Books Monthly April 2024
New fiction for 2024
Guy Hale: The Croaking Raven
Published 7th March 2024
DC Toby Marlowe has just landed his dream posting but the quiet streets of Shakespeare’s Stratford are about to suffer a reign of terror. A name from the past. has returned, intent on revenge. A series of murders go unsolved but Toby realises that the killer seems to be following the plot of Hamlet. Can Toby and his boss, DS Fred Williams, find the killer before all the actors at the RSC are dead? The Croaking Raven doth bellow for revenge.
Absolutely hilarious! Thank goodness this is the first in a series...
Stephen King: You Like It DarkerPublished 21st May 2024
'You like it darker? Fine, so do I', writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life - both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel 'the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind', and in You Like it Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again. 'Two Talented Bastids' explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In 'Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream', a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny's most catastrophically. In 'Rattlesnakes', a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance - with major strings attached. In 'The Dreamers', a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. 'The Answer Man' asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful. King's ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.
Abigail Dean: Day OnePublished 28th March 2024
Marty told the reporters that she saw it happen. She saw the gunman enter the hall. She saw her mother die trying to protect them all. That’s the version of Day One Marty wishes was true. But strange inconsistencies in her story begin to surface. Details that don’t add up. Questions she can’t answer.
The story ignites. Amidst the media frenzy, conspiracy theorists become obsessed with exposing what really happened. And at the epicentre of it all is a small community changed forever. Survivors crushed by guilt. Families torn in half. Outsiders consumed by the hunt for truth. Each has their own version of Day One. Each must grapple with this tragedy, even as fanatics question whether it ever really happened at all. But what did Marty really see? And why would she lie? As events spiral out of control, the true story is revealed, piece by shocking piece. Day One is an unflinching and heart-breaking exploration of our obsession with tragedy – and what it really means to live it.
Original, compulsive, mind-stretching. Most excellent.
Peter James: Stop Them DeadPublished 25th April 2024
Discover the darkness that lurks around every corner in the latest instalment of the award-winning Grace series, now a major ITV series. A ruthless crime. A race against time. In the dead of night, a farmer confronts the intruders of a break in, having no idea that the encounter will leave him dead. What’s more chilling is the truth of what the perpetrators were willing to kill for. At the scene, DS Roy Grace senses that this is no mere botched robbery; it’s the tip of the iceberg of a nationwide crime epidemic. Ruthless gangs, operating with military precision, have discovered a new black market flourishing in the shadows – an unthinkable source of wealth even more profitable than drugs. Grace’s investigation into this deadly trade pits him against people who will kill anyone who gets in their way, because where there is greed, there is murder.
Cynthia Ellingsen: The Lost Letters of AislingPublished 1st April 2024
A woman faces the past she fled in a heart-stirring novel about unforgettable love and indomitable courage by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Lighthouse Keeper. Rainey’s grandmother makes a startling request: Take me home. To Ireland, the country she fled post–World War II. Though they’re inseparably close, Rainey knows few of her grandmother’s secrets. Until they arrive at Aisling―the majestic estate on the southern coast of Ireland where her grandmother was raised―and Rainey discovers a collection of seventy-year-old letters in a trunk. Dublin, 1945. The Germans surrender, celebrants crowd the streets, and fourteen-year-old Evie meets her best friend, the spirited Harding McGovern. Years on, they are more like sisters when rumors begin that Harding works in the black market trade―a source of wealth that could give her a dream life in America but could also cause great danger. Evie is uncertain of the truth but will stand by Harding, whatever the cost. As Rainey uses the letters to reunite her grandmother with the past, what unfolds is a never-forgotten story of family, friendship, and love, and the healing that comes from letting go of secrets.
Julia Chapman: Date With JusticePublished 4th April 2024
Date with Justice, the ninth novel in Julia's Chapman's witty and engaging Dales Detective series, sees Delilah's brother under suspicion of murder. Can Delilah and Samson prove he's innocent? The Dales Detective Agency is on the brink of closure.
Samson O’Brien has returned to his position as an undercover operative for the Met in London, and his relationship with Delilah is under pressure. Their troubles are only multiplied when an ecologist is found dead and the finger of blame is pointed firmly at Delilah’s older brother, Will Metcalfe. It seems an open and shut case. An argument over an ecology report for planning permission which got out of hand, with Will known to have a hot temper. But Delilah won’t accept he’s guilty and neither will Samson. Dropping everything, he returns to Bruncliffe to help prove Will’s innocence. But as the two detectives start digging, they unearth more than they bargained for and soon realise that the price of justice can be very costly indeed. Following on from Date With Evil, this heart-warming and wittily charming novel is perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Robert Thorogood and cosy crime at its very best.
Karen Rose: CheaterPublished 28th March 2024
Homicide Detective Kit McKittrick finds herself standing over a dead body in the Shady Oaks retirement centre. Frank Flynn has been stabbed and his room ransacked. Though he kept his background quiet at the centre, Kit recognises Frank from the San Diego Police Department. Had the former detective been following a trail that led to his murder? When the head of security is also found dead, it points to a conspiracy right at the heart of Shady Oaks. The one person who might be able to help uncover the truth is just who Kit has been avoiding: Dr Sam Reeves. As a volunteer at the centre and a friend of the victim, the forensic psychologist could be just what her case needs. But without access to CCTV of the day of the murder, how will Kit catch her killer? And can she do so before anyone else is put in danger?
Chris Carter: The Death WatcherPublished 6th June 2024
When a routine autopsy on what looked like a straightforward hit-and-run leads the LA Chief Medical Examiner, Dr Carolyn Hove, to discover some puzzling inconsistencies, she calls in Detective Robert Hunter of the LAPD Ultra Violent Crimes Unit. Not only did Dr Hove discover that the death wasn’t caused by a hit-and-run, but she also found indications that the victim had been severely tortured prior to death. What no one realises is that what Dr Hove has stumbled upon is just the tip of the iceberg and it will lead Hunter and his partner, Carlos Garcia, on the trail of a twisted and clever killer who hides in plain sight. A serial killer no one even knew existed – a killer who has always operated under the radar, expertly disguising every gruesome murder as an accidental death. But with no leads as to why the victim was targeted, the investigation comes to a standstill, until another body is discovered with an alternative cause of death. What becomes clear is that this serial killer isn’t going to stop – unless Hunter and Garcia can get to him. But how do you investigate a murder when you have no victims? How do you catch a killer who leaves behind no crime scene? How do you stop a ghost who no one can prove even exists?
Books Monthly is published on the first of every month and has been on the web since 1998. You can contact me at paulenorman1@gmail.com