Crime, Thrillers & Suspense: 5 Hot New Books

Cynthia Ross Cravit | April 22nd, 2015

From the glam world of mobsters in a world gone by to a gruesome murder in modern day London and a demented fan stalking a famous Italian opera star, here are 5 new mysteries and must-reads

WORLD GONE BY by Dennis Lehane

Can you be a good person and a good mobster at the same time? In the third installment of the popular historical fiction series starring former mob boss Joe Coughlin, America is embroiled in the Second World War even as Joe fights for his life in a smaller, but still lethal war of his own.

Now consigliore to the infamous Bartolo Crime family, Joe holds a privileged place in Tampa’s shadowy underworld, mixing with mobsters and crime bosses, but also the city’s social elites, powerful politicians and business chiefs. He is also one of Florida’s biggest supporters of charities, friend of numerous hospitals, libraries and shelters, and the doting father of Tomas, who has grown into a sensitive and artistic 10-year-old. But Joe’s life is turned upside down when he receives information that the sins from his past have come back to haunt him and someone wants him dead — and he has only days to figure out who.

A World Gone By (Harper Collins) is available at Amazon.ca and Indigo

FALLING IN LOVE: A COMMISSARIO GUIDO BRUNETTI MYSTERY by Donna Leon

Evil enters paradise again. In Donna Leon’s new book featuring the beloved and ever elegant Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti and his wife, Paola, soprano Flavia Petrelli returns to Venice to sing the lead in Tosca. (Fans of this excellent series will remember Flavia from Leon’s first novel Death at Fenice, when she was suspected of poisoning a famous German conductor.)

This time the famous opera singer is in danger, literally, from excessive adoration. An anonymous fan has been stalking her from one European city to another, performance after performance, showering her with gifts and yellow roses. But annoyance turns into alarm when a talented Venetian singer who has caught Flavia’s attention is savagely attacked and left for dead. Brunetti must use his prodigious skills to enter the psyche of an obsessive admirer before Flavia, or anyone, else comes to harm. An intelligent mystery tale, that takes you deep into the heart and pleasures of Venetian life. You’ll enjoy the writing – and the gondola ride.

Falling in Love: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery (Atlantic Monthly Press) is available on Amazon.com and Indigo

MEMORY MAN by David Baldacci

Many people with traumatic brain injury face cognitive problems like difficulties with concentration, learning and memory. But for David Baldacci’s newest character, a rising star in the NFL, the opposite is true: after suffering a severe helmet-to-helmet injury that ended his football career, Amos Decker lost his ability to forget. He remembers, literally, everything.

It’s a skill set, of course, that’s perfect for a police detective. Decker can recall every detail of a crime scene after walking it only once, and play back verbatim testimony by a suspect or witness. But fate strikes again, when he arrives home and finds his own family murdered. What was a blessing – his infallible memory – becomes a living nightmare. Even when the clues dry up, the man with the perfect memory must solve a seemingly perfect crime that he’d rather forget.

Memory Man (Grand Central Publishing), is available at Amazon.ca and Indigo

EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES by Lisa Scottoline

Menace lurks in everyday life in ways we don’t like to think about, but what if you attract the attention of a true sociopath? Lisa Scottoline’s new thriller follows Dr. Eric Parrish, a recently divorced father and Chief of the Psychiatric Unit at a Philadelphia hospital, who takes on a high-risk patient who can’t control his obsessive and sometimes violent thoughts toward a girl he likes.

The doctor’s world takes a turn for the worse when the girl is found murdered and Parrish himself may be implicated. Told partially from the point-of-view of the sociopath, it’s a fast-paced story that pits the doctor against a killer determined to systematically destroy his personal and professional life.

Every Fifteen Minutes (St. Martin’s Press) is available at Amazon.ca and Indigo

THE JIGSAW MAN by Elena Forbes

The fourth in the bestselling British police-procedural series finds DI Mark Tartaglia investigating a murder in a west London hotel, coincidentally the very same hotel he had left hours before after spending a night with a woman he’d just met. While the victim isn’t his latest love interest, as he feared, it is someone he knows. But this isn’t the only complication. In another case, the body of a man found in a burnt-out car is not a homeless man as originally thought, but the corpse has been assembled from the body parts of four different people. It’s a macabre puzzle indeed.

The Jigsaw Man (Anansi Press) is available at Amazon.ca and Indigo

What are you reading? Let us know in the comments!