Compelling Slaughter

KATE Murphy’s first day as an Atlanta police officer couldn’t get off to a worse start. She’s despised by the women, lusted after by the men and disregarded by the public she has sworn to protect. Against the backdrop of 1970s Atlanta, where lines are drawn along racial as well as gender divides, Murphy has signed up to join a police force ravaged by infighting and on the hunt for a killer who likes nothing better than killing officers of the law.

For a Jew whose identity is hidden by the name she took from her late Catholic husband, she faces racism, sexism, cronyism and anti-Semitism on a daily basis.

But despite the odds and the doubts expressed by her new colleagues, Murphy quickly proves an asset to a force facing up to a serial killer with a penchant for dispatching police officers.

Karin Slaughter has established her name with a series of best-sellers based on strong characters such as Will Trent and Faith Mitchell, selling 30 million books in 32 languages around the world.

With Kate Murphy she has again come up with another winner with a compelling story.

Roddy Brooks

The Blooding by James McGee (HarperCollins, 18.99) 4/5 stars 

MATTHEW Hawkwood is a man who lives for adventure but when he is stranded behind enemy lines in America in 1812, he faces one of his fiercest battles to survive.

Britain’s bravest and boldest needs all his military skills, courage and endurance if he is to reach safety in Canada. In making his escape he uncovers an American invasion plot that threatens disaster. He must save himself and save Canada, but to do so he must cross the snowbound Adirondack mountains, the land the Iroquois call “The Hunting Ground” with American hunters hot on his heels. When the drums of war beat, Hawkwood takes some stopping.

Steve Craggs

Invisible by James Patterson and David Ellis (Century £18.99, ebook £6.44) 4/5 stars

JAMES Patterson teams up with David Ellis to create this standalone novel. From the outset this feels like a slightly different style of thriller. The horror of what is going on creeps up on you slowly, almost easing you in.

At the start we meet Emmy, who is on leave from her job as an FBI analyst after the death of her twin sister in a fire. All the signs point to a tragic accident, but Emmy can’t escape the feeling that there is something bigger going on.

Rachel Howdle The School Inspector Calls by Gervase Phinn (Hodder and Stoughton, 7.99) *** YOU don’t need to be a fortune teller to predict you’ll be in for a barrel of fun with the latest book from North Yorkshire writer Gervase Phinn.

This third in the Little School series sees the Barton-in-the-Dale School under something of a cloud with a merger in the offing, but there’s also a “Wizard” of big school play production, juicy gossip, shocking revelations and the mysterious workings of psychics to lighten the mood. Phinn in in his normal sparkling form, tha’ knows.

Steve Craggs

The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell (Century £12.99, ebook £1.99) 3/5 stars

LISA Jewell is a shining light of women’s fiction, writing about tangled relationships in a style which was light, often humorous and always poignant. Her darker novels include this tale of genial, Adrian Wolfe, a serial husband who left his two previous wives - and a total of five children – for his latest one, Maya.

When Maya steps out in front of a bus after an evening of heavy drinking on her own, the question raised is: was it a genuine accident or did she commit suicide? A series of flashbacks interspersed with real-time events goes behind the facade of happiness and reveals the final honesty of lives broken.

Hannah Stephenson