On the Radar — This week’s new releases include the latest books from rising stars Rod Reynolds, Claire Douglas and Sam Wilson, plus a couple of classics and a historical mystery. Read on and discover what’s on our radar this week…
Black Night Falling by Rod Reynolds
Hailed as one of the hottest new crime writing talents, Rod Reynolds sets his books in the Southern states during the 1940s. In his second book, the action shifts from Texas to Arkansas, where Charlie Yates arrives to help a friend in need of assistance. The town of Hot Springs might sound relaxing, but the tension ratchets up as Yates digs up secrets, and crimes, from the past. We reviewed The Dark Inside here. Out now.
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American Quartet by Warren Adler
Originally published in 1981, American Quartet is the first book in the Fiona Fitzgerald mystery series and has just come out as an audiobook. Fiona comes from Washington aristocracy, but is also a detective hunting down a killer who’s eliminating his quarry in a fashion that mimics previous presidential assassinations. Four have died, and number five is going to go down like Lincoln, unless Fiona can intervene. It’s out now and you can watch the trailer below.
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Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas
‘Gripping’ and ‘haunting’ are two words being used describe this psychological cold case story. Two decades ago, Francesca’s friend Sophie went missing from the Victorian pier in the seaside town of Oldcliffe. Now a body has been found and the truth that Francesca has been hiding from all these years starts to unravel. Should she go back to the town where she grew up. Claire Douglas’s debut The Sisters was a bestseller last year. Out 11 August.
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Zodiac by Sam Wilson
Cape Town-based TV director Sam Wilson turns his hand to crime fiction with a story set in a parallel world heavily influenced – or so people believe – by the signs of the Zodiac. But it’s a maniac that Detective Jerome Burton is hunting down, the perpetrator of a set of brutal murders. Although he doesn’t believe in Pisces, Aries or Cancer, he works with the astrological profiler Lindi Childs to try and catch the killer. Out 20 August.
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The Devil’s Daughters by Diana Bretherick
1888 was a fine year for crime, wouldn’t you agree? While The Ripper stalked London, here we have a mystery that starts off in Scotland and takes us off to Turin. James Murray is a scientist who receives a letter from his lost love Sofia Esposito, whose 15-year-old cousin has gone missing. Because of her low status, the police aren’t interested but James returns to Turin, where he trained, to find the missing girl. Turns out that Satanists might have been involved… Out 11 August.
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Murder Has a Motive by Francis Duncan
Vintage has continued with its reprinting of Francis Duncan’s Mordecai Tremaine mysteries, the best of which might just be Murder Has a Motive. The star of an amateur drama production has been found dead in the village of Dalmering and as Mordecai is on hand it falls to him to solve the case. Also released are So Pretty a Problem, In at the Death and Behold a Fair Woman. Out now.
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