On the Radar — You know when you see something and all you can say is: “WANT!”? Well, that’s what it’s going to be like for many readers of detective fiction when they see The Wanted by Robert Crais. The title aptly suggests the reader’s reaction, and relates to the story too. And it seems as though there’s even more clever stuff inside if the news we’ve got about the book is anything to go by. In addition, this week we bring you news on two new Scottish crime novels, the latest from Dean Koontz, and more…
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The private detective Elvis Cole is back in what sounds like a strictly old school case. A mother is growing suspicious of her 17-year-old son’s new found wealth – specifically a $40,000 Rolex she discovered under his bed. Cole follows the trail and connects young Tyson to 18 burglaries across LA’s richest neighbourhoods. The boy goes on the run, and then things take a turn for the darker. Bodies start turning up and Tyson is a wanted felon. It’s out 26 December in the US, and 28 December in the UK for Kindle – watch for our review soon. We reviewed the previous Elvis Cole novel, The Promise, last year.
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This is the third in a highly-praised series featuring the complex and compelling DC Donal Lynch, insomniac and functioning alcoholic. Lynch finds himself in the firing line when a ransom handover goes fatally wrong. He was the man with the money, and it’s his head on the block when the handover hits the buffers and the hostage is found dead. The more Lynch digs into the case, the more off-kilter it appears. With everyone seemingly against him, can he catch the killer and clear his name? Out 28 December.
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FBI Agent Jane Hawk is back for the follow up to The Silent Corner and the second in a trilogy. Her husband killed himself but Hawk is determined to find the people responsible. She is prepared to go rogue, beyond the law, to get to them. Her young son is in hiding and she’ll need to tackle a conspiracy that has murdered dozens of people as they plan to unleash a terrifying technology that will guarantee them global power. Hawk is a formidable heroine and we can expect an action-packed page-turner from Koontz. Released 28 December.
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The underbelly of Glasgow has always been savage and we find ourselves back in the 1970s for a dark police procedural laced with corruption. Detective Harry McCoy is investigating a murder-suicide after a teenage boy guns down a young woman in the middle of the city before turning the weapon on himself. A wealthy family, the Dunlops, run a secret society and no-one, including his boss, wants him to get too deep. McCoy is just the kind of anti-hero to shake things up in a grim noir portrait of a bloody Glasgow. Out 28 December.
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Out now for Kindle and as a hardback, Protected by Shadows is the final novel in the author’s Irene Huss series, set in Göteborg, Sweden. The city is about to erupt into gang warfare after a motor cycle club member is burned alive. The Organised Crime Unit and the Violent Crimes Unit must unite their forces, and when they are patrolling a party staged by one of the gangs another murder occurs. The violence is getting closer to home for Irene Huss, too. A bomb is placed under her husband’s car, and she’s being stalked. Can you handle this new Nordic noir thriller?
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Fifteen years ago, Caroline Shipley’s toddler daughter was kidnapped while they were on holiday in Mexico. Now a young woman has made contact, claiming to be the missing girl. Is she really Samantha? As Caroline digs deeper into this coldest of cold cases, she begins to doubt the veracity of everything she previously held as true in this taut psychological thriller from the author of New York Times best-sellers The First Time and Kiss Mommy Goodbye. Out now.
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This self-published novel by Bristol graphic designer turned author John Bowie is set in the 1990s and the main character is also called John. He’s in a witness protection programme and, bored with life, decides to become a private detective. His first case is brought to him by a neighbour – find the femme fatale Cherry. As her disappearance takes him through the pubs, clubs and the seedier side of the city, John discovers that the secret to the case might lie with him – his past and his very identity. Out now.
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