On the Radar — This week’s biggest crime release comes from the pen of John Grisham who, as he normally does, puts a high flying lawyer in an unfamiliar situation and tests their moral grit. Of course, there’s a compelling storyline and backdrop to it as well. Gray Mountain is for lovers of legal thrillers. Our radar is also picking up a family history detective, a new book set in Glasgow, a hunter on the plains of Africa, and one about some rich London pranksters. There’s more too. Enjoy, and let us know which ones you’ll be adding to your TBR pile.
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
The master of the the legal thriller returns, but this time the bulk of the action takes place far away from Manhattan and Brooklyn. It’s 2008, and the banking crisis has struck. Samantha Kofer’s top job at a Wall Street law firm vanishes overnight. She is handed a straw to clutch. If she takes a year out, and goes to work pro bono in a small Virginia town she might get a job afterwards. So, she packs her bags and goes to Brady, where she finds a population only slightly larger than the workforce she left behind. There is also its poverty, insularity and disconnect from mainstream America. Samantha is a quick learner, but she becomes embroiled in a legal battle involving the controversial coal mining method known as MTR – mountain top removal. She finds herself in a fight which is not confined to court, and the small town with big secrets proves to be the most dangerous place she has ever been. Out on 23 October.
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The Lost Empress by Steve Robinson
The latest in the popular series featuring Jefferson Tayte, the genealogist-turned-detective, sees Tayte investigating a mystery which began on a foggy night in 1914, when The Empress of Ireland sank to the bottom of the St Lawrence River, having only just begun her journey to England. One of 1000 souls who perished that night was a young woman called Alice Stilwell, and when Tayte is shown a locket belonging to her he feels he should investigate a century-old death, which may have its roots in the complex and elaborate diplomatic activity which preceded the outbreak of World War I. Robinson matches modern day techniques of research and deduction with an account of the lives and loves of a woman during one of the most momentous years of the 20th century. Published on 21 October.
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Riven by AJ McCreanor
AJ McCreanor is a Glaswegian who now lives in Glastonbury with her husband. She taught English for some years in the city of her birth, and Riven is her crime debut, with a follow-up expected soon. The police team in Riven consists of two Detective Inspectors, Wheeler and Ross. Deaths seem to come in threes for the pair, with a murdered psychologist, a drug addict who has thrown himself off a tall building, and student whose corpse has been found in mysterious circumstances. Glasgow’s criminal underworld is never far beneath the respectable surface. As Wheeler and Ross try to disentangle the truth from the usual knot of lies, misdirection and violent threats, Wheeler is horrified to find that her own nephew may well be implicated in the investigation. This latest addition to the Tartan Noir sub-genre is out on 23 October.
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The Hunter by Tony Park
Set in Africa, this book introduces the hunter, Hudson Brand. He’s a safari guide, using his skills to track down wildlife for tourists to photograph. But he also tracks people, and what happens to them when they are caught is altogether more ambiguous. Brand crosses paths – and swords – with determined cop Sannie van Rensburg, as they both chase an elusive young woman. Against the stunning backdrop of Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve, the pair grudgingly join forces as they deal with the three staple ‘Ms’ of crime fiction – money, motive and murder. Since his 2010 non-fiction book on the role service dogs played in the war in Afghanistan, Park has published – amazingly – 13 titles. This, the 13th is out on 16 October.
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The Evil Inside by Philip Taffs
This is very much a psychological thriller, with a hint of the paranormal. Guy and his wife Mia have a cherished son, Callum, but when a second child is aborted in tragic circumstances, the family moves to New York, where Guy takes up a challenging job in PR. Staying in a Manhattan hotel, Guy begins to have disturbing dreams which suggest that his living child is host to a menacing presence – that of the dead child who was reluctantly terminated back in Australia. As Guy struggles to decide if this is down to his own imagination, a criminal conspiracy, or something from ‘the other side’, he has to face that his life – and the lives of his wife and child – are under threat. This was a debut for Philip Taffs. Out on 23 October under the title The Evil Inside, it has also been published as The MacCallum.
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Friends to Die For by Hilary Bonner
In addition to 10 previous crime novels, Hilary Bonner has written biographies of British showbiz stars such as Gordon Kaye, Benny Hill and Amanda Barrie. Friends to Die for starts in Covent Garden, one of the most exclusive retail and residential addresses in London. A group of friends, who all have the bank balances to support their prestigious postcode, become the target of a series of practical jokes. The pranks seem harmless and funny at first. But then, one of the more daring stunts ends in death. Who is responsible? Is the murderer one of the group? Old certainties and friendships forged on the anvil of time come under close scrutiny in this disturbing novel of death and betrayal. To be published on 23 October.
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Storms by David Menon
Finally we stop in Manchester, where some of the suburbs are as violent as their counterparts in Acapulco, Caracas, Torreón and Los Angeles. Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton has to deal with the conundrum that while a gang of teenage boys is neither old enough to smoke, drink or to vote, they are still capable of lethal violence. The police carry no threat or credibility on the gang’s estate, and Barton has to face the unpalatable fact that residents would rather have their teeth removed with pliers than help him with a murder investigation. An elderly woman dies, a gang girl goes missing and Barton is forced to re-evaluate his career. Who is he working for? And why? Storms is on the shelves from 4 October.
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