Vol 4 Issue 4
Introduction
This summer whether you read at the beach, sunning by a pool, or prefer the indoor comfort of air-conditioning during blistering heat waves, consider choosing these novels by three of the top talents in crime writing today.
Recommendations
The Hunter by Tana French
Released in March, The Hunter, is French's second novel featuring Cal Hooper, a former Chicago cop. Hooper has relocated to a small village in Western Ireland, seeking beauty and quiet after years of hectic, gritty city life. Hooper first appeared in French’s novel, The Searchers, but readers can jump into The Hunter without needing to read the earlier novel. However, if you like French’s work, you’ll find The Searchers up to her high standards.
In The Hunter, Hooper has settled into village life, although still considered an outsider by the residents. For extra income he established a carpentry shop and has taken on Trey Reddy, a teenager, teaching her the skills to earn her own income.
Trey Reddy’s father, who abandoned the financially struggling family years before, suddenly returns home. His motive soon becomes clear. He involves the villagers in a get-rich scheme, claiming he has proof gold can be extracted in the surrounding hills – for a price.
What follows is a tale of greed, revenge and murder. French seamlessly blends a crime story with insights into the complex dynamics of the Reddy family. French, who lives with her family in Dublin, is the winner of major writing awards, including the Edgar, Anthony and Macavity awards. She also received the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction.
Hide by Tracy Clark
Hide introduces us to Chicago detective Harriet Foster, a talented investigator, back from leave after the suicide of her partner and the loss of her son through street violence.
Forget about easing into work. Foster, who is Black, is assigned to stop a serial killer, who targets young women with red hair and blue eyes. Readers are brought along with Foster through the twists and turns of her investigation dealing with a less than competent partner. Clark delivers not only a police procedural but a psychological thriller told through multiple points of view. All of which makes for a hard-to-put-down and hard-to-forget crime novel.
Clark, a native Chicagoan, is also the author of the Cass Raines mystery series. The Harriet Foster series continues with Fall, like Hide, published in 2023 and Echo, scheduled for release on December 3.
The Boy by Tami Hoag
On the outskirts of the Louisiana town of Bayou Breaux, the seven-year-old son of Genevieve Gauthier is brutally murdered in their home, while his mother is found alive.
Detectives Nick Fourcade and Annie Broussard, husband and wife, are under pressure to solve the crime as residents fear their children could also be in danger. The personal and working relationship of the couple are a contrast in personalities and work styles. Nick, quick to anger, especially when he witnesses sloppy investigations, has a testy relationship with his media-hungry new boss. Annie is smart, tactful and a consummate professional in pursuing the killer.
Hoag intrigues us with alternative theories of the crime, a host of suspects, including the boy KJ’s mother, and plenty of plot twists as the two detectives struggle to solve the case. The suspense continues to build until the crime in solved in a final, devastating plot twist.
Hoag is an international bestselling author of more than thirty books. She lives in Palm Beach County, Florida and is also a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. That setting is used in her earlier novel Dark Horse, which portrays an unseemly underbelly of the elite sport.
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