On the Radar — This week our crime fiction news brings a mouth-watering clash of the crime fiction titans with new releases from Dennis Lehane, Lee Child and Michael Connelly. We also thought we might throw in something of a wildcard. Manly Murders is set in Australia, written by a Swede, and has been called Australia’s answer to Midsomer Murders.
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
Out this week, Live by Night takes us to 1920s Boston and 19-year-old small-time thief Joe Coughlin’s life changes when he and his accomplices attempt to raid a casino. Coughlin makes the biggest mistake possible – he falls in love with the woman he’s instructed to cuff, a woman who just happens to be the girlfriend of Albert White, boss of Boston’s largest organised crime gang. It’s a story of prohibition and boot-legging which, in true Lehane style, is ultimately filled with violence and double-crosses.
Buy now on Amazon
A Wanted Man by Lee Child
For Child fans, A Wanted Man is a wanted book, and it hit the shelves just recently. Here, four people are heading to Chicago by car – a man at the wheel concentrating on the road, beside him a man telling stories that just don’t add up, and in the back a worried woman and hitch-hiker. An hour behind them a man has been murdered execution style in an old pumping station. Within hours of the police being notified, the FBI are on the scene mopping things up and the murder victim is spirited away. All Jack was looking for was a ride to Virginia, but hitching a lift gets him embroiled in something far more dangerous, and he finds himself hunted by both sides. Watch for our review tomorrow.
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The Black Box by Michael Connelly
It’s 20 years since the release of Michael Connelly’s first Harry Bosch book The Black Echo, and the same amount of time has passed since four LAPD officers were acquitted after the savage attack on Rodney King. Los Angeles erupted into lawlessness, with looting and blazes burning all over the city. Harry Bosch is a detective who is just trying to do his job, but with no effective police presence around for backup, investigating anything is far from easy. When he finds the body of a murdered female journalist in an alleyway, he is not prepared to accept he won’t be able to bring her killer to justice. Move forward 20 years and Harry’s now working for the Open Unsolved Unit, and a murder from the past is about to haunt him in ways he could never have imagined. It’s out next month.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Manly Murders – A Mother Without A Child by Gunilla Haglundh
This one’s by an experiences author, but it’s her first venture into fiction. In Manly Murders, Australian business icon Martin Stream is murdered on his journey to work on the Manly ferry. Local DI, Georgia Snow and Stephen French are assigned the case. The victim was married with three children and a global business empire. The police think they’re close to solving the murder but then a well-dressed European woman is found murdered at Manly’s ghostly Quarantine Station. Are the two death’s connected?
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