Spring Breakouts

Back in the early days of The Rap Sheet, when things were done around here on a slightly less ambitious scale, we headlined our occasional, short listings of forthcoming crime, mystery, and thriller novels “Reasons to Go on Living” (or some variation of that). The message was pretty obvious: fiction promised new imaginative adventures, new ways to escape the often humdrum routines of human existence. We could hardly wait to see what delights the next batch of books might bring. Over the last half-dozen years, as we’ve assembled regular, seasonal forecasts of what we hope will be the best books to watch for, and have made each of those lists more comprehensive, the headlines atop the posts have broken with the “Reasons to Go on Living” tradition. However, our enthusiasm for fresh additions to the crime-fiction genre has slackened not one jot. During the four times each year we now sit down to catalogue anticipated releases, it’s all we can do to remain focused on the writing, and not detour now and again to “pre-order” works that strike us as enlightening or entertaining.

If you are under the belief that book publishing is declining precipitously, note that there are hundreds and hundreds of brand-new crime and mystery novels due out on both sides of the Atlantic between now and the end of May. From that mass of spring releases, we’ve selected more than 350 that we think deserve special notice—including the 13 that were highlighted in Kirkus Reviews’ latest Mysteries and Thrillers column.

In March alone, Americans can expect to witness the arrival of The Considerate Killer, the final novel in the Nina Borg series by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis; Philip Kerr’s The Other Side of Silence, the 11th of his Bernie Gunther historical thrillers; The Eloquence of the Dead, Irish former newspaper editor Conor Brady’s sequel to last year’s brilliant whodunit, A June of Ordinary Murders; Linwood Barclay’s Far From True, the second installment in his Promise Falls Trilogy; M.J. Carter’s The Infidel Stain, featuring Victorian-era investigators William Avery and Jeremiah Blake; and Adrian McKinty’s fifth case for Belfast sleuth Sean Duffy, Rain Dogs. Meanwhile, British readers should look forward to Swedish author Camilla Läckberg’s The Ice Child, her ninth psychological thriller featuring Detective Patrik Hedström and Erica Falck; the pseudonymous Sam Christer’s The House of Smoke, which returns us to the gaslit realm of Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty; Thin Ice, Quentin Bates’ fifth outing for Reykjavik cop Gunnhildur Gisladottir; and critic Barry Forshaw’s Brit Noir: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of the British Isles, which follows his must-have studies Nordic Noir and Euro Noir.

As this season rolls on, our to-be-read stacks are likely to swell with copies of other new publications, such as The Mastermind, by David Unger (April); Exposure, by Helen Dunmore (April); Close Your Eyes, by Michael Robotham (April); The Murder of Mary Russell, by Laurie R. King (April); The Ashes of London, by Andrew Taylor (April UK); A Maiden Weeping, by Jeri Westerson (April UK); Death Zones, by Simon Pasternak (April UK); Better Dead, by Max Allan Collins (May); Sweet Lamb of Heaven, by Lydia Millet (May); See Also Deception, by Larry D. Sweazy (May); A Hero of France, by Alan Furst (May); Seven Days Dead, by John Farrow (May); The Birdwatcher, by William Shaw (May UK); No Echo, by Anne Holt (May UK); and Little Sister (May UK), David Hewson’s third escapade for Amsterdam police detective Pieter Vos.

If the pending publication of those works—and the more than 300 others listed below—doesn’t provide sufficient reason for you to go on living, then you might be exploring the wrong field of fiction.

MARCH (U.S.):

• The Advocate’s Daughter, by Anthony Franze (Minotaur)

• All Things Cease to Appear, by Elizabeth Brundage (Knopf)

• Alphabet Land, by Max Everhart (280 Steps)

• Bad Samaritan, by Michael J. Malone (Contraband)

• Bad Signs, by R.J. Ellory (Overlook Press)

• A Bed of Scorpions, by Judith Flanders (Minotaur)

• Blood of the Oak, by Eliot Pattison (Counterpoint)

• Buckular Dystrophy, by Joseph Heywood (Lyons Press)

• Cambodia Noir, by Nick Seeley (Scribner)

• Closed Circles, by Viveca Sten (AmazonCrossing)

• Cold Barrel Zero, by Matthew Quirk (Mulholland)

• Cold Florida, by Phillip DePoy (Severn House)

• The Considerate Killer, by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis (Soho Crime)

• Crazy Blood, by T. Jefferson Parker
(St. Martin’s Press)

• The Dalwich Desecration,
by Gregory Harris (Kensington)

• Dark Debts,
by Karen Hall (Simon & Schuster)

• Deadly Dunes, by E. Michael Helms
(Camel Press)

• Deadly Jewels, by Jeannette
de Beauvoir (Minotaur)

• Death Descends on Saturn Villa, by M.R.C. Kasasian (Pegasus)

• Death of a Siren, by William S. Schaill (Chicago Review Press)

• Death on the Riviera, by John Bude (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Deep Blue, by Randy Wayne White (Putnam)

• Death in Cantera, by John D. Nesbitt (Five Star)

• Devil in the Grass, by Christopher Bowron (Koehler)

• Disgraced, by Gwen Florio (Midnight Ink)

• The Eloquence of the Dead, by Conor Brady (Minotaur)

• Far From True, by Linwood Barclay (NAL)

• Fool Me Once, by Harlan Coben (Dutton)

• Furious, by T.R. Ragan (Thomas & Mercer)

• Gone Again, by James Grippando (Harper)

• Goodbye to the Dead, by Brian Freeman (Quercus)

• Hap and Leonard, by Joe R. Lansdale (Tachyon)

• Hard Cold Winter, by Glen Erik Hamilton (Morrow)

• The Hourglass Factory, by Lucy Ribchester (Pegasus)

• The Hundred Mile View, by C.J. Howell (280 Steps)

• Hurt People, by Cote Smith (FSG Originals)

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

• The Invisible Guardian, by Dolores Redondo (Atria)

• Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam)

• Journey to Munich, by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)

• Jump Cut, by Libby Fischer Hellmann (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Just Fall, by Nina Sadowsky (Ballantine)

• The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins, by Antonia Hodgson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• The Last Girl, by Joe Hart (Thomas & Mercer)

• Leave Her to Hell/Let Me Kill You, Sweetheart/Take Me Home, by Fletcher Flora (Stark House)

• Lesser Evils, by Joe Flanagan (Europa Editions)

• Lie in Plain Sight, by Maggie Barbieri (Minotaur)

• London Rain, by Nicola Upson (Harper)

• Lost Kin, by Steve Anderson (Yucca)

• The Midwife and the Assassin, by Sam Thomas (Minotaur)

• Murder Never Knocks, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)

• New Orleans Noir: The Classics, edited by Julie Smith (Akashic)

• The North Water, by Ian McGuire (Henry Holt)

• No One Knows, by J.T. Ellison (Gallery)

• Nowhere Girl , by Susan Strecker (Thomas Dunne)

• Off the Grid, by C.J. Box (Putnam)

• Oil and Marble, by Stephanie Storey (Arcade)

• The Other Side of Silence, by Philip Kerr (Marian Wood Books/Putnam)

• The Passenger, by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)

• Pimp, by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr (Hard Case Crime)

• Powers: The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim, by Brian Michael Bendis (Thomas Dunne)

• Predator, by Wilbur Smith (Morrow)

• Quarry’s Vote, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)

• Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street)

• The Saints of the Lost and Found, by T.M. Causey
(RoadRunner Press)

• Secret Justice, by Paul Goldstein (Ankerwycke)

• Serpents in Paradise: Countryside Crimes, edited by Martin Edwards (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Shelter, by Jung Yun (Picador)

• Signed, Picpus, by Georges Simenon (Penguin)

• Silent City, by Alex Segura (Polis)

• The Singing Bone, by Beth Hahn (Regan Arts)

• Skin Like Silver, by Chris Nickson (Severn House)

• Skinny Dipping with Murder, by Auralee Wallace (St. Martin’s Press)

• Speakers of the Dead, by J. Aaron
Sanders (Plume)

• The Squad Room, by Robert Nivakoff
and John Cutter (Beaufort)

• The Steel Kiss, by Jeffery Deaver
(Grand Central)

• Stockholm Noir, edited by Nathan
Larson (Akashic)

• Stop the Presses!, by Robert Goldsborough (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• The Taxidermist’s Daughter,
by Kate Mosse (Morrow)

• Thursday’s Children, by Nicci French (Penguin)

• Time of Fog and Fire, by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur)

• Tracking the Beast, by Henry Kisor (Five Star)

• The Travelers, by Chris Pavone (Crown)

• Treachery at Lancaster Gate, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)

• Twisted River, by Siobhán MacDonald (Penguin)

• The Unfortunate Englishman, by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, edited by Eric Beetner (Down & Out)

• The Vanished, by Lotte and Søren Hammer (Bloomsbury)

• The Watcher in the Wall, by Owen Laukkanen (Putnam)

• The Waters of Eternal Youth, by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• The Woman Who Did, by Lou Allin (Five Star)

MARCH (UK):

• Beloved Poison, by E.S. Thomson (Constable)

• Black Rose Days, by Martin Malone (New Island)

• Bone by Bone, by Sanjida Kay (Corvus)

• Brit Noir: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of the British Isles, by Barry Forshaw (Pocket Essentials)

• Bryant & May: Strange Tide, by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)

• A Cast of Vultures, by Judith Flanders (Allison & Busby)

• Classic at Bay, by Amy Myers (Severn House)

• The Darkest Goodbye, by Alex Gray (Sphere)

• Dead Level, by Damien Boyd (Thomas & Mercer)

• Death in Bayswater, by Linda Stratmann (History Press)

• Death in Profile, by Guy Fraser-Sampson (Urbane)

• Deep Waters, by Patricia Hall (Severn House)

• Drinking Gourd, by Barbara Hambly (Severn House)

• Fire Damage, by Kate Medina (HarperCollins)

• Gone Astray, by Michelle Davies (Macmillan)

• The Great Revolt, by Paul Doherty (Crème de la Crime)

• Guilt in the Cotswolds, by Rebecca Tope (Allison & Busby)

• The Half Life of Joshua Jones, by Danny Scheinmann (Unbound)

• Hard Cover, by Adrian Magson (Severn House)

• The House of Smoke,
by Sam Christer (Sphere)

• The Ice Child, by Camilla Läckberg (HarperCollins)

• The List, by Mick Herron (Soho Press)

• Little Boy Blue, by M.J. Arlidge
(Michael Joseph)

• The Lost Girl, by Tania Carver (Sphere)

• Murder at the Ashmolean, by Max Hunter (Allison & Busby)

• No Second Chances, by Lyndon Stacey (Severn House)

• Ordeal, by Jørn Lier Horst (Sandstone Press)

• The Other Mrs. Walker, by Mary Paulson-Ellis (Mantle)

• Penance, by Kate O’Riordan (Constable)

• The Primrose Path, by Rebecca Griffiths (Sphere)

• Safari, by Tony Park (Quercus)

• A Savage Hunger, by Claire McGowan (Headline)

• She Died Young, by Elizabeth Wilson (Serpent’s Tail)

• Shot Through the Heart, by Isabelle Grey (Quercus)

• Siren, by Annemarie Neary (Hutchinson)

• Sisters and Lies, by Bernice Barrington (Penguin Ireland)

• Six Four, by Hideo Yokoyama (Quercus)

• Tell Me Lies, by Rebecca Muddiman (Mulholland)

• Ten Days, by Gillian Slovo (Canongate)

• Thin Ice, by Quentin Bates (Constable)

• Think Wolf, by Michael Gregorio (Severn House)

• Trust No One, by Clare Donoghue (Pan)

• Two Evils, by Mark Sennen (Avon)

• What She Never Told Me, by Kate McQuaile (Quercus)

• You Sent Me a Letter, by Lucy Dawson (Corvus)

APRIL (U.S.):

• The Age of Treachery, by Gavin Scott (Titan)

• Antiques Fate, by Barbara Allan (Kensington)

• Arab Jazz, by Karim Miské (MacLehose Press)

• The Bastards of Pizzofalcone, by Maurizio de Giovanni
(Europa Editions)

• The Big Fear, by Andrew Case (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Big Showdown, by Mickey Spillane and
Max Allan Collins (Kensington)

• Blood Orange, by Susan Wittig Albert (Berkley)

• The Body in the Wardrobe, by Katherine Hall Page (Morrow)

• A Brilliant Death, by Robin Yocum (Seventh Street)

• City of Secrets, by Stewart O’Nan (Viking)

• Close Your Eyes, by Michael Robotham (Mulholland)

• Cold Girl, by R.M. Greenaway (Dundurn)

• Come Dark, by Steven F. Havill (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Darkest Corners, by Kara Thomas (Delacorte Press)

• A Death Along the River Fleet, by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur)

• Death Deals a Hand, by Janet Dawson (Perseverance Press)

• Delivering the Truth, by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)

• Design for Dying, by Renee Patrick (Forge)

• Desperate Detroit and Stories of Other Dire Places, by Loren D. Estleman (Tyrus)

• Disturbing the Dark, by Wendy Hornsby (Perseverance Press)

• Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (Crown)

• The Drowning Girls, by Paula Treick DeBoard (Mira)

• Down the Darkest Street, by Alex
Segura (Polis)

• Dust Up, by Jon McGoran (Forge)

• Ed, Not Eddie, by Max Everhart (Camel Press)

• The Exiled, by Christopher Charles (Mulholland)

• Exposure, by Helen Dunmore (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Extreme Prey, by John Sandford (Putnam)

• Everyone Pays, by Seth Harwood (Thomas & Mercer)

• Face Time, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

• The Father, by Anton Svensson (Quercus)

• Fellside, by M.R. Carey (Orbit)

• The 14th Colony, by Steve Berry (Minotaur)

• The Girl from Home, by Adam Mitzner (Gallery)

• Give the Devil His Due, by Steve Hockensmith with Lisa Falco (Midnight Ink)

• Gold of Our Fathers, by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime)

• Hard Light, by Elizabeth Hand (Minotaur)

• Hide Away, by Iris Johansen (St. Martin’s Press)

• An Honorable Man, by Paul Vidich (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• I Don’t Like Where This Is Going, by John Dufresne (Norton)

• Impure Blood, by Peter Morfoot (Titan)

• Inspector Cadaver, by Georges Simenon (Penguin)

• Kill and Be Killed, by Louis Begley (Nan A. Talese)

• King Maybe, by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime)

• The Last Mile, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

• The Letter Writer, by Dan Fesperman (Knopf)

• Maestra, by L.S. Hilton (Putnam)

• The Mastermind, by David Unger (Akashic)

• Mortal Dilemma, by H. Terrell Griffin (Oceanview)

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

• Murder at the 42nd Street Library, by Con Lehane (Minotaur)

• A Murder in Time, by Julie McElwain (Pegasus)

• The Murder of Mary Russell, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

• Night Work, by David C. Taylor (Forge)

• Noble Chase, by Michael Rudolph (Ballantine)

• Of Sound Mind, by James Waltzer (Medallion Press)

• One Dead, Two to Go, by Elena Hartwell (Camel Press)

• Orchids and Stone, by Lisa Preston (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Other Widow, by Susan Crawford (Morrow)

• Panther’s Prey, by Lachlan Smith (Mysterious Press)

• Robert Bloch’s Psycho: Sanitarium, by Chet Williamson
(Thomas Dunne)

• The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, by Manuel Gonzales (Riverhead)

• Ross Macdonald: Three Novels of the Early 1960s, edited by Tom Nolan (Library of America)

• Sayonara Slam, by Naomi Hirahara (Prospect Park)

• Should Have Played Poker, by Debra H. Goldstein (Five Star)

• Some Like ’Em Dead, by Peter S. Fischer (CreateSpace)

• Spur of the Moment, by David Linzee (Coffeetown Press)

• The Squad Room, by Robert Nivakoff and John Cutter (Beaufort)

• The Stardom Affair, by Robert S. Levinson (Five Star)

• Steps to the Gallows, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)

• Sunset City, by Melissa Ginsburg (Ecco)

• That Darkness, by Lisa Black (Kensington)

• When Blood Lies,
by Linda L. Richards (Raven)

APRIL (UK):

• All Things Nice, by Sheila Bugler (Brandon)

• All Through the Night, by M.P. Wright (Black and White)

• The Ashes of London, by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins)

• The Blade Artist, by Irvine Welsh (Jonathan Cape)

• A Cop’s Eyes, by Gaku Yakumaru (Vertical)

• The Corpse with the Garnet Face, by Cathy Ace
(TouchWood Editions)

• The Crow Girl, by Erik Axl Sund (Harvill Secker)

• The Dark Inside, by Rod Reynolds (Faber & Faber)

• Death in Disguise, by Sally Spencer (Severn House)

• Death Zones, by Simon Pasternak (Harvill Secker)

• The Detective and the Devil, by Lloyd Shepherd (Simon & Schuster)

• Different Class, by Joanne Harris (Doubleday)

• Easy Motion Tourist, by Leye Adenle (Cassava Republic Press)

• Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster, by Karen Lee Street (Oneworld)

• The Graveyard of the Hesperides, by Lindsey Davis
(Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Great Revolt, by Paul Doherty (Creme de la Crime)

• The House of Fame, by Oliver Harris (Jonathan Cape)

• The House with No Rooms, by Lesley Thomson (Head of Zeus)

• In Her Wake, by Amanda Jennings (Orenda)

• The Loving Husband, by Christobel Kent (Sphere)

• A Maiden Weeping, by Jeri Westerson (Severn House)

• May Day Murder, by Julie Wassmer (Constable)

• The Missing, by C.L. Taylor (Avon)

• The Missing Hours, by Emma Kavanagh (Century)

• Operation Goodwood, by Sara Sheridan (Constable)

• Paris Spring, by James Naughtie (Head of Zeus)

• The Puppet Maker, by Danielle Ramsay (Mulholland)

• Rat Run, by Caro Ramsay (Severn House)

• The Rat Stone Serenade, by Denzil Meyrick (Birlinn)

• Rebellion’s Message, by Michael Jecks (Creme de la Crime)

• Scarlet Widow, by Graham Masterton (Head of Zeus)

• A Spring Betrayal, by Tom Callaghan (Quercus)

• A Time of Torment, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Too Close to the Edge, by Pascal Garnier (Gallic)

• The Women of the Souk, by Michael Pearce (Severn House)

MAY (U.S.):

• After the Fire, by Jane Casey (Minotaur)

• Assassin’s Silence, by Ward Larsen (Forge)

• Back Lash, by Chris Knopf (Permanent Press)

• Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley (Grand Central)

• Beijing Red, by Alex Ryan (Crooked Lane)

• Better Dead, by Max Allan Collins (Forge)

• Beyond the Ice Limit, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Grand Central)

• Blood Defense, by Marcia Clark
(Thomas & Mercer)

• Blood Flag, by Steve Martini (Morrow)

• The Butcher Bird, by S.D. Sykes (Pegasus)

• Cape Hell, by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)

• Champagne and Cocaine, by Richard Vetere (Three Rooms Press)

• City of the Lost,
by Kelley Armstrong (Minotaur)

• Cold Blood, Hot Sea, by Charlene D’Avanzo (Torrey House Press)

• Dead Men Do Come Back, by Steven C. Levi (Crime Wave Press)

• Deal Master, by Adam Gittlin (Oceanview)

• Death at Breakfast, by Beth Gutcheon (Morrow)

• The Defense, by Steve Cavanagh (Flatiron)

• Diana’s Altar, by Barbara Cleverly (Soho Crime)

• The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror, by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)

• Don’t You Cry, by Mary Kubica (Mira)

• The Drowned Detective, by Neil Jordan (Bloomsbury USA)

• Eye of the Storme, by W.L. Ripley (Brash)

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

• Fever City, by Tim Baker (Europa)

• A Fine Line, by Gianrico Carofiglio (Bitter Lemon Press)

• The Fireman, by Joe Hill (Morrow)

• Forbidden Love in St. Petersburg, by Mishka Ben-David
(Overlook Press)

• Forgive Me, by Daniel Palmer (Kensington)

• A Front Page Affair, by Radha Vatsal (Sourcebooks)

• The Four-Night Run, by William Lashner (Thomas & Mercer)

• A Game for All the Family, by Sophie Hannah (Morrow)

• Girls on Fire, by Robin Wasserman (Harper)

• Graven Images, by Jane Waterhouse (Brash)

• A Hero of France, by Alan Furst (Random House)

• The Highwayman, by Craig Johnson (Viking)

• Hollow Crib, by B.J. Bourg (Five Star)

• I Let You Go, by Clare Mackintosh (Berkley)

• In the Clearing, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)

• Keep You Close, by Lucie Whitehouse (Bloomsbury USA)

• Killer Cocktail, by Tracy Kiely (Midnight Ink)

• Killer Deal, by Sofie Sarenbrant (Stockholm Text)

• The Last Good Girl, by Allison Leotta (Touchstone)

• Late One Night, by Lee Martin (Dzanc)

• Lost and Gone Forever, by Alex Grecian (Putnam)

• Manhattan Night, by Colin Harrison (Picador)

• The Mirror Thief, by Martin Seay (Melville House)

• Mission Hill, by Pamela Wechsler (Minotaur)

• Murder, By George, by Jeanne Quigley (Five Star)

• Murder in Morningside Heights, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

• Nantucket Grand, by Steven Axelrod (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Night the Rich Men Burned, by Malcolm Mackay (Mulholland)

• The Night Wanderer, by Alys Clare (Severn House)

• Over Your Dead Body, by Dan Wells (Tor)

• The Preacher, by Ted Thackrey (Brash)

• Redemption Road, by John Hart (Thomas Dunne)

• Ridgerunner, by Rusty Barnes (280 Steps)

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

• Roses and Rot, by Kat Howard (Saga Press)

• The Second Life of Nick Mason, by Steve Hamilton (Putnam)

• See Also Deception, by Larry D. Sweazy (Seventh Street)

• The Service of the Dead, by Candace Robb (Pegasus)

• Seven Days Dead, by John Farrow (Minotaur)

• Silence, by Anthony Quinn (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• The Silent Dead, by Tetsuya Honda (Minotaur)

• The Singer from Memphis, by Gary Corby (Soho Crime)

• Smoke, by Dan Vyleta (Doubleday)

• Stealing the Countess, by David Housewright (Minotaur)

• A Straits Settlement, by Brian Stoddart (Crime Wave Press)

• The Strings of Murder, by Oscar de Muriel (Pegasus)

• The Sudden Appearance of Hope, by Claire North (Redhook)

• Sugarland, by Martha Conway (Noontime)

• Sunken Dreams, by Steven Kuehn (Five Star)

• Sweet Lamb of Heaven, by Lydia Millet (Norton)

• Tall Tail, by Rita Mae Brown (Bantam)

• That Darkness, by Lisa Black (Kensington)

• Thin Air, by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)

• Trail of Echoes, by Rachel Howzell Hall (Forge)

• Two for the Show, by Jonathan Stone (Thomas & Mercer)

• Unknown Remains, by Peter Leonard (Counterpoint)

• The Vinyl Detective Mysteries: Written in Dead Wax, by Andrew Cartmel (Titan)

• Walleye Junction, by Karin Salvalaggio (Minotaur)

• Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone, by G.S. Denning (Titan)

• White Shark, by Ross Gresham (Five Star)

• Wilde Lake, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

• The Wolf of Sarajevo, by Matthew Palmer (Putnam)

• The Woman in Blue, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Zigzag, by Bill Pronzini (Forge)

MAY (UK):

• Babylon Berlin, by Volker Kutscher (Sandstone Press)

• The Birdwatcher, by William Shaw (Quercus)

• Blood Torment, by T.F. Muir (Constable)

• Bramard’s Case, by Davide Longo (MacLehose Press)

• Conspiracy, by S.J. Parris (HarperCollins)

• The Dead Can’t Talk, by Nick Quantrill (Caffeine Nights)

• Dead Man Walking, by Simon R. Green (Severn House)

• Dead Silent, by Mark Roberts (Head of Zeus)

• Death at Whitewater Church, by Andrea Carter (Constable)

• Death By Water, by Torkil Damhaug (Headline)

• Die of Shame, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)

• Distress Signals, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Corvus)

• Epiphany Jones, by Michael Grothaus (Orenda)

• Far Horizon, by Tony Park (Quercus)

• Foreign Bodies, by David Wishart (Creme de la Crime)

• The Hanging Club, by Tony Parsons (Century)

• The Hawkshead Hostage, by Rebecca Tope (Allison & Busby)

• The Hotel of the Three Roses, by Augusto de Angelis
(Pushkin Vertigo)

• Inspector Singh Investigates: A Frightfully English Execution,
by Shamini Flint (Piatkus)

• In Too Deep, by Samantha Hayes (Century)

• Little Sister, by David Hewson (Macmillan)

• Long Time Lost, by Chris Ewan (Faber and Faber)

• Love You Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan)

• The Malice of Waves, by Mark Douglas-Home (Michael Joseph)

• Murder Ring, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)

• No Echo, by Anne Holt (Corvus)

• Nor Will He Sleep, by David Ashton (Two Roads)

• The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown, by Vaseem Khan (Mulholland)

• The Plea, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)

• Private Investigations, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)

• A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)

• A Shocking Assassination, by Cora Harrison (Severn House)

• The Silent Dead, by Tetsuya Honda (Titan)

• Souls of Air, by Mons Kallentoft (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Stalker, by Lars Kepler (HarperCollins)

• The Trap, by Melanie Raabe (Mantle)

• The Wednesday Club, by Kjell Westö (MacLehose Press)

Should you be in need of additional reading suggestions, click over to The Bloodstained Bookshelf (for coming U.S. titles) or Euro Crime (for UK releases). And if you believe we have neglected to mention any must-read works for spring, please don’t hesitate to drop a note about them in the Comments section below.

Criminous Tidbits

• In Reference to Murder brings this news: FOX-TV has “announced its literary adventure drama Houdini & Doyle will premiere May 2, taking over the 9 p.m. Monday slot … the week after Lucifer’s season finale. The series focuses on the unlikely real-life friendship between master illusionist Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) and Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) as they grudgingly join forces with New Scotland Yard to investigate unsolved and inexplicable crimes with a supernatural slant. Rebecca Liddiard plays Adelaide Stratton, whose character is the first female constable ever to work for the London Metropolitan Police Force.”

• While we’re on the subject of TV shows … It seems that the lovely Sarah Shahi, who starred in Life, Fairly Legal, and Person of Interest, is now set to lead the cast of Drew, the upcoming CBS series inspired by Carolyn Keene’s succession of Nancy Drew mystery novels. Crimespree Magazine explains that 36-year-old Shahi “will be playing an adult, contemporary Nancy. In the pilot, Nancy is an NYPD detective [who] “investigates and solves crimes using her uncanny observational skills, all while navigating the complexities of life in a modern world.” This set-up sounds noticeably different from what Pamela Sue Martin offered viewers in the 1977-1979 ABC-TV series, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. Thank goodness.

• Mike Ripley is out with the latest edition of his “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots. His boisterous coverage this month includes notes about the official reopening of London’s “refurbished Sherlock Holmes public house,” a May 6 seminar at the British Library on author Eric Ambler, and new novel releases from Robert Ryan (The Sign of Fear), Philip Kerr (The Other Side of Silence), Elizabeth Wilson (She Died Young), Ken Bruen and Jason Starr (Pimp), and others.

• Mystery Scene’s new edition features Oline H. Cogdill’s cover story about novelist Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X); profiles of Margaret Millar, Alison Gaylin, and Ausma Zehanet Khan; Kevin Burton Smith’s endorsement of the Netflix TV series Jessica Jones, which offers “a damaged but defiant hero and deftly explores issues of consent, sexual abuse, and trauma”; and a collection of its critics’ favorite books, films, and TV shows from 2015.

• Today is National Grammar Day. Time to stop depending on computer spell-checking programs to correct your errors.

• Congratulations to TracyK for four years of blogging at Bitter Tea and Mystery. Anybody who’s tried the business of blogging knows just how difficult it is to keep up such an enterprise. Bloggers are lucky to clock in one year of regular activity, much less more.

• A big thumbs-up as well to James Reasoner, whose essay “Not Your Ordinary Gun-Dummy: The Western Heroes of Robert E. Howard” has been nominated for a 2016 Robert E. Howard Foundation Award.

• The lifestyle magazine Men’s Journal chose what it calls “The Best Old-School Noir Novels.” Not surprisingly, they include Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Dorothy B. Hughes’ In a Lonely Place, and Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye.

• Finally, a belated farewell to the late American performer George Kennedy, who during his more than 50-year career, appeared in big-screen productions such as The Dirty Dozen and Cool Hand Luke, as well as the Airport and Naked Gun series, and starred on television in a couple of memorable crime dramas: Sarge (1971-1972; opening title sequence here) and The Blue Knight (1975-1976; opening here). Although he was usually cast in supporting roles, a Web site called The Wrap observes that, especially in his Airport appearances, Kennedy “provided … a practical demonstration of how a supporting player can steal a movie from its stars.” Kennedy, who had long suffered from heart problems, died on February 28 at age 91.

Pierce’s Picks

A weekly alert for followers of crime, mystery, and thriller fiction.



In his first novel, Speakers of the Dead (Plume), Georgia English professor J. Aaron Sanders propels Long Island-born poet-journalist Walt Whitman (he of Leaves of Grass fame) into the role of amateur sleuth, tackling a mystery involving body snatchers, religious zealots, and political corruption. It all begins with the public hanging in 1843 of Lena Stowe, who with her husband, Abraham, founded the Women’s Medical College of Manhattan. She’d been convicted of slaying Abraham in retribution for his serial infidelities, one instance of which was his affair with Mary Rogers, the “beautiful cigar girl” whose real-life but unsolved murder in July 1841 was a public sensation (as well as the impetus for Edgar Allan Poe to pen “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” his sequel to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”). Reeling from the deaths of his two friends, Whitman—a manifestly impassioned reporter in his early 20s, working for the New York Aurora newspaper—sets out to prove that the Stowes’ deaths represent serious miscarriages of justice. In pursuit of this end, he recruits Henry Saunders, a former lover and now his new editor at the paper. However, the vast majority of responsibilities in these pages fall to Whitman himself, who proves quite capable of handling not only protesters fiercely opposed to anatomical dissection of cadavers at the women’s college (for they fear their loved ones will be deprived of “resurrection” if they’re missing body parts), but also short-sighted superiors, obdurate lawmen, and the occasional knife-wielding assailant. (In an interview in The Rumpus, Sanders says that “When I started the book I didn’t really understand Walt’s physicality. He was a strong, athletic man, and he did get into fights.”) The author’s historical research, while not flawless (Crime Fiction Lover notes a mention of “Whitman’s mother whistling “Onward Christian Soldiers” to him 30 years before it was composed”), certainly helped fill Speakers of the Dead with delightful curiosities, including the  existence of 19th-century “dead houses—places where loved ones can leave [the recently deceased] safely until they are no longer good for dissection.” It’s said that this novel is the first installment in a new series. A promising beginning, indeed.

After composing two more lighthearted novels as “Elaine di Rollo,” the writer now styling herself “E.S. Thomson” delivers Beloved Poison (Constable UK), a darker Victorian-era yarn that takes ample advantage of her expertise in the history of medicine. The setting is a ramshackle and slowly collapsing mid-19th-century London infirmary, St. Saviour’s, that’s expected to be demolished in favor of a new railway bridge. There we’re introduced to Jem Flockhart, an androgynous apothecary with a prominent birthmark, who was born a girl but reared as a boy. From her position as an outsider (a favorite kind of figure in mystery fiction), Jem sees clearly the failings of her infirmary associates, from the back-stabbing doctors employing sometimes dubious medical practices to the patients struggling to survive each day amid the hospital’s filth. Everyone in this place, it seems, has secrets—a few of which will inevitably be loosed by the murder of handsome but promiscuous Dr. Bain, whose planned next conquest might’ve been his boss’ winsome daughter. What hand struck Bain down, and how might his murder relate to the discovery, in the graveyard behind St. Saviour’s, of tiny coffins bearing bloodstained remains? Americans who don’t wish to order Beloved Poison from Great Britain should be happy to know that a U.S. edition of Thomson’s enthralling novel is due out this coming September.

Click here to see more of this season’s most-wanted books.

Strengthening Bookstore Futures

This is excellent news! Once Upon a Crime, the well-respected independent mystery-fiction bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has “found a buyer,” as current owners Pat Frovarp and Gary Shulze announced in a press release posted by Crimespree Magazine today. Their note goes on to explain:

Hard to believe, but here we are. After 7 months of backs and forths with potential buyers, Once Upon a Crime is about to have new owners. We’re both excited and saddened by this news. We’ll miss the store, authors, and especially customers as we hand over the care and feeding of Once Upon a Crime on April 1 (we’re not fooling) to a new and enthusiastic generation. This date is—coincidentally—the 29th anniversary of the store’s founding in 1987. Why not hold out until the 30th anniversary next year, you may ask. Good question. Short answer is “because it’s time.” Running an independent bookstore is hard, ceaseless work. We don’t sit at the desk and read books until the next customer shows up. But Dennis Abraham, Megan King–Abraham, along with their daughter Devin are perfectly suited to take over. You’re going to love them.

Don’t start thinking that you’ll never see us again. We plan to stay on for a while in an advisory capacity. There’s a lot of ropes to learn. And Devin, who will primarily manage daily operations, has already demonstrated that she’s a fast learner.

Dennis Abraham and Meg King-Abraham are avid mystery readers. The Abrahams moved to Minneapolis in 2014. Once Upon a Crime was recommended to them by friends. When they read that we were considering selling, Dennis and Meg became interested in becoming small-business owners because of their love of books. Dennis is an Operations Manager at Medtronic. Meg teaches elementary technology in St. Paul. Devin Abraham, their daughter, will be the primary staff. She is a voracious reader and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

Thank you for your past and future support of
Once Upon a Crime.

Meanwhile, there are favorable tidings from the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, which in January put out word that it was trying to raise $50,000 through a GoFundMe campaign, one that would help overcome its recent financial woes and “build back to our former glory.” A message on that GoFundMe page now declares that the goal had been reached—and exceeded. Checking this morning, the tally sits at $52,052, with further donations still being accepted.

No Rest for the Reader

My latest Kirkus Reviews column, posted this morning, is devoted to 13 of the most interesting crime, mystery, and thriller novels due out this spring. It includes works by J. Aaron Sanders, Lyndsay Faye, Anton Svensson, and Steve Hamilton. I’m still working on a longer list of new works in this genre, due out on both sides of the Atlantic between now and the end of May. But this Kirkus piece is a good start.

Short Comings

The Short Mystery Fiction Society (SMFS) today announced its nominees for the 2016 Derringer Awards, as follows.

Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words):

• “The Hard Screw,” by Jack Bates (Near to the Knuckle,
August 6, 2015)

• “Heavy Debt,” by Craig Faustus Buck (“Mondays Are Murder,” Akashic, August 10, 2015)

• “The Wrong Girl,” by Barb Goffman (from Flash and Bang: A Short Mystery Fiction Society Anthology, edited by J. Alan Hartman;
Untreed Reads)

• “Hero,” by Vy Kava (from Red Dawn: Best New England Crime Stories 2016, edited by Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast, Barbara Ross, and Leslie Wheeler; Level Best)

• “Trash Pick-Up,” by John Weagly (Near to the Knuckle,
September 24, 2015)

Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 words):

• “Words Can Kill,” by Shelly Dickson Carr (from Red Dawn: Best New England Crime Stories 2016)

• “Joe Park’s Little Girl,” by Nikki Dolson (Mystery Weekly,
September 7, 2015)

• “Kill Switch,” by Chris Knopf (from Red Dawn: Best New England Crime Stories 2016)

• “Pompo’s Disguise,” by William Burton McCormick (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], March/April 2015)

• “Twilight Ladies,” by Meg Opperman (EQMM, March/April 2015)

Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 words):

• “The White Game,” by Ron Collins (from Fiction River: Hidden in Crime, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch; WMG)

• “Dentonville,” by John M. Floyd (EQMM, November 2015)

• “The Orchid Grower,” by Katia Lief (EQMM, November 2015)

• “Shooting at Firemen,” by Robert Lopresti (Alfred Hitchcocks Mystery Magazine [AHMM]), July/August 2015)

• “The Man in the Dick Tracy Hat,” by Elizabeth Zelvin (AHMM,
June 2015)

Best Novelette (8,001-20,000 words):

• “Driver,” by John M. Floyd (The Strand Magazine,
February-May 2015)

• “Crazy Cat Ladies,” by Jane Haddam (EQMM, February 2015)

• “Shooting Stars,” by Richard Helms (EQMM,
September/October 2015)

• “Jack Daniels and Associates: The Whiplash Brokers,” by Gordon Hopkins (Kindle Worlds, March 2015)

• “Quack and Dwight,” by Travis Richardson (from Jewish Noir: Contemporary Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds, edited by Kenneth Wishnia; PM Press)

As the SMFS explains, “Group voting to determine the winner in each category runs March 1–30. Winners announced March 31.” Congratulations to all of the contenders!