The Soul Collector by Paul Johnston
Mira, £6.99; 448pp Buy the book

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis
Michael Joseph, £18.99; 400pp Buy the book

A twisted serial killer bent on revenge, a crime writer haunted by his past and a crazed earl with a family pedigree in Satanism make a heady brew for this end-of-summer thriller. The Soul Collector is a follow-on from Paul Johnston's debut The Death List, which is also the title of the supposedly nonfiction bestseller written by his novelist-cum-journalist hero Matt Wells, but can be read equally as a standalone.

Having made money from retelling his experiences escaping the clutches of the psychopath who called himself the White Devil, Wells is now pursued by his former lover Sarah, the White Devil's sister, intent on punishing him and the SAS men who killed her brother.

Matt's new lover is a detective chief inspector with the Metropolitan Police, which makes things difficult when Matt and his rugby-playing pals decide that they'll deal with Sarah in their own way. Except she gets to them first. Cue more complications when the DCI finds a link between Matt's pursuer and a series of feuds among gangs in London.

The action is relentless, with killers on motorbikes, murders in woodlands, family members incarcerated in coffins or turned into living bombs. The story is cliché-ridden and confusing, until the closing pages of explanation, when the baddies engage in what Pixar's Mr Incredible calls “monologuing”.

The problems are of a different kind in Silks, by the veteran horse-racing murder mystery master Dick Francis and his son Felix. Old Dick, now in his late eighties, had effectively retired before coming back after a six-year gap to ease his son into the saddle with Dead Heat last year.

Now the duo are back with Silks, a play on the two professions that wear them. Geoffrey Mason is a barrister and part-time jockey who is receiving intimidating messages from a former client. When he is hired to defend a jockey accused of murder then threatened if he doesn't deliberately lose the case, he suspects a shady link. Francis fans will be bemused to find themselves spending more time in the courtroom than on the racetrack, with jockey Geoff more of a Perry Mason.

Felix Francis, the publishers Michael Joseph say, always did much of his father's research, but they have invested heavily in hype to ensure the continued success of their “franchise”. This has become a worrisome trend, with mega-sellers such as James Patterson providing little more than a template for other wannabes to fill in the detail, and then selling it under a joint byline. Fiction seems set to follow hereditary principles handed on from the House of Lords to Hollywood. Never mind the quality, read the label.

Felix Francis appears at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival on October 17. (0845 5767979; cheltenhamfestivals.com)

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