Involuntary Witness by Gianrico Carofiglio (Bitter Lemon Press £8.99) The author is an Italian anti-Mafia judge and this is his first award-winning crime novel. Perfectly paced and beautifully written, it tells the story of a disillusioned defence lawyer who is begged to defend a Senegalese beach peddler accused of murdering a child. But as he works on this seemingly hopeless case, he gradually becomes convinced of his client's innocence and the ensuing nail-biting trial becomes a test of his faith not just in the nature of justice, but also in himself. A powerfully redemptive novel.

The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill (Chatto £12.99). The dashingly enigmatic DCI Serrailler of the cathedral town of Lafferton is on a recuperative painting holiday after the bitter blow he suffered at the end of the first in this excellent trilogy, The Various Haunts of Men, but is called home when his handicapped sister is close to death. Life does not get any easier when a schoolboy is abducted and Lafferton police struggle to find any clue as to his disappearance. All the ingredients of the perfect English crime novel are here but the value-added one is Hill's distinctive and humane psychological insight.

The Field of Blood by Denise Mina (Bantam Press £12.99). Denise Mina is one of the most original voices in crime fiction and not nearly as well known as she should be. This is the first in a series featuring a young, gutsy heroine Paddy Meehan who is desperate to become a real journalist and throw off the shackles of her Glaswegian Catholic roots. As a junior on the Scottish Daily News she becomes caught up in a case where two young boys are accused of murdering a toddler, one of them her fiance's cousin. But when Paddy starts her own investigation she finds herself shunned by her family and colleagues. Mina perfectly captures the bleak hopelessness of Glasgow's housing projects, the bitter religious divide and the lurking menace that lies beneath the city the tourists see.

Jacquot and the Waterman by Martin O'Brien (Headline £18.99). Hunky Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot made his first appearance earlier this year tracking down a stalker who likes to drug, rape and drown his victims in the seedy southern French port of Marseilles.

Carla McKay has been a fiction reviewer for over 15 years for the Daily Mail and this year has persuaded them to let her do a crime column of reviews of recent crime fiction once every two months or so.