If you’re like me, you love a well-crafted police procedural mystery. The author has a unique job: they must construct both an investigation and the crime. Other subgenres in the mystery/suspense category do this, too, of course. But the modern police procedural has to have a high level of procedural accuracy because 21st century readers know a lot about forensics, investigations, and the like. Readers aren’t afraid of pointing out any mistakes in their reviews, either!
But realistically, most criminals are dumb. Realistically, the detective isn’t working only one murder case at a time. So the challenge for modern police procedural authors is to juggle realism with the twist-filled plotlines and complex, non-stereotypical characters that readers demand. Oh, and juggle all that marketing and publicizing their work while still retaining enough sanity to write the next novel.
I digress.
If you’re looking for new police procedurals that will be published this spring, you’ve probably heard of the “big” names from the large publishers already. But you might not have heard of some equally fabulous books from some of the smaller/indie presses. Plus, I currently have a giveaway for one of the books, so read on!
January 2020
Mexico Street by Simone Buchholz
Hamburg state prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a series of arson attacks on cars across the city, which leads her to a startling and life-threatening discovery involving criminal gangs and a very illicit love story…
And until March 18, 2020, there’s a giveaway for Mexico Street on my blog.
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February
The Harlech Beach Killings by Simon McCleave
Publication Date: February 10, 2020 (and there’s a fourth book in the series due out in April 2020!)
from the blurb: “A murdered millionaire. A violent drug operation. Can a detective with a haunted past stop the next assassination?
Detective Inspector Ruth Hunter is still struggling to deal with her stress. So when the body of a businessman washes up on a secluded North Wales shore, the former London cop is anxious to prove she can lead the local investigative team and nail the killer. But as she digs into the dead millionaire’s business affairs, DI Hunter discovers a disturbing link to an infamous Liverpudlian drug lord…”
In her review of The Harlech Beach Killings, GingerBookGeek writes, “Simon writes so realistically and uses such vivid descriptions that I felt like I was part of the story myself and that I was another member of the investigative team.”
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Rage and Retribution by Lorraine Mace
Publication Date: February 13, 2020.
“Can two wrongs ever make a right?
A man is found by the side of a canal, comatose and brutally attacked. It quickly becomes clear that someone is abducting men and subjecting them to horrific acts of torture. After three days they’re released, fighting for their lives and refusing to speak.
A councillor is accused of fraud. Montague Mason is an upstanding member of the community. That is until he’s publicly accused of stealing the youth centre’s funds – an accusation that threatens to rip through the very heart of the community and expose his best-kept secret. But how far would he go to protect himself?
Two cases. One deadly answer.
As the two cases collide, D.I. Paolo Sterling finds he has more questions than answers. And, when torture escalates to murder, he suddenly finds himself in a race against time to find the killer and put an end to the depravity – once and for all.” from Rage and Retribution’s blurb on Goodreads
Reviewers compare Mace’s work to the books of Karin Slaughter, Tess Gerritsen, and Mo Hayder.
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Avenge the Dead by Jackie Baldwin
Publication Date: February 28, 2020
Secrets, revenge, a fiery death, and a town that holds bad memories for returning investigators Farrell and McLeod. As they investigate the brutal murder of a defense lawyer’s wife. Then someone kills another defense lawyer’s son. Is there a link between the two deaths or only a brutal coincidence? Soon they uncover another case: the gruesome death of a young woman in a fire many years ago. Reviewers compare Baldwin’s Scottish crime thrillers to the work of L J Ross and Val McDermid.
I was lucky enough to participate in a blog tour for Baldwin’s book! You can read my review of Avenge the Dead here, and be sure to check out some of the reviews from other bloggers, too.
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March 2020
Deadly Waters by OMJ Ryan
Publication Date: March 15, 2020
“Someone has been watching. Now the guilty will be punished. Several young women have recently drowned in Manchester’s vast network of canals. A coincidence? Or something more sinister?
When star detective DCI Jane Phillips begins to investigate, her finely tuned instinct tells her these are no accidents. And when she discovers that each of the drowned women has a mysterious circular bruise on the back of her neck, Phillips is sure of it – she’s up against a very clever serial killer. But how are the victims being chosen? And who will be next?
With the body count rising, Phillips and her team find themselves in a fight to the death with a shadowy figure who always seems to be one step ahead. Can Phillips stop the killer before the next victim dies? Or will she herself become an offering to Manchester’s deadly waters? (from the blurb of Deadly Waters on FantasticFiction.)
If you’re a fan of Robert Bryndza, Angela Marsons, or Peter James, check out Deadly Waters, book two of the DCI Jane Phillips series. It sounds like a good one!
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Paper Soldiers by Mark Pettinger
Publication Date: March 16, 2020.
“The streets of Greater Manchester are awash with drugs and weapons, and the gangs that control this multi-million pound business will stop at nothing to protect and grow their business. The Dolsen family are one such gang.
When the head of a rival Yardie gang is found brutally murdered, revenge attacks were always likely to follow, and gang members were unlikely to be the only ones hurt.
DCI Priest teams up with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA); but they soon admit to conflicting objectives which may unravel their alliance, and prove to it be more of a hindrance than a help.
Was DCI Priest was about to undertake his most challenging investigation to date?” (from the Goodreads blurb of Paper Soldiers.)
DampPebbles will be hosting a blog tour for this novel in May 2020, so stay tuned for more information. I’ll link some reviews when that happens!
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April 2020
Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl
translated by Don Bartlett
Publication Date: April 30, 2020.
I’ll be hosting a giveaway for Sister during the Orenda Books blog tour. So if the book piques your interest, check back on April 22! (Or on my Twitter account: @MeredithRankin2)
“Oslo detective Frølich searches for the mysterious sister of a young female asylum seeker, but when people start to die, everything points to an old case and a series of events that someone will do anything to hide…
Suspended from duty, Detective Frølich is working as a private investigator, when his girlfriend’s colleague asks for his help with a female asylum seeker, who the authorities are about to deport. She claims to have a sister in Norway, and fears that returning to her home country will mean instant death.
Frølich quickly discovers the whereabouts of the young woman’s sister, but things become increasingly complex when she denies having a sibling, and Frølich is threatened off the case by the police. As the body count rises, it becomes clear that the answers lie in an old investigation, and the mysterious sister, who is now on the run…
A dark, chilling and up-to-the-minute Nordic Noir thriller, Sister is also a tense and well-plotted murder mystery with a moving tragedy at its heart, cementing Kjell Ola Dahl as one of the greatest crime writers of our generation.” (from the Goodreads blurb.)
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May 2020
A Full Cold Moon by Lissa Marie Redmond
Publication Date: May 5, 2020
From Lissa Marie Redmond’s website: “A murder of an Icelandic man during a Full Cold Moon reminds Lauren Riley of a previous case she failed to solve. She is determined not to let it happen again.
Since her partner on the Cold Case team has been out of action after being shot in the line of duty, Lauren Riley has been working Homicide. Her latest case involves an Icelandic man murdered on the streets of Buffalo mere feet from his hotel.
The brutality of the case hits Lauren hard. When she realizes the murder was committed on the night of a Full Cold Moon, it triggers memories of the first cold case she investigated that she’s been unable to solve.
Lauren is determined not to fail again but when she is involved in a shooting with a suspect, she finds the case may be taken out of her hands… especially when it gains attention from the Icelandic government.”
Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley’s generosity, I’ll be reviewing A Full Cold Moon on April 4, 2020 here on the blog. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s number three on my TBR list. I’m excited about it, as I’ve read several books from Crooked Lane and enjoyed them all.
The same author has another book due out in early April 2020. It’s not in the Lauren Riley series, but the Amazon blurb of The Secrets They Left Behind sounds thrilling:
“Three college freshmen go missing from their rural hometown of Kelly’s Falls while on Christmas break. Their cell phones, coats, and purses are left behind, but the girls have disappeared without a trace. As the days turn into weeks and the investigation grows cold, twenty-three year old Buffalo police officer Shea O’Connor is called on to dig up leads undercover.” (Read more about The Secrets They Left Behind on Lissa Marie Redmond’s website.)
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The Sideman by Caro Ramsey
Publication Date: May 7, 2020.
“Inside a beautiful Victorian family home in Glasgow, a mother and her young son are found brutally murdered. DI Costello is furious and knows exactly who did it: George Haggerty, the husband and father. The only problem is that Haggerty has a cast-iron alibi – the police themselves caught him speeding at the time of the murders. But Costello can’t let it go. Determined to expose Haggerty as a ruthless killer, she’s gone solo.
DCI Colin Anderson has no time to ponder his partner of twenty years going rogue, as his own cases are piling up. But Costello’s absence becomes increasingly worrying. Has she completely disappeared following the tracks of a dangerous man?”
Reviewers have compared Ramsey’s work to Ruth Rendell. Wow. They’ve also mentioned that it would help to read the previous book in the series The Suffering of Strangers before reading The Sideman.
Thanks to Black Thorn Books/Canongate and Netgalley, I’ll be reviewing The Sideman in mid-May. It’s number 6 on my TBR list, and I’m excited about it, too! Severn House published this book in 2018, but Black Thorn is apparently republishing it. (Maybe a UK versus US publication? Hardcover versus paperback or Kindle? I have no idea.)
Special mentions
Living Candles by Teodora Matei and Zodiac by
Both were previously published in Romania. New publisher Corylus Press released the translations in fall 2019.
“The discovery of a woman close to death in a city basement sends Bucharest police officers Anton Iordan and Sorin Matache on a complex chase through the city as they seek to identify the victim. As they try to track down the would-be murderer, they find a macabre trail of missing women and they realise that this isn’t the first time the killer has struck. Iordan and Matache hit one dead end after another, until they decide they’ll have to take a chance that could prove deadly.”
“When investigator Sergiu Manta is handed the investigation into a series of bizarre murders, he can’t sure what he’s getting involved in as he has to work with regular detective Marius Stanescu, who has his own suspicions about the biker he has been told to work with, and wants to get to the truth. The twists and turns of their investigation takes them from the city of Bucharest to the mountains of rural Romania, and back.”
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Have you read any of these books? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of them! Are there other new/soon-to-be-published police procedurals that I missed? Let me know and I can add them to the list!