On the Radar — Yes, there are plenty of crime novels these days where dark secrets prove to be the undoing of the main character. This week one of the finest authors of standalone crime novels – Michael Robotham – returns and his latest looks like it’s one you’ll enjoy if you like to see the layers peeled away from the proverbial onion. Similarly, it’s just one layer of the weekly onion we as we bring you eight more books to consider. Will any of them make it onto your TBR pile? Let us know.
Crime writers love a good secret, as recent releases by Ruth Ware and Carol Wyer prove. Now Michael Robotham joins the whispering gallery with a thriller about two women who have nothing in common other their pregnancies. But how far are they prepared to go to have the perfect family? A shocking act is about to bind these two women together, and it could define them… or destroy them. Find out more when we review this standalone psychological thriller soon on Crime Fiction Lover. We’ve previously reviewed the author’s book Life or Death. Out 11 July.
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We’ve had to wait a couple of years for Bouman’s second novel after he scooped the Edgar Award for Best First Novel with Dry Bones in the Valley. Now we are back in Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania with widower and policeman Henry Farrell. He’s a former soldier who saw service in Somalia and when local carpenter Kevin O’Keeffe admits that he shot a man it falls to Farrell to investigate. Turns out Kevin’s girlfriend, Penny, is missing too and Farrell is pulled into a deepening mystery. Edging towards the literary, Bouman offers character studies at the dark edges of the American Dream. Out now.
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DI Ben Cooper is searching for a missing man, Reece Bower, in the English Peak District. Ten years earlier, Bower was charged with the murder of his first wife, Annette Bower, when she disappeared without a trace. Reece Bower walked. Cooper has the same problem: another murder and no body. The abrasive DS Diane Fry from the Serious Crime Squad may help but she has the murder of a Polish immigrant to investigate. Remarkably, this is the 17th book in the Cooper and Fry series from an author whose mantelpiece is groaning with awards. Out 13 July.
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Wyoming author CJ Box returns with a second new novel in 2017, the first being Vicious Circle. While Vicious Circle featured crime solving forest ranger Joe Picket, Paradise Valley continues the story of Chief Investigator Cassie Dewell. For three years she’s been trying to track down a serial killer called the Lizard King, who has been killing prostitutes at truck stops in North Dakota. It follows on from Badlands and The Highway. Out 25 July.
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Esther Brookstone is a Scotland Yard detective specialising in stolen artwork. When a neo-Nazi group starts selling works appropriated by the Germans during World War II, she and her Interpol colleague Bastiann van Coevorden set out to thwart the conspiracy – a journey that takes them across Europe and to South America. Esther would love to recover some major pieces of missing Renaissance art, and at the same time there’s a frisson of romance between her and Bastiann. Plus… Nazis. Out now.
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After two full novels featuring 1960s journalist Colin Crampton – Stop Press Murder and Headline Murder – Peter Bartram is back with three novellas featuring the character. Keeping with that stop-the-press theme, they’re entitled Murder in the Morning Edition, Murder in the Afternoon Extra, and Murder in the Night Final. They promise murder, mystery and a touch of humour as Brighton journalist Crampton heads off to parts unknown. Released 10 July.
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Private Investigator Daniel Beckett steps in to help a young woman and finds himself picking up another case from a shady source in London’s Chinatown. He is soon embroiled in a violent conspiracy as he dives into the burlesque scene to find a missing girl. Just the ticket for a PI with Beckett’s past, a smart mouth, and a well established reputation as a womaniser. And, as you’d expect, he can look after himself. With Dominic Piper’s pedigree as a script doctor expect a cinematic edge to the hardboiled action in this third book in the Beckett series. Out 24 July.
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A new series from best-selling author Lisa Hartley introduces undercover specialist Detective Caelan Small, who is set to leave the Met and pursue another career path after an operation goes badly wrong. But all plans of getting out of the job are put on hold when the criminal they were pursuing resurfaces in the UK. It’s the cue for a dangerous investigation – and when the lines are blurred, putting your trust in the wrong person could prove fatal… Released 10 July.
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It’s a horror movie thing – ‘final girls’ are the last ones to die in slasher flicks like I Know What You Did Last Summer. But in this book the concept has been captured by the press, because over the last 15 years, three women have survived mass murders in different locations. Survived, until now. Quincy has been rebuilding her life ever since what happened at Pine Cottage, but she’s just received news that one of the two other ‘final girls’ as they were dubbed in the press has committed suicide. Or has she? Quincy’s not so sure and it feels more and more like someone’s out to finish the job thrice over. Out 13 July.
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