September is here and now’s the time when publishers start lining up their big titles for the Christmas market. However, I think we’re experiencing the calm before the storm as this week there are no serious big hitters in our report. Having said that, we do have a wonderful lineup for you, starting with the Canadian author Will Ferguson, who has perhaps added a subgenre to a subgenre. Within ‘the impossible crime’ can we add ‘impossible elevator mystery’? Our roundup also ends with a Canadian crime author, the indie writer Greg Rhyno. In between we’ve got a horror-leaning novel, cutting edge female rage, a traditional mystery in Wales and – yup – some weird cult stuff too.
Read on, and do let us know which, if any, you’ll choose!
Officer Shimada and the Disappearing Girl by Will Ferguson
A Japanese police inspector haunted by the unsolved disappearance of his sister 15 years ago is the protagonist in Officer Shimada and the Disappearing Girl by Canadian author Will Ferguson, published on 15 September. Kaito’s sibling vanished from an elevator late at night in a city bar. Now he wants to find out exactly what happens, and travels to a sleepy island in Okinawa to enlist the help of Mr Shimada – a senior officer who once solved an impossible elevator crime decades earlier. He seems the perfect man for the job, and in this literary mystery Kaito and Shimada retrace the lost woman’s final steps in the hope of finally getting to the truth.
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Something of a Calling by Zoje Stage
Bram Stoker Award finalist Zoje Stage is back on 15 September with the unsettling thriller Something of a Calling. Detective Andy Cooper is about to retire and weighing up her options. Should she buy a motorhome and take to the road? Create a garden? Get a dog? The question becomes moot when mutilated bodies begin to turn up, bodies with teeth marks and chunks missing. This is Andy’s last case and it’s about to keep her busy, which is why a new friendship with the free-spirited Fiona is the perfect antidote. But Fiona is hiding something behind her ready smile which is about to tear Andy’s world apart…
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Re:Claim by Jean Thesquare
Heiress Manon de Rochemaure is 18 years old and something of a rebel. After defending herself against an assault at her exclusive Paris school, she has been exiled to Le Rolle Academy – a Swiss boarding school where powerful families send problem children in the hope of burying the scandals they’ve created. Manon, however, is not about to go meekly, instead, she makes friends with brilliant hacker Anaïs Diop and together they uncover a trail leading to a Geneva bank vault filled with illicit recordings and blackmail. Now Manon has a goal – to break in and steal the booty. Re:Claim by Jean Thesquare is out on 5 September.
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Sharp As Any Thorn by Sue McCormick
Let’s get into the festive spirit – it’s September after all and mince pies are in the shops. Actress Dame Elspeth Hollanby (Holly) and her dresser Ivy are heading to West Wales for a star-studded Christmas concert. It’s 1951 and Holly is appearing as a favour for a friend. But the jollity soon dissipates with the news that a young singer has died, one of a group nicknamed the Four Canaries. It’s found to be poison, and will not be the only murder. With Holly and Ivy taking on the roles of detective, against the wishes of dashing Inspector Lloyd, the deductive duo are about to find themselves in the spotlight… and in danger. Sharp As Any Thorn by Sue McCormick makes its entrance on 17 September.
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Dark Messiah by Sara Z Carson
Debut author Sara Z Carson hits the ground running with Dark Messiah, out on 15 September. It’s 1975, and in San Francisco, 15-year-old Nell’s world has been ripped apart by the death of her younger sister and her parents’ subsequent divorce. Things go from bad to worse when her mother falls under the thrall of a cult leader known as Father, dragging Nell along with her. The powerless teenager finds herself controlled by the mysterious Church of the People and taken to Father’s new utopian community deep in the jungles of South America – where rumours of threats, physical abuse and sudden disappearance prove to be all too true. Is there any hope for Nell, or is she trapped forever?
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Who By His Own Hand by Greg Rhyno
Let’s head to Canada for Who By His Own Hand, the third in Greg Rhyno’s series featuring reluctant private eye Dame Polara, arriving on 12 September. Dame is once more thrust into the fray when her two-year-old daughter Rosie is kidnapped by an old enemy. To make matters worse, Dame’s father is in hospital after a stroke and can’t help her this time. With her investigations bringing unforeseen results, Dame turns to her friends, her father’s shady connections, and even her former adversaries for help. Could Rosie’s abduction be part of a larger political conspiracy? And if so, how the hell is Dame going to resolve this one?
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