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Crime Fiction First Novels 2003

A list featuring selected first novels (mostly hardcover) in the mystery, suspense, thriller and crime fiction genres. This list may not be comprehensive. First novel information is collected from a variety of sources. More additions to the list are coming soon! Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.

More First Fiction lists (novels and short story collections).

Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers & Crime Fiction First Novels: 2003

• Bunker 13
  Author: Bahal, Aniruddha
  Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374117306
  The hero, known as MM, is a pleasure-seeking journalist working for an upstart Indian newsweekly. Knowing, cynical, highly capable, and deeply motivated, he is an intriguing new postmodern man. His action-packed narration of his daredevil, drug- and sex-drenched dangerous life is world-class suspense of an entirely new kind.
  Updated 12.1.03
• Hawke
  Author: Bell, Ted
  Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0743466691
  LJ
  "The best adventure in years, Hawke is a swashbuckling, spine-tingling, bloody good masterpiece of an adventure novel" (James Patterson)--and the debut of a bold new talent.
  Updated 6.5.03
• The Amber Room
  Author: Berry, Steve
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345460030
  The Amber Room centers on one of history's greatest mysteries--the disappearance of the Amber Room, one of the greatest treasures ever made, during the Allied bombing of Germany.
  Updated 12.1.03
• The Hummingbird Wizard
  Author: Blevins, Meredith
  Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765307693
  PW Kirkus LJ
  Driving full-steam-ahead with her life after the unexpected death of her husband, Annie Szabo was not planning on veering off course again. Sexy, witty, and original, Blevins paints a portrait of a vibrant family, led by two women who refuse to let a little homicide ruin their enjoyment of life.
  Updated 8.13.03
• Death by Hollywood
  Author: Bochco, Steven
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400061563
  The creator of Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue pens a suspenseful, shocking, and darkly comic crime novel about a Hollywood writer who witnesses a murder, and, instead of reporting it to the police, insinuates himself into the investigation in order to write a screenplay about it.
  Updated 12.1.03
• The 6th Lamentation
  Author: Broderick, William
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031917
  PW Booklist
  When Father Anselm gives sanctuary to a suspected Nazi criminal at Lakewood Priory, he puts in motion more trouble than he ever could have imagined.
  Updated 7.1703
• My Ex-Best Friend
  Author: Brophy, Beth
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0743244222
  In the bestselling tradition of Susan Isaacs, My Ex-Best Friend reveals the perilous exploits of Claire Newman, a no-frills suburbanite turned feisty sleuth--from a fresh new voice in contemporary fiction.
  Updated 12.1.03
• Judgement Calls
  Author: Burke, Alafair
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805073868
  In Samantha Kincaid, Burke has created a complex, appealing character--a woman consumed by a sense of justice who is also tough enough to take on a man's world. Seamlessly juxtaposing courtroom scenes with those of criminal investigation, Judgment Calls reveals an insider's knowledge of the criminal justice system.
  Updated 12.1.03
• Sensei
  Author: Donohue, John
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312288123
  PW Booklist
  When many of America's great martial artists are murdered, college professor and martial artist Connor Burke is dragged into the investigation by the NYPD. With the help of master warrior Yamashita Sensei, Burke follows a trail of clues that leads him to confront his own fear--and the ruthless killer.
  
• Confessions of a Death Maiden
  Author: Francisco, Ruth
  Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967730
  Much like Edgar Award winner Eliot Pattison, Francisco scales the heights of suspense with this enthralling first novel about a hospice worker determined to uncover why the young boy under her care died ominously.
  Updated 12.1.03
• Haunted Ground
  Author: Hart, Erin
  Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 0743235053
  This dazzling crime novel debut--already an international sensation--is from a gifted author who combines rich atmosphere with archeology, history, and extraordinary forensic detail.
  
• Offer of Proof
  Author: Heilbrun, Robert
  Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060538120
  Booklist
  A talented new writer, this New York City public defender makes his exciting debut with a thriller in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Lawrence Block.
  Updated 10.2.03
• The Water Clock
  Author: Kelly, Jim
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312321430
  In this captivating mystery from a new master of suspense, the discovery of two bodies brings a local news reporter face to face with his guilt, his deepest fears, and a cold, ruthless killer.
  Updated 12.1.03
• The Business of Dying
  Author: Kernick, Simon
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312314019
  A remarkable first novel from an exciting new British talent--"the crime debut of the year." (The Independent on Sunday, UK) Cynical and jaded, Detective Sergeant Dennis Milne earns money on the side by doing what he does best: punishing the bad guys. But this time he's been duped.
  Updated 12.1.03
• Ticket Out
  Author: Knode, Helen
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151001847
  In this stunning debut crime novel, a movie critic in Los Angeles finds a film school grad murdered in her bathtub. It's the kind of story Ann Whitehead was born to write, but suddenly she finds herself in the middle of a complicated conspiracy spanning decades.
  
• Murder Off Mike: A Talk Radio Mystery
  Author: Krieg, Joyce
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312310269
  PW Booklist
  The winner of the 2002 St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Contest for Best First Traditional Mystery introduces Shauna J. Bogart, a smart, sassy radio talk show host at Sacramento's top-rated local station who launches her own investigation into the "suicide" of a fellow shock jock.
  
• Mission Flats
  Author: Landay, Bill
  Publisher: Delacorte $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385336144
  Kirkus PW Booklist
  In the bestselling tradition of Scott Turow and Dennis Lehane, a former district attorney explodes onto the scene with a blistering debut set in Maine and Boston.
  Updated 8.13.03
• Blind Run
  Author: Lewin, Patricia
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345443225
  Ethan Decker is a specialized "Hunter" for the most secretive agency of the U.S. government. As Decker fights to protect the innocent and struggles to restore a shattered relationship that seems beyond repair, Lewin takes readers on a thrilling ride full of whip-snap action, deadly turns, and almost unbearable suspense.
• Feast of the Carrion
  Author: McCarthy, Keith
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786712228
  Kirkus
  Introducing crack forensic pathologist John Eisenmenger and solicitor Helena Flemming in this compelling crime series.
  Updated 6.30.03
• Dead I Well May Be
  Author: McKinty, Adrian
  Publisher: Scribner $ 24 ISBN: 07743246993
  Kirkus Booklist
  This New York Irish bad-boy thriller--brimming with violence, greed, and sexual betrayal--brings a gripping new voice to the literary turf of Michael Connelly, Chuck Palahniuk, and Dennis Lehane.
  Updated 9.22.03
• Lovers Crossing
  Author: Mitchell, James C.
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312315309
  Booklist
  Brinker is a private detective and former INS agent whose years policing the border ended when he was shot--most likely by one of his own men. In the tradition of Michael McGarrity, Mitchell introduces a border detective who is as fully human as he is smart and tough.
  Updated 7.17.03
• Clean Cut
  Author: Monsour, Theresa
  Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149686
  Booklist
  In this stunning first novel, Paris Murphy--a smart, intuitive and reckless police detective--sets out to trap a serial killer using herself as a snare.
  Updated 1.25.03
• A Cruel Season for Dying
  Author: Moore, Harker
  Publisher: Mysterious $ 24.95 ISBN: 0892967749
  In this chilling series debut, Japanese-American homicide detective James Sakura must hunt down a brutal killer stalking the streets of New York. When an eight-year-old girl becomes the next victim, Sakura must use all of his instincts to see into the heart of a monster who believes he is waging a war against God.
  Updated 12.1.03
• The Dante Club
  Author: Pearl, Matthew
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375505296
  Kirkus Booklist
  When a series of gruesome murders erupts in 1865, only Boston's literary elite realize that the style and form of the killings are derived from Dante's Inferno. Twenty-six-year-old Pearl brilliantly blends fact and fiction in this debut mystery starring Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
  Updated 12.02.02
• Winter's End
  Author: Rickets, John
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312310978
  Kirkus
  In this powerful debut, the small town of Winter's End is beset by a pervading sense of evil as the sheriff realizes he may well be part of a killer's game--a game that is not yet over.
  Updated 10.8.03
• Quantico Rules
  Author: Riehl, Gene
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 031231051x
  Booklist
  In this auspicious debut, an FBI agent and his partner are pulled into a vast conspiracy that threatens to consume them--if they don't destroy themselves first.
  Updated 5.14.03
• Dissolution
  Author: Sansom, C.J.
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032034
  In what's being called a brilliant debut, Sansom presents a riveting historical novel in which issues of politics and faith collide when a gruesome murder is committed in a remote Benedictine monastery during the reign of Henry VIII.
  
• Black Maps
  Author: Spiegelman, Peter
  Publisher: Knopf $ 22.95 ISBN: 1400040752
  PW
  John March, a former cop now working as a PI in Manhattan, takes the case of Rick Pierro, a self-made man who has almost everything until he falls victim to a serial extortionist adept at psychological and physical intimidation.
  Updated 7.28.03
• Bridge of Sighs
  Author: Steinhauer, Olen
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312302452
  Kirkus
  In this auspicious debut, an inexperienced homicide detective struggles amid the lawlessness of a post-World War II eastern European city.
  Updated 10.31.02
• The Barbed-Wire Kiss
  Author: Stroby, Wallace
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312300344
  PW
  In this brooding, blistering debut set against the spare, atmospheric background of working-class New Jersey, retired police officer Harry Rane gets caught between his past and his future, between justice and vengeance.
  Updated 1.3.03
• The Lost Army of Cambyses
  Author: Sussman, Paul
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312301537
  This adrenaline-packed thriller is a wonderfully evocative archeological adventure by an outstanding new storyteller.
  
• O'Artful Death
  Author: Taylor, Sarah Stewart
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312307640
  When an art historian who specializes in gravestones looks into the 100-year-old death of a young girl at a Vermont art colony, she ignites the wrath of a present-day killer. Newcomer Taylor delivers a wonderfully atmospheric cozy and academic mystery featuring Sweeney St. George, a Boston art historian.
  Updated 12.1.03
• Final Witness
  Author: Tolkien, Simon
  Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508821
  Booklist
  The grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien makes a thrilling debut as a novelist in this suspenseful family drama about a teenage boy who accuses his stepmother of murdering his mother, Lady Anne Robinson. Thomas's father, Sir Peter Robinson, is the British minister of defense and refuses to believe his son. Instead, he will be the trial's final witness.
  Updated 10.24.02
• Wiley's Lament
  Author: Waiwaiole, Lono
  Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312303831
  From another impressive newcomer to American crime fiction, "Wiley's Lament" is the story of a man who's drifting through the remains of his torn up life like a ghost, playing poker to make ends meet--until his daughter turns up dead and he must deal the final hand.
  
• The Immortal Part
  Author: Waking, Christopher
  Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222399
  An exciting young writer explores the boundary between deception and self-deception in this addictive story of a young London attorney who is driven to desperate extremes when he discovers the his brother's secret life, which forces him headlong into a psychological labyrinth.
• Maisie Dobbs
  Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
  Publisher: Soho $ 24 ISBN: 1569473307 Date: 2003
  Library Journal PW
  "Meet Maisie Dobbs, who in 1929 launches her career as a private investigator and finds herself drawn back to the Great War she thought she'd long since put behind her: an unexpected beginning for Maisie--and a rare treat for mystery fans."--Charles Todd, A Fearsome Doubt.
  Suggested Reading: World War Stars
  Updated 6.19.03
• Clea's Moon
  Author: Wright, Edward
  Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN:0399150471
  This dazzling first novel by a new voice in crime fiction won the Debut Dagger Award from the Crime Writer's Association of Great Britain.
  Updated 12.1.03

More Debut/First Look information