The Girl in Cell A
by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton, $37.99)
Forensics found close to the body pointed to her alone: fingerprints on the shotgun, gunshot residue. There’s plenty of motive given events of that day, and her whole life. It’s no surprise that Orianna Negi was convicted of killing Gideon Wyclerc, scion of the family that founded Eden Falls. Yet Orianna has always maintained her innocence, despite being unable to recall events. A teen killer with dissociative amnesia, a controversial diagnosis fuelling her true crime celebrity. This is a brilliant swerve for Khan, a British author who’s built a strong following thanks to his first-class Malabar House historical mysteries, set in the post-Raj years of his ancestral homeland. Here, he alternates between doctor and patient perspectives of prison forensic psychologist Annie Ledet, who is charged with helping Orianna unlock her own psyche, and Orianna herself. The novel, a masterful mix of psychological thriller and rural noir that soaks readers in a town full of secrets and scandals and a crumbling dynasty with its own mythology, is about the stories we believe and the lies we tell ourselves, which linger long after its final page.
Innocent Guilt
by Remi Kone (Quercus, $37.99)
Remi Kone opens her crime-writing account with a bang. Sparked by a blood-soaked office worker tottering down the road, past DI Leah Hutch and DS Benjamin Randle, and into a South London police station, the story raises many questions about the court of public opinion and the nature of good and evil. The woman refuses to speak, and the blood on her clothes and the baseball bat she dragged behind her are not hers. Meanwhile, ageing hack Odie Reid gets a tip-off that leads her to a man battered to death in a nearby park. Is the near-catatonic woman a murderer? Why was he killed? Kone, an Emmy-nominated TV producer for British crime dramas like Spooks and Killing Eve, crafts a fascinating story that delves into dark corners of the human psyche and forces both Hutch and Reid to confront what they’ve believed about their own pasts. How much do we fool ourselves, to protect ourselves? Patchy in places, but overall a good addition to the genre and hopefully just the beginning for Kone.
Nightshade
by Michael Connelly (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)
More than 30 years after his debut starring relentless LAPD Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, Connelly has maintained a high storytelling standard while growing his fictional universe. Nightshade introduces a new hero and setting. Detective Stilwell has begun to settle into his posting on rustic Catalina Island, where the LA County Sheriff’s Department sends its exiles and misfits, only for life to be upturned when a woman’s body is pulled from the harbour. Despite being warned off, Stilwell can’t resist encroaching on the investigation, risking his career and more. There’s a deceptive ease to Connelly’s storytelling that belies the level of craft, akin to watching a superb musician on stage. Nightshade is a page-turner that never feels rushed or thin, finely balanced between character, setting and mystery storyline. A very good read.
