The Smiling Man
This powerful sequel to Joseph Knox’s debut Sirens is razor sharp with blunt-talking northerners, is literary but spiked with page-turning ferocity, contains tragedy laced with hope and features a convincing cop who gets justice both in and outside of the law. DC Aidan Waits goes back…
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, with a hit and run on an old police colleague witnessed by McAvoy. The elderly victim had called his pal…
Doll Face by Dylan H Jones
Anglesey is the scenic island jutting from the northwest corner of Wales and separated from the mainland by the Menai Strait. It’s rugged sea cliffs and beaches offer a dramatic backdrop even before your average serial killer rocks up. It was Detective Inspector Tudor Manx’s childhood…
Weeping Waters by Karin Brynard
Translated by Maya Fowler and Isobel Dixon — South African crime fiction is going from strength to strength in both English and Afrikaans. Deon Meyer might dominate the landscape still with his pacey plots and thorough characterisation, but authors such as Roger Smith, Lauren Beukes,…
The Greek Wall
Written by Nicolas Verdan, translated by W Donald Wilson — The refugee crisis has been front-and-center in the news media for so long it’s become easy to tune it out. But award-winning Swiss author Nicolas Verdan’s literary crime thriller takes a refreshingly different slant on…