Book Review: Blood on the Tyne: Red Snow, Rosie Robson Murder Mysteries Book 3, Colin Garrow
Book Review: Blood on the Tyne: Red Snow, Rosie Robson Murder Mysteries Book 3, Colin Garrow
Blog Tour January 11, 2023
Although I have read and reviewed several books by Colin Garrow, I had not previously come across this series of his. Now, I sincerely wish that I had, because if book 3 is any indication then I really want to read books 1 and 2.
Rosie Robson is a little bit of a lot of things. Singer. Friend. Amateur sleuth. She does not seek out mysteries, they just seem to find her.
She and a friend had taken the train to do some shopping. When they return home, Rosie notices a luggage trolley with an arm hanging out. Carefully pulling back the cloth covering the trolley, she discovers a dead man with his throat slit.
Before she entirely knows what is happening to her, she finds herself fleeing for her life from a local gangster, a corrupt cop, and an unknown mystery player who may be the most dangerous of them all. Along the way both she and her friends are thrust into one difficult situation after another, and more than one of them end up hospitalized.
Garrow, as much as any author I have read, really incorporates the feel and vibe of his setting into his characters. The action takes place in a city in northern England. The local accent there is “Geordie,” and it can be a bit daunting to parse even for other English speakers. Garrow even includes a Geordie dictionary at the end of the book to help translate some of the local expressions. The US and England may be separated by a common language, but Britain itself is separated by the various flavors of English spoken in the country.
Rosie herself is a fun and energetic character. Brave, smart, and loyal to her friends, she is certainly not the cops’ ideal amateur detective (assuming they have an ideal amateur detective). But she gets the job done, even if sometimes it gets done by getting herself kidnapped and tortured. Not the recommended method, but sometimes the direct approach is the one that works. Rosie Robson is a lot of things. Direct is one of them.
Our thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel’s Random Resources for our copy of Blood on the Tyne: Red Snow, given to us so we could review this novel for the blog tour. The opinions here are solely those of Scintilla. For other perspectives, check out the other bloggers on this tour.
Book Review: Blood on the Tyne: Red Snow, Rosie Robson Murder Mysteries Book 3, Colin Garrow
What a lovely review – thanks very much 😉