BOOK OF THE MONTH

Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck

Swedish Lapland, June 1717 (note, this reader virtually never reads things set in the past): Finns Maija and Paavo take their children Frederika and Dorotea to Sweden, away from the fear that has beaten Paavo into a shadow of the man he once was. They settle in Lapland, beside the mountain Blackåsen, ill-equipped for living in an isolated and storm-racked area. They have been there only a short time when the two girls take their goats for a walk and stumble upon the body of a man. Wolves, or a bear, Maija tells them. But she knows it is not true. And so their new home becomes one not of hope, but one of fear renewed, with new atmospheric tension and a landscape as brutal to your home and body as it appears enchanting in a painting.

Maija is a female protagonist so organically heroic that she seems not at all out of place in these long past times. Things need to get done and Maija is the one to do them in this land of endless days that in winter turn into eternal nights, where the men are too trapped by their land, their anxiety and their stoic manner to do anything but shake their heads at a torn-up body in a glade. And so she is the believable midwife turned farmer turned 1700s-era forensic investigator when no one else bothered to try. As those around her say, the mountain is bad, but is it the people on it who are bad, or is it the land itself? The sorcery trials of the past still have a grip on everyone’s lives, but the question is whether Maija’s staunch faith in reality and God is the way, or if it is blocking her ability to see the truth. I was up until 3am reading this haunting thriller, but then it was as dark as the book itself. My advice: read it in the sun.

Gun Street Girl: Sean Duffy Book 4 by Adrian McKinty

There were a few books on this list vying for book of the month. Ekback won because I took enough notes during the read to have the review done before the book was. In this, I took no notes because I was too busy reading through at an enthusiastic and frantic speed. DI Sean Duffy ticks a lot of boxes: sarcastic, frequently drunk, and cynical about the force. He also ticks the most important boxes: likeable, original, and enjoyable to follow around. It’s November 1985 and Duffy is a policeman in Northern Ireland – not the best place to be a policeman, unless you enjoy being blown up. Snatching what looks like a smooth domestic murder away from the neighbouring department, Duffy and his team end up involved in something much more expansive and dangerous than they were expecting, but that’s really the least of it. This is fun, shocking, grim, as addictive as cocaine filched from the evidence room, and wonderful. Not least, this is one of the very few new crime books that is completely devoid of sexual assault, and for that I give it five gold stars and a round of sincere, heartfelt applause.

Tell the Truth by Katherine Howell

I love crime books that follow an unexpected perspective, and Howell delivers that in spades. Howell is an ex-paramedic and her expertise shines through. Her powerfully enjoyable detective, Ella Marconi, often finds herself counting on the help of paramedics, or saving their lives. Here, she is desperately trying to do the latter after paramedic Stacey Durham vanishes, leaving behind a car soaked in her blood and a picture-perfect life that surely cannot be real. With her own life unable to recover from chaos, especially when it comes to her captivatingly fraught relationship with her partner’s mother, can Marconi find the truth?

Medea’s Curse: Natalie King, Forensic Psychiatrist by Anne Buist

Forensic psychiatrist Natalie King is an excellent badass: tearing up to her offices on a Ducati, ready and willing with help for the helpless and cutting remarks for those who deserve them, namely Crown Prosecutor Liam O’Shea, the man she loves to hate. But she has a new direction for her rage: towards the person who’s leaving anonymous notes and creating a threatening environment around her that she needs to demolish. Natalie works with people involved in violent crimes, on both sides of the abuse, and she knows there’s no end of people with fire in their veins. There are some fires Natalie must put out before they engulf her entirely.

Dead Girl Walking by Christopher Brookmyre

Brookmyre’s beloved Jack Parlabane returns – in a way – though bereft of his happiness and self-esteem, and waiting for something to turn his life around. It’s music that does it: the band Savage Earth Heart, to be precise, not because of their excellent sounds, but due to the disappearance of band member Heike Gunn. From Vegas to Europe and through a web of lies cast tight around the band itself, Parlabane needs to run to Heike and away from his past before the last notes ring out for both of them.

The Whispering City by Sara Moliner

In the fascist environment of 1950s Barcelona, young journalist Ana Martí Noguer gets the unexpected job of accompanying Inspector Isidro Castro on the kind of case that has the whole city abuzz: socialite Mariona Sobrerroca is found dead in her exclusive mansion, and as it often is with high-profile cases, the truth and the official story are rarely one and the same. Ana and her scholar cousin, Beatriz, are as intent on solving the puzzles of this case as the town is intent on hiding an unnerving conspiracy in aplace as beautiful as it is oppressive and violent.

The White Van by Patrick Hoffman

Here is the story to read for the San Francisco you don’t see in wide-eyed and cheerful travel shows that can’t see past cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge: Emily Rosario, desperate and unhappy and possibly, maybe, drunk, a bit, goes home with a Russian businessman and resurfaces after a hazy few drug-fuelled days to discover she is now part of a bank robbery – and so she makes off with the cash. Broken cop Leo Elias, who could do with a fix of cash, decides to be the one who finds her and the money – albeit off the books – and is not the only person on the hunt in this bleak but narcotics-level addictive neo-noir thriller.

Fiona Hardy