The black echo

Los Angeles police detective Hieronymus (aka Harry) Bosch discovers something odd in what appears to be a routine drug overdose case. The victim has a face from Harry’s past, a fellow “tunnel rat” from Vietnam named Billy Meadows. Convinced that Meadows’s death is really murder, Harry searches for the killers and soon clashes with the FBI, investigating Meadows for another reason. Trying to walk through a minefield of deception and corruption in high places, Harry works with FBI agent Eleanor Wish to solve the case before they both get killed. Whose tracks have to be covered at the cost of their lives?

The Con man’s daughter

NYPD vet Dee is known for the authenticity of his New York City police procedurals (14 Peck Slip; Bronx Angel; etc.), and his new stand-alone thriller is no exception. Abandoning past NYPD heroes Anthony Ryan and Joe Gregory, Dee introduces ex-cop, ex-prize-fighter Eddie “God help me... I love a brawl” Dunn. After being kicked out of the NYPD along with partner Paulie “the Priest” Caruso, Eddie spends the next decade as a courier for Russian gangster Anatoly Lukin. Though retired now, Eddie still knows the secrets of the Russian mob, so when his 35-year-old daughter, Kate, is kidnapped, he figures the Brighton Beach boys are behind the snatch. “The word hardened didn’t do these guys justice.

Upcountry

That DeMille has written a sequel to The General’s Daughter comes as no surprise; after all, that’s arguably his best-known novel because of the hit film version starring John Travolta. Nor is it surprising that he’s set this sequel in Vietnam; returning hero Chief Warrant Officer Paul Brenner, Ret., served two stints there during the war, and DeMille himself not only saw action in Nam but returned in 1997 for an extended visit. What is curious, and relatively unfortunate, is that the long narrative focuses so much on travelogue instead of intrigue and action; it’s as if DeMille, a wickedly fine thriller writer, has been possessed by the soul of James Michener. Still, the overarching story line captivates, as Brenner agrees to return to Vietnam to track down a Vietnamese witness to a 30-year-old unprosecuted crime, in which a US Army captain murdered an army lieutenant and plundered some treasure.

The Jericho Sanction

Oliver North follows his best-selling novel Mission Compromised with a suspenseful, action-packed sequel set in Israel and Iraq. Lt Col Peter Newman (USMC) and his family are threatened when his cover is blown. While preparing for a clandestine US mission to find Iraqi nuclear weapons, Newman’s wife Rachel is kidnapped in Jerusalem — along with her friend, the wife of an Israeli Sayeret counter-terrorism operative responsible for Israeli terrorist assassinations. Newman has to choose whether to go ahead with the mission or abandon it to find and rescue his wife. But Israel has discovered that Iraq has nukes and plans a preemptive attack on Baghdad with Jericho missiles. If that happens, and Islamic terrorists like Saddam and bin Laden respond in kind, it might trigger a Middle East war that could go global. It seems as if nothing can prevent an Armageddon.

Before the frost

In woodland outside Ystad, the police make a horrific discovery: a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim’s side, the pages marked with scribbled corrections. A string of macabre incidents, including attacks on domestic animals, have been taking place, and Inspector Wallander fears that these disturbances could be the prelude to attacks on humans on an even more alarming scale. Linda Wallander, in preparation to join the police force, arrives at Ystad. Exhibiting some of the hallmarks of her father — the maverick approach, the flaring temper — she becomes entangled in a case involving a group of religious extremists who are bent on punishing the world’s sinners. Following on from the enormous success of the Kurt Wallander mysteries, Henning Mankell has begun an outstanding new chapter in crime writing.