Okay, okay. Maybe I might be a wiseguy or a wazzock – you decide – but the transatlantic partnership between Scottish crime author Denise Mina and the legendary LA detective Philip Marlowe is as surprising as it is exciting. Historic too. The Second Murderer is our lead novel this week, followed by the latest from Simon Toyne and Reed Farrell Coleman, plus indie crime fiction debuts for Lou Gilmond and Steve Stockley. Private detectives, serial killers, classic characters and high-tech crimes are all to be found in this week’s trove – just take your pick
The Second Murderer by Denise Mina
Denise Mina and Philip Marlowe sounds like a match made in crime fiction heaven – and on 13 July, she becomes the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective with the arrival of The Second Murderer. Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, high on top of Beverly Hills, where rich socialite Chrissie Montgomery has gone missing. She is set to inherit an enormous fortune, and her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found at all cost. To make sure, they’ve got Anne Riordan – now head of her own all-female detective agency – on the case, too. The investigation leads the investigators to the roughest areas of LA, but how do you close the case when someone doesn’t want to be found?
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The Clearing by Simon Toyne
We met forensics expert Laughton Rees in Dark Objects last year; now she returns in Simon Toyne’s The Clearing, published on 11 July. Women keep going missing in a small town near the Forest of Dean. The locals put it down to inexperienced hikers getting lost in the forest’s depths, or girls abandoning their sleepy rural town for the excitement of city life – some even blame it on the legendary Cinderman. Rees doesn’t believe in legends, she deals in cold, hard facts. As she joins forces with DCI Tannahill Khan back in London and Adele, sister of the latest victim Maddie Friar, it appears that a cold-blooded killer could be stalking his prey from the shadowy safety of the trees…
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Dirty Geese by Lou Gilmond
If you’re after a legal thriller set in the near future, then make a note of Dirty Geese from Fairlight Books. It’s written by Lou Gilmond and out on 6 July. When Chief Whip Esme Kanha learns of the sudden death of the Minister for Personal Information, she bitterly regrets missing his desperate calls the previous evening. She’s not convinced that he killed himself and begins to investigate but must tread carefully in a near-future world dominated by technology that follows your every move. Meanwhile, Big Tech executive Henri Lauvaux arrives in London to ensure the new minister, Harry Colbey, will not prove as problematic as the last. Time for Kanha and Colbey to join forces and get to the truth.
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Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman
When you’re in trouble in New York City, you call 911. When cops are in trouble, they call Nick Ryan. Every cop in the city knows his name, but no one says it out loud. In fact, they don’t talk about him at all. He doesn’t wear a uniform, but he is the most powerful cop in The Big Apple. Ryan can find a criminal who’s vanished. Or he can make a key witness disappear. He’s the mayor’s private cop, a fixer who can get anything done, a veteran cop still fighting his own private war – but what happens when the man who knows all the city’s secrets becomes a threat to both sides of the law? Find out when Sleepless City by Reed Farrel Coleman comes out on 11 July.
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Duty Strong by Steve Shockley
He was in the army for 20 years, now Sergeant Major Zinny Zubell has been released from service due to cutbacks. He decides to settle in Charlotte, North Carolina – but the genteel southern culture is way outside Zubell’s comfort zone. Trying to fit in, he takes a temporary assignment working as an investigator for Claude Sedley, senior partner at a well-established local law firm, but becomes suspicious when asked to trail a local entrepreneur, Damon Slade. His gut tells him both men are hiding the truth about a woman’s body found in her car at the bottom of a lake – is Zubell’s sense of duty about to get him into big trouble? Steve Shockley’s Duty Strong is out on 11 July
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