Sunday, 27 October 2019

Books to Look Forward to from Oneworld - Point Blank Books

January 2020

In the first of the Burrowhead Mysteries, an atmospheric murder investigation unearths the brutal history of a village where no one is innocent.  When psychotherapist Alexis Cosse is found murdered in the playground of the sleepy northern village of Burrowhead, DI Strachan and her team of local police investigate, exposing a maelstrom of racism, misogyny and homophobia simmering beneath the surface of the village. Shaken by the revelations and beginning to doubt her relationship with her husband, DI Strachan discovers something lurking in the history of Burrowhead, while someone (or something) equally threatening is hiding in the strange and haunted cave beneath the cliffs.  When The Dead Comes Calling is by Helen Sedgwick.

February 2020

An eerie and absorbing novel following a criminal psychologist who has discovered shocking and possibly dangerous connectionsbetween a serial killer and her stepdaughter.  Criminal psychologist Seonkyeong receives an unexpected call one day. Yi Byeongdo, a serial killer whose gruesome murders shook the world, wants to be interviewed. Yi Byeongdo, who has refused to speak to anyone until now, asks specifically for her. Seonkyeong agrees out of curiosity. That same day Hayeong, her husband's eleven-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, shows up at their door after her grandparents, with whom she lived after her mother passed away, die in a sudden fire. Seonkyeong wants her to feel at home, but is gradually unnerved as the young girl says very little and acts strangely. At work and at home, Seonkyeong starts to unravel the pasts of the two new arrivals in her life and begins to see startling similarities. Hayeong looks at her the same way Yi Byeongdo does when he recounts the abuse he experienced as a child; Hayeong's serene expression masks a temper that she can't control. Plus, the story she tells about her grandparents' death, and her mother's before that, deeply troubles Seonkyeong. So much so that Yi Byeongdo picks up on it and starts giving her advice.  The Only Child is by Mi-ae Seo.

Murder often comes with an easy scapegoat...  When a boatman is murdered on a remote island off Van Diemen's Land, the authorities want to blame a famous, and very inconvenient, political prisoner.  In this, the third in the Monsarrat series, Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat and his trusty housekeeper, Mrs Mulrooney, are sent to remote Maria Island to solve the murder of corrupt tradesman Bart Harefield. When Harefield is murdered with an axe, blame is laid at the feet of Thomas Power, the charismatic Irish revolutionary held in detention. Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney soon realise their real job is to tie Power neatly to the crime, so he can be hanged without inciting rebellion.  But were there others who also had reason to want to shut Harefield up?  The Power Game is by Meg and Tom Keneally

March 2020

Black River is by Will Dean.  FEAR.  Tuva's been living clean in southern Sweden for four months when she receives horrifying news. Her best friend Tammy Yamnim has gone missing.  SECRETS.  Racing back to Gavrik at the height of Midsommar, Tuva fears for Tammy's life. Who has taken her, and why? And who is sabotaging the small-town search efforts?  LIES.  Surrounded by dark pine forest, the sinister residents of Snake River are suspicious of outsiders. Unfortunately, they also hold all the answers. On the shortest night of the year, Tuva must fight to save her friend. The only question is who will be there to save Tuva?

April 2020

The Chemical Reaction is by Fiona Erskine.  Jaq Silver can’t catch a break. After escaping almost certain death at the hands of her old chemical engineering employers, she soon finds herself up to her neck in even hotter water. Deep in debt, she decides to take on a risky contract in China to earn money and investigate the rather mysterious disappearance of an old student. Nothing is as it seems, never more so when the factory overnight completely vanishes…  From fraudulent art auctions in London to a convoy of male strippers in Shanghai, the mystery of the vanishing factory begins to look even more complicated as the days pass. Jaq needs to work out what happened and whether it has anything to do with her nemesis Frank Good and time is running out. As Jaq is pulled further and further into a murky underworld of deceit and corruption, things soon take an explosive turn.

May 2020

It's 1961 and the white heat of the Space Race is making the Cold War even colder.  Richard Knox is a man with secrets, and not just because he's a secret service officer. He's been hung out to dry by someone in MI5, and the only way to save his career could destroy his world.  Meanwhile in a closed city outside Leningrad, brilliant physicist Irina Valera discovers the secret to sending messages from Earth to space, and faces an unimaginable personal tragedy.  With Britain's own latest espionage breakthrough stolen, and its top spy trapped in a mysterious coma, Knox must find a new ally to help him uncover the traitor in MI5's ranks - Abey Bennett, one of the CIA's few female recruits who's determined to prove herself whatever the cost.  As the age of global surveillance dawns, three powers will battle for dominance, and three people will survive...  Red Corona by Tim Glister.

June 2020

Struggling with long-buried family secrets and her own recent heartbreak, artist and pet portraitist Susie Mahl hopes her brief sojourn as art-tutor at a Scottish mansion will prove a distraction. Can she get her eclectic mix of students to behave long enough to draw a Highland cow? Can her hosts the Earl and Countess of Muchton save their family estate and its prize art collection? Will Susie's pupils actually manage to survive the week?  Scotland has an air of mystique about it, with mist-covered glens and its beautiful rivers and hills, but it also has a darker side, soon discovered by Susie. She must look towards her craft for the answers. But can anyone be trusted, or is she in this alone?  A Trick of the Light is by Ali Carter.

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