Blood of the Oak by Eliot Pattison
Blood of the Oak takes us back to Pennsylvania in 1765, when the British were still in control. Nominally. On the banks of the Susquehanna and Alegheny rivers, and further south in Virginia it’s not only the natives who are restless. A punitive stamp tax…
In Her Wake by Amanda Jennings
Life and death, every crime novel needs ’em. And it’s a particularly dramatic demise that starts the ball rolling in this stunning example of domestic noir. When her father commits suicide on the day after her mother’s funeral, Bella struggles to come to terms with such…
Dodgers by Bill Beverly
A modern crime classic in the tradition of Richard Price’s Clockers, Dodgers is the story of a youthful soldier in the south Los Angeles drug trade. East, a black 16-year-old, is a yardman for a drug house, which means he runs a team of younger…
A Savage Hunger by Claire McGowan
Claire McGowan’s Paula Maguire series has already garnered high praise. On the strength of my entry point into the series with this, the fourth novel, I can certainly see why that’s the case. Forensic psychologists have become almost a cliché in recent crime fiction, but…
Bryant & May - Strange Tide by Christopher Fowler
The Peculiar Crimes Unit is a kind of lost property facility for London’s Metropolitan Police. Orphan crimes, unsolved murders, unexplained disappearances – in short, investigations which would cost the cash-strapped Met valuable man- hours are left on the doorstep of the PCU. Its two senior…
Ordeal by Jorn Lier Horst
What is it about William Wisting? He’s getting on a bit, and he doesn’t really have the cannon ball-style impact of Harry Hole. Nor does he quite match Inspector Sejer for psychological intensity. And yet this quiet Norwegian detective is gaining a big following just…
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
Translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies — The main attraction of a police procedural is the opportunity for readers to watch the characters develop over a series of short, complex novels – Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels, for example, or Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Martin Beck series. Both offer…