Fictional investigator Atticus Pünd and real fictional book editor Susan Ryeland – as seen in the BBC series Magpie Murders – return once again thanks to their creator, Anthony Horowitz. A playful take on the Golden Age mystery, Marble Hall Murders leads our report this week. There are tea shop sleuths, serial killers and a Roman poet all at work in another fine collection of new books for you to choose from.
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz‘s skilled balancing act between modern day mysteries and the Golden Age of crime continues on 10 April when Marble Hall Murders is published. Book editor-turned-amateur sleuth Susan Ryeland has been persuaded to work on a third Atticus Pünd novel, and once again the decision is about to get her into all manner of metafictional trouble. The new book is by Eliot Crace, grandson of Miriam Crace – the world’s biggest selling children’s author until her death 20 years ago. Eliot is convinced she was murdered and has hidden the identity of Miriam’s killer in the pages of the new story. But someone doesn’t want the book to see the light of day, and Susan is in the firing line…
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To the Dogs by Louise Welsh
Professor Jim Brennan has left his past behind and found success. The son of a hardman, Jim is now a respected academic tipped for the top job at his university, with a lovely wife, two great kids and even a pedigree bichon frise. But his carefully constructed world takes a knock when his son Elliott is arrested on a drugs charge, and suddenly the reappearance of faces from his past threaten Jim’s reputation and his family. Maybe Jim is more like his old Dad than he at first appears. Does he have the balls to fight back? Already out as a hardback and for Kindle, To the Dogs by Louise Welsh comes out in paperback on 10 April.
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Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Sutanto
Meddling tea shop proprietor and most excellent amateur sleuth Vera Wong is back on 10 April, and as Jesse Sutanto’s Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) opens, our heroine is happily minding her own business and serving up cup after cup of delicious brew. Then a distressed woman called Millie comes through her door and Vera has no choice but to help her, whether Millie wants it or not. Vera is soon on the hunt for Millie’s missing friend Thomas and once she has all the information she needs by fair means or foul, Vera is determined to uncover the truth in the only way this Chinese mother knows how.
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Even Steven by Chris Sherrill
The Even Steven of the title is a serial killer who continues his murder spree after managing to escape from prison. On his trail is Nashville Detective Sara Durant, but when the revenge killer Steven is himself killed, Sara finds herself in a maelstrom of unresolved mysteries – and with a burgeoning empathy for the man who was known for having his own macabre sense of justice. Where is the balance between right and wrong, duty and vengeance? As Sara wrestles with her conscience, she moves ever-closer to crossing the line. Even Steven by Chris Sherrill is out on 31 March.
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Death and the Poet by Fiona Forsyth
It’s 14AD, and the Roman poet Ovid has been exiled to the Black Sea town of Tomis. A chance to come up with more love verses, perhaps? Well no – because when Dokimos the vegetable seller is found bludgeoned to death, Ovid and his friend, ex-centurion Avitius, set out to investigate the crime in Fiona Forsyth’s Death and the Poet, out now. It appears that pompous Roman legate Flaccus has no interest in the death of Dokimos, so it is up to the pair to find the culprit, aided by Ovid’s wife Flavia, newly arrived from Rome. But the truth comes with a heavy price… Read our interview with the author.
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