Books to Look Forward to from Faber and Faber

July

The Girl in Green takes us deep into heart of Iraq, as British journalist Thomas Benton is persuaded by ex-US soldier Arwood Hobbes, and supported by relief worker Marta Strom, to embark on what may be a fools' errand, as they try to atone for their failure to save a local girl over twenty years previously, after Operation Desert Storm. Timely and telling - 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of the Gulf War and is election year in the U.S. - The Girl in Green explores the troubled landscape of the Middle East, and the West's foreign policy agenda, with all the wit, skill and insight of his acclaimed first novel.  The Girl in Green is by Derek B Miller.

Wilde Lake is by Laura Lippman. ‘Lu' Brant is the newly elected - and

first female - state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her revered father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. As Lu prepares for the trial, the case dredges up painful memories, reminding her small but tight-knit family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man's life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Now, Lu wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them. What details might have been withheld from her when she was a child? The more she learns about the case, the more questions arise. Propelled into the past, she discovers that the legal system, the bedrock of her entire life, does not have all the answers and that the truth might be a dangerous thing to learn.

August

And now I stood here, on a desolate airfield in the Arkansas wilderness, a stone's throw from Texarkana. Darkness drawing in on me. Cross country to see a man I never imagined seeing again. On the strength of one desperate telephone call...' Having left Texarkana for the safety of the West Coast, reporter Charlie Yates finds himself drawn back to the South, to Hot Springs, Arkansas, as an old acquaintance asks for his help. This time it's less of a story Charlie's chasing, more of a desperate attempt to do the right thing before it's too late.  Black Night Falling is by Rod Reynolds

The Other Widow is by Susan Crawford.  'We have to stop seeing

each other ...  It isn't safe. For us.' He turns toward her, and even in the darkened car she sees his fear. The affair is over. Moments later, Joe's car skids off an icy road. Desperate to keep her life intact, Dorrie runs from the wreckage - but now someone is calling her from his phone. Joe's wife knew he was cheating. On her own in the wake of his death, Karen can't shake the feeling that someone is watching her. Investigator Maggie Brennan is immediately suspicious of the life insurance claim following the crash. The policy was a recent purchase, and she doesn't believe in coincidences. As the fates of these three women become more tightly entwined, they're brought closer to a terrifying truth.

September

A Deadly Thaw is by Sarah Ward.  2004: In Bampton, Derbyshire, Lena Fisher is arrested for suffocating her husband, Andrew. Spring 2016: A year after Lena's release from prison, Andrew is found murdered in a disused mortuary. Who was the man Lena killed twelve years ago and why did she lie about his identity? When Lena disappears, her sister, Kat, follows a trail of clues delivered by a teenage boy.

  

October

The Mistletoe Murders is by P D James.  As the acknowledged 'Queen of Crime', P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Four of the best of these have been drawn from the archives and published here. P. D. James' prose illuminates each of these perfectly formed stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. While she delights in the secrets that lurk beneath the surface at family gatherings, her Christmas stories also provide tantalizing puzzles to keep the reader guessing. P. D. James embraces the challenge of the short-story form, and ingeniously weaves the strands of plot, setting, characterisation and surprise to create a satisfying whole within only a few thousand words. From the title story about a strained country-house party on Christmas Eve, to another about an illicit affair that ends in murder, and two cases for James' poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh.

November

Sitting in the departure lounge of Kirkwall Airport, Finn Sullivan just wants to get off Orkney. But then he meets the mysterious and dangerous Maddie Pierce, stepping in to save her from some unwanted attention, and his life is changed forever. Set against the brutal, unforgiving landscape of Orkney, Crash Land is by Doug Johnston and is a psychological thriller steeped in guilt, shame, lust, deception and murder.

Kitty Peck and the Daughter of Sorrow is by Kate Griffin. Summer 1881: the streets of Limehouse are thick with opium...and menace. At eighteen Kitty Peck has inherited Paradise, a sprawling criminal empire on the banks of the Thames. Determined to do things differently to her fearsome grandmother, she now realises that the past casts a long and treacherous shadow. Haunted by a terrible secret and stalked by a criminal cabal intent on humiliation and destruction, Kitty must fight for the future of everyone she cares for...