thrillers & crime fiction
SPOOK STREET by Mick Herron ( Hachette, $ 35)
Meet Jackson Lamb, head spook at Slough House. He’s a former Cold War operative gone to seed and oversees a slovenly but talented team of second- grade operatives. According to his creator . . . “his experiences have left him with a jaundiced view of the way the intelligence services operate, and he prefers the lazy life: tormenting his underlings, drinking too much and eating Chinese takeaways”. Quite a bit of which happens in this fourth Jackson Lamb novel, which has been called “the finest new crime series this millennium”. For once, that blurb’s right on the money. Herron’s wry humour, sense of character, place ( rainy, miserable London) and dialogue sets him right up there with le Carre. I finished this and promptly ordered everything he’s written. Superb.
MAESTRA by L. S. Hilton ( Bonnier, $ 17)
Orgies, murder and dodgy art dealers; sounds like a best- seller to me. After several modestselling historical books, Hilton hits the jackpot with this tale of a pretty and ambitious London gallery assistant of modest means who wants a fast- track to the good things in life. Our 20- something heroine Judith Rasleigh’s a whip- smart femme fatale in a post- Kardashian world, whose humble origins sharpen her criminal resolve — no more tights drying over the heater for her — and her journey to wealth and power involves lots of sex and shopping for designer dresses. Less thriller than subversive post- feminist social satire, it has the blunt candour of Hilton herself — a 40- something solo mother whose experience as an intern at Christies clearly informs Maestra. Judith’s catch- abillionaire-will- travel goals upset some of the Literary Sisterhood but Maestra’s bonk- buster reputation disguises a razor- sharp novel on class and power.
RATHER BE THE DEVIL by Ian Rankin ( Orion, $ 33)
No, of course John Rebus doesn’t let retirement stop him solving cases even though he has dodgy lungs —“Hank Marvin,” he calls the shadow that doctors have found there. He’s swapped the hard liquor for lowalcohol beer and is forgoing cigarettes but thankfully his gruff humour remains intact. Again, Rebus gets more than a little help from DI’s Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox but he’s still the best thing in this, his 21st appearance with a title inspired by a track by the late John Martyn. And the past plays a big part here: the unsolved murder of a beautiful, promiscuous Maria Turquand. How that crime connects with the beating of an Edinburgh gangster keeps the mystery and tension high, which is needed as there’s not a hell of a lot of action on show. A couple of quibbles; how Rebus worms his way into a police investigation stretches credibility and more could have been made of his health scare.
RAGDOLL Daniel Cole ( Hachette, $ 35)
Another English writer making waves, Cole’s an ex- paramedic and this debut earned him a six- figure advance from Orion 48 hours after receiving ( unsolicited) three chapters. That’s unheard of and the TV rights followed. When a body’s discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together, it’s a piece of macabre theatre and it’s pointing to the apartment where Cole’s hero, Detective William “Wolf” Fawkes, lives. If the plot gets a little ridiculous, it’s a much better written novel than many on the bestseller shelves, which is where this will undoubtedly end up.