‘Compelling and horrifying’: The best the Crime novels to read now – Death at the White
Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall (Michael Joseph £16.99, 368 pp)
The creator of ITV’s Broadchurch makes his crime-writing debut with a striking story that opens with the discovery of Dorset pub landlord Jim Tiernan found dead in the middle of the local coast road.
He has been bound to a chair with a set of stag’s antlers tied to his head.
DS Nicola Bridge slowly discovers, in the sleepy village of Fleetcombe, a string of secrets which threaten to swamp her investigation with the strength of the local tides.
So many locals have motives that could mean they were the killer. But then old-fashioned police work kicks in and Nicola asserts her authority.
This is a promising start to a crime career – old ideas with a fresh spin, and a great ending.
Sleepy village with a string of secrets
Son by Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger (Orenda £16.99, 300 pp)
Son is available now
Psychologist Dr Kari Voss – an expert on memory and body language – works as a consultant for the Oslo police. She is known as the ‘human lie detector’ because of her unique ability to detect when a suspect is lying.
But she also has her own tragedy – her young son disappeared seven years ago.
Then Voss is thrust into the brutal murder of two 16-year-old girls in a house not far from Oslo, where they were preparing to celebrate Halloween.
A school friend of the girls is suspected of the murder – but Voss is not convinced. Written by one of France’s leading crime writers and one of Norway’s best-selling authors, the story introduces a truly original character that we will hear much more of.
Paperboy by Callum McSorley (Pushkin Vertigo £16.99, 384pp)
THE dark underbelly of Glasgow is laid bare in this sequel to McSorley’s award-winning 2023 debut, Squeaky Clean.
It is a brutal portrait of the worst side of Scotland’s second city, as seen through the eyes of Stuart ‘Chuck’ Gardner, a man struggling with a gambling habit who runs a paper-shredding business – and tips off gangsters about what he finds.
Newly promoted DCI Alison McCoist (a sly joke – she is no relation to the Rangers striker) is probably the least popular detective in Police Scotland, but she has Gardner in her sights.
A local hardman traps Gardner into disposing of a body in his industrial paper shredder and the horror escalates until it is not clear where the law ends and corruption begins.
This is both compelling and horrifying. Unmissable.