Deaver is probably best known for his series of crime novels featuring paraplegic forensic psychologist Lincoln Rhyme, as portrayed by Denzel Washington in the recent film The Bone Collector.Here, however, he is taking time out, and his protagonist in this latest volume is a street-wise homicide cop named Frank Bishop. On the trail of a serial killer who uses sophisticated technology to learn about his victims, Bishop is forced to enlist the aid of a dedicated hacker in order to help him track down the perpetrator.One of the many problems associated with this guy is that he is himself in prison for computer fraud and has to be sprung in order to assist the authorities. A kind of dot.com version of Hannibal Lector, Wyatt Gillette leads worldly cop Bishop from the real into the virtual universe, while their quarry seems to track their every move.
A lot of the narrative is an added mystery for someone like me who does not find new technology user-friendly, but hackers everywhere will devour it. I find the mind games of Lincoln Rhyme much more to my liking
The Guards by Ken Bruen. (Brandon, £9.99 paperback)
Now this is one really to get your teeth into - none of this fish or fowl, but raw, red meat all the way. Jack Taylor is a disgraced ex-cop living in Galway and working his way determinedly towards cirrhosis of the liver and an early death. In one of his more lucid moments, he is approached by a woman called Ann Henderson who is convinced that her drowned 16-year-old daughter did not commit suicide, but rather was murdered.
Enlisting the aid of a girl punk, a maniac named Sutton and various Galway low-lifes, Taylor sets out to prove her right, the result being a blistering tale of revenge and retribution that comes off the page like a shot off a shovel.
Bruen's strength does not lie in plotting, but rather in authentic scene-setting, nail-gun dialogue, and scrotum-tightening descriptions of violence.
I'd swear the book vibrated in my hands at times.
Not one for the faint of heart, but a great blast of a read for those who like their curries extra-hot.
Single Obsession by Des Ekin. (O'Brien Press, £6.99 paperback)
Another good Irish-based thriller, this. Set in Dublin and in a village in the north-west called Passage North, it recounts a more orthodox tale of dirty deeds in high places, political chicanery, a psychiatrist and her small son being threatened, and an investigative journalist putting his career on the line in pursuit of the truth.Hunter is the newspaperman, Emma Macaulay the doctor, and one Joseph Valentia the crooked politician. A number of women have been murdered, their only connection appearing to be the fact that they all had red hair and had children out of wedlock.
When a woman named Kate Spain turns up dead, Dr Macaulay is visited by a mysterious female who tells her that she saw Valentia pick her up in his car the night she vanished. This kicks off a story that becomes more and more complicated, with the three main characters united in a macabre dance of death.Des Ekin is the antithesis of Ken Bruen, in that his strength lies in plotting, giving us a storyline that continually throws up twists and turns, and surprise upon surprise. Good to have two such entertaining novels in a genre that has not proved fruitful for Irish writers.
Death's Own Door by Andrew Taylor. (Hodder & Stoughton, £17.99 in UK)
Taylor is building up a nice fan base for his series of mysteries set in the village of Lydmouth just after the second World War. Again, the two main characters are Police Inspector Richard Thornhill and his reporter lover, Jill Francis. When the body of a widower, Rufus Moorcroft, is discovered in his summer house with an empty bottle of whiskey beside him, the verdict is suicide, but both Thornhill and Francis, approaching the case from different angles, are dubious about this explanation for the distinguished war hero's death. As their investigations gain pace, a number of people are sucked in: from Thornhill's former boss to a councillor with a lot to hide and an unmarried mother who did her thing when Victoria was still on the throne. And to Thornhill's chagrin, his wife Edith also appears to be involved. Told in a leisurely style, with much authentic scene-setting, Death's Own Door will appeal to those who love a traditional English mystery novel, the list of characters at the beginning adding to the old-world feel of the whole thing.
The Red Room by Nicci French. (Michael Joseph, Trade Paperback, £9.99 in UK)
Like Ellery Queen, who was two people, Nicci French is the husband-and-wife team of journalist Nicci Gerrard and writer Sean French. They specialise in the psychological suspense thriller genre, and have already penned four of them, of which Killing Me Softly will soon be released as a major film starring Joseph Fiennes, while The Safe House will be on ITV this autumn.
This new one features Kit Quinn, a young woman who works in a clinic dealing with the stress suffered by people who have been in accidents. Asked to advise the police in the case of a young runaway who has been found dead near a London canal, Quinn soon finds her task resurrecting old hurt from her own past. For she herself was once wounded in a brutal attack, and the chief suspect in this new violence is the man who perpetrated the aggression against her. As she begins to track deeper into the case, she unearths other crimes and other victims, and in the end is obliged to face down her worst fears in pursuance of a solution. Nicci and French are very good at this type of writing, creating believable characters, right-on-the-nail dialogue and a nicely creepy atmosphere of dread. Top of the scale.
Michael Painter is a writer and critic