Oh dear, today we bring you news about one bad doggy who has jumped ahead up the food chain and made a meal of their owner. Get a load of Helle’s Hound, new from Oskar Jensen as our lead book this week. Plus, there are spies, neighbourhood psychopaths, cold cases and serial killers as we run down the new crime fiction releases for you.
Woof.
Helle’s Hound by Oskar Jensen

We first met Danish art historian Torben Helle this time last year, in the innovative Helle & Death. He’s back again on 30 January, when Oskar Jensen’s Helle’s Hound is published and this time Torben is lamenting the untimely death of his mentor, Dame Charlotte Lazerton, whose lifeless body was partially eaten by her Irish wolfhound, Mortimer. Signs point to natural causes, but Torben is convinced it was murder. No one else takes any notice of his protestations, until he catches the ear of a policeman who is a fan of Nordic noir TV shows and ready to listen to any Scandinavian in fetching knitwear.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter

Fans of Henry Porter‘s Paul Samson spy thriller novels will scent new blood in the form of Alice ‘Slim’ Parsons, a former MI5 undercover agent who has blotted her copybook once too often. But maybe redemption is possible when Slim is tasked with infiltrating a news website staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers and operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. It looks like an easy gig, but the operation turns out to be far more complex than Slim bargained for. On top of all that, her brother is missing. Is she really up to the tasks at hand? The Enigma Girl is out now in the UK and published in the US on 27 January.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
The Dark Hours by Amy Jordan

Let’s head to Ireland for Amy Jordan’s The Dark Hours, a heady mix of psychological thriller and police procedural that’s out on 30 January. Back in 1994, young and ambitious Cork Gardai Julia Harte was landed with a serial killer case that left her plagued with nightmares and terrified of the dark. Move on 30 years and Julia is retired and living a quiet life in rural Ireland – until, that is, she receives a call from her old boss. Two women have been found dead, their murders a carbon copy of what happened 30 years ago. It’s happening again, and this time Julia has the experience and street smarts to face down a killer and bring them to justice.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
The Psychopath Next Door by Mark Edwards

The name Mark Edwards is synonymous with The Magpies, which came out 11 years ago and sold and sold. He’s back on familiar territory in The Psychopath Next Door, which he has described as “set in The Magpies universe, with at least one returning character from that series.” We can find out more on 28 January, when the book is published, but it’s about the Dove family who move into a safe community, looking for a new start for themselves and their children, Dylan and Rose. She’s only 12, but Rose is being targeted by bullies and when a neighbour offers to look after her in the school holidays it seems a kind gesture. But Fiona Smith has other motives, and soon she has Rose in her thrall…
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
I Bet You’d Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent

Katy Brent’s debut novel, How to Kill Men and Get Away With It!, introduced serial killer Kitty Collins to an unsuspecting readership. She’s back on 30 January, and in I Bet You’d Look Good in a Coffin, Kitty is back doing the thing she loves best – committing murder. She’s tried so hard to stop, but when men like influencer Blaze Bundy are spreading misogyny online what’s a girl to do? Kitty’s mother is about to marry a new husband when really she should be spending her time in the South of France topping up her tan and sampling new cocktails. But the urge to kill is still there… and surely one teensy little murder wouldn’t hurt?
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org