Clete by James Lee Burke (Orion, $37.99)
In Clete, James Lee Burke brings us a fresh take on his beloved series starring ageing Cajun investigator Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel, his long-time friend. Or, as Burke has described him over the years, an “albino ape” in a pork-pie hat, a trickster of folklore, a quasi-psychotic jarhead who came back from Vietnam with a chest full of medals and memories he never shared. After his car is ransacked by thugs tied to a Mexican cartel, Clete decides to trail the culprits. Meanwhile, he’s hired to investigate a slippery ex-husband and deaths that seem linked to a heavily tattooed man. A hallucinating Clete and Dave hear rumours of a lethal new drug, perhaps tied to the thugs who destroyed his car. While Clete centres on the sidekick, Burke’s change-up gives readers a new perspective on Clete and Dave. Vivid and violent, Clete skitters along on Burke’s masterful prose, soaks us in its Louisiana setting, and gives readers long-time and new a haymaker of a read.
The Cuckoo by Camilla Läckberg, translated by Ian Giles (Hemlock Press, $37.99)
After stepping away to craft revenge thrillers so different in style that last year she had to refute accusations of using a ghostwriter, Swedish author Camilla Läckberg returns with The Cuckoo, the long-awaited 11th novel in her popular Fjällbacka series. Set in Läckberg’s own childhood hometown, in The Cuckoo the tiny community is shaken by two violent acts: the brutal murder of famous photographer Rolf Stenklo and a tragedy that leaves the family of Nobel laureate Henning Bauer devastated. With his boss acting weirdly, Detective Patrik Hedström must lead a struggling investigation. Meanwhile, Patrik’s wife, noted journalist Erica Falck, is looking for a subject for her next true-crime book, and travels to Stockholm to dig into an unsolved murder from Stenklo’s past. Läckberg lures readers in with her sense of character and place, ratcheting up tension and action as we move between present and past timelines. There’s a 1980s timeline, and its issues still echo loudly today: love, lies, revenge, sins of all sorts and LGBTQI+ prejudice.
Jericho’s Dead by William Hussey (Bonnier, $45)
Last year, British author William Hussey – whose award-winning kids’ and YA oeuvre ranged from horror to romcoms – turned his talents to adult crime fiction in Jericho’s Dead, producing one of the year’s best books and one of the freshest leads we’ve seen in ages. Now, Scott Jericho is back. He’s a haunted man who grew up gay in the tight-knit but prejudiced traveller community, became a cop then convict, and tried to escape his ghosts through a haze of drugs, casual sex and his keen observation skills. After the superb climax to his first outing, he’s trying to be done with puzzles, murder and the darkness that rages within. But he can’t stand by when a killer targets someone close to him, fortune tellers and psychics are being murdered, and things seem to be building to a live TV event on Halloween hosted from “one of the most haunted” buildings in Britain.
