On the Radar — The horror, the horror… Yes, and we’re not even talking about the UK General Election. Instead, this week we head up our new books column with two crime-horror crossovers. One is by Clive Barker, one of the biggest names on the horror scene, and the other by Saul Black, who also writes horror as Glen Duncan. We’ve also got a good dose of pulp this week with a new one from Number Thirteen Press and also a pulp short story collection. Tony Parsons is back, and we’ll take you to Manhattan too where the wolves of Wall Street is not traders but men out for revenge after the economic meltdown. Which books will end up on your list?
The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker
The famous horror author is largely in familiar territory with The Scarlet Gospels, with the added bonus of a PI named Harry D’Amour who may please crime fiction vans. Aided and abetted by his colleague, the blind medium Norma Paine, Harry inadvertently opens up a pathway between Heaven and Hell. He must also battle his chief adversary – the delightfully named Pinhead – when the dark forces take Norma captive. Begun back in 1993, this book has been long in the making, so see if it was worth the wait on 19 May.
Pre-order now on Amazon
The Killing Lessons by Saul Black
Two desperados pitch up at Rowena Cooper’s lonely farmhouse in Colorado. They have killed many times before, and a bloodbath ensues, but the killers do not have things entirely their own way. On their trail are embittered and semi-alcoholic cop Valerie Hart and FBI agent Carla York, and who discover that Rowena’s young daughter Nell has survived the assault. Can the 10-year-old be kept safe long enough for them to bring her mother’s killers to justice? Saul Black is the pseudonym of established horror writer Glen Duncan, who here combines his skill in that genre with the demands of a police procedural. Available on 21 May.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Redbone by Matt Phillips
The 13th of the month looms and Number Thirteen Press has another pulp thriller lined up for us. Redbone tells the tale of military veteran Calvin G Redbone, who sits brooding in his trailer park home, thinking about the past and trying to avoid the present. When an old buddy ends up on a mortuary slab, Redbone must confront his own slide into apathy and track down the killer.
Pre-order now on Amazon
The Slaughterman by Tony Parsons
Last year Marina Sofia looked at this well-known British journalist’s first foray into crime fiction, The Murder Bag. Here his main character DC Max Wolfe returns to track down a killer who uses an abattoir stun-gun as a murder weapon. The case echoes similar killings three decades earlier but that killer was caught, served his sentence, and is now enfeebled and near death. Wolfe has to decide if the culprit is an old man taking a final revenge on society, or a younger man whose blood-lust is just beginning. Published on 21 May.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Among Thieves by John Clarkson
This novel was released in hardback earlier this year, and is now available in Kindle format. The thieves of the title are not men dressed in striped jerseys with masked eyes, but corporate weasels who bag millions of dollars rather than family silverware. Set in Manhattan’s financial district, with its backdrop of corporate greed, Among Thieves sees the NYPD struggling to keep up. However, there’s a band of amoral former jailbirds who have their own sense of justice, led by bar owner James Beck. Out on 21 May.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Crooked Roads by Alec Cizak
This collection of short stories by the man who edits Pulp Modern should appeal to those who like their crime fiction nasty, brutish and short. The stories have all appeared elsewhere in different collections, but the author has put them together in what he sees as a logical order. Meth dealers, a vengeful young girl and crime going badly wrong each get the pulp treatment. With its violence, sex and profanity, Crooked Roads is available on 15 May. Check out the book’s sound track here.
The End of Summer by Irving Munro
The End of Summer ends our report this week, and it may remind you vaguely of the TV cop drama New Tricks. We have a cold case crime unit in Austin, Texas, and one of its senior detectives is a Scot who, just like the author, has made his home in The Lone Star State. Bill Ross is aided by his son Tommy, and the pair have to investigate a mysterious death that happened nine years ago. As they dust down the file, Bill ‘Sniffer’ Ross begins to realise that he’s on the trail of a serial killer. Published on 19 May.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Check out last week’s new releases here.
