Books to Look Forward to from Little, Brown and Constable Robinson

January 2018

After five years on the run, 'The Gray Man' - Court Gentry - is back on the inside at the CIA. His first mission makes him wish he wasn't, when a pair of Chinese agents try to take him down in Hong Kong. Normally the Chinese stay eyes-only on foreign agents - why are they on such high alert?  Court's high-stakes hunt leads to an old friend, Donald Fitzroy, who is being held hostage by the Chinese. Fitzroy was contracted to find Fan Jiang, a former member of an ultra-secret unit responsible for testing China's security systems. But Fan was too good at his job . . .  The first two teams Fitzroy sent to find Fan have disappeared and the Chinese have decided to 'supervise' the next operation. What they don't know is that Gentry's mission is to find Fan first and get his intel to the US - and get out alive.  Gunmetal Gray is by Mark Greaney.

The Sons is by Anton Svensson.  After six years in prison, Sweden's most notorious criminal Leo Duvnjac is free, acquitted of all but two of the ten bank robberies he and his two younger brothers pulled off.  While behind bars, he befriended Sam Larsen, who was convicted of murdering his own father - and also happens to be the brother of the cop who caught Leo, Detective John Broncks.  With Sam at his side, Leo seeks out his now-law-abiding brothers for one last job and a chance at redemption - or revenge. But Bronks is on to him, and Leo's father has other plans for his sons . . .

A body has been found dumped on the sandy shores of Southend. Already under scrutiny following the murder of a corrupt cop, DS Frank Pearson and DC Cat Russell of the Essex Major Investigation Team are tasked with solving the case quickly, and quietly. When the victim's identity is revealed, the list of suspects begins to grow. A young woman knows more than she's letting on, but is she really involved? Or the estranged father, who's been trying to find the victim for months. One thing is clear: no one is telling the whole truth. Then a shocking tragedy leads Pearson to a similar murder case from decades before. Is it a coincidence, or is history repeating itself? As Pearson and Russell search for the answer, they find themselves drawn into a terrifying cover-up going back fifty years...  Truly Evil is by Mark Hardie.

February 2018

Force of Nature is by Jane Harper.  Five went out.  Four came back. Is Alice here? Did she make it? Is she safe? In the chaos, in the night, it was impossible to say which of the four had asked after Alice's welfare. Later, when everything got worse, each would insist it had been them.  Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.  The hike through the rugged landscape is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.  Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a particularly keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing bushwalker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case - and Alice knew secrets. About the company she worked for and the people she worked with.  Far from the hike encouraging teamwork, the women tell Falk a tale of suspicion, violence and disintegrating trust. And as he delves into the disappearance, it seems some dangers may run far deeper than anyone knew.

It's the moment we all fear: losing our phone, leaving us cut off from family and friends. But, for Louise, losing hers in a local cafe takes her somewhere much darker.  After many hours of panic, Louise is relieved when someone gets in touch offering to return the phone. From then on she is impatient to get back to normal life.  But when they meet on the beach, Louise realises you should be careful what you wish for...  Cut Off is by Mark Billingham.

There's always a reason for murder. But when a young actress is killed in a swift and violent attack at a cinema screening, that reason is hard to fathom - even for Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team.  It's only when bestselling crime writer Blaine DeLano arrives at the precinct that the shocking truth is revealed. Someone is recreating the murder scenes from her latest series, book by book. With six more novels left in the series, Eve now knows how the killer will strike next. But why has DeLano been targeted? Could her abusive husband be involved?  As fiction is transformed into bloody reality, Eve will need all her skill and experience to solve this unique case. Luckily for her, husband Roarke happens to be a fan of DeLano's work. And he's more than happy to work side by side with his brilliant wife - no matter how dark things become...  Dark in Death is by J D Robb.

When you clean strangers' houses you learn their dirty secrets...  Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner working in London, knows that all too well. So when her friend Timea disappears, she suspects one of her clients is to blame. The police don't share her suspicions and it is left to Lena to turn sleuth and find her friend.  Searching through their houses as she scrubs their floors, Lena desperately tries to find out what has happened. But only Cartwright, a police constable new to the job, believes that this will lead to the truth. Together they uncover more of Islington's seedy underbelly than they bargained for.  But Lena soon discovers it's not just her clients who have secrets. And as she begins to unravel Timea's past, exposing long hidden truths, she starts to wonder if she really knew her friend at all.  In Strangers’ Houses is by Elizabeth Mundy.

Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English.  Paul attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He told tweedy Mrs. Wellington that she was too fat. Angela Brody was told her detective stories were pap for the masses and it was time she wrote literature instead. He accused Hamish of having dyed his fiery red hair. He told Jessie Currie - who repeated all the last words of her twin sister - that she needed psychiatric help.  "I speak as I find," he bragged. Voices saying, "I could kill that man," could be heard from Lochdubh to Cnothan.  And someone did.  Now Hamish is faced with a bewildering array of suspects. And he's lost the services of his clumsy policeman, Charlie, who has resigned from the force after throwing Chief Inspector Blair into the loch. Can Hamish find the killer on his own?  Death of an Honest Man is by M C Beaton.

March 2018

The last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband was Lucy Mason. After the horrific accident at Bennington, the two friends - once inseparable roommates - haven't spoken in over a year. But Lucy is standing there, trying to make things right.  Perhaps Alice should be happy. She has not adjusted to life in Morocco, too afraid to venture out into the bustling medinas and oppressive heat. Lucy, always fearless and independent, helps Alice emerge from her flat and explore the country.  But soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice - she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. Then Alice's husband, John, goes missing, and Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to ever come to Tangier, and her very own state of mind.  Tangerine is by Christine Mangan.

Splinter in the Blood is by Ashley Dyer.  Sergeant Ruth Lake and DCI Greg Carver are on the hunt for a serial killer who carefully poses his victims and covers every inch of their bodies in intricate, cryptic tattoos. Dubbed the 'Thorn Killer', by the media, the killer uses a primitive and excruciatingly painful thorn method to etch his victims. After many months, a breakthrough feels imminent. Then the killer gets personal: the latest victim - a student found only a week earlier - is staged to look like Carver's wife.  Pushed over the edge, Carver spirals into a self-destructive cycle of booze and risky sex. Now he lies near death, and the unreadable Lake stands over him with a gun. Did she shoot her boss? If not, why is she removing evidence from his apartment, faking the scene?  Ruth, too, is convinced that Carver is holding back; that he remembers more than he admits. Why is he lying? Does he know what she did? How can she hope to unravel the half-truths, hidden meanings, secrets and lies at the centre of this investigation when she herself has lied and lied?  Intrigued, the Thorn Killer watches their every move - all the while plotting the next. Can Carver and Lake pull together to catch him before he strikes again? Or will they be held captive by their own web of lies?

The police say it was suicide.  Anna says it was murder.  They're both wrong. One year ago,

Caroline Johnson chose to end her life brutally: a shocking suicide planned to match that of her husband just months before. Their daughter, Anna, has struggled to come to terms with their loss ever since.  Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to ask questions about her parents' deaths. But by digging up the past, is she putting her future in danger? Sometimes it's safer to let things lie . . .  Let Me  Lie is by Clare Mackintosh.

Acts of Vanishing is by Frederik T Olsson.  A father's search. A daughter in danger. A terrifying secret.  It was ten past four on the afternoon of the third of December. Everything was darkness and ink, and the snow falling turned to water.  Through it ran Sara Sandberg, the girl who was about to die, and somewhere in the cold, lead-grey hell that was Stockholm was a man who called himself her father.  In her rucksack, she had a warning for him.  Now whether he would receive it or not was all down to her.

Lost Creed is by Alex Kava.  Fifteen years ago Ryder Creed's sister, Brodie disappeared from an interstate rest stop. She was only eleven and Creed was fourteen. Since then her disappearance has haunted him, so much so that Creed has dedicated his life to his K9 business. He rescues abandoned dogs and trains them for scent detection. Together they search for the lost and missing.  A thousand miles away during a police raid, FBI special agent Maggie O'Dell stumbles upon a clue that may explain what happened to Brodie Creed all those years ago. The search and scavenger hunt that follows will be as gut-wrenching for Creed, as are the answers he discovers.

'You think he killed his wife?  'Don't you?'  When Dorothy Guildford is found stabbed to

death in her home, all signs point to her husband, Peter. The forensic psychologist is convinced there's more to the case that meets the eye but Police Scotland are certain they have their man.  While DC Kirsty Wilson searches for evidence that will put Peter away for good, she is shocked to discover a link with a vast human-trafficking operation that Detective Superintendent William Lorimer has been investigating for months. But before they can interrogate him, Peter is brutally attacked.  With one person dead and another barely hanging on, the clock is ticking for DC Wilson and DSI Lorimer. And the stakes grow higher still when one of their own is kidnapped . . .  Only the Dead Can Tell is by Alex Gray.

Blotto, Twinks and the Stars of the Silver Screen is by Simon Brett.  The end of the cricket season spells gloom for Blotto, until he is invited to bat against the Hollywood cricket team out in sunny LA, where rain never stops play. And so begins the latest adventure for Blotto and his supremely gifted sister Twinks. Although their mother, the Dowager Duchess of Tawcester, keeps a strict rein on her two children, she knows America is full of wealthy young men, all of whom will fall in love with her daughter - and marriage to a Texan millionaire would solve the Tawcester financial problems once and for all.  So, accompanied by trusty chauffeur Corky Froggett, the intrepid siblings head out to California. On arrival in Hollywood they are invited to a glitzy party where they are introduced to a firmament of Hollywood stars, directors and gossip columnists, but the mood of the party suddenly curdles with the breaking news that beautiful starlet Mimsy La Pim - the (former) love of Blotto's life - has been kidnapped. And Blotto is determined to make it his personal mission to rescue her.  But in the world of old-fashioned cricket matches, gigantic Hollywood egos, film-making disasters and merciless crooks, it soon falls to Twinks to rescue her brother from the various messes he creates when attempting to rescue his damsel in distress. Will the siblings ever get back to Tawcester Towers - or will it be a case of death before wicket?

April 2018

She was found hanging in a dingy London bedsit with a blood orange in her mouth. Diane

Heybridge, a young woman without a past or much of a future, has captured in death the compassion denied her in life.  For the prosecution, this seeming suicide is nothing more than a bungled killing and a disgusted public looks to Court 2 of the Old Bailey for justice. Her callous, jilted partner Brent Stainsby stands accused of her murder and he's turned to the maverick legal team William Benson and Tess de Vere to defend him.  However, as the trial unfolds it soon becomes clear that there is far more to Diane Heybridge than meets the eye. She wasn't the weak and downtrodden victim now being presented to the jury. She was capable of a sophisticated form of vengeance. By the same token, Brent Stainsby isn't who he seems to be either. He's hiding a motive for murder unknown to the police and may well be playing a deadly game of poker with the judicial process. What began as a simple trial rapidly turns into a complex search for the truth beyond the confines of the courtroom...  Blind Defence is by John Fairfax.

The Whitstable Pearl restaurant has been busy all summer while Pearl's detective agency has brought few interesting cases - until a prospective client calls...  Christina Scott confides that seven years ago she had the perfect life with a seaside home, a confirmed pregnancy and Steven, a loving husband - until one morning she woke to find herself alone. Christina's husband had vanished, taking nothing with him but his car - which was later found abandoned at the beautifully mysterious Oare Marshes.  Now, with the legal presumption of Steven's death about to be made, Christina shows a photograph to Pearl. It's not of him, but of her young son, Martin, who has grown up without his father but Christina is adamant he now deserves to know the truth. And will Pearl help her solve the riddle of Steven's disappearance?  DCI Mike McGuire warns Pearl she's on a fool's errand but the case resonates with Pearl as she begins to uncover secrets and lies that take her on a dangerous journey back into her own past, as well as Christina's...  Disappearance at Oare is by Julie Wassmer.

Vengeance in Venice is by Philip Gwynne Jones.  There aren't that many perks to being Honorary Consul in Venice, but Nathan Sutherland does at least receive an invitation to the official opening of the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.  A chance for prosecco in the sunshine, and to meet some of the greats of the art world. And then a world-famous critic is decapitated by one of the installations. A terrible accident, it seems, until a postcard is discovered in the victim's pocket. An image of Judith beheading Holofernes.  Then a viperous arts columnist receives an image of The Death of Marat. A journalist with a shady past receives a postcard of Dore's Triumph of Death. And a corrupt agent receives Mantegna's Martyrdom of St Sebastian.  As the bodies pile up, all signs point to Paul Considine, a brilliant but vulnerable British artist with a motive for revenge against all the victims. Nathan, however, isn't convinced, and sets out to prove his innocence. But then Nathan himself receives an image of Death bearing a scythe, and finds himself in a race against time to save his own life...

I knew the smell of death well enough. But here the sweetness of decay was tainted with something else, something new and different. It was a curious, moist smell; a smell that

spoke of the ooze and slap of water, of gurgling wet spaces and the sticky, yielding mud of low-tide... Summoned to the riverside by the desperate, scribbled note of an old friend, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find themselves on board the seamen's floating hospital, an old hulk known only as The Blood, where prejudice, ambition and murder seethe beneath a veneer of medical respectability.  On shore, a young woman, a known prostitute, is found drowned in a derelict boatyard. A man leaps to his death into the Thames, driven mad by poison and fear. The events are linked - but how? Courting danger in the opium dens and brothels of the waterfront, certain that the Blood lies at the heart of the puzzle, Jem and Will embark on a quest to uncover the truth. In a hunt that takes them from the dissecting tables of a private anatomy school to the squalor of the dock-side mortuary, they find themselves involved in a dark and terrible mystery.  The Blood is By E S Thomson.

May 2018

How do you catch a killer who is yet to kill?  We all know the signs. Cruelty, lack of empathy, the killing of animals. Now, pets on suburban London streets are being stalked by a shadow, and it could just be the start.  DI Tom Thorne knows the psychological profile of such offenders all too well, so when he is tasked with catching a notorious killer of domestic cats, he sees the chance to stop a series of homicides before they happen.  Others are less convinced, so once more, Thorne relies on DI Nicola Tanner to help him solve the case, before the culprit starts hunting people. It's a journey that brings them face to face with a killer who will tear their lives apart.  The Killing Habit is by Mark Billingham.

Red Hot Front is by Harry Brett.  Tatiana Goodwin has finally begun to piece her life back together after the events of the past year. Having taken over her late husband Rich's empire, Tatty has put together a massive deal to capitalise on his dirty dealings - and hopefully extricate herself from a life of crime she'd been unwillingly drawn into.  But following a suspicious fire in the firm's new HQ, and a number of unexplained deaths in the town, it soon becomes clear that there's more than one person who's after the Goodwin family assets. With her daughter in a rocky relationship and her teenage son Zach beginning to follow in the footsteps of his gangster father, everything is getting a little too close to home for Tatty's liking . . . As the family is pulled further into the criminal underworld she sought to protect them from, Tatty has some difficult decisions to make - before her enemies make them for her. 

The Other Girl is by Erica Spindler.  A horrific crime with one witness: a fifteen year old girl from the wrong side of the tracks, one known for lying and her own brushes with the law. Is it any surprise no one believed her?  Officer Miranda Rader has worked hard to earn the respect of her co-workers and the community, and is known for her honesty and integrity. But that wasn't always so. She grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in a small town that didn't believe she could change, and she's spent fifteen years trying to forget about her past.  When Miranda and her partner are called to investigate the murder of one of the town's most beloved college professors, they're unprepared for the brutality of the scene. Just when Miranda thinks she's seen the worst of it, she finds a piece of evidence that chills her to the core: a faded newspaper clipping about a terrible night fifteen years ago. The night she'd buried, along with the girl she'd been back then, and until now that grave had stayed sealed.  Then another man turns up dead, this one a retired cop. Not just any cop: the one who took her statement that night. Two murders, two very different men, two killings that on the surface have nothing in common. Except Miranda.

Twenty years ago Tatia was adopted into a well-off home, where she seemed happy, settled. Then the youngest boy in the family dies in an accident, and she gets the blame.  Did she do it?  Tatia was cast out, away from her remaining adopted siblings Joel and Sarah. Now she yearns for a home to call her own. So when she see families going on holiday, leaving their beautiful homes empty, there seems no harm in living their lives while she is gone. But somehow, people keep ending up dead.  Did she kill them?  As bodies start to appear in supposedly safe neighbourhoods, DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley race to find the thinnest of links between the victims. But Drake's secret past is once more threatening to destroy everything.  Will they catch her?  It Was Her is by Mark Hill.

What We Did is by Christobel Kent.  He stole her childhood. She'll take his future.  What would you do if you accidentally encountered the man who once abused you?   And how would you get away with it?  Bridget's life is small and safe: she loves her husband, her son and works hard to keep her own business afloat. Then one day her world is changed forever. The music teacher who abused her walks into a shop with the teenager he's clearly grooming. Bridget is sent spiralling back into her past.  Anthony begins to stalk Bridget, trying to ensure her silence - until suddenly, she snaps.  And now Bridget must find away to deal with the aftermath of her actions...

Gunnhildur reluctantly allows herself to be taken off police duties to act as bodyguard to a man with a price on his head . . .  Hidden away in a secure house outside Reykjavik, Gunna and the high-profile stranger, a guest of the interiors minister, are thrown together - too close for comfort. They soon find they are neither as safe nor as carefully hidden as Gunna and her boss had thought. Conflicting glimpses of the man's past start to emerge as the press begin to sniff him out, as does another group with their own reasons for locating him, and Gunna struggles to come to terms with protecting the life of a man who may have the lives of many on his conscience - or indeed may be the philanthropist he claims to be.  Isolated together, the friction grows between Gunna and the foreign visitor, as she realises they are out of their depth as the trails lead from the house outside Reykjavik to Brussels, Russia and the Middle East.  Cold Breath is by Quentin Bates.

Tarot reader Dolly Greene, returning from a Very Happy Holiday in St Lucia with her hot new police sergeant boyfriend, arrives home to find a surly Russian girl waiting for a reading. Marina is young and beautiful but oddly charmless - and her cards reveal nothing but conflict, misery . . . and death. Dolly knows she should feel concerned, but the girl is so disagreeable she's only too relieved when the reading is over and she can escape to catch up with her daughter and neighbours.  And what news! During Dolly's two week absence squatters have taken over No.7, and a mysterious Brazilian woman has moved into No.3. Dolly would prefer to forget about the Russian beauty's malign reading . . . but, like ripples radiating from a stone tossed into Barnes pond, Marina's cards come back to disturb Dolly and all those around her - and Death will surely leave his calling card for someone on Tinderbox Lane.  The Case of the Fool is by E V Harte.

June 2018

The Good Son is by You-Jeong Jeong.  Yu-jin is a good son, a model student and a successful athlete. But one day he wakes up covered in blood. There's no sign of a break-in and there's a body downstairs. It's the body of someone who Yu-jin knows all too well.  Yu-jin struggles to piece together the fragments of what he can remember from the night before. He suffers from regular seizures and blackouts. He knows he will be accused if he reports the body, but what to do instead? Faced with an unthinkable choice, Yu-jin makes an unthinkable decision.  Through investigating the murder, reading diaries, and looking at his own past and childhood, Yu-jin discovers what has happened. The police descend on the suburban South Korean district in which he lives. The body of a young woman is discovered. Yu-jin has to go back, right back, to remember what happened, back to the night he lost his father and brother, and even further than that.

The Puppet Show is by M W Craven. Welcome to the Puppet Show...  A serial killer dubbed the Immolation Man is burning old men alive in the middle of the Lake District's prehistoric

stone circles.  When the name of disgraced detective Washington Poe is found carved deep into the chest of the third victim, Poe is forced back from suspension and into an investigation in which he wants no involvement. Reluctantly partnered with the brilliant but socially awkward civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw, Poe begins to uncover a trail only he is meant to see. The Immolation Man has a plan and, for some reason, Poe is part of it.  As the body count rises, Poe realises that he has far more invested in the case than he could possibly have imagined. And in a shocking finale - one that will change his life forever - he learns that there are far worse things than being burned alive...