Archives de catégorie : Crime & Thrillers

THE UNPAID DEBT de Thomas Dann

In this southern noir, two detectives forge an unlikely alliance as they strive to bridge the racial divide and catch a killer hell bent on revenge. Set against a historical backdrop of racial inequality and political turmoil, this thriller is perfect for fans of William Kent Kruger and Greg Iles.

THE UNPAID DEBT
by Thomas Dann
Crooked Lane, November 2025

1955, Memphis. Homicide detective Burdett Vance is trying to outrun his past, but working in the homicide division always ends up bringing in new waves of horror. The time, a killer is reaping retribution for decades of lynching by targeting the daughters of rich white families in Memphis. When Vance is assigned to the case, he’s also put in charge of a new trainee, Officer Eustace Johnson.

In the latest publicity stunt of the police department, Eustace Johnson has been recently hired as the only Black man on the force. Forced to work together, Vance and Johnson must catch the rampaging killer in a city that is already roiling with racial injustice and a fight to control the crumbling local politics.

Then Emmeline Bryce, Vance’s old flame, becomes the killer’s next target. With Emmeline’s life on the line, Vance and Johnson must confront their deepest fears and darkest desires before the city ignites into chaos and the blissful vision of a better future disappears forever.

Readers of James Lee Burke will delight in this bitingly smart thriller full of intrigue and age-old animosities

Thomas Dann was born and bred in Memphis, Tennessee, five generations deep in a family fighting the entrenched political machine there. He has spent time variously on the East and Left Coasts, studying creative writing at Stanford, working for years as a felony defense investigator for the Washington, DC Public Defender, then lawyer, company builder, and writer, all the while wondering what he wants to do when he grows up. He now lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife Melissa and their goofy golden retriever Benji. And he loves the Blues.

A GIFT BEFORE DYING de Malcolm Kempt

In the remote, unforgiving expanse of Nunavut, Corporal Eldrick Cole finds himself exiled and isolated after a disastrous high-profile murder investigation.

A GIFT BEFORE DYING
by Malcolm Kempt
Crown, January 2026

After a botched high-profile murder investigation as a cop in Alberta, Corporal Eldrick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape of Nunavut, Canada, a vast territory in the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty, frigid temperatures, and perpetual darkness. Amid these harsh elements, the indomitable spirit of the Inuit people prevails.

Cole’s bleak existence takes a darker turn when he discovers the hanging body of Pitseolala, a wry, troubled sixteen-year-old Inuit girl who had spent countless nights passed out in the detachment cells under his watch. Her battle with addiction dredges up demons he thought he’d buried—along with the scars of a fractured marriage and the aching divide between him and his estranged daughter, whom he abandoned long before he was ousted from Northern Alberta.

As Cole’s life unravels, so does the fragile thread of his lone, faltering inquiry—until he turns to Pitseolala’s younger brother, Maliktu, a fellow outsider, shunned by his community for his burn-scarred face and schizophrenia. It’s then that Cole uncovers what else binds them: the eerie, relentless visitation of Pitseolala’s ghost, haunting them both with a singular mission—to lead them to her killer and, therefore, expose the looming threat to other young women in their sacred hamlet.

Driven by an obsessive need to redeem at least one fragment of his shattered life, Cole defies every rule in his unyielding pursuit of justice for Pitseolala.

Malcolm Kempt worked as a criminal lawyer in the remote Arctic for seventeen years before leaving to write full-time. He won the Percy Janes Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript. He lives on the island of Newfoundland. A GIFT BEFORE DYING is his debut novel.

THIS SIDE OF GONE de Saundra Mitchell

Celebrated children’s novelist Saundra Mitchell makes her adult debut with the thriller THIS SIDE OF GONE—a police procedural for people who don’t trust the police.

THIS SIDE OF GONE
by Saundra Mitchell
Morrow, January 2026
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

Vanetta (Vinnie) Taylor isn’t a cop anymore. After 25 years in service, she retired from her job in spectacular fashion—working undercover for Internal Affairs to bust a sex trafficking ring in her own Homicide Unit. Nearly beaten to death by her former colleagues to prevent her testimony from crossing the thin blue line, Vinnie is now living a small-town life, far from the police who tried to kill her. Vinnie is determined to put her past behind her, but the story of a teenager missing in her new hometown catches her attention.

Avery Adair’s family is notorious in Wills Harbor, Maryland. If there’s a burglary, a scam, or a drug deal in this town, it’s safe to assume an Adair was involved. Which is why no one was particularly concerned when Avery went missing. But Vinnie feels a kinship to this teen she’s never met. Vinnie also grew up poor, surrounded by hard circumstances and harder people.

Celebrated children’s novelist Saundra Mitchell makes her adult debut with the thriller THIS SIDE OF GONE—a police procedural for people who don’t trust the police, it follows Vinnie as she becomes increasingly involved in a case that she has no right to be investigating while fearing for her own safety and attempting to stay as far away from any police officer as humanly possible. This terrific novel is perfect for fans of Tana French and Rachel Howzell Hall.

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She now lives in Maryland with her wife, daughter and two terrible, perfect cats. THIS SIDE OF GONE is her first novel for adults.

LUCKY THING de Tom Baragwanath

In this follow-up to his award-winning debut novel Paper Cage, Tom Baragwanath delivers another bone-deep exploration of life in the margins of small-town New Zealand. LUCKY THING is a thrilling new instalment in the Lorraine Henry series.

LUCKY THING
by Tom Baragwanath
Text Publishing, September 2025

When brilliant young student Jessica Mowbrie is found beaten nearly to death in a remote patch of New Zealand bush, nobody has a clue what happened— or how to begin piecing it together. Except long-serving police records clerk Lorraine Henry.

Lorraine knows the Mowbries, like she knows everyone in her part of Masterton, and soon she’ll know a lot more. Because as something of an institution at Masterton police station, Lorraine is a woman people don’t expect much from. But sometimes, that’s an advantage. When her colleagues are busy stomping around making threats and accusations, Lorraine is listening and observing, quietly piecing together a different understanding of what happened to Jessica—an understanding that threatens everything she thought she knew about her community, her friends, and even her own family.

To get to the bottom of things, Lorraine must navigate fractured neighbourhood allegiances, and unearth all kinds of long-buried secrets—secrets that could provoke a danger hiding in plain sight and threaten those she loves the most.

In this follow-up to his award-winning debut novel Paper Cage, Tom Baragwanath delivers another bone-deep exploration of life in the margins of small-town New Zealand. Lucky Thing is a thrilling new instalment in the Lorraine Henry series.

Praise for Tom Baragwanath and Paper Cage:

‘Just the kind of dark, disturbing, gritty, and unusual treat thriller lovers are looking for.’ ―Kirkus [starred review]

‘Magnetic…This beautifully constructed plot has already won awards, and it is easy to see why with a protagonist who is impossible not to root for…Breathtakingly compelling.’ ―Daily Mail

Tom Baragwanath is originally from Masterton, New Zealand, and now lives in Paris. His debut novel, Paper Cage, published in 2022, introduced the world to records clerk Lorraine Henry. It was the winner of the 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize, shortlisted for Best International Crime Fiction in the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards and shortlisted for Best First Novel in the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards.

THE NIGHTLESS CITY de Callum McSorley

The first in a new series of historical thrillers set in nineteenth-century Japan, from the prizewinning author of Squeaky Clean.

THE NIGHTLESS CITY
by Callum McSorley
Pushkin Press, September 2026

Tokyo, 1886.

Chino Kunio, a male courtesan in Tokyo’s infamous Yoshiwara neighbourhood, the Nightless City, discovers his one and only client, a British diplomat, dead and himself in the frame for the man’s grisly murder.

Trying to save Chino from the judicial blade are his friend, samurai rebel turned reckless drunk Shimura Shingo, police inspector Tokuda Reiji, and the victim’s wife, Fiona Gordon, a Scottish teacher living a stifled life in the foreign concession, who is seeking her own answers.

But as more foreigners are slain, dredging up the shadow of shipwreck that led to a diplomatic scandal, Chino’s only hope may be to escape the Nightless City for good, before it explodes into violence between belligerent westerners and nationalist bully boys.

Callum McSorley is a writer based in Glasgow, where he grew up. His debut thriller, Squeaky Clean, the first book in the Alison McCoist thriller series, was published to great acclaim and went on to win the prestigious McIlvanney Prize for best Scottish Crime Book of the Year. THE NIGHTLESS CITY is the first in a new series of historical thrillers set in nineteenth-century Japan.