On the Radar — It’s a strong week for new releases and our books news column brings you the latest from Louise Beech and Alafair Burke, a Scottish crime debut and one from Australia, as well as the hotly awaited A Bloody Business. However, top of the pile has to be John Connolly’s A Book of Bones and his new Charlie Parker novel has fans excited all around the world. What a cover too, wouldn’t you agree?
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A Book of Bones by John Connolly
John Connolly’s latest in the long running Charlie Parker series lands on 17 April, and we’ve been lucky enough to get an early peek at what is sure to be one of the most anticipated books of 2019. This hefty novel clocks in at nearly 700 pages, and continues where last year’s The Woman in the Woods left off, with Parker and his associates Angel and Louis hot on the trail of the English lawyer Quayle and his fiendish associate Mors. The stakes couldn’t be higher as each party seeks the Fractured Atlas, a book which it is said confers the powers to remake the world in its owner’s image. The series is now at its 17 entry and just keeps getting stronger with that mix of occult and detective crime. Keep an eye out for our review, coming soon.
Pre-order now on Amazon
A Bloody Business by Dylan Struzan
This book has an origin story more interesting than Batman and Spider-Man put together. Author Dylan Struzan met the ageing gangster Vincent ‘Jimmy Blue Eyes’ Alo after he’d retired to Florida, and managed to do a series of interviews with him about his activities way back during the Prohibition years in the 1920s. His story, written now that he has passed, is that of the rise of organised crime in the United States, with Irish, Jewish and Italian gangs all bootlegging, vying for territory and killing one another. Essential reading if you’re a crime author or crime fiction fan on the lookout for some true, old school gangster stories. Out 16 April.
Pre-order now on Amazon
The Better Sister by Alafair Burke
Oh, it’s the way those family secrets keep bubbling to the surface that gives crime fiction its fizz these days, isn’t it? And, while it’s no secret that Alafair Burke‘s father is the Southern stalwart of crime James Lee Burke, her books are quite something else. Here we have two sisters. One has had a baby by a man, though it’s the other sister who marries him. When Adam is murdered, Chloe lets the biological mother of her stepson – her sister Nicky – back into her life. Now at this point the faeces could be hitting the proverbial cooling device, but actually the two pair up to try to work out who killed Adam, as his son Ethan has been arrested… Out 16 April.
Pre-order now on Amazon
From the Shadows by GR Halliday
This debut is the first book in the DI Monica Kennedy series, set in Inverness and the Scottish Highlands and out on 18 April. Teenager Robert comes home and goes straight to his room. Nothing too unusual there, but it’s the last time his dad sees him alive, because Robert’s body is soon found on a rugged beach. DI Kennedy’s gut feeling is that this death isn’t going to be an isolated incident. Meanwhile, in Inverness, social worker Michael Bach is worried about one of his clients who has been missing for seven days. Could Nichol Morgan be the killer’s next victim in this latest entry to the Tartan noir pantheon?
Pre-order now on Amazon
Call Me Star Girl by Louise Beech
Have you got a secret? Want to share it? Secrets are at the heart of this psychological thriller. Late night radio show presenter Stella has plenty to share, but what she’s much more interested in is the mysterious caller who rings into her programme and wants to tell his story. What he discloses is shocking. He says he knows who killed pregnant Victoria Valbon, found brutally murdered in an alley three weeks ago. He also says he has proof, but can Stella get to the bottom of it all? Out now for Kindle, in print on 18 April. Also see Maria in the Moon by the same author.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Call Me Evie by JP Pomare
Australian crime fiction is flying high right now. Meet another debutant, whose book is already winning widespread praise. Teenager Evie and her uncle Jim move from Melbourne to an isolated cabin in a remote beach town to start a new life. But Evie isn’t her real name and Jim isn’t really her uncle. He says she did something terrible back home and he’s trying to protect her, but try as she might Evie can’t remember anything about that night. As fragments of memory return, she starts to wonder if Jim is really her saviour… or could he be her captor? Out in print on 18 April.
Pre-order now on Amazon
