From the haunting and compelling Blackwood by Michael Farris Smith to Malcolm Pryce’s riotous new Jack Wenlock novel, thrillers of the month
Blackwood
Michael Farris Smith No Exit £12.99
Smith is emerging as one of the great chroniclers of America’s dispossessed. Blackwood starts with a family of vagrants pitching up in a small Mississippi town and ends in inevitable tragedy.
His wounded hero, Colburn, will live long in the memory. This is a crime novel that makes it clear that the villains of the piece are not evil, just damaged beyond repair.
A haunting and utterly compelling read.
The Corpse In The Garden Of Perfect Brightness
Malcolm Pryce Bloomsbury £12.99
The second in Pryce’s series, featuring railway detective Jack Wenlock in the years after the Second World War, is an absolute riot.
An uproariously unlikely plot sees Jack newly married and heading for the South Seas in search of the mother he never knew.
Before long he’s in Bangkok and in mortal danger. Imagine a Boy’s Own adventure rewritten by Joseph Conrad. A surreal, bizarrely moving delight.