On the radar – As RoughJustice pointed our on our site a week or two ago, plenty of hot new books are being released this summer. Our radar this week has picked up books falling into the categories of something old, something new, and a couple of tasty treats with a decidedly European flavour. First off, we step back to the pulp era with Hard Case Crime and Harlan Ellison…
Originally published back in the early days of hardboiled crime writing, Titan Books imprint Hard Case Crime is set to reintroduce Web of the City to a new crime fiction loving readership in April 2013. The book was actually science fiction legend Harlan Ellison’s very first novel and, set in the 1950s, tells the story of a teenage boy who tries to leave the New York gang of which he is a member. Thus, he puts himself and his family in danger. Ellison spent 10 weeks undercover as a gang member researching the book. In addition to the original story, this release also includes three extra, thematically related short stories which Ellison wrote for the pulp magazines, which were so popular in his day.
The latest release from this Norwegian queen of crime welcomes a new detective to the ranks, Oslo police officer Hanne Wilhelmsen. A small-time drug dealer is found battered to death and a young Dutchman is wandering aimlessly not far from the crime scene. The lawyer the boy requests to defend him also happens to be the person who found the victim’s body. A few days later, shady lawyer Hansa Larsen is found shot dead. Before long, Hanne and her partner Håkon Sand realise the two deaths are linked. It’s a conspiracy that’s about more than drug dealers and lawyers and may reach up into the corridors of power. Hanne finds herself in a race against time, battling for her own survival in the process.
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In 2008, Patrick Conrad won the Diamant Bullit Award (Best Thriller of the Netherlands and Belgium) for Starr. His latest novel, published by Bitter Lemon Press, is a thriller very much in the noir tradition. Victor Cox is a professor of film history in Antwerp with a particular interest in 1940s and 50s Hollywood noir, but his passion is about to become his worst nightmare. First his wife is found drowned and Cox automatically becomes the prime suspect. Then a series of gruesome murders imitating violent deaths from his favourite films begins to occur. With all the evidence pointing at him, Cox begins to doubt his own sanity… and innocence.
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Milan in the late 1960s and the body of a woman is found on the side of a road. Dr Duca Lamberti has just been released from prison having served three years for practising euthanasia. He’s approached by wealthy industrialist, Auseri, who’s looking for help for his son Davide’s alcohol problems. After Davide attempts suicide, he tells Lamberti how he met Alberta, the young woman discovered on the roadside. It’s a death that Davide feels responsible for and Duca sets out to discover the truth about the girl’s death, assisted by Davide’s friend, Livia Ussaro.
Pre-order now on Amazon
