The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Never Flinch by Stephen King; The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex; Heartwood by Amity Gaige; The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster; The Search for Othella Savage by Foday MannahNever Flinch by Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton, £25) King’s latest brings back private detective Holly Gibney, who is consulted when the Ohio police department receives an anonymous letter stating that the writer is proposing to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty” as an act of atonement for the death of an innocent. It soon becomes clear that the death is that of Alan Duffrey who, wrongly convicted of possessing child pornography, was murdered in prison. Slips of paper with names in the corpses’ hands suggest that each one represents a member of the jury responsible for Duffrey’s incarceration. Meanwhile, women’s rights campaigner Kate McKay finds herself targeted by religious extremists while on a speaking tour, and calls on Holly’s services as a bodyguard. Intelligent, courageous and modest to a fault, Holly is one of the most appealing investigators in contemporary crime fiction. Despite some longueurs, Never Flinch contains plenty of King’s trademark chilling moments, with the two storylines expertly entwined.The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex (Picador, £18.99) Stonex’s second novel is an ambitious revenge thriller that takes the reader on a journey from London to Devon, both geographically, and via flashbacks to the early years of the two main characters, who share the narration. Jimmy Maguire, scion of the local “bad family”, was 19 when he killed 15-year-old Providence. When he is released from prison in 1989, her older sister Birdie tracks him, illicitly purchased gun at the ready. Although the mystifyingly redacted swearwords are an irritant, and seasoned crime readers will realise early on that one aspect of Jimmy’s past is not what it seems, what makes this thought-provoking book well worth the read is the delicate and perceptive chronicling of how good intentions, childhood misunderstandings, throwaway comments and split-second decisions can pave the way for disaster. Continue reading...

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