Sunday 19 June 2011

Dead End Review in The Times

Review of Dead End
in The Times:

"In Dead End, Leigh Russell's third and best novel... all the ingredients combine to make a tense, clever police whodunnit."
(Marcel Berlins)

13 comments:

Stella Jones said...

That's a compliment. Congratulations!

Guillaume said...

Congrats! (And is it me or does people call whodunits things that are not whodunits at all?).

Leigh Russell said...

Thanks, Star. It's great to be mentioned in The Times.

Leigh Russell said...

Hi Guillaume. I write in that genre and there are certainly 'whodunnit' elements in my novels, but the main interest is the characters' motivation rather than working out the puzzle. Marcel Berlins is a very experienced crime fiction critic - writing for The Times! - so I wouldn't challenge his opinion myself.

Leigh Russell said...

That said, I do find all the labels rather confusing as there is so much crossover. Thriller, mystery, detective, murder, crime thriller, crime fiction... and of course in the US the terminology is slightly different again...

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Wow, congratulations.

Leigh Russell said...

Thanks, Debs. It's great to be mentioned in The Times again. As for being 'clever' ... what can I say? !

Guillaume said...

I have only read one of your novels, but I wouldn't consider it whodunit (we know who did it, for one), although there are some elements of it. It is mainly a thriller. But the "proper" whodunit as subgenre I think is more or less passé.

Leigh Russell said...

Depends which one you read, Guillaume. Cut Short tells the parallel stories of the killer and the detective and the tension lies in finding out when he is stopped in his killing spree. Road Closed and Dead End are more of a puzzle for the reader, but again the main interest lies in the characters and their motivation.

Pat said...

Lovely to reap the rewards of all that hard work.

Jill Kemerer said...

Wow, what a great review!! Congrats on the release!!

HelenMWalters said...

Fabulous review!

Leigh Russell said...

Thanks, Jill.
Thanks, Helen.

It's always nice to see supportive comments here.