One of the most eagerly awaited crime novels of the year arrives here in our newsletter this week, and it’s also one that stretches the genre. Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon takes place in the near future and it’s one of those books were technology, secrets and deception rub together with potentially high-voltage consequences.
The week’s new books also include a hyper-tense medical thriller by Jack Jordan, Sharon Bolton’s latest police thriller, a fascinating Nazi gold story by Richard O’Rawe and some interesting domestic noir from Liz Webb. A fine menu to choose from…
Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon
How do you fancy a darkly comic road trip through a near future America with a big hearted mercenary? Then make a date with Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon, out on 24 May. The mercenary in question is Will Bear, who is 50 and has lived off the grid for half his life, criss-crossing the US in his beloved camper van. But his latest burner phone call brings Will up short. It’s a young woman, claiming to be his daughter – although he has the feeling she might be AI. Either way, she’s entrenched in a widespread and nefarious plot involving Will’s employers, and that’s not good news for either of them.
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Do No Harm by Jack Jordan
The pressures of being a surgeon are all too apparent – one slip of the scalpel and it’s game over for the patient lying prone and vulnerable on the operating table. Oopsie! Anna Jones is an eminent heart surgeon, about to perform the biggest operation of her career – a triple bypass on the man tipped to become the next Labour Party leader. It’s a task tricky enough to send anyone’s stress levels through the roof, but for Anna the stakes are even higher. Because her son has been taken, and unless she lets Ahmed Shabir expire while she’s operating on him, young Zack will die in his place. How’s the Hippocratic oath working out for you, Dr Jones? Jack Jordan’s Do No Harm is out on 26 May.
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The Dark by Sharon Bolton
The latest in Sharon Bolton’s Lacey Flint series, The Dark, is out on 26 May, and finds the off-duty police officer in the right place at the right time. When someone snatches a baby from a pram and throws the infant into the thames, Flint is on hand to avert disaster. But who would want to hurt a child? DCI Mark Joesbury has some idea — the incident is the first in a series of violent attacks designed to terrorise women, organised by a shadowy group of extremist incels who work through the Dark Web. But because of her act of heroism, Lacey is now in their sights…
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Goering’s Gold by Richard O’Rawe
Ex-IRA soldier Ructions O’Hare is back in a thriller based on one of history’s greatest unsolved heists. At the end of World War II a huge quantity of gold bullion plundered by Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering went astray. There were rumours that it ended up in the Republic of Ireland. Now Ructions has a line on where it might be, but for him to return to the Emerald Isle he is going to have to stay a step ahead of the IRA, Interpol and a bunch of neo-Nazis. As the net closes around him, Ructions begins to wonder if it’s even worth the bother. Goering’s Gold by Richard O’Rawe is out on 31 May
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The Daughter by Liz Webb
Some family secrets are best left buried, but what would be the fun in that? Hannah Davidson bears an uncanny resemblance to her glamorous mother, and she’s now the same age as her mother was when she was killed – a crime that broke her family apart. Now Hannah is determined to find out the truth about her mother’s death… starting with her father, who is living with dementia. But soon the boundaries between Hannah and her mother become fatally blurred. Look out for The Daughter by Liz Webb on 19 May.
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