Peter Swanson’s The Kind Worth Saving was on our most wanted list for 2023 and this week it’s heading up our news column, followed by four other books that shouldn’t be overlooked. Cosy crime fiction is experiencing a big resurgence and we’ve got the latest from MH Eccleston, plus a new locked-room mystery (not cosy, though) by Kate Simants. After that you can head back to Wyoming with CJ Box, or to Hamburg with Peter Sarda.
Time to get reading…
The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson
It’s eight years since master of the wrong-footing thriller Peter Swanson gave us the five-star read that is the Kind Worth Killing. Now Lily Kintner is back – and as slippery as ever. There’s another familiar character too. Henry Kimball has left teaching behind to become a private investigator, and when the mother of a former pupil hires him to dish the dirt on her cheating husband, Henry is soon in over his head. Time to call on the particular skills of Lily Kintner then? But with this duo’s history, it’s a certain bet that things are not going to run smoothly. The Kind Worth Saving is out on 28 February.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Death Comes to the Costa Del Sol by MH Eccleston
Art restorer and amateur sleuth Astrid Swift leaves England behind for a trip to sunny Estepona, where her estranged father lives. Her plan is for a loving reunion with him, but Astrid finds herself on the hunt for an internet troll who’s been threatening his wife online. She’s soon embroiled in the complicated lives of the British ex pats who call the Costa their home, all of whom seem to have something to hide. When a body is found in the bunker of the local golf course the search for the Costa del Troll becomes ever more urgent. A slice of cosy crime, MH Eccleston’s Death Comes to the Costa del Sol is out on 2 March.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Freeze by Kate Simants
Freeze is a chilling mystery that comes out on 2 March, and author Kate Simants has jumped feet first into the world of reality TV for her inspiration. On a small ship off the coast of Greenland, eight contestants are preparing to push themselves to breaking point for a £100,000 prize. Frozen Out is the brainchild of Tori Matsuka, and everything rides on its success. But as errors and mishaps mount on set, tempers among the cast and crew start to fray. When one of the contestants is found dead, only camera operator Dee realises the death wasn’t natural – and from what she’s seen from behind the lens, it isn’t likely to be the last…
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Storm Watch by CJ Box
Storm Watch is the 23rd book by CJ Box to feature Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett and it’s published on 28 February. As the tale unfolds, Pickett is on the lookout for a missing University of Wyoming professor in the midst of an epic spring storm. First, he finds the professor’s vehicle on a remote mountainside, then he comes across a frozen and mutilated body. But when Pickett tries to to learn more, his investigation is obstructed by federal agents, extreme environmentalists and the state governor. Meanwhile, Joe’s associate Nate Romanowski is made an offer that he finds very hard to refuse. Are the pair about to be at loggerheads?
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
Bad Cop by Peter Sarda
Peter Sarda continues his Hamburg Noir series with Bad Cop, the follow-up to One-Way Ticket, and it’s on sale now. After successfully putting away the head of the Albanian mafia in Hamburg, detectives Thomas Ritter and Motz Beck have no time to rest on their laurels. Instead, the pair is faced with a bloody war to control the local drug trade in the mobster’s absence and things are getting out of hand. First an Albanian courier is shotgunned to death at the edge of the port, then a Hell’s Angel gets the same treatment on the Alster River. As the bodies pile up, Ritter and Beck are forced to work with an organised crime expert with his own drug issues. Before long, he too is under suspicion.
Buy now on Amazon