Crazily good crime fiction: Murder at the Hotel Orient by Alessandra Ranelli, A Plot to
Murder at the Hotel Orient is available now from the Mail Bookshop
Murder at the Hotel Orient by Alessandra Ranelli (Baskerville £16.99, 336pp)
The perfectly coiffured Sterling Lockwood is the night-time concierge at modern Vienna’s discreet love hotel, the Hotel Orient.
She knows the guests give false names to protect their identities from their wives or husbands – every guest at this palace of debauchery has something to hide.
Lockwood is the keeper of those secrets. But when ‘Mr and Mrs Lime’ – two of the clients – are murdered, her reputation, and the hotel’s, are on the line, so she decides to investigate.
She ventures into the grand coffee houses of Vienna in pursuit of a killer. This is a striking debut, part-classic murder mystery and part-erotic tale, from a writer of exceptional promise.
A Plot to Die For by Ardal O’Hanlon (Simon & Schuster £20, 480pp)
When TV gardener Finn O’Leary – think Monty Don, but not quite as successful – returns to Abbeyford in Ireland to help care for his ageing and partly demented mother, he finds himself caught up in a murder.
An alto-baritone at his mother’s choir practice drops dead during a spirited rendition of What The World Needs Now and Finn sets about trying to solve the murder, calling on his mother’s fearsome carer, Happiness, to help.
And all this is set against the backdrop of Abbeyford trying to win the prestigious all-Ireland Tidy Towns competition.
Written with a wry sense of humour, and admirable skill, O’Hanlon manages to make murder funny without diminishing its seriousness. This is delicate storytelling with wit and charm: quite wonderful.
Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus £22, 400pp)
Thirty years ago, Brookmyre burst on to the crime scene with a debut featuring unconventional investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, who went on to appear in a further eight of his 26 award-winning novels.
Now the Glasgow-born author brings him back as he goes undercover on a liner crossing the Atlantic to spy on a media family intent on exploiting the renaissance of a 1960s TV puppet show with a fan convention on board.
But things do not go well. In mid-Atlantic he finds himself locked in a stateroom with a body covered in his blood. Can he escape? Packed with insight and cynicism, this is Brookmyre at his best.