On the Radar — We have an exclusively British line-up this week, with one of our featured authors being born in Scotland, and another in Wales, while the rest are English. With the honourable exception of Kaye Furnivall’s book set in Italy, all the other books are firmly set in the UK.
This is the fourth novel by Graham Hurley since the sad demise of his Portsmouth cop Joe Faraday. Faraday’s former apprentice, Jimmy Suttle, has moved down to Devon and is now established in his own right. The last book ended in a hail of bullets, leaving Suttle’s precarious marriage just about intact. But, in the meantime, something terrible has happened, and Jimmy and Lizzie are estranged, perhaps permanently. Against the background of a nightmare personal tragedy which is revealed in retrospect, a little at a time, Suttle investigates the death of a rich old man. Rupert Moncrieff had extensive connections to Britain’s former African colonies, and it is a ghost from that past which draws Suttle into his most challenging case yet. The previous book, Touching Distance, was reviewed here. Sins of the Father is published today.
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Bill Slider, a police inspector at Shepherd’s Bush CID in London, first appeared in Orchestrated Death in 1993. In Star Fall, the post-Christmas torpor is rudely shattered when a well-known TV personality, adored for his appearances on a daytime antiques show, is found dead in his upmarket. As Slider investigates the death facts emerge which seem to contradict the suave and debonair character which the late Roland Egerton projected. While worried about the health of his wife, who has recently miscarried, he has to decide if the obvious suspect – Egerton’s partner – is in the frame, or if the theft of some expensive antiques points in another direction. Out on 28 November.
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Bea Abbot formerly of The Abbot Domestic Agency is pressed out of her retirement when a series of bizarre events demand her attention. An old friend begs her to come to his aid, the office IT system is hit with a ruinous virus, two bodies are found in a car park stabbed to death, and a variety of dysfunctional characters collide to cause chaos. Expect a very English cosy mystery. Out on 28 November.
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Another cosy mystery, The Moonlit Door is set in Lakenhurst, a village in Sussex. When a child is found wrapped in the Maypole ribbons with an arrow through his heart, cosy suddenly turns into macabre and Rev Nick Lawrence takes on solving the crime. This may be the first crime novel where the initial suspect is a man from a Morris dancing team, but Lawrence and his CID counterpart DI Dominic Tennant eventually get to the truth. Essex-born writer Deryn Lake made her name with a series featuring the 18th century apothecary John Rawlings. The Moonlit Door is out on 28 November.
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If you like you crime fiction with dash of history, and a side serving of romance, then this book by the Welsh born writer may be a good pick. Set in Italy at the height of Mussolini’s rule, this is the story of architect Isabella Berotti who, through tragic circumstances, becomes the sole carer of a 10-year-old girl. With Italy now firmly a police state, Isabella and her photographer friend Roberto Falco try to keep the girl from being put into an institution. As they begin to discover the truth behind the death of the girl’s mother they are drawn into a dangerous game of secrets and intrigue. Available on 25 November.
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The Dundee private investigator J McNee was introduced in 2008 in The Good Son, and since then McLean has been working his way through the family, hence the slightly curious title. The 2012 novel Father Confessor earned full marks when we reviewed it. Now, McNee has to play the most dangerous game of all, by going undercover to help the police. He poses as a career criminal to get close to gangster David Burns. Burns may now be a pensioner, but he is still one of the most dangerous and influential criminals in Scotland. McNee acts as minder to Burns’ nephew, but when the young man is killed as a result of an escalating turf war between rival gangs he finds himself in a very bad place. Russel D McLean spoke to us about his work in this interview back in 2012. Cry Uncle is out on 28 November.
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The latest from Maggie James is a psychological thriller telling the story of a young woman who is held captive by a psychotic killer. Beth Sutton doesn’t succumb to Dominic Perdue and his obsessive behaviour but instead is a victim of Stockholm Syndrome and builds an irrational dependency bond with her captor. Eventually Beth manages to escape, but as she learns how to live as a free woman again, the complexities and contradictions of her feelings for Perdue turn her life into a nightmare. And, her former captor comes looking for her to reclaim his prize. Published on 24 November.
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The series featuring the Murder Squad of Dan Carter, Ebony Willis, Robbo and Dr Jo Harding started with Dead of Winter in 2012. Now the team are back investigating what seems to be a serial killer with a select list of victims – all of them women. Each time, the perpetrator uses a different method to dispatch his prey, but Carter and Willis are convinced that there is only one person involved. Set in a wintry London, this is the most challenging case yet for the Armani-loving DI Carter and DC Willis. Frozen Grave will be available on 20 November.
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