Hello, fellow crime enthusiasts! I hope you’re all keeping well as we move into autumn (a rainy one here in Wales). Without further ado, here are three excellent crime novels I’ve enjoyed recently.
Peter Grainger, An Accidental Death, Penguin 2026 (2014)
Opening lines: ‘My name is Melanie Carter. I am a six-form student at St Martin’s Comprehensive in Upham Market. This is my statement about what happened on Saturday 24th August 2011.’
If you’re a lover of police procedurals and haven’t yet discovered Peter Grainger, drop everything. Without a doubt, his ‘DC Smith / Kings Lake’ series is the most accomplished and addictive series I’ve read in years, and features an investigator on a par with Mankell’s Wallander, Rankin’s Rebus, Dexter’s Morse and Wingfield’s Frost.
In the first book, An Accidental Death, Detective Sergeant David Smith and his team investigate the seemingly accidental drowning of a young man in the fictional Norfolk town of Kings Lake. Grainger’s depiction of the painstaking work that goes into a police investigation is superb, but what makes the novel stand out for me is its brilliant characterisation — especially of Smith, an experienced, wry and refreshingly well-adjusted police detective with an intriguing hinterland. Each of the six novels I’ve read so far has been fantastic, but I particularly liked the fifth book in the series, In This Bright Future, which sees Smith return to Belfast to deal with the fallout from his time there in the 1980s.
The ‘DC Smith’ series will be out with Penguin in its entirety by the end of 2026, but for years Grainger was a self-published author who slowly became a word-of-mouth sensation. An Accidental Death was originally published in 2014 and there are now a whopping 17 books in the series. How major publishers missed such an exceptional talent for over a decade is completely beyond me.
You can read more about the author and his publishing fairytale in this NYT article: Sarah Lyall, ‘The Best Literary Detective You’ve Never Heard Of, and the Man Who Made Him‘, The New York Times, 26 August 2026. Ironically, this is where I first learned about Grainger’s books rather than a British paper!
Jurica Pavičić, Mother of Sorrows, tr. Matt Robinson, Bitter Lemon Press 2026 [2022]
First line: ‘Ines still remembers the day she loved her brother more than ever.’
While there are also elements of police procedural in Mother of Sorrows, this is more of a psychological crime novel. Set in Croatia in 2022, it explores the aftermath of a young woman’s murder in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Split, and poses the following question: what you would do if you knew that someone in your family had killed someone? Would you tell the police? Would you stay silent? Would you actively help the perpetrator to evade the law? And what would taking any of these routes do to your soul?
Pavičić is a terrific writer, who uses the story of young Viktorija’s murder to explore societal as well as familial dynamics in a post-Communist Croatia. Bitter Lemon Press also published his novel Red Water in 2025, which I loved and reviewed here. Both are beautifully translated from the Croatian by Matt Robinson.
Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear, 4th Estate 2026
First line: ‘This is the last day of the life I imagined for myself.’
I’m not sure any novel has been more hyped this year than Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, but I do think this biting, incredibly clever satire deserves all the attention it’s been given. It really is a bravura performance.
Natalie Heller Mills is a so-called tradwife, whose idyllic Idaho life — filled with cute children, farm animals, cowboy husband and God — is breathlessly followed by millions online. But of course, the polished reels from the Yesteryear farm are anything but real. Behind the camera there are nannies, professional content creators and every mod con imaginable. This hypocrisy turns out to be just our starting point, because soon we are shown Natalie waking up in what appears to the past: all of the minions and fancy appliances have vanished, and she has no idea who the people purporting to be her husband and children are. The entire farm seems to have been transported back in time — to a literal yesteryear — and life has become a living nightmare. What on earth is going on?
This novel is much more than a pacy page-turner. Its bold premise allows the author to explore a raft of issues with a witty, laser-sharp focus. These include the life choices open to young American women; the pros and cons of choosing to become a ‘tradwife’ or ‘career woman’; the intersections between rigid socio-political positions and notions of womanhood; the cost of commodifying your life and your family’s life on social media; and the price of thinking you’re in control when you very much are not.
And yes, in case you’re wondering, this is definitely a crime novel. There’s a wild twist at the end of Yesteryear that makes the reader rethink much of what’s gone before and fully understand the consequences of Natalie’s life choices. The complexity of her characterisation is undoubtedly what makes the novel for me.
What have you all been reading? Have any crime novels or TV series knocked your socks off recently?
Mrs. Peabody Investigates 