The best Crime novels to carry you into March: Making a Killing by Cara Hunter, Murder
Making a Killing by Cara Hunter (Hemlock £16.99, 359pp)
Eight-year-old Daisy Mason first made her appearance in Hunter’s Close To Home in 2016, and here she makes a sensational return as a teenager in the latest episode of the DCI Adam Fawley series.
Back then, she disappeared from her parents’ home in Oxford, which Fawley investigated, and her mother, Sharon, was eventually convicted of her killing – even though the girl’s corpse was never found.
Now, a body is discovered in a shallow grave – a woman killed only weeks ago – but Daisy’s DNA is on the corpse.
Daisy is clearly still very much alive, and Fawley must unravel his mistakes to discover what happened and whether she is a murderess. This riveting story reveals Daisy as far more sinister than anyone expects.
Murder below Deck by Orlando Murrin (Bantam £16.99, 400pp)
This second cosy mystery from former MasterChef contestant and chef-hotelier Murrin is even more delightful than his debut, Knife Skills For Beginners, last year.
Gay chef Paul Delamare is invited to join an old friend, Xera (now Lady Hardcastle due to her recent marriage), on a super-yacht cruising from the Port of London to the Caribbean. But things turn nasty mid-Atlantic when Xera’s priceless necklace disappears, and then a passenger is found dead with cake stuffed in their mouth.
The captain wants to call it an accident, but budding detective Delamare is convinced it is murder and proceeds to investigate, only to find himself thrown overboard then rescued just as the yacht hits a ferocious storm. Enormous fun, it is a mystery written with great elan.
A Trial in Three Acts by Guy Morpuss (Viper £16.99, 416pp)
Here, former criminal barrister Morpuss introduces a legal eagle who might just come to rival Rumpole – though perhaps without Horace’s dark wit.
Charles Konig KC is brought in to defend ageing Hollywood legend Leo Lusk, who is charged with killing his ex-wife, actress Alexandra Dyce, by arranging to have her beheaded by a guillotine in the final act of the play they were appearing in.
The couple famously loathed each other, and were performing together only because their daughter Francesca, who is also in the drama, asked them to.
So begins an intriguing plot that asks the reader and the Old Bailey jury to decide whether Lusk is actually guilty. Laced with legal jokes, though perhaps with a tiny bit too much legalese, it’s a delicious mystery.