Suddenly It’s Spring Books

It seems I just got through recommending hundreds of forthcoming books to you, gentle readers. And that’s not far from the truth, as it was only two months ago that I assembled a lengthy selection of crime, mystery, and thriller works that were due out in U.S. bookstores between this last New Year’s Day and the close of March. You can find that list here, and my comments about eight of those titles were featured in my first Kirkus Reviews column of 2014.

Today my column for Kirkus looks at another eight forthcoming crime novels, these to be published through the end of May. Included are promising works by Benjamin Black, Hilary Davidson, John McFetridge, and Ben Pastor. But of course, whenever I put together one of these future-releases lists, I wind up investigating far more books than I have space to mention in Kirkus. Not being one to waste perfectly good research, I am posting below my complete rundown of the crime and thriller yarns--due out in English on both sides of the Atlantic over these next three months--that I think deserve particular attention. You’ll find here G.M. Ford’s latest Leo Waterman mystery, a long-forgotten San Francisco crime resurrected in fiction by Emma Donoghue, a new dark thriller from Dennis Tafoya and another spy novel by Charles Cumming, John Connolly’s 12th Charlie Parker outing, Max Allan Collins’ sixth posthumous collaboration with Mickey Spillane, a standalone suspenser by Jo Nesbø, John Harvey’s final case for Charlie Resnick, Ray Celestin’s early 20th-century New Orleans serial-killer yarn, and so many more reading opportunities.

With any luck, the Northern Hemisphere will soon experience signs of spring’s approach. Start thinking now about which of these books might be best to take with you into your backyard, onto your porch, or off to the nearest public park.

APRIL (U.S.):

• Antiques Con, by Barbara Allan (Kensington)

• Baudelaire’s Revenge, by Bob Van Laerhoven (Pegasus)

• Black Lies, Red Blood, by Kjell Eriksson (Minotaur)

• Blood Always Tells, by Hilary Davidson (Forge)

• The Blood of Alexander, by Tom Wilde (Forge)

• By Its Cover, by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Chump Change, by G.M. Ford (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Cold Nowhere, by Brian Freeman (Quercus)

• The Collector of Dying Breaths, by M.J. Rose (Atria)

• The Color of Light, by Wendy Hornsby (Perseverance Press)

• Critical Damage, by Robert K. Lewis (Midnight Ink)

• A Dark Song of Blood, by Ben Pastor (Bitter Lemon Press)

• Dead People, by Ewart Hutton (Minotaur)

• Death Money, by Henry Chang (Soho Crime)

• Don’t Ever Look Back, by Daniel Friedman (Minotaur)

• Evil in the 1st House, by Mitchell Scott Lewis (Poisoned Pen Press)

• A Few Drops of Blood, by Jan Merete Weiss (Soho Crime)

• A Flame in the Wind of Death, by Jen J. Danna (Five Star)

• From the Charred Remains, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)

• Frog Music, by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown)

• Game for Five, by Marco Malvaldi (Europa Editions)

• The Glacier Gallows, by Stephen Legault (TouchWood Editions)

• Gone and Done It, by Maggie Toussaint (Five Star)

• High Crime Area: Tales of Darkness and Dread, by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)

• The Intern’s Handbook, by Shane Kuhn (Simon & Schuster)

• I’ve Got You Under My Skin, by Mary Higgins Clark
(Simon & Schuster)

• Keep Quiet, by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s Press)

• Live to See Tomorrow, by Iris Johansen (St. Martin’s Press)

• The Long Shadow, by Liza Marklund (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• The Marathon Conspiracy, by Gary Corby (Soho Crime)

• Matt Helm: The Devastators, by Donald Hamilton (Titan)

• Montecito Heights, by Colin Campbell (Midnight Ink)

• Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War, edited by Jeffery Deaver and Raymond Benson
(Grand Central)

• Northanger Abbey, by Val McDermid (Grove Press)

• Overwatch, by Marc Guggenheim (Mulholland)

• The Poor Boy’s Game, by Dennis Tafoya (Minotaur)

• A Quiet Kill, by Janet Brons (TouchWood Editions)

• Ready to Kill, by Andrew Peterson (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Serpent of Venice, by Christopher Moore (Morrow)

• Stay Dead, by Anne Frasier (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Target, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

• Under Cold Stone, by Vicki Delany (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Until You’re Mine, by Samantha Hayes (Crown)

APRIL (UK):

• After the Silence, by Jake Woodhouse (Penguin)

• The Book of You, by Claire Kendal (HarperCollins)

• Buried Angels, by Camilla Lackberg (HarperCollins)

• Cinderella Girl, by Carin Gerhardsen (Penguin)

• A Colder War, by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)

• The Dead Ground, by Claire McGowan (Headline)

• Death in Pont-aven, by Jean-Luc Bannalec (Hesperus Press)

• Dog Will Have His Day, by Fred Vargas (Harvill Secker)

• Enemies at Home, by Lindsey Davis (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The First Rule of Survival, by Paul Mendelson (C&R Crime)

• Gallowglass, by Gordon Ferris (Corvus)

• Ghost Girl, by Lesley Thomson
(Head of Zeus)

• Girl Seven, by Hanna Jameson
(Head of Zeus)

• The House of Dolls, by David Hewson (Macmillan)

• The Killing Season, by Mason Cross (Orion)

• Letters to My Daughter’s Killer, by Cath Staincliffe (C&R Crime)

• Missing You, by Harlan Coben (Orion)

• The Quick, by Lauren Owen (Jonathan Cape)

• Sleeping Dogs, by Mark O’Sullivan (Transworld Ireland)

• Sorrow Bound, by David Mark (Quercus)

• The Stone Wife, by Peter Lovesey (Sphere)

• The Telling Error, by Sophie Hannah (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Thursday’s Children, by Nicci French (Michael Joseph)

• A Ticket to Oblivion, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)

• Wolf, by Mo Hayder (Bantam Press)

• The Wolf in Winter, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)

MAY (U.S.):

• The Abomination, by Jonathan Holt (Harper)

• American Woman, by Robert Pobi (Thomas & Mercer)

• Bellweather Rhapsody, by Kate Racculia (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Black Rock, by John McFetridge (ECW Press)

• Bone Dust White, by Karin Salvalaggio (Minotaur)

• The Bookman’s Tale, by Charlie Lovett (Penguin)

• Borderline, by Lawrence Block (Hard Case Crime)

• Carnival, by J. Robert Janes (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• Cold Shot, by Mark Henshaw (Touchstone)

• The Corsican Caper, by Peter Mayle (Knopf)

• Dante’s Poison, by Lynne Raimondo (Seventh Street)

• The Dark Palace, by R N. Morris (Creme de la Crime)

• The Day She Died, by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)

• Death at the Door, by Carolyn Hart (Berkley)

• The Detective & the Pipe Girl, by Michael Craven (Bourbon Street)

• The Devil’s Workshop, by Alex Grecian (Putnam)

• The Directive, by Matthew Quirk (Little, Brown)

• The Disposables, by David Putnam (Oceanview)

• Fatal Enquiry, by Will Thomas (Minotaur)

• For the Love of Parvati, by Susan Oleksiw (Five Star)

• The Hollow Girl, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Tyrus)

• I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• Invisible City, by Julia Dahl (Minotaur)

• Jack of Spies, by David Downing (Soho Crime)

• The Keeper, by John Lescroart (Atria)

• The Kill Switch, by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood (Morrow)

• King of the Weeds, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)

• The Kraken Project,
by Douglas Preston (Forge)

• Moving Day, by Jonathan Stone
(Thomas & Mercer)

• Murder in Murray Hill, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

• Next Life Might Be Kinder, by Howard Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• The Painter, by Peter Heller (Knopf)

• Prayer, by Philip Kerr (Putnam)

• Ragtime Cowboys, by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)

• Relentless, by Simon Kernick (Atria)

• Resistant, by Michael Palmer (St. Martin’s Press)

• The River of Souls, by Robert McCammon (Subterranean)

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

• The Skin Collector, by Jeffery Deaver (Grand Central)

• Sniper’s Honor, by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster)

• The Son, by Jo Nesbø (Knopf)

• The Stranger on the Train, by Abbie Taylor (Atria)

• The Stranger You Know, by Jane Casey (Minotaur)

• Suspicion, by Joseph Finder (Dutton)

• The Three, by Sarah Lotz (Little, Brown)

• This Private Plot, by Alan Beechey (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage, by Steve Ulfelder (Minotaur)

• The Zodiac Deception, by Gary Kriss (Forge)

MAY (UK):

• Angel of Death, by Ben Cheetham (Head of Zeus)

• The Axeman’s Jazz, by Ray Celestin (Mantle)

• Betrayed, by Anna Smith (Quercus)

• The Bones Beneath, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)

• The Cinderella Killer, by Simon Brett (Creme de la Crime)

• A Dark and Twisted Tide, by Sharon Bolton (Bantam Press)

• Darkness, Darkness, by John Harvey (Heinemann)

• Decompression, by Juli Zeh (Harvill Secker)

• Eeny Meeny, by M.J. Arlidge (Penguin)

• Fatal Act, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)

• Hour of Darkness, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)

• Judges, by Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli, and Giancarlo De Cataldo (MacLehose Press)

• The Killing Club, by Paul Finch (Avon)

• Kingdom Lock, by I.D. Roberts (Allison & Busby)

• Lonely Graves, by Britta Bolt (Mulholland)

• The Murder Bag, by Tony Parsons (Century)

• Murder in a Different Place, by Lesley Cookman (Accent Press)

• Night Heron, by Adam Brookes (Sphere)

• Sea of Stone, by Michael Ridpath (Corvus)

• Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil, by James Runcie (Bloomsbury)

• Theft of Life, by Imogen Robertson (Headline Review)

• The Ties That Bind, by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)

• When Sorrows Come, by Matt McGuire (C&R Crime)

• The Whitehall Mandarin, by Edward Wilson (Arcadia)

As I have so frequently asked at the end of these lists, what did I miss? Are there forthcoming crime, thriller, and mystery novels that I ought to have included, but did not? Please feel free to suggest other interesting genre works in the Comments section below.