CRIME
THE CROSSING by Michael Connelly
THE CROSSING
by Michael Connelly
(Orion £19.99)
Two of Michael Connelly’s great characters, Los Angeles Police Detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer, defence attorney Mickey Haller, combine in this stunning story.
What we did not know until this novel was that Bosch and Haller are half-brothers. When it opens, Bosch has retired from the LAPD in the wake of a trumped-up charge against him.
Haller asks him to investigate the case of Leland Foster, a murderer he is convinced is innocent and whom he is defending.
To do that, Bosch will need to cross over to the ‘other side’ and work to defend a murderer - a move he believes no policeman worth his badge should ever consider.
Bosch grapples with the moral dilemma while probing the background to Foster’s case, only to discover discrepancies in the prosecution’s evidence. Finally, he decides to help his half-brother, and his investigation reveals corruption in the LAPD itself. Intensely satisfying and featuring two of the smartest creations in modern crime fiction, this is as elegant a masterpiece as Connelly has delivered.
THE SILENT ROOM by Mari Hannah
THE SILENT ROOM
by Mari Hannah
(Macmillan £12.99)
The sixth crime novel in less than four years from this former probation officer underlines just how good she has become.
It is a crisp and intricate police procedural, set in and around Newcastle, and begins with disgraced DI Jack Fenwick from Special Branch being transported to Durham prison while on remand. But he never gets there.
On the way, he is sprung by an audacious attack on the prison van.
Fenwick’s partner, DS Matthew Ryan, is then suspended on suspicion of helping his old boss to escape, but he is nevertheless determined to prove both his and Fenwick’s innocence.
Ryan recruits another former boss, Grace Ellis, and, together, they unearth an international conspiracy, which the disgraced Fenwick was investigating.
Taut storytelling and razor-sharp dialogue - not to mention Hannah’s use of the Northumberland countryside - make this a novel not to be missed. It is no surprise that her first five novels, featuring gay DI Kate Daniels, are in development for TV by Stephen Fry.
EVEN DOGS IN THE WILD by Ian Rankin
EVEN DOGS IN THE WILD
by Ian Rankin
(Orion £19.99)
Edinburgh’s most famous fictional detective, Inspector John Rebus, is back in his 20th outing - but he is no longer a policeman. He has retired.
That certainly does not suit him, and he rapidly seizes the chance to become a consultant to his old colleague, DI Siobhan Clarke, who is investigating the murder of a senior Scottish lawyer, 78-year-old Lord Minton.
At first, it looks like a burglary gone wrong - until her team discovers a note in the prosecutor’s apartment, announcing: ‘I’m going to kill you for what you did’.
Not long afterwards, Rebus’s old gangster adversary, Big Ger Cafferty, receives an identical note.
Mix in the arrival of a Glasgow heavy mob anxious to take over the Edinburgh underworld, and you have as potent a mixture as Rankin has created in recent years.
Ever conscious of the zeitgeist of our times, Rankin skilfully ties the crimes together with suspicions of historic child abuse, while maintaining his immaculate feel for the life of the Scottish hard men.
Delightful, impossible-to-fault crime writing from a virtuoso of the craft.
