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A runner by Scarlett Thomas (Scribner, £16.99)
Among the fun, suspenseful romances, Thomas’ latest novel opens in Cyprus, where 34-year-old Jay is on the run from a man who wants to kill him. Jay (not his real name) is well used to running away from fighters: the attempt on his life began at the university, when a Japanese man arrived at his house with a samurai sword. People have been trying to kill him ever since, the contract on his life was sold as a commodity, in bitcoin. Now his best friend is the mysterious Ellie, although – given his reputation – it is possible that he is trying to leave her again. Just before the reader begins to lose his mind, the action returns to Jay’s childhood in Kent, and the reasons are gradually revealed in this fairy tale, a thriller that takes exorcisms, dictators, financial giants, artists and marathons along the way.
He’s crazy by Henning Mankell, translated by George Goulding and Sarah de Senarclens (Mountain Leopardat, £25)
Written in the 1970s and published in English for the first time, The Madman is set in a Swedish town at the end of the 1940s. The neutrality of the country during the war continues to be divided: the supporters of the Nazi party want to forget the past, but the communist audience, angry at being locked up, wants to count. When a letter to this effect appears in the local newspaper, the defendants, including the head of the town’s sawmill, say that the newly arrived Bertil Kras has been aggravating for political purposes. When the chainsaw catches fire, Kras is also blamed for it, and the destruction of the life he tried to create causes a crisis. The older Mankell may be short-tempered, but the slow build-up to inevitable tragedy creates a real depth of emotion, and the theme of alienation, alienation and punishment of people for their emotions remains a serious one.
Everything He Didn’t Say by Jane Casey (Hemlock, £16.99)
Casey’s latest bestseller is his first book to be published in Ireland. In a remote cottage on the shores of Mayo, a woman wakes up to find her female friend missing. His house and clothes are all covered in blood, and he says he doesn’t know what happened – but the villagers swear they’ve only seen one woman, not two. Detectives Ben Butler and Liam Farrell – lovers worthy of their lists – are sent from Dublin to investigate. They discover that many things don’t add up, that the mystery may exist in the past, and that there may be more than one person missing. Casey not only makes good use of the west of Ireland, but gives us a wicked, misguided and surprising plot at every turn.
The Spy and the Serpent and MJ Robotham (Aria, £18.99)
The second outing of the spy Maggie Flynn is set in 1968. Now five years a widow and in need of supervision while struggling behind the desk at MI5, she is given the task of going to Budapest and bringing back the boozehound Fitzroy Carver, who was previously crippled with knowledge affected by the ambitions of the old world trade. Of course, there is more to this than you know, and Carver, who has insisted that the work to make him be done by a woman, has surprisingly confirmed … We are at the very end of the spy fiction here, with Maggie, who is innocent on the outside and surprisingly surprised by how well she does her business. Much could be made of the twists and turns – James Bond and the Beatles doing the heavy lifting – but the self-proclaimed self-promoter is a likable character and his journeys across Europe are great fun.
Killing at the End of the World by Akane Araki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (Pushkin£14.99)
The Japanese writer Araki became interested in the world chaos when the atmosphere is the most destructive on the planet. In just over two months, it will reach the island of Kyushu, and many Asians are concentrating on reaching far away, while others have decided to commit suicide. Only 60 kilometers from the expected location, 23-year-old Haru, who is very handsome, is learning to drive. His mentor, Isagawa, is a former police officer whose obsessive pursuit of justice led to his dismissal from the army, and when the two find a murdered woman in a training vehicle, not even the impending destruction of the world can stop him from finding the killer. The pair embark on a journey to find answers, and the relationship between mentor and student grows into a surprisingly fun relationship as they discuss the confusion in this exciting mystery.
