If you’re looking for a new crime novel to read, you’re in the right place. On the Radar is our weekly new books column and the latest episode brings you everything from Liz Nugent’s new twisty suspense thriller, The Truth About Ruby Cooper, to full on action in Nick Petrie’s new Peter Ash book and on to an explosive case in York with Neil Lancaster. Six new novels – which will you choose?
The Truth About Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent
It’s been a long time since Strange Sally Diamond became a global bestseller a few years back, but now Liz Nugent is back and her new novel, The Truth About Ruby Cooper, will be revealed on 12 March. Ruby and her sister, Erin, happily live an idyllic life in their close-knit church community in Boston – until, when Ruby is 16, something happens that sends their world into chaos. Decades pass, and now the sisters live a world apart. Erin is still in Boston, while Ruby has built a new life in Dublin. But the past can’t be forgotten and the truth must be revealed in a twisted and twisty, dark and gripping tale.
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The Shrine by Lesley Thomson
Out on 12 March, The Shrine marks book 10 in Lesley Thomson‘s Detective’s Daughter series featuring Stella Darnell and fans will be delighted to learn that DS Toni Kemp makes an appearance. But it’s Stella’s partner, Jack Harmon, that’s raising alarm bells as the book begins. He’s been hiding something, and after Stella follows Jack one evening, she learns he’s been consulting with a psychic in a desperate attempt to contact his dead mother. It’s no surprise that Stella jumps at the chance when her old friend Toni Kemp suggests a break in a small Gloucestershire village. But when a body is found at a shrine there, all hope of R&R goes out of the window.
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The Dark Time by Nick Petrie
Iraq war veteran Peter Ash returns in thriller The Dark Time by Nick Petrie, published on 12 March. This time he heads off to Seattle to protect Katelyn Thorsen, known as KT, a maverick investigative journalist who has stumbled on a story that could get her and her daughter killed. She’s been receiving death threats, and Ash arrives into a maelstrom of violence that he can’t handle alone. Enter his girlfriend, June and best friend, Lewis – but even with reinforcements it seems like this challenge might be a step too far. If they fail, the consequences could be earth-shattering for everyone involved…
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The Dark Heart by Neil Lancaster
The authorities are quick to put the blame on Islamic extremists after a huge explosion in York kills renowned author Dr Daniel Solomon. However, DS Max Craigie’s investigation reveals a chilling connection between a series of brutal murders, with each of the victims linked by a secret that someone is determined to protect. With the body count rising, and an elusive killer dubbed The Cashier operating in the shadows, the pressure is on Craigie to unravel the truth before more lives are lost. Seventh in the Max Craigie series, The Dark Heart by Neil Lancaster is out on 12 March.
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Lost Girls by Charlotte Philby
Specialist agent DS Madeleine Farrow heads back to her old school after the daughter of the Swedish Ambassador disappears. There’s no trace of 13-year-old Freya Sjöberg, and as Metropolitan Police investigators hit a brick wall they call on Farrow in the hope that her inside knowledge of Wimpole Girls School might crack the case. The place holds bad memories for Farrow, but with the help of young private investigator Ramona Chang she sets the past aside and the pair find themselves entangled in a web of conspiracy and lies. Find out more when Lost Girls by Charlotte Philby arrives on 12 March.
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Cordero by Eric Weiss
The California noir sub-genre has a new kid on the block – screenwriter-turned-author Eric Weiss, whose debut Cordero is published on 9 March. It’s April, 1980, and in Southern California’s dusty back roads, something is about to go badly awry. At the heart of it all are Tony Gonzalez and his younger brother, Joey, thrown together by circumstances and about to come into the orbit of Nate, whose desert compound thrives on guns, weed and mayhem. They long to escape, and with their neighbour Katie Harrison, they might just achieve it. Might…
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