On the Radar — Prepare to be broadsided as some of the biggest names in contemporary crime fiction launch a salvo of explosive-looking novels that’ll blow your summer reading pile to pieces. Adrian McKinty, Jo Nesbo and Joseph Knox are three of the most popular authors we’ve ever featured on Crime Fiction Lover and they all have a new novel out, but let’s not overlook award-winning Kristen Lepionka, Oliver Bottini and Luca d’Andrea whose novels also look like excellent beach fodder. What. A. Week.
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The Chain by Adrian McKinty
The author of the excellent Sean Duffy series, set in Northern Ireland, is back with a mind-blowing concept and this time his story is set in America’s Irish enclave just outside Boston, Massachusetts. It goes a little bit like this… Your kid is napped and along with paying a ransom, the SMS you receive also requires you to kidnap someone else’s child. Go to the law, your kid dies. Try to find whoever’s behind The Chain, your kid dies. And this is exactly what happens to Rachel O’Neill when little Kylie is taken. But maybe, just maybe, Rachel and Kylie are made of sterner stuff and the multi-million dollar enterprise known as The Chain is about to be challenged. Then again, maybe not. Find out 9 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Knife by Jo Nesbo
The 12th Harry Hole thriller from Norwegian author Jo Nesbo sees the alcoholic detective reach new lows after a serial rapist he put away is released from prison. Svein ‘The Fiancé’ Finne appears to be looking for revenge, and has gone back to his predatory strategy of raping women then threatening to return and kill them if they contact the police. Meanwhile, Harry’s personal life is in tatters. His drinking is once again out of control and his wife Rakel has thrown him out for the final time. It’s with this background that Finne turns his eye towards those nearest and dearest to Harry Hole. Read our full guide to the character. Knife is out 11 July.
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The Sleepwalker by Joseph Knox
The third in the series featuring Manchester detective Aidan Waits is out on 11 July and finds our hero sitting by a bedside in an empty hospital ward, watching a mass murderer prepare to breathe his last. But before that happens, Waits is desperate to learn one thing – the location of Martin Wick’s last victim. For more than a decade the notorious killer known as The Sleepwalker has steadfastly kept his counsel. Now his whispered final words are about to send Waits on a perilous journey. There’s no turning back now, so can Waits get through this in one piece? Read our interview with the author here.
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The Stories you Tell by Kristen Lepionka
She’s won a Shamus Award and been nominated for both the Anthony and Macavity Awards with her previous releases, now Kristen Lepionka is back with the third book in the Roxane Weary series. The private investigator’s latest case becomes personal when her brother is implicated in the disappearance of a hip DJ with whom he’d had a one-night stand. As Roxane digs deeper, it becomes clear that the missing young woman is a small piece in a much larger puzzle. Can she sort things out and exonerate her brother? Out 9 July. Family ties also muddy the waters for private investigator VI Warshawski in Shell Game.
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The Dance of Death by Oliver Bottini
Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch, The Black Forest series by CWA Dagger-shortlisted author Oliver Bottini reaches book three on 11 July. On a wet and misty autumn weekend, the Niemann family are shocked to find an armed stranger in their garden. The man tries to force his way into the house, then disappears before the police arrive. But that night he returns with an ultimatum… As Freiburg Serious Crime Squad detective Louise Boni and her colleagues try to get to the bottom of the case, the trail of evidence leads her to a ruthless criminal who brings with him the trauma of conflict in the Balkans. Here’s our review of book one of the series, Zen and the Art of Murder.
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Sanctuary by Luca d’Andrea
In 2017, The Mountain by Italian author Luca d’Andrea was one of our Recommended books and in his second novel, Sanctuary, he takes us back to the Alps where Marlene Wegener steals something from her gangster husband and goes on the run. What she’s taken is priceless, but she’s in trouble when her car leaves the wintry road and crashes. High up in the mountains, she takes refuge in the home of Simon Keller, a man with his own demons. Will he be able to protect Marlene from her husband… or anyone else who might be out to get her, for that matter? Released 11 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon
