Crimefile: For some years now George Pelecanos has been among the higher echelons of American crime writers such as Dennis Lehane, James Ellroy and Michael Connelly, but with The Night Gardener I feel he has outpaced the posse. The story begins in 1985, with someone killing teenagers with names that read back-to-front, such as Otto, Ava and Eve. The killer was never caught.
Now, some 20 years later, it appears that the murderer has struck again, with the discovery of another dead teenager by the name of Asa. Two men, who were patrolmen in 1985, have gone their different ways: Gus Ramone is a well-thought-of police sergeant, while Dan Holiday has been drummed out of the force. But their paths cross again when this new body is discovered. Pelecanos sets his locations in Washington DC and he really gets under the skin of his cast of characters: the police, the crooks, the druggies, the prostitutes and, yes, the killers. The Night Gardener is a powerful novel that crosses genres, much like Dennis Lehane's Mystic River, and it just demands to be read. I would highly recommend it.
Karin Slaughter - is there a better name for a crime writer around? - sets her novel Triptych in Atlanta, where homicide detective Michael Ormewood is called out to a murder scene at the notorious project known as the Grady Homes. It is one of the most brutal killings he has come across: prostitute Aleesha Munroe has been found in a stairwell in a pool of her own blood, horribly mutilated and with her tongue bitten off. This is no one-off murder, but the latest in a series of similar attacks, so Ormewood is given a helper, Special Agent Will Trent, a man whom Ormewood instinctively dislikes. Strangely enough, as in Pelecanos's book, these murders are inextricably linked with another killing that took place in 1985. In solving these murders, the detectives have to look closer to home than they would have liked. Slaughter has written a string of bestsellers over the past few years, and I've no doubt that this present offering will do likewise. Not for the squeamish, however.
If writers such as Mark Timlin and Ken Bruen could be said to be writing London noir, then Paul Charles might be said to be penning London Blanc. His series detective, DI Christy Kennedy, likes nothing better than a hot sugared cup of tea, his girlfriend says things like "Just ducky", and there's actually a character in this present volume, Sweetwater, called Nealey Dean. The writing too is of the cosy variety, as opposed to the staccato style of the aforementioned writers. This time Christy, still recovering from an old wound, is dealing with two cases: a missing person and the murder of an acquaintance called Harry Ford. They turn out to be slightly linked, a priest called Fr Vincent O'Connor having known both the missing person and the murdered one. Christy is an engaging type, as he stumbles through the investigation, and the method of the killing is highly original in the extreme. And there's a very nice little twist in the closing chapter that caught me unawares.
The blurb of Glenn Meade's novel, The Devil's Disciple, compares the author to Tom Clancy, but a better comparison might be with Hannibal Lector's creator, Thomas Harris. The heroine here is FBI agent Kate Moran. For some years she's been on the trail of the serial killer known as the Devil's Disciple, who, among some 28 killings, has murdered Kate's fiancé David and his 13-year-old daughter, Megan.
She does capture him, but before he is executed, he promises that he will rise from the dead. Soon the double murders begin again, and Kate treats them as copycat killings, but they resemble the former killings so much that it appears the Devil's Disciple has escaped execution after all. The pace of this novel is frenetic, as Kate tries to keep ahead of a vengeance-seeking madman, who is out to do her in. Again, however, not for the squeamish.
Lawrence Block's Hit Parade is the third in a series featuring New York hitman John Keller. Best to treat these books as tongue-in-cheek, for Keller is put forward as a kind of anti-hero, in spite of his profession. The book is a kind of interlinked series of short stories, the link being fashioned by Keller's relationship with Dot, the woman who sets up the various killings that he carries out. I don't think it's possible for Block to write a bad book, he is so correct in his dialogue, his set pieces and his cast of weird and wonderful characters. If you can swallow the fact of Keller's job of work, dear reader, then this is a highly entertaining and even funny novel.
And talking of funny novels, Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn is subtitled "A Jolly Murder Mystery" - think of Agatha Christie on laughing gas! The setting is Edinburgh during the festival, the characters are as eccentric as they come, and the story is like a house of cards imploding upon itself. A road rage incident kicks off the action, there is an effeminate crime fiction writer, a hit man, a guy cheating on his wife, a twittering wife who doesn't care that her husband is cheating on her, a Russian prostitute, a fading comedian who comes into fatal contact with a baseball bat . . . I could go on, but I don't wish to spoil the readers' enjoyment.
And finally something entirely different: a factual rather than a fictional offering from Michael Connelly. As well as being a best-selling writer of thrillers, many of them featuring astringent detective Harry Bosch, Connelly has been in his time a reporter on the crime beat of the Los Angeles Times, and this is a collection of some of his best pieces. The book is divided into sections on Cops, Killers and Cases, and it gives particular insight into Connelly's fictional work. It's a must for all Connelly fans.
The Night Gardener By George Pelecanos Orion, £12.99 Triptych By Karin Slaughter Century, £14.99 Sweetwater By Paul Charles Brandon, €22.99 The Devil's Disciple By Glenn Meade Hodder & Stoughton, £19.99 Hit Parade By Lawrence Block Orion, £16.99 One Good Turn By Kate Atkinson Doubleday, £17.99 Crime Beat: True Stories of Cops and Killers By Michael Connelly Orion, £16.99
Vincent Banville is an author