Best crime books of 2015

 Flawed heroes, glum heroines and dazzling feats of detection
 Flawed heroes, glum heroines and dazzling feats of detection
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Icarus by Deon Meyer
Deon Meyer is not just South Africa’s greatest crime writer, he’s up there with the best in the world, as Icarus shows. His flawed hero, Benny Griessel, captain of Cape Town’s Violent Crimes Unit and a man fighting against alcoholism, is a superb creation; and Meyer paints a brilliant portrait of a country still seeking post-apartheid social and racial balance. A body found buried in sands turns out to be that of the founder of Alibi, a firm providing false evidence and documents to people wishing to mask where they’ve really been.
Hodder & Stoughton, 384pp, £17.99. To buy this book for £13.99, visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134


A Cold Death in Amsterdam by Anja de Jager

An impressive debut