On the Radar — It’s a truly inspiring week for new releases, with a new novel from Ben H Winters, another from Karin Slaughter, and for lovers of Tartan noir we’ve got the new Malcolm Mackay book as well. Plus, there’s also a treat for anyone who used to love those classic point-and-click adventure games back in the mid-90s. Scroll down to the bottom and check out The Slaughter, which looks a lot of fun.
The excellent US author Ben H Winters always comes up with a unique concept when he pens a new novel. Here he throws us a doozy: “What if slavery still existed?” No doubt there still are some crazies in the US who wish that was the case, but it’s a serious underpinning for a story in which a man called Victor strikes a deal for his freedom – the government allows it, as long as he works as a bounty hunter. When he’s asked to track his latest target, he begins to question whether that so-called freedom is really worth it. Out 14 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Special Agent Will Trent and the medical examiner Dr Sara Linton return with a new case, in a book by one of the biggest names in American crime fiction, Karin Slaughter. The body of an ex-cop is found in a warehouse with bloody footprints at the scene indicating that there was another victim… and she seems to have disappeared into thin air. The building itself belongs to a local sports star who Will has been investigating for rape. It gets even more complicated with Linton discovering a link between this case and Will’s troubled past. Out 14 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
We’ve tracked the career of Scotsman Malcolm Mackay, who generally writes about the Glasgow underworld, since his debut The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter. His latest takes us back into the gritty gangland of Glasgow and features Usman Kassar, who plans big scores without the sanction of the big crime players, and Martin Sivok, a hired gun who arrives in the city to make a new start. The trouble starts when they get their hands on some dirty money belonging to the notorious Jamieson organisation, which means that the scary figure of Nate Colgan must hunt them down. On sale 14 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
New to us, Camilla Way is a men’s mag journalist who’s written two previous crime novels. In Watching Edie she looks at a friendship that’s way too close and perhaps a little one-sided too. These friends are Edie – the wild and creative one – and Heather who isn’t quite so much of a free spirit. Now Edie is pregnant, alone and trying to rebuild her life. Who should reappear but Heather and that brings a dark secret they share bubbling back to the surface. Tense and stressful by all accounts. On sale 28 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
German psychological crime writer Sebastian Fitzek, author of Therapy and The Child, had a number one bestseller in Germany with The Nightwalker. Now the story of Leon Nader, an insomniac, is told in English. After turning to violence to draw attention to his disorder, he has received treatment. He believes he’s been cured, but when his wife disappears he starts to doubt himself. He fits a CCTV camera to see what is happening to himself when he goes to sleep. On sale 28 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Tattoos and a motorbike can’t take 20-year-old Finley Montgomery’s mind off the strange things she experiences. She sees things others can’t. So she escapes to The Hollows, a small town in upstate New York, to make a fresh start in her grandmother’s house. Soon, though, there’s a detective who comes knocking asking for Finley’s help. He thinks her unusual gift can help him find a missing little girl long after the case has gone cold. Out now as a hardback, and for Kindle and paperback on 28 July.
Buy now on Amazon
Not a book this time, but an adventure game that can be played on your iPad, iPhone or PC. The Slaughter is set in the Sherlock Holmes milieu of Victorian London, and doesn’t hide its admiration for the great consulting detective and his world. Private investigator Sydney Emerson, whose normal missions involve locating lost dogs, finds himself in another sort of mystery that straddles both dreams and reality. The game was put together by Alexander Francois and shows us many sides of 19th century London – decadence, depravity, dark alleys and Dada-esque sequences where Sydney seems to be upside down in an underwater world surrounded by fish and feeling like a fish out of water. It’s only £2.99 for iOS, and has been done in the vein of classic point-and-click adventures like Sam and Max Hit the Road, and Beneath a Steel Sky. Watch the trailer below. Buy for PC here.
