On
the night of 22 December 1980 a plane crashes on the Franco-Swiss border and is
engulfed in flames. 168 out of 169
passengers are killed instantly. The
miraculous sole survivor is a newborn baby girl. Two families, one rich, the other poor, step
forward to claim her, sparking a private investigation that will last for
almost two decades. Is she Lyse-Rose or
Emilie? On the eve of the girl’s
eighteenth birthday, Detective Credule Grand-Duc plans to take his own life,
but not before placing his account of the investigation in the girl’s hands. But as he sits at his desk about to pull the
trigger, he uncovers a secret that changes everything – then is killed before
he can breathe a word of it to anyone. . . After
the Crash is by Michel Bussi and is due to be published in March 2015.
Dana
Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until she was kidnapped by a notorious
serial killer. A year has passed since she survived the ordeal, but Dana is
still physically, emotionally, and psychologically scarred, racked with bouts
of post-traumatic stress disorder and memory loss. In an attempt to put herself
back together after surviving the unthinkable, Dana returns to her hometown.
But it doesn't provide the comfort she expects: she struggles to recognise
family and childhood friends and begins experiencing dark flashbacks. But she's
not sure if they're truly memories or side effects of her brain injury. Dana
decides to use her investigative skills to piece together her past and learns
of the event that made her become a reporter in the first place: the
disappearance of her best friend, Casey Grant, the summer after high school
graduation. Looking at her past and the unsolved mystery through the dark
filter of her shattered psyche, old friends seem to be suspects, authority
figures part of a cover-up. Dana begins to question everything she knows. What
is real? What is imagined? Are we defined by what happens to us? And is the
truth really something too terrible to be believed? Cold,
Cold Heart is by Tami Hoag and is due to be published in January 2015.
Woman of the Dead is by Bernhard Aichner
and is due to be published in April 2015.
Blum seems to have it all: the perfect husband, police detective Mark,
two daughters, and a thriving undertaking business. But when Mark is killed in
a hit and run, Blum stumbles across one of his investigations and realises
there is far more to his death than meets the eye. And, as she discovers, the
line between investigating and avenging is an easy one to cross.
London,
January 2014. In the space of 32 hours, in a well-planned and highly organized
operation, six billionaires' children are taken off the streets of London in a
series of slickly well-executed kidnaps. The gang demands GBP25 million per
hostage for 'expenses' - not ransom. And when your child goes missing, you need
Charles Boxer: a man with little left to lose who'll stop at nothing to save
families suffering what he has. The wealthy parents of the missing children
know that Boxer will do more than police can - but that doesn't mean the law
will leave it to him. Intelligence agencies are all interested in the kidnaps
because in each case the parents are related to people in power in the various
countries involved. Soon the investigation goes beyond the corridors of power and
the boardrooms of big corporations - and to far darker corners. Even more
worryingly for Boxer, and his ex-wife Mercy, it threatens to lead back to their
own lives, too. But still nobody knows what this mysterious kidnap gang
ultimately want and, if they have a cause, what the hell is it? Stealing
People is by Robert Wilson and is due to be published in February 2015.
When
the two strangers turn up at Rowena Cooper's isolated Colorado farmhouse, she
knows instantly that it's the end of everything. For the two haunted and driven
men, on the other hand, it's just another stop on a long and bloody journey.
And they still have many miles to go, and victims to sacrifice, before their
work is done. For San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart, their trail of
corpses - women abducted, tortured and left with a seemingly random series of
objects inside them - has brought her from obsession to the edge of physical
and psychological destruction. And she's losing hope of making a breakthrough
before that happens. But the slaughter at the Cooper farmhouse didn't quite go
according to plan. There was a survivor, Rowena's 10-year-old daughter Nell,
who now holds the key to the killings. Injured, half-frozen, terrified, Nell
has only one place to go. And that place could be even more terrifying than
what she's running from. The Killing Lessons is the debut novel
by Saul Black and is due to be published in May 2015.
Ashleigh
and Danny Orchard are twins, not that you'd ever tell by looking at them -
Danny distant and shy, Ash beautiful and accomplished. But there's a secret in
the Orchard house: Ash is a monster, a psychopath who can feel only through
bringing others pain. When Ash and Danny are caught in a fire on their 16th
birthday, both of them die. But only Danny comes back. Since then, Ash has
haunted Danny, denying him any form of normal life ...or love. When Danny meets
Willa and her son Eddie he glimpses the life he could have without Ash. To stop
her from ruining his new-found happiness, Danny must venture into the
frightening underworld of Detroit, where he will unearth the mystery of the
night his and Ash's fates changed for ever. Dark and compelling, The Damned is by Andrew Pyper and is a
story of how heaven and hell aren't about death, but about the decisions we
make in life. The Damned is due to be published in March 2015.
A
collection of stories, mostly gritty low-level crime stories set on Washington
DC's mean streets. The Martini Shot itself
is set in the world of TV, featuring a scriptwriter on a popular cop show. When
a member of the crew is murdered, the screenwriter decides to track down the
perpetrators himself, to see if as a writer he can do more than just talk the
talk. The Martini Shot and Other Stories is
by George Pelecanos and is due to be published in January 2015.
Fear the Darkness is by Becky Masterman
and is due to be published in February 21015. Ex-FBI Agent Brigid Quinn thinks
she has a second chance at life. After too many years spent in the company of
evil, she's quit the Feds and is working out what normal is meant to feel like.
She's swapped serial killers, stakeouts and interrogation for a husband,
friends and free time. But when you've walked in darkness for so long, can you
stand the light? When a local teenager dies in a tragic drowning accident, the
community thinks Brigid might be able to help comfort the family. But when she
does so, something doesn't add up. And it's no easier at home: after a
bereavement in the family, Brigid has reluctantly taken in her niece to give her
a break before she starts college. Brigid's ever-patient husband Carlo tells
her they must go easy on Gemma-Kate, the grieving youngster. Which is fine,
until she starts taking an unhealthy interest in dissecting the local wildlife.
For Brigid, death still seems to be wherever she turns. But as she herself
starts to feel unwell, it's her own mortality that is the most troubling. And
as she tries to get to the bottom of a series of allegedly accidental deaths
and increasingly gruesome occurrences at home, she slowly realises that maybe
this time, she's let the darkness inside the only place she ever felt safe.
Sometimes, death is closer than you think.
Mockingbird is by R J Ellory and is due
to be published in May 2015. Prison
changes a man. Sometimes in ways you can see. Usually in ways you can't. The
only reason Henry Quinn survived three years inside was because of Evan Riggs,
a one-time country singer, one-time killer, now serving a life sentence. No
parole. On the day he gets out, Henry promises Evan he will find his daughter,
the daughter he never met, and deliver a letter. A free man, Henry heads to the
small Texan town where Evan grew up and where his brother Carson now resides as
sheriff. There's no sign of the girl and her uncle claims to know nothing of
her whereabouts. But Henry isn't about to give up. He made a promise and, no
matter what, he's going to find Evan's daughter. As Carson's behaviour towards
him becomes ever more threatening, Henry realises that there are dark secrets
buried at the heart of this quiet town. What terrible thing drove the brothers
apart and what happened to the missing girl?
Robert
Ludlum’s The Geneva Strategy is by
Jamie Freveletti and is due to be published in March 2015. One evening in Washington, DC, several high-ranking
members of government disappear in a mass kidnapping. Among the kidnapped is
Nick Rendel, a computer software coding expert in charge of drone programming
and strategy. He is the victim with the most dangerous knowledge, including
confidential passwords and codes that are used to program the drones. If
revealed, his kidnappers could reprogram the drones to strike targets within
the United States. Jon Smith and the Covert-One team begin a worldwide search
to recover the officials, but as the first kidnapping victims are rescued, they
show disturbing signs of brainwashing or mind-altering drugs. Smith's
investigation leads him to Fort Detrick, where a researcher, Dr Laura Taylor,
had been attempting to create a drug to wipe memory from soldiers suffering
from post-traumatic stress syndrome. But Dr Taylor's research was suspended
almost a year ago, when she was placed in a mental institution. Now, if Smith
doesn't figure out the brainwashing drug, and track down the kidnapped Nick
Rendel, the kidnappers will soon have the power to carry out drone strikes
anywhere in the world..
The Samaritan is by Mason Cross and is
due to be published in June 2015. When the mutilated body of a young woman is
discovered in the Santa Monica Mountains, LAPD Detective Jessica Allen knows
this isn't the work of a first-time killer. She's seen this MO before - two and
a half years ago on the other side of the country. Allen begins to dig deeper
and soon uncovers a terrifying truth. A sadistic serial killer has been
operating undetected for the past decade, preying on lone female drivers who
have broken down. The press dub the killer 'the Samaritan', but with no leads
and a killer who leaves no traces, the police investigation quickly grinds to a
halt. That's when Carter Blake shows up to volunteer his services. He's a
skilled manhunter with an uncanny ability to predict the Samaritan's next
moves. At first, Allen and her colleagues are suspicious. After all, their new
ally shares some uncomfortable similarities to the man they're tracking. But as
the Samaritan takes his slaughter to the next level, Blake is forced to reveal
that the similarities between the two men are closer than even Allen suspects.
With time running out and an opponent who knows all of his tricks, Blake must find
a way to stop the Samaritan ...even if it means bringing his own past crashing
down on top of him.
Following
the death of Duke Cadogan, talented young rider Duncan Claymore inherits his
large estate. Duncan is finally riding high. He's put his demons behind him and
is well on his way to achieving his dream of becoming Champion Jockey. However,
Cadogan's wealth proves to be illusory, with a manor house and grounds
mortgaged to the hilt and a list of creditors who include the formidable George
Pleasance. And Duncan's rival on the field, Sandy Sanderson, looks set to
shatter his ambitions. Events take a dark turn when it appears someone has been
sabotaging the horses on Duncan's trainer's yard. Down on his luck, out of
favour and broke, Duncan has to try to engineer a return to good fortune,
restore his reputation and bring down his father's enemy of old, William
Osborne. Narrowing the Field is by A P McCoy and is due to be published in
February 2015.
The
truth has no place in a courtroom. The
truth doesn't matter in a trial. The
only thing that matters is what the prosecution can prove. Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different. It's been over a year since Eddie vowed never
to set foot in a courtroom again. But
now he doesn't have a choice. Olek
Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a
bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter Amy. Eddie only has 48 hours to defend Volchek in
an impossible murder trial - and win - if wants to save his daughter. Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI,
Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to
defend his 'client' and ensure Amy's safety.
With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of
the impossible? Lose this case and he
loses everything. The Defence is by Steve Cavanagh and is due to be published in
March 2015.
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust is by
Alan Bradley and it is due to be published in April 2015. It all began with that awful business about
my mother, Harriet...Following the dramatic events at the conclusion of The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches and the
shocking revelations about her mother, Flavia de Luce finds herself expelled
from the familiar confines of Bishop's Lacey and her beloved family home,
Buckshaw, and 'packed off', as she puts it, to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy
in Canada. With its forbidding headmistress and bizarre rules, adapting to Miss
Bodycote's is quite a challenge. But Flavia is soon on familiar ground, when,
on her first night, a mummified body is dislodged from a chimney, and she is
presented with a gruesome puzzle to solve. And the mystery of the withered
corpse is only the beginning. Girls have been disappearing from Miss Bodycote's
with alarming regularity, leading Flavia to wonder not only how and why, but
what exactly is the academy's true purpose, and why were they so keen that she
enrol? If Flavia is to avoid the same fate as the missing girls, she must enter
a shadowy world where truth and lies seem interchangeable and no one can be
trusted. And ultimately she must discover what it means to be her mother's
daughter.
The Great Zoo of China is by Matthew
Reilly and is due to be published in February 2015. It is a secret the Chinese government has
been keeping for 40 years. They have
found a species of animal no one believed even existed. It will amaze the world. Now the Chinese are ready to unveil their
astonishing discovery within the greatest zoo ever constructed. A small group of VIPs and journalists has
been brought to the zoo deep within China to see its fabulous creatures for the
first time. Among them is Dr Cassandra
Jane 'CJ' Cameron, a writer for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and an expert on reptiles. The visitors are assured by their Chinese
hosts that they will be struck with wonder at these beasts, that they are
perfectly safe, and that nothing can go wrong...
This Thing of Darkness is by Harry
Bingham and is due to be published in July 2015. A marine engineer who tumbles off a cliff
path on a windy night. A burglary where everything taken was returned by the
thief. The suicide of a man in love with life. An accident, a mystery, an
unexplained tragedy. And nothing at all to connect them. Until, that is,
Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, searching for something - anything - to
take her mind off the tedious job of evidence-cataloguing she's been assigned
to, starts to wonder if all three incidents are not quite what they seem. It
could just be her imagination. After all, she'd be the first to admit that she
isn't exactly in the prime of psychological health right now, the darkness
she's held at bay ever since she joined the police force now lapping
dangerously at her door. But something tells her there are invisible threads
linking the crimes, and as she investigates further, she starts to see the
outlines of a conspiracy so unlikely and on such a vast scale, that it takes
her breath away. And that's when they come for her.
Blood, Salt, Water is by Denise Mina and
is due to be published in April 2015. DI
Alex Morrow and her team have been shadowing a woman suspected of being
involved in a large drug-smuggling and money-laundering operation. Roxanna
Fuentecilla recently moved from London to Glasgow in suspicious circumstances
and Morrow's bosses want all the glory when she's finally arrested. But then
Roxanna disappears. She's left her partner and her two children and something
about the situation, and the children's evasive attitude, leads Morrow to
question what's really going on. In the nearby picturesque town of Helensburgh,
Iain Fraser is struggling to live with his overwhelming guilt. Under orders
from the infamous Mark Barratt he's just killed a woman and now he's left with
blood on his hands. Meanwhile Miss Grierson, a former scout leader who left the
sleepy seaside town decades ago, has returned. Allegedly she's here to sort out
her recently deceased mother's estate, but Iain knows her mother died over two
years ago and suspects she has an ulterior motive.
Strange
things happen in the countryside. And for bisexual private detective Duffy,
this is his strangest case yet. Summoned to a country mansion following an
unusual murder, Duffy finds the house awash with potential suspects. Does Vic
Crowther, the man who called on Duffy in the first place, have a far more
sinister motive up his sleeve? Or perhaps his wife, the ex-page three model,
knows more than she's letting on ... Going to the Dogs is by Dan Kavanagh and
is due to be published in May 2015.
The
Stranger walked into the bar and, with just a few words, shattered Adam’s
entire life. His wife’s pregnancy three years ago – the one that saved their
marriage but ended in a tragic miscarriage . . . it never existed. The whole
thing was faked using a website set up for just that purpose. Hannah lied to
him, and has been lying ever since. Thus begins Harlan Coben’s shocking new
thriller. Someone out there knows all your secrets, all your affairs, all those
lies that, thanks to the Internet, are so easy to create. And now he wants the
truth to come out. But for Adam, the chaos this causes is only the beginning.
When Hannah disappears, things go to a whole other level. What’s really going
on here, and just who is pulling the strings? The Stranger will change your life for ever. The
Stranger is due to be published in April 2015.
Charlie
Matheson died two years ago in a car accident. Now a woman who bears a
startling resemblance to her claims to be back from the dead. Detective Mark
Nelson is called in to investigate her account of what she endured in the
‘afterlife’. Detective David Groves is
determined to bring his son’s killers to justice. But the search will mean
facing someone with a more ruthless approach to right and wrong. Former Detective John Mercer is slowly
recovering from the case that nearly destroyed his life, but deep down he knows
that he still has demons to face. At the
centre of it all: two brothers with a macabre secret. They’ve been waiting, they’ve been planning, they’ve been
killing. And for Nelson, Groves and Mercer they’re about to release hell on
earth. The currently untitled Steve
Mosby novel is due to be published in June 2015.
Also due to be published in June 2015 is The Ice House by John Connor and in July
2015 The Echoes of Their Passing by
Michael Marshall.
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