The Woman Who Laughed by Simon Mason (riverrun)
If you’re thinking that the dreaming spires of Oxford have been overused as a locale for crime fiction, perhaps Simon Mason thought so too. His new series moves the action to South Yorkshire and translates the ethos of Georges Simenon’s Maigret into an English setting: concise, richly characterised, impeccably plotted.
King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby (Headline/Flatiron Books)
There is something of a miniboom in socially committed, trenchant black American crime fiction (e.g. Attica Locke) at present; S.A. Cosby is a shining light in this cadre. With echoes of The Godfather, this is an excoriating Southern family drama, with financial wizard and eldest son Roman confronting impossible compromises.
The Secrets We Keep by M. R. Mackenzie (Madhouse)
The Scottish writer M. R. Mackenzie continues to deserve all the praise he gleans for his weighty, well-crafted thrillers that bristle with colour and invention. The tenacious Anna Scavolini, as adroitly characterised as ever, returns to a febrile Glasgow from Italy to investigate the death of a former university colleague.
Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell (Century/Atria Books)
Those complaining that modern crime fiction has lost the storytelling grip of the past should tackle the new Lisa Jewell. As in her previous 23 novels, she has the full measure of the psychological thriller. Her protagonist invites a seemingly perfect man into her life, with (of course) dangerous consequences.
A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor (Hemlock Press)
Taylor’s position at the apex of historical crime writers is reinforced. This page-turner is set in a secluded school for girls away from the violence of World War II; teacher Annabel Warnock may have fatally fallen from a clifftop walk, but is spectrally pursuing her killer among students and staff.
The Stranger in Room Six by Jane Corry (Viking)
Perfectly honed modern crime writing in Jane Corry’s customarily engaging style. Her heroine, Belinda, was convicted 15 years ago of her husband’s murder, but at a retirement home, she finds history has a way of reaching dangerously into the present.
The Red Shore by William Shaw (Hemlock Press)
Among writers who comfortably fit into the literary end of the spectrum, William Shaw never fails to deliver impeccable exercises in psychological acuity. This is the first in a new series set in Devon and featuring DS Eden Driscoll, struggling with both murder and parenthood.
