The best recent crime thrillers - summary review

The Heights by Ian Rankin; The Mortons by Scott Westerfeld and Justin Larbalsteer. The Most Mysterious Murder by Alice Cummings. The Deadly Legacy of Everest Macdonald by AJ West. Inheritance by Gillian Slovo The Heights by Ian Rankin (Orion, £25) Luxurious tower blocks, those powerful symbols of gentrification, widening wealth gaps and displacement of existing communities, are a gift to novelists. Rankin's first in-store independent trailer in nearly two decades

The opulent towers, those powerful symbols of over-gentrification, the widening wealth gap and the displacement of existing communities, are a gift to novelists. Rankin's first standalone thriller in nearly two decades centers on The Heights, 18 stories high overlooking London's Hyde Park, where DS Gillian Gish is investigating the suspicious death of night shift watchman Dwayne Hogarth. The rich people who live there, including a young singer, the wife of a gangster, a man who "made a mint in post-glasnost Russia" and the daughter of a well-connected Zimbabwean, are either uncontactable or strict, and it soon becomes clear that the builder, despite his bravado, is in financial trouble. Everyone seems to have something to hide - and then a second body is discovered. Rankin is a great storyteller, and this is well up to his usual standards, while DS Gish - more complex, but significantly more relatable than John Rebus - is worthy of his own series.

The Mortons by Scott Westerfeld and Justin Larbalsteer (Viking, £18.99)

There are shades of The Sopranos and Wednesday Addams in this story of a powerful American family whose business is murder, blackmail and financial fraud. As the Mortons' great hope, Jessica, says, "Give your child a strong hand, a sharp knife, and a big family, then teach him loyalty without care." Children are given pet bunnies to prove their lack of compassion to them. The family is just as ruthless as the others, their graveyard is full of youngsters who didn't make the grade. Jessica, who scored her first kill at the age of 20, looks set to take on the murderous mantle, but a summer internship leads to a chain of events that culminates in the discovery of a conscience. The Mortons is lively and exciting, with a streak of wry humor, but there's a lot of world-building to wade through, some of which lacks internal logic. Many of the characters are hard to follow, and violence against innocent people and animals may make some readers feel uncomfortable.

The Most Mysterious Murder by Alice Cummings (Michael Joseph, £16.99)

Cummings' entertaining debut opens with a man walking into a meeting of people in recovery announcing his name is Lawrence and that he's an alcoholic, then dead. Seeing a mysterious handwritten crossword clue falling out of Lawrence's pocket—the answer: murder—the gang are quicker to suspect foul play than the police, and when the same clue appears in the next day's paper, they decide to find out what's going on. Told from the point of view of people trying with varying degrees of success to stay sober, the book contains a fair amount of unreliable narration—especially due to memory lapses caused by drunkenness. The emergence of related backstories lends more emotional depth than found in the usual setting, while uncovering more cryptic cross-clues is the inventive element of the puzzle (answers provided at the end for the non-cross-minded).

The Deadly Legacy of Everest MacDonald by AJ West (Orenda, £20)

West's latest historical mystery is a reimagining of real events: the actor William Treece was stabbed to death outside the Adelphi Theater in London in 1897 by the insane and impoverished fellow Richard Archer Prince, who was subsequently found "criminally insane" and sent to Broadmoor. The story here takes place in 1917 against the backdrop of World War I, as William's brother, Everest MacDonald's father, gives him a bundle of papers and charges him with discovering the truth about his uncle's death. What follows is a fascinating journey that takes us back to the Indian sepoys' mutiny of 1857 and includes "blackmail in all directions, secret love affairs, loyalties, revenges, even phantoms and tribal curses" as well as a host of hysterical thespians, including real British stars. and Seymour Hicks This is a well-researched, atmospheric, and appropriately melodramatic historical mystery.

Inheritance by Gillian Slovo (Peepal Tree, £12.99)

The new legacy of Slovo's latest novel involves political and financial corruption in a South Africa still emerging from the long shadows of apartheid. Gail, the younger sister of novelist Deborah Harrison, committed suicide after denouncing Deborah's latest book, a reimagining of the family tragedy that ruined their childhood - as a misrepresentation. Deborah has always accepted the official version of events, that her mother killed her father in 1984 and went to prison for it, but Gale, whose adulthood was marred by addiction issues and growing paranoia, believed otherwise. Now she gives her sister a will to find her estranged mother, whom she hasn't had contact with in over 40 years, and Deborah discovers that the truth is much more complicated than she imagined. This is a suspenseful and moving story about generational trauma, the complex nature of memory, peacemaking and letting go.