Crime

The Chase by Candice Fox

Reviewed by Kate McIntosh

At a prison in Nevada, the annual friendly baseball game between the officers and the minimum-security inmates is due to take place. A bus load of family members is coming to cheer on the guards, as they have done every…

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The Long, Long Afternoon by Inga Vesper

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

In a picture-perfect house in 1959, model housewife Joyce Haney goes to the mall for some shopping, returns home, and then vanishes, leaving behind nothing except a bloodstain on the kitchen floor, a screaming baby, and a terrified young daughter.

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The Spiral by Iain Ryan

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

I could tell you that Iain Ryan’s The Spiral is an immersive, captivating crime book, but that wouldn’t be enough to explain it. I could say it’s a twisted, psychological fever dream, but that’s not quite it. I could tell…

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Shore Leave by David Whish-Wilson

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

Frank Swann is not cut out for any kind of crime legwork anymore. He’s tired, he’s sick all the time, and nobody can figure out what it is that’s wrong with him. All he knows is he can’t get halfway…

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The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

In the seventeenth century, the East India Trading Company has a tight grip on the world. Those who sail as merchants rule absolutely, and everyone who works for them is ruthless, amoral, and evil. Sailors, in turn, are the worst…

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The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Reviewed by Dani Solomon

My first attempt at this review was basically an essay about why Elizabeth - the octogenarian founder of the Thursday Murder Club, and a woman who I am certain spent a least a few years of her life as 007…

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Electric Blue by Paul F. Verhoeven

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

Sometimes it’s pretty easy to categorise a crime book. I’ll say ‘procedural’, or ‘psychological thriller’, and while every book is original, you’ll have an idea of what to expect. Then you get a book like Electric Blue, and the…

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The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

Summer and Iris are identical twins – asymmetrically, so when Iris looks at her sister, she sees her own reflection. But where Summer has succeeded – handsome husband, loving friends, immense wealth – Iris has failed, with one broken marriage…

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The Safe Place by Anna Downes

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

Emily is a receptionist and an aspiring actress in London when her life falls abruptly apart. Fired from her job, dropped by her agent and kicked out of her disgusting flat all at once, she’s at her very lowest point…

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He Started It by Samantha Downing

Reviewed by Fiona Hardy

To say a book has a twist is sometimes a spoiler: you’ll find yourself living in a constant state of suspense, waiting for when it’ll happen. I don’t think saying that He Started It has twists is any kind of…

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