National Crime Reading Month with Faber
Faber is one of the world’s great independent publishing houses. Since they were founded in 1929, they have sought to find the very best writers and they are proud to publish the foremost voices in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, film and children’s books.
In 2022, Faber won Crime and Mystery publisher of the year at the CWA Daggers. To celebrate this year’s National Crime Reading Month, they’re highlighting ten titles from their extensive crime list, including some exciting new releases for 2023 as well as backlist gems from the likes of P. D. James and Michael Dibdin.
Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson
‘Wonderful.’ Ian Moore, author of Death and Croissants
1 September 1939. As the mass evacuation takes place across Britain, thousands of children leave London for the safety of the countryside. But when a little girl vanishes, it’s clear that danger can lurk in the quietest village.
In the chaos of war, crime novelist Josephine Tey arrives to help her friend DCI Penrose to investigate the girl’s disappearance. When a cloud of mistrust falls across the small community she has come to love, events take a sinister turn.
Dear Little Corpses is the latest novel in Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey mysteries.
Find out more about the real Jospehine Tey here
The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson
‘Nobody writes psychopaths like Swanson.’ Mark Edwards
When private detective and former cop Henry Kimball is hired to investigate a cheating husband, he senses all is not quite what it seems, and before he knows it he’s gotten far too close to the other woman.
As the case rapidly gets ever more dangerous, he’s forced to turn to the only person he can trust, the sociopathic Lily Kintner, the woman who once stabbed him, but with whom he shares a peculiar bond.
Read the first chapter of The Kind Worth Killing, the prequel to The Kind Worth Saving, here
The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell
‘As sharp, witty and energetic as it is bitingly satirical.’ Janice Hallett
THE NIGHT BEFORE
Rupert’s 30th is a black tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald’s – catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot.
THE MORNING AFTER
His girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally.
This investigation is going to be about Classics, degrees and aristocrats, Instagram influencers and who knows who. Or is it whom? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn’t sure. He’s sharply dressed, smart, and as into self-improvement as Clemmie – but as he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxury, a wall of staggering wealth threatens to shut down his investigation before it’s begun.
Can he see through the tangled set of relationships in which the other half live, and die, before the case is taken out of his hands?
The Other Half is Charlotte Vassell’s debut novel.
The Lock-Up by John Banville
‘Like drinking Bollinger when your usual tipple is Babycham.’The Times
1950s Dublin. In a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered – an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play.
The victim’s sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery.
With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?
The Lock-Up is the latest novel in the Strafford and Quirke mystery series.
Listen to John Banville on the April episode of the Burning Books podcast here
We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal
‘A terrific twisting roller-coaster of a thriller.’ Peter James
The case was closed.
Lina Stavred went missing 20 years ago. A local boy confessed to her murder – but the body was never found.
The records were sealed.
Since then, the people of Ådalen have avoided talking about that painful summer, preferring to leave the past untouched.
But we know you remember.
Now Lina’s murderer has reappeared. This is Detective Eira Sjödin’s chance to untangle years of well-kept secrets – but the truth is something Ådalen would rather forget.
We Know You Remember is the first of Tove Alsterdal’s High Coast series starring Detective Eira Sjödin. You Will Never Be Found, the second in the series, is out in paperback this July.
Pre-order You Will Never Be Found here
Prom Mom by Laura Lippman
When I was seventeen, I gave birth to a baby in a hotel bathroom while attending the prom…
Two decades ago, Amber Glass’s life changed forever. No-one had even known she was pregnant – including Joe, her date.
Afterwards, she left town for good – and hasn’t seen Joe since. But she knows he hasn’t left, that he’s working for his father’s real estate company, married to a cosmetic surgeon. Child free.
Now Amber is back, and as the two of them tentatively start to renew their once unlikely relationship, will their secrets and motivations finally destroy everyone around them?
Inspired by a true story, this guessing game of a novel explodes with feeling and menace.
Prom Mom is the latest novel from New York Time bestseller and award-winning author Laura Lippman, out in paperback this August.
Request Prom Mom on NetGalley here
Death of an Expert Witness by P. D. James
‘The greatest contemporary writer of classic crime.’ Sunday Times
When a young girl is found murdered in a field, the scientific examination of the exhibits is just a routine job for the staff of Hoggatt’s forensic science laboratory.
But nothing could have prepared them for the brutal death of one of their own. When the senior biologist is found dead in his laboratory Commander Dalgliesh is called to the bleak fens of East Anglia, where the murderer is lying in wait to strike again . . .
Set on the bleak fens of East Anglia, Death of an Expert Witness is the seventh novel in the Adam Dalgliesh series and a thrilling work of detective fiction from P. D. James.
It features in the latest series of Channel 5’s Dalgleish, available on demand here
Ratking by Michael Dibdin
‘Tremendously exciting.’ Ruth Rendell
Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen has crossed swords with the establishment before – and lost. But from the depths of a mundane desk job in Rome he is unexpectedly transferred to Perugia to take over an explosive kidnapping case involving one of Italy’s most powerful families.
But nobody much wants Zen to succeed: not the local authorities, who view him as an interloper, and certainly not Miletti’s children, who seem content to let the head of the family languish in the hands of his abductors – if he’s still alive.
Ratking is the first book in the Inspector Zen series from the ‘maestro of crime writing’, Michael Dibdin: a kidnapping case set in the winding streets of Perugia, Italy.
Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen
‘A funny, eccentric page-turner that you will absolutely love.’ Daily Mail
Renee has made it: she’s in the final four. But is she dying to win?
Renee should be thrilled to have been chosen as one of the final four contestants in The Catch, the world’s biggest reality show. But now she, the other contestants, and Jeremy ‘the Catch’ have arrived on the remote, wooded island for the final show, Renee begins to wonder if there’s something wrong. Is she taking a bigger risk than she realised?
And as she and the other contestants begin their final challenges, they slowly start to realise that the island they’ve been taken to is hiding a terrifying secret – one that could make the final Elimination Event all too real.
Find out more about Samantha Allen’s inspiration for Patricia Wants to Cuddle‘s setting here
Geneva by Richard Armitage
‘One of the best thrillers I’ve read’ A. J. Finn
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has started to show the same tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s disease as her father: memory loss, even blackouts. So she is reluctant to accept the invitation to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference – until her husband Daniel, also a neuroscientist, persuades her that the publicity storm will be worth it. The technology being unveiled at this conference could revolutionise medicine forever. More than that, it could save Sarah’s life.
In Geneva, the couple are feted as stars – at least, Sarah is. But behind the five-star luxury, investors are circling, controversial blogger Terri Landau is all over the story, and Sarah’s symptoms are getting worse. As events begin to spiral out of control, Sarah can’t be sure who to trust – including herself.
A spectacular destination thriller with heart, Richard Armitage’s debut novel Geneva is coming out this October.
