FORECAST FRIDAY: 2022 BOOK HAUL! (NEW CRIME TITLES FOR 2022)

There is just over a week to the end of the year, and while everyone is busy working through their lists of the best books of 2021, the books for 2022 are already beginning to pile up!

Here are some of the early 2022 releases that have turned up, both physically and electronically, over the past few weeks. It is already shaping up to be an interesting year of criminal reading!

One of the brightest debuts of 2021 was Allie Reynolds’ Shiver about a group of snowboarders trapped at remote location in the French Alps and being picked off, one by one.

Now Amy McCulloch has upped the ante with her adult crime debut, Breathless (Michael Joseph, February 2022). Set in the Himalayas, it is a high-altitude thriller about a killer terrorising a group of mountain climbers. Amy is an accomplished mountaineer and Breathless promises plenty of thrills and authentic mountaineering detail.

Australian author Michael Levitt provides a very different debut with The Gallerist (Fremantle, 2 February 2022).

Set in Perth, The Gallerist appears to be a more moderately paced crime novel about art fraud and an enigmatic artist who does not want to be identified. I always enjoy novels which combine art and crime, and this one seems to be a very engaging tale.

From across the other side of Australia, comes Murder Most Fancy (Harper Collins, 5 January 2022) by Sydney journalist and author Kellie McCourt.

This is the second of Kellie’s novels to feature socialite sleuth Indigo Bombberg, and promises more escapist fun as Indigo becomes embroiled in murder, secrets and a missing gentleman friend. Expect lots of sarcastic humour and outrageous characters as Indigo and her parolee personal assistant, Esmerelda, stumble their way through another case involving wealthy Sydneysiders.

Kiwi Ben Sanders has mastered the American hard-boiled form and his tough crime novels are always an enjoyable read. His latest, Exit .45 (Allen & Unwin, 5 January 2022), is the third book in his Marshall Grade series and finds the New York private eye doing battle with drug dealers, bent cops and mob gangsters in his quest to find out who gunned down a friend of his. Good adrenaline pumping fun.

Sarah Vaughan’s Anatomy Of A Scandal combined elements of domestic suspense and courtroom drama into a seemingly entertaining mix, which struck a responsive chord with many readers. The Netflix series of Anatomy Of A Scandal is scheduled for release mid next year, but in the interim readers can enjoy Vaughan’s Reputation (Simon & Schuster), which due out on 2 March 2022.

Reputation seems to be following the success of Anatomy Of A Scandal, with its shifting viewpoints and a high profile court case. The publicity material provides the following information about the plot: “Emma Webster is a respectable MP and a devoted mother who campaigns to protect women from the effects of online bullying. So how did she come to be standing trial for the murder of a tabloid journalist?”

It is sure to be popular with the many fans of Vaughan’s earlier books.

Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker In the Dark (Harper Collins, 19 January 2022) is another promising looking debut. Set in Louisiana, it centres on Chloe Davis, a respected Baton Rouge psychologist with a dark secret in her past. Chloe’s father is a convicted serial killer safely ensconced in prison. Now twenty years after his reign of terror, a new girl goes missing and Chloe finds her life once more torn apart.

One For Sorrow is the seventh book in the DI Luc Callanach series by Helen Fields. Set in Edinburgh, the book follows Callanach and DCI Ava Turner as try to catch a lone bomber who has been targeting victims across the city. Frantically working against time, they try to find the patterns and solve the clues before another victim is added to the long list.

Fields is very good at this sort of twisty police detective story and One For Sorrow opens with a bang and keeps the pace going for most of its length. It is released in the United Kingdom in March 2022, with an Australian release scheduled for May 2022.

Robert Goddard is one of my favourite thriller writers. A master of the twisty, unpredictable thriller he rarely, if ever, disappoints. This last novel, The Fine Art Of Invisible Detection, featured a Japanese female private detective in the main role and now in his new book, This Is The Night They Come For You (Bantam, 29 March 2022), the central character seems to be an Algerian policeman, Superintendent Taleb. I have started reading this one and it quickly draws you in and keeps you guessing. I am anticipating that it is going to be another stellar novel by Goddard.

Finally, a late addition to the pile is The Maid (Harper Collins, February 2022) by Nita Rose. This debut novel arrives on the back of a lot of pre-publication hype, including positive blurbs by an array of authors, including Louise Candlish and Karen Hamilton.

The story revolves around a non descript maid called Molly who works at the Regency Grand Hotel. An invisible nobody, Molly suddenly finds her status elevated when she discovers an infamous guest dead in his bed and becomes involved in the search for a murderer. Described as a ‘heartwarming whodunnit’ with a ‘truly unforgettable protagonist’, it will be interesting to see if it lives up to the hype.

So already a pile of interesting reading for 2022. I will keep you posted on what I think about them and early in the New Year I will be doing a post on the books that I am most looking forward to in 2022.

Merry Christmas!