Our Favorite Crime Fiction of 2019

There’s been no shortage of new books churned out this year. Over the last 12 months, in four separate seasonal reports (here, here, here, and here), we have highlighted more than 1,500 crime, mystery, and thriller works worth investigating. Some of those (even a few by prominent, best-selling authors) ultimately proved to be disappointing, and many others managed to be diverting and sufficiently satisfying without ever being memorable. However, a much smaller number of novels in this genre not only caught our attention, but held it—and we went on to recommend them to fellow readers.

Admittedly, we had neither the time nor manpower to tackle and judge every newly published title that drew our eyes. So we won’t maintain that our preferences represent the incontestable “best” of new crime, mystery, and thriller releases on offer in 2019. Yet we think they’re as valid as anyone else’s, and certainly worth sharing. So below, four regular Rap Sheet contributors present their favorite discoveries in this genre from the last twelvemonth. Each critic has briefly reviewed one novel of particular merit, and thereafter listed several additional choices they found to be outstanding. Almost all of the titles mentioned here first appeared in bookstores during 2019. And except where noted, the publishers mentioned are American.

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Kevin Burton Smith is the Montreal-born founder and editor of that essential 21-year-old resource, The (New) Thrilling Detective Web Site, as well as the Web Monkey for The Private Eye Writers of America and a contributing editor of Mystery Scene. He lives in Southern California’s High Desert region, where he’s still working on a non-fiction book about married detective couples with his wife, mystery author D.L. Browne (aka Diana Killian and Josh Lanyon).

• Save Me from Dangerous Men, by S.A. Lelchuk (Flatiron):

Is there anyone out there who’s actually for violence against women? If so, please leave the room. But how about violence by women?

It’s a hot-button topic these days, in some crime-fiction circles. I guess we can blame it all on Lisbeth Salander (star of the best-selling The Girl Who Tattooed “Rapist” on a Dude series), arguably the first modern-era heroine to lay a little hands-on justice on a man who just doesn’t get it. But author Stieg Larsson was a dude himself, so does that even count? Since then, though, there have been several female protagonists, all delivering their own versions of rough justice, utilizing everything from judo chops and brass knuckles to carving knives, on deserving male members of the species (and sometimes on the members of those members). A swift kick to the balls is also quite popular.

Which brings us to troubled private investigator/avenger Nikki Griffin, created by the gender-neutral (but revealed to be male) S.A. Lelchuk, cast by some as the perfect vigilante hero for the #MeToo age. Her powerful, if at times disturbing debut comes in Save Me from Dangerous Men, a ballsy mash-up of agitprop and vengeance porn; a cautionary tale (or cheap thrill read) full of sadistic, abusive men (Boo! Hiss!), with a violent, possibly unbalanced woman who often makes Ms. Salander (slyly name-checked several times) look like a pillar of mental stability (Hip-Hip-Hooray?).

“I’m not some psycho. There are people in this world who need help,” Nikki says, but her firm proclamation of sanity would go over better if it wasn’t in response to a question asked by her court-ordered therapist. Nonetheless, it’s moments like these, plus Nikki’s own self-doubts, that suggest both she and her creator may have many more depths yet to plumb.

So is this tale a socially sensitive call-to-arms, or opportunistic ca-ching? Or both? I’ve read plenty of books this year, and possibly better ones, but Save Me’s the one that really begs a sequel. And answers.

Other 2019 Favorites: Bellini and the Sphinx, by Tony Bellotto (Akashic); The Bitterest Pill, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Putnam); The Butterfly Girl, by Rene Denfield (Harper); Metropolis, by Philip Kerr (Putnam); A Time to Scatter Stones, by Lawrence Block (Subterranean); and Your House Will Pay, by Steph Cha, (Ecco).

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Ali Karim is The Rap Sheet’s longtime British correspondent, a contributing editor of January Magazine, and the assistant editor of Shots. In addition, he writes for Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, Crimespree, and Mystery Readers International.

• Cari Mora, by Thomas Harris (Grand Central):

Like his 1975 debut, Black Sunday, Harris’ sixth novel is a standalone, so does not feature his singular character, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Instead, Cari Mora offers a furtive glance into something considerably worse: the very best, and the very worst of the people and monsters that surround us. And at both extremes, they wear our skin.

We are introduced here not only to tall, hairless, and sadistic criminal Hans-Peter Schneider (an ex-medical student, who’d been “asked to leave on ethical grounds”), but also to those clients he provides with unspeakable entertainment and horrific services—namely, the mysterious Mr. Gnis of Mauritania and Mr. Imran (both of whom remain mostly off-stage, or are mentioned only in dispatches). When we do see Mr. Imran, he’s accompanied by a burly bodyguard, one who keeps his distance and wears “archery armguards” under his tailored suits. (Schneider remarks at one point that “Mr. Imran was a biter.”)

Brought into this tale, too, is Jesus Villarreal, a dying man in Colombia who knows about some $25 million in gold bars—a secret legacy of the late drug lord Pablo Escobar—concealed in a Miami Beach residence. Villarreal needs to provide for his family, so in exchange for help, he tells the story of that gold to Schneider, but also to Don Ernesto, the head of a Colombian crime syndicate. And he warns both men that those riches are locked in a solid steel safe, booby-trapped with plastic explosives.

Now enter the eponymous Caridad “Cari” Mora, a young South American woman, clinging to her life in Miami by the thread of a precarious immigration status. A former kidnapped child-soldier, she managed to survive (and escape) the clutches of a ruthless militia, but not without “scars on her arms. Truly,” writes Harris, “they are only snaky lines on her clear brown-gold skin. The scars are more exotic than disfiguring. Like cave paintings of wavy snakes. Experience decorates us.”

Apart from the gold, Hans-Peter Schneider also wishes to capture the lovely Ms. Mora, for he has designs, unspeakable desires that are detailed on a sketch pad, and have been shared with Mr. Gnis and Mr. Imran. And there hangs this tale, a cat-and-mouse game between the Colombian criminals and the creepy Schneider.

Cari Mora lends credence to the axiom that “less is more” when a narrative is in the hands of a master. Judiciously edited, this extraordinary novel puts Harris’ ability to craft truly nightmarish villains on full and frightening display.

Other 2019 Favorites: Elevator Pitch, by Linwood Barclay (Morrow); My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic UK); No Mercy, by Martina Cole (Headline UK); The Warehouse, by Rob Hart (Crown); and The Whisper Man, by Alex North (Celadon). Plus, from the non-fiction shelves—Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide, by Barry Forshaw (Oldcastle UK).

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Jim Napier is a crime-fiction critic based in Quebec, Canada. Since 2005, his reviews and interviews have appeared in several Canadian newspapers and on various crime-fiction and literary Web sites, including January Magazine and his own award-winning review site, Deadly Diversions. His debut crime novel, Legacy, was published in the spring of 2017, and the second book in that series, Ridley’s War, is scheduled for release in the spring of 2020.

• Night Watch, by David C. Taylor (Severn House):

On a September morning in 1956, Detective Michael Cassidy (NightLife, Night Work) is having his share of problems. He’s suffering from nightmares dating back to the Second World War, and to make matters worse, someone is trying to kill him—but not before tormenting him first. Cassidy discusses the threat with his police partner, Tony Orso, over breakfast, but they realize they have nothing to go on: it’s just a matter of wait and see.

So Cassidy continues doing the work for which he’s paid, and it’s not long before the cauldron that is New York City spits out a new case to capture his attention. On the southern fringes of Central Park, near Columbus Circle, a corpse has been discovered in the early morning mist. It’s the body of a middle-aged man, and he has been murdered. Although at first glance it seems like a simple mugging—the victim’s wallet is missing—the autopsy reveals that he’s been stabbed in the skull, an extremely thin, sharp blade having penetrated his brain not once, but several times. On the face of it, the victim is an unlikely target, an immigrant who takes tourists around Central Park in his carriage. Not a wealthy man, then. Cassidy is handed the case … and his investigation will lead him to a complex conspiracy involving people in the highest echelons of political power, endangering his own life and the lives of those around him.

David Taylor’s writing is simply superb, deftly capturing the noir atmosphere of postwar Manhattan, and sweeping the reader through the story line until the final page. And it’s not all plot—the atmosphere is gripping, too:

Cassidy hated the night watch. The worst of people seeped out during the night. They did things they would not do in daylight, as if darkness could hide their actions: children were thrown against the wall for not finishing dinner, women were beaten for changing the channel, rapists and muggers, stick-up artists, the perverted, and the weird, they all slid out of the shadows looking for prey. Cassidy remembered the magazine photographs of zebras and antelope gathered around a waterhole at night. The flash revealed the glowing eyes of predators waiting in the bushes—New York City after midnight.

Hammett and Chandler would have been well pleased. Readers seeking a compelling, finely honed series that is rooted in history and perfectly captures the immediacy of those deceptively placid times simply cannot do better than to grab this novel.

Other 2019 Favorites: Broken Ground, by Val McDermid (Atlantic Monthly Press); One False Move, by Robert Goddard (Bantam Press UK); Run Away, by Harlan Coben (Grand Central); and The Stranger Diaries, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

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J. Kingston Pierce wears more hats than his head can firmly hold. He is the editor of both The Rap Sheet and Killer Covers, the senior editor of January Magazine, a contributing editor of CrimeReads, and a columnist with Down & Out: The Magazine.

• Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle UK):

It’s the summer of 1781, and a young man is found hanging cruelly from a hook at Deptford Dock, on the River Thames east of London, his body displaying signs of torture and the brand of an Atlantic slave trader. Not long afterward, a widow named Amelia Bradstreet calls at the townhouse of Captain Henry Corsham, an aspiring politician and hero of Britain’s unsuccessful wars to hold onto its American colonies. She is the disgraced sister of Thaddeus “Tad” Archer, a barrister and fervent anti-slavery campaigner who was once Corsham’s closest friend. It seems Tad disappeared after traveling recently to Deptford, a town notorious for its role in the highly remunerative commerce involving African bondservants, and Amelia wants Corsham to go in search of him. She’s particularly concerned, because her sibling had told her before heading off that he’d discovered a secret capable of finally destroy the slave trade.

Not surprisingly, that Deptford lynchee was Tad, and his slaying provokes Corsham to begin searching for the killers. In order to succeed, the captain must reconstruct his old chum’s investigation into an appalling incident on board a trans-Atlantic slave ship. This leads him, further, to clash with men—wealthy, powerful, ruthless—who will do anything, conspire in any way necessary to perpetuate the selling of human flesh. Assailed by threats and alarmed by the spread of death in his wake, Corsham pursues the truth in Tad’s stead, despite it endangering his life, his family’s stability, and his prospects as a future member of Parliament; and despite fears that it will force him to reckon with a secret from his own past that he’d prefer remain concealed.

Although this is Shepherd-Robinson’s first novel, Blood & Sugar is extraordinarily sophisticated in its plot construction and most confidently written. Her portrayal of Georgian England, both its wealthy and wanton extremes, is deftly and convincingly executed (I can only imagine how many history books she must have enlisted in this endeavor!). Her characters are provided with full, sometimes surprising, dimensions. And she hesitates not for a moment to display the moral depravities of the slave trade in all their rawness. Let’s hope Shepherd-Robinson has a sequel in the works.

Other 2019 Favorites: The Darwin Affair, by Tim Mason (Algonquin); Lady in the Lake, by Laura Lippman (Morrow); Metropolis, by Philip Kerr (Putnam); and The Wolf and the Watchman, by Niklas Natt och Dag (Atria). Plus, from the non-fiction shelves—The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

A Capital Beginning

(Above) Robert Harris signs copies of The Second Sleep.

By Ali Karim
It was a brave decision by thriller writer Adam Hamdy (Pendulum, Aftershock) and his partner, literary agent and bookseller David Headley, to inaugurate a new annual convention showcasing the crime/thriller genre in the British capital: Capital Crime, which took place from September 26 to 28.

For one thing, there’s already a good deal of competition from more well-established events. Those include CrimeFest (Bristol, England), the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (Harrogate), and Bloody Scotland (Stirling, Scotland), as well as smaller, regional conferences such as the St. Hilda’s College Crime Fiction Weekend (Oxford), Bute Noir (Rothesay), the Noirwich Crime Writing Festival, the NOIRELAND International Crime Fiction Festival (Belfast, Ireland), Morecambe & Vice, Deal Noir, and Newcastle Noir.

Secondly, mounting a book festival/convention is no task for the timid. I know from my long association with America’s annual Bouchercon (which included my work as programming chair for 2015’s conference in Raleigh, North Carolina) just how much courage, stamina, and resolve it takes to put together such an event. As one U.S. colleague characterized the management of such a diversified affair, “It’s like herding cats.”

(Left) David Headley
and Adam Hamdy

Of course, Hamdy and Headley enjoyed several advantages. For one, their event was to be hosted in the nation’s capital, the center for British publishing, so they had an expansive local pool of talent from which to draw. They had also assembled a strong management team, with professional event organizer Lizzie Curle being backed up by a solid squad of volunteers. Finally, the pair gained good sponsorship agreements, an excellent venue—the Grand Connaught Rooms in London’s West End—and a veritable who’s who of speakers and attendees. Mention should also be made of activity behind the scenes by London’s Midas PR Agency and Tribe PR, supported by Covent Garden-based Goldsboro Books, which set up a bookstore adjacent to the festival’s signing tables.

The key to success in this venture would be to deliver exciting, informative panel discussions capable of attracting a wide range of crime- and thriller-fiction readers. Well, I am glad to say that the two-day array of such panels exceeded the expectations of even the most battle-hardened genre fans. Those panels ran on two parallel tracks, filling both the Grand Connaught’s Grand Room (which seats approximately 700 people) and the Edinburgh Suite (with space for maybe 400 more). The panel events hit all of the subgenres, from espionage, legal, Nordic/Scandinavian, and forensics to true crime, social commentary, Golden Age, contemporary, weird/fantasy crossovers, and historicals. In addition, the schedule offered sessions on the craft of fiction writing (for both the page and screen), a quiz, and a showing of director Steve McQueen’s 2018 heist film, Widows, based on a 1983 UK TV series of that same name.

There were plenty of big-name authors taking part, among them Ian Rankin, Robert Harris, Martina Cole, David Baldacci, Peter James, Lynda La Plante, Charles Cumming, Don Winslow, Kate Atkinson, last year’s Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Gold Dagger award winner, Steve Cavanagh, and 2019 CWA Diamond Dagger recipient Robert Goddard. Karen Sullivan from Orenda Books, one of this year’s nominees for the CWA Dagger for Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year, hosted a lively and most amusing session called “Chilled to the Bone,” focusing on Scandi Noir, with authors Ragnar Jónasson, Will Dean, Antti Tuomainen, and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. John Connolly’s career retrospective proved to be as entertaining as it was insightful, while legal professional (and Shotsmag Confidential blogger) Ayo Onatade talked about making the shift from practicing law to crime writing with attorneys Tony Kent, Imran Mahmood, Harriet Tyce, and the aforementioned Steve Cavanagh.

Kate Atkinson with her latest novel, Big Sky.

Keynote events, such as K.J. Howe’s interview with David Baldacci, my own back-and-forth with Martina Cole (during which we considered London’s appeal as a backdrop for crime novels and thrillers), and former Brighton chief superintendent Graham Bartlett’s grilling of Mark Billingham were all well-attended. The deliberate international scope of these proceedings was emphasized by an excellent showcased conversation between Scotsman Ian Rankin and California wordsmith Don Winslow. During a panel talk led by L.C. “Len” Tyler, Sophie Hannah, Ruth Ware, Christopher Fowler, and John Curran discussed the enduring importance of Agatha Christie. And Daily Telegraph books critic Jake Kerridge managed to persuade prominent novelists Robert Harris and Kate Atkinson to deliver short readings from their works as he interviewed them.

Worthy of applause, too, were a session that found Adam Handy and novelist Anthony Horowitz (The Sentence Is Death, Forever and a Day) discussing the genesis of story ideas and how one goes about wrestling them onto blank pages; and a Friday talk on the matter of modern technology’s impact on espionage thrillers, featuring Dame Stella Rimington, Charles Cumming, and Frank Gardner.

To mark its Saturday evening closing, this inaugural Capital Crime convention scheduled the presentation of its 2019 Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, in nine categories. The winners are here.

If you weren’t fortunate enough to take part in this three-day London affair, I hope the photographs embedded above and below will provide you with at least some idea of its diversity and delights.



Adam Hamdy welcomes attendees to Capital Crime, while David Headley announces the winner of the inaugural New Voices Award: Ashley Harrison, for her book, The Dysconnect.

It was little surprise that Capital Crime attracted many London journalists and broadcasters, among them Jon Coates of the Sunday Express, shown above chatting with Martina Cole.

British author Peter James almost disappears behind stacked copies of his newest work, The Secret of Cold Hill, the “spine-tingling follow-up” to 2015’s The House on Cold Hill.

British spy-fictionist Charles Cumming (The Moroccan Girl) spends a few minutes with Kimberley “K.J.” Howe, author (Skyjack) and executive director of ThrillerFest.

Goldsboro Books set up a well-stocked bookstore not far from this festival’s signing tables for authors.

Gold Dagger award winner Steve Cavanagh strikes a pose with Ayo Onatade, a contributor to Shots and the head of judicial support to the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

On Friday afternoon, BBC reporter Chi Chi Izundu conducted an onstage interview with writing heavyweights Ian Rankin and Don Winslow, covering the subject “The Human Cost of Crime.”

Authors on the Air Radio host Pam Stack (center) interviews UK critic-author Barry Forshaw (Historical Noir, Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide) and The Rap Sheet’s chief British correspondent, Ali Karim. You can listen to their very fun exchange here.

Publisher Pan Macmillan provided complimentary coffee to convention participants throughout the weekend. “This treat should not be underestimated,” enthuses Ali Karim, “as the quality of coffee was excellent, and the flasks were kept re-filled.” He goes on to say, “this beverage … was indeed truly life-affirming,” and a fine lead-in to glasses of gin ordered up as day turned to evening.

Speaking of caffeinated refreshments, here we see UK crime novelist Sarah Hilary (Never Be Broken) sharing a cup of said stuff with Vicki Mellor, the publishing director of Pan Macmillan’s commercial fiction team.

“Top-ranking barrister”-turned-novelist Tony Kent (Killer Intent) manages to spend at least some time on London’s streets with fellow author Alex North (The Whisper Man).

I am pleased to report that the same team behind this year’s conference will be responsible for its second presentation, in 2020. I look forward to heading back to the Big Smoke to see whether that sophomore Capital Crime can surpass this year’s event.

(Photographs © 2019 Ali Karim)

Most Deserved Recognition

Congratulations to Rap Sheet correspondent Ali Karim, who has been selected as Fan Guest of Honor for Bouchercon 2021. Like Bouchercon 2016, this forthcoming convention is scheduled to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, and chaired by author Heather Graham with her colleague, Connie Perry. It will run from August 25 to 29, 2021.

I haven’t yet decided whether to attend this year’s Bouchercon, in Dallas, Texas, or next year’s gathering, in Sacramento, California, so the 2021 event wasn’t even on my radar. But the fact that my good friend Ali—a former Bouchercon board member and major crime-fiction enthusiast—will be at the New Orleans gathering convinces me I should take part, too. He and I had a swell time together in the Crescent City three years ago; and while there’s no guarantee that things will be as fun a second time around, I’m pretty optimistic about it.

Oh, and if you’re interested to know who else, besides Ali, is slated for praise at Bouchercon 2021, note that Steve Berry will be the Thriller Guest of Honor, Craig Johnson will be the American Guest of Honor, Jo Nesbø will be the International Guest of Honor, and Sandra Brown is set to receive that year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Favorite Crime Fiction of 2018, Part IV: Ali Karim

Ali Karim is The Rap Sheet’s longtime British correspondent, a contributing editor of January Magazine, and the assistant editor of Shots. In addition, he writes for Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, Crimespree, and Mystery Readers International.

• Gallows Court, by Martin Edwards (Head of Zeus):
Don’t let the early 20th-century backdrop fool you: this yarn from Crime Writers Association (CWA) chair Martin Edwards isn’t the comforting historical novel suggested by its cover. In fact, Gallows Court is a thriller that explores—with a contemporary eye—the darkest elements of human nature. Its narrative starts with a terse diary entry from 1919, written by a girl living on a remote island in the Irish Sea, recording the loss of her parents, allegedly killed by the Spanish flu. But little is as it seems in the journal excerpts peppered throughout this novel—and that includes Rachel Savernake, a brilliantly enigmatic figure who becomes central to the diarist’s continuing entries. Now jump ahead to London in 1930, where we are introduced to young and ambitious reporter Jacob Flint. He works for the Clarion newspaper, and has been promoted to head the crime desk after his chief is—much to Flint’s shock, though also to his career benefit—hurt in a Pall Mall-area automobile accident. There has recently been a series of murders in the city, terrible crimes delivering sometimes karmic justice, and Flint leaps upon that story. Integral to it may be the aforementioned Rachel Savernake, the well-heeled daughter of a notorious hanging judge (“Savernake of the Scaffold”), who’s established herself as an altogether sagacious amateur crime solver—though she’s often found a little too near her chosen quarry. Flint’s trajectory soon leads him into close contact with Savernake, like a moth drawn to the luminosity of a flame. His investigation links him as well to an innocent-seeming illusionist, who has attracted his eye and may be in need of his protection, and to a mysterious gentlemen’s club housed in the Gallows Court of Edwards’ title. Although this author (known for his Harry Devlin legal thrillers, as well as his Lake District mysteries) has long delivered thought-provoking, evocative fiction, little prepares the reader for the suspense or grim revelations this story features. I am delighted to hear from publisher Head of Zeus that Edwards is at work on a follow-up to Gallows Court, which may again find Rachel Savernake at large.

• A Noise Downstairs, by Linwood Barclay (Morrow):
Barclay’s work grows more intriguing with each novel, and A Noise Downstairs is decidedly strange. Protagonist Paul Davis is a college professor with a relatively normal life. One night, though, while he’s wheeling home, he spots a colleague, Kenneth Hoffman, driving erratically, and decides to follow him. When Hoffman finally stops, Davis gets out to lend assistance—only to discover his fellow academic extracting the bodies of two deceased women from his trunk. A struggle ensues, during which Davis is struck in the head with a shovel. Hoffman is subsequently apprehended and incarcerated, while Davis ends up in the hospital. Even after his release, Davis isn’t OK. He battles post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and memory problems, and has trouble at work. In an effort to exorcise his memories of that awful evening, and with his therapist’s acquiescence, Davis decides to research Hoffman’s background as a serial killer. His real-estate agent wife, Charlotte, even buys him an antique Underwood typewriter to encourage his efforts. But things don’t go well. Davis is convinced he hears the typewriter keys clacking away at odd hours of the night, as if the old black machine is possessed. But only he can hear it, and fears he’s losing his mind. He fears, too, that the Underwood may once have belonged to a murderer who forced his victims to type apologies to him before he took their lives. As in all of Barclay’s stories, it’s the characters—Hoffman, Davis’ ex-wife, and his therapist, among them—who bring the mystery to life in A Noise Downstairs. You cannot trust all you see, or in this case hear, as this story rushes toward its truly unexpected denouement.

• Skyjack, by K.J. Howe (Quercus):
Kimberly Howe’s full-throttle follow-up to 2017’s The Freedom Broker finds the resourceful Thea Paris, a kidnap and ransom expert with Quantum Security International, on her way back to London. With her are her colleague, Rif Asker, and a couple of traumatized orphan brothers turned child-soldiers, who are scheduled to be placed with adoptive parents. Despite her issues with heights, Thea and her team think they have everything pretty much in hand—until the charter jet they’re riding in is hijacked by the pilot (who locks his cockpit) and rerouted to the Libyan desert. Howe—who’s the executive director of International Thriller Writers (ITW), in addition to being a novelist—offers little baggage here in the way of back story, instead crafting this adventure as if it were a standalone. Only after the plane touches down does Thea realize who’s behind their detour: Prospero Salvatore, a character without whom she’s had previous dealings. He tells Thea that before he will turn the plane and its passengers loose, the Quantum team must go to Budapest and engage in a deeply troubling mission to nab a truckload of Syrian refugees. The reason for this demand is not initially clear, but it apparently relates to a secret society in Austria, led by the father of one Johann Dietrich, that is determined to rid the world of anyone with a Middle Eastern heritage. In terms of theme, Skyjack reminds me of another sophomore work, Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File (1972), in which secret societies that date from our past hide in the shadows of contemporary times. Anxiety and action are Skyjack’s driving forces, but Howe also introduces engaging characters, especially Johann Dietrich, who is torn between his girlfriend, Fatima Abboud, and his hate-filled father. Howe has crafted an excellent read for anyone, except perhaps passengers looking to relax on Middle East-bound flights.

• Thirteen, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion):
This fourth and latest of Cavanagh’s legal thrillers (following 2017’s The Lair)—once more starring con man-turned-attorney Eddie Flynn—may also be his most surreal, boasting the most intriguing premise for a courtroom drama that I’ve read in some while. The tale commences with Flynn becoming involved in the defense of Bobby Solomon, a young Hollywood star accused of killing his wife, Ariella Bloom, and his security man, Carl Tozier. The pair were found naked on a bed in Solomon’s New York City apartment, and evidence seems to single out Solomon as their slayer. At first, Flynn is skeptical about taking part in this case; but a piece of evidence makes him wonder whether Solomon is in fact innocent. The yarn’s point of view alternates between Flynn, who works his contacts in the courtroom and local law enforcement, and the actual murderer … who contrives to win a place for himself on Solomon’s jury of 12. How he achieves that is remarkably imaginative and elegantly woven into the narrative. There are abundant tense and suspenseful moments in Thirteen that will have readers reaching for the Xanax, but also some welcome dark wit. And Cavanagh’s exploration of the mind of a psychopath brings out human dimensions that lesser fictionists might never have found. By all rights, this should be Irish lawyer-turned-crime writer Steve Cavanaugh’s breakthrough novel, a blindingly fast read that I guarantee will linger in memory longer than most thrillers. A U.S. edition of Thirteen is due for release this coming August.

• Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke (Mulholland):
Yes, I know most people enjoyed this novel when it was first published last year, but I didn’t get around to it until 2018. Locke’s extraordinary book, her fourth after Pleasantville (2015), follows Ian Fleming’s recipe for a best-seller: “you simply have to turn the page.” Yet it also forces the reader to think deeply about the world—what’s changed, and what demonstrably has not. The story’s pivot is Darren Matthews, a Texas Ranger and law-school dropout who’s battling demons both in his marriage and at the bottom of liquor bottles. While on suspension from his job—the result of irregularities in a case involving a murdered member of the racist group ABT (Aryan Brotherhood of Texas)—he’s convinced to help investigate a couple of slayings in the small East Texas town of Lark (population 178). The corpses of Chicago attorney Michael Wright and a local waitress, Missy Dale, have been pulled free from a bayou. Wright was African American, while Dale was white, immediately raising suspicions that these atrocities were racially motivated. Matthews comes to the aid of Wright’s estranged wife, placing him on the wrong side of some influential people in Lark and forcing him to examine the bigotry that still simmers under some corners of American society and today claims a voice in the Oval Office. Locke employs the familiar trappings of thriller fiction to offer social commentary, but she takes care not to turn Bluebird, Bluebird into a diatribe against modern racism. Like Sidney Poitier in the big-screen version of John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night, Darren Matthews’ presence in Lark is far from welcome. Local ranks close tightly against him as long-concealed secrets threaten to reveal themselves. The story’s pace is measured, as powers-that-be seek to avoid accepting a racial motive for the killings. In the end, Bluebird, Bluebird disturbs at the same time it entertains. That combination has proved to be more than a little powerful, winning Locke’s book the CWA’s 2018 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger as well as the Anthony Award and Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year.

High Times in Harrogate

(Left to right) Stav Sherez, the winner of the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for his book The Intrusions, teams with Rap Sheet correspondent Ali Karim to welcome conventioneers to the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate.

Anybody who subscribes to Ali Karim’s Facebook page knows that, when he’s attending a crime-fiction festival—either in the States or Great Britain—he’s a fiend for photography. I’ve rarely seen anyone but a professional shooter take so many pictures during an event, with so many of them being a bit off kilter. (There must be some stylistic intent there, I just haven’t figured it out. Or maybe the slanted view results from Ali packing along too much medicinal gin.)

Naturally, The Rap Sheet’s chief UK correspondent was on hand for the recent Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, held from July 19 to 22 in Harrogate, England. The photos he snapped there include candids of authors and agents, along with shots of awards events, publisher parties, trivia quiz competitions, books he collected during the convention, and of course, photos of him clowning it up with his usual companions, Shots editor Mike Stotter and American copy editor/blogger Peter Rozovsky.

I won’t attempt to compile here all of the images Ali posted on Facebook: I don’t think I can write that many captions! But below, you will find more than a dozen that suggest the diversity and delights enjoyed by participants at this year’s Harrogate festival.


American authors Laura Lippman and Gregg Hurwitz.

Good and appropriate advice from a lineup of Harrogate International Festivals team members, including—just to the right of the “A”—chief executive Sharon Canavar.

Daily Mirror books critic Deirdre O'Brien takes a moment with one of the authors on her radar, Steve Mosby (You Can Run).

Even a bit of rain couldn’t spoil the high spirits of this event.

When the lurid meets the literary: Ali Karim with South African-born British poet and literary agent Isobel Dixon.

Now here’s an intimidating bunch: authors Martyn Waites, Steve Cavanaugh, Luca Veste, and Stuart Neville.

Jon Coates, deputy news editor of the Sunday Express, chats with thriller writer Simon Kernick (The Hanged Man).

A little beer, a little camaraderie—what’s not to like? Will Dean (Dark Pines), Ruth Ware (The Death of Mrs. Westaway), and Abir Mukherjee (A Necessary Evil, Smoke and Ashes).

Wherever wordsmiths gathered, Ali’s camera was soon to follow. Here we see novelists Lloyd Otis (Dead Lands), Linwood Barclay (A Noise Downstairs), and Alafair Burke (The Wife), together with bloggers Craig Sisterson (Crime Watch) and Peter Rozovsky (Detectives Beyond Borders).

Ali was more than moderately enthusiastic about meeting American Joseph Kanon (Defectors) at this year’s festival. As he wrote on Facebook, “Joe Kanon is a helluva bloke, apart from being an extraordinary writer—truly liberal and currently horrified and embarrassed by the Trump regime. [We spent] a memorable afternoon with his anecdotes—just wonderful.” The photo shows (left to right) Jon Coates, Ali, Mike Stotter, and Kanon himself.

Ali’s caption for this shot: “Lee Child [center] discusses the exit strategy with his security team of Mike Stotter and Ali Karim.”

Vengeance in Mind author Daphne Wright (aka N.J. Cooper) with Nigerian writer Leye Adenle (When Trouble Sleeps).

Stotter catches up with Mick Herron, the winner of CrimeFest’s 2018 Last Laugh Award for Spook Street.

Shari Lapena, a former lawyer and English teacher, introduces Ali to her brand-new thriller, An Unwanted Guest.

Smile pretty for the camera, folks! Mark Billingham (The Killing Habit) with Kimberley “K.J.” Howe (Skyjack).

(All photos in this post copyright © Ali Karim 2018.)

READ MORE: “Harrogate 2018—a Little Bit Different,” by Catherine Turnbull (Crime Fiction Lover).

Getting a Cluedo About CrimeFest

Author and former Crime Writers’ Association chair Alison Joseph returns to CrimeFest in company with novelist Lee Child.

(Editor’s note: My apologies for the fact that this wrap-up of CrimeFest 2018—held from May 17 through 20—is only now appearing. The Rap Sheet’s chief UK correspondent, Ali Karim, sent it to me during my vacation last month, and I’ve been swamped with work ever since. Only this week was I able to clear enough time in my schedule to finish editing Ali’s fine post. I hope you enjoy it.)

By Ali Karim
It was wonderful to help celebrate CrimeFest’s 10th convention recently. We were treated in the tourist-friendly town of Bristol, England, not only to glorious weather, but to an eclectic assortment of events ideal for devotees of the crime-fiction genre.

For the sake of precision, I should probably make clear that this was actually the 11th Bristol-based conference mounted by Adrian Muller, Myles Alfrey, Liz Hatherell, Donna Moore, and the rest of their team. CrimeFest’s roots date back to 2006, when Left Coast Crime was held on this side of the pond. That event enjoyed strong backing from the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) and the then-fledgling International Thriller Writers (ITW). And just two years later—time enough to recover and regroup—Muller, Alfrey, and company decided to launch an annual gathering of their own, again in historic Bristol (an apt location, considering it was the birthplace of thriller writer Geoffrey Household, he of Rogue Male and Watcher in the Shadows fame).

In any case, Shots editor Mike Stotter and I—having both been extremely busy of late—weren’t about to miss this opportunity to mingle with fellow readers and with published authors of varying renown. We looked forward, as well, to seeing our colleague, columnist Mike Ripley (aka the Talented Mr. Ripley), who was once more returning to the convention with his “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Cluedo” panel quiz, scheduled to close out the festivities. Sadly, Shots’ Ayo Onatade was unable to attend, as she was gearing up for this fall’s Bouchercon in Florida, during which she will be fêted as Fan Guest of Honor.

Thursday, May 17
After first checking in at the convention hotel (the historic Bristol Marriott Royal), Stotter and I reviewed the weekend’s abundant panel-discussion offerings. As someone who created the programming for another such convention (Bouchercon 2015, in Raleigh, North Carolina), I know how hard that task is—definitely not for the faint of heart. And I must say that Donna Moore’s panel arrangements were top-notch and wonderfully diverse, with something of interest for every fan of the genre. The success of her efforts may very well have been reflected in the extraordinary attendance at this year’s CrimeFest and the fact that there were so many new faces in the crowd.


Felix Francis, the author son of jockey-turned-novelist Dick Francis, seated with British suspense writer “Susan Moody” (aka Susan Elizabeth Horwood).

Just a couple of friendly historical mystery-makers hanging around: Andrew Taylor (The Fire Court) and “Tom Harper” (aka Edwin Thomas, author of Black River).

Jeffery Deaver with Hodder Books publisher Ruth Tross.

One potential problem this time around was the hotel’s renovations program in progress. Concern over noise and construction hassles had left conference organizers with huge anxieties. But as it turned out, the CrimeFest folks and hotel managers succeeded in keeping disruptions to a minimum. In fact, if you drank enough gin—as I felt compelled to do—there were no obvious problems whatsoever.

Thursday’s panel load was relatively light, but nonetheless satisfying. It included the introduction of debut authors (led by The Sunday Times’ Karen Robinson), an exchange on “Crime Through the Millennia” (moderated by novelist Antonia Hodgson), and a discussion about “forgotten writers” such as Adam Hall, Pamela Branch, and Winston Graham. (CWA chair Martin Edwards managed that last panel, and was joined by John Lawton, Chris Curran, Christine Poulson, Sarah Ward, and Nick Triplow.) Those “forgotten writers” discourses are always quite popular at CrimeFest (as they are too at Bouchercon), and I can’t help but smile when I see younger readers in the audience: there are so many decades-worth of excellent crime, mystery, and thriller fiction they have yet to discover. And so many books still to be published, as the crime-fiction field appears to be in rude health, compared with some other publishing genres.

Quicker than expected, it was time for that evening’s concluding event: the annual CrimeFest Quiz. Fez-wearing writer Peter Guttridge and Burt Bacharach impersonator Adrian Muller were charged with keeping this competition under control. Authors Susan Moody, Felix Francis, and Maxim Jakubowski were among those who joined Stotter and me on what we figured was a victory-bound team. However, our valiant efforts at answering obscure literary questions weren’t sufficient to overcome the challenge posed by Martin Edwards and his teammates: Sarah Ward, Karen Meek, Priscilla Masters, Kate Ellis, Christina Poulson, and Mike Linane. Our energy and knowledge finally sapped, we congratulated the champs and then retreated to the bar, where we fell easily into the sorts of conversations so familiar to crime-fiction fans—about books that have made us think about life and death and the absurdity of existence.


Beware of criminal connivers in the hallway! The line-up, left to right: writer and current CWA chair Martin Edwards; authors Jeffrey Siger and Charles Todd; longtime Bouchercon board member David Magayna; and Shots editor Mike Stotter.

Frequent convention-goers Bill and Toby Gottfried.

Andrew Taylor with John Harvey (Body and Soul).

Friday, May 18
This was a particularly busy day, panel-wise. Karen Robinson acquainted her listeners with a new set of debut authors (among them Felicia Yap, T.A. Cotterell, and Olivia Kiernan) … former CWA chair and moderator Alison Joseph dissected crime-fiction subgenres … Jeffery Deaver led a discussion about the “special (dis)abilities” of some fictional protagonists … Ruth Dudley-Edwards and her guests (C.J. Carver, Elly Griffiths, Johana Gustawson, and Priscilla Masters) addressed the matter of detectives duos … Caroline Todd conducted a round table titled “Crime in Time of War” … Jeffrey Siger rode herd on writers tackling the subject of “Power, Corruption and Greed: Just Another Day at the Office” … and that was all before lunch!

A quick sandwich, washed down with gin, and I was ready to tackle that afternoon’s hectic schedule, which included: moderator Kat Hall exploring the topic of German crime fiction with Oliver Bottini, Simone Bucholz, Dirk Kurjuweit, and Andreas Phluger; Kevin Wignall managing a spirited debate touted as “Life with the Dull Bits Cut Out,” about penning thriller fiction; a back-and-forth dealing with writing pairs, featuring Charles and Caroline Todd (who produce historical mysteries as “Charles Todd”), as well as Stanley Trollip and Michael Sears (who concoct the Africa-set Detective Kubu series as “Michael Stanley”); and a gathering of Michael J. Malone, Tana Collins, Lesley Kelly, Douglas Lindsay, and Caro Ramsay to chat about this fall’s Bloody Scotland conference (September 21-23). Oh, there was also the launch of the anthology Ten Year Stretch: Celebrating a Decade of Crime Fiction at CrimeFest, with signings by contributors such as Simon Brett, Lee Child, Martin Edwards, and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir.

But for me, Thursday afternoon’s highlight was Maxim Jakubowski’s joint public interview with author John Banville (aka Benjamin Black) and John Simenon, the son of Belgian writer Georges Simenon, whose 75 novels starring French detective Jules Maigret are still in the process of being reissued by Penguin Books—a great treat.

The day’s closing events? The unveiling of the Crime Writers’ Association’s longlisted nominees for the 2018 Dagger Awards (check those out here), and the announcement that Russell Day had won the 2018 Margery Allingham Short Story Competition with his yarn, “The Value of Vermin Control.” Works shortlisted in the Daggers race should be made known in July, with winners to be declared during a special dinner held in London on Thursday, October 25.

From that CWA reception, we hied off to dinner, during which we made a point of toasting the award contenders. And then—at some hazy stage—it was time for bed.

Saturday, May 19
This time, it was The Daily Telegraph’s Jake Kerridge who led off the day with a lineup of debut authors, introducing Alex Dahl, Will Dean, Iain Maitland, Vicky Newham, and Lloyd Otis. Beyond that, Saturday’s panel schedule offered more clashes than a Joe Strummer revival. An attempt to list them all would be tantamount to insanity.

Red-letter events, though, included Kerridge’s center-stage interview with Lee Child and Jeffery Deaver; the standing room-only launch of Barry Forshaw’s Historical Noir and his group debate (featuring Abir Mukherjee, M.J. Carter, and others) over whether historical mysteries can ever be described as “noir”; a presentation on the British Golden Age of Thrillers, featuring Kiss Kiss Bang Bang author Mike Ripley, C.J. Carver, Lee Child, and Zoë Sharp; and Peter Guttridge’s interview with Peter James and Martina Cole. The evening was highlighted by the CrimeFest awards dinner, during which half-a-dozen prizes were handed out, including those for best humorous crime novel and best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction.

Stotter and I joined Guttridge, Maxim Jakubowski and his wife, Delores, for dinner, after which we adjourned to a nearby traveling carnival for fairground rides made all the more exciting by the quantity of drink we’d consumed during our meal.


German fictionist Andreas Phluger (In the Dark).

Mike Ripley, the winner of this year’s H.R.F. Keating Award (for his history of British crime thrillers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) and master-of-ceremonies for “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Cluedo.”

Quiz teammates Andrew Taylor, Lee Child, and Jeffery Deaver, with CrimeFest organizer Myles Alfrey leaning on the far right.

Sunday, May 20
This concluding day of the convention opened a tad early for those of us who were still working off the manifestly debilitating effects of the previous night’s revelry. Panel presentations were few, but significant, with Kerridge again welcoming debut authors (Peter Beck and S.S. Mausoof, among them), and Zoë Sharp leading a talk on the subject of independent publishing.

Saturday’s two principal highlights were Barry Forshaw’s on-stage conversation with former Petrona Award winners Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Gunnar Staalesen, followed 90 minutes later by the convention’s final event, Ripley’s surreal tournament, “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Cluedo.” As I point out in this piece for the Shotsmag Confidential blog, Ripley’s game is another crime-fiction quiz, pitting two teams of three authors against one another. 2018’s face-off found a women’s team led by Ruth Dudley-Edwards (backed up by Alison Bruce and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir) challenged by a male squad captained by Lee Child (and also featuring Andrew Taylor and Jeffery Deaver). The competition was, per usual, friendly and played mostly for laughs (of which there were plenty), as you can see in an eight-part video found at the aforementioned link. Yet it was a comfortable way to end CrimeFest. The close of a gathering such as this can be rather melancholic, for it means that attendees must return to the straight-jackets of their real lives. Scheduling “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Cluedo” at the end sent everyone out the door with a smile on their face.

Still, there was some sadness as this 10th CrimeFest came to a close. Adrian Muller announced that Myles Alfrey and Liz Hatterell have decided—reluctantly, so I understand—to retire from the management team. Muller thanked them vociferously for their years of work to make CrimeFest popular, and those of us assembled to hear the news gave the pair a standing ovation. We all look forward, I’m sure, to hearing what CrimeFest XI will offer in the way of both events and additional organizers.

Next stop: the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, to be held in Harrogate, July 19-22. I hope to see some of you there.

(All photos in this post copyright © Ali Karim 2018.)

Stotter Returns to His Print Roots

Mike Stotter may be best known for his work as editor-in-chief of the crime-fiction Webzine Shots, or else as the Dagger awards liaison officer with the British Crime Writers’ Association. However, he also pens Western thrillers and is the co-publisher of Piccadilly Publishing, an enterprise specializing in reissues of out-of-print Western fiction as well as the release of newly commissioned work.

When I heard that Piccadilly was set to release the first edition of Head West!, a new Western-themed print magazine, I had to smile. The reason? Because Shots, like Head West!, started out as a hardcopy publication, but long ago went digital. Stotter, it seems, has now come full circle as far as his association with periodicals goes.

Anyway, what’s Head West! all about? Here’s the publicity blurb:

The first issue of Piccadilly Publishing's new Western-themed magazine, Head West! contains something for all lovers of the genre! Edited by Ben Bridges, there are interviews by David Whitehead, a feature on creating Piccadilly Publishing covers by artist supreme Tony Masero, a personal take on the Western by Linda Pendleton, a behind-the-scenes look at PP’s first Western movie, Vermijo, by director Paul Vernon, and fiction from the likes of Jake Henry, D.M. McGowan, and M. James Earl. Fully illustrated throughout, this is sure to become a collector’s item!

Get a paperback copy of the Summer 2018 issue by clicking here.

Favorite Crime Fiction of 2017, Part VI: Ali Karim

Ali Karim is The Rap Sheet’s longtime British correspondent, a contributing editor of January Magazine, and the assistant editor of Shots. In addition, he writes for Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine, Crimespree, and Mystery Readers International.

• Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz (Harper):
Anthony Horowitz’s love for the British Golden Age mystery is evident in this intricate homage to Dame Agatha Christie. Reviewers are often on the hunt for something new, something fresh, and Magpie Murders is just that—a most unusual, and almost flawless, take on the classic mystery yarn. Horowitz offers here a “novel within a novel” that, in addition to its plotting strengths, reflects on the state of modern crime-fiction publishing and blends the names of real people (such as his own publicity manager, Angela McMahon) with purely fictional ones. When, in an introduction, literary editor Susan Ryeland acquaints readers with Magpie Murders, the 1950s-set work at the center of this book, around which Horowitz wraps a second mystery, she makes clear that the novel changed her life. The rest of this tale shows us why. Magpie Murders, we soon learn, is best-selling author Alan Conway’s ninth novel starring half-Greek, half-German detective Atticus Pünd, a very Hercule Poirot-like figure. It kicks off with the funeral of one Mary Elizabeth Blakiston, housekeeper to Sir Magnus Pye of Somerset. She apparently tripped over a vacuum cleaner cable and tumbled down a staircase to her death. Or did she? That’s the puzzle facing Pünd, who’s summoned from his London abode to investigate, and for whom this case might be his last—it seems he’s facing a terminal condition of his own, which he has yet to reveal publicly. From editor Ryeland’s perspective, the yarn is rolling smartly along, with mysteries being solved or on their way to resolution, when suddenly author Conway’s manuscript just … ends. The final chapters are missing. Turning sleuth herself, Ryeland sets off to find out what happened to the omitted pages, a challenge made more tricky by the fact that Conway has committed suicide. To figure out who was behind the killings in Magpie Murders, and perhaps also determine why Conway died by his own hand, Ryeland must parse the connections between the author’s life and his final knotty, fictional plot. This book boasts more red herrings than a coastal fishing vessel, a testament to Horowitz’s devious mind. Yet working your way through them is decidedly satisfying. In two words, Magpie Murders is “bloody good.”

• The Saboteur, by Andrew Gross (Minotaur):
After penning a succession of modern “suburban thrillers,” about everyday people suddenly caught up in frightening situations, Andrew Gross shifted gears last year with The One Man, about a near-impossible mission to help a scientist escape from the World War II-era Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland. He followed that up last summer with The Saboteur, another fictionalized recounting of events from the same war, only this time the plot focuses on efforts by clandestine Norwegian subversives to stop Nazi Germany from acquiring heavy water created at a hydro plant in Vemork, Norway—heavy water (deuterium oxide) being a product Adolf Hitler’s cruel regime could have used in its nuclear weapons development. After the Allies fail disastrously in their initial campaign to destroy the remote and heavily fortified Norsk Hydro Ammonia Fertilizer Plant (NH3), they turn for assistance to Leif Tronstad, a scientist who had been engaged in the Norwegian resistance movement before fleeing to England. With the backing of British Special Operations (SOE) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the precursor to today’s CIA), Tronstad helps engineer a second sabotage attempt on the facility, this one led by Kurt Nordstrum. The assignment is spectacularly dangerous, and Nordstrum’s special squad faces a competent foe, Captain Dieter Lund, representing Norway’s post-occupation government and its Nazi puppet dictator, Vidkun Quisling. Lund is a bitter man, who exploits his allegiance to the Nazi conquerors to achieve power and respect he was never able to win as a civilian. While he once attended the same school as Nordstrum, their ideals can hardly be more different. Yes, Lund and Nordstrum hold the leads in this yarn, but the secondary characters are perhaps even more intriguing, with particular applause due Nordstrum’s covert field agents—Ox, Hella, Einar and Alf Larson, along with Austrians Natalie Ritter and her grandfather, cellist August Ritter of the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra. The Saboteur is an elegant and nerve-shredding thriller in the Alistair MacLean tradition, with enough intrigue and action to keep one on the edge of his or her seat. (No wonder that same raid on the Vemork power station inspired a 1965 Kirk Douglas/Richard Harris film, The Heroes of Telemark.)

• The Switch, by Joseph Finder (Dutton):
When Boston coffee company executive Michael Tanner inadvertently picks up the wrong laptop computer while traversing transportation security at Los Angeles International Airport, his life definitely takes a turn for the worse. It appears the machine he mistook for his own actually belongs to powerful U.S. Senator Susan Robbins of Illinois. In most cases, this wouldn’t be a big problem: Tanner could contact authorities and the laptops would be switched back. However, the Mac Tanner walked off with is not only Robbins’ personal one, but in a serious breach of protocol, the politician has downloaded onto it top-secret files concerning a National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program. If her computer should tumble into the wrong hands, it would not only present a severe security risk to the United States (and potentially other countries as well), but scandalously terminate her dreams of being elected to the White House. While Robbins’ chief of staff puts into gear a stop-at-nothing operation to retrieve the senator’s laptop, Tanner’s investigative reporter friend, Lanny Roth, advises him to keep hold of the computer until he can make a deal with the NSA for its return. But Roth’s death soon afterward, disguised as suicide, makes Tanner realize the true dimensions of the danger he’s facing. And not only him, but his family too. This novel’s terse and concise chapters, coupled with a building dread that seeps through its pages, makes The Switch an addictive but anxiety-producing read, laying bare some of the many worrisome downsides of our digital age. If ever a thriller novel deserved to come with a health warning, this is the one.

• The Word Is Murder, by Anthony Horowitz (Century UK):
Wait, another Anthony Horowitz novel makes my top-five list of crime fiction for 2017? Yes, but with good cause. The Word Is Murder is metafiction of a high order, with Horowitz casting himself as a character in his yarn. Here’s the set-up: Diana Cowper is a wealthy 60-year old widow living in modern London, who is found murdered by strangulation only hours after she’d arranged her own funeral. Robbery doesn’t appear to have been a motive for her demise, but there are other incidents in her past—notably, a fraud scheme and an automobile accident that cost a young boy his life—that may provide clues to her fate. Called in by the Metropolitan Police to consult on the investigation is Daniel Hawthorne, a standoffish former Met detective with whom Horowitz has struck a business deal: He’ll write a book about the case and Hawthorne’s involvement in it, and the two men with split the profits 50-50. The trail Hawthorne and Horowitz follow here in hopes of solving Cowper’s homicide is quite curious, with strands reaching Hollywood as well as a seaside resort in Kent, England. The narrative provides grief and misfortune, and there are more than a few suspects worth grilling. If the case wasn’t complicated enough from the outset, it becomes further so when another killing occurs—one that relates to an earlier tragedy poorly understood by police. Although The Word Is Murder is somewhat weird in terms of storytelling structure and the fact that it weaves real people into its plot (among them Horowitz’s publisher, Selina Walker), the novel offers splendid insights into Horowitz’s life as a writer and the publishing business, in general. And the Cowper mystery is solved in fair-play fashion, with Horowitz drawing our attention to its facets with all the precision of a stage magician, pulling back the curtains to expose past misdeeds and twists from the dark edge of human behavior. A U.S. edition of The Word Is Murder is due out in June 2018 from Harper.

Let me leave you with one additional pick, this one plucked from the crime non-fiction shelves …

• Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America’s Greatest Unsolved Murder, by Piu Eatwell (Liveright):
It was 70 years ago—on January 15, 1947—that a dead young brunette was found in a weedy vacant lot in south Los Angeles, her body severely mutilated and drained of blood. The identity of that 22-year-old would soon come to light in the newspapers: Elizabeth Short, though history remembers her best as “The Black Dahlia.” However, the name of her killer remains officially unknown. In the decades since, much has been written about Short’s murder, both in fiction (James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia, Max Allan Collins’ Angel in Black) and non-fiction. And the case continues to pique the public’s imagination, as demonstrated by the widespread interest shown in a book published earlier this year titled Black Dahlia, Red Rose, by Piu Eatwell, a British TV producer and documentary maker. This is a most unusual work, racked on non-fiction shelves yet composed in a novelistic style that adds dramatic flair to its real-life horrors. The research Eatwell did before drafting her text and postulating as to who was behind the tragic destiny of waitress and would-be starlet Short seems extraordinary, and is spelled out in detailed notes, glossaries, an index, and footnotes—all of which might have run against the work’s novelistic structure, but only wind up contributing to the ominous ambiance that overlays her narrative. This is by no means a fast read, but that is perhaps for the best of reasons: one is quickly caught up in Eatwell’s rich re-creation of post-World War II Hollywood, with its beacon summoning misfits from around the country in search of fame, fortune, or love (as was the case with Short). The author frames the Black Dahlia story with observations about the darker side of the American Dream, an ample enumeration of the Los Angeles Police Department’s corruption scandals of that era, and a look back at how local newspapers fueled the public’s appetite for the sordid and the sensational. Doubts have been raised, notably by former L.A. Times editor Larry Harnisch, as to some of this publication’s facts and conclusions. Nonetheless, Eatwell’s attempt to drain the murky mire of mythology surrounding Short’s murder in order to reveal a most likely suspect in her long-ago homicide is commendable. The appeal of Black Dahlia, Red Rose as a story is obvious, yet it must be said that it’s troubling, too. Is it simply part of human nature that we gravitate toward lurid mysteries?