On the Radar — It’s a bit like rhyming slang, isn’t it? Our lead book features a serial killer who leaves candles and roses around his victims. And throughout On the Radar this week we’ve got treats for you including books from France, Sweden and Indonesia, plus a new British psychological thriller. Read on…

Candles and Roses by Alex Walters
Newly signed with Bloodhound Books, Alex Walters presents his new serial killer thriller. The title tells you quite a bit here, actually. The bodies are being found surrounded by roses and candles. While DI Alec McKay leads the police investigation, the woman who discovered the first victim starts her own sleuthing. The book takes place on Scotland’s Black Isle peninsula, north of Inverness. There’s an interview with the author on this blog, and the book arrives 27 September, Kindle only.
Pre-order now on Amazon

The Pick, the Spade and the Crow by Bill Rogers
After successfully self-publishing 10 novels in his DCI Caton series, set in Manchester, Bill Rogers has signed with publisher Thomas & Mercer and even joined the CWA. Indie, no more! The Pick, the Spade and the Crow is his first book to feature Joanne Stewart of the National Crime Agency’s Behavioural Science Unit. The discovery of a body – bound and buried – clears up a missing persons enquiry, but begins a murder investigation. It was a sadistic ritual killing and now another body has been found… Out 27 September.
Pre-order now on Amazon

Dirty War by Dominique Sylvain
Dark Angel by Dominique Sylvain was one of our Recommended books back in 2014. Now the French author brings us Dirty War, the new book in her Ingrid and Lola series. Lola is a retired police commissioner, Ingrid is her burlesque dancer friend and sidekick. This time they’re working on the case of a young Parisian lawyer who was burned alive, with a flaming tyre around his neck. Lola’s assistant was killed in the same way five years earlier, and when a connection between the lawyer and an underworld fixer known as Mister Africa is revealed, their investigation takes them into the middle of an arms trade scandal, corruption and eventually to North Africa. It’s out 6 October, and is released on the same day as another book in the series, Shadows and Sun.
Pre-order now on Amazon

The Bone Ritual by Julian Lees
Jakarta-based author Julian Lees introduces Inspektur Ruud Pujasumarta, who’s investigating the horrific murder of a middle aged woman in one of the city’s slums. The victim’s hand was severed and is missing, and a mah jong piece placed in her throat. Further murders are to follow… Meanwhile, our detective hero has a slew of problems. His wife has left him for another man and his former mother-in-law keeps showing up at the office with food for him. Out 6 October.
Pre-order now on Amazon

The Brother by Joakim Zander
Already out for Kindle, this Swedish crime novel lands with a hardback thump on 6 October. The story is driven by a woman called Yasmine’s search for her younger brother – the boy she abandoned to fend for himself in the Stockholm slums. Was he killed by a US Drone in Syria? Was he one of the CIA’s most wanted? Behind all this personal turmoil, the city of Stockholm itself erupts into riots.
Buy now on Amazon

The Mountain in My Shoe by Louise Beech
An intriguing title for this psychological thriller that takes us behind the scenes of a very fractured family. Main character Bernadette thinks she’s facing the difficult job of telling her domineering husband that she’s leaving, but as it happens he doesn’t come home that night. What’s more, a little boy called Conor whom she’s befriended is missing, and so is his life book. Working with Conor’s foster mother she sets out to find him, and also delves into her own past, her husband’s secrets and all sorts of compressed emotions. Out 30 September.
Buy now on Amazon