Some crime authors are just too darned sneaky! I mean, getting us to read their books by tempting us with delectable delights – that really is criminal. But if you put the coffee on, I won’t complain, because we’re kicking off this week’s report with some patisserie perfect Parisian murder – poison, naturellement – care of Danielle Postel-Vinay. Plus, we can promise blood, psychological thrills and chills, missing persons and secrets from the past aplenty across a selection of seven new novels – including one of Poland’s biggest authors, whom you may not have heard of before…
Murder Most Delicious by Danielle Postel-Vinay
Life has certainly had its ups and downs for American sommelier Olivia Beech. She was destined for great things, until COVID affected her all-important sense of taste. But there’s a bright light on the horizon when beloved celebrity chef Jacques de Bizet invites her to Paris for a job interview. All is going well, until Jacques collapses mid-question leaving Olivia as the chief suspect for his death. Luckily, Olivia’s extraordinary nose is still sharp enough to detect the subtlest of scents, including the poison that killed Jacques. With the help of the eccentric members of the Paris Neighbourhood Watch, it’s up to Olivia to prove her innocence and find the real killer. Enjoy a slice of cosy crime when Murder Most Delicious by Danielle Postel-Vinay comes out on 26 May.
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Make Thick My Blood by Toni Viola
Hampshire-based indie crime author Toni Viola rounds out his Rome Trilogy with Luca Meroni’s most testing case yet – one in which the detective himself is the key suspect. When reporter Tesa Conti is left for dead in Pompey’s Theatre, Meroni comes under scrutiny. Something bizarre is happening in the city and several victims have been found in the Forum wearing togas and covered in blood. Political corruption? Check. Blackmail? Check. A detective fighting to clear his name? Check. The Eternal City? Check, mate. Watch for Make Thick My Blood on 29 May. We’ll have an interview with the author on the site soon as well.
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The Case Study by Nicole Lundrigan
The lives of two women pursuing very different agendas are about to collide in Nicole Lundrigan’s psychological thriller The Case Study, arriving on 26 May. Teenage Mia was fascinated by the story of a young woman with a rare and disturbing psychiatric delusion – and when she grew up, Mia pursued the doctor who’d treated the girl, and eventually married him. Now her husband’s most famous case study is about to be republished, and he plans to reconnect with his former patient, Lainey. She left a psychiatric institution aged 21, and has decided to finally tell the truth to her former doctor. As Mia covertly watches on, she feels like she’s following a true crime drama; meanwhile, Lainey is working hard to inveigle herself into her doctor’s seemingly perfect life…
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Never Found by Remigiusz Mróz
If the name Remigiusz Mróz is new to you, let’s change all of that. With over 10 million books sold, he’s one of Poland’s most popular and most prolific authors. His work has been adapted by Netflix, no less, with the Detective Forst series. From what we can tell, Never Found is his third novel to appear in English translation – the tale of Damian Werner, who has given up on ever finding his fiancée Ewa, who disappeared 10 years ago. Then, he sees photos of the missing woman posted online and both his feelings and the mystery are reawakened. He starts trying to investigate the account posting the images, but may soon find that he didn’t know as much about Ewa as he once thought. Never Found is out now.
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Beneath a Broken Sky by Joshua Moehling
A small US community must band together when their town is hit hard by a hurricane in Beneath a Broken Sky by Joshua Moehling – out for Kindle on 26 May, in hardback on 26 June. But that closeness becomes a barrier for newcomer Detective Ben Packardwhen a resident is murdered. The victim is a mother who made enemies defending her bullied son, and the list of possible suspects is long. The deeper Packard digs, the more Sandy Lake hums with a tension that refuses to break. As the temperature rises and smoke from nearby fires obscures the horizon, it is up to the detective to make a breakthrough before someone else is killed.
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Double Down by Clarke Mayer
New hardboiled noir arrives with Clarke Mayer’s Double Down, available from 26 May. It features private detective Ray Sleet, who can’t resist the challenge when a mysterious woman named Elvia Fleer appears at his office in the middle of the night. Her husband Ernst is missing and Elvia is prepared to pay well to find him. But as Sleet soon discovers, Ernst Fleer’s life is full of secrets and lies. A gambler with fingers in too many shady pies, Ernst has upset the crooked Thresher Gore, who has a reputation for getting exactly what he wants no matter what he has to do to get it. Sleet needs the money if his business is to survive – but is it worth putting his life on the line for?
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It Happened One Murder by Liz Lawson
She’s best known for her YA fiction, but Liz Lawson has made the leap to adult crime writing with It Happened One Murder, arriving on 26 May. After getting fired from her dream job with a magazine, Harriet Baker reluctantly returns to sleepy Logan Island to lick her wounds and regroup. Her eccentric mother has a big birthday party planned for Harriet – a good excuse to relax and forget about her shattered dreams. But things go decidedly flat when her latest stepfather, loathsome developer George, is found stabbed to death a few steps away from the merrymakers on the beach. All signs point to chef Sara Allbright, sister of Nic, who carried a torch for Harriet back in the day – can the pair work together and catch a killer? Or will romance get in the way?
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