Best books of 2019: Crime
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The Wych Elm , by Tana French, Penguin, RRP£8.99/$17
Dublin-resident French is possibly the most incisive psychological crime novelist at work in Europe today, and this ambitious novel examines the consequences of betrayal. Her naive protagonist Toby is afflicted with memory loss after an assault. He ends up in a scarifying modern version of the classic country house mystery.
Heaven, My Home , by Attica Locke, Serpent’s Tail, RRP£14.99/Mulholland Books, RRP$27
Texas ranger Darren Matthews becomes reluctantly involved with the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas when he is summoned to a town where a boy — the son of a Brotherhood member imprisoned for the murder of a black man — has gone missing. Riveting fare from Locke, with a timely white supremacist theme.
Death in the East , by Abir Mukherjee, Harvill Secker, RRP£14.99
Mukherjee’s Raj-set novels are one of the glories of the current scene, with damaged English policeman Sam Wyndham and his Watsonian Sergeant “Surrender-not” Banerjee in a teeming 1920s India. Here, Wyndham — desperate to cure his opium addiction — journeys to the Assam hills, encountering a ghost from his past.
Sarah Jane , by James Sallis, No Exit Press, RRP£8.99/Soho Crime, RRP$23.95
One of the American greats, James Sallis details the conflicted life of Sarah Jane Pullman in this spare, astringent character study. Sallis offers an understanding vision of his heroine, conjuring her liaisons with a variety of ill-advised lovers as the novel moves from her troubled past to a new life as a detective.
The King’s Evil , by Andrew Taylor, HarperCollins, RRP£14.99
Taylor’s mantelpiece already groans under awards for his nonpareil historical crime novels, and this latest is as striking as anything he has written. His Restoration-era fiction takes his protagonists Cat Lovett and James Marwood from the aftermath of the Great Fire to a dark conspiracy in a pungently rendered London.
Books of the Year 2019
FT commentators, critics and guests select the titles of the year that you need to read. Explore the series here.
What are your favourites from this list — and what books have we missed? Tell us in the comments below.
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