This week we’ve got five new crime novels for you, plus a crime-solving interactive mystery from an indie games publisher. For sure, the best place to start is in Australia with the new book by Chris Hammer, featuring Martin Scarsden. You might know the name from the Scrublands television series, adapted from Chris Hammer’s books. It’s good stuff and we’ve also got novels by James R Benn, Kelsey Miller, Kit Fielding and Allison Meldrum. Plenty to discover!
Legacy by Chris Hammer
Martin Scarsden is back on 30 September in a story that starts with a bang – literally. The Aussie investigative journalist first introduced to us in 2019 by Chris Hammer in Scrublands returns this time in Legacy. We find him preparing for the launch of his latest true crime book, revealing the inside story of a notorious crime family. It’s disrupted by the arrival of a bomb threat and when what at first sounds like a hoax becomes ear-splittingly real, Martin has to run for his life. Which leads him to a small, isolated and drought-stricken town in the middle of nowhere. It’s somewhere quiet where he can lie low for a bit. Or is it – what do you think?
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A Bitter Wind by James R Benn
The secret world of World War II codebreakers and radio jammers forms the backdrop for A Bitter Wind by James R Benn, the 20th book to feature US Army Captain Billy Boyle, published on 23 September. It’s Christmas, 1944, as Billy visits southeast England to spend a few days R&R with his girlfriend Diana Seaton. She’s engaged in classified work at RAF Hawkinge. The danger of what it entails becomes all too real when the couple take a romantic walk on the White Cliffs of Dover, and stumble upon the dead body of a US Air Force officer with classified information in his pocket. It’s a case that will send our hero to war-torn Yugoslavia and the only person who knows the truth.
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Old Money by Kelsey Miller
It was 20 years ago that a teenager slipped and drowned in the pool at a Fourth of July party held at the affluent Briar’s Green Country Club. It seemed like a tragic accident, but Alice was there and she knows differently. Now Alice is back in her childhood hometown, determined to get to the truth once and for all. It appears that the club hasn’t changed. Nor have the residents of Briar’s Green. They’re quite content with the way the story was spun back then, and are none too happy when Alice tries to rock the boat. You can find out what happens when Kelsey Miller’s debut Old Money arrives on 30 September.
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Under Vixens Mere by Kit Fielding
Life – and death – amid a community of canal boat dwellers can be found in Kit Fielding’s darkly humorous Under Vixen’s Mere, out on 30 September. It’s a book that spans many years, following the community of people who live on the water and come and go with the seasons. There are dramas aplenty as time passes, but it’s when a police rescue team arrive to retrieve a body from the Mere – and one of their number spots something and goes down for a second look – that long-hidden secrets come to the surface. Suddenly, the picture-perfect scene begins to ripple and splinter…
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Murder Is Game Over: Murder Otaku
We’ve featured the Murder Is Game Over franchise before, and now the interactive computer game makers have turned their attentions to J-pop. This story-driven adventure takes place at YokaiKon, a Japanese pop culture convention offering anime, video games, cosplay and (of course) murder! The victim is a beautiful J-pop idol singer, who has been killed in a historic high rise hotel. Time for Cleo the clue-sniffing dog and Detective Guy to step into the strange underbelly of Japanese animation fandom and solve the case – with your help. Murder Is Game Over: Murder Otaku launches on 1 October.
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Keep Me Safe by Allison Meldrum
An investigative journalist fears for her sanity in Allison Meldrum’s Keep Me Safe, out on 28 September. Maggie Shields witnessed a murder when she has a teenager, but the killer was never brought to justice and it still haunts her. Now she’s covering the disappearance of a high-profile missing person in her seaside town, and as she wades through a tangled web of corruption, murder and betrayal stretching back a decade, she finds links that lead her back into the past. With her mental health in decline, Maggie turns to an AI therapist for support – but is it helping, or is someone else pulling the strings? Can she bring justice to light before the shadows overwhelm her?
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