Killer Christmas gifts as recommended by our authors. Part two

Deck the halls with lots of crime novels, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la, la laaa . . . Our fantastic authors have been at it again. Here are even more Christmas recommendations for the crime lover in your life. Whether they like thrillers, debuts, police procedural, crime in translation, or mystery, we’ve got something for everyone’s tastes as we find out what our crime authors will be gifting this year . . .

Bestselling author Chris Brookmyre, (whose new book, BLACK WIDOW, publishes January 2016) recommends: William McIlvanney, LAIDLAW

For a Christmas gift I am recommending Laidlaw by the late William McIlvanney, because it is the genre-defining classic most likely to be missing from crime fiction fans’ collections, and thus a treat they will thank you for. You will seldom read a crime novel with such quotable prose or such an effusive sense of place, rendering both menace and compassion with equally compelling grace.

Tania Carver, author of the Brennan & Esposito thrillers, (the latest of which, HEARTBREAKER, is available now) recommends: Rod Reynolds, THE DARK INSIDE

I was going to choose Smith Henderson’s Fourth of July Creek as it’s my favourite book of the year but I see ‘someone’ has already beaten me to it. So instead I’m going to go for The Dark Inside by Rod Reynolds. A noirish first novel set in 1940’s Texarkana written by a Londoner shouldn’t work but it does. Spectacularly. I thoroughly enjoyed it and think other people should have the chance to do so too. This guy’s got a big future ahead of him and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Gilly Macmillan, author of BURNT PAPER SKY recommends: Peter Høeg, MISS SMILLA’S FEELING FOR SNOW

This book is so good that I almost wish I hadn’t read it, because I can’t ever again experience the utter thrill of discovering it. It has everything: it’s thoughtful and intelligent; the prose is rich and evocative from the very first sentence to the last; and both the plot and characters (especially outsider-turned-detective Miss Smilla) are complex and intriguing, and embedded in a setting that feels vivid and chilling, in both senses of the word. This was the first contemporary psychological thriller I ever read, and I was instantly hooked on the genre.

Alex Marwood is the bestselling  author of THE WICKED GIRLS and THE KILLER NEXT DOOR. Her latest thriller, THE DARKEST SECRET, is publishing March 2016. Alex recommends: Barbara Vine, A FATAL INVERSION

I’ve lost count of the number of copies of Barbara Vine’s A Fatal Inversion I’ve given to people. It’s the book that made me want to write psychological crime; a wonderful adventure in plot and structure and characterisation that spells out over and over that, as long as you have the skills, you can break the perceived rules in any way you see fit. What a loss to our world she was.

Happy Christmas one and all.