Books to Look Forward to from Head of Zeus

 July 2021

Cabin Fever is by Alex Dahl. Alone and isolated in a vast Scandinavian forest, a therapist begins to read her client's novel manuscript, only to discover the main character is terrifyingly familiar... You are her therapist. Kristina is a successful therapist in central Oslo. She spends her days helping clients navigate their lives with a cool professionalism that has got her to the top.She is your client. But when her client Leah, a successful novelist, arrives at her office clearly distressed, begging Kristina to come to her remote cabin in the woods, she feels the balance begin to slip.But out here in the woods. When Leah fails to turn up to her next two sessions, Kristina reluctantly heads out into the wilderness to find her.Nothing is as it seems. Alone and isolated, Kristina finds Leah's unfinished manuscript, and as she reads she realises the main character is terrifyingly familiar...

A blockbuster thriller set against one of the most horrific scenes in the Second World War. On Sunday 22nd June 1941 at 03.05, three-and-a-half million Axis troops burst into the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front to launch Operation Barbarossa. The southern thrust of the attack was aimed at the Caucuses and the oil fields beyond. Kyiv was the biggest city to stand in their way. Within six weeks, the city was under siege. Surrounded by Panzers, bombed and shelled day and night, Soviet Commissar Nikita Krushchev was amongst the senior Soviet officials co-ordinating the defence. Amid his cadre of trusted personnel is British defector Bella Menzies, once with MI5, now with the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. With the fall of the city inevitable, the Soviets plan a bloody war of terror that will extort a higher toll on the city's inhabitants than the invaders. As the noose tightens, Bella finds herself trapped, hunted by both the Russians and the Germans. Kyiv is by Graham Hurley.

Robert Ludlum's ™ The Bourne Treachery is by Brian Freeman. Three years ago, Jason Bourne embarked on a mission in Estonia with his partner and lover, a fiery Treadstone agent codenamed Nova. Their job was to rescue a Russian double agent, recently been smuggled out of St. Petersburg in the midst of an FSB manhunt. They failed. Their charge died at the hands of a shadowy assassin. Now, three years later, everything has changed. Nova is gone, killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas. Bourne is a lone operative working in the shadows for Treadstone. He's awaiting his next assignment when his handler bring him shocking news.The Estonian mission was a set up. The double agent is still alive, deep in hiding from the Russian State Intelligence Agency. In order to find her, Bourne will have to come face to face with the errors of his past - and the death of the woman he love. And with the body count rising. he comes to an invevitable conclusion: Some secrets should stay buried.

Lone wolf Evan Ryder works for a clandestine, black-ops arm of the Department of Defence, dedicated to protecting America and its people. Or at least, she did. Having thwarted the international fascist syndicate known as Nemesis, Evan has returned to Washington D.C. to discover her division shut down, and her dead sister's children missing. Among the supporters of Nemesis were a cabal of American billionaires, whose influence reaches to the highest office in the country: the President of the United States. If Evan is to take them on and hunt down her family's kidnappers, she will have to learn to work with her former boss Ben Butler, and navigate their tricky past. The search will take them from the ports of Istanbul to an ancient church deep within the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. And all the while, an unimaginable enemy stalks in the shadows, an adversary whose secretive past will upend Evan's entire world - and might just annihilate her. The Kobalt Dossier is by Eric Van Lustbader.

August 2021

The Soul Breaker is by Sebastien Fitzek. The Soul Breaker destroys his victims. He doesn't kill them, or mutilate them. But he leaves them completely dead inside, paralysed and catatonic. His only trace a note left in their hands. There are three known victims when suddenly the abductions stop. The Soul Breaker has tired of his game, it seems. Meanwhile, a man has been found in the snow outside an exclusive psychiatric clinic. He has no recollection of who he is, or why he is there. Unable to match him to any of the police's missing people, the nurses call him Casper. Casper makes little progress regaining his memory, but he grows restless and wants to leave the clinic to piece together the few clues to his life. But the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and the clinic becomes completely cut off to the world outside. No one is able to reach the clinic, and its staff and patients cannot leave. So when the head psychiatrist is found trembling, naked and distraught, with a slip of paper clasped in her hands, it seems somehow the Soul Breaker has returned...

September 2021

The Man on Hackpen Hill is by J S Monroe. It isn't unusual for crop circles to appear overnight on Hackpen Hill. In this part of Wiltshire, where golden wheat fields stretch for miles, the locals have got used to discovering strange mathematical patterns stamped into the earth. But this time, it's different. Not only because this particular design of dramatic spiralling hexagons has never been seen before. But because of the dead body positioned precisely in the centre of the circle. DI Silas Hart, of Swindon Police, is at a loss. Only Jim, a scientist at secretive government laboratory Porton Down, knows the chilling truth about the man on Hackpen Hill. And he wants Bella, a trainee journalist on her first ever story, to tell the world. But Silas has other ideas - and a boss intent on a cover up. As Bella and Jim race against time, dark forces conspire against them, leading them to confront the reality of their own past and a world in which nothing is as it seems.

October 2021

Lemon is by Kwon Yeo-sun. In the summer of 2002, nineteen-year-old Kim Hae-on was murdered in what became known as the High School Beauty Murder. There were two suspects: Shin Jeongjun, who had a rock-solid alibi, and Han Manu, to whom no evidence could be pinned. The case went cold. Seventeen years pass without justice, and the grief and uncertainty take a cruel toll on her younger sister, Da-on, in particular. Unable to move on with her life, Da-on tries in her own twisted way to recover some of what she's lost, ultimately setting out to find the truth of what happened. Told at different points in time from the perspectives of Da-on and two of Hae-on's classmates, Lemon is a piercing psychological portrait that takes the shape of a crime novel.

November 2021

'Good morning. It's 7.35 AM. And you're listening to your biggest nightmare.' This morning a dangerous psychopath is playing an old game with new rules. He's taken six people hostage at Berlin's leading radio station. Every hour, a telephone will ring somewhere in Berlin. Maybe it will be in your house. Or your office. And if you pick up and answer with the new slogan, then a hostage will be set free. Sounds fair, doesn't it? Police psychologist Ira Samin is rushed to the scene, where she must negotiate live on air. With the nation listening, the kidnapper makes an impossible demand. Can she give him what he wants? And all the while, somewhere in the city... a telephone is ringing. Amok is by Sebastien Fitzek.

Dohany Street is by Adam Lebor. Budapest, January 2016. The Danube is grey and half-frozen, covered with ice, and the city seems to have gone into hibernation. But not for Detective Balthazar Kovacs. He has been called out to investigate the disappearance of a young Israeli historian, Elad Harari. Harari was working in the archives of the city's Jewish museum, researching what happened to the assets of the Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. His work could bring justice to the families of those who died, but it seems not everyone welcomed his probing into the country's darkest period. Balthazar soon finds that there are powerful forces out to sabotage his investigation, as bizarre warnings escalate to violent attacks. When they finally make their demand, Balthazar will be forced to make an impossible decision: give up real evidence of horrific wrongdoing in Hungary's past, or see the young historian die.

Books to Look Forward to from Pushkin Press

July 2021 

Some girl dies. Film editor Marissa has read better loglines for films, but still jumps at the chance to travel to a small island to work with the legendary - and legendarily demanding - director Tony Rees. But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it seems. There are rumours of accidents and indiscretions, of burgeoning scandals and perilous schemes. In the midst of this chaos, Marissa is herself drawn into an amateur investigation of the real-life murder that is the movie's central subject. The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished. Pretty as a Picture is by Elizabeth Little.

October 2021

Punishment of a Hunter: A Leningrad Confidential is by Yulia Yakovleva. 1930s Leningrad. As a mood of fear cloaks the city, Investigator Vasily Zaitsev is called on to investigate a series of bizarre and seemingly motiveless murders. In each case, the victim is curiously dressed and posed in extravagantly arranged settings. At the same time, one by one precious old master paintings are going missing from the Hermitage collection. As Zaitsev sets about his investigations, he meets with suspicion at practically every turn, and potential witnesses are reluctant to provide information. Soon Zaitsev himself comes under suspicion from the Soviet secret police. The embittered detective must battle increasingly complex political machinations in his dogged quest to uncover the truth.

December 2021

Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend: in the sixteenth century, eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village. Centuries later a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates. The Village of Eght Graves is by Seishi Yokomizo.

Bernard O'Keeffe on Taking the Biscuit

 

Bernard O’Keeffe on the inspirations for his first DI Garibaldi novel ‘The Final Round’ 

The first thing that came was the name - Garibaldi. As in the biscuit and as in the key figure in the unification of Italy. I was familiar with the historical figure from distant memories of History O Level and with the biscuit from my enthusiastic consumption of them when I was a kid - those currant-filled thin oblongs we used to call ‘squashed flies’. 

But it was more recent events that led me to name my detective after the hero of Italian unification and the Peek Frean’s treat. When my wife was researching her family tree she came across a relative born in the East End in 1861. He was called Joseph Baker – a very English name in what the records showed to be a very English family. What was surprising, though, was his full name – Joseph Giuseppe Garibaldi Baker. 

Why were Joseph Baker’s middle names those of the Italian nationalist hero? The discovery led to excited speculation that there might be Italian ancestors in the family, maybe even a mysterious Italian lover. The truth may have turned out to be less romantic, but it was equally fascinating. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi was a very big thing in Victorian England. When he landed in Southampton in1864 the country was seized by what would now be described as Garibaldi-mania. The upper classes vied to host him, the London working class turned out in their thousands to greet him. A romantic hero, a freedom fighter and a champion of the underdog, Garibaldi had universal appeal, inspiring veneration and almost cult-like adoration. People adorned their walls and mantelpieces with pictures of him. His image appeared on plates, cups and tankards. 

Such enthusiasm for the Italian hero might explain why my wife’s ancestors, and maybe many others, chose to give their son the middle names Giuseppe Garibaldi. It’s certainly one of the reasons why I chose to give his name to my new-born literary detective. 

Another big influence on the creation of Garibaldi was Inspector Montalbano. When I came upon Andrea Camilleri’s Sicilian detective I fell in love with him. And when I learned that Camilleri didn’t publish the first Montalbano novel until well into his sixties I loved him even more. I’d always wanted to write a crime novel so now that I had stopped teaching what was there to stop me? And that name. Montalbano. There was something about it – four syllables, and with that pleasing stress on the third. Just like Garibaldi. 

My detective wouldn’t live in Sicily. He’d be located much closer to home – in Barnes – a quiet London ‘village’ beside the Thames between Hammersmith and Richmond where I have lived for nearly thirty years. He’d have a few of my traits (a love of books and country music, an inability to drive, and a long-suffering attachment to QPR) and he would, like me, be half-Italian by descent. His complicated personal life, though, would be a far cry from my own.

Equally influential on the creation of Garbaldi was Inspector Morse. I read Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle in my youth, but it was Colin Dexter’s Oxford - based novels that really ignited my interest in crime fiction. Garibaldi may have as little in common with Morse as he does with Montalbano (though they do share a certain grumpy cerebrality) but the Oxford inspector made a big impact, as did his creator. 

When I was teaching near Oxford I invited Colin Dexter to speak to Sixth Formers about Morse and detective fiction. A former teacher himself, he knew how to hook an audience. He introduced his talk by saying that it would contain three deliberate mistakes and that whoever identified them at the end would win a prize. It was a surefire way to grab attention and one that I would have emulated in my own teaching career were it not for the fact that I generally made more than three mistakes in my lessons and none of them were deliberate.

Like Dexter, I’m a big crossword fan but, unlike Dexter, I’m not very good at them. Whereas he was a seven-times UK crossword champion I do a lap of honour if I manage to complete half the Guardian cryptic. Dexter was often asked whether there was a link between a love of crossword puzzles and the urge to write detective fiction but Dexter attributed the urge to something more general – ‘this business of wanting to know’. It’s something I share with him, together with his desire to set his novels in a place he knows well and his emphasis on character and plot.

DI Garibaldi may not have much in common with the historical figure whose name he shares. Nor may he have much in common with the fictional detectives that inspired him. But I still like to see him as the bastard son of Morse and Montalbano.

And that’s an idea that really takes the biscuit.

The Final Round by Bernard O’Keeffe is published by Muswell Press (£12.99) Out Now

On the morning after Boat Race Day, a man's body is found in a nature reserve beside the Thames. He has been viciously stabbed, his tongue cut out, and an Oxford college scarf stuffed in his mouth. The body is identified as that of Nick Bellamy, last seen at the charity quiz organised by his Oxford contemporary, the popular newsreader Melissa Matthews. Enter DI Garibaldi, whose first task is to look into Bellamy's contemporaries from Balfour College. In particular, the surprise 'final round' of questions at this year's charity quiz in which guests were invited to guess whether allegations about Melissa Matthews and her Oxford friends are true. These allegations range from plagiarism and shoplifting to sextortion and murder..

More information can be found on his website.

You can follow him on Twitter @BernardOKeeffe1

Photograph©BernardO'Keeffe

Books to Look Forward to from Avon (HarperCollins)

 June 2021

The Family Tree is by Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry. The DNA results are back. And there's a serial killer in her family tree... Liz Catalano is shocked when an ancestry kit reveals she's adopted. But she could never have imagined connecting with her unknown family would plunge her into an FBI investigation of a notorious serial killer... The Tri-State Killer has been abducting pairs of women for forty years, leaving no clues behind - only bodies. Can Liz figure out who the killer in her new family is? And can she save his newest victims before it's too late? 

July 2021

It was meant to be the perfect escape... Newly-weds Liam and Laura are spending their honeymoon in paradise: just the two of them on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. But they soon discover that all is not as it seems, and the island has a tragic past. And they can't shake the feeling of being watched... When one morning, they wake to find a message scratched into the window, their worst fears are confirmed. They aren't alone on the island. And this stranger wants them dead. ...but it became the perfect nightmare. The Stalker is by Sarah Alderson.

Ask No Questions is by Claire Allan. Twenty-five years ago, on Halloween night, eight-year-old Kelly Doherty went missing while out trick or treating with friends. Her body was found three days later, floating face down, on the banks of the Creggan Reservoir by two of her young classmates. It was a crime that rocked Derry to the core. Journalist Ingrid Devlin is investigating - but someone doesn't want her to know the truth. As she digs further, Ingrid starts to realise that the Doherty family are not as they seem. But will she expose what really happened that night before it's too late?

August 2021

Stolen is by Tess Stimston. You thought she was safe. You were wrong...Alex knows her daughter would never wander off in a strange place. So when her three-year-old vanishes from an idyllic beach wedding, Alex immediately believes the worst. The hunt for Lottie quickly becomes a world-wide search, but it's not long before suspicion falls on her mother. Why wasn't she watching Lottie? Alex knows she's not perfect, but she loves her child. And with all eyes on her, Alex fears they'll never uncover the truth unless she takes matters into her own hands. Who took Lottie Martini? And will she ever come home?

She had a perfect marriage until her mother-in-law moved in. Saffron vowed to love Miles no matter what life threw at them both. But when her mother-in-law moves into their happy family home, Saffron's shiny life begins to tarnish. Even as Caprice's barbed comments turn to something more sinister, Saffron hopes the new nanny's arrival will shield her from the worst of it. She's starting to feel paranoid in her own home. Little does she realise that Caprice longs for a new daughter-in-law - and she'll do anything to make that happen... The Unwelcome Guest is by Amanda Robson.

'They're dead. They're all dead. It's my fault. I killed them.' Those are the words of Iona Gardener, who stands bloodied and staring as she confesses to the murder of four people in a run-down cottage outside of Belfast. Outside the cottage, five old dolls are hanging from a tree. Inside the cottage, the words "WHO TOOK EDEN MULLIGAN?" are graffitied on the wall, connecting the murder scene with the famous cold case of Eden Mulligan, a mother-of-five who went missing during The Troubles. But this case is different. Right from the start. Because no one in the community is willing to tell the truth, and the only thing DI Danny Stowe and forensic psychologist Rose Lainey can be certain of is that Iona Gardener's confession is false.... Who Took Eden Mulligan is by Sharon Dempsey.

September 2021

How well do you know the woman next door? When Stina and Jack move to an old rural cottage, they're hoping for a fresh start. Their new home is run-down compared to their neighbour's, but generous Mrs Barley quickly becomes a friend. Until Stina sees a mysterious figure in the widow's garden, and her happy new life begins to unravel. And when she hears strange noises in the night, she is forced to question if Mrs Barley is what she seems. Why do the other villagers whisper about her? Why is she so eager to help the couple? And what is she hiding in her picture-perfect home? Whisper Cottage is by Anne Wyn Clark.

Stranded is by Sarah Goodwin. Eight strangers. One island. A secret you'd kill to keep.When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year. Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village. She's desperate to explain what happened to her: how the group fractured and friends became enemies; how they did what they must to survive until the boat came to collect them; how things turned deadly when the boat didn't come... But first Maddy must come to terms with the devastating secret that left them stranded, and her own role in the events that saw eight arrive and only three leave.

October 2021

Trick or Treat is by Katerina Diamond. A stranger. A child. A liar who will stop at nothing... When six-year-old Marcus is taken from outside his house on Halloween, there is only one witness: a frightened teen determined to keep himself hidden. After an anonymous tip off, Detective Imogen Grey is called out to an expensive Exeter street, caught up in the buzz of the holiday. But when the police visit Marcus's house, his parents claim everything is fine. Imogen is sure there is more to the family than meets the eye. But just how much more, she could never have imagined... What has happened to little Marcus? And will he ever come home?

The first fall of snow can be fatal...A year has passed since DI James Walker cracked his biggest case yet, and he's hoping for peace and quiet this festive season. But across the fells, a local farmer returns home on Christmas Eve to find footsteps in the fresh snow that lead down to his unused basement - and no footsteps leading away. Days later, his body is found, alongside those of his wife and daughter. Without a neighbour for miles, there are no witnesses and little evidence. And the crime scene has strange echoes of another terrible murder committed at the farmhouse, twenty years earlier... James knows that to catch this killer, he needs to solve a case that has long since gone cold... The Killer in The Snow is by Alex Pine.

Hidden is by Nell Pattison. Seven friends. One killer. You can run, but you can't hide... The Boxing Day hike is meant to bring their nature group together. Emily, the sister who never lets her hearing loss hold her back. Lauren, the sister who always feels a step behind. Morna, who doesn't get on with Lauren. Ben, whose feelings for Emily border on obsession. Dan, the quiet newcomer to the group. Kai, who isn't just on the hike to enjoy the wildlife. And Alec, the one who knows all their secrets. As the sun sets, a gunshot rings out on the nature reserve. One of the seven is dead. And one of their number killed them..

Books to Look Forward to From HarperCollins

 July 2021

The Mother Fault is by Kate Mildenhall. To keep her children safe, she must put their lives at risk … In suburban Australia, Mim and her two children live as quietly as they can. Around them, a near-future world is descending into chaos: government officials have taken absolute control, but not everybody wants to obey the rules. When Mim's husband Ben mysteriously disappears, Mim realises that she and her children are in great danger. Together, they must set off on the journey of a lifetime to find Ben. The government are trying to track them down, but Mim will do anything to keep her family safe - even if it means risking all their lives. Can the world ever return to normality, and their family to what it was?

Two women are found dead. Both had a secret. Both had a choice.. Artemis leaves the remote Greek island she grew up on to start a shiny new life in 1990s London with her British husband, a successful entrepreneur. Finally, she has escaped the ghosts of her past. Until she is found hanging from the stairs of her beautiful family home. Two decades later, the apparent suicide of an heiress uncannily mirrors Artemis' mysterious death. And when the ensuing investigation uncovers links to a criminal cartel, National Crime Agency officer Madeleine Farrow begins to pull apart the web of deceit surrounding the two women. The Second Woman is by Charlotte Philby and is a deeply unsettling, brilliantly gripping story of a family legacy built upon lies. Secrets can be suffocating... especially in the wrong hands.

The Cellist is by Daniel Silva. Viktor Orlov had a longstanding appointment with death. Once Russia's richest man, he now resides in splendid exile in London, where he has waged a tireless crusade against the authoritarian kleptocrats who have seized control of the Kremlin. His mansion in Chelsea's exclusive Cheyne Walk is one of the most heavily protected private dwellings in London. Yet somehow, on a rainy summer evening, in the midst of a global pandemic, Russia's vengeful president finally manages to cross Orlov's name off his kill list. Before him was the receiver from his landline telephone, a half-drunk glass of red wine, and a stack of documents.... The documents are contaminated with a deadly nerve agent. The Metropolitan Police determine that they were delivered to Orlov's home by one of his employees, a prominent investigative reporter from the anti-Kremlin Moskovskaya Gazeta. And when the reporter slips from London hours after the killing, MI6 concludes she is a Moscow Center assassin who has cunningly penetrated Orlov's formidable defenses. But Gabriel Allon, who owes his very life to Viktor Orlov, believes his friends in British intelligence are dangerously mistaken. His desperate search for the truth will take him from London to Amsterdam and eventually to Geneva, where a private intelligence service controlled by a childhood friend of the Russian president is using KGB-style "active measures" to undermine the West from within. Known as the Haydn Group, the unit is plotting an unspeakable act of violence that will plunge an already divided America into chaos and leave Russia unchallenged. Only Gabriel Allon, with the help of a brilliant young woman employed by the world's dirtiest bank, can stop it.

She is safe... Faye Adelheim deserves the life she has. After fleeing from a violent marriage, she has built her business into a global brand and is living in a beautiful villa in Italy with her daughter. Or so she thought... But Faye's life is turned upside down when her murderous ex-husband escapes from prison. Faye has no choice but to return home to confront him. This will be the fight of her life... Faye will do anything to keep her family safe. But when the dark secrets of her childhood come back to haunt her, she will have to battle like never before to stop her deepest fears from coming true...Silver Tears is by Camilla Lackberg.

What if your mother had been writing to a serial killer? A convicted murderer with a story to tell. Serial killer Michael Reave - known as The Red Wolf - has been locked in Belmarsh Prison for over 20 years for the brutal and ritualistic murders of countless women. A grieving daughter with a secret to unearth. Ex-journalist Heather Evans returns to her childhood home after her mother's inexplicable suicide and discovers something chilling - hundreds of letters between her mother and Reave, dating back decades. A hunt for a killer ready to strike againWhen the body of a woman is found decorated with flowers, just like his victims, Reave is the only person alive who could help. After years of silence, he will speak to Heather, and only Heather. If she wants to unearth the truth and stop further bloodshed, she'll have to confront a monster.  Dog Rose Dirt is by Jen Williams.

Agatha Christie's Midsummer Mysteries. An all-new collection of summer-themed mysteries from the master of the genre, just in time for the holiday season. Summertime - as the temperature rises, so does the potential for evil. From Cornwall to the French Riviera, whether against a background of Delphic temples or English country houses, Agatha Christie's most famous characters solve even the most devilish of conundrums as the summer sun beats down. Pull up a deckchair and enjoy plot twists and red herrings galore from the bestselling fiction writer of all time. INCLUDES THE STORIES: -The Blood-Stained Pavement, The Double Clue, A Death on the Nile, Harlequin's Lane, The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman, Jane in Search of a Job, The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim, The Idol House of Astarte, The Rajah's Emerald, The Oracle at Delphi, The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger, The Incredible Theft. 

I have killed several people (some brutally, others calmly) and yet I currently languish in jail for a murder I did not commit. When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I'm long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession. The public would reel. After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of 28, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing. A wickedly dark romp about class, family, love... and murder. How to Kill Your Family is by Bella Mackie. 

August 2021

Nick Miller is Central Division’s maverick Detective Sergeant. Disliked and distrusted by friends and foes, he works alone. He crosses the line. And he gets results. The Graveyard Shift… Nick Miller is new to the graveyard shift – the midnight hours when the driven and the desperate come out to play. Tonight Ben Garvald is out of prison. After nine years inside, he’s back in the old neighbourhood. Back to his remarried ex-wife. Back for revenge. Brought in Dead… Then after a fatal night out, a girl’s body is pulled from an isolated stretch of river. The last person to see her alive had enemies on both sides of the fence. Miller wants justice. But so does her father – with or without the law on his side. Hell Is Always Today… And the Rainlover. Whose victims are always women. Always at night when the streets are wet. He could be any one of a thousand men. Hounded by the public and the press, Miller needs to find him before he strikes again. It’s time to throw out the rule book in the line of duty. GRAVEYARD TO HELL. Jack Higgins’ gritty police saga set in the 1960s, first released as three short volumes and long out of print, is now reimagined as one gripping novel, packing a punch as only ‘The Legend’ of thriller fiction knows how.

September 2021

Meet Kenny Bond. A murderer. A gangster. A good family man. Kenny Bond is finally out of prison after doing a long stretch for killing a copper, and is determined to get back to life on the straight and narrow. He's got a lot of time to make up for, he's missed his beloved wife, Sharon, and his family is growing up fast. His son Donny might lack his father's edge but his twin grandsons, Beau and Brett - well, they are Bonds through and through. Like him, they won't let anyone stand in their way. Family comes before everything else for Kenny. There's nothing he won't do for them. But there are enemies from his past he can't shake off, and a family feud is brewing. Kenny's determined that nothing, and no one, will threaten his family. But can the Bond family stick together when someone's out to take them down? The Family Man is by Kimberley Chambers.

High-flying lawyer Jessica Wells has it all. A successful career, loving husband Tom and a family she adores. But one case - and one client - will put all that at risk. Edward Blake. An ordinary life turned upside down - or a man who quietly watched television while his wife was murdered upstairs? With more questions than answers and a case too knotted to unravel, Jay suspects he's protecting someone... Then she comes home one day and her husband utters the words no-one ever wants to hear. Sit down... because I've got something to tell you.... Now Jay must fight not only for the man she defends, but for the man she thought she trusted with her life - her husband. I Have something to Tell You is by Susan Lewis.

This annual anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a short novel by Christianna Brand. Mystery stories have been around for centuries-there are whodunits, whydunits and howdunits, including locked-room puzzles, detective stories without detectives, and crimes with a limited choice of suspects. Countless volumes of such stories have been published, but some are still impossible to find: stories that appeared in a newspaper, magazine or an anthology that has long been out of print; ephemeral works such as plays not aired, staged or screened for decades; and unpublished stories that were absorbed into an author's archive when they died . . .Here for the first time are three never-before-published mysteries by Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh and Leo Bruce, and two pieces written for radio by Gladys Mitchell and H. C. Bailey-the latter featuring Reggie Fortune. Together with a newly unearthed short story by Ethel Lina White that inspired Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, and a complete short novel by Christianna Brand, this diverse mix of tales by some of the world's most popular classic crime writers contains something for everyone. Complete with indispensable biographies by Tony Medawar of all the featured authors, the fourth volume in the series Bodies from the Library once again brings into the daylight the forgotten, the lost and the unknown. Bodies From the Library 4.

October 2021

Judas 62 is the second book in Charles Cumming's gripping new thriller series surrounding BOX 88 - a covert intelligence organization that operates beneath the radar. A young spy in one of the most dangerous places on Earth... 1993: Student Lachlan Kite is sent to post-Soviet Russia in the guise of a language teacher. In reality, he is there as a spy. Top secret intelligence agency BOX 88 has ordered Kite to extract a chemical weapons scientist before his groundbreaking research falls into the wrong hands. But Kite's mission soon goes wrong and he is left stranded in a hostile city with a former KGB officer on his trail. An old enemy looking for revenge... 2020: Now the director of BOX 88 operations in the UK, Kite discovers he has been placed on the 'JUDAS' list - a record of enemies of Russia who have been targeted for assassination. Kite's fight for survival takes him to Dubai, where he must confront the Russian secret state head on... Who will come out on top in this deadly game of cat and mouse?

Over My Dead Body is by Jeffrey Archer. In London, the Metropolitan Police have set up a new Unsolved Murders Unit – a cold case squad – to catch the criminals nobody else can. Four victims. Four cases. All killers poised to strike again. In Geneva, millionaire art collector Miles Faulkner – convicted of forgery and theft – was pronounced dead two months ago. So why is his unscrupulous lawyer still representing a dead client? And who is the mysterious man his widow is planning to marry? On board luxury cruise liner the Alden, a wealthy clientele have signed up for the opulence and glamour of a trans-Atlantic voyage. But the battle for power at the heart of a wealthy dynasty is about to turn to murder. And at the heart of all three investigations lies Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick, rising star of the Met. Only Warwick's genius for deductive reasoning, his fierce intelligence and his occasionally rash bravery – combined with that of ex-undercover operative Ross Hogan, reluctantly brought in from the cold – can bring the criminals to justice, and put his nemesis behind bars. But can they catch the killers before it's too late?

The Cult is by Abby Davies. Thirty years ago, in the English countryside, a commune was set up. Led by Uncle Saviour, it was supposed to be a place of love, peace and harmony. But what started out as paradise turned into hell. A shocking abduction... Now, two young children have vanished from their home in the middle of the night. Their parents are frantic, the police are at a loss. A twisting case...DI Ottoline is leading the search - her only clue a mask found in the woods. Could the key lie in events that took place decades ago, when a dream of a new way of life became something far more sinister?

November 2021

A woman living alone in Manhattan wakes up to find that items in her apartment have moved during the night. Someone has broken into her flat and, worse than that, there are signs they have stayed to watch her sleep... Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are asked by City Hall to lead the investigation into this new and dangerous criminal: He calls himself the 'Locksmith', and can break through any lock or security system ever devised. But their hunt is interrupted when a police investigation uncovers a crucial mistake in one of Rhyme's old cases. Fired as a consultant for the NYPD, he risks jail if the police discover he's still investigating the Locksmith. Rhyme and his team must work in secret to untangle the web of forensic evidence that stands between the criminal and justice. The Midnight Lock is by Jeffrey Deaver,

Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has returned to Virginia as the chief medical examiner. She and her husband Benton are headquartered five miles from the Pentagon, in a post-pandemic world that's been torn apart by civil and political unrest. Just weeks into the job, Scarpetta is called to investigate a woman's body which has been shockingly displayed on railroad tracks. As Scarpetta follows the trail, it leads unnervingly close to her own neighbourhood... At the same time, two scientists are found dead in a top-secret laboratory in outer space. Scarpetta is summoned to the White House Situation Room and tasked with finding out what happened. But even as she's working the first crime scene in space from the ground, an apparent serial killer strikes again. And this time, Scarpetta could be in greater danger than ever before... Autospy is by Patricia Cornwell.

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly - Cover reveal.

 The Dark Hours sees the return of Ballard and Bosch from @Connellybooks in their latest explosive case. Out in November.

The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly (Orion Books) Published 9 November 2021

Has a killer lain dormant for years only to strike again on New Year's Eve? LAPD Detective Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to find justice for an innocent victim. There's chaos in Hollywood on New Year's Eve. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD Detective Renee Ballard seeks shelter at the end of the countdown to wait out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. As reports start to roll in of shattered windshields and other damage, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party. It doesn't take long for Ballard to determine that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky. Ballard's investigation leads her to look into another unsolved murder-a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch. Ballard and Bosch team up once again to find out where the old and new cases intersect. All the while they must look over their shoulders. The killer who has stayed undetected for so long knows they are coming after him.

2021 Awards of Excellence Winners

 Crime Writers of Canada Announces 

2021 Awards of Excellence Winners

Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) announced the Winners of the 2021 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Formerly known as theArthur Ellis Awards, the Awards started in 1984. The annual Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence recognizes the best in mystery, crime, and suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors. Congratulations to all the nominated authors!!

Best Crime Novel sponsored by Rakuten Kobo, with a $1000 prize

The Finder by Will Ferguson (Simon & Schuster Canada)

Best Crime First Novel sponsored by Writers First, with a $500 prize

The Transaction by Guglielmo D’Izza,( Guernica Editions)

The Howard Engel Award for Best Crime Novel Set in Canada sponsored by The Engel Family with a $500 prize

Stay Where I Can See You by Katrina Onstad (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd)

Best Crime Novella sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $200 prize

Never Going Back by Sam Wiebe (Orca Book Publishers)

Best Crime Short Story sponsored by Mystery Weekly with a $300 prize

Cold Wave by Marcelle Dubé, (Sisters in Crime - Canada West)

Best French Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction)

La mariée de corail by Roxanne Bouchard (Libre Expression)

Best Juvenile or YA Crime Book (Fiction and Nonfiction) sponsored by Shaftesbury with a $500 prize

Red Fox Road by Frances Greenslade, (Puffin Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House)

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book sponsored by Simpson & Wellenreiter LLP, Hamilton, with a $300 prize

Missing From the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto's Queer Community by Justin Ling (McClelland & Stewart)

The Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript with a $500 prize sponsored by ECW Press

The Future by Raymond Bazowski

***

About Crime Writers of Canada

Crime Writers of Canada was founded in 1982 as a professional organization designed to raise the profile of Canadian crime writers. Our members include authors, publishers, editors, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and literary agents as well as many developing authors. Past winners of the Awards have included such major names in Canadian crime writing as Mario Bolduc, Gail Bowen, Stevie Cameron, Howard Engel, Barbara Fradkin, Louise Penny, Peter Robinson and Eric Wright.

We would like to thank ECW Press, Rakuten Kobo, Mystery Weekly Magazine, Shaftesbury, Simpson and Wellenreiter LLP (Hamilton), and the Howard Engel family for their sponsorship, and the many participating publishers for their continued support.

Find CWC at www.crimewriterscanada.com

Books To Look Forward To From Atlantic Books and Corvus Books

 July 2021

The Case of the Vanishing Blonde is by Mark Bowden Six captivating true-crime stories, spanning Mark Bowden's long and illustrious career, cover a variety of crimes complicated by extraordinary circumstances. In The Case of the Vanishing Blonde, the veteran reporter revisits some of his most riveting stories and examines the effects of modern technology on the journalistic process. From a story of a campus rape in 1983, to three cold cases solved by the inimitable private detective Ken Brennan, an LAPD investigation that unearths a murderer within its own ranks and the darkest corners of internet chatrooms, this collection contains all the best the genre has to offer. Gripping true crime from 'an old pro'.

When a scream shatters the summer night outside their country house, reformed literary forger Will and his wife Meghan find their daughter Maisie shaken and bloodied, holding a parcel her attacker demanded she present to her father. Inside is a literary rarity the likes of which few have ever handled, and a letter laying out impossible demands regarding its future. After twenty years of living life on the straight and narrow, Will finds himself drawn back to forgery, ensnared in a plot to counterfeit the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe's first publication, Tamerlane. Facing threats to his life and family, coerced by his former nemesis and fellow forger Henry Slader, Will must rely on the artistic skills of his other daughter Nicole to help create a flawless forgery of this 1827 publication regarded as the Holy Grail of American letters. Part mystery, part case study of the shadowy side of the book trade, and part homage to the writer who invented the detective tale,  The Forger's Daughter is by Bradford Morrow portrays the world of literary forgery as diabolically clever, genuinely dangerous and inescapable, it would seem, to those who have ever embraced it.

She already has your looks. Now she wants your life... Beautiful twin sisters Iris and Summer are startlingly alike, but beneath the surface lies a darkness that sets them apart. Cynical and insecure, Iris has long been envious of open-hearted Summer's seemingly never-ending good fortune, including her perfect husband Adam. Called to Thailand to help sail the beloved family yacht to the Seychelles, Iris nurtures her own secret hopes for what might happen on the journey. But when she unexpectedly finds herself alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean, everything changes. Now is her chance to take what she's always wanted - the idyllic life she's coveted from afar. But just how far will she go to get the life she's dreamed about? And how far will she go to ensure no one discovers the truth? Filled with chilling suspense, The Girl in the Mirror is by Rose Carlyle and is an addictive thriller about greed, lust, secrets and deadly lies.

Such a quiet Place is by Megan Miranda. We had no warning that she would come back...Welcome to Hollow's Edge - a picture-perfect neighbourhood where everyone has each other's backs. At least, that's how it used to be, until the night Brandon and Fiona Truett were found dead... Two years ago, branded a grifter, thief and sociopath by her friends and neighbours, Ruby Fletcher was convicted of murdering the Truetts. Now, freed by mistrial, Ruby has returned to Hollow's Edge. But why would she come back? No one wants her there, least of all her old housemate, Harper Nash. As Ruby's return sends shockwaves through the community, terrified residents turn on each other, and it soon becomes clear that not everyone was honest about the night the Truetts died. When Harper begins to receive threatening, anonymous notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else gets hurt... Someone like her.

The Viper is by Christobel Kent. Sandro Cellini faces his demons... Sandro Cellini hasn't set foot in La Vipera, a derelict farmhouse just outside Florence that was once home to a free-living commune, for forty years - until the discovery of two bodies nearby leads him back there. At the start of his career, Cellini investigated an accusation that minors were being corrupted at La Vipera, but no charges were ever brought. Now, tasked with tracking down former members of the community, he has a chance to finally discover what really went on all those years ago. But in order to learn the true nature of the commune's mission, he must face his own traumatic memories. As he sifts through the lies, those closest to him are placed in danger. Only Cellini can unravel the final mystery of La Vipera, and so protect those he loves.

August 2021

How to Kill Your Best Friend is by Lexie Elliott. The perfect getaway - to get away with murder... Georgie, Lissa and Bronwyn have been best friends since they met on their college swimming team. Now Lissa is dead - drowned off the coast of the remote island where her second husband owns a luxury resort. But could a star open-water swimmer really have drowned? Or is something more sinister going on? Brought together for Lissa's memorial, Georgie, Bron, Lissa's grieving husband and their friends find themselves questioning the circumstances around Lissa's death - and each other. As the weather turns ominous, trapping the guests on the island, it slowly dawns on them that Lissa's death was only the beginning. Nobody knows who they can trust. Or if they'll make it off the island alive...

September 2021

No one even knew they were together. Now one of them is dead. 56 days ago.Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores. 35 dys ago. When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together. Ciara sees a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends. Oliver sees a chance to hide who - and what - he really is. Today, Detectives arrive at Oliver's apartment to discover a decomposing body inside. Can they determine what really happened, or has lockdown created an opportunity for someone to commit the perfect crime? 56 Days is by Catherine Ryan Howard.

October 2021

The Diplomat's Wife is by Michael Ridpath 1936: Devastated by the death of her beloved brother Hugh, Emma seeks to keep his memory alive by wholeheartedly embracing his dreams of a communist revolution. But when she marries an ambitious diplomat, she must leave her ideals behind and live within the confines of embassy life in Paris and Nazi Berlin. Then one of Hugh's old comrades reappears, asking her to report on her philandering husband, and her loyalties are torn. 1979: Emma's grandson, Phil, dreams of a gap-year tour of Cold War Europe, but is nowhere near being able to fund it. So when his beloved grandmother determines to make one last trip to the places she lived as a young diplomatic wife, and to try to solve a mystery that has haunted her since the war, he jumps at the chance to accompany her. But their journey takes them to darker, more dangerous places than either of them could ever have imagined...

November 2021

A Memory for Murder is by Anne Holt. When high-powered lawyer Selma Falck is shot and her oldest friend, a junior MP, is killed in a sniper attack, everyone - including the police - assume that Selma was the prime target. But when two other people with connections to the MP are also found murdered, it becomes clear that there is a wider conspiracy at play. As Selma sets out to avenge her friend's death, and discover the truth behind the conspiracy, her own life is threatened once again. Only this time, the danger may be closer to home than she could possibly have realised...

Nights of the Lingering Ghosts is by Phil Rickman. ''I called on Darkness-but before the word. Was uttered, midnight darkness seemed to take. All objects from my sight...'William Wordsworth. England's most famous poet once thought of himself as a modern druid and found his deepest inspiration on the banks of the River Wye, where Celtic magic can still be found and an old darkness lingers. Now, as the world is at the mercy of the coronavirus pandemic, diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins learns that the ghosts of the lower Wye Valley still need some attention...