The Spy by Ajay Chowdhury (Harvill Secker, £18.99)
The fourth novel in Chowdhury’s series sees the former Kolkata policeman turned Met officer Kamil Rahman recruited by MI5 to foil a terrorist plot that’s being hatched in an east London mosque. His attempts to win the trust of the plotters take him to the heart of the Kashmir conflict, an appalling hell-brew of nationalism, personal greed, brutality and suffering. Meanwhile, Brick Lane restaurateur Anjoli, his old friend and sometime employer, also finds herself in danger when she helps family friends investigate the kidnap of their teenage son, who manages to convey clues to his whereabouts by messages referencing the Harry Potter books (readers may realise this rather sooner than Anjoli does, but there’s plenty of exciting distraction while waiting for her to cop on). The plot races to a splendidly dramatic ending; Chowdhury’s writing is compelling and compassionate, especially on the themes of displacement, and divided loyalties personal and political.
A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray (Hutchinson Heinemann, £18.99)
Al has found his own solution to the high cost of renting. It’s an unofficial form of house-sitting: breaking, entering and squatting luxury properties while their rich owners are away. Al calls himself an “interloper”, and prides himself on his skill and methodology. However, he is writing his story on a prison computer, so we know, from the off, that things haven’t gone exactly to plan. A series of unexpected developments results in his reluctantly teaming up with three other interlopers, then turning detective when the group become suspects in the murder of one of the house-owners. The hit-and-miss observational comedy could do with a trim, but a propulsive plot, an ingenious narrator and lashings of intrigue make this a genuine and thoroughly enjoyable page-turner.
The Kitchen by Simone Buchholz, translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda, £9.99)
The seventh book in award-winning German author Buchholz’s excellent Hamburg-based Chastity Riley series has the public prosecutor investigating a series of neatly parcelled male body parts discovered in the River Elbe. The murdered men, all of whom are known abusers of women, can’t be said to be a great loss to the world, but nevertheless, Chastity must do her job. Meanwhile, her best friend Carla has been raped by two men in the basement of the cafe she owns, and the police are showing very little enthusiasm for tracking down the perpetrators. At what point does one decide that enough is enough and take matters into one’s own hands? Beautifully concise, with commendably sparse prose, dark humour and an appealing protagonist, this in an uncompromising, provocative and righteously fierce examination of the ways in which law and society repeatedly fail 50% of the population.
The Innocents by Bridget Walsh (Gallic, £12.99)
Like its predecessor, The Tumbling Girl, which introduced writer-turned-investigator Minnie Ward and her partner in crime-solving, former policeman Albert Easterbrook, Walsh’s second novel is set in late 19th-century London theatreland. Albert continues to solve crime, while Minnie has turned her attention to saving the financially beleaguered Variety Palace music hall. But then the proprietor’s pet monkey goes missing, and a series of apparently unconnected deaths turn out to be linked to a tragedy 14 years earlier, when an audience stampede during a pantomime resulted in the suffocation of 183 children. Walsh, who clearly knows her Victorians, writes with gusto. Whether she’s detailing the sweat, greasepaint and trickery behind theatrical illusion, the bloody savagery of the dog-fighting pit, or the creepily anthropomorphic world of the taxidermy diorama, time past is so vividly evoked that one can almost smell it. Highly recommended.
The Grand Illusion by Syd Moore (Magpie, £16.99)
There’s more sleight of hand and derring-do on show in Syd Moore’s latest, which is set in the summer of 1940, when Britain was preparing to repel the Nazi invading force. It’s based, at least in part, on real events. Magician’s assistant Daphne Devine and her boss Jonty Trevelyan, AKA the Grand Mystique, are co-opted by MI5 to work with a group drawn from the worlds of theatre, fashion, zoology and the circus. Their brief is to exploit the German High Command’s belief in the occult by creating a plausible and spectacular magic ritual, which will be reported back to Hitler as proof that Britain is able to harness supernatural forces. Although the wandering point of view is slightly disconcerting, this is a well-researched, vivid and thoroughly entertaining Girl’s Own adventure, with a brave and resourceful heroine who acquits herself well against both the enemy and the endless macro-aggressions from entitled men on her own side. More, please.
