When a writer as original, skilful and funny as Belinda Bauer comes across new information, wonderful things can happen. In a foreword here, she describes learning how rare red guillemot eggs were taken from Yorkshire cliffs annually between the wars. From this, she has created an imaginary world, featuring the men who negotiated the cliffs to get the eggs, the brokers and rich collectors who paid for them, and a farming family trying to make a living from forty unpromising acres nearby. Enid Sheppard’s husband abandoned her, their farm and their children when she gave birth to a baby that looked nothing like him. The product of an affair, the child was blamed for everything that went wrong on the farm and was given far less food than her half-siblings. But this meant that, at the age of six, she was still small enough to be lowered down a narrow cleft in a cliff to collect the most desirable eggs, which none of the usual ‘climmers’ could reach. Switching between the past and the present, this highly imaginative and gloriously written novel is packed with memorable characters, most of them misfits. This is literary crime writing at its best.

Covering such disparate topics as coercive control, domestic abuse, serial killing, schoolgirl friendship and romance, The Killing Sense will please many readers. Ravishing red-haired Kate, the survivor of marriage to a violent man, wins a competition she didn’t realise she had entered. The prize is a place on a week-long perfume-making course in Paris, together with accommodation in a luxurious apartment and tickets to galleries. In spite of the hyper-vigilance she acquired during her hellish marriage, she accepts the prize. On the Eurostar, she meets a rich and engaging man and confides rather more in him than is wise. At the same time, French student Agathe has reported her flatmate missing. A head is found floating in the Seine and investigators link it to the murders of other women with red hair. The narrative is punctuated with short sections providing the unidentified serial killer’s point of view, which hint that the roots of the atrocious violence lie in childhood. Fast-moving and full of charming descriptions of Paris, this is popular serial-killer fiction of the most effective kind.

This is the fifth instalment in Chris Hammer’s series featuring Australian detectives Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic. His descriptions of the New South Wales landscape are mouth-watering, his characters are rounded and appealing, and his plots are complex and intriguing. At the centre of The Broken River is a disused, flooded goldmine, but the tale extends out to encompass politics, police corruption, ecoterrorism and revenge. Among the many greedy, violent and dishonest characters, there are some individuals who stray across the line between good and bad without intending to. There are even a few who are genuinely virtuous. Buchanan, who had a tough childhood, is a stalwart upholder of all that is good and decent. As she and Lucic investigate the discovery of a body near the mine, she unearths unlikely personal links to the case.

Set during Shakespeare’s ‘lost years’ – the period before 1592 – this novel has much to say about the business of writing: the uncertainties, the unexpected discoveries, the intermingling of imagination and experience. It also lays bare the dangers and cruelty of life in Elizabethan England. Linskey’s Shakespeare finds himself caught between Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and Elizabeth’s spymaster Robert Cecil. Asked by Southampton to look into the unlikely death of a favoured cousin, Shakespeare is required by Cecil to spy on his patron and threatened with the kind of appalling torture that was visited on his fellow playwright Thomas Kyd if he disobeys. Although it is missing the light-hearted wit of Shakespeare in Love, A Serpent in the Garden is an entertaining take on Shakespeare’s dealings with Southampton.

Nine Cambridge friends have gathered in Devon two decades after they graduated to read the secret predictions they made about each other all those years ago. Some have prospered, some are making do and some have not fulfilled their potential. One of the original group, Lily, who became a doctor, is dead, having fallen from an Underground platform during rush hour. The gathering takes place in a mansion belonging to the most glamorous of them all, Ivo Fitzwilliam, who grew up rich but sad and has made squillions. As they drink their way through his fabulous cellar and read out what they wrote about each other, uncomfortable emotions surface. Envy, resentment and frustrated desire are the least of them. As the tension builds, investigative journalist Maggie begins to wonder whether Lily’s death was really accidental. Holly Watt has written an effective mystery novel, but The Last Truths We Told is more than just that. It also explores issues of friendship and love while tackling the midlife crises of a group of highly intelligent individuals coming to terms with the limitations imposed by their undergraduate choices.

Cam Killick is a diver with PTSD dating from his time serving with the special forces. He takes large quantities of prescription medicines but only really finds peace underwater, even if that means sleeping in a deep bath and breathing through a straw. The one creature he truly trusts is his dog, Nala. He has been fascinated by stories of a family that went missing with their glamorous car in the Norfolk Broads thirty years ago and has worked out where the car might have been hidden. When he reaches it, expecting to see the remains of four bodies, he finds it empty. Reporting his discovery to the police, he arouses some seriously violent opposition and needs all his skills to counter it. Rob Parker is an effective creator of both characters and vigorous action scenes. Although the chief villain’s motives seem a bit far-fetched, this is an exciting novel with some moving moments and a good twist.

Karsten Dusse’s first novel is one of the wittiest I have read in a long time. His first-person narrator is a 42-year-old criminal lawyer with a difficult marriage and a beloved small daughter. His wife is furiously disappointed in him, his main client is the violent head of an organised crime gang and he lives in a state of physical and mental tension. A further cause of stress is the three apparently high-minded owners of the preschool he wants his daughter to attend, who have ‘no time for their own children at home’ because they are ‘too busy organising Third World child labour instead’. His wife sends him to a mindfulness coach to sort himself out. He initially despises the coach’s maxims but eventually places his trust in them. With their help, he takes down (often violently) everyone who disturbs his peace and happiness, particularly criminals. Packed with social commentary, this novel is a delight in every way.

Police procedurals rely on an appealing main character to carry the plot, however ingenious it may be. Tim Sullivan scores highly with his Detective Sergeant George Cross, who is clearly neurodivergent. Likeable and infuriating at the same time, he pursues every idea and piece of evidence exhaustively. His parents divorced years ago, partly because of the stress of dealing with his condition, and he moved in with his father. But his mother has now reappeared and proves helpful when her ex-husband has a stroke. Meanwhile, at work, Cross is investigating the fatal stabbing of a Bristol bookseller. Among the vengeful Russian oligarchs, jealous rivals and tricky family members, there are plenty of suspects for him and his charming and practical colleague Josie Ottey to assess. They make a fine pair, and Sullivan’s gentle humour adds to the pleasures of this novel.