On the Radar — Heading up our new releases this week is a new novel by Susan Hill. Sleep sweetly, though. She is not in scare-the-pants-off-you mode, but she is wearing her making-you-think hat, with another thought-provoking case for DCI Simon Serrailler in his cathedral city. More criminal intent is guaranteed with novels featuring a Muscovite sexual predator, a kidnapped Greek shipping magnate, and a murdered Tokyo novelist. Then, there’s an English stately home hosting a rock festival which, of course, goes decidedly pear-shaped…
Susan Hill was well established as a literary writer before The Woman In Black (1983) went on to become arguably the best – and most terrifying – ghost story written in modern times. Her crime fiction series featuring detective Simon Serrailler began in 2004 with The Various Haunts of Men, and this is the eighth novel based in the fictional city of Lafferton, somewhere in southern England. The quiet and enigmatic DCI is called away from the routine criminality on Lafferton’s quaint streets to go undercover and deal with two totally up-to-date issues – a paedophile ring, and assisted dying. Hill is one of Britain’s foremost living authors, so expect themes and nuance well removed from your run-of-the-mill crime fiction storylines. Published on 2 October.
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This is the latest in a popular series of crime novels featuring Alex Mavros, a Greek PI. The first glimpse we had of Mavros was in 2009, with A Deeper Shade of Blue, but when the author realised that the title was competing with a song by a manufactured pop group he despised, he changed the name to Crying Blue Murder. In The White Sea, Mavros is pulled in as a last resort by a a clueless police force who have completely failed in their search for a kidnapped shipping magnate. There is no ransom demand, and the family are not desperate to find the missing man, so what does Mavros have to go on. Despite the potential involvement of that de rigeur trope of recent crime novels – a Russian crime gang – Mavros sighs, breathes deeply, downs his glass of retsina, and gives chase. Out now in print and for Kindle on 1 October.
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This is the latest psychological thriller from the New Jersey-based author Patricia MacDonald, who has a huge following in France. Most of her books are instantly translated, and are bestsellers in the home of Maigret and Arsène Lupin. However this one is set in West Pennsylvania. A family have been relocated. They are living under assumed names because of a dark secret buried in their shared past. But when that past returns and threatens to destabilise their world, Hannah, Adam and Sydney Wickes are forced to re-evaluate their coping strategies and make crucial decisions about who is friend and who is foe. On the shelves from 1 October.
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Since 2011 Louise has had a War, a Gamble, a Dilemma – and now a Blunder. Louise Pearlie, a 1940s American agent in the Office of Strategic Services, is asked to investigate a fellow OSS worker but discovers that Paul Hughes is dead. He drowned in DC’s huge reservoir, the Tidal Basin. Her bosses quickly return Louise to normal duties, but a dogged homicide detective suspects foul play and, against her instincts she helps him investigate the mysterious death. Miss Pearlie also finds time to explore issues which were – at the time – controversial, such as racial equality and women’s rights, but at its heart this book remains a good old fashioned whodunnit, with a dash of political and social history. Available on 1 October.
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DCI Monika Paniatowski’s boss has handed her a poisoned chalice by way of making her responsible for security at a rock festival at a local manor house. He rubs his hands with delight at the prospect of her failing to ensure that law and order prevail on the estate of Earl Ridley. Paniatowski’s task is made no easier by the intervention of the Earl’s meddlesome mother, and a gang of bikers called The Devil’s Disciples. Supping With The Devil came out in hardback in summer this year, but will be available on Kindle from 1 October.
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Lisa Black’s Cleveland, Ohio forensic investigator Theresa MacLean is approaching veteran status, as this is her seventh adventure. Usually, she manages to maintain an emotional detachment from the victims she must examine, but when she returns to the office late one night, she finds one member of the team beaten to death, and other missing, believed dead. The book’s title becomes acutely relevant as MacLean is drawn into an investigation which uncovers another unexplained death in her office, but 10 years earlier. Her own safety comes under threat as she gets closer to the truth. This book will be available for Kindle format from 1 October.
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Pre-Glasnost Russia may still exist in the monolithic housing blocks of the Moscow suburbs, and in the mindset of both those in power and the elderly who grew up in the Soviet era, but burning bright in the middle of the greyness is a small flame fuelled by a younger generation, and the boundless possibilities of digital communication. Ksenia works for an online news service, and is drawn into the hunt for a serial killer who specialises in sexual savagery. The book was previously published in Russian, and had a cult foll0wing, but this first English translation is available on 26 September.
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The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino is one of the biggest selling Japanese thrillers ever, both inside and outside the country. In the latest translation of his work, we meet Kyoichiro Kaga, the principal investigator with the Metropolitan Police Department’s First Division in Tokyo. Published in Japan as Akui in 1996, it sees popular author Kunihiko Hidaka brutally murdered in a locked room, within a locked home. The next day, he was due to leave his homeland for a new life in Canada. As Kaga investigates who had reason to wish the novelist dead, he initially suspects a literary rival of the dead man, but soon realises that the key to solving the murder may lie more in the past than in the present. Published on 9 October.
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