Fall for These: Reading Out 2016

Just last week, I was lamenting to a close friend how overwhelmed I felt when contemplating this coming season’s abundance of new crime, mystery, and thriller fiction. And that was before I actually went through the exercise of putting together my lengthy “critic’s choice” selection of titles rolling out during the final four months of 2016. My most recent Kirkus Reviews column highlighted 10 books in this genre due out during September and October, and my forthcoming Kirkus piece will focus on a handful of other works scheduled for release in November and December. But those represent a mere drop in the bucket as far as crime-fiction publishing goes. Between what U.S. and British houses will be offering in the run-up to Christmas, I have culled out more than 320 books of interest to Rap Sheet readers.

This mix includes fresh fiction from familiar wordsmiths such as Linwood Barclay (The Twenty-Three), Sophie Hannah (Closed Casket), Ken Bruen (The Emerald Lie), Mark Mills (Where Dead Men Meet), Peter May (Coffin Road), Ann Cleeves (The Moth Catcher), Anthony Horowitz (Magpie Murders), Tana French (The Trespasser), Max Allan Collins (Quarry in the Black), Robert Littell (The Mayakovsky Tapes), Timothy Hallinan (Fields Where They Lay), Ian Rankin (Rather Be the Devil), and even the long-dead Erle Stanley Gardner (The Knife Slipped). On top of those, it features less-familiar but nonetheless estimable writers on the order of Thomas Mullen (Darktown), Sarah Ward (A Deadly Thaw), Amy Stewart (Lady Cop Makes Trouble), Chris Holm (Red Right Hand), Belinda Bauer (The Beautiful Dead), and Hans Olav Lahlum (Chameleon People). In addition, there are several worthy short-story collections (among them Jim Fusilli’s Crime Plus Music and a posthumous offering from P.D. James, The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories), the first two volumes in a seven-book compendium of Margaret Millar’s work, and non-fiction tomes addressing favorite storytellers such as John le Carré (The Pigeon Tunnel) and Shirley Jackson (Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life). Because the fall season includes Halloween, I have peppered in a few tales of a blood-curdling sort; and because Americans will vote in November for a new president, you’ll find mentioned here a variety of yarns that might appeal to the cozy-mystery fan who’s most likely to win that office.

This is not, by any means, an exhaustive list of what will become available in English between now and New Year’s Day, 2017. Instead, it reflects my idiosyncratic tastes and my experience with the genre. If you’re craving more reading suggestions, click over to The Bloodstained Bookshelf (for coming American titles) or Euro Crime (for British releases). And as usual, if you think I’ve failed to mention any must-read mystery or thriller novels scheduled to appear this colder season, please don’t hesitate to drop a note about them into the Comments section at the bottom of this post.

Non-fiction titles are identified below with asterisks (*).

SEPTEMBER (U.S.):

• Ambush, by Nick Oldham (Severn House)

• The Apostle Killer, by Richard Beard (Melville House)

• The Babe Ruth Deception, by David O. Stewart (Kensington)

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

• Black Water, by Louise Doughty (Sarah Crichton)

• Blind Sight, by Carol O’Connell (Putnam)

• Blood Crime, by Sebastiá Alzamora (Soho Crime)

• Blood Wedding, by Pierre Lemaitre (MacLehose Press)

• Blue Madonna, by James R. Benn (Soho Crime)

• Boondoggle, by Mark Rapacz (280 Steps)

• The Butcher’s Son, by Grant McKenzie (Polis)

• Casting Bones, by Don Bruns (Severn House)

• Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood (Tyrus)

• Close Call, by Laura DiSilverio (Midnight Ink)

• Closed Casket, by Sophie Hannah (Morrow)

• Collected Millar: The Master at Her Zenith, by Margaret Millar
(Soho Syndicate)

• Combustion, by Martin J. Smith (Diversion)

• Daisy in Chains, by Sharon Bolton (Minotaur)

• Dark Gonna Catch Me Here, by Steve Liskow (CreateSpace)

• Darktown, by Thomas Mullen (Atria/37 INK)

• The Dead Hand, by Michael A. Kahn (Poisoned Pen Press)

• A Deadly Thaw, by Sarah Ward (Minotaur)

• Dead Men’s Bones, by James Oswald (Crooked Lane)

• Dead or Alive, by Ken McCoy (Severn House)

• Dear Mr. M, by Herman Koch (Hogarth)

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

• Devil Sent the Rain, by Lisa Turner (Morrow)

• The Devil’s Work, by Mark Edwards (Thomas & Mercer)

• A Dreadful Past, by Peter Turnbull (Severn House)

• The Dread Line, by Bruce DeSilva (Forge)

• The Emerald Lie, by Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press)

• The Empress of Tempera, by Alex Dolan (Diversion)

• End Game, by David Hagberg (Forge)

• The Eskimo Solution, by Pascal Garnier (Gallic)

• Fates and Traitors, by Jennifer Chiaverini (Dutton)

• Fire in the Stars, by Barbara Fradkin (Dundurn)

• Flash Point, by Colby Marshall (Severn House)

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

• The Fourth Figure, by Pieter Aspe (Open Road)

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Murder at Sorrow’s Crown, by Steven Savile and Robert Greenberger (Titan)

• A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles (Viking)

• Ghosts of Havana, by Todd Moss (Putnam)

• Girl in Danger, by Leigh Russell (Thomas & Mercer)

• Gunshine State, by Andrew Nette (280 Steps)

• Home, by Harlan Coben (Dutton)

• The Homeplace, by Kevin Wolf (Minotaur)

• The Hope That Kills, by Ed James (Thomas & Mercer)

• Impala, by Andrew Diamond (Stolen Time Press)

• Infamy, by Robert K. Tanenbaum (Gallery)

• The Kept Woman, by Karin Slaughter (Morrow)

• Lady Cop Makes Trouble, by Amy Stewart (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Liar’s Key, by Carla Neggers (Mira)

• A Long Time Dead, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• The Magician’s Duel, by Judith Janeway (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Maigret’s Dead Man, by Georges
Simenon (Penguin)

• Manitou Canyon, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)

• A March to Remember, by Anna Loan-Wilsey (Kensington)

• Mercury, by Margot Livesey (Harper)

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

• Murder at Rough Point, by Alyssa Maxwell (Kensington)

• The Nix, by Nathan Hill (Knopf)

• Nutshell, by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese)

• An Obvious Fact, by Craig Johnson (Viking)

• Only Daughter, by Anna Snoekstra (Mira)

• Papercuts, by Colin Bateman (Head of Zeus)

• The Perfect Girl, by by Gilly Macmillan (Morrow)

• The Pigeon Tunnel, by John le Carré (Viking)*

• Pirate, by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell (Putnam)

• Presumption of Guilt, by Archer Mayor (Minotaur)

• Pushing Up Daisies, by M.C. Beaton (Minotaur)

• The Question of the Felonious Friend, by E.J. Copperman/
Jeff Cohen (Midnight Ink)

• Razor Girl, by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf )

• Reckless Creed, by Alex Kava (Putnam)

• The Reckoning on Cane Hill, by Steve Mosby (Pegasus)

• Red Right Hand, by Chris Holm (Mulholland)

• Revenge in a Cold River, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)

• The Risen, by Ron Rash (Ecco)

• Robert B. Parker’s Debt to Pay, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Putnam)

• Santorini Caesars, by Jeffrey Siger (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Sara Paretsky: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction, by Margaret Kinsman (McFarland)

• The Secrets of Wishtide, by Kate Saunders (Bloomsbury USA)

• The 7th Canon, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)

• Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, by Ruth Franklin (Liveright)*

• The Sinking Admiral, edited by Simon Brett (Collins Crime Club)

• So Say the Fallen, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)

• Stalking Ground, by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane)

• Sun, Sand, Murder, by John Keyse-Walker (Minotaur)

• Sunshine Noir, edited by Annamaria Alfieri and Michael Stanley (White Sun, e-book edition only)

• Surface to Air, by Gérard de Villiers (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

• The Things We Wish Were True, by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen
(Lake Union)

• Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d, by Alan Bradley (Delacorte Press)

• Tier One, by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (Thomas & Mercer)

• Tin Hollow, by J.B. Hogan (Shannon Press)

• To the Last Drop, by Sandra Balzo (Severn House)

• Under the Carib Sun, by Ro Cuzon (280 Steps)

• Under the Dixie Moon, by Ro Cuzon (280 Steps)

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

• The Vanishing Year, by Kate Moretti (Atria)

• We Eat Our Own, by Kea Wilson (Scribner)

• What Gold Buys, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The White Mirror, by Elsa Hart (Minotaur)

• The Wicked Go to Hell, by Frédéric Dard (Pushkin Vertigo)

• Winter’s Child, by Margaret Coel (Berkley)

• The Woman on the Orient Express, by Lindsay Jayne Ashford (Lake Union)

SEPTEMBER (UK):

• All the Devils, by Neil Broadfoot (Contraband)

• The Authentic William James, by Stephen Gallagher (Subterranean Press)

• Beneath the Surface, by Jo Spain (Quercus)

• Between the Crosses, by Matthew Frank (Penguin)

• The Bird Tribunal, by Agnes Ravatn (Orenda)

• The Borrowed, by Ho-Kei Chan (Head of Zeus)

• Chameleon People, by Hans Olav Lahlum (Mantle)

• Deep Blue, by Alan Judd (Simon & Schuster)

• Dodger of the Revolution, by James Benmore (Heron)

• The Heretic’s Creed, by Fiona Buckley (Creme de la Crime)

• Hide and Seek, by M.J. Arlidge (Michael Joseph)

• An Incidental Death, by Alex Howard (Head of Zeus)

• Learning Curve, by Catherine Aird (Allison & Busby)

• Living Death, by Graham Masterton (Head of Zeus)

• The Lost Girl, by Tania Carver (Sphere)

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

• Mistress of the Just Land, by David Ashton (Two Roads)

• Modern Crimes, by Chris Nickson (History Press)

• Murderabilia, by Craig Robertson (Simon & Schuster)

• The Murder Book, by Jane A. Adams (Severn House)

• Murder on the Serpentine, by Anne Perry (Headline)

• Ordeal by Fire, by Sarah Hawkswood (Allison & Busby)

• Quick off the Mark, by Susan Moody (Severn House)

• Remission, by Ed Chatterton (Caffeine Nights)

• A Rustle of Silk, by Alys Clare (Severn House)

• The Secret Broker, by Simon Crane (Quartet)

• The Sleepless Ones, by James Marrison (Penguin)

• Stay Dead, by Jessie Keane (Macmillan)

• Strangers, by Paul Finch (Avon)

• Trouble Is Our Business: Stories by Irish Crime Writers, edited by Declan Burke (New Island)

• Undertow, by Elizabeth Heathcote (Quercus)

• Who Killed Piet Barol? by Richard Mason (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

OCTOBER (U.S.):

• All the Little Liars, by Charlaine Harris (Minotaur)

• Among the Living, by Jonathan Rabb (Other Press)

• Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions, by Mario Giordano (Bitter
Lemon Press)

• The Best American Mystery Stories 2016, edited by
Elizabeth George (Mariner)

• The Big Book of Jack the Ripper,
edited by Otto Penzler (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

• Black Hills, by Franklin Schneider and Jennifer Schneider (Thomas & Mercer)

• Blood on the Tracks, by Barbara Nickless (Thomas & Mercer)

• Blood Trails, by Diane Capri
(Thomas & Mercer)

• Bright Midnight, by Chris Formant (HighLine Editions)

• By Gaslight, by Steven Price (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

• Coffin Road, by Peter May (Quercus)

• Crepe Factor, by Laura Childs (Berkley)

• Crime Plus Music: Twenty Stories of Music-Themed Noir, edited by Jim Fusilli (Three Rooms Press)

• Death Among Rubies, by R.J. Koreto (Crooked Lane)

• Drone Threat, by Mike Maden (Putnam)

• The Eastern Shore, by Ward Just (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

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

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

• Eggnog Murder, by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross (Kensington)

• Every Man a Menace, by Patrick Hoffman (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Exile on Bridge Street, by Eamon Loingsigh (Three Rooms Press)

• The Fall Guy, by James Lasdun (Norton)

• Fields Where They Lay, by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime)

• The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Counterfeit Detective, by Stuart Douglas (Titan)

• Ghost Times Two, by Carolyn Hart (Berkley)

• The Girl from Venice, by Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster)

• Grizzly Season, by S.W. Lauden (Rare Bird)

• The Heavens May Fall, by Allen Eskens (Seventh Street)

• Hell Bay, by Will Thomas (Minotaur)

• His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae, by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Skyhorse) — longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize

• Hold a Scorpion, by Melodie Johnson-Howe (Pegasus)

• House of Blazes, by Dietrich Kalteis (ECW Press)

• How to Kill Friends and Implicate People, by Jay Stringer
(Thomas & Mercer)

• Incensed, by Ed Lin (Soho Crime)

• IQ, by Joe Ide (Mulholland)

• Jimmy and Fay, by Michael Mayo (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• The Kid, by Ron Hansen (Scribner)

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

• Livia Lone, by Barry Eisler (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Madonna of Notre Dame, by Alexis Ragougneau
(New Vessel Press)

• Mary Russell’s War, by Laurie R. King (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Memories Lie, by C.J. Carpenter (Midnight Ink)

• The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories, by P.D. James (Knopf)

• A Most Novel Revenge, by Ashley Weaver (Minotaur)

• The Moth Catcher, by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)

• The Mystery of the Three Orchids, by Augusto De Angelis (Pushkin Vertigo)

• The Next, by Stephanie Gangi
(St. Martin's Press)

• Night Watch, by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen (St. Martin’s Press)

• No Witness but the Moon, by Suzanne Chazin (Kensington)

• The Oslo Conspiracy, by Asle Skredderberget (Thomas Dunne)

• Permanent Sunset, by C. Michele Dorsey (Crooked Lane)

• The Plague Road, by L.C. Tyler (Constable)

• Precious and Grace, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon)

• Poisonfeather, by Matthew FitzSimmons (Thomas & Mercer)

• Quarry in the Black, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)

• The Queen’s Accomplice, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)

• The Secret History of Twin Peaks, by Mark Frost (Flatiron Books)*

• Seduced, by Randy Wayne White (Putnam)

• Skin and Bone, by Robin Blake (Minotaur)

• South Village, by Rob Hart (Polis)

• Strong Cold Dead, by Jon Land (Forge)

• A Study In Scarlet Women, by Sherry Thomas (Berkley)

• Teetotaled, by Maia Chance (Minotaur)

• Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil, by Melina Marchetta (Mulholland)

• A Terrible Beauty, by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur)

• The Trespasser, by Tana French (Viking)

• Triple Crown, by Felix Francis (Putnam)

• The Twelve Dogs of Christmas, by David Rosenfelt (Minotaur)

• The Whistler, by John Grisham (Doubleday)

• The White Devil, by Domenic Stansberry (Molotov Editions)

• Without Mercy, by Jefferson Bass (Morrow)

• With Six You Get Wally, by Al Lamanda (Five Star)

OCTOBER (UK):

• Betrayal, by Martina Cole (Headline)

• Beyond the Truth, by Anne Holt (Corvus)

• The Black Friar, by S.G. MacLean (Quercus)

• The Brother, by Joakim Zander (Head of Zeus)

• Chain of Custody, by Anita Nair (Bitter Lemon Press)

• Cold Earth, by Ann Cleeves (Macmillan)

• Death at the Seaside, by Frances Brody (Piatkus)

• Deep Water, by Christine Poulson (Lion)

• The Enemy Within, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)

• The Exiled, by Kati Hiekkapelto (Orenda)

• Hidden Killers, by Lynda La Plante (Simon & Schuster)

• A Hunt in Winter, by Conor Brady (New Island)

• The Ice Lands, by Steinar Bragi (Macmillan)

• The Keeper, by Alastair Gunn (Penguin)

• Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz (Orion)

• Mercy Killing, by Lisa Cutts (Simon & Schuster)

• The Mine, by Antti Tuomainen (Orenda)

• My Husband’s Son, by Deborah O’Connor (Twenty7)

• Never Alone, by Elizabeth Haynes (Myriad Editions)

• The Secret, by Katerina Diamond (Avon)

• Sun and Shadows, by Dominique Sylvain (MacLehose Press)

• Tell Me No Lies, by Lisa Hall (Carina)

• Thin Air, by Michelle Paver (Orion)

• The Travelling Bag and Other Ghostly Stories, by Susan Hill (Profile)

NOVEMBER (U.S.):

• Ash Island, by Barry Maitland (Minotaur)

• Bitter Moon, by Alexandra Sokoloff
(Thomas & Mercer)

• Black Widow, by Christopher Brookmyre (Little, Brown)

• Bullet Gal, by Andrez Bergen (Roundfire)

• The Champagne Conspiracy, by Ellen Crosby (Minotaur)

• The Chemist, by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)

• City on Edge, by Stefanie Pintoff (Bantam)

• Collected Millar: Legendary Novels of Suspense, by Margaret Millar (Soho Syndicate)

• Conclave, by Robert Harris (Knopf)

• The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows, by James Lovegrove (Titan)

• Death Comes to the Fair, by Catherine Lloyd (Kensington)

• Desolation Flats, by Andrew Hunt (Minotaur)

• Fireside Gothic, by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins)

• Glow of Death, by Jane K. Cleland (Minotaur)

• The Hanging Club, by Tony Parsons (Minotaur)

• Heart Attack and Vine, by Phoef Sutton (Prospect Park)

• The Hermit, by Thomas Rydahl (Oneworld)

• The Inheritance, by Charles Finch (Minotaur)

• Inherit the Bones, by Emily Littlejohn (Minotaur)

• The Jekyll Revelation, by Robert Masello (47North)

• Maigret’s First Case, by Georges Simenon (Penguin)

• The Mayakovsky Tapes, by Robert Littell (Thomas Dunne)

• Milicent Le Sueur, by Margaret Moseley (Brash)

• Night School, by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)

• No Man’s Land, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

• Pacific Homicide, by Patricia Smiley (Midnight Ink)

• Painted Skins, by Matt Hilton (Severn House)

• Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, by Anne Rice (Knopf)

• Pull Me Under, by Kelly Luce (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

• Road to Perdition, by Max Allan Collins (Brash)

• Ruler of the Night, by David Morrell (Mulholland)

• Say No More, by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Forge)

• Secrets and Shamrocks, by Phyllis Gobbell (Five Star)

• Sinner Man, by Lawrence Block (Hard Case Crime)

• The Sleeping Beauty Killer, by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke (Simon & Schuster)

• The Snarl of the Beast: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Volume 2, by Carroll John Daly (Altus Press)

• Solitaire, by Jane Thynne (Simon & Schuster)

• The Spy, by Paulo Coelho (Knopf)

• Storm Cell, by Brendan DuBois (Pegasus)

• Storm Rising, by Douglas Schofield (Minotaur)

• Stone Coffin, by Kjell Eriksson (Minotaur)

• Tales from the Darkside, by Joe Hill (IDW)

• There Was a Crooked Man, by K.J. Larsen (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Thus Bad Begins, by Javier Marías (Knopf)

• Turbo Twenty-Three, by Janet Evanovich (Bantam)

• The Twenty-Three, by Linwood Barclay (Berkley)

• Under the Midnight Sun, by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur)

• A Voice in the Night, by Andrea Camilleri (Penguin)

• The Wrong Side of Goodbye, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

NOVEMBER (UK):

• The Beautiful Dead, by Belinda Bauer (Bantam Press)

• Before I Let You In, by Jenny Blackhurst (Headline)

• The Blood Card, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)

• A Cold Case in Amsterdam Central, by Anja de Jager (Constable)

• Framed, by Ronnie O’Sullivan (Orion)

• Gallows Drop, by Mari Hannah (Macmillan)

• The Gravity of Love, by Sara Stridsberg (MacLehose Press)

• The Harbour Master, by Daniel Pembrey (No Exit Press)

• A High Mortality of Doves, by Kate Ellis (Piatkus)

• Lovemurder, by Saul Black (Orion)

• Motives for Murder, edited by Martin Edwards (Sphere)

• No Place Like Home, by Kerry Wilkinson (Pan)

• Pendulum, by Adam Hamdy (Headline)

• A Pilgrimage of Murder, by Paul Doherty (Creme de la Crime)

• Rather Be the Devil, by Ian Rankin (Orion)

• The Taken, by Alice Clark-Platts (Penguin)

• Trespass, by Anthony J. Quinn (Head of Zeus)

• Truth Will Out, by A.D. Garrett (Corsair)

• Where Dead Men Meet, by Mark Mills (Headline Review)

• Zodiac, by Sam Wilson (Penguin)

DECEMBER (U.S.):

• Bad Blood, by Hugh Dutton (Five Star)

• Brazen, by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)

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

• Buried in the Country, by Carola Dunn (Minotaur)

• Death Going Down, by María Angélica Bosco (Pushkin Vertigo)

• Death on the Patagonian Express, by Hy Conrad (Kensington)

• Don’t Turn Out the Lights, by Bernard Minier (Minotaur)

• East of the Sun, by Trey R. Barker (Five Star)

• The Edit, by J. Sydney Jones (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• Expecting to Die, by Lisa Jackson (Kensington)

• The Ice Beneath Her, by Camilla Grebe (Ballantine)

• In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper, edited by Lawrence Block (Pegasus)

• The Knife Slipped, by Erle Stanley Gardner (Hard Case Crime)

• The Marriage Lie, by Kimberly Belle (Mira)

• The Midnight Bell, by Jack Higgins (Putnam)

• My Friend Maigret, by Georges Simenon (Penguin)

• The Reek of Red Herrings, by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur)

• Swann’s Last Song, by Charles Salzberg (Down & Out)

• They Are Trying to Break Your Heart, by David Savill (Bloomsbury)

• Walk Into Silence, by Susan McBride (Thomas & Mercer)

• Who Watcheth, by Helene Tursten (Soho Crime)

• The Twilight Wife, by A.J. Banner (Touchstone)

DECEMBER (UK):

• The Acid Test, by Élmer Mendoza (MacLehose Press)

• Finisterre, by Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus)

• Road Kill, by Hanna Jameson (Head of Zeus)

• Then She Was Gone, by Luca Veste (Simon & Schuster)

Greatest Hits?

This coming Friday evening, September 9, will bring the American television premiere of Quarry, based on Max Allan Collins’ long-running series about a Vietnam vet who becomes a hit man. Network Cinemax’s initial order was for eight weekly episodes, starring Logan Marshall-Green, Jodi Balfour, and Peter Mullan.

While there’s no telling yet whether a sophomore season of this 1970s-set crime drama will be commissioned, Collins pronounces the opening installments “excellent.” Season One, he explains, is “essentially an extended origin story of how returning Marine Mac Conway (the character’s real name, according to the show anyway) becomes hit man Quarry.” Collins goes on in this new blog post to recount the history of his series protagonist and how Quarry was revived in a big way after what he thought would be only four books.

You can watch a trailer for this new Cinemax series here.

Revue of Reviewers, 9-6-16

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.

“Man” for the People

You have just four days left to take part in The Rap Sheet’s latest book-giveaway contest. The prizes this time: three copies of Andrew Gross’ new The One Man, an Alistair MacLean-esque thriller set during World War II. To enter, begin by answering this simple question:

Which of these Alistair MacLean novels is not a World War II thriller?
(1) HMS Ulysses
(2) Where Eagles Dare
(3) Puppet on a Chain
(4) The Guns of Navarone

Now e-mail your answer, along with your postal address (no P.O. boxes accepted), to jpwrites@wordcuts.org. And be sure to type “One Man Contest” in the subject line. Competition entries will be accepted between now and midnight this coming Friday, September 9. The three winners will be chosen completely at random.

Sorry, but at the publisher’s request, this contest is open only to residents of the United States and Canada.

One last thing: Please be sure to follow all of this contest’s entry instructions. Failure to answer our question or to submit your mailing address will automatically disqualify your submission.

And Long May His Story Be Told

“Hugh O’Brian, who rose to fame on television as the quick-drawing Wyatt Earp in the 1950s—but who later devoted extensive time to a foundation he created that trains young people to be leaders—died on Monday at his home in Beverly Hills, California,” reports The New York Times. O’Brian was 91 years old and, according to the Los Angeles Times, suffered from “several health issues.”

He was born Hugh Charles Krampe in Rochester, New York, on April 19, 1025, “but when he became an actor,” recalls the New York newspaper, “he took the name O’Brian—from his mother’s side of the family, he said—because he found it less vulnerable than Krampe to unfortunate misspellings.” As Variety recalls, O’Brian “spent a semester at the University of Cincinnati but during World War II he dropped out to enlist in the Marine Corps—where his father had been an officer. … After the war, O’Brian moved to Los Angeles to study at UCLA. He had started doing stage work, and was discovered by Ida Lupino, who signed him to appear as the second male lead in the polio drama Never Fear [1949], which she had co-scripted and was directing; for O’Brian that film led to a contract with Universal Pictures.”

O’Brian is most widely remembered for his lead role in the 1955-1961 ABC-TV Western, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. But he also starred in the 1972-1973 NBC-TV series Search, playing resourceful Hugh Lockwood, one of three field operatives assigned to solve crimes around the world for a high-tech private investigations enterprise. (Tony Franciosa and Doug McClure portrayed the other two ops.) In addition, O’Brian appeared over the years on such crime dramas as Perry Mason, Charlie’s Angels, Police Story, Matt Houston, L.A. Law, and Murder, She Wrote. In 1994 he reprised the small-screen role that brought him his first big fame, in Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone. His many theatrical film credits include parts in There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), Come Fly with Me (1963), a 1965 picture based on Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None), and Twins (1988). “One of his more memorable roles (though it was also one of his smallest) was in John Wayne’s final movie, The Shootist (1976),” notes The New York Times. “Mr. O’Brian played a professional gambler who, in the film’s closing moments, became the last character ever killed onscreen by Wayne.”

But, says the L.A. Times, “O’Brian's most enduring legacy is off-screen. More than 375,000 high school sophomores selected by their schools have gone through his Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership organization, which was founded ‘to inspire and develop our global community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service, and innovation.’ The non-profit organization grew out of an invitation to O’Brian from Dr. Albert Schweitzer to visit the medical missionary, a 1952 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, at his famed hospital in Africa. O’Brian spent nine days working as a volunteer at the hospital on the banks of the Ogooue River in Gabon during the summer of 1958. For O’Brian, it was a life-changing experience.”

It’s interesting as well to mention that O’Brian, once thought of as one of the most eligible men in Hollywood, spent most of his life as a bachelor. He didn’t marry until he was 81 years old, in 2006, taking as his bride longtime companion Virginia Barber, 54. “This is my first, and most definitely, my last trip down the aisle,” O’Brian was quoted as saying at the time. Barber is among his survivors.

READ MORE: “Hugh O’Brian Passes On,” by Terence Towles Canote (A Shroud of Thoughts).

The Book You Have to Read: “Dreamland,” by Newton Thornburg

(Editor’s note: This is the 140th installment in The Rap Sheet’s continuing series about great but forgotten books.)

By Steven Nester
Crow, a middle-aged itinerant “who wouldn’t be caught dead in a Buick,” is on his way to reconcile with his estranged father, Orville. A retired cop and an “undemonstrative man,” Orville’s made no secret of his disappointment with Crow’s lack of interest in a “three-piece-suit job.” Meanwhile, Foxy Reno is the nom de guerre of a “gaudy and tasteless” 16-year-old runaway and would-be starlet bound for the Sunset Strip, whom Crow rescues from an abusive boyfriend on the side of a Southern California highway. Crow and Foxy are looking to reboot their lives with purpose. After three bystanders are photographed witnessing a politician fleeing a gay sex party where an accidental death has occurred, the pair are given the chance to put wrong to right—and then some—in Newton Thornburg’s taut and tough noir Dreamland (1983).

It’s the beginning of “the aching eighties,” an era of lurid narcissism, extravagant entitlement, and gratuitous incivility—and also a time when a small network of desultory but violent anarchists with government connections catches the greed bug and forgoes the revolution in return for some quick blackmail cash. An old contact of Orville’s named Gardner Costello is given an assignment from a familiar but nefarious colleague which he knows could land him in danger. He passes the task off to Orville, starts drinking heavily, and points his boat towards Mexico.

The job seems easy: just ID some people in a photograph. But unbeknownst to Costello (and the contractor, allegedly an old CIA hand), Crow and Foxy take over the assignment from the aging Orville, track the subjects down, and complete the task. When an intoxicated Orville later drives off a cliff and the three subjects in the photo as well as the photographer turn up dead, the police fail to see a connection, but Crow and Reno do. The “inhumanely arrogant” killers, whose “imaginative and efficient” methods prevent the police from connecting the dots, galvanize Crow to don his big-boy pants and conduct his own investigation into the situation, no matter what troubles it might spark.

That arrogance had kindled in Crow a small blue flame of rage … that was simply not going to burn out, not at least until it touched off something far grander than itself.

He takes wise-cracking Foxy in tow (she creates some moments of precocious levity, opining at one point that “oral sex sounds like dentists doing it”), realizing that she’s one of his best investigative assets. His plan to return the teenager to her cocktail-waitress mother is put on hold. Equally important to Crow’s scheming, however, is Jennifer Kellogg, the glamorous sister of Richard Kellogg (one of the eventual casualties caught in that notorious photograph), and niece to Henry Kellogg, a rich and powerful behind-the-scenes playmaker.

Tenuously connected to the skullduggery in Thornburg’s yarn, and limned as an “old buzzard” in “obscene black bikini trunks,” Henry Kellogg is a “convenient red herring” who seems to have little interest in his gay nephew’s apparent suicide. If his appearances in Dreamland were more prolific, readers would find themselves compelled to hold this novel at arm’s length just to keep the toxic man as far away from them as possible. But that would be futile, for there are enough other sociopaths and ghouls peopling Dreamland to necessitate the use of a hazmat suit; and if the pursuers aren’t already dead, they’re hot on the trail of Crow and his cohorts—or lying in wait.

Henry and Jennifer’s world comprises the clubs and estates around Santa Barbara, land of “old money and diseased livers,” something new and slightly odious to Crow, yet he comes to terms with it all because the 30-something Jennifer shares his commitment to the mission at hand—and it’s Henry’s money which enables this trio to chase after what they hope will be the truth. First to Mexico to find Orville’s initial contact, then to the Rocky Mountain lair of the complicated and utterly vile revolutionary, Barbara Queen, who holds the key to the lofty perches of power where the truth is hidden.

(Right) Author Newton Thornburg

The depth of the characters here and their inner thoughts draws readers into a bond of empathy with the three amateur detectives, and their pausing to reflect on the case and their lives controls the pace of the action. Though they all come from disparate backgrounds, and might have had little in common, readers looking for romance are not disappointed. While Jennifer makes Crow “feel like a tall Mickey Rooney trundling in the wake of one of his stunning wives,” he’s not afraid to act on his desires, nor is he immune from the charms of the “coltish” Foxy Reno, which creates a tense love triangle that keeps Crow and the reader wondering how long the improbable trio can carry on as a team.

Beneath it all, Dreamland is a novel about the relationships between parents and children; of alliances brought on by need and circumstances, and immaturity sprouting to responsibility. Involved but straightforward, Dreamland is a flawless novel with no loose ends. Crow sees to that: the small flame that had ignited his interest in the case becomes a horrific conflagration by his own hand, enveloping evildoers as well as evidence of his team’s involvement, and prompting Crow to understand that not all closures are sweet. As he watches a mountain house burn to the ground, for instance, “it occurred to him that if he hadn’t known what it was, he might have thought it beautiful.” Sleuthing readers who want to catch Thornburg in the act of writing a fine piece of literature would do well to pay attention to this intricate, seamless, and well-executed tale.

READ MORE: “The Book You Have to Read: Cutter and Bone, by Newton Thornburg,” by Kirk Russell (The Rap Sheet).

Look! A Lost James Bond Adventure

There’s a new piece in my Killer Covers blog about the much-anticipated release (by Hard Case Crime) of Forever and a Death, a previously unpublished novel by Donald E. Westlake, based on his 1990s treatment for a James Bond movie. As Hard Case Crime explains, “The plot Westlake dreamed up—about a British businessman seeking to destroy Hong Kong after being kicked out when the island was returned to Chinese sovereignty—had all the action and excitement, the danger and the sex appeal, of a classic Bond film—but for whatever reason, the Bond folks decided not to use it.”

Oh, and that book’s cover, by Paul Mann, is downright gorgeous!