52 LISTENER JUNE 8 2019
BOOKS&CULTURE
by CRAIG SISTERSONM
ississippi author Greg Iles’
storytelling is like the river that
gives his home state its name.
His prose has a powerful flow,
is fed by a diverse array of streams and is
full of dangerous undercurrents and nasty
snags beneath a seemingly calm surface.
In CEMETERY ROAD (HarperCollins, $34.99),
Marshall McEwan is a celebrated journalist
who fled a fractured family when he left
Bienville as a teen. Now he’s back in
middle age, Pulitzer Prize in hand
and further tragedy stacked in his
head and heart, to keep his family’s
150-year-old newspaper alive while
his estranged father slowly dies.
The violent death of another father
figure, a local archaeologist, sparks
McEwan into a lethal pursuit of
truth that threatens a billion-dollar
deal to save his town, and forces
him to confront his treacherous past
as well as the unscrupulous power
brokers whose families have run
the place since the Civil War. This
is a sprawling thriller, stuffed with flawed
people, complex relationships and issues
contemporary and ancient. It’s an ambi-
tious, challenging tale that glistens like a
moonlit river.T
he latest from Scottish “crown
princess of crime fiction” Denise
Mina also features a midlife
character who investigates a murder
while struggling with family issues and a
traumatic past. But that distillation, and
their brilliant storytelling, is where the
similarity to Iles’ tale ends. CONVICTION
(Harvill Secker, $37) centres on Anna
McDonald, a Glaswegian mother whosetepid life is upturned in one day after her
husband leaves her for her best friend, and
she discovers from a true-crime podcast
that an old acquaintance died in a yacht
sinking and was possibly a murderer.
Even worse, a powerful woman, who
made Anna’s secret past life hell, maybe involved in some way. Desperate and
rudderless, Anna becomes obsessed with
the podcast. Then she finds an unlikely
ally in an anorexic former
rock star and the pair career
around Europe, trying to stay
alive while digging for the
truth beyond the podcast.
Mina delivers a whirlwind
tale that’s fresh, edgy and
riveting. She matches brilliant
characterisation with tense
storytelling that is leavenedwith humour. A dark novel with a
delicious smirk.T
his year marks the 20th anniversary
of Irishman John Connolly’s first
novel, starring NYPD detective turned
Maine private eye Charlie Parker. The
rational traditions of mystery writing
and the irrationality of the super-
natural and occult in the Parker series
could be oil and water in lesser hands,
but Connolly has long proven a sto-
rytelling sorcerer and one of the finest
stylists in the crime genre. A BOOK OF
BONES (Hodder & Stoughton, $37.99) is
the 17th Parker novel and sees the
private eye continuing his hunt for
the mysterious Quayle and his vicious
consort, Pallida Mors. Parker follows
a trail from a desert junkyard to the
canals of Amsterdam and the streets
of London, flanked by long-time
associates Angel and Louis, as clues and
bodies emerge: how does a series of grisly
British murders link to a long-lost occult
text? Many plot threads come together in
this brilliant tale, so it is not the best entry
point for those new to Parker’s world. lA river of
deceit
Murder, lies and
betrayal threaten
to destroy a small
southern town.
G
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Mysteries, secrets and suspense: Denise Mina
and John Connolly.CRIME ROUNDUP
A lethal pursuit of
truth: Greg Iles.