With Christmas nearly here, we wish all our readers a happy holiday season. And if you’re stuck for what to buy somebody, why not give the gift of crime? There are some great mystery suggestions among our 2024 award winners, and each of our contributors will be sharing their top five personal favourites over the next week or two.
We’ll be taking a well-earned break from On the Radar next week, but below we bring you a selection of juicy releases due for January 2025. There’s paranoia in Paris, two frightening books involving wild children, a creepy house in the Midlands of England and some good old Nordic noir too…
The Killing Sense by Sam Blake
She’s fled an abusive marriage and hasn’t had a holiday for years, so it’s no surprise that single mum Kate Wilde jumps at the chance of a few days in Paris. It’s a prize in a competition she doesn’t even remember entering – but why look a gift horse in the mouth? Ah, be careful – because once she arrives in the French capital, Kate has an overwhelming feeling of being watched, and is convinced that someone has been in her apartment. Then her ex sends a message that shows he’s in Paris too… Oh, and there’s a killer in the city focusing on red headed women like her. Sacré bleu! The Killing Sense by Sam Blake arrives on 2 January.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Clever Little Thing by Helena Echlin
Stella is an unusual child. She might be bordering on genius, but she is also disruptive and anti-social. Then Stella’s babysitter Blanka dies suddenly, and the youngster transforms, much to the consternation of her pregnant mother, Charlotte. Now docile and agreeable, Stella is also mimicking Blanka’s accent and craving for Armenian meat stew after being raised a vegetarian. Charlotte is convinced that Blanka has had a hand in this, but with her husband dismissing her fears as irrational, can she connect with her daughter again? Find out what happens when the psychological thriller Clever Little Thing by Helena Echlin is published on 14 January.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Elita by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum
Bernadette Baston, sn expert on child development and language acquisition, is called to a jail on a remote island in the Puget Sound in Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s novel Elita, out on 15 January. A near-feral teenager has been found by two warders, and it’s Bernadette’s job to try to get through to the girl, who has been named Atalanta. The does not speak – but is her silence protecting someone? As the prison warden, a court-appointed guardian and a police detective push Bernadette for answers she gets closer to Atalanta but in the harsh Pacific Northwest winter of 1951 it becomes clear there are secrets that nobody is prepared to share.
Order now on Amazon
Lie of the Land by Kerry Hadley-Pryce
If you’re up for starting the year with some atmospheric domestic noir, then make a note of 6 January, when Lie of the Land by Kerry Hadley-Pryce makes an appearance. Jemma gets swept off her feet when she meets Rory. He already has a girlfriend, but soon Jemma is buying a house with him in the Midlands. The place needs tons of work and from the off Jemma isn’t sure she made the right decision – about Rory, the property… pretty much everything, really. There’s something about the house that doesn’t sit right, and when the new neighbours meet with a nasty accident, Jemma is forced to meet her misgivings head-on.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Into Thin Air by Ørlan Karlsson
Could there be a serial killer on the loose in Northern Norway? It certainly looks that way in Ørlan Karlsson’s Into Thin Air, published on 16 January and featuring Chief Investigator of Nordland Police, Jakob Weber. He’s called to a popular hiking area in Bodø where a teenager has vanished. Iselin Hanssen was just 19, and suspicion falls on her boyfriend. But when another woman disappears on the island of Røst, hundreds of miles off the coast, rumours that a killer is about gather traction. But this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened, and as Weber begins to dig deeper it becomes clear that someone has something to hide.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
