You never know what crime fiction authors will come up with next and today we’ve got books that feature everything from a pro wrestler turned detective riding a bronco to opal prospectors in Australia and on to… um… a nuclear meltdown in Japan. What a crazy ride!
Bronco Buster by AJ Devlin
The fourth instalment in Vancouver author AJ Devlin‘s funny and fast-paced Hammerhead Jed series arrives on 1 October , and Bronco Buster finds the former pro-wrestler turned private investigator with the Colossal Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair in his sights. It seems the obvious place to start after a lumberjack games competitor is found floating face down in a pool with an axe buried in the back of his head. Soon Jed and his hapless cousin Declan are on the clock in raucous world of the rodeo, dodging homicidal clowns, betting on cowpie bingo, riding bucking broncos and more as they try to solve the case over the course of one crazy day.
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Exposure by Ramona Emerson
Rita Todacheene, Albuquerque PD forensic photographer returns in Ramona Emerson’s Exposure, out 1 October. A serial killer is working unimpeded in Gallup, New Mexico, targeting homeless Native people whose murders are easily disguised as death by exposure on the frigid winter streets. With the local police struggling, they decide to take a controversial route – by calling upon the skills of Rita, who can see the ghosts of murder victims. For the embattled investigators, it’s a last-ditch attempt at catching murderer; but for Rita, mistrusted by some of her colleagues, hated by others, this could be a step too far…
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Will End in Fire by Nicole Bokat
The phrase ‘sibling rivalry’ could have been coined for Ellie and Josh. Since childhood, Ellie has always been in the shadows of her golden boy, sports star, younger brother. At one time they were close, but these days they have little in common. Ellie is a journalist in Manhattan, specialising in climate change, while Josh has immersed himself in drugs. Now he’s clean, and when her parents plan a weekend away they ask Ellie to keep an eye on her brother. But after yet another spat she leaves – only to return to find the house ablaze, and Josh inside it. Ellie didn’t start the fire… did she? Find out when Nicole Bokat’s Will End in Fire arrives on 1 October.
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Opal by Patricia Wolf
Let’s head to Australia for Opal by Patricia Wolf, out on 30 September. DS Lucas Walker is out in the bush with his little sister Grace from Boston, picking up their cousin Blair, who’s been mining boulder opal in Kanpara. Tensions are high in the little town after rumours grow that someone has made a big find – but Blair is ready to cut his losses and leave. But a rainstorm causes flash floods that cuts Kanpara off, and then two of its residents are murdered. With Blair in the frame, Lucas is under pressure to catch the killer before the waters recede and the real perpetrator can make their escape. But is he overlooking something important? Find out more in our interview with Patricia Wolf.
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Tokyo Noir by Jake Adelstein
True crime, memoir, dark comedy – all of these descriptions and more apply to Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Noir, out now. In this sequel to the bestseller Tokyo Vice, Adelstein – once the only gaijin crime reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, is now doing due-diligence work, using his investigative skills to dig up information that some bosses would prefer stayed hidden. Connections with the yakuza are buried under layers of paperwork, electric power corporation TEPCO is trying to hide the oversights that led to the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, and there’s corruption inside the Japanese government. Plenty for Adelstein to get his teeth into, then, in a book that shocks and entertains in equal measure.
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