Fair Play by Louise Hegarty (Picador, £16.99)
Award-winning short-story writer Hegarty’s debut opens with guests arriving at an Irish Airbnb country house for a murder mystery-themed birthday party. Abigail has organised the celebration for her brother Benjamin, and old friends, including his former fiancee, are invited, as well as his colleague Barbara – but the morning after the festivities, he is found dead in his locked bedroom. So far, so run-of-the-mill, but the book then splits into competing storylines, with the action oscillating between a metatextual golden age narrative, complete with butler, gardener, maid and esteemed amateur detective, and a naturalistic and sometimes heartbreaking account of grief. With plenty of in-jokes for golden age aficionados and a remarkably assured handling of the necessary tonal shifts, this engaging, ingenious Möbius strip of a book is undoubtedly the most original crime novel you’ll read all year.
All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman (4th Estate, £16.99)
Harman’s debut novel is set around west London private school St Angeles, where parents rich enough to be unperturbed by the imposition of VAT on fees fork out hefty sums for their little darlings’ primary education. Ageing party girl and failed singer Florence Grimes is very much the odd mum out in this glossy milieu, but when her 10-year-old son’s classmate Alfie, an entitled bully who is the heir to a frozen food empire, goes missing on a school trip and young Dylan becomes a person of interest to the police, she gets on the case. Whether you warm to this hot-mess-turns-amateur-sleuth tale rather depends on whether you find Florence enraging or endearing, with her habit of asking a neighbour to listen out for Dylan while she goes out for hook-ups, and a preternatural talent not only for self-sabotage, but also for landing other people in it up to their necks. That said, it’s funny, pacy and very readable, with the social satire absolutely on point.
This Is Not a Game by Kelly Mullen (Century, £16.99)
Mullen’s first novel is set on Mackinac Island in Michigan’s Lake Huron, where feisty septuagenarian Mimi and her granddaughter Addie team up to investigate a murder in a Cluedo-style house that functions as a character in itself. Addie, co-designer of the video game Murderscape, is recovering from a breakup with fiance Brian, who is claiming all the credit and financial reward for their joint invention, when she reluctantly agrees to accompany her grandmother to a charity auction. The invitation has been issued by socialite Jane who, it appears, is not above blackmailing Mimi into paying over the odds for an item she doesn’t want. When Jane is found stabbed to death, and a snowstorm shuts down all channels of communication as well as any means of travel, Mimi and Addie set to work to discover whodunnit. They question suspects, find secret passages and trapdoors, and apply both gaming skills and golden-age mystery knowledge. The result is fabulous, over-the-top fun.
The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie (Atlantic, £17.99)
Set in an area of Waterville, Maine, known as Little Canada for its Quebecer roots, Currie’s latest novel is a tale of generational trauma, guilt and family loyalty. Babs Dionne is a matriarch who tries to shore up her community’s dying Francophone culture while controlling the supply of drugs with the help of the police and the female friends she’s known since childhood. However, her world starts to crumble when a rival drug baron sends an enforcer to take over her patch and her younger daughter goes missing, leaving her grandson at the mercy of his alcoholic father. Elder daughter Lori, a military veteran struggling to control her PTSD with opioids, is sent to find her but fails, and Babs’s desire for vengeance knows no bounds … Leavened by a surprising amount of humour and empathy, this is the vivid, tragic and violent story of people trying to do their best against insurmountable odds: a tour de force.
Death and Other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt (Bantam, £16.99)
There are shades of Terry Pratchett in Dapunt’s debut novel, a crime/fantasy mashup in which Death – currently in human form, enjoying a spot of well-earned R&R in London – has a turbulent relationship with her sister, Life. God, AKA the Boss, has sanctioned sabbatical cover but not pay, so Life finds Death, now named Delara, a job as a paralegal. She’s just getting settled in when an unscheduled demise occurs, forcing her to find out who is trying to buck the divine system. The mystery element is provided by a serviceable plotline featuring the mafia and contaminated food, as well as some metaphysical office politics involving Death’s temporary replacement and Satan, AKA the VP for Pandemonium & Perdition; there’s a spot of romantic suspense as well when Death, rather to her surprise, finds herself falling for a mortal man. An entertaining page-turner with plenty of metaphysical fun and games as well as earthly intrigue.
