Thursday 14 July 2016

Books to Look Forward to from Headline

June 2016

The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg featuring FBI agent Kate O'Hare and her secret partner, fugitive Nicolas Fox. FBI agent Kate O'Hare's covert partner has been kidnapped. But she is in hot pursuit...Nicolas Fox, con man, thief, and one of the top ten fugitives on the most-wanted list, has been kidnapped from a retreat in Hawaii. The kidnapper doesn't know that Nick Fox has been secretly working for the FBI and that his partner, Special Agent Kate O'Hare, is on their trail. The pursuit leads to Belgium, France and Italy, and pits Nick and Kate against a deadly adversary: Dragan Kovic, an ex-military officer from Serbia. He's plotting a crime that will net him billions...and cost thousands of lives. Nick and Kate have to mount an audacious con to avert catastrophe. The pressure's on for them to make this work - even if they have to lay their lives on the line...

On a cold November night in a Deptford yard, dock worker Harry Parker stumbles upon the body of a dead woman. Inspector Ben Ross is summoned from Scotland Yard to this insalubrious part of town, but no witness to the murder of this well-dressed, middle-aged woman can be found. Even Jeb Fisher, the local rag-and-bone man, swears he's seen nothing. Meanwhile, Ben's wife Lizzie is trying to suppress a scandal: family friend Edgar Wellings has a gambling addiction and no means of repaying his debts. Reluctantly, Lizzie agrees to visit his debt collector's house in Deptford, but when she arrives she finds her husband is investigating the murder of the woman in question. Edgar was the last man to see Mrs Clifford alive and he has good reason to want her dead, but Ben and Lizzie both know that a case like this is rarely as simple as it appears...  The Dead Woman of Deptford is by Ann Granger.

July 2016

Set in London in 1837, Anna Mazzola's The Unseeing is the story of Sarah Gale, a seamstress and mother, sentenced to hang for her role in the murder of Hannah Brown on the eve of her wedding. After Sarah petitions for mercy, Edmund Fleetwood is appointed to investigate and consider whether justice has been done. Idealistic, but struggling with his own demons, Edmund is determined to seek out the truth. Yet Sarah refuses to help him, neither lying nor adding anything to the evidence gathered in court. Edmund knows she's hiding something, but needs to discover just why she's maintaining her silence. For how can it be that someone would willingly go to their own death?

August 2016

Curious Minds is by Janet Evanovich and screenwriter Phoef Sutton They couldn't be less compatible, but they make a great team...Emerson Knight is introverted, eccentric, and has little-to-no sense of social etiquette. Good thing he's also brilliant, rich and (some people might say) handsome. Riley Moon has just graduated from Harvard. Her assertive (some people might say aggressive) spitfire attitude has helped land a dream job at Blane-Grunwald bank. At least, Riley Moon thinks it's her dream job until she is given her first assignment: babysitting Emerson Knight. An inquiry about missing Knight money leads to a missing man, missing gold and a life-and-death race across the country. Through the streets of Washington D.C., and down into the underground vault of the Federal Reserve in New York City, an evil plan is exposed. A plan so sinister that only a megalomaniac could think it up, and only the unlikely duo of the irrepressibly charming Emerson Knight and the tenacious Riley Moon could hope to stop it...

Psychiatrist Dr. Evelyn Talbot thought she had experienced her darkest nightmare when she was targeted as a teenager by a killer, but she's about to find out that some nightmares return again and again... Dr. Evelyn Talbot has learnt to live with the fear. As a teenager she was targeted by her boyfriend, Jasper Moore, and survived days of torture. She escaped with her life, but Jasper disappeared before he could be caught. Now Evelyn Talbot lives in a world of psychopaths. As the pioneering head of the Hanover House institute in Alaska, she engages daily with killers who have no conscience, no remorse and an ever-increasing desire to murder her. Her only desire is to try and figure out why they do what they do and stop them. But when a mutilated body is found in her sleepy Alaskan town Evelyn is forced to question herself, her inmates and whether her darkest nightmare has come back to haunt her...  Her Darkest Nightmare is by Brenda Novak.

Dark Serpent is by Paul Doherty.  Summer 1311, and Sir Hugh Corbett has taken up a life of
danger again...After his recent unveiling of a devious assassin, Sir Hugh Corbett has returned to service as the Keeper of the Secret Seal, begrudgingly admitting that his appetite for adventure has once again been whetted. Summoned to meet the King to be congratulated on their work together, Corbett and Ranulf learn of the death of Corbett's close friend, Ralph Grandison. Ralph, a leper, has been found dead in a rowing boat, a dagger thrust through his chest. But this murder is not the first of its kind. Other patients of the hospital in which Ralph was staying have similarly slaughtered and it seems as though the lepers, all former knights of the Royal household, are being targeted. The discovery that Ralph was killed by no ordinary weapon, but a poison dagger that once belonged with the Crown Jewels before being famously stolen, leads Corbett down a complex path, where the risk of disease plays out against the backdrop of finding an assassin who will use any means necessary to kill. As Corbett puts himself in the path of extreme danger, will he survive to see another day?


September 2016

A very egalitarian killer. The nun is dead, her body lies on the mayor's lawn. And it isn't alone. There are four of them altogether. They've been killed at different times, in different places, and dumped there. There should be five - but the boy is missing. One second he was there...Jonah Quill, blind since birth, sits in a car driven by a killer and wonders where they are going. Though he is blind, Jonah sees more than most people do. It is his secret, and he is counting on that to save his life. Then gone. Detective Kathy Mallory is counting on herself to save his life. It takes her a while to realise that the missing-person case she is pursuing is so intimately connected to the massacre on the mayor's lawn. But there's something about the boy she is searching for that reminds her of herself, all those years ago. She will find him - she just hopes it will be in time.  Blind Sight is by Carol O’Connell.

Murder on the Serpentine is by Anne Perry.  Pitt is on a secret mission for the Queen, maybe his last...London, 1899: Head of Special Branch Commander Thomas Pitt is summoned to Buckingham Palace. In the twilight of her years, Queen Victoria is all too aware that the Prince of Wales will soon inherit her empire and must be beyond reproach. She tells Pitt she tasked her close friend and confidante, John Halberd, with investigating the Prince's friends, specifically Alan Kendrick, a wealthy playboy and betting man, but before he could report back, Halberd was found dead in a rowing boat on the Serpentine. The death has been ruled an unfortunate accident and the investigation closed, but the Queen is not convinced that all is as it seems and tasks Pitt with finding the truth. Forced to act alone in this most sensitive of investigations, Pitt finds himself embroiled in a plot that threatens not only the reputations of men, but also the safety and reputation of the Empire...

A return to Atlantis The lost city has defined Nina Wilde's life. Her parents' obsession with Atlantis cost them their lives, but finding it brought Nina to her husband Eddie Chase and a series of archaeological treasures. A secret codex A decade later, the International Heritage Agency needs their help to locate the Secret Codex, an account of ancient Atlantean explorer Talonor's journeys, thought to be located in the dangerous underwater ruins of Atlantis. Unable to resist one more adventure, the couple join the mission. A king whose touch turns to gold But when a long-lost relative reappears in Nina's life, asking her to use the Codex to find a hidden cave containing the secret of King Midas, she is unprepared for the devastation that follows. The promise of unlimited gold has aroused the greed of powerful and ruthless forces...and only Nina and Eddie stand in their way.  The Midas Legacy is by Andy McDermott.

The Disciple is by Stephen Lloyd Jones. They are coming... On a storm-battered road at the edge of the Devil’s Kitchen, a woman survives a fatal accident and gives birth to a girl who should never have lived. The child’s protection lies in the hands of Edward Schwinn - a loner who must draw himself out of darkness to keep her safe - and her arrival will trigger a chain of terrifying events that no one can explain. She is a child like no other, being hunted by an evil beyond measure.  For if the potential within her is realised, nothing will be the same. Not for Edward. Not for any who live to see it.

October 2016

Betrayal is by Martina Cole.  Survival. It's all down to who you trust. Aiden O'Hara has been head of the family since he was kid, and he's going to keep it that way. Jade Dixon is the one who watches his back. Mother of his son. The one who makes him invincible. But Jade's been in the game a lot longer than Aiden. She knows no one's indestructible. And when you're at the top, that's when you've got to watch the hardest. Especially the ones closest to you ....

Christmas 1900. Victor Narraway, Thomas Pitt's former boss and his new wife Vespasia are
travelling by train from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Although enjoying their time together and the interesting people they meet, Vespasia soon becomes concerned that someone is watching their every move. When one of their new acquaintances is found murdered, the only clue is a mysterious piece of parchment written in a foreign tongue, and a message imploring Narraway to continue the stranger's quest. Sensing its importance, Narraway and Vespasia decide to fulfil their dead friend's wish. Continuing to Jerusalem with the parchment in hand, they quickly find themselves embroiled in danger. With Vespasia's fears suddenly realised and a watcher on their trail, will Narraway and Vespasia's fates follow that of their friend or can they make it to Jerusalem unscathed?  A Christmas Message is by Anne Perry.

Fireraiser is by Torkil Damhaug.  A man obsessed with the cleansing power of fire is destroying everything that reminds him of his youth. He calls himself the Fire Man. That same Easter, a teenager is threatened by his girlfriend's tradition-bound family. Karsten's attempts to protect himself put him and his sister Synne at even greater risk. Then he disappears all together. Eight years later, Synne is determined to find out what happened that night. But her investigation will ignite smouldering and dangerous memories. And the Fire Man is still there, waiting, and watching her search for the truth at every step…
  
November 2016

The Smoke Hunter is by Jacquelyn Benson. Chasing a threat born in smoke...London, 1898. Archivist Eleanora Mallory discovers a map to a legendary city. But is it the key to unravelling an ancient mystery or a clever hoax? Compelled to find out, Ellie journeys to Central America - with a merciless enemy hot on her heels. In a race to uncover the map's secret first, Ellie is forced to partner with maverick archaeologist Adam Bates, a man she's not sure she can trust. Together, they venture into an uncharted wilderness alive with smoke and shadows, where an even greater danger awaits them. For what lies there whispering to be unearthed has the power to bring the world to its knees. Join Ellie and Adam as they battle rivers of scorpions, plummeting waterfalls and pre-historic death traps on the journey to uncovering a deadly secret that could shake the fate of the world.

Cincinnati's children are in grave danger, and time is running out to save them...When FBI Special Agent Griffin 'Decker' Davenport wakes from a coma, he immediately thinks of two things: first, the ring of human traffickers he's spent the past three years undercover to bring down was just the tip of the iceberg; second, the brown eyes he sees upon waking belong to a woman he trusts to help him finish the job he started. Special Agent Kate Coppola's mission is to stop the growing menace of domestic human trafficking, starting with the customers and suppliers of the now-broken Cincinnati trafficking ring. Decker's new revelation is her worst nightmare - one of the traffickers' customers is acquiring teens for the Internet sex trade. Knowing the lives of kids are at stake, Kate and Decker ignore the risk to themselves, but the instinct to protect each other is far harder to ignore with each day that they work together. The search for this mystery customer becomes more difficult and dangerous with every passing hour as witnesses, suspects, and even members of their own team, are systematically exterminated by a predator who lets nothing stand in his way.  Every Dark Corner is by Karen Rose.

Pendulum is by Adam Hamdy You wake. Confused. Disorientated. A noose is round your neck. You are bound, standing on a chair. All you can focus on is the man in the mask tightening the rope. You are about to die. John Wallace has no idea why he has been targeted. No idea who his attacker is. No idea how he will prevent the inevitable. Then the pendulum of fate swings in his favour. He has one chance to escape, find the truth and halt his destruction. The momentum is in his favour for now. But with a killer on his tail, everything can change with one swing of this deadly pendulum...Targeted for death. Then fate intervenes. You have one chance. Run.

Paris,1937. Luke Hamilton - a junior air intelligence officer at the British Embassy - finds himself the target of an assassination attempt. A clear case of mistaken identity, or so it first appears. As Luke is hunted across a continent sliding towards war, he comes to learn that the answers lie deep in a past that predates his abandonment as a baby on the steps of an orphanage twenty-five years ago. Where Dead Men Meet is by Mark Mills.

Invictus is by Simon Scarrow. It is AD 54. The soldiers of the Roman army patrol a growing Empire, from the Mediterranean to the North Sea, from the Atlantic to the banks of the Nile. Rome brutally enforces its rule, and its legions are the most efficient and aggressive fighting force in the world. Two battle-scarred veterans of this army, Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro, have survived years of campaigning in Britannia and have been recalled to Rome. Their time in the teeming, dangerously political city is short, and soon they are travelling with the Praetorian Guard to Spain, a restless colony where simmering tension in the face of Roman rule is aggravated by bitter rivalry amongst the natives. The challenges that face two old friends and their comrades in arms are unlike any they have seen before - in a land that declares itself unconquerable...

When a woman and her husband, desperate for a baby, find themselves unable to conceive, they decide to take further steps. Since it is the husband who is infertile, the heroine decides to use a donor. And all seems to be well. Three months pass and she is happily pregnant. But a shocking revelation occurs when she discovers that a man arrested for a series of brutal murders is her donor - the biological father of the child she is carrying. Delving deeper to uncover the truth, the heroine must face her worst fears, and confront a terrifying truth.  Most Wanted is by Lisa Scottoline.







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