Thursday, January 24, 2019

Book Review: Death By Sheer Torture


The book that I am reviewing is the first complete mystery novel in the book above.  I am doing it this way as well as any complete novels that are in compilations so that each full novel is counted instead only one for the entire book in my Goodreads count.

Death By Sheer Torture is the first novel in the Perry Trethowan series by Robert Barnard.  Perry Trethowan is a British detective that discovers the death of his estranged father by reading it in the newspaper just before his supervisor calls him to tell Perry that he wants him to go to the family estate to work as an intermediary between the police and his eccentric family in the investigation of his father's death.  Perry reluctantly goes thereafter hearing that his father was killed by a form of torture that was used by the Spanish Inquisition that was modified so that Perry's father could operate it himself.  There was some tampering with the torture equipment that caused his father's death.  Which one in the eccentric family could have tampered with it?

This is the first book I've ever read by this author and enjoyed it.  The author is good at working in humorous situations in the story.  There will definitely be more reads of this author by me in the future.

If interested in reading this book, you can purchase it in various formats from the following sites: 

Amazon:   https://www.amazon.com/Death-Sheer-Torture-Robert-Barnard-ebook/dp/B00APJ7JH8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1548390552&sr=1-1&keywords=death+by+sheer+torture

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-by-sheer-torture-robert-barnard/1000290892?ean=9781476716268


World of Sleuths Rating:  ➷➷➹➹➹
(Five out of six arrows)

Book Review: Polar Melt

First of all, I would like to thank the author, Martin Roy Hill, for sending me an advanced review copy of this book for in return of a fair review of the book.

I also need to apologize to my readers for a lack of reviews for several months.  This was brought on because of health problems and moving back in August.  With the New Year, I made a resolution to write a review of every book I read. For the newer books (books that aren't old enough to fall in the Public Domain), I will post the reviews here in this blog. I will post reviews in my blog Tim's Public Domain Reads.



Polar Melt is the latest novel by thriller and science-fiction author Martin Roy Hill.  It is a near-future science-fiction thriller.  It starts out with a deep submergence vehicle (DSV) or mini sub that returns to the Research Vessel Franklin which is in arctic waters of the Alaskan coast and just outside of the line denoting Russian waters.  Shortly after that, all communications from the Franklin cease and an elite team from the U.S. Coast Guard is sent to the Franklin to investigate.  Upon arrival and subsequent investigations, it is discovered that there is nobody on board of the Franklin's crew and there is no power.  There is a Russian oil platform nearby in Russian waters tat claim they didn't  see or hear anything.  Who or what is behind these disappearances and the loss of power?

I have reviewed a few other of Martin's works between this and my other blog (before it became just for older books) and each and every one of them I have thoroughly enjoyed.  This one is no exception.  The author put his experience from when he was in the U.S. Coast Guard and other branches of the military to use  in writing this novel to make it feel like it is something happening now.

If you are interested in reading this book, you can purchase it in various formats from the following site:

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Polar-Melt-MARTIN-ROY-HILL-ebook/dp/B07HZ6GZVG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1548383545&sr=1-1&keywords=polar+melt


World of Sleuths Rating:  ➷➷➹➹➹➹
(Six out of Six arrows)