The latest book and film reviews

SIGNORA VOLPE: SERIES ONE

Acorn, cert 12

DVD 2-disc set £24.99 & on Digital

After spending years in the gloom-laden morgue in Silent Witness you can’t begrudge Emilia Fox (pictured) downing her scalpel for some Italian sunshine in this escapist crime series that’s as sweet as a cornetto.

It seems dissecting cadavers isn’t the only dreary job when it comes to solving mysteries, because Emilia’s MI6 agent Sylvia Fox (or Volpe in Italian) is fed up with her new desk job at spy HQ in London. She misses a previous Bond-like career hunting bad guys and saving the world.

She may be blonde and petite, but Ms Volpe has particular skills (to quote Liam Neeson) including weaponry and linguistics. It proves handy when she attends her niece’s wedding in sunny Umbria, only for the bridegroom to vanish and a woman’s body to turn up in the lake at the bottom of his garden. Now Sylvia's enjoying a little recreation time hunting down the groom and stepping on the toes of gangsters in the process. So much more fun than throwing confetti and dodging flying bouquets.

Good job she knows how to snoop around eavesdropping on clandestine meetings, planting electronic devices and using car seatbelts to disable nasty villains.

To no one’s surprise at the end of the first series of the UKTV Drama and Acorn streaming service hit, Sylvia decides to make up with her sister Isabel (Tara Fitzgerald) who lives there, quit her job and stay in Italy. The chance of helping dashing Carabinieri Captain Giovanni Riva (Giovanni Cirfiera) solve other cases is too good to miss. It’s like Midsomer with sunshine and a dazzling spook. A second series is coming.

8/10

THE RETIREMENT PLAN

Signature, cert 15

DVD £9.99 & on Digital

In his seventh 2023 film, Nicolas Cage turns up with a beard, long grey hair and a Hawaiian shirt playing Matt, retired Special Forces veteran turned beach bum in the Cayman Islands in this action-comedy. Matt doesn't recognise his 11-year-old granddaughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell) when she surprisingly turns up. Matt’s estranged daughter has sent Sarah with a flash drive in her backpack that could put mobster Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) behind bars. With Sarah’s dad being held hostage, Donnie despatches henchmen Bobo (Ron Perlman) and General (Ronnie James Hughes) to get the flash drive back. Can Matt sober up, re-discover his John Wick within, and help young Sarah defeat the bad guys? You bet!

7/10

INSIDE MAN

101 Films, cert 15

On Digital

This is a cracking crime B-movie that deserved more budget thanks to a great turn from Emile Hirsch, once a fast-rising star, who commands the screen here as fiery tempered cop Bobby Belucci. When he rescues a guy from an attacker Bobby finds himself introduced to the mob as potential muscle. His fists have landed Bobby with a desk job, but he persuades his boss to let him go undercover to bring down the Mafia boss Roy DeMeo (Danny A. Abeckaser). But Bobby’s in over his head when to prove his loyalty he’s ordered to carry out a hit. It’s tight and tense and Hirsch deserves another shot at stardom in a major film.

7/10

ROSELAND

Judy Finnigan; Sphere £20

Fans have waited a decade for this follow-up to bestselling Eloise. Cathy has drawn memories of times spent at Roseland - Eloise’s ancestral Cornish home - around her like a comfort blanket. However, doubts about the manner of her friend’s death still torment her, and in dreams Eloise asks her to save her daughters from danger. The shock re-marriage of Eloise’s beloved Jack brings Cathy back to face the ghosts that await.

THE MAN OF HER DREAMS

Sarra Manning; Hodder £20

If you loved her London With Love hit, don’t miss this. Life’s been tough for Esme. Her parents divorced and her elder sister reluctantly took her in. Her own marriage was another disaster. Now, after colliding with a cyclist her dreaml man, Theo, has materialised in her hospital cubicle. Or is it a head injury fantasy?

CHILD OF THE RUINS

Kate Furnival; Hodder £18.99

Berlin in 1948 is a broken and divided city. Against a shocking background of poverty and despair the lives of two women collide. Anna’s searching amidst chaos for her lost son, but someone menacing is following. Ingrid meanwhile will do anything to survive in this haunting story.

Reviews: Janet McKechnie

8/10

THE CAGE

Quintin Jardine; Headline £22

He’s one of our best crime writers, and this case again involves Bob Skinner, the former Scottish Chief Constable who’s now a media mogul, but still helps former protege Det Supt Harold Haddock. Here they face a mystery with more layers than a Russian doll, when millionaire Gavin Ayre’s found dead on a beach. Ayre was shot dead by an obviously professional sniper. But, who, and why? The victim had no friends or family and appears to have no background, family or friends. It smacks of high-level conspiracy.

8/10

THE LITTLE LIAR

Mitch Albom; Sphere £16.99

This story of the Holocaust told from a different angle, is sadly topical. After the Nazis invade Greece, 11-year-old Nico is tricked into convincing fellow Jewish citizens to board the trains the Germans say are heading to the East where they will find jobs and a happier future. It’s a lie. When he persuades people he knows to board thee trains they are heading to death in the concentration camps. Many characters, both good and bad are brought vividly to life in this moving story from a brilliant writer.

9/10