CRIME FICTION  | Daily Mail Online

JUST WATCH ME

by Jeff Lindsay (Orion £20, 368 pp)

From the creator of vigilante serial killer Dexter — who tracked down murderers who had slipped through the net of justice — comes another nuanced anti-hero, Riley Wolfe.

He is a modern-day Raffles, a master criminal and thief who is also an expert in disguise and not averse to violence.

In this debut, Wolfe sets out to steal the Crown Jewels of Iran, which are going on display in New York. It looks an impossible task, with high-tech security and guards everywhere, but that only makes the challenge more attractive to the resourceful Wolfe, who calls on the help of a beautiful female art forger.

There are echoes of The Thomas Crown Affair and Ocean’s Eleven all through it, but with even more twists and subterfuges, as Wolfe attempts what will be the heist of the century.

Vastly entertaining, and written with verve and charm, it ushers in a character that is impossible to forget.

MISTER WOLF 

by Chris Petit (S&S £14.99, 496 pp)

The third novel from the acclaimed filmmaker Petit to be set in the ruins of the Third Reich, this is an even greater tour de force than its predecessors.

It is July 20, 1944, and Berlin feels doomed. On that very day, Hitler — often known as Mister Wolf — miraculously escapes an attempt on his life when a bomb planted by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg fails to kill him.

Gestapo officer August Schlegel, one of Petit’s regular characters, finds himself in the unlikely position of questioning the official version of events, and embarks on a tortuous search for the truth. It takes him through a hypnotising world of illicit jazz clubs, suspect art dealers and fake fuhrers.

It also ushers him into the sphere of sinister Nazi official Martin Bormann, and a suspicion that the bomb plot may not have been quite what it seemed.

Meticulously researched and elegantly written, it treads the line between fact and fiction with immense aplomb.

DEATHLY AFFAIR

by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press £8.99, 304 pp)

This is the 13th book in the impressive series of stories featuring the indomitable DS Geraldine Steel, and sees Russell’s heroine investigating the cold-blooded killing of a homeless man for no apparent reason.

Then another homeless man’s body is found, and the hunt for the killer steps up a gear — although there are some in the constabulary who wonder why they should spend so many resources on people living on the edge of society.

Undeterred, Steel feels there could be a serial killer on the loose. At the same time, a music teacher who has been having an affair with a superficially happily married mother disappears.

It transpires that he has been abducted and taken prisoner. Could it be by the cuckolded husband? Or is there another reason?

As the story unfolds, the strands begin to coalesce, with Steel at their heart — as she is in all of Russell’s gripping police procedurals.