Book Review: We Chase Shadows

Title: We Chase Shadows

Author: Richard Osman

Publisher: Viking Penguin

Publication Date: September 15, 2026

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amy, Rosie, and Steve are back, and this time it's their case from the jump: a body on the steps of an Italian villa, a threatening note, and a client who very much does not want the police involved. What starts as a straightforward "find the note-writer" job spirals fast, pulling in Sweden's most-wanted, a sharp-elbowed ex-wife, and a business rival with plenty to hide—and the trail doesn't stay in Italy for long, bouncing from Barcelona to Palm Springs to, of all places, Steve's local pub.

The characters are, as ever, the real draw. The trio's dynamic has settled into something warmer and funnier than book one—Steve, the retired policeman still grieving, his bodyguard daughter-in-law Amy, and the wonderfully unfiltered older writer, Rosie, with an oversized appetite for life. The office manager, a former actor's agent with a negotiator's instincts, steals more scenes than a supporting player has any right to. Osman's British humor is in fine form throughout—tongue-in-cheek even in the tensest moments, like two m
ates casually griping about speeding tickets while one's mid-murder-investigation and the other's recovering in hospital from a beating. And yes, this might be the only book I've ever read to deploy "jibber-jabbering" completely unironically.

The mystery itself earns its keep. One murder becomes several, suspects multiply, and just when I was sure I'd cracked it, Osman pulled the rug out—a few times, actually. The soundtrack of 70s British rock references running underneath it all is a nice touch, giving the book a lived-in, needle-drop feel even without an actual soundtrack. And amid all the plotting, there's a line that stopped me cold: "Life itself isn't enough to hold you captive, but love is." Osman can write a punchy mystery and still land a gut-punch of a sentence when he wants to.

You don't strictly need to have read the first book, but it'll help you clock the trio's habits and rhythms faster. Either way, this is a hugely satisfying return, and I'm already impatient for whatever's next.

#NetGalley #VikingPenguin

Book Review: Bad Intentions

Title: Bad Intentions

Author: Iliana Xander

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I do like a thriller that turns family secrets into a slow-burning fuse, and Bad Intentions lit mine early and kept it burning. Josie Boots is coming off a very public fall from grace when she returns to Burnville to care for her ailing grandmother, only to find that the town's oldest, ugliest secrets have been waiting for her right along with the casseroles and cold stares.

Josie herself is the book's biggest strength. I've never been "canceled," but we've all felt the burn of online hostility, and it made her an easy narrator to root for even when she was making questionable choices. Xander surrounds her with a town full of peo
ple who are, almost without exception, nasty, guarded, and sitting on secrets they'd rather die than share — and a few of them very nearly do.

The plotting is where this book really earns its keep. I guessed one of the central twists fairly early, which normally would have deflated some of the suspense, but Xander had two more twists in reserve that I never saw coming, and the way the third one brings the denouement was genuinely satisfying. 

What I appreciated most was the moral murkiness at the book's core: the idea that a community might choose its own version of justice over the law, and that this choice ripples down through generations in ways nobody quite intends. It's not a subtle theme, but it's an effective one, and it gives the mystery real emotional weight rather than just plot mechanics.

A big thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley.  I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

@PoisonedPenPress @NetGalley @BadIntentions

Book Review: Heavenfield

Title: Heavenfield

Author: L.J. Ross

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: August 4, 2026

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Heavenfield is the third book in LJ Ross's DCI Ryan series, and I want to say upfront: don't start here. This one continues immediately from the previous two installments, and you need that history to understand who these characters are and why the stakes feel so personal.

The setup is a gut-punch: Ryan, already suspended and cut off from his own team, finds himself the prime suspect in a murder at the remote church of Heavenfield. What starts as a seemingly impossible crime spirals outward into something much bigger, as members of the shadowy Circle begin turning up dead one by one. Ross scatters clues and red herrings with a steady hand.

The real standout for me was the escalating confrontation between Ryan and his own boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Gregson. The eventual standoff between the two of them, with lives literally hanging on the line, is the highlight of the novel — tense, well-earned, and satisfying.

The corruption subplot running underneath it all, with Circle members seemingly embedded at every level of authority, adds a nice layer of paranoia to the proceedings. You're never quite sure who Ryan can trust, and neither is he, which keeps the pacing tight even in the quieter investigative stretches.

A big thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. 

@PoisonedPenPress @NetGalley

Book Review: Cold Sunset

Title: Cold Sunset

Author: William Boyd

Publisher: Grove Atlantic

Publication Date: November 3, 2026

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

William Boyd has done it again. With Cold Sunset, the third installment in his Gabriel Dax series, he delivers a spy novel that feels less like genre fiction and more like literature.

It is 1964, and Cold War Moscow is doing what Cold War Moscow does best: simmering with paranoia, secrets, and the constant threat of exposure. Gabriel Dax, that most reluctant of spies — a travel writer who somehow keeps finding himself in the killing business — is tasked with delivering another mysterious
drawing to Kit Caldwell, a celebrated triple-agent living large as a Hero of the Soviet Union. Caldwell, convinced the KGB is closing in, wants Gabriel to do the unthinkable: smuggle him across the Russian border to Finland. With his enigmatic handler Faith Green pushing him forward, Gabriel is once again pulled into a world where loyalty is a moving target and trust is a luxury no one can afford.

Readers who came to Boyd through le Carré will feel right at home here. Cold Sunset inhabits the same shadow-drenched moral universe as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy — all Cold War fog and psychological tension, with precious little in the way of gadgets or car chases. This is character-driven espionage at its most literary, and Boyd's storytelling genius is on full display. The prose is elegant, the atmosphere immersive, and the ethical murk that surrounds Gabriel genuinely uncomfortable in the best possible way.

As for Gabriel himself — three books in, he is now a three-time killer, which sits uneasily on a man who never asked for any of this. He is no James Bond. He does not sip martinis shaken not stirred; he drinks whatever he can lay hands on, and plenty of it. He shares his bed with three women in the course of this story, yet there is nothing glamorous about it. Boyd resists the seductions of the spy fantasy at every turn, keeping Gabriel grounded, flawed, and utterly human. That is precisely what makes him such compelling company.

My only caveat — and it is less a complaint than an observation — is that the ending is deliberately ambiguous, the kind of conclusion that leaves threads dangling rather than tying them off. It is both satisfying and maddening at once, clearly designed to presage, if not outright demand, a fourth and possibly final book to close things out properly. Consider yourself warned, and consider yourself hooked.

A big thank you to the publisher and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#ColdSunset #NetGalley @GroveAtlantic