EXILES an Australian Crime Novel Of Buried Secrets and Murder

Exiles by Jane Harper is set in the wine country of South Australia, where a close-knit community still deals with the oppressive aftermaths of a local woman's disappearance and a man's hit-and-run death.

Federal Police agent Aaron Falk is on a personal visit to see old friends in the small town of Marralee. But he is slowly drawn into the past mysteries that yet cast a pall over the whole town.

A year earlier, young mother Kim Gillespie vanished without a trace from a fairground, her infant daughter left abandoned in a parked stroller. Five years before that, local accountant Dean Tozer was run down by a driver who was never found.

As Falk becomes more involved with the tight circle of family and friends connected to both Kim and Tozer, he begins to sense false notes that warn him someone among them may be a sociopathic killer.

Exiles is not a fast paced thriller. It is a character-driven, psychological crime novel that builds slowly toward harsh revelations. An engrossing and thoughtful mystery read.

STORM WARNING an Entertaining New Wyoming Crime Thriller

Wyoming state game warden Joe Pickett returns in Storm Warning, a new crime thriller from author C.J. Box. The popular series is set against a rugged Western landscape as Joe Pickett finds himself involved in often dangerous criminal situations.

Joe is on the track of elk antler poachers in the snowy Bighorn range when he stumbles on the dead body of a Chinese University of Wyoming professor. The death looks like violent foul play. When Joe reports it, he runs into an unexpected cover-up by the state governor and the local Sherrif.

As usual, Joe won't back off, but he soon finds himself up against some fake federal agents and a dangerous armed ring of sovereign separatists planning a major coup event. At the same time, a massive snowstorm is descending on the local region.

Storm Warning is a fast-reading crime thriller that longtime fans of the Joe Pickett series will devour eagerly. Highly recommended.

A Reporter Tracks a Killer in FAIR WARNING

 Author Michael Connelly brings back crime reporter Jack McEvoy in a new thriller, Fair Warning. McEvoy appeared previously in the best selling novels The Poet and The Scarecrow, where his reporting helped hunt down diabolical serial killers. 

Jack lost his prior newspaper job and is now reporting for a small investigative website magazine called Fair Warning. But when a woman he knew briefly is murdered by an unknown killer, it leads Jack to look into her death. He uncovers a pattern of similar murders of other female victims, all having their necks broken in an identical manner. McEvoy reaches the chilling answer that a serial predator is at work.

The killer is called The Shrike. Jack finds the link between the scattered victims. All of them had sent their DNA samples to an ancestry analysis service. The Shrike used that same service to find his next targets.

The LAPD is also investigating and they don't want McEvoy interfering in the case. But the police don't know about the serial killer pattern yet. Jack is way ahead of the cops and he wants to be the first to publish a story on The Shrike. But the killer is already watching what McEvoy is doing.

Fair Warning is another addictive read from Michael Connelly. The novel follows the methodical work of a crime reporter as it builds toward a wrenching final reckoning for Jack McEvoy.

 

LONG RANGE a New Wyoming Crime Thriller for Summer Reading

Wyoming state game warden Joe Pickett returns in Long Range, a new crime thriller from C.J. Box. The popular series is set against a rugged Western landscape as Joe Pickett finds himself involved in often dangerous criminal situations.

An unknown sniper tries to shoot a local judge through the window of his dining room. The rifle shot comes from what seems like an impossible distance, a wooded hillside over a mile away. The shooter uses a high-tech weapon with a computerized sighting system. The trajectory is perfect, finding the window target exactly, but when the judge bends just before the bullet arrives, it strikes his wife instead, grievously wounding her.

Joe Pickett joins the local authorities in the search for the unknown marksman. The arrogant new sheriff doesn't want Joe's help, so Joe follows his own leads. But the trail twists toward hidden motives and surprising suspects in the small town that Pickett would never have believed could be involved in trying to kill a judge. As Joe and a posse close in on the killer in a dangerous mountain hunt, the shooter is already sighting in on Joe himself.

Long Range  is another entertaining offering from author C.J. Box. The this one makes a perfect beach book that readers will gulp down with their iced teas.

Crime and Suspense Classics - The Essential Reading List

Coronavirus Reprint - This list was previously published by this Blog. If you can get hold of any of these titles, they make for great reading during the current virus shutdown.

Here's a list of classic novels that are essential reads in the Crime and Suspense genres. The list is roughly chronological, ranging from the 1930s to the current time. Note that the list does not include traditional Mystery novels, which is a separate genre.

The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett. Where the terse, hardboiled style all began.

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

Double Indemnity - James M. Cain. The classic Noir doomed crime plan.

The Getaway - Jim Thompson. The crime novel as a descent into Hell.

The Manchurian Candidate - Richard Condon. The paranoid conspiracy thriller and a monstrous maternal figure.

Psycho - Robert Bloch.

The Deep Blue Goodbye - John D. MacDonald

The Friends of Eddie Coyle - George V. Higgins. Gritty crime story told in pitch perfect street dialogue. Elmore Leonard learned from this author.

Death Wish - Brian Garfield. Unban crime problems and the novel of revenge.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John LeCarre. The perfect Cold War spy novel.

The Ipcress File - Len Deighton. The spy novel retold with working class cynicism.

Marathon Man - William Goldman. That shudder-grating torture scene in a dental chair.

Miami Blues - Charles Willeford. An under-appreciated gem of a crime author.

Killshot - Elmore Leonard.

The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy. Frantic, pitch black, and borderline insane, as only Ellroy can write.

Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris. The best serial killer novel ever written.

Heaven's Prisoners - James Lee Burke

Mystic River - Dennis Lehane.

No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy. Noir fatalism in the new West.

City of Bones -  Michael Connelly. The police procedural at its best.

The Leopard - Jo Nesbo. Obsession, Nordic style.

THE NIGHT FIRE a New Crime Novel From Michael Connelly

The Night Fire by Michael Connelly is a new Crime novel in the popular series that features former LAPD Detective Harry Bosch. Bosch is retired now, but still works some cases on his own time. He's drawn into a new mystery when his former LAPD mentor dies and leaves behind the file on a murder cold case for Bosch alone to look into.

Once again, Bosch crosses paths with LAPD Detective Renee Ballard, who is working the open case of a homeless man set on fire one night and murdered by someone unkown. As Bosch pursues his case and Ballard works hers, connections between the two murders begin to show up. What emerges is the pattern of a much larger conspiracy and the existence of a single ruthless professional killer at the center of the unsolved deaths.

The hunt for the killer leads Bosch and Ballard into a deadly confrontation that neither of them saw coming.

The Night Fire is a solid police procedural that moves back and forth between the two main characters of Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard created by Michael Connelly, one of the best crime authors writing today.

BLOODY GENIUS a Tangled New Crime Tale by John Sandford

Bloody Genius by John Sandford is the latest offbeat crime novel in the series that features Minnesota State Police detective Virgil Flowers. Virgil is a laid back rural type, who sometimes pulls his boat behind his truck on the way to crime scenes, in case he gets time to do some fishing.

His latest case is strictly an urban affair in the Twin Cities. A university professor is sneaking into the library at night when he is unexpectedly attacked by someone and murdered. Virgil Flowers is left with a handful of puzzling questions. Why was the professor hiding there at night at the library in the first place? Who would want to kill him? Did it have anything to do with his lucrative scientific research? Or was it the result of a bitter academic feud with another professor?

The novel follows Flowers through a tangled trail of false leads, red herring clues, and multiple possible suspects. It takes Virgil a while to realize that someone is leading him on a chase of planted distractions away from the actual murderer.

Bloody Genius is filled with a few too many plot twists and minor characters to follow and the eventual uncovering of an unlikely culprit with an equally unlikely motive for the murder. This one isn't John Sandford's best effort, but the novel is entertaining with a running stream of quirky humor and the laconic character of Virgil Flowers himself.

THE BITTEROOTS a Rugged Montana Crime Thriller

The Bitterroots by C.J. Box is the author's fourth Western-set crime novel to feature investigator Cassie Dewell, who appeared previously in The Highway and Badlands and Paradise Valley. Cassie is mid-thirties, not very tall, and somewhat overweight. But she's a sharp investigator and a good shot when she has to be. This combination makes her character both realistic and appealing.

Cassie is a former sheriff's detective in Montana and North Dakota, but she left law enforcement after bad experiences in two departments. She's now a private investigator based in Bozeman, Montana. A local attorney has a defendant in a sexual assault case and hires Cassie to dig into the background of the charges.

Cassie travels to the isolated town of Horston, where the alleged assault took place, set below the rugged Bitterroot Range in western Montana. Once there, she runs into early trouble. A powerful local ranching family wants her to quit poking into the rape charges and leave town. But Cassie finds some details of the case don't add up. As she keeps digging, she ends up arrested in the local jail. Then it gets even more dangerous for her.

 The Bitterroots is a western crime novel as tough edged as its rugged setting. Author C.J. Box has another compelling read in the Cassie Dewell series.

KNIFE by Jo Nesbo a New Norwegian Crime Thriller

Knife by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo is the latest crime novel in the series that features obsessive Oslo police detective Harry Hole (pronounced Hoo-leh). Harry is a police legend for his past hunting down of fiendish serial killers, portrayed in previous Nesbo novels such as The Snowman and The Leopard.

A new case is devastating for Harry when someone personally close to him is brutally murdered. At first, it appears that a recently released convict Harry arrested a decade earlier is behind the murder in revenge against Hole. But then new suspects emerge with their own twisted motivations. Even though Harry is suspended from working on the murder case because of his connection with the victim, he is driven to pursue the killer on his own.

Knife is a heavy read at 450 pages that sometimes bogs down in too much involvement with Harry's own complex psychological obsessions. That said, Jo Nesbo fans will enjoy seeing iconic character Harry Hole on the case again.

Thomas Harris is Back With Ruthless Crime Thriller CARI MORA

Thomas Harris is famous for thrillers like Black Sunday, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal. He's back with a long awaited new one in the taut crime tale Cari Mora.

Set in Miami Beach, the novel follows a ruthless hunt for an elusive treasure. A vacant house once owned by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar is rumored to have a thirty million dollar gold hoard stashed secretly somewhere inside it. Two competing criminal gangs want that gold and will take whatever brutal means necessary to get to it.

Cari Mora is a Nicaraguan immigrant who works as caretaker for the empty house. She was a former captive soldier of the guerilla army in her native country and she is well trained in violent tactics. When the vicious thugs make their plans to take control of the house, they don't reckon with the implacable factor of Cari Mora becoming involved.

Cari Mora is a colorful, swiftly moving story filled with visceral violence and sudden deaths. It's a welcome return by Thomas Harris that makes for some entertaining summer reading.  

NEON PREY an Epic Fugitive Chase Thriller

U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport is back in Neon Prey, a new crime thriller in the popular series by author John Sandford.

The novel opens in Louisiana, where violent felon Clayton Deese has jumped bail and gone on the run. Lucas and his Marshal team of Bob and Rae track Deese to a remote swamp cabin. Deese is long gone, but they find a patch of victim graves near the cabin. Deese is now a wanted serial killer.

Lucas and his team track Deese to Los Angeles, where he has joined up with his brother in a gang that stages brutal home invasion robberies in high end homes. When the Marshals and LAPD close in on the gang house, a violent shootout ensues, and Lucas himself is seriously wounded. But once again, Clayton Deese escapes capture.

Deese runs next to Las Vegas, where he plans to resume more home invasions. The Marshal team follows him there, as the epic fugitive chase leaves behind a trail of dead bodies. But the ruthless Deese has still more tricks up his sleeve.

Neon Prey is a high speed read that fans of the Lucas Davenport series will devour. Once again, author John Sandford does not disappoint.

Inspector Rebus Returns in HOUSE OF LIES

In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin is the latest novel in the popular series that features Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh, Scotland police.

Now retired and not in good health, Rebus nonetheless continues to find ways to get himself involved in current police investigations. The murdered body of a long missing private investigator is found in the trunk of a car abandoned in a wooded area. Years earlier, Rebus himself had worked the original case that failed to find the missing man. 

His protégé, Inspector Siobhan Clarke, is assigned to the new murder case. She calls on Rebus as an informal advisor because of his prior involvement. At the same time, she asks Rebus to look into threats she is receiving because of a man she helped convict in another recent murder case.

 In a House of Lies is a slow reading police procedural, with a tangled plot and lots of talky, involved scenes. But fans of the long running series will still enjoy this new revisit with the irascible John Rebus one more time.

Best Mystery and Crime Novels of 2018

The last year saw the release of a variety of great Mystery and Crime reads. These are the best novels of the year that were reviewed by this blog:

The Wanted - By Robert Crais. Private eye Elvis Cole is back, along with his California cool style and his classic yellow Corvette. A worried Los Angeles mother hires Cole to investigate her teenage son's activities, fearing he's into drug use. But it turns out the kid is into things a lot more dangerous than that.

The Disappeared - By C.J. Box. Wyoming state game warden Joe Pickett returns in the popular Crime series set against a rugged Western landscape backdrop. A British tourist vanishes after her stay at an upscale local dude ranch. As Joe digs into the mystery, he comes up against a powerful wind power utility that may be involved.

Twisted Prey - By John Sandford. Another bullet-paced thriller featuring U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport. A assassination attempt is made on a U.S. Senator on a lonely forest road. When Lucas investigates, he faces a cold blooded sociopath with political ambitions, who masterminds several murders in order to further her own Senate campaign.

The Dry - By Jane Harper. Set in the barren Outback of Australia, where a small town is suffering from an endless drought and reeling from a horrific local crime. Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk tries to unravel the mystery of why a local farmer would kill his family and then himself. Or did he?

The Witch Elm - By Tana French. An engrossing psychological mystery in which fate and coincidence play twisted roles in the course of fatal events. A young man is the victim of a brutal attack that leaves him with a serious head injury. Then he becomes a suspect in a murder case from years earlier.

Dark Sacred Night - By Michael Connelly. This police procedural teams former LAPD detective Harry Bosch with current LAPD night shift detective Renee Ballard.  Bosch and Ballard cross paths on a cold case involving the murder of a teenage girl by an unknown predator who may still be out there. The two cops agree to pool their efforts to find the killer.

WITCH ELM a Tale of Twisted Fate and Murder

The Witch Elm by Irish Author Tana French is a crime novel in which fate and coincidence play twisted roles in the course of fatal events. The story deals with the question of what motivates a person to murder as much as the details of the actual murder itself.

Toby Hennessey is a young man living a normal, content life when two random events suddenly wrench that life into crisis. First, he is the victim of a home break-in and brutal beating that leaves him coping with a serious head injury. Then, while visiting his old family country home, The Ivy House, a human skeleton is found inside a huge elm tree on the property. A police investigation finds the skeleton belongs to a murder victim from years earlier. When the victim is identified, he was a friend who hung around with Toby and his family members at one time.

As the police press continued questions, Toby's damaged memory struggles to recall the past. Is it possible he could have been involved in the murder? Or perhaps his cousins or his uncle? The more Toby tries to answer these awful questions, the worse his mental condition becomes.

The Witch Elm is an engrossing  psychological crime novel that builds slowly to a disturbing revelation. The one quibble with the book is it's overwritten length at five hundred pages. Dialogue scenes go on in talky circles far too long. At a hundred pages shorter, the novel could have been even more unsettling.

Two Cops Join Forces in DARK SACRED NIGHT

Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly is the latest police procedural novel in the series that features Detective Harry Bosch. Bosch is retired from the LAPD and now works at the small police department of San Fernando.

This time Bosch is teamed with another Connelly character, LAPD detective Renee Ballard. She works the night shift cases, dubbed the Late Show. Bosch and Ballard cross paths on a cold case involving the murder of a teenage girl by an unknown predator who may still be out there. The two cops agree to pool their efforts to find the killer.

At the same time, Bosch pursues his own murder case against a violent local gang. The case is fraught with danger. First, Bosch loses his key witness to a hit job. Then Bosch himself is kidnapped and set to be killed by the gang.

Meanwhile, Ballard is working her job as on-call night shift detective. She is called out on a house break-in, but little does she know that it may be linked with the cold case she is working with Bosch and bring her face to face with a serial murderer.

Dark Sacred Night is a riveting read that moves back and forth between the two main characters of Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard created by Michael Connelly, one of the best crime authors writing today.

HOLY GHOST an Offbeat New Crime Thriller from John Sandford

Holy Ghost by John Sandford is the latest offbeat crime novel in the series that features Minnesota State Police detective Virgil Flowers. Virgil is a laid back rural type, who sometimes pulls his boat behind his truck on the way to crime scenes, in case he gets time to do some fishing.

He doesn't get that chance in this new case. The dying small town of Wheatfield finds sudden new life when a miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary begins to appear at the local Catholic church. Pilgrims flock to the new shrine, but with them comes a dangerous new threat.

An unknown sniper stages random shootings near the church. Two people are seriously wounded. The third victim is shot dead. As the toll mounts, Virgil Flowers struggles to stop the shooter. There is no obvious suspect to focus on. The victims have no common connection between them. Virgil can't find a motive for the shootings. But the sniper isn't stopping.

Holy Ghost is a fast paced, addictive read, peppered with the wry humor that marks the Virgil Flowers series. Once again, John Sandford doesn't disappoint with another entertaining crime thriller.

Heat and Murder in Australia in THE DRY

The Dry by Jane Harper is set in the barren Outback of Australia, where a small town is suffering from an endless drought and reeling from a horrific local crime.

Three members of the Hadler family are found dead in an apparent murder-suicide at their farm. It looks like the father, Luke Hadler, killed his wife and small son, then killed himself. The farm was nearly bankrupt, maybe Luke Hadler just snapped one day. At least, that's what it looks like on the surface.

Federal Agent Aaron Falk grew up in that town and he attends the funerals. He's an unwanted exile there after the suspicious death of a young girl Falk knew twenty years earlier, when he himself was teenager. Some locals blamed Falk for the girl's death then and still nurse ugly feelings toward him.

Falk can't wait to leave, but he gets drawn into the Hadler case. Luke Hadler was a close friend once. Falk can't believe he would kill his own family that way. As Falk joins the local police investigation, new evidence that doesn't fit begins to show up. But if it turns out that Luke Hadler wasn't the killer, it means one chilling thing: someone else in the town is the murderer.

The Dry is a compelling read, set under the unforgiving heat of a parched landscape, where the unending dryness has driven someone mad enough to commit a monstrous crime.

THE OUTSIDER by Stephen King a Crime/Horror Crossover

With his new novel, The Outsider, Stephen King has written a hybrid tale that begins in the Crime genre and then crosses over to finish wholly within the Horror genre. It's a dizzying switch for readers to make and the result may not be satisfying for some.

The novel opens with an impossible crime enigma. Flint City kids baseball coach Terry Maitland is arrested for the perverse murder of an eleven year-old boy. Fingerprint and DNA evidence from Maitland is conclusive that he is the killer. Eyewitness statements add confirmation it was him. There's just one problem. Maitland was with a group of fellow teachers at a conference seventy miles away at the same time the boy was murdered. Video camera footage at the conference confirms Maitland's alibi. He couldn't have been the killer. He couldn't be in two places at once. Or could he?

This is the compelling crime puzzle that King sets up. But to provide an answer, the novel has to shift radically into the supernatural realm of things such as doppelgangers and shape-shifters. It's a theme King has explored before in his work, notably in the novel, The Dark Half.

For readers looking for a straight Crime fiction story, The Outsider may be a disappointment with its sudden outright supernatural turn. For fans of the Horror fiction thrillers that Stephen King is best known for, the book may be just what they're looking for.

TWISTED PREY a Bullet-Paced Crime Thriller

U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport returns to face a diabolical enemy in Twisted Prey, a new crime thriller from author John Sandford. An assassination attempt is made on a U.S. Senator on a lonely forest road, and the Senator's companion is killed. When Lucas is asked to investigate, he finds that a ruthless enemy he has faced once before may be involved.

Two years earlier, Lucas came up against Taryn Grant, a cold blooded sociopath with political ambitions, who appeared to mastermind several murders in order to further her Senate campaign. Lucas was never able to get enough evidence to charge Grant for the crimes. Now an elected Senator in Washington D.C., Grant is out to remove a fellow Senate rival in her plan to get to the White House. She has links to a shadowy firm of ex-military mercenaries who will do her dirty work for her and leave no fingerprints behind.

When Lucas Davenport gets in Taryn Grant's way again, she is enraged. First, a violent attack is made against a member of Davenport's family. Then Lucas himself becomes the target of a murder hit from a tenacious adversary who won't be stopped.

Twisted Prey is a compelling Crime/Political thriller with a plot that moves at bullet speed. It's another great read from John Sandford that should end up on many beach blankets this summer.

THE ALIENIST a Dark Historical Crime Thriller

The Alienist is currently airing as a mini-series drama on TNT cable. The series is based on the original crime novel best seller by Caleb Carr. For viewers of the TV version, the novel itself offers even richer historical depth and background to the story.

Set in 1896 New York City, during the Gilded Age period, the novel follows the hunt for a diabolical murderer of multiple young boy victims. The main character is the driven, acerbic Laszlo Kreizler. He works as an alienist, a term used for the then new field of abnormal human psychology. Kreizler seeks to use his professional training to catch the perpetrator of the string of boy killings. His methods are derided by the corrupt New York police force, who do not want his help in solving the case.

What Kreizler is really doing is trying to build an early version of what is now called criminal profiling in order to catch a serial killer. He is assisted by a team of colleagues, including a crime reporter, a female police secretary, and a pair of Jewish detective brothers. Backing up Kreizler's efforts is the young New York police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt.

The Alienist is notable for its combining of a chilling criminal investigation with a distinctive historical setting. At over 500 pages, the novel is a heavy read, given the author's dense, and often ponderous writing style. But the wealth of background material may be worth the reading effort.

After the success of this novel, author Caleb Carr wrote a sequel, The Angel of Darkness, which features the same cast of characters, this time on the track of a fiendish female serial killer.