A selection of this week’s new crime, thriller, mystery and general fiction titles to 27th April – Jill’s Book Cafe
Here’s my pick of this week’s new hardback/paperback fiction titles. In some cases the eBook might already be available. My source is primarily The Bookseller, but I’ve started to include other sources to broaden the selection.
Just a reminder, I don’t have access to a complete list of titles being published, and, as I don’t see any advance copies, my choices are based on the cover, blurb, gut instinct and what takes my fancy at the time.
(NB This post features Affiliate links from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases)
Index
Crime, Thriller and Mystery (includes Historical Crime/Mysteries)
Crime, Thriller & Mystery
The Note by Alafair Burke
It was only meant to be a prank . . .
May has always been the good girl, the rule follower.
But even good girls have secrets.
When she reunites with her two best friends for a holiday in the Hamptons, a drunken joke lands the trio in the middle of a missing persons investigation.
As the case takes a deadly turn, and long buried secrets are uncovered, the three friends are suddenly unsure who they can trust, least of all each other.
The Library Game by Gigi Pandian
Tempest Raj couldn’t be happier that the family business, Secret Staircase Construction, is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Known for enchanting architectural features like sliding bookshelves and secret passageways, the company is now taking on a dream project: transforming a home into a public library that celebrates history’s greatest fictional detectives.
Though the work is far from done, Gray House Library’s new owner is eager to host a murder mystery dinner and literary themed escape room. But when a rehearsal ends with an actor murdered and the body vanishes, Tempest is witness to a seemingly impossible crime. Fueled by her grandfather’s Scottish and Indian meals, Tempest and the rest of the crew must figure out who is making beloved classic mystery plots come to life in a deadly game.
Multiple award winning author Gigi Pandian masterfully weaves wit and warmth in the Secret Staircase Mysteries. Readers will delight in the surprises Secret Staircase Construction uncovers behind the next locked door.
The Unlucky Ones by Hannah Morrissey
A police transcriber-turned-novelist returns to Black Harbor to help solve the case of her ex-husband’s murder in the next riveting Black Harbor, featuring the return of characters from Hannah Morrissey’s breakout debut, Hello, Transcriber.
Black Harbor is a tinderbox. Temperatures and violent crime have both risen to all-time highs, a new drug razes the city, and the scene to which Sergeant Nikolai Kole responds is anything but a rote homicide. In the back of a clubhouse lies a body wrapped in garbage bags and doused in bleach.
It isn’t just any body. Tommy Greenlee, the ex-husband of Kole’s former lover, Hazel, has been shot several times and left for dead. What’s more…the killer left what appears to be a calling card.
Elsewhere, Hazel is haunted by her memories of Black Harbor. Lured there after eight years, she returns to find out who killed Tommy and why. Now back in Kole’s orbit, their love affair can hardly pick up where it left off. They both used each other to their own ends before, which begs the question: would they do it again?
With the atmosphere growing more volatile by the second, Hazel and Kole call a truce, and as they work together to solve this murder, they will not only unearth Black Harbor’s deepest, darkest secrets—they’ll each have to face their own.
The Mystery at Rake Hall by Maureen Paton
In post-war Oxford, secrets lie behind every door.
In 1947, with rationing still biting and the black market thriving, university don C.S. ‘Jack’ Lewis finds himself pulled into a mystery straight from one of his friend Dorothy Sayers’ novels. Susan Temple, his brightest student, has hidden herself away at Rake Hall — a hostel for unmarried, outcast mothers – and hasn’t been heard from since.
With no experience beyond catching the occasional student plagiarist, Lewis is hardly a detective. But when Susan’s absence continues to haunt him, he teams up with her concerned friend Lucy and together they delve into the disturbing rumours of a nasty racket at Rake Hall. Can Lewis’s nose for the truth separate fact from fiction?
In The Mystery at Rake Hall, Maureen Paton – whose mother lived at the real-life Rake Hall while pregnant with Maureen – brilliantly recreates a post-war Oxford world, as well as imagining an alternative life for one of its most famous residents.
Season of Death by Will Thomas
In late Victorian England, private enquiry agents Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn find themselves in the middle of the deadly chaos when powerful forces align to take over London’s criminal underworld.
Private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker, along with his partner Thomas Llewelyn, has a long, accomplished history – he’s worked with all aspects of society, from the highest (including the Crown and the government) to the lowest (various forces in London’s underworld). He’s been the target of murder attempts, character assassination, bombings and attacks upon his closest associates but never has he and his agency partner Thomas Llewelyn faced such destruction and potential disaster.
The sudden collapse of a railway tunnel in the East End of London kills dozens and shuts down services all over the city. Meanwhile, a mysterious beggar calling herself “Dutch” guides Barker and Llewelyn to an attempt by a powerful aristocrat to take over London’s criminal underworld. With a missing heiress and a riot at a women’s shelter acting as distractions designed to stop the duo from getting to the truth, Barker must relentlessly fight to reach the trust while Llewelyn wonders how a simple beggar woman can be the catalyst for such destruction.
One Less Snake by Rhys Dylan
Even sleepy, picturesque coastal towns have their secrets.
Welcome to Solva, where a burned-out car, a corpse, and a hauntingly precise execution greets a morning walker.
DCI Evan Warlow faces a case steeped in fear and the worst of modern crimes.
As clues lead him down twisting trails, Warlow must confront not only the killer’s identity but also the lingering echoes of a community’s darkest sins and the intersection of power, revenge, and justice.
Carved in Blood by Michael Bennett
In the depths of the bleak New Zealand winter comes the rising of Matariki – a sacred constellation in Māori culture, heralding a time of new beginnings. For former Detective Senior Sergeant Hana Westerman, life is good: her work in her hometown of Tātā Bay is going well, the community is thriving, and her daughter Addison is getting engaged.
But this Matariki brings unwelcome change. When Hana’s ex-husband Jaye walks into an Auckland liquor store and directly across the path of a gunman, their family’s hard-won peace is shattered.
With the stakes at their highest, Hana finds herself picking up a path she thought she’d never return to. Desperate for answers, she rejoins the police to help scour the city for the unidentified shooter. But as the investigation progresses, she finds herself unprepared for the darkness of the world she is entering.
A darkness much closer to home than she knows.
The Secret Room by Jane Casey
A closed door.
An impossible murder.
2:32 p.m. Wealthy, privileged Ilaria Cavendish checks into a luxury London hotel and orders a bottle of champagne. Within the hour, her lover discovers her submerged in a bath of scalding water, dead.
At first glance it looks like an accident. No one went in with her. No one came out. But all the signs point to murder.
For DS Maeve Kerrigan, the case is a welcome distraction. But when shock news hits close to home, affecting her partner, DI Josh Derwent, she faces the toughest challenge of her career. And if she fails her world will never be the same again…
Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse by Simon Brett
Meet Major Bricket, an infrequent resident of Highfield House in Stunston Peveril, Suffolk. In the past the Major’s work assignments, frequently in foreign countries, have prevented him from spending much time there and as a result, there is an air of mystery around him while everyone in the village speculates on the nature of his occupation.
But now the Major has retired and has come home for good in his open-topped little red sports car… and what a homecoming it is, for lying spreadeagled on his lawn in the summer sunshine is the corpse of a clown.
The circus is in Stunston Peveril for the annual village fair, yet none of their quota of clowns is missing – or at least, nobody is saying. Could the body be that of an unfortunate early guest at the village’s highlight of the social calendar, the Fincham Abbey Costume Ball?
Fortunately Major Bricket’s past clandestine career means that he is now very well placed to solve the mystery of the dead clown on his camomile lawn . . .
The Castle by John Sutherland
Alex and Pip are in desperate need of an escape. Their stressful roles as hostage negotiators are eased only by the fact that they get to come home to each other every night.
When an old friend invites the couple up to the Scottish Highlands for an extended break, Alex and Pip jump at the chance. It’s the rest they both need.
But soon after they arrive at the castle, they hear the sound of gunshots, and their perfect escape turns into a perfect nightmare. The remote mountainous landscape is now the setting for a terrifying kidnap plot targeting one of the other guests.
In the desperate hours that follow, Alex and Pip must call on all their years of negotiating experience to keep everyone alive. But with Pip gravely injured and the net closing in, it might be her life that needs saving most of all…
The Penthouse by Catherine Cooper
Beneath the glamour dark secrets lurk.
World famous singer Enola had it all – fame, fortune, and a breathtaking penthouse view. Then she vanished without a trace, leaving the band’s careers in ruins.
Fifteen years on, the remaining members are reuniting for a series of concerts in Las Vegas. But when mysterious accidents plague them, some start to wonder if Enola is back for revenge.
What happened all those years ago – and who really knows the truth?
The Bookshop Murders by Jennifer Gladwell
London, 1928. Lucy Darkwether has always made her own rules. After breaking off her engagement to pursue a degree in Ancient History, she’s now the proud owner of London’s newest bookshop.
So when a rival shop in Cecil Court is chosen to host an exhibition of Egyptian treasures, Lucy’s pride is stung – until the grand opening ends in a gruesome murder. Is this the revenge of a disgraced colleague? A private vendetta? Or a curse visited upon those who disturb the past?
Ignoring the Inspector’s warning to stay out of it, Lucy refuses to stick to the script. But murder isn’t a game – and what she uncovers will have consequences for them all . . .
Mirage by Camilla Lackberg & Henrik Fexeus
‘Hello Niklas Sockenberg. We hope you have been satisfied with our services during this time, which has now reached its end. You have 14 days, 1 hour and 12 minutes left to live’
It is December in Stockholm and Sweden’s Minister of Justice is under threat. An anonymous note has told him he has four days left to live. At the same time, a human skeleton is found in the Stockholm subway, belonging to a high-ranking financier.
Police inspector Mina Dabiri’s team, still recovering from the traumatic incident last summer that ended in the death of a colleague, calls in mentalist Vincent Walder to help with the case. For Vincent, it feels as if the world is increasingly closing in on him.
When another pile of bones is found underground, the group is once again put to the test – what is going on in the tunnels deep under Stockholm? And who taunting the minister?
Human Remains by Jo Callaghan
The truth will always come out, but at what cost?
Fresh from successfully closing their first live case, the Future Policing Unit are called in to investigate when a headless, handless body is found on a Warwickshire farm. But as they work to identify the victim and their killer, the discovery of a second body begins to spark fears that The Aston Strangler is back. And as the stakes rise for the team, so do the tensions brewing within it.
When DCS Kat Frank is accused of putting the wrong man behind bars all those years ago, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – pursues the truth about what happened with relentless logic. But Kat is determined to keep the past buried, and when she becomes the target of a shadowy figure looking for revenge, Lock is torn between his evidence-based algorithms and the judgement of his partner, with explosive results.
When everything hangs in the balance, it will all come down to just how much an AI machine can learn, and what happens when they do . . .
The Liar by Louise Jensen
The Abbotts’ new lodger Luke hasn’t told them much about himself, but they can’t expect to know everything about a stranger who’s just moved in.
But Luke keeps asking about their family photos and looking through their things. Why does he want to know everything about them? And why does daughter Jen think someone is watching her?
Then, suddenly, Mum Mel texts the family to say she needs a break. But Mel has never gone away alone before. And now it’s been days, and no one has heard from her.
The Abbotts’ house is full of secrets.
They say people never tell the whole truth.
They’re right.
Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey
The Labasques aren’t like other families.
Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep.
So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother.
Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed everything she valued most. Now, there may be no way for her to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution, if she can find out what really did happen to Cutter…
General/Contemporary Fiction
The Second Chance Book Club by Stephanie Butland
Dear Ms Blythe
We are dealing with an estate of which you may be a beneficiary.
Please send any documents in your possession that relate to your birth and adoption.
September is at her wits’ end. There’s never enough money to support her boyfriend and herself. September has nothing to look forward to.
Then the letter comes. September has inherited a house from a great-aunt she never knew she had. It would make sense to sell it. But when sees the place – the orange gate, the garden, the tree, the bumblebee door knocker – she doesn’t want to let it go. Not yet. Then the members of the book club arrive, and she begins to discover the story of the family she didn’t know. And to make new friends.
September feels safe here. But money alone can’t bring contentment. September is just at the start of a journey full of surprises, shocks – and opportunities, if she’s brave enough . . .
A Family Surprise for the Village Nurse by Tilley Tennant
Run away to the gold-tipped peaks and sparkling waters of the Lake District and the charming village of Thimblebury. Here, newly engaged village nurse Ottilie Oakcroft is about to discover a family secret that will turn the life she loves upside down…
As village nurse Ottilie Oakcroft and her fiancé Heath plan their engagement party, she can’t hide her feelings of pure happiness. She’s so settled in cosy Wordsworth Cottage and can’t wait to celebrate her exciting news with the villagers she’s come to know and love.
But, on the day of the party, as she strings up bunting and fairy lights, there’s a surprise in store. A young woman appears on Ottilie’s doorstep – claiming she’s Ottilie’s half-sister Fion and she wants to be part of Ottilie’s life.
Soon Fion’s feet are firmly under the table in Ottilie’s cluttered kitchen and Ottillie and Heath are spending less and less time alone. Ottilie loves having her sister living in the spare room, but she can’t help but notice that with no space to talk privately, she and Heath can’t see eye-to-eye.
Then a shocking secret about Fion comes to light, one that casts a long shadow over Ottilie’s own happiness and her future with Heath. Ottilie knows that family should come first, but what if it’s at the cost of her exciting new beginning?
What a Time to Be Alive by Jenny Mustard
Some people move to the big city hoping to find themselves – Sickan Hermansson isn’t leaving it up to chance.
Twenty-one, friendless, without money but not without hope, Sickan’s arrival at Stockholm University represents a new start. Her lonely childhood in a small southern town has left her utterly unprepared for intimacy: for friends, for sex, for love even. But Sickan is determined to build a new version of herself from the ground up, to make up for lost time. To simply be normal.
Just as Sickan seems to be finding her first ever friends, in whose company she finally feels safe, she meets Abbe: beautiful, charming – and by some miracle he wants her too. Unlike Sickan, Abbe seems completely at ease in his own skin. A solid foundation then, on which to build a relationship? Maybe?
What A Time To Be Alive is a story of class, sex, loneliness, and the trials of young womanhood. But above all, it’s a story of firsts: the first party you’re actually invited to, the first moment you fall in love, the first time you betray a friend. The first time you ask yourself, how much of myself am I willing to sacrifice, to finally fit in?
Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh
A stunning debut novel following a teenage boy as he comes of age on the west coast of Ireland, from the author of the acclaimed story collection Pure Gold.
Seventeen-year-old John Masterson has no idea what he wants. It’s his last summer on the small island where he has grown up and he should be enjoying the weeks until his exam results come through. Instead, he’s working mind-numbing shifts at the local hotel and trying to keep his head down after his mother’s nude sext to another man was leaked to the whole island.
As John joins the local senior football team, gets caught up in fights and parties, and embarks on a tentative relationship with his slightly older co-worker Amber that he feels both proud and ashamed of, he can almost pretend that this summer will last forever. But soon John must face up to the choices before him: to stay or leave, to stand out or fit in, and whether to love and let himself be loved, despite or perhaps because of, the flaws that make us all human.
You, Me and Him by Alice Peterson
Josie and Finn seem to lead a charmed life, with successful careers, an enviable relationship and an adorable son. But parenthood is no easy ride when your adorable son is hyperactive.
When Josie unexpectedly finds herself pregnant again, her feelings are mixed. How can you love your child yet fear to have another who might be just like him? Finn thinks she’s overreacting so she turns to her best friend, Clarky. He’s always been there for her, even if Finn suspects ulterior motives.
As she and Clarky become ever closer, Josie’s world is suddenly thrown into doubt. What if she and Finn aren’t the perfect couple after all? Is there such a thing as a straightforward friendship between a man and a woman? But most importantly: is she prepared to risk everything to find out?
Table for One by Emma Gannon
Willow has everything worked out.
*The steady partner
*The successful career
*The grown-up house
Until she doesn’t – and she’s cast adrift on the sea of heartbreak, grieving a future with no clear path.
With her life transformed beyond recognition, and her friends busy ‘moving forwards’, Willow has never felt more alone.
But she’s in good company.
And when inspiration arrives from an unlikely source, she rekindles the relationship she longs for – but has long neglected… The one with herself…
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata
Amane is ten years old when she discovers she’s not like everyone else. Her school friends were all conceived the normal way, by artificial insemination, and raised in the normal way, by parents in ‘clean’, sexless marriages. But Amane’s parents committed the ultimate taboo: they fell in love, had sex and procreated. As Amane grows up and enters adulthood, she does her best to fit in and live her life like the rest of society: cultivating intense relationships with anime characters, and limiting herself to extra-marital sex, as is the norm. Still, she can’t help questioning what sex and marriage are for.
But when Amane and her husband hear about Eden, an experimental town where residents are selected at random to be artificially inseminated en masse (including men who are fitted with artificial wombs), the family unit does not exist and children are raised collectively and anonymously, they decide to try living there. But can this bold experiment build the brave new world Amane desires, or will it push her to breaking point?
The Wisteria Crescent Chronicles by Kate Forster
It is a truth universally acknowledged… that a widowed woman in possession of a large Georgian home but no money for tea or toilet paper must find a creative solution.
For 70-year-old Marion Gaynor, the answer lies in opening her doors-and her heart-to two unexpected housemates: Felicity Booth, a brilliant but frazzled PhD student, balancing research and the chaos of academia, and Lana Rolls, newly separated and searching for a fresh start.
Together, these three women discover that friendship blooms in the unlikeliest of places, and the bonds they form will change their lives forever.
Open, Heaven by Sean Hewitt
On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. As he contends with the expectations of his family, his burgeoning desire – an ache for autonomy, tenderness and sex – threatens to unravel his shy exterior.
Then he meets Luke. Unkempt and handsome, charismatic and impulsive, he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm. Luke comes with a reputation for danger, but underneath his bravado lie anxieties and hopes of his own.
With the passing seasons, the two teenagers grow closer and the bond that emerges between them transforms their lives. James falls deeply for Luke, yet he is never sure of Luke’s true feelings. And as the end of summer nears, he has a choice to make – will he risk everything for the possibility of love?
The Wildelings by Lisa Harding
Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both girls are from very different broken homes – and beautiful, wilful Jessica has always ensured their survival.
Now eighteen, the two girls have come to Wilde – an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods. Jessica thrives immediately, and, with the faithful Linda at her side, finds herself at the heart of a new circle of friends.
But then Mark enters the picture. A philosophy student a few years older than them, he has strange and compelling ideas about self-discovery. When Linda and Mark start dating, Jessica is disturbed by the change in her friend – and how quickly she seems to have fallen under this abrasive, charismatic man’s control.
It turns out that Mark’s influence is not limited to Linda alone; and Jessica soon finds out that her whole group of friends are keeping secrets for him – culminating in a terrible tragedy that strikes at the end of their first year.
Years later, Jessica is still grappling with her guilt over what happened at Wilde. And when Mark resurfaces, she knows she owes it to herself – and Linda – to set the record straight once and for all.
All I Ever Wanted by Kate Hewitt
As I stare at the ultrasound, my eyes fill with tears. My husband squeezes my hand, thinking they are tears of happiness. How do I tell him they aren’t?
When I meet the love of my life, Mark, I have everything I ever dreamed of. Our lives are perfect, until we find out I can’t give him the one thing he truly wants—a child.
There is a small glimmer of hope. We could use a surrogate. But as the doctor explains that we can’t use my eggs, my heart breaks all over again. Mark kisses my forehead, reassuring me that I will be a fantastic mother, that we can still raise our dream family. So why can’t I see myself in the picture he paints?
When we meet our surrogate, Dani, I try not to feel threatened by this young, beautiful woman, who can give my husband the one thing I never can. As I watch her looking at the sonogram, I’m sure I see love in her eyes. Because after all, this is her child… not mine. Is it right for me to come between a mother and her baby, even if it’s all I’ve ever wanted?
As the months pass and the date circled on the calendar gets closer, I try to ignore the panic beating in my heart. Looking around the beautiful nursery we’ve created, I know I have to make a heartbreaking choice. Can I really separate a mother from her baby? And should I tell my husband that I can’t raise his child and, if I do, will I lose the love of my life forever?
So that’s all for this week.
Happy Reading!
