As we hurtle toward September, excitement fills the air because we’ll soon have the latest novel in the Slough House series in for review, plus a new series of Slow Horses (also based on Mick Herron’s British espionage stories) arriving on Apple TV+ on 24 September. Here in our newsletter, we’ve also got a new Welsh crime series coming on TV, and our roundup of new books from authors including SDW Hamilton, Cat Miller, KJ Whittle, Martin Edwards, Lou Berney and Katy Farber.
A fabulous selection, if you love crime fiction.
Clown Town by Mick Herron
You can forget Pennywise or even Coco when the misfits of Slough House return on 11 September in Mick Herron’s Clown Town. On the face of it, there’s not much to laugh about as a grieving River Cartwright uses his downtime to check out his late grandfather’s library. But the OB was always fond of a hidden secret or two… Meanwhile, Diana Taverner has a lot on her mind as the resurrection of a long-buried operation carried out during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland threatens the security of the security services. Oh, and Roddy Ho has a new tattoo. It goes without saying that Jackson Lamb is into all of the above and more – and if his clowns misbehave, there’ll be hell to pay.
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He Calls by Night by SDW Hamilton
Private investigator Jacob Kincaid and mystery podcaster Natalie Amato pool their skills in the hope of reigniting the 40-year-old case of a missing teenager in SDW Hamilton’s He Calls by Night, set in Northern Ireland and published on 9 September. Kincaid can’t find it in himself to refuse when an ailing mother asks him to make a last-ditch attempt to find out what happened to her child all those years ago. But as he and Amato dig deeper, they uncover a string of unsolved disappearances stretching back decades, all connected by a name – Ned by Night. Ned is the stuff of legends… or is he? As the pair try to separate the truth from the old wive’s tales, it becomes clear that Ned is frighteningly real.
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The Nothing Month by Cat Miller
The thought of spending 30 days without tech may sound like a nightmare for some, but it’s a challenge sweeping the nation in Cat Miller’s thriller debut The Nothing Month, out on 4 September. Zara is keen to take part and leaves home with the aim of living off grid for a month. Then a body is found in the woods, close to the safe house where she was supposed to check in, and alarm bells ring for her mum, Sally. It seems there’s a killer on the loose. Not content with waiting patiently at home for news of her daughter, Sally decides to head out and investigate. But with thousands of people taking part and determined to stay hidden, how on earth do you find one missing girl?
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Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards
Remote location? Christmas? Winter storm? Mysterious deaths? All of those boxes and more are ticked in Martin Edwards‘ latest slice of classic crime, Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife , released on 11 September. A motley bunch of people with links to the world of crime writing are invited to a remote village in north Yorkshire to solve the murder of a fictional crime author and win a life-changing prize. Members of the mysterious Midwinter Trust are on hand to ensure fair play, but their best-laid plans are soon in tatters when a real-life killing sets everyone in a tizzy. With a snow storm raging outside, it’s time to unmask the culprit in a book that invites the reader to play detective too.
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Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests by KJ Whittle
Who can resist a lavish dinner party? Not the seven strangers who receive an anonymous invitation to a delicious spread. As they get to know each other and the evening is drawing to a close, seven cards appear, one in front of each guest, containing a number predicting the age at which they’ll die. It’s a prank that falls flat – until the guests, one by one, begin to drop dead just as predicted. With their numbers fast diminishing, it’s time for the remainder of the group to work out who (or what) was behind that fateful dinner party, before their numbers catch up with them. KJ Whittle’s Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests is out on 11 September.
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Crooks by Lou Berney
Family ties run deep in Crooks by Lou Berney, out on 9 September in the US, 23 September in the UK. Crime is in the blood of the Mercurio family, and when they’re forced to flee Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City. Soon the money is rolling in from unsuspecting marks. At first the five Mercurio children are content to go along for the ride, but as they grow, divisions send the siblings in different directions. Some are destined to make their name in the family business, while others decide to get as far away from it as possible – but can you ever really escape the Mercurios’ powerful criminal legacy?
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The Board by Katy Farber
A little New Hampshire town is awash with secrets in Katy Farber’s The Board, published on 9 September. After a messy divorce, Liv and her young daughter move from Boston in search of a fresh start. Within days, her daughter’s new school is causing concern. The child has rising anxiety and when Liv tries to address the problem her concerns are shot down by the man who acts both as principal and superintendent in her district. The school is run like an army barracks, and when Liv discovers that a former teacher was bullied out of their job she resolves to find out more. But are her worries well founded, or could they be all in her head?
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