It turns out the new normal is just like the old normal, only a bit more rubbish. That’s why we need crime fiction – it can take us well away from the normal. Take this week’s new books, for example. The normal settings of London and New York are put to one side in these five thrillers. Instead, you can read about murders in the Australian bush, a shack somewhere in the German forest, Texan scrubland, Co Wexford in Ireland and Anglesey in Wales. These are mysteries that will transport you far away from the beaten path…
Peace by Garry Disher
We first met Paul Hirschhausen, the only cop in Tiverton, a backwater town in the boondocks of Australia, in the acclaimed Bitter Wash Road by Aussie author Garry Disher. The follow up to that cracking tale is out on 8 October, and it finds Hirsch covering the Christmas shift. So far, so mundane with a grass fire, a stolen ute, and a local driving her car into the bar of the town hostelry proving the highlight of the festive season. Then Hirsch is called to a strange, vicious incident in Kitchener Street. And when Sydney police ask him to look in on a family living on a back road outside town, suddenly the tinsel and bonhomie begins to lose its sparkle.
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Dear Child by Romy Hausmann
In a bare, windowless shack in the depths of the woods, Lena and her two children live in fear of the man who holds them captive. He controls their lives and they must do his bidding, as he protects his family from the dangers of the outside world and ensures his children will always have a mother to look after them. Then Lena escapes – but there is no sense of freedom as the man tries to get her back. And is she really Lena, missing for more than 13 years? The police and Lena’s family aren’t so sure… Romy Hausmann’s Dear Child, a tricksy psychological thriller from Germany, is out now for Kindle and arrives in the US as a hardback on 6 October.
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The Rock Hole by Reavis Wortham
Poisoned Pen Press is reissuing Reavis Z Wortham’s Red River mysteries, set in Texas. The novels cross over into Western territory, and in The Rock Hole things get underway in Lamar County in the year 1964. Top Parker has moved to the area to live with his grandparents, and loves hiding out in the woods. However, this is not such a great idea with a suspected serial killer called The Skinner stalking the county. Having graduated from animals to mutilating humans, the murderer is being hunted by Top’s grandfather, Constable Ned. The new printing is out 6 October, with an introduction by Joe R Lansdale.
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Snow by John Banville
He won the Booker Prize under the pen name of Benjamin Black, now John Banville is publishing under his own name. Snow is out on 1 October and there’s more than a hint of Agatha Christie about this country house mystery. It’s the 1950s and Ireland is blanketed in the white stuff when a murder occurs in a country house in Co Wexford. The victim is a well-loved parish priest, and DI St John Strafford is called in from Dublin to handle the case. But as the weather closes in and the Ballyglass community closes ranks, it’s an uphill struggle for this incomer to make any headway in finding the killer.
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Shadow Soul by Dylan H Jones
Two stories intertwine on the Isle of Anglesey. On the one hand, drone pilot Bobbie Matthews begins to worry that her air strike role in the RAF may have led to the death of her husband. On the other, DI Tudor Manx is investigating after the commander of Bobbie’s base washes up on the beach. It starts to look like some kind of military cover-up is taking place in this latest novel from Dylan H Jones, whose book Anglesey Blue was long-listed for the Not the Booker Prize in 2017. Shadow Soul is out now.
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