On the Radar — We’ll start off this week with the latest book to land on the shelf marked Welsh crime fiction. Release yesterday – St David’s Day, appropriately – Anglesey Blue from Bloodhound Books looks interesting. But don’t stop in North Wales, we’ve got crime fiction set in Ancient Rome, modern Venice, Scandinavia, Japan and more…
Anglesey Blue represents a homecoming for both the author and its main protagonist. Dylan H Jones was born in Anglesey but now lives in Oakland, California. His protagonist DI Manx Tudor is also originally from Anglesey and returns to the island on the North West coast of Wales for a quieter life. This isn’t to be, because a body has been found crucified on the bow of a fishing vessel. Is it a message of some sort? And what of the case of Tudor’s sister Miriam, who disappeared all those years ago and begins to haunt his thoughts again?
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A writer with a pedigree that includes work for Doctor Who, Torchwood, Warhammer, Primeval and other well-known game and comic worlds, Savile has also won praise for his novels. It should come as no surprise, then, that Parallel Lines (out 14 March) is a little out of the ordinary. Adam Shaw is dying, and he’s determined to provide for his disabled son before he departs this earth. Adam’s solution? To rob a bank. What could possibly go wrong? If you answered ‘plenty’, then you’re on the right track…
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This is the sixth William Wisting book and we are back in 1983 with Wisting as a young ambitious policeman. He has newborn twins and has just been bumped off a brutal robbery case. He does have a bullet-riddled car in a barn and a tense mystery to unravel that will shape his views for years to come. You can read our interview with the author here. This standalone prequel is an ideal introduction to Wisting and the legion of Jorn Lier Horst fans who already know him as a bright light in the stellar field of Nordic Noir will lap it up. Released 16 March.
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This novel has been billed as a unique British crime/Nordic noir mashup. Widowed London detective Simon Weller heads over to his wife’s native Denmark where he works to solve a murder case in Odense. He is paired up with local detective Jonas but they soon find that the suicide of Weller’s wife, Vibeke, may not be all it seems. What was in Vibeke’s past? This is the first book from a duo of writers who have big plans for The Odense Series. Expect typically Nordic fare as well as dark secrets and personal demons pulling families apart as a serial killer runs rampant. It is released 15 March.
Jen is a failed writer and she has managed, by accident, to kill her rubbish boyfriend. Ed’s dead. It is complicated. There is the small matter of the body to dump. There are the drugs and the enormous pile of cash. As well as a hitman who was after Ed’s money, and corrupt police. Not to mention the media: she is soon branded The Most Dangerous Woman in Scotland. McLean has a pedigree of edgy Tartan noir in his Dundee-based McNee series and with a blackly comedic premise this is sure to provide thrills and spills along the way. One to relish and out 16 March.
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American author Steven Saylor has reached book 15 in his Roma Sub Rosa series, set in the final decades of the Roman Republic and featuring sleuth Gordianus the Finder. First released in 2015 and described by USA Today as ‘Saylor’s most thought-provoking work’, the story takes place in 88 BC, with Gordianus a young man. He is living in troubled times, in the relative safety of Alexandria. A decision to move to Ephesus proves flawed when he arrives in a city on the brink of disaster. Can our hero avert a massacre? Out today as a paperback.
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Devastating phone calls are the meat and drink of crime fiction, and this book begins with such a plot device. On an ordinary day in an ordinary neighbourhood, Fairlie Winter receives the news that her best friend is dead. Jenna Rudolph was a devoted mother to young Henry, and her husband Ark is grief sticken. The circumstances surrounding Jenna’s death seem to be clear-cut until Fairlie receives a letter from her old friend, posted before she died, and suddenly, things look very different. Fairlie sets off to uncover the truth – but is she ready for it? Out 9 March.
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Fuminori Nakamura is one of a handful of talented Japanese crime authors whose work has appeared in English, and previously we’ve looked at The Thief and Last Summer We Parted. The Gun is the author’s award-winning debut and was released in Japan in 2003. Now it arrives as a paperback. A young man stumbles across a body, and a handgun loaded with four bullets. After taking the weapon, his personal problems begin to bloom. He becomes involved in two women, which is pressure enough, but his father is lying in hospital dying. His thoughts keep drifting to the gun and those four bullets.
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We began with a Welsh exile in California, let’s conclude with one in Italy. Philip Gwynne Jones is a teacher, writer and translator in Venice, and that’s where his hero Nathan Sutherland works at the British consulate. Usually, all he has to do is help tourists through the occasional minor trauma. Now, however, Nathan has been asked to look after an old prayerbook illustrated by Giovanni Bellini and dating to the early 16th century. Across the way, twin art thieves are conniving over the artefact and it’s a game that could get deadly for Nathan. Released today.
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