Crime fiction has always reflected the anxieties of the moment, as this most recent batch of thrillers clearly reveals. If I was to make a list of the things that scare me right now, it would include the right-wing media, tech billionaires without a skerrick of social conscience, tall buildings, data centres, reality TV shows (yes, really), cults and bushfires. If any of these fears press your buttons, prepare for a heart-thumping read knowing that at least in fiction, the bad guys usually get their comeuppance. If only this were true in real life.

Full Circle by Chris Hammer (Summit Books $35)

Full Circle is Chris Hammer’s first standalone crime novel, and it’s not like the others, except for the map: there’s always an excellent map. The setting is an imaginary Georgian-style manor house on the Mornington Peninsula just past Sorrento where, since the seasonal tourists have left, “the cashed-up retirees have reclaimed their kingdom”.…