Our unrelenting mission to bring you new crime fiction continues this week, and today we have a mixture of books in different styles and from different nations. We start off by saluting David Baldacci on his latest FBI thriller, Mercy. Then you can choose between Norwegian crime fiction with the latest by Gunnar Staalesen, or French with Olivier Norek’s new book. Or why not opt for both? We also have two great books for anyone who loves a bit of pulp crime fiction – both of which have superb titles: Velvet Elvis by Greg F Gifune and Ain’t That a Kick in the Head by Nigel Bird.
Read on and discover…
Mercy by David Baldacci
Special Agent Atlee Pine is back in the follow up to David Baldacci‘s Long Road to Mercy, out on 25 November. As Mercy opens, Atlee is close to finding out what happened to her twin sister, who was abducted when the girls were six years old – an incident which destroyed her family and left Atlee physically and mentally scarred. But can she handle the truth? As the trail hots up, Atlee and her assistant Carol Blum uncover a shocking sequence of lies, greed, fear and revenge. They have a final hurdle to surmount – and it’s a challenge more deadly and dangerous than they could ever have imagined.
Pre-order on Amazon
Bitter Flowers by Gunnar Staalesen
A book by perennial Nordic noir favourite Gunnar Staalesen is always something to cheer about, and this new translation of Bitter Flowers by Don Bartlett is out on 20 November. Beleaguered Norwegian PI Varg Veum is just out of rehab and feeling a lot happier with life. But that new-found composure is dealt a heavy blow when a man is found dead in an elite swimming pool and a young woman vanishes. Then Varg Veum is asked to investigate the ‘Camilla Case’: an eight-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a little girl, who was never found. Three very different investigations are about to converge in most traumatic fashion…
Pre-order now on Amazon
Turf Wars by Olivier Norek
Turf Wars is a follow up to a debut novel, with Olivier Norek returning to Paris’s most notorious suburb, Seine-Saint-Denis, also known as the 93, which featured in The Lost and the Damned. Three dealers are executed –one of them right in front of a police surveillance team. Now the territory is up for grabs, and Capitaine Coste and his team must battle against the local drugs kingpin – and the ambitions of the Mayor, determined to get a third term of office – if they are to keep the violence from exploding. A thriller with an authentic edge, from the pen of the man who wrote hit TV series Spiral, Turf Wars is out now
Buy now on Bookshop.org
Velvet Elvis by Greg F Gifune
If a shot of hardboiled noir is your poison, then Greg F Gifune’s Velvet Elvis may be right up your street. Sonny Cantone is broke, his girlfriend’s left him, he drinks to excess, smokes too much pot and his car has been stolen. How much bad luck can one guy take? But things look a little brighter when Sonny’s stoner buddy Crash comes up with a solution. He has plans for a caper that promises to yield some quick money, and Sonny agrees to be Crash’s partner in crime. It’s a decision he soon regrets after things go spectacularly wrong, leaving Sonny and Crash on the run in Cape Cod. Out now.
Buy now on Amazon
Ain’t That a Kick in the Head by Nigel Bird
If the title doesn’t give you a Sinatra earworm, then maybe the fact that Ain’t That a Kick in the Head (out 15 November) is the third in Nigel Bird’s Rat Pack series might. Fans will already be familiar with Bird’s darkly humorous style, and it is in play again as reformed drugs boss Skates Farrington turns over a new leaf and tries to win back his ex-wife. When she rebuffs his advances though, the old Skates makes a reappearance and murder and abduction ensue. Cue the arrival of DI Oliver Wilson, whose mind isn’t quite on the job at hand. His wife is due to give birth any day now – and there’s also the small matter of the unusual gifts that keep turning up unannounced and making him nervous. They mean something… but what, exactly? Read our review of Let it Snow, first in the series, here.
Pre-order now on Amazon