On the radar – It’s Super Thursday – today is traditionally the day when publishers release the books they hope will vie for a position on the Christmas bestseller’s chart. Two books crime thrillers hoping to make that sales list this year are Lee Child’s The Affair and Robert Harris’ The Fear Index. Here at CFL we thought we’d start the ball rolling with a few suggestions for your letter to Santa…
CC Benison is the pen-name of Canadian author Doug Whiteway, who is probably best known for his Her Majesty Investigates series, which sees Queen Elizabeth join forces with housemaid Jane Bee to solve murders in her royal palaces. Eleven Pipers is book number two in his Father Christmas mysteries, but we’re not talking Santa and Rudolph here, rather a country vicar.
Father Tom Christmas would do anything to avoid attending the annual Burns Night Supper, but as chaplain to the traditional Scottish pipe band his presence is requested. Outside the snow is falling and festivities are briefly interrupted by the arrival of an enigmatic stranger. Then, Will Moir – proprietor of the hotel where the supper is taking place and dedicated piper – goes missing. He turns up dead from a suspected heart attack in the hotel’s dark tower. Gossip in the village of Thornford Regis is rife and the word is that Will’s end was anything but natural. The question is, who would benefit most from his death? Eleven Pipers Piping is due out 30 October.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Instrument of Slaughter by Edward Marston
With more than 50 books to his name, and detectives who span the centuries – from Domesday to the streets of Elizabethan and Restoration London – now Edward Marston brings us Instrument of Slaughter, the second book in his Home Front Detective series.
It’s 1916 and Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy have a murder to investigate. Cyril Ablatt, a young conscientious objector, has been found bludgeoned to death after making a speech at a mass meeting. With the jingo brigade in full swing, there’s little public sympathy for a man who refused to fight for King and country. Marmion and Keedy face two problems – a growing list of suspects and an image of the victim that doesn’t seem to ring true. When a second victim is found in the same part of London, Marmion is sure that the two deaths aren’t linked. With the press on the attack, the pressure is on. Instrument of Slaughter is out on 29 October.
Pre-order now on Amazon
First they brought us The Hypnotist, now Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, the crime writing duo better known as Lars Kepler, are back with their second case for Detective Inspector Joona Linna. A young woman is found dead on an abandoned boat. Cause of death – drowning, but her clothes are dry. A young man is found hanging in his apartment… suicide the most likely cause. Two seemingly unrelated deaths, but the woman just happens to be the sister of a prominent peace activist, and the man was Director General of a Swedish Arms committee. There’s a killer at large with a long list of targets in his sights. Can Joona Linna stop the nightmare?
Buy now on Amazon
The Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell
Her writing career spans more than 20 years and her novels have been translated into 36 languages. The Bone Bed is the 20th book in the case files of Chief Medical Examiner, Kay Scarpetta. When a woman vanishes during an archaeological dig in the Canadian wilderness, over 2000 miles away in Boston the only evidence mysteriously turns up in Scarpetta’s inbox. But why? The case quickens its pace and all the indicators suggest that the palaeontologist’s disappearance may be linked to other crimes closer to home. Suspicion and danger seem to have penetrated her closest circles, making it hard to tell who she can turn to. The Bone Bed is out in a few days time.
Pre-order now on Amazon
