Warming Up to Read Away the Colder Months

You should see my office. It used to be such a well-ordered, easily navigable space, but over the summer, miniature mountain ranges climbed from the carpeted floor and declared their dominance over my desk. Those peaks are of course made up of crime, mystery, and thriller novels due for publication on both sides of the broad Atlantic between now and the closing days of 2014--dozens of books, in hardcover and paperback both. So if, during the coming four chillier months, you get the impression that there are more new works in this genre crowding store shelves than is normal … well, don’t assume it is your imagination. It might well be true! I recently pulled together a rough list of forthcoming crime-fiction releases--not every one, but those I believe will be of the greatest interest and inventiveness--and came up with 270-plus titles. That’s at least 50 more than I highlighted in a post similar to this one last fall, and far in excess of the number I’ll be able to enjoy between now and December 31.

Earlier this week, in my regular column for Kirkus Reviews, I mentioned a handful of soon-to-materialize volumes that I believe fans of this genre would be smart to grab when they become available. Below is a far more extensive selection, featuring something for most tastes, I hope. It includes fresh yarns from Thomas H. Cook, James Ellroy, Ruth Rendell, Stuart Neville, Dennis Lehane, Sophie Hannah, J. Robert Janes, Lynn Shepherd, C.J. Sansom, Robert Crais, Linda L. Richards, Gérard de Villiers, Jussi Adler-Olsen, and the late Ariana Franklin, as well as a sampling of the reprints being offered by new publisher Brash Books, and Ted Lewis’ three Jack Carter novels, which will be reissued by Syndicate Soho.

What I didn’t add are several original non-fiction releases likely also to spark the curiosity of folks familiar with crime fiction in all its forms: The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock, by Lucy Worsley (Pegasus); The Poet and the Vampyre: The Curse of Byron and the Birth of Literature’s Greatest Monsters, by Andrew McConnell Stott (Pegasus); The Art of Robert E. McGinnis, by Robert E. McGinnis and Art Scott (Titan); and James Garner’s Motoring Life: Grand Prix the Movie, Baja, The Rockford Files, and More, by Matt Stone (Car Tech).

As usual, I can’t guarantee that books cited here will appear on schedule; some publishers (and yes, I’m talking in particular about you, Severn House!) have the annoying tendency to bring out their novels in advance of their official publication dates. However, I feel comfortable in saying that all of the works listed will make premiere showings sometime during the imminent fall or winter months.

So go fetch yourself a cup of coffee or something a wee bit stronger, grab a pen or iPad, and begin culling from this inventory your own list of near-future must-reads. Oh, and if you think of any promising crime, mystery, or thriller titles that I have failed to suggest, please make note of them under the Comments tab at the end of this post. Because there can never really be too many choices of fine books to read next, no matter how high your to-be-read pile has grown.

SEPTEMBER (U.S.):

• Angel Killer, by Andrew Mayne (Bourbon Street)

• Bitter Remedy, by Conor Fitzgerald (Bloomsbury USA)

• The Blood of an Englishman, by M.C. Beaton (Minotaur)

• Blood on the Water, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)

• Bones Never Lie, by Kathy Reichs (Bantam)

• Broadchurch, by Erin Kelly (Minotaur)

• Broken Monsters, by Lauren Beukes (Mulholland)

• The Button Man, by Mark Pryor (Seventh Street)

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

• Consumed, by David Cronenberg (Scribner)

• The Cottoncrest Curse, by Michael H. Rubin (Louisiana State University Press)

• Crossing the Line, by Frédérique Molay
(Le French)

• Cry Father, by Benjamin Whitmer (Gallery)

• A Dancer in the Dust, by Thomas H. Cook (Mysterious Press)

• The Darkest Hour, by Tony Schumacher (Morrow)

• Darkness, Darkness, by John Harvey (Pegasus)

• The Day of Atonement, by David Liss (Random House)

• Day of Vengeance, by Jeanne M. Dams (Severn House)

• The Dead Never Forget, by Jack Lynch (Brash)

• Death in Elysium, by Judith Cutler (Severn House)

• Death in the Dolomites, by David Wagner (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Death Is Forever, by Maxine O’Callaghan (Brash)

• Deep Shelter, by Oliver Harris (Bourbon Street)

• The Distance, by Helen Giltrow (Doubleday)

• Dog Beach, by John Fusco (Touchstone)

• The Drop, by Dennis Lehane (Morrow)

• Expo 58, by Jonathan Coe (New Harvest)

• The Family Hightower, by Brian Francis Slattery (Seven Stories)

• Fighting Chance, by Jane Haddam (Minotaur)

• Frenzy, by John Lutz (Pinnacle)

• The Front Seat Passenger, by Pascal Garnier (Gallic)

• Gangsterland, by Tod Goldberg (Counterpoint)

• Get Carter, by Ted Lewis (Soho Syndicate)

• The Golden Hour, by Todd Moss (Putnam)

• The Golem of Hollywood, by Jonathan Kellerman and
Jesse Kellerman (Putnam)

• Hard Carbon, by David M. Salkin (Post Hill Press)

• The Heavenly Casino, by Carl Filbrich (Five Star)

• Hello Mr. Bones & Goodbye Mr. Rat, by Patrick McCabe (Quercus)

• Hit and Run, by Sandra Balzo (Severn House)

• Hold the Dark, by William Giraldi (Liveright)

• If It Bleeds, by Linda L. Richards (Raven)

• The Lewis Man, by Peter May (Quercus)

• Low End of Nowhere, by Michael Stone (Brash)

• Made for You, by Melissa Marr (Harper)

• Man Eater, by Gar Anthony Haywood (Brash)

• The Marco Effect, by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton)

• Mean Business on North Ganson Street, by S. Craig Zahler
(Thomas Dunne)

• The Monogram Murders, by Sophie Hannah (Morrow)

• Mountains of the Misbegotten, by Joseph Heywood (Globe Pequot)

• A Murder Country, by Brandon Daily (Knox Robinson)

• Murder in Time, by Veronica Heley (Severn House)

• Murder 101, by Faye Kellerman (Morrow)

• Murder on the Ȋle Sordou, by M.L. Longworth (Penguin)

• Night of the Jaguar, by Joe Gannon (Minotaur)

• Night of the White Buffalo, by Margaret Coel (Berkley)

• Only the Dead, by Vidar Sundstøl (University of Minnesota Press)

• Outrage at Blanco, by Bill Crider (Brash)

• The Owl, by Bob Forward (Brash)

• The Perfect Witness, by Iris Johansen (St. Martin’s Press)

• Perfidia, by James Ellroy (Knopf)

• Personal, by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)

• Phantom Limb, by Dennis Palumbo (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Proof Positive, by Archer Mayor (Minotaur)

• The Rest Is Silence, by James R. Benn (Soho Crime)

• Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Putnam)

• Rose Gold, by Walter Mosley (Doubleday)

• Sabotage, by Matt Cook (Forge)

• The Secret Place, by Tana French (Viking)

• Silent Murders, by Mary Miley (Minotaur)

• Sleeping Dog, by Dick Lochte (Brash)

• Slow Bleed, by Trey R. Baker (Five Star)

• The Stone Wife, by Peter Lovesey (Soho Crime)

• Strong Darkness, by Jon Land (Forge)

• A Sudden Light, by Garth Stein (Simon & Schuster)

• The Sun Is God, by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street)

• Those Who Feel Nothing, by Peter Guttridge (Severn House)

• To Dwell in Darkness, by Deborah Crombie (Morrow)

• Tokyo Kill, by Barry Lancet (Simon & Schuster)

• Treasure Coast, by Tom Kakonis (Brash)

• Virtue Falls, by Christina Dodd (St. Martin’s Press)

• Wet Work, by Les Roberts (Gray & Company)

• The White Sea, by Paul Johnston (Severn House)

• The White Van, by Patrick Hoffman (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Wouldn’t It Be Deadly, by D.E. Ireland (Minotaur)

SEPTEMBER (UK):

• The Angel Court Affair, by Anne Perry (Headline)

• Betrayal, by Will Jordan (Arrow)

• The Book of Fires, by Paul Doherty (Creme de la Crime)

• Crooked Herring, by L.C. Tyler (Allison & Busby)

• Crossing the Line, by Kerry Wilkinson (Pan)

• The Dead Pass, by Colin Bateman (Headline)

• Death Is a Word, by Hazel Holt (Allison & Busby)

• The Gentle Assassin, by Ryan David Jahn (Pan)

• The Ghost of Christmas Past, by Jean G. Goodhind (Accent Press)

• Head of State, by Andrew Marr (Fourth Estate)

• Hostage, by Kristina Ohlsson (Simon & Schuster)

• The Meating Room, by Frank Muir (Constable)

• Plague Land, by S.D. Sykes (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Poisoned Ground, by Barbara Nadel (Quercus)

• Printer’s Devil Court, by Susan Hill (Profile)

• Race to Death, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)

• Reykjavik Nights, by Arnaldur Indridason (Harvill Secker)

• The Royalist, by S.J. Deas (Headline)

• Thin Air, by Ann Cleeves (Macmillan)

• A Trick of the Mind, by Penny Hancock (Simon & Schuster)

• Trust in Me, by Sophie McKenzie
(Simon & Schuster)

• Truth or Dare, by Tania Carver (Sphere)

• Twist, by Tom Grass (Orion)

OCTOBER (U.S.):

• The Adventure of the Plated Spoon and Other Tales of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Loren D. Estleman (Tyrus)

• The Best American Mystery Stories of the 19th Century, edited by Otto Penzler (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, edited by Laura
Lippman (Mariner)

• The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

• Blue Warrior, by Mike Maden (Putnam)

• Chaos in Kabul, by Gérard de Villiers (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

• Cobra, by Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• The Counterfeit Heiress, by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur)

• Crooked River, by Valerie Geary (Morrow)

• Dark Spies, by Matthew Dunn (Morrow)

• Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek, by Terry Shames (Seventh Street)

• Deadline, by John Sandford (Putnam)

• Dead for a Spell, by Raymond Buckland (Berkley)

• The Delta, by Tony Park (St. Martin’s Press)

• A Demon Summer, by G.M. Malliet (Minotaur)

• Desert Rage, by Betty Webb (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Dial M for Matrimony, by Carroll McKnight (Pulpwood Press)

• Dick Francis’s Damage, by Felix Francis (Putnam)

• The Empire of Night, by Robert Olen Butler (Mysterious Press)

• The Final Silence, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)

• Five Minutes Alone, by Paul Cleave (Atria)

• The Girl Next Door, by Ruth Rendell (Scribner)

• Gray Mountain, by John Grisham (Doubleday)

• The Handsome Man’s De Luxe Café, by Alexander McCall
Smith (Pantheon)

• Jack Carter’s Law, by Ted Lewis (Soho Syndicate)

• Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas, by Stephanie Barron
(Soho Crime)

• Last Winter We Parted, by Fuminori Nakamura (Soho Press)

• Last Writes, by Catherine Aird (Allison & Busby)

• The Life We Bury, by Allen Eskens (Seventh Street)

• Louise’s Blunder, by Sarah R. Shaber (Severn House)

• The Madness of July, by James Naughtie (Overlook)

• Malice, by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur)

• The Murder Man, by Tony Parsons (Minotaur)

• Nyctophobia, by Christopher Fowler (Solaris)

• The Nightingale Before Christmas, by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)

• The Old Deep and Dark, by Ellen Hart (Minotaur)

• Older than Goodbye, by Richard Helms (Five Star)

• Paris Match, by Stuart Woods (Putnam)

• The Peripheral, by William Gibson (Putnam)

• The Pierced Heart, by Lynn Shepherd (Delacorte Press)

• Prince Lestat, by Anne Rice (Knopf)

• Riders on the Storm, by Ed Gorman (Pegasus)

• Run, by Andrew Grant (Ballantine)

• The Scent of Death, by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins)

• The Silent Sister, by Diane Chamberlain (St. Martin’s Press)

• Sleep in Peace Tonight, by James MacManus (Thomas Dunne)

• Sometimes the Wolf, by Urban Waite (Morrow)

• Sons of Sparta, by Jeffrey Siger (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Spark, by John Twelve Hawks (Doubleday)

• Spectrum, by Alan Jacobson (Open Road)

• Swann’s Lake of Despair, by Charles Salzberg (Five Star)

• Tehran Noir, edited by Salar Abdoh (Akashic)

• Tel Aviv Noir, edited by Etgar Keret (Akashic)

• Truth Be Told, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

• The Tudor Vendetta, by C.W. Gortner (St. Martin’s Griffin)

• Tunnel Vision, by Aric Davis (Thomas & Mercer)

• A Vision of Fire, by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin
(Simon & Schuster)

• The Wolf in Winter, by John Connolly (Atria/Emily Bestler)

OCTOBER (UK):

• At Death’s Window, by Jim Kelly (Creme de la Crime)

• Autumn, All the Cats Return, by Philippe Georget (Europa Editions)

• The Balmoral Incident, by Alanna Knight (Allison & Busby)

• The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories,
by Ian Rankin (Orion)

• Black Noise, by Pekka Hiltunen (Hesperus Press)

• The Blood Dimmed Tide, by Anthony Quinn (No Exit Press)

• Bluff City Pawn, by Stephen Schottenfeld (Bloomsbury USA)

• Borderline, by Liza Marklund (Corgi)

• Cut Out, by Fergus McNeill (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Darkest Fear, by Ethan Cross (Arrow)

• Dark Tides, by Chris Ewan (Faber & Faber)

• Death of an Avid Reader, by Frances Brody (Piatkus)

• Deeds of Darkness, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)

• Falling Freely, As If in a Dream, by Leif G.W. Persson (Doubleday)

• Friends to Die For, by Hilary Bonner (Pan)

• Good Girls Don’t Die, by Isabelle Grey (Quercus)

• The Good Life, by Martina Cole (Headline)

• Harm’s Reach, by Alex Barclay (Harper)

• January Window, by Philip Kerr
(Head of Zeus)

• Lamentation, by C.J. Sansom (Mantle)

• Mathew’s Tale, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)

• Moriarty, by Anthony Horowitz (Orion)

• Murder at the Brightwell, by Ashley Weaver (Allison & Busby)

• Murder Out of Tune, by Lesley Cookman (Accent Press)

• Riven, by A.J. McCreanor (Constable)

• Ruthless, by Cath Staincliffe (Corgi)

• The Soul of Discretion, by Susan Hill (Chatto & Windus)

• Trophy, by Steffen Jacobsen (Quercus)

• Winter Siege, by Ariana Franklin and Samantha Norman
(Bantam Press)

NOVEMBER (U.S.):

• And Grant You Peace, by Kate Flora (Five Star)

• Bad Country, by C.B. McKenzie (Minotaur)

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

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

• A Billion Ways to Die, by Chris Knopf (Permanent Press)

• Black Karma, by Thatcher Robinson (Seventh Street)

• The Black Stiletto: Endings & Beginnings, by Raymond Benson (Oceanview)

• The Cinderella Murder, by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke (Simon & Schuster)

• Daniel Port Omnibus 1: Dig My Grave Deep/The Out Is Death/It’s My Funeral, by Peter Rabe (Stark House Press)

• Dark Road, Dead End, by Philip Cioffari (Livingston Press)

• Deadly Ruse, by E. Michael Helms (Seventh Street)

• Die I Will Not, by S.K. Rizzolo (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Easy Death, by Daniel Boyd (Hard Case Crime)

• The Escape, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

• The Forgers, by Bradford Morrow (Mysterious Press)

• For the Dead, by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime)

• The Girl in the Woods, by Gregg Olsen (Pinnacle)

• Hardcastle’s Quartet, by Graham Ison (Severn House)

• Helsinki Noir, edited by James Thompson (Akashic)

• In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (Pegasus)

• Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon, by Ted Lewis (Soho Syndicate)

• The Job, by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (Bantam)

• Justice Postponed, by Anthea Fraser (Severn House)

• The Laughing Monsters, by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

• The Laws of Murder, by Charles Finch (Minotaur)

• A Map of Betrayal, by Ha Jin (Pantheon)

• Murder in the Holy City, by Simon Beaufort (Severn House)

• The Murder of Harriet Krohn, by Karin Fossum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• My Sister’s Grave, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)

• A New York Christmas, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)

• The Night Hunter, by Caro Ramsay (Severn House)

• The Paris Winter, by Imogen Robertson (St. Martin’s Press)

• The Promise, by Robert Crais (Putnam)

• Revival, by Stephen King (Scribner)

• Risky Undertaking, by Mark de Castrique (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Safari, by Parnell Hall (Pegasus)

• The Siege, by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Random House)

• Soul of the Fire, by Eliot Pattison (Minotaur)

• Sweet Sunday, by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Want You Dead, by Peter James (Minotaur)

NOVEMBER (UK):

• The Arc of the Swallow, by Sissel-Jo Gazan (Quercus)

• Closer Than You Think, by Karen Rose (Headline)

• A Cruel Necessity, by L.C. Tyler (Constable)

• Dead Souls, by Elsebeth Egholm (Headline)

• Dying for Christmas, by Tammy Cohen (Black Swan)

• Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz)

• The Informant, by Susan Wilkins (Pan)

• The Lion’s Mouth, by Anne Holt (Corvus)

• Pyramid, by David Gibbins (Headline)

• The Shiro Project, by David Khara (Le French)

• Sins of the Father, by Graham Hurley (Orion)

• Time and Time Again, by Ben Elton (Bantam Press)

• The Suicide Club, by Andrew Williams (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Tomb in Turkey, by Simon Brett (Creme de la Crime)

• A Twist of the Knife, by Peter James (Macmillan)

• Written in the Blood, by Stephen Lloyd Jones (Headline)

• The Zig Zag Girl, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)

DECEMBER (U.S.):

• Asylum City, by Liad Shoham (Harper)

• The Big Finish, by James W. Hall (Minotaur)

• The Bishop’s Wife, by Mette Ivie Harrison (Soho Crime)

• Blood Rubies, by Jane K. Cleland (Minotaur)

• Blue Avenue, by Michael Wiley (Severn House)

• City of Brick and Shadow, by Tim Wirkus (Tyrus)

• The Convert’s Song, by Sebastian Rotella (Mulholland)

• Crimson Angel, by Barbara Hambly (Severn House)

• The Devil in Montmartre, by Gary Inbinder (Pegasus)

• Disclosures, by Bill James (Creme de la Crime)

• Duke City Hit, by Max Austin (aka Steve Brewer; Alibi e-book)

• Enter Pale Death, by Barbara Cleverly (Soho Crime)

• Five, by Ursula Archer (Minotaur)

• Genocide of One, by Kazuaki Takano (Mulholland)

• The German Agent, by J. Sydney Jones (Severn House)

• Gods of Gold, by Chris Nickson (Severn House)

• The Iris Fan, by Laura Joh Rowland (Minotaur)

• One to Go, by Mike Pace (Oceanview)

• Perfect Sins, by Jo Bannister (Minotaur)

• Rain on the Dead, by Jack Higgins (Putnam)

• The Skeleton Road, by Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Suspicion at Seven, by Ann Purser (Berkley)

• Thief, by Mark Sullivan (Minotaur)

• Woman With a Gun, by Phillip Margolin (Harper)

• You Know Who Killed Me, by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)

DECEMBER (UK):

• Cry Wolf, by Michael Gregorio (Severn House)

• Putting the Boot In, by Dan Kavanagh (Orion)

• The Watched, by Casey Hill (Simon & Schuster)