Owl Be Seein’ You

The 7th Canon, a courtroom thriller by Seattle lawyer-turned-author Robert Dugoni, has won the 2017 Spotted Owl Award, according to “The Blood-Letter,” an irregular bulletin from the Portland, Oregon-based fan group Friends of Mystery, which sponsors the commendation. This is the first time Dugoni has captured the Spotted Owl, which is supposed to be given annually to the “best mystery written by an author whose primary residence is in the Pacific Northwest.” “The Blood-Letter” reports that this year’s Spotted Owl judges ranked their nominees for the award in this order (including several ties for placement):

1. The 7th Canon, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)
2. House Revenge, by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Monthly Press)
3. The King of Fear, by Drew Chapman (Simon & Schuster)
4. Not Dead Enough, by Warren Easley (Poisoned Pen Press)
4. Salvation Lake, by G.M. Ford (Thomas & Mercer)
4. Blood Flag, by Steve Martini (Morrow)
7. Ping-Pong Heart, by Martin Limón (Soho Crime)
8. Judicious Murder, by Val Bruech (Smoking Gun)
9. The More They Disappear, by Jesse Donaldson (Thomas Dunne)
9. Downfall, by J.A. Jance (Morrow)
9. Violent Crimes, by Philip Margolin (Harper)

By the way, Dugoni’s The 7th Canon is also vying for a 2017 Edgar Award in the Paperback Original category.

Previous recipients of the Spotted Owl include Jon Talton, Chelsea Cain and Johnny Shaw, Mike Lawson, Bill Cameron, and Alan Bradley. The prize was first presented back in 1996.

Gold Among the Green

With St. Patrick’s Day now quickly approaching (uh-oh, where did I stash away my all-green wardrobe?), Mystery Fanfare’s Janet Rudolph has posted an updated selection of crime and mystery novels that either employ said annual holiday in their stories or are related in some fashion to Ireland and the Irish. Titles range from Andrew Greeley’s Irish Gold and Debbie Viguié’s Lie Down in Green Pastures to the inevitable St. Patrick’s Day Murder, by Leslie Meier.

Revue of Reviewers, 3-9-17

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

Bullet Points: “Day Without a Woman” Edition

Today has brought forth a wide variety of protests by American women, highlighting the importance of women in the modern workplace, spotlighting ridiculous disparities in pay between male and female workers, and opposing anti-woman policies proposed by Donald Trump, who’s notorious for saying that women will let famous guys “do anything … Grab ’em by the pussy.” Obviously, not all women in the United States have the support of their employers to take this day off from their jobs, but many are doing just that. “[A]ll across the country,” observes New York magazine’s Eric Levitz, “women are abandoning their posts. Classes have been canceled; children, left to their fathers; boardrooms, left unmanaged; dinners, left uncooked; blog posts, left unwritten.” It’s to those women enjoying a bit of extra leisure time today that I offer this expanded version of The Rap Sheet’s irregular crime-fiction news wrap-up.

• After my recent viewing of the British TV miniseries The Night Manager, adapted from John le Carré’s 1993 novel of the same name, I’ve been picking up a few le Carré novels that I have not already read. Now it looks as if my choices will increase in number. The author’s U.S. publisher, Viking, told the Associated Press that le Carré’s next novel, A Legacy of Spies (due out on September 5), will star his series espionage agent, George Smiley. According to the AP, “the novel tells of how Smiley and such peers as Peter Guillam receive new scrutiny about their Cold War years with British intelligence and face a younger generation that knows little about their history.”

• Double O Section’s Tanner (aka Matthew Bradford) offers this backgrounder on Smiley’s participation in the le Carré novels.

• The full schedule of events has been announced for this year’s CrimeFest, which will be held (as usual) in Bristol, England, from May 18 to 21. Click here to see which authors will be in attendance, and when they are set to participate in panel discussions.

• Meanwhile, organizers of Left Coast Crime 2019 have spread the news of who will appear as the guests of honor at their “Whale of a Crime” convention in Vancouver, Canada.

• Turner Classic Movies’ brand-new offering, Noir Alley—ably hosted by Film Noir Foundation president Eddie Muller—debuted this last Sunday with a presentation of that 1941 Humphrey Bogart private-eye classic, The Maltese Falcon. The cable station will follow that up this coming weekend with the 1945 movie Detour, starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. If you would like to learn what the future holds for Noir Alley, click here to see the broadcast schedule through July. All of Muller’s films begin at 10 a.m. on Sundays.

• The third season of Bosch, the TV drama based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling series of novels featuring Los Angeles police detective Harry Bosch, won’t begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video until Friday, April 21. However, Entertainment Weekly recently posted an ominous trailer for that new 10-episode season, which draws its plot from Connelly’s novels The Black Echo and A Darkness More Than Night. And the author talks in this Q&A from his Web site about what to expect from the forthcoming story arc. By the way, work is already gearing up on Season 4 of Bosch, which will be based on Connelly’s 1999 novel, Angels Flight.

• For the Strand Magazine Web site, Alfred Hitchcock biographer Tony Lee selects what he says are the “Top Ten Alfred Hitchcock Movies of All Time.” (Yes, Notorious makes the cut.)

• I somehow missed the February release, in Great Britain, of Taking Detective Stories Seriously: The Collected Crime Reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers. But Kate Jackson’s critique of that book, at Cross-Examining Crime, makes me want to track down a copy as soon as possible—if only in hopes of sharpening up my own reviewing style. “[T]his is a must-read for all fans of golden age detective fiction,” Jackson opines. “Get it for the laughs, get it to find out what Sayers thought of her friends’ work, or get it to find some new authors to track down. But above all get it!”

• There has been a variety recently of excellent essays penned about crime-fictionists old and not-so-old. Britain’s Guardian, for instance, carried this article by Brian Dillon about how Raymond Chandler’s renowned shamus, Philip Marlowe, “found his voice.” UK crime-culture researcher and author Sarah Trott (War Noir) delivered a two-part analysis, on the Strand Magazine site, of Chandler’s literary legacy; Part I is here, Part II can be enjoyed here. Sarah K. Stephens recounts in the online publication The Millions “how P.D. James and detective fiction healed my broken heart.” And in a review for Literary Web of the new big-screener Tomato Red (watch the trailer here), William Boyle applauds the “genius” of Daniel Woodrell, the “Battle-Hardened Bard of Meth Country.”

• In Reference to Murder’s B.V. Lawson brings the news that author-editor Rick Ollerman “will be launching a new digest-sized magazine this summer called Down & Out: The Magazine. The first issue features a new Moe Prager story by Reed Farrel Coleman, and the second a new Sheriff Dan Rhodes story by Bill Crider.” Yours truly, by the way, has been asked to contribute review columns to this fledgling periodical. Wish me luck on the venture.

• What a terrific project! With the benefit of hefty financial grants, Northern Illinois University is busy digitizing 19th-century “dime novels” for widespread public consumption. “These dime novel format books sold in hundreds of thousands of copies—they were the best sellers of their day,” explains Lynne Thomas, the curator of NIU’s Rare Books and Special Collections. “They were read by more average Americans than anything that is taught in literature classes of the period, including things like Moby Dick or the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne.” Start your exploration of the growing collection here. (Hat tip to Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine.)

• Congratulations to former President Barack Obama for winning the 2017 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In a statement, Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg gave this explanation of why Obama deserved the commendation: “Faced with unrelenting political opposition, President Obama has embodied the definition of courage that my grandfather cites in the opening lines of Profiles in Courage: grace under pressure. Throughout his two terms in office, he represented all Americans with decency, integrity, and an unshakeable commitment to the greater good.” Obama was presented with the award last evening, May 7, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. No doubt Donald Trump will launch one of his whiny tweetstorms in response ...

• R.I.P., men’s adventure magazine writer Walter Kaylin.

• Which long-running CSI TV series is your favorite? Criminal Element wants to know. (In case you’re curious, at last check the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had amassed the greatest number of votes in this survey—61 percent.)

• Black Gate contributor Bob Byrne has more than a few nice things to say about the 2001-2002 A&E-TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery, which starred Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin and Maury Chaykin as Rex Stout’s agoraphobic, beer-loving Manhattan sleuth, Wolfe. “[E]ven if you’ve never read any Wolfe,” Byrne remarks, “it’s a pretty good period detective series and you should give it a try.”

• I came in on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea after its original prime-time run, but loved weekend repeats of that 1961-1964 Irwin Allen sci-fi TV sea adventure. Apparently I was not alone in my admiration, as the blog Cult TV Lounge proves here and here.

• Lee Goldberg, who wrote three episodes of the 1985-1988 ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire, inspired by Robert B. Parker’s detective novels, has posted this promotional spot for that program’s 1985 fall premiere, featuring a theme song that Goldberg describes as “a cringe-inducing twisting of Randy Newman’s ‘I Love L.A.’”

• Although nefarious misdeeds are usually solved and their perpetrators captured in crime fiction, Vox informs us that, in fact, “fewer than half of violent crimes and about a third of property crimes in the U.S. are reported to the police each year. Meanwhile, less than half of violent crimes and less than one-fifth of property crimes that are reported are actually cleared by police and referred to prosecution. (Keep in mind that the clearance rate is not even the solved rate, because prosecution doesn’t always lead to conviction.)”

• Since I didn’t happen to tune in for last month’s Oscars presentation, I missed the fact that Robert Vaughn, the Man from U.N.C.L.E. star who died last November, was not mentioned in the broadcast’s “In Memoriam” segment—although some 45 other people were, according to The Spy Command. A damn shame!

• The March edition of Mike Ripley’s “Getting Away with Murder” column for Shots includes witty remarks about Pan Macmillan’s Thin Blue Spine initiative, the proliferation of crime-novel titles featuring the word “Girl” (“American blogger Steve Donoghue ... has identified no less than 41 titles as his ‘Worst Books of 2016—Fiction’”), the coming debut of Michael Connelly’s new series protagonist (in The Late Show), and other anticipated works by Russel D. MacLean, Philip Kerr, Leonardo Padura, and Chris Brookmyre.

• I have to admit, I was not familiar with Harold Blundell (1902-1985), a British banker and crime novelist who—under the nom de plume George Bellairs—concocted a succession of books featuring Scotland Yard Detective-Inspector Thomas Littlejohn. So I was somewhat flummoxed to learn that Mysterious Press is now bringing out e-book versions of those Littlejohn yarns. The half-dozen initial releases include The Case of the Seven Whistlers (1944) and Outrage on Gallows Hill (1948). Blundell/Bellairs kept Littlejohn active through 1980, so there are plenty more stories to put back on the market, should the early ones find new interest among readers.

• Excellent news! Walter Mosley has a new novel, Down the River Unto the Sea, being readied for publication in February 2018. Entertainment Weekly reports that “the novel centers on a former New York City police detective, now working as a Brooklyn P.I., who is investigating the case of a Black civil rights activist convicted of murdering two city policemen. At the same time, he’s still trying to piece together the conspiracy that caused his own downfall at the hands of the police.”

• Having survived last year’s Independent Bookstore Day, I very much look forward to participating again in that competition to visit as many local indie bookshops as possible. This year’s competition is slated for Saturday, April 29. According to Shelf Awareness, “457 stores from around the country are participating, up from around 430 last year and 365 in 2015. Forty-eight states are represented, with only Hawaii and Arkansas missing, and a searchable map featuring the locations of all participating bookstores can be found here.”

• A belated “happy fifth birthday” to Bitter Tea and Mystery!

• A few author interviews worthy of attention: Eliot Pattison answers Criminal Element’s questions about his ninth Inspector Shan Tao Yun mystery, Skeleton God; for Crime Watch, Craig Sisterson quizzes Brad Parks, whose new novel is a standalone titled Say Nothing; for Shots, Kimberley “K.J.” Howe chats with the ubiquitous Ali Karim about her debut thriller, The Freedom Broker; Dave White interrogates Alex Segura about the latter’s forthcoming novel, Dangerous Ends; meanwhile, White fields queries from S.W. Lauden about his own fresh work of fiction, Blind to Sin; John B. Valeri plumbs the life of Rhys Bowen (In Farleigh Field); and Sharon Long interviews Elaine Viets (Brain Storm) for Mystery Playground.

• From The Spy Command comes word that the TV streaming service Hulu has released a trailer for Becoming Bond, a 90-minute “documentary/narrative hybrid chronicling the stranger-than-fiction true story” of how Australian non-actor George Lazenby became British spy James Bond—at least for one movie, 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Den of Geek says this documentary “promise[s] a bit of everything—drama, comedy, romance, drugs, sex, twists, turns, the whole shebang.” Becoming Bond makes its Hulu debut on May 20.

• Speaking of all things 007 … Anne Billson’s Multiglom blog features a nice tribute to Eva Green, who of course played the stunning Vesper Lynd, opposite Daniel Craig, in 2006’s Casino Royale.

• Finally, because I can’t actually imagine spending many days without women (what fun would that be, really?), let me direct you to this online list—from Elle magazine—of “The 10 Best Thrillers and Crime Writing by Women” … and this lengthy rundown—from Goodreads—of the “Best Female Crime/Mystery/Thriller Writers.”

Spring Books Are Popping Up All Over

Back when I was a nerdy teenager, in the days before computers infiltrated business offices and found their way into everyone’s pocket, one of my favorite escapes from an inclement afternoon was to visit a nearby library and page leisurely through the latest edition of Books in Print. Those regularly updated volumes were hefty hardbacks, flush with the titles of (and useful information about) new and forthcoming works, fiction as well as non-fiction. Bookseller Amazon didn’t yet exist to help me fantasize about yarns I might like to spend my disposable income on, but Books in Print served admirably as a precursor. Launched in 1948 by R.R. Bowker—the same company that also created Publishers Weekly in 1872 and Library Journal four years later—Books in Print was the ideal source for my daydreams of one day possessing my own beautiful library.

Like so many things that once existed solely on paper, Books in Print is now available on the Web, by subscription. However, it competes there with myriad other electronic sources of bibliographical knowledge, most of which cost absolutely nothing to access. It’s been years since I paged through Books in Print, but I frequently search the Internet for news of crime novels soon to be published on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean—as I did recently, in order to compile the list below of more than 350 books of interest scheduled to reach stores between now and the close of May.

This isn’t a comprehensive catalogue, by any means. It contains works that I would personally like to digest, had I sufficient hours and energy to do so, and others penned by authors who I know are popular with critics of my acquaintance. It’s the kind of assortment I would have delighted in browsing through as a nascent bibliophile, inviting literary-minded sorts to reacquaint themselves with familiar wordsmiths and discover new ones. You’ll find here imminent releases from Greg Iles and Julia Dahl, E.S. Thomson and Denise Mina, Lori Rader-Day and Brad Parks. There are brand-new entries to series by Sara Paretsky, Stuart MacBride, Jørn Lier Horst, Susanna Gregory, and Philip Kerr, as well as standalone fiction from Andrew Taylor, Bill Pronzini, Howard Norman, and Andrew Hughes. Beyond those treats are re-releases of notable tales by the likes of Georges Simenon, Margaret Millar, and Freeman Wills Crofts, and even a few non-fiction texts—identified with asterisks (*)—that should earn the curiosity of mystery-fiction fans.

As I usually do with this sort of list, I invite Rap Sheet readers to point out (in the Comments section at the post’s end) any works of particular merit I missed. And if you need further suggestions, let me recommend The Bloodstained Bookshelf, for U.S. titles, and Euro Crime, for releases on the other side of “the pond.” The bottom line here is that you should have no trouble finding entertaining reading material to carry you through our coming sunnier season.

MARCH (U.S.):

• Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted, edited by Laura Caldwell and Leslie S. Klinger (Liveright)*

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

• The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story, by Miriam C. Davis (Chicago Review Press)*

• Bad Boy Boogie, by Thomas Pluck (Down & Out)

• The Black Tortoise, by Ronald Tierney (Raven)

• Blue Light Yokohama, by Nicolás Obregón (Minotaur)

• Bone White, by Wendy Corsi Staub (Morrow)

• Bound by Mystery: Celebrating 20 Years of Poisoned Pen Press, edited by Diane DiBiase (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Bridge, by Stuart Prebble (Mulholland)

• Bum Luck, by Paul Levin (Thomas & Mercer)

• Catalina Eddy: A Novel in Three Decades, by Daniel Pyne
(Blue Rider Press)

• Celine, by Peter Heller (Knopf)

• The Cheltenham Square Murder, by John Bude (Poisoned Pen Press)

• A Climate of Fear, by Fred Vargas (Penguin)

• Coney Island Avenue, by J.L. Abramo (Down & Out)

• Conviction, by Julia Dahl (Minotaur)

• Cruel Winter, by Sheila Connolly (Crooked Lane)

• Cut, by Marc Raabe (Manila)

• The Cutaway, by Christina Kovac (Atria/37 INK)

• Cut to the Bone, by Alex Caan (Skyhorse)

• Dead Man Switch, by Matthew Quirk (Mulholland)

• A Death by Any Other Name, by Tessa Arlen (Minotaur)

• The Devil’s Feast, by M.J. Carter (Putnam)

• The Devil’s Triangle, by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison (Gallery)

• Duplicity, by Jane Haseldine (Kensington)

• Dying on the Vine, by Marla Cooper (Minotaur)

• The Executioner of St Paul’s, by Susanna Gregory (Sphere)

• The Fall of Lisa Bellow, by Susan Perabo (Simon & Schuster)

• Find Me, by J.S. Monroe (Mira)

• The Forgotten Girls, by Owen Laukkanen (Putnam)

• Girl in Disguise, by Greer Macallister (Sourcebooks Landmark)

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

• Heretics, by Leonardo Padura (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

• Ill Will, by Dan Chaon (Ballantine)

• Imperial Valley, by Johnny Shaw (Thomas & Mercer)

• In Farleigh Field, by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union)

• In This Grave Hour, by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper)

• I Wish You Missed Me, by Bonnie Hearn Hill (Severn House)

• Lenin’s Roller Coaster, by David Downing (Soho Crime)

• The Logan Triad, by Nathan Walpow (Down & Out)

• Lola, by Melissa Scrivner Love (Crown)

• The Loving Husband, by Christobel Kent (Sarah Crichton)

• Madame Maigret’s Friend, by Georges Simenon (Penguin)

• Make Them Pay, by Allison Brennan (St. Martin’s Paperbacks)

• Mangrove Lightning, by Randy Wayne White (Putnam)

• Miguel’s Gift, by Bruce Kading (Chicago Review Press)

• Mississippi Blood, by Greg Iles (Morrow)

• Mister Memory, by Marcus Sedgwick (Pegasus)

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

• Murder, Stage Left, by Robert Goldsborough (Mysterious Press/Open Road)

• My Darling Detective, by Howard Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Never Let You Go, by Chevy Stevens
(St. Martin’s Press)

• The New York Times Book of Crime: More Than 166 Years of Covering the Beat, by Kevin Flynn (Sterling)*

• One by One, by Sarah Cain (Crooked Lane)

• Only the Truth, by Adam Croft (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Outsider, by Anthony Franze (Minotaur)

• The Painted Gun, by Bradley Spinelli (Akashic)

• Parallel Lines, by Steven Savile (Titan)

• The Place of Refuge, by Albert Tucher (Shotgun Honey/Down & Out)

• Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly, by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street)

• Quicksand, by Malin Persson Giolito (Other Press)

• The Road to Ithaca, by Ben Pastor (Bitter Lemon Press)

• Saratoga Payback, by Stephen Dobyns (Blue Rider Press)

• Say Nothing, by Brad Parks (Dutton)

• The Secrets You Keep, by Kate White (Harper)

• A Shattered Circle, by Kevin Egan (Forge)

• Shooting Creek and Other Stories, by Scott Loring Sanders
(Down & Out)

• Signature Wounds, by Kirk Russell (Thomas & Mercer)

• Silent Approach, by Bobby Cole (Thomas & Mercer)

• A Simple Favor, by Darcey Bell (Harper)

• Skeleton God, by Eliot Pattison (Minotaur)

• The Surgeon’s Case, by E.G. Rodford (Titan)

• The Third Squad, by V. Sanjay Kumar (Akashic)

• The Trophy Child, by Paula Daly (Grove Press)

• A Twist of the Knife, by Becky Masterman (Minotaur)

• Vicious Circle, by C.J. Box (Putnam)

• The Violated, by Bill Pronzini (Bloomsbury USA)

• The Wages of Sin, by Kaite Welsh (Pegasus)

• Wait for Dark, by Kay Hooper (Berkley)

• The Weight of This World, by David Joy (Putnam)

• The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, by Lyndsay Faye (Mysterious Press)

• The Widow’s House, by Carol Goodman (Morrow)

• The Will to Kill, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)

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

MARCH (UK):

• The Adventuress, by Arthur B. Reeve (Collins Crime Club)

• Arrowood, by Mick Finlay (HQ)

• Bay of Martyrs, by Tony Black and Matt Neal (Freight)

• Blood Tide, by Claire McGowan (Headline)

• Bryant & May: Wild Chamber, by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)

• Boundary, by Andree Michaud (No Exit Press)

• Butterfly on the Storm, by Walter Lucius (Michael Joseph)

• A Dangerous Crossing, by Rachel Rhys (Doubleday)

• Dark Asylum, by E.S. Thomson (Constable)

• The Darkness Within, by Alanna Knight (Allison & Busby)

• Deadly Game, by Matt Johnson (Orenda)

• Dead Reckoning, by Glenis Wilson (Severn House)

• Death at Melrose Hall, by David Dickinson (Constable)

• Death Scene, by Jane A. Adams
(Severn House)

• Ed’s Dead, by Russel D. McLean (Saraband)

• Eleventh Hour, by M.J. Trow
(Creme de la Crime)

• The Escape, by C.L. Taylor (Avon)

• Everything but the Truth, by Gillian McAllister (Penguin)

• Falling Creatures, by Katherine Stansfield (Allison & Busby)

• Family Matters, by Anthony Rolls (British Library)

• Follow Me Down, by Sherri Smith (Titan)

• Follow My Leader, by M.J. Arlidge (Michael Joseph)

• The Fourth Victim, by Mari Jungstedt (Corgi)

• The G-String Murders, by Gypsy Rose Lee (Saraband)

• A Handful of Ashes, by Rob McCarthy (Mulholland)

• The Hidden, by Sally Spencer (Severn House)

• Hoffer, by Tim Glencross (John Murray)

• Inspector French and the Box Office Murders, by Freeman Wills Crofts (Collins Crime Club)

• Inspector French and Sir John Magill’s Last Journey, by Freeman Wills Crofts (Collins Crime Club)

• The Killer, by Susan Wilkins (Macmillan)

• The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman, by Mindy Mejia (Quercus)

• The Legacy, by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Let the Dead Speak, by Jane Casey (HarperCollins)

• The Long Drop, by Denise Mina (Harvill Secker)

• Parallel Lines, by Steven Savile (Titan)

• The Pictures, by Guy Bolton (Oneworld)

• Quieter Than Killing, by Sarah Hilary (Headline)

• Raw Wounds, by Matt Hilton (Severn House)

• Sand, by Wolfgang Herrndorf (Pushkin Press)

• Sherlock Holmes: A Betrayal in Blood, by Mark A. Latham (Titan)

• Sherlock Holmes in Context, by Sam Naidu (Palgrave Macmillan)*

• The Silence Between Breaths, by Cath Staincliffe (Constable)

• Six Stories, by Matt Wesolowski (Orenda)

• Sometimes I Lie, by Alice Feeney (HQ)

• Still Dark, by Alex Gray (Sphere)

• The Surgeon’s Case, by E.G. Rodford (Titan)

• Tattletale, by Sarah J. Naughton (Trapeze)

• The Venetian Game, by Philip Gwynne Jones (Constable)

• When It Grows Dark, by Jørn Lier Horst (Sandstone Press)

• Where I Lost Her, by T. Greenwood (Atlantic)

• The Witchfinder’s Sister, by Beth Underdown (Viking)

APRIL (U.S.):

• The Agent, by Mark Dawson (Thomas & Mercer)

• Alice and the Assassin, by R.J. Koreto (Crooked Lane)

• All By Myself, Alone, by Mary Higgins Clark (Simon & Schuster)

• Antiques Frame, by Barbara Allan (Kensington)

• Bad Seeds, by Jassy Mackenzie (Soho Crime)

• Before I Go, by Leena Lehtolainen (AmazonCrossing)

• The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History, by Stephan Talty (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)*

• The Burial Hour, by Jeffery Deaver (Grand Central)

• Burntown, by Jennifer McMahon (Doubleday)

• Chasing the Devil’s Tail, by David Fulmer (Crescent City Books)

• A Clash of Spheres, by P.F. Chisholm (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Cold Earth, by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur)

• A Criminal Defense, by William L. Myers Jr. (Thomas & Mercer)

• Cruel Is the Night, by Karo Hämäläinen (Soho Crime)

• The Curse of La Fontaine, by M.L. Longworth (Penguin)

• Dangerous Ends, by Alex Segura (Polis)

• Dangerous to Know, by Renee Patrick (Forge)

• Date With the Executioner, by Edward Marston (Allison and Busby)

• The Day I Died, by Lori Rader-Day (Morrow)

• Devil’s Breath, by G.M. Malliet (Minotaur)

• The Devil’s Country, by Harry Hunsicker (Thomas & Mercer)

• Earthly Remains, by Donna Leon
(Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Every Body on Deck, by G. A. McKevett (Kensington)

• Every Night I Dream of Hell, by Malcolm Mackay (Mulholland)

• Executive Order, by Max Allan Collins
with Matthew V. Clemens (Thomas & Mercer)

• Fallout, by Sara Paretsky (Morrow)

• Fatal Music, by Peter Morfoot (Titan)

• A Fever of the Blood, by Oscar de Muriel (Pegasus)

• The Finishing School, by Joanna Goodman (Harper)

• The Fix, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

• Flamingo Road, by Sasscer Hill (Minotaur)

• The Girl Who Was Taken, by Charlie Donlea (Kensington)

• Gone Without a Trace, by Mary Torjussen (Berkley)

• The Good Assassin, by Paul Vidich (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• The Good Byline, by Jill Orr (Prospect Park)

• Gumshoe for Two, by Rob Leininger (Oceanview)

• H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil,
by Adam Selzer (Skyhorse)*

• The Hunt, by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Swallow Press)

• I Found You, by Lisa Jewell (Atria)

• If We Were Villains, by M.L. Rio (Flatiron)

• Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling, by Michael Cannell (Minotaur)*

• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann (Doubleday)*

• The Last Chance Olive Ranch, by Susan Wittig Albert (Berkley)

• LAst Resort, edited by by Matt Coyle, Mary Marks, and
Patricia Smiley (Down & Out)

• Long Black Veil, by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Crown)

• The Lost Order, by Steve Berry (Minotaur)

• Maigret’s Memoirs, by Georges Simenon (Penguin)

• Marshall’s Law, by Ben Sanders (Minotaur)

• Of Books and Bagpipes, by Paige Shelton (Minotaur)

• One Perfect Lie, by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s Press)

• The Perfect Stranger, by Megan Miranda (Simon & Schuster)

• Prussian Blue, by Philip Kerr (Marian Wood/Putnam)

• Ragdoll, by Daniel Cole (Ecco)

• The Red Hunter, by Lisa Unger (Touchstone)

• The Revolution of the Moon, by Andrea Camilleri (Europa Editions)

• The Ridge, by John Rector (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Scientology Murders, by William Heffernan (Akashic)

• The Secrets of Gaslight Lane, by M.R.C. Kasasian (Pegasus)

• A Single Spy, by William Christie (Minotaur)

• Song of the Lion, by Anne Hillerman (Harper)

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

• The Two O’Clock Boy, by Mark Hill (Sphere)

• Unreliable, by Lee Irby (Doubleday)

• The Watcher, by Ross Armstrong (Mira)

• Water Signs, by Janet Dawson (Perseverance Press)

• A Welcome Murder, by Robin Yocum (Seventh Street)

• What Doesn’t Kill You, by Ed James (Thomas & Mercer)

• What the Dead Leave Behind, by Rosemary Simpson (Kensington)

• Where the Dead Lie, by C.S. Harris (Berkley)

APRIL (UK):

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

• American Noir: The Pocket Essential Guide to U.S. Crime Fiction, Film & TV, by Barry Forshaw (Pocket Essentials)*

• The Awkward Squad, by Sophie Hénaff (MacLehose Press)

• Beyond Absolution, by Cora Harrison (Severn House)

• Bright Shiny Things, by Barbara Nadel (Allison & Busby)

• The Choice, by Samantha King (Piatkus)

• The Contract, by J.M. Gulvin (Faber and Faber)

• A Dark So Deadly, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)

• Dead Woman Walking, by Sharon Bolton (Bantam Press)

• A Deadly Betrothal, by Fiona Buckley (Creme de la Crime)

• Death Message, by Kate London (Corvus)

• Die Last, by Tony Parsons (Century)

• The Dog Walker, by Lesley Thomson
(Head of Zeus)

• Domina, by L.S. Hilton (Zaffre)

• Don’t Let Go, by Michel Bussi (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

• Don’t Look for Me, by Mason Cross (Orion)

• Faithless, by Kjell Ola Dahl (Orenda)

• The Fourteenth Letter, by Claire Evans (Sphere)

• A Game of Ghosts, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Game Over, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)

• Good News, Bad News, by W.H. S. McIntyre (Sandstone Press)

• He Said/She Said, by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Hope to Die, by David Jackson (Zaffre)

• In Deep Water, by Sam Blake (Zaffre)

• The Keeper, by Alastair Gunn (Penguin)

• The Killer on the Wall, by Emma Kavanagh (Arrow)

• Mary Russell’s War, by Laurie R. King (Allison & Busby)

• A Mask of Shadows, by Oscar de Muriel (Penguin)

• Miraculous Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (British Library)

• Night Market, by Daniel Pembrey (No Exit Press)

• The Owl Always Hunts at Night, by Samuel Bjork (Doubleday)

• Parting Shot, by Linwood Barclay (Orion)

• Penance, by Kanae Minato (Mulholland)

• The People at Number 9, by Felicity Everett (HQ)

• Reservoir 13, by Jon McGregor (Fourth Estate)

• The Restless Dead, by Simon Beckett (Bantam Press)

• Sister Sister, by Sue Fortin (HarperImpulse)

• The Sixth Window, by Rachel Abbott (Black Dot)

• The Special Girls, by Isabelle Grey (Quercus)

• Three Envelopes, by Nir Hezroni (Point Blank)

• A Traitor in the Family, by Nicholas Searle (Viking)

• Treacherous Strand, by Andrea Carter (Constable)

• The Trophy Taker, by Sarah Flint (Aria)

• Want You Gone, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)

• What Alice Knew, by T.A. Cotterell (Black Swan)\

• What Goes Around, by Julie Corbin (Mulholland)

• You Can Run, by Steve Mosby (Orion)

MAY (U.S.):

• Aunt Dimity and the Widow’s Curse, by Nancy Atherton (Viking)

• Back to Brooklyn, by Lawrence Kelter (Down & Out)

• Beach Lawyer, by Avery Duff (Thomas & Mercer)

• Becoming Bonnie, by Jenni L. Walsh (Forge)

• Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan (Lake Union)

• Black Mad Wheel, by Josh Malerman (Ecco)

• The Boy in the Earth, by Fuminori Nakamura (Soho Crime)

• Broken River, by J. Robert Lennon (Graywolf Press)

• City of Angels, by Kristi Belcamino (Polis)

• The Chalk Pit, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Collected Millar: The Dawn of Domestic Suspense: Fire Will Freeze; Experiment in Springtime; The Cannibal Heart; Do Evil in Return; Rose’s Last Summer, by Margaret Millar (Soho Syndicate)

• The Coroner’s Daughter, by Andrew Hughes (Pegasus)

• Count All Her Bones, by April Henry (Henry Holt)

• Crime Song, by David Swinson (Mulholland)

• Crossed Bones, by S.W. Lauden (Down & Out)

• Dead Girls Dancing, by Graham Masterton (Head of Zeus)

• Death Comes to Lynchester Close, by David Dickinson (Constable & Robinson)

• Death in the Abstract, by Emily Barnes (Crooked Lane)

• Dragon Teeth, by Michael Crichton (Harper)

• The Dying Detective, by Leif G.W. Persson (Pantheon)

• Edited Out, by E.J. Copperman
(Crooked Lane)

• The Ends of the Earth, by Robert Goddard (Mysterious Press)

• Enemy of the Good, by Matthew Palmer (Putnam)

• Exit Strategy, by Steve Hamilton (Putnam)

• The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (Flatiron)

• Full Wolf Moon, by Lincoln Child (Doubleday)

• The Girl Who Knew Too Much, by Amanda Quick (Berkley)

• G-Man, by Stephen Hunter (Blue Rider Press)

• The Graves, by Pamela Wechsler (Minotaur)

• Guiltless, by Viveca Sten (AmazonCrossing)

• Hong Kong Black, by Alex Ryan (Crooked Lane)

• I Am Death, by Chris Carter (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• I’ll Eat When I’m Dead, by Barbara Bourland (Grand Central)

• Into the Water, by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead)

• It’s Always the Husband, by Michele Campbell (St. Martin’s Press)

• Justice Delayed, by Marti Green (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Killing of Julia Wallace, by Jonathan Goodman (Kent State University Press)*

• The Last Iota, by Robert Kroese (Thomas Dunne)

• Less Than a Treason, by Dana Stabenow (Head of Zeus)

• The Long Drop, by Denise Mina (Little, Brown)

• Marathon, by Brian Freeman (Quercus)

• Maigret at Picratts, by Georges Simenon (Penguin)

• Murder Between the Lines, by Radha Vatsal (Sourcebooks Landmark)

• Murder in the Bowery, by Victoria Thompson (Berkley)

• Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall, by Hannah Dennison (Minotaur)

• My Sister and Other Liars, by Ruth Dugdall (Thomas & Mercer)

• A Negro and an Ofay, by Danny Gardner (Down & Out)

• No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories, by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)

• The Only Child, by Andrew Pyper (Simon & Schuster)

• Perish the Day, by John Farrow (Minotaur)

• The Preacher: Aces & Eights, by Ted Thackrey Jr. (Brash)

• Proving Ground, by Peter Blauner (Minotaur)

• Rampage, by Justin Scott (Pegasus)

• Random Road, by Thomas Kies (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Resurrection Mall, by Dana King (Down & Out Books)

• A Rising Man, by Abir Mukherjee (Pegasus)

• Robert B. Parker’s Little White Lies, by Ace Atkins (Putnam)

• The Scholl Case: The Deadly End of a Marriage, by Anja
Reich-Osang (Text)*

• The Second Day of the Renaissance, by Timothy Williams
(Soho Crime)

• Shadow Man, by Alan Drew (Random House)

• Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love, by James Runcie (Bloomsbury USA)

• Silent Rain, by Karin Salvalaggio (Minotaur)

• Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane (Ecco)

• The Sixth Victim, by Tessa Harris (Kensington)

• The Soak, by Patrick E. McLean (Brash)

• Some Rise by Sin, by Philip Caputo (Henry Holt)

• Sticks and Bones, by Carolyn Haines (Minotaur)

• The Stranger Inside, by Jennifer Jaynes (Thomas & Mercer)

• Testimony, by Scott Turow (Grand Central)

• The Thirst, by Jo Nesbø (Knopf)

• Too Lucky to Live, by Annie Hogsett (Poisoned Pen Press)

• A Twisted Vengeance, by Candace Robb (Pegasus)

• Two Lost Boys, by L.F. Robertson (Titan)

• Ultimatum, by Anders de la Motte (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• The Vinyl Detective: The Run-Out Groove, by Andrew Cartmel (Titan)

• What My Body Remembers, by Agnete Friis (Soho Crime)

• What She Saw, by Gerard Stembridge (Harper)

• Where Dead Men Meet, by Mark Mills (Blackstone)

• The White Road, by Sarah Lotz (Mulholland)

• You Will Pay, by Lisa Jackson (Kensington)

• Your Killin’ Heart, by Peggy O’Neal Peden (Minotaur)

MAY (UK):

• Bad Blood, by Brian McGilloway (Corsair)

• The Bowness Bequest, by Rebecca Tope (Allison & Busby)

• The City of Lies, by Michael Russell (Constable)

• Crimson and Bone, by Marina Fiorato (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Day of the Dead, by Mark Roberts (Head of Zeus)

• The Day She Disappeared, by Christobel Kent (Sphere)

• Deadly Alibi, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)

• Frost at Midnight, by James Henry (Bantam Press)

• The Girlfriend, by Michelle Frances (Pan)

• The Incredible Crime, by Lois Austen-Leigh (British Library)

• Kings of America, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)

• Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed, by Mike Ripley (HarperCollins)*

• The Liar, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)

• Lone Wolf, by Michael Gregorio (Severn House)

• Love Me Not, by M. J. Arlidge (Michael Joseph)

• Need You Dead, by Peter James (Macmillan)

• The Night Visitor, by Lucy Atkins (Quercus)

• The Quiet Man, by James Carol (Faber and Faber)

• Rhyming Rings, by David Gemmell (Gollancz)

• Scared to Death, by Kate Medina (HarperCollins)

• The Shadow District, by Arnaldur Indridason (Harvill Secker)

• Shot in Southwold, by Suzette A. Hill (Allison & Busby)

• The Silent Death, by Volker Kutscher (Sandstone Press)

• The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star, by Vaseem Khan (Mulholland)

• Sympathy for the Devil, by William Shaw (Riverrun)

• A Talent for Murder, by Andrew Wilson (Simon & Schuster)

• The White Road, by Sarah Lotz (Hodder & Stoughton)

• You Don’t Know Me, by Imran Mahmood (Michael Joseph)