Who is the killer hired to kill?

NEON by G. S. Locke (Orion €12.99)

THIS high-concept novel tells the story of DCI Matt Jackson, who’s in such despair over the murder of his wife by a serial killer — who likes to illuminate his victims with chains of neon lights — that he decides he wants to end his own life.

He hires a hit man (who turns out to be a hit woman) to kill him. Then, at the last moment, he changes his mind when he stumbles across a fresh lead in the hunt for the ‘Neon’ killer.

Jackson offers the hit woman his house and inheritance if she helps his search. What follows is an enthralling quest in which the three individuals circle each other as it emerges that there may be unexpected links between them all.

Vivid and stylish, it rushes along like a rollercoaster before plunging to an intense conclusion — to be read in a single sitting.

CRY BABY by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown €14.99)

TWENTY years ago, Billingham introduced troubled detective DI Tom Thorne in his debut, Sleepyhead, which became an international bestseller. Now Billingham has written a prequel to this, where Thorne is still only a DS investigating the disappearance of a seven-yearold boy who had been playing with his friend in the woods in Highgate, north London.

He is haunted by the memory that he once ignored his instinct about a suspect, which saw a horrifying crime committed.

Thorne is determined not to make the same mistake again as he senses something strange about a neighbour of the missing boy’s mother.

Does this man have something to do with the disappearance? Written with Billingham’s characteristic flair and drive, with a protagonist who stalks every page.

SHED NO TEARS by Caz Frear (Zaffre €12.15)

CHRISTOPHER MASTERS, the socalled Roommate Killer, was responsible for the deaths of three young women in a London house in 2012, but his fourth victim — thought to be Holly Kemp — was never found.

Now, her remains are discovered in a field in

Cambridgeshire many miles from the killer’s house — the other bodies were found much nearer to home.

DC Cat Kinsella, who appeared in Frear’s debut, Sweet Little Lies, is on the major incident team asked to re-examine Holly’s cold case. Masters is now dead, but the question is, did he kill Holly, or is there another killer?

Kinsella’s refreshing ‘in your face’ attitude, and her appetite for breaking the rules, add spice to this complex story. Told with poise, Frear never lets the suspense drop.