Lullaby Road

Written by James Anderson — James Anderson’s debut novel, The Never Open Desert Diner, recounted the adventures of short-haul truck driver Ben Jones, who drives a…

Scorched Earth

We’ve reached number six in David Mark’s series featuring DS Aector McAvoy and this is the best one yet. It all begins in explosive fashion,…

If I Die Tonight

Written by AL Gaylin — Wade Reed is 17, an introverted boy, talented at art, who dresses in black and has few friends. Liam Miller…

Parting Shot

Written by Linwood Barclay — Parting Shot is a novel that could have been pulled straight from current headlines, which may be because much of…

The Sixth Window

Written by Rachel Abbott — Authors today have a choice. They can go down the standard route, sending their manuscripts to traditional publishers who may or may…

Rupture

Written by Ragnar Jonasson, translated by Quentin Bates — Iceland’s modern answer to Agatha Christie is back in fine fettle, with a tale of two mysteries set in the northernmost…

You Will Know Me

Written by Megan Abbott, narrated by Lauren Fortgang – Known for her hardboiled and noir stories, Megan Abbott’s latest novel – reviewed here as an…

Highbridge

Written by Phil Redmond — He’s a name synonymous with hard-hitting TV dramas like Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks, but can Phil Redmond cut the mustard…

The Hanging Girl

Written by Jussi Adler-Olsen, translated by William Frost — Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen is now one of the country’s top literary exports. The jacket of The Hanging…

I Let You Go

This excellent debut is not the work of a novice writer, but of an experienced and established journalist. A clever combination of police procedural and…

I Let You Go

Written by Clare Mackintosh — I Let You Go might be Clare Mackintosh‘s crime debut, but as a journalist she is an established writer. Her work has…

Woman of the Dead

Written by Bernhard Aichner, translated by Anthea Bell — Placing the reader in a moral dilemma by asking them to empathise with a transgressive protagonist…

Bite Harder

Written by Anonymous-9 — Dean Drayhart is in prison. He’s a self-confessed serial killer, but with a difference. His wife and child were mowed down in…

The Dead Beat

Written by Doug Johnstone — With a story that features suicide, clinical depression and the struggling newspaper industry in Edinburgh, The Dead Beat might sound…

The Catch

Written by Tom Bale — Coming in at a chunky 520-plus pages, The Catch is a bruiser of a paperback. And I’ll admit there were…

Morning Frost

Written by James Henry — This is the third in a series of prequels featuring a younger William ‘Jack’ Frost. The author of the original…