On the Radar — This week, a very different take on Shakespeare’s Scottish play leads our new releases list. Jo Nesbo’s version of Macbeth was on our Most Wanted list at the beginning of the year, alongside debutante Vicky Newham’s Turn a Blind Eye which also features in today’s news. If you like historical crime fiction, we’ve got Lindsey Davis’ latest trip back to Imperial Rome, and some domestic noir for you too. Read on and discover your next crime read…
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Macbeth by Jo Nesbo
There’s a theory going around that Macbeth (Shakespeare’s one, not Hamish) was the original Tartan Noir. It’s a controversial idea given that the 1606 play was written by the sasanach William Shakespeare and adding insult to injury, if you are a Scot, it has been reinvented by the king of Nordic noir, Norway’s Jo Nesbo. His interpretation of the tragedy is unusual to say the least. The year is 1970, and at the start of the tale Macbeth heads the Inverness SWAT team as they back up the regular constabulary for a major drugs bust involving a biker gang and a Russian vessel. Is that enough to get you hooked? It’s out 5 April.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Pandora’s Boy by Lindsey Davis
She’s best known for her novels set in Ancient Rome, including the hugely popular Falco series. With Pandora’s Boy, Lindsey Davis reaches book six in the Flavia Albia collection which is set during the perilous period of the Emperor Domitian. Flavia is offered a sleuthing job by her new husband’s scheming ex-wife… then he disappears without trace. Flavia puts her worries aside and takes the case. A young woman has died in mysterious circumstances and Flavia is determined to get to the truth and offer some solace to the bereaved family, but her investigations are hampered by Pandora, who claims she can contact the lost girl via an illegal seance. Out 5 April.
Pre-order on Amazon
Our House by Louise Candlish
It’s been called a Gone Girl for the property obsessed and has an intriguing premise. On a bright January morning a family moves into their new home in the London suburbs. Nothing strange there, right? Except the house belongs to Fi and she hasn’t sold it. A quick call to joint owner, ex-husband Bram leaves Fi even more perplexed – he’s disappeared. From one tiny crack, Fi’s world comes tumbling down. Her life has been built on lies, but who, exactly, is the guilty party? Out 5 April.
Pre-order on Amazon
Turn a Blind Eye by Vicky Newham
Let’s welcome a new name to the crime fiction fold! Debut author Newham has set her book in East London, where DI Maya Rahman is dealing with the ritualistic death of a school headmistress. Rahman hopes it’s a one-off, but then another body is found and she must try to decipher the cryptic messages left at the crime scenes. Can she catch a killer in the face of hostility from a community that’s got something to hide? This is the first in a series and out on 5 April.
Pre-order now on Amazon
All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson
Harry Ackerman has just graduated college and he’s back in Maine when his father dies after taking a plunge off a local cliff. Tragic accident, suicide, or something more? His aloof stepmother, Alice, has more than a touch of the femme fatale about her and she’s making her sexual advances to Harry clear. A mysterious woman, Grace McGowan, is also taking an interest but it doesn’t all add up. Obsession, revenge and twisted sexual tensions collide in a dark psychological thriller delving into taboos from the Massachusetts-based author of super hit The Kind Worth Killing. Out 3 April.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Odd Child Out by Gilly Macmillan
Bristol. The city of waterways, spires and, in Gilly Macmillan’s latest thriller, the occasional violent assault. Noah Sadler lies in hospital in a coma, and his best friend Abdi Mahal knows how he got there but is too traumatised to say anything. Racial tension is running high in the city and DI Jim Clemo is given the job of finding out what happened to the two teenagers before it goes up by a powder keg. Out 5 April.
Pre-order now on Amazon
