On the Radar — It’s an eclectic new books column we have for you this week, with French crime fiction, some indie thrillers, a new audio mystery inspired by true crime podcasts, and… Cthulhu. Because when you don’t know what to do, throw in the Cthulhu, and mix in some Sherlock Holmes for a winning combo. Read on and discover your next crime read.
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Savages 2: The Spectre by Sabri Louatah
The Guardian named this French author among its 50 fresh voices you should be reading, and this sequel to the well-received Savages: The Wedding is out 16 August. France is left reeling when the country’s most popular candidate, French Arab Chaouch, is shot on election night. The gunman is Krim Nerrouche, a young, naive man and as his victim’s life hangs by a thread he faces intense interrogation which reveals he was just a pawn in someone else’s game. Is a country being torn apart by rioting factions about to collapse into anarchy?
Pre-order now on Amazon
Fall Down Dead by Stephen Booth
A new Cooper & Fry novel arrives on 16 August, the 18th in the popular series. There’s drama on Kinder Scout in Derbyshire’s Peak District, where a walking party fall foul of the area’s unpredictable weather and get lost in the mist. It’s an error that’s about to prove fatal for one of their number. A simple accident? DI Ben Cooper isn’t so sure, and when investigations reveal that more than one of the hikers may have had reason to murder their companion, his suspicions seem well-founded. Meanwhile, DS Diane Fry finds herself at the eye of an internal investigations storm…
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Revenge by Thomas A Burns Jr
The second in the series featuring former stripper turned pre-law student Nattie McMasters is out on 15 August, and it finds her in love… and in big trouble. Nattie’s partner, Lupe, is also a former stripper and an undocumented immigrant, who’s now a pole-dancing instructor at a local gym. Life’s looking good for them, until a steamy video of Nattie and Lupe appears on the campus-wide closed-circuit TV system. It’s the first of a series of disasters to befall Nattie and her family. Who is out to get her, and why? She’ll need all of her skills as a part-time private detective to sort this one out.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Dead Air from Serial Box
True crime. It’s big at the moment. If you grab a copy of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, for instance, you’ll be able to see why. And true crime podcasts are the inspiration behind Matt Wesolowski’s Six Stories and subsequent novels too. In that vein, Serial Box has created a Dead Air, a thriller in which college radio show host Mackenzie Walker sets out to solve a case after a tip-off. She never thought she’d be investigating a murder and a wrongful conviction but soon she’s seeking out witnesses who knew the victim, who was a Kentucky racing family heiress. Naturally, there’s someone out there who doesn’t want the truth to get any airtime whatsoever… Fiction posing as true crime. is there a word for that yet? Out 15 August.
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Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu: The Adventure of the Neural Psychoses by Lois H Gresh
You might need to take a breath halfway through if you’re reading the title of this one out loud, but once again the pantheons of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and HP Lovecraft collide and are stirred together by US author Lois H Gresh. We have a singer spreading forth the spawn of Cthulhu with her horrific lyrics, Moriarty is in attendance with a lust for gold, and Holmes and Watson to keep them at bay while at the same time dealing with a cabal of monsters who are haunting the Thames. It’s out on 14 August.
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The Thin Blue Sliver by Troy Adami
Things are in a spin for John Moss, former Miami PD detective and the creation of Australian crime author Troy Adami. First, an ex-girlfriend shows up saying she’s moving to California with her boxer husband. Later that night, things get even more confusing. A stranger appears with the news that John has a price on his head, and that the mob boss who’s ordered the hit is the same man that the boxer owes money. For some reason, the stranger wants to help John and they join forces. But do they really know what they’re up against or, for that matter, what’s actually going on?
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