On the Radar – This week’s new crime books report sees a face-off between London and New York with two crime novels set in each city. Our radar has picked up on two interesting debut crime stories from both sides of the Atlantic and welcome returns from science fiction/police procedural writer JD Robb, and thriller queen Lynda La Plante. To find out more about this week’s eclectic mix, read on…
Book 35 in JD Robb’s In Death Series is set in the not so distant future. Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team aren’t prepared for the grisly scene that awaits when they’re called out to a bar owned by her husband Roarke, in downtown New York. The bodies of dead office workers are strewn all over the floor, having been sliced, bludgeoned or hacked to death, and it looks like they killed each other. What could possibly have caused a group of random strangers to turn on one another like that? While investigating the city’s big business workers, a possible link is found to the Urban Wars that occurred decades earlier and are mentioned in Creation in Death, where chemical weapons were used. Eve must stop a killer out for revenge before he sparks another bloodbath and creates mass carnage.
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From Mangia to Murder by Caroline Mickelson
Here we step back in time to 1946 and head to Manhattan’s Little Italy district where Sophia Mancini and her family are celebrating the opening of their private detective agency. However, all is not running smoothly. Vincenzo’s Ristorante’s volatile chef has just been knifed in the back leaving Sophia with a case to solve rather than a spumoni to enjoy. Before she knows it, she’s trailing a crime boss, dodging his goons and chatting to his mistress, but Sophia’s none too sure about Vincenzo’s widow, or the assistant chef, Eugene. Why is no-one upset about the man’s death?
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Dead
Brothers, Sean and Daniel Campbell make their crime fiction debut with Dead on Demand, a tale in which wealthy career man, Edwin Murphy decides to take drastic action when his wife files for divorce. With the threat of losing his home, job and daughter, Edwin resolves to kill his wife and get his lifestyle back. When bodies start turning up all over London, the police are baffled, especially as there seems to be nothing linking each of the victims. Chief Inspector David Morton and his team are charged with trawling through a web of deceit to find a killer.
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She’s Out by Lynda La Plante
Coming soon to Kindle for the first time is Lynda La Plante’s third Dolly Rawlins novel, originally printed in 1995. Newly released from a lengthy stretch for the murder of her husband, Rawlins has one thing on her mind. Getting her hands on the six million in diamonds she’d stashed just before the police caught up with her. Unfortunately for her, there’s a small welcoming committee waiting to meet her as she leaves, and they all have an agenda. On one side there are the women she met inside. They all know about the diamonds and they’re there for their cut. On the other, a Met DS who holds Dolly responsible for the death of his sister who was killed during a diamond heist 10 years earlier, who wants her firmly back inside.
Dolly however has other plans but realising them isn’t going to be easy and people are going to get hurt. The question is, will Dolly be one of them? She’s Out will be available to download from 11 October.
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