BRITISH POLICE DETECTIVES 2025: NEW NOVELS BY HANNAH RICHELL, MARION TODD and FIONA McINTOSH

Here are three good, British based, police novels to start your 2025 criminal reading off with.

Marion Todd has established herself as a leading member of the Tartan Noir brigade with her novels about Scottish police detective DI Clare Mackay.

Based in Dundee, Clare is a caring and effective policewoman with just the right amount of grit and determination. In her latest book, Dead Man’s Shoes (Canelo, 31 December 2024), Clare finds herself on the trail of a possible serial killer, and up against a leading local crime figure.

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. The victim, however, has links to notorious criminals in the area and Clare begins to suspect that the killing may not be as simple as it first appears. When more men, including ones linked to the victim, are attacked and left injured it seems like it is only a matter of time before someone else is killed.

Dead Man’s Shoes is a moderately paced and well grounded slice of Scottish crime, that excels in its fine, credible characterisations and Marion’s ability to engage and entertain the reader. There are some good twists to the tale and, as with the previous books, the forensic detail is interesting and believable. The team work needed in policing is well captured, and a good sense of urgency is generated at key points. At one stage Marion relies too heavily on the old trope of delays in DNA testing to sustain the mystery, but overall this is a very good police tale to while away the time.

Dead Man’s Shoes is released in Australia on 31 December 2024. It is released in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2024.

Set at the other end of the United Kingdom, is Hannah Richell’s One Dark Night, (Simon & Schuster, 1 January 2025).

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. The girl is from a posh local school and it quickly becomes apparent that the death is linked to an illegal student party that occurred nearby. Was the girl the victim of a party prank gone wrong, or does her death represent something more sinister and ritualistic?

One of the lead detectives, Ben Chase, knows the area well and when his daughter becomes caught up in the investigation he finds his judgement questioned and the threat to his family growing.

One Dark Night is a very good police detective novel. Hannah nicely balances the family aspects of the book, with the pressures of the investigation, and the book moves smoothly through several twists and some good red herrings. I thought that I had it worked out very early in the piece, but I was wrong footed by a good bit of misdirection by Hannah and was surprised by the outcome.

The characters are well developed and interesting, especially the students, and Hannah has assembled a strong cast. Hannah’s last book, The Search Party, had too much family drama for me, but this one has a stronger focus on the murder investigation and it works much better.

In all, a really enjoyable crime novel with some good twists.

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.

Prolific Australian author Fiona McIntosh has developed a strong local following for her novels about London policeman Detective Superintendent Jack Hawksworth

Her latest book, Blood Pact (Penguin, 7 January 2025), sees Jack back from his brief sojourn in Australia, in last year’s Dead Tide, and seconded to a counter-terrorism unit to investigate a spate of nasty domestic events. First it is needles in strawberries, then tampering with lipstick samplers and baby formula. But when toxic mushrooms enter the market system and a death occurs, a wave of terror is set to sweep the country. Breaking news of a possible serial killer only heightens the alarm.

With no clear leads, no DNA, no witnesses and no CCTV footage, Jack and his team must work on instinct to figure out why someone would want to harm innocent victims, some of whom seem to be linked to a fatal blood transfusion years before.

Blood Pact is a well plotted detective novel, that, like Marion Todd’s Dead Man’s Shoes, excels in its portrayal of the team trying to solve the attacks. The interesting background information is nicely woven into the story and the pace is generally good. Fiona is very adept at keeping the reader guessing as to what is going on in the opening sections, and the book builds to a good conclusion. A couple of coincidences probably undermine the plot slightly, but not enough to detract from what is a very engaging, and topical, crime story.

Fiona’s Jack Hawksworth series has primarily only been available in Australia so far. The good news is that the series, comprising six books, will be released in the United Kingdom during 2025.

Blood Pact is released in Australia on 7 January 2025. It will be released in the UK on 17 July 2025.