BOOKS AND DACHSHUNDS: HOLIDAY READING DECEMBER 2024

With Christmas and New Year on the very near horizon, 2024 is virtually wrapped up, and my reading over the holiday period will be largely focused on the new releases for 2025 that I have received, plus a couple of books I meant to get to earlier. In selecting my Christmas reads, I had some help from my long dog assistants.

I am starting my Christmas reading with a treat, a book I meant to get to earlier in the year.

William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series have been a favourite of mine for over 20 years.

The books are notoriously hard to find in Australia, but I was fortunate enough to meet William in Nashville this year at Bouchercon and got a signed copy of his latest book, Spirit Crossing.

Set in a beautifully described northern Minnesota, the books are a marvellous mix of description, clever plotting and anthropological insight. I can not recommend them highly enough and I am looking forward to leisurely reading Spirit Crossing, which is the twentieth book in the series.

Hannah Richell’s One Dark Night, (Simon & Schuster, 1 January 2025), has a stronger detective focus than her earlier books and seems set to strengthen her standing as a crime writer. I am about half way through already and I am really enjoying it.

Publisher summary:

“He murdered her at the folly on their wedding day, left her body for the crows. They say she haunts the woods now, a girl in a white dress …

Everyone in the small Somerset town of Thorncombe knows the tales of the haunted woods where the birds don’t sing and a girl in a white dress roams, luring people to their deaths. But when a girl in white is found dead the morning after Halloween, her body carefully arranged at the bottom of an old stone folly, the community is thrown into turmoil.

With a teenage daughter of his own, police detective Ben Chase knows how high the stakes are. Was the girl the victim of a party prank gone wrong, or does her death represent something more sinister and ritualistic?

As the investigation unfolds and the noose tightens around Chase’s own family, the only thing anyone can be sure of is that no one is safe until this violent killer is caught.”

A tighter murder mystery plot sets One Dark Night out from Hannah’s earlier novels and I think it is going to be a good holiday read.

One Dark Night is released in Australia on 1 January 2025. Release in the United Kingdom, where Hannah currently lives, is not until June 2025.

Marion Todd is a leading writer of Scottish crime fiction and Dead Man’s Shoes, (Canelo, 1 January 2025), is the ninth entry in her DI Clare Mackay series.

Set around Dundee, the series is a great example of Tartan Noir and the books are always a good read. I am well into Dead Man’s Shoes already and I am really enjoying the easy flow of the narrative and the well developed characters.

Publisher summary:

“A young man is found dead near a nightclub. He has marks on his neck, the signature of the Choker, a killer who has been targeting gay men across the country. Now, it seems he’s in DI Clare Mackay’s territory.

She discovers this victim has links to notorious criminals in the area. Is it possible his death was at the hands of someone else?

More men, including ones linked to the victim, are attacked and left injured. It’s only a matter of time before someone else is killed. But Clare’s desire for justice leaves her with blindspots which put her job – and her life – at risk.”

Dead Man’s Shoes is released in Australia on 1 January 2025, well over a week in advance of its United Kingdom release for some reason. Fans of British police fiction will want to get their hands on this one.

Michael Trant’s No Trace was one of my favourite crime novels of 2023. A terrific example of outback noir, it ably captured the isolation of northern Western Australia while adding in a good mystery plot. I am really looking forward to Blood And Gold, (Penguin 21 January 2025), which continues the adventures of wild dog tracker Gabe Ahern.

Publisher summary:

“Someone is stalking gold hunters. Now a bushman is stalking them.

Terry Drage is not the first amateur gold prospector to rock up to the Murchison Hotel, brag about an exciting discovery – and then vanish into thin air. But Gabe Ahern is determined he will be the last.

No one knows the land around the remote Western Australian town of Cue better than Gabe – a wild dog trapper who’s in his element in the bush. Feeling responsible for his friend’s fate, he races there to join the search.

But it won’t be an easy ride. For a start the local cops seem sure Terry going missing is nothing more than a tragic accident. It’s down to Gabe to spot the sinister pattern of disappearances and deaths in recent years.

Plus, the last time Gabe was in his old home town it was under the very worst of circumstances. And now, to stop a killer, he’ll need to confront the ghosts from his past.”

Fans of Australian outback noir will want to add this one to their must buy list! Here is a link to my review of No Trace: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/australian-outback-noir-new-books-by-michael-trant-darcy-tindale-and-margaret-hickey/

Catherine Jinks is a gifted storyteller whose books delve into some interesting areas of Australian society. Her last book, Traced, made clever use of the Covid pandemic, and now with Panic, (Text, 7 January 2025), she looks into the growing threat posed by the sovereign citizen movement.

Publisher summary:

“BRONTE NEEDS A PLACE TO LIE LOW.

She posted a drunken rant that went horrifically viral. Now – jobless, friendless and broke – she’s forced to volunteer as a carer on an isolated rural property. She won’t be paid for looking after dementia sufferer Nell, but at least she’ll have a place to stay.

Bronte’s host is Nell’s daughter Veda, who runs spiritual rebirthing retreats. She also claims the rights of a sovereign citizen and rejects the authority of the state, refusing even to register her car. She has acquired a small but devoted following.

Are they harmless cranks, with their conspiracy theories and outrage at government overreach? Or dangerously paranoid domestic terrorists? And what is the dark secret that Nell, in her confusion, keeps harking back to?

Bronte, increasingly uneasy, would be getting far away from the whole place, if she had anywhere else to go.”

Catherine’s books are slow burn thrillers with richly developed characters. I am looking forward to seeing where she goes with Panic.

Panic is released in Australia on 7 January 2025 and as an Audible Original in the United Kingdom on the same day.

Martin Edwards’ The Life Of Crime, (Collins Crime Club), is arguably the best recent book on the history and themes of crime fiction. A deserved multi-award winner, is a must read for crime fans. I enjoyed it when it first came out in 2022 and could not resist the new revised and expanded version in paperback. Martin is a very good writer and the entries in The Life Of Crime are lively, interesting and very illuminating! A must read.

So plenty of interesting reading to keep me busy over the holiday period. I will be posting full reviews of most of the above books in the New Year, so please look out for them.

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from me and the Long Dogs!