On the Radar — Yes, this week there’s a new detective on the block, introduced by Northern Irish author Stuart Neville. DCI Serena Flanagan will be keeping the scum at bay on the streets of Belfast and we kick off OTR this week with her first case. Add to that a new Sebastian Bergman novel, one relating to Joan of Arc and Don Winslow’s much-anticipated follow-up to The Power of Dog, and you have a week of new releases that are hot, hot, hot in various different ways. In case you missed it, do check out our previews of the biggest crime releases of summer 2015 here.
Those We Left Behind by Stuart Neville
The best writers of crime fiction are always confident enough to move on from established character series and create new ones. Stuart Neville‘s Jack Lennon books have all been best sellers – read our review of The Final Silence – but now he introduces DCI Serena Flanagan. This tale begins when Flanagan was an up-and-coming Detective Sergeant. Every media bulletin led with just one story – that of the 12-year-old boy who has murdered his foster father. The boy confessed his guilt to Flanagan and has now served his sentence. When Ciaron Devine’s probation officer seeks Flanagan’s advice, the DCI is shocked to realise that his conviction may not only have been unsafe, but there is a whole world of hurt about to descend on his head… and hers. Out on 25 June.
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Into the Fire by Manda Scott
Manda Scott was veterinary surgeon but here takes a traumatic event from the past, and puts it on a collision course with modern events. One of the references here is Joan of Arc but this is not 1431, it is modern France. A string of fatal arson attacks hits Orléans. Despite the best efforts of Capitaine Ines Picault and her team, the body count climbs higher, and more buildings lie in ashes. Is there really a connection between the legendary French heroine, who met her death in Rouen centuries earlier, and a modern conspiracy involving Islamic militants? Out now.
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The Man Who Watched Women by Michael Hjorth & Hans Rosenfeldt
Stockholm is sweltering in a heatwave. While the local tabloids comment on the temperature, a killer is leaving a trail of bodies around the city. The book begins with a tired businessman returning from a trip to Munich. He is mildly irritated when his wife doesn’t pick up the phone. His irritation turns to horror when he gets home. His wife is there, sure enough. But she is lying on her stomach. She is tied up. And she is very, very dead. Profiler Sebastian Bergman must solve the case while protecting his daughter from the killer. We reviewed the novel Sebastian Bergman by Hjorth and Rosenfeldt in 2012. Out now.
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The Hunt by TJ Lebbon
The Hunt gives us a dystopian world where rich people bored with legal highs and the trappings of celebrity can indulge their passion for hunting. Not animals, of course, but people. Rose was one of the hunted. Because she escaped, the hunters killed her family, and since that terrible day she has been planning her revenge. Now, Chris is faced with the same brutal dilemma. “Let us catch you, and it will all end there. Evade us, and your family dies.” Can Rose use Chris’s unspeakable dilemma to exact her own vengeance? Out now.
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The Cartel by Don Winslow
The real-life horror of Mexico’s drug wars trumps fiction almost every time. The chainsaw decapitations, the torture and the inconceivable violence pushes crime authors to the very edge of their abilities but Don Winslow tackles the challenge head-on. This continues the tale of 30-year crime fighting veteran Art Keller for whom the battle has become personal. He holds drug lord Adán Barrera, the head of El Federación, responsible for the death of his partner. After an all-too-brief spell behind bars, Barrera is once more a free man. Keller’s thirst for retribution has not been sated and a titanic battle between good and evil plays out against the backdrop of an impoverished country, ripped apart and ruined by the drug barons. Available on 25 June.
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Killer Smile by RC Bridgestock
Bob and Carol Bridgestock have close to 50 years of service in the West Yorkshire Police between them. This is the sixth episode in the career of Detective Inspector Jack Dylan. We reviewed White Lilies back in 2013, but now the town of Harrowfield is under threat from a sadistic and twisted killer who has a bizarre fetish for human teeth. Assistant Chief Constable Wendy Smythe is parachuted into the case to satisfy the public demand for high profile action, but Dylan has little faith in her investigative abilities. Instead, he must use his own street smarts to put the psychopath behind bars, while coping with a whole sea of personal issues. Published 25 June.
Pre-order now on Amazon
True Deceit by AJ Carella
Kate has husband Michael. He thinks life can’t get any worse, but then she’s killed. Things get even worse, however, when Kate’s sister approaches him with the startling news that Kate is actually still alive, but has been kidnapped by a sophisticated and resourceful group of criminals. When the pair abandon caution and decide to investigate the gang valuable witnesses disappear, and the hunters become the hunted. Out on 24 June.
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Justice is for the Lonely by Steve Clark
As the title might suggest this is a legal thriller but with a strong vein of criminality running through it. Kristen Kerry is a young lawyer who is engaged on the defence team when a Dallas hospital is sued for negligence after a former football star dies following heart surgery. The people scheming behind the scenes hope that Kristen will use her sexuality to compromise another lawyer in the case, but they have miscalculated – badly. When the target lawyer himself ends up in court on a murder rap, Kristen must use all the steel and grit, forced on her through a traumatic childhood, to make sure that justice is not just for the lonely but for those who are right. On sale 30 June.
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