When old flame Janet Woods shows up in Kelly's office with facial bruises than can only mean she's a punching bag for her husband's fists, his first reaction is to have a heart-to-heart with hubby Johnny Woods and put the fear of imprisonment in him. The impulsive idea is rejected by the client, but Kelly takes the case.

From ace newsman Fred Jacobs, a man with two Pulitzers, Kelly learns more about the battering husband than he got from the wife. Johnny Woods, it turns out, works in City Hall, in the mayor's sanctum--on the Fifth Floor. On the payroll, if you checked Woods out, he'd show up as some PR flack. But the real job that he performs is to fix problems for the leader of the city which, as a thick six foot three-er, means he has some muscle for the work, and a taste for violence.

No noir thriller is complete without a woman in the P.I.'s life, and the one Kelly ran into (as in early-morning jogging) some months ago is a honey. She's Rachel Swenson, a sitting judge for the Northern District of Illinois (and she'll play a role in the case). It's been a year since that meet and his intention to call her has probably cooled her interest. The lapse had to do with his grief over the still vivid loss of his wife Nicole. But increasing thoughts of Rachel tells him it's time, now, for a resumption of that part of his life.

Following "fixer" Johnny in a Checker cab soon after he catches up with Rachel, Kelly arrives at a charming cottage in an old-money neighborhood. Kelly watches as Woods approaches the front door of the house and, finding it unlocked, enters--only to rush out seconds later, obviously spooked. When Kelly checks the cottage out for himself he finds an old man, hanging. Dead. The mouth of the corpse is stuffed with sand. The man is later identified as Patrolman Richard Bellinger who occupied the cottage since it was miraculously saved in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Kelly probes into the history of the fire, he learns of a scandal surrounding it--one that suggests this house's survival was no accident of fate. It may, instead, be pointing to a conspiracy between two eminent families of the time with a direct connection to a case of arson, which may have been intended as a means of pushing Irish immigrants out of the city.

From the article in the paper about the hanging man, Kelly turns to the police covering the case and picks up one more interesting detail about the fire and the Bellinger cottage. After the fire had passed, any trace of one significant item was gone. It was a first edition of "Sheehan's History of the Chicago Fire," about which further clues indicate has something to do with a missing artifact dating back to Abraham Lincoln. This is the second line of investigation.

The deepening trails of obfuscation lead Kelly to an intense meeting with the mayor, that confrontation with Johnny he'd been thirsting for, a curator expert on the missing volume, and to Janet's fourteen year-old daughter who has a connection to it and to Kelly, as well.

All in all, a complex mystery to keep your scalp in a tizzy as we go on this dangerous journey into dark corridors of criminal abberation that have been masked behind authority and position. Through his intrepid hero, Harvey breaks down the cloth of obscurity and composes a gripping tale in a style that has Dashiell Hammett looking down with approbation.

What would have happened if Alaska, rather than Israel, had become the home for the Jewish Diaspora after the Second World War? This is the interesting starting point of Michael Chabon's ever so slightly left-field take on the crime genre. Add in Detective Meyer Landsmann, whose most memorable phrase is the nihilistic “nothing means nothing” and you have the ingredients of fantastic alternative reality crime fiction.

In this alternate history, a murder takes place in the grubby motel in which Detective Landsman lives. Divorced and drowning in the mixed misery of work and alcohol, Meyer quietly investigates the case - that of an Orthodox Jew now heroin addict who was once feted as a chess prodigy and possible new messiah for the Jewish people. Throw in a plan by orthodox gangsters to blow up a place of holiness for Muslims, a half Indian partner and an ex-wife who just happens to be his boss and you have a great read!

James Lee Burke has been writing fiction for around fifty years now, and you may expect someone to slow down a little by now. Not Burke, however! The Tin Roof Blowdown centers on the city of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and is generally acknowledged as his finest work to date.

The plot follows detective Dave Robicheaux through his latest case, which involves torture, murder. Mobsters, addicted priests, stolen jewels all appear and a psycho is thrown in for good measure too. On top of this there is the rage that Burke felt about the destruction of New Orleans by Katrina and this informs the tone of the novel. A stunning piece of work which explores the grey areas between the black and the white of everyday life, this deeply humane novel will have you gripped.

You may remember the detective Ezekiel Porterhouse Rawlins in the film Devil in a Blue Dress. Mosley published that novel in 1990 - and set it in the melting pot that was 1940s San Francisco. “Easy” had returned from the horrors of the Second World War and Mosley used him there as the foundation stone for what became a series of novels based around the character. As well as gripping crime stories, Mosley gives us an insight in to how issues of race and gender were dealt with way back then.

Cinnamon Kiss is set in 1966 and is the tenth in the series. In the aftermath of the Watt's riot, the novel finds Easy contemplating a robbery to fund his daughter's much needed operation. In the nick of time his old friend, the PI Saul Lynx contacts him for a case that will take the pair to San Francisco. This thrilling read combines the shocks you would expect with a social conscience - and a real understanding of our recent social history - that sets it apart from much crime fiction.

Not one, but three stories rolled together to make your summer vacation of one blood and gore - if only on the written page! In this, Ellroy introduces his gripping, flawed anti-hero, Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins. Anti-hero is not quite the word! Hopkins is reactionary, he is racist and he is sexually obsessed. An unlikable protagonist, sure, but it is this character that drives the stories forward with a pent up fury that will leave you breathless on occasion.

This will be a good introduction to the works of Ellroy. Although not as suspenseful and substantial as his later LA Quartet series, this is a gentler introduction to the new reader. The LA setting - the noir city of noir cities - makes the thrill of the ride even greater. You will not like the character Hopkins, but that was never the intention - and by avoiding this he has created space for himself within the pantheon of great writers of crime fiction.

A feline sleuth by a female author, how very equal opportunities! Not so, this is not an inclusion of the “better had” school as Douglas stands out as a novelist because of the quality of her writing. However, her books take some beating in terms of their general silliness and believe me this is not a criticism!

I had better get this straight before I go on. The hero of this book is a twenty pound cat who goes by the name of Midnight Louie. Do I need to repeat that? His occasional owner, Temple Barr (geddit?) is a petite, cute, adorable redhead. Together they kookily solve crime in Las Vegas. Those of you who do not believe that this book itself is a crime against the genre will delight in its frivolity. Plus, it's the first of a series, so there's plenty more kitty for you to devour if you want more.

Fire Sale is, unbelievably, the twelfth novel featuring the Polish-American female Private Investigator PI Warshawski. Set on the mean streets of Chicago, don't worry if you haven't read the other eleven as this novel works perfectly well as a stand alone story. Astonishingly, considering the longevity of the character and the series itself, this is a very fresh and enjoyable read.

In this story, V.I takes over the coaching of the girls' basketball team at her old high school. Don't be fooled by the “Kindergarten Cop” premise - this is a gritty and solid read. Through one of the kids at the High School, V.I. becomes embroiled in a local plot to sabotage a local manufacturing plant. The human side of detective fiction, this multi-layered novel will have you sitting on the edge of your seat as you read!

If you like both historical and crime genres of novels, why not combine them both, which is exactly what Louis Bayard's brilliant The Pale Blue Eye does. Bayard's previous novel imagined Tiny Tim, the Dickens character from A Christmas Carol as a young adult. Here he does something similar, with Edgar Allen Poe as a West Point Cadet (true, in real life!) striding around!

The year is 1830 and Gus Landor, a retired New York City detective is retired and living in Hudson Valley. However, his peace and his (unspecified) sorrow are interrupted when he summoned to West Point to investigate a particularly brutal set of goings on. Is there some sort of satanic cult operating inside the famous military academy? Further horrors occur and Landor and Poe are left the only ones who can possibly solve the mystery.

I think of this novel as a kind of modern update of Oliver Twist, only without Oliver. Allow me explain. The central character is a young orphan called Lionel, one of four recruits to the detective agency of a certain Frank Minna. Minna was at one point in his life a hoodlum, but turned his hand to solving crime rather than committing it. SO he is the Fagin figure here, as it were!

When one of the four boys, the “Minna Men” as they call themselves, is murdered, Lionel determines to track down his murder. The twist to the story is that Lionel has Tourette's syndrome. The great thing for him, though, is that the majority of people think that he is stupid rather than simply the owner of a disability. This sounds as if the book may be a little exploitative, but it is not. Compassionate and affirming in turns, the novel is truly one of a kind.

Although written in 1925, The House Without A Key is still an iconic piece of crime literature, being as it is the book in which Charlie Chan makes his first appearance. Chan does not make too great an appearance in the book, possibly to do with the fact that he has a wife and fourteen (yes, fourteen) children to look after.

The plot centers on the murder of a member of Boston's elite society, who having live in Hawaii for a number of years, is murdered there. Queue the entrance of the nephew of the victim, a rather straight-laced young lawyer called John Quincy Winterslip. Chan and Winterslip work out who is the killer at the same time and it is Winterslip who gets the credit. This may be pandering to racial stereotypes of the time, but this novel is very progressive for its time. The visitors from Boston find it impossible to trust a Chinese-American detective, Biggers portrays Chan as very much an equal to his WASP contemporaries.

Murder, corruption and lies, what better elements for a ripping good read while on vacation? GM Ford, who wrote the Leo Waterman mystery novels, has written a tour de force in the novel “Fury”. He also introduces to not one but two new investigators - solving crime in the sound and fury of modern day Seattle.

Frank Corso is an ex-journalist who was sacked for supposedly making up the facts on a story while working for the New York Times. Photographer Meg Dougherty is his more than able (unpaid) assistant. When a woman admits to the fact that her testimony in a trial eight years previously was a pack of lies she turns to the pair to help. The person found guilty, Walter Himes is wanted dead by everybody and his execution is only six days away. This thrilling ride of a novel follows the pair can change public opinion - which resolutely seems not to want to be changed.

While this book is part of the Stephanie Plum series, it is an in-between-the-novels book. This means that is a very quick read, and by many standards almost too quick. And Evanovich is careful with these shorter books not to get into major relationship issues or big plotlines, so the mysterious Diesel is brought in to be Stephanie's counterpart. Morelli and Ranger are usually nowhere to be found in these novellas, but Diesel is a character that embodies the best of both men, so Stephanie still feels quite at home flirting and getting into trouble with him.

While the St. Patty's Day and leprechaun jokes get a little corny, there is still a lot of Stephanie Plum fun packed into this little book. It is a perfect summer read for those who love the Stephanie Plum books, and can be a quick introduction to the character for those who are not familiar with Stephanie Plum. Most of the major plotlines from previous books are summed up in a few sentences in the book.

According to the editors, the establishment of prisons was to fulfill four purposes: deter crime, provide the community with retribution, reform the criminal (or deviant), and incapacitate dangerous criminals.

Punishment in the Time of Aristotle and Plato

The law on homicide dates back to around 620 B.C. In Athens, the Greek city-state that has been the most documented, the types of punishment they inflicted was mostly in the form of retribution. A criminal could be stoned to death, thrown off a cliff or bound to a stake and left to suffer a slow death. The Athenians also punished criminals in material ways by confiscating their assets and destroying their home.

Plato argued that correction should be the primary focus, not retribution. He wrote that criminal acts are done out of ignorance and that perpetrators should be taught to act according to law and what is acceptable in civilization. Plato's ideas didn't take hold until the European Middle Ages.

Disagreement with Religious Doctrine in the 12th and 13th Centuries

Christians experienced widespread dissent during this time and many people who spoke against the accepted religious doctrine were imprisoned for "heretical depravity." These criminals were only executed in extreme cases, but most commonly they would be convicted and imprisoned for life. Joan of Arc is a famous and well-known example of this time and was burned at the stake.

Corporal Punishment

Whipping was the most common early form of corporal (bodily) punishment, and was considered the least severe. The floggings were usually carried out publicly when added an element of shame to the punishment. Moving up in severity was burning the prisoner's skin with a hot-iron brand. The mark left behind was sometime an image incorporated into the city's coat of arms, or the mark of a king or judge. It also served as an identifier for repeat offenders. The most severe form of corporal punishment was mutilation, such as a cut in the cheek, removing of hands, blinding or, most commonly, cutting off an ear.

Punishment Theater

Much of the retribution and punishment for prisoners was doled out in publicly staged events. The death penalty was a well-staged performance that was created to deter crime and justify the punishment. Public officials, court officers and religious leaders all attending a death imposed by the court. Some towns increased the event's drama by marching the condemned prisoner through the town in a long procession to the staging area. The appeal of the public executions waned around the 18th century.

Convicts Imported to America as Slaves

About 50,000 British convicts were shipped to America between 1718 and 1776. Most were condemned for vagrancy but most were convicted of grand larceny. These convicts were mostly males in their 20s and were sold for a third the price of an African slave. The most frequent destinations for these convicts was Maryland and Virginia.

This history of prisons and how we view the purpose of incarceration is a fascinating study is social science that spans all of civilization. The Oxford book gives a comprehensive look that anyone interested in the history of prisons and punishment will appreciate.

The first three books in Vittachi's detective series don't appear to have made it to the "outside" world, so I can only comment on those that follow, since they've been published in Australia.

The Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics is number four in the series. Wong and his perennial young Australian sidekick, Joyce McQuinnie, who, much to his annoyance, has been foisted

upon him as his assistant, solve mysteries that crop up in the course of their Feng Shui business. I use the word "solve" in a loose sense. Wong and McQuinnie are certainly more innovative that McCall Smith s Precious Ramotswe, and in this book they get into far more hot water than that "traditionally-built" woman ever does, but don't go looking for the P D James type of mystery here. Much of what happens to them is accidental (and occidental), and only native wit, the Asian worldview and happenstance get them out of some of their scrapes.

In this book, Vittachi is a writer who can't keep a straight face for more than two minutes - even when he's being serious. On one hand he writes of the very real concerns of vegans regarding people who want to eat animals that are killed before their eyes, of some very nasty "poetic justice" deaths, and of the destruction of the Uyghur culture by the Chinese. On the other he gives us the hilarious exchange between Wong and an official who's about to demolish Wong's office while he's still in it, the shifting of a large, sleepy elephant through a traffic jam, and the cultural battle between an agenda-driven US secret service agent serving the POTUS (work it out!) and his female Chinese counterpart.

The central section of the book with its descriptions of animals dying unpleasant deaths isn't for the squeamish. Nor is its sequel, in which some of the eaters are given their own just desserts. Apart from this, the book speeds wildly along as though it was made up a page at a time. In fact it's better crafted in terms of plot than it appears.

The next book, The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook, is a series of short stories, something that wasn't apparent to me until I came to the end of what appeared to be the first chapter, and discovered there was nothing more about the episode of the tiger in the supermarket.

That slight disappointment out of the way, I enjoyed this second encounter with the middle-aged geomancer C F Wong. Wong is "not a heroic man," he's seemingly out of touch with modern technology, and he likes to eat Asian dishes in a fashion that some Westerners might find disturbing. His love/hate relationship with Joyce McQuinnie continues. She somehow manages to remain a perpetual late teenager, forever falling in love with charming young Asian men without understanding very much about them.

The two characters again solve a variety of odd mysteries by using native wit, instinct and a sometimes devious means. The mysteries themselves aren't cunningly devised so it's possible that readers more astute than me might solve most of them long before Wong and McQuinnie. But I've always been a bit slow when it comes to solving mysteries.

Nevertheless what makes these two books so readable is the witty authorial comment, the quite un-PC view Vittachi has of his fellow Asians, and a delightful playfulness with the English language. And at the beginning of each chapter is an extract from Wong's ongoing masterwork: Some Gleanings of Oriental Wisdom. The Zen-type writing here is both humorous and wise.

While The Shanghai Union was full of word play, vivid writing and, had a tidy plot amongst all the mayhem, Mr Wong's most recent outing, Mr Wong Goes West, sadly lacks most of these qualities.

It's an unfortunate title, since this book goes west in too many ways. There are a couple of scenes in which the absurdities of language are played around with, there are a few stretches of vivid writing, but in general there's a feeling of aimlessness about the thing. The characters are blurred rather than sharp; the murder mystery is solved, but without giving us any reason why it was committed in the first place; and the last fifty pages appear to have been tacked on to make an exciting ending. They have little to do with the rest of the story, and again, Mr Vittachi fails to give us a reason why.

Nevertheless, I'll give the talented Mr Vittachi the benefit of the doubt and hope that the next appearance of C F Wong will be up to scratch.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.com - taken by RaeA