My Favourite Reads of 2016

Finally, I have got round to doing this. My favourite reads for this year have been quite eclectic to say the least with a number of debut novels making the cut as well as a number of books that are either a continuation of a series or the start of ones. They are in no particular order.

Coyote by Colin Winnette. (No Exit Press)

A daughter disappears in the middle of the night. What happens in the aftermath of this tragedy-after the search is abandoned, after the TV crews move on to cover the latest horrific incident-is the story of Coyote. There is a marriage and a detective. There is a storm, a talk show host, and a roasted boar. People are murdered and things are hidden. Coyotes skulk in the woods, a man stands by the fence, and a tale emerges within this familiar landscape of the violent unknown.  Coyote is sparse, harrowing and for me a terrific read. It is one of those books that will fall into one of two camps for those who read it.  You will either like it or loathe it. No need to guess what camp I am in.

 

Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman (Faber & Faber) 

I will freely admit that I am a big Laura Lippman fan. I love her Tess Monaghan series but

her standalone novels always pack a wallop and are always worth more than one read.  In this case Wilde Lake is intelligent, emotional and a thoroughly satisfying read. If you have never read any of her books, then you are selling yourself short!  Luisa Lu Brant is the newly elected states attorney representing suburban Maryland including the famous planned community of Columbia, created to be a utopia of racial and economic equality. Prosecuting a controversial case involving a disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death, the fiercely ambitious Lu is determined to avoid the traps that have destroyed other competitive, successful women. She’s going to play it smart to win this case and win big cementing her political future.  But her intensive preparation for trial unexpectedly dredges up painful recollections of another crime the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Justice was done. Or was it? Did the events of 1980 happen as she remembers them? She was only a child then. What details didn’t she know?  As she plunges deeper into the past, Lu is forced to face a troubling reality. The legal system, the bedrock of her entire life, does not have all the answers. But what happens when she realizes that, for the first time, she doesn’t want to know the whole truth?  Two stories (childhood and present day) told in alternative chapters come to a big collision at the end. Sheer brilliance.

Nothing Short of Dying by Erik Storey (Simon & Schuster)

Clyde Barr has been on the run for sixteen years. Now he’s back in the Colorado wilderness, hoping for some peace and quiet.  Then Clyde receives a frantic phone call for help from his sister Jen. But the line goes dead. She’s been taken.  Clyde doesn’t know where Jen is. He doesn’t know who has her. He doesn’t know how much time he has. All he knows is that nothing short of dying will stop him from saving her…  A wonderful debut novel with an anti-hero that will no doubt garner fans galore. Harsh, gripping and a great joy to read.

 

Made to Kill by Adam Christopher (Titan)

Raymond Electromatic is good at his job, as good as he ever was at being a true Private Investigator, the lone employee of the Electromatic Detective Agency--except for Ada, office gal and super-computer, the constant voice in Ray's inner ear. Ray might have taken up a new line of work, but money is money, after all, and he was programmed to make a profit. Besides, with his twenty-four-hour memory-tape limits, he sure can keep a secret.  When a familiar-looking woman arrives at the agency wanting to hire Ray to find a missing movie star, he's inclined to tell her to take a hike. But she had the cold hard cash, a demand for total anonymity, and tendency to vanish on her own.  Plunged into a glittering world of fame, fortune, and secrecy, Ray uncovers a sinister plot that goes much deeper than the silver screen--and this robot is at the wrong place, at the wrong time. A cross-genre noir novel that plays in my opinion homage to both Raymond Chandler and Ron Goulart. 

Dodgers by Bill Beverley (No Exit Press)

It is not surprising that Dodgers won two prestigious crime writing awards (CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award).  Dodgers is an amazingly dark, edgy and compelling debut novel that has a deep sense of social injustice and is told with a unique narrative voice. When East, a low-level lookout for a Los Angeles drug organisation, loses his watch house in a police raid, his boss recruits him for a very different job: a road trip - straight down the middle of white, rural America - to assassinate a judge in Wisconsin.  Having no choice, East and a crew of untested boys - including his trigger-happy younger brother, Ty - leave the only home they've ever known in a nondescript blue van, with a roll of cash, a map and a gun they shouldn't have.  Along the way, the country surprises East. The blood on his hands isn't the blood he expects. And he reaches places where only he can decide which way to go - or which person to become. On the one hand very funny but on the other hand Dodgers is equally nasty, foul-mouthed and revealing!

Epiphany Jones by Michael Grothaus (Orenda Books)

Jerry has a traumatic past that leaves him subject to psychotic hallucinations and depressive episodes. When he stands accused of stealing a priceless Van Gogh painting, he goes underground, where he develops an unwilling relationship with a woman who believes that the voices she hears are from God. Involuntarily entangled in the illicit world of sex-trafficking amongst the Hollywood elite, and on a mission to find redemption for a haunting series of events from the past, Jerry is thrust into a genuinely shocking and outrageously funny quest to uncover the truth and atone for historical sins.  What can one say about Epiphany Jones?  This is not a comfortable book to read despite the fact that it is at times funny, sinister and a dark tale.  This insanely quirky story is one of the best debut novels that I have read in ages.

 

Darktown by Thomas Mullen (Little Brown)

Atlanta, 1948. In this city, all crime is black and white.  On one side of the tracks are the rich, white neighbourhoods; on the other, Darktown, the African-American area guarded by the city's first black police force of only eight men. These cops are kept near-powerless by the authorities: they can't arrest white suspects; they can't drive a squad car; they must operate out of a dingy basement.  When a poor black woman is killed in Darktown having been last seen in a car with a rich white man, no one seems to care except for Boggs and Smith, two black cops from vastly different backgrounds. Pressured from all sides, they will risk their jobs, the trust of their community and even their own lives to investigate her death.  Their efforts bring them up against a brutal old-school cop, Dunlow, who has long run Darktown as his own turf - but Dunlow's idealistic young partner, Rakestraw, is a young progressive who may be willing to make allies across colour lines . . .   Darktown works well as both an historical novel and a thriller. There is an incredible sense of place and a fascinating story of deep-rooted and vicious racism, political dishonesty and intrigue.  Very topical and unsettling. Darktown perfectly brings the pre-civil rights South back to life and to the fore.

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz. (Penguin)

I have always been a fan of Gregg Hurwitz’s writing for a number of reasons.  Mainly because

he has always been incredibly good at pulling you into a story.  In this case, with Orphan X he has in my opinion upped his game to another level. 'Do you need my help?' It was the first question he asked. They called him when they had nowhere else to turn.  As a boy Evan Smoak was taken from an orphanage.  Raised and trained in a top secret programme, he was sent to bad places to do things the government denied ever happened.  Then he broke with the programme, using what he'd learned to vanish. Now he helps the desperate and deserving.  But someone's on his trail. Someone who knows his past and believes that the boy once known as Orphan X must die.  Orphan X fulfils everything that I as a reader love and want in a thriller.  Stylish, smart and tight with great plot and characterisation alongside a protagonist who is set to join the best anti-heroes out there.

Moskva by Jack Grimwood (Michael Joseph)

'A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma . . .' January, 1986. A week after disgraced Intelligence Officer Tom Fox is stationed to Moscow the British Ambassador's fifteen-year-old daughter goes missing. Fox is ordered to find her, and fast. But the last thing the Soviets want is a foreign agent snooping about on their turf. Not when a killer they can't even acknowledge let alone catch is preparing to kill again . . . Cold war thrillers have never really gone away.  What has happened however is that they have become even more mesmerising, superbly written and compulsive reading.  This is certainly the case with Moskva with a background stemming from World War 2.  Stylishly written, taut and filled with verve there is a sense of place that keeps you coming back for more.  Russia has never been so austere and immoral.

 A Time of Torment by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)

Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized.  But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death but was saved, of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade.  Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war.  Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder.  All in the name of the being they serve.  All in the name of the Dead King.  If you have been reading John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series then you will never fail to be impressed not only with his style, the story and the fact that by some miracle Charlie Parker is still alive. I certainly am.  In A Time of Torment, we are drawn into an enthralling and unsettling story that is as horrific as it is mesmerising. As can be expected A Time of Torment is scarily good and as dark as one expects it to be.

Red Right Hand by Chris Holm (Mulholland)

When viral video footage from a terrorist attack in San Francisco reveals that a mob informant thought dead is still alive, FBI Special Agent Charlie Thompson knows just who to contact to save her witness from certain death: Michael Hendricks. He may be a hitman, but he's not a bad guy.  Teaming up with a green but determined tech whiz, Cameron, on the condition she leave him alone after the case, Hendricks reluctantly takes the job.  Of course, finding a man desperate to stay hidden is challenging enough without deadly competition, let alone when that competition's shadowy corporate backer is tangled in the terrorist conspiracy playing out around them...  A much welcome return of Chris Holm’s ultimate tough guy Michael Hendricks who finds himself heavily involved in carnage, duplicity and destruction.  If you read The Killing Hand then you will welcome with open arms Red Right Hand.  I certainly did.  Lots of action, sense of foreboding and jaw dropping moments. I have found a new series to drool over.

I really could not make up my mind for my twelfth book as anyone of my honorary mentions could have made the cut.  Honorary mentions go to Megan Abbott’s You Will Know Me, Val McDermid’s Out of Bounds, The Plea by Steve Cavanagh, A Fever of Blood by Oscar de Muriel, Far from True by Linwood Barclay, The Quiet Death of Thomas Quaid by Craig Russell and The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood.

I also read some really good non-fiction titles as well.

Parker: A Miscellany by John Connolly

A non-fiction companion to the Charlie Parker novels, using music as a starting point. With introductions to the first 13 Charlie Parker novels, an essay about John’s love of music and revised versions of three essays and an essay for every single CD compilation done for the Parker novels.  A must for any dedicated follower of Charlie Parker.

Brit Noir : The Pocket Essential Guide to British Crime Fiction, Film & TV by Barry Forshaw (Pocket Essentials)

 

Career Change

Today’s guest blog is by debut author Erik Storey who is the author of the Clyde Barr series set in Colorado.  Nothing Short of Dying is the first book in the series.

I once met an eighty-year old cowboy who’d always ask little kids, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” He didn’t really care for the kids themselves, he told me. But he still hadn’t figured out what he wanted to do with his life, and he was always looking for ideas.

His comments were funny at the time, but I soon realized that I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up either. I decided to explore life, and see where it took me. When I graduated high school, my senior quote was: “Learn, try, see, do, and experience as much as possible in a lifetime.” So I tried.

As a young man, I worked on cattle ranches, riding herd on hundreds of cattle as we moved them from the winter feeding ground to the high country, then moved them from pasture to pasture. At the time, I longed to be a cowboy, and I thought I’d finally fulfilled my dream. But it wasn’t all romance. After a couple of summers looking at the tail-ends of cows and eating dust, I decided to find something else to do.

One summer I guided dudes (tourists) on horseback tours around Steamboat Springs. Then I went to college to study American Literature and, while there, learned how to guide hikers and backpackers into the high wilderness outside the old mining town of Leadville. I ventured out on some trips, but it wasn’t for me. I guided some folks on hunting and fishing trips, but again, it wasn’t for me. I worked one winter at a hotel in Breckenridge, then did a stint in a restaurant in Death Valley, then the next winter I found myself taking people on dogsledding tours near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A winter full of blizzardy days that combined temperatures of twenty degrees below zero with complaining tourists from sunny Florida and Spain didn’t appeal to me, so I continued my quest for something to be when I grew up.

The next fifteen years or so were filled with more odd jobs. At one point or another, I’ve worked as a bartender, locksmith, exterminator, utility locator, truck driver, Forest Service technician, weed sprayer, construction laborer, and janitor. What those years weren’t filled with was writing.

I dabbled a bit in college. Then pretty much gave it up for a decade. Then I scribbled a bit again when I got married and had children. Then I gave it up again, realizing that I’d never write the Great American Novel or win the Pulitzer or Nobel. It was only after my oldest daughter started going to school, and I was working seasonally, that my wife suggested I start writing again. It would be a way to fill the long winter days.

I told her how I felt about my failed literary aspirations, and she told me to write something I’d like to read. That got me unblocked. I recalled the paperbacks that, in my younger days, I used to love reading in cabins and bunkhouses, and I started writing again. The first time I got stuck, I again sought out my wife for advice. She told me to write what I know.

It’s a cliché, I know, but one I don’t mind repeating, because it worked. I based characters and events on things I’d seen in my travels and odd jobs, and eventually I had a novel. It had only taken a couple hundred revisions to see the light of day, but thinking about it in its finished form, I realized that all those odd jobs I’d taken had been subtly pushing me to become a writer. They were, as Louis L’Amour once said, “grist for the mill.”

I still haven’t figured out what I want to be when I grow up, but I’m much, much closer. This writing thing feels right, like something I’ve been working on since high school. I just didn’t know it at the time.

Nothing Short of Dying by Erik Storey is published on 25^th August by Simon and Schuster (£12.99)

Sixteen years. That’s how long Clyde Barr has been away from Colorado’s thick forests, alpine deserts, and craggy peaks, running from a past filled with haunting memories. But now he s back, having roamed across three continents as a hunter, adventurer, soldier of fortune, and most recently, unjustly imprisoned convict. And once again, his past is reaching out to claim him.  By the light of a flickering campfire, Clyde receives a frantic phone call from his sister Jen. No sooner has she pleaded with him to come rescue her than the line goes dead. Clyde doesn’t know how much time he has, or where Jen is located, or even who has her. All he knows is that nothing short of dying will stop him from saving her.  Joining Clyde in his against-all-odds quest is a young woman named Allie whose motivations for running this gauntlet are fascinatingly complex. As the duo races against the clock, it is Allie who gets Clyde to see what he has become and what he can still be.

You can find out more about Erik Storey on his website. You can also find him on Facebook and also follow him on Twitter @erikstorey

Books to Look Forward to from Simon and Schuster

July

Television journalist Delaney Wright is on the brink of stardom after she begins covering a sensational murder trial for the news. She should be thrilled, yet her growing desire to locate her birth mother consumes her thoughts. On trial for murder is Betsy Grant, widow of a wealthy doctor who has been an Alzheimer's victim for eight years. When her once-upon-a-time celebrity lawyer urges her to accept a plea bargain, Betsy refuses: she will go to trial to prove her innocence. Betsy's stepson, Alan Grant, bides his time nervously as the trial begins. His substantial inheritance hangs in the balance-his only means of making good on payments he owes his ex-wife, his children, and increasingly angry creditors. As the trial unfolds, and the damning evidence against Betsy piles up, Delaney is convinced that Betsy is not guilty and frantically tries to prove her innocence, before time runs out... As Time Goes By is by Mary Higgins Clark

The Lost Swimmer is by Ann Turner. Rebecca Wilding, an archaeology professor, traces the past for a living. But suddenly, truth and certainty are turning against her. Rebecca is accused of serious fraud, and worse, she suspects - she knows - that her husband, Stephen, is having an affair. Desperate to find answers, Rebecca leaves with Stephen for Greece, Italy and Paris, where she can uncover the conspiracy against her, and hopefully win Stephen back to her side, where he belongs. There's too much at stake - her love, her work, her family. But on the idyllic Amalfi Coast, Stephen goes swimming and doesn't come back. In a swirling daze of panic and fear, Rebecca is dealt with fresh allegations. And with time against her, she must uncover the dark secrets that stand between her and Stephen, and the deceit that has chased her halfway around the world.

Twenty-year-old Finley Montgomery has always been different. She's never been able to control the things that happen to her - not even the pain of a new tattoo or the roar of her motorcycle can drown out the chaos. When she moves to her grandmother's house in the small town of The Hollows in upstate New York, Finley is hoping to a fresh start. Then a detective shows up. He knows about Finley's unusual gifts and he wants her help. There's a little girl missing and the police investigation has gone cold. Now, time is running out. Only Finley can uncover the truth - but can she find the answers before it's too late? Ink and Bone is by Lisa Unger.

Tim Johnson took his baby daughter out for a walk and she never made it home. Johnson claims he was assaulted and the girl was snatched. The police see a different crime, with Johnson their only suspect. A year later, Sam Bryne is on course to be elected as one of the youngest MPs in Westminster. He's tipped for the very top ...until he vanishes. Detectives Murphy and Rossi are tasked with discovering what has happened to the popular politician - and in doing so, they unearth a trail that stretches into the past, and crimes that someone is hell-bent on avenging.  Then She Was Gone is by Luca Vesta

August

Clyde Barr has been on the run for sixteen years. Now he's back in the Colorado wilderness, hoping for some peace and quiet. Then Clyde receives a frantic phone call for help from his sister Jen. But the line goes dead. She's been taken. Clyde doesn't know where Jen is. He doesn't know who has her. He doesn't know how much time he has. All he knows is that nothing short of dying will stop him from saving her... Nothing Short of Dying is the debut novel by Erik Storey.

This is about three deaths. Actually more, if you go back far enough. I say deaths but perhaps all of them were murders. It's a grey area. Murder, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So let's just call them deaths and say I was involved. This story could be told a hundred different ways.  For Penelope Sheppard, university offers an escape from her trouble past.  Running from a life weighed down with scandal and tragedy, Pen sees this as the ideal place to reinvent herself among perfect strangers.  Life in her new halls of residence feels like a wonderland of sex, drugs, and maybe even love.  But all too soon Pen realises flawed narration and tantalising diary entries, secrets, truths and lies come to light and a dangerous dilemma unfolds, twisting and turning until the very last page.  All These Perfect Strangers is by Aoife Clifford.

Cold Killers is by Lee Weeks. Eddie Butcher, one of four brothers from a notorious East

End family, is tortured and brutally murdered while visiting London from his home in Marbella. SIO Carter and DI Willis monitor his extravagant funeral in case Eddie's violent brother Terry, under house arrest in Spain, tries to make an appearance. Terry is wanted for robbery, drug trafficking and murder - and the police strongly suspect he is even prepared to kill his own family to maintain his power. What Carter hasn't told all of his colleagues is that this family's history is personal to him. More than ten years earlier, he was part of an operation that tried to trap Terry as he made his first big drugs deal. Carter was an undercover agent then, along with a female operative, Della. She and Carter were an item until she fell for Eddie Butcher and the case collapsed. She became Della Butcher - and now, a widow at the mercy of the remaining Butcher brothers, her life is in danger. When Della offers Carter a chance to finally catch Terry, he knows he cannot refuse. But his reunion with Della comes at a heavy personal, and professional, cost - and Willis must protect them all as the Butcher family's enemies close in, wanting money and revenge.

September

Murderabilia is by Craig Robertson. The first commuter train of the morning slowly rumbles away from platform seven of Queen St station. Everyone on board is sleepy, avoiding eye contact, reluctant to admit the day has begun. And then, as the train emerges from a tunnel, the screaming starts. Hanging from the bridge ahead of them is a body. Placed neatly on the ground below him are the victim's clothes. Why? Detective Narey is assigned the case and then just as quickly taken off it again. Winter, now a journalist, must pursue the case for her. The line of questioning centres around the victim's clothes - why leave them in full view? And what did the killer not leave, and where might it appear again? Everyone has a hobby. Some people collect death. To find this evil, Narey must go on to the dark web, and into immense danger …

In New York, in the late 1880s, the miracle of electric light is still in its infancy and untold riches and glory await the man who can power the nation with this new technology. Thomas Edison has won the race to the patent office for his electric light bulb and is now suing his one remaining rival, George Westinghouse, for infringement for the unheard-of sum of a billion dollars. To defend himself, Westinghouse makes a surprising choice in his attorney: he hires untested 26-year-old Paul Cravath who is fresh out of law school. The task facing Cravath is truly daunting - win. And the stakes are immense: the winner of the case will illuminate America. 'If Paul could not break the patent claim, Thomas Edison would have a monopoly on light itself...'  The Last Days of Night is by Graham Moore

Jefferson Hinkley, undercover investigator, is off to America to embark on his most dangerous case yet.   Triple Crown is by Felix Francis.

October

Jane Tennison, a young, inexperienced WPC, learns the hard way never to take anyone, or anything, at face value, whether in her dealings with her police colleagues or when confronted by seemingly innocent suspects. Hidden Killers sees Jane acting as a 'decoy' prostitute, with the hope of capturing a suspect wanted for numerous sexual assaults. The attacker is drawn in and put under arrest. Commended for bravery in the case, Jane is given CID status and moves from Hackney to Bow Street Station as Detective. Her first call-out is to a non-suspicious death. The victim is a young mother, drowned tragically in her bath, leaving a bereft and doting husband and a young child. The two storylines interweave as Jane begins to doubt the evidence against her assailant in East London, and becomes certain that the young woman in the bath did not drown in tragic circumstances. Two entirely different cases but one common thread - the lingering doubt in Jane's mind around the evidence, and around her colleagues... Hidden Killers is by Lynda La Plante.

Mercy Killings is by Lisa Cutts. The death of a local sex offender places the police officers at East Rise incident room under immense pressure - they must treat this case like any other murder, but they know what Albie Woodville did and can feel little sympathy. Except, as the investigation progresses, it becomes clear this isn't just a one-off killing - someone is out for revenge...

  

November

Casey Carter was convicted of murdering her fiancé – famed philanthropist Hunter Raleigh III – fifteen years ago. And Casey claims – has always claimed – she’s innocent.  Although she was charged and served out her sentence in prison, she is still living ‘under suspicion’.  She hears whispers at the grocery store.  She can’t get a job.  Even her own mother treats her likes she’s guilty.  Her story attracts the attention of Laurie Moran and the Under Suspicion news team – it’s Casey’s last chance to finally clear her name, and Laurie pledges to exonerate her.  With Alex Buckley taking a break from the show – cooling his potential romance with Laurie – Under Suspicion introduces a new on-air host named Ryan Nichols, a young legal whiz with a Harvard Law degree, Supreme Court clerkship, experience as a federal prosecutor, and regular stints on the cable news circuit.  He’s got a big reputation and the attitude to match it. Ryan has no problems with steering – and stealing – the show, and even tries to stop Laurie from taking on Casey’s case because he’s so certain she’s guilty. An egomaniacal new co-host, a relentless gossip columnist who seems to have all the dirt (and a surprising informant), and Casey’s longstanding bad reputation: Laurie must face this and more to do what she believes is right, to one and for all prove Casey’s innocence – that is, if she’s innocent….. The Sleeping Beauty Killer is by Alafair Burke and Mary Higgins Clark