Forthcoming Books to Look Forward to From Little, Brown

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.  Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war.  Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, and teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.  Moreover, the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen.  Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?  A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is by J K Rowling and is due to be published in September 2012.

The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds is by Alexander McCall Smith and is due to be published in September 2012.  Isabel Dalhouise leads an enviable life in Edinburgh, with time for cloud-gazing, civilised conversation and good coffee from Cat’s delicatessen.  Alongside these pastimes, she must also keep with the varied pursuits of her musician husband and their young son Charlie, who is exhibiting the first, rather worrying signs of mathematical genius.  But an unexpected appeal for help from a collector who has been the victim of an important art theft threatens to take her far outside her comfort zone.  As an incorrigible rescuer of others, Isabel can hardly refuse to assist in the collector’s negotiations with those holding his beloved painting, however shadowy the circumstances may be…..

Bode Bonner is the Republican governor of Texas.  He has everything he ever wanted: money, power, influence.  But something isn't right in his life - everything feels too settled and easy.  He longs for one more moment of excitement, one more challenge.  Lindsay Bonner is Bode's wife, and she's bored too.  Bored of Bode's womanising, bored of the endless cocktail parties and receptions.  She is desperate to break free of her bland, wealthy Texan lifestyle.  And that moment comes when she saves a poor Hispanic boy's life.  From that moment on, nothing will be the same for Bode and Lindsay Bonner.  Their lives are about to change in ways they could never have predicted...Filled with dramatic and ingenious twists and turns, this is an addictively readable novel that delves deep into the dark heart of Texas.  The Governor’s Wife is by Mark Gimenez and is due to be published in August 2012.

A woman has vanished while digging a dinosaur bone bed in the remote wilderness of Canada.  Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over two thousand miles away in Boston.  She has no idea why.  But as events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect the palaeontologist’s disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age.  When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that the danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles.  Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles.  Her lead investigator Pete Marino and FBI husband Benton Wesley have secrets of their own.  Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel.  The Bone Bed is by Patricia Cornwell and is due to be published in October 2012.

'What would cause someone to want so many people, surely many of them strangers, to slaughter each other?' The scene that greets Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team one terrible evening in New York is more shocking than any of them have ever witnessed. The usually comfortable downtown bar is strewn with bodies - office workers who have been sliced, bludgeoned or hacked to death with the nearest weapon available. It appears they all turned on each other in a desperate blinding rage. As Eve and her husband Roarke - who owned the bar among his many properties - investigate the big-business workers of the city, they link the attacks back to the Urban Wars and the chemical warfare used all those years ago. With another slaughter imminent, Eve must turn to unexpected sources in order to stop a killer who is getting revenge by creating mass carnage...  Delusion in Death is by J D Robb and is due to published in September 2012.

After a CIA-sponsored op in the Khorasan Valley, operative John Stratton is looking forward to a holiday - until old friend and ex-SBS commander Berry Chandos calls him up out of the blue. Through his contacts, Chandos has discovered that a nuclear dirty bomb has gone missing in Pakistan. When Chandos disappears a few days later, Stratton finds himself drawn into a desperate race to find his old partner before an assassin targets him and before the bomb can fall into the wrong hands. Alone and unsupported, Stratton must fight to find his friend and discover the truth in this high-voltage thriller.  Assassin is by Duncan Falconer and is due to be published in August 2012.

It's every parent's worst nightmare...  Stephanie Harker is travelling through the security gates at O'Hare airport, on her way to an idyllic holiday.  Five-year-old Jimmy goes through the metal detector ahead of her.  But then, in panic and disbelief, Stephanie watches as a uniformed agent leads her boy away - and she's stuck the other side of Security, hysterical with worry.  The authorities, unaware of Jimmy's existence, just see a woman behaving erratically; Stephanie is brutally wrestled to the ground and blasted with a taser gun to restrain her.  And by the time, she can tell them what has happened, Jimmy is long gone.  But as Stephanie tells her story to the FBI, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems with this seemingly normal family.  What is Jimmy's background?  Why would someone want to abduct him?  And, with time running out, how can Stephanie get him back?  The Vanishing Point is by Val McDermid and is due to be published in September 2012.

Grave Secrets In Goa is by Kathleen McCaul and it is due to be published in July 2012.  Ruby Jones just needed to relax and take a holiday. She made a bad decision when she headed for Goa...Famed for beaches and full moon parties, Goa is also home to one of the most famous Christian shrines in Asia - St. Francis Xavier, his body still miraculously intact after five hundred years. But when the head of the saint is stolen, Ruby discovers there's a lot more going missing in Goa than the head of the famous saint, and beyond the palm-fringed beaches is a world of smuggling, corruption and crime. The weather is balmy, the sea is warm, but Ruby can't play at being tourist when her journalist instincts are twitching. And soon she finds herself at the centre of a lethal world turning in on itself - with deadly consequences.

Rush of Blood is by Mark Billingham and is due to be published in August 2012.  Perfect strangers.  A perfect holiday.  The perfect murder...  Three couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends.  But on their last night, their perfect holiday takes a tragic twist: the teenage daughter of another holidaymaker goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves.  When the shocked couples return home, they remain in contact, and over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties they come to know one another better.  But they don't always like what they find: buried beneath these apparently normal exteriors are some dark secrets, hidden kinks, ugly vices...Then, a second girl goes missing.  Could it be that one of these six has a secret far darker than anybody can imagine?  A brilliantly plotted, utterly gripping thriller about the danger of making friends on holiday.

 

Joe Coughlin is nineteen when he meets Emma Gould.  A small-time thief in 1920s Boston, his task is to tie her up while his accomplices loot the bank she works in.  But Joe falls in love with Emma - and his life changes forever.  That meeting is the beginning of Joe's journey to becoming one of most feared and respected gangsters.  It is a journey beset by violence, double-crossing, drama and pain.  And it is a journey into the soul of prohibition-era America...  Live by Night is by Dennis Lehane and is due to be published in October 2012.

Gold Digger is by Frances Fyfield and is due to be published in November 2012.  The warmth of him, the glorious warmth, was fading by the minute. In a huge old school house by the sea, full of precious paintings, Thomas Porteous is dying. His much younger wife Di holds him and mourns. She knows that soon, despite her being his sole inheritor, Thomas's relatives will descend on the collection that was the passion of both of their lives. And descend they do. The two needy daughters, who were poisoned against their father by their defecting mother, are now poison themselves. The family regard Thomas's wealth as theirs by right, with the exception of young Patrick, who adored his grandfather and is torn between his parents and Di, the interloper. The family know Di's weaknesses, and she has to learn theirs. After all, she met Thomas when she came to his house to rob him. With the help of an unlikely collection of loners and eccentrics, she sets a trap to hoist the family members on their own greed. And on the night they are lured to the house, Di will be ready. Or will she?

 

Linda Fairstein follows up her 13th bestselling Alexandra Cooper thriller with another taut, fascinating foray into the dark side of New York City, this time centred around the city's most glamorous and storied restaurants.  With the help of NYPD's Mike Chapman, Alex is set to uncover the shocking secrets that have lurked just beneath the surface of the bustling metropolis for centuries - only to come screaming to light in the present day.  Night Watch is due to be published in July 2012.

The Lost Girls of Rome is by Donato Carrisi and is due to be published in July 2012.  A young girl has mysteriously disappeared in Rome.  As rain lashes the ancient streets, two men, Clemente and Marcus, sit in a cafe near the Piazza Navona and pore over the details of the case.  They are members of the ancient Penitenzeri - a unique Italian team, linked to the Vatican, and trained in the detection of true evil.  But they are not alone.  Sandra - a brilliant forensics expert with a tragic past - is also working on the case.  When her path crosses theirs, not only do they make headway in the case of the missing girl, but they also uncover a terrible secret world, hidden in the dark recesses of Rome.  A world that is as perfect as it is evil...A spellbinding literary thriller from the author of The Whisperer, The Lost Girls of Rome offers a window onto the hidden secrets of Rome.  Beautifully capturing the atmosphere of the city, it blends a page-turning plot with fascinating historical fact. 

The Panther is by Nelson DeMille and is due to be published in October 2012.  It also sees the return of his charismatic hero John Corey. It's one of the most dangerous and volatile countries in the world: Yemen. A Middle Eastern hotbed of corruption and insurgency and the perfect training ground for Islamic terrorists. When Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield are assigned to overseas posts in Sana'a, Yemen's capital city, they are tasked with hunting down a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative. This man, known as Othman, is wanted for terrorist acts and multiple murders...and the CIA is convinced that he is planning a spectacular attack on the Americans stationed in Yemen. John and Kate quickly realize they are latecomers to a dangerous game that has been going on for years; they don't know the rules or what the score is. What they do know is that there is more to their assignment that meets the eye...and that the hunters are about to become the hunted. In an action-packed and terrifying race to take down one of the most ruthless men alive.

 

Detective Inspector Phil Brennan and criminal psychologist Marina Esposito have just returned from their honeymoon and are spending the Easter weekend in Suffolk with their baby daughter Josephina and Phil's adoptive parents.  But their rural idyll is cruelly destroyed.  After a devastating arson attack on the cottage, Josephina goes missing.  With Phil in a coma, Marina is alone when she receives the first phone call.  The kidnappers say that if Marina ever wants to see her daughter alive again, she has to do exactly what they say…  Choked is by Tania Carver and is due to be published in September 2012.

Ash Rashid is a former homicide detective who can't stand the thought of handling another death investigation.  That's until his niece's body is found in the property of one of the city's wealthiest citizens.  The coroner calls it an overdose, but the case doesn't add up.  Against orders, Ash launches an investigation to find his niece's murderer.  But the longer he searches, the darker the case gets - and if he doesn't solve it fast, his niece won't be the only family member he has to bury….  The Abbey is the debut novel by Chris Culver and is due to be published in August 2012.

Boyd Morrison has two books due to be published.  In July 2012 The Roswell Conspiracy - 1947 Ten-year-old Fay Allen of Roswell, New Mexico, witnesses the fiery crash of an extraordinary craft unlike anything she's ever seen...2012 More than sixty years later, army engineer Tyler Locke rescues Fay from a pair of assassins.  She says they were after a piece of wreckage she obtained from the Roswell crash - and she claims to know secrets about that incident that have never previously been revealed.  Tyler is initially sceptical, but after he is kidnapped by a mysterious band of mercenaries, he comes to believe that Roswell holds the key to his and his countrymen's survival.  And he realises that there is a desperate race against time for him to uncover its secrets...Fast-paced and thrilling, The Roswell Conspiracy draws on actual details from the Roswell Incident to create a page-turning and thought-provoking thriller.  In December 2012 – The Tsunami Countdown - Over the remote central Pacific, a plane is suddenly rocked by a massive explosion. Despite the pilot's valiant efforts, the blast sends it plummeting into the ocean, leaving no witnesses to the fireball. Kai Tanaka, the new and untested director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu, notes a minor seismic disturbance in that region but doesn't make the connection with the lost airplane. There's no reason to be worried about his wife, who is the manager of a luxury hotel, or his daughter, who is enjoying the sunny holiday morning at Waikiki with friends. But when all contact with Christmas Island and its 3000 inhabitants is lost, Kai is the first to realize that Hawaii faces a catastrophe of epic proportions: in one hour, a series of massive waves will wipe out Honolulu. He has just sixty minutes to save the lives of a million people, including his wife and daughter...

  

The Demon Code is by Adam Blake and is due to be published in August 2012.  Three years ago, Heather Kennedy left the Metropolitan police under a shadow that has followed her ever since.  Now she has been called in to advise on a supposed burglary in the now-defunct British Museum reading room.  Kennedy soon establishes that rather than steal anything, someone has broken into the stacks in order to photograph pages from books about Johann Toller, a crazed prophet of 17th century Europe.  Toller believed that the end of days was at hand, and he made a number of prophecies relating to the Apocalypse and the events that would precede it.  None of them came true.  Until now.  One after another, the grotesque signs and wonders Toller predicted come to pass, no matter how unlikely they seem.  The river Rhine runs bright red, the towers of London bow to kiss the ground, and an angel with a fiery sword is seen over Jerusalem.  With the help of a nineteen-year-old girl from a secretive tribe and ex-mercenary Leo Tillman, Kennedy must work to stop the next prophecy coming true - the destruction of an unnamed city...

Uncompromising.  Tenacious.  Fiercely intelligent.  Ava Lee will follow the money...wherever it takes her.  Hired by Tommy Ordonez, the richest man in the Philippines, to recover $50 million in a land swindle, Ava has her work cut out.  Tommy's brother has messed up and the Filipino billionaire's reputation is on the line, and his family are on the brink of disaster.  Tracking the money, Ava uncovers an illegal online gambling ring, and follows the trail to Las Vegas.  Once there, she turns her gaze to David Douglas, one of the greatest poker players in the world - and someone who knows more about the missing money than he's letting on.  Meanwhile, Jackie Leung, an old target of Ava's, has made it rich.  He wants revenge, and he's going after Ava.  The Disciple of Las Vegas is by Ian Hamilton and is due to be published in November 2012.

Little Sister is by Lucy Dawson and is due to be published in October 2012.  In the dead of night, Kate receives a phone call.  Police have recovered her sister Anya's clothes and personal belongings at the poolside of a remote hideaway in Mexico - a place she had no idea Anya would be.  Anya was last seen getting into a vehicle with a local diving instructor but now he's missing too.  Their relationship has been complicated ever since a devastating tragedy blew their family apart, but Kate cannot believe Anya would willingly travel somewhere so isolated with a man she barely knows ...would she?  In a race against time, Kate must fight to find her little sister before it's too late.