The Lying-Down Room by Anna Jaquiery
The Lying Down Room introduces us to the charismatic and dedicated Chief Inspector Serge Morel. The story opens in Paris in the stifling August heat, and Morel is called to examine a disturbing crime scene. An elderly woman has been brutally murdered to the soundtrack…
The Accident by CL Taylor
Most of us know someone with an apparently perfect life. They’re happily married, with a lovely home and clever, well behaved offspring. But, as we crime fiction fans know all too well, appearances can be deceptive. Sue Taylor has a life that many would envy….
Dog Will Have His Day by Fred Vargas
Translated by Sian Reynolds — A four-time winner of the CWA International Dagger, Fred Vargas is arguably France’s finest contemporary crime writer. With every book, you enter a familiar fictional landscape that is not quite reality but rather a uniquely Gallic mélange of the whimsical,…
Necropolis by Guy Portman
Dyson Devereux is Head of Burials and Cemeteries for the local council of a fictional town in Essex, England. He has risen without trace, mainly due to the demise of his predecessor, whose funeral and cremation he helped organise. Dyson is immensely vain, impossibly handsome,…
Hustle by Tom Pitts
Donny and Big Rich are male prostitutes in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Their lives revolve around getting high. Heroin is what they are addicted to, but if they can’t get that then crack or meth is better than nothing. It means never looking beyond the…
Black Mail by Bill Daly
The first in a new series, Black Mail is a debut crime novel from Bill Daly and it’s set in contemporary Glasgow. Billed as twisty and atmospheric, the book introduces us to DCI Charlie Anderson. Long in the tooth and old fashioned in some ways,…
The Book of You by Claire Kendal
This is one of the most anticipated releases of the year so far, and to trail the release HarperCollins sent out slightly creepy little items to reviewers including a strange black rose. So I was itching to get inside its pages. But be careful what…