“where a good crime C r i m e can be had by all” c h r o n i c l e Issue #268 May 2008 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH ABBEY’S TURNS 40 JENNY WHITE A Continuing Retrospective: Part 5 In August 1985, Crime Chronicle changed its format from the original double-sided foolscap sheet to a folded A4 sheet, with each issue in a different colour. The new format allowed me to put more titles in each issue. In 1985, the Edgar Allan Poe Awards went to: NOVEL Briarpatch by Ross Thomas FIRST NOVEL Strike Three, You’re Dead by R D Rosen PAPERBACK ORIGINAL Grandmaster by Warren & Molly Murphy FACT CRIME Double Play: The San Francisco City Hall Killings by Mike Weiss CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL Novel Verdicts: A Guide to Courtroom Fiction by Jon Breen Unfortunately none of these titles are currently in print! Titles featured in August 1985 included Isabelle Holland’s Jenny White is a writer and social anthropologist. She has published two Death at St Anselms, Nicholas scholarly books on Turkey. Her first novel, The Sultan’s Seal, was Blake’s Smiler with a Knife and published in 2006 (Pb $22.95) featuring the Turkish magistrate Kamil J J Maloney’s I Speak for the Pasha and set in 19th century Istanbul. It was shortlisted for the Ellis Dead (again, all out of print). Peters Historical Crime Award. Authors featured who are still Her second novel, The Abyssinian Proof (343pp Tp $33), again writing today included Elmore features Kamil Pasha. In 1853, Pasha is plagued by thefts from mosques Leonard, Earl Emerson, Robert and churches of antiquities that appear for sale in Europe within days. In Barnard, Amanda Cross, James addition, there has been a series of murders in which the bodies all bear Ellroy, J A Jance and Anne Perry. the same distinctive markings. Sources lead him to a community living in Other authors mentioned who an abandoned cistern called Sunken Village and to a mysterious sect still have titles in print included descended from Abyssinian slaves. Deep within the tunnels under the old Rex Stout, Margery Allingham, city, a war is being waged and the re-emergence of a forgotten reliquary Leo Bruce, Harry Kemelman and sets off a race between those sworn to protect it and those who will stop Ross MacDonald. at nothing to exploit the secret contained within. A gripping tale of murder and mystery. Highly recommended. - Peter 2 Modern Crime Sam BAKER C J BOX This Year’s Model Free Fire 352pp Pb $15.95 A C BAANTJER 352pp Tp $33.00 Joe Pickett Mystery #7. In this newest Dekok and Murder on When Lou mystery, former game warden Joe Pickett Blood Mountain (2004) McCartney, fashion returns to investigate a murder in the 208pp Pb $26.95 reporter on The Post, wilds of Yellowstone National Park. Not The trail of a recent crime leads finds out that her only has the killer confessed, but he’s Inspector DeKok to estranged half-sister gotten off free. The reason is an absolutely Bloedberg (Blood Scarlett has gone shocker. Due May (American) Mountain), Belgium, missing in Japan, Fiona BRAND a neighbourhood in she’s left reeling. Blind Instinct 400pp Pb $13.95 Antwerp. It seems a Scarlett was man was fished from Within hours catapulted to fame as the Scheldt River and of finding a Nazi a child model, but 10 DeKok has been WWII codebook in years later her career has stalled. In a summoned to help her father’s attic, desperate bid for work, Scarlett decamps with the librarian Sara Fischer to Tokyo, where she survives on the dark investigation. (Dutch) becomes a target. edges of the industry. Then, suddenly, she Afraid for her life disappears. Due May (American) and chilled by Linda BARNES memories that have KEY Flashpoint 384pp Pb $13.95 nothing to do with Carlotta Carlyle Mystery. When six- her quiet, staid life, academic foot redhead ex-cop and Boston-based she calls in a debt. private investigator Carlotta Carlyle FBI agent Marc Bayard moves in the banking agrees to help an elderly recluse burglar- shadowy world that Sara has fallen into proof her apartment, the last thing she and may be the only one who can guide canine detectives expected was that the woman would turn her out. Due May (American) clerical up dead… Due May (American) Robert Gregory BROWNE Lenny BARTULIN Kiss Her Goodbye cosy/malice domestic Deadly Business 224pp Pb $27.95 352pp Pb $13.95 Jack Susko is trying for a quiet life in his Agent Jack Donovan has two ambitions: culinary/food second-hand bookshop in downtown take down cult leader Alex Gunderson Sydney. But when a wealthy businessman after years of violent mayhem, and fbi hires Jack to locate some books for him, he reconnect with his daughter Jessie, who is plunged into a world he thought he had has somehow managed to slip from his feline detectives left behind. Making a play for the life. But, none of Jack’s experience as a businessman’s beautiful daughter doesn’t stellar cop or an absent father has forensic help matters, and the bodies soon start prepared him for the unthinkable way piling up. Due May (Australian) these two parts of his life are about to horse racing mystery Colin BATEMAN collide. Due May (American) Orpheus Rising 384pp Tp $33.00 Edna BUCHANAN Journalists Michael Ryan was the author of a Love Kills 352pp Pb $15.95 runaway bestseller, Space Coast, but its Britt Montero Mystery #8. When a medical publication coincided with his wife’s bulldozer in the Everglades unearths the military murder in a bank raid. Ten years later, skull of an infamous kidnapper, the Cold Michael returns to the scene of the crime to Case Squad is brought in to investigate. native american exorcise the ghosts of the past and try to Reporter Britt Montero was the last write his second novel. But he discovers person to see him alive, and the detectives police procedural the grim truth behind his wife’s murder have questions only she can answer. Due and encounters the strangest of small- May (American) political/legal town behaviour... Due May (American) Alex CARR C J BOX The Prince of Bagram Prison psychological Blue Heaven 352pp Tp $32.95 320pp Tp $33.00 A 12-year-old girl and her younger It’s September 11, 2004, three years after private eye brother go on the run in the woods of the attacks on the World Trade Centre northern Idaho, pursued by four men they and the Pentagon. In Washington, DC, romantic suspense have just watched commit murder and Dick Morrow, retired spy chief and head who know exactly who William and Annie of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, sport are and where their desperate mother is is grappling with his wife’s imminent waiting for news of her children’s fate. The death. In London, former British special spy kids soon find they don’t know whom forces soldier Colin Mitchell is found they can trust among their LA transplant dead in a train station bathroom, the suspense/thriller neighbours, including hundreds of retired victim of an apparent overdose. In Southern California cops who’ve given the Virginia, Colin’s ex-lover, Katherine Pb = Paperback area its nickname, “Blue Heaven”. As a Caldwell, an Arabic specialist and Army Tp = Trade Paperback group of dirty cops spearhead the search Intelligence reservist, is unexpectedly (slightly larger) for William and Annie, one false move will called back to duty. Then another Hb = Hardback stop these children from ever finding their member of Colin’s special forces team is AUTHOR’S NATIONALITY AT END OF BLURB way home. Due May (American) found dead… Due May (American) CRIME CHRONICLE www.abbeys.com.au 3 Alex CHANCE Max Allan COLLINS Patrick CULHANE Final Days 496pp Tp $32.95 Strip for Murder 272pp Tp $27.95 Black Hats 288pp Pb $15.95 It started with a child’s letter. Karen Manhattan, 1953. Hal Rapp’s Tall Paul, This is the untold Wiley, recently qualified San Francisco one of America’s most popular comic story, rooted in factual psychologist, thought she understood strips, is now a Broadway musical, speculation, of two of moral dilemma. A tormented past, an infuriating Rapp’s long-time rival Sam the most notorious men ugly divorce, and a troubled 11-year-old Fizer, creator of the once beloved boxing of the early 20th daughter have given her more life strip Mug O’Malley. Adding insult to century, Wyatt Earp experience than she ever wanted. Now, injury is the casting of Misty Winters, and Al Capone. Earp somewhere out there, an anonymous Fizer’s wife, as one of Rapp’s hillbilly made his name in his child has begun to cry to her for help. No- gals. Then Fizer is found murdered, with younger days, serving one Karen knows is in trouble… Due May all evidence pointing to Rapp. Due May as a lawman that was (American) (American) well known for Mary Higgins CLARK John CONNOLLY bending the law where he saw fit, and Where Are You Now? The Reapers 480pp Tp $33.00 shooting first and asking questions later. 304pp Tp $29.95 Charley Parker But it’s a little-known fact that Earp spent It has been 10 years since 21-year-old #7. They are the the last 20 years of his life as a private Kevin MacKenzie, Jr (‘Mac’) went Reapers, the elite detective in Los Angeles. So when his best missing. A Columbia University senior among killers.