On The Radar – This week’s new books report has something of a Euro-crime feel to it, with the first title in a new series winging its way to CFL HQ from Le French Book. This London-based publishing house is on a mission to introduce, among other things, the best French crime to an English-speaking audience. We’re staying in France for our second book, which our radar picked up on in the Amazon Free Best Sellers chart. Then there’s a French-Norwegian collaboration from Bitter Lemon Press, and we round things off with murder most foul in northern Spain.
Winemaker, critic and gentleman detective Benjamin Cooker is on the hunt for a possible saboteur. Someone is trying to ruin his prestigious grand cru Moniales Haut-Brion, but who and why? Aided by his able assistant, Virgile Lanssien, he searches the streets and vineyards of Bordeaux for answers. At £6.17 on Kindle, and a mere 97 pages, it’s not the cheapest new release but this 20-book series has been well received in France, where it is currently being developed into a television series.
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Murder on the Côte d’Azure by Susan Kiernan-Lewis
When Maggie Newberry’s sister is found murdered in her Atlanta condo, Maggie finds herself on a mission to the South of France looking for the young niece she never knew existed. En route she gets herself a travelling companion in Laurent Dernier, but is he there to be a help or a hindrance? Meanwhile, there’s a killer on the loose with Maggie and her niece topping the list of targets. Murder on the Côte d’Azure is currently listed as a freebie on the Amazon Bestsellers chart.
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In Lagos, the head of the Nigerian fraud squad finds himself being evacuated by the secret services. In Nice, a junior prosecutor is busy probing the mysterious death of the wife of a powerful banker, and in St Petersburg, a crusading journalist is on the tail of a corrupt oligarch and his criminal business associates. When the paths of all three cross in London, a chain of violent events is set in motion and it becomes obvious that all three are linked in some way. They’re also in a great deal of danger with a host of very scary people determined to hunt them down. The Eyes of Lira Kazan is out on 18 September.
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Death on a Galician Shore by Domingo Villar
The body of a sailor washes up in the harbour of a quiet fishing village in northwest Spain. DI Leo Caldas is called in from the nearby city of Vigo to sign off what looks to have been a suicide, but it soon turns into a complex murder investigation, linked to a disturbing decades-old shipwreck case and two mysterious disappearances.
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