July
Blackwater
is by James Henry. January 1983,
Colchester CID A new year brings new resolutions for Detective Inspector
Nicholas Lowry. With one eye on his approaching fortieth birthday, he has given
up his two greatest vices: smoking, and the police boxing team. As a result,
the largest remaining threat to his health is now his junior colleague's
reckless driving. If Detective Constable Daniel Kenton's orange sports
convertible is symbolic of his fast track through the ranks, then his
accompanying swagger, foppish hairstyle and university education only augment
his uniqueness in the department. Yet regardless of this, it is not DC Kenton
who is turning station heads. WPC Jane Gabriel is the newest police recruit in
Britain's oldest recorded town. Despite a familial tie to top brass, Gabriel's
striking beauty and profound youth have landed her with two obstacles: a young
male colleague who gives her too much attention, and an older one who acts like
she's not there. January 1983, Blackwater Estuary A new year brings a new
danger to the Essex shoreline. An illicit shipment, bound for Colchester - 100
kilograms of powder that will frantically accelerate tensions in the historic
town, and leave its own murderous trace. Lowry, Kenton and Gabriel must now
develop a tolerance to one another, and show their own substance, to save
Britain's oldest settlement from a new, unsettling enemy.
Sophie
is haunted by the things she can't remember - and visions from the past she
will never forget. One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her
care is dead. She has no memory of what happened. And whatever the truth, her
side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her. Her only
hiding place is in a new identity. A new life, with a man she has met online.
But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets. Blood Wedding is by Pierre
Lemaitre
August
Lennox
liked Quiet Tommy Quaid. Perhaps it's odd for a private detective to like -
even admire - a career thief, but Quiet Tommy Quaid was the sort of man everyone
liked. Amiable, easy-going, well-dressed, with no vices to speak of - well,
aside from his excessive drinking and womanising, but then in 1950s Glasgow
those are practically virtues. And besides, throughout his many exploits
outside the law, Quiet Tommy never once used violence. It was rumoured to be
the police who gave him his nickname - because whenever they caught him, which
was not often, he always came quietly. So probably even the police liked him,
deep down. Above all, the reason people liked Tommy was that he you knew
exactly what you were dealing with. Here, everybody realized, was someone who
was exactly, simply and totally who and what he seemed to be. But when Tommy
turns up dead, Lennox and the rest of Glasgow will find out just how wrong they
were. The Quiet Death of Thomas Quaid
is by Craig Russell
Ivory
is by Tony Park. Alex Tremain is a pirate who needs to up his game. He's facing
a mounting tide of debts and his crew of ex-military cutthroats are getting
restless. A chance raid on a wildlife smugglers' ship promises both bounty and
excitement. Unfortunately it also sets the Chinese triads after him. As a
pleasing distraction corporate lawyer Jane Humphries lands, literally, in his
lap. But once again his luck doesn't last - it turns out her lover is a
ruthless shipping magnate backed up by a bunch of deadly contract killers. What
Alex needs is one last, big heist. When the South African government makes a
controversial decision to reinstate the culling of elephants in its national parks,
Alex thinks his luck has finally changed. He couldn't be more wrong ...
Kill
Me Twice by Anna Smith. A
beautiful model's death uncovers an ugly conspiracy stretching all the way to
Westminster in Rosie Gilmour's darkest case to date. When rags-to-riches Scots
supermodel Bella Mason plunges to her death from the roof of a glitzy Madrid
hotel, everyone assumes it was suicide. Except that one person saw exactly what
happened to Bella that night, and she definitely didn't jump. But Millie
Chambers has no one she can tell - alcoholic, depressed herself and now
sectioned by her bullying politician husband, who would believe her? And that's
not all Millie knows. Being close to the heart of Westminster power can lead to
discovering some awful secrets...Back in Glasgow, Rosie's research into Bella's
life leads to her brother, separated from her in care years before. Dan is now
a homeless heroin addict and rent boy, but what he reveals about Bella's early
life is electrifying: organised sexual abuse in care homes across Glasgow.
Bella had tracked him down so that they could tell the world their story. And
now she's dead. As Rosie's drive to expose the truth leads her closer to Millie
and the shameful secrets she has kept for so many years, it becomes clear that
what she's about to discover could prove fatal: a web of sexual abuse linking
powerful figures across the nation, and the rot at the very heart of the
British Establishment...
After
the War is by Hervé Le Corre. 1950's Bordeaux. Even now, the Second
World War is never far from people's memories, particularly in a city where the
scars of collaboration and resistance are more keenly felt than ever. But
another war has already begun. A war without a name, far away across the sea,
in Algeria, where young men are sent to fight in a brutal conflict. Daniel
knows what awaits him. He's heard stories. Patrols, ambushes, reprisals,
massacres, mutilations, all beneath a burning north African sun. He has just a
month left before he leaves but, haunted by the loss of his parents and sister
in the atrocities of the last war, Daniel questions why he is even going to
fight in the first place. Meanwhile, past crimes are returning to haunt Albert
Darlac, the godfather of Bordeaux: corrupt police chief, fascist sympathiser and
one-time collaborator. Before long, a series of explosive events will set off a
spiral of violence that will bring the horrific legacy of wars past and present
to the streets of Bordeaux.
September
My
husband's lover. They said her death was a tragic accident. And I believed them
...until now. Carmen is happily married to Tom, a successful London lawyer and
divorc with three children. She is content to absorb the stresses of being a
stepmother to teenagers and the stain of 'second wife'. She knows she'll always
live in the shadow of another woman - not Tom's first wife Laura, who is
resolutely polite and determinedly respectable, but the lover that ended his
first marriage: Zena. Zena who was shockingly beautiful. Zena who drowned
swimming late one night. But Carmen can overlook her husband's dead mistress
...until she starts to suspect that he might have been the person who killed
her. Undertow is by Elizabeth
Heathcote.
Beneath
the Surface is by Jo Spain. Ryan Finnegan, a high-ranking government
official, is brutally slain in Leinster House, the seat of the Irish
parliament. Detective Inspector Tom Reynolds and his team are called in to
uncover the truth behind the murder. As the suspects start to rack up, Tom must
untangle a web of corruption, sordid secrets and sinister lies. At first, all
the evidence hints at a politically motivated crime, until a surprise discovery
takes the investigation in a dramatically different direction. Suddenly the
motive for murder has got a lot more personal ...but who benefits the most from
Ryan's death?
Dr
Adam Knox returns from the war in Afghanistan a little rougher, a little wiser,
and a lot more inclined to kick it to the ones at the top. The ones in charge.
He sets up a clinic in Los Angeles's most notorious district, tending to the
vagrant, the vulnerable and the victims of skid row. One night they're
beseeched by a Romanian woman who comes in with her son. Her bruises give away
a story she's too scared to tell; escaping from traffickers and forced
prostitution to try to get her son back. He was kidnapped by his father - who
happens to be heir to one of the most influential dynasties on the West Coast.
That same night, Knox is called upon for his private health service - cutting
out a bullet from a businessman who was cutting himself a shady deal. Impressed
by his ability to keep a secret, the impatient patient offers Knox a big tip
for some extra work: helping him get revenge on the gangsters who shot him.
Knox - and his clinic - need the cash. Playing one team against another, Knox
must keep his wits scalpel-sharp. If his diagnosis is on the money, he might be
able to trick the gangsters, free the Romanian mother and put the ones at the
top in their place for once. Dr Knox is by Peter Spiegelman
The
Acid Test is by Élmer Mendoza. When
the mutilated body of Mayra Cabral de Melo, a well-known stripper, is found by
the side of a dusty road, detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta has
personal reasons for bringing the culprit to justice. Mayra had no shortage of
ardent, deluded and downright dangerous admirers, and Lefty himself is haunted
by one steamy night he spent in her generous company. So begins an
investigation that will bring him ever closer to the murderous world of the
narcos, who are waging a war of bloody attrition against the Mexican state. The
country is a powder keg, waiting for a spark, and Mendieta is about to enter
the darkest days of his life. Corrupt politicians, failed boxers and
unscrupulous arms dealers all lie in wait across the path to justice - none of
which can prepare him for a brush with the F.B.I. when the father of the
President of the United States is attacked on vacation. But for all these
perils it is the weight of his own murky past that Lefty finds hardest to bear.
And as he scratches around for clues, faced with a gallery of suspects who all
have a motive and that murderous glint in their eye, the reappearance of
Samantha Vald s, now the boss of the Cartel del Pac fico, adds one more piece
to an already impenetrable puzzle.
October
Private
investigator Danny Katz is trying to track down his former drug dealer. Ram n
and his girlfriend Jenny have both vanished leaving behind a lot of unanswered
questions. How come Ram n suddenly found himself in possession of the
mother-load of drugs? And is Jenny really who she claims to be? Katz's
investigation leads him to the darkest corners of Stockholm's porn industry and
once again his old addiction threatens to control him. Ultimately only one
thing seems certain - someone is willing to do whatever it takes to keep Katz
from discovering the brutal truth. The
Tunnel is by Carl-Johan Vallgren.
The
Black Friar is by S G Maclean. London, 1655, and Cromwell's regime is
under threat from all sides. Damian Seeker, Captain of Cromwell's Guard, is all
too aware of the danger facing Cromwell. Parliament resents his control of the
Army while the Army resents his absolute power. In the east end of London, a
group of religious fanatics plots rebellion. In the midst of all this, a
stonemason uncovers a
Lola
Jost, once of the Paris Police, is busy fending off boredom with a jigsaw
puzzle when Gendarme Capitaine Hardy knocks on her door. Arnaud Mars - a former
police divisionnaire on the run after being implicated in a seismic defence
contracts scandal - has been found dead in Abidjan in they Ivory Coast. The
Smith and Wesson that killed him belongs to Commandant Sacha Duguin, a
longstanding friend of Lola's. Lola, convinced of Duguin's innocence, throws
off her torpor. Together with her occasional partner in crime fighting Ingrid
Diesel - who she must first extract from Las Vegas - she embarks on a journey
from Africa back to France via Hong Kong, once again on a quest to clear an old
friend's name. Who was really behind Mars' death? And what is it that has made
Duguin the ideal scapegoat? Sun and Shadows is by Dominique
Sylvain.
Dodger
of the Revolution is by James Benmore.
The Artful Dodger faces his most dangerous adventure yet as he leaves
Dickensian London and finds himself manning the barricades in defence of
liberty, fraternity and larceny in the 1848 Paris uprising. For Dodger, life as
a criminal kingpin is losing its allure. Leading a gang of petty thieves from
the Seven Dials is not as easy as Fagin made it look and after a year in charge
Jack Dawkins has been reduced to a shadow of the man who used to be the envy of
every pickpocket in London. Opium-addicted and heavy-fingered, Dodger is fast
becoming a laughing stock on his own patch until a chance encounter leads him
to Paris and a job like nothing he's had before. In a city alive with
rebellion, Dodger must avoid assassins, jilted lovers and revolutionaries, and rediscover
his touch if he is to lift his most precious treasure yet.
November
Seventeen-year-old
Hattie Hoffman is a talented actress, loved by everyone in her Minnesotan
hometown. So when she's found stabbed to death on the opening night of her
school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of the community. Local
sheriff Del Goodman, a good friend of Hattie's dad, vows to find her killer,
but the investigation yields more secrets than answers; it turns out Hattie played
as many parts offstage as on. Told from three perspectives: Del's, Hattie's
high school English teacher and Hattie herself, The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman
is by Mindy Mejia and tells the story of the real Hattie, and what happened
that final year of school when she dreamed of leaving her small town behind ...
The
Blood Card is by Elly Griffiths. Elizabeth II's coronation is looming,
but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy
mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring
another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright's possession, and a
playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the
suggestion of magic are enough for him to put Stephens and Mephisto on the
case. Edgar's investigation into the death of Brighton fortune-teller Madame
Zabini is put on hold. Max is busy rehearsing for a spectacular Coronation Day
variety show - and his television debut - so it's Edgar who is sent to New
York, a land of plenty worlds away from still-rationed England. He's on the
trail of a small-town mesmerist who may provide the key, but someone else
silences him first. It's Sergeant Emma Holmes who finds the clue, buried in the
files of the Zabini case, that leads them to an anarchist group intent on
providing an explosive finale to Coronation Day. Now it's up to Edgar, Max and
Emma to foil the plot, and find out who it is who's been dealing the cards ...
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