Those who have yet to discover the quirky charms of Louise Penny’s sequence featuring Chief Inspector Gamache might be advised to remedy that omission with the 18th book in the series, A World of Curiosities (Hodder), in which the doughty Canadian copper is drawn into the world of two children whose disturbed mother has been murdered. The memories of that tragic incident resonate painfully in the present in this adroitly written thriller. Speaking to Louise Penny recently, she told me that the forthcoming Gamache TV series will star no less than Alfred Molina in the title role – which augurs well for the adaptation doing justice to this highly diverting series.
An encomium for A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin (Orion) — redundant, surely? He is the crime genre. I see no reason to modify what I wrote in Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide: ‘The crime-consuming public took to its heart the tough Scottish novels of the Monarch of Tartan Noir, Ian Rankin on the one hand and, on the other, the laconic, nigh-comic, post-hardboiled dialogue of American novelists such as Carl Hiaasen, James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard. And today, the field is so rich in idiosyncratic and individual practitioners (covering the spectrum from Robert Wilson to Abir Mukherjee, from Attica Locke to Pierre Lemaitre, and from Harlan Coben to Val McDermid) that jeremiads about the future of the genre might seem to be unnecessary.’
The expat American writer Woody Haut (who has long graced the UK – and Crime Time – with his presence) is not just a practised commentator on the crime genre but no mean practitioner in the field himself, with a notable vein of the hard-boiled. Skin Flick (Concorde Press) is a prime example of his work, with a duo of starcrossed lovers in Pasadena witnessing a savage murder. By the 1980s (with Ronald Reagan presiding over a dark new America), the past returns to their benighted lives. This is rich and vividly written fare, demonstrating a tip of the hat to the great noir writers of the US – to whom Haut owes a debt.
CWA Chair Maxim Jakubowski has long been a protean talent – and not just in the crime fiction field. Fortunately for readers, he turns his attention at intervals to the short story, and the new collection, Death Has a Thousand Faces (Head Shot), is vintage Jakubowski. The author himself describes this work as a collection of dark, noir and erotic stories that acts as a hall of mirrors – and the connection between the various tales adds an intriguing element. The prolific Jakubowski’s prose – notably unconventional – is unlike that of other writers, and that fact is underlined by another anthology that bears his name, Black Is the Night (Titan). Once again, readers may be assured that they are unlikely to have encountered anything quite like Jakubowski’s off the wall narratives before (unless, that is, they have read the author’s earlier work).
CJ Carey is the transparent nom-de-plume of the writer Jane Thynne, and Queen High (Quercus) is the second book in her mesmerising new sequence which began with Widowland, set in a 1950s Britain under the Nazi heel. But Carey rings the changes on the now familiar notion of a Fascist-enslaved England (previously explored by Robert Harris and Len Deighton, among others) by concentrating on her civil service heroine Rose, with the second book following the assassination of Hitler. A masterstroke here is to have Wallis Simpson as the puppet ruler of Britain, after the restoration of the throne of Edward VIII. And the protagonist Rose has a curious job: to infiltrate the now banned world of poetry. This is wonderfully inventive stuff, with its vivid creation of an alternative timeline in history matched by an acute skill at characterisation (notably of the conflicted Rose).
Other new titles of interest include Hunting Time (HarperCollins) by the always reliable Jeffery Deaver, in which his resourceful protagonist Colter Shaw is hired by an eccentric entrepreneur to track down a woman on the run with her teenage daughter. It’s Deaver firing on all cylinders. And equally consistent is Michael Robotham, recently in the UK to talk about the adaptation of The Suspect (currently enjoying healthy viewing figures and critical acclaim in its ITV version with flavour-of-the-month Aiden Turner).
My Kiwi colleague Craig Sisterson has edited a crime and thriller anthology, Dark Deeds Down Under (Clan Destine Press – and that’s the correct spelling!), a codicil to his definitive study of crime from the Antipodes, Southern Cross Crime (Oldcastle). The best writers from Down Under are arrayed here, from Vanda Simon to Gary Disher, and it’s a particularly diverting collection. From Quercus, My Darling Daughter by JP Delaney features a woman contacted via social media by the daughter she gave up for adoption 15 years previously. The disturbing consequences of this action in the past are handled with Delaney’s customary narrative skill. And another winner: Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt (No Exit Press) – truly full-throttle crime writing from a very individual voice. As is Blue Water by the talented Leonora Nattrass (Viper); when so much contemporary crime writing lacks a particular identity, Nattrass couches her accomplished narratives in a writing style that is very much her own. Oh – and I’m reading for the first time (albeit belatedly) The Canary Trainer (Norton) by Nicholas Meyer – wonderfully inventive Holmesiana that is simultaneously a canny synthesis of Doyle and Leroux and a book with its own distinctive style.
Finally, it’s worth noting (as always) this month’s intriguing new crime titles from some reliable names:
Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths, Quercus
The Favour by Nicci French, Simon & Schuster
The Moose Paradox by Antti Tuomainen, Orenda Books
No Plan B by Lee Child & Andrew Child, Bantam Press
Sleep When You’re Dead by Jude O’Reilly, Head of Zeus
Wolf Pack by Will Dean, Hodder & Stoughton
A Long Shadow by David Beckler, Thomas & Mercer
Red as Blood by Lilja Sigurdardottir, Orenda Books
The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi, Pushkin Vertigo
Barry Forshaw’s latest book is Simenon: The Man, The Books, The Films
