On the Radar — It’s fair to say that this week we are looking at some of the biggest hitters in British crime fiction. That makes it hard to choose which to talk about first, but we’ll go with the 2015 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year winner Sarah Hilary. But dive in, because it’s likely that any of these books will knock your crime loving socks off…
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Come and Find Me by Sarah Hilary
The fifth in the Marnie Rome series is out on 22 March, and it begins in dramatic style with a prison riot in which a dangerous inmate escapes. Michael Vokey had been receiving fan mail from two infatuated women, but how much do they really want to be close to a sadistic criminal now that he’s no longer safely behind bars? As DI Marnie Rome and her team try to find the fugitive, she must battle against her own demons and put personal matters to one side, particularly when her foster brother – the man who murdered her parents – is fighting for his life after being hurt in the riot.
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The Fear by CL Taylor
She’s built up quite a reputation for her atmospheric, standalone, psychological thrillers and CL Taylor‘s latest has all the makings of another twisted tale. Louise Wandsworth was 15 when she ran away to France with the man she loved, Mike Hughes, her 32-year-old karate teacher. Now, almost two decades later, Lou is still trying to rebuild her life and her confidence, which was shattered by the man who groomed her. When she returns to the town where she was brought up, she’s shocked to discover Mike is there and involved with a 13-year-old. Can she stop history repeating itself and finally find some peace? Out 22 March
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Hangman by Daniel Cole
When Daniel Cole’s debut Ragdoll burst onto the scene last year it garnered universal praise for its off-kilter killer. Hangman opens 18 months after the Ragdoll case is over, its repercussions still affecting those involved in the investigation. Copycat killers have sprung up all over the world and Halloween sees children wearing costumes inspired by the twisted killer. Then newly promoted Chief Inspector Emily Baxter is summoned to a meeting with agents from the FBI and the CIA. Their New York copycat requires more than a cursory look – cue a transatlantic case which is destined to test them all to the limit. Out 22 March.
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The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George
Do we need to introduce Inspector Lynley of New Scotland Yard? We are now 20 books into the series with a successful BBC TV series to boot. Lynley finds himself investigating an apparent suicide in lovely Ludlow in Shropshire alongside DS Barbara Havers. Her career is teetering on the brink and Lynley has to salvage the reputation of the Met after the initial investigation was botched. Weighing in at over 600 pages there is a lot of Lynley here to savour. We reviewed the recent A Banquet of Consequences last year. Out 20 March.
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Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
This long-running series follows Arthur Bryant and John May, a pair of London detectives working for The Peculiar Crimes Unit of the Metropolitan Police. They are undercover in 1960s Britain and are spending a weekend in a mansion house babysitting Monty Hatton-Jones, who has turned Queen’s evidence. With a nod to the Golden Age of crime fiction the bodies soon start stacking up in this country pile. The house is cut off by nearby army manoeuvres as the detectives scramble to solve the mystery. We reviewed Wild Chamber last year and the 15th in this series is out 22 March.
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The Tango School Mystery by Peter Bartram
The Brighton-based journalist-turned-crimesolver Colin Crampton makes his return on 29 March, this time in a tidy little two-step mystery called The Tango School Murder. It all begins for Colin while at a romantic dinner with girlfriend Shirley Goldsmith, whose rare steak seems extra bloody, but the clues point to a tango academy and an instructor with two left feet. Set in the 1960s, as well as the dancing there’s even a bit of witchcraft thrown in for good measure.
Keep an eye on this page for release details
