Books to Look Forward to from Quercus

The Dark is by V M Giambanco and is due to be published in September 2014.  Seattle Homicide Detective Alice Madison is bound to jailed murderer John Cameron and attorney Nathan Quinn by a debt that cannot be repaid, by a nightmare that changed their lives forever.  When the remains of Quinn's younger brother - murdered when he was a boy - are discovered in a shallow grave, Madison vows to follow the trail of brutal deaths that leads to the truth.  A sadistic killer stalks the investigation, as Madison's own demons threaten her future career with the police and darkness closes in.  How far is she prepared to go to save a life?

Graham Weber has been the director of the CIA for less than a week when a Swiss kid in a dirty T-shirt walks into the American consulate in Hamburg and says the agency has been hacked, and he has a list of agents' names to prove it.  This is the moment a CIA director most dreads.  Weber turns to a charismatic (and unstable) young man named James Morris who runs the Internet Operations Centre.  He's the CIA's in-house geek.  Weber launches Morris on a mole hunt unlike anything in spy fiction one that takes the reader into the hacker underground of Europe and America and ends up in a landscape of paranoia and betrayal.  Like the new world of cyber-espionage from which it's drawn, The Director is a maze of deception and double dealing, about a world where everything is written in zeroes and ones and nothing can be trusted.  The CIA has belatedly discovered that this is not your father’s Cold War, and Weber must play catch-up, against the clock and an unknown enemy, in a game he does not yet understand.  The Director is by David Ignatius and is due to be published in June 2014.

The Arc of the Swallow is by Sissel-Jo Gazan and is due to be published in November 2014.When controversial Immunology Professor Kristian Storm is found hanged in his office his assistant Marie Skov refuses to believe that he has committed suicide. Grappling with Storm’s disputed legacy, she uncovers a scandal behind vaccination programmes in West Africa, leading her behind the scene of the cut-throat pharmaceutical industry.

The Root of all Evil is the second book in the Commissario Michele Balistreri series  by Roberto

Costantini and is due to be published in August 2014.  Tripoli, 1960s. During the years in which post-colonial Libya fell prey to the sprawling greed of the West, Michele Balistreri suffered a succession of blows that would scar him for life.  The death of his mother; the unspeakable horror that befell his best friend's family; his father's role in Gaddafi's ascent to power; and the innocent blood pact that would corrupt the course of his future.  Rome, 1982. In the wake of a ruinous blunder, a ground-down Commissario Balistreri escapes his regrets through sex, alcohol, and gambling.  His sole responsibilities are now a stilted investigation into the death of a South American student, and a tiresome obligation - as a gratitude to the man who saved his career - to a rising television starlet needing protection from the pitfalls of fame.  As the risks to this girl, Claudia Teodori, begin to rise along with her reputation, the sorrows of Balistreri's past also start to push back into his present.  Both of their fates are inextricably linked - and this driven, obsessive young woman must help this damaged detective fight a foe that follows her and refuses to forget him.

  

Research is by Philip Kerr and is due to be published in July 2014.  The rolling strip across the bottom of the screen shouts the news: BESTSELLING NOVELIST JOHN HOUSTON'S WIFE FOUND MURDERED AT THEIR LUXURY APARTMENT IN MONACO.  Houston is the richest writer in the world, a book factory publishing many bestsellers a year - so many that he can't possibly write them himself. He has a team that feeds off his talent; ghost writers, agents, publishers.  So when he decides to take a year out to write something of quality, a novel that will win prizes and critical acclaim, a lot of people stand to lose their livelihoods.  Now Houston, the prime suspect in his wife's murder, has disappeared.  He owns a boat and has a pilot's licence - he could be anywhere and there are many who'd like to find him.  First there's the police. If he's innocent, why did he flee?  Then again, maybe he was set up by one of his enemies.  The scenario reads like the plot of one of Houston's million-copy-selling thrillers...

A suspicious device is found inside a suitcase near a nursery in Holon, Tel Aviv.  The children are

taken to safety; a man is caught fleeing the scene.  Then comes the phone call: ‘thee suitcase is only the beginning.’  And it is.  Chaim Sara's son is glad not to be at nursery that day.  He has been bullied - there are bruises.  Chaim, taking care of both his children since the sudden absence of his wife, watches with anticipation as the police search for clues.  Inspector Avraham is thrust into the investigation, still haunted by the failure of his last case.  Witnesses are unforthcoming; suspects are eliminated.  Then a frightening act of violence shifts his understanding.  The suitcase has alerted him to a greater danger; one more private, and deeply disturbing.  No one believes in it but him.  And he will do anything to stop it in its tracks.  A Possibility of Violence is by D A Mishani and is due to be published in September 2014.

Bavaria, Germany, 1947.  At the end of the war, Afra Zauner returns to her parents' cottage on the edge of Mauther Forest.  Unmarried, and pregnant. As she struggles to raise her child, her father's shame, her mother's fury, and the loud whispers of the neighbours begin to weigh upon her.  She doesn't believe in her sin.  But everyone else does.  And someone brings judgement down upon her.  Many years later, Hermann Muller is throwing a drunk out of his tavern.  A traveller, who won't stop ranting about a murder left unsolved, about police who never investigated.  Out of curiosity, the file is reopened.  And in the cold light of hindsight, a chilling realisation creeps upon the community.  No one ever atoned for Afra's death.  But her story is waiting to be told. The Dark Meadow is by Andrea Maria Schenkel and is due to be published in August 2014.

Lake Wales, Central Florida.  Ten years ago, a political fundraiser became a bloodbath when a hooded assassin carried out a savage public execution.  Three men were massacred, casting a dark shadow over the Sunshine State.  A decade on, history is threatening to repeat itself.  The widow of one victim, herself now running for governor, has received an anonymous threat - a newspaper clipping from that fateful day, along with the chilling words 'I'm back.’  Florida detective Cab Bolton agrees to investigate the threat against this candidate, Diane Fairmont: an attractive politician who has a complicated history with Cab's mother, Hollywood actress Tarla Bolton - and with Cab himself.  But by doing so, Cab is entering dangerous waters.  Fairmont's political party is itself swamped in secrecy - a fact that, unknown to Cab, has led one of its junior staff to start asking very sensitive questions about the death of a party employee.  Both Cab and this young researcher, Peach Piper, are digging up the kind of dirt that ten years can't wash away.  And as the powerful crosswinds of state politics swirl around Cab and Peach, and the threat of a tropical storm hangs over Florida, this whirlwind of pressure and chaos will ultimately unearth a poisonous conspiracy, and reawaken a killer who has lain dormant for a decade.  Season of Fear is by Brian Freeman and is due to be published in July 2014.

Arab Jazz is by Karim Miské and is due to be published in August 2014.  Kosher sushi, kebabs, a second hand bookshop, and a bar: the 19th arrondissement in Paris is a cosmopolitan neighbourhood where multicultural citizens live, love, and worship alongside one another.  This peace is shattered when Ahmed Taroudant's melancholy daydreams are interrupted by the blood dripping from his upstairs neighbour's brutally mutilated corpse.  The violent murder of Laura Vignole, and the roast pork placed next to her, set imaginations ablaze across the neighbourhood, and Ahmed finds himself the prime suspect.  However detectives Rachel Kupferstein and Jean Hamelot have plenty to go on, as they uncover a volatile underworld of drug trafficking and religious fundamentalism.  In this his debut novel, Karim Miské demonstrates a masterful control of setting, as he moves seamlessly between the sensual streets of Paris and the synagogues of New York to reveal the truth behind a horrifying crime.

A devastating analysis of the human capacity for violence and redemption. 1957: a pacifist goes to war.  2008: a policeman on the warpath.  Set between Paris and Algeria, the overlapping fates of these two men reveal a dark conspiracy to mask the blackest chapter of French history, which can only be undone by the most unlikely hero: a thuggish ex-boxer who’ll do anything for cash . . . Loser’s Corner is by Antonin Varenne and is due to be published in December 2014.

Stockholm, September 2011.  Carina Dymek is on a fast track for promotion at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when she is approached by a stranger and given a USB stick containing a report to circulate in her department.  Unwittingly, she delivers a time bomb of classified information that sends her career up in flames and puts her on the radar of the security service, Sapo.  Tasked with investigating how Dymek gained access to the confidential report, the formidable Bente Jensen of Sapo is quietly approached by the British MI6, who have an undisclosed interest in the leak. She finds out that Dymek's boyfriend is an Egyptian Swedish national.  But it's MI6 who link his family to an extreme faction within the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo. The case explodes into an international manhunt.  Liaising with the ruthless MI6, Bente uncovers the secretive plans contained in that leaked report: plans for an omnipotent Europe-wide Intelligence Service.  Forces hone in on Dymek, while Bente begins to suspect she is a red herring caught in a far wider net: one in which social media is abused for intelligence and civil rights are sacrificed to national security.  Into a Raging Blaze is by Andreas Norman and is due to be published in July 2014.

Four lives are about to come crashing together...Devastated by the murder of his sister in Soho seven years ago, Mark Davis travels to London to carry out an act of violence that he believes will avenge her death.  PhD student Stella is returning to London with her partner Paula to visit a fertility clinic.  But Stella is hiding a secret that could tear their lives apart.  Recovering alcoholic Seb has left his wild days behind him.  As he helps his wife prepare to launch her restaurant in Soho, he feels that his life is finally back on track. But a chance encounter with a stranger brings back tragic memories and puts his family in serious danger.  Kerstin Engel is a brilliant but troubled research analyst.  Haunted by the events of 7/7 when she narrowly escaped death, she has spent the last seven years carrying out a self-imposed penance.  But an unseen enemy lies in wait and threatens to destroy her career and her mind.  As crowds gather in Soho to mark the restaurant launch, a terrifying sequence of events brings these characters together and the last days of summer to a shocking end.  Summer Lies Bleeding is by Nuala Casey and is due to be published in August 2014.

Poisoned Ground is by Barbara Nadel and is due to be published in September 2014.  Ex-soldier Lee Arnold and his Muslim assistant Mumtaz Hakim run a detective agency in London's ethnically diverse, crime-ridden East End.  An Egyptian woman, Salwa, whose husband is in Belmarsh on terrorism charges, approaches Mumtaz.  Salwa convinces Mumtaz of her husband's innocence and persuades her to go undercover to prove it.  But Salwa is not what she seems.  Trapped in an old tunnel that leads to the London docks, will Mumtaz escape with her life?

The Bosch Deception is by Alex Connor and is due to be published in July 2014. A TRUTH CONCEALED.  Brabant, 1473. A clandestine brotherhood hides a secret that could bring down the Catholic Church.  Their chosen hiding place - the art of Hieronymus Bosch. A TERRIBLE CONSPIRACY. London, 2014. An excommunicated priest approaches both the Church and the art world, claiming to possess an artefact that will destroy their reputations.  A TICKING CLOCK. This man, Nicholas Laverne, is poised to end over 500 years of silence and injustice.  Yet, unknown to Nicholas, he has just summoned a killer intent on silencing him.

You'd know if someone close to you was capable of lethal violence, right?  Dead wrong.  Accused of grassing up a fellow officer and driven brutally out of home and job, Grace Fisher is thankful to survive some dark times and find haven with the Major Investigation Team in Essex.  One female student is missing, last seen at a popular bar in Colchester.  When a second student, also out drinking, is murdered and left grotesquely posed, the case becomes headline news.  Someone is leaking disturbing details to a tabloid crime reporter.  Is it the killer?  Or a detective close to the case? With another victim, and under siege by the media, the murder enquiry hits a dead end.  The review team brought in to shake things up is headed by Grace's old DCI.  Who is going to listen to her now?  Good Girls Don’t Die is the first in a new series by Isabelle Grey featuring Detective Grace Fisher.  It is due to be published in September 2014.

London,  1657. All that is known of the Seeker is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell, and that nothing can be hidden from him.  In  a fashionable coffee house, a murder takes place and a lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, found holding a knife over the bleeding body.  Despite the damning evidence, the Seeker is not convinced of Ellingworth’s guilt.  He will stop at nothing to bring the real killer to justice.  The Seeker is by S G Maclean and is the first in a new historical thriller series featuring Damian Seeker, one of Cromwell’s most trusted and feared adherents.  The Seeker is due to be published in October 2014.

In Mark Sullivan’s latest high-octane blockbuster, robin Monarch must seek out and steal a mysterious and much-coveted elixir of life, while at the same time attempting to reclaim something – or, more accurately, someone – cruelly stolen from him.  The perilous trail begins in the deepest recesses of the Brazilian rainforest, and will lure Monarch into a deadly trap where his nemesis will be waiting, and where the fate of those dearest to him will be decided.  Thief is due to be published in December 2014.

Two hours to get away, 22 more to survive.  Security consultant and private investigator Michael Sander is tasked with the investigation of a video that seems to show two people being hunted to their deaths.  His job is to find out who they are, and why they were murdered.  But this isn’t just another case, and these deaths are only one piece of the puzzle.  Michael is investigating the darkest reaches of humanity, uncovering crimes that reach further than he ever imagined.  Trophy is by Steffen Jacobsen and is due to be published in October 2014.

Talking to Ghosts is by Hervé Le Corre and is due to be published in July 2014.  With his son Pablo's kidnapping still unsolved, and his marriage ruined by the torment of hope, the brutal murder of a single mother in her own home is an almost welcome diversion for Commandant Vilar.  The woman leaves behind a son, Victor, thrown into the foster system with only his mother's urn for company.  Struggling with bullies, trauma and the first pangs of teenage love, Victor carries a secret that followed his mother to her grave.  Struggling for leads, Vilar is shaken when the colleague investigating Pablo's kidnapping disappears.  When a sadistic caller claims to have information about his son, Vilar is torn between duty and a desperate chance of redemption.

Books to Look Forward to from Mulholland and Hodder and Stoughton

Banks is back and now he’s the one being hunted.  When two boys vanish under mysterious circumstances, the local community is filled with unease.  And when a caravan belonging to one of the youths is burned to the ground, and a bloodstain is discovered in a disused World War Two hangar nearby, things quickly become much more sinister.  Assigned to the case, DCI Banks and his team are baffled by the mystery laid out before them.  But when a motor accident throws up a gruesome discovery, the investigation spins into a higher gear - and in another direction.  As Banks and his team struggle desperately to find the missing boy who holds the key to the puzzle, they find themselves in a race against time where it's their turn to become the prey ... Abattoir Blues is the twenty-second novel in the DCI Banks series by Peter Robinson and is due to be published in July 2014.

Oswald de Lacy was never meant to be the Lord of Somerhill Manor.  Despatched to a monastery at the age of seven, sent back at seventeen when his father and two older brothers are killed by the Plague, Oswald has no experience of running an estate.  He finds the years of pestilence and neglect have changed the old place dramatically, not to mention the attitude of the surviving peasants.  Yet some things never change.  Oswald's mother remains the powerful matriarch of the family, and his sister Clemence simmers in the background, dangerous and unmarried.  Before he can do anything, Oswald is confronted by the shocking death of a young woman, Alison Starvecrow.  The ambitious village priest claims that Alison was killed by a band of demonic dog-headed men.  Oswald is certain this is nonsense, but proving it - by finding the real murderer - is quite a different matter.  Every step he takes seems to lead Oswald deeper into a dark maze of political intrigue, family secrets, and violent strife.  And then the body of another girl is found.  SD Sykes brilliantly evokes the landscape and people of medieval Kent in this thrillingly suspenseful debut entitled The Plague.  The Plague is due to be published in October 2014.

  

In the wake of a failed attack on America's premier theme park, which put his own daughter at risk, Special Forces operator Jad Bell is sent after the man who arranged it.  But it soon becomes clear that capturing him is just the start: his employer, known only as the Architect, has already set something far worse in motion.  At the centre of it all are two women deep under cover.  One is an American spy whose intel is the only hope they have, but who has lived a lie for so long she cannot be trusted.  And the other is a woman as beautiful as she is deadly, already living in the States, and poised to execute the Architect's plans at a moment's notice.  The stakes are even higher, the clock is ticking, and this time the enemies are hiding in plain sight...  Bravo is by Greg Rucka and is due to be published by July 2014.

Hunter-Killer is by Chris Ryan and is due to be published in September 2014.  Following a suicide bombing in central London, series SAS hero Danny Black is recruited to be part of an assassination squad, directed by a joint MI5/MI6/CIA committee and tasked with hunting down and killing the terrorist cells believed to be planning further atrocities.  Early leads take them to a North London mosque and a one-armed hate cleric, whom the Home Secretary repeatedly tries and fails to expel from the country, a sleazy Saudi prince living in a Park Lane Hotel - on the surface a devout Muslim, he devotes himself to booze, drugs and hookers as soon as his family are out of the building - and a grizzled ex-Regiment guy who is spreading rumours that Diana was assassinated by the SAS in the tunnel in Paris because of her Arab lover.  The trail of clues takes Danny to a training camp in the Yemen, but just as he has the enemy in his sights, he discovers that they are somehow one step ahead of him, and he begins to suspect that they are being topped off by someone close to home.

The Secret Place is by Tana French and is due to be published in August 2014.  The photo shows a boy who was murdered a year ago.  The caption says, “I know who killed him”.  Detective Stephen Moran hasn't seen Holly Mackey since she was a nine-year-old witness to the events of Faithful Place.  Now she's sixteen and she's shown up outside his squad room, with a photograph and a story.  Even in her exclusive boarding school, in the graceful golden world that Stephen has always longed for, bad things happen and people have secrets.  The previous year, Christopher Harper, from the neighbouring boys' school, was found murdered on the grounds.  And today, in the Secret Place - the school noticeboard where girls can pin up their secrets anonymously - Holly found the card.  Solving this case could take Stephen onto the Murder squad.  But to get that solved, he will have to work with Detective Antoinette Conway - tough, prickly, an outsider, everything Stephen doesn't want in a partner.  And he will have to find a way into the strange, charged, mysterious world that Holly and her three closest friends inhabit and disentangle the truth from their knot of secrets, even as he starts to suspect that the truth might be something he doesn't want to hear.

Judged: As he watches, her body drifts below the water's surface, forever altered.  Before he disposes of each victim, he takes a trophy.  It's a sign of his power, and a warning - to the one destined to suffer most of all...Condemned In Grizzly Falls, Montana, Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are struggling with a new commander and a department in the midst of upheaval.  It's the worst possible time for a homicide.  A body has been found, missing a finger.  Alvarez hopes this means a murderer with a personal grudge, not a madman.  But then a second body turns up...Executed: As the clues begin pointing toward a suspect, Pescoli's unease grows.  She senses there's more to this case than others believe.  A killer has made his way to Grizzly Falls, ready to fulfil a vengeance years in the making.  And Pescoli must find the target of his wrath - or die trying...  Deserves to Die is by Lisa Jackson and is due to be published in July 2014.

Havana in the 1850s is a city as dangerous as it is exotic.  The murder of a humble night watchman at the British Consulate seems to worry neither the Consul nor the police.  But one person cared for the old man.  The enigmatic courtesan Leonarda will not rest until she understands the mystery of his death.  In wintry England, George Backhouse is plucked from obscurity in the Foreign Office and given an unexpected promotion.  His task: to travel to Cuba and take a stand against the illegal slave trade still flourishing there.  But Havana is a tinderbox of intrigue.  As the great powers of the region conspire against each other with increasing ruthlessness for control of the island, Backhouse comes to see that the most innocent of actions could spark a devastating war.  To protect their interests, the powers-that-be in Whitehall are prepared to turn a blind eye to many things. Leonarda will not.  But what of George Backhouse?  Havana Sleeping is by Martin Davies and is due to be published in September 2014.

Who can be trusted, when betrayal is a way of life?  Danny Curnow used to run agents and informers during the Troubles.  Now he lives in quiet isolation in northern France.  The covert world of deception and betrayal he left behind came close to destroying him.  Fifteen years later, when the call comes from his old boss, the stakes are higher, the risks are greater, and if he wants to survive, Danny will have to prove that he has not softened – that he is just as hard and ruthless as before.  Vagabond is by Gerald Seymour and is due to be published in July 2014.

Vendetta is by Dreda Say Mitchell and is due to be published in November 2014.  'If you seek revenge, dig two graves.’  Undercover cop John 'Mac' MacDonagh has been living a double life, infiltrating the network of Reuben Volk, one of London's deadliest criminals.  But the brief definitely didn't include falling in love with a member of Volk's gang: the beautiful and enigmatic Elena Romanov.  Now Elena has been murdered.  Waking in his hotel to discover her battered body in the next room, Mac is left with no clue as to who killed her - or why.  In fact, all the evidence suggests that it was Mac who killed her, but he can't believe that.  Or can he?  With the police on his tail he enters into a race against time.  All he knows is that something is happening at 11pm, something that could help him to uncover the truth.  Was Mac framed?  Or does he really have a dead woman's blood on his hands?

White Lies is by Stephen leather and is due to be published in August 2014.  Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line - for his friends and for his job with MI5.  So when one of his former apprentices is kidnapped in the badlands of Pakistan, Shepherd doesn't hesitate to join a rescue mission.  But when the rescue plan goes horribly wrong, Shepherd ends up in the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists.  His SAS training is of little help as his captors beat and torture him.  Shepherd's MI5 controller Charlotte Button is determined to get her man out of harm's way, but to do that she's going to have to break all the rules.  Her only hope is to bring in America's finest - the elite SEALs who carried out Operation Neptune Spear - in a do-or-die operation to rescue the captives.  White Lies is a fast paced, seat-of-your-pants thriller, which will have you, hooked from the first page until the last.

The Competition is by Marcia Clark and is due to be published in July 2014.  It's every parent's worst nightmare.  A Columbine-style massacre in a crowded high school hall has left the community shocked to the core.  Two students are identified as the killers.  Both are dead, believed to have committed a mutual suicide.  But in the aftermath, as LA Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight and Detective Bailey Keller dig deeper, they realise that the pieces don't add up.  Did the shooters really kill themselves?  Or are they still on the loose?  When someone starts dropping clues that another horrific crime is in the works, Rachel and Bailey scramble desperately to identify their suspects.  The question now isn't whether they plan to kill again.  It's whether they can be stopped...

 The Suicide Club is a First World War spy thriller set in Occupied Belgium in 1917, and tells the dark, disturbing and untold story of the shadow espionage battle fought behind the lines.  The Suicide Club is by Andrew Williams and is due to be published in November 2014.  August 1917.  Europe is mired in bloody stalemate at Passchendaele.  Soldier spy Sandy Innes is not best pleased to be summoned from his undercover work in Belgium and seconded to British Army Headquarters.  Field Marshal Haig's intelligence chief wants Innes's expertise - and access to his spy network - in preparation for the Big Push he hopes will win the war by Christmas.  But Innes's boss, the wily Mansfield Cumming, head of the new Secret Service, has his own reasons for securing Innes a place on Haig's Staff - there are, he tells Innes, 'concerns' in government about the army's intelligence operation.  Innes deduces that it must be a great deal more serious than that if Cumming's political masters want him to spy on the senior officers of their own army.  Behind the lines at H.Q., his new boss, Brigadier General Charteris, largely ignores Innes’s briefings on the German defences in Belgium.  Instead he discovers he is to be part of an advance assault group that will prepare the way for the British 'breakthrough'.  The other Intelligence Officers have a name for the group: 'The Suicide Club'.  It is clear they have little faith in Charteris and his schemes, and are deeply suspicious of the advice he is offering Haig.  They tell Innes that one of their number questioned the integrity of Charteris's intelligence reports, but died in mysterious circumstances before he could take it further.  As Innes digs deeper, he discovers that the dead man had begun to investigate Charteris's prized spy network in Belgium, Operation Faust.  In what becomes a race against time, Innes must uncover a traitor, protect his own network, and survive membership of The Suicide Club.

Confessions is by Kanae Minato and is due to be published in August 2014.  When Yuko Moriguchi's four-year-old daughter died in the middle school where she teaches, everyone thought it was a tragic accident.  It's the last day of term, and Yuko's last day at work.  She tells her students that she has resigned because of what happened - but not for the reasons they think.  Her daughter didn't die in an accident.  Her daughter was killed by two people in the class. And before she leaves, she has a lesson to teach...But revenge has a way of spinning out of control, and Yuko's last lecture is only the start of the story.  In this bestselling Japanese thriller of love, despair and murder, everyone has a confession to make, and no one will escape unharmed.

  

On the rain-drenched, wave-lashed, wind-battered Banffshire coast, tiny fishing villages perch on ledges which would make a seagull think twice and crumbly mansions cling to crumblier cliff tops while, out in the bay, the herring drifters brave the storms to catch their silver darlings.  It's nowhere for a child of gentle Northamptonshire to spend Christmas.  But when odd things start to turn up in barrels of fish - with a strong whiff of murder most foul - that's exactly where Dandy Gilver finds herself.  Enlisted to investigate, she and her trusty cohort Alec Osborne are soon swept up in the fisherfolk's wedding season as well as the mystery.  Between age-old traditions and brand-new horrors, Dandy must think the unthinkable to solve her grisliest case yet.  Dandy Gilver and the Reek of Red Herrings is by Catriona McPherson and is due to be published in July 2014.

Also due to be published is a currently untitled Ali Knight novel and is due to be published in November 2014.  Shy and gentle Darren Sears was only eleven when his sister Jodie and six other girls disappeared, presumed murdered by notorious killer Alicia Duvall.  Ten years later, Darren's mother, now sick with cancer, demands Alicia reveal where Jodie's remains are, but her plea ends in humiliation and failure.  Desperate to alleviate his mum's heartbreak, Darren gets a job as a cleaner in the psychiatric hospital where Alicia is committed, hoping he can find out the truth.  But trying to play a serial killer is a very dangerous game... 

There is also a currently untitled book by Fergus McNeill.  Nigel never meant for it to happen.  At first, he just wanted to be Matt's friend.  But when he discovers he can hear what is going on in the flat below him, his fascination with his new neighbour drifts into obsession.  Rearranging his furniture to recreate the layout of the rooms downstairs.  Buying the same clothes, going through his post, his things.  Becoming Matt without him ever knowing.  And it would have been all right, if Matt hadn't brought the girl home.  When things spiral out of control, Detective Inspector Harland has to unravel the disturbing truth.  But there's far more to the case than meets the eye . 

Hayes Bannock is a Texas Ranger, a natural "lawman" who is tough, taciturn, perceptive, and guarded.  Several years ago, his life was derailed by a tragic chain of events, including the death of his wife in a car accident.  Now he's trying to regain custody of his five-year-old daughter, Georgia, who has been living with his in-laws for the past four years.  Judge Emory Charbonneau is the presiding judge at Georgia Bannock's custody hearing.  Smart and ambitious, she wants to keep the bench to which she was temporarily appointed, which means winning the upcoming election.  But just as she is about to render her decision in Georgia's custody hearing, a man dressed in painter's coveralls and a mask barges into the courtroom and opens fire.  A beloved bailiff is fatally shot and Hayes rushes to Emory, shielding her with his own body and saving her life -- sparking a dangerous attraction between the two.  A chase ensues, and the shooter is eventually cornered and killed.  But after seeing the dead body in the morgue, Hayes realizes that the man killed was not the same man who opened fire in the judge's courtroom.  The actual shooter is still at large and Emory's life is still in danger.  Who was the shooter's actual target and why?  As Hayes and Emory attempt to track him down, they realize that everyone in the courthouse that day is a suspect, and that nobody is who they seem.  Mean Streak is by Sandra Brown and is due to be published in September 2014.

Death in The Tuscan Hills is by Marco Vichi and is due to be published in October 2014.  Spring, 1967.  The trail of tragedy and destruction that followed the previous winter's flood seems to have died down; Florence is beginning to recover.  But Inspector Bordelli does not feel the same sense of relief - he has not had a moment's peace since his investigation of a young boy's murder went disastrously wrong.  Unsettled and embittered, Bordelli resigns from the force and leaves the city.  He could not continue to work as a policeman while the perpetrators of such a terrible crime were still at large.  Now, in the solitude of his new home in the Tuscan hills, he spends his days cooking, going for long walks, and learning to grow his own vegetables.  But the thought of that case - of justice not served - is constantly with him.  Until fate, in which he has never believed, unexpectedly offers him the chance of retribution.

Everyone keeps telling me I have to move on.  And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.  A year after her husband Zach's death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place.  As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together.  She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died.  She wonders if she will ever feel whole again.  At last she reaches the spot.  And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies.  The flowers are addressed to her husband.  Someone has been there before her.  Lizzie loved Zach.  She really did.  But she's starting to realise she didn't really know him.  Or what he was capable of ...  Remember Me This Way is by Sabine Durrant and is due to be published in July 2014.

After a hazardous stint in the US law enforcement, Valentine Pescatore is trying to start over in Buenos Aires.  But everything changes when an old friend reappears – just before a terrorist attack.  A call placed to Pescatore’s phone makes him a suspect, and he knows there is only one possible connection.  To clear his name, he must join agents from three countries to track the suspected terrorist who was once his closest confidant.  From the jungles of South America to the streets of Paris, from the mansions of the Spanish Riviera to the compounds of Baghdad The Convert’s Song leads Pescatore on a high-speed chase to stop the deadly convert before he strikes again.  The Convert’s Song is by Sebastian Rotella and is due to be published in December 2014.