On the Radar — Let’s see – what’s the biggest news this week? The return of Jame Sallis with an interesting premise for his latest novel? Herefordshire exorcist Merrily Watkins on the case in her 12th outing? Back to gangland with Martina Cole? We’ve got a debut crime novel, and a cosy too. Read on and enjoy our round-up of the latest crime releases…
Others of my Kind by James Sallis
The press release and jacket shout about Drive – a brutal and action-packed film adaptation of a Sallis novel. However, the author also has a growing reputation for his introspective, atmospheric and – yes – literary penmanship. Others of My Kind has an intriguing premise – what happens to someone who was abducted as a child escapes, gets taken into care, and later grows up to become a fairly normal production editor at a local TV station? Maybe Jenny Rowan will have to relive the terrors of her past when a detective asks her to help him with a similar abduction case. Set in the near future, and just 157 pages long, it’s on the TBR pile here at CFL. Released 27 October in print, out now for Kindle.
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The Magus Of Hay by Phil Rickman
Rev Merrily Watkins is light years away from the Vicar of Dibley. Cosy comic female vicar she most definitely is not. She is 30-something, attractive, widowed, and has an intense and nubile teenage daughter with a tendency to put herself in harm’s way. She also has an emotionally damaged but brilliant musician boyfriend. Oh yes, and Rev Watkins also heads up the Deliverance Mission for the Diocese of Hereford. In other words, she’s an exorcist. In this, the 12th Merrily novel, she becomes involved in the murder of an aging Satanist, the disturbing events surrounding the opening of a pagan bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, and the little matter of a local woman who sees the body of her recently deceased secretary next to her bed every morning. Crime, police procedure and a portrait of the modern Anglican Church combine to make a welcome return for the redoubtable Rev Watkins. Read our interview with the author here, and watch for our review soon. Available on 7 November.
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Thicker Than Water by Kerry Wilkinson
A babysitter goes missing, but is found a short while later in an apparently random house on the other side of the city. It turns out that an obituary for the dead teenager had already appeared in the local press – before the disappearance. DS Jessica Daniel has to unravel the tangled knot of half-clues and half-truths that she discovers as she works her Manchester beat. Despite being a Somerset man, Kerry Wilkinson knows his Manchester inside out, and readers of the earlier Jessica Daniel books will welcome her return. Read our 2011 interview with the author here. Out on 24 October.
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Revenge by Martina Cole
In this, her 20th novel, Martina Cole revisits the world of corruption, gang bosses and power struggles. Expect extravagant lifestyles, passion, betrayal and violence. This is the tale of Michael Flynn, an emerging mobster, who inherits a gangland empire on the death of his long-time mentor, Patrick Costello. But this is not a royal coronation acclaimed by a loyal nation, it is gangland, and Flynn is soon disabused of any thoughts he might have had about a calm and peaceful accession. If he wants to remain the cockerel on the top of this particular midden, then he is going to have to match ruthlessness with ruthlessness, and savagery with savagery. Published on 24 October.
Pre-order now on Amazon
The Real Thing by Marne Davis Kellogg
Life has changed. The world has changed. Kick Keswick, the world’s greatest jewel thief, has changed. Kick is retired and settled into her comfortable Provencal life on her farm, Le Petit Pomme. But when one of Paris’s most exclusive jewelry stores is robbed for several million dollars worth of jewels and two security guards are killed in the heist, Kick’s husband, Sir Thomas Curtis, head of the International Security Task Force, asks her to help. Kick soon finds herself on a high-speed train to the Côte d’Azur tracking the ringleader of one of Europe’s most dangerous gangs. “The Real Thing is what happens just when you think you have everything in its perfect place and God steps in and clears the table,” says the publisher. The book is out on 5 November.
Don’t Breathe the Air by Simon Fellowes
Author Simon Fellowes already has a career of creativity in the music industry behind him – he wrote for the NME, has performed as part of the band Intaferon, and is also a music video director. That behind the scenes knowledge and rich doses of cynicism have been mixed down into his debut crime novel, Don’t Breathe the Air. Set in the late 90s, it sees ambitionless studio producer Paul Marston become entwined in the case of a murdered teenage girl on the other side of the world, in Los Angeles. Could the Londoner’s father have a connection to the girl’s family? Marston journeys to the West Coast and enters a world of drugs, more drugs, murder, broken dreams and… more drugs. They’re calling it noir – get the lowdown with our upcoming review. It’s out now for Kindle, and on Halloween in print.
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