Tim Weaver is a British crime author we’ve followed for a long time here on Crime Fiction Lover, but we can’t recall there being quite so much buzz around one of his releases as there is for The Blackbird. It’s a book people are talking about and we’re getting pretty amped, with its release now tantalisingly close. That’s why it’s our lead book this week but we’ve also got a very clever mystery from Sulari Gentill, a debut for our own Victoria Weisfeld, a classic from 1930s author Alice Campbell, and hardcore psychological thrills care of Jon Bassoff. You can’t go wrong…
The Blackbird by Tim Weaver
Missing persons investigator David Raker is back, and his latest case is a jaw dropping puzzler. It’s a unique twist on the locked room mystery involving a car crash, a burning vehicle and the inexplicable disappearance of the two people who were inside. Ten seconds before their car plunged into a 90-foot ravine, Cate and Aiden Gascoigne are recorded on CCTV, laughing and joking and without a care in the world. Now they’ve vanished into thin air. Can Raker put the pieces together and come up with an answer? Find out on 9 June, when Tim Weaver’s The Blackbird is published, and watch for our review.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
Australian author Sulari Gentill offers up a tempting slice of twisty literary crime when The Woman in the Library comes out on 1 June. Aussie mystery writer Winifred ‘Freddie’ Kincaid is in Boston after receiving a prestigious writers’ fellowship. She’s on a visit to the Boston Public Library when a woman’s scream shatters the silence. With the place on lockdown while an investigation begins, four strangers, at the same table, pass the time chatting. Each has a reason for being in the reading room that morning – but one is a murderer… We’ll have a review on our site soon.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Architect of Courage by Victoria Weisfeld
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is still months away, but as this story opens the date is already playing on the minds of New Yorkers. Archer Landis is a successful Manhattan architect, working the room at a high-profile Midtown reception. But once Archer’s glad handing has garnered enough useful witnesses, he quietly departs, grabs a cab and heads to the Chelsea apartment of his girlfriend, Julia. It’s a mistake – and one that is about to test Archer’s courage to the very limit. Architect of Courage by novelist and Crime Fiction Lover reviewer Victoria Weisfeld comes out on 4 June.
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The Click of the Gate by Alice Campbell
If you’re a fan of golden age detective stories, than mark 6 June on the calendar – it’s the date when Dean Street Press is reissuing 10 titles by much overlooked early 20th century crime novelist Alice Campbell. The Click of the Gate is set in Paris, where 15-year-old Clare mysteriously disappears and it is up to Alan Charnwood, the Englishman who loves the girl’s mother, to solve the mystery. The other rereleases are Juggernaut, Water Weed, Spiderweb, The Murder of Caroline Bundy, Desire to Kill, Keep Away From Water! , Death Framed in Silver, Flying Blind and A Door Closed Softly.
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Beneath Cruel Waters by Jon Bassoff
Jon Bassoff‘s Beneath Cruel Waters, out 9 June, begins when Kansas firefighter Holt Davidson reluctantly returns home to Colorado after his estranged mother takes her own life. On the night before the funeral he restlessly roams the rooms of the family home – but instead of uncovering happy memories he finds a gun, a love letter and a Polaroid photograph of a man lying in his own blood. Suddenly there are questions to be answered, and if Holt is to find the truth he must delve into his own painful past in this tautly plotted psychological thriller.
Order now on Amazon