Crime novels that we’ve read, loved and would recommend to you if you popped into the bookshop.
Crime novels that we’ve read, loved and would recommend to you if you popped into the bookshop.
Joe Country
by Mick Herron.
Jackson Lamb is back in the latest of Mick Herron’s gripping crime series. The first, Slow Horses, was picked as one the best 20 spy novels of all time, and the whole series is a favourite of Tracey’s!
In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. And with winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can’t ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score. This time, they’re heading into joe country.
And they’re not all coming home.
Breathe
by Dominick Donald.
Dick Bourton is not like the other probationer policemen in Notting Hill. He fought in Europe and then Korea, and has now brought his Russian fiancee back to drab streets and empty bombsites. The new copper also has a mind of his own.
After an older colleague is shot by a small-time gangster in a pea-souper fog, Bourton begins to make connections his superiors don’t want to see, linking a series of deaths with the fogs that stop the city in its tracks.
This is an impressive, absorbing debut to stick your teeth into this winter!
Independence Square
by A. D. Miller.
Twelve years ago, Simon Davey prevented a tragedy, and ruined his own life. Once a senior British diplomat in Kiev, he lost everything after a lurid scandal. Back in London, still struggling with the aftermath of his disgrace, he is travelling on the Tube when he sees her…
This is an exceptional thriller about corruption and personal and political betrayals from the bestselling author of Booker-shortlisted Snowdrops. It is a story about where, in the twenty-first century, power really lies.
The Long Call
by Ann Cleeves.
From the author of Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves brings us a brand new character, Detective Matthew Venn.
In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too. Now he’s back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the region.
Tracey found this a captivating novel and very readable indeed!
Three Hours
by Rosamund Lupton.
In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. Children and teachers barricade themselves into classrooms, the library, the theatre. The headmaster lies wounded in the library, unable to help his trapped students and staff.
Outside, a police psychiatrist must identify the gunmen, while parents gather desperate for news. In three intense hours, all must find the courage to stand up to evil and save the people they love.
Hazel absolutely loved this brand new literary thriller, and would highly recommend for a stirring, nail-biting read!
