Sunday, 30 November 2025

Forthcoming books from Bitter Lemon Press

 January 2026

An Enigma by the Sea is by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini. In an exclusive resort in a dark, threatening pine forest on the coast of Tuscany, the rich and famous are gathering at their second homes for Christmas. On the morning that a husband and wife from one of the heavily-guarded villas go missing, a certain Count Delaude is washed up, battered to death, on the seashore. The cast list promises intrigue from the beginning. The count, a sponger and a sham had arrived under cover of dark with a beautiful young woman scheming to be a top model. Two comedians seclude themselves as they try to overcome a writing block. The depressive Signor Monforte, a retired academic, tries to woo a beautiful divorcee, while another, a woman this time, prepares to leave her husband. Two elderly spinsters and their Filipina maid are aghast at the awful predictions of their Tarot pack. The local police is inept, so Monforte finds himself in the role of detective, and is triumphant.

February 2026

The End of the Sahara is by Saïd Khatibi. On an early autumn morning in 1988, on the outskirts of an unnamed Algerian city, a local shepherd stumbles across the dead body of Zakia Zaghouani, a beautiful nightclub singer who ran away from her hometown and family, seeking a brighter future.  Incompetent and corrupt Inspector Hamid is perhaps the least likely to find the murderer. On their own, none of Khatibi’s characters can help us see and solve the crime. For that, we need a mosaic of many voices: Noura, the lawyer who represents Zakia’s fiancé; Ibrahim, who runs the VHS rental shop and whose mother is a cleaning lady at the hotel where Zakia worked; Kamal, the front-desk clerk at the hotel; Maimoun, the hotel’s owner; the Golden Sheikha, a rival singer; Zakia’s fiancé, Bashir; and more. Most of them are searching not just for Zakia’s killer, but for the stories of other ghosts flitting through their city, the ghosts of abused and murdered women; the ghosts of fathers who died during the country’s war for independence; and the ghosts of Algeria’s long colonial period.

April 2026

Holy F*ck is by Joseph Incardona.  Stella, a young prostitute working in the American south, has the miraculous power to heal her clients through sex. The scandalised Vatican sends contract killers after her. Stella works miracles. Literally. She heals the sick and the paralyzed, just like in the Bible. The Vatican is overjoyed-imagine, a real saint in the 21st century, and in the American South! The only hitch? Her method: Stella heals the people she sleeps with. And Stella sleeps around a lot-it's actually her job...

June 2026

Croatia, autumn 2022. The tourist season has ended, and Split settles into an uneasy quiet. Ines works the reception desk of a seaside hotel. Her mother, Katja, a cleaner, keeps the family afloat and cares for Ines and her younger brother, Mario. When Inspector Zvone is called to an abandoned factory on the city’s edge, he finds the body of seventeen-year-old Viktorija, daughter of a respected local doctor. The murder shocks the community and sends ripples through the lives of Ines, Katja, and Zvone—each forced to confront truths they would rather keep buried. As suspicion deepens and loyalties fracture, Mother of Sorrows becomes a devastating exploration of love, guilt, and denial. With quiet ferocity, Pavičić asks: what are we willing to sacrifice to protect those we love—and what are the consequences when we do? Mother of Sorrows is by Jurica Pavičić







Saturday, 29 November 2025

Forthcoming books from Titan Books

                                                                                January 2026

Return of the Maltese Falcon by Max Allan Collins. The greatest private eye of all time returns to finish the job.Legendary mystery writer Dashiell Hammett only wrote one novel about detective Sam Spade: The Maltese Falcon, the most famous private eye story ever told. But the case was never really solved – the priceless golden, bejeweled bird that men and women had been dying to possess turned out to be a fake. Now, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Max Allan Collins (author of Road to Perdition) brings closure to this crime classic, reuniting all the surviving members of the original cast alongside femme fatales, crooked collectors, and greedy gangsters for one more thrilling, deadly chase through the streets, wharves, morgues, bars, and back alleys of 1920s San Francisco – and finally answers the question, Whatever became of the Maltese falcon…?

February 2026

Double Trouble by Joyce Carol Oates. Four decades ago, acclaimed literary author Joyce Carol Oates penned her first novel of psychological suspense under the name “Rosamond Smith.” In the Smith books, Oates explored themes of betrayal and deception, lust and murder, through stories involving twins, doubles, and hidden second identities – initially, keeping her own double identity a secret. A female serial killer seeks refuge in her twin sister’s home in Starr Bright Will be With You Soon, while a male serial killer murders for the woman he craves in Soulmate – and the echoes continue in the rare short stories “The Murderess” and “An Unsolved Crime'.

March 2026

Death Wasn’t Invited by Carlene O’Connor Paris, 1922. The marriage between the Auclair and the Picard family is the talk of the town. June can’t wait to attend the engagement party with her friends, Nate and Jack. But Nate has an ulterior motive: he’s there to stop the wedding. Before he can complete his task, he’s stabbed in the chest with Jack’s knife. Jack is arrested, but June knows he wouldn’t hurt a fly. In this throwback to the classic whodunnits of Agatha Christie, June must find the real killer and clear Jack’s name. As she becomes embroiled deeper and deeper into a corrupt web of Parisian old money, high society and politics, she uncovers deadly secrets. Can June solve the case before the killer strikes again?

June 2026

A Morbid Passion by Robert Holtom. London 1930. Selby Bigge and his aristocratic sidekick Theodora Smythe are invited to dine with Doctor Hector Fortescue and his family, discovering a web of unrest in the household. The good doctor is adamant that homosexuals can be ‘cured’ of their perversions, oblivious to the fact his son Lancelot is ‘as fruity as a pineapple’. Later that evening Theodora becomes Theo and attends the Servants’ Ball with Selby – a fancy-dress dance for servants, which attracts queers of all classes. Lancelot makes a surprise appearance dressed as Harlequin, as do other members of the Fortescue household. And before the night is out Selby and Theo will have another murder to solve. Digging deeper, the duo – assisted by the impossibly glamorous nightclub singer Lady Splendid – discover that secrets abound both above and below stairs in the Kensington home of the Fortescue family. And the stakes get even higher when Selby encounters policemen he’s met before, who’d love to arrest him for being queer.  Can Selby solve the crime or will this be his last dance?

July 2026

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Debutante Detective by Bruce Rule. Celebrity socialite Alice Roosevelt is taking London by storm in 1905 when her letter containing sensitive details of upcoming peace talks between Japan and Russia is stolen. The case pulls Holmes from retirement, and with Alice’s help the letter is retrieved. After returning to the U.S., Alice goes missing. At Teddy Roosevelt’s request, Holmes and Watson travel to New York where they discover Alice has turned detective herself, working undercover to thwart a kidnapping plot targeting her father. Her warnings are dismissed, but then the president is kidnapped. Alice and the detective duo join forces to search for her father, only to lose Holmes to the escaping kidnappers. Alice proves herself the equal to the great detective by leading Watson in the rescue of Teddy Roosevelt as well as Holmes, but the stakes are higher than they realise. In a race against time, they must stop a plan to bomb the peace talks or risk an escalation of war on a global scale.

The Makoto Murders by Richard Jerrman. Ken Kato is a half-British, half-Japanese photojournalist working for a low-brow weekly magazine in Tokyo. He achieved fame with a photograph of a boy who drowned in the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, who he could have saved had he not been more concerned with finding the right light and composition for his shot. Four years later, he has failed to repeat that success and, facing irrelevancy (and, worse, redundancy), he decides to turn serial killer to generate his own attention-grabbing pictures - for which he's inevitably always first on the scene. His magazine then publishes the pictures, causing a sensation in a society where murder is almost unheard of, and tripling its sales figures. Hoping to impress his colleague Hayashi's estranged wife Makoto, who he is stalking after a short affair (though she clearly sees things differently), Kato murders only men and women with the same name as her. Inevitably the police are suspicious, but can find no evidence as he is meticulous in his planning and execution. Kato's editor is also suspicious, but is willing to ignore the evidence in front of him as sales boom.







 

Wednesday, 26 November 2025

Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2026 announce Chair



‘Queen of the psychological thriller’ Lisa Jewell 

to chair

Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2026

with first headliners announced



Festival Dates: 23rd to 26th July 2026

www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

#TheakstonsCrime

Wednesday 26 November 2025: Harrogate International Festivals today announced bestselling psychological thriller writer Lisa Jewell as Festival Programming Chair for the 2026 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the globally renowned celebration of crime fiction which will take place from 23 to 26 July 2026.

An opening line up of stellar Special Guests including global bestsellers and reader favourites David Baldacci, Nadine Matheson, Gillian McAllister, Steve Cavanagh and Alice Feeney has also been announced, with more headliners to be revealed in early 2026.

Lisa Jewell is the author of twenty-three novels, most recently the dark psychological thrillers Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, None of This is True and Don’t Let Him In. She is a number one bestselling Sunday Times and New York Times author who has sold over ten million books worldwide, been published in more than thirty languages and has had numerous books optioned for film and TV. Previous Programming Chairs include Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Elly Griffiths, Denise Mina, Lee Child, Vaseem Khan, Ruth Ware and Mick Herron.

Lisa Jewell, 2026 Programming Chair of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival says:

I have been bewitched by the concept of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival for as long as I have been writing thrillers and my first visit more than lived up to my expectations. I've been every year since and grown more and more familiar with the special world that is created in Harrogate every July, so to be invited to head up the programming committee for 2026 was an honour beyond my wildest imaginings. I worked in fashion retail before I became an author and was a voracious magazine reader and that is the sensibility that I have applied to the format of this year's panels and author events, focussing on 'real life' issues that affect writers in their day to day to lives and thus in turn, inform the things they write about and the way in which they write about them. I'm delighted to see a stellar line up of writers coming together for 2026 and cannot wait to be there, watching all the behind-the-scenes work come to magical life for another glorious and unforgettable festival.”  

The Headliner events include:

Global crime writing icon David Baldacci - one of the world’s most-loved thriller writers - returns to the Festival for the first time in fifteen years with his highly acclaimed new series featuring undercover spy Walter Nash.

Fan favourites and bestselling authors Nadine Matheson and Gillian McAllister introduce their gripping new high-concept thrillers and discuss how their legal backgrounds inform their fiction.

Steve Cavanagh, bestselling Irish author and former Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Novel of the Year winner, discusses Two Kinds of Stranger, the latest in the Eddie Flynn series, featuring a conman-turned-trial lawyer.

Multi-million copy bestselling author Alice Feeney showcases My Husband’s Wife, her nerve-shredding new psychological thriller that will make readers question all they know about love, identity and revenge.

Now in its twenty-third year, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (23–26 July 2026) is the jewel in the crown of the global crime fiction community, offering readers from around the world a unique opportunity to meet literary superstars and discover exciting new talent. The prestigious Festival offers a packed programme of thrilling panels, talks and inspiring creative workshops, with a special event celebrating the legacy of Agatha Christie, who stayed at the Old Swan Hotel, now the Festival venue, 100 years ago when she mysteriously disappeared.

Simon Theakston, Chairman of T&R Theakston Ltd, said:

It is a privilege to support the world’s best crime writing Festival for an incredible twenty-third year, and I’m thrilled that Lisa Jewell is taking on the role of 2026 Festival Programming Chair. After our most successful event ever in 2025, I can’t wait to be back in Harrogate next summer celebrating the world’s best loved genre once again.

Sharon Canavar, Chief Executive of Harrogate International Festivals, said:

Crime fiction fans around the world love Lisa Jewell’s spine-tingling contemporary thrillers, so we are delighted that she has agreed to be Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival’s 2026 Programming Chair as it promises to be a landmark year as Harrogate International Festivals celebrates six decades of arts Festivals. With her focus on topical real-life issues and character driven fiction, Lisa brings a unique sensibility to her programming, and we’re excited to reveal five of the exceptional Special Guests headliners she has selected - with more to be announced in January.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is delivered by the north of England’s leading arts Festival organisation, Harrogate International Festivals and forms part of their diverse year-round portfolio of events, which aims to bring immersive cultural experiences to as many people as possible.

Weekend Break Packages are on sale now. To book, please call the Festivals team on +44(0)1423 562 303 or email info@harrogate-festival.org.uk. Rover tickets and individual event tickets go on sale in Spring 2026. More information about tickets and packages can be found here.




New Blood for ‘Oscars of the Crime Genre’

 

The crime writing genre’s oldest and most famous award has had an injection of new blood thanks to a new sponsor.

Author Karen Baugh Menuhin is sponsoring its highest accolade, the CWA Diamond Dagger.

One of the UK’s most prominent writers’ societies, the CWA was founded by the prolific author John Creasey in 1953.

The very first CWA awards ceremony was hosted in 1965, with Agatha Christie as the principal guest, and the awards have become known as the ‘Oscars of the crime genre.’ 

The Diamond Dagger was introduced in 1986 and is considered the UK’s most prestigious lifetime achievement award for crime writers. Presented annually, nominations for the award are put forward by CWA members and selected by a vote of past Diamond Dagger winners.

Past recipients include Mick Herron, Lynda La Plante, John Le Carré, PD James, Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves, Lee Child, Frederick Forsyth, and Michael Connelly.

Karen Baugh Menuhin is a bestselling author whose murder mystery novels have sold over a million copies. She lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, Krov Menuhin – retired explorer, natural history filmmaker, and eldest son of Lord Yehudi Menuhin.

Karen Baugh Menuhin said: “I’ve always been a huge fan of historical fiction, Downton Abbey, and murder mystery. I began writing a few years ago at the age of 60 – which just goes to show it's never too late. I decided to take the independent route and have been extremely fortunate that my books have resonated with fans. In the last few years, I’ve reached number 1 in the USA and sold over a million books. Crime fiction has given me so much pleasure as a reader and a writer, and I’m very proud to be able to give something back. Sponsoring the CWA Diamond Dagger is arguably the most esteemed award in crime fiction and it's a huge honour to be involved in supporting the CWA in this.”

Maxim Jakubowski, chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: “I am delighted that Karen Menuhin has come forward to personally sponsor the CWA Diamond Dagger. Following a handful and more of decades when the award was sponsored in turn by a variety of welcome corporate bodies, it is gratifying to find an author with a belief in our crime & mystery community willing to take over the flame.

The Daggers celebrate the best in crime writing, and feature 13 Dagger Awards in total, celebrating established careers as well as new talent, with the Emerging Author Dagger, open to unpublished authors. To date, agents and editors have signed over two dozen of these emerging authors.

Nadine Matheson, Chair of the CWA, said: “I’m delighted to have Karen Baugh Menuhin as the sponsor of the CWA Diamond Dagger. The Diamond Dagger is the highest honour in crime writing, celebrating a lifetime of extraordinary commitment, creativity, and contribution to the genre. Karen’s generosity and support ensure that this prestigious award continues to recognise the writers whose work has shaped, inspired, and elevated the world of crime fiction.”

Other sponsors of the Daggers include the family-owned company that looks after the James Bond literary brand, Ian Fleming Publications, with the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller, Kevin Anderson and Associates who sponsor the Gold Dagger, and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), a not-for profit organisation that supports authors to receive fair payment, sponsor the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction.

Sponsor of the John Creasey First Novel Dagger is the intellectual property specialists, International Literary Properties (ILP). Also, the author Maxim Jakubowski sponsors the Crime Fiction in Translation award in honour of his wife Dolores, the editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback sponsor the Emerging Author Dagger, and Morgan Witzel sponsors the Historical Dagger in memory of his wife, the writer Dr Marilyn Livingstone.

The CWA’s founding aims were to provide a social network, as well as help crime writers with business matters. Today, the CWA’s determination to promote the genre remains central to its mission.

 


Monday, 24 November 2025

Forthcoming books from Quercus Books (Including Maclehose Press)

 January 2026

They know she killed them. They've just never known why. Connie Cross was a trusted pharmacy assistant when she was arrested for the gruesome murders of at least seven strangers. Now, she's serving a whole-life order for the shocking crimes she refuses to explain. Olivia Lang never forgot Connie, the awkward teenager from a south London estate she first met while working for the police. Twenty years later, Olivia is desperate to understand what made Connie turn into a murderer. But as she begins to uncover the truth about the UK's most notorious female serial killer, Olivia risks revealing secrets she's kept hidden for years. Connie is by Charlotte Duckworth.

Darling Mine is by Romy Hausmann. She went missing decades ago. He is still looking for her . . . Julie Nowak has been missing since 7th September 2003. It broke her family. Only her father, Theo, doesn't give up on her. On the 20th anniversary of her disappearance, Theo is contacted by podcaster Liv. She's come across a new lead. But if Theo wants to find out the truth he must be quick before his progressing dementia smothers everything in darkness. Who has taken his daughter? Why does Julie's ex-boyfriend Daniel keep his mother's bedroom door locked, years after she passed away? And is there anything more gruesome than the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to your own child?

True Blue is by Joe Thomas. New Year's Eve 1988. An illegal rave in Hackney. Acid House has arrived in the UK. But the Second Summer of Love is no golden era for Britain. A decade of Thatcher is starting to bite and her planned "Community Charge" will only rub salt in the wounds. Privatisation has lined shareholders pockets, but at what cost? A nation stripped of its assets, going for broke. DC Patrick Noble is assigned to a task force working out of Stoke Newington, gathering evidence of police corruption to use against his new colleagues. But this is a dangerous game. And his underlings - spycop Parker and reluctant civilian Suzie Scialfa - are getting restive. Turns out blackmail and intimidation can only get you so far. Meanwhile, council solicitor Jon Davies is once again lifting stones that shouldn't be lifted - this time plumbing the depths of the deal to privatise water. As the country hurtles towards disorder, in the form of riots that even the Iron Lady can't withstand, Noble walks an inexorable path towards his own inescapable fate. Things can only get better. But first they have to hit rock bottom.

February 2026

The Killing Floor is by Elly Griffiths. Ali Dawson is a police detective who leads a unit that investigates cases so cold her team must travel to the distant past to solve them. But Ali and the team haven't been allowed to time-travel ever since their technical expert, Jones, got stuck in Victorian London, never to be seen again. To distract herself from meaningless tasks, Ali decides to look into a present-day case - an apparent suicide of a young man who fell to his death from a high building. She believes the death is linked to a psychic medium called Barry Power, who convinced the boy he could fly. Ali goes to one of Power's shows where he claims to be in contact with Jones. When Ali notices that evening that her cat, Terry, has gone missing, she decides to go back in time just long enough to prevent Terry from escaping through his open cat flap. A dangerous plan which backfires, and she finds herself once more in Victorian London, where she meets Jones, as well as Power, and the darkly mysterious Cain Templeton with whom Ali has unfinished business from her previous visit to the past . .

Cromarty, The Black Isle, 1831. As seagulls shriek and rise on the coastal winds, a circulating library in the bustling port town of Cromarty is meeting for the first time. Ostensibly united by a love of books, the demands of social convention have brought together a disparate group of people. Charlotte Mackenzie, the remote and fragile wife of the local laird, seeks an escape from a loveless marriage; her best friend, Rachel Mackay, a former governess who is ardently in love with her own older husband, the town's minister; the young schoolmaster, John Learmonth, newly arrived from Edinburgh with secrets in tow; and the gentle bank clerk, Ludovic Cameron who dreams of a new life across the ocean, far from his erstwhile schoolmate, the malevolent Farquhar Hossack. When the laird befriends a wounded officer, a chain of events is set into motion that threatens to upset the delicate equilibrium of the community. Against the backdrop of mass emigrations, an encroaching cholera epidemic, political unrest and the campaign to abolish chattel slavery in the British Caribbean, the people of Cromarty must negotiate their new world and each other, flitting in and out of each other's lives through one extraordinary year. The Cromarty Library Circle is by Shona Maclean.

The Widows is by Anna Smith. One false move could get them killed. Ruby, Bella and Cissy are used to the high life. Married to gangland bosses at the top of their game, the riches of Costa del Sol are at their fingertips, the world at their feet. But when Cissy's husband is brutally murdered, everything changes. With his lifelong friend - the notorious drug lord Tommy Mallon - hellbent on revenge, the three women are forced to go on the run. Soon they find themselves caught up in an explosive struggle for money and power. A new life awaits - but only if they can outrun the one they've left behind.

March 2026

The Move is by J P Delaney. Few beginnings can be deadly . . .  Kate and Matt Crowther are finally moving out of London, in search of a better life for their young family. Trade Cottage seems to be the house of their dreams - and they immediately hit it off with the sellers, Rosemary and Paul Finch, who brought up their own family there.  When Kate and Matt move in, they're pleased to discover the Finches still very much in evidence: offering advice, introducing them to the local community, and becoming honorary grandparents to Will, 11, and Tilly, 9. But when the Finches take exception to Kate and Matt's renovations, relations with the neighbours sour, and Kate and Matt find themselves subjected to a vicious campaign of hate. But Kate isn't giving up her dream home without a fight. And it turns out Trade Cottage has secrets of its own to reveal - secrets that may endanger the very family Kate has moved there to protect .

Vital Signs is by Kate Webb. Can a killer leave no trace? August 2010. The Tobins - a happy, well-off family - spend a sunny afternoon at a birthday party with friends. By dawn, most of them are dead. It's a crime that grabs headlines and shocks the nation. The key suspect, Aidan Tobin, was known as a loving husband and father, but his desperate attempt to take his own life is as good as a confession. The case begins and ends with him. August 2021. A survivor of the attacks regains a memory of that horrific night. Chloë Tobin never believed her father was guilty. Only six at the time, she is the sole witness to the brutal attacks. Now, she insists that somebody else was involved. Could she be right? DI Matt Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of Wiltshire Police's cold case unit aren't so sure. But as they begin to investigate, they soon discover there's more to this case than meets the eye. After all, why would a man who had everything destroy it all?

The Dangerous Stranger is by Simon Mason. On a warm and pleasant evening in Oxford, gentle city of poets and scholars, rioters outside a hotel full of asylum seekers set a young refugee on fire. The city - the country - convulses in shock. Is this who we are? It's international news of the very worst kind, and the Chief Constable demands immediate and exemplary action in bringing the perpetrators to justice. The detectives leading the investigation fill him with misgivings, however: DIs Ryan and Ray Wilkins (no relation), Thames Valley's detective pantomime horse, one Oxford-educated, the other Oxford-trailer park. He doesn't understand why they work together. 'Do they even get on?' 'Somehow that doesn't seem necessary,' their Superintendent replies. Who burned the boy alive? Was it a far-right extremist? Was it an ordinary person who had simply gone along to watch and got caught up in the emotion? Could it even be one of the children who were there? Deploying a range of investigative skills, some standard, some unconventional and some frankly nuts, the Wilkinses do what they do: results with chaos. But when they discover that the victim was not an asylum seeker after all, or even a resident of the hotel, the whole investigation kicks into a completely different configuration.

April 2026

Laura never meant to lie, but old habits die hard. When Annie Adams heads to London to visit her mother, Laura, the last thing she expects to find is a dead body. Least of all for it to be Fliss, the budding artist Laura had just taken under her wing.  Annie is no stranger to murder - after all, she's solved a few cases already. And something about the way Fliss died feels familiar. She's seen a case like this before. Or read about it, rather, in the journals of her dead Great Aunt Frances, whose close friend was killed in the 1960s in the exact same way: with her heart surgically removed from her chest. As threats pile up on Laura's doorstep, it soon becomes clear that she's next, and that she's hiding something . . . With her mother's life on the line, can Annie find the killer before it's too late?  From the gritty streets of 1960s Soho to the lofty galleries of present-day West London, follow Annie and Frances as they race to bring a killer to justice. How to Cheat Your Own Death is by Kristen Perrin.

Fresh from case of the stolen heart, one that shattered his belief in the regime he works for, Samson Kolechko is confronted with a mystery that borders on the impossible. How could a squad of Red Army soldiers have disappeared from the Galician bathhouse, leaving only their boots and their uniforms as evidence they ever existed? Faced with such a fantastical conundrum, Samson resorts to fantastical investigation method: stitching his operative severed ear into a bathhouse worker's jacket, he is able to eavesdrop on his every move. But he discovers far more than he bargained for, uncovering human remains in the stoves and the presence of a sinister religious cult in the city. With his quick-witted new wife Nadezhda at his side, Samson must not only solve the case but navigate the political turmoil that still grips Kyiv as civil war looms and trust between neighbours and comrades is eroded day by day. The Lost Soldiers is by Andrey Kurkov.

May 2026

Just Kill is by Remi Kone. London during a blistering heatwave. A man wakes in the middle of the night, hearing noises from downstairs. He assumes it's a burglar - nothing prepares him for what he finds. Across the city, DI Leah Hutch and DS Benjamin Randle are called to a murder scene outside their jurisdiction. A woman has been killed - the only suspect, a friend from Leah's past who refuses to speak to anyone but her. Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Zed Okoro's mother has vanished. He will do anything in his power to find her - even if it means risking his own life. As Leah and Randle investigate, they discover a conspiracy with roots far from home. Three incidents. One connection. What secrets make people kill?

In a brilliant feat of literary detective work Master of Lies by Piers Blofeld tells the extraordinary untold story of Anthony Blunt's life as a spy. Based on extensive research into newly released files he is revealed as not simply "the fourth man", but the most dangerous spy of the twentieth century. During the war, as the fate of the world hung in the balance, Blunt's intelligence was being fed straight on to the desks of Hitler, Stalin and Churchill. His hand was secretly guiding our collective fate and his treason led to the deaths of tens of thousands. He casts a shadow which looms large to this day. The official narrative is that Blunt was the least of the Cambridge spies - and yet he was the one who got away with it. While the rest drank themselves to death in dingy Moscow flats, Blunt revelled in his brilliant career as an art historian, Surveyor of the Queen's pictures and Knight of the Realm. He was protected not just by his many friendships with the great and the good, but by the brilliance with which he played the game - his was a secret too big to be told.

June 2026

These are your neighbours. One is a killer. Reeling from a very recent divorce, Frankie has moved into a glamorous London neighbourhood. This is a new chapter in her life. She's decided to put down roots with the beautiful Persian cat she left her marriage with named Blue. But little niggles with her perfect new life start to grow and when Blue returns one night from slipping into places he shouldn't, Frankie's concerns solidify. Two words are roughly scratched into his collar: HELP ME. Unsettled and unwilling to ignore the incident, Frankie roots out an old unused "Cat Cam" collar. What slowly begins as a voyeuristic fascination with her neighbours and the secrets they're hiding soon turns into a perilous quest for the truth that threatens to bring untold terrors to her doorstep. These are your neighbours. One is a killer. Reeling from a very recent divorce, Frankie has moved into a glamorous London neighbourhood. This is a new chapter in her life. She's decided to put down roots with the beautiful Persian cat she left her marriage with named Blue. But little niggles with her perfect new life start to grow and when Blue returns one night from slipping into places he shouldn't, Frankie's concerns solidify. Two words are roughly scratched into his collar: HELP ME. Unsettled and unwilling to ignore the incident, Frankie roots out an old unused "Cat Cam" collar. What slowly begins as a voyeuristic fascination with her neighbours and the secrets they're hiding soon turns into a perilous quest for the truth that threatens to bring untold terrors to her doorstep. Nine Lives is by Catherine Steadman

After Bruno misses several phone calls from Pamela, he worries that something has happened to his beloved horse he keeps at her riding school. But her reason for calling is entirely unexpected: Pamela’s new lodger has been murdered. Bruno knows that Pamela isn’t capable of killing anyone, but then who’s the culprit? And what’s the motive? The dead woman had only just moved to town to take a job at the local nursing home—she had no enemies in the village, and no friends, either. As Bruno wrestles with these complications, the force realizes that Bruno can’t be impartial when Pamela is involved, and assigns the case instead to their rising star rookie, Fabien. Bruno is happy for Fabien to take the lead. After all, Bruno’s been distracted—by his foundering relationship, by a documentary crew determined to transform the sleepy Vézère Valley into a tourist hotspot, by a group of opinionated small businesses Bruno wants to help organize a logistically complicated night market. He can’t seem to catch a break. But when Fabien realizes that the victim is connected to his past, Bruno has to step back in to help. The village has never felt more crowded, and the clock is ticking: Will Bruno and Fabien be able to catch a killer? A Murder in Springtime is by Martin Walker. 










Sunday, 23 November 2025

Forthcoming books from Headline Publishing

 January 2026

Kate stretches her legs and turns on the TV while James washes away the traces of their morning. She watches in horror at the unfolding news: the hotel they are staying in has been taken under siege. She should be making her way home, working on appearing normal, getting ready to re-enter family life with her loving husband Vic and their two adored children. Instead, she is trapped somewhere she shouldn't be, with a man she definitely doesn't love. How will she begin to tell Vic what she is doing here? If her body is found, will it give up the secret of what she's been up to? She's been so careful hiding the evidence of her affair: write nothing down, leave no trace. Will he begin to understand why? For now, Kate can only hide, take a deep breath, and reflect on the series of choices she's made that have brought her to this moment. What will her marriage and her life look like, if she makes it out? Room 706 is by Ellie Levenson

Anatomy of an Alibi is by Ashley Elston. Everyone at Chantilly's Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn't Camille Bayliss. It was Aubrey Price. Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life; she's married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can't find proof because he tracks her every move. Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she's convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there's more than one way to get to the truth - and she may have found the best way in. Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. It sounds simple: For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille's place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek. Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone.

The Nowhere Girls is by Carmel Harrington. On a cold afternoon in December 1995, two young girls are found abandoned on a platform at Pearse Station in Dublin. Thirty years later, investigative journalist Vega is determined to find out what happened to the so-called 'Nowhere Girls'. Where did their mother go? Why did no one come forward to claim them? And where are they now? Searching for answers takes her on a journey with twists she never could have imagined. And one that could put everything else she knows at risk; including her new relationship, her career, and her life as she knows it. 


February 2026

Two teenage girls. One murdered classmate. And a modern-day witch trial that will divide the nation. When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in an Edinburgh park, the city reels - and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with her murder.  As social media explodes and headlines scream for justice, rumours of bullying spiral into something darker: whispers of rituals, obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong. Matthew Phillips, a respected heart surgeon, is reluctantly called for jury duty on the case. But as the trial unfolds - and the girls reveal a chilling defence no one saw coming - he begins to question everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgement. Who's telling the truth? Who can be trusted?  And what really happened to Christian Shaw? Let the Witch Trial begin . . Witch Trial is by Harriet Tyce.

The Other Child is by Amy Carver. You'd know your son anywhere . . . wouldn't you? Louise has never felt the deep bond with her son, Alfie, that other mothers talk about. Now three, Alfie is volatile, difficult - and Louise can't help but blame herself. Then he makes a new friend, Jacob, and everything changes. Alfie becomes calmer. Happier. Louise should be thrilled - until she meets Jacob's mother and starts noticing strange coincidences: the same hospital, same birth date. . . and Jacob looks eerily like Louise's husband. As doubt spirals into obsession, Louise's suspicions deepen. With Jacob, she feels a bond she's never had with Alfie - an unsettling, impossible connection. And soon, she's forced to confront the unthinkable: What if her child isn't really hers?

March 2026

Whidbey is by T Kira Madden. You want to know who did it, but that was never the question. Or, it was never the right one. Birdie Chang doesn't know much about Whidbey Island, only that it is far. On the ferry, she has an unnerving encounter with a stranger, where she finds herself telling him everything: how she was sexually abused as a child, how the perpetrator now walks free, how the calls and emails from him haven't stopped and she is on the run; how she wants to kill him. The stranger poses a shocking question - if she agrees, he will murder the man who hurt her, with no strings attached. She gives him a name. On the other side of the country, Mary-Beth receives a phone call from the police: her only son has been murdered. What follows is a complex story of three women connected through one man: Birdie, a woman on the run from her past and her abuser; Mary-Beth, the abuser's loving mother; and Linzie, a former reality star turned bestselling memoirist, and another victim of the same man. Whidbey is a gripping whodunnit and a searingly perceptive and astonishingly original novel that asks the crucial question of who has real power over a story: the one who lives it, or the one who tells it? Women are rarely in receipt of what they are owed.

When MJ Hudson, an old work acquaintance, shows up at Dr Kez Lanyon's house in the middle of the night, Kez knows she has no choice but to help. At the prestigious boarding school that MJ's daughter attends, a teacher has been killed and a pupil is missing. And it seems that the same thing happens every few years. Only this time, the school haven't been able to cover things up and MJ's daughter and her group of nice, quiet friends are right at the heart of the scandal. Undercover as the new school therapist, Kez quickly realises there are some seriously powerful, well-connected forces at play. And by continuing to investigate the mystery, perhaps even stepping outside the law to do so, Kez risks putting her own family in serious danger. Because no one wants their secrets aired. And some will go to any length to keep them buried. The Quiet Girls is by Dorothy Koomson.

Romania, 1989: a grey place of mysterious queues, ubiquitous informers and daily news flashes about a man-eating bear that is terrorising the country. Amidst the daily drudge of work, rationing and careful conversation with neighbours, two lives unexpectedly collide when an idealistic police detective, Constantin, is tasked with solving a string of grisly murders, and a rebellious school child, Lia, is unwittingly drawn into her elderly neighbour's seditious plot. Astronaut is by Oana Aristide 

April 2026

Welcome to the Family is by Kate Gray. Holiday with your in-laws can be murder . . . Rosie Riley is nervously excited about meeting the Fraser family. She's head-over-heels for her boyfriend Theo and she hopes that spending a fortnight with the Frasers at their luxury Tuscan villa is a good sign of where their relationship is headed. Fenna Fraser has been part of the family for years. She's always enjoyed the glam annual holiday, but this year she's especially tired with a new baby in tow and she fears her mother-in-law will be more critical than ever. No one is good enough for her sons. It starts as the perfect family holiday. It ends with one of these women arrested for murder. Who is guilty? Who is the victim? And did they deserve it? . . .


When murder strikes at Bathory College's 25-year reunion, the clues to the killing can be found a quarter of a century ago on Graduation Day 2000. As the secrets, tragedies and betrayals from twenty-five years before played out at the reunion, someone from the Class of 2000 was taught a deadly lesson. Twelve witnesses - or are they suspects? - from the Bathory students and staff recount events in the years 2000 and 2025 while the murder trial unfolds before us. But who is the victim? Who is accused of being the killer? And is the right person even on trial? The truth will be uncovered... but only by degrees. A Degree of Truth is by Maz Evans.

The Perfect Accident is by Tess Stimson Could you sacrifice one life to save many? What if that life was your son's?  This year, for the first time, the high school prom will be held on a luxurious cruiser on the lake. Sisters Amy and Iris are excited to be chaperones at the event, seeing their sons all dressed up. It's a proud moment. But, tonight, the boat will sink. And as darkness falls, secrets unravel and the air starts to run out, one of the sisters will be forced to make a split-second decision - to save her own son and let her nephew and twenty-one other teenagers drown. And then, a year later, one of the teenagers will wake up from her coma, ready to tell everyone what really happened at the bottom of the lake. And someone needs to keep her quiet - for good. A pulse-pounding novel of small-town secrets, lies and betrayal - with a twist you won't see coming. 

The Writer and the Traitor: Graham Greene, Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal is by Robert Verkaik. The friendship between Graham Greene and Kim Philby is one of the most mysterious of the twentieth century. Greene, the internationally lauded novelist who wrestled with the themes of faith and betrayal in his work. Philby, the British intelligence-officer-turned-spy for the Soviets, and one of the most reviled men of his era. The two men met as young MI6 officers in war-torn London, working together to defeat the Nazis. But after Greene suddenly resigned just days before D-Day, questions started to arise. He turned back to literature, using his experience in the intelligence services as a backdrop for his novel Our Man in Havana and the screenplay of The Third Man. Lurking within the pages lay suspicions of his friend, with characters and plots echoing Philby's life. Was Philby the real 'third man'? Did Greene's work contain coded messages and warnings of betrayal to M16?

May 2026

As the youngest of three sisters, Charity Wills is used to getting what she wants. When she was a teenager, she fell in love with the dashing bad boy next door and married him. If she wants something beautiful and expensive in a shop, she discreetly puts it in her bag - the Old Bill be damned. If she has enemies that need seeing to, her father-in-law can pull some strings to make the problem go away. So when Charity finds herself suddenly on her own - her beloved Little Danny in prison and no sign of a much-wanted pregnancy on the way - she is at a loss. She wants to start pulling her weight in her influential crime family. But as she works to pull off a plan that will fly under the radar of the law, an old enemy of the Wills family grows ever nearer, determined that Charity will not have her happily ever after . .  Charity is by Linda Calvey

Serpent's Tongue is by Barbara Nadel. As the youngest of three sisters, Charity Wills is used to getting what she wants. When she was a teenager, she fell in love with the dashing bad boy next door and married him. If she wants something beautiful and expensive in a shop, she discreetly puts it in her bag - the Old Bill be damned. If she has enemies that need seeing to, her father-in-law can pull some strings to make the problem go away. So when Charity finds herself suddenly on her own - her beloved Little Danny in prison and no sign of a much-wanted pregnancy on the way - she is at a loss. She wants to start pulling her weight in her influential crime family. But as she works to pull off a plan that will fly under the radar of the law, an old enemy of the Wills family grows ever nearer, determined that Charity will not have her happily ever after . . 

June

The Midnight Guests is by Alex Hay. 1923. Diana Gold, owner and impresario, throws open the doors to the most opulent new hotel in London. As the champagne flows and the chandeliers shimmer, millionaires and gamblers rub shoulders with film stars and royalty. Everyone who's anyone is here. Everyone, that is, except two guests due at midnight. Powerful and dangerous, they've dragged Diana from the gutter and taught her all she knows. Her fate rests in their hands. If everything goes right, a whole new life awaits. One mistake will cost her everything. For this is much more than a hotel - it's the heart of Diana's intricate masterplan. Over twenty-four fateful hours, her guests will learn why they're really here. And Diana will take perfect care of them - unless they take care of her first. But when a body is found in the depths of the hotel, Diana's lavish opening night suddenly spirals out of control. . .

Every traitor was once trusted. Jamie Tulloch and Sam Li never intended to be spies. Jamie, a former exec at a tech company, found himself caught up in a mission and discovered a taste for the secret world while Sam, a burnt-out corporate lawyer, was unexpectedly talent spotted by MI5. When both are plunged into covert training, they find themselves pitted against each other for their final evaluation - Exercise Red Poacher. Every year, MI6 trainees must evade capture, infiltrate sensitive sites and report back with the right intel, while their peers at MI5 try to stop them. But things take a sinister turn when they witness the apparent murder of one of their fellow recruits. Is it all part of the exercise? Or is someone trying to weaponise this game of spies into something far more deadly? Solitary Agents is by David Goodman.