With many parts of the world on lockdown due to Covid-19, reading is one potential escape from the tense situation going on around us. Crime isn’t everyone’s cup of tea at times like this – it can mess with your head – but for crime fiction lovers like us it’s certainly comforting to sit back with a book for a few hours and focus on a good old mystery rather than worrying about the news. This week’s new books column brings us a London-based mystery from Rod Reynolds, two interesting debut crime novels, a conspiracy thriller from Tony Kent and a very tasty looking piece of Nordic noir from Norway, the land of the fjords…
Blood Red City by Rod Reynolds
Following his Charlie Yates series, which was set in the US, crime author Rod Reynolds moves the action to his hometown of London with Blood Red City. Arriving on 11 April on Kindle from Orenda Books, the novel introduces journalist Lydia Wright who is sent footage of a murder appearing to take place on a train. The trouble is, she can locate neither the victim nor the perpetrators and if she pushes this story too hard she’s going to be labelled a purveyor of fake news. But more than a story, Lydia wants to know what happened and to get justice. How far will she go to achieve these aims?
Pre-order now on Amazon
Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay
Let’s welcome debut author Elizabeth Kay to the crime fiction fold – her psychological thriller is out now for Kindle and it’s destined to mess with your head. Meet Jane and Marnie, who have been pals since they were kids. In their early 20s they both fell in love and married handsome young men. But Marnie’s husband wasn’t Jane’s cup of tea – she found him loud and obnoxious, too keen to be the life and soul of every occasion. Now he’s dead, and Jane faces a dilemma: if she hadn’t lied then maybe her best friend’s husband might still be alive. It’s time to come clean, but is Jane the all-round good egg she makes herself out to be?
Buy now on Amazon
Power Play by Tony Kent
British author Tony Kent has extended his Killer Intent series with a new thriller that is out now for Kindle and on 16 April as a paperback. Lawyer Michael Devlin and UN intelligence agent Joe Dempsey are called into action when the plane carrying a US presidential candidate explodes over the Atlantic, killing all on board. Who wanted the man dead? Was it terrorists, or was it the US government itself? Whoever it is, they want Devlin and Dempsey out of the way too in this conspiracy thriller that moves between DC, London, New York and Afghanistan. Kent knows of what he writes – he’s been a criminal barrister for 20 years.
Buy now on Amazon
4 Riverside Close by Diana Wilkinson
Bloodhound Books brings us another debutante author in the form of Diana Wilkinson, with her psychological thriller 4 Riverside Close. It’s out now and offers food for thought for those of us addicted to social media. Riverside Close is an innocuous cul-de-sac in North London where everyone lives in harmony, but after its residents sign up for a new social network things begin to go murderously awry. The idyllic life of Caroline and Jason Swinton cracks apart when Jason is found dead and his wife is put firmly in the frame. But as the police investigate, it soon becomes clear that the other residents have plenty of motives for wanting him dead too…
Buy now on Amazon
Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl
Already out for Kindle, the paperback version of the ninth book in Kjell Ola Dahl’s Oslo Detectives series will arrive at the end of April – and it’s another densely plotted slice of Nordic noir. Detective Frank Frolich has been suspended from duty and is working as a private investigator when a workmate of his girlfriend asks for help for a young female asylum seeker who is about to be deported and faces an uncertain future. The girl claims to have a sister in Norway and Frolich agrees to try to find the sibling, but when he succeeds, it opens a whole new can of worms and he’s warned off by his former police colleagues. Things are about to take a deadly turn, with the key to everything hidden in an old investigation and the mysterious sister, who is now on the run…
Buy now on Amazon
Read about last week’s new books here.