As we head into the festive season, which book will be your Christmas number one? Well, our first book in this week’s news column shares its title with Tears for Fears‘ global hit Everybody Wants to Rule the World. And, the novel by Ace Atkins is set in the same year as the tune, 1985. But if you’re not ready to settle into your big chair and jump back to the later days of the Cold War, we’ve got four contemporary crime novels including a Nordic noir thriller for you. Read on to discover some potential stocking stuffers…
Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Ace Atkins
A 14-year-old who loves BMX and MTV, a has-been pulp writer and a drag queen make an unlikely band battling espionage in Ace Atkins‘ Everybody Wants to Rule the World – published on 2 December. It’s 1985 and the future of the world hangs in the balance as Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva. Teenager Peter Bennett is convinced his mum’s shady new boyfriend Gary is a Russian agent. She works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. When a colleague is murdered, Peter teams up with writer Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy Jackie Demure to find out more. Soon a Russian hit man has them in his sights – is it Gary or someone even more dangerous?
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The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson
It’s 1999 and in snowy rural Sweden best friends Sander and Killian leave a house party together. The following morning, things have changed. Someone is dead and each of them is a key suspect in the murder. Both have something to hide – from each other and the police – and the case lies unsolved, with the lead investigator leaving the force forever. Then 20 years later, another body is found and the long-hidden secrets of a tight-knit community finally come to light. Find out more when The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson is published on 2 December.
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Watch Us Fall by Christina Kovac
Lucy and her three best friends are the ‘Sweeties’, sharing a house at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC. They are revelling in their post-grad lifestyle, but then Addie finds out that her ex-boyfriend Josh has gone missing. An investigative journalist from a prominent political family, Josh had recently been acting strangely and Lucy and the Sweeties are determined to find out why. The case becomes something of an obsession with Lucy, but as things come to a head, secrets that she would rather keep hidden are about to be revealed… Watch Us Fall by Christina Kovac comes out on 2 December.
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Death Con Seduction by David E Feldman
The fourth book in David E Feldman‘s Hammer and Sharpe series arrives on 29 November, and as Death Con Seduction opens, Marlon Newberry is gunned down on a Brooklyn street after asking the wrong question at a party. Private investigator Sam Sharpe is hired by Marlon’s widow to dig deeper – and discovers a band of con artists running elaborate scams with fake antiques, phony fortune tellers and high-end real estate frauds, led by Angie Evison, a femme fatale whose beauty is matched only by her ruthlessness. Meanwhile, Lou Fedorov, one of Judah Hammer’s most trusted soldiers, finds himself torn between loyalty to his boss and obsession with Angie in a tale of cat and mouse that could have deadly consequences.
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The House Guests by Amber and Danielle Brown
Identical twin sisters Amber and Danielle Brown are back with The House Guests, a psychological thriller out on 2 December. A year ago, Irisi’s mother died a traumatic death, and she is still haunted by nightmares. She’s jittery and sleep deprived, and jumps at the chance of a relaxing week with her partner and his close-knit group of friends. But at the remote lake house in the Catskills, things are anything but chilled. After arriving first, Iris must spend her first night alone and that’s when she sees a blood-covered man burying something – or someone – in the mud behind the deck. In the light of day there’s no evidence that anything happened and no one takes her fears seriously. Did Iris really see something bad, or is she losing her mind?
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