On the radar – Our book report this week takes in some Swedish crime fiction, and Hamish Macbeth is back too. Plus, we’ll introduce you to two new titles from Head of Zeus, a publishing house that launched last year with the aim of bringing new authors and quality writing to the crime fiction scene. Read on to find out more…

Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow
The Kate Shugak series is already well-established stateside and Alaskan author Dana Stabenow was recognised by her peers with an Edgar award in 1994. However, Bad Blood is the first book in the series to make its debut here in the UK. Orphaned at eight, native Aleut woman Kate Shugak is now working as a private investigator in Alaska with a sidekick called Mutt, who is half-wolf, half-husky. A hundred year feud between two Alaskan villages comes to a head with the discovery of a young Kushtaka man wedged in a fish wheel. Sergeant Jim Chopin’s prime suspect is another Kushtaka man who is in trouble on both sides of the river for falling in love, but when he too disappears both villages erect a wall of silence. With the discovery of a second body, Chopin decides it’s time to call in Kate Shugak, who must get to the root of the feud before it’s too late. Bad Blood is published by Head of Zeus and is out on 1 March.
Pre-order now on Amazon

White Bones by Graham Masterson
Edinburgh born writer Graham Masterson is probably best known for his horror bestsellers, but he has now turned his talents to crime fiction. White Bones is his debut with publisher, Head of Zeus. Unmarked graves are not uncommon in the west of Ireland but in a field on a wet November morning, one more grave is about to give up its secrets. The dismembered bones of eleven women, dating back to 1915, are discovered and the bodies bear all the hallmarks of a meticulous executioner. Even more disturbing is that the women were almost certainly skinned alive. Detective Katie Maguire of the Cork Garda is used to dealing with dead bodies but this is something else. While some view an investigation as a waste of police time, Katie believes the women deserve justice. When a young American tourist disappears and her bones are later discovered stripped of flesh on the same farm, Katie is left with a decades-old ritualistic murder to solve before the killer strikes again. White Bones is out on 1 March.
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The Asylum by Johan Theorin
Swedish crime writer Johan Theorin is back with a particularly dark psychological crime thriller set between a nursery and a mental asylum. Only children enter the Dell nursery but when they leave they leave their minds behind. St Patricia’s Asylum is at the opposite end of an underground passage that links the two, and it houses some of the most dangerous people in Sweden. However the passage is not the only connection – the inmates of the asylum just happen to be the parents of the children in the nursery. Jan has just started work at the nursery. He’s a loner with one aim – to get into the asylum. What is his connection to one of its inmates and what really happened to the boy who went missing whilst in his care nine years ago? The Asylum is published by Doubleday and is out on 14 March.
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Death of Yesterday by MC Beaton
On 28 March, Hamish Macbeth returns for his most perplexing investigation yet. When a local woman tells him she can’t remember what happened on the previous evening, Hamish is not overly concerned. She’s been out drinking and to be honest she’s not the most pleasant person to deal with, so why worry? When she turns up in a ditch, Hamish finds himself with a dead witness and a crime that she had forgotten. Death of Yesterday is published by Grand Central Publishing.
Pre-order now on Amazon