Books to Look Forward to From Cornerstone

When two plane crashes set off a spellbinding chain reaction of murder, inadvertent kidnapping, corporate corruption and financial double-dealing, Niceville detective Nick Kavanaugh has to investigate.  To add to his worries, he and his wife, Kate, have also just taken in brutally orphaned Rainey Teague.  Something bothers Nick about Rainey - and it isn't just that the woman in charge of attendance at Rainey's school has suspiciously disappeared.  In fact, people have long been disappearing from seemingly placid Niceville, including, most disturbingly, Kate's father.  Using his files, Kate and Nick start to unearth Niceville's bloodstained history, but something (or is it Nothing?) stands in their way... The Homecoming is by Carsten Stroud and is due to be published in August 2013.

Down Among The Dead Men is by Ed Chatterton and is due to be published in

November 2013.  This is the dark, gritty second novel in the Detective Inspector Frank Keane series.  At first glance, the bloody crime scene in suburban Liverpool looks like a straightforward murder-suicide - the husband kills the wife and then himself.  But what of their missing teenage son, Nicky?  Is he their prime suspect or the third victim?  With Nicky's holiday job on a film, being shot in the city bringing unwanted press attention, newly promoted head of the Merseyside Major Incident Team DCI Frank Keane knows that time is running out to find the boy.  But all too soon, the case starts unravelling into one that will test Keane to the limit - and haunt him to his dying day.

Second Honeymoon is by James Patterson and Howard Roughan and was published in July 2013.  When FBI agent John O'Hara receives a call from a man desperate for his help, little does he know his whole life will turn upside down.  The man's son and daughter-in-law have been found murdered on their honeymoon in the Caribbean.  He wants justice, and will pay O'Hara handsomely to hunt down the killer.  Federal agents aren't allowed to moonlight, but O'Hara is on suspension.  The drunk driver who killed his wife in a car accident two years ago is soon to be released from jail, and O'Hara is battling some serious demons.  He takes on the case, but when another couple are murdered before boarding their honeymoon flight to Rome, it becomes clear that this investigation is far more complicated than it first seemed.  As O'Hara delves deeper, a past he thought was dead and buried soon comes back to haunt him.

Tory Brennan - great niece of Dr Temperance Brennan - and the Virals return for their most terrifying adventure yet.  Life appears peaceful on Loggerhead Island - rescued from financial disaster, the research institute is flourishing once more.  However, the tranquillity is quickly shattered when Tory Brennan and her technophile gang discover a mysterious box buried in the ground.  A seemingly innocent treasure hunt soon turns into a nightmarish game of puzzles, as it becomes clear that one false move will lead to terrible, explosive consequences.  The clock is ticking.  Can Tory and the Virals crack the code in time to save the city - and their own lives? Code is by Kathy Reichs and is due to be published in October 2013.

Gone is by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge and is due to be published in September 2013.Forced into hiding from a mass murderer seeking vengeance, Detective Michael Bennett must decide whether to stay and protect his family, or hunt down the man who is hunting them.  When Bennett arrested Manuel Perrine, he thought he had brought an end to the drug cartel boss' reign of terror and would get justice for the murder of his best friend.  But then, during the trial, Perrine escaped.  In a bloody shoot-out, Bennett killed Perrine's wife.  Now he wants nothing more than to make Bennett suffer, to make him pay.  The whole family are moved to a safe house in California.  But as Perrine's attacks on US soil become more vicious and more daring, it's clear there is a war coming.  No one, anywhere, is safe.

Sacrifice is by Will Jordan and is due to be published in August 2013.  Afghanistan, 2008.  A Black Hawk helicopter carrying a senior CIA operative is shot down by a surface to air missile, its lone passenger taken hostage by a fanatical new insurgent group.  Knowing this man holds information vital to the on-going conflict, the CIA bring in Ryan Drake and his elite Shepherd team to find and rescue their lost operative.  However, nothing is what it seems, and within hours of arriving in the war-torn country, Drake and his team find themselves caught in a deadly conflict between a brutal terrorist warlord and the ruthless leader of a private military company.  In addition, lurking in the shadows is a woman from Drake's past determined to settle old scores.

Favour the Dead is by Mackenzie Smith and is due to be published in October 2013.  My name is Christian McKie and a few months ago, I was killed in military action in Sierra Leone.  I am undercover with the only people who know I am alive.  We were all killed in action.  And now we must use death to our advantage.  We are the Regiment of the Dead.

An Officer and A Spy is by Robert Harris and is due to be published in September 2013.January 1895.  On a freezing morning in the heart of Paris, an army officer, Georges Picquart, witnesses a convicted spy, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, being publicly humiliated in front of twenty thousand spectators baying 'Death to the Jew!’  The officer is rewarded with promotion: Picquart is made the French army's youngest colonel and put in command of 'the Statistical Section' - the shadowy intelligence unit that tracked down Dreyfus.  The spy, meanwhile, is given a punishment of medieval cruelty: Dreyfus is shipped off to a lifetime of solitary confinement on Devil's Island - unable to speak to anyone, not even his guards, his case seems closed forever.  But gradually Picquart comes to believe there is something rotten at the heart of the Statistical Section.  When he discovers another German spy operating on French soil, his superiors are oddly reluctant to pursue it.  Despite official warnings, Picquart persists, and soon the officer and the spy are in the same predicament.  Narrated by Picquart, An Officer and a Spy is a compelling recreation of a scandal that became the most famous miscarriage of justice in history.  Compelling, too, are the echoes for our modern world: an intelligence agency gone rogue, justice corrupted in the name of national security, a newspaper witch-hunt of a persecuted minority, and the age-old instinct of those in power to cover-up their crimes.

An investigator with the brilliance of Lincoln Rhyme is paired with a former soldier with the

determination and strength of Jack Reacher.  Deacon Munroe is not your average investigator.  He's intelligent, cultured, and well connected.  And totally blind.  Washington DC is Munroe's city.  Now it's a city shaken to the core by the death of a high-ranking general and his wife.  All the evidence suggests that the general killed his wife, before taking his own life.  Deacon Munroe does not trust what other people see - only what he knows is true.  What Munroe soon knows is that the general's death is part of a far greater plan, a sophisticated and brutal plot to kill thousands of innocent people, including those closest to Munroe himself.  But with only a small team at his aid, and just hours to stop a devastating attack on the city, can Munroe unearth the truth in time to bring justice to the city?  Blind Justice is by Ethan Cross and is due to be published in October 2013.

Special Agent Will Trent has something to hide.  Something he doesn't want Dr Sara Linton - the woman he loves - to find out.  He's gone undercover in Macon, Georgia and put his life at risk.  And he knows Sara will never forgive him if she discovers the truth.  But when a young patrolman is shot and left for dead Sara is forced to confront the past and a woman she hoped never to see again.  And without even knowing it, she becomes involved in the same case Will is working on.  Soon both of their lives are in danger.  Unseen is by Karin Slaughter and was published in July 2013.

Dead Set is by Will Carver and is due to be published in November 2013.  Detective Inspector January David doesn't love me.  He loves his missing sister.  He loves his job.  But he doesn't love me.  Not in the way, he should.  I am his wife.  I am still his wife.  And I will do anything for him.  No, matter what I have to sacrifice.

Bones of the Lost is the new Temperance Brennan novel from the world-class forensic anthropologist and author Kathy Reichs.  The body of a teenage girl is discovered along a desolate highway on the outskirts of Charlotte.  Inside her purse is the ID card of a local businessman who died in a fire months earlier.  Who was the girl?  And was she

murdered?  Dr Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist, must find the answers.  She soon learns that a Gulf War veteran stands accused of smuggling artefacts into the country.  Could there be a connection between the two cases?  Convinced that the girl's death was no accident, Tempe soon finds herself at the centre of a conspiracy that extends from South America to Afghanistan.  But to find justice for the dead, she must be more courageous - and take more extreme action - than ever before. Bones of the Lost is due to be published in August 2013.

How well can you ever really know someone?  As Ben Casper watches his best friend plummet from her sixth-floor apartment balcony, he realises his life is about to change.  Diana had no reason to kill herself, she had to have been pushed.  Diana worked for the CIA, so the investigation into her death is kept tightly under wraps.  But Ben is a political journalist, and can feel that something isn't right.  Ben starts investigating for himself and soon discovers Diana was leading a double life he knew nothing about.  But when more people involved die in questionable circumstances, it's clear that someone doesn't want the truth to be uncovered.  And unless Ben drops his investigation, he could be next.  Mistress is by James Paterson and David Ellis and is due to be published in August 2013.

Angel of Death by Martyn Waites is the sequel to Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black and is due to be published in October 2013.   Autumn 1940, World War Two, the Blitz.  Bombs are raining down, destroying the cities of Britain.  In London, children are being removed from their families and taken to the country for safety.  Teacher Eve Parkins is in charge of one such group, and her destination is an empty and desolate house that appears to be sinking into the treacherous tidal marshes that surround it.  EEL Marsh House - Far from home and with no alternative, Eve and the children move in.  But soon it becomes apparent that there is someone else in the house; someone who is far deadlier than any number of German bombs...The Woman in Black.

No Man's Nightingale is the twenty-fourth title in Ruth Rendell's bestselling Detective Chief Inspector Wexford series.  Sarah Hussain was not popular with many people in the community of Kingsmarkham.  She was born of mixed parentage - a white Irishwoman and an immigrant Indian Hindu.  She was also the Reverend of St Peter's Church.  But it comes as a profound shock to everyone when she is found strangled in the Vicarage.  A garrulous cleaner, Maxine, also shared by the Wexfords, discovers the body.  In his comparatively recent retirement, the former Detective Chief Inspector is devoting much time to reading, and is deep into Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  He has little patience with Maxine's prattle.  But when his old friend Mike Burden asks if he might like to assist on this case as Crime Solutions Adviser (unpaid), Wexford is obliged to pay more precise attention to all available information.  The old instincts have not been blunted by a life where he and Dora divide their time between London and Kingsmarkham.  Wexford retains a relish for solving puzzles and a curiosity about people, which is invaluable in detective work.  For all his experience and sophistication, Burden tends to jump to conclusions.  But he is wise enough to listen to the man whose office he inherited, and whose experience makes him a most formidable ally.  No Man’s Nightingale is due to be published in August 2013.

The Case of the Love Commandos is by Tarquin Hall and is due to be published in October 2013.  When Ram and Tulsi fall in love, the young woman’s parents are dead set against the union.  She’s from a high-caste family; he’s an Untouchable, from the lowest strata of Indian society.  Young Tulsi’s father locks her up and promises to hunt down the “loverboy dog.”  Fortunately, India’s Love Commandos, a group of volunteers dedicated to helping mixed-caste couples, come to the rescue.  But just after they liberate Tulsi, Ram is mysteriously snatched from his hiding place.  The task of finding him falls to India’s “Most Private Investigator”.  Unfortunately, Vish Puri is not having a good month.  He’s failed to recover a cache of stolen jewels.  His wallet has been stolen and he’s having to rely on his infuriating Mummy-ji to get it back.  And to top it all, his arch-rival, suave investigator Hari Kumar, is also trying to locate Ram.  To reunite the star-crossed lovers, Puri and his team of operatives must infiltrate Ram’s village and navigate the caste politics shaped by millennia-old prejudices.

She was ten years old, but knew enough to wipe clean the handle of the bloody kitchen knife.  The night was stifling; the windows were closed, sealing in the chaos.  A table upturned, shattered crockery.  Her distraught mother, bare shoulders raw with welts, knelt beside her motionless father.  The child snatched up her backpack, and ran...London sweats in the height of summer.  The parched city has slowed to a claustrophobic shuffle and there's no end in sight.  Heroin-addicted investigator Catherine Berlin hides her scars from prying eyes while working on the worst of all cases: matrimonial.  The capital's junkies suffer from a drought of a different kind.  A strung-out ghost from Berlin's past turns up on her doorstep with a desperate plea for help: her ten-year-old daughter is missing.  Reminded of a debt owed, Berlin agrees to help, but the search becomes far deadlier than she could ever imagine, drawing her deep into an underworld of corrupt detectives, ruthless drug dealers, and a child killer...A Bitter Taste is the second instalment in the crime series by Annie Hauxwell featuring civilian investigator Catherine Berlin, whose long-standing heroin addiction is only part of her story.  A Bitter Taste was published in July 2013.