On the Radar — Well, our headline today could be referring to the manifestos unveiled this week by Britain’s main political parties as we head towards the General Election, but actually what we’re pointing to is a hot new release by psychological crime fiction’s rising star, CL Taylor. Will her second novel, The Lie, prove as popular as the first? Find out when it’s released on 23 April, and watch for our review. We’ve also got ex-cops, Lawrence Block, 60s spies, pulp and more. Vote Crime Fiction Lover and you’ll never be disappointed…
CL Taylor’s 2014 novel The Accident won a five star review right here on Crime Fiction Lover and now she is back with a new title to appeal to those who like their mysteries spiced with a dark psychological edge. After an ill-fated trip to Nepal, which culminates in a disturbing encounter with a mystical cult, nothing will ever be the same for one woman. She returns to the UK with the identity of Jane Hughes, and rebuilds her life in rural Wales working in an animal refuge. Unfortunately for her, the secrets from five years earlier refuse to stay buried, and she is faced with an old lie which returns to take away her happiness and possibly even her life. It’s available on 23 April, and on 29 April we’ll bring you an excerpt. See below for details of a blog tour for this book.
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As a young man, Amos Decker had a promising career in the sport of American football, but a devastating head-on-head collision put a stop to all that. The injury left him with a disturbing neurological side effect – he can never forget anything. A second career as a police officer seems to be more productive, until the night when he returns home to find his family butchered. Unable to deal with the consequences of the murders, Decker slides into depression and leaves the force. Two events then combine to bring Decker back from the abyss. First, a man confesses to the killing of his family, and then there is a terrible mass shooting at a local school. Decker’s unusual talent becomes invaluable to the police in their investigations, but is a terrible burden to him. Published on 21 April.
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Legendary crime writer Lawrence Block is the guest editor of this collection of stories set in the city he loves: New York. Inside he’s curated 23 tales mirroring the gritty, crazy, comical, heartwarming and tragic faces of The Big Apple. The collection is the fourth installment in the Have A NYC series, and features contributions from Block himself with the intriguingly titled Keller the Dogkiller, as well as offerings from Thomas Pluck, Jim Fusilli, Brian Koppelman and Elaine Kagan. If you want to learn more about Lawrence Block the writer you can read our interview with him here, and also read our review of Borderline, a collection of hard hitting stories all written by the man himself. Out on 28 April.
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1965. President Johnson faces escalating war in Vietnam, Bob Dylan goes electric, Winston Churchill passes away and Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are arrested. Barrister Ben Schroeder, who we first met in A Higher Duty (2013) is charged with representing a high ranking person accused of being a Russian agent. With the weight of the establishment against him, and serious personal doubts about his client, Schroeder is the central character in a legal thriller which deals with corruption at the heart of the British legal system and Cambridge University. Published on 23 April.
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LK Hill writes in several different genres including science fiction and fantasy, but here she is in crime fiction mode. When cop Cody Oliver discovers a strange oasis garden in a desert wilderness, his amazement at the exotic flora soon turns to horror when he discovers that there are bodies buried beneath. The killer is nicknamed The Botanist, and amid a media frenzy stoked by the corpses, Oliver has to make a difficult call when a woman comes forward claiming that she has met the killer, and survived to tell the tale. Available on 28 April.
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Remember the good old days, when alchemists sought to turn base metals into gold and to produce the elixir of life? Well, if not then this book might help. Set in the turbulent England of Henry VIII, we meet Bianca Goddard, who uses her knowledge of herbs for a more mundane task – alleviating sickness among the poor of London’s slums. When one of her herbal cures seems to prove fatal to an old friend, Bianca is suspected of murder. She is forced to use her knowledge of the power of plants to prove that she is not guilty and that the real killer is still at large. Out on 28 April.
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You won’t need a master’s degree in crime fiction to work out that if a novel’s main protagonist is called Deuce Walsh, we are probably entering the lurid, neon-lit world of pulp. Walsh is a former gangster trying to go straight, but he faces a legacy of revenge and malice from his former employers – the Chianti Brothers – who left him for dead in a gangland hit seven years earlier. In gangland, rules are rules, and family is family, so when Walsh’s dissolute brother-in-law asks for help, he reluctantly takes up arms against old enemies. Published on 28 April – watch for our review.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Last week’s new releases can be found here.
