January 2018
Zen and the Art of Murder is by Oliver
Bottini. Louise Boni, maverick chief
inspector with the Black Forest crime squad, is struggling with her demons.
Divorced at forty-two, she is haunted by the shadows of the past. Dreading yet another a dreary winter weekend
alone, she receives a call from the departmental chief which signals the
strangest assignment of her career - to trail a Japanese monk wandering through
the snowy wasteland to the east of Freiburg, dressed only in sandals and a cowl.
She sets off reluctantly, and by the time she catches up with him, she
discovers that he is injured, and fearfully fleeing some unknown evil. When her
own team comes under fire, the investigation takes on a terrifying dimension,
uncovering a hideous ring of child traffickers. The repercussions of their
crimes will change the course of her own life.
Late one night a man walks into the
luxurious home of disgraced banker Harry McNamara and his wife Julie. The man
launches an unspeakably brutal attack on Harry as a horror-struck Julie
watches, frozen by fear. Just an hour
later the attacker, JP Carney, has handed himself in to the police. He
confesses to beating Harry to death, but JP claims that the assault was not
premeditated and that he didn't know the identity of his victim. With a man as
notorious as Harry McNamara, the detectives cannot help wondering, was this
really a random act of violence or is it linked to one of Harry's many sins:
corruption, greed, betrayal? The
Confession is by Jo Spain.
Husband and wife Niamh and Ruairidh
Macfarlane co-own Ranish Tweed: a Hebridean company that weaves its own special
variety of Harris cloth, which has become a sought-after brand in the world of
high fashion. But when Niamh learns of Ruairidh's affair with Russian designer
Irina Vetrov, then witnesses the pair killed by a car bomb in Paris, her life
is left in ruins. Along with her
husband's remains, she returns home to the Isle of Lewis, bereft. The Paris police have ruled out terrorism,
and ruled in murder - making Niamh the prime suspect, along with Irina's
missing husband, Georgy. And so French Detective Sylvie Braque is sent to the
island to look into Niamh's past, unaware of the dangers that await her. As Braque digs deeper into the couple's
history, Niamh herself replays her life with Ruiairidh, searching her memory
for those whose grievances might have led to murder. And with each layer
revealed, and every unexpected twist uncovered, the two women find themselves
drawn inexorably closer to a killer who will not turn back. I’ll Keep You Safe is by Peter May.
February 2018
The Dark Angel is by Elly Griffiths. Dr Ruth Galloway is flattered when she
receives a letter
The Memory Chamber is by Holly Cave.. You are going to die. You can preserve a
handful of special memories forever.
Which ones would you choose? True death is a thing of the past. Now you
can spend the rest of eternity re-living your happiest memories: that first
kiss, falling in love, the birth of your children, enjoyed on loop for ever and
ever. Isobel is a Heaven Architect,
and she helps dying people create afterlives from these memories. So when she
falls for Jarek, one of her terminal - and married - clients, she knows
that while she cannot save him, she can create the most beautiful of heavens,
just for him. But when Jarek's wife is
found dead, Isobel uncovers a darker side of the world she works within, and
she can trust no one with what she finds...
1985. Kazumasa Yuuki, a seasoned reporter at the North Kanto Times, runs a daily gauntlet against the power struggles and office politics that plague its newsroom. But when an air disaster of unprecedented scale occurs on the paper's doorstep, its staff are united by an unimaginable horror, and a once-in-a-lifetime scoop. 2003. Seventeen years later, Yuuki remembers the adrenaline-fuelled, emotionally charged seven days that changed his and his colleagues' lives. He does so while making good on a promise he made that fateful week - one that holds the key to its last unsolved mystery, and represents Yuuki's final, unconquered fear. Seventeen is by Hideo Yokoyama.
It's Christmas in Culiacan and Detective
Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta can't believe his luck. An old flame has
returned with a teenage son he knew nothing about. Happiness seems to finally
beckon for our careworn hero. The only snag is that Jason Mendieta wants to
follow in his father's footsteps-even as Mexico's drug war descends a slippery
slope toward chaos. While Lefty pursues
a lunatic who has taken to bumping off dentists with a heavy-calibre pistol, a
secret agent infiltrates a meeting of the drug lords and hears Pacific Cartel
boss Samantha Valdes implore her underlings to stay out of the war. But an
audacious murder provokes Samantha to change her mind and launch a wave of
grisly killings across the country.
Samantha then persuades Lefty to help her find the killer that pushed
her over the edge. The truth he discovers will underline an old adage: revenge
is a dish best served cold. No quiet family Christmas for our detective. Name of the Dog is by Élmer Mendoza.
April 2018
1957, Munich. Bernie Gunther's latest move
in a long string of varied careers sees him working for an insurance company.
It makes a kind of sense: both cops and insurance companies have a vested
interest in figuring out when people are lying to them, and Bernie has a
lifetime of experience to call on. Sent
to Athens to investigate a claim from a fellow German for a ship that has sunk,
Bernie takes an instant dislike to the claimant. When he discovers the ship in
question once belonged to a Greek Jew deported to Auschwitz, he is convinced
the sinking was no accident but an avenging arson attack. Then the claimant is
found dead, shot through both eyes. It's a win for Bernie's employers at least:
no one to pay out to even if the claim is genuine. But who is behind the
murder, and why? Strong-armed into
helping the Greek police with their investigation, Bernie is once again drawn
inexorably back to the dark history of the Second World War, and the
deportation of the Jews of Salonika - now Thessaloniki. As Europe seems ready
to move on to a more united future with Germany as a partner rather than an
enemy, at least one person in Greece is ready neither to forgive nor forget.
And, deep down, Bernie thinks they may have a point. Greeks Bearing Gifts is by Philip Kerr.
Too soon to see. Polished. Professional. Perfect. Dead.
Respected scientist Dr Eleanor Costello is found hanged in her immaculate home:
the scene the very picture of a suicide.
Too late to hide. DCS Frankie
Sheehan is handed the case, and almost immediately spots foul play. Sheehan, a
trained profiler, is seeking a murderer with a talent for death. Too close to
breathe. As Frankie strives to paint a
picture of the killer, and their victim, she starts to sense they are part of a
larger, darker canvas, on which the lines between the two blur. Too Close to Breathe is by Olivia Kiernan.
May 2018
Blood Feud is by Anna Smith. Kerry Casey thought she'd made a life away from the dirty dealings of her gangster family. Her father wanted to make them legit - her brother Mickey had other ideas, and now it's got him killed. When Mickey's funeral turns into a bloodbath at the hands of a group of anonymous shooters and Kerry's mother is killed in the crossfire, Kerry finds herself at the head of the Casey family, and desperate for revenge. Running a crime empire is not a job she ever asked for, and not one she wants, but Kerry is determined to fulfill her father's wishes and make the Caseys go straight. First, though, she will find the men who murdered her mother, and she will take them down, no matter what it costs.
Everyone in Southend remembers the night of
the fire. Two lives were saved from the burning Marineland resort, while metres
down the beach another was lost when a young woman was raped and murdered. The
killer was never found. Now, twenty-five years on, DI Grace Fisher is handed
new DNA evidence that could blow the cold case wide open. But what are the
chances of really getting to the truth after all this time? Meanwhile, eager
would-be journalist Freddie Craig decides to prove himself by conducting his
own investigation and turning his findings into a true-crime podcast. It will
be good for his CV, and maybe he'll even make a breakthrough in the case.
Experienced hack Ivo Sweatman is flattered when the cub reporter turns to him
for advice, but as Freddie becomes more obsessed with the case, Ivo starts to
worry that the line between fact and wishful thinking is becoming dangerously
blurred... Wrong Way Home is by Isabelle
Grey.
Firefly is by Henry Porter. From the refugee camps of Greece to the
mountains of Macedonia, a thirteen year old boy is making his way to Germany
and safety. Codenamed 'Firefly', he holds vital intelligence: unparalleled
insight into a vicious ISIS terror cell, and details on their plans to strike
at the heart of Europe. But the terrorists are hot on his trail, determined he
won't live to pass on the information.
When MI6 become aware of Firefly and what he knows, the race is on to
find him. Luc Samson, ex-MI6 agent and now private eye, finds himself recruited
to the cause. Fluent in Arabic thanks to his Lebanese heritage, Samson's job is
to find Firefly, win his trust and get him to safety.
Out of Thin Air: The True Story of an
Impossible Murder in Iceland is by Anthony Adeane. 1974.
Iceland is an idyll: a farming community, cut off from much of the rest
of the world. Crime is rare, murder is
rarer still. Then two men
disappear. Foul play is suspected. The country demands a resolution. Police launch the biggest criminal
investigation in the country’s history.
Finally, six people confess to two violent murders and are sent to
prison. It seems the nightmare is over. But in many ways the nightmare has just
begun.
June 2018
Parma is blanketed in snow, but this
pristine, white veneer cannot mask the stench of corruption. Its officials are
no longer working for its people - only for themselves - crime is out of
control and resentment festers in every district. Commissario Soneri remains at heart an
idealist, so the state of Parma wounds him more than most. And now he is
presented with three mysteries at once, each more impenetrable than the last. In a river creek on the outskirts of the
city, tipped off by a local, he finds a mobile phone that rings through the
night but holds no data; an elderly patient with senile dementia is reported
missing from a hospice; and the mayor of Parma, who was reported as taking a
holiday on the ski slopes, has disappeared off the face of the earth - just
when he seemed certain to be implicated in a seismic corruption scandal at city
hall. The Lizard Strategy is by Valerio
Varesi.
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