Books to Look Forward To From Quercus and Maclehose Press

 

 THE NEW START - Fin Macleod, now head of security on a privately owned Lewis estate, is charged with investigating a spate of illegal game-hunting taking place on the island.  THE OLD FRIEND This mission reunites him with Whistler Macaskill– a local poacher, Fin’s teenage intimate, and possessor of a long-buried secret.  THE FINAL CHAPTER But when this reunion takes a violent, sinister turn and Fin puts together the fractured pieces of the past, he realizes that revealing the truth could destroy the future.  The Chessmen is the final instalment in the trilogy by Peter May, which began with The Blackhouse.  The Chessmen is due to be published in January 2013.

London, 1850s.  After five years in an Australian penal colony, the Artful Dodger returns to London in search of a hidden fortune.  Unaware of the fate that befell Twist, Fagin and Sikes, Dodger revisits the criminal underworld of Dickensian London to seek out his old comrades, any of whom might possess the key to the treasure.  He finds the city a changed place from his youth: with law and order upheld by a new police force, Fagin gone to the gallows, his old gang scattered and danger around every corner. Dodger is by James Benmore and is due to be published in April 2013.

The Devil’s Recruit is by SG Maclean and is due to be published in May 2013.  1635, and Europe is in the grip of the brutal territorial and religious struggle of the Thirty Years' War.  Fear stalks the town of Aberdeen as a ship recruiting for the wars lies at anchor in the river mouth.  A sinister figure watches from the shadows as apprehension grows and culminates in the disappearance of the son of a Highland chief - a student of Alexander Seaton.  When the frozen body of a young woman is found in the garden of a prominent citizen, Alexander becomes more deeply embroiled.  He realises that the figure in the shadows is known to him and has come for him.  He can hide from his past no longer.

Ruth's old friend Dan Golding thinks he has made a discovery that will change archaeology forever - but he needs Ruth's help.  Then, Dan is killed in a fire, leaving Ruth with one clue: the tomb of the Raven King.  DCI Nelson is also rediscovering the past.  He meets his friend Sandy Macleod, now at Blackpool CID, who tells him there are mysterious circumstances surrounding Dan's death.  A Neo-Nazi group at Dan's University has been making threats and could be involved.  Many of Dan's colleagues seem fearful and have secrets to hide.  Ruth is drawn into the mystery, and where she goes, so does her daughter, Kate.  This time, it is not just Ruth's life at risk.  Dying Fall is by Elly Griffiths and is due to be published in February 2013.

A Man Without Breath is by Philip Kerr and is due to be published in June 2013.  It is winter, 1943.  Bernie Gunther has left the Criminal Police and is working for the German War Crimes Bureau based in Berlin.  Reports have been circulating of a mass grave hidden in a wood near Smolensk.  The grave's whereabouts are uncertain until, deep in the Katyn Forest, a wolf digs up some human remains.  Rumour has it that the grave is full of Polish officers murdered by the Russians - a war crime that is perfect propaganda for Germany.  But it needs a detective of subtle skill to investigate this horrific discovery.  Cue Bernie Gunther...

The Garden of Burning Sand is by Corban Addison and is due to be published in March 2013.  On a dark night in Lusaka, Zambia, an adolescent girl is brutally assaulted.  In shock, she cannot speak.  Her identity is a mystery.  Where did she come from?  Was the attack a random street crime or a premeditated act?  The girl's case is taken up by Zoe Fleming, a human rights lawyer working in Africa.  A betrayal in her own past gives the girl's plight a special resonance for Zoe, and she is determined to find the perpetrator and seek justice.  Also investigating on behalf of the Zambian police is Joseph Kabuta.  At first reluctant to work together, they team up.  Yet their progress is thwarted at every turn and it soon becomes clear that their opponents are every bit as powerful and determined as they are corrupt.

A relentless killer scars Rome for two decades, leaving its unique signature on its victims and pursuers.  On 11 July 1982, Elisa Sordi was beautiful.  Commissario Michele Balistreri was fearless.  Italy was victorious.  A killer was waiting...On 9 July 2006, with Sordi's case twenty-four years cold, and Balistreri haunted by guilt and regret, Italian victory returned.  And so did Sordi's killer...But this time Michele Balistreri would be ready.  This time he would fear no evil.  The Deliverance of Evil is by Roberto Constantini and is due to be published in April 2013.

  

Four marked souls, one silent killer!  Simon and Suzie are two pleasure seekers defined by their flamboyant tattoos.  Peter Tressider is a politician on the fast track to the top.  DS Aector McAvoy is a policeman with scars to his body and career.  Each is marked in their own way.  And soon each will be branded by the same sinister foe.  Original Skin is a crime novel that leaves a permanent impression.  Half serial killer thriller, half gritty police procedural, it examines the imprints that our darkest sins leave upon us, and just how far we will go to keep them covered.  Original Skin is by David Mark and is due to be published in March 2013.

The Missing File is by D A Mishani and is due to be published in May 2013.  A sixteen-year-old boy is missing in a Tel Aviv suburb.  His mother is worried.  Inspector Avraham Avraham is not.  It is unheard of for children to vanish in this city.  'He'll be home in an hour, maybe three hours, tomorrow morning at the latest.  I can assure you.’  But there is a first time for everything.  And, as time begins to pass and the boy is still nowhere to be found, Avraham finds himself facing this horrible truth.  The Missing File presents a seemingly average detective and a seemingly routine investigation, and then shows both to be far from what they seem.  A supremely confident crime thriller, its unexpected resolution will force readers to question all they take for granted about innocence, guilt and the ways in which the truth can evade us.

These stories are linked by common themes of belonging, dislocation and identity, and together they take the pulse of a country in turmoil.  In 'The Opposite of Death' Roberto Saviano writes about a town in southern Italy haunted by the war in Afghanistan, where one by one its sons are dying.  Carlo Lucarelli ('Ferengi') explores the colonial war in Eritrea through the eyes of a maid working for a sick man who begs her to end his suffering.  Piero Colaprico's 'Grade C' is a breathless Milanese crime thriller in miniature, while Valeria Parrella's 'The Prize', set during World War II, reminds us that revenge is a dish best served cold.  Outsiders  contains stories by Roberto Saviano, Carlo Lucarelli, Valeria Parrella, Piero Colaprico, Wu Ming, and Simona Vinci and is due to be published in March 2013.

Killer at the End of The Line is a story based on fact of a brilliant detective in wartime Berlin, who becomes a mass-murderer.  Berlin, 1941: The battered remains of a woman: the seventh victim of a serial killer who has cast a pall of terror over the city.  With SS-General Heydrich demanding immediate results, detective Georg Heuser races to catch the killer before he strikes again.  Minsk, 1942: Thousands of Jews arrive in cattle trucks.  Among the policemen about to commit some of the most terrible crimes is detective Georg Heuser.  Koblenz 1962: One young lawyer closes in on her prey, and wonders – just how bad can a good man become?  Killer at the End of The Line is by David Thomas (aka Tom Cain) and is due to be published in April 2013.

Screams in the Dark is the third book in the Rosie Gilmour series by Anna Smith and it is due to be published in February 2013.  'Get back to wherever you came from,' a skinny woman spat from the crowd.  'These foreigners are gettin' everythin' handed to them on a plate.  But if you're born and bred in Glasgow you just get in the queue behind them.’  Steeped in its own problems, Glasgow's mushrooming underclass is simmering with resentment; and one by one, refugees are disappearing.  The authorities assume the refugees have vanished into the black economy, until the mutilated body of an Albanian man is fished out of the River Clyde.  Asylum seekers and refugees with no roots and no families are easy pickings.  But why is there no urgency from the authorities to find out what's happening?  Rosie Gilmour's instincts tell her there's more to this story, but after six weeks on the frontlines in Kosovo, is her sympathy for the refugees clouding her judgement?  Rosie must decide what is most important to her.  Her work or her life?

The Gift of Darkness is by V.M. Giambanco and is due to be published in June 2013.  Thirteen days to solve a murder.  Thirteen days to question everything.  Thirteen days before darkness descends.  Twenty-five years ago, three boys were kidnapped and taken into the woods; one never came back.  Now, to stop a psychopath, rookie homicide detective Alice Madison must go back into those woods and into the unsolved mystery of the Hoh River Boys.  Madison must forget her training and follow her instinct to the terrifying end as enemies become allies and, in the silent forest, time is running out to save a life.

Why was the corpse of Khalil Ahmad Jaber found in a mound of rubbish?  Why did he disappear weeks before his horrific death?  And who was he?  A journalist begins to piece the truth together by speaking with his widow, a local engineer, a night watchman, the garbage man who discovered him, the doctor who performed the autopsy, and a young militiaman.  Their stories underline the horrors of Lebanon's bloody civil war and its ravaging effects on the psyches of the survivors.  With empathy and candour, Elias Khoury reveals the havoc the war wreaked on Beirut and its inhabitants, as well as their dogged resilience.  White Masks is by Elias Khoury and is due to be published in February 2013.

 

Alex is by Pierre Lemaître and is due to be published in March 2013.  In kidnapping cases, the first few hours are crucial.  After that, the chances of being found alive go from slim to nearly none.  Alex Prevost - beautiful, resourceful, and tough - may be no ordinary victim, but her time is running out.  Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his detectives have nothing to go on: no suspect, no lead, rapidly diminishing hope.  All they know is that a girl was snatched off the streets of Paris and bundled into a white van.  The enigma that is the fate of Alex will keep Verhoeven guessing until the bitter, bitter end.  And before long, saving her life will be the least of his worries.

High stakes on the high seas – Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini combat Somali pirates in the deadly Gulf of Aden.  A luxury cruise liner, Sultan of the Seas, is hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden; a dangerous shipping route that has earned the nickname ‘Pirate Alley’.  With 490 international passengers and 370 crewmembers on board, a total of 860 lives hang in the balance.  Washington demands the impossible – the Sultan recaptured without the loss of a single life.  And, with the impossible the objective, it turns to Jake Grafton ...  Pirate Alley is by Stephen Coonts and is due to be published in April 2013.

The Low Road is by Chris Wormersley and is due to be published in January 2013.  A suitcase of stolen cash has brought three criminals together.  One has a bullet in his side.  One has blood on his hands.  One has vengeance on his mind.  Each has run from their past.  Each will now fight for their future.  A modern noir thriller, The Low Road highlights our desire to outrun our demons, and the dark consequences we face when we are forced to confront them.

The Cold Nowhere is the sixth book in the Jonathan Stride series by Brian Freeman.  It is due to be published in May 2013.  At six years old, Cat witnessed her father stab her mother forty-one times, and then kill himself.  Now, ten years on, she believes someone is coming for her, and the only person she can trust is Detective Jonathan Stride, who worked on her parents' case.  Determined to make up for past mistakes, Stride decides to trust this abused girl from the streets.  But when a string of murders is linked to Cat, Stride's partner, Maggie Bei, is convinced she is involved and some difficult questions will need to be answered: What is Cat's fascination with knives?  What is she dreaming of when the nightmares come?  What are the secrets she is keeping?

Isle of the Dead is by Alex Connor and is due to be published in April 2013.  In 15th-century Venice, it is a dangerous time to be alive.  A permanent winter has rolled in over the canals and bodies keep washing up on the banks of the city.  These bodies are especially hard to identify, since they have been skinned.  In the present day, a famous portrait by Titian has been discovered.  Its subject: the 15th-century suspected murderer Angelico Vespucci.  The skins of Vespucci's victims were never found, so his guilt was never proven.  Although it is rumoured that when the portrait arises, so will the man.  And when flayed bodies start turning up all over the world, it looks like this is more than just a superstition.  A murderer has been called back to life, and he is hungry for revenge.

Some fairy tales are born of dreams...and some are born of nightmares.  A murderer is on the loose, but the gruesome way in which the bodies are being posed has the police at a loss.  Until, on a hunch, Alice Hyland, an expert in fairy tales is called in.  And it is Alice who finds the connection between the body of Chrissie Farrell and an obscure Italian version of Snow White.  Then, when a second body is found, Alice is dragged further into the investigation - until she herself becomes a suspect.  Now Alice must fight, not just to prove her innocence, but also to protect herself: because it's looking like she might well be next.  Path of Needles is by Alice Littlewood and is due to be published in January 2013.

Steve Range thinks his friend Randy is a corpse in a desert grave - until he reappears in an Al Qaeda video, spitting extremist hate and challenging Range and Blackstone Six to a desert battle that will settle a vicious blood feud.  But Range's attention is drawn to a stray word slipped in to Randy's tirade, and he begins to wonder whether his old comrade-in-arms really has been turned by his captors.  All he knows for sure is that he owes a debt to the man he left for dead.  As Range plunges ever deeper into the dark and chaotic heart of the terrorists’ murderous plot he realises that nothing is what it seems, and that his elite band of warriors are facing a desperate fight like no other.  Killing Range is by Phil Campion and is due to be published in June 2013.

 

Until the French government declassified documents concerning their ignominious defeat at Dien Bien Phu, Madam Daeng's past had been a well-kept secret.  Now Dr Siri's wife is vulnerable and being stalked by a killer.  But when Dr Siri whisks her away for a romantic working weekend, they encounter an even greater threat.  For Dr Siri falls under the spell of a beautiful witch, they call the Used-To-Be Woman.  The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die is by Colin Cotterill and is due to be published in February 2013.

 

Jose Pereira heads the police's Organized Crime and Gang Section in Raby, a southern suburb of Stockholm.  Here, juvenile gang crime is a rapidly growing and all-too-real problem.  Blood brothers Leon and Gabriel have spent their young lives establishing a formidable criminal enterprise - known as the Raby Warriors - which is now poised to secure domination in the area.  DCI Ewert Grens is investigating a recent prison break from a maximum-security facility: an incident that is linked to the Raby Warriors - a group Grens knows more about than he first admits.  All four men are on a collision course: heading toward an explosive convergence, and a revelation powerful enough to tear each of them apart.  Two Soldiers is by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellström and is due to be published in May 2013.

At the deathbed of an old Resistance veteran, Bruno finds banknotes from the legendary 1944 train robbery of Neuvic Bruno is dealing with a wave of burglaries, one of which ends in murder.  In the meantime, Jacqueline is investigating the stolen banknotes, and when her home is burgled, suddenly the stakes become much higher and her work, suggests the Major, is political dynamite in France ... The Resistance Man is by Martin Walker and is due to be published in June 2013.

The Investigation is by Philippe Claudel and is due to be published in January 2013. A routine investigation descends into a nightmarish journey into the unknown.  The Investigator is despatched to a provincial town to investigate a disturbing spate of suicides amongst the employees of The Firm.  But from the moment he steps off the train, he finds that everything is against him, from the hostile weather to the town's bewildering inhabitants.  Cold, hungry and humiliated, always one-step behind, he finds himself in a recurring nightmare that waking cannot break.  And yet his resolve never falters: he remains determined to find the only man he can hold to account - The Firm's legendary but elusive founder.

When a rotting torso is discovered in the vault of New Scotland Yard, it doesn't take Dr Thomas Bond, Police Surgeon, long to realise that there is a second killer at work in the city where, only a few days before, Jack the Ripper brutally murdered two women in one night.  Though just as gruesome, this is the hand of a colder killer, one who lacks Jack's emotion.  And, as more headless and limbless torsos find their way into the Thames, Dr Bond becomes obsessed with finding the killer.  As his investigations lead him into an unholy alliance, he starts to wonder: is it a man who has brought mayhem to the streets of London, or a monster?  Mayhem is by Sarah Pinborough and it is due to be published in June 2013.