Books To Look Forward to From Serpent's Tail

Detective Inspector Sean Duffy returns for the incendiary sequel to "The Cold Cold Ground".  Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime.  But a torso in a suitcase pretty close.  Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is.  A tattoo.  So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood - however faint - that always, always connects a body to its killer.  A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.  So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle.  And wherever he goes, he smells a rat...  I Hear The Sirens in the Street is by Adrian McKinty and is due to be published in January 2013.

Apocalypse Baby is by Virginie Despentes and is due to be published in June 2013.  This is a fearlessly feminist road trip novel, packed with atmosphere and romance.  Valentine, the troubled daughter of a well-off but dysfunctional Parisian family, vanishes on her way to school.  Inexperienced private detective Lucie Toledo is hired to find the missing teenager, and enlists the help of a formidable agent with a past, known to her friends as the Hyena.  Their quest, from Paris to Barcelona and back, uncovers a rich cast of characters whose paths have crossed Valentine's, leading to an alarming climax.  Part political thriller, part road-movie, part romance, the latest novel by subversive writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes won the Prix Renaudot 2010 for the pitiless gaze it directs at society in the age of the internet.

A young gang leader is found stabbed on a Hackney estate - but two people confess to the murder. Ndekwe, an ambitious, newly promoted Detective Sergeant within a subtly racist police force, believes the more obvious of the two confessions: from McKenzie, a teenager from the estate with a police record of juvenile crime. But why does Jack Shepherdson - an ex-merchant seaman in his sixties - come forward with his own confession? Is he covering for McKenzie, his colleague in the bar they worked at? Or is there more truth in his statement than Ndekwe at first believes?  Swear Down is by Russ Litten and is due to be published in April 2013

Capture is by Roger Smith and is due to be published in February 2013.  The truth won't set you free...In a city where the lines between rich and poor are drawn in blood, the truth is just the lie you believe the most..."Capture" tells the stories of three desperate people.  A father who is broken by grief and guilt.  A son still haunted by the ghosts of his past.  And a mother, desperate to save her child.  In Cape Town, these three are drawn into a spiral of manipulation and murder that leaves them fighting for their sanity and their lives.

This driving, compulsive novel explores human greed and loyalty corrupted by temptation.  Margot is a grifter, making her living preying on the weaknesses of men.  She is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts.  Exploring what drives her quest to deceive and disarm, "The Face Thief" moves fluidly forward and back in time, drawing vivid portraits of Margot's rocky childhood and her adult victims: an amiable, newly married man enticed into a catastrophic fraud; an esteemed teacher outwitted by his most dangerous student; and a well-meaning New York City cop tripped up by his belief in redemption.  Rich in suspense and psychological depth, "The Face Thief" swirls around predator and prey, creating a landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly, and the well intentioned hapless, though all are constantly attempting to right their toppled lives.  The Face Thief is by Eli Gottlieb and is due to be published in April 2013.