Grasshopper by Barbara Vine. Viking, £16.99 in UK
For some reason, Ruth Rendell writes a number of her novels under the name Barbara Vine. These offerings are presented as studies in psychological suspense but, apart from the superb Asta's Book, I've found them to be rather overly-chatty accounts of dysfunctional families with odd, creepy sons or daughters, who become involved in macabre events leading to violence and, in some cases, murder. The latest is Grasshopper in which we encounter yet another of these peculiar protagonists, this time 19-year-old Clodagh, whose penchant for climbing pylons has led to the death of her close friend, Daniel. Sent to live in London with academic Max and his actress wife, Selina, she falls in with the enigmatic Silver and his coterie of weird friends, who, by a not very plausible coincidence, also happen to like ascending to high places to socialise and pass the time. Then, as counterpoint to the pylon exercise, another tragedy takes place to put manners on Clodagh and Silver. In the event, she gives up her studies, becomes an electrician, forms her own company and finds true love. Written as a tight, maybe 10,000-word novelette, this might have made for an interesting read, but at more than 400 pages of often banal verbiage it lost my interest before halfway. Needless to say, it will leap to the top of the bestsellers. There's no accounting for tastes . . .
Killing the Shadows by Val McDermid. HarperCollins, £16.99 in UK
Taste doesn't come into it where Val McDermid is concerned, and a strong stomach is recommended where the perusing of her serial-killer thrillers is concerned. In Killing the Shadows her protagonist is Prof Fiona Cameron, an academic psychologist who uses computer technology to help the police track down multiple killers. Haunted by the violent death of her sister Lesley and in dispute with the Met who went against her advice and screwed up an investigation as a result, she still finds it difficult not to become involved in a case where a serial killer is murdering the writers of crime novels who have turned psychological profilers into the heroes of the 1990s. Especially so as her lover, Kit Martin, is himself one such thriller writer. The trail is littered with a number of horribly dispatched corpses and when Kit himself is threatened, Fiona finds herself in dire danger of losing her own life in order to save him. McDermid is an old hand at keeping the suspense at fever pitch and, if her writing sometimes slips a little over the top, it eminently suits the content of what is bound to give many a reader a rare old fright night.
A Masterly Murder by Susanna Gregory. Little, Brown, £16.99 in UK
Susanna Gregory's A Masterly Murder is the sixth chronicle in the series featuring the medieval physician, Matthew Bartholomew. Set in Cambridge in 1353, the plot is concerned with the machinations of the new Master of Michaelhouse, as he attempts to put his own imprint on the college in the wake of the benign stewardship of the former Master. He forces one Fellow to leave, sacks the choir and tries to get Bartholomew to choose between his teaching and his medical work. When he turns up murdered, not many mourn him, but Bartholomew and his friend Brother Michael, Proctor of the fledgling university, realise that they must solve the mystery before any more damage is done to their beloved Michaelhouse. There appears to be a wide readership for this type of historical whodunit, and Gregory's series must rank near the top of the genre. A good, serious and satisfying read.
Whispers of Betrayal by Michael Dobbs. HarperCollins, £9.99 in UK
Michael Dobbs's first novel, House of Cards, launched the career of the villainous Francis Urquhart, so memorably portrayed on television by Ian Richardson. Recently his books have featured another politician, but one of a different hue. This is the honest, if troubled, Tom Goodfellowe, and in the latest, Whispers of Betrayal, good fellow Tom has to protect the very fabric of government from the threat of a band of renegade soldiers who are out to destroy London. Boy's Own heroics on a grand scale, written in simplistic prose to match, this one cuts out the frills to get to the bones of the story. If you're old enough to remember story comics like the Wizard, the Rover and the Hotspur, then this is the one for you.
Omerta by Mario Puzo. Heinemann, £16.99 in UK
Finally there is the late Mario Puzo's last novel Omerta. The Godfather made Puzo's reputation and, like Joseph Heller with Catch-22 and Ken Kesey with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he never again managed to write anything to match it. This effort serves up the mixture as before: Don Raymonde Aprile is assassinated, his nephew Astorre Viola succeeds him, revenge is abrupt and bloody, enter the FBI, off goes Viola back to Sicily to a marriage with Rosie amid the scent of purple wisteria, lemons and orange blossom . . . There was always something suspect about Puzo's often admiring attitude towards the Mob, and here he once more portrays these gangsters and conmen as modern-day Robin Hoods robbing the rich to look after the poor. No wonder the Mafia were his greatest fans.
Michael Painter is a novelist and critic.