MAY MAYHEM!: NEW CRIME AND THRILLER TITLES I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO READING IN MAY 2021

May 2021 is shaping up to be a good month for crime fiction, with some exciting new Australian mysteries jostling for bookshelf space alongside a couple of high quality British police thrillers and Tom Bradby’s outstanding spy novel Triple Cross. Here is my pick of the six crime and thriller titles I am most looking forward to reading in May 2021.

Triple Cross is the third novel in Tom Bradby’s stellar series about MI6 officer Kate Henderson. The novel opens with Kate being drawn out of retirement in the south of France to identify a possible spy in the British security services, and to settle for once and for all whether the British Prime Minister is actually a Russian agent of influence. The first two books in this trilogy were outstanding and Triple Cross provides a fitting conclusion. I have already read this one and really enjoyed it. A must for all spy fans.

Leading off the batch of good Australian crime reads is Katherine Firkin’s The Girl Remains. This follow-up to Katherine’s 2020 debut, Sticks and Stones, promises an enjoyable mixture of cold case detection and present day danger, as Detective Emmett Corban and his team dig through the evidence to identify what really happened twenty years ago when fifteen-year-old Cecilia May disappeared while on a camp with her two girlfriends near the small Victorian coastal town of Blairgowrie. I have started reading this one and it is very good so far.

Here is the link to my 2020 review of Sticks and Stones: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/sticks-and-stones-by-katherine-firkin-bantam-2-june-2020/

James Delargy’s 55 was one of the more memorable crime novels of 2019 with a clever, tricky plot set in the remote Western Australian outback and featuring a stunning and powerful conclusion. With Vanished, British author Delargy returns to the outback setting, as Detective Emmaline Taylor tries to find a family missing from their home in an abandoned mining town in the Great Victoria Desert. Based on 55, I expect that this is going to be a dark and twisted tale with some evocative descriptions of the outback.

Here is a link to my 2019 review of 55: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/55-by-james-delargy-simon-schuster-a29-99/

Girl, 11 probably only marginally qualifies as Australian crime fiction through the virtue of Amy Suiter Clarke currently living in Melbourne. Regardless, it looks like being a really good debut, with former social worker turned true-crime podcaster Elle Castillo investigating a decades-old serial killer cold case in Minnesota, only to find that new victims of the killer are turning up. The use of true crime podcasts themes in crime fiction has been interesting trend over the past few years and has produced some very good novels by authors such as Megan Goldin, Benjamin Stevenson and Charles Donlea. Girl, 11 looks like being an exciting addition to this sub-genre and I am really keen to read it.

Russ Thomas’ 2020 debut novel, Firewatching, about Sheffield cold case detective Adam Tyler attracted a good deal of attention and praise, and Nighthawking promises to be an entertaining follow-up. The discovery of a body in the local Botanical Gardens leads Tyler to the secretive world of nighthawks: treasure hunters who operate under the cover of darkness and outside the law. I enjoy novels with an archaeological element and look forward to this one.

Peter James is a professional crafter of British police novels and his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace books regularly find their way to the top of the bestseller lists. In Left You Dead Grace investigates the confounding case of a missing woman and possible murder. The Roy Grace series is always entertaining and I am sure that this one will live up to the standard of his previous mysteries. The Grace books are also being adapted for television and are being currently televised in the United Kingdom.

So, a real mix of entertaining books for May. I am looking forward to reading and reviewing all of them. Which ones appeal the most to you?