The dreaded job interview is the starting point for CM Ewan’s latest thriller, and we’ll start this week’s new column there because The Interview looks particularly innovative and twisty. We’re equally looking forward to A Good Day to Die by Amen Alonge, which is also set in London but has more of a gangland style to it. Gregg Hurwitz is here with the latest in his Evan Smoak series and we’ve got a mountainside murder mystery thanks to Amy McCulloch. Our report ends with something very strange and different in Manchester… Read on to find out more.
It’s a strong week for new books. Which will you pick?
The Interview by CM Ewan
Crime fiction author CM Ewan might have come up with a genius set-up for his new novel, The Interview. PR executive Kate is invited to an interview for her dream job at Edge Communications at the unusual time of 5pm on a Friday afternoon. They’ve got the best clients and the most forward-thinking attitude. There’s even a climbing wall. But soon she realises there’s something off about the interviewer, Joel. The interview has become an interrogation. Who is this Joel, what’s he doing and why does he think Kate has something to hide much bigger than the fact that the line about swimming on her CV isn’t strictly true. The Interview begins 17 February. Chris Ewan’s Dark Tides is still a bit of a favourite around here.
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A Good Day to Die by Amen Alonge
There’s been quite a buzz surrounding this debut thriller – it even made Crime fiction Lover’s pick of the most wanted books of 2022. Now we don’t have very long to wait, because Amen Alonge’s A Good Day to Die is published on 17 February. It’s 10 years since Pretty Boy left London, but now he’s back and there’s revenge on his mind. The person responsible for Pretty Boy’s exile is about to get what’s coming to him, until the procurement of a pretty, and pretty valuable, bracelet scuppers all his best-laid plans. When the hunter becomes the hunted, there’s little chance of everyone getting out of this alive.
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Breathless by Amy McCulloch
Journalist Cecily Wong’s career is in the doldrums, so when she’s invited to join an expedition in Nepal to climb one of the world’s tallest mountains, it seems like the chance of a lifetime. It was always going to be a tough trip, but as the small group begins its ascent things start to go wrong. There’s a theft followed by an accident. Then a mysterious note is pinned to Cecily’s tent, warning: “There’s a murderer on the mountain”. As the going gets even tougher the climbing party bands together as a team. Then Cecily stumbles across the first body and the bonds of trust begin to fray. You can grab a copy of Breathless by Amy McCulloch on 17 February.
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Dark Horse by Gregg Hurwitz
The latest explosive instalment in Gregg Hurwitz’s best selling Orphan X series finds former off-the-books assassin Evan Smoak on the hunt for a teenage girl who has been kidnapped by a brutal criminal cartel and spirited over the border into Mexico. Her father wants Angelina back – and he’s prepared to pay big bucks to get his way – but Evan soon realises that his prospective client’s past is as clouded and compromised as his own. Is he prepared to act on behalf of a bad guy? And given who he’s up against, is Evan really the man for the job? Buckle up for a very dark but thrill-filled ride. Dark Horse is out on 17 February.
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This Charming Man by CK McDonnell
Are you attracted to the heady mix known as comic fantasy crime? Then you’re in luck, because CK McDonnell’s This Charming Man is out on 17 February. Number two in the Stranger Times series, it’s set in Manchester, where there’s been a sudden rush of vampire sightings. No one seems very happy about the development: not the Founders, a secret organisation for whom vampires were invented as an allegory; nor the Folk, magical people hidden in plain sight who want a quiet life; and definitely not the people of Manchester. The Stranger Times is a newspaper committed to reporting the truth that nobody else will touch, so it seems only right that the staff should get involved – but all is not hunky dory in the newsroom…
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