She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper
Whichever category you choose to assign She Rides Shotgun to – debut novel, chase thriller, hardboiled man-out-of-prison drama, or even twisted coming of age novel – one thing’s for sure: you won’t read many better examples all year. (The book is out in the US…
Bad Blood by Brian McGilloway
There is an impressive sweep to this novel that raises the deeply divisive social issues of racism and homophobia while throwing in a dash of Brexit to spice the mix. If that wasn’t enough it does all this against the backdrop of a Northern Ireland…
Dis Mem Ber
Written by Joyce Carol Oates – This collection of mostly longish short stories features Oates’s sly humour and penchant for the off-kilter. There’s something just a little bit obsessive, just a little wrong about many of the protagonists who appear. Sometimes, there’s a lot wrong. Someplace along…
The Day She Disappeared
Written by Christobel Kent — The tagline of this psychological thriller had me on the back foot. ‘Your best friend will always be there for you… won’t she?’ Cue, betrayal by the bestie who is supposed to look out for you? Wrong. No, the real clue…
The Dark Isle
Written by Clare Carson –– In the concluding part of the Sam Coyle trilogy, the daughter of an undercover agent travels to Orkney, where she spent childhood holidays. Sam wants to find out the truth about the death of her father who was killed in action. She believes…
A Necessary Evil
Written by Abir Mukherjee — Reading this fast-paced police procedural is like a trip back in time to the British Raj, mid-1920. Calcutta-based Imperial Police Force Captain Sam Wyndham and his Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee – whom Wyndham insists on calling Surrender-not – find themselves embroiled…
The Wages of Sin
Written by Kaite Welsh — The heroines of crime novels come in all shapes and sizes. Police officers, private detectives, doughty mothers and spirited teens, have all earned their places on our ever-more-groaning bookshelves. Time to add another to the fold – meet Sarah Gilchrist, medical…