What better way to kick off October than to slip on a sweater, grab a steaming mug and settle in on the edge of your seat with a sensational and exhilarating crime thriller! This is the perfect place to find some of the best and most gripping titles coming this month. If you’re a thrill seeker or mystery lover, look no further than below to find your next favourite crime fiction…
Esc&Ctrl by Steve Hollyman
Influx Press, 9781910312698, p/b, £9.99, 06/10/2022
When you feel you can trust someone you’ve only known through a private online forum, can you really be sure they are who they say they are? A personal video of Emily uploaded by someone who calls himself Davison has gone viral whilst she lies murdered. Her boyfriend Vincent is in New York, with no memory of how he got there, yet he soon receives mysterious phone calls that reveal a series of clues. This is an electrifying metafictional thriller for the 21st Century, exploring the disenfranchisement of identity from living online in a virtual world.
Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt
No Exit Press, 9780857305282, p/b, £9.99, 13/10/2022
In this tense, fast-paced thriller, Offutt masterfully reveals a darker side of grief and the strong drive for revenge. When Shifty believes her son’s death is more than a drug-induced accident, she calls on Mick Hardin, a CID officer on leave, to investigate. But Mick finds himself drawn more deeply into the case that borders on life-threatening as he gets closer to the truth.
Where God Does Not Walk by Luke McCallin
No Exit Press, 9781843447177, p/b, £9.99, 27/10/2022
Set in July 1918, Gregor Reinhardt, a young soldier fighting amid the bloody warfare of the Battle of Amiens, finds himself on the brink of uncovering a deadly conspiracy within the German army. When his friend is blamed for killing a group of officers and then attempting suicide, Reinhardt suspects foul play. From the front lines to the war hospitals to the top of high-class society in Berlin, Reinhardt’s investigation opens his eyes to the horrors occurring beneath the false surface of the ‘glory’ of war.
South Central Noir, edited by Gary Phillips
Akashic Books, 9781636140544, p/b, £13.99, 13/10/2022
A collection of brand-new short stories from dozens of expert crime writers, such as Steph Cha, Jervey Tervalon and from editor Gary Phillips himself. Each story set in a distinct neighbourhood or location in South Central Los Angeles, where they weave revenge, hope, grief and survival in their narratives, from a rich myriad of writers.
Funeral Train by Laurie Loewenstein
Akashic Books, 9781636140520, p/b, £14.99, 06/10/2022
Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, Sheriff Temple investigates the strangulation of a recluse, suspecting her death is connected to the tragic accident of a train derailing only the night before, with most of the dead victims being Black. With his young deputy, they uncover clandestine records that give a motif for murder to a number of citizens from the Oklahoma town. The unmissable follow-up to the critically acclaimed Dust Bowl mystery Death of a Rainmaker, Laurie Loewenstein’s FUNERAL TRAIN is a vivid and compelling second instalment.
Black Light by Michael O’Toole
Maverick House, 9781908518712, p/b, £15.99, 13/10/2022
Inspired by the true story of Detective Sergeant Michael Moran, this intense and twisting crime novel runs along the thin line of life and death, constantly on the edge of destruction. Detective Sergeant John Lazarus hunts down the darkest criminals alive who prey on the defenceless. Investigating a murder with hardly any leads, Lazarus races against time before the killer attacks again. With his professional and personal life hanging by a thread, Lazarus must overcomes his dark past before he obliterates everything he cares about.
Blind Faith by Alicia Beckman
Crooked Lane Books, 9781639101788, p/b, £25.99, 13/10/2022
Award-winning author Alicia Beckman releases her second dazzling novel, full of white-knuckle suspense and secrets returning from the grave. When prosecutor Lindsay Keller finds herself in the possession of a priest’s wallet—a priest whose murder has remained unsolved for decades — she finds herself wrapped in a cold case that’s suddenly heating up fast. Filled with shocking twists and dark truths, Lindsay and Detective Brian Donovan are plunged into dangerous pursuits from a murderous past that is rapidly and inexorably catching up to the present.
Under A Veiled Moon by Karen Odden
Crooked Lane Books, 9781639101191, h/b, £26.99, 13/10/2022
Violent tensions rise quickly between the Irish and the English in this historical crime fiction set in 1878, when a fatal maritime disaster on the Thames points at evidence that accuses the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Adopted by the Irish Doyle family when he was young, Inspector Michael Corravan is torn between his duty to London and his familial connection to Ireland, the outcome of his investigation hanging on threat of national conflict. Unaware that there may be a traitor within his own adopted family, UNDER A VEILED MOON is steeped with sabotage, betrayals and blood in Odden’s second instalment in the Inspector Corravan mystery series.
Sinister Graves by Marcie R. Rendon
Soho Press, 9781641293839, h/b, £23.99, 13/10/2022
In this supernatural-tinged mystery from award-winning writer Marcie Rendon, floodwaters bring the corpse of an unknown Native American woman to Cash Blackbear’s town of Ada. She and her guardian, Sheriff Wheaton can only find one trace of her past: a piece of paper written in English and Ojibwe. The case takes Cash to her old home, the White Earth Reservation, where she becomes entangled in a strange death of another Native woman. The third in the Cash Blackbear Mystery series, this crime thriller can also be read as a standalone novel, as Rendon encompasses Native American culture and issues in this phenomenal mystery.
Postmark Berlin by Anne Emery
ECW Press, 9781770417021, p/b, £17.99, 06/10/2022
When a body of one of Father Brennan Burke’s parishioners is dragged by the sea onto a beach in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he feels shame for disregarding her when she needed him. When defence lawyer Monty declares it to be suicide, Brennan feels bound by his guilt to solve what caused her death. His search for the answer takes him to Germany, where the wildly unforeseen events that follow are exasperated by his conflict between him and Monty, as their shared troubled past catches up with them. The latest gripping novel in Emery’s Collins-Burke mystery series, this unpredictable and stirring title will keep you on tenterhooks until the very end.
