Eddie Flynn redux (and all the more welcome for it…), the fall of Berlin, rural serial killers on the rampage, black widows on the prowl, a deep dive into India’s underworld, gothic haunted hotels, crime and drug running on American Indian reservations, the White House under attack and crimes on the streets of Sheffield: all the tasty highlights of August’s batch of criminous publications.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Steve Cavanagh/ONE OF US IS GUILTY (Headline)
Even though he happens to be Irish (albeit also a past lawyer) Steve Cavanagh feels like an American writer, slick, proficient, prolific and with that rare talent for orchestrating thrillers in which the plot just races along like a sportscar with no superfluous word or inner ruminations to slow the pace, like a Michael Connelly or John Grisham. His 10th Eddie Flynn caper returns to the familiar world of the uncommon New York defence lawyer and ex con man and his idiosyncratic team of helpers and how welcome they are again. Once more, the case they are confronted with is a huge puzzler and its parallel narrative strands are woven together with fiendish efficiency to keep the reader hooked throughout: the Vanderpools are a power couple with a highly dysfunctional relationship: Patrick is a billionaire with political ambitions and a ruthless, manipulating media mogul father while Vanessa harbours her own secrets. When Patrick’s assistant Molly is killed and her head gruesomely goes missing, security cameras highlight the fact that only Patrick or Vanessa could possibly have committed the crime, but which of them was it? As Eddie, charged with defending one of the accused parties despite the weight of evidence against his client and a surfeit of outside pressure and threats, struggles to uncover the truth, as the stakes just grow higher and higher and even he harbours strong doubts as the evidence about the toxic relationship that led to the murder is slowly unveiled. It’s a cliché to label this as a page turner, but at least it’s a Rolls Royce model of one, racing along, impossible to put down and laden with ingenious twists and characters you love and others you hate. Another glorious notch on Cavanagh’s glittery belt!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Alex Gerlis/CITY OF TRAITORS (Canelo)
The 3rd instalment in Alex Gerlis’ ‘Double Agent’ series, following on from EVERY SPY A TRAITOR and THE SECOND TRAITOR, moves the action to the dying ways of World War 2 as Berlin is besieged from left and right by the British and the Americans on the Western front and the Russians in the East. Both the ambiguous traitor spies from the preceding volumes are now in new situations: Soviet agent ‘Archie’ has moved to America under the guise of a British diplomat while feeding precious information to Moscow Centre while Charlie Cooper, previously a turncoat as ‘Bertie’ has been despatched to Iran where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin are meeting and in fear of assassination, and then Italy on a special mission. But the ruins of a ravaged Berlin beckon as the Cold War to follow takes shape, and pieces on the global chessboard are on the move , while other players are keen to identify the traitors. Gerlis’ depth of research and understanding of the conflicting political currents of the epoch make for a rich tapestry of fact and fiction, and the parallel plot lines grip like a vice, with characters barely a step away from catastrophe or triumph at any given moment. Loyalties are strongly questioned as the landscape of history unfolds in all its horrors and shame, while the two-sided main characters struggle with all too human failings against a tide always likely to overwhelm them. Great, high-octane stuff.
Bella Mackie/CLAWS OUT! (The Borough Press)
Vogue journalist Bella Mackie’s debut novel HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY was a major bestseller and reset the ceiling for domestic thrillers by injecting them with a healthy dose of sardonic humour, which the genre sorely needed, following an avalanche of deadly serious relationship bumps and manufactured heartbreak. Needless to say she is already fully review-proof and I am pleased to say that she is not resting on her laurels and this new novel is mischievous, tongue in cheek and, in a giddy way, subverts a genre that the author has made her own, with every single character madly infuriating, if not downright unlikeable, in a tale of romance gone wrong (again and again) taken to the extreme with measured glee. Diana Leyland has survived three husbands who all conveniently perished on her and is now on the hunt for her next, wealthy prey, and has her eyes set on rich, Hampstead denizen David Farrand. However, there is a problem: Cat, a suspicious daughter with wicked plans of her own, determined not to be swindled out of her future inheritance and the scene is set for a battle of wills and more, with ingenious twists on sundry street corners and elsewhere as the two women enter the battleground with no holds barred. Dysfunctional characters on the prowl and no hostages taken is the order of the day as both harpies seek the weak spot in the other’s armour and retribution is sought. Wicked fun.
Simon Conway/THE BRITISH AGENT (Michael Joseph)
Erstwhile CWA Steel Dagger winner Conway debuts what might prove a new series with a tense and lengthy espionage thriller which couldn’t prove more topical. English operative Chuff is assigned to a perilous undercover investigation when a shipment of air to ground missiles destined for the Ukraine is stolen by a right-wing US militia group of terrorists planning to assassinate the US President. Chuff is a resilient and tough as old boots heroine and her character is well-drawn all the way to a bittersweet conclusion and the actualisation of so many elements drawn from today’s headlines is orchestrated with a deep dive into the unsavoury rooms of the corridors of power on both sides of the Atlantic that resonates with the stench of layers upon layers of conspiracy and treachery. Although none of the tropes are particularly original and the characterisation of both political double-crossing and unreliable characters and hateful militia conspirators is straight out of a familiar heroes and villains manual, Conway’s depth of research and mastery of pacing and action will keep the reader glued to the page as the labyrinthine plot and counterplots unfold and the feisty heroine dodges peril after peril with loyalties and allies questioned and danger constantly lurking around the corner. Halfway between Le Carré territory but and the less-exacting full-out action clichés of SAS thrillers, a solid read and piece of entertainment.
Sarah Pinborough/THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE (Orion)
Emotionally-involving, tense psychological thrillers seem to be tumbling out of Sarah Pinborough’s word processor with metronomic regularity, almost all quickly on the road to TV production and her new one continues her exemplary tradition. Based on (and heavily rejigged) from an earlier shorter version which had more horror overtones, THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE grips from the get-go. Burnished by the sun and a long period of drought, the small village of Harper’s Creek is still notorious for the fact that years prior to the opening of the novel, two young women were murdered there three years apart and the main suspect, a farmhand, was killed when he tried to escape the law. Anna Maybourne is trapped there, having moved to care for her dementia-suffering grandmother and believes the case was not as straightforward as publicly assumed, and as the anniversary of the crime approaches, she and her little sister are worried the murders might strike again, and attempt to make sense of their grandmother’s mad ramblings which indicate she might actually have been originally involved in the tragic cases. A semi-haunted house with a life of its own, a desolate rural setting, terrifying secrets buried in the past, all classic elements that Pinborough dexterously orchestrates as the tension inexorably grows exponentially taking characters and story to the very edge of terror. The stuff of living nightmares!
Vikas Swarup/THE GIRL WITH THE SEVEN LIVES (Apollo)
The author of Q&A which inspired the Oscar-winning SLUM DOG MILLIONAIRE artfully borrows some crime and thriller elements to present a compelling panorama of the complexity and all-encompassing diversity of modern India. 25-year-old Devi has been kidnapped and is being held hostage in a fetid basement by a masked gunman who threatens to kill her unless she confesses to a multitude of past crimes. Scheherazade-like, she embarks on a captivating narration in an attempt to beat the ticking clock of an online public auction that might determine the time and method of her forced demise. The tales other seven previous incarnations are fascinating and extraordinary, a modern 1001 Nights moving through the unholy but teeming and colourful fabric of her extraordinary country. The journey Devi takes us through is breathless, beginning in the busy slums of Delhi before transporting her past self through the Punjab, Kerala, Goa and, finally, the asphyxiating streets of Mumbai, each rollercoaster location the occasion for stories of deceit, wonder and surprise. Will the girl from the gutter assume her destiny or has her complicated story reached a sad but foretold ending? A memorable journey and occult X-ray of a country that can’t help but fascinate in all its incomparable beauty, extremes of poverty and riches and conflict.
Calla Henkel/FOUR TERRIBLE PARENTS (John Murray)
Valentine and Raul set up their indie-sleaze rock band duo SEZME when they were still in college but are now in their forties and life’s priorities are rapidly changing and their life in Berlin is calling for a change. They are now both in fragile on/off relationships, but Valentine wants to have her cake and eat it and for the band to continue, while still enjoying the fruits of domestic bliss. This left of field queer thriller and 3rd novel by an American writer with a lengthy background in the visual arts is both literary and gripping in unexpected ways as it introduces a haunted house trope when Valentine inherits a somewhat derelict gothic hotel in South Carolina on the death of her father and convinces the two same-sex couples to join her there and co-parent her expected child as they renovate the property. Naturally, the unexpected has a way of upsetting plans and the night their now patched up hotel The Winstead is about to be relaunched proves the beginning of a nightmare, when new-born August disappears and the ties that bind their jigsaw of a nuclear family are seriously put to the test. The subsequent arrival of Detective Royce, a cop with an agenda of his own, compounds the peril they are all facing. Henkel’s in-depth dissection of her flawed characters is forensic and a perfectly balanced counterweight to the mystery element. An original and engrossing thriller with a difference.
Raphael Montes/ SECRET DINNER (Zaffre)
This left of field thriller translated by Zoe Perry from the Brazilian is a unexpected comic tonic, blending comedy and horror with zest and verve. Four students and childhood friends move from the monotony of the country’s interior to the golden shores of Rio’s Copacabana. But, restricted to menial part-time jobs, they are facing adversity when the rent for their slum of an apartment increases and they are forced to resort to extremes. Their skillset is varied: one is a chef who can’t hold down a job, another a computer hacker, the medical student has aspirations to become a doctor and the narrator is a business major toiling as a bookshop assistant. When they are drawn to a clandestine world of exclusive dinner parties for the rich and privileged, they appear to have signed a pact with the devil, initially highly remunerative but then in turn both abhorrent and dangerous. How the stumbling quartet struggle to keep their equilibrium, lives and souls afloat against a rising tide threatening to overcome them, makes for a zip-along comedy of errors and manners, with the sardonic humour of early Tarantino. The major twist in the tale of this pungent slice of black humour is heavily telegraphed ahead of time, but that doesn’t take anything away from its culinary delights and mischievous crimes. Great fun if wickedness is your friend.
David Heska Wambli Weiden/WISDOM CORNER (Simon & Schuster)
Weiden’s striking debut WINTER COUNTS garnered a sheer gallery of awards worldwide and this follow-up has been some time coming, with the appetite well and truly wetted for further wanderings with ex-enforcer Virgil Wounded Horse amongst the bleak world of US Indian reservations and the despair and squalor surrounding them. A disclaimer: elements of the new novel expand on a short story I commissioned from David for my THE PERFECT CRIME anthology (co-edited with Vaseem Khan). Still seeking some form of moral redemption from his vigilante past, Virgil is against his will drawn back into the uncomfortable territory of the Rosebud Reservation when Jerome Iron Shell, a tribal elder and medicine man is murdered and he is forced back into the fray. A dangerous gang from a nearby reservation, the inevitable instance of rife drug-running and the complications of local politics with a council election imminent, all conjugate to dog his steps and his resolve. A much-conflicted anti-hero and a sobering look at an underside of American society and the legacy of centuries of racism and genocide make for a rough read which some might even equate with miserabilism, but the ingenious plotting and steady pace elevate the story into both a gripping adventure and a revelatory and heartfelt testimony to endurance and hope.
S.J. Galbraith/THE WYTHENSHAWE DANDY (Salt)
A debut British police procedural by an author with a background in business, the intriguingly-titled THE WYTHENSHAWE DANDY is a gritty Northern investigation with metafictional echoes and a strong sense of place. When the ornately displayed body of a somewhat familiar young woman is found in a flat owned by James Flynn, investigating officer DI Cassie May is confronted by a major problem, insofar as Flynn is her current boyfriend. The case will drag the prickly and idiosyncratic cop through much of the murky underworld of Sheffield and beyond with gritty detours through the Pennines to Edinburgh and back and then Manchester. She truly believes Flynn is not capable of the crime, but he does not make things easier for either of them as he appears more preoccupied to shield secrets from his own past than dilute the suspicions rising around his person and Cassie’s insistence on focusing the investigation further afield goes against her superiors’ instinct. A closely engineered plot allied with a powerful sense of place, both in its urban snowy rural settings and city backstreets make for a gritty read as the persistent cop soon begins to unveil a shadow world of crime gangs and privilege, with a few surprising twists along the way. An impressive iteration of what could have been just a familiar thriller scenario.
