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Kidnap, ransom and grim Blair-era skulduggery in three new crime thrillers. One zips by, one drags, one just might go places
ALL HE SAW WAS THE GIRL Peter Leonard faber. £12.99
MOONLIGHT MILE Dennis Lehane little, brown, £16.99
BONE & CANE David Belbin tindalstreet press, £12.99
GREETINGS, FELLOW MERlTOcrats and egalitarians. I bring bad news. Nepotism might not be so terrible after all. Early clays, I know, but unless his father Elmore publishes a late masterpiece in the next 11 months or so, Peter Leonard's AU He Saw Was The Girl is likely the thriller of the year. Even though he thought little of what he saw as his son's overly tricksy books, Kingsley Amis was fond of telling Martin Amis how proud he felt when he saw their novels ranked together on library shelves. Given the zip and tug of his son's work, Elmore Leonard can be prouder still. Whatever else it does - and it does an awful lot - All He Saw Was The Girl follows Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules Of Writing (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £7-99) to the letter.
We are in Rome, the eternal city, and a place eternally etched once more in your mind by Leonard junior's effortlessly focused, eggsover-easy style: "They were coming...