It’s been seven years since the last Penn Cage novel from Mississippi author Greg Iles and so our lead book this week is Southern Man – a big deal for lovers of rural noir – and doesn’t its cover come with a unique sense of haunted beauty? Of course, inside all hell will break loose as America heads towards a second Civil War. History plays into new books by Lisa Barr and Joseph Kanon, which both go back to World War II, and we’ve got the latest from French author Olivier Norek plus one from Teddy Wayne, an author who is new to Crime Fiction Lover.
Southern Man by Greg Iles
Greg Iles fans have been waiting with bated breath for book seven in his Penn Cage series – not long now, because Southern Man comes out on 28 May in the US. We’ve moved on 15 years since the events of the Natchez Burning trilogy and Cage is a lone wolf, living a solitary life after losing his loved ones and old allies. Then a brawl at a Mississippi rap festival triggers a bloody mass shooting that nearly kills his daughter Annie, and Cage is once more thrown into the thick of things… Set in 2024, against a backdrop of civil unrest, terrorist attacks and the rising popularity of a Southern war hero who is making a bid for the White House, Cage and his fearless daughter team up to fight together as America stands on the brink of another Civil War.
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The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr
A legendary Hollywood star with a dark secret about her life in the Warsaw Ghetto is at the centre of The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr, published on 28 May. Now in her 80s, Lena Browning was once Bina Blonski, a Polish Jew whose life and family were destroyed by the Nazis. Sienna Hayes, a young actress whose career is on the ascendancy, wants to direct a picture about Lena’s life – but is she prepared to hear the shocking truth of what happened back then? Set during the Holocaust, 1950s America and Hollywood in the early 21st century, Barr interweaves fact and fiction in an historical thriller that skilfully plays with the emotions.
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Shanghai by Joseph Kanon
China in the midst of World War II is the setting for Joseph Kanon’s Shanghai, published on 23 May. Daniel Lohr flees Berlin as the Nazis begin to target the Jews, his passage to Shanghai assured if he takes a mysterious package to his shady uncle. To pass the time on the journey he has a passionate affair with Leah, but when the ship docks they are separated. Will he ever see her again? Nursing a broken heart, Daniel is drawn into his uncle’s corrupt world, helping to launch a glitzy new nightclub — but beneath all the glamour lurks a dark and terrifying, lawless underworld that soon has Daniel in its clutches.
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The Winner by Teddy Wayne
Sex, power and money are the driving forces in the thriller The Winner by Teddy Wayne, out on 28 May in the US and 6 June in the UK. It sounds like a great summer job, giving tennis lessons to rich folk in the gated community of Cutters Neck near Cape Cod – but nobody seems too interested in what Conor O’Toole has to offer. Until a wealthy divorcee offers Conor twice his usual rate in return for additional, off the court services. Conor and Catherine are soon embroiled in a steamy affair, with the added complication of the young man falling for a girl he meets on the beach. Conor thinks he can juggle his complicated love life, until he makes a final, irreversible mistake.
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Between Two Worlds by Olivier Norek
French author Olivier Norek is back with Between Two Worlds, translated by Nick Caistor and out on 23 May. It’s a standalone crime novel set in the Calais Jungle – where we find Adam Sirkis, a captain in Assad’s military police who fled Syria when he was about to be exposed as a covert member of the Free Syrian Army, but not before sending his wife and young daughter to Libya. Sirkis is befriended by Bastien Miller, a police lieutenant freshly transferred to the Calais police force, and the two officers make a deal – the Syrian will share intel from inside the camp if Miller can get information about his family. Then a murder occurs and the pair agree to pool resources and find the killer.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org