On the Radar — As the winter weather grows colder, wetter and more hostile in the UK, let’s warm our hands with some hot climate crime stories. There’s also a road trip kill fest, a nautical murder novel, and a case for Dr Watson. Let us know which book takes your fancy this week…
Sunshine Noir edited by Annamaria Alfieri, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollop
At Iceland Noir in 2014, a group of writers got together to challenge the primacy of cold climate crime fiction. It’s not just Scandinavian crime books where the weather and landscape play a role. A desert sun can be just as deadly an adversary for a detective and this short story collection takes us to places like Arizona, Ethiopia, Guadaloupe, Singapore and more. There are 17 stories in all and authors include the editors, as well as Colin Cotterill, Nick Sweet and Jeffrey Siger. Out now.
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Road Kill by Hanna Jameson
Who doesn’t love a road trip? In Road Kill, British ex-cons Eli and Ronnie are hunting for Trent, who in turn conned the pair. They’ve been driving for 40 hours, they’re somewhere out there between New York and LA. Across the desert, they leave a trail of bodies in their wake, and Eli and Ronnie begin to have their doubts. Are they losing their minds? Did Trent even exist? You can find out on 1 December.
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The Obsidian Chamber by Preston & Child
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child return with a new tale in their Aloysius Pendergast series, however the FBI man is missing presumed dead. Up to the plate steps his bodyguard, Proctor. In Pendergast’s absence, his ward Constance is kidnapped by a shadowy figure. Proctor makes it his mission to bring her back and pursues the abductor through cities, across oceans and to wastelands unknown. Out 1 December.
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Vital Spark by Leah Devlin
American author Leah Devlin loves a nautical setting, and here she begins a new series called The Chesapeake Tugboat Murders. DC fisheries ecologist Alex Allaway is pleased to have the chance to return home after landing a job with a marine station in her home town. When she gets there she goes straight to her grandfather’s house with the happy news, but finds him dead – stabbed through the heart. In his hand, a piece of pirate gold and a map with Alex’s name on it. It’s out now.
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The Sign of Fear by Robert Ryan
Holmes is out of the picture, and the year is 1917. Dr Watson is in London and horrified when his friend Staff Nurse Jennings is killed when a vessel is torpedoed by a U-boat. Then, Sir Gilbert Hardy and four others are kidnapped. The ransom note suggests that there will be brutal mutilations if the demands are not met… or, if Watson doesn’t solve the case. It turns into a hard-hitting story with an international dimension as World War I rumbles on. Out now for Kindle, and as a paperback .
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