Angel by Anita Waller
A good measure of how much a book affects you is how much of it stays with you months, or years, later. Anita Waller’s debut Beautiful, which I reviewed here for New Talent November last year, is full of the kind of scenes that you…
Die of Shame by Mark Billingham
Mark Billingham is celebrated for his long-running police procedural series featuring the London detective Tom Thorne. Like all good writers, however, he has shown he can produce standalones too, such as Rush of Blood, which came out in 2012. Die of Shame is still set…
Three Little Pigs
Apostolos Doxiadis used to write graphic novels, but here brings a fresh take on mafia revenge, told from the perspective of a mysterious old man. When a man in old Brooklyn kills another in a drunken brawl, it turns out the victim is the local…
Highbridge by Phil Redmond
His name is synonymous with hard-hitting TV dramas like Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks, but can Phil Redmond cut the mustard as a crime fiction writer? On this showing, the answer is an unhesitating ‘yes’. I suppose it’s not surprising that the man behind the…
Bite Harder 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 a hit and run, the same accident which left him a paraplegic and barely able to move. Worse, the perpetrator was never caught….
Cold Storage, Alaska by John Straley
As the Edgar Award-winning author John Straley mentions in his notes at the end of this book, he considers his writing to be screwball comedy as much as it is crime fiction. Indeed, Cold Storage, Alaska is full of unusual and ironic things that’ll make…
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….