CRIME
THE GUEST LIST
by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins £12.99, 384pp)
Foley burst on to the crime scene with her debut The Hunting Party last year, and this second outing confirms her exceptional talent.
The premise is simple: a society wedding on a remote island off the Irish coast and someone is murdered — a classic locked-room mystery.
A storm is raging and the lights flicker as the marquees’ canvases billow. Did someone sneak on to the island, or is the killer one of the guests?
Could it be the wedding planner or her husband, or one of the bridegroom’s friends from school?
Gradually, everyone’s dark secrets surface in true Agatha Christie style, but with a distinctly modern twist — plenty of sex for a start . . .
Superbly plotted, this is a page-turning blast of a book.
FIREWATCHING
by Russ Thomas (S&S £12.99, 432pp)
This promising debut introduces the intriguing DS Adam Tyler from South Yorkshire Police’s cold case unit.
He is gay with a somewhat murky past, which is why he has been relegated to investigating cold cases.
But when a man’s body is found in a basement, bricked up possibly when he was still alive, a link is formed with a long-standing missing persons inquiry.
DS Adam Tyler is brought in — on sufferance rather than with enthusiasm.
To kick-start his struggling career, he sets off on a path of his own, while neglecting to tell his superiors that he had a one-night stand with the son of the victim.
That is the police procedural part, but there is an extra dimension — someone in Sheffield has a fascination with fire, which brings them into contact with the case.
Taut, intelligent and fast moving, Thomas tells his story with admirable skill.
BETWEEN TWO EVILS
by Eva Dolan (Raven £12.99, 480pp)
It has been six years since those combative yet agreeable Cambridgeshire detectives DI Zigic and DS Ferreira first appeared in Dolan’s spirited debut, Long Way Home.
They are more mature now, and a little more circumspect — though Ferreira still has a sharp tongue and a short temper. Here, the pair investigate the murder of a young doctor in a picturesque village, which is home to an all-female immigration detention centre where he once worked.
Was the death linked to the secure facility, or was there a more personal motive?
The detectives reconstruct the victim’s last days and become convinced that the detention centre has many skeletons in its cupboards.
Dolan infuses old-fashioned police work with contemporary issues to paint a disturbing picture of our times.
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