Michael Connelly – The Black Echo (Orion, £7.99) ****

Harry Bosch, Vietnam veteran, now LAPD detective, is called out to a body in a drainage tunnel. Bosch also knows the victim – Billy Meadows, a former tunnel rat from Vietnam. Harry finds himself with two cases to solve – Meadows’ murder and his link to an unsolved bank robbery. This first Harry Bosch novel is republished to celebrate 20 years since he was first launched and has prompted me to raid my bookshelves and reread the rest. If you enjoy tight, hard-edged crime fiction at its best Michael Connelly’s great series is a brilliant read.

Joan S Womersley, 64, retired

Paul Carr – The Upgrade (Phoenix, £8.99) *

Autobiography, travelogue, internet guide, tips on getting a great hotel room rates – an amalgamation of all these should have made for an interesting read. However, Paul Carr who, as an experiment, decided to sell most of his worldly goods and move out of his London flat and live in hotels on a budget for a year, turned this book into one huge drunken ego trip. The room rate and upgrade advice became tedious and the only redeeming features were his two friends Robert Lock and Sarah Lacy – he should have listened to them sooner!

Hazel Wright, retired, Wibsey