Best new crime in October
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH:
The Dark Inside by Rod Reynolds
As someone who’s never been to America’s south, I only know what I read in books: lots of diners, folks who don’t like the look of you, and dirt tracks where any manner of thing can go wrong. And I love it, that southern tale: the heat, the secrets, something about the writing that is sweet and sour like ripe old candy. It surprised me to realise that Reynolds was British, so accurate were the landscapes and characters; but I didn’t really mind. How could I? I loved it. It’s set in 1946 but it could be set today: murders and shifty town politics and reporters out of a job and red-headed dames – three of them no less. (I’m almost certain there are more red headed women in fiction than there are in reality.)
After a temper tantrum involving a typewriter through an office window, reporter Charlie Yates is sent away from his beloved New York to Texarkana on the Texas–Arkansas border, where a suspected killer is on the loose. His brief is: cover this or lose your job, but you’ll probably lose it anyway. And Yates’s reputation precedes him, with no help from his fellow reporters apart from being threatened with a gun, and the police with a stick up their collective ass about him too. But as Charlie’s priorities change from keeping his job to solving a crime in a place where the authorities seem less than concerned about it, he’ll figure out who to trust – and that’s about no one beyond himself. Charlie comes from a place of unexpected emotional depth, wounded from the loss of his wife, his sobriety, and his self-respect. Along with a gruesome and complex plot and the neat little quirks of language that shine the shoes of the story, putting it in its historical place, the rediscovery of Charlie’s moral core is a journey worth taking with him.
NEW CRIME FICTION
Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
Readings’ favourite Keigo Higashino has released another book – hooray! It was first serialised in his home country of Japan in the late ’90s, then released as a TV show, and two films, so don’t Google it if you want to stay in the dark – which you will with Higashino, whose work is clever enough to warrant a second read, to pick up the clues you missed the first time. A pawnbroker’s death haunts Junzo Sasagaki, the police officer on the case for twenty years, as he follows two young people who can never free themselves from violence and suspicion: the son of the victim, and the daughter of the suspect.
Ash Island by Barry Maitland
Maitland’s first book in the Belltree Trilogy was shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award, and no one will be even slightly surprised if this turns up on next year’s list. Another protagonist on this month’s list booted away from the comforts of home to follow a lead somewhere far from his office, Detective Sergeant Harry Belltree is pointed away from Sydney, and the rampant corruption that nearly killed him, to the reportedly more sedate Newcastle. Of course, it’s not sedate at all, and the first body found is just the beginning for Belltree, who is also painfully aware of his new posting’s proximity to the car accident that brought tragedy to his family – and which was possibly not an accident at all.
What Remains by Tim Weaver
Four years ago, police detective Colm Healy was the consummate professional, the best at what he did. When faced with a horrifying crime – the slaughter of a mother and her two young daughters – of course, he would solve it. But he did not, and as the case wound down, so did he, leaving him broken, distanced from his family, out of a career, and then homeless. Enter David Raker, finder of lost people, who has an outwardly loose but muscle-deep connection to Healy, and who offers a helping hand to get Healy back on track. That helping hand comes with a caveat, to help find the killer that left a family wiped from this earth, and a powerful man helpless in his own body. The fairly rakish Raker is on the case – one that cleaves much closer to his chosen profession, when the next missing person he must find is Healy himself.
The House on Cold Hill by Peter James
New Peter James book, check. Story about a crumbling English mansion in the countryside that’s haunted, check. Change of underpants, check. Moving to a place with the alarming name ‘Cold Hill House’ apparently didn’t ring any alarm bells for web designer Ollie Harcourt, who has always wanted to live in the country. Now his dream has come true, in the sprawling property he shares with his wife and daughter. But soon it seems that there are more than three people there, as visions appear, one in the window of a room that no one can find. Not one to read on a windy night when that tree outside scratches insistently at your window, and the air howls along your garden path, stopping only at the shadow by your back door …
Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham (available 20 October)
It was only a matter of time until one of Grisham’s frequently rogue lawyers went so rogue that it became a book title. Sebastian Rudd is that man: unable to have a physical office because his last one was firebombed, and the list of suspects is as long as his mileage is high. He now works out of a bulletproof van equipped with an armed guard, Wi-Fi, and a fridge for beer. He defends even the most reprehensible of people, because he believes everyone deserves a fair trial – including the man accused of kidnapping the assistant chief of police’s daughter, or the junkie accused of killing two young girls. I thought I would just flick through this one, but I’d forgotten that Grisham is popular because he’s as addictive and entertaining as hell. Expect more from Rudd – and hope for it, too.
A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George (available 27 October)
Elizabeth George’s gloriously giant crime novels are good for many things: to take on holidays, to read under the covers on these warm spring nights, to use as doorstops, footstools, or maybe as a heavy weapon. But don’t go coshing any intruders with this until you’ve joined D.I. Lynley and D.S. Havers on another case. Barbara Havers, known (and loved) for her don’t-give-a-toss demeanour, is on thin ice with the superintendent and is taking the warning seriously enough to actually change. This in turn leads to a connection to feminist writer Clare Abbott and her assistant, Caroline Goldacre, a woman everyone seems to find quite alarming and overbearing. So how does this tie into a murder case? Ah, well, better pick one of these up at the end of October, snuggle up and find out for yourself.
