Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan (Hodder, $37.99)
What can one man’s fate say about a new nation’s soul? Award-winning author Vaseem Khan, new chair of the UK’s Crime Writers’ Association, soaks readers in the politics and prejudice of India in 1950 (India became independent in 1947) in his fourth Malabar House historical mystery. It’s a sumptuously written page-turner in which Persis Wadia, Bombay’s first female police detective, is handed a poisoned chalice by her superiors. James Whitby, an India-born scion of an arch-colonialist, is set to hang for the murder of a noted Indian lawyer. Whitby claims he’s innocent. Wadia must review a case most of her colleagues and fellow Indians who suffered through the Raj want to see end with a taut rope and a swinging “Englishman”. Khan adroitly tightropes history and mystery, texturing his superb story with vivid, fascinating renditions of its time and place, while never veering towards lecture or textbook. A terrific crime tale meshing personal and political. Can be read standalone, though the series is rather addictive.
The Second Murderer by Denise Mina (Vintage, $37)
Glaswegian author Denise Mina has already shown throughout her outstanding oeuvre that she’s a crime-writing chameleon. From her Garnethill series starring a psych patient-turned-sleuth through award-winning police procedurals and novelisations of real-life murders in the 1560s and 1950s, Mina is continually pushing boundaries. In The Second Murderer, she slips on the skin of one of the most famed sleuths of all. It’s 1940s Los Angeles and Philip Marlowe is pickling his conscience over one case when he’s summoned to the Montgomery Estate, high in Beverly Hills. Dying mogul Chadwick Montgomery wants Marlowe to try to find his missing daughter Chrissie. “Try” seems more important than “find”. And while Marlowe is a solo sleuth, he’s not alone on the case. Anne Riordan (from Farewell, My Lovely) has opened her own agency and Montgomery has hired her too. Mina conjures a cracking tale for long-time Chandler fans and those who consider the originals outdated. It’s stylishly written, full of quips and keen-eyed description, excellent plotting, Marlowe being Marlowe and a more fully realised wider cast sans some of the casual racism and sexism. Skid Row, September heatwaves, dive bars, duplicity and dead bodies. Excellent.
All of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins (Macmillan, $37.99)
Essex author Fiona Cummins sets her terrific new DC Saul Anguish tale in modern times but it too echoes history. An unhinged couple on a cross-country killing spree evoke the 1930s exploits of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. All of Us Are Broken is an emotional roller coaster of a book from its opening pages, when a widow on a restorative trip to the Scottish Highlands is given a horrifying “Sophie’s choice” by the killer couple. Pick one of your children to die, or you all die. DC Anguish, who has grown from troubled teen in Cummins’ earliest novels to troubled detective in her latest ones, is on their trail, but can he and forensic linguist Dr Clover March, aka “Blue”, save any of the Hardwicke family and other hostages in the lodge by the loch? With fascinating characters, nerve-racking action and gut-punch twists, Cummins delivers a superb read.
