Jumping the Cracks

I enjoyed this a lot - Victoria Blake is very good at evoking a strong sense of place in both London and Oxford, and the atmosphere of heat and menace. The themes and story lines that run through this series move some way to resolution, while new revelations open up and the story is enjoyably far fetched and baroque - very suitable for Oxford and the Pitt Rivers which acts as its focus.

An average thriller, enjoyable but not brilliant. This is the first book I have read by Victoria Blake. The character, PI Sam Falconer, is nevertheless an interesting character and I will certainly read her other books if the opportunity arises.

Another grisly series of murders for Sam to investigate. I didn't like this book as much as the others in the series. Sam does bonds with her stepfather and discover some more of the truth of her past, but I missed her relationship with her brother and also with her cat, which maybe underlines a fundamental problem with the story.