Leaves are turning, the days grow colder (or at least, less hot), and it’s time to break out that cable-knit sweater, pour yourself a cup of tea, and dive into one of these mysteries from around the globe. September’s new releases include a French farce, a South African thriller, and plenty of new books out of Italy.
David Foekinos, The Mystery of Henri Pick (Pushkin)
Translated by Sam Taylor
The Mystery of Henri Pick should be a delight for all bibliophiles! A comedic and complex puzzle mystery set in the murky world of French publishing, Foekinos’ novel begins in a small French town in possession of a unique collection of rejected manuscripts. When an editor finds a hidden gem with the potential for enormous commercial success, she jumps on the opportunity—but who is the manuscript’s author? And what part will the author play in the ensuing hijinks?
Illaria Tutti, The Sleeping Nymph (Soho)
Translated by Ekin Oklap
In this gripping sequel to Tutti’s Flowers Over the Inferno, Superintendent Teresa Battaglia returns, this time to solve a decades-old cold case involving a World War II-era painting that appears to contain traces of human blood. Tutti’s smooth prose and careful plotting come through in Ekin Oklap’s liquid translation in a work that should please procedural fans and international crime readers alike.
Roberto Saviano, Savage Kiss (FSG)
Translated by Antony Shugaar
And here’s another one from Italy! Roberto Saviano first drew the ire of the Camorra with his work Gomorrah and has since turned to fiction to chronicle the lives of Napoli’s boy gangsters. In the sequel to his first novel, The Piranhas, Saviano continues the tale of rising crime boss Nicolas Fiorello and his underage lieutenants as they begin to realize that heavy is the head that wears the crown (and many are those who would like to take that crown for themselves).
Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, Fantastic Tales (Archipelago)
Translated by Lawrence Venuti
Okay, this one’s technically crime-adjacent, but hey, why not throw in one more from Italy? In Lawrence Venuti’s brilliant new translation of nine stories by cult Gothic storyteller Tarchetti, readers will find themselves confronted by the astounding, the uncanny, and the downright disturbing, immersed in the eerie and the macabre, and elbowed in the side by the comical. Enjoy…
Max Annas, The Farm (Catalyst Press)
Translated by Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds
Max Annas first came to our attention with his shocking nailbiter of a thriller, The Wall, and now Annas’ second work to come to the US promises to be just as stunning. On a remote farm, in what reads like a South African crime novel version of Night of the Living Dead, a diverse group of strangers with little in common are under siege by violent attackers. Those inside must work together not only to survive, but to understand why they’re being targeted in the first place.
