As we’ve come to realise, London author Janice Hallett always seems to conjure up an ingenious set-up for her novels, and she uses intriguing storytelling techniques to keep you on a rich and varied diet. So get ready for your latest mysterious nutrition as her new novel – The Examiner – leads our line-up of crime fiction releases. Ann Cleeves returns with a new Vera Stanhope novel, plus we have books from Eleonor Samuel, Rob Starr and a debut by Eric Richardson.
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The Examiner by Janice Hallett
The mature students of Royal Hastings University’s new art course are about to take on their last assignment, to create an art installation at a local factory. But this group comprises six distinct personalities and they butt heads at every end and turn, so is there any chance at all of a harmonious outcome? The answer is no – and when an external examiner arrives to assess their coursework he comes to the conclusion that one of the group has been murdered and the others have conspired to cover it up. Is he on the right track? In true Janice Hallett fashion, it’s up to you to to decide. Make a date with The Examiner on 29 August.
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The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves
Superstition and folklore collide with fact in The Dark Wives, Ann Cleeves‘ 11th Vera Stanhope book, which arrives on 29 August. The discovery of the body of a man who worked at a care home for troubled teenagers sets our favourite DCI and her team on a search for Chloe, one of the home’s young residents – but could a 14-year-old girl really be responsible? Then a second connected body turns up near the Three Dark Wives standing stones in the wilds of Northumberland, and with the hunt for Chloe hitting a brick wall, dark secrets threaten to hamper the police investigation as the local community closes ranks.
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My Lost Sister by Eleonor Samuel
Leonie went missing 20 years ago, on the day before her 15th birthday. The sister she left behind has never believed the story that Leonie was driven away by a mysterious man. What if the truth is completely different? As she returns to the house where the siblings grew up, Rosalie is determined to piece the past together – but who is posting old pictures of her childhood home? The front door, the gardens outside the window where she now sits, tagged: #leonieshouse? My Lost Sister by Eleonor Samuel is out on 29 August.
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The First Widow by Rob Starr
Fraud investigator Kiara Fox is good at her job, so when her instincts tell her something is off about a life insurance claim involving a wealthy man named Martin Powers she has no reason to doubt them. Her boss thinks otherwise, and the claim is approved – but Kiara’s suspicions sharpen when the Powers file vanishes… and then reappears, secreted away in the papers of another investigator. Things go from bad to worse as innocent people begin to die. Will Kiara put her job or her family first? Find out when The First Widow by Rob Starr is published on 29 August.
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Blood Betrayal by Eric Richardson
Let’s head back to London in the 1980s for Eric Richardson’s Blood Betrayal, out on 28 August. East End brothers Mat and Nic Hunter take over the family business from their dad and are soon intent on making their mark in the illegal drugs trade. And things are going well – Mat cooks up a scheme to launder the dirty proceeds of the Brinks Mat heist and becomes Pablo Escobar’s main European cocaine distributor, moving the siblings to a higher echelon of criminality. But it all comes at a price in this gritty and darkly humorous story, and the first in a series of two novels.
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