How About Some Crime with Your Sunshine?

By now you have probably already seen my latest Kirkus Revews column, which showcases half a dozen new crime, mystery, and thriller novels due out in the States this spring. But as I note in that piece, there are oodles more genre works worth anticipating between now and the close of May. I recently pulled together the titles of spring crime-fiction releases that interest me most, and counted more than 275 works slated for publication on both sides of the Atlantic.

You can look over that lengthy compilation below. Although most of the March works were mentioned in my early January post about crime fiction to come, I have made so many additions to that month’s offerings, they need posting again.

Among the selections here are David Morrell’s Inspector of the Dead, his sequel to the Thomas De Quincey mystery Murder As a Fine Art; Adrian McKinty’s fourth novel featuring Irish detective Sean Duffy, Gun Street Girl; Jacqueline Winspear’s latest Maisie Dobbs novel, A Dangerous Place; Max Allan Collins’ most recent posthumous collaboration with Mickey Spillane, Kill Me, Darling; a fresh Bruno, Chief of Police, novel from Martin Walker, The Children Return (published in the UK as Children of War); Cara Black’s new case for Parisian sleuth Aimée Leduc, Murder on the Champ de Mars; a long-awaited re-release of Ted Lewis’ 1980 “masterpiece,” GBH; Bruce DeSilva’s fourth Liam Mulligan outing, A Scourge of Vipers; The Ghost Fields. the seventh Ruth Galloway mystery from Elly Griffiths (aka Domenica de Rosa); another promising yarn from David Corbett, The Mercy of the Night; the comeback of maverick Scottish ex-cop Quint Dalrymple in Paul Johnston’s Head or Hearts; John Connolly’s new Charlie Parker thriller, A Song of Shadows; Lyndsay Faye’s The Fatal Flame, her third investigation for mid-19th-century New York City “copper star,” Timothy Wilde; Ace Atkins’ latest continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser private-eye series, Kickback; the unexpected but welcome reappearance of Canadian author John Farrow’s self-righteous Detective-Sergeant Emile Cinq-Mars in The Storm Murders; and a “terrifying” new novella from Minette Walters, The Cellar. Also worth mentioning, though it isn’t a novel, is The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, edited by Kate White, which features recipes from such notables as Sue Grafton, Bill Pronzini, Scott Turow, S.J. Rozan, Raymond Benson, Gayle Lynds, Laura Lippman, and Felix Francis.

Undoubtedly, as your pour through the list below, you will discover other imminent releases worth watching for.

MARCH (U.S.):

• Aftershock, by Philip Donlay (Oceanview)

• All the Old Knives, by Olen Steinhauer (Minotaur)

• All the Wrong Places, by Lisa Lieberman (Five Star)

• An Anecdotal Death, by Kinley Roby (Five Star)

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

• Archie in the Crosshairs, by Robert Goldsborough (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• Asylum, by Jeannette de Beauvoir (Minotaur)

• The Blood Dimmed Tide, by Anthony Quinn (Oldcastle)

• Bone Gap, by Laura Ruby (Balzer & Bray)

• The Bullet, by Mary Louise Kelly (Gallery)

• The Cheapside Corpse, by Susanna Gregory (Little, Brown)

• Cry Wolf, by Michael Gregorio (Severn House)

• Cuba Straits, by Randy Wayne White (Putnam)

• A Dangerous Place, by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)

• Dark Rooms, by Lili Anolik (Morrow)

• The Dead Key, by D.M. Pulley (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Devil’s Detective, by Simon Kurt Unsworth (Doubleday)

• Down Don’t Bother Me, by Jason Miller (Bourbon Street)

• Due for Discard, by Sharon St. George (Camel Press)

• Edge, by Nick Oldham (Severn House)

• The Edge of Dreams, by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur)

• Endangered, by C.J. Box (Putnam)

• The Fifth Heart, by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)

• The Figaro Murders, by Laura Lebow (Minotaur)

• Firebreak, by Tricia Fields (Minotaur)

• Fractured, by Kate Watterson (Forge)

• The Friendship of Criminals, by Robert Glinski (Minotaur)

• Gun Street Girl, by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street)

• Harder Ground, by Joseph Heywood (Lyons Press)

• The Harder They Come, by T.C. Boyle (Ecco)

• The Hidden Man, by Robin Blake (Minotaur)

• The House of Wolfe, by James Carlos Blake (Mysterious Press)

• Impasse, by Royce Scott Buckingham (Thomas Dunne)

• Inspector of the Dead, by David Morrell (Mulholland)

• Kill Me, Darling, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)

• Lacy Eye, by Jessica Treadway (Grand Central)

• Leaving Berlin, by Joseph Kanon (Atria)

• Life or Death, by Michael Robotham (Mulholland)

• Love’s Alchemy, by Bryan Crockett (Five Star)

• The Lost and the Blind, by Declan Burke (Severn House)

• A Man’s Word, by Martin Jensen (AmazonCrossing)

• Meadowlands, by Elizabeth Jeffrey (Severn House)

• The Mouth of the Crocodile, by Michael Pearce (Severn House)

• Murder Boy, by Bryon Quertermous (Polis)

• Murder in Hindsight, by Anne Cleeland (Kensington)

• Murder on the Champ de Mars, by Cara Black (Soho Crime)

• The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, edited by Kate White (Quirk)

• Night Night, Sleep Tight, by Hallie Ephron (Morrow)

• Past Crimes, by Glen Erik Hamilton (Morrow)

• The Patriot Threat, by Steve Berry (Minotaur)

• The Perfect Game, by Leslie Dana Kirby (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Pocket Wife, by Susan Crawford (Morrow)

• The Prince, by Vito Bruschini (Atria)

• Pursuit in Provence, by Phyllis Gobbell (Five Star)

• Season of Fear, by Brian Freeman (Quercus)

• Shadow Ritual, by Éric Giacometti and Jacques Ravenne (Le French)

• Side Trip to Kathmandu, by Marie Moore (Camel Press)

• Signature Kill, by David Levien (Doubleday)

• Soil, by Jamie Kornegay (Simon & Schuster)

• Spring Remains, by Mons Kallentoft (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• The Stolen Ones, by Owen Laukkanen (Putnam)

• The Stranger, by Harlan Coben (Dutton)

• The Strangler Vine, by M.J. Carter (Putnam)

• Suitcase City, by Sterling Watson (Akashic)

• The Tapestry, by Nancy Bilyeau (Touchstone)

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

• Too Bad to Die, by Francine Mathews (Riverhead)

• 12 Rose Street, by Gail Bowen (McClelland & Stewart)

• Under the Channel, by Gilles Petel (Gallic)

• The Unraveling of Mercy Louis, by Keija Parssinen (Harper)

• Viper, by Maurizio de Giovanni (Europa Editions)

• The Washington Lawyer, by Allan Topol (SelectBooks)

• Werewolf Cop, by Andrew Klavan (Pegasus)

• What the Fly Saw, by Frankie Y. Bailey (Minotaur)

• Whiskers of the Lion, by P.L. Gaus (Plume)

• Who Buries the Dead, by C.S. Harris (NAL)

• The World Before Us, by Aislinn Hunter (Hogarth)

• World Gone By, by Dennis Lehane (Morrow)

MARCH (UK):

• After the Crash, by Michel Bussi (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

• A Bed of Scorpions, by Judith Flanders (Allison & Busby)

• Black Wood, by S.J.I. Holliday (Black and White)

• Bryant & May: The Burning Man, by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)

• Capital Crimes: London Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (British Library Crime Classics)

• The Case of the “Hail Mary” Celeste, by Malcolm Pryce (Bloomsbury)

• A Cold Killing, by Anna Smith (Quercus)

• Cold Revenge, by Alex Howard (Head of Zeus)

• Death in Devon, by Ian Sansom (4th Estate)

• Death Under a Tuscan Sun, by Michele Giuttari (Little, Brown)

• The Defence, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)

• The Dove’s Necklace, Raja Alem (Overlook Press)

• Fixer, by P.F. Lennon (Hodder
& Stoughton)

• The Ghost Fields, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)

• Into the Night, by Jake Woodhouse (Penguin)

• The Jackdaw, by Luke Delaney (HarperCollins)

• Keep the Midnight Out, by Alex Gray (Sphere)

• A Line of Blood, by Ben McPherson (HarperCollins)

• The Missing and the Dead, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)

• No Name Lane, by Howard Linskey (Penguin)

• The Raven’s Head, by Karen Maitland (Headline Review)

• The Scrivener, by Robin Blake (Constable)

• The Shut Eye, by Belinda Bauer (Bantam Press)

• The Tears of Dark Water, by Corban Addison (Quercus)

• Third Voice, by Cilla and Rolf Börjlind (Nova)

• Toxic, by Jamie Doward (Constable)

• Walking by Night, by Kate Ellis (Creme de la Crime)

• The Whitstable Pearl Mystery, by Julie Wassmer (Constable)

• You Belong to Me, by Samantha Hayes (Century)

APRIL (U.S.):

• The Alchemist’s Daughter, by Mary Lawrence (Kensington)

• All Involved, by Ryan Gattis (Ecco)

• Antiques Swap, by Barbara Allan (Kensington)

• The Arc of the Swallow, by S.J. Gazan (Quercus)

• The A26, by Pascal Garnier (Gallic)

• Aunt Dimity and the Summer King, by Nancy Atherton (Viking)

• Basic Law, by J. Sydney Jones (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• Black Run, by Antonio Manzini (Harper)

• Blood on Snow, by Jo Nesbø (Knopf)

• Blood Sweep, by Steven Havill (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Bone Tree, by Greg Iles (Morrow)

• The Buried, by Brett Battles (CreateSpace)

• Bye, Bye Love, by K.J. Larsen (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Children Return, by Martin Walker (Knopf)

• Circling the Runway, by J.L. Abramo (Down & Out -- e-book)

• Compulsion, by Allison Brennan (Minotaur)

• The Dead Lands, by Benjamin Percy (Grand Central)

• A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge, by Terry Shames (Seventh Street)

• The Doll Maker, by Richard Montanari (Mulholland)

• Duet in Beirut, by Mishka Ben-David (Overlook)

• Every Fifteen Minutes, by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s Press)

• Falling in Love, by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Fallout, by Paul Thomas (Bitter Lemon Press)

• False Tongues, by Kate Charles (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Fox Is Framed, by Lachlan Smith (Mysterious Press)

• Gathering Prey, by John Sandford (Putnam)

• GBH, by Ted Lewis (Soho Crime)

• Ghost Image, by Ellen Crosby (Scribner)

• Grave Consequences, by David and Aimée Thurlo (Minotaur)

• Grave on Grand Avenue, by Naomi Hirahara (Berkley)

• Hot Pursuit, by Stuart Woods (Putnam)

• House of Echoes, by Brendan Duffy (Ballantine)

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

• The Invention of Fire, by Bruce Holsinger (Morrow)

• A June of Ordinary Murders, by Conor Brady (Minotaur)

• The Lady from Zagreb, by Philip Kerr (Putnam)

• The Language of the Dead, by Stephen Kelly (Pegasus)

• The Legend of Caleb York, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Kensington)

• Lincoln’s Bodyguard, by T.J. Turner (Oceanview)

• Losing Faith, by Adam Mitzner (Gallery)

• The Masque of a Murderer, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)

• Memory Man, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

• The Mercy of the Night, by David Corbett (Thomas & Mercer)

• Normal, by Graeme Cameron (Mira)

• One Mile Under, by Andrew Gross (Morrow)

• Painted Black, by Greg Kihn (Open Road)

• A Palette for Murder, by Vanessa A. Ryan (Five Star)

• Pleasantville, by Attica Locke (Harper)

• The Ravens, by Vidar Sundstøl (University of Minnesota Press)

• Revenge of the Kremlin, by Gérard de Villiers (Vintage)

• Reykjavik Nights, by Arnaldur Indridason (Minotaur)

• Ross Macdonald: Four Novels of the 1950s, by Ross Macdonald; edited by Tom Nolan (Library of America)

• The Russian Bride, by Ed Kovacs (Minotaur)

• A Scourge of Vipers, by Bruce DeSilva (Forge)

• Silent Kill, by Peter Corris (Allen & Unwin)

• Slow Burn, by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Swallow Press)

• Snake Pass, by Colin Campbell (Midnight Ink)

• Snared, by Ed James (Thomas & Mercer)

• Solitude Creek, by Jeffery Deaver (Grand Central)

• A Stitch in Crime, by Ann Yost (Five Star)

• Swansong, by Damien Boyd (Thomas & Mercer)

• Tattered Legacy, by Shannon Baker (Midnight Ink)

• Thanksgiving Angels, by Alice Duncan (Five Star)

• Thieves Fall Out, by Gore Vidal (Hard Case Crime)

• Ties That Blind, by Zachary Klein (Polis)

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

• Twisted, by Andrew E. Kaufman (Thomas & Mercer)

• What You Left Behind, by Samantha Hayes (Crown)

• Whispering Shadows, by Jan-Philipp Sendker (Atria)

• You Can Trust Me, by Sophie McKenzie (St. Martin’s Press)

• You Will Never Find Me, by Robert Wilson (Europa Editions)

• Your Next Breath, by Iris Johansen (St. Martin’s Press)

APRIL (UK):

• Corridors of the Night, by Anne Perry (Headline)

• Cuckold Point, by Patrick Easter (Quercus)

• Dead and Gone, by Bill Kitson (Robert Hale)

• Deadly Election, by Lindsey Davis (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Death in the Rainy Season, by Anna Jaquiery (Mantle)

• The Detective’s Secret, by Lesley Thomson (Head of Zeus)

• Double Mortice, by Bill Daly (Old Street)

• Head or Hearts, by Paul Johnston (Severn House)

• Hidden, by Emma Kavanagh (Century)

• The Infidel Stain, by M.J. Carter (Fig Tree)

• The Invisible Guardian, by Dolores Redondo (HarperCollins)

• Last Resort, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)

• Mrs. Pargeter’s Principle, by Simon Brett (Creme de la Crime)

• The Novel Habits of Happiness, by Alexander McCall Smith (Little, Brown)

• Orkney Twilight, by Clare Carson
(Head of Zeus)

• Red Icon, by Sam Eastland (Faber & Faber)

• The Serpentine Road, by Paul Mendelson (Constable)

• Silver Bullets, by Élmer Mendoza (MacLehose Press)

• Sleeping Dogs, by Thomas Mogford (Bloomsbury)

• A Song of Shadows, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Third Sin, by Aline Templeton (Allison & Busby)

• Time of Death, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)

• 22 Dead Little Bodies, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)

• What She Left, by T.R. Richmond (Michael Joseph)

MAY (U.S.):

• The Altar Girl, by Orest Stelmach (Thomas & Mercer)

• Anatomy of Evil, by Will Thomas (Minotaur)

• And Sometimes I Wonder About You, by Walter Mosley (Doubleday)

• Benefit of the Doubt, by Neal Griffin (Forge)

• Blanche Cleans Up, by Barbara Neely (Brash)

• Blood Ties, by Nicholas Guild (Forge)

• The Book of Stone, by Jonathan Papernick (Fig Tree)

• The Border, by Robert McCammon (Subterranean)

• Bubba Done It, by Maggie Toussaint (Five Star)

• Burnt River, by Karin Salvalaggio (Minotaur)

• Camille, by Pierre Lemaitre (MacLehose Press)

• The Corpse with the Sapphire Eyes, by Cathy Ace (TouchWood)

• Dead Girl Walking, by Christopher Brookmyre (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Death Ex Machina, by Gary Corby (Soho Crime)

• Death of a Bride and Groom, by Allan J. Emerson (Five Star)

• Detroit Is Our Beat: Tale of the Four Horsemen,
by Loren D. Estleman (Tyrus)

• The Devil’s Making, by Seán Haldane (Minotaur)

• Disclaimer, by Renée Knight (Harper)

• Dry Bones, by Craig Johnson (Viking)

• The Enemy Inside, by Steve Martini (Morrow)

• The Fatal Flame, by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam)

• 15 Minutes to Live, by Phoef Sutton (Brash)

• Flame Out, by M.P. Cooley (Morrow)

• The Forgotten Room, by Lincoln Child (Doubleday)

• The Ghost Fields, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Go Down Hard, by Craig Faustus Buck (Brash)

• Hail Storme, by W.L. Ripley (Brash)

• The Harvest Man, by Alex Grecian (Putnam)

• Housebreaking, by Dan Pope (Simon & Schuster)

• The Ice Twins, by S.K. Tremayne (Grand Central)

• Independence Day, by Ben Coes (St. Martin’s Press)

• Innocent Blood, by Michael Lister (Pulpwood Press)

• I, Ripper, by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster)

• Jack of Spades, by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)

• Killing Frost, by Ron Tierney (Severn House)

• The Last Bookaneer, by Matthew Pearl (Penguin)

• The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley, by Jeremy Massey (Riverhead)

• Little Black Lies, by Sharon Bolton (Minotaur)

• Little Men, Big World /Vanity Row, by W.R. Burnett
(Stark House Press)

• Liz/Syndicate Girl, by Frank Kane (Stark House Press)

• Mañana, by William Hjortsberg (Open Road)

• A Man of Some Repute, by Elizabeth Edmondson (Thomas & Mercer)

• Memphis Ribs, by Gerald Duff (Brash)

• Missing, by Sam Hawken (Serpent’s Tail)

• Mr. Campion’s Fox, by Mike Ripley (Severn House)

• Murder with a Twist, by Tracy Kiely (Midnight Ink)

• The Night Game, by Frank Golden (Salmon Poetry)

• Only the Brave, by Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Organ Broker, by Stu Strumwasser (Arcade)

• Orient, by Christopher Bollen (Harper)

• Paris Ransom, by Charles Rosenberg (Thomas & Mercer)

• Pinnacle Event, by Richard A. Clarke (Thomas Dunne)

• A Promise to Die For, by Jacqueline Pelham (Five Star)

• Radiant Angel, by Nelson DeMille (Grand Central)

• The Return of the Fallen Angels Book Club, by R. Franklin James (Camel Press)

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

• Rock with Wings, by Anne Hillerman (Harper)

• Ruins of War, by John A. Connell (Berkley)

• The Scarlet Gospels, by Clive Barker (St. Martin’s Press)

• Secrets of State, by Matthew Palmer (Putnam)

• Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins, by James Runcie (Bloomsbury)

• Six and a Half Deadly Sins, by Colin Cotterill (Soho Crime)

• Solitude Creek, by Jeffery Deaver (Grand Central)

• Stone Cold Dead, by James W. Ziskin (Seventh Street)

• The Storm Murders, by John Farrow (Minotaur)

• Susannah Screaming, by Carolyn Weston (Brash)

• The Teller, by Jonathan Stone (Thomas & Mercer)

• Thin Air, by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)

• Tin Sky, by Ben Pastor (Bitter Lemon Press)

• Traitor’s Gate, by Charlie Newton (Thomas & Mercer)

• Trident Code, by Thomas Waite (47North)

• The Underwriting, by Michelle Miller (Putnam)

• Vanishing, by Gerard Woodward (Pegasus)

• The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi (Knopf)

• What Lies Behind, by J.T. Ellison (Mira)

• Yesterday Is Dead, by Jack Lynch (Brash)

MAY (UK):

• Boxes, by Pascal Garnier (Gallic)

• The Cellar, by Minette Walters (Hammer)

• Cocaine, by Massimo Carlotto, Gianrico Carofiglio (Author), and Giancarlo De Cataldo (MacLehose Press)

• Fall of Man in Wilmslow, by David Lagercrantz (MacLehose Press)

• Going to the Dogs, by Dan Kavanagh (Orion)

• Hunted, by Paul Finch (Avon)

• The Invisible Man from Salem, by Christoffer Carlsson (Scribe)

• Killer Plan, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)

• The Killing Lessons, by Saul Black (Orion)

• The Killing of Bobbi Lomax, by Cal Moriarty (Faber and Faber)

• Lives Lost, by Britta Bolt (Mulholland)

• Mockingbird Songs, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)

• The Seeker, by S.G. MacLean (Quercus)

• The Slaughter Man, by Tony Parsons (Century)

• The Storm, by Neil Broadfoot (Saraband)

• You Are Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan)

As I generally do when presenting one of these seasonal book-expectation lists, I ask all of you to let me know what I have missed highlighting. Do you know of other promising works in this genre, due out over the next three months, that should also be mentioned? If so, please drop a note about them into the Comments section at the end of this post. It’d be to our mutual benefit.