Book Talk
with Smiffs book & card store, Nerja
Author Peter Robinson’s
fictional policeman,
Detective Chief
Superintendent (DCI) Banks,
is well on his way to
becoming a global favourite.
DCI Banks novels have won
numerous awards in Europe,
the UK, the United States and
Canada, and are published in
translation all over the world.
DCI Banks is now a major
UK television drama starring
Stephen Tompkinson as
Banks.
publication include: The
Sinners (p), by Ace Atkins;
End Game (l), by David
Baldacci; A Noise Downstairs
(l), by Linwood Barclay; Price
Of Duty (p), by Dale Brown;
Origin (p), by Dan Brown;
Seeing Red (p), by Sandra
Brown; Robicheaux: You
Know My Name (l), by James
Lee Burke; The Boy At The
Door (l), by Alex Dahl; Home
(p), by Karen Dionne; Guilty
(p), by Laura Elliot; Day Of
The Dead (l), by Nicci
French; Force Of Nature (l),
Jane Harper; Last Instructions
(p), by Nir Hezroni; The
Good Sister (l), by Morgan
Jones; After The Monsoon (p), by Robert Karjel; Betty Church
And The Sussex Vampire (l), by MRC Kasasian; Tall Order (l)
and The Shout (p), by Stephen Leather; I’ll Keep You Safe (p),
by Peter May; Displaced, by
Barbara Nadel (l); East Of
Hounslow (p), by Khurrum
Rahman; The Other Wife (l),
by Michael Rowbotham; The
Other Woman (l) and House
Of Spies (p), by Daniel Silva;
Pieces Of Her (l), by Karin
Slaughter; and, Bloodmoon
(l), by Peter Tremayne.
The 25th DCI Banks novel,
Careless Love (l), leads off
this month’s Soltalk Hotlist
of titles, some entirely new, others moving into small
paperback format for the first time or being reissued,
sometimes after years out of print. All are due for publication
on dates in July, with availability in print this month or in early
August. The Hotlist helps readers to plan and budget for book
ordering.
In Robinson’s latest story, a local student has apparently
committed suicide. Her body is found in an abandoned car on
a lonely country road. She did not own a car and did not even
drive. How did she get there? Where did she die? Who moved
her, and why? Meanwhile, a man in his sixties is found dead in
a gully up on the wild moorland. He is wearing an expensive
suit and carries no identification. Post-mortem findings
indicate he died from injuries sustained during the fall. But
what was he doing up there? And why are there no signs of a
car in the vicinity? DCI Banks and his team now find
themselves with two suspicious deaths.
In the novel Liar Liar (l), by
the prolific James Patterson,
revenge is coming, and her
name is Harriet Blue.
Detective Blue is clear about
two things. Regan Banks
deserves to die, and Blue will
be the one to pull the trigger.
But Regan, the ‘Georges
River Killer’ responsible for
destroying her brother’s life,
has gone to ground. Harriet
now needs to disappear too,
before her colleagues stop
her carrying out an act that
could end her career, her
freedom, even her life.
Suddenly, her phone rings. It
is him. Regan, and he wants
to play ‘catch me if you can’. Within hours, Harry is following
his clues along a path of devastation down the Australian south
coast. If inspirational biographies
rather than thrillers are your
read of choice on holiday,
then seek out No Way But
This (p), Jeff Sparrow’s
account of the life and times
of Paul Robeson, once the
most famous African-
American alive. He was a
brilliant student and athlete who abandoned a legal career to
find worldwide fame as a performer and activist. Then he lost
everything for his principles. The son of a former slave,
Robeson’s life took him from
a segregated ghetto to
Hollywood via the Harlem
Renaissance and London’s
West End. While he stunned
audiences with his
performances of Ol’ Man
River and Othello, he also
championed social justice
around the world, from the
frontiers of the Spanish Civil
War to the coal-mining
towns of Wales. His journey
would end in the courtrooms
of the McCarthy hearings.
In addition, Patterson’s Alex Cross thriller, The People vs Alex
Cross (p), moves into small paperback format. Other crime
capers worth a look from this month’s extensive list for More than 13 million visitors
a year travel to Spain’s Islas
Canarias, the Canary Islands,
48