This summer’s most gripping crime reads

As ever, there is an endless supply of crime novels and true crime books out there to pick from for summer reading. Here are five of the best to pack in your hand luggage…

City on Fire by Don Winslow

Don Winslow is rightfully regarded as one of crime writing’s big hitters. His monumental ‘Cartel’ trilogy about America’s war on drugs is a towering literary achievement. Now, he’s embarking on another three-book run. Set in 1980s Rhode Island and inspired by The Iliad, this first instalment sees a beautiful woman spark a war between Irish and Italian gangsters – and Danny Ryan, a faithful but undervalued member of the Irish clan, is thrust into the centre of the mayhem. As ever with Winslow, the plotting is taut, the action scenes pop and the characterisation is on point (I’m particularly keen to see what he does with Ryan’s filthy rich mother in the subsequent books).