Books To Look Forward to From John Murray

England survived the Armada threat of 1588, but when Spanish galleys land troops in Cornwall seven years later, is it a dry run for a new invasion or is there a more sinister motive?  The Queen is speechless with rage.  Intelligencer John Shakespeare tries to get a grip on events, but one by one, his network of spies is murdered.  But what has this to do with Thomasyn Jade, driven to the edge of madness by the rituals of exorcism?  And what is the link to a group of priests held prisoner in Wisbech Castle?  The Heretics is by Rory Clements and is due to be published in February 2013.

Summer, 1643.  The forces of King Charles are victorious; their parliamentarian enemies in deep crisis.  The port city of Bristol has fallen, and Royalist eyes fall upon Gloucester.  Stryker is ordered to infiltrate the city.  Its walls are weak, its garrison under-strength and its governor is believed to be sympathetic to the king.  But Gloucester’s defenders are more resolute than any had imagined.  His life seemingly forfeit, Stryker is spared by an unlikely saviour.  As old friends adjust to fighting for opposing sides, Stryker begins to question his loyalties – until a chance discovery makes him realise that all is not what it seems.  Assassin’s Reign by Michael Arnold is the fourth book in The Civil War Chronicles and is due to be published in July 2013.

Black Bear is by Aly Monroe and is due to be published in May 2013.  Sent to Manhattan as part of the British effort to build intelligence into the new United Nations Organisation, Agent peter Cotton wakes up in the Ogden Clinic – a private facility reserved for very special patients and veterans.  Found badly bruised and slumped in a doorway, it seems he has been injected with at least three ‘truth drugs’.  He is lucky to be alive.  Unable to be certain what is real and what hallucinatory, Cotton must piece together what has happened to him, find out who is responsible and why.  What he discovers is even more unsettling.  His biggest uncertainty?  Why he has been allowed to live.

A Lovely Way to Burn is the first book in a new series and trilogy by Louise Welsh.  It is due to be published in August 2013.  Where is the best place to hide a murder?  Amongst a million other deaths.  A pandemic is rapidly sweeping the globe.  London is a city in crisis, but Stevie Flint is convinced that the sudden death of her boyfriend Liam was not from natural causes.  Stevie’s search for Liam’s killer takes her into the depths of the dying city and into a race with death.