On the Radar — Every week on a Thursday you can count on us for snapshots of some of the latest crime fiction releases and today we’ve got a new book from old campaigner Lawrence Block, and Irish author Adrian McKinty follows up his five-star effort The Cold Cold Ground with a new novel in that series. True crime turned into a story features with a book on the New York gangster Willie Sutton, plus a debut and some scintillating Scandinavian Crime Fiction…
Catholic detective Sean Duffy returns in the follow-up to The Cold Cold Ground and, having recovered from the beatings, shootings and sectarian warfare of troubled Belfast, now he’s dealing with a torso that’s been found in a suitcase. The only clue is a tattoo, but will it be enough to find the killer? Duffy is one doggedly determined detective, though, so perhaps his obsessive perseverance will help him crack the mystery. The first chapter is entitled A Town Called Malice, so as in McKinty’s first Duffy mystery clearly the needle is going to hit the vinyl for an 80s soundtrack to go with the crime fiction. It’s out 10 January.
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This novelisation based on true story of Irish-American gangster Willie Sutton has had an excellent reception in the United States and arrives in hardback on British shores on 17 January. Sutton came from the slums of Brooklyn and, contemporaneous to Al Capone, built a reputation as a bank robber. “He never fired a shot after all, and his victims were merely those bloodsucking banks,” it says here. However he did become known as one of the most dangerous men in New York. JR Moehringer, a Pultzer winner, went through files and reports, but also spoke to Sutton’s descendants to find out what the man was really like.
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The somewhat less conspicuous British author Jason Beech has self-published his debut crime novel, which is set in Sheffield. Tony Mortimer has a good job killing people for cash, but now he has to take down his boss, Fred. To complicate matters, after growing up a lonely child he discovers that he has five brothers – the upside is he now has a family which is what he always missed. The downside is they surround him, taking to his gangster lifestyle and living off his earnings. It’s a hot summer night in 1990s Sheffield, and blood will be spilled.
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If The Killing III has tantalised your crime fiction tastebuds for more Nordic Noir, then watch for this release on 7 February from Harvill Secker. The Healer, Antti Tuomainen’s third novel, came out last year in Finland and is now appearing in English. Here we find Helsinki descending into chaos as climate change causes the subway to flood in mid-winter, and diseases are spreading. Meanwhile anarchy is on the way with private security firms rampant. When poet Tapani Lehtinen’s wife goes missing there’s no-one to turn to so he goes in search of her himself. Is Johanna’s disappearance to do with the fact that she was researching a serial killer called The Healer? Ummm… let’s see…
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The award-winning veteran crime author Lawrence Block is back and so is one of his anti-heroes, Keller. The hitman has retired and become Nicholas Edwards, a quiet type of guy who lives in New Orleans and renovates houses. However, with the construction industry hitting the skids, the economy forces him to fall back on his original profession. He returns to New York, a scene from his bad old days, and his target is the abbot of a monastery in the middle of Manhattan. A deluxe limited edition of 500 copies is being put together by Mysterious Bookshop, which includes a special Keller stamp collection! Diary: 12 February.
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