Our crime specialist shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.

CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH

I Shot the Devil by Ruth McIver

Ruth McIver’s manuscript of I Shot the Devil won Australia’s Richell Prize for Emerging Writers a few years ago, and on reading the published book, you can see why: this America-set crime novel is riveting from start to end.

Erin Sloane is a journalist who sometimes writes longform crime pieces for Long Island outlet Inside Island, but mostly chooses to drink, pop pills and try not to think about anything too important. One day, her editor sits her down with a new idea for a story: cover an old local case from the 1990s – the murder of teenager Andre Villiers by his friends. Trouble is, Erin knows that case all too well. That group of ‘Satanists’ – as the media fell over themselves to dub the culprits – were Erin’s friends too. Her boyfriend, Danny, was one of those sent down for Andre’s death. And the most possessed of them all, Ricky Hell – a beautiful, haunting enigma – was killed by a cop on the night. Now, after years of failing to shake the memory of those kids, the murder and every other god-awful thing that happened to her, Erin has to go right back and dig up what in the devil’s name did or did not happen that night.

This is a book that ripples with danger – Erin’s past is fraught, and none of the teenagers from that night led rosy lives. As Erin delves into the story, she finds that people are willing to talk, but not necessarily anything close to the truth. Ripping the reality apart from the lies will take Erin from New York to Florida, piercing through everything she’s tried to hide, and everything she thought she knew.

This is a raw, box-cutter-sharp noir that will raise your blood pressure with anger, and bleed you dry with pain in the best literary way.

NEW CRIME FICTION

The Attack by Catherine Jinks

On an island off the Queensland coast, a ferry docks; its cargo a bunch of teenage boys sent to a hard-line boot camp run by army vets. Robyn Ayres – once a primary school teacher, now the island’s caretaker – waits to meet the boat, but when one of the boys raises his head, she’s hit with a rush of memory. Years ago, she was his teacher, and the battle between his grandmother and his mother ran riot through Robyn’s life. Now, under a different name, that boy is here again, on her island, in her space. She wants to help him, like she couldn’t back then, but when these teenagers incite more danger than even the vets can handle, Robyn’s sanity is stretched all the way to breaking point. A tense, intimate island thriller.

Cutters End by Margaret Hickey

At the end of 1989, in the searing South Australian heat, a woman waits for a ride up the Stuart Highway. Less than a week later, near the rural town of Cutters End, a body is found, burned and broken. Now, some 30 years later, there’s renewed interest in the case, and Acting Inspector Mark Ariti – pulled from long service leave for the occasion – finds himself chasing up stories from long ago. Mark’s an Adelaide man now, but back in those days, he was a country kid, and friends with two of the girls – now women – who need to be interviewed. Alongside his new colleague, Senior Constable Jagdeep Kaur, the story of what happened along that highway is as hard to see through as the dust and shimmering heat itself.

Shelve this gritty, rural procedural right between Garry Disher and Jane Harper. (Or, if you must insist on shelving alphabetically instead of dramatically, after them.)

Sweet Jimmy by Bryan Brown

Enter any longstanding pub in the Australian suburbs and you could easily find this book propping up the bar there, surrounded by entranced punters a fair few drinks into their evening. This collection of stories is like a series of punchy, well-honed yarns, every sentence as short and sharp as a bullet between the eyes. There are coppers and thieves, drug deals and murders, bad guys and almost-good guys, car chases and things that go boom.

Bryan Brown – yes, that one, from that movie you’re thinking of – has a lot of tales to tell, so you might as well crack one open and listen in.

The Housemate by Sarah Bailey

Everybody knows the Housemate Homicide: in 2005, in a share house in St Kilda, three women had a party and one of them wound up dead. Of the two remaining, one vanished and the other ended up in prison – but something felt wrong.

Nobody in Australia was truly satisfied, not least Oli Groves, the journo who covered the case back then. Nearly 10 years later, Oli is struggling with her awkward new parental responsibilities when the breakthrough of a lifetime calls up: the missing housemate has been found, dead. Oli’s put on the story again, along with podcasting upstart Cooper Ng, but there was more going on a decade ago than Oli really wants to admit. As the story alternates between the housemates’ fateful final months and Oli and Cooper’s investigation, a fresh and very real danger emerges. Sarah Bailey never shies away from flawed characters, and this excellent Melburnian thriller has plenty of them, along with a gripping, layered plot.

The Curlew’s Eye by Karen Manton

Some books are just made for the word evocative. Karen Manton’s haunting story of a young family temporarily moving to the father’s childhood home is a whisper in the night, a face at the window. There’s a sad, violent story behind Joel’s ruined family homestead in the Top End, and as Greta and her usually nomadic family settle into a roofless shack on the property, she finds the landscape beautiful, overwhelming and disquieting. There are new friends and fresh discoveries to be found among the rocks and ruins, but there’s also the threat of fire, a low thrum of constant danger, and people who live too close. There’s history buried here, and it all needs a reckoning. A heady and beautifully written rural Australian mystery.

Private Prosecution by Lisa Ellery

Andrew is living a smooth life as a junior prosecutor – working hard, playing hard, being a prat even harder. When he spends a night with the beautiful Lily, he sneaks out of her place in the morning hoping there will be more nights in their future. Instead, he’s called in for questioning that afternoon for Lily’s murder. Guess who’s the last person known to have seen her, whose DNA is all over her, and who conveniently wrote a note before he left? Andrew is sure he knows who stabbed Lily, but he’s also sure that without any concrete evidence, he won’t be able to prove anything. So he goes on the hunt. WA lawyer Lisa Ellery clearly knows her stuff, and this is a solidly entertaining legal thriller.

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

Paula ‘The Girl on the Train’ Hawkins is one of the most famous crime writers working today, and A Slow Fire Burning is another addictive psychological treat. Miriam, middle-aged, unhappy and living on a narrowboat on the river, goes to scold her neighbour and finds that the young man – Daniel Sutherland – has been killed. Daniel’s death irrevocably connects Miriam with his extended circle: Laura, struggling with the aftermath of childhood trauma, who was the last to see Daniel alive; Irene, Laura’s elderly friend; Angela, Irene’s recently deceased neighbour; and Carla and Theo, Daniel’s aunt and uncle, forever bound together by grief. Between them all, secrets are hidden and revealed, lies told and explained, forgiveness given and withheld. And in all that, somebody must hold the key to who killed Daniel, and why.

A wry exploration of humanity that burns as slow and hot as its title.

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

It’s 1971, a time of political unrest in the perpetually unrestful Mexico City. Dictionary- loving vinyl fan Elvis is just about done with beating people up for a living, when he’s sent to find the missing Leonora. Maite is a neighbour of Leonora’s. A secretary at a law firm, Maite lives for romance serials, English-language records and petty theft, and she’s also curious about her beautiful neighbour, whose cat she is looking after. As Elvis watches Maite from afar, he begins to see a future beyond his life. But in the world of gangs, violence, spies and assassins, there’s no easy way out of their lives without some blood being shed. A dark, yet strangely heartfelt noir.

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

All right, I can see you’re already perking up about this one. I honestly couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve recommended Richard Osman’s first book, The Thursday Murder Club, to a customer only to be told they have in fact already read it and loved it. Well, the Club is back, and as you’d expect from four elderly English people living in a retirement village, they have more murders to solve. There’s a street attack, stolen diamonds, dead bodies that aren’t all they seem and friendly drug dealers. There’s Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron – and anyone else they can rope into their shenanigans. And there’s you, the reader too, having just about the most delightfully funny time you could have, while still reading about people getting shot in the head. If you’re not already across Osman’s wildly popular books, now really is the time.

ALSO OUT THIS MONTH

How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie; The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves ; Another Kind of Eden by James Lee Burke; The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin; The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny … and more!