Don’t you wish we could all jet away to Florida right now, sit by the pool and sip Bud Light in the fading sunset? Well, you can with Steph Broadribb’s new mystery – but watch out for the dead body in the pool and the spilled blood all around it. Death in the Sunshine is our lead book this week and we follow that up with a further three varied and inventive novels by women authors. Plus, DV Bishop’s latest historical thriller set in Renaissance Venice.
It’s. So. Hard. To. Choose.
Death in the Sunshine by Steph Broadribb
Four former police officers investigating a murder in a Florida retirement community? Sounds a little bit like The Thursday Murder Club in Ray-Bans. But this is Steph Broadribb we’re talking about, she of the popular series featuring bounty hunter Lori Anderson, so expect the unexpected. British former police detective Moira moved to The Homestead for the quiet life, but when she finds a young woman dead in the lap pool, surrounded by blood and thousands in cash, her life is about to get complicated once again. The police seem lukewarm in their investigation of the death, but Moira meets three other residents who are keen to get to the bottom of it and The Retired Detectives Club is born. Death in the Sunshine is out on 1 March.
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Reputation by Sarah Vaughan
Her best known book is Anatomy of a Scandal, which was long-listed for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2018 and subsequently made into a successful Netflix series. Now Sarah Vaughan is back with another timely and thought-provoking novel about women, perception and power. Emma is a high-profile MP who wants to make a positive difference, but faces threats and trolling in the process. She launches a campaign to protect women from the effects of online bullying – and that’s when the problems really ramp up. Now, Emma is being accused of murder… Reputation is out on 3 March.
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This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel
Here at Crime Fiction Lover we loved this author’s debut, The Recovery of Rose Gold. On 3 March, Stephanie Wrobel is back with another dark and unsettling thriller, This Might Hurt. Twin sisters Natalie and Kit Collins are like chalk and cheese – Natalie is the one with all the confidence, while her younger sister fades into the shadows. Then Kit signs up for a secretive self-help retreat on a secluded Maine island. Wisewood promises to find a better version of her; Natalie worries that it’s a cult. Then after six months she receives an unsettling email that could bring the sisters’ worlds tumbling down. Natalie must go to Wisewood and investigate – but will she ever be allowed to leave?
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The Darkest Sin by DV Bishop
The sequel to City of Vengeance, DV Bishop returns to Renaissance Florence for another historical thriller featuring investigator Cesare Aldo. A man’s naked body, riddled with stab wounds, is found hidden deep inside a convent in the city’s divided northern quarter. All the evidence points to one of the nuns being the killer. Meanwhile, Constable Carlo Strocchi finds human remains pulled from the Arno that belong to an officer of the law with many enemies who had been missing since winter. As Aldo and Strocchi close in on the truth, identifying the killers will prove more treacherous than either of them could ever have imagined… The Darkest Sin publishes on 3 March.
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The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo
A really striking cover for a novel that’s just that little bit different. Meet Hornclaw, she’s 65 and a contract killer who is thinking about retirement. She is a fighter who experienced loss and grief early on in life and lives in isolation with just her dog, Deadweight, for company. But when Hornclaw makes a mistake on her latest contract job, things begin to unravel. There’s a new male upstart out to sabotage her but Hornclaw is determined to win through. No matter their age, the female of the species is always more deadly than the male. The Old Woman with the Knife is the first novel by South Korean writer Gu Byeong-mo to be translated into English and it’s out on 3 March.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org