On the Radar — You know that we get excited about crime fiction from overseas markets here on Crime Fiction Lover. South Korea already manufactures some of the finest smartphones and containerships in the world, but the country’s latest export is the crime novel The Good Son by You-jeong Jeong, which was a sensation in Seoul. If that doesn’t leave you spinning we’ve got a mouthy coke dealer being chased by hitmen, a murdered migrant in the sedate fenlands of Kent, and a terrorist attack on an Italian train… Read on to discover your next crime read!
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Now is the time to jump into Asian crime fiction. You-jeong Jeong’s The Good Son sold a million copies in South Korea, and now the book has been translated into English for you to enjoy. It’s the kind of crime fiction that will intrigue you. Yu-jin wakes up covered in blood and discovers his mother’s dead body nearby. What to do? He’s sure he didn’t kill her, but not sure anyone will believe him. So he hides the evidence and sets off to catch the killer himself. Then other women start disappearing and he begins to wonder what’s going on, especially as things are starting to point back to his own family and its secrets. Out 3 May.
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Jack Price is a coke dealer who thinks of himself as a modern start-up selling top notch merchandise in a free market gig economy. He’s also furious when his neighbour is murdered but mainly because he would rather have done it himself. So kicks off a gory revenge tale with a charismatic, wise-cracking, amoral sociopath. His initial payback has consequences and the Seven Demons, a crack team of hitmen, are contracted to take him out. Price couldn’t be happier as he doesn’t plan on letting up in a revenge romp that promises to be a guilty pleasure. Released 3 May.
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William Shaw has taken a break from his Breen and Tozer books to start a new series featuring DS Alexandra Cupidi, edging out of London onto the flatlands and fens of coastal Kent. Cupidi has already appeared, alongside her troubled teen daughter, Zoe, in The Birdwatcher. In Salt Lane she is probing the murder of a North African man who has drowned in a slurry pit and her investigations push into the vulnerable subculture of illegal migrant workers. We can expect some rich character studies from Shaw as he peers under the stones society would rather leave untouched. Out 3 May.
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The second in the series featuring Deputy Police Commissioner Columba Caselli and Investigator Dante Torre finds the pair on a trail which will take them from Berlin to Venice. A high-speed train from Milan arrives in Rome with a gruesome cargo – all of the passengers in the first-class coach are dead. It’s seen as an act of terrorism and the finger is pointed at a small group of Islamic extremists but Torre has other ideas. Could it be the work of a killer who has plans for even greater atrocities? We have previously reviewed Kill the Father. Out 3 May.
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Welcome to a modern day story of a man who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. London financier Joseph Ashcroft pinches $1.34 billion from his own bank, gives it untraceably to impoverished strangers worldwide, and then flees. But why has he done it, and how is he going to evade capture? Joseph is confident he can hide, but with the bank’s head of security old army friend Ben Lancaster on his tail, he will need his wits about him if he is to remain free. Out 3 May.
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This is the second book in the Roxane Weary series and the private eye is still trying to cope with the aftermath of what happened in The Last Place you Look. But she must put all that behind her when a man engages her to check up on his fiancée, Marin Strasser. Then Marin is shot dead and Roxane’s client is the prime suspect. She’ll need all her skills to sort out the mysteries surrounding Marin and prove her client’s innocence – and as she edges closer to the truth, it looks like her own life is in danger too. Out 1 May.
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