The Descent by Paul E Hardisty
The Descent is the follow-up to the 2023 eco-thriller The Forcing by Canadian author Paul E Hardisty. Once again, the environment is front and centre in Hardisty’s post-apocalyptic world, with the author conjuring a clear image of the careless way we have allowed the gradual…
Geisha Confidential by Mark Coggins
Mark Coggins’s new Tokyo-based crime novel, Geisha Confidential, features middle-aged San Francisco-based private investigator August Riordan, who has appeared in a number of previous books in this award-winning series. Read this fast-paced story, and you’ll barely have time to feel the jet lag. Almost as…
Paper Cage by Tom Baragwanath
There’s truth to the adage write what you know. New Zealand author Tom Baragwanath follows this advice by setting his debut novel in Masterton, where he’s from, resulting in a strong and authentic sense of place. On the other end of the spectrum, he defies…
The War Widow by Tara Moss
Billie Walker does not want to accept that she is a war widow, even though it has been a couple of years since she last saw her husband. Nor does she have any intention of working as a reporter for the society pages. She enjoyed…
Dark Arena by Jack Beaumont
There seems to have been a spike in the number of ex-intelligence officers writing espionage novels recently – and they know what they’re talking about. Among them are David McCloskey and IS Berry in America, and James Wolff and Charles Beaumont in Britain. Dark Arena…
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French
Ah, that well worn crime fiction trope, the dual timeline! What fun it is to skip back and forth across the decades, trying to keep the multiple story paths on point in an increasingly frazzled brain! Is it any wonder my heart sank upon seeing…
The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen
Thomas Mullen made his name with the Darktown novels, set in racism-riddled 1940s Atlanta. Last year, he changed tack with a near-future sci-fi thriller called Blind Spots. With The Rumor Game he returns to mid-century America with a historical thriller set in Cambridge, Massachusetts early…