January 2017
Under the Harrow is by Flynn Berry. When Nora takes the train from London to
visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the
station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel's familiar
house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of
a brutal murder. Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can't return to her former
life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and
she can't trust them to find her sister's killer. Haunted by the murder and the
secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger.
As Nora's fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister
her investigation uncovers.
On
its surface, life in Houston is as you would expect: drive-in restaurants,
souped-up cars, jukeboxes, teenagers discovering their sexuality. But beneath
the glitz and superficial normalcy, a class war has begun, and it is nothing
like the conventional portrayal of the decade. Against this backdrop Aaron
Holland Broussard discovers the poignancy of first love and a world of violence
he did not know existed. When Aaron spots the beautiful and gifted Valerie
Epstein fighting with her boyfriend, Grady Harrelson, at a Galveston drive-in,
he inadvertently challenges the power of the Mob and one of the richest
families in Texas. He also discovers he must find the courage his father had
found as an American soldier in the Great War. Written in evocative prose, The
Jealous Kind may prove to be James Lee Burke's most encompassing work yet. As
Aaron undergoes his harrowing evolution from boy to man, we can't help but
recall the inspirational and curative power of first love and how far we would
go to protect it. The Jealous Kind is by James Lee Burke.
February 2017
You Can Run is by Steve Mosby. When a car crashes into a garage on an
ordinary street, the attending officer is shocked to look inside the damaged
building and discover a woman imprisoned within. As the remains of several
other victims are found in the attached house, police believe they have finally
identified the Red River killer – a man who has been abducting women for nearly
twenty years and taunting the police with letters about his crimes. but now the
main suspect, John blythe, is on the run. As the manhunt for blythe
intensifies, DI Will Turner finds himself fighting to stay involved in the
investigation. The Red River killings hold a personal significance to him, and
he must be the one to find the killer . . .
Homicide
inspector Gavin Cain is standing by a grave when he gets the call. Cain knows
there's something terrible in the coffin they're about to exhume. He and his
team have received a dying man's confession and it has led them here. Cain is
summoned by Mayor Castelli, who has been sent sinister photographs of a woman
that he claims he doesn't know and a note threatening that worse are on their
way. As Cain tries to identify the woman in the pictures, and looks into the
mayor's past, he finds himself being drawn towards a situation as horrifying
and as full of secrets as the grave itself. The Dark Room is by Jonathan Moore.
Ragdoll is by Daniel Cole. A body is discovered with the dismembered
parts of six victims stitched together, nicknamed by the press as the
'Ragdoll'. Assigned to the shocking case are Detective William 'Wolf' Fawkes,
recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner Detective Emily
Baxter. The 'Ragdoll Killer' taunts the police by releasing a list of names to
the media, and the dates on which he intends to murder them. With six people to
save, can Fawkes and Baxter catch a killer when the world is watching their
every move?
March 2017
Kings of America is by R J Ellroy. Fleeing to America following a terrible
crime, Irish-born fighter, Danny McCabe, throws in his lot with Nicolas and
Lucia Mariani, siblings who have emigrated from Corsica in search of their
fortunes. Adrift in the tough and unforgiving world of 1930s New York, they
rely on Danny's bareknuckle fighting skills to survive. While Nicolas is
tempted ever deeper into the underworld, Lucia can think of little but her
obsessive drive to succeed in Hollywood. When Danny McCabe's dreams of boxing
stardom become a terrifying nightmare, fate compels them to escape westwards to
Los Angeles. On the run, the trio are bound together by blood, by shared
secrets, and finally by love, as Danny and Lucia embark upon an affair that is
as profound as it is dangerous. Nicolas, driven by greed, soon finds a welcome
home in the dark world of corruption and vice that lies behind the glitzy
facade of America's city of dreams. Danny McCabe is desperate to bury the dark
secret of his past, while Lucia is caught in the crossfire between her brother
and the man she loves.
The Bitter Season is by Tami Hoag. A middle-aged couple - hacked to death in
their own home - with a samurai sword. Normal people. Who were they? And why
were they targeted? Twenty years ago a policeman was murdered in his own back
garden and the killer was never caught. One woman might link these mysteries.
But she is being watched. Can Detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac find her
before it is too late?
Tattletale is by Sarah J Naughton. One day changes Jody's life forever. She has
shut herself
down, haunted by her memories and unable to trust anyone. But then
she meets Abe, the perfect stranger next door and suddenly life seems full of
possibility and hope. One day changes Mags's life forever. After years of
estrangement from her family, Mags receives a shocking phone call. Her brother
Abe is in hospital and no-one knows what happened to him. She meets his fiance
Jody, and gradually pieces together the ruins of the life she left behind. But
the pieces don't quite seem to fit.
April 2017
Don’t Let Go is by Michel Bussi. In an idyllic resort on the island of La
Reunion, Liane Bellion and her husband Martial are enjoying the perfect moment
with their 6-year-old daughter. Turquoise skies, blue sea, palm trees, a warm
breeze. Then Liane disappears. She went up to her hotel room between 3 and 4pm
and never came back. Her husband, worried, had gone to the room along with the
concierge - the room was empty but there was blood everywhere. Despite his
protestations of innocence, the police view Martial as their prime suspect. He was
the only other person who went to the hotel room between 3 and 4pm according to
the staff of the hotel. Then he disappears along with his daughter. With
Martial as prime suspect, helicopters scan the island, racial tensions surface,
and more corpses are found. Is he really his wife's killer? And if he isn't,
why does he appear to be so guilty?
Don't
look for me. It was a simple instruction. And for six years Carter Blake has
kept his word. He hasn't looked for the woman he once loved and lost. But now
her life is in danger and Blake is forced to break that promise. Trenton Gage
is a hitman with a talent for finding people - dead or alive. His latest job is
to track down a woman who's on the run, harbouring a secret many would kill
for. It turns out Blake and Gage are after the same person - but who will get
to her first? Don’t Look For Me
is by Mason Cross.
May 2017
A
missing child. When wealthy businessman Leonard Howell's daughter is kidnapped,
the police jump on it straight away. But Howell knows this won't be
straightforward - he needs someone willing to break the rules. A criminal
lawyer. Once a con artist, now a hotshot lawyer, Eddie Flynn's learnt that fast
talk and sleight of hand are just as important in the courtroom are they are on
the street. Knowing what it's like to lose a daughter, he'll stop at nothing to
save Howell's. A corrupt case. With a client on trial for his life, and the
body count rising, Eddie Flynn is starting to fear that the whole thing was a
set-up from the very beginning. The only question is who is deadlier - the man
who knows the truth, or the one who believes a lie? A missing girl, a desperate
father and a case that threatens to destroy everyone involved - Eddie Flynn's
got his work cut out. The Liar is by Steve Cavanagh.
June 2017
A Twist of the Knife is by Becky
Masterman. It takes a strong woman to be
able to watch someone die. Brigid Quinn is tough, determined, steely and
sharper than sharp. As an ex-agent of the FBI she has seen it all, and
survived. But nothing can cut her closer to the bone than family...When Brigid
gets a call from her mother saying her father is in hospital with pneumonia,
she decides to check on her former colleague Laura Coleman who is living
nearby. Having saved Brigid's life, Laura is now working on an 'innocence
project', investigating cold cases. And one in particular seems to have caught
her attention. Fifteen years before, Marcus Creighton was accused of killing
his wife and three children. Now the state governor has signed the warrant for
his execution. Worried that her friend is getting in too deep, Brigid promises
to help. But what if her instincts are betraying her? If she can't even trust
her memories of her own childhood, how can she make a call on some stranger's
story that took place over fifteen years before?
DC
Fiona Griffiths is bored. It's been months since she had a good corpse, let
alone a decent murder to deal with, and it's frankly driving her nuts. And then
comes the news, and she has to literally stop herself from jumping with joy:
not just a murder, but a decapitation, with an antique sword no less, and a
murder scene that has been laid out like a particularly gruesome crossword
clue. Gaynor Charteris was an archaeologist leading a team excavating a nearby
iron-age site. Genial, respected, well-liked, it was hard to see why anyone
would want to kill her in such a brutal way. But as Fiona starts to dig beneath
the surface, she finds evidence of a crime that leads back to King Arthur and
his final battle - a crime so bizarre that getting her superiors to take it
seriously is going to be her toughest job. Especially since the crime hasn't
yet been committed. The Deepest Grave is by Harry Bingham.
The Boy is by Tami Hoag and she returns
with a gripping suspense thriller starring detectives Broussard and Fourcade.
Mother In the sleepy Lousiana town of Bayou Breaux, a mother runs to her
neighbour - bloody and hysterical. The police arrive to find Genevieve Gauthier
cradling her seven-year-old son in her arms as he bleeds to death. Liar
Detective Nick Fourcade finds no evidence of a break-in. His partner Detective
Annie Broussard is troubled by parts of Genevieve's story that don't make
sense. Twenty four hours later teenager Nora Florette is reported missing.
Local parents fear a maniac is preying on their children, and demand answers
from the police. Murderer? Fourcade and Broussard discover something shocking
about Genevieve's past. She is both victim and the accused; a grieving mother
and a woman with a deadly secret. Could she have something to do with the
disappearance of teenager Nora Florette? A unbearable loss or an unthinkable
crime?
Denise
Ang, a thirty year-old researcher at a Newcastle hospital, sees a story in the
paper about a young woman’s death. Stories emerge to say she was an escort
favoured by top political figures, but as Denise finds herself getting more
involved in the investigations, she realises that she’s in deeper than she
first thought. You Don’t Know Me is by Brooke Magnanti
July 2017
