Books to look forward to from Faber and Faber

January 2020

Your house Will Pay is by Steph Cha.  Two families. One desperate to remember, the other to forget. Will the truth burn them both? 'Fresh, thoughtful, thrilling.' Ian Rankin Grace Park and Shawn Mathews share a city - Los Angeles - but seemingly little else. Coming from different generations and very different communities, their paths wouldn't normally cross at all. As Grace battles confusion over her elder sister's estrangement from their Korean-immigrant parents, Shawn tries to help his cousin Ray readjust to city life after years spent in prison. But something in their past links these two families. As the city around them threatens to erupt into violence, echoing the worst days of the early 1990s, the lives of Grace and Shawn are set to collide in ways which will change them all forever.

March 2020

Rules for Perfect Murders is by Peter Swanson.  Eight classic murders. A single crime obsessive. Countless thrilling twists. A series of unsolved murders with one thing in common: each of the deaths bears an eerie resemblance to the crimes depicted in classic mystery novels. The deaths lead FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey to mystery bookshop Old Devils. Owner Malcolm Kershaw had once posted online an article titled 'My Eight Favourite Murders,' and there seems to be a deadly link between the deaths and his list - which includes Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train and Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Can the killer be stopped before all eight of these perfect murders have been re-enacted?

April 2020

The Bramblee and the Rose is by Tom Bouman.  A headless stranger is found in the woods of Wild Thyme, a small town in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. All signs point to a man-killing bear, and Officer Henry Farrell would just as soon leave this hunt to the Game Commission. But doubts arise when he discovers the victim was a retired investigator. What drew the investigator to sleepy Wild Thyme? Before Henry can find answers, his own nephew disappears into the hills. Then an old flame dies under suspicious circumstances, leaving Henry as the prime suspect. Torn between protecting his family and clearing his name, Henry fights to protect the most he’s ever had to lose.

June 2020

Tokyo Redux is by David Peace.  The Occupation had a hangover, but still the Occupation went to work. Tokyo, July 1949, President Shimoyama, Head of the National Railways of Japan, goes missing just a day after serving notice of 30,000 job losses. In the midst of the US Occupation, against the backdrop of widespread social, political and economic reforms - as tensions and confusion reign - American Detective Harry Sweeney leads the missing person's investigation for General MacArthur's GHQ. Some men go mad, some men go missing . Fifteen years later and Tokyo is booming. As the city prepares for the 1964 Olympics and the global spotlight, Hideki Murota, a former policeman during the Occupation period, and now a private investigator, is given a case which forces him to go back to confront a time, a place and a crime he's been hiding from for the past fifteen years. Some men do both . Over twenty years later, in the autumn and winter of 1988, as the Emperor Showa is dying, Donald Reichenbach, an aging American, eking out a living teaching and translating, sits drinking by the Shinobazu Pond in Ueno, knowing the final reckoning of the greatest mystery of the Showa Era is down to him.

Fateful Mornings by Tom Bouman Extract

As the sun gained the eastern sky, I drove my truck through a meadow and toward Maid-en’s Grove Lake. On the hills, aspen trees leafed out like pale green clouds, and scattered in the grass below, violets stood up to the wet, cold spring. Everywhere you looked, summer was promised.

Who named the lake Maiden’s Grove I do not know, prob­ably the same person who named our township Wild Thyme, back two hundred years ago when northern Pennsylvania was still frontier. They arrived and there it was, a deep glacial rut fed by springs and spilling into January Creek, hooking into the Susquehanna at some point south, and then running hun­dreds of miles out to the Chesapeake Bay.

I came to a right turn and took the road to where a dozen cottages sat on the shore. They’d been built in the thirties, when the family that owned most of the surrounding land had sold off a few parcels to raise cash. The family, name of Swales, had evidently grown rich again down in Luzerne County. Until recently, they’d left the other three-quarters of the lake wild. The south shore cottagers were a house-proud and wealthy few who prized quiet and solitude. They stocked the lake with trout and forbade motorboats. At Cottage Seven, I pulled in next to a navy Mercedes wagon and walked to the side yard. The midmorning sun scattered white light across the lake’s blue surface. You could smell the light. Rhonda Prosser a slender middle-aged woman with the wiry limbs of a distance runner, crouched in front of a broken basement window. On my arrival she stood. She wore gray dreadlocks with silver rings and charms woven in. Her face was severe and beautiful, the face of a white woman, to be clear, dreadlocks notwithstanding. I’d seen her and her husband at monthly township meetings in the summer months. They’d made it a project to beleaguer the township supervisor—my boss, Steve Milgraham—over fracking. In particular, where was the EPA looking after us, and where was the Act 13 money going? For this they had become notable in Holebrook County despite being themselves resi­dents of New York State, north of the border.

Rhonda peered at me over half-glasses clamped onto the very tip of her nose.

“Henry Farrell, Wild Thyme,” I said.

“Yeah, I know. I was expecting state police,” she said.

“Well,” I said.

“So you’re going to handle this? Because I called before. I left messages on your machine. People raising hell at Andy Swales’s place, and you won’t lift a finger.”

It was true. Andy Swales was prince of the family and had, that past year, built a stone castle on a hill overlooking the northern shore, along with a small boathouse and a dock. From the Prossers’ cottage, you could see a turret.

Swales leased some of his land and a trailer up there to a young couple named Kevin O’Keeffe and Penny Pellings, in exchange for their caretaking the house and grounds. Yet them two were not known for care. Child Protective Services had removed their newborn girl, Eolande, about a year ago, in a case that saw a bit of publicity. In addition to the occasional check-in relating to their efforts to get Eolande back, I’d been on a domestic call to the trailer that winter, nothing too bad, just hippies in a squabble that went too far.

Point being, with Kevin and Penny living up there, a cer­tain local element had new access to the lake, and the cottage owners didn’t like it. Starting that spring, any chance they got, they called about some scandal up to Maiden’s Grove, somebody playing music too loud too late or bait-fishing their trout. I told them once you stock a public lake, the fish are the commonwealth’s. But I’d called Andy Swales about the noise. He’d told me his tenants could do what they pleased, as long as they didn’t get carried away, his words. Me, I also figured it was a free country and people were allowed to get drunk at the wrong lake if they wanted.

Worst of all to the cottagers on the southern shore, worse than their new neighbors to the north, Swales had signed a gas lease. At some point in the future, they all might look out across the lake to see a derrick punching poison into the earth with nothing but a thin concrete well protecting their water supply.

“Well,” I said, “the state called the county, and the county called the township, and the township is me, so.”

“Mmm.”

“The nearest state barracks is an hour away,” I said. “I may work with the county on suspects and that. Show me around?”

We went inside. The interior of the cottage was white and spare. The spaces beneath tables and chairs were empty, the countertops clean, the shelves filled with art books. Life pre­servers and baseball mitts hung on hooks in a shale-floored mudroom with a bench and a view to the lake. Unlike most of the homes I visited on the job, there was not a thing in this one you could call junk. In fact, the cottage was so little dis­arranged that I had a hard time believing it had been burgled until I came to the wall fixture that had once held a flat-screen TV, and saw the outlines where a stereo had once sat on a chest painted in blue milk wash. According to Rhonda, two vintage stringed instruments had been taken, but not the priceless barn harp, which was crumbling into something more like folk art. She showed it to me and strummed it; it did not play well. In an upstairs bedroom, the burglars had forced open a locked drawer in a nightstand and taken an HK 9mm automatic handgun. Rhonda said it was her ex-husband’s, for coyotes, described it as black, hadn’t touched it since the divorce. There was a touch of weariness in her voice when her ex-husband came into the story. It was the first I’d heard of the split, so I guessed it was recent. She didn’t know if the gun was loaded; it may well have been. There was a nearly empty box of 124-grain full metal jacket ammunition still in the drawer. All the liquor was gone. Downstairs in the basement, any tools not bolted down had been taken. We headed back up to the ground floor.

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Fateful Mornings by Tom Bouman is published in July by Faber & Faber.

Buy it from SHOTS A Store.

Books to Look Forward to From Faber and Faber

July 2017

In Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, Officer Henry Farrell's life is getting complicated. Widowed and more traumatised than he cares to admit, he is caught up in an affair with a local woman, and with helping out his friend's barn construction job - on which the clock is ticking. When a troubled old acquaintance of theirs becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of his girlfriend, it becomes increasingly clear that something seriously dark is at large in the woods that surround them. Against this old and strange landscape - where silence rules - a fascinating and troubling case ensues, as Henry struggles for his very survival. Fateful Mornings is by Tom Bouman.

Walk in Silence is by John Gordon Sinclair.  Find the boy. Bring him home. Keep him safe. Keira Lynch is a lawyer who's used to trouble, but she's only just landed in Albania, and already, she's neck deep. She thought money would help her find the boy, in an underworld where bribes are as common as bent cops, but his kidnappers want something else. They want the freedom of one of their gang members. A man Keira is about to help bring to trial back in the UK; a man who once put three bullets in her chest. Can she stay silent, and save the boy? Or will she have to play the game in a brutal world where anything can be bartered - trust, loyalty, even lives?

What really happened to Sarah Cook? A beautiful blonde teenager, Sarah Cook disappeared fifteen years ago, the same night her parents were brutally murdered in their suburban Ohio home. Her boyfriend Brad Stockton - black and from the wrong side of the tracks - was convicted of the murders and sits on death row, though he always maintained his innocence. As his execution nears, his devoted sister, insisting she has spotted Sarah at a local gas station, hires PI Roxane Weary to look at this cold case. Reeling from the recent death of her cop father, Roxane is drawn to the story of Sarah's disappearance, especially when she suspects a link between it and one of her father's unsolved murder cases. Despite her self-destructive tendencies, Roxane starts to hope that she can save Brad's life and her own. The Last Place You Look is by Kristen Lepionka.

Kitty Peck and the Daughter of Sorrow is by Kate Griffin.  Summer 1881: the streets of Limehouse are thick with opium...and menace. At eighteen Kitty Peck has inherited Paradise, a sprawling criminal empire on the banks of the Thames. Determined to do things differently to her fearsome grandmother, she now realises that the past casts a long and treacherous shadow. Haunted by a terrible secret and stalked by a criminal cabal intent on humiliation and destruction, Kitty must fight for the future of everyone she cares for...

August 2017

The Girl in Green is by Derek B Miller and takes us deep into modern Iraq, where British journalist Thomas Benton and relief worker Marta Strom are persuaded by ex-US soldier Arwood Hobbes to embark on what may be a fools' errand in a last-chance effort to atone for their failure to save a local girl more than twenty years previously, following Operation Desert Storm. Set against the shattered landscape and broken heart of Iraq. 

Former Army Ranger Van Shaw is recently single, out of money, and struggling to keep on the straight and narrow. So when an old contact, Mick O’Hassan, shows up on his doorstep, fresh out of prison and claiming to know the whereabouts of a hidden stash of gold, Van feels the powerful pull of his past. The trouble is, some things are too good to be true, and before they know it Van and O’Hassan are trapped in a game with few rules and too many deadly players. Turns out, the only easy part of a life of crime is getting sucked back in . . .  Every Day Above Ground is by Glen Erik Hamilton.

September 2017

A Patient Fury is by Sarah Ward.  When Detective Constable Connie Childs is dragged from her bed to the fire-wrecked property on Cross Farm Lane she knows as she steps from the car that this house contains death. Three bodies discovered - a family obliterated - their deaths all seem to point to one conclusion: One mother, one murderer. But D.C. Childs, determined as ever to discover the truth behind the tragedy, realises it is the fourth body - the one they cannot find - that holds the key to the mystery at Cross Farm Lane. What Connie Childs fails to spot is that her determination to unmask the real murderer might cost her more than her health - this time she could lose the thing she cares about most: her career.

October 2017

Nine Lessons is by Nicola Upson.  In the years before the Great War, M. R. James told ghost stories by candlelight to a handful of friends and scholars. Now, twenty-five years later, those men are dying, killed off one by one . . . In contemporary Cambridge, the people of the town are gripped by fear and suspicion as a serial rapist stalks the streets. In the shadow of King’s College Chapel, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose faces some of the most horrific and audacious murders of his career.

Macavity Award Nominations

The Macavity Award is named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats). Each year the members of Mystery Readers International nominate and vote for their favourite mysteries in four categories.

The year listed is the year of the award, for books published in the previous year.

2015

Best Mystery Novel:

The Missing Place by Sophie Littlefield  (Gallery)

The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood (Penguin)

The Lewis Man by Peter May (Quercus)

The Day She Died by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

The Last Death of Jack Harbin by Terry Shames (Seventh Street)

Best First Mystery Novel:

Blessed Are the Dead by Kristi Belcamino (Witness Impulse)

Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman (W. W. Norton)

Invisible City by Julia Dahl (Minotaur)

Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary (Penguin)

Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little (Viking)

The Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day (Seventh Street)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction:

The Figure of the Detective: A Literary History and Analysis by Charles Brownson  (McFarland)

Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe by J.W. Ocker (Countryman)

400 Things Cops Know: Street Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga (Quill Driver)

Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer's Journey by Hank Phillippi Ryan, editor (Henery Press)

Best Mystery Short Story:

"Honeymoon Sweet" by Craig Faustus Buck:  (Murder at the Beach: The Bouchercon Anthology 2014, edited by Dana Cameron; Down & Out)

"The Shadow Knows" by Barb Goffman (Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley; Wildside Press)

"Howling at the Moon" by Paul D. Marks (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Nov. 2014)

"The Proxy" by Travis Richardson (Thuglit #13, Sept./Oct. 2014)

"The Odds Are Against Us" by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Nov. 2014)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award:

Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime)

Things Half in Shadow by Alan Finn (Gallery)

An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (Knopf)

A Deadly Measure of Brimstone by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur)

Present Darkness by Malla Nunn (Atria)

Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd (Wm. Morrow)

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Hat tip to Mystery Readers International.

Macavity Award Nominees 2015

Best Mystery Novel:

The Missing Place by Sophie Littlefield (Gallery)

The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood (Penguin)

The Lewis Man by Peter May (Quercus)

The Day She Died by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)

The Long Way Home by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

The Last Death of Jack Harbin by Terry Shames (Seventh Street)

Best First Mystery Novel:

Blessed Are the Dead by Kristi Belcamino (Witness Impulse)

Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman (W. W. Norton)

Invisible City by Julia Dahl (Minotaur)

Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary (Penguin)

Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little (Viking)

The Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day (Seventh Street)

Best Mystery-Related Nonfiction:

The Figure of the Detective: A Literary History and Analysis by Charles Brownson (McFarland)

Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe by J.W. Ocker (Countryman)

400 Things Cops Know: Street Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga (Quill Driver)

Writes of Passage: Adventures on the Writer's Journey edited by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Henery Press)

Best Mystery Short Story:

"Honeymoon Sweet" by Craig Faustus Buck:  (Murder at the Beach: The Bouchercon Anthology 2014), edited by Dana Cameron; (Down & Out)

"The Shadow Knows" by Barb Goffman (Chesapeake Crimes: Homicidal Holidays), edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley; Wildside Press)

"Howling at the Moon" by Paul D. Marks (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Nov. 2014)

"The Proxy" by Travis Richardson (Thuglit #13, Sept./Oct. 2014)

"The Odds Are Against Us" by Art Taylor (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Nov. 2014)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award:

Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime)

Things Half in Shadow by Alan Finn (Gallery)

An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris (Knopf)

A Deadly Measure of Brimstone by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur)

Present Darkness by Malla Nunn (Atria)

Hunting Shadows by Charles Todd (Wm. Morrow)

Hat-tip to Janet Rudolph and Mystery Fanfare.

Edgar Award Resuts

Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the winners of the 2015 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2014. The Edgar® Awards were presented to the winners at their 69th Gala Banquet, April 29, 2015 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

 

BEST NOVEL
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman (W.W. Norton)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Abani (Penguin Random House – Penguin Books)

BEST FACT CRIME
Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe by J.W. Ocker (W.W. Norton – Countryman Press)

BEST SHORT STORY
“What Do You Do?” – Rogues by Gillian Flynn (Penguin Random House Publishing – Bantam Books)

BEST JUVENILE
Greenglass House by Kate Milford (Clarion Books – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
The Art of Secrets by James Klise (Algonquin Young Readers)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” – Happy Valley, Teleplay by Sally Wainwright (Netflix)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
“Getaway Girl” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine By Zoë Z. Dean (Dell Magazines)

GRAND MASTER
Lois Duncan
James Ellroy

RAVEN AWARDS

Ruth & Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine

Kathryn Kennison, Magna Cum Murder

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD

Charles Ardai, Editor & Founder, Hard Case Crime

* * * * * *

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER – MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Tuesday, April 28, 2015)

The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey (Minotaur Books)