Believe by S. M. Govett (Michael Joseph £16.99, 384pp)
Ten years ago Natalie Campbell formally accused her boss – at the law firm where she worked – of sexually assaulting her. The case went to trial and he was acquitted. But he had a heart attack the next day and died, leaving his widow furious with Natalie.
Now, a decade later, Natalie is trying to keep her sanity while getting anonymous letters accusing her of being a liar and a whore.
When her husband Ryan is accused of rape by Alice, a young work colleague, Natalie’s life is thrown into the maelstrom again. Then Alice is found dead and Natalie’s husband is the prime suspect. Natalie wants to believe him, but can she? After a deceptively slow start, this debut from a former solicitor rapidly transforms into one of the finest crime stories of the year so far. Govett is a name to watch.
What the Night Brings by Mark Billingham (Sphere £22, 432pp)
Four uniformed police officers – two men and two women – are standing guard at the entrance to a cul-de-sac, while armed police arrest a suspect.
DI Tom Thorne watches them enviously as they eat doughnuts, as he hasn’t eaten since yesterday. The doughnuts are a gift from a bystander – with a note saying, ‘Thanks for everything you do’.
But within 24 hours, three of the uniformed officers are dead and the fourth is in a coma. They have been poisoned. So begins Billingham’s latest novel, his 25th of the past 25 years, which underlines what a magnificent crime writer he is.
The officers’ deaths are the start of a vendetta against the police, but the plot also discloses the horrors that can lurk within the force. Superb storytelling.
This House of Burning Bones by Stuart MacBride (Macmillan £22, 640pp)
It is high summer in Scotland’s Granite City, Aberdeen, and the population is sweltering, but crime is rife.
A peeping tom (and potential rapist), who is hiding in an expensive flat to attack the owner, witnesses a detective hit her and stuff her inert body into the boot of his car, but he does not report the crime.
Meanwhile a 19-year-old man, who might be responsible for an arson attack on a migrant hotel, escapes the police by jumping out of a window and stealing an ice-cream van before plunging it into the River Don.
The police are struggling to cope, as many are suffering from a rampant illness. This is the 20th outing in 20 years for MacBride’s DI Logan McRae and it is as fierce, funny and compelling as its predecessors.
