Books to Look Forward to from Cornerstone

Jack Morgan investigates the disappearance of the biggest superstar couple in Hollywood. Thom and Jennifer Harlow are the perfect couple, with three perfect children. They may be two of the biggest movie stars in the world, but they're also great parents, philanthropists and just all-round good people. When they disappear without a word from their ranch, facts are hard to find. They live behind such a high wall of security and image control that even world-renowned investigator Jack Morgan can't get to the truth. But as Jack keeps probing, secrets sprout thick and fast - and the world's golden couple may emerge as hiding behind a world of desperation and deception that the wildest reality show couldn't begin to unveil. Murder is only the opening scene.  Private L.A is by James Patterson with Mark Sullivan and is due to be published in January 2014.

Exposure is by Kathy Reichs with Brendan Reichs and is due to be published in March 2014.  Morris Island has barely had a chance to return to normality after the high profile trial of the Gamemaster, when two local students seem to vanish into thin air. Tory Brennan and the Virals pack move quickly in their attempts to discover what has happened to their twin classmates. But the pack's canine powers are growing wilder, and it is becoming ever harder to conceal the secret which protects them. When Tory and her friends find evidence of blood in the students' basement, they realise that the disappearance is no game. But in order to save the twins, the Virals must risk the exposure of their powers, and in doing so put even their own lives in terrible danger.

Meet Detective Max Wolfe. Insomniac. Dog lover. Coffee addict. Boxer. Orphan. Devoted husband of a brutally departed wife. Single parent. Defender of the weak, avenger of slaughtered parents and every murderer’s worst nightmare.  There’s a serial killer on the loose. He cuts throats. And he is good at it.  Twenty years ago seven rich, privileged students became friends at their exclusive private school, Potter’s Field, founded five hundred years ago by King Henry VIII. Suddenly they have started dying in the most violent way imaginable…  Detective Max Wolfe follows the bloody trail from the backstreets and bright lights of the city all the way to the corner rooms in the corridors of power. At enormous personal cost, what Wolfe uncovers is a horrific secret that has been buried for two decades - and is now ready to explode.  The Murder Bag is by Tony Parsons and is due to be published in May 2014.

NYPD Red hunts a terrifying killer who wants more than blood--he wants to send a message.  When NYPD Red arrives at a crime scene, everyone takes notice. Known as the protectors of the rich, famous, and connected, NYPD Red is the elite task force called in only for New York City's most high-profile crimes. And Detective Zach Jordan is the best of the best, a brilliant and relentless pursuer of justice. He puts professionalism above all, ignoring his feelings for his partner, Detective Kylie McDonald, the woman who broke his heart when they first met in the academy.  But even with their top-notch training, Zach and Kylie aren't prepared for what they see when they're called to a crime scene in the heart of Central Park. They arrive to find a carousel spinning round and round, its painted horses grinning eerily in the early morning dark. There is only one rider: a brutally slaughtered woman, her body tied up and dressed in a Hazmat suit, on display for the world to see.  The victim, a woman of vast wealth and even greater connections, is the fourth in a string of shocking murders that have hit the city. As the public pressure mounts, and political and personal secrets of the highest order hang in the balance, Zach and Kylie must find out what's really behind the murderer's rampage. But Kylie has been acting strange recently--and Zach knows whatever she's hiding could threaten the biggest case of their careers.  NYPD Red 2 is by James Patterson and is due to be published in June 2014.

A Wolf in Hindelheim is by Jenny Mayhew and is due to be published in March 2014.  South-West Germany, 1926. The disappearance of a baby girl calls for Constable Theodore Hildebrandt and his son Klaus to visit the remote village of Hindelheim, a place where nothing ever happens. But the news of the missing baby has brought darkness to the community. It is as if someone or something wicked is playing a game. As the wind blows and the mist thickens, tensions rise amongst the villagers as everyone falls under suspicion. And when the rumours begin and secrets start to unravel, the quiet village of Hindelheim is set to change for ever.

By Its Cover is the twenty-third instalment in Donna Leon's bestselling crime series, where Commissario Brunetti is better than ever as he addresses questions of worth and value alongside his ever-faithful team of Ispettore Vianello and Signorina Elettra. When several valuable antiquarian books go missing from a prestigious library in the heart of Venice, Commissario Brunetti is immediately called to the scene. The staff suspect an American researcher has stolen them, but for Brunetti something doesn't quite add up. Taking on the case, the Commissario begins to seek information about some of the library's regulars, such as the ex-priest Franchini, a passionate reader of ancient Christian literature, and Contessa Morosini-Albani, the library's chief donor, and comes to the conclusion that the thief could not have acted alone. However, when Franchini is found murdered in his home, the case takes a more sinister turn and soon Brunetti finds himself submerged in the dark secrets of the black market of antiquarian books.  Alongside his ever-faithful team of Ispettore Vianello and Signorina Elettra, he delves into the pages of Franchini's past and into the mind of a book thief in order to uncover the terrible truth.  By Its Cover is due to be published in April 2014. 

How far would you go for your family, for love, for survival, for revenge.  In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York.  Elspeth Howell returns home to find her family brutally murdered. The only survivor is her twelve year-old son who witnessed it all.  Wounded, frightened and with retribution in their hearts, mother and son set out into the frozen wilderness to track down the red-scarfed men who killed their loved ones in cold blood.  Their journey leads them to a rough-hewn settlement on the edge of ice-filled Lake Erie, a merciless place where violence abounds.  Here, forced into a brutal adulthood, Caleb begins to discover the truth about his mother he could never have anticipated and Elspeth must finally confront the terrible urges that envelop her.  All the while the memory of Caleb’s brothers and sisters presses him onwards.  The Kept is the debut novel by James Scott and is due to be published in February 2014. 

Jawbone Lake is by Ray Robinson and is due to be published in January 2014.  Ravenstor, the Peak District. The early hours of New Year's Day. A young woman stands on the shore of a frozen lake and watches a Land Rover crash off a bridge and through the ice. Two hundred miles away, a young man is woken by a devastating telephone call. The accident, and what it brings to the surface, will change both of their lives forever. The driver of the Land Rover was CJ Arms, a successful local businessman and pillar of the small community. The young man is his son, Joe, who returns from London to comfort his mother and to search for clues as to the causes of the crash. What he finds will take him from the desolate tors of the Peaks to the foothills of southern Spain, and to a group of ex-pats from CJ's past with many secrets to hide. The woman on the lakeshore is Rabbit, a factory-worker struggling to recover from the sudden death of her son. Pursued by an unknown figure, Rabbit is spun from a cycle of grief and longing into one of fear. Seeking shelter at work, Rabbit finds that she can't hide for long. What Rabbit saw that night will draw her, and Joe, towards a shocking act of violence. Jawbone Lake is both a heart-stopping literary thriller, and a moving meditation on family, generational divide and the dangers of living a double life. Alive with the lyrical evocation of landscape that is Robinson's forte, it is an astonishing new work of fiction from one of our finest writers.

Christmas time. Mistletoe and wine. The season of domestics, religion, adultery, drugs, hangovers, alcohol, parties, fights, unwanted gifts, football matches and good fucking will to all men. And that's just one tour of duty on a TSG van. Ugly Bus is five cops. Martin. Flub. Dullas. Vince. And good old brain-dead Thrush. Specialist Territorial Support Group officers working a late shift on Boxing Day. Martin Finch is the new sergeant on the group: young, idealistic, following in his late father's footsteps and desperate to make a difference. Unfortunately the old sweat coppers he's now working alongside have other plans...What begins as a routine shift policing a football match rapidly descends into chaos, and Martin is faced with the question: just how far would you go to fit in? The answer will change the lives of everyone on the Ugly Bus - and the life of a young woman drawn into their orbit - forever. Always remember: what happens on the van, stays on the van.  Ugly Bus   is by Mike Thomas and is due to be published in March 2014.

Five years previously, nineteen-year-old Simon Hawkeswell hung himself at his family home. He had had the perfect life, and seemed to have the perfect future ahead of him. As the years pass, the reasons behind his death remain a mystery. Present day, and Simon's parents and his local community remain haunted by his death and by the spate of 'sympathetic' suicides among teenagers in the area that followed. But this is all over now - or is it: a question that becomes particularly relevant when a young homeless man is killed in a freak motorbike accident, and the authorities find a suicide note in his belongings. Can this be the beginning of more suicides? Detective Inspector Lorraine Fisher has just arrived to stay with her sister in rural Warwickshire. The atmosphere within the house is tense and edgy: Lorraine's sister Jo is having an extra-marital affair, and her teenage son, Freddie, seems troubled and uncommunicative. A second homeless lad takes his own life, this time on the railway tracks outside the village. And when Freddie disappears, Lorraine knows she must act quickly if she's to ascertain whether the teenage deaths are suicide - or murder. And if she's to find Freddie, before it's too late...  Before You Die is by Samantha Hayes and is due to be published in April 2014.

Stay Alive is by Simon Kernick and is due to be published in January 2014.  One Witness - You're on a trip with your family, miles from anywhere. A shot rings out - and your whole life changes in an instant. One Secret - A woman is racing towards you, chased by three gunmen. Although you don't know it, she harbours a deadly secret. She's in terrible danger. And now you are too. No Escape - You're running, terrified, desperate to find safety. You know that the men hunting you have killed before. And if they catch you, you'll be next…

When two dead bodies are found inside a wrecked car on the Golden Gate Bridge, Detective Lindsay Boxer doubts that it will be anything as simple as a traffic accident. The scene is more gruesome than anything she has seen before. It definitely wasn't the crash that killed these people. While Lindsay starts to piece this case together, she gets a call she wasn't expecting. Sightings of her ex-colleague-turned-ruthless-killer Mackie Morales have been reported. Wanted for three murders, Mackie has been in hiding since she escaped from custody. But now she's ready to return to San Francisco and pay a visit to some old friends.  Unlucky 13 is by James Patterson with Maxine Paetro and is due to be published in March 2014.

Thirty years ago, the Miners' Strike threatened to tear the country apart, turning neighbour against neighbour, husband against wife, father against son - enmities which smoulder still. Resnick, recently made up to inspector, and ambivalent at best about some of the police tactics, had run an information gathering unit at the heart of the dispute. Now, in virtual retirement, and still grieving over the violent death of his former partner, the discovery of the body of a young woman who disappeared during the Strike brings Resnick back to the front line to assist in the investigation into the woman's murder - forcing him to confront his past in what will assuredly be his last case.  Darkness, Darkness is the final Charlie Resnick novel  by John Harvey and is due to be published in May 2014.

Falling is the debut novel by Emma Kavanagh and is due to be published in March 2014.  A
plane falls out of the sky. A woman is murdered. Four people all have something to hide. Jim is a retired police officer, and worried father. His beloved daughter has disappeared and he knows something is wrong. Tom has woken up to discover that his wife was on the plane and must break the news to their only son.  Cecilia had packed up and left her family. Now she has survived a tragedy, and sees no way out. Freya is struggling to cope with the loss of her father. But as she delves into his past, she may not like what she finds.  'Before the plane crash, after the plane crash, such a short amount of time for the world to turn on its head. '

Show MoreFebruary, 1460: in the bitter dawn of a winter's morning a young nun is caught outside her priory walls by a corrupt knight and his vicious retinue. In the fight that follows, she is rescued by a young monk and the knight is defeated. But the consequences are far-reaching, and Thomas and Katherine are expelled from their religious Orders and forced to flee across a land caught in the throes of one of the most savage and bloody civil wars in history: the Wars of the Roses. Their flight will take them across the Narrow Sea to Calais where Thomas picks up his warbow, and trains alongside the Yorkist forces. Katherine, now dressed as a man, hones her talents for observation and healing both on and off the fields of battle. And all around them, friends and enemies fight and die as the future Yorkist monarch, Edward, Earl of March, and his adviser the Earl of Warwick, later to become known as the Kingmaker, prepare to do bloody battle. Encompassing the battles of Northampton, Mortimer's Cross and finally the great slaughter of Towton, this is war as experienced not by the highborn nobles of the land but by ordinary men and women who do their best just to stay alive.  Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims is by Toby Clements and is due to be published by April 2014.

The Donnybrook is a three-day bare-knuckle tournament held on a thousand-acre plot out in the sticks of southern Indiana. Twenty fighters. One wire-fence ring. Fight until only one man is left standing while a rowdy festival of onlookers - drunk and high on whatever's on offer - bet on the outcome. Jarhead is a desperate man who'd do just about anything to feed his children. He's also the toughest fighter in southeastern Kentucky, and he's convinced that his ticket to a better life is one last fight with a cash prize so big it'll solve all his problems. Meanwhile, there's Chainsaw Angus - an undefeated master fighter who isn't too keen on getting his face punched anymore, so he and his sister, Liz, have started cooking meth. And they get in deep. So deep that Liz wants it all for herself, and she might just be ready to kill her brother for it. As we travel through the backwoods on the way to the Donnybrook, we meet a cast of nasty, ruined characters driven to all sorts of evil, all in the name of getting their fix - drugs, violence, sex, money, honour.  Donny-Brook is by Frank Bill and is due to be published  in March 2014.