CRIME
ARROWOOD by Laura McHugh
ARROWOOD
by Laura McHugh
(Century £12.99)
A magical second novel from the talented McHugh, whose debut, The Weight Of Blood, was widely acclaimed. Here, she tells the story of an ornate mansion on the banks of the Mississippi that is named after its generations of owners, the Arrowoods.
But it is a house with a tragic past: 17 years ago, twin girls, Violet and Tabitha, aged almost two, disappeared one afternoon when in the care of their eight- year-old sister Arden.
The girls were never seen again, and their loss had such a devastating effect on the family that they abandoned the grand house, leaving it to become dilapidated.
With the death of her father, the house has passed into the hands of history graduate Arden, now 25, who decides to live there again — perhaps in an effort to erase the dreadful memory of what happened to her sisters.
As the truth about their disappearance emerges, it reveals a writer able to communicate intense emotion without descending into sentimentality.
THE DEAD HOUSE
by Harry Bingham
(Orion £12.99)
This is the fifth of Bingham’s stories featuring distinctive Welsh heroine DS Fiona Griffiths.
Rarely, if ever, prepared to play by the rules, Griffiths also possesses extraordinary powers of empathy, particularly for the dead. That quality quickly emerges here when the body of a young woman is found in a ‘bier house’ alongside a tiny church in a valley in deepest Wales.
The body has been carefully posed, dressed in a summery frock, but without shoes, coat or even a cardigan. There are no signs of injuries. Indeed, it may not even be murder — although the perceptive Griffiths is convinced that it is.
Her investigation leads to a secretive band of monks, whose monastery hides among even deeper folds in the mountains, and whose rituals are as medieval as their setting.
Are the two connected? The indefatigable Griffiths sets out to discover, and she does so with a wry spirit and style.
FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THE ENDING by Malcolm Mackay
FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THE ENDING
by Malcolm Mackay
(Mantle £16.99)
Over the past three years, Orkney based Mackay has quietly established himself as one of the leading voices of ‘tartan noir’.
His characters are diamond hard, his dialogue as sharp as the razors wielded by the gangs of Glasgow, and his plots as immaculately engineered as the ships once built on the Clyde. He is a fan of the great Elmore Leonard — and it shows in the dark humour that permeates his novels.
This latest opens with a Czech hit man tied to a chair, who may well have only a matter of minutes to live. The story revolves around how he came to find himself in this predicament.
Part of the reason lies with the fate of money that has been stolen from the Jamiesons, one of Glasgow’s hardest gangs; another part rests with the guile of an ambitious but as yet small-time crook named Usman Kassar, while the third element comes in the brutally frightening figure of ‘security consultant’ Nate Colgan, who will harm anyone who gets in his way.
Gripping, polished and distinctive, it proves just how good Mackay has become.
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