Hunted by ABIR MUKHERJEE (Harvill Secker)
Mukherjee abandons his Raj settings for a terrorism scenario in contemporary America, negotiating the change of gears with panache. A toxic presidential campaign is interrupted by an explosion; FBI agent Shreya Mistry focuses on a group of bombers – and one bomber killed in the atrocity was a British Muslim woman.
The Waiting by MICHAEL CONNELLY (Orion)
Michael Connelly’s characters, low-rent lawyer Mickey Haller and Detective Harry Bosch, are much loved by aficionados of American crime fiction. The writer’s third protagonist – as richly drawn as her male cohorts – is the LAPD’s Renée Ballard, finding a cold case involving a serial rapist and murderer is anything but cold.
Guide Me Home by ATTICA LOCKE (Viper)
2019: Trump in the White House and Texas Ranger Darren Mathews struggling with the challenge of being a black lawman indicted for obstructing justice in the murder of a white nationalist. Powerful and distinctive fare; Locke’s juggling of societal injustice and a turbulent crime narrative is as surefooted as ever.
The Finder Mysteries by SIMON MASON (riverrun)
Oxford-based Simon Mason has made a mark with his civilised crime fiction, but this duo of elegantly written outings is his finest work yet. It comprises two novellas: The Case of the Lonely Accountant and Missing Person: Alice, both featuring a nameless sleuth, ‘The Finder’. Plotting and characterisation equally felicitous.
The Examiner by JANICE HALLETT (Viper)
Firmly established as one of the quirkiest and most intelligent of British crime writers, Hallett’s fifth book gives the reader a dossier of evidence involving something very nasty happening on a multimedia MA course. As always with Hallett, forensic attention to the text is required, but the results are manifold.
City in Ruins by DON WINSLOW (Hemlock Press)
Winslow’s epic trilogy inspired by the Aeneid began with City of Dreams and City on Fire and concludes magnificently with Danny Ryan now a casino magnate in Las Vegas trying unsuccessfully to leave his criminal past behind him. This is close to being the War and Peace of crime novels.
Bay of Thieves by MEGAN DAVIS (Zaffre)
How far should morality intrude when moving prodigious sums of money? Bay of Thieves continues the versatile Megan Davis’s upwards trajectory, this time into financial thriller territory. Rob, a consultant who specialises in finessing the money of the super-rich, is not above money-laundering for Eastern European oligarchs – until chaos ensues.
Day One by ABIGAIL DEAN (Hemlock Press)
Following the literary explosion of Dean’s debut Girl A must have been daunting, but Day One is almost as accomplished. In an idyllic Lake District town, a school play is violently interrupted by a lone gunman. Dealing provocatively with ‘truthers’ and other social issues, Dean is effortlessly cogent and compelling.
