Hot Crime Novels

Five hot new crime novels.

Old Turk's Load (M)
by Gregory Gibson

"A tight, fast, and funny crime novel set amid the Newark riots of 1967. When a load of high octane heroin goes missing in the melee, criminals, cops, do-gooders, and lowlifes scramble to possess it. But the heroin has ideas of its own, leading its pursuers on a very un-merry, increasingly deadly chase." -Publisher

"Gibson’s elliptical, ever-evolving plot seems a marriage of Raymond Chandler complexity and Donald E. Westlake comic haplessness, but he imbues his characters with a kind of desperate humanity that is brilliantly played out when Manhattan goes dark in the famous 1967 blackout. The sense of time and place is wonderfully evocative, and The Old Turk’s Load will be a signal pleasure for crime-fiction aficionados" -Booklist

Angel Baby (M)
by Richard Lange

"When you find yourself rooting for the killer in a grisly crime novel, you know you’re in the hands of a real writer. Every character in Richard Lange’s ANGEL BABY feels like flesh and bone, even the ones who show up just to be killed. The story hangs on the entwined fortunes of Rolando, a Tijuana crime boss respectfully known as el Príncipe; his drug-addled wife, Luz; and Kevin Malone, an American drifter who drives illegals across the Mexican border." The New York Times

"A rising star.... Lange embraces classic noir in all its violence, bleakness, and dark humor. He makes readers care about his flawed characters and appreciate the odds that were stacked against them by the circumstances of their upbringing. A film waiting to happen, this book boasts memorable characters, evocative settings, and a suspenseful plot." Kirkus Reviews

The Andalucian Friend : a novel (M)
by Alexander Soderberg

"Sophie Brinkmann had no idea her former patient was an international crime lord. Hector Guzman had a Latin charm and easy smile she couldn't deny, so she agreed to a date...
Jens Vall is in Paraguay facilitating a delivery of very dangerous weapons when he's attacked by angry Russians. They think he stole their drugs...
Lars Vinge is a beat cop with a nasty drug habit he thought he kicked. He's given an important assignment that soon turns into deadly obsession...

All of their paths will collide in this turbo-charged, action-packed, highly sophisticated debut thriller that will set the world on fire." -Publisher

Three Graves Full (M)
by Jamie Mason

There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard. But it could always be worse. . . .

"More than a year ago, mild-mannered Jason Getty killed a man he wished he’d never met. Then he planted the problem a little too close to home. But just as he’s learning to live with the undeniable reality of what he’s done, police unearth two bodies on his property—neither of which is the one Jason buried." -Publisher

“Three Graves Full is something special - an offbeat, high-class, pacey mystery that blends black humor with dark lyricism, and deft, intricate plotting with dead-on psychological insight. This is a gem of a debut.” —Tana French, author of In the Woods

The Accidental Pallbearer (M)
by Frank Lentricchia

"This series debut by the author of The Book of Ruth and The Italian Actress is a high-art frenetic novel laced with black humor, one-liners, puns, guns, Mafia assassinations, crooked police, and the closely linked issues of loyalty and betrayal. The dissolute antihero Eliot Conte was once an academic until he dangled UCLA's provost out a window. Most professors are similarly inclined but show self-control. Returning home to bleak Utica, NY, he has become an equally unorthodox PI.

When Eliot's highly unlikely blood brother, Antonio Robinson, Utica's corrupt black chief of police, enlists him to neutralize his deputy chief, Eliot's investigation uncovers links to the 15-year-old case of a mob assassination carried out by a last-minute replacement pallbearer (anything but accidental!). Eliot is already running a personal probe of a train passenger he witnessed assaulting the passenger's own child. The two cases are linked, of course, in true noir fashion. Conte is a cad, but his actions are guided by a moral compass, no matter how skewed.

Verdict The terrific writing, clever plots, bleak humor, and colorful characters recommend this to fans of gritty noir crime fiction" - Library Journal