in a tragic accident and Milena's beautiful, talented Mother went missing. No trace of her has been found. But Milena has never lost hope that she will come back. The day she meets the flamboyant Puppet Master and his menacing proteges, the twins Zdenko and Zdenka, under the shadow of Prague's famous Astronomical Clock in the Old Town square is, coincidentally, the date of her mother's birthday. And it's the day Milena's grandmother chooses to reveal to her the story of her ancestors... and of her legacy. Or perhaps it's not such a coincidence. Joanne Owen's debut novel skilfully mingles the legends of Bohemia in a story rich in the traditions of circus, theatre and magic, all set in a city waiting to lay bare a myriad of secrets."

Another wonderfully formatted book, illustrations and text interact. Plays on the instinctive fear I think is common of marionettes and anything which resembles a human but is not. The Prague setting is also fascinating

The Invention of Hugo Cabaret by Brian Selznick

AZ: "ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival dependson secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and her grandfather, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery."

This is just such a beautiful book, sparse text interspersed with pages of black and white illustrations, it's an experience as much as a book, full of the slightly alien atmosphere of Paris. I love the feeling of a child living parallel to normal life.

Starburst by Robin Pilcher AUDIO

A good but slightly predictable mystery story, good for being set in and around Edinburgh during the Festival, bringing back lots of good memories.

Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks

AZ: "Pete Boland was busy doing nothing that summer. Long, stiflingly hot, lazy days stretched ahead of him. Then she called. 'Listen, Pete . . . you know that funfair, up at the recreation ground . . . I thought we could all meet up . . . You know, for old times' sake.' But, where there are old times, there are old tensions. And as secrets, bitterness and jealousies resurface, five old friends are plunged into the worst night of their lives"

Brooks is an extremely powerful writer for teenagers and this was a really good read, I wanted to know the outcome so much, but was hugely disappointed plotwise. There are 2 strands with two people disappearing, a popular beautiful girl and the narrators best friend, a damaged boy who believes he is talking to his pet rabbit. The mystery about the girl is solved but the boy, the one I really wanted to know what happened to, remains lost. Maybe that's the point!