PaperBack: “The Hoods Take Over”

Part of a series honoring the late author and blogger Bill Crider.



The Hoods Take Over, by Ovid Demaris (Gold Medal, 1957). Cover illustration by Barye Phillips. Publisher Stark House Press reprinted this novel, Demaris’ second, back in 2019.

Succinct and Stirring

The Short Mystery Fiction Society has announced its finalists for the 2025 Derringer Awards. That group’s members will vote for their favorites, with the results to be posted on May 1.

Best Flash Story (up to 1,000 words):
• “Sweet Red Cherries,” by C.W. Blackwell
(Punk Noir Magazine, November 28, 2024)
• “Mob Mentality,” by James Patrick Focarile
(Shotgun Honey, June 20, 2024)
• “La Petite Mort,” by Susan Hatters Friedman
(Bristol Noir, February 16, 2024)
• “Kargin the Necromancer,” by Mike McHone
(Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)
• “Lockerbie, 1988,” by Mary Thorson
(Cotton Xenomorph, October 13, 2024)

Best Short Story (1,001-4,000 words):
• “Skeeter's Bar and Grill,” by Julie Hastrup (from Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, edited by Judy Penz Sheluck; Superior Shores Press)
• “The Wind Phone,” by Josh Pachter (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)
• “The Heist,” by Bill Pronzini (from Shamus and Anthony Commit Capers: Ten Tales of Criminals, Crooks, and Culprits, edited by Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer; Level Best)
• “The Last Chance Coalition,” by Judy Penz Sheluk (from Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense)
• “The Kratz Gambit,” by Mark Thielman (from Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, edited by Michael Bracken; Down & Out)

Best Long Story (4,001-8,000 words):
• “How Mary’s Garden Grew,” by Elizabeth Elwood (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024)
• “Heart of Darkness,” by Tammy Euliano (from Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson; Down & Out)
• “Putting Things Right,” by Peter W.J. Hayes (Thrill Ride Magazine, December 21, 2024)
• “Motive Factor X,” by Joseph Andre Thomas (from Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology, edited by Jessica Peter and Timaeus Bloom; Howl Society Press)
• “Cold Comfort,” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (from Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies)

Best Novelette (8,001-20,000 words):
• “A Band of Scheming Women,” by Joslyn Chase (Thrill Ride
Magazine, March 21, 2024)
• “Christmas Dinner,” by Robert Lopresti (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)
• “Barracuda Backfire,” by Tom Milani (Chop Shop, Episode 4, edited by Michael Bracken; Down & Out, April 1, 2024)
• “Her Dangerously Clever Hands,” by Karen Odden (from Crimeucopia—Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press)
• “The Cadillac Job,” by Stacy Woodson (Chop Shop, Episode 1, edited by Michael Bracken; Down & Out, January 1, 2024

In addition, there’s a brand-new, fifth category of Derringer Award nominees this year: Best Anthology. The six finalists for that commendation were named in February.

Remembering Ken Bruen

By Peter Handel
I never met Ken Bruen in person, but to a small extent, I feel like I knew him. Our paths crossed initially in the early aughts—it may have been when I was the San Francisco Chronicle’s crime-fiction columnist, or later during my stint with the now long-defunct Pages Magazine. At around that same time, we actually chatted on the phone and even made a tentative plan to meet up when he was visiting Northern California from Ireland.

Alas, that encounter never occurred, and years passed, me reading the occasional Jack Taylor blend of brutality and humanity, and Ken—writing, writing, writing.

In March of last year, I had the genuine pleasure of interviewing Ken about his then-latest Jack Taylor detective novel, Galway Confidential, for a profile that appeared in CrimeReads. I sent him a preliminary list of questions that he quickly answered. That led to additional queries, and soon it felt like some kind of Galway floodgate had opened: one of the most enjoyable back-and-forths with an author that I could have ever imagined began. Before long, Ken was sending me little stories, tidbits, and hilarious remarks—unsolicited.

Most of them had to go in the piece—they were too fucking good to leave out!

Over the past year, for various reasons, I remained in touch with Ken via e-mail. If I had a question, he answered it. When I asked the boss of this blog if I could review Galway’s Edge, his new, 18th Taylor book, I got the green light. I didn’t reach out to Ken right away, but as I finished my review, I remembered he had said last year that one more Jack Taylor novel was coming, that it was written already and was to be called Galway’s DNA.

Hmm. I shot an e-mail off to Ken and asked, Is this a different book than what was to be called Galway’s DNA? And is this in fact the final Jack Taylor story? His reply, from March 14, was typical Ken Bruen (and like all of his e-mail correspondence, it was “written” in his inimitable style). It read, in part (and concludes the review):

Peter,

lovely to hear from you.

Galway DNA became Galway’s Edge as I wrote the book and it mutated it’s own self.
For now, there is no jack taylor on the horizon but I’m open to Jack talking to me.
warmest wishes.
Ken

I wrote back and asked, Can I use this?

use anything Peter that helps

Warmest wishes
Ken

After the review ran on March 26, I naturally sent it to Ken, and frankly, could not wait to hear from him. But silence ensued, and I wondered why. I continued to check my e-mail all last weekend … until I saw the news of his (I assume) unexpected death in a Galway hospital on Saturday the 29th.

The mystery/crime fiction world has shrunk. Significantly. Dramatically. I cherish my interactions with Ken. We weren’t friends, but we did indeed have a wonderful relationship. I’m closing here with part of one of the notes I got from Ken after the CrimeReads profile ran. (He was pleased, and gracious, as always.) To me, it truly typifies what kind of a person Ken Bruen was. It reads, in part:

Do please stay in touch and if there is anything I can do
for you, tis done.
Warmest thanks
Ken

That was Ken.

Fools for Thought

April Fools’ Day—April 1—has been around for hundreds of years, but none of the crime and mystery fiction listed in Mystery Fanfare, and related to this merry occasion, is anywhere near that old.

What you will find among that short selection of “foolish and not so foolish crime fiction” are works ranging from Lee Harris’ April Fools’ Day Murder and Steve Demaree’s A Body on April Fool’s Day to Louise Penny’s The Cruelest Month and The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville. Just the treats to get you through this day of tricks.

Revue of Reviewers: 3-31-25

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.

Irish Author Bruen Passes On

This is terrible news for a Sunday morning: “The hugely popular Galway crime writer Ken Bruen has died at the age of 74.”

Best known as the man behind the Jack Taylor crime series, he was the author of more than 50 books over a stellar career that made him one of the most prominent Irish crime writers of the last two decades.

He was a past winner of the prestigious Shamus Award for best crime novel of the year; he also won the Macavity Award, the Barry Award, the Edgar Award — an award he was also shortlisted for earlier in his career.

More information is available from Ireland’s Connacht Tribune.

READ MORE: “Is This the Last of Jack Taylor?” by Peter Handel (The Rap Sheet); “‘A Great Loss’—Tributes for ‘Pioneer’ Galway Crime Writer Ken Bruen as Author Dies Aged 74,” by Jessica Mercer (Irish Independent); “The Crime Lady: Remembering Ken Bruen,” by Sarah Weinman; “Ken Bruen (1951-2025),” by Dana King (One Bite at a Time).

A Cluster of Curiosities

When I asked Rap Sheet readers, at the end of my recently posted list of spring book releases, to let me know if I’d missed mentioning anything of import, I did not expect to learn that the sequel to a major heist thriller—the source material for one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best-known films—had flown completely under my radar!

Randal S. Brandt, an occasional contributor to this blog in addition to his being a librarian at the University of California-Berkeley’s Bancroft Library and an authority on the work of 20th-century author David Dodge, got right back to me with big news: In association with the April 1 reissuing of Dodge’s classic caper novel To Catch a Thief, an “official sequel” to that 1952 story will go on sale the same day, Mark ONeill’s To Catch a Spy. Both are coming from Poisoned Pen Press.

Bluffton, South Carolina, resident ONeill (no apostrophe) is described as a former toy designer, newspaper columnist, and private investigator. To Catch a Spy is his first novel. Here’s the plot synopsis:

It’s been a year since John Robie, notorious Riviera jewel thief, proved his innocence by catching a copycat burglar. And it’s been a year since John has seen Francie Stevens, the adventurous socialite who not only saw through his disguise, but helped him catch the copycat.

Now Francie is returning to the Riviera for its first-ever Fashion Week as a model for a top French designer, and John plans on rekindling their romance. But there’s a problem. While helping a friend, John chases down a mysterious courier, whose ruthless associates now want John dead. To make matters worse, when Francie arrives, she has a boyfriend in tow, and tells John that she wants nothing to do with him.

John has to figure out why he’s a hunted man, and why Francie is acting suspiciously. Digging deeper, he discovers a spy ring with evil intent. As John works unofficially to gather evidence, a question begins to haunt him―could Francie Stevens be a spy? With his enemies closing in, John turns to his cat burglar skills to try to save his life and expose the traitors. To survive, he has to catch the spies before they catch―and kill―a retired thief!

I haven’t yet procured a copy of To Catch a Spy, but in his review of it for Goodreads, Brandt calls the yarn “extraordinarily well-written. All of the plot points hold together and bring new dimensions to John Robie and Francie Stevens that are believable and built on the foundations that David Dodge laid in To Catch a Thief in 1952.” He adds, though, that “It helps to read (or have read) Dodge’s book first …, but it is not strictly necessary. Just be aware that the characters are based on Dodge’s book, not on Cary Grant and Grace Kelly!”

ONeill is currently composing his second John Robie thriller.

* * *

ONeill’s novel is just one of several crime-fiction curiosities I’m watching for in 2025. Another is Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business, which his due out from publisher Pantheon in late May and is described as “a brilliant graphic adaptation of the classic Raymond Chandler novella featuring detective Philip Marlowe.” Writing credit for said title belongs to Arvind Ethan David, with Ilias Kyriazis and Cris Peter responsible for the illustrations and coloring.

The nitpicker in me wants to point out here that “Trouble Is My Business,” which initially appeared in the August 1939 edition of Dime Detective magazine, did not begin as a Marlowe outing. Chandler’s original “Trouble” protagonist was a Los Angeles gumshoe going by the name of John Dalmas, one of several similar loner P.I.s he employed in his early short stories. Later, after Marlowe became commercially popular, Chandler substituted his moniker for that of Dalmas. Reprints since have firmly established “Trouble” as a Marlowe story.

So what’s the criminal inquiry that David, Kyriazis, and Peter have adapted here? A summary reads as follows:

Los Angeles, 1930s. A rich old man who knows trouble when he sees it hires a detective agency to scare off a young woman who seems to be making his adopted son hemorrhage cash. Fortunately for the detective, a hard-drinking man named Philip Marlowe, trouble is his business.

The young woman, Harriet, has an agenda all her own and aspirations beyond being a shill for a gambler. She's nobody’s fool. Nor is the old man, for his part. He’s got serious muscle—a chauffeur with a degree from Dartmouth, the only Black student from his class, who knows his way around a gun and isn’t afraid to use it.

Right in the middle of it all is a big pile of money. And when the bodies begin to drop, only Philip Marlowe can sort out which of these suspects is pulling the trigger.

Not long ago, I received a PDF version of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business. It’s a dark, moody, hardcover work of 128 pages, captivatingly rendered in both color and black-and-white illustrations, with a rewarding twist at the end. Even though it didn’t start out as a case for Philip Marlowe, I’ll certainly have to add a finished print version to my Chandler collection.

* * *

Finally, Randy Brandt informs me that Stark House Press will release a brand-new edition, in June, of Make with the Brains, Pierre, a 1946 tale of psychological suspense by one Dana Wilson … who would eventually go on to become the influential third wife of James Bond film producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli. Brandt explained in this Rap Sheet post from last year that Make with the Brains, Wilson’s only crime novel, “is narrated by Pierre Bernet, a French ‘film cutter’ who emigrated to Hollywood to escape the Nazi occupation of France and has been unable to secure work for several years. Finding himself in the middle of a romantic triangle—Pierre is desperately in love with Eleanor, an aspiring young actress, but Eleanor is in love with Joe, who also loves Eleanor but is married and refuses to seek a divorce—Pierre gets involved in a blackmail plot that leads to murder.”

Not surprisingly, I have never read Wilson’s book (which was subsequently reissued as Uneasy Virtue and Scenario for Murder). But crime-fictionist Bill Pronzini has said it reminds him of Cornell Woolrich’s fiction “in its incisive examination of a man destroyed by love, hate, and the dark side of his own soul.” And that’s a recommendation that will ensure my picking up a copy when one becomes available.

The Book You Have to Read: “I Like It Cool,” by Michael Lawrence

(Editor’s note: This is the 187th installment in The Rap Sheet’s continuing series about great but forgotten books.)

By Steven Nester
When it comes to hip, beatnik-era private investigators, Korean War veteran Johnny Amsterdam talks the talk and walks the walk. Referred to as “the eye with a beard,” this hirsute leading man in Michael Lawrence’s second Amsterdam outing, I Like it Cool (1962), possesses the street cred and gravitas that get respect and acceptance from the hip as well as the squares, allowing him to navigate between bohemian party pads and the penthouses in the toniest Manhattan neighborhoods with confidence, aplomb—and of course, plenty of cool.

To author Lawrence’s credit (and readers will surely appreciate this) is his ability to describe people, places, and situations with Chandleresque efficiency and wit. It’s difficult to imagine he wasn’t enjoying himself as he came up with I Like It Cool’s cast, hard-boiled descriptions, and tough-guy talk. And like many P.I. novels, this one begins with a damsel in distress.

Sandra Tyson is a hip torch singer with monumental daddy issues; her father is Mark Tyson, the rich and renowned creator of Jeff Noble, a “hard-fisted, steel-jawed adventurer” who started out in comic strips, but eventually became popular (and profitable) on radio and television, as well as in movies. Never much of a father, Tyson abandoned his young family to live a life of “debauchery in the chic, café society bunch who mattress hopped and made the scandal columns.” After years of neglect, Sandra finally wants her piece of the Jeff Noble pie, to which she believes she’s entitled—and says there’s proof.

She’s awaiting the arrival of her friend, successful Los Angeles fashion model Helen Tate, who apparently has a cache of letters written by Mark—letters disputing his long-standing assertion that he was the progenitor of Jeff Noble, and acknowledging Sandra’s mother’s contribution. Quite plainly, Jeff Noble was mom’s idea. This would blow the lid off Tyson’s cartoon empire, as well as the door off his bank vault. Unfortunately, Sandra discloses her plans to Mark, and when Helen’s arrival is overdue, Sandra frets for her safety. With so much at stake, she hires Johnny Amsterdam (her late brother’s old army buddy) to track the model down.

The pair meet at a place called the Purple Pad in Greenwich Village, where Sandra is performing, and she makes quite an impression on the gumshoe: “She had a nice voice, not great, but loaded with enough of the sexual moxie to stop all conversation in the bistro.” It doesn’t take long for her to bed Johnny, on top of buying his help.

The missing Helen, Johnny observes while looking at a photograph of her, was “the sort of doll who could smile you into bankruptcy and make you enjoy it.” But when he does finally locate her, in a Manhattan hotel, she’s been beaten to a pulp, and is almost recognizable and barely hanging onto life. And the letters? Well, they’re nowhere to be found! This gives author Lawrence the opportunity to gather all of his characters on stage in order to judge their level of involvement in these sordid affairs and weigh their motives. One thing seems clear: Everybody has a beef with Mark Tyson, and it doesn’t take long for a missing-person case to become something worse.

(Left) Cartoonist-author Lawrence Lariar.

Drawing Amsterdam’s particular wariness, as well as that of his talented but unremarkable-looking business partner, Dave Gross (who, we’re told, could “tail a man into his own living room without being noticed”), is slinky Sandra. She blames Mark for beating Helen, and then she threatens him—gun in hand—with murder. This does nothing but get her onto the hot seat when Mark is later found dead in his office, killed while dictating into a tape recorder. Next on the list of suspects is Hiram Barrett, owner of Jeff Noble’s syndication company. Barrett is a man “who knew how to throw his weight around. A seasoned top dog.” Barrett’s daughter is Joan, “the gilded gal of madcap headlines,” whose lusty overtures to Mark angered her father, though Mark paid no heed to his warnings to stay away. Another notable player in this consuming drama is Lieutenant McKegnie of the New York Police, who possesses the usual crime-fiction bias toward private dicks and their work. “Ethics are for doctors and lawyers and preachers, not detectives,” he tells Amsterdam. However, it’s the secondary characters, the assistants and the artists, the sycophants and the unrequited admirers, who (you ought to know by now) are the one that readers should really keep an eye on.

As this story is written with focus and concision (it takes place over several days), you might not be shocked to learn that Michael Lawrence was a pen name, that of Lawrence Lariar, who happened to be a cartoonist himself. That art form demands economy, and the author wastes no time driving his narrative to its conclusion, with just the right number of red herrings and clues hidden in plain sight.

Lawrence/Lariar possessed quite the résumé, which should put to rest any pejorative comments concerning cartoonists and their talents. He developed comic strips (among them Barry O’Neill and The Thropp Family), drawing them as well as scripting them. Jewish by heritage, Wikipedia says “he created Yankee Yiddish Cocktail Napkins, which featured cartoons illustrating puns on Yiddish words and expressions.” Lariar served for many years as the cartoon editor for Parade magazine, following his similar role at Liberty. He also edited the annual Best Cartoons of the Year series. The Golden Age of Detection Wiki notes he was a former Disney studio “story man,” and Lariar went on to script several episodes of the 1950s TV show Rocky King, Detective.

Generous with his time and talent, Lariar was a mentor to budding cartoonists and illustrators, teaching and advising them, and fit more into a working day than seems possible. Perhaps those pursuits prevented him from writing further Johnny Amsterdam novels; interested readers will have to be satisfied with only one other entry in the series, Naked and Alone, which dropped in 1953. Yet Lariar did pen additional detective novels, not just as Lawrence, but as “Adam Knight” and “Michael Stark,” too. Homer Bull, Steve Conacher, and Sugar Shannon numbered among his other protagonists.

The author of almost 100 books, this unsung hero of American pulp fiction died in 1981 at the age of 72.

READ MORE: “Whodrewit? I Like It Cool, by Michael Lawrence,”
by J. Kingston Pierce (Killer Covers).

A Leiter Shade of Bond

Amid worrisome reports that corporate giant Amazon has taken over the James Bond film franchise comes this cheerier news:

Ian Fleming Publications [IFP] is pleased to announce a new novel coming soon from 007 continuation author Raymond Benson. The Hook and the Eye focuses on Felix Leiter, James Bond’s trusted American friend and ally. This full-length novel will be released digitally in ten instalments, beginning on May 27th, recalling the serialisation of classic pulp fiction in the early twentieth century. This will be followed by the paperback publication of the full story on October 2nd.

You will remember that Benson was the third author—and the first American—commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate to pen fresh novels starring renowned British superspy James Bond. He produced half a dozen of them from 1997 to 2002, beginning with Zero Minus Ten and concluding with The Man with the Red Tattoo. In addition, he novelized three of the films featuring Agent 007, wrote Bond short stories, and assembled an encyclopedic celebration of Fleming’s creation, The James Bond Bedside Companion (1984).

CIA operative Felix Leiter was introduced in the first Bond book, Casino Royale (1953). He would go on to appear in five more of Fleming’s novels, and then be portrayed on the big screen by actors such as Jack Lord, David Hedison, and Jeffrey Wright. A synopsis of The Hook and the Eye makes clear he’s at the center of the action this time:

It is 1952. Felix has lost his job at the CIA and finds himself working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. What starts as a simple surveillance job turns into anything but when Felix stumbles upon a murder and a cabal of spies embedded in Manhattan. Hired to transport the impossibly beautiful and impossibly secretive Dora from New York to Texas, Felix is thrust into a non-stop adventure, where danger and deceit lie in wait around every bend in the road.

In an IFP press release, Benson adds: “Having worked on this project in secrecy since May 2024, I am now pleased and proud to finally present the first ever Felix Leiter novel, appropriately set in Ian Fleming's timeline of the 1950s between the character’s appearances in Live and Let Die and Diamonds Are Forever. As a native Texan myself, I’ve always had an affinity for 007’s close American friend.”

There’s no word yet on whether The Hook and the Eye will be the initial book in a new series, but The Spy Command’s Bill Koenig explains that it “fits in with IFP’s recent strategy of diversifying beyond the Bond character. Kim Sherwood has written novels featuring other 00-section agents. This fall, IFP is bringing out Quantum of Menace, the first of a series of novels by Vaseem Khan featuring Major Boothroyd, aka Q. Q is out of MI6 and off solving mysteries.”

Is This the Last of Jack Taylor?

By Peter Handel
When reading a Jack Taylor novel by Ken Bruen, one has two options: A) devour it in its entirely—scarf that story in one fell swoop—or B) take it in small bite-size pieces—chunklets, if you will. Either way, the end result is the same, a crime-fiction reading experience to savor. In Galway Confidential, the previous Taylor novel, the story ended with a teaser about the rise of a local, mysterious group called “Edge” and an appearance by Jack’s potential new lover, Rachel Worthington, during which we learned her backstory and why she came to know about Edge.

Galway’s Edge (Mysterious Press) is Bruen’s new, 18th excursion through an only-in-Ireland mélange that includes a slightly devious Mother Superior, über-wealthy, sadistic upper-class cretins, and Rachel, who is now a “conduit” to Edge as well as Jack’s potential, if conflicted female companion. And then there’s Jack, once again uncomfortably helping certain members of The Church … this time to formally investigate Edge, which is described in the opening pages as

a cabal who effectively ruled [Galway], stepping in when normal issues needed to be resolved. They discovered early that secrecy and subterfuge were powerful tools. ... Rumours were their stock in trade. Gathering information, collecting sordid acts, wielding power from a city that didn’t know they were. By stealth and money, they managed to exist as a rumour masquerading as a fact.

Guard-turned-gumshoe Taylor is visited one afternoon by a very large man, Father Richard, who describes himself as “Special envoy to the Archdiocese of Galway ... The powers that be decreed I should contact you as you have been of considerable assistance to Mother Church, not to mention, somewhat controversial.”

Father Richard, after a bit of liquid lubrication, goes on to say, “We have become aware of a group named Edge who are anti-Catholic ... Among this group it is rumoured they have a priest ... we need you to locate this individual [a Father Whelan] and dissuade him of his activities.”

Soon, Jack has a list of the five members of Edge, all part of the Galway elite, including Father Whelan, a literary agent, a real estate “mogul,” a billionaire, and a high-profile author. In the end, a group of keep-your-hands-clean vigilantes—the upper-class team. (Which is typically Bruen, ironic: Jack is a vigilante himself, if anything, but not remotely upper class; in fact, one with no class.)

He visits Father Whelan, but leaves unsatisfied. It’s the same result with all of the others on the list he contacts. But: the next day, the (not) good Father is found hanging from a tree, an “E” written in the dirt below him.

Additional vigilante killings occur, Father Whelan’s fate setting the tone. Father Richard soon sends Jack to see a man named Benson, who reputedly wanted to join Edge. The encounter doesn’t go well, and Jack is thrown out of Benson’s house by his private security minder.

It’s then on to the pub, where the detective runs into a former priest, Ciaran. “He was probably around fifty,” Bruen explains, “but looked eighty, dressed in black, but no white collar.” Jack asks him, “Are you familiar with Edge?” A long pause, followed by Ciaran’s reply: “Stay away from them, they are darkness in action.” He goes on to say, when asked if he knows of Benson, that “Benson is demonic.” He adds: “Edge is a group of people who claim to step in and right injustice, but they use that as a cover for all kinds of malignancy and to enrich themselves. Benson wanted to become part of their crew, but they rejected him. So he vowed to erase them, I’m sure some of them have already met violent ends.” As Jack is about to leave, Ciaran “reached into his jacket, produced a small crucifix, handed it to me.” Jack starts to refuse it, but Ciaran smiles and says to him, “Jack Taylor, you need all the protection you can get, both corporal and metaphysical.”

Indeed.

Numerous subplots also play out as this tale moves forward, including: increasing conflict with Rachel (can she be trusted?), and an incident involving a Guard member whose much-abused wife has asked Jack to intercede with her husband—a man who takes umbrage at Jack even talking to him, and who lands a blow to his face that puts our man in the hospital. These are among many tangential yet relevant aspects of Bruen’s brilliantly woven storyline.

As is the case with all the Jack Taylor novels, Bruen’s dialogue, his often hilarious, biting asides, and his protagonist’s big heart concealed beneath a façade of drinking and drugging (and the not-so-heartful use of his “hurley” to mete out his own unique brand of justice) all combine for a reading experience to relish. (A “hurley,” by the way, is broad-bladed, netless stick used in “an Irish game resembling lacrosse.”)

The back-and-forth banter between the ubiquitous Father Richard and Jack as they sit down to eat in a nice restaurant owned by a woman friend of Jack’s, Ger, is perfectly evocative of Bruen’s approach to dialogue and his wicked, devilish sense of humor. They are meeting to discuss how Jack might proceed in dealing with Edge. After parking, they enter the restaurant. Jack narrates the scene:

“Inside, Ger gave me a warm hug, she looked at Richard who said,

“I can do a hug.”

She did.

She didn’t comment on his girth but did provide us with a family table.

Discretion.

A waitress came, greeted us effusively, and gave us menus. Richard ordered a ton of food and I said,

“Whoa, I’ll never eat all that.”

He snarled.

“That’s for me, you order your own.”

I said to the waitress,

“He’s eating for two; one of them is Orson Welles.”

Richard fumed.

“You have a very nasty side.”

True.

I ordered a steak and a pint.

The jibes continue; it’s as though Jack—already a classic self-sabotager—has to stick the knife in during any conversation, casual or not. Bruen excels at crafting these exchanges. His books are riddled with argumentative, practically theatrical asides no matter who he’s talking to—from the Mother Superior, to the dangerous fat cats who employ sadistic bodyguards, to the abusers of women, be they members of the Guard or simply rank men with bad attitudes.

(Right) Author Ken Bruen.

His conversation with Father Richard turns from wisecracks to matters more serious:

My steak arrived and a fresh pint of Guinness, joy to the world.

I asked,

“So how did you become so big?”

I paused then.

“Sorry about big, I meant major player in such shark-infested water?”

He had finished one of his main courses, and was now on the second, and seemed to relish every bite. He wiped his mouth, said,

“I was a lowly curate in the Italian countryside and a chance encounter with a cardinal led me to being transferred to the Vatican. I learnt fast that doing favours for the elite was the fast track to high office.”

I considered this and he added,

“Primarily, I play dirty.”

My steak was good, and I focused on that as he said,

“I like you, Jack; you amuse me but we both know you’re basically a dipso.”

Who needed this shite, I stood up.

“Something for you to remember, I play dirty my own self.”

He didn’t stop eating, said,

“You’re a small-time private dick with notions way beyond your abilities; now sit down, I have instructions to issue.”

Jack leaves him sitting at that.

Bruen keeps the plot turning. A diamond-encrusted gold crucifix is stolen from the Mother Superior, and she wants Jack to take it back—from Mr. Benson. Even more characters become involved, including a thief acquaintance of Jack’s named Jordan. A young tech whiz, Jessie, is enlisted by Jack to hack (“disable”) bad man Benson’s computers. A hand is severed, child porn is planted, guns are fired, Jack ends up in the hospital with a broken nose. Members of Edge die in a variety of brutal ways. Bruenian violence percolates throughout this story.

In an interview with Bruen that yours truly conducted of behalf of CrimeReads, back when Galway Confidential was first published, the author said that 2024 release was the “penultimate Jack Taylor novel,” and that Jack’s final appearance would be in Galway DNA, which he’d already written. But things change ... Galway DNA became Galway’s Edge, and it doesn’t quite feel like that’s the end of the series. Is it?

Asked in an e-mail message to clarify matters, Bruen says, “Galway DNA became Galway’s Edge as I wrote the book and it mutated its own self. For now, there is no jack taylor on the horizon but I’m open to Jack talking to me.”

Well, at least Jack doesn’t die to conclude this remarkable series! Undoubtedly, Bruen has something further and exciting up his sleeve—which will include Jack Taylor or not.

A Fitting Literary Tribute

Britain’s time-honored crime-fiction convention, CrimeFest, may be ending its run this May, but it isn’t going out quietly. In addition to an expected lineup of prominent guest authors, and the selection of John le Carré as its “Ghost of Honor,” the 2025 event will be followed by the release of a new anthology of stories from authors “who have had a close relationship with CrimeFest over the years.”

According to a press statement, CrimeFest: Leaving the Scene will be widely distributed by No Exit Press beginning in late August, but “an early copy [will be] exclusively gifted to each of the first 450 registered Full Pass Holders at the final CrimeFest.” In addition to a foreword penned by thriller writer Lee Child, the book’s contents will include short yarns by Jeffery Deaver, Lindsey Davis, Martin Edwards, Cathy Ace, Vaseem Khan, Maxim Jakubowski, and CrimeFest co-host Donna Moore. Adrian Muller, this convention’s other co-host, is contributing an Afterword to the book.

Proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go to the Royal National Institute of Blind People’s free library.

Amazon Names New Bond Flick Execs

Following swiftly on news that multinational technology company Amazon has acquired creative control of fictional superspy James Bond comes word that it has selected American Amy Pascal and British filmmaker David Heyman as the producers of any future Bond movies.

Bill Koenig explains in his blog, The Spy Command, that “Pascal has produced recent Spider-Man movies with Tom Holland. … She is also a former chief at Sony Pictures. During her tenure there, Sony distributed four Bond films: Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre. Heyman has produced Harry Potter movies as well as such films as Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”

Koenig wonders, in a separate post, how long this pair might realistically helm the 007 franchise. “Both are busy with many film projects,” he observes. “Pascal is 67. ... Heyman will turn 64 in June. “Now, you can be a movie producer for a long time past normal retirement age. Still, Bond fans are used to continuity. I wouldn’t go banco that the new Bond producer duo has a super-long run. The movie business is a lot different than in 1961 when Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, already in middle age, struck their 007 deal with United Artists. Broccoli would be associated with the series until his death in 1996.” Saltzman passed away two years earlier.

Brighter Days Bring Bounteous Diversions

That woman shown above, reading in a sunny lavender field, looks so relaxed—I wish I felt the same way. But the political horror show unfolding in Washington, D.C., is undermining my faith in the future, and is having a deleterious effect on my concentration. On top of that, I feel quite overwhelmed by books right now, both those I received last year and failed to address in anything approaching a timely fashion, and all of the 2025 releases destined to appear erelong.

Updating and extending the register of coming attractions I posted in January, I came up with more than 380 intriguing-looking crime, mystery, and thriller titles due out—on one side of the Atlantic or the other—between March 1 and May 31. Among the authors of those novels are a wealth of familiar names: Abigail Dean, Gerald Seymour, Lynda La Plante, David Baldacci, Anne Hillerman, Denzil Meyrick, Catherine Ryan Howard, Michael Connelly, Catriona McPherson, John Connolly, Nita Prose, Andrey Kurkov, Christa Faust, Carl Hiaasen, Harlan Coben, Sarah Pinborough, Linwood Barclay, and Stuart MacBride.

Well-timed in the wake of Los Angeles’ devastating fires comes Lee Goldberg’s Hidden in Smoke, which finds his arson investigators, Walter Sharpe and Andrew Walker, on the hunt for a serial torcher of apartment buildings. S.J. Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee are back with The Railway Conspiracy (the first sequel to last year’s The Murder of Mr. Ma), in which Judge Dee Ren Jie—an updated version of the fictional Tang Dynasty Judge Dee—and his Watson-like sidekick, self-effacing academic Lao She, seek to foil a nefarious stratagem connecting Imperial Russia, Japan, and China. And the discovery, in Jo Callaghan’s forthcoming Human Remains, of a headless and handless corpse on a farm in Warwickshire, England, kicks off a yarn that sees Detective Chief Superintendent Kat Frank accused of misidentifying a multiple murderer from years ago, and her partner, AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, having to stretch beyond the limits of his determined logic to make sense of it all.

In Marble Hall Murders, Anthony Horowitz returns to the trouble-fraught world of Susan Ryeland (Magpie Murders, Moonflower Murders), who has ditched her Greek island existence (and her Greek inamorato) in favor of a return to London, and is now editing an Atticus Pünd continuation novel that may hold clues to the alleged poisoning death of a fabled children’s author. Catherine Ryan Howard spins the tale of a ghostwriter, in Burn After Reading, who becomes increasingly doubtful about the innocence of her subject, a world-class cyclist suspected of offing his spouse and setting their house afire in order to cover it up. The funeral of Velda Sterling, Mike Hammer’s secretary turned partner turned wife, leaves the now-aged New York City gumshoe reminiscing about his efforts in the 1970s to save her kid sister from drugs and other bad choices in Baby, It’s Murder, the gritty final collaboration between Max Allan Collins and the late Mickey Spillane. Finally, I must mention Simon Scarrow’s A Death in Berlin, the third outing for his World War II-era cop, Inspector Horst Schenke, who is tasked this time with probing a high-profile underworld slaying that may expose links between Berlin’s criminal class and the upper echelons of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party.

When it comes to classic reprints, watch for works by the likes of Dolores Hitchens, Carter Brown, Christianna Brand, and C. Daly King. Additionally, there’s a trio of standouts this spring in the field of crime non-fiction: Steve Aldous and Gary Gillies’ scrupulous history of David Janssen’s 1970s private series, Harry O; Hallie Rubenhold’s The Story of a Murder, about early 20th-century wife murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen; and the American edition of Kate Summerscale’s grim account of postwar London strangler Reg Christie, who concealed his victims inside the walls of his Notting Hill rowhouse.

The inventory below of new or still-awaited books covers a wide range of stories and storytelling styles available within this genre. As is my custom, I’ve marked non-fiction releases with asterisks (*); the remainder are novels or collections of short fiction.

MARCH (U.S.):
• Accidents Happen, by F.H. Batacan (Soho Crime)
• Allegro, by Ariel Dorfman (Other Press)
• All the Other Mothers Hate Me, by Sarah Harman (Putnam)
• Ambush, by Colleen Coble (Thomas Nelson)
• The Angel Deception, by David Leadbeater (Avon)
• April Fools, by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer)
• Baby, It’s Murder, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Titan)
• Backfire / Never Kill a Cop! & Other True Crime Stories, by Charles L. Burgess
(Stark House Press)
• The Banker, by Peter Colt (Severn House)
• The Beijing Betrayal, by Joel C.
Rosenberg (Tyndale)
• The Big Fix, by Holly James (Kensington)
• Black Tunnel White Magic: A Murder, a Detective’s Obsession, and ’90s Los Angeles at the Brink, by Rick Jackson and Matthew McGough (Mulholland)*
• Blood Moon, by Sandra Brown
(Grand Central)
• The Boxcar Librarian, by Brianna Labuskes (Morrow)
• Broken Fields, by Marcie Rendon (Soho Crime)
• The Butterfly Trap, by Clea Simon (Severn House)
• The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck, by Tarquin Hall (Severn House)
• The Case of the Lonely Accountant, by Simon Mason (Quercus)
• Cat’s Claw, by Dolores Hitchens (Penzler/American Mystery Classics)
• City of Destruction, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Claire, Darling, by Callie Kazumi (Bantam)
• Command Performance, by Jean Echenoz (NYRB Classics)
• Count My Lies, by Sophie Stava (Gallery/Scout Press)
• Dead Man’s List, by Karen Rose (Berkley)
• Death at the Playhouses, by Stuart Douglas (Titan)
• Don’t Tell Me How to Die, by Marshall Karp (Blackstone)
• The Evening Shades, by Lee Martin (Melville House)
• Every Day a Little Death: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Stephen Sondheim, edited by Josh Pachter (Level Short)
• Everyone Is Lying, by D.E. White (Storm)
• Fear Stalks the Village, by Ethel Lina White (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave, by Elle Cosimano (Minotaur)
• The Four Queens of Crime, by Rosanne Limoncelli (Crooked Lane)
• Friends Helping Friends, by Patrick Hoffman (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Galway’s Edge, by Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press)
• The Get-Off, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)
• The Gift, by Sebastian Fitzek (Head of Zeus/Aries)
• Girl Anonymous, by Christina Dodd (Canary Street Press)
• Girl Falling, by Hayley Scrivenor (Flatiron)
• The Girl from Greenwich Street, by Lauren Willig (Morrow)
• Glory Daze, by Danielle Arceneaux (Pegasus Crime)
• The Golden State Killer Case, by William Thorp (Crime Ink)*
• Hang On St. Christopher, by Adrian McKinty (Blackstone)
• The Harry O Viewing Companion: History and Episodes of the Classic Detective Series, by Steve Aldous and Gary Gillies (McFarland)*
• The Hellcat / The Lady is Transparent / The Dumdum Murder, by Carter Brown (Stark House Press)
• Homicide in the Indian Hills, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (Kensington)
• Human Scale, by Lawrence Wright (Knopf)
• If It Isn’t One Thing …, by Steven F. Havill (Severn House)
• I Would Die for You, by Sandie Jones (Minotaur)
• Killer Potential, by Hannah Deitch (Morrow)
• Kills Well With Others, by Deanna Raybourn (Berkley)
• The Last Days of Kira Mullen, by Nicci French (Morrow)
• The Last One to See Him, by Kathryn Croft (Bookouture)
• The Last Visitor, by Martin Griffin (Pegasus Crime)
• Lethal Prey, by John Sandford (Putnam)
• The Library Game, by Gigi Pandian (Minotaur)
• Living Is a Problem, by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
• The Man Who Swore He’d Never Go Home Again, by David Handler (Mysterious Press)
• The Memory Ward, by Jon Bassoff (Blackstone)
• Midnight Streets, by Phil Lecomber (Titan)
• A Mother’s Love, by Sara Blaedel (Dutton)
• Mr. Whisper, by Andrew Mayne (Thomas & Mercer)
• Murder of a Recluse, by Jeanne M. Dams (Severn House)
• A Murder in Zion, by Nicole Maggi (Oceanview)
• My Sister’s Shadow, by January Gilchrist (Crooked Lane)
• No. 10 Doyers Street, by Radha Vatsal (Level Best/Historia)
• Nobody’s Fool, by Harlan Coben (Grand Central)
• Nothing But Murders and Bloodshed and Hanging, by Mary Fortune, edited by Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown (Verse Chorus Press)
• One Bullet Away, by Dale M. Nelson (Severn River)
• One Sharp Stitch, by Allie Pleiter (Kensington Cozies)
• The Other People, by C.B. Everett (Atria)
• Playing Dead: Short Stories by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards (Severn House)
• Play with Fire, by T.M. Payne
(Thomas & Mercer)
• Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder, by Bellamy Rose (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America, by Clay Risen (Scribner)*
• The Reluctant Sheriff, by Chris Offutt (Grove Press)
• Retreat, by Krysten Ritter (Harper)
• Sacramento Noir, edited by John
Freeman (Atria)
• Saltwater, by Katy Hays (Ballantine)
• The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne, by Ron Currie (Putnam)
• A Scandalous Affair, by Leonard Goldberg (Pegasus Crime)
• Serial Killer Support Group, by Saratoga Schaefer (Crooked Lane)
• Silent as the Grave, by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles (Minotaur)
• The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing and Secrets, by S.K. Golden (Crooked Lane)
• The Summer Guests, by Tess Gerritsen (Thomas & Mercer)
• Switcheroo, by Emmett McDowell (Stark House Press/Black Gat)
• The Ten Worst People in New York, by Matt Plass (Crooked Lane)
• This Book Will Bury Me, by Ashley Winstead (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• Trespassers at the Golden Gate: A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco, by Gary Krist (Crown)*
• The Trouble Up North, by Travis Mulhauser (Grand Central)
• Tunnel Vision, by Wendy Church (Severn House)
• Twice as Dead, by Harry Turtledove (CAEZIK SF & Fantasy)
• The Undoing of Violet Claybourne, by Emily Critchley
(Sourcebooks Landmark)
• The Unlucky Ones, by Hannah Morrissey (Minotaur)
• Vanishing Daughters, by Cynthia Pelayo (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Vanishing Kind, by Alice Henderson (Morrow)
• Victim, by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger (Orenda)
• What She’s Hiding, by Art Bell (Ulysses Press)
• Where the Bones Lie, by Nick Kolakowski (Datura)
• White King, by Juan Gómez-Jurado (Minotaur)
• Witness 8, by Steve Cavanagh (Atria)
• The Writer, by James Patterson and J.D. Barker (Little, Brown)
• You Deserve to Know, by Aggie Blum Thompson (Forge)
• You Killed Me First, by John Marrs (Thomas & Mercer)

MARCH (UK):
• Acts of Malice, by Alex Gray (Sphere)
• Bad Blood, by Sarah Hornsley (Hodder & Stoughton)
• A Brush with Death, by J.M. Hall (Avon)
• The Bureau, by Eoin McNamee (Riverrun)
• The Burial Place, by Stig Abell (Hemlock Press)
• The Cambridge Siren, by Jim Kelly (Allison & Busby)
• The Collaborators, by Michael Idov (Simon & Schuster UK)
• A Convenient Traitor, by Adrian Magson (Independently published)
• The Corpse Played Dead, by Georgina Clarke (Verve)
• The Crime Writer, by Diane Jeffrey (HQ Digital)
• Date With Destiny, by Julia Chapman (Pan)
• Death and the Harlot, by Georgina Clarke (Verve)
• Death at the White Hart, by Chris Chibnall (Michael Joseph)
• A Death in Berlin, by Simon Scarrow (Headline)
• Death on the Adriatic, by Georgina Stewart (Constable)
• Everyone in the Group Chat Dies, by L.M. Chilton
(Head of Zeus/Aries)
• A Fortune Most Fatal, by Jessica Bull (Michael Joseph)
• The Friday Girl, by R.D. McLean (Black & White)
• The Grapevine, by Kate Kemp (Phoenix)
• Her Sister’s Killer, by Mari Hannah (Orion)
• His Truth, Her Truth, by Noelle Holten (One More Chapter)
• Hollow Grave, by Kate Webb (Quercus)
• Hunkeler’s Secret, by Hansjoerg Schneider (Bitter Lemon Press)
• Lost Man’s Lane, by Scott Carson (Free Press)
• Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread, by Lynn Knight (Bantam)
• The Mouthless Dead, by Anthony Quinn (Abacus)
• Murder at the Palace, by N.R. Daws (Orion)
• My Husband’s Mistress, by Willow Rose (Bookouture)
• No. 2 Whitehall Court, by Alan Judd (Simon & Schuster UK)
• Not to Be Taken, by Anthony Berkeley (British Library Crime Classics)
• Paperboy, by Callum McSorley (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Rest Is Death, by James Oswald (Wildfire)
• The Secret Detective Agency, by Helena Dixon (Bookouture)
• The Shadow, by Ajay Chowdhury (Harvill Secker)
• Sick to Death, by Chris Bridges (Avon)
• Smoke and Silk, by Fiona Keating (Mountain Leopard Press)
• Someone Is Lying, by Heidi Perks (Penguin)
• Son, by Johana Gustawsson and
Thomas Enger (Orenda)
• A Spy at War, by Charles Beaumont
(Canelo Action)
• Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress, and Doctor Crippen, by Hallie Rubenhold (Doubleday)*
• 10 Marchfield Square, by Nicola
Whyte (Raven)
• There Came A-Tapping, by Andrea
Carter (Constable)
• A Trial in Three Acts, by Guy Morpuss (Viper)
• A Troubled Tide, by Lynne McEwan (Canelo Crime)
• Ward D, by Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Wedding Vow, by Dandy Smith (Embla)
• When Sally Killed Harry, by Lucy Roth (Avon)
• When Shadows Fall, by Neil Lancaster (HQ Digital)
• The Whitechapel Widow, by Emily Organ (Storm)

APRIL (U.S.):
• Bitterfrost, by Bryan Gruley (Severn House)
• Booked for Revenge, by Karen Rose Smith (Kensington Cozies)
• Chow Maniac, by Vivien Chien (Minotaur)
• The Cleveland John Doe Case, by Thibault Raisse (Crime Ink)
• Cold Burn, by A.J. Landau (Minotaur)
• Come Home to Death, by John Creasey (Open Road Media)
• Coram House, by Bailey Seybolt (Atria)
• The Cost, by Morgan Cry (Severn House)
• Dark Rising, by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (Blackstone)
• Death in the Dressing Room, by Simon Brett (Severn House)
• The Death of Us, by Abigail Dean (Viking)
• Desperate Deadly Widows, by Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• The Determined Spy: The Turbulent Life and Times of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner, by Douglas Waller (Dutton)*
• A Drop of Corruption, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey)
• Easeful Death, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (Severn House)
• Fair Play, by Louise Hegarty (Harper)
• Fall to Pieces, by Douglas Corleone (Thomas & Mercer)
• A Fashionably French Murder, by Colleen Cambridge (Kensington)
• Follow Me, by Elizabeth Rose Quinn (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Fourth Girl, by Wendy Corsi Staub (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Gatsby Gambit, by Claire Anderson-Wheeler (Viking)
• Glitter in the Dark, by Olesya Lyuzna (Mysterious Press)
• Hard Town, by Adam Plantinga (Grand Central)
• Heartwood, by Amity Gaige (Simon & Schuster)
• Hello, Juliet, by Samantha M. Bailey (Thomas & Mercer)
• Hidden in Smoke, by Lee Goldberg (Thomas & Mercer)
• Home of the Happy: A Murder on the Cajun Prairie, by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot (Mariner)*
• How to Seal Your Own Fate, by Kristen Perrin (Dutton)
• Hunkeler’s Secret, by Hansjörg Schneider (Bitter Lemon Press)
• If Two Are Dead, by Rick Mofina (Mira)
• Impact of Evidence, by Carol Carnac (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Impossible Thing, by Belinda Bauer (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• The Influencers, by Anna-Marie McLemore (Dial Press)
• Karma Never Sleeps, by R. John Dingle (Tule)
• The Last Session, by Julia Bartz (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• The Lying Man, by Andy Maslen (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Mademoiselle Alliance, by Natasha Lester (Ballantine)
• The Maid’s Secret, by Nita Prose (Ballantine)
• The Matchmaker, by Aisha Saeed (Bantam)
• Murder at Gulls Nest, by Jess Kidd (Atria)
• Murder by Cheesecake, by Rachel Ekstrom Courage (Hyperion Avenue)
• Murder Runs in the Family, by Tamara Berry (Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Murder Show, by Matt
Goldman (Forge)
• The Museum Detective, by Maha
Khan Phillips (Soho Crime)
• No Precious Truth, by Chris Nickson
(Severn House)
• Not Dead Yet, by Jeffrey Siger (Severn House)
• Novel Threat, by Traci Hunter Abramson (Shadow Mountain)
• Obelists en Route, by C. Daly King (Penzler/American
Mystery Classics)
• One Death at a Time, by Abbi Waxman (Berkley)
• OverKill, by J.A. Jance (Gallery)
• The People Next Door, by Kate Braithwaite (Lume)
• The Perfect Divorce, by Jeneva Rose (Blackstone)
• Perspective(s), by Laurent Binet (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Proof of My Innocence, by Jonathan Coe (Europa Editions)
• A Proposal to Die For, by Molly Harper (Berkley)
• The Railway Conspiracy, by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J.
Rozan (Soho Crime)
• Rapino/Amato, by Charlie Stella (Stark House Press)
• Remote: The Six, by Eric Rickstad (Blackstone)
• Ruth Run, by Elizabeth Kaufman (Penguin Press)
• The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys, by Lise Olsen (Random House)*
• Season of Death, by Will Thomas (Minotaur)
• Shadow of the Solstice, by Anne Hillerman (Harper)
• Smoke and Murders, by J.L. Blackhurst (HQ)
• A Song for Katy Shayne, by Jim Fusilli (Level Best)
• Splintered Justice, by Kim Hays (Seventh Street)
• Splintered Reeds, by Jodie Cain Smith (Aethon)
• Strangers in Time, by David Baldacci (Grand Central)
• This Is Not a Game, by Kelly Mullen (Dutton)
• To Catch a Thief, by David Dodge (Poisoned Pen Press)
• To Catch a Spy, by Mark O’Neill (Poisoned Pen Press)
• 2 Sisters Murder Investigations, by James Patterson and Candice
Fox (Little, Brown)
• The Vinyl Detective: Underscore, by Andrew Cartmel (Titan)
• An Unquiet Peace, by Shaina Steinberg (Kensington)
• Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man), by Jesse Q.
Sutanto (Berkley)
• Vice and Virtue, by Libby Klein (Kensington)
• Waters of Destruction, by Leslie Karst (Severn House)
• When She Was Gone, by Sara Foster (Blackstone)
• Who Will Remember, by C.S. Harris (Berkley)
• Written in Stone, by Paige Shelton (Minotaur)
• Your Steps on the Stairs, by Antonio Muñoz Molina (Other Press)

​APRIL (UK):
• All the Other Mothers Hate Me, by Sarah Harman (Fourth Estate)
• Black Water Rising, by Sean Watkin (Canelo Crime)
• Bone of Contention, by Blake Mara (Simon & Schuster UK)
• A Boy Called Saul, by Fiona Cummins (Pan)
• The Boyfriend, by John Nicholl (Boldwood)
• Burn After Reading, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Bantam)
• Burying Jericho, by William Hussey (Zaffre)
• Carved in Blood, by Michael Bennett (Simon & Schuster UK)
• The Castle, by John Sutherland (Orion)
• Crossfire, by Wilbur Smith with David Churchill (Zaffre)
• Crucified, by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre)
• The Dark Edge, by Nick Louth (Canelo Crime)
• The Dead City, by Michael Russell (Constable)
• Death of an Englishman, by Anna
Beer (Book Guild)
• Death on Dartmoor Edge, by Stephanie Austin (Allison & Busby)
• The Devil’s Code, by Michael Wood
(One More Chapter)
• Don’t Believe a Word, by Susan
Lewis (HarperCollins)
• Don’t Trust Him, by Karen
King (Bookouture)
• A Duty of Care, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Earth to Earth: Lives and Violent Deaths of a Devon Farming Family: A True Crime Classic Revisited, by John Cornwell (Riverrun)*
• The Edinburgh Murders, by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Final Wife, by Jenny Blackhurst (Canelo Suspense)
• Fortress of Evil, by Javier Cercas (MacLehose Press)
• How to Read a Killer’s Mind, by Tam Barnett (Boldwood)
• Human Remains, by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster UK)
• I Found a Body, by Becky C. Brynolf (Black & White)
• In Service of Death, by J.D. Kirk (Canelo Crime)
• Isolation Ward, by Martine Bailey (Allison & Busby)
• The Lake House, by Helen Phifer (HQ Digital)
• Landfall, by James Bradley (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Liar, by Louise Jensen (HQ)
• Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse, by Simon Brett (Constable)
• The Margaret Code, by Richard Hooton (Sphere)
• The Midnight King, by Tariq Ashkanani (Viper)
• Mirage, by Camilla Läckberg and Henrik Fexeus (Hemlock Press)
• Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective, by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kaur (HQ)
• The Missing Hour, by Robert Rutherford (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Mistake, by M.J. Arlidge and Lisa Hall (Orion)
• The Moon’s More Feeble Fire, by Allan Gaw (Polygon)
• Murder at St. Paul’s Cathedral, by Jim Eldridge (Allison & Busby)
• Murder on Bluebell Hill, by Jane Bettany (HQ Digital)
• Murder on Line One, by Jeremy Vine (HarperCollins)
• My Loving Husband, by Sheryl Browne (Bookouture)
• Nine Hidden Lives, by Robert Gold (Sphere)
• One Dark Summer, by Saskia Sarginson (Boldwood)
• One Less Snake, by Rhys Dylan (Wyrmwood)
• The Penthouse, by Catherine Cooper (HarperCollins)
• Scandalize My Name, by Fiona Sinclair (British Library Crime Classics)
• The Second Wife, by Alex Kane (Canelo Hera)
• The Secret Room, by Jane Casey (Hemlock Press)
• Sleeper Beach, by Nick Harkaway (Corsair)
• Suspicion, by Seichō Matsumoto (Penguin Classics)
• Sweet Fury, by Sash Bischoff (Bantam)
• There Will Be Bodies, by Lindsey Davis (Hodder & Stoughton)
• This Is Not a Game, by Kelly Mullen (Century)
• To Read a Killer’s Mind, by Tam Barnett (Boldwood)
• The Venetian Heretic, by Christian Cameron (Orion)
• Viper in the Nest, by Georgina
Clarke (Verve)

​MAY (U.S.):
• After Pearl, by Stephen G. Eoannou
(Santa Fe Writer’s Project)
• Big Bad Wool, by Leonie Swann
(Soho Crime)
• The Birthday Party, by Shalini Boland (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Boomerang, by Robert Bailey (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Busybody Book Club, by Freya Sampson (Berkley)
• The Butcher’s Daughter: The Hitherto Untold Story of Mrs. Lovett, by David Demchuk and Corinne Leigh Clark (Hell’s Hundred)
• The Children of Eve, by John Connolly (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• The Dark Maestro, by Brendan Slocumb (Doubleday)
• A Dead Draw, by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)
• Death at a Highland Wedding, by Kelley Armstrong (Minotaur)
• Death on the Caldera, by Emily Paxman (Titan)
• The Doorman, by Chris Pavone (MCD)
• An Ethical Guide to Murder, by Jenny Morris (Mira)
• FDR Drive, by James Comey (Mysterious Press)
• Fever Beach, by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
• Girls with Long Shadows, by Tennessee Hill (Harper)
• Going Home in the Dark, by Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Gravedigger’s Almanac, by Oliver Pötzsch (HarperVia)
• Her Final Battle, by Mary Slinkard (Keylight)
• Julia Chan Is Dead, by Liann Zhang (Raven)
• Kaua‘i Storm, by Tori Eldridge (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Labyrinth House Murders, by Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, by Alison Goodman (Berkley)
• The Language of the Birds, by K.A. Merson (Ballantine)
• The Lizard, by Domenic Stansberry (Molotov Editions)
• Making a Killing, by Cara Hunter (Morrow Paperbacks)
• The Man Made of Smoke, by Alex North (Celadon)
• Marble Hall Murders, by Anthony Horowitz (Harper)
• Marguerite by the Lake, by Mary Dixie Carter (Minotaur)
• Midnight in Soap Lake, by Matthew Sullivan (Hanover Square Press)
• The Missing Half, by Ashley Flowers with Alex Kiester (Bantam)
• The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (Penzler/American Mystery Classics)
• Never Flinch, by Stephen King (Scribner)
• Nightshade, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
• No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding, by Catherine
Mack (Minotaur)
• One in Four, by Lucinda Berry (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Ones We Love, by Anna Snoekstra (Dutton)
• Our Last Wild Days, by Anna Bailey (Atria)
• Parents Weekend, by Alex Finlay (Minotaur)
• The Peepshow: The Murders at Rillington Place, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin Press)*
• The Poet’s Game, by Paul Vidich (Pegasus Crime)
• Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business, by Arvind Ethan David, Ilias Kyriazis, and Cris Peter (Pantheon)
• The Retirement Plan, by Sue
Hincenbergs (Morrow)
• Return to Sender, by Craig Johnson (Viking)
• Rockets’ Red Glare, by William Webster and Dick Lochte (Blackstone)
• The Safari, by Jaclyn Goldis (Atria/
Emily Bestler)
• The Silversmith’s Puzzle, by Nev
March (Minotaur)
• Skin and Bones, by Paul Doiron (Minotaur)
• Slaying You, by Michelle Gagnon (Putnam)
• Smoke and Embers, by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Smokebirds, by Daniel Breyer (Rare Bird)
• The Soho Murder, by Mike Hollow (Allison & Busby)
• Something I Keep Upstairs, by J.D. Barker (Hampton Creek Press)
• South of Nowhere, by Jeffery Deaver (Putnam)
• The Stalker, by Paula Bomer (Soho Press)
• The Stolen Heart, by Andrey Kurkov (HarperVia)
• Talk of the Devil: The Collected Writings of Ian Fleming, by Ian Fleming (Morrow)*
• The Tenant, by Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen Press)
• A Thousand Natural Shocks, by Omar Hussain (Blackstone)
• We Live Here Now, by Sarah Pinborough (Flatiron)
• Whistle, by Linwood Barclay (Morrow)

​MAY (UK):
• Bad Influence, by C.J. Wrap (Orion)
• Capital Christie, by Agatha Christie (HarperCollins)
• Cat and Mouse, by Christianna Brand (British Library Crime Classics)
• The Chemist, by A.A. Dhand (HQ)
• The Cliffhanger, by Emily Freud (Quercus)
• Cold Justice, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)
• Count My Lies, by Sophie Stava (Century)
• Dead Water, by Simon Toyne (Hemlock Press)
• The Devil’s Playbook, by Markus Heitz (Arcadia)
• Exit Wounds, by Neil Broadfoot (Constable)
• The Girl in Cell A, by Vaseem Khan (‎Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Golden Age of Murder, by Martin Edwards (Collins Crime Club)
• Innocent Guilt, by Remi Kone (Quercus)
• It Should Have Been You, by Andrea Mara (Bantam)
• Last Orders, by Denzil Meyrick (Bantam)
• A Lethal Cocktail, by Ciar Byrne (Headline Accent)
• The Marriage Rule, by Helen Monks Takhar (Random House)
• Murder at the Ponte Vecchio, by T.A. Williams (Boldwood)
• Murder in the House of Omari, by Taku Ashibe (Pushkin Vertigo)
• The One You Least Suspect, by Brian McGilloway (Constable)
• Private Dublin, by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy (Century)
• Red Water, by Jurica Pavičić (Bitter Lemon Press)
• Secrets in St. Ives, by Deborah Fowler (Allison & Busby)
• A Sharp Scratch, by Heather Darwent (Viking)
• The Spy and the Devil: The Untold Story of the MI6 Agent Who Penetrated Hitler’s Inner Circle, by Tim Willasey-Wilsey (Blink)*
• Such Quiet Girls, by Noelle Ihli (Pan)
• The Sunshine Man, by Emma Stonex (Picador)
• This House of Burning Bones, by Stuart MacBride (Macmillan)
• The Tradwife’s Secret, by Liane Child (HQ Digital)
• Traitor’s Legacy, by S.J. Parris (Hemlock Press)
• The Wood, by Rachel McLean and John Hames (Ackroyd)

While those are certainly not all of the crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense books slated for publication this spring, they’re all I have for the time being. I’ll continue adding to these selections as time goes on and I learn more. If you already believe I have missed something, please let me know in the Comments section below.