January 2025
Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner Joe Pike face a cryptic case and a terrifyingly unpredictable killer in this twisty, edge-of-your-seat thriller'. Traci Beller was only thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. Now a super-popular influencer with millions of followers, she finally has the money to hire a new detective to uncover the truth. And that detective is Elvis Cole. Taking on a ten-years-cold missing person case is almost always a losing game, though Elvis quickly picks up a lead in Rancha when he learns that an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter Anya might have a line on the missing man. But when he finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the case flips on its head. Victims become predators, predators become prey, and when everyone is a victim, will it be possible to save them all? Calling on the help of his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, Elvis follows Tommy Beller's trail into the twisted, nightmarish depths of a monstrous evil, even as what he finds tests his loyalty to his clients, and to himself. But the truth must come out, no matter the cost. Elvis must face The Big Empty and see justice done. The Big Empty is by Robert Crais.
She thinks it was murder. But if she can’t trust herself, can anyone else? Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn’t fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn’t helped by Felix’s hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help. So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullan is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy’s frame of mind. But Nancy saw Kira the day before she died and she didn’t strike her as someone who was suicidal – she was upset and angry, yes, but was she upset and angry enough to take her own life? Nancy is the only one convinced that there’s more to Kira’s death than has been discovered. But all the police and the neighbours see is a vulnerable woman who isn’t sure of what she saw, and might even be imagining things . . . Is Nancy imagining things, or are there more questions that should be asked about the last days of Kira Mullan? The Last Days of Kira Mullan is by Nicci French.
If you had the power between life and death, what would you do? Thea has a secret. She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them. Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out. Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead. Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit. Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job. Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills. But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought. How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out? An Ethical Guide to Murder is by Jenny Morris.
The Collaborators by Michael Idov. A brilliant young intelligence officer and a troubled heiress stumble into a global conspiracy that pits present-day Russia against the CIA in this electrifying, globetrotting spy thriller. Combining realistic thrills with sophisticated spycraft and witty dialogue, The Collaborators delivers a gut-punch answer to the biggest geopolitical question of our time. How exactly did post-Soviet Russia turn down the wrong path? Criss-crossing the globe on the way to this shocking revelation are disaffected millennial CIA officer Ari Falk, thrown into a moral and professional crisis by the death of his best asset, and brash, troubled LA heiress Maya Chou, spiralling after the disappearance of her Russian American billionaire father. The duo’s adventures take us to both classic and surprising locales – from Berlin and Tangier to Latvia, Belarus and a semi-abandoned technopark outside Moscow.
February 2025
Little Red Death is by A K Benedict. DI Lyla Rondell is on the case of a lifetime. Tasked with investigating a series of perplexing deaths, the only lead she has is that each appears to be based on a different classic fairy tale. Far from the stuff of bedtime stories, the press is having a field day with what they have named the Grimm Ripper Murders. But as the bodies stack up, Lyla’s whole world is about to flip on its head. Because the killer’s bloody trail stretches deep into her own origin story, and when she discovers the truth, nothing will ever be the same again. Faced with the fact that everything she knows is fiction, Lyla will have to take a little creative license of her own if she’s going to turn the final page on the killings . . .
March 2025
The final days of Adolf Hitler are shrouded in mystery. What really happened in that Berlin bunker? And what happened next? When Parker loses his faith and drops out of the seminary, he finds himself back in london and looking for work. Unable to find anything more respectable, he accepts an offer to work as amanuensis to a man of dubious character called Robinson. Robinson lives in a big house in Kilburn where he earns a living as a collector of historical objects. He specialises in Russian icons, old newspapers and other items of more dubious provenance. One of Parker’s duties involves meeting people who have an interest in purchasing the kinds of artefacts in which robinson specializes. While carrying out his assignments, he comes to realise that his grandfather and Robinson’s father both have controversial war records. In fact, the more immersed he becomes in Robinson’s world in fact, the more he comes to realise that he is the inheritor of a personal history that leads into the darkest corners of 20th century history. With a cast of corrupt police officers, the Russian Mafiosi, catholic priests, Second World War bomber pilots, David Bowie, Eric Burdon from The Animals, Eva Braun, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler, Come In And Shut The Door is by Chris Petit.
In the glorious summer of 1914, Emily Grey, a young Cambridge undergraduate, is studying German in Heidelberg. While there she meets Hans, a philosopher with grey eyes and long lashes, who wins her heart and asks her to marry him. When the First World War intervenes, however, she is forced to return to England, leaving Hans behind to join the Imperial Navy. A year later, Emily is recruited to serve in a recently established government department. Commander Cumming, head of His Majesty’s newly-formed Secret Service — sometimes also known as MI6 — is keen to make use of Emily’s language skills. Assigned to interview an informer known as ‘The Dane’, she learns of a plot so audacious it has the potential to change the entire course of the war. At Rosyth in Scotland, the home of the British Grand Fleet, Emily must work undercover to locate the mole the heart of the British naval establishment. Who is the traitor known only by the codename ‘Heiffer’? And can she find him in time to prevent a military catastrophe that would spell disaster for the country she serves? No.2 Whitehall Court is by Alan Judd who has created a gripping thriller about the early days of MI6.
April 2025
The Other People is by C.B. Everett. And Then There Were None meets The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Ten strangers. An old dark house. A killer picking them off one by one. And a missing girl who's running out of time. . . Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house, and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who – or what – is the Beast in the Cellar? Forget what you think you know. Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust The Other People?
DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock are back in a cutting-edge new thriller. The truth will always come out, but at what cost? Fresh from successfully closing their first live case, the Future Policing Unit are called in to investigate when a headless, handless body is found on a Warwickshire farm. But as they work to identify the victim and their killer, the discovery of a second body begins to spark fears that The Aston Strangler is back. And as the stakes rise for the team, so do the tensions brewing within it. When DCS Kat Frank is accused of putting the wrong man behind bars all those years ago, AIDE Lock – the world's first AI Detective – pursues the truth about what happened with relentless logic. But Kat is determined to keep the past buried, and when she becomes the target of a shadowy figure looking for revenge, Lock is torn between his evidence-based algorithms and the judgement of his partner, with explosive results. When everything hangs in the balance, it will all come down to just how much an AI machine can learn, and what happens when they do . . . Human Remains is by Jo Callaghan.
Carved in Blood is by Michael Bennett. It’s a chilly Auckland winter, but for Hana Westerman and her family, it is a time of excitement. Matariki is approaching – the small cluster of stars also known as the Seven Sisters is a sacred constellation in Māori culture, heralding a time of new beginnings. Hana’s daughter Addison is getting engaged and Hana’s new role within her community is going well. For once, life is good, peaceful. But this Matariki brings unwelcome change. When Hana’s ex-husband Jaye, a high-flying Detective Inspector, is shot in what looks like a random hold-up, Hana offers her help to the senior police officer spearheading the investigation, DI Elisa Grey. With access to police intelligence, Hana makes a breakthrough that leads to a potential suspect with links to a Chinese organised-crime syndicate. But then Addison receives a phone call telling her that the police have the wrong man. Was Jaye really just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is his shooting related to something else – an old undercover case deep in his past?
Bone of Contention is by Blake Mara. Louise and the Pack are back in another pawfully intriguing mystery . . . When Yaz and her dog Hercules find a dead man on a bench along the canal with chicken bones lying around him, she immediately calls Louise – and the police. The case is odd: a chicken bone has been forcibly rammed down the victim’s throat, and the last person to see him was their friend – and Pack-mate – Claire. When the police take Claire into custody, the Pack mobilise, determined to find the real killer. The trail leads them to the new Cluckin’ Good Chicken shop, who not only have a gang that loiter outside, smoking weed and harassing passers-by, but have also managed to create issues with the locals. As the Pack's investigation into the chicken shop progresses, establishing links with organised crime that might possibly connect to the local council, Louise and her friends find themselves in mortal danger. Can the Pack sniff out the killer and get to the bones of the mystery?
June 2025
Spring 1945. The war is nearly over, but the wounds are still fresh, and for the picturesque village of Larkwhistle in the New Forest, it’s a time of great change and great sorrow. Jill Metcalfe receives the news of her brother Henry’s death from his friend, US Army Officer Jack Stafford. Henry had been on a mission in France and had discovered some vital information, but it was information he was unable to give to Jack before he was killed at the rendezvous point. Jack has come to the village in the hopes that Henry’s cryptic last note will lead to a clue to the traitor he was searching for. With Jill at his side, they begin to investigate. But someone doesn’t want them looking into what happened to Henry. And when a body is discovered, it seems like there might be more to this little village – and its inhabitants – than first meets the eye. Because the war might be over, but the killing hasn’t stopped. The New Forest Murders is by Matthew Sweet.
Hotel Ukraine is by Martin Cruz Smith. When Arkady Renko is charged with investigating the murder of Alexei Kazasky, the Deputy Minister of Defence, he knows he has to tread carefully. Alexei Kazasky is a high-profile politician and has a complicated relationship with Putin. This investigation clearly has Kremlin approval, but, as with everything in Russia, things are not always what they seem. Already preoccupied with his developing Parkinson’s, Arkady finds he has more to worry about. The war in Ukraine is gaining momentum, and his son Zhenya has become involved with the Black Army, a Russo-Ukrainian group of hacktivists. Moreover, as Arkady digs deeper into Kazasky’s murder, he realizes that the man’s death may have been more politically motivated than he first assumed. Now it seems that the people behind the killing have him firmly in their crosshairs – but this time Arkady’s life is not the only one on the line.
