On the Radar — It’s a big week for fans of the LA author Michael Connelly, who’s starting off an exciting new series about a female cop who’s not only battling sexism in the force but out there bringing down criminals. There’s historical crime fiction, a trip into the Dark Web, a new pseudonym for Stuart Neville and even a jaunt to the Caribbean this week. Read on and discover your next crime read…
Move over Harry Bosch, there’s a new kid on the block! Michael Connelly has come up with LAPD detective Renée Ballard, who works the night shift in Hollywood. It’s a frustrating, depressing role for a young cop who was once earmarked for great things… until she filed a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor and got herself sidelined, for good. Then two cases arrive that pique Ballard’s interest and she determines to work night and day to solve them. A risky strategy, we think you’ll agree, and one that could make – or break – a career, and could also start a new crime series. Out 11 July.
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It’s 1358 and Oswald de Lacy is on his travels with his mother in Venice. Worryingly, the city besieged by the Hungarians and when he finds a dead man on the night of the carnival he soon gets embroiled in the murder investigation. It’s a city of intrigues and the case soon brings him up against the secret police, the fearsome Signori di Notte. He might be the Lord of Somershill Manor in England but his own past is lurking in the shadows. The first two in the series were set in pox-ridden Medieval England and Plague Land, was reviewed here. Out 13 July.
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Akashic Books does an amazing job giving exposure to crime fiction authors all over the world who maybe haven’t previously caught the attention of publishers in London and New York. Here we’re off to the spice and rum islands of the Caribbean with stories and poems by 19 different writers connected to Trinidad, all edited by Earl Lovelace and Robert Antoni. They include CLR James, Derek Walcott, Samuel Selvon and Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw. Many are from the proud literary wave that crested after the island’s 1962 independence, others bring a more subversive eye to island culture. Out now.
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After enduring years of abuse, Audra has finally reached breaking point. She loads the car, grabs the children and sets off, keeping to rural back roads in the hope of staying under the radar and finding a hideyhole for the night. It’s a plan that’s about to go badly awry when the fleeing woman spots the flashing red and blue lights of a police car in her rear view mirror and pulls over. Big mistake – and just the start of her problems in this thriller. Haylen Beck is the new pseudonym for crime writing veteran Stuart Neville, and a new direction for him. It’s out now for Kindle and the print version is out in August.
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The Dark Web is proving a great hunting ground for crime writers in search of new plot ideas and it provides the background for this debut, available now from Bloodhound Books. An anonymous website is home to a bunch of dangerous vigilantes, out to right the wrongs of a justice system they perceive as weak. A few clicks of the computer mouse can change a life forever in myriad dark, violent and desperate ways. The Met Cyber Crimes Unit are on the trail of the faceless folk behind The Red Room, but with allegations of corruption running rife, it’s debatable whether they’re up to the task.
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Bill Price is facing a nightmare. His wife died recently and while he is still grieving his 15-year-old daughter, Summer, and her friend disappear. It’s a worst-case scenario for the widower. Then, the two girls surface but one is dead and the other has been beaten severely. Bill is at Summer’s side but she is swathed in bandages, barely communicating, as she clings to life. This psychological thriller tale mines the angst and distress of a father as he uncovers his daughter’s secrets. Can he get to the truth? We reviewed David Bell’s Cemetery Girl here.
Released 11 July.
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The 11th book in Ty Patterson’s Warriors series reunites readers with Zeb Carter, a man who will go anywhere and do anything to rescue kidnapped friends. This one starts off on Columbus Avenue in New York, where twin women working for ‘The Agency’ are snatched from the street by someone in a fake NYPD cruiser. Someone’s trying to damage The Agency big time. After all, it’s a government outfit that officially doesn’t exist but does a lot to protect the United States. Carter and his colleagues kick into action and their quest takes them all the way to war-torn Syria. You can read Chapter One here.
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Gina Royal is an average mother when her serial killer husband is caught. She is brutally trolled online after being accused of being an accomplice. The horror of the threat escalates and she takes a new identity as Gwen Proctor when she flees to the remote Stillhouse Lake. Then a woman is found skinned in the lake and the danger is still following her. Caine is well known for her long running Morganville vampire series. There’s nothing supernatural here but the people are creepy, the violence horrific and this psychological thriller promises to keep you awake at night. Out 1 July.
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Here’s one with an interesting premise, from New Zealand author Paul Cleave. The main character is Jerry Grey, a thriller writer who has kept his readers gripped for a decade. After his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s, Jerry confesses that the stories in his books were so gripping because they were real! His carers say it’s all in his head, but bodies are being found and, well, it doesn’t make sense. Then, Jerry goes missing… Out now in print, and on 13 July for Kindle
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Read about last week’s new releases here, or sign up to our newsletter here.