The latest crime and thriller releases include Lucy Foley's first Miss Marple continuation novel, a new Janice Hallett mystery, William Boyd's third Gabriel Dax adventure, T Geronimo Johnson's Atlanta-set novel, and the final book in Eva Björg Ægisdóttir's Forbidden Iceland series.
Foley takes on Miss Marple
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins, £22) – This first Miss Marple continuation novel was likely a harder task than a new Hercule Poirot; Christie gave the Belgian detective exaggerated traits, making him easier to bring off the page than the unassuming but observant elderly spinster. Foley makes a commendable attempt, moving Miss Marple from postwar St Mary Mead to the Swiss Alps' comparative luxury.
Although readers meet the unnamed body in the gondola cabin at the start, a backward shift for a two-day lead-up means Miss Marple has little detecting to do until about halfway through. Four narrators dilute the story and necessitate considerable withholding of information in the style of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but Foley's Miss M shows her true colours when the hotel gets cut off from the outside world, providing a solution worthy of the Queen of Crime.
Hallett returns to the Fairway Players
The Silent Appeal by Janice Hallett (Viper, £20) – Bestseller Hallett's latest reunites readers with amateur dramatic group the Fairway Players, first met in her debut novel The Appeal. This time the play is The Hollow, dramatised by Christie from her novel, and lawyers Charlotte and Femi review emails, online messages and police reports to figure out what happened.
All that is known at the start is that “a brutal murder was committed”. Hallett slowly ratchets up the tension as clashes over casting, power plays, marital suspicions and distrust of newcomers create a gallery of potential murderers and murderees. The epistolary method may not be for everyone, but Hallett excels at the form – the missives are variously funny, sinister, heartfelt and human in their relatable pettiness – and the plot is up to her usual standard.
Boyd's spy returns
Cold Sunset by William Boyd (Viking, £20) – Boyd's third novel featuring British travel-writer-cum-spy Gabriel Dax is set in 1964. Initially on the trail of a wartime Soviet double agent who operated out of Bletchley Park, Dax is then sent to Moscow to exfiltrate repentant double agent Kit Caldwell, who promises secrets in return for sanctuary in Britain. Naturally, none of this goes according to plan.
Boyd is an accomplished storyteller, excellent on period detail and often funny – the dinner party of self-important Hampstead literati is particularly good. Readers take proprietorial pleasure in seeing Dax's tradecraft gradually improve, although he remains in thrall to his MI6 handler and on/off lover, Faith Green, who continues to run rings round him. The series is best read in order.
Johnson's Atlanta novel
The Occidental Book of the Dead by T Geronimo Johnson (Abacus, £25) – Set in a lightly fictionalised version of Atlanta, Georgia, the central storyline of this wide-ranging third novel seems superficially straightforward. In 2005, after 13 years in the police force, Black officer George Washington Jonson finds himself in hot water when his redneck rookie partner shoots and kills a white teenager. A film version of the event and its aftermath serves up an acceptable narrative about racism and corruption.
But in the second half, hero-of-the-hour Jonson gives his own version of the story, which the film-makers told faithfully “except for that fairytale series finale and a couple other facts Hollywood found inconvenient”. The truth is much more complex and less comfortable: internalised racism, overlapping identities, double standards and the messiness of people's lives are laid bare in an immersive and thought-provoking read.
Ægisdóttir's series finale
The Last Tenant by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, translated by Victoria Cribb (Orenda, £9.99) – The final book in Ægisdóttir's award-winning Forbidden Iceland series sees Detective Elma Jónsdóttir investigating two skeletons – a woman and a baby, buried some years apart – discovered at a long-abandoned farmhouse outside Akranes, the small west coast town where she works. The farmer who owned it had a reputation for cruelty, but he is long dead, and his son never returned to claim the place.
Elma tries to find answers but is distracted by problems at home – might her partner be having an affair? Meanwhile, single mother Karitas and her young son Bessi are in Akranes for a fresh start, but her eccentric landlord's behaviour is becoming disturbing. Missing family members, people living with past trauma, and the insidious damage caused by secrets abound in this atmospheric and powerful novel.
