With lockdowns and social distancing measures continuing around much of the world, it’s time to batten down the hatches for another month and probably wise to stock up on some new reading material, too. May has quite an offering for crime fiction devotees. A rare release from the godfather of legal drama, a breakout novel from a rising star, the closing chapter to a long-running series, an impressive new Michael Connelly mystery, international noir, and much more. You can find our picks for the month’s best below, and check in throughout the month for more recommendations.
Ivy Pochoda, These Women (Ecco)
Ivy Pochoda’s These Women is, to put it simply, brilliant. I usually hate it when people use the term tour-de-force but in this case, it applies. Told from the interlinked perspectives of several women in Los Angeles with connections to a serial killer loosely based on the Grim Reaper, These Women paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of a hard-scrabble community beset by difficulties but not yet ready to give up, on either life or seeking vengeance. Pochoda splits her perspectives between a grieving mother, a traumatized stripper, a tenacious detective, and a victim who got away, as they (and the reader), piece together the identity of the killer—and try to discover why he would stop killing for a decade and a half, only to begin again.—Molly Odintz, CrimeReads Senior Editor
Scott Turow, The Last Trial (Grand Central)
For legal thriller aficionados (that’s a group, right?), a new book from Scott Turow is always a big event, but especially so this year, as The Last Trial sees Turow returning to one of the most intriguing recurring characters, Alejandro “Sandy” Stern. Stern, who first appeared in Turow’s masterful breakthrough, Presumed Innocent, is a brilliant trial lawyer, a defense attorney with a long track record of dramatic victories. The eponymous “last trial” sees him at the end of his career, called back into the courtroom by a longtime friend, a Nobel laureate doctor accused of insider trading. The Last Trial is a fascinating portrait of friendship tested and revealed, as well as a pitch-perfect courtroom thriller.—Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads Editor-in-Chief
Liv Constantine, The Wife Stalker (Harper)
I would happily have cocktails or get a pedicure or take a road trip with the Lynn and Valerie Constantine, the sisters who write as Liv Constantine. I thought The First Mrs. Parrish was an excellent debut and was a bit disappointed in The Last Time I Saw You, so our future social plans were riding on The Wife Stalker and they did not disappoint. When they are on their game, the Constantine sisters are as astute observers of class as any literary writer I can think of; they understand how people signal their social status both consciously and subliminally. And class is really at the heart of The Wife Stalker, which I don’t want to spoil, so I will just say it’s about a woman who has a habit of marrying rich men who then have fatal accidents.—Lisa Levy, CrimeReads contributing editor
Tracy Clark, What You Don’t See (Kensington)
Ex-cop-turned-private-eye Cass Raines is back! In this third installment of Clark’s critically acclaimed series, Cass teams up with her old partner from the force to protect the head of a magazine empire from some mysterious threats. Problem is, the woman is a prima donna, and she’s pissed off half of Chicago (although her magazine inspires plenty of devotion from Chicago’s African-American community). Cass Raines is a breath of fresh air in the PI genre—practical, no-nonsense, brilliant, and possessed of a great sense of humor and a heart as big as the city.—MO
Victor del Arbol, Breathing through the Wound (Other Press)
Del Arbol’s A Million Drops was one of 2018’s most complex and powerful thrillers. His follow-up, Breathing Through the Wound, cements his place as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary European noir. In his new novel, a painter grieves the loss of his wife and child with a self-destructive odyssey through Madrid, then finds some new purpose when a woman commissions him to paint a portrait of her own son’s killer. The psychological insights are genuinely unsettling, as is nearly everything in the world del Arbol creates, a vision of Madrid awash in humanity, vice, sadness, and art.—DM
Eva Dolan, Between Two Evils (Bloomsbury)
Eva Dolan’s socially conscious and hard-hitting series featuring DI Zigic and DS Ferreira of the Hate Crimes Unit has long examined many of the UK’s most urgent questions from a left-wing standpoint—Dolan’s detectives oft-find themselves hindered by bureaucracy as they attempt to investigate crimes against the most vulnerable populations in their jurisdiction of Peterborough, just north of London. As the title already suggests, Between Two Evils is no exception. Zigic and Ferreira, after being suspended at the end of the previous installment in the series, are back on the case when a doctor is found murdered. The victim worked at an immigrant detention center suspected by activists of containing a font of abuse, and it’s up to Dolan’s detectives to investigate both the murder and the facility. I especially recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Ausma Zehanat Khan’s Community Policing series.—MO
Abir Mukherjee, Death in the East (Pegasus Books)
Mukherjee’s ongoing series following the investigations and adventures of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surrender-Not Banerjee in 1920s Calcutta is, as we’ve highlighted elsewhere, one of the most exciting things happening in the crime fiction world. Mukherjee conjures up a vivid world full of surprises and insights, with a pair of main characters as engaging as they come. In Death in the East, Mukherjee flashes from turn-of-the-century London, where a young Wyndham witnesses a brutal crime against a friend, back to Calcutta, where he’s leaving the city for the hills to try to settle his opium addiction. He calls on Banerjee for help when he sees a specter—a man believed dead, involved in that decades-old crime, now in India. Mukherjee provides another exhilarating and erudite story.—DM
Berkeley Noir, ed by Jerry Thompson and Owen Hill (Akashic)
My mom went to Berkeley in the 60s (my main tangential claim to hippiedom), so I’m psyched to see her favorite town get the Akashic noir treatment. San Francisco’s hippie silo has long captured the imagination of artists and writers, and I can’t wait to read the many stories in this collection, including new works from cult faves such Barry Gifford, Aya de Leon, Summer Brenner, and more.—MO
Timothy Hallinan, Street Music (Soho Crime)
Anyone who has enjoyed a Poke Rafferty novel over the years knows that family life is at the very heart of Hallinan’s work and the complex dynamics between Poke, Rose, and Miaow are the true, beautiful mystery at work. In Street Music, a new baby bring a joyful, live-wire chaos to the house, and Poke, everyone’s favorite travel writer sleuth, gets drawn into the search for an expat American caught up in one of Bangkok’s many conspiracies, all while dealing with traumas and past lives on the home front. It’s the typically dizzying, satisfying mixture from Hallinan, whose novels are reliably nuanced and compelling.—DM
Michael Connelly, Fair Warning (Little Brown)
There is a new Michael Connelly book out this month. For many crime readers, that’s about all the information needed to make the decision to get a copy of this one. But for those who might want to know a little more, Connelly’s latest follows a new investigation from reporter Jack McEvoy, from a series that includes The Poet and The Scarecrow. This time, McEvoy is looking into the murder of a romantic partner, and he uncovers a trail that links up a brutal stretch of killings across the country in horrifying fashion, suggesting the women are being chosen based on genetic markers. Fair Warning is a chilling, of-the-moment crime story you won’t be able to put down.–DM
