If crime novels were music, this would be Jerry Lee Lewis, and there’s no higher accolade in my opinion.It Was Youby Adam BaronMACMILLAN £10.99Adam Baron’s fourth Billy Rucker novel is his best yet Rucker is a private eye cruising the mean streets of London Blimey, that takes me back. It’s as though civilisation has finally broken down and the Goths are ruling downtown Houston, as possibly they do. The villains include one particularly memorable and nasty little character who lives his life by self-help tapes Cut and Run is first class – a little diamond. Abandoned families, robbery from the mob, and a man looking for the mother he still loves even after she left him, his father, and his brothers as children to hit the road in search of a more exciting life.

So when dad is dying, the now adult son, Whit, takes off himself to track her down Abbott has written a frighteningly violent novel. Superb.Cut and Run by Jeff Abbott (ORION £9.99)There’s nothing like old scores to settle to make a good crime novel, and Cut and Run is full of them. According to police logic, after 36 hours the chances of finding a missing person evaporate fast. This is the 37th hour, and it’s a gripping piece of storytelling that gets better the deeper the reader gets into it This could easily hit the bestseller lists. Personally I prefer him to King because of his more optimistic take on life.

Odd Thomas is one of his finest books, and Odd himself is a superb character whom I’d like to see more of. A hit.The 37th Hour by Jodi Compton (HODDER £10)The 37th Hour reads like the kick-off of a series and I hope it is. Set in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St Paul, it features a young county sheriff’s detective called Sarah Pribeck whose new husband, also a cop, goes missing on his way to Quantico to take an FBI induction course. But when something really bad is heading for the small town of Pico Mundo in California, it’s hard to get the locals to believe him, so Odd’s more or less on his own Often compared to Stephen King, Koontz sells truckloads. Using the information the dead impart to him, Odd solves crimes Mostly murder.