Winter is a good time for crime fiction. The snow has lost its whiteness, all the holiday decorations are back in the attic, and by February it feels like spring will never come. What’s left to do? Crack open a book and try to stave off frostbite. For your depressed reading pleasure, here’s a New Year’s roundup of some promising noir, mystery, and true crime to ring in 2015.
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'Quarry's Choice' by Max Allan Collins
January 5th
Quarry's Choice is the latest installment in a series that's been ongoing since the seventies by the author of Road to Perdition. It follows a hitman protagonist down a rabbit hole of Dixie thugs, alligators, and small Southern towns. Several other pulptastic titles are arriving through Hard Case Crime in the coming months, including Thieves Fall Out, the first reprint of Gore Vidal’s twentieth-century classic in sixty years.
[amazon 1783290846 inline]
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'Winter at the Door' by Sarah Graves
January 6th
Bantam released Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves at the beginning of January, a thriller set deep in the North Woods of Maine (I’m noticing a theme with these names. Further proof of my point, you don’t see many crime titles about the summer sun or running through sprinklers). If you want to really embrace the essence of cold and the spirit of winter, this might be the book for you.
[amazon 978-0345535016]
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'The Honest Folk of Guadeloupe' by Timothy Williams
January 13th
The Honest Folk of Guadeloupe from Soho Press promises a unique setting and some poignant social issues about cultural tourism and whitewashing in crime reportage. If you missed it, Japanese hard-boiled master Fuminori Nakamura (The Thief) has a new title through them that was released earlier this fall.
[amazon 978-1616953850]
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'The Girl on the Train' by Paula Hawkins
January 13th
Newly released The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is being hailed as a “Hitchcockian thriller” that takes place on a commuter rail, which sounds messy. A whole smattering of new Nordic noir recently hit the U.S. market as well, just in time for the cold weather. Included are some moody, icy works by Arnaldur Indridason and Karin Fossum.
[amazon 978-1594633669]
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'Serpents in the Cold' by Thomas O'Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy
January 20th
Little, Brown and Company’s crime imprint, Mulholland Books, has a number of promising titles on its 2015 roster. I was lucky enough to obtain an advance reader copy of Serpents in the Cold, out on Jan. 20. The story follows two friends on the tail of a serial killer in bleak, 1950s post-war Boston. So far it’s been a highly atmospheric glimpse into some of the city’s darkest corners.
[amazon 978-0316323505]
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'Blood-Drenched Beard' by Daniel Galera
January 22nd
Brazilian novelist Daniel Galera’s intriguingly named Blood-Drenched Beard is another one to watch, if you like vigilante gauchos and characters with unusual neurological conditions. After learning the truth about his grandfather's death, a young man moves to the seaside village where the event took place to piece together answers.
[amazon 978-1594205743]
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'The Buried Life' by Carrie Patel
March 3rd
I’ve had my eye on The Buried Life by Carrie Patel (Angry Robot) for a while now, ever since it came up on one of my recommendations lists. I admit that the cover drew me in, but the summary is what held my interest. Murder investigations in a vast underground dystopia? I’m game. For those who like a touch of the fantastic in their mystery, Angry Robot is also publishing a sequel to steam-driven detective tale, The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter.
[amazon 978-0857665218]
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'Master Thieves' by Stephen Kurkujian
March 10th
If true crime is your poison of choice, keep a weather eye on the horizon for Master Thieves by Stephen Kurkujian, a look at some of the recent updates on the Gardner Museum art heist. There are some tantalizing hints in the summary— might we finally find out who pulled off one the biggest museum heists in history?
[amazon 978-1610394239]
And lastly, this list wouldn’t be complete without a mention of film noir somewhere. For West Coasters, the 2015 San Francisco Film Noir Festival is happening…approximately now, on Jan. 16-25 at the Castro Theatre.
There’s so much to choose from, you could grab some whiskey and plan an entire winter wallowing party. Invite the neighborhood and let us know how it turns out.
About the author
Leah Dearborn is a Boston-based writer with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in international relations from UMass Boston. She started writing for LitReactor in 2013 while paying her way through journalism school and hopping between bookstore jobs (R.I.P. Borders). In the years since, she’s written articles about everything from colonial poisoning plots to city council plans for using owls as pest control. If it’s a little strange, she’s probably interested.
