Easter weekend might not be the most fitting time to talk about retribution. But Emma Stonex, the author of The Lamplighters, is back with a tale of vengeance with a twist. The Sunshine Man is the first of five novels we’ve got for you this week, with a debut from Rachel Paris, a trip to British Columbia with Iona Wishaw, a mad tale of drugs and fairies in Scotland… plus you’ll meet an ethical assassin.
The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex
Let’s head to Devon for a tale of retribution, misplaced loyalty and betrayal. A date in January, 1989 is inscribed on Birdie’s heart – it’s when Jimmy Maguire, the man who killed her sister, is to be freed from jail after 18 years behind bars. But Maguire’s freedom will be short-lived, if Birdie has anything to do with it. Armed with a gun, she heads off to London with a plan to make him pay. But there’s another side to the story, and once Birdie hears it, she may well see things in a different light. The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex is published on 1 May.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
See How They Fall by Rachel Paris
There’s a touch of Succession about Rachel Paris’s debut crime novel, See How They Fall – a twisty thriller out on 29 April. Sir Campbell Turner, patriarch of a family that controls a luxury goods empire dies suddenly, and his death puts the cat among the pigeons. His children begin jockeying for supremacy, but when an illegitimate heir stakes their claim it looks like the house of cards is about to tumble. Time for a get together at an intimate weekend retreat at Yallambee, the family seaside estate – where tempers flare and egos clash, and soon someone is dead…
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The Cost of a Hostage by Iona Whishaw
Out 29 April in the US, 12 June in the UK, Iona Whishaw‘s The Cost of a Hostage is the 12th in her Lane Winslow series, set in Nelson, British Columbia. Resident sleuth Lane has plans to read a book and put off mowing the lawn, until her husband, Inspector Darling’s equally uneventful day is ruined by news that his brother has gone missing in a mining camp in Mexico and the police station is visited by the frantic mother of a boy kidnapped from his bedroom. Soon the pair are dicing with danger in Mexico City. And alarm bells begin to ring when Lane spots someone from her past that she would much rather forget.
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When We Were Killers by CF Barrington
First-year student Finn Nethercott is struggling to fit in at storied St Andrew’s University, until four history scholars obsessed with the deepest roots of ancient Scotland take him under their wing. Suddenly Finn is embroiled in wild adventures to forgotten castles and faerie lochs, but beneath the veneer of new friendships lie deadly rivalries, midnight rituals and a desperate search for a long-lost hallucinogen. Just what has he got himself into? Find out on 1 May, the publication date for When We Were Killers by CF Barrington.
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The Ethical Assassin by William Ferraiolo
A man feels he has nothing left to live for after losing his family in a car accident, until an overheard conversation gives him new impetus in US author William Ferraiolo’s The Ethical Assassin, out on 29 April. Someone needs to be killed, and our unnamed protagonist decides to kill him. It’s the first step to a whole new way life, with the protagonist staying in the shadows as a vigilante, while meticulously recording the details of each murder in a journal. It’s brutal, but the ethical assassin kills only men who need to die – and he tells us his story while attempting to navigate the dangers of doing so.
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