The October crime review
Discover the new crime books our booksellers are excited about this month!
The Ledge by Christian White
When human remains are discovered in the forests of regional Victoria, the police are baffled, the locals are shocked, and one group of old friends starts to panic. Their long-held secret is about to be uncovered.
It all began in 1999 when sixteen-year-old Aaron ran away from home, dragging his friends into an unforeseeable chain of events that no one escaped from unscathed . . .
In The Ledge, past and present run breathlessly, tensely parallel, leading to a cliff-hanger nobody will see coming. This is a mind-bending new novel from the master of the unexpected.
Read our staff review here.
No One Will Know by Rose Carlyle
Eve Sylvester is young and broke and needs a job fast. After years of foster homes, backpacking and a sailing trip across the Pacific Ocean, she has lost contact with friends and family. She is alone, desperate – and pregnant.
Then she meets Julia and Christopher Hygate, a charming and glamorous couple, who seem to have the perfect life: loads of money and a breathtakingly beautiful mansion on a remote Tasmanian island. They make her a lucrative offer. Eve can move into their empty summerhouse and take up a very easy job.
Eve thinks she's fallen on her feet – she has found a home, and her child will grow up in the aptly named Paradise Bay. But some things about the job don't add up. Why must Eve stay out of sight? Why have the Hygates employed an ex-con to run their yacht-charter business? And what about the mysterious boats sailing in and out of the Hygates' private marina? Has Eve made a deal with the devil? It's too late to ask questions. Eve is already in far too deep.
Read our staff review here.
Prize Catch by Alan Carter
When Roz Chen’s wife, Niamh, is killed on a lonely Tasmanian road, the grieving widow wonders if Niamh’s death was an accident after all. Meanwhile, SAS veteran Sam Willard is hoping for a fresh start with a job at a salmon farm. But as allegations of old war crimes surface and Sam is ‘promoted’ as a special operative against anti-salmon-farm activists, he and Roz form an unlikely alliance. Forced to retreat into the wilderness, they find themselves scrambling for the truth with murderous thugs on their trail.
The Valley by Chris Hammer
Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic are back. A controversial entrepreneur is murdered in a remote mountain valley, but this is no ordinary case. Ivan and Nell are soon contending with cowboy lawyers, conmen, bullion thieves and grave robbers. But it’s when Nell discovers the victim is a close blood relative that the past begins to take on a looming significance. What took place in the valley all those years ago? And why does the police hierarchy insist Ivan and Nell must stay on the case despite the conflict of interest?
Everywhere We Look by Martine Kropkowski
A year after a tragic incident splintered their friendship, three women travel to Marcoy, a regional town, to reconnect. For Melissa, Bridie and Cassandra the weekend is about being together and enjoying their friendship the way they used to, while not – at any cost – having to address the reason for the distance between them. But when they witness a young girl being coerced into a car by a man she fears, they are forced to reckon with the chasm of grief and trauma that’s kept them apart.
A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet
In the unremarkable French town of Saint-Louis, a mysterious stranger stalks the streets; an elderly woman believes her son is planning to do away with her; a prominent manufacturer drops dead. Between visits to the town’s bars, Chief Inspector Georges Gorski mulls over the connections, if any, between these events, while all the time grappling with his own domestic and existential demons. Graeme Macrae Burnet pierces the respectable bourgeois façade of small-town life in this deeply human story.
When it Rains by Dave Warner
The gripping new novel in the award-winning Dan Clement series. For Broome detective Dan Clement, it seems that crime is as plentiful as wet season rain. When his sergeant is beaten up, and a woman is brutally assaulted, it appears that the same two suspects are behind both incidents. But when a woman’s hand is discovered in crocodile-infested waters, things take a macabre turn. The stakes rise sky-high as Dan races against time to solve this complex and puzzling case.
Opal by Patricia Wolf
DS Lucas Walker’s half-sister, Grace, is visiting from Boston. Instead of spending time at his home in outback Queensland they’ve driven 400 kilometres to the mining town of Kanpara to pick up Walker’s cousin Blair who has suddenly quit his job digging for opals. The following day the town is completely cut off by floods and as they wait for the roads to reopen a man, and a woman are found brutally murdered. Could the killings be linked to a rumoured opal find and can Walker unravel the mystery quickly enough to save his cousin and keep Grace safe?
The Waiting by Michael Connelly
Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit find a DNA link to a serial killer, the Pillowcase Rapist. But when they move in on their suspect, the team encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles. Ballard’s badge, gun and ID are stolen, but she can’t report it without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career. Forced to seek outside help, Ballard knocks on Harry Bosch’s door. Meanwhile, Ballard has taken on Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter, as a new volunteer, but Maddie has an ulterior motive. This cold case is opening a Pandora’s box.
Blood Ties by Jo Nesbo
Brothers Carl and Roy Opgard have succeeded in life. Or at least they’ve had as much success as is possible in a small town like Os, where they’ve killed their way to the top. Carl manages the swanky spa hotel, while Roy has made ambitious plans for an amusement park. Life’s good at the top. But the local sheriff, Kurt Olsen, believes he has new evidence that will prove the brothers’ involvement in several past murders. But Carl and Roy are used to covering their tracks, and they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty.
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
One beautiful Californian evening, a wealthy businessman falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top house onto the rocks below. A tragic accident? Or murder? Nora and her half-brother Sam suspect it may be the latter, and team up to uncover the truth of what really happened. But they start to question how well either of them really knew their elusive father as they begin to unravel his mysterious past.
Other Crime novels out this month include:
High Wire by Candice Fox; The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins; and What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie.
