Old school, folks. From one of the best. Let’s get things cooking with some Deep South crime fiction featuring Dave Robicheaux and folks with plenty more French surnames down on the bayou. And it’s from veteran American crime author James Lee Burke. We’ve also got new throwback Scottish crime fiction, a brand new series starting for Andrew Lowe, a quirky domestic noir novel and some plain old PI trouble…
The Hadacol Boogie by James Lee Burke
Dave Robicheaux novel number 25, The Hadacol Boogie, arrives on 10 February – time for James Lee Burke fans to rejoice! And it’s all happening close to home, literally, when Robicheaux finds the body of a dead woman in a garbage bag at his Louisiana property. It’s been left there by a a cloaked, disfigured man and is designed to send a message to the detective and his family. Helped by Clete Purcel and Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department newbie Valerie Benoit, Robicheaux is dragged into a veritable hurricane of corruption and violence on the bayou, where he must confront both past and present dangers.
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A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford
About to join the Scottish crime writing posse is Frances Crawford, whose debut novel, A Bad, Bad Place is published on 12 February. We’re heading for Glasgow in 1979, where 12-year-old Janey’s life changes forever when she takes her dog, Sid Vicious, for a walk on an abandoned railway line and they find a dead woman. Janey says she can’t remember what she saw that day, but the police are not convinced. So they pull her into the hunt for the murderer, along with her nana, Maggie. Can Maggie protect her granddaughter from the memories she is repressing… and from a killer?
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The Whispering Bones by Andrew Lowe
Insomnia and memory lapses dull the senses for DCI Oswald Lennox, and he’s being shadowed at work by PC Olivia Blackwood, whose ADHD makes her unpredictable but brilliant…. when her mind is fully on the job. Can this pair work together to catch a serial killer who has been stalking the affluent suburbs of North London? The perpetrator drains his victims of blood before leaving the body surrounded by bizarre arrangements of small animal bones. Emboldened, their behaviour escalates, leaving the reluctant partners with a case that both confounds and confuses. Can they catch him before he strikes again? First in a new series, The Whispering Bones by Andrew Lowe is out in paperback on 12 February. Watch for our interview with the author, soon.
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A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver
A woman’s work is never done, especially when she has someone bleeding out on her living room carpet and a vegetable knife in her hand. We’re in leafy Muswell Hill, where Lalla Rook is weighing up the options after killing a man who was not her husband… although the thought had crossed her mind on occasion. It’s a complication she could do without as she schemes to get her daughter into the perfect school and buy the dream home she craves in Hampstead. Lalla wants the perfect life. And what Lalla wants, Lalla gets, no matter who stands in her way. Will she succeed? Find out in A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver, out on 12 February.
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Sounds Like Trouble by Pamela Samuels Young and Dwayne Alexander Smith
Jackson Jones and Mackenzie Cunningham are two of the best private investigators in the business, and they’re presented with a case that they can’t refuse when the heads of three of LA’s most notorious crime families come to call. A man lies in hospital in a critical condition, and Jones and Cunningham must find out what he knows before it’s too late. This pair struggle with agreeing on the decor for their new office, but with a masked man on their tail, they are going to have to work as a team to have any chance of achieving what they’ve been asked to do. Two authors, six names, one book. Sounds Like Trouble by Pamela Samuels Young and Dwayne Alexander Smith is published on 12 February.
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