Forthcoming books to look forward to from Atlantic and Corvus books

They call him Herod – a killer of unimaginable cruelty, with an unthinkable desire London is in the grip of a barbaric serial killer. Four women have been abducted in quick succession, their bodies mutilated and dumped. When a fifth woman is taken from her home, DCI David Rosen knows that time is running out... Then Rosen gets a mysterious phone call from Father Sebastian Flint, an enigmatic priest who seems to know rather too much about the abductions.  But it isn’t until Rosen discovers the existence of an ancient text – said to be the devil’s answer to the bible –that the true horror of Herod’s plan begins to unfold.  The Sixth Soul is the debut novel by Mark Roberts and is due to be published in February 2013.

Blessed Are Those Who Thirst is by Anne Holt and is due to be published in April 2013. In Oslo, crime scenes are being found covered with blood, but there is no victim. Only an odd series of numbers is left behind. When a girl is brutally raped in her apartment, Hanne Wilhelmsen quickly notices strange similarities with the blood-stained crime scenes. But the girl’s father has started an independent hunt for the rapist... Also by Anne Holt and due to be published in June is Death of the Demon. The cheerful façade of the Spring Sunshine Children’s home hides a brutal regime. When the manager is found dead in her office, Hanne Wilhelmsen is called in to investigate.

Welcome to fifth-century Britain: the Romans have left, the Saxons have invaded, the towns are decaying and the countryside is dangerous.  Malgwyn ap Cuneglas, an embittered ex-soldier who lost a limb in the Saxon wars, has become the trusted counsellor to Arthur, High King of all Britannia. So when a monk dies in horrific circumstances in Glastonbury Abbey, the Abbot calls for Malgwyn to investigate.  His search for the truth will draw him into an intricate web of religious, economic and political deceit – and a conspiracy that could endanger everything Arthur has fought for. The Divine Sacrifice is by Anthony Hays and is due to be published in April 2013

Traitor’s Field is the second book in the series by Robert Wilton (the winner of the inaugural Goldsboro Crown Award for debut historical novel) to feature John Thurloe.  It is due to be published in May 2013. As England tears itself apart, two spymasters fight for its future: It is 1648 and Britain is at war with itself. The Royalists are defeated but Parliament is in turmoil, its power weakened by internal discord.  Royalism’s last hope is Sir Mortimer Shay, a ruthless veteran of decades of intrigue who must rebuild a credible threat to Cromwell’s rule, whatever the cost.  John Thurloe is a young official in Cromwell’s service. Confronted by the extent of the Royalists’ secret intelligence network, he will have to fight the true power reaching into every corner of society: the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey.

False Gods of Rome is the third novel in the Vespasian series by Robert Fabbri. Sickened by Tiberius’s insane debauchery, Vespasian places his faith in the new Emperor, Caligula. Instead, he watches Rome’s shining star deteriorate into a blood-crazed, incestuous, all-powerful madman. Lavish building projects, endless games, public displays of his  relationship with his sister and a terrified senate are nothing to Caligula’s most ambitious plan: to bridge the bay of Neapolis and ride over it wearing Alexander’s breastplate. And it falls to Vespasian to travel to Alexandria and steal it. False Gods of Rome is due to be published in January 2013.

A Darkness Descending is by Christobel Kent and is due to be published in May 2013.  Silvano Rosselli, the gaunt, charismatic leader of a Florentine political movement, collapses at a rally. His longtime partner Flavia has disappeared, leaving him literally holding their new baby, at least until Rosselli’s formidable mother takes charge. Meanwhile, Sandro Cellini has been reduced to looking into a possibly fraudulent insurance claim. Soon he is drawn into the mystery surrounding Rosselli, and when Flavia’s fate is revealed, events take a terrifying turn.

No Way Back is by Matthew Klein and is due to be published in March 2013. Jimmy Thane has always taken the wrong path. Now he has one last chance to save both his career and his marriage – he has  seven weeks to turn round a failing company. But when the police start asking questions about the disappearance of the former CEO, Jimmy begins to wonder what he’s got himself into.  Then he discovers surveillance equipment in his neighbour’s house. And he begins to notice that his wife isn’t just tired, she’s terrified. Jimmy no longer feels like he’s living the dream – instead he’s plunged into the worst kind of nightmare.

Brodie is approached by the Jewish community in Glasgow to solve a series of thefts. But when the thief is knifed by a householder, who is then also murdered, Brodie’s easy case becomes a terrifying, violent mess. When Brodie investigates further, he discovers that the dead man wasn’t a brutalized Jew, but a sadistic camp guard. What starts as a small case soon escalates into a relentless personal quest for the truth. And when it begins to seem that the guards are protecting someone high up in the old Nazi organization, Brodie faces the biggest moral dilemma of his career.  Pilgrim Soul is by Gordon Ferris and is due to be published in April 2013.

Sherlock Holmes meets Flashman in the first instalment of Adam Carver’s adventures, a wonderfully exuberant piece of Victoriana.  It is 1870. When amateur archaeologist Adam Carver and his loyal but obdurate retainer Quint are visited by an attractive young woman, they are pitched headlong into an elaborate mystery which comes to centre on the existence (or not) of a lost text in Ancient Greek, one that may reveal the whereabouts of the treasure hoard of Philip II of Macedonia. With the scene shifting from the roughest and most genteel parts of the teeming metropolis to the fastness of a Greece gripped by political unrest, Carver and Quint soon realize that nothing is quite what it seems.  Carver’s Quest is by Nick Rennison and is due to be published in June 2013.