Whenever the theme of love intersects with crime fiction, not only will hearts be broken but blood will be spilled. And so it is this week in our news column as we bring you a fairytale wedding gone wrong with Alex Pine, a kidnapped wife in Lilja Sigurdardóttir’s latest, an angry jilted wife with a .45 care of Leo W Banks, a wife-killer case by indie author William Foster and a murdered fiancée in WC Ryan’s new historical crime novel.
It’s not St Valentine’s Day by any stretch, but maybe you’ll love one of these nonetheless…
The Winter Killer by Alex Pine
There’s romance in store in The Winter Killer, book three in Alex Pines’ series featuring DI James Walker, out on 13 October, which features a fairytale wedding. As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, Walker receives a phone call that puts paid to his Christmas break. Following a lavish ceremony at fancy hotel in the Lake District, the bride’s sister has disappeared. Cold feet about giving a speech at the wedding breakfast? Unlikely. And before the night is out, the lake is being searched for Rachel’s body. Not the start to the New Year that Walker had planned.
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Red as Blood by Lilja Sigurdardóttir
Icelandic investigator Áróra specialises in finding hidden assets and she will need all her skills for her latest case, which follows on from Cold as Hell. Entrepreneur Flosi has arrived home for dinner to find his house has been ransacked, and his wife Gudrun kidnapped. Can Áróra and her detective friend Daniel get to the bottom of the case without the police catching on? Meanwhile, the pair continue their search for Áróra’s sister Ísafold, who has disappeared without trace. Working at full stretch, can either case have a satisfactory conclusion? Red as Blood by Lilja Sigurdardóttir is out on 13 October.
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.45-Caliber Perfume by Leo W Banks
Arizona businessman Henry Belmont has a senate seat in his sights and things are looking good. Campaign contributions are rolling in and Mary Rose Cleary, his sexy, young campaign manager and mistress, is happy to handle the flow, as long as she can secretly pocket her cut. Complicating the picture is Henry’s conniving wife Barbara, a fading beauty with a secret criminal past and a deadly agenda. Buckle up folks, because the lives of this scheming trio are about to collide in a violent explosion of betrayal, greed and murder. .45-Caliber Perfume by Leo W Banks is out on 3 October.
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A Very Polite Murder by William Foster
If you’re looking for a new series to get stuck into, try A Very Polite Murder, which is the first of William Foster’s DI Keen books, set in Wales and out now. Eight years after Simon Browning is convicted of murdering his wife, the real killer shows himself. Can Browning’s best mate convince Keen to take a fresh look at a case he had originally written off as a straightforward domestic murder? It’s a challenge, because the wily killer always seems to be a step ahead of the police – and with the deaths becoming ever more gory, Keen does not have time on his side…
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The Winter Guest by WC Ryan
William Ryan, writing here as WC, is an award-winning Irish author known for his historical crime fiction. In The Winter Guest, he takes on the tricky era of the Irish War of Independence and right off the bat the IRA is being accused of murdering young aristocrat Maude Prendeville. But the unit denies this, and IRA intelligence officer Captain Tom Harkin – who also happens to be Maud’s fiancé – is sent to investigate. He arrives at Kilcolgan House, steeped in shadow and followed by his own ghosts – the dead of the Great War. Out in the UK, released 4 October in the US.
Order now on Amazon or Bookshop.org
