Leading our news report this week is Australian author Chris Hammer, with the UK and US publication of his latest novel, The Broken River, set in the gold fields of the Outback. We’ve also got cosy crime fiction, some new rural noir from the US, an indie detective novel and some non-fiction about Agatha Christie.
Read on to discover your next crime read.
Click here to see the winners of the Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2024.
The Broken River by Chris Hammer
Chris Hammer fans don’t have too long to wait for the next story featuring Detectives Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic. This time they’re called to a remote community in the hills of New South Wales, where a body has been found. It is Wolfgang Burnside, deputy mayor of The Valley, a community that’s been suffering since the closure of the goldmine that was its life blood. Burnside had been working on plans to take the Valley off-grid using hydro power – a scheme which met with mixed responses from the locals. Did someone hate it enough to off Burnside and leave his body in the river? Already published in Australia and New Zealand as The Valley, The Broken River arrives in the UK on 2 January.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
The Last Word is Death by Faith Martin
The second book in Faith Martin’s cosy Val and Arbie Mysteries series arrives on 2 January, and as The Last Word is Death opens, Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift is at the seaside. He’s planning a few quiet days at the swish and modern Dashwood House in Galton-next-the-Sea, but there’s little chance to relax when someone is found dead in the hotel. The deceased was one of a group attending an engagement party and also among their number is Arbie’s old friend, Val. Soon the pair is on the trail of the killer – but who should they trust?
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives by Jared Cade
She’s the undisputed Queen of Crime, but how much do you know about Agatha Christie? Time to rectify that when Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives by Jared Cade makes its entrance on 30 December. Cade is the author of the ground-breaking biography Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, so he’s something of an expert on the subject and here he carries out an in-depth investigation into how Christie broke into the serial market with her thrilling tales of murder and intrigue. Get ready for a plethora of hitherto unknown facts about the timeline of her publishing history and some rare pictures.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
They All Fall the Same by Wes Browne
In deepest Kentucky, cannabis kingpin Burl Spoon is lord of all he surveys. For over three decades he’s amassed a powerful backwoods empire but behind the scenes, Spoon’s life is a mess. His daughter is an addict, his son’s gay and after years of being cheated on, his wife is straying too. Then his daughter overdoses and an employee is murdered, and Spoon reaches breaking point. It’s time to take revenge – but is he prepared to lose everything, including what’s left of his family? We’ll find out when They All Fall the Same by Wes Browne comes out on 7 January.
Order now on Amazon
Shadow of Justice: Moving On by Jules MacLeod
Indie author Jules MacLeod concludes his Shadow of Justice saga with Moving On, out now. NYPD Detective Josh Watson is back from a trip to South America that changed his life, but his attempts to move on are thwarted with the arrival of a new drug lord into New York. The thirst for justice is losing its potency as Watson investigates the murder of an NYPD colleague, but with the stakes rising and his life under threat it’s time for him to show his mettle. In a final, deadly showdown, Watson must protect the person he cares most about – and fight for his own survival.
Order now on Amazon
Click here to read about last week’s new book.
