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Fox by Joyce Carol Oates (4th Estate, £18.99)
In this hefty, immersive study of gullibility, complicity and betrayal, English teacher Francis Fox is a predator, all the more dangerous for being charming enough to beguile everyone from his adoring pupils to the teachers and parents at Langhorne Academy, the smart New Jersey boarding school where – aided by a change of name – he has obtained a post after leaving his previous job under a cloud. Fox chooses his victims carefully: his “little kittens”, all in his preferred 12-to-14 age group, have literary leanings and absent fathers, and feel validated by the attention he pays them. When the parts of Fox’s body that haven’t been consumed by wildlife are pulled out of a local swamp, it falls to world-weary detective Horace Zwender to work out what’s been going on. Peppered with exclamation marks, breathless and febrile, this is an utterly mesmeric account of how one man’s crimes can affect an entire community.
A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor (Hemlock, £20)
Taylor’s latest also centres on an educational establishment, Monkshill Park School for Girls, a crumbling mansion in Monmouthshire, Wales. It’s the end of the second world war, the country is exhausted, and several inhabitants are waiting for news of loved ones who are missing, perhaps dead. Also missing is teacher Annabel Warnock, who disappeared during the Easter holidays. It’s presumed that “Warnie” simply walked out on her job, but she remembers being shoved off a nearby cliff. Now a trapped spirit, she is determined to discover who killed her and, able to move about the school and grounds unobserved, finds herself privy to all sorts of secrets. Taylor’s ability to conjure time past is second to none and here he blends a school story for adults, a ghost story and a mystery for a sublime evocation of a closed world in which the adults are, in their way, as powerless as their young charges.
Death of a Diplomat by Eliza Reid (Sphere, £20)
Reid is a former first lady of Iceland, and her debut novel is set on Heimaey, the largest of that country’s Westman Islands. Canadian ambassador Graeme Shearer and his wife Jane are paying a visit with the dual purpose of opening an art exhibition and forging business links with a large fishery. Beneath the standard-issue speechifying, subtle power plays and general buttering up, trouble is brewing. Not only is the island’s mayor grieving the unexpected death of his husband, but the Shearers’ marriage is in crisis and the increasingly stormy weather means that the island is isolated until further notice – and then deputy ambassador Kavita Banerjee is felled by a poisoned “Flaming Viking” cocktail. Told from multiple points of view, the story rewinds to 13 hours before Kavita’s death, before taking us forward to the projected killing of an unnamed second person. Despite a fair bit of exposition, this classic “closed world” mystery moves at a good pace, making excellent use of its claustrophobic setting and delivering a final sucker-punch twist.
Actually, I’m a Murderer by Terry Deary (Constable, £18.99)
The Horrible Histories writer’s first novel for adults begins in 1973, when four strangers meet on an early morning train from London to Newcastle upon Tyne. There’s Tony, a struggling actor; Claire, who works in the fledgling computer industry; Edward, prosperous lawyer and adviser to the prime minister, Edward Heath; and last “Mr Brown”, who tells his new acquaintances “Actually, I’m a murderer”. In the next few days, one of the company will be killed, another will turn to blackmail, and a third will be forced to commit a crime … All this is recounted 50 years later by Tony, the professional killer and self-styled sociopath “Mr Brown”, and police officer Aline James. It’s by no means all hijinks – the institutional misogyny young Aline has to contend with rings appallingly true – but this smart, funny and deftly executed page turner is sure to please.
Can You Solve the Murder? by Antony Johnston (Bantam, £14.99)
“Solve it yourself” titles aren’t new. In the 1930s, Dennis Wheatley’s “murder dossiers” came complete with clues ranging from telegrams and photographs of cigarette ends to little bags containing human hair, and in recent years the Murdle puzzle collections have become a publishing phenomenon, but a superior interactive crime story is always a delight. This is Cluedo-type detective fiction in which you, the reader, are the presiding DCI, presented in “choose your own adventure” gamebook style. In order to solve the murder of property developer Harry Kennedy, whose corpse has been discovered at the luxurious Elysium spa, you must choose which of the available suspects to interview and which locations to explore, with each decision leading you to a fork in the narrative road as the chapters fan out to a series of different conclusions, only one of which is correct. Park your need for emotional resonance and sharpen your wits: this clever, intricate book is a highly entertaining mental workout.
