On the Radar — Three is the magic number and we start with a book written by James Lee Burke’s daughter, a successful crime novelist in her own right, and central to it are the murders of three people. Speaking of magic, we’ve also got a witch who works for the FBI and a financial wizard. Plenty more new crime to interest you, so see what you think…
Olivia Randall is every cop’s nightmare. She is a brilliant and successful criminal defence lawyer whose razor sharp attention to detail has torpedoed many a case for the prosecution. But now she has the challenge of her life. A former lover has been arrested for a triple homicide. She knows Jack Harris could never kill, but can she prove it? Alafair Burke is a professor of law and the daughter of crime author James Lee Burke. JLB named one of his best-known characters after his daughter. The Ex is out on 26 January.
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Canadian crime fiction set in the fictional town of Rose City, Ontario. The mayor has been arraigned for a series of sexual offences dating back years. When a sharp defence lawyer has the charges flung out of court, the alleged victims are left shattered. Kate Burns has an unlikely saviour in the shape of her estranged father, Carl. Burns senior has served jail time for arson, but doesn’t need a GPS to navigate the map of Rose City corruption. He is prepared to challenge the good-old-boy game plan with a few plays of his own – and not all of them are strictly legal. Available on 1 February.
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Genre crossovers are always intriguing, but not always successful. Here’s a mix that gets 9/10 for audacity. Harmony Black is an FBI agent doing all the secret and tight-lipped things that agents do. At the same time, Harmony is also a fully fledged, card-carrying witch, and as a consequence she sees dangers and threats beyond the usual suspects. In addition to her FBI badge, she also works for Vigilant Lock – think Mulder and Scully, and a team battling enemies whose existence the government doesn’t want to acknowledge. Harmony is recalled from R&R to track down a killer dubbed The Bogeyman. His name may be the stuff of nursery rhymes, but his deeds are not. Published on 1 February.
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Luis Chavez had a troubled youth, but is now a priest working on the streets of Los Angeles. When a farm worker is murdered in Ventura County, he is drawn back into the violence and criminality of his early years as he uncovers a human trafficking conspiracy involving some of California’s richest families. Chavez teams up with deputy DA Michael Story as they attempt to bring down the ring of exploitation. Out on 1 February.
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This is the fourth book featuring Jason Stafford, a financial wizard from Wall Street whose spells were not quite potent enough to prevent him from serving a jail term for fraud. Now he operates as a financial investigator. When he starts looking into rumours that his firm is about to be taken over, and is part of an investigation into organised crime on Wall Street, he’s forced into a witness protection programme with his autistic son. Somebody’s out to get him and it could be the mob. For him, the priority becomes saving Jason, his pregnant girlfriend and his firm. On the shelves from 2 February.
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With 30 years experience working for the CIA, Jason Matthews now writes spy novels and his first, Red Sparrow, won an Edgar Award. This is the second Dominika Egorova novel, about a Russian intelligent agent who hates working under Putin in a regime serving the interests of the oligarchs. The twist is that she’s a double agent, also working for the CIA, and when a fellow agent’s cover is compromised she must help him escape from Russia, with her psychotic boss breathing down her neck. Out on 28 January.
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