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4 hours ago
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I try not to repeat myself too much when it comes to the authors I pick for this column. But there is one name I always make an exception for: Nicci French, because this husband and wife duo just keep going from strength to strength. Their latest, The Last Days of Kira Mullan (Simon & Schuster), follows Nancy North, who is recovering from a mental breakdown and being cared for solicitously by her boyfriend, Felix, as they move to a new flat in Harlesden, north-west London. She meets her new neighbours – including, briefly, Kira, whom she bumps into the evening before Kira is found dead by her own hand. Nancy, though, doesn’t believe Kira took her own life, and begins investigating when the police quickly close the case.
The trouble is, nobody takes Nancy seriously. Once people know about her illness, “they look at you in a different way. Every odd thing you do, anything you say, if you get a bit sad, a bit angry, people think that might be a sign of you going crazy again.” As she shouts into the void – “Being angry is not being haywire. Being suspicious is not being paranoid. Wanting answers is not a sign of paranoid delusion” – her life begins to unravel. This is the pair’s 26th novel, and they are still keeping me up far too late, rushing through the pages in a panicky, obsessive fashion as I race to the conclusion.
Uketsu, we are told by his publisher, is an “enigmatic YouTuber and author, specialising in horror and mystery” who only appears online wearing a mask and speaking through a voice changer. YouTubers are not my bag (I’m just too old, I think), but clever and puzzling mysteries certainly are, and Uketsu’s Strange Pictures (Pushkin Vertigo) is a creepy little delight of a brainteaser that is already a huge hit in Japan. Starting with the story of an 11-year-old girl who was arrested for the murder of her mother, it moves through the tale of a strange blog that ends abruptly when the blogger’s pregnant wife dies in childbirth, to the news of the violent murder of an art teacher on a remote mountain, never satisfyingly solved. How are the three mysteries connected? There are drawings scattered throughout this unsettling little book, which cast light on the disturbing events of the story. Translated by Jim Rion, Strange Pictures is innovative and a lot of fun. I’ll be looking out for Uketsu’s upcoming sequels. Perhaps I’ll even check him out on YouTube.
We are not lacking in locked-room (or locked-house, locked-mansion, locked-island) mysteries these days, but Tom Hindle provides an unexpected take on the classic concept: a locked-airship mystery. In Death in the Arctic (Century), a handful of guests have been invited on the maiden voyage of a luxury airship, the Osprey. It is intended to be the last word in high-end travel: greener than flying, it will offer those who can pay for it a chance to see all the wonders of the north pole from above. On board we have an eclectic bunch, from Chloé, a wannabe travel writer, to restaurateur Jasper, activist Mia and model Madison. Some of the guests know (and dislike) one another, and tensions rise as the Osprey begins its flight. You know what I’m going to say: one of the guests is found dead; no one can leave the airship as it’s floating over Arctic wastelands; accusations fly and nobody feels safe. The setting is stunning and the mystery is entertaining, and now I really want airship travel to be a thing.
Grady Green, a formerly bestselling novelist, has been unable to write since his wife, Abby, disappeared a year ago. Devastated by her loss, unable to sleep, he is packed off by his agent (Abby’s godmother) to a remote (extremely remote; only 25 people live there) Scottish island to see if the solitude will get him back on track. Alice Feeney’s Beautiful Ugly (Macmillan) wastes no time in letting us know that things might be somewhat Wicker Man-ish on this island. The sheep are “angry-looking”, with “devilish horns”. The bagpipe music sounds “like something you might hear at a funeral”. Faces appear outside the window of Grady’s remote cabin in the middle of the night. “Leave while you still can. Before it’s too late,” an old woman mutters at him.
Grady is so exhausted from the insomnia he has been suffering for months, “like there is permanent white noise all around me”, that he ignores all the warning signs and weirdness – even the fact he keeps spotting someone who looks like his missing wife. Packed with twists that I didn’t even guess at, this is maybe a little overblown but an enjoyable ride to a brilliantly dark ending.
