Saturday 21 November 2015

Books to Look forward to from Cornerstone

Paris is burning - and only Private's Jack Morgan can put out the fire. When Jack Morgan stops by Private's Paris office, he envisions a quick hello during an otherwise relaxing trip filled with fine food and sightseeing. But Jack is quickly pressed into duty after a call from his client Sherman Wilkerson, asking Jack to track down his young granddaughter who is on the run from a brutal drug dealer. Before Jack can locate her, several members of France's cultural elite are found dead - murdered in stunning, symbolic fashion. The only link between the crimes is a mysterious graffiti tag. As religious and ethnic tensions simmer in the City of Lights, only Jack and his Private team can connect the dots before the smouldering powder keg explodes.  Private Paris is by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan and is due to be published in January 2016.

If your husband was murdered, And you were a witness, How do you explain seeing him on your nanny cam? You thought you trusted him. Now you can't even trust yourself. Dark secrets and a terrifying hunt for the truth lie at the heart of this gripping new thriller. To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband - and herself.  Fool Me Once is by Harlan Coben and is due to be published in March 2016.

Detective Lindsay Boxer has everything she could possibly want. Her marriage and baby daughter are perfect, and life in Homicide in the San Francisco Police Department is going well. But all that could change in an instant. Lindsay is called to a crime scene at the Four Seasons Hotel. There is a dead man in one of the rooms, shot at close range. The man checked in under a false name with no ID on him, so the first puzzle will be finding out who he is. In the room next door are a dead young man and woman, also shot. They are surrounded by high-tech surveillance equipment. Could they have been spying on the man now dead in the room next to them? And in the utilities
cupboard down the hall is the dead body of a house maid. The murders are all clearly linked and professionally executed. But what is the motive behind it all? Lindsay will need to risk everything she has to find out.  15th Affair is by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro and is due to be published in February 2016.

First came Plague, now comes Fire. The epic tale of the hunt for a serial killer threatening London's rich and poor during the Great Fire of London. Fires don't start by themselves. They need someone to light them. As the Great Plague of London loosens its grip at last, Charles II's court moves back to the city, the theatres reopen and a new year arrives. 1666. It cannot be more terrible than the previous year, surely? But it can. What's more it seems that a serial killer who stalked hand in hand with the Plague might not be dead after all. Together with actress Sarah Chalker, highwayman William Coke and thief-taker Pitman come together as one, determined to stop the brutal murder of London's rich and poor once and for all. But another threat is on the way. It hasn't rained in five months. London is a tinderbox - politically, sexually and religiously. The Great Fire of London is about to ignite. And the final confrontation between Coke, Pitman and Sarah Chalker and their murderous adversary will be decided against a background of apocalypse.  Fire is by CC Humphreys and is due to be published in May 2016.

The Accidental Agent is by Andrew Rosenheim and is due to be published in March 2016.  1942: The Race is on to create the atomic bomb. James Nessheim has gone back to college and thinks he has left his life as a spy behind. But the covert nuclear programme at the University of Chicago has been infiltrated by an enemy agent, and Nessheim is persuaded by the FBI to help track him down. At the same time, an old flame re-enters Nessheim's life and he finds himself falling in love. But can it be coincidence that she appears just as he becomes a special agent again? Nessheim's personal and professional lives grow dangerously intertwined as he struggles to protect the war's deadliest secret - and work out who he can trust.

Highbridge is by Phil Redmond and is due to be published in January 2016.  Three years ago, Janey Nolan was murdered in the centre of town. Today, no one knows who did it. Sick of waiting for the powers that be to rid the streets and school gates of dealers, druggies and parasites, Janey's brothers want to avenge her death. While Sean decides to explore the routes and corridors of political power, Joey chooses more direct action in and among the alleys and pathways of the neighbourhood itself. But can the brothers find Janey's killer without bringing more danger to their town? This Is Just The Beginning. This Is Highbridge.

England: Easter, 1469. Bamburgh Castle may have fallen but Thomas and Katherine have more to do. William Hastings have offered them and their son the chance to run an estate in the North, if only they will rally the troops for an attack on the King. But the manor of Sennington is horribly run down, its population suffering with measles. And Thomas and Katherine are in search of the ledger that could change the state of England for good. But spies for the other side are looking for the ledger, and their net is closing in. Thomas and Katherine need to get to it before their enemies do, or the fate of their country will fall to the wrong hands. Kingmaker 3 by Toby Clements is due to be published in June 2016.

“I had a simple choice. Stay here, and almost certainly be discovered. Or get up and run." (The Witness). When Jane Kinnear sees her lover being murdered, she suddenly finds herself in danger. Taken to an anonymous police safe-house, it soon becomes clear that her lover was an MI5 informant with important information about an imminent terrorist attack. The Detective DI Ray Mason of Counter Terrorism Command is a man with a controversial past, but his effectiveness at getting results means that he's now been given the task of preventing the attack from taking place. But can he be trusted, and does he know more about the attack than he's letting on? The Killer In the safe-house, Jane is trying to piece together a description of her lover's killer. But what she doesn't know is that the killer has already found out who she is, and where she is hiding. And now he's coming for her...  The Witness is by Simon Kernick and is due to be published in January 2016. 

When Jules Bright hears a knock on the door, the last person she expects to find a detective bringing her the news she's feared for the last three years. Amelia Quentin is being released from prison. Jules's life is very different now to the one she'd known before Amelia shattered it completely. Knowing the girl is coming back she needs to decide what to do. Friends and family gather round, fearing for Jules's safety. They know that justice was never served; every one of them wants to make the Quentin girl pay. The question is, what will Jules do; and which of them - her or Amelia - has the most to fear?  The Girl Who Came Back is by Susan Lewis and is due to be published in February 2016.

Someone just brought back the death penalty. A band of vigilante executioners roam London's hot summer nights, abducting evil men and hanging them by the neck until dead. Sentenced to death is the gang member who groomed and abused dozens of vulnerable girls; the wealthy drunk driver who mowed down a child; and the hate preacher calling for the murder of British troops. As the bodies pile up and riots explode all over the sweltering city, DC Max Wolfe embarks on his most dangerous investigation yet, hunting a gang of killers who many believe to be heroes. But before he can confront them, Max Wolfe learns some painful truths about the fragile line between good and evil, innocence and guilt, justice and retribution. And discovers that the lust for revenge starts very close to home.  The Hanging Club is by Tony Parsons and is due to be published in May 2016.

An audacious jewel heist. A murdered actress. A killer case for NYPD Red. In a city where
crime never sleeps, NYPD Red is the elite task force called in only when a case involves the rich, famous and connected. Detective Zach Jordan and his partner, Kylie MacDonald - the woman who broke his heart at the police academy - are the best of the best, brilliant and tireless investigators who will stop at nothing to catch a criminal, even if it means antagonising the same high-flying citizens they're supposed to be helping. When a glitzy movie premiere is the scene of a shocking murder and high-stakes robbery, NYPD Red gets the call. Traversing the city's highs and lows, from celebrity penthouses to the depths of Manhattan's criminal underworld, Zach and Kylie have to find a cold-blooded killer - before he strikes again. NYPD Red 4 is by James Patterson and Marshall Karp and is due to be published in April 2016.

In Too Deep is by Samantha Hayes and is due to be published in May 2016.  Your husband goes out to buy a newspaper. He never comes back. Months later, an unexpected phone call puts you and your daughter in unimaginable danger. Even if he were still alive, your husband can't save you now. He told you way too many lies for that.

Siren is by Annemarie Neary and is due to be published in March 2016.  Roisin Burns has spent the last twenty years becoming someone else. The secrets she has kept since she was a naive schoolgirl in Belfast have blighted her existence and ruined her relationships; her life in New York is built on lies. Things are beginning to fall apart when a figure from her past flashes up on the news: it's the man who stole her life. These days Brian Lonergan is a smooth, sharp-suited politician, a family man, the darling of the Irish press. But scandal is brewing and Roisin knows the truth. Armed with the evidence that could ruin Lonergan, she travels back across the Atlantic to the remote Lamb Island to hunt him down. But Lonergan is one step ahead; when Roisin arrives on the island, someone else is waiting for her...

A woman disappears. One moment, Selena Cole is in the playground with her children and the next, she has vanished without a trace. A woman returns. Twenty hours later, Selena is found safe and well, but with no memory of where she has been. What took place in those missing hours, and are they linked to the discovery of a nearby murder? 'Is it a forgetting or a deception?'  The Missing Hours is by Emma Kavanagh and is due to be published in April 2016.

Two years ago Jack Morgan - the head of the renowned worldwide investigation firm Private - was in charge of security for the World Cup in Bazil. During the championship final, the action nearly spilled from the field into the stands. Fortunately, Jack and his team averted disaster on football's biggest stage. Now he has returned to Rio to secure the Olympics. But before the torch is lit, the threats come fast and furious as Jack discovers that someone is trying to sabotage the games. A lethal plan put in motion during the World Cup is set to decimate Rio, and turn the Olympics from a worldwide celebration into a horrifying spectacle.  Private Rio is by James Patterson and is due to be published in June 2016.

"Laws are silent in times of war." (Cicero). There was a time when Cicero held Caesar's life in the palm of his hand. But now Caesar is the dominant figure and Cicero's life is in ruins. Exiled, separated from his wife and children, his possessions confiscated, his life constantly in danger, Cicero is tormented by the knowledge that he has sacrificed power for the sake of his principles. His comeback requires wit, skill and courage - and for a brief and glorious period, the legendary orator is once more the supreme senator in Rome. But politics is never static and no statesman, however cunning, can safeguard against the ambition and corruption of others.  Dictator is by Robert Harris and is due to be published in March 2016.

You've been held captive in one room, mentally and physically abused every day, since you were sixteen years old. Then, one night, you realise your captor has left the door to your cell unlocked. For the first time in eight years, you're free. This is about what happens next...Lily knows that she must bring the man who nearly ruined her life - her good-looking high-school teacher - to justice. But she never imagined that reconnecting with her family would be just as difficult. Reclaiming her relationship with her twin sister, her mother, and her high school sweetheart who is in love with her sister may be Lily's greatest challenge. After all they've been through, can Lily and her family find their way back after this life-altering trauma? Impossible not to read in one sitting, Baby Doll is a taut psychological thriller that focuses on family entanglements and the evil that can hide behind a benign facade.  Baby Doll is by Hollie Overton and is due to be published in June 2016.

In Donna Leon's twenty-fifth Brunetti novel, our Commissario is investigating a cold case by request of the grand Contessa Lando-Continui, a friend of his mother-in-law. Fifteen years ago the Contessa's teenage granddaughter, Manuela, was found drowning in a canal. She was rescued from the canal at the last moment but in many ways it was too late; she suffered severe brain damage and life was never the same again. Once a passionate horse rider, Manuela, now aged 30, cannot remember the accident, or her beloved horse, and lives trapped in an eternal youth. The Contessa, unconvinced that this was an accident or suicide, implores Brunetti to find the culprit she believes was responsible for ruining Manuela's life. Desperate to help but unsure there is anything to find, Brunetti reopens the case, much to the annoyance of his employer. But once he starts to investigate, Brunetti finds a murky past and a dark story at its heart.  The Waters of Eternal Youth and is due to be published in April 2016.

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