Judging by the amount of submissions we receive for news and reviews, crime fiction is doing very well indeed. They say people are reading less… well they’re not reading less crime fiction, lemmetellya. As a result, this week’s new books report barely scratches the surface of what’s been sent through for summer release, but we do our best, and speaking of surface, well that’s the title of our lead book – some brand new French crime fiction from Oliver Norek. He used to arrest the bad guys, now he writes about them. We’ve also got books by James Sallis (RIP), Christopher Harris, the duo that is James Patterson and MrBeast, Hank Phillippi Ryan and Jack Jewers. Read on and let us know which you’ll be picking up!
Surface by Olivier Norek
Left physically and mentally scarred by a drugs arrest that goes terrible wrong, Police Capitaine Noemie Chastain is forced to leave her coveted career in Paris and instead sent to work in a police department that serves six sparsely populated communes in the southern department of Aveyron. Her brief is to watch and report back on a department that is under threat of closure – but when the body of a child floats to the surface of the man-made lake that hides the buried past of the village of Avalone, Chastain sees a chance to prove her worth and win back her job in the capital. A former police detective, author Olivier Norek is known for his novels featuring Captaine Victor Coste and was also the co-creator of the French crime show Everybody Lies, which recently arrived on Walter Presents in the UK. Nick Caistor is the translator.
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Backwater by James Sallis
James Sallis’s death at the start of this year was a big loss to crime fiction. Backwater, out on 1 September in the US, is his final novel and it features Bishop, a retired cop, now lost in music and playing jazz guitar in bars. The idyll is shattered with the arrival of Carson, an old friend from the force who wants help with a case in Bishop’s childhood town of Anne’s Ferry, right on the Mississippi but no longer home to a ferry. What’s the story behind an abandoned car, covered in blood? As Bishop gets drawn into the investigation, Carson goes missing and a young man is brutally murdered. It’s clear that nothing has changed since Bishop left Anne’s Ferry. Can he still fight the good fight in a world filled with crime? UK release is 20 April 2027. Click here for more on James Sallis.
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Pound Foolish by Christopher Harris
It takes a certain amount of killer instinct to play pro football in the US, but someone is taking things literally in Pound Foolish by Christopher Harris, arriving on 2 September. With the new season kicking off, women are being murdered in the vicinity of Detroit’s NFL franchise. In fact, a serial killer may be operating. But the team is one of the only things holding the community together so the games must go ahead. To find out what’s happening, the management brings in Mouse Morrison, a former player who is now a private detective, who starts digging and uncovers a playbook marked with coverup and conspiracy. This Neo noir novel is a debut for NFL expert broadcaster and podcaster Christopher Harris.
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The Most Dangerous Games by MrBeast and James Patterson
We’ve already taken an early peek at this one over on our Youtube channel, now it’s time for readers to get their hands on The Most Dangerous Games by the unlikely authoring team of MrBeast and James Patterson. The YouTube sensation and hugely popular crime writer have combined their skills for a book in which 100 strangers must battle it out for the chance to win a billion dollar prize. With alliances made and broken, and ambushes around every corner, this is a fight with no second chances. And out there somewhere, a shadowy figure is watching their every move… Find out more when it arrives on 1 September.
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Mother Daughter Sister Stranger by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Sisters Bea and Eliza Ramsey are bound together by tragedy – 11 years ago, they survived a plane crash in which both their parents were killed. On the anniversary, Bea doesn’t arrive to pick up her pre-teen daughter, Piper, from a sleepover at Eliza’s and the alarm bells begin to ring. Bea would never have abandoned her precious child, so where is she? As Eliza tries to piece together what happened, she realises that she needs to protect her niece from the horrifying truth about her family’s sinister history. Together, they must prevent their lives from going up in flames once again. Mother Daughter Sister Stranger by Hank Phillippi Ryan arrives on 1 September.
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Seething Lane by Jack Jewers
The famed diarist Samuel Pepys turns detective in 17th century London in Jack Jewers’ Seething Lane, new historical crime fiction out on 3 September. The capital is in the midst of a harsh winter when a strange young man turns up at Pepys’s office on Seething Lane, asking for help. But Pepys has his mind on other things – in particular, Nell Gwyn, who is about to make her scandalous return to the stage – and isn’t really concentrating. Which could be a grave error, because when a libertine aristocrat is brutally murdered, Pepys learns that the dead man is connected to his mysterious visitor in the most shocking way possible…
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