If you like an author who’s able to sweep back into the past and render a setting and crime story to perfection, then it’s time to start getting excited as Faber prepares to release the latest David Peace novel. Tokyo Redux completes his Tokyo Trilogy. We’ve also got new Australian crime fiction, a tale of wrongdoing in the Church and the interesting psychological thriller Shh, which features a main character who is hearing impaired. Looks like another good week for crime fiction lovers…
Tokyo Redux by David Peace
Between 1999 and 2002 English author David Peace showed the world just how good he is at writing period crime fiction with his Red Riding Quartet, set between 1974 and 1983 in Yorkshire. Perhaps less well known is his Tokyo Trilogy, which includes Tokyo Year Zero and Occupied City. On 1 June, the final novel in the set will arrive, Tokyo Redux. The year is 1949 and the head of Japan’s railway board has gone missing. With post-war Japan occupied and in turmoil, American detective Harry Sweeney investigates. A second timeline emerges 15 years later, with the 1964 Tokyo Olympics coming and former cop Murota Hideki, now a private investigator, forced to look back on his past and what happened during the occupation. Finally, in 1988, Emperor Showa is dying and American translator Donald Reichenbach is sitting nearby musing on the greatest mystery of the Showa Era. It sounds epic!
Pre-order now on Amazon
Shh by Jocelyn Dexter
In Jocelyn Dexter’s new release, Annie Black is profoundly deaf… and she’s in danger! There’s a killer on the loose and they’re targeting people Annie knows in the deaf community. She’s adept at reading lips and body language, skills that are going to come in mighty useful for a team of police officers who are struggling to catch the murderer. As Annie and the lead detective team up, the pair attempt to understand the psychology driving a killer whose crimes are beginning to escalate. This tense psychological thriller by a debut author who has worked as an interpreter for the deaf is out now.
Buy now on Amazon
Ash Mountain by Helen FitzGerald
Much of her bestseller The Cry (reviewed here) was set in Australia, and Helen FitzGerald is back Down Under for this new standalone, out now for Kindle. Fran left Ash Mountain and vowed never to return, but life steps in and she reluctantly returns to nurse her dying father. But the heady mix of small town sensitivities and overbearing heat make Fran’s new life in her old home town difficult to navigate, and things go rapidly downhill as old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants.
Buy now on Amazon
Little Altar Boy by John Guzlowski
Chicago PD detective Hank Purcell is on the case following the death of Sister Mary Philomena. She’d been in touch with Purcell about something terrible she witnessed at Saint Fidellis’ Church, and now she lies dead beside a furnace stuffed with old photographs and papers… which could be incriminating. What’s more, Hank’s own daughter, Margaret has gone missing. With partner Marvin Bondarowicz, the detective needs to unlock the lips of the Catholic church and deal with everything a cold and deprived area of south Chicago has to throw at them. On sale 21 May.
Pre-order now on Amazon
A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight
The toxic secrets behind the facade of a perfect marriage are in the spotlight in A Good Marriage, which is a slice of domestic noir topped with legal thriller, out now for Kindle, and on 6 August in print. Lawyer Lizzie Kitsakis is working late at a top New York law firm when she gets a call from an old friend. Zach Grayson is in Rikers, accused of murdering his wife, and as Lizzie digs deeper, she uncovers the dark side of life in an exclusive Brooklyn community. With her own marriage in trouble, what she discovers sends Lizzie reeling. This one’s already been snapped up by Amazon Prime and is set to be produced by Nicole Kidman.
Buy now on Amazon
Read about last week’s new crime novels here.