Meet the most unconventionally entertaining duo in UK crime fiction | Books | Entertainment

The Killer’s Mark by M W Craven, Hardback, £22

Having left the National Crime Agency, Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw have gone freelance – “gumshoes for hire” reads the sign on their Carlisle office door. But clients have proved hard to come by, not least because of Poe’s idiosyncratic manner. So when foul-mouthed 15-year-old Esmerée Blue turns up looking for her missing mother, presumed dead but now identified in a porn film by a tattoo on the sole of her foot, they take the case. Five years earlier a horrifying secret hidden within a tamper-proof safe unleashed a huge investigation and Poe and Tilly – the most unconventionally entertaining duo in crime writing – are unwittingly sucked into the fallout.

Murder, mayhem and Triads ensure in Craven’s eighth and best novel in the million-selling series. Craven’s trademark mix of dark humour and drama is so addictive it should come with a health warning. 9/10

The British Agent by Simon Conway, Hardback, £16.99

Dispatched to Ukraine to investigate the end destination of sophisticated British weapons sent to the embattled country and feared trafficked to third parties, MI6 operative Agent Chuff is ambushed and three lethal Starstreak man portable air defence system missiles are stolen. Now she must track them down before they can be used to commit an atrocity in the US – sending her deep undercover on a mission fraught with risk that takes in conspiracy theorists, insurrectionists and Washington spymasters. And Chuff must outwit them all to survive. So kicks off this extraordinarily believable, globe-spanning thriller from former Army officer, weapons experts and aid worker Simon Conway.

If thrillers are your thing, The British Agent is perfect summer reading. The pace never lets up and this is weapons grade brilliance packed between two covers that threatens to explode at any moment. 8/10

The Derelicts: The Heart and Art of Veterans’ Rugby, by Paul Mosley, Paperback, £10.99

Debut author Paul Mosley’s achingly funny and compelling book The Derelicts is a paean not just to veterans Rugby but to all team sports. It will resonate with anyone who has played – or knows anyone else who has played – amateur sport when clearly past their sell-by date. The narrative arc is the Derelicts’ stumbling and wayward progress through a season of muddy mismatches, but the glory is in the detail – the cast of characters and Mosley’s relatable descriptions of them, such as “half-man, half-Guinness” or “a medical curiosity”.

This is true comrade banter, and delivered with a rich turn of phrase and a facility with language and metaphor which belies the author’s own career as a lumbering prop forward. All aspects of the great old game are touched upon – from the nightmare of losing your players to a senior side just before kickoff to the inedible comestibles served up after a game, to the dark arts of the scrum and of course the pre-match application of various oils and potions to preserve their aged bodies. Highly recommended. 8/10

City of Traitors by Alex Gerlis, Hardback, £18.99

Set over half a dozen countries with a sprawling cast of characters both fictional and real, City of Traitors brilliantly captures the geo-political jostling over control of Europe that accompanied the latter stages of the Second World War. Gerlis is the maestro of multiple story strands expertly woven together into a thrilling, satisfying read. At the heart of City of Traitors is ‘Archie’, a British Soviet agent feeding information to the UK and Russia but in no doubt who his real masters are.

Seven men are suspected of being the traitor, but waiting for the spy to reveal themselves with a mistake has borne no fruit. Now as the Red Army approaches Germany from the East and the Allies from the West, the stage is set for a dramatic showdown amid the rubble of Berlin. Pulse-raisingly brilliant. 9/10