MARCH MAYHEM: EXCITING NEW RELEASES FOR MARCH 2024
The criminal reading year is now well underway, with some very good 2024 books by Simon Rowell, Dinuka McKenzie, Matthew Blake and Gerald Seymour already out!
March 2024 is shaping up to be a big month for crime and thriller readers, with plenty of new books on offer. I have already highlighted Sarah Bailey’s Body Of Lies, which is due out at the end of February, (https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/friday-forecast-body-of-lies-by-sarah-bailey/), but there are also plenty of other very good releases. I have picked out seven of the ones that should have wide appeal.
Leading out the releases is What Happened To Nina?, (Harper Collins, 28 February 2024), by the always entertaining Dervla McTiernan.
As with her last novel, The Murder Rule, Australian based Dervla has set her new book in America.
The story revolves around the disappearance of a young woman, Nina, and the media frenzy that follows.
As Nina’s parents desperately try to find out what happened to her, the wealthy parents of the boy she was last seen with, launch a well organised media campaign to protect their son. Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fuelled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories, and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina’s social media accounts. Journalists descend on the small Vermont town where Nina lived and in the chaos the truth about what happened to Nina gets lost.
I have already read What Happened To Nina? and quite enjoyed it. It is yet another change in direction for Dervla, and is a very emotionally charged story that really focuses on the effect of a high profile event on a family. The social media frenzy around the disappearance, and how it can be manipulated, rings true and brings to mind other similar occurrences in America. As usual, the characterisations are finely tuned and credible, and the book has a strong momentum to it. There is more of a family drama focus than in Dervla’s Cormac Reilly police novels, but a sense of tension is always present and the book builds to a powerful conclusion.
I will be doing a longer review a little closer to its release, but I suspect that it is going to be a widely talked about thriller. Put your order in now!
What Happened to Nina? is released in Australia on 28 February 2024. It is released in the United States on 26 March 2024 and the United Kingdom on 28 March 2024.
Another big American based release is Still See You Everywhere, (Century, 12 March 2024), by Lisa Gardner.
Still See You Everywhere is the third book in Lisa’s series about Frankie Elkin, a drifter who specialises in finding missing people. The first two books were tough, gripping tales about a character who is capable, but not always likeable, and contained plenty of suspense.
In Still See You Everywhere, Frankie is contacted by Kaylee Pearson, aka The Beautiful Butcher, a brutal serial killer on death row in Texas. Kaylee is going to be executed in three weeks, and she wants Frankie to find her younger sister, Lani, who she suspects was abducted twelve years ago by Kaylee’s former abusive lover, a wealthy mogul.
According to The Beautiful Butcher’s sources, Lani is being held captive on a Hawaiian island, which is the site of a luxury resort. The only way to gain access to the island is for Frankie to go undercover. But can Frankie really trust the word of a serial killer? Once on the island she finds a range of dangers, plenty of suspicious co-workers and an incoming tropical storm, which is about to cut her off from the outside world.
The second Frankie Elkin book, One Step Too Far, was one of my favourite thriller reads of 2022, and I am really looking forward to Still See You Everywhere. It sounds like some suspension of disbelief may be required, but Lisa rarely produces anything less than an exciting thriller.
Still See You Everywhere is released in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States on 12 March 2024.
Another book offering plenty of thrills is Black Wolf, (Macmillan, 12 March 2024), by Juan Gomez-Jurado.
Black Wolf is the follow-up to Gomez-Jurado’s Red Queen, which introduced Spanish detective extraordinaire Antonia Scott.
Antonia Scott is the lynchpin of the Red Queen project, which was created to work behind the scenes to solve the most dark, devious and dangerous crimes. In southern Spain, in the Costa del Sol, a key mafia figure is found brutally murdered in his villa. His pregnant wife, Lola Moreno, barely escapes an attempt to kill her and is on the run. At the same time an unusual shipping container arrives in Spain from St Petersburg, with the corpses of nine women.
Now Antonia, with the help of her protector, Jon Gutierrez, must track down the missing Lola. But they are not the only ones – a dangerous hitman, known as the Black Wolf, is also on her trail. And Antonia Scott, still plagued by her personal demons, must outwit, out-maneuver, and, ultimately, face this terrible, mysterious killer.
Red Queen was a very enjoyable crime thriller with an interesting central protagonist, and I expect that Black Wolf will match the intensity and intrigue of the first book.
Juan Gomez-Jurado and the ‘Red Queen’ series are already a big hit in Spain, and I suspect that the popularity of the books will be increased world-wide with the imminent release of the Red Queen tv series on Amazon Prime.
Catch up with the first book before the television series is released, and then dive into Black Wolf.
Probably at the more cosier end of the crime spectrum is The Antique Hunter’s Guide To Murder, (Macmillan,
27 February 2024), by C. L. Miller.
The publisher has provided the following details:
“Freya Lockwood has avoided the quaint English village in which she grew up for the last twenty years. That is until news arrives that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and Freya’s estranged mentor, has died in suspicious circumstances.
You will uncover a reservation, I implore you to attend . . .
But when a letter from Arthur is delivered, sent just days before his death, and an ordinary pine chest concealing Arthur’s journals, including reservations in her name, are revealed, Freya finds herself sucked back into a life she’d sworn to leave behind.
But beware, trust no one. Your life depends on it . . .
Joining forces with her eccentric Aunt Carole, Arthur’s staunch best friend, Freya follows both clues and her instincts to an old manor house for an ‘antiques enthusiasts weekend’. But not is all as it seems; the antiques are bad reproductions and the other guests are menacing and secretive.
Can Freya and Carole solve the mystery surrounding the weekend before a killer strikes again?”
C. L. Miller is apparently the daughter of the late Judith Miller, the author of Miller’s Antique Price Guide, and a member of the Antique’s Roadshow team, so you can expect some good insights into the world of antiques and a cleverly constructed mystery.
I suspect that this will be one for cosy mystery fans.
Kristen Perrin’s How To Solve Your Own Murder, (Quercus, 26 March 2024), also seems to be one for fans of classical murder mysteries who enjoy a bit of quirkiness.
The publishers have provided the following description:
“FRANCES ALWAYS SAID SHE’D BE MURDERED… SHE WAS RIGHT.
In 1965, seventeen-year-old Frances Adams was told by a fortune teller that one day she’d be murdered. Frances spent the next sixty years trying to prevent the crime that would be her eventual demise. Of course, no one took her seriously – until she was dead.
For Frances, being the village busybody was a form of insurance. She’d spent a lifetime compiling dirt on every person she met, just in case they might turn out to be her killer. In the heart of her sprawling country estate lies an eccentric library of detective work, where the right person could step in and use her findings to solve her murder.
When her great-niece Annie arrives from London and discovers that Frances’ worst fear has come true, Annie is thrust into her great-aunt’s last act of revenge against her sceptical friends and family. Frances’ will stipulates that the person who solves her murder will inherit her millions.
Can Annie unravel the mystery and find justice for Frances, or will digging up the past lead her into the path of the killer?”
I think that this one will appeal to fans of quirky murder mysteries, such as Knives Out! Some of the early reviews from overseas have been mixed, but I think it has an intriguing premise, and I am keen to read it.
How To Solve Your Own Murder is due for release in Australia and the United Kingdom on 26 March 2024.
Australian author Sulari Gentill has also been playing with the conventions of the crime novel in her recent books, particularly the very enjoyable The Woman In The Library. Her latest, The Mystery Writer (Ultimo Press, 6 March 2024), seems to offer more behind-the-scenes insights into writing and crime fiction, while beguiling the reader with a good mystery:
“Theo has one dream—to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar—and then he turns up dead. Suddenly, Theo finds herself as the prime suspect.
As Theo grapples with the shocking turn of events, she realizes that Dan may not have been the person he seemed to be, and that there is something sinister going on in the world of publishing. Desperate to clear her name and uncover the truth, Theo sets out on a quest to find out who killed Dan and why.
As she digs deeper, Theo uncovers a web of deceit, conspiracy, and hidden motives, with clues leading her to a shadowy organization with far-reaching power. With her own life in danger, Theo must unravel the mystery before she becomes the next victim.”
I have enjoyed Sulari’s novels over the years and I am keen to dive into her latest one. Her writing style is always very engaging and inviting and I am looking forward to seeing where she takes us with The Mystery Writer.
Note: The Mystery Writer will be published overseas in late March 2024 by a different publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, and with a different cover.
Finally, the husband and wife writing team known as Nicci French are renowned for their literate, compelling, psychological thrillers and their latest, Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? (Simon & Schuster, March 2023), is likely to be another enjoyable read.
“1990
When beautiful and vivacious Charlotte Salter fails to turn up to her husband Alec’s 50th birthday party, her kids are worried, but Alec is not. As the days pass and there’s still no word from Charlie, her daughter, Etty, and her sons, Niall, Paul and Ollie, all struggle to come to terms with her disappearance.
How can anyone just vanish without a trace?
Left with no answers and in limbo, the Salter children try and go on with their lives, all the while thinking that their mother’s killer is potentially very close to home.
Now
After years away, Etty returns home to the small East Anglian village where she grew up to help move her father into a care home. Now in his eighties, Alec has dementia and often mistakes his daughter for her mother.
Etty is a changed woman from the trouble-free girl she was when Charlie was still around – all the Salter children have spent decades running and hiding from their mother’s disappearance. But when their childhood friends, Greg and Morgen Ackerley, decide to do a podcast about Charlotte’s disappearance, it seems like the town’s buried secrets – and the Salters’ – might finally come to light.
After all this time, will they finally find out what really happened to Charlotte Salter?”
As always, it sounds like an intriguing mystery from the Nicci French team.
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? is released in Australia on 6 March 2024 and in the United Kingdom on 29 February 2024.
So, some very appealing books, mainly on the softer side of the genre, for March 2024. Those after a bit more grit to their reading can look forward to new books from Garry Disher, Douglas Preston and C J Tudor in April!