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Crime fiction with Mat Coward: August 23, 2023

An impertinent detective, bereavement and vengeance in New York, an eye on the Lakes, and a Welsh Blair Witch

THE GOOD LIARS by Anita Frank (HQ, £16.99) takes place a couple of years after the end of World War I, when the Stilwells of Darkacre Hall can only dream of the life they knew before.

Once respected and deferred to, today they are openly shunned by the villagers. They live a lifeless existence, bound to each other by shameful secrets and mutual mistrust. 

The difficulty of hiring servants means they are even reduced to answering their own doorbell — an especially distasteful task when the visitor is a detective asking impertinent questions about the summer of 1914. 

With the flavour of a melodrama and the themes of a mud-and-trenches horror story, this is a memorable read. 

As you’ll guess from the title, KILL FOR ME KILL FOR YOU (Headline, £14.99) is inspired by the crime classic, Strangers on a Train. However, that’s only a starting point for Steve Cavanagh, who shows us two women meeting at a bereavement support group in New York.

Each has a terrible story to tell of violence and loss, and neither feels justice has been done. During an evening of drinking and weeping, they realise something else about each other — both are willing to take matters into their own hands. 

So far, so familiar, but from then on the story we think we’re reading is origamied into something new by twist after artful twist. 

Former crime reporter SJ Brooke begins her series set in the Cumbrian Lake District with THE BODY ON SCAFELL PIKE (Wildfire, £10.99). It features DI Jess Chambers, who’s transferred to the area from Belfast, expecting a quieter pace of life.

She soon discovers that death is far from an unusual visitor to the fells. The latest victim is a famous mountaineer and social media star, who has been found dead in very odd circumstances. 

You really can’t go wrong with a setting like this, where the geography will always be the main character, and this series is definitely worth keeping an eye on. 

Four Caerphilly school leavers sneak into a long-abandoned coastal pleasure palace, in THE HOTEL (HQ, £9.99) by Louise Mumford. The isolated holiday venue never got off the ground, and its Victorian creator famously killed himself there to escape social and financial ruin.

Bex and her friends should be able to get some spooky, hand-held footage to help their applications to university media studies courses. But of the four who arrive at Ravencliffe, only three return. 

A decade later, the film they took that night has become a cult movie, unholy parent to a network of conventions, fanzines and conspiracy theories.

When her two fellow survivors announce a 10-year reunion feature to be shot at the hotel itself, the reclusive Bex is shocked, revolted and definitely not up for it. Until something startling changes her mind. 

If certain books suit different seasons, then this one is definitely perfect for autumn. As the nights draw in, immerse yourself in the entrancing mysteries, horrors and lies of Ravencliffe. 

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