Our On the Radar news page returns, and this week we’re raising a glass to five new crime novels, beginning with one set in the brewing industry of the 1930s. In Yorkshire, to be precise. Looks like the perfect accompaniment to a pint of bitter.
In addition, we’ve got the latest from Gunnar Staalesen, the godfather of Norwegian crime fiction, as well as titles by three writers who have never appeared on Crime Fiction Lover before. Let’s say ‘cheers’ to Jack Callan, Charles Demers and Neil Spring.
Alright. Drink up!
Death and the Brewery Queen by Frances Brody
It may be last orders at some pubs in the UK right now but Frances Brody’s latest Kate Shackleton mystery will be served up on 29 October. It’s a full bodied tale, as the private eye is called in to sleuth at a brewery in North Yorkshire. The books are all to pot, and the employee who might be able to shed some light on the mess meets with a fatal accident. Then, on the day the Yorkshire Brewery Queen is crowned, Kate stumbles upon another body – and nearly meets an untimely end herself. Hop to it and find out what happens next in the 1930s period mystery.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Smoke Chase by Jack Callan
Jack Callan’s latest novel invites you to step back in time to Victorian London, where a bomb has gone off in the Tobacco Market. That stuff will kill you. Prime suspect is John Chase, perhaps due to his military training with the Royal Fusiliers. He and a union man, who has confessed to the bombing, are taken to a prison hulk on the Thames, from where he hopes to try and prove his innocence. Soon, it seems, someone wants to murder Chase and he escapes from the vessel, going underground in the city and hooking up with his old army comrades. It’s out 28 October.
Pre-order now on Amazon
Primary Obsessions by Charles Demers
Fancy some Canadian crime? The first book in a series of mysteries starring Dr Annick Boudreau and involving themes of mental health, Primary Obsessions is out on 27 October in North America. Dr Boudreau runs a psychiatric practice in British Columbia, and when a young patient who suffers from OCD is arrested for the murder of his roommate, she is convinced he didn’t do it. For the police it is case closed, but Annick sets out to prove them wrong. Her investigations take her to some dark and dangerous places – and what she uncovers is a shock to both her and the prosecutors.
Pre-order now on Amazon
The Haunted Shore by Neil Spring
If you like your crime with a side order of supernatural, then Neil Spring’s The Haunted Shore should hit the spot – and it’s out now! Lizzy moves to a lonely and desolate coastal village in the hope of escaping her past, but it comes back to haunt her… literally. Any hopes of finding peace are dashed when she uncovers stories of a sea that burned and bodies washed ashore. And as the secrets of a family’s buried past reach into the present, Lizzy begins to to suspect that her father’s carer may be a dangerous imposter with sinister motives of his own. Spooky stuff.
Buy now on Amazon
Fallen Angels by Gunnar Staalesen
The Varg Veum series dates all the way back to the 1970s, and the veteran Bergen detective is back in Fallen Angels, reminiscing about the past. He’s at a funeral, where he runs into his old friend Jakob, who went on to become a famous rock guitarist, and Veum’s first love, Rebecca. Their friendship is resurrected but soon tragedy strikes with a horrific murder drawing Veum into a case that takes the private detective deep into his memories of growing up to find clues as to who the killer might be. It’s out now for Kindle and in print on 12 November.
Buy now on Amazon