Showing posts with label Caz Frear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caz Frear. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 December 2023

Forthcoming Books from Simon and Schuster

 January 2024

The Search Party is by Hannah Richell. Five old friends. One glamping weekend. A storm that will change everything. Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. They invite old university friends – TV star Dominic, doctor and new mum Kira, and free-spirited Jim and Suze – and their children for a trial weekend but the reunion quickly veers off-course. First, there’s The Incident around the campfire on the first night. The following afternoon, a storm quickly develops off the rugged North Coast. When one of their group goes missing, all hell breaks loose. And as the winds batter the bell-tents, emotions run high and tension mounts for all the characters. Who is lying in hospital, who has gone missing and who is the body on the beach below the cliffs . . .?

February 2024

Some stories demand to be told. They keep coming back, echoing down through the decades, until they find a teller . . . Dublin, 1943. Actress Julia Bridges disappears. The last sighting of her is entering the house of Gloria Fitzpatrick, who is later put on trial for the murder of another woman whose abortion she facilitated. But it’s never proved that Gloria had a hand in Julia’s death – and Julia’s body has never been found. Gloria, however, is sentenced to life in an institution for the criminally insane, until her apparent suicide a few years later, and the truth of what happened to Julia Bridges dies with her. Until . . . Dublin, 1968. Nicoletta Sarto is an ambitious junior reporter for the Irish Sentinel when the bones of Julia Bridges are discovered in the garden of a house on the outskirts of Dublin. Drawn into investigating the 25-year-old mystery of Julia’s disappearance and her link to the notorious Gloria Fitzpatrick, the story takes Nicoletta into the tangled underworld of the illegal abortion industry, stirring up long-buried secrets from her own past. Where They Lie is by Claire Coughlan. 

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? Is by Nicci French. She’s loved by all who meet her. But someone wants her gone . . . 1990. When beautiful and vivacious Charlotte Salter fails to turn up to her husband Alec’s 50th birthday party, her kids are worried, but Alec is not. As the days pass and there’s still no word from Charlie, her daughter, Etty, and her sons, Niall, Paul and Ollie, all struggle to come to terms with her disappearance. How can anyone just vanish without a trace? Left with no answers and in limbo, the Salter children try and go on with their lives, all the while thinking that their mother’s killer is potentially very close to home. Now After years away, Etty returns home to the small East Anglian village where she grew up to help move her father into a care home. Now in his eighties, Alec has dementia and often mistakes his daughter for her mother.  Etty is a changed woman from the trouble-free girl she was when Charlie was still around - all the Salter children have spent decades running and hiding from their mother’s disappearance. But when their childhood friends, Greg and Morgen Ackerley, decide to do a podcast about Charlotte’s disappearance, it seems like the town’s buried secrets – and the Salters’ – might finally come to light. After all this time, will they finally find out what really happened to Charlotte Salter?

March 2024

Deliver Me is by Malin Persson Giolito. Dogge is from affluent Rönnviken in Stockholm. Billy lives in the concrete towers of Våringe, a few hundred yards across a highway but a world apart. They met as six-year-olds at Rönnviken’s playground and have been unlikely best friends ever since. From the outside, Dogge looks privileged: he lives in a large home and there is plenty of money—at first. But his parents are addicts whose negligence becomes a form of abuse. Meanwhile, Billy’s family are poor first-generation immigrants unable to escape the no-go zone where they live. But their cramped apartment is nonetheless a bastion of love. When gangs tighten their grip on Våringe, a ruthless small-time boss seeks recruits and both Dogge and Billy become runners by the time they’re twelve. Fast cash, easy access to drugs, and the dream of gaining status draw them in. But when Billy wants to leave the gang and finds himself trapped, the boys must face the violent rules of the adult game they tried to play. When children commit horrible crimes, who bears the responsibility? With piercing prose and a breathless sense of urgency, Deliver Me is at once a poignant portrayal of the power of friendship and a shattering depiction of what happens when society fails to protect those that need it most. What does justice mean for these lost children and is the law capable of delivering it?

One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic. It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear. When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – and DCS Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case. But with the discovery of another man’s body – also crucified – it appears that their killer is only just getting started. With the police warning local men to be vigilant, the Future Policing Unit is thrust into a hostile media frenzy as they desperately search for connections between the victims. But time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death. For if Kat and Lock know anything, it’s that killers rarely stop – until they are made to. Leave No Trace is by Jo Callaghan. 

April 2024

One womens secret. Two sides to every story. Three deadly betrayals. Four potential suspects. Five bad deeds. Ellen Walsh has done something very, very bad. If only she knew what it was . . . Teacher, mother, wife, and all-around good citizen Ellen is juggling non-stop commitments, from raising a teen and two toddlers to job-hunting, to finally renovating her dream home, the Meadowhouse. Amidst the chaos, an ominous note arrives in the mail declaring: Soon or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences. Why would someone send her this note? Ellen has no clue. She's no angel - a white lie here and there, an occasional sharp tongue - but nothing to incur the wrath of an anonymous enemy. Everyone around Ellen - her husband, her teenage daughter, her sister, her best friend, her neighbours - can guess why, though.  They all know from bitter experience that while Ellen’s intentions are always good, this ultimately counts for very little when you’ve (unintentionally?) blown up someone’s life.  Could the five bad deeds that come to haunt Ellen explain why things have gone so horribly wrong? As she races to discover who’s set on destroying her life, Ellen receives more anonymous messages, each one more threatening than the last . . . and each hitting closer and closer to home and everything she cherishes. Five Bad Deeds is by Caz Frear. 

Hangman Island is by Kate Rhodes. On a remote island. When Jez Cardew’s boat is found drifting empty on the Atlantic Ocean, DI Ben Kitto and his fellow lifeboat crew members immediately fear the worst. After an extensive search yields no results, the team are forced to retreat to dry land as darkness sets in. The ocean is merciless. But Kitto can’t let it go. Why would Jez – an experienced sailor – get into difficulty when the sea has been calm for weeks? Unless his disappearance was no accident. But so are the people. The gruesome discovery of a hand washed ashore on the beach confirms his hunch. Because a medal is attached to the index finger, and it can only have been placed there by the killer. This strange clue is the only lead to an agenda as cold as the ocean itself. Kitto must work fast, before the small, isolated community closes ranks. And it’s only a matter of time before the murderer among them strikes again . . .

Two murders. Two decades apart. One chance to get justice. Hana Westerman has left Auckland and her career as a detective behind her. Settled in a quiet coastal town, all she wants is a fresh start. The discovery of a skeleton in the dunes near her house changes everything. The remains are those of a young Māori woman who went missing five years before, and Hana has a connection to the case. Twenty years ago, a schoolfriend of hers was found buried in the exact same spot. Her killer died in prison, but did the police get the wrong man? And if he was innocent, then why did he plead guilty? No longer part of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Hana turns to her ex-husband Jaye, a high-flying Detective Inspector, for help. But when he cuts her out of the investigation, she realises that she will have to find the answers she needs on her own. But in digging deeper, she sets herself on a potentially fatal collision course with a killer. Return to Blood is by Michael Bennett.

May 2024

Missing White Woman is by Kellye Garrett. Beautiful. Blonde. Missing. Murdered. It was supposed to be a romantic getaway to New York City. Breanna's new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything – the train tickets, the sightseeing itinerary, the four-story Jersey City rowhouse with the gorgeous view of the Manhattan skyline.  But then Bree wakes up one morning and discovers recently missing dog-walker Janelle Beckett dead in the foyer. Ty is gone, vanished without a trace. A Black woman alone in a strange city, Bree is stranded and out of her depth. There’s only one person she can turn to: her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past. As the police and a social media mob close in, all looking for #Justice4Janelle, Bree realises that the only way she can stay out of jail is if she finds out what really happened that night. But when people see only what they want to see, can she uncover the truth hiding in plain sight? 

Red Sky Mourning is by Jack Carr. You think you know James Reece. Think again. A storm is on the horizon. America’s days are numbered. A Chinese submarine has gone rogue and is navigating towards the continental United States, putting its nuclear missiles within striking distance of the West Coast. A rising Silicon Valley tech mogul with unknown allegiances is at the forefront of a revolution in quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence. A politician controlled by a foreign power is a breath away from the Oval Office. Three seemingly disconnected events are on a collision course to ignite a power grab unlike anything the world has ever seen. The country’s only hope is a quantum computer that has gone dark, retreating to the deepest levels of the internet, learning at a rate inconceivable at her inception. But during her time in hiding, she has done more than learn. She has become a weapon, positioned to act as either the country’s greatest saviour or its worst enemy. She is known as ‘Alice’, and her only connection to the outside world is a former Navy SEAL sniper named James Reece who has left the violence of his past life behind. With the walls closing in, James Reece is on a race to dismantle a conspiracy that has forced America to her knees. 

Daniel Lohr, sensing that the Nazis are closing in on the Jews, leaves his dying father in Berlin and boards a ship to Shanghai. His passage is dependent upon him delivering a package to his shady uncle, his father’s brother, upon arrival. Daniel has no idea what the package contains. On board is Leah, also fleeing the Nazis. She and Daniel conduct a passionate but brief shipboard affair, but are separated as soon as the ship docks in Shanghai. Will he ever see her again? Daniel is immediately plunged into his uncle’s seductive and corrupt world, and becomes involved in the launch of a new nightclub, the biggest, best and most glitzy in town. When violence breaks out and lives are at risk, he finds himself drawn irrevocably into the terrifying underworld that is wartime Shanghai. Shanghai is by Joseph Kanon.

June 2024

Eye of the Beholder is by Emma Bamford. When Maddy Wight is suddenly tapped to ghostwrite the memoir of the world-renowned cosmetic surgeon Dr. Angela Reynolds, she thinks it might just be the thing to get her career back on track. She travels to Angela's remote estate in the Scottish highlands to hunker down and learn everything she can about her incredibly enigmatic new boss, and the kaleidoscopic beauty industry she leads. As Maddy learns more about her subject, she begins to notice strange gaps in the details of Angela's life. As the threads prove more difficult to pull, she begins to wonder if there just might be a bit more beneath the surface of the doctor and her business than she'd care to let on. Sharing the glass-walled house is Angela's business partner, Scott, whose mercurial moods change as quickly as the weather on the harsh landscape outside. When a series of strange occurances--from strange prints on the windows and moving statues, to a mysterious hiker that keeps sniffing around around--force them closer together, she finds herself drawn to Scott despite his Jekyll and Hyde persona. As Maddy completes her project and returns to London, she's thrilled when Angela invites her to attend the book launch. The elegant evening is suddenly shattered, however, when Angela receives the devestating news that Scott has leapt to his death from the cliffs just beyond the house. Which is why, months later and lost in a fog of grief, Maddy is completely blindsided when she looks up and sees him entering the tube station just in front of her. It can't be him, can it? After all, Scott is dead... or is he?

The Death Watcher is by Chris Carter. When a routine autopsy on what looked like a straightforward hit-and-run leads the LA Chief Medical Examiner, Dr Carolyn Hove, to discover some puzzling inconsistencies, she calls in Detective Robert Hunter of the LAPD Ultra Violent Crimes Unit. Not only did Dr Hove discover that the death wasn’t caused by a hit-and-run, but she also found indications that the victim had been severely tortured prior to death. What no one realises is that what Dr Hove has stumbled upon is just the tip of the iceberg and it will lead Hunter and his partner, Carlos Garcia, on the trail of a twisted and clever killer who hides in plain sight. A serial killer no one even knew existed – a killer who has always operated under the radar, expertly disguising every gruesome murder as an accidental death. But with no leads as to why the victim was targeted, the investigation comes to a standstill, until another body is discovered with an alternative cause of death.  What becomes clear is that this serial killer isn’t going to stop – unless Hunter and Garcia can get to him.

Murder is never just a walk in the park . . . When friends Louise and Irina find a dead body in the local park whilst walking their dogs, they are soon drawn into the mystery of who murdered local entrepreneur Phil Creasey. Phil used to be a member of their dog walking community – nicknamed The Pack – until the death of his cockapoo, and The Pack feel they owe it to Phil to investigate his death. With Louise and Irina leading the charge, they soon come up against local drug dealers, stolen cars and a disturbing incident of poisoned dog biscuits. Have The Pack bitten off more than they can chew, or can they follow their noses and solve the crime? The Dog Park Detectives is by Blake Mara. 

Also due out in June is Redemption by Jack Jordan. 






Monday, 6 January 2020

Books to Look Forward to from Bonnier Zaffre

January 2020
Hitler’s Secret is by Rory Clements.  The war is going badly for Britain and its allies. If Hitler is to be stopped, a new weapon is desperately needed. In Cambridge, professor Tom Wilde is approached by an American intelligence officer who claims to know of such a weapon - one so secret even Hitler himself isn't aware of its existence. If Wilde can smuggle the package out of Germany, the Third Reich will surely fall. But it is only when he is deep behind enemy lines that Wilde discovers why the Nazis are so desperate to prevent the 'package' falling into Allied hands. And as ruthless killers hunt him through Europe, a treacherous question hangs over the mission: if Hitler's secret will win them the war, why is Wilde convinced it must remain hidden?


Stasi Winter is by David Young.   In 1978 East Germany, nothing is at it seems. The state's power is absolute, history is re-written, and the 'truth' is whatever the Stasi say it is. So when a woman's murder is officially labelled 'accidental death', Major Karin Muller of the People's Police is faced with a dilemma. To solve the crime, she must disregard the official version of events. But defying the Stasi means putting her own life - and the lives of her young family - in danger. As the worst winter in living memory holds Germany in its freeze, Muller must untangle a web of state secrets and make a choice: between truth and lies, justice and injustice, and, ultimately, life and death.
 
February 2020
The Oath is by Klaus-Peter Wolf. If the system can't make them pay, then he will . . . Former chief of police, Ubbo Heide, is enjoying a peaceful seaside retirement - until a gruesome package containing a severed head turns up on his doorstep and catapults him back into a world he left behind. When a torso is found on the local beach, it's assumed it's from the same victim. That is until a second head turns up. As the investigation reaches fever pitch, Chief Inspector Ann Kathrin Klaasen, now assigned to the case, realises that the two victims are connected. Soon it's clear that this quiet coastal community is facing a brutal serial killer. One who is taking justice into his own hands.

March 2020 
You don't know who they are. You don't know why they're hunting her. But you know she's in danger. What do you do? When teacher Jenni Wales sees 15-year-old Destiny's black eye, she's immediately worried. Destiny isn't your average student: she's smart, genius IQ smart, and she's in care. But concern turns to fear when Jenni witnesses an attempt to abduct Jenni from school. Who are these men and what can Destiny know to make them hunt her? With those around her not taking the threat seriously, Jenni does the only thing she can think of to keep Destiny safe: she takes her.  To Keep You Safe is by Kate Bradley.

April 2020
DC Jack Warr and his girlfriend Maggie have just moved to London to start a new life together. Though charming, Jack can't seem to find his place in the world - until he's drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down. In the aftermath of a fire at an isolated cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remains of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes. Jack's search leads him deep into a murky criminal underworld - a world he finds himself surprisingly good at navigating. But as the line of the law becomes blurred, how far will Jack go to find the answers - and what will it cost him!  Buried is by Lynda La Plante.

No Going Back is by Sheena Kamal.  Nora Watts is being hunted . . . When Nora Watts is approached by a man claiming to know her late father, she is thrown into turmoil. Struggling with the imminent death, from cancer, of her friend and mentor Sebastian Crow, she is unprepared for the memories that this encounter brings back. What happened to her father that made him kill himself and abandon Nora and her sister? Heading to Detroit to try and find some answers about his life there, Nora expects to discover a reason behind his suicide. Instead, she finds more questions than answers. But trouble always follows Nora, and it's found her in Detroit, a city that is as broken as she is.

The Call of the Raven  is by Wilbur Smith and Corban Addision.  'The right of the cat over the mouse, of the strong over the weak. The natural law of existence.' Mungo St John, A Falcon Flies The son of a wealthy plantation owner and a doting mother, Mungo St John is accustomed to the wealth and luxuries his privilege has afforded him. That is until he returns from university to discover his family ruined, his inheritance stolen and his childhood sweetheart, Camilla, taken by the conniving Chester Marion. Fuelled by anger, and love, Mungo swears vengeance and devotes his life to saving Camilla - and destroying Chester. Camilla, trapped in New Orleans, powerless to her position as a kept slave and suffering at the hands of Chester's brutish behaviour, must learn to do whatever it takes to survive. As Mungo battles his own fate and misfortune to achieve the revenge that drives him, and regain his power in the world, he must question what it takes for a man to survive when he has nothing, and what he is willing to do in order to get what he wants.

We Begin at the End is by Chris Whitaker and is a powerful novel about absolute love and the lengths we will go to keep our family safe. This is a story about good and evil and how life is lived somewhere in between. 'You can't save someone that doesn't want to be saved . . .' For some people, trouble just finds them. Thirty years ago, Vincent King became a killer. Now, he's been released from prison and is back in his hometown of Cape Haven, California. Not everyone is pleased to see him. Like Star Radley, his ex-girlfriend, and sister of the girl he killed. Duchess Radley, Star's thirteen-year-old daughter, is part-carer, part-protector to her younger brother, Robin - and to her deeply troubled mother. But in trying to protect Star, Duchess inadvertently sets off a chain of events that will have tragic consequences not only for her family, but also the whole town. Murder, revenge, retribution. How far can we run from the past when the past seems doomed to repeat itself?

May 2020
Seven housemates. Seven lies. Would you join . . . The House Share? Immi thought she had found the perfect new home in central London: a shared warehouse with luxury accommodation, a rooftop terrace and daily yoga, all with a surprisingly affordable price tag. The Dye Factory is a 'co-living' community, designed to combat the loneliness of big city life. But soon after she moves into her new haven, Immi realises that it's not quite as idyllic as it appears. No one seems to know who is behind this multi-million pound urban experiment. And her housemates may be hiding a dangerous secret . . . Then, as a series of pranks escalates into something much darker, Immi is left questioning whether, in this group of strangers, she can ever really be safe. And when you're sharing a house, you can't always lock the danger out.   The House Share is by Kate Helm.

June 2020
The Catch is by T M Logan.  He is not what he seems . . . Ed is delighted to meet his twenty-three year old daughter's fiance for the first time. Abbey is head-over-heels in love with her new man. Smart, successful and handsome, Ryan appears to be the perfect future son-in-law. There's just one problem. There's something off about Ryan. Something hidden in the shadows behind his eyes. And it seems that only Ed can see it. Terrified that his daughter is being drawn in by a psychopath, Ed sets out to uncover her fiance's dark past - while keeping his own concealed. But no-one believes him. And the more he digs, the more he alienates her and the rest of the family who are convinced that Ryan is 'the one'. Ed knows different. For reasons of his own, he knows a monster when he sees one...

The Return is by Harry Sidebottom.  He came home a hero. But death isn't finished with him yet . . . 145BC - CALABRIA, ANCIENT ROME. Gaius Furius Paullus has returned home after years of spilling blood for Rome. One of the lucky few to survive a lifetime of brutal battle, he intends to spend his remaining days working quietly on the family farm. But it seems death has stalked Paullus from the battlefield. Just days after his arrival, bodies start appearing - murdered and mutilated. And as the deaths stack up, and panic spreads, the war hero becomes the prime suspect. After all, Paullus has killed countless enemies on the battlefield - could he have brought his habit home with him? With the psychological effects of combat clouding every thought, Paullus must use all his soldier's instincts to hunt the real killer. Because if they are not brought to justice soon, he may become the next victim. 

Rogue is by James Swallow.  All spooks know that, in modern espionage, every action has a reaction. One wrong move could sink an entire region into turmoil - even war. Former MI6 operative Marc Dane understands this better than anyone. Dedicating your life to protecting the country means collecting enemies, and a lot of them. But for those hellbent on bringing the West to its knees, each failed plot has one thing in common: private intelligence agency The Rubicon Group, and Dane's employer. Only if Rubicon crumbles will their path truly be clear. With the clock ticking, Dane must unpick a monstrous and deadly conspiracy that stretches from the corridors of Westminster to the mountains of Mozambique. One that threatens not only Rubicon, but the lives of millions of civilians. And time is fast running out.

Someone Knows the Truth (Shed No Tears) is by Caz Frear. Four victims. Killer caught. Case closed . . . Or is it? Christopher Masters, known as 'The Roommate Killer', strangled three women over a two-week period in a London house in November 2012. Holly Kemp, his fourth victim, was never found. Until now. Her remains have been unearthed in a field in Cambridgeshire and DC Cat Kinsella and the major investigation team are called in, but immediately there are questions surrounding the manner of her death. And with Masters now dead, no one to answer them. DCI Tessa Dyer, the lead on the 2012 case, lends the team a hand, as does DCI Steele's old boss and mentor, the now retired Detective Chief Superintendent Oliver Cairns. With Masters dead, Cat and the team have to investigate every lead again. But if you’d got away with murder, what would you do when the case is re-opened? 

Wednesday, 24 October 2018

books to look Forward to From Bonnier Zaffre


January 2019

Sometimes the people we trust are the ones we should fear. We all recognise them. Those who sit just on the fringes of society. Who send prickles up the back of our necks. The charmers. The liars. The manipulators. Those who have the potential to go that one step too far. And then take another step. Jessamine Gooch makes a living from these people. Each week she broadcasts a radio show looking into the past lives of convicted killers; asking if there was more that could have been done to prevent their terrible crimes. Then one day she is approached by a woman desperate to find her missing friend, Cassie, fearing her abusive husband may have taken that final deadly step. But as Jessamine delves into the months prior to Cassie's disappearance she fails to realise there is a dark figure closer to home, one that threatens the safety of her own family . . .   The Dangerous Kind is by Deborah O’Connor.

Nemesis is by Rory Clements.  A race against time to unmask a Nazi spy. In a great English house, a young woman offers herself to one of the most powerful and influential figures in the land - but this is no ordinary seduction. She plans to ensure his death . . . On holiday in France, Professor Tom Wilde discovers his brilliant student Julian Marfield, who disappeared two years earlier to join the International Brigades in Spain, in the Le Vernet concentration camp in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Wilde secures his release just as German tanks roll into Poland. Meanwhile, a U-boat sinks the liner Athenia in the Atlantic with many casualties, including Americans, onboard. Goebbels claims Churchill put a bomb in the ship to blame Germany and to lure America into the war. As the various strands of an international conspiracy begin to unwind, Tom Wilde will find himself in great personal danger. For just who is Julian Marfield? And where does his loyalty lie? 

February 2019

Dolly, Linda, Shirley and Bella are back.  And this time it’s a fight to the finish. Against all the odds, Dolly Rawlins and her gangland widows managed the impossible: a heist their husbands had failed to pull off - at the cost of their lives. But though they may be in the money, they're far from easy street. Shocked by her husband's betrayal, Dolly discovers Harry Rawlins isn't dead. He knows where the four women are and he wants them to pay. And he doesn't just mean getting his hands on the money. The women can't keep running. They have to get Harry out of their lives for good. But can they outwit a criminal mastermind who won't hesitate to kill? Especially when one of them has a plan of her own . . . to kill or be killed.   Revenge is by Lynda La Plante.

March 2019

For psychological profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schoen, life is good. She and her partner, investigator Peter Lindgren, have just returned from a dream holiday in Greenland and the symptoms of her early onset dementia seem to be under control. Then they are asked to go to the small, sleepy industrial town of Ormberg to investigate a cold case: ten years earlier a five-year-old girl's remains were found in a cairn near the town. With her dementia creeping back again, Hanne starts to keep a diary noting down everything she is likely to forget. She will go to any lengths to keep up appearances so she doesn't lose her job, or worse: Peter. Then Hanne is found wandering around the outskirts of Ormberg lost, hurt and confused - and Peter is missing. When the body of a woman is found at the cairn and one of Hanne's shoes is found nearby covered in the victim's blood, can Hanne's diary hold the key to what happened? How does this new murder connect to their old one - and where is Peter?  After She’s Gone is by Camilla Grebe.

April 2019

Stasi 77 is by David Young.  A secret State. A dark conspiracy. A terrible crime. Karin Muller of the German Democratic Republic's People's Police is called to a factory in the east of the country. A man has been murdered - bound and trapped as a fire burned nearby, slowly suffocating him. But who is he? Why was he targeted? Could his murderer simply be someone with a grudge against the factory's nationalisation, as Muller's Stasi colleagues insist? Why too is her deputy Werner Tilsner behaving so strangely? As more victims surface, it becomes clear that there is a cold-blooded killer out there taking their revenge. Soon Muller begins to realise that in order to solve these terrible crimes, she will need to delve into the region's dark past. But are the Stasi really working with her on this case? Or against her? For those who really run this Republic have secrets they would rather remain uncovered. And they will stop at nothing to keep them that way.

May 2019

Your Deepest Fear is by David Jackson.  ...They're here. They're-' The message on Sara Prior's phone contains the last words she will ever hear from her husband. Racing to find him, she discovers he has been brutally murdered. While the police struggle to uncover evidence around this shocking crime, it becomes clear that Sara is no ordinary bereaved wife. And she is not the sort of woman to let things lie. Following a hidden clue in her husband's last desperate phone-call, Sara follows the trail to the house of the last person she'd expect . . . Meanwhile DS Nathan Cody finds himself drawn into the darkest and most twisted case of his career. And this time things are about to get very very personal. 

Things are about to go viral in Marc Dane's most dangerous adventure yet . . . Marc and his partner - former US Delta Force sniper Lucy Keyes - are pitted against their most terrifying challenge yet, when a genius bio-researcher with the ability to create a deadly biological weapon is kidnapped by a ruthless terrorist. Their desperate search for the missing scientist takes them across the world, from the desolate wilderness of Iceland to the slums of the Near East and the dark underbelly of a fracturing Europe, where they will discover a shocking atrocity in the making. Backed by shadowy interests, a cadre of hardline ultra-right-wing extremists plan to unleash a lethal virus among the population of a major European city. Only Marc Dane can prevent this devastating attack from taking place - before a whole continent is plunged into terror...   Shadow is by James Swallow.

June 2019

The Holiday is by T M Logan.  Seven days. Three families. One killer. It was supposed to be the perfect holiday - a group of families enjoying a week together in the sun. Four women who have been best friends for as long as they can remember - Kate, Rowan, Jennifer and Izzy - making the most of a luxurious villa in the south of France. But Kate has a secret: her husband is having an affair. And a week away might just be the perfect opportunity to get the proof she needs - to catch him in the act once and for all. Because she suspects the other woman is one of her two best friends. One of them is working against her, willing to sacrifice years of friendship to destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined . . . Because someone in the villa may be prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden. 

 The Possession is by Michael Rutger.  A team of explorers are drawn to Northern California to investigate mysterious stone walls whose presence has never been explained.  Soon they will become drawn into a missing person’s case being investigated nearby – and come to realise that the two are connected in terrifying ways.

Stone Cold Heart is by Caz Frear.  When Joseph Madden approaches DC Cat Kinsella, he's looking for her help with his wife, Rosa, who he says has been threatening him, although he refuses to discuss why. Dismissing it as a marriage on the rocks, Cat tells him that there's not much the police can do without firm evidence of harassment. When Joseph is then arrested for the murder of Naomi Petrovic, his defence is that his wife is setting him up. Naomi was at a party attended by the couple and hosted by Rosa's best friend and sister-in-law, Kirstie Connor. A woman who is described as being 'close' to Joseph. Appearing genuinely outraged at her husband's arrest, Rosa insists that he is innocent, but when key pieces of evidence against Joseph start to look shaky, Cat begins to consider that he might be telling the truth. But why would Rosa frame her husband for murder? And who, then, killed Naomi Petrovic? The truth is never simple. Who would you believe? 

A.D. 79. Parthia is gripped by civil war. One king vying for the throne, desperate for help, welcomes an alliance from an unlikely source: a man claiming to be Nero, the dethroned Roman emperor. Meanwhile, young Gaius wishes he could spend his summer on the Bay of Naples amongst his books. Instead Pliny, the famous admiral, has sent him to befriend the nephew of Ulpius, the mysterious blind senator from Spain. A man Pliny does not trust. But when a Parthian hostage is nearly killed, days before Parthian emissaries are expected, and as rumours of the False Nero entering the land reaches Rome, Gaius and Pliny race to learn how these events are connected. As the political intrigue comes to a head, something happens that only the mysterious clairvoyant Sybil could have foreseen: Mount Vesuvius erupts, and black ash fills the sky . . .  The Exiled is by David Barbaree.

August 2019

Renowned surgeon Michael Trenchard locks his office door and prepares for a relaxing evening – Wagner and a fine Scotch.  A knock at the dorr: the person who excites him more than anyone else.  But what follows will turn his dreams into a living nightmare …. for he will be discovered later that night in a locked-in coma, the victim of auto-erotic asphyxiation .. Can this really be an accident?  It is left to Dr Kash Devan, Trenchard’s young protégé  to uncover the truth.  What he discovers is chilling: in his ruthless pursuit of wealth and success Trenchard has left a trail of wrecked lives behind him.   Which of his victims hated him so much they wanted to ruin not only his reputation, but also his life.  Control is by Hugh Montgomery.