World Book Night: 25 great crime reads
Well, it’s Shakespeare’s birthday and 23 April has also been designated World Book Night. While we think the charitable effort – distributing a million free books to people less fortunate – is commendable, when we looked at this year’s WBN list we couldn’t help but…
Murder Mile
Written by Tony Black — The term ‘tartan noir’ might have been coined for Tony Black. His Gus Dury series, following the gradual downward spiral of an Edinburgh-based private investigator with an Olympic grade drink problem and a tangled love life, was a brutal tour…
Mumbai Noir
Edited by Altaf Tyrewala — Mumbai, with a population of 20.5 million, is the most humanity-riddled city in India and the fourth most populous in the world. It is the commercial and entertainment capital of India and the nation’s economic powerhouse. One of the world’s…
What It Was
Narrated by the Pelecanos character Derek Strange, it all starts with the murder of Bobby Odum and the theft of a ring. Parked outside – a Plymouth Fury, the GT Sport two-door with a V8 inside. The plates read Coco, as in brothel owner Coco…
Ishmael Toffee
Written by Roger Smith — Like Dust Devils and Mixed Blood, Ishmael Toffee sees Roger Smith plucking characters from the different social and racial strata of South Africa and throwing them together in a bleak and harrowing crime story. Released on Kindle, the novella is…
Hill Country
Written by R Thomas Brown — Small town life can be murder. If you need any proof, look no further than the plot of Hill Country, a novella by up and coming crime writer R Thomas Brown. Gabe Hill is a bit of a deadbeat…