July 2021
Freddy Otash is the man in the know and the man to know in '50s L.A. He operates with two simple rules - he'll do anything but commit murder and he'll never work with the commies. Freddy is an ex-L.A. cop on the skids. He snuffed a cop killer in cold blood - and it got to him bad.So Chief William H. Parker canned him. Now he's a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp - and, most notably, the head strongarm goon for Confidential Magazine. Confidential presaged the idiot internet - and delivered the dirt, the dish, the insidious ink and the scurrilous skank on the feckless foibles of misanthropic movie stars, sex-soiled socialites and potzo politicians. Freaky Freddy outs them all! In Widespread Panic by James Ellroy, we traverse the depths of '50s L.A. and dig on the inner workings of Confidential. You'll go to Burt Lancaster's lushly appointed torture den; you'll groove overhyped legend James Dean as Freddy's chief stooge; you'll be there for Freddy's ring-a-ding rendezvous with Liz Taylor; you'll be front and centre as Freddy anoints himself the 'Tattle Tyrant Who Held Hollywood Hostage'.
Afraid of The Light is by Douglas Kennedy. Brendan has always lived a careful, constrained life. A salesman who never liked the work, he's a man who has stayed in his marriage and his faith because it was what was expected of him. But now, having lost his job after corporate downsizing and on the cusp of sixty, he finds himself scrambling to somehow stay afloat in the only Los Angeles work on offer to a man his age - driving for Uber. When one of his rides, a retired professor named Elise, asks to be dropped off outside an abortion clinic where she now volunteers, Brendan finds himself literally driving right into the virulent epicentre of one of the major issues of our time, engulfing his life in the process.
We will take on any case, solve any crime, uncover any secret. We are Private. And we're the best. In Afghanistan, an experienced pilot is shot down during a covert mission. The man survives the crash, but is pursued into the mountains by Russian operatives. In New York, a wealthy businessman hires Jack Morgan to track down his daughter, who has gone missing along with her two children. But it is more than a missing persons case, the daughter has been linked to the murder of two men. Jack finds the missing daughter and discovers that she is being pursed, and killed two of her pursers in her escape. Jack takes the woman and her children into his protection, but now he is harbouring a wanted murderer. As Jack discovers more of the backstory of this woman and her children, he realises the only way to clear her name is for him to head to Afghanistan, and face the traumatic memories of his own time there serving as a US Marine many years ago. Private Rogue is by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy.
The Night She Disappeared is by Lisa Jewell. Mum, there's some people here from college, they asked me back to theirs. Just for an hour or so. Is that OK? Midsummer 2017: teenage mum Tallulah heads out on a date, leaving her baby son at home with her mother, Kim. At 11pm she sends her mum a text message. At 4.30am Kim awakens to discover that Tallulah has not come home. Friends tell her that Tallulah was last seen heading to a pool party at a house in the woods nearby called Dark Place Tallulah never returns. 2018: walking in the woods behind the boarding school where her boyfriend has just started as a head-teacher, Sophie sees a sign nailed to a fence. A sign that says: Dig here ...A cold case. An abandoned mansion. A family hiding a terrible secret.
The Shadow is by James Patterson and Brian Sittis. Only two people know Lamont Cranston's secret identity as the Shadow, a vigilante of justice: his greatest love, Margo Lane, and his fiercest enemy, Shiwan Khan. Then Khan ambushes the couple, who find the slimmest chance of survival . . . in the uncertain future. A century and a half later, Lamont awakens in a world both unknown and strangely familiar. The first person he meets is Maddy Gomes, a teenager with her own mysterious secrets, including a more than passing awareness of the legend of the Shadow. Most disturbing, Khan's power continues to be felt over New York and its people. No one in this new world understands the dangers of stopping him better than Lamont Cranston. He also knows he's the only one who stands a chance. Lamont must prove that the Shadow is more than just a legend.
August 2021
The Noise is by James Patterson and J D Barker. Young sisters, Sophie and Tennant Riggin, are the only two people to withstand a massive explosion that destroys their community, located in the shadow of Oregon's Mt. Hood. A team of elite government investigators are sent to research the fallout and the girls - why did only they survive? - but with conflicting objectives. For Dr Martha Chan, a psychologist who analyses large-scale medical emergencies: study them. For Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Fraser, a career military leader with an inherent mistrust of civilians: contain them. But as the disturbance replicates across the Pacific Northwest, it threatens to topple the chain of command. Dr Chan and Lieutenant Colonel Fraser are caught between the perpetrators of the threat - and those who have the power to resist.
I couldn't see the sea from my bedroom but I could hear the waves breaking in the distance. They reminded me that I was on a tiny island. And I was trapped. There has never been a murder on Alderney. It's a tiny island, just three miles long and a mile and a half wide. The perfect location for a brand new literary festival. Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne has been invited to talk about his new book. The writer, Anthony Horowitz, travels with him. Very soon they discover that not all is as it should be. Alderney is in turmoil over a planned power line that will cut through it, desecrating a war cemetery and turning neighbour against neighbour. The visiting authors - including a blind medium, a French performance poet and a celebrity chef - seem to be harbouring any number of unpleasant secrets. When the festival's wealthy sponsor is found brutally killed, Alderney goes into lockdown and Hawthorne knows that he doesn't have to look too far for suspects. There's no escape. The killer is still on the island. And there's about to be a second death... A Line to Kill is by Anthony Horowitz.
September 2021
Jailhouse Lawyer is by James patterson and Nancy Allen. Justice in a small town can be hard to come by - especially when the judges, jailers and jury all know each other. In picture-perfect Erva, Alabama, the most serious crimes are misdemeanours. Speeding tickets. Shoplifting. Contempt of court. Then why is the jail so crowded? And why are so few prisoners released? There's only one place to learn the truth behind these incriminating secrets. Sometimes the best education a lawyer can get is a short stretch of hard time.
When a wealthy man is found murdered in his hilltop home, Deputy Coroner Clay Edison is shocked to discover a link to his own brother Luke on the scene. Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow. But surely he's not a killer? When Luke goes missing, the case becomes even more fraught for Clay. He knows that the conflict between family and the truth could take him down the wrong path. Is his brother capable of murder? Or could he be a victim too? As wildfires and blackouts sweep through the state of California, the truth will only get harder to find. The Burning is by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman.
October 2021
The Fifth Girl is by Georgia Fancett. When DC Rawls decided to take some time off work for his mental health, he thought he would need just a few days. However, it's been months since that terrible night and Rawls still hasn't returned to the Somerset Police Dept. He can't seem to shake the feeling that he might never be the same again. But when a schoolgirl disappears and the police link her case to the disappearances of three other girls in Bath, it sends the media into a frenzy that places Rawls and his team at the heart of the storm. Rawls isn't sure that he's ready to work on a case that hits so close to home, but he knows he can't have any more blood on his hands. He has to find out the truth before it's too late. Who is behind these abductions? And which girl will be taken next?
November 2021
Fear No Evil is by James Patterson. Alex Cross and John Sampson, longtime friends and partners at DC Metro PD, are about to leave on a much-anticipated trip into the wilderness when they're called to a murder scene in the middle of Washington, DC. Instead of heading out to the mountains - or joining his wife, Bree, in Paris on her first assignment for an elite private security firm - Cross teams up with Sampson and FBI agent Ned Mahoney, unaware of the threats that may be closing in on the entire Cross family. M, the elusive killer who's been stalking Cross for years, has resurfaced and is targeting federal agents. Since the two last confronted one another, M has become even harder to identify and nearly impossible to catch. As the trail takes them across the country, Cross and Sampson are drawn into a showdown that tests their partnership - and their will to survive.
