At the start of every month, CrimeReads staff members look over all the great crime novels, thrillers, and mysteries coming out in the weeks ahead and make recommendations based on what they’re reading and what they can’t wait to read. Check back over the course of the month for more suggestions for feeding your crime habit.
James Sallis, Sarah Jane (Soho Press)
I’ve already preached the gospel of Sallis around these parts, but a new book is another chance to get readers in the fold as well as a pleasure in itself. Sarah Jane paradoxically feels spirited and serious at the same time. Sallis likes a wanderer, and Sarah Jane is rootless and restless–there was a military stint, and a brief marriage, and several years roaming the country getting work here and there as a short-order chef. When she lands in a town in need of a sheriff, her life takes yet another turn. Sallis’s mastery of noir means no matter what happens to Sarah Jane the dark side of life is omnipresent, a force she needs to reckon with and ultimately control.—Lisa Levy, CrimeReads contributing editor
Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay (Ecco)
Steph Cha has won universal acclaim for her Juniper Song series, with its focus on portraying LA through the eyes of a millennial detective more concerned with friendship than romance, and I am psyched for her first stand-alone. Your House Will Pay was inspired by the complex history and tensions in 90s-era LA, and takes a hard look at the long-term consequences of bigotry, prejudice, and shame. It’s even better than its cover! And that’s saying something, cause the cover is absurdly gorgeous.—Molly Odintz, CrimeReads associate editor
John le Carré, Agent Running in the Field (Viking)
John le Carré’s 25th novel is set in London in 2018, and will apparently be tackling “the division and rage at the heart of our modern world.” Otherwise, we’ve got very few details to work with: the publisher tells us that the protagonist, “in a desperate attempt to resist the political turbulence swirling around him, makes connections that will take him down a very dangerous path.” Which tells us exactly nothing, so we’ll all just have to wait patiently—or steal an advance copy.—Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads managing editor
Elizabeth Hand, Curious Toys (Mulholland)
From an author who has achieved acclaim for stories of crime, horror, and fantasy, comes a new tale of intrigue and murder that checks off many of my favorite boxes. It’s got: lady detectives, old seaside amusement parks, the Gilded Age, silent film, women who disguise as men to embed in male-only groups, women who look out for other women. I could continue, though I’ll reel in my excitement for the sake of finishing this blurb. In 1915, a fourteen-year-old girl, Pin, disguises as a boy to join a gang that roams around Chicago’s Riverview amusement park. She doesn’t know that she’s in a prime position to observe a serial killer who uses the park as his hunting ground—but when she sees a man bring a girl into the Hell Gate ride and leave alone, she knows something has gone wrong. And only Pin, the invisible girl detective, can catch an invisible killer.—Olivia Rutigliano, CrimeReads editorial fellow
Kirstin Innes, Fishnet (Gallery/Scout Press)
In more than a few crime novels prostitutes are at the center of the plot because they are the victims of a serial killer, a trope that’s proved irresistible since Jack the Ripper. Innes’s debut novel captures a world veteran authors would be challenged to chronicle: the life of a middle-of-the-road prostitute. Fiona Leonard is trying to find her sister, Rona, who disappeared six years earlier. When Fiona finds out Rona had been working as a prostitute, she doggedly investigates Fiona’s world only to be drawn into the life of sex workers herself. Unsettling and intelligent, Innes impressively tells a story we haven’t heard before about the world’s oldest profession. (LL)
Michael Connelly, The Night Fire (Little, Brown)
Fans of Harry Bosch (and Michael Connelly) have read along eagerly in recent years as one of the most iconic characters in the annals of crime fiction has grown ever more complex and intriguing through his work with LAPD cold cases, and through his connection to Renee Ballard, with whom he’s teaming up again this year in The Night Fire. Bosch’s mentor on the force dies at the start of this one, and his widow gives Bosch an unexpected bequeathment: a murder book from a decades-old case. The case is fascinating in its own right, but you know that Bosch’s passion and his sense of duty is going to be extra-stoked now that he’s working on behalf of his old rabbi. Every fall, Connelly finds a way to bring out some new magic in this classic series. (DM)
Lee Child, Blue Moon (Delacorte)
Jack Reacher simply wants to do a good deed for an elderly couple, and in the blink of an eye he’s caught between a war waging between Albanian and Ukrainian criminal gangs. Such is the life of Lee Child’s aging hero, now into his twentieth book—fed-up with the way the world pounces on the weak. Always getting roped into conflicts a little improbably big for a Monday morning. If only justice were so easy, solvable or deliverable (with vengeance) in 290 pages . . . which is why these books, carved out of concrete sentences though they may be, are continuously, briefly, satisfying.—John Freeman, Lit Hub Executive Editor
Michael Nava, Carved in Bone (Persigo Press)
It’s a shame more people don’t know about Nava’s excellent Henry Rios series, though awareness is slowly growing. It would be wonderful if this was Nava’s breakthrough. Rios is a complicated and unusual crime fiction protagonist: he’s a Latinx estranged from his family because of his homosexuality. When Carved opens disgraced lawyer Rios has just done a stint in rehab for alcoholism. He gets a job as an insurance investigator and is assigned the case of the death of another gay man, Bill Ryan. In learning all he can about Ryan’s life Rios comes to terms with some of the tougher elements of his own. (LL)
Gar Anthony Haywood, Good Man Gone Bad (Prospect Park Books)
Gar Anthony Haywood’s iconic private eye Aaron Gunner is back! And this time, it’s personal. When Gunner’s cousin commits familicide, then kills himself, Gunner knows something’s up, and starts his own investigation into the murder, while also working a paying case for a veteran with traumatic brain injuries accused of murdering his boss. Both cases tie into an America beset by new forms of old prejudices, for a work of fiction bound to be as thoughtful as it is thrilling. (MO)
Stefan Spjut, Trolls (Faber)
Although this one must have been in development long before the release of the summer’s surprise folk horror hit Midsommar, there couldn’t be a better time for a book about Scandinavian horrors to be released. I can’t wait to read this tale of wolves, forests, cults, and of course, trolls! (the good kind, not the internet kind). (MO)
