Rise the Dark
Written by Michael Koryta – With last year’s novel, Last Words, Koryta introduced us to his new series character Mark Novak, an investigator for a legal firm taking pro-bono death row cases where there is a possibility of a miscarriage of justice. That book introduced…
The Voices Beyond
Written by Johan Theorin, translated by Marlaine Delargy — Like the three previous books in Johan Theorin’s Öland Quartet, which are gothic thrillers rooted in the tradition of Nordic noir whose settings follow the passage of the seasons, the concluding book is set during a sleepy summer heat…
Then She Was Gone
Written by Luca Veste — Some books start with a bang, creating an unbearable tension that augurs well for what is to follow. Then She Was Gone is such a book, beginning with a nightmare scenario that would chill the blood of any parent. Tim Johnson…
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…