Spring Gleanings

Just a couple of weeks back, in my Kirkus Reviews column, I chose seven works of mystery, crime, and thriller fiction--to be released between now and the end of May--that I think ought to be worth your reading.

However, many more than seven new crime novels will be showing up in bookstores over these next two months. I won’t undertake to catalogue them all, but I do want to let Rap Sheet readers know about the breadth of offerings on their way. So here’s an expanded list of works, due out on both sides of the Atlantic, that are deserving of notice. Almost all of these are novels, though I’ve included three non-fiction titles (marked with asterisks) that I believe will also appeal to discerning Rap Sheet readers.

APRIL (U.S.):

• Antiques Disposal, by Barbara Allan (Kensington)

• A Bitter Veil, by Libby Fischer Hellmann (Allium Press)

• The Blood of an Englishman, by James McClure (Soho Crime)

• Blood on the Mink, by Robert Silverberg (Hard Case Crime)

• Border Run, by Simon Lewis (Scribner)

• Cloudland, by Joseph Olshan (Minotaur)

• Come, Tell Me How You Live, by Agatha Christie Mallowan (Morrow)*

• Dorchester Terrace, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)

• Driven, by James Sallis (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Fallen, by Jassy Mackenzie (Soho Crime)

• Harbor Nocturne, by Joseph Wambaugh (Mysterious Press)

• House of the Hunted, by Mark Mills (Random House)

• In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero, edited by Otto Penzler (Smart Pop)*

• The Inquisitor, by Mark Allen Smith (Henry Holt)

• Interlock, by Gary Alexander (Five Star)

• Kings of Midnight, by Wallace Stroby (Minotaur)

• L.A. ’56: A Devil in the City of Angels, by Joel Engel (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s)*

• Last Will, by Liza Marklund (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon)

• Lucky Bastard, by S.G. Browne (Gallery)

• The Mysterium, by P.C. Doherty (Minotaur)

• One Red Bastard, by Ed Lin (Minotaur)

• Prague Fatale, by Philip Kerr (Marian Wood/Putnam)

• Sacrilege, by S.J. Parris (Doubleday)

• The Stolen Bride, by Tony Hays (Forge)

• Strange Flesh, by Michael Olson
(Simon & Schuster)

APRIL (UK):

• Bitter Water, by Gordon Ferris (Atlantic)

• The Candle Man, by Alex Scarrow (Orion)

• The Damage, by Howard Linskey
(No Exit Press)

• The Day of the Lie, by William Brodrick (Little, Brown)

• The Dying Minutes, by Martin O’Brien (Preface Publishing)

• Fear in the Sunlight, by Nicola Upson (Faber and Faber)

• Murder Mile, by Tony Black (Preface Publishing)

• The Murder Wall, by Mari Hannah (Pan)

• Split Second, by Cath Staincliffe (Constable)

• The Stationmaster’s Farewell, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)

• Summon Up the Blood, by R.N. Morris (Creme de la Crime)

• The Thing Itself, by Peter Guttridge (Severn House)

• Traitor, by Rory Clements (John Murray)

• Unsinkable, by Dan James (Arrow)

• A Willing Victim, by Laura Wilson (Quercus)

MAY (U.S.):

• As the Crow Flies, by Craig Johnson (Viking)

• The Columbus Affair, by Steve Berry (Ballantine)

• Counterfeit Road, by Kirk Russell (Severn House)

• Don’t Cry, Tai Lake, by Qiu Xiaolong (Minotaur)

• The English Monster: or, The Melancholy Transactions of William Ablass, by Lloyd Shepherd (Washington Square Press)

• Fatal Induction, by Bernadette Pajer (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Getaway, by Lisa Brackmann (Soho)

• Hawkwood, by James McGee (Pegasus)

• The Inquisitor’s Key, by Jefferson Bass (Morrow)

• Istanbul Passage, by Joseph Kanon (Atria)

• Lady, Go Die!, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)

• Lehrter Station, by David Downing (Soho Crime)

• The Lola Quartet, by Emily St. John Mandel (Unbridled Books)

• The Lost Ones, by Ace Atkins (Putnam)

• Mr. Monk on Patrol, by Lee Goldberg (Signet)

• Presumed Guilty, by Tess Gerritsen (Severn House)

• The Reckoning, by Jane Casey (Minotaur)

• Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby, by Ace Atkins (Putnam)

• The Solitary House, by Lynn Shepherd (Delacorte Press)

• Spilled Blood, by Brian Freeman (SilverOak)

• The Stonecutter, by Camilla Läckberg (Pegasus)

• The Unresolved Seventh, by Richard
Helms (Five Star)

• The Water Children, by Anne Berry
(Simon & Schuster)

• The Yard, by Alex Grecian (Putnam)

MAY (UK):

• A Dark and Broken Heart, by R.J.
Ellory (Orion)

• The Dead Season, by Christobel
Kent (Corvus)

• Death in the Sun, by Adam Creed
(Faber and Faber)

• Fatal Frost, by James Henry (Bantam Press)

• Funeral Note, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)

• The Gilded Edge, by Danny Miller (Robinson)

• The Girl in Berlin, by Elizabeth Wilson (Serpent’s Tail)

• The Last Girl, by Jane Casey (Ebury Press)

• Laws in Conflict, by Cora Harrison (Severn House)

• The Midnight Man, by Paul Doherty (Creme de la Crime)

• Until the Darkness Comes, by Kevin Brooks (Arrow)

So, have I missed anything? If you want to suggest other worthy releases in this genre due out over the next couple of months, please make a note of them in the Comments section below.