Books to Look Forward to from Head of Zeus

July 2018

What would you do for the perfect life? Would you LIE? Would you CHEAT? Would you KILL? Cecilia Wilborg has THE PERFECT LIFE. A handsome husband, two beautiful daughters and a luxurious house in the picture-postcard town of Sandefjord.  But Cecilia also has A DARK SECRET. A secret so damaging it can never be brought to light.  Then Tobias enters her life. He is a small, friendless eight-year-old boy who just wants to find a home. But he threatens to bring Cecilia's world crashing down. The Boy at The Door is by Alex Dahl.

The End of Days has been predicted for the last two thousand years, but now it is upon us.  A secret war was raged for millennia, a bitter conflict as old as time itself: the battle between Good and Evil. Brother and sister Emma and Bravo Shaw now stand at the epicentre of the confrontation, for they possess the only copy of The Book of Deathly Things - the fallen Archangel Lucifer's first and last Testament.  While Emma and Bravo struggle to decipher the book's dreadful secrets, Lucifer's advance guard, the Fallen, are awakening. Should they can reclaim the Testament, Humankind will be irrevocably enslaved by the forces of evil. Time is running out, leviathan is coming, the apocalypse is nigh.  Four Dominions is by Eric Van Lustbader.

September 1939. A new day dawns in Sackwater, not that this sleepy backwater is taking much notice...  Inspector Betty Church - one of the few female officers on the force - has arrived from London to fill a vacancy at Sackwater police station. But Betty isn't new here. This is the place she grew up. The place she thought she'd left behind for good.  Time ticks slowly in Sackwater, and crime is of a decidedly lighter shade. Having solved the case of the missing buttons, Betty's called to the train station to investigate a missing bench. But though there's no bench, there is a body. A smartly dressed man, murdered in broad daylight, with two distinctive puncture wounds in his throat. While the locals gossip about the Suffolk Vampire, Betty Church readies herself to hunt a dangerous killer. Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire is by M R C Kasasian.

August 2018

In southeast London, a young mother has been accused of an unthinkable crime: poisoning her own child - and then leaving him to die.  The mother, Ellie, is secretive and challenging - she's had a troubled upbringing - but does that mean she's capable of murder?  Balancing the case with raising her disabled five-year-old son, criminal defence lawyer Sarah Kellerman sets out in desperate pursuit of the truth. But when her own child becomes unwell, Sarah realises she's been drawn into a dangerous game.  In The Blood is by Ruth Mancini.

You have to know when to say no. That's one of the first things they tell you. But from the first day I arrived in Los Angeles, I said yes. Jessica Harris is a struggling Hollywood reporter hungry for her big break. When her editor asks her to profile movie star Clark Conrad, Jessica is sure her luck is on the turn. Clark is an A-lister with access to everyone. If Jessica can impress him, she's made it.  When she arrives at Clark's mansion in the Hollywood Hills, he is just as she always imagined. Charming, handsome yet disarmingly vulnerable. But then things take a darker turn. Clark's world is not as straightforward as it seems and Jessica's puff piece soon becomes something much more delicate - and dangerous. As Jessica draws herself deeper into Clark's inner circle, events begin to spiral out of her control.  Transfixing, insightful and unsettling, Through His Eyes drops is by Emma Dibdin and drops you into the mind of a young woman with everything to play for - and everything to lose...

The Psychology of Time Travel is a time travel murder mystery by Kate Mascarenhas.  1967: Four female scientists invent a time travel machine. They are on the cusp of fame: the pioneers who opened the world to new possibilities. But then one of them suffers a breakdown and puts the whole project in peril...  2017: Ruby knows her beloved Granny Bee was a pioneer, but they never talk about the past. Though time travel is now big business, Bee has never been part of it. Then they receive a message from the future - a newspaper clipping reporting the mysterious death of an elderly lady... 2018: When Odette discovered the body she went into shock. Blood everywhere, bullet wounds, that strong reek of sulpher. But when the inquest fails to find any answers, she is frustrated. Who is this dead woman that haunts her dreams? And why is everyone determined to cover up her murder?

Joe Brody is just your average Dostoevsky-reading, Harvard-expelled strip club bouncer who has a highly classified military history and a best friend from Catholic school who happens to be head mafioso Gio Caprisi.  FBI agent Donna Zamora, the best shot in her class at Quantico, is a single mother stuck at a desk manning the hotline. Their storylines intersect over a tip from a cokehead that leads to a crackdown on Gio's strip joint in Queens and Joe's arrest.  Outside the jailhouse, the Fed and the bouncer lock eyes, as Gordon launches them both headlong into a non-stop plot that goes from back-road gun running to high-stakes perfume heist, and manages to touch everyone from the CIA to the Triads. Beneath it all lurks a sinister criminal mastermind whose manipulations could cause chaos on a massively violent scale. The Bouncer is by David Gordon.

September 2018

Gallows Court is by Martin Edwards.  LONDON, 1930.  Sooty, sulphurous, and malign: no woman should be out on a night like this. A spate of violent deaths - the details too foul to print - has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. But Rachel Savernake - the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge - is no ordinary woman. To Scotland Yard's embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now she's on the trail of another killer.  Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion's crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He's certain there is more to the Miss Savernake's amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He's not the only one. His predecessor on the crime desk was of a similar mind - not that Mr Betts is ever expected to regain consciousness after that unfortunate accident...Flint's pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever-deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder-by-murder, he'll be swept ever-closer to its dark heart - to that ancient place of execution, where it all began and where it will finally end: Gallows Court.

In Kossuth square, Lajos Kolompar, a local politican is found dead, face down in a pond in front of Parliament. With his blood alcohol nudging fatal levels, he's believed to have fallen and drowned Gypsy cop Balthazar Kovacs of the Budapest murder squad reads of Kolompar's death in the news. It stays in the back of his mind until his old girlfriend, journalist Eniko Szalay, receives a tip-off from the coroner's office that Kolompar's autopsy results were tampered with.  And his body accidentally cremated.  Soon, Kovacs is drawn into the Budapest underworld of people smuggling, blackmail and violent political tensions - always caught between the two worlds of the Gypsy and the non-Gypsy, of the law and family loyalty.  Kossuth Square is by Adam Lebor.

The Accusation is by Zosia Wand.  Eve and Neil live in the beautiful Cumbrian town of Tarnside. After years of trying for a baby, they are in the final stages of adopting four-year-old Milly.  They just have to pass the 'settling in' period - three months of living together as a family under watchful eyes - and then they can make it official.  For Eve, her heartbreak is nearly at an end. She now has this perfect little girl in her life, a little girl who calls her mummy.  But Eve's dream of a happy family is fragile. Any hint of trouble and the adoption could collapse. One misunderstanding, one rumour, one accusation, could smash Eve's family to pieces.

October 2018

She arrived into Heathrow after a difficult week at work. Her bag had been stolen. Her whole life was in there - passport, wallet, house key. When she tried to report the theft, she couldn't remember her own name. All she knew was her own address.  Now she is at the door of Tony and Laura, a young couple living in Wiltshire. She says she lives in their home. They say they have never met her before.  One of them is lying. But which one?  Forget my Name is by J S Munroe.

Christmas whodunits starring Poirot, Marple, Rebus, More, Rumpole, Sherlock, Cadfael and many many more. Festive felonies, unscrupulous santas, deadly puddings, and misdemeanors under the mistletoe...  From Victorian detective stories to modern mysteries, police procedurals to pulp fiction, comic gems to cozy crime, there's something for every festive mood in this must-read collection starring sixty of the world's favourite detectives.  Featuring an all-star cast of authors including Isaac Asimov, Mary Higgins Clark, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Colin Dexter, Thomas Hardy, H.R.F. Keating, Ngaio Marsh, John Mortimer, Ellis Peters, Sara Paretsky, Robert Louis Stevenson and - of course - Agatha Christie, this is the biggest and best Christmas crime anthology in print today.  The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries is edited by Otto Penzler.

November 2018

Imagine inheriting two billion dollars. Then imagine the money is left to you by your mortal enemy...  Blind Special Ops agent Jenny Aaron has just survived the worst thirty-six hours of her life. She has a standing offer to re-join the Department, the secret elite unit she used to belong to before she lost her sight. But first she must rest, and think.  Then Aaron receives a message that changes everything. The man she hates most in the world has left her an enormous fortune. The money is life-changing - but why is it in her hands?  A Shadow Falls is by Andreas Pflüger.

After much tragedy and violence, Jack Taylor has at long last found contentment. Of course, he still knocks back too much Jameson and dabbles in uppers, but he has a new woman in his life, a freshly bought apartment, and little sign of trouble on the horizon.  But once again, trouble comes to him, this time in the form of a wealthy Frenchman who wants Jack to investigate the double-murder of his twin sons. Jack is meanwhile roped into looking  after his girlfriend's nine-year-old son, and is in for a shock with the appearance of a character from his past.The plot is a chess game and all of the pieces seem to be moving at the behest of one dangerously mysterious player: a vigilante called 'Silence', because he's the last thing his victims will ever hear.  In The Galway Silence is by Ken Bruen.

Swords in the East is by P F Chisholm.  1592. Courtier Sir Robert Carey and Carey's surly, larcenous, and loyal henchman Henry Dodd, Land Sergeant of Gilsland, are back in Carlisle and the Debateable Lands.  As Carey struggles to solve the murder of a local minister, he battles with his deep adoration for Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, while despising her elderly, abusive husband - will the man never die?  Plunging readers straight into the raucous world of late-sixteenth century border reivers and unfettered Elizabethan intrigue, Swords in the East, the third chronicle of Sir Robert Carey's adventures, collects the novels A Chorus of Innocents and A Clash of Spheres under one volume.

Books to Look Forward to from Orion Publishing Group

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July 2018

In the slums of Nairobi there is a place where the fires burn constantly and the stench of decay never fades. Dandora, the city's dumping ground, is filled with shadowy figures the world has left behind. Here too are rumours of the night runners - those said to be possessed by spirits, or the devil.  Detective Mollel understands what it means to be an outsider. Born in a Maasai village and forever at odds with the corrupt ranks of the city police, he is drawn to the case of a Fatima, a young girl who has gone missing in the slum. His search takes him deep into Nairobi's underworld, from rap clubs to voodoo healers, and to the lair of the self-styled overlord of Dandora. He learns that Fatima is not the first person to have disappeared, and to find out what has happened to her, Mollel must open his mind to things he cannot see...  Night Runners is by Richard Crompton

The White Devil is by Domenic Stansberry.  Vittoria, as she's known in Italy, is a small-time actress who left behind a dark past in her native Texas and followed her fading writer husband to the Eternal City.

Guided by her controlling, obsessive brother Johnny, Vittoria soon enters the upper circles of Roman society, becoming a paparazzi darling and mingling with shady cardinals and corrupt senators. Among them is Paolo Orsini, who quickly falls prey to Vittoria's charms. Too bad he's married; too bad his wife, an aging film icon, is murdered.  From the ravishing beauty of Rome - a city of dark secrets held within the frescoed walls of glamorous palazzos - to the pristine beaches of Malibu and the dangerous alleys of a mysterious South American city, Vittoria finds herself at the heart of a lethal chase, spiralling dangerously out of control...

EVERY STEP...  Paul Davis forgets things - he gets confused, he has sudden panic attacks. But he wasn't always like this.  TAKES YOU CLOSER...  Eight months ago, Paul found two dead bodies in the back of a co-worker's car. He was attacked, left for dead, and has been slowly recovering ever since. His wife tries her best but fears the worst...  TO THE TRUTH...  Therapy helps during the days, but at night he hears things - impossible things - that no one else can. That nobody else believes. Either he's losing his mind - or someone wants him to think he is.  Just because he's paranoid doesn't mean it's not happening...  A Noise Downstairs is by Linwood Barclay.

August 2018

A Double Life is by Flynn Berry.  Some wounds need more than time. They crave revenge.Claire's father is a privileged man: handsome, brilliant, the product of an aristocratic lineage and an expensive education, surrounded by a group of devoted friends who would do anything for him.  But when he becomes the prime suspect in a horrific attack on Claire's mother - an outsider who married into the elite ranks of society and dared escape her gilded cage - fate and privilege collide, and a scandal erupts.  Claire's father disappears overnight, his car abandoned, blood on the front seat.  Thirty years after that hellish night, Claire is obsessed with uncovering the truth, and she knows that the answer is held behind the closed doors of beautiful townhouses and country estates, safeguarded by the same friends who all those years before had answered the call to protect one of their own.  Because they know where Claire's father is.  They helped him escape.  And it's time their pristine lives met her fury.

How far would you go...  Gina Mills is desperate to be a newsreader, but her boss - the director of the struggling Channel Eight, won't help.  Walking home one night, Gina stumbles upon a dead body, and after calling the police, she makes the split-second decision to report the murder live.  When questioned by the police, Gina can't remember specific details about her discovery, but these memory gaps are explained away as shock.  ...to uncover your family's deadly secret?  But when Gina finds a second body, it's clear she's being targeted. But why?  And how is this connected to the death of Gina's younger sister so many years ago?  The Other Sister is by Elle Croft

Private Investigator Alma is caught up in another impossible murder. One of the world's four richest people may be dead - but nobody is sure which one. Hired to discover the truth behind the increasingly bizarre behaviour of the ultra-rich, Alma must juggle treating her terminally ill lover with a case which may not have a victim. Inspired by the films of Kubrick, this stand-alone novel returns to the near-future of The Real Town Murders, and puts Alma on a path to a world she can barely understand.   By The Pricking of Her Thumbs is by Adam Roberts.

September 2018

Anna Byrne is a jailhouse librarian. Most days, she loves her job and shares the life-affirming power of books to people who would have no hope without them. Often, she can get too close and forget some of these men are dangerous criminals.  But some of them never had a chance. Like Michael Hudson, who's been locked up awaiting trial before his sudden release. He's happy and relieved but can't shake the question preying on his mind: how comes the witness who put him behind bars is suddenly refusing to testify?  There's a man who might have the answer, but he wants something first. Phil Ornazian is a private investigator who moonlights as a petty criminal. He's not exactly proud of it, but times are hard in Washington D.C. People have to change to survive, or die trying.  But everything comes at a price and, at some point, everyone has to pay.  The Man Who Came Upstairs is by George Pelecanos.

John Rebus is not as young as he was, but his detective instincts have never left him. And after the daughter of a murder victim turns up outside his flat, he's going to need them at their sharpest. Enlisting the help of his old friend DI Siobhan Clarke, Rebus is determined to solve this cold case once and for all. But Clarke has problems of her own, problems that will put her at odds with her long-time mentor and push him into seeking help from his age-old adversary: 'Big Ger' Cafferty.This haunting story takes Rebus to places he has never been before, sets him and his long-time foe on a collision course and takes us deeper into one of the most satisfying conflicts in modern fiction.  Rebus: Long Shadows is by Ian Rankin and Rona Munro.

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet, very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner. Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner's full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing Lolita. Sally Horner's story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel's creation, The Real Lolita is by Sarah Weinman and casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.

October 2018

In a house of lies, who can ever know the truth?  John Rebus might be retired, but he's far from finished. In this brand new mystery from the peerless Ian Rankin, the ex-DI returns alongside series stalwart Detective Siobhan Clarke in a case that will dredge up the secrets of the past and disrupt an even murkier present.  In a House of Lies is by Ian Rankin.

In a thrilling new partnership, Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly picks up the story of  detective Harry Bosch in the first novel in a new series, pairing Bosch’s talents with that of Renee Ballard, who made her entrance in the Ballard series-opener The Late Show.At the end of a long, dark night Detectives Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch cross paths for the very first time.  Detective Renee Ballard is working the graveyard shift again, and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours only to find that an older man has snuck in and is rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is none other than legendary LAPD detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch, working a cold case that has crept under his skin.  Unimpressed, Ballard kicks him out, but eventually Bosch persuades her to help and she reluctantly relents. Because Bosch is on the trail of a cold-case which refuses to stay buried; investigating the death of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway who was brutally murdered. It’s a case that haunts Bosch - who crossed paths with Daisy’s devastated mother on a previous case. As Bosch and Ballard are drawn deeper into the mystery of her murder, they find there are more surprises awaiting them in the darkness.

Annie is the dream wife. Supportive, respectful, mild-mannered - everything her husband wants her to be. But underneath, she is so much more. Annie is a prisoner in her own life. Her finances, her routine and her contact with the outside world are all controlled by him. Only her love for her little boy keeps her sane, and at night she escapes into a dream world where she is free.  But Annie is about to do a very bad thing.  And you won’t believe how she is going to do it.  A Good Wife is by Louisa de Lange.

November 2018

Crimea, 1914.  When the Tzar's head of security is assassinated, Fandorin is called to investigate: the killer has been overheard mentioning a 'black city' so Fandorin and his trusty companion, Masa, head to Baku, the burgeoning capital of oil.  But as soon as they arrive, they are attacked and Fandorin almost drowns in an oil well. Saved by a stranger who hides him in the labyrinth of Baku's Old City, Fandorin begins to suspect the plot might be part of something larger - and much more dangerous.  With war brewing in the Balkans, and Europe's empires struggling to contain the threat of revolution, Fandorin must try and solve his difficult case yet before time runs out.  Black City is by Boris Akunin.

'It was the news they had all been dreading, confirmation of a fourth victim.'  When the body of a young woman is found by a Northumberland railway line, it's a baptism of fire for the Murder Investigation Team's newest detective duo: DCI David Stone and DS Frankie Oliver. The case is tough by anyone's standards, but Stone is convinced that there's a leak in his team - someone is giving the killer a head start on the investigation. Until he finds out who, Stone can only trust his partner.  But Frankie is struggling with her own past. And she isn't the only one being driven by a personal vendetta. The killer is targeting these women for a reason. And his next target is close to home….  The Insider is by Mari Hannah.

 

Dark Sky Island is by Lara Dearman.  DCI Michael Gilbert is called out to Sark - the world's first dark sky island - after bones are found on Derrible Bay. He is followed by journalist Jennifer Dorey, driven by a secret in her own past. The remains are decades old, but after a body is discovered Jennifer and Michael fear there may be a killer on the island. Together they follow a dark trail of bad blood and a conspiracy of silence.  Everyone on the island is under suspicion. No one is what they seem. And the murderer could strike again at any time... 

Lies Sleeping is by Ben Aaronovitch.  Martin Chorley, aka the Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud, and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run. Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard, now plays a key role in an unprecedented joint operation to bring Chorley to justice.  But even as the unwieldy might of the Metropolitan Police bears down on its foe, Peter uncovers clues that Chorley, far from being finished, is executing the final stages of a long term plan. A plan that has its roots in London’s two thousand bloody years of history, and could literally bring the city to its knees.  To save his beloved city Peter’s going to need help from his former best friend and colleague–Lesley May–who brutally betrayed him and everything he thought she believed in.  And, far worse, he might even have to come to terms with the malevolent supernatural killer and agent of chaos known as Mr Punch…

December 2018

For The Missing is by Lina Bengtsdotter.  She must find Annabelle. Before it's too late.  When a teenage girl goes missing from a small town, the local police start to buckle under the pressure.  Enter Charlie Lager, the brilliant but conflicted Detective Inspector sent from Stockholm to solve the mystery of Annabelle's disappearance.  Her superiors don't know that Charlie grew up in this very town - and she's determined to keep it that way. But as she gets closer to the truth, cracks begin to form in her own lies.  Can Charlie find Annabelle before her darkest secrets are brought to light? FOR THE MISSING, time is running out

ONLY A MOTHER . Erica Wright lives a quiet, lonely life in her two-bed end of terrace. Her front door hasn't been graffitied in more than a year but that's soon about to change - her son, Craig, is being released from prison.  COULD BELIEVE HIM.  Local journalist, Luke Harding is determined to warn the public. As the person who covered the arrest and trial all those years ago, he knows the kind of predator Craig really is.  COULD BURY THE TRUTh.  Luke's worst fears are realised after a girl goes missing days after Craig's release and he becomes obsessed with trying to prove that Craig was behind it.  COULD FORGIVE WHAT HE HAS DONE.  Erica is worried, too - but how can a mother turn her back on her son? And how far will she go to protect him?  Only a Mother is by Elizabeth Carpenter.

January 2019

Only she knows what happened.  Only I can make her speak.  Alicia Berenson shoots her husband in the head five times, and then never speaks again.  Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber must find a way to get Alicia Berenson to talk if he wants to treat her. Only then can he unravel the shocking events of that night five years before.  The Silent Patient is by Alex Michaelides.

I've been watching you DS Alice Parr.  I saw you trying to save the poor young woman you found in the park.  The woman I tried to kill.  I've been waiting for you to find her family. To find someone who cares about her.  But you can't can you?  You've never had a case like this.  I know everything about you. You know nothing about me.  Even though I'm the man you're looking for.  And you will never catch me...  To Catch a Killer is by Emma Kavanagh.