On the Radar — Apologies for complaining, if you live in a hot climate, but it’s been such a furnace in the UK this week that many are starting to feel a bit charred. So we’ll begin with a book called Soot, new historical crime fiction from Andrew Martin that’s bound to leave your bookshelf scorching. There’s also new blood, the latest from Sweden’s Arne Dahl, and a serial killer to look out for…
Soot by Andrew Martin
An award winner for his Jim Stringer books, about a WWI-era railway detective, here Andrew Martin has fun stepping back to the year 1799. The setting is York, and Fletcher Rigge is sprung from the debtor’s prison by a mysterious benefactor. Captain Harvey wants Rigge to discover who killed his father, Matthew Harvey. The elder Mr Harvey was a famous shade painter, using soot to render his sitter’s silhouette. He had six subjects the day before he died, and Rigge is charged with finding out which one of them left a pair of scissors protruding from the artist’s stomach. Watch for our review. The book is out 6 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka
If Val McDermid picks a book as a New Blood choice for this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, then you really should sit up an take notice. It’s the first in a series featuring the wonderfully named private investigator Roxane Weary, who is called upon to re-examine a cold case. Teenager Sarah Cook went missing 15 years ago, on the night her parents were brutally murdered. Sarah’s boyfriend was convicted of the crime and sits on death row. Now the victim has been spotted alive, can Roxane uncover the truth? Out 6 July.
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Watching You by Arne Dahl
Detective Sam Berger thinks he is on the trail of Sweden’s first serial killer. He is searching for a 15 year old schoolgirl, Ellen Savinger, but there is a deadly trail of kidnappings and murder leading up to her disappearance. The curious presence of a small mechanical cog at each crime scene can’t be explained and the case soon gets personal for Berger. This is a new series from Arne Dahl who is taking a break from his Stockholm Intercrime squad. Expect a dark, twisty tale set under glowering Swedish skies; all the hallmarks of quality Nordic noir from a well-established author. Released 6 July.
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The Boneyard by Mark Sennen
On 29 June you need to have plans in place for Mark Sennen’s latest chiller. DI Charlotte Savage is back after stories such as Tale to Tell and Cut Dead, and is on the trail of suspected serial killer Malcolm Kendrick. He might be charming, he might be handsome, and so was Ted Bundy. He also might have left a woman dead up on Dartmoor, and when more human remains are found in a dumping ground Savage is in a race to stop the next killing.
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The Fallen by Ace Atkins
Sheriff Quinn Colson has a problem with some well-drilled bank robbers in Donald Trump masks. They are on a spree and as an ex-Ranger himself he is seeing echoes in the polished heists that makes him wonder about their background. He has the help of his deputy Lillie but allies are thin on the ground in Jericho. Atkins is the man who continues the legacy of Robert B Parker with the Spenser series and he now brings us this seventh slice of noir from Tibbehah County in the Deep South. The Forsaken was reviewed here. The ebook is out 6 July.
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The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrere
This book caused quite a stir when it was first released in 2001, spawning a movie of the same name. Now The Adversary is being reprinted by Vintage on 6 July. Boasting the strapline: ‘A true story of monstrous deception’, The Adversary explores the double life of a respectable French doctor, and chronicles 18 years of lies, five murders and the extremes to which ordinary people can go. This story is based on true crime, and the author has been described as ‘France’s greatest living writer’ – see what you think…
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