Newcastle Noir 2021

 

The panels for Newcastle Noir have been announced. 

Panel 1 - 10.00 – 10.45 In the Line of Duty

Robert Scragg, Howard Linskey and Tariq Ashkanani

There’s something about a police procedural that takes the reader to the heart of the crime and up close and personal with those bringing law and order to dark, disturbed places. With three authors who set their investigations locally, nationally and a bit further afield, we kick off NN2021 by examining what makes a successful fictional detective and why we’re ever drawn to watching them uncover the truth.

Panel 2 - 11.15 – 12.00pm Murder She Wrote… and So Much More!

LJ Ross, Judith O’Reilly and Fiona Erskine

Creating protagonists that linger long after the last page is turned, capturing the essence of place, bringing us plots that keep us twisting and turning, but what if an author’s crime writing was not their first calling? These best-selling authors all had a life before thrilling us with their gloriously dark tales and this session will look at how these earlier experiences may have influenced the text and why crime fiction is now so important to them.

Panel 3 - 12.30 – 1.15pm From Whitley Bay to Blackwood Bay

Ann Cleeves and SJ Watson

The crime scene is an integral part of crime fiction and the impact of the evil committed there is even greater when it happens right on our doorstep. In this panel we’ll discuss writing home or away, creating fictional close-knit communities, and portraying ordinary lives turned upside down by unexpected, shocking events. Oh, and if we’ve time, we’ll ask these highly acclaimed authors what happens when your gripping page-turner of a novel becomes all-important viewing. Not to be missed!

Panel 4 - 1.45 – 2.30pm North by Northwest

Rob Parker and SE Moorhead

From across the Pennines, we bring you crime writing that packs more of a punch than Tyson Fury. An ex-soldier and ex-convict on one last mission for an old friend, a detective sergeant with the heart of a lion, and a neuropsychologist whose new technology might just catch a menacing serial killer. No, we’re not talking about the authors, but rather the protagonists they have created who are willing to risk everything to see justice served.

Panel 5 - 3.00 – 3.45pm Will We Ever Get Out of Here?

Chris McGeorge and DL Marshall

Edgar Allen Poe, Agatha Christie and Gaston Leroux first showed us the criminally delicious tension and intrigue that was to be found in the locked-room mystery. Fast forward 80 years and our authors on this panel will demonstrate the tremendous flexibility of this mystery subgenre. Nowadays the scene of the crime has grown to encompass actual areas, like houses or islands. The suspense lies in knowing that you may be next!

Panel 6 - 4.15 – 5.00pm Don’t Look Away!

Michael J Malone, Louise Beech and Sarah Sultoon

Writing stories that dare us to consider what we often prefer to ignore takes great skill and sensitivity. Given the overwhelming success of a similar panel at previous NN festivals, we wanted to explore further how fact informs fiction when treating such highly sensitive issues. To that end we have brought together three thought-provoking authors who are highly accomplished in bringing the reader face to face with the shocking and unthinkable.

Panel 7 - 5.30 – 6.15pm Something Wicked this Way Comes!

Matt Wesolowski and ES Thomson

What do a curious Victorian apothecary and an elusive contemporary podcaster have in common? With their darkly atmospheric and chilling tales, we’ll hear how these authors have written award-winning and critically acclaimed crime fiction with a grippingly Gothic touch. We’ll also consider how the creepy, the macabre and the sinister continue to fascinate and resonate down through the centuries. Not for the faint hearted, dare you join us?!

Panel 8 - 7.00 – 7.45pm Daring to be Different

Mari Hannah, Trevor Wood and Harriet Tyce

Crime fiction is often thought to be a highly predictable and formula-driven genre, yet our closing panel brings together authors whose writing has proved this is not always the case. Every so often a voice comes along daring to break the mould, offering us award-winning, critically acclaimed stories with a refreshing edge. Come celebrate Northern crime writing with us in the company of three authors who write with the courage of their convictions.

Tickets can be bought here.

Date:- 

Sunday 5^th December 2021

Time:-

10:00am – 20:00

Location:-

Newcastle City Library

33 New Bridge Street West

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 8AX

Books to Look Forward to from Little Brown

January 2019

What she can't see can hurt her.  I have this dream.  In it, I'm in the house and it's dark and I know someone's in there with me.  Even though I can't see them . . .  For Sarah and Patrick, family life has always been easy. But when Sarah's mother dies, it sends Sarah into a downwards spiral. Knowing they need a fresh start, Patrick moves the family to the beachside house he grew up in.  But there is a catch: while their new home carries only happy memories for Patrick, to everyone else it's known as the Murder House - named for the family that was killed there.  Patrick is adamant they can make it perfect again, though with their children plagued by nightmares and a constant sense they're being watched, Sarah's not so sure.  Because the longer they live in their 'dream home', the more different her loving husband becomes . . . The Woman in the Dark is by Vanessa Savage.

Crime always leaves a stain . . .  Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner, dusts off her detective skills when a masterpiece is stolen from a gallery she cleans with her cousin Sarika. But when Sarika goes missing too, accusations start to fly.  Convinced her cousin is innocent, Lena sweeps her way through the secrets of the London art scene. With the evidence mounting against Sarika and the police on her trail, Lena needs to track down the missing painting if she is to clear her cousin.  Embroiling herself in the sketchy world of thwarted talents, unpaid debts and elegant fraudsters, Lena finds that there's more to this gallery than meets the eye.  A Clean Canvas is by Elizabeth Mundy.

February 2019

Homicide cop Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, are building a brand-new school and youth shelter. They know that the hard life can lead kids toward dangerous crossroads - and with this new project, they hope to nudge a few more of them onto the right

path. For expert help, they hire child psychologist Dr. Rochelle Pickering - whose own brother pulled himself out of a spiral of addiction and crime with Rochelle's support.  Lyle is living with Rochelle while he gets his life together, and he's thrilled to hear about his sister's new job offer. But within hours, triumph is followed by tragedy. Returning from a celebratory dinner with her boyfriend, she finds Lyle dead with a syringe in his lap, and Eve's investigation confirms that this wasn't just another OD. After all his work to get clean, Lyle's been pumped full of poison - and a neighbor with a peephole reports seeing a scruffy, pink-haired girl fleeing the scene.  Now Eve and Roarke must venture into the gang territory where Lyle used to run, and the ugly underground world of tattoo parlors and strip joints where everyone has taken a wrong turn somewhere. They both believe in giving people a second chance. Maybe even a third or fourth. But as far as they're concerned, whoever gave the order on Lyle Pickering's murder has run out of chances....  Connections in Death is by J D Robb.

Dead Man’s Lane is by Kate Ellis.  Some paths only lead to the grave . . .  Strangefields Farm is notorious for its sinister history ever since artist Jackson Temples lured young women there to model for disturbing works of art. Some of those girls never left the house alive.  Now, decades later, Strangefields is to be transformed into a holiday village, but the developer's hopes of its dark history being forgotten are dashed when a skull is found on the site. And when a local florist is found murdered in an echo of Temples' crimes, DI Wesley Peterson fears that a copy-cat killer is at large. Especially when another brutal murder in a nearby village appears to be linked.  As Wesley's friend, archaeologist Dr Neil Watson, uncovers the secrets of Strangefields' grisly past, it seems that an ancient tale of the dead returning to torment the living might not be as fantastical as it seems. And Wesley must work fast to discover who's behind the recent murders . . . before someone close to him is put in danger.

He had started to remove his clothes as logic had deserted him, and his skin cracked.  Whatever had been going through Cameron’s mind when he was alive, he didn’t look peaceful in death.  Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of the outback. In an isolated part of Australia, they are each other's nearest neighbour, their homes hours apart.  They are at the stockman's grave, a landmark so old that no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family's quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish.  Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he choose to walk to his death? Because if he didn't, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects.  The Lost Man is by Jane Harper.

When New York psychologist Will Hardy's wife is killed, he and his teenage daughter Bernadette move into Godwin Hall, a dusty, shut-up mansion in the small town of Abbeville, Ohio.  Meanwhile, Abbeville Chief of Police Ivy Holgrave is investigating the death of a local girl, convinced this may only be the latest in a long line of murders dating back decades - including her own long-missing sister.  But what place does Will's new home have in the story of the missing girls? And what links the killings to the diary of a young woman written over a century earlier?  The Buried Girl is by Richard Montanari.

March 2019

The Department of Sensitive crime is by Alexander McCall Smith.  Mister Varg is a Sandinavian Blanc novel. Scandinavian Blanc is different from Scandinavian Noir: there is nothing noir about the world of Ulf Varg, a detective in the Sensitive Crimes Department in the Swedish city of Malmo. Ulf is concerned with very odd, but not too threatening crimes - injuries to the back of the knee caused by an unknown hand, young women who allow their desperation for a boyfriend to get the better of them, and peculiar goings-on in a spa on Sweden's south coast.  Of course, Ulf is a Swedish detective, and Swedish detectives, by convention, lead lives beset with problems of one sort or another. For a start, there is his name: Ulf derives from the Old Norse word for wolf and Varg means wolf in modern Swedish. But his character is far from vulpine: Ulf is a sympathetic, well-educated, and likeable man, with a knowledge of and interest in Nordic art. He has a dog called Marten, the only dog in Sweden who is capable of lip-reading (but only in Swedish). Martin becomes depressed and needs treatment. Dogs in Sweden are, apparently, particularly prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder. But this is summer - and there must be something else going on.  Ulf has a number of colleagues into whose lives we gain an insight. There is Anna, married to an anaesthetist, but very fond of Ulf; there is Erik, whose sole interest is fishing; Carl, whose father has written a book on the Danish philosopher, Kierkegaard; and there is poor Blomquist, from the uniformed branch, who goes on and on about health issues but who seems to have extraordinary luck in investigations. There is also Ulf's psychotherapist, Dr Svensson, whose observations on Ulf's life - and many other topics - enlightens - or possibly confuses.

Blood Oath is by Linda Fairstein.  Alex Cooper takes on the case of a young woman who testified years earlier at a landmark Federal trial - and now reveals that she was sexually assaulted by a prominent law enforcement official during that time. As the case grows more complex, Alex, along with NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, find themselves in uncharted territory within Manhattan's Rockefeller University, a research institute born of tragedy that has evolved into a premier scientific facility, hospital, and cornerstone of higher learning.  But when dark secrets of the century-old institution intersect with life-threatening events, the experience may just help determine whether Alex will keep her job, or throw her hat in the ring to become the next district attorney of New York County . . . if she can survive that long.

A murder on their doorstep.  A case that's too close to home . . . The body of a young woman has been discovered in Bellahouston park, the second in a matter of months. It's clear to Detective Superintendent William Lorimer of Police Scotland that they have a repeat killer on their hands, who is sure to strike again.  Lucky for DSI Lorimer that his wife, Maggie, is miles away from potential danger, touring Scotland to promote her first book. Faced with strangers at every event, Maggie doesn't notice the quiet, non-descript man sitting in the back row.  But he has noticed Maggie Lorimer. And soon his will be a face she never forgets.  The Stalker is by Alex Gray.

Six confined psychopaths. A killer on the loose.  1935. As Europe prepares itself for a calamitous war, six homicidal lunatics - the so-called 'Devil's Six' - are confined in a remote castle asylum in rural Czechoslovakia. Each patient has their own dark story to tell and Dr Viktor Kosarek, a young psychiatrist using revolutionary techniques, is tasked with unlocking their murderous secrets.  At the same time, a terrifying killer known as 'Leather Apron' is butchering victims across Prague. Successfully eluding capture, it would seem his depraved crimes are committed by the Devil himself.  Maybe they are... and what links him with the insane inmates of the Castle of the Eagles?  Only the Devil knows. And it is up to Viktor to find out.  The Devil Aspect is by Craig Russell.

What is the secret which grips Corvus Hall?  Visiting the Great Exhibition to view the wax anatomical models of the famous but reclusive Dr Merlin Strangeway, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find a severed arm, perfectly dissected and laid out amongst the exhibits. Assuming it to be a prank by medical students, they return it to Dr Strangeway, who works at Corvus Hall, a private anatomy school run by Dr James Crowe - one of  Edinburgh's most revered surgeons and teachers of anatomy. Jem's persistence reveals that a body does indeed lie in the school's mortuary, minus its right arm. But the body has no provenance. More macabre still, its face has been dissected, making identification impossible. Dr Strangeway denies all knowledge, and Dr Crowe seems unwilling to pursue the matter.  At Corvus Hall, Will is employed to illustrate Dr Crowe's new anatomy handbook. Soon, it becomes evident that all is not as it should be. Dr Crowe's daughter, Lilith, visits the mortuary in the dead of night and her twin sisters, Sorrow and Silence - one blind and one deaf - exert a malign influence over the students. Organs, freshly dissected, appear in the anatomy museum. Fear grips lecturers and students, even as something unseen binds them in a bloody pact of silence.  In a mystery that ranges from the wynds of Burke and Hare's Edinburgh to the dissecting tables of London's notorious anatomy schools, Jem and Will find that the stakes have never been higher.  Surgeon’s Hall is by E S Thomson. 

Murder Fest is by Julie Wassmer.  Pearl's detective agency takes a back seat as she prepares to offer a warm welcome to a group of special visitors. A local Arts Festival is being held to honour a cultural exchange visit from representatives of Borken - Whitstable's Twin Town in Germany.  Yet very soon, personality clashes surface among the participants; local politicians try to use the festival for their own ends while others jostle for improved billing on the festival programme. Tempers flare, old feuds re-surface and on the eve of the first event, a cryptic message - Murder Fest - is received by the local police. Before DCI Mike McGuire has a chance to investigate, the festival commences with an unscheduled event when a celebrated author is found brutally murdered . . .  Soon the only 'Arts' on display are dark ones, as Whitstable's celebration of local culture transforms into a real-life murder fest - offering Whitstable's Pearl Nolan another mystery to solve.

April 2019

A game of blackmail and betrayal is played among the backstreets and canals of Venice . . .  Carnevale is in full swing, the streets and waterways of Venice are crowded with masked revellers and Nathan Sutherland's birthday is about to be ruined.  A night at the opera at La Fenice is always a memorable experience - and this time it will be so for all the wrong reasons as the curtain call is interrupted by a fatal stabbing. But why is the dead man carrying one of Nathan's business cards in his wallet?  The mystery of the murdered stranger takes Nathan on the trail of a lost opera by Monteverdi. But what begins as a harmless treasure hunt leads to ruthless criminals asking the highest of prices for the lost score... and then a second body is found in the sanctuary of Venice's English church.  The quest for the lost manuscript will bring Nathan back to the stage of La Fenice, where a final confrontation has deadly consequences...  The Venetian Masquerade is by Philip Gwynne Jones. 

May 2019

The intelligence service puts two years and over GBP100k into the training of new field officers. You're shown how to steal cars, strip weapons, hack bank accounts. There are courses on the use of blackmail and improvised explosives, two workshops solely dedicated to navigating by the stars. But nothing about what I had heard one old spy call whiplash. No one tells you how to go home.  There is a dark side to MI6 that needs men like Elliot Kane - mercurial, inquisitive, free floating. He's spent fifteen years managing events overseas that never make the papers, deniable and deeply effective. Kane is a ghost in his own life, picking

up and dropping personalities as each new cover story comes into play. But when a woman he loves, Joanna Lake, vanishes without a trace in Kazakhstan, he is forced centre stage.  Drawn ever deeper into a realm of deception, Kane moves from merely infiltrating events to steering them. He's used to a new mode of hybrid psychological warfare - but snowbound Kazakhstan presents unique challenges. Poised between China, Russia and the West, dictatorship and democracy, state intelligence and an increasingly powerful world of private agencies, it's impossible to work out who is manipulating who. And Kane's not the only one trying to figure out where Joanna Lake has gone or what she learned before disappearing.  Unable to trust anyone, hunted by his own colleagues, and with the life of someone he loves at stake, Kane needs to work out who is driving events, and why...  A Shadow Intelligence is by Oliver Harris.

When Delta Force Captain Kyle Mercer disappeared from his post in Afghanistan, a video released by his Taliban captors made international headlines. But circumstances were murky: Did Mercer desert before he was captured? Then a second video sent to Mercer's Army commanders leaves no doubt: the trained assassin and keeper of classified Army intelligence has wilfully disappeared.  When Mercer is spotted two years later in Caracas, Venezuela, top military brass task Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor of the Criminal Investigation Division to fly to Venezuela and bring Mercer back to America-dead or alive. Brodie knows this is a difficult mission, made more difficult by his new partner's inexperience and by his suspicion that Maggie Taylor is reporting to the CIA.  The Deserter is by William DeMille and Alex DeMille.

Brighton,1957.  Mirabelle Bevan can't resist a cry for help, be it the little girl at a seaside sanatorium who is getting bullied or the strange behaviour of Uma, the Indian nurse who is looking after her. Intrigued she soon finds herself drawn into a spider's web of connections between an upmarket brothel, local priest Father Grogan, a man's body washed up on Brighton beach and a missing nursing sister.  Attracted to handsome police doctor, Chris Williams, Mirabelle is determined to finally put her love affair with Jack Duggan behind her and recover from the betrayal of Superintendent Alan McGregor, but the police force in Brighton is undergoing a sea change that keeps leading her back to the sanatorium at the epicentre of a spate of brutal killings. And very soon it becomes apparent Mirabelle is in much more danger than she realises...  Indian Summer is by Sara Sheridan. 

June 2019

One family, two holidays, one devastating secret.   To new nanny Amanda, the Temple family seem to have it all: the former actress; the famous professor; their three successful grown-up children. But like any family, beneath the smiles and hugs there lurks far darker emotions.  Sixteen years earlier, little Niamh Temple died while they were on holiday in Portugal. Now, as Amanda joins the family for a reunion at their seaside villa, she begins to suspect one of them might be hiding something terrible...  And suspicion is a dangerous thing.  Fallen Angel is by Chris Brookmyre.

London, 1976.  In Belgravia in the heat of summer, Lee Jones, a faded and embittered rock star, is checking out a group of women through the heavy cigarette smoke in a crowded pub. He makes eye contact with one, and winks. After allowing glances to linger for a while longer, he finally moves towards her.  In that moment, his programme of terror - years in the making - has begun.  Months later, the first of the many chilling headlines to come appears: 'Police hunting winking killer.'  Meanwhile in France.  Charles Underhill, a wealthy Englishman living in Paris, has good reason to be interested in the activities of the so-called Winking Killer. With a past to hide and his future precarious, Charles is determined to discover the Winker's identity.  In the overheating cities of London, Oxford, Paris and Nice, a game of cat and mouse develops, and catching someone's eye becomes increasingly perilous. But if no one dares look, a killer can hide in plain sight . . .  The Winker is by Andrew Martin.

The Poison Garden is by Alex Marwood.  Born and raised within the confines of a sinister cult, Romy is now alone in a world she knows nothing about and understands even less. But just when she thought she had escaped her past and can start a new life with the child growing insider her, she discovers she is in more danger than she could ever have imagined . . .

My Scotland will be a beautiful, fully illustrated book containing over 100 photos of the landscapes and locations that form the backdrop to Val McDermid's celebrated writing, and some of the places that have inspired her personally. From Skye to Edinburgh, from Glasgow to Jura, the book crisscrosses Scotland, offering readers a fascinating guide to the country, alongside Val's own thoughts about what it means to her.

SuLin is doing her dream job: assistant at Singapore's brand new detective agency. Until Bald Bernie decides a 'local girl' can't be trusted with private investigations, and replaces her with a new secretary - pretty, privileged, and white. So SuLin's not the only person finding it hard to mourn Bernie after he's found dead in the filing room. And when her best friend's dad is accused, she gets up to some sleuthing work of her own in a bid to clear his name.  SuLin finds out that Bernie may have been working undercover, trading stolen diamonds for explosives from enemy troops. Was he really the upright English citizen he claimed to be?  Meanwhile, a famous assassin commits his worst crime yet, and disappears into thin air. Rumours spread that he may be dangerously close to home.  Beneath the stifling, cloudless Singaporean summer, earthquakes of chaos and political unrest are breaking out. When a tragic loss shakes SuLin's personal world to its core, she becomes determined to find the truth. But in dark, hate-filled times, truth has a price - and SuLin must decide how much she's willing to pay for it. The Paper Tree Bark is by Ovidia Yu.

Also due to be published in June is The Graves of Whitechapel by Claire Evans.

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Books to Look Forward to from Little, Brown and Constable Robinson

January 2018

After five years on the run, 'The Gray Man' - Court Gentry - is back on the inside at the CIA. His first mission makes him wish he wasn't, when a pair of Chinese agents try to take him down in Hong Kong. Normally the Chinese stay eyes-only on foreign agents - why are they on such high alert?  Court's high-stakes hunt leads to an old friend, Donald Fitzroy, who is being held hostage by the Chinese. Fitzroy was contracted to find Fan Jiang, a former member of an ultra-secret unit responsible for testing China's security systems. But Fan was too good at his job . . .  The first two teams Fitzroy sent to find Fan have disappeared and the Chinese have decided to 'supervise' the next operation. What they don't know is that Gentry's mission is to find Fan first and get his intel to the US - and get out alive.  Gunmetal Gray is by Mark Greaney.

The Sons is by Anton Svensson.  After six years in prison, Sweden's most notorious criminal Leo Duvnjac is free, acquitted of all but two of the ten bank robberies he and his two younger brothers pulled off.  While behind bars, he befriended Sam Larsen, who was convicted of murdering his own father - and also happens to be the brother of the cop who caught Leo, Detective John Broncks.  With Sam at his side, Leo seeks out his now-law-abiding brothers for one last job and a chance at redemption - or revenge. But Bronks is on to him, and Leo's father has other plans for his sons . . .

A body has been found dumped on the sandy shores of Southend. Already under scrutiny following the murder of a corrupt cop, DS Frank Pearson and DC Cat Russell of the Essex Major Investigation Team are tasked with solving the case quickly, and quietly. When the victim's identity is revealed, the list of suspects begins to grow. A young woman knows more than she's letting on, but is she really involved? Or the estranged father, who's been trying to find the victim for months. One thing is clear: no one is telling the whole truth. Then a shocking tragedy leads Pearson to a similar murder case from decades before. Is it a coincidence, or is history repeating itself? As Pearson and Russell search for the answer, they find themselves drawn into a terrifying cover-up going back fifty years...  Truly Evil is by Mark Hardie.

February 2018

Force of Nature is by Jane Harper.  Five went out.  Four came back. Is Alice here? Did she make it? Is she safe? In the chaos, in the night, it was impossible to say which of the four had asked after Alice's welfare. Later, when everything got worse, each would insist it had been them.  Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.  The hike through the rugged landscape is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.  Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a particularly keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing bushwalker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case - and Alice knew secrets. About the company she worked for and the people she worked with.  Far from the hike encouraging teamwork, the women tell Falk a tale of suspicion, violence and disintegrating trust. And as he delves into the disappearance, it seems some dangers may run far deeper than anyone knew.

It's the moment we all fear: losing our phone, leaving us cut off from family and friends. But, for Louise, losing hers in a local cafe takes her somewhere much darker.  After many hours of panic, Louise is relieved when someone gets in touch offering to return the phone. From then on she is impatient to get back to normal life.  But when they meet on the beach, Louise realises you should be careful what you wish for...  Cut Off is by Mark Billingham.

There's always a reason for murder. But when a young actress is killed in a swift and violent attack at a cinema screening, that reason is hard to fathom - even for Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team.  It's only when bestselling crime writer Blaine DeLano arrives at the precinct that the shocking truth is revealed. Someone is recreating the murder scenes from her latest series, book by book. With six more novels left in the series, Eve now knows how the killer will strike next. But why has DeLano been targeted? Could her abusive husband be involved?  As fiction is transformed into bloody reality, Eve will need all her skill and experience to solve this unique case. Luckily for her, husband Roarke happens to be a fan of DeLano's work. And he's more than happy to work side by side with his brilliant wife - no matter how dark things become...  Dark in Death is by J D Robb.

When you clean strangers' houses you learn their dirty secrets...  Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner working in London, knows that all too well. So when her friend Timea disappears, she suspects one of her clients is to blame. The police don't share her suspicions and it is left to Lena to turn sleuth and find her friend.  Searching through their houses as she scrubs their floors, Lena desperately tries to find out what has happened. But only Cartwright, a police constable new to the job, believes that this will lead to the truth. Together they uncover more of Islington's seedy underbelly than they bargained for.  But Lena soon discovers it's not just her clients who have secrets. And as she begins to unravel Timea's past, exposing long hidden truths, she starts to wonder if she really knew her friend at all.  In Strangers’ Houses is by Elizabeth Mundy.

Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English.  Paul attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He told tweedy Mrs. Wellington that she was too fat. Angela Brody was told her detective stories were pap for the masses and it was time she wrote literature instead. He accused Hamish of having dyed his fiery red hair. He told Jessie Currie - who repeated all the last words of her twin sister - that she needed psychiatric help.  "I speak as I find," he bragged. Voices saying, "I could kill that man," could be heard from Lochdubh to Cnothan.  And someone did.  Now Hamish is faced with a bewildering array of suspects. And he's lost the services of his clumsy policeman, Charlie, who has resigned from the force after throwing Chief Inspector Blair into the loch. Can Hamish find the killer on his own?  Death of an Honest Man is by M C Beaton.

March 2018

The last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband was Lucy Mason. After the horrific accident at Bennington, the two friends - once inseparable roommates - haven't spoken in over a year. But Lucy is standing there, trying to make things right.  Perhaps Alice should be happy. She has not adjusted to life in Morocco, too afraid to venture out into the bustling medinas and oppressive heat. Lucy, always fearless and independent, helps Alice emerge from her flat and explore the country.  But soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice - she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. Then Alice's husband, John, goes missing, and Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to ever come to Tangier, and her very own state of mind.  Tangerine is by Christine Mangan.

Splinter in the Blood is by Ashley Dyer.  Sergeant Ruth Lake and DCI Greg Carver are on the hunt for a serial killer who carefully poses his victims and covers every inch of their bodies in intricate, cryptic tattoos. Dubbed the 'Thorn Killer', by the media, the killer uses a primitive and excruciatingly painful thorn method to etch his victims. After many months, a breakthrough feels imminent. Then the killer gets personal: the latest victim - a student found only a week earlier - is staged to look like Carver's wife.  Pushed over the edge, Carver spirals into a self-destructive cycle of booze and risky sex. Now he lies near death, and the unreadable Lake stands over him with a gun. Did she shoot her boss? If not, why is she removing evidence from his apartment, faking the scene?  Ruth, too, is convinced that Carver is holding back; that he remembers more than he admits. Why is he lying? Does he know what she did? How can she hope to unravel the half-truths, hidden meanings, secrets and lies at the centre of this investigation when she herself has lied and lied?  Intrigued, the Thorn Killer watches their every move - all the while plotting the next. Can Carver and Lake pull together to catch him before he strikes again? Or will they be held captive by their own web of lies?

The police say it was suicide.  Anna says it was murder.  They're both wrong. One year ago,

Caroline Johnson chose to end her life brutally: a shocking suicide planned to match that of her husband just months before. Their daughter, Anna, has struggled to come to terms with their loss ever since.  Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to ask questions about her parents' deaths. But by digging up the past, is she putting her future in danger? Sometimes it's safer to let things lie . . .  Let Me  Lie is by Clare Mackintosh.

Acts of Vanishing is by Frederik T Olsson.  A father's search. A daughter in danger. A terrifying secret.  It was ten past four on the afternoon of the third of December. Everything was darkness and ink, and the snow falling turned to water.  Through it ran Sara Sandberg, the girl who was about to die, and somewhere in the cold, lead-grey hell that was Stockholm was a man who called himself her father.  In her rucksack, she had a warning for him.  Now whether he would receive it or not was all down to her.

Lost Creed is by Alex Kava.  Fifteen years ago Ryder Creed's sister, Brodie disappeared from an interstate rest stop. She was only eleven and Creed was fourteen. Since then her disappearance has haunted him, so much so that Creed has dedicated his life to his K9 business. He rescues abandoned dogs and trains them for scent detection. Together they search for the lost and missing.  A thousand miles away during a police raid, FBI special agent Maggie O'Dell stumbles upon a clue that may explain what happened to Brodie Creed all those years ago. The search and scavenger hunt that follows will be as gut-wrenching for Creed, as are the answers he discovers.

'You think he killed his wife?  'Don't you?'  When Dorothy Guildford is found stabbed to

death in her home, all signs point to her husband, Peter. The forensic psychologist is convinced there's more to the case that meets the eye but Police Scotland are certain they have their man.  While DC Kirsty Wilson searches for evidence that will put Peter away for good, she is shocked to discover a link with a vast human-trafficking operation that Detective Superintendent William Lorimer has been investigating for months. But before they can interrogate him, Peter is brutally attacked.  With one person dead and another barely hanging on, the clock is ticking for DC Wilson and DSI Lorimer. And the stakes grow higher still when one of their own is kidnapped . . .  Only the Dead Can Tell is by Alex Gray.

Blotto, Twinks and the Stars of the Silver Screen is by Simon Brett.  The end of the cricket season spells gloom for Blotto, until he is invited to bat against the Hollywood cricket team out in sunny LA, where rain never stops play. And so begins the latest adventure for Blotto and his supremely gifted sister Twinks. Although their mother, the Dowager Duchess of Tawcester, keeps a strict rein on her two children, she knows America is full of wealthy young men, all of whom will fall in love with her daughter - and marriage to a Texan millionaire would solve the Tawcester financial problems once and for all.  So, accompanied by trusty chauffeur Corky Froggett, the intrepid siblings head out to California. On arrival in Hollywood they are invited to a glitzy party where they are introduced to a firmament of Hollywood stars, directors and gossip columnists, but the mood of the party suddenly curdles with the breaking news that beautiful starlet Mimsy La Pim - the (former) love of Blotto's life - has been kidnapped. And Blotto is determined to make it his personal mission to rescue her.  But in the world of old-fashioned cricket matches, gigantic Hollywood egos, film-making disasters and merciless crooks, it soon falls to Twinks to rescue her brother from the various messes he creates when attempting to rescue his damsel in distress. Will the siblings ever get back to Tawcester Towers - or will it be a case of death before wicket?

April 2018

She was found hanging in a dingy London bedsit with a blood orange in her mouth. Diane

Heybridge, a young woman without a past or much of a future, has captured in death the compassion denied her in life.  For the prosecution, this seeming suicide is nothing more than a bungled killing and a disgusted public looks to Court 2 of the Old Bailey for justice. Her callous, jilted partner Brent Stainsby stands accused of her murder and he's turned to the maverick legal team William Benson and Tess de Vere to defend him.  However, as the trial unfolds it soon becomes clear that there is far more to Diane Heybridge than meets the eye. She wasn't the weak and downtrodden victim now being presented to the jury. She was capable of a sophisticated form of vengeance. By the same token, Brent Stainsby isn't who he seems to be either. He's hiding a motive for murder unknown to the police and may well be playing a deadly game of poker with the judicial process. What began as a simple trial rapidly turns into a complex search for the truth beyond the confines of the courtroom...  Blind Defence is by John Fairfax.

The Whitstable Pearl restaurant has been busy all summer while Pearl's detective agency has brought few interesting cases - until a prospective client calls...  Christina Scott confides that seven years ago she had the perfect life with a seaside home, a confirmed pregnancy and Steven, a loving husband - until one morning she woke to find herself alone. Christina's husband had vanished, taking nothing with him but his car - which was later found abandoned at the beautifully mysterious Oare Marshes.  Now, with the legal presumption of Steven's death about to be made, Christina shows a photograph to Pearl. It's not of him, but of her young son, Martin, who has grown up without his father but Christina is adamant he now deserves to know the truth. And will Pearl help her solve the riddle of Steven's disappearance?  DCI Mike McGuire warns Pearl she's on a fool's errand but the case resonates with Pearl as she begins to uncover secrets and lies that take her on a dangerous journey back into her own past, as well as Christina's...  Disappearance at Oare is by Julie Wassmer.

Vengeance in Venice is by Philip Gwynne Jones.  There aren't that many perks to being Honorary Consul in Venice, but Nathan Sutherland does at least receive an invitation to the official opening of the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.  A chance for prosecco in the sunshine, and to meet some of the greats of the art world. And then a world-famous critic is decapitated by one of the installations. A terrible accident, it seems, until a postcard is discovered in the victim's pocket. An image of Judith beheading Holofernes.  Then a viperous arts columnist receives an image of The Death of Marat. A journalist with a shady past receives a postcard of Dore's Triumph of Death. And a corrupt agent receives Mantegna's Martyrdom of St Sebastian.  As the bodies pile up, all signs point to Paul Considine, a brilliant but vulnerable British artist with a motive for revenge against all the victims. Nathan, however, isn't convinced, and sets out to prove his innocence. But then Nathan himself receives an image of Death bearing a scythe, and finds himself in a race against time to save his own life...

I knew the smell of death well enough. But here the sweetness of decay was tainted with something else, something new and different. It was a curious, moist smell; a smell that

spoke of the ooze and slap of water, of gurgling wet spaces and the sticky, yielding mud of low-tide... Summoned to the riverside by the desperate, scribbled note of an old friend, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find themselves on board the seamen's floating hospital, an old hulk known only as The Blood, where prejudice, ambition and murder seethe beneath a veneer of medical respectability.  On shore, a young woman, a known prostitute, is found drowned in a derelict boatyard. A man leaps to his death into the Thames, driven mad by poison and fear. The events are linked - but how? Courting danger in the opium dens and brothels of the waterfront, certain that the Blood lies at the heart of the puzzle, Jem and Will embark on a quest to uncover the truth. In a hunt that takes them from the dissecting tables of a private anatomy school to the squalor of the dock-side mortuary, they find themselves involved in a dark and terrible mystery.  The Blood is By E S Thomson.

May 2018

How do you catch a killer who is yet to kill?  We all know the signs. Cruelty, lack of empathy, the killing of animals. Now, pets on suburban London streets are being stalked by a shadow, and it could just be the start.  DI Tom Thorne knows the psychological profile of such offenders all too well, so when he is tasked with catching a notorious killer of domestic cats, he sees the chance to stop a series of homicides before they happen.  Others are less convinced, so once more, Thorne relies on DI Nicola Tanner to help him solve the case, before the culprit starts hunting people. It's a journey that brings them face to face with a killer who will tear their lives apart.  The Killing Habit is by Mark Billingham.

Red Hot Front is by Harry Brett.  Tatiana Goodwin has finally begun to piece her life back together after the events of the past year. Having taken over her late husband Rich's empire, Tatty has put together a massive deal to capitalise on his dirty dealings - and hopefully extricate herself from a life of crime she'd been unwillingly drawn into.  But following a suspicious fire in the firm's new HQ, and a number of unexplained deaths in the town, it soon becomes clear that there's more than one person who's after the Goodwin family assets. With her daughter in a rocky relationship and her teenage son Zach beginning to follow in the footsteps of his gangster father, everything is getting a little too close to home for Tatty's liking . . . As the family is pulled further into the criminal underworld she sought to protect them from, Tatty has some difficult decisions to make - before her enemies make them for her. 

The Other Girl is by Erica Spindler.  A horrific crime with one witness: a fifteen year old girl from the wrong side of the tracks, one known for lying and her own brushes with the law. Is it any surprise no one believed her?  Officer Miranda Rader has worked hard to earn the respect of her co-workers and the community, and is known for her honesty and integrity. But that wasn't always so. She grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in a small town that didn't believe she could change, and she's spent fifteen years trying to forget about her past.  When Miranda and her partner are called to investigate the murder of one of the town's most beloved college professors, they're unprepared for the brutality of the scene. Just when Miranda thinks she's seen the worst of it, she finds a piece of evidence that chills her to the core: a faded newspaper clipping about a terrible night fifteen years ago. The night she'd buried, along with the girl she'd been back then, and until now that grave had stayed sealed.  Then another man turns up dead, this one a retired cop. Not just any cop: the one who took her statement that night. Two murders, two very different men, two killings that on the surface have nothing in common. Except Miranda.

Twenty years ago Tatia was adopted into a well-off home, where she seemed happy, settled. Then the youngest boy in the family dies in an accident, and she gets the blame.  Did she do it?  Tatia was cast out, away from her remaining adopted siblings Joel and Sarah. Now she yearns for a home to call her own. So when she see families going on holiday, leaving their beautiful homes empty, there seems no harm in living their lives while she is gone. But somehow, people keep ending up dead.  Did she kill them?  As bodies start to appear in supposedly safe neighbourhoods, DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley race to find the thinnest of links between the victims. But Drake's secret past is once more threatening to destroy everything.  Will they catch her?  It Was Her is by Mark Hill.

What We Did is by Christobel Kent.  He stole her childhood. She'll take his future.  What would you do if you accidentally encountered the man who once abused you?   And how would you get away with it?  Bridget's life is small and safe: she loves her husband, her son and works hard to keep her own business afloat. Then one day her world is changed forever. The music teacher who abused her walks into a shop with the teenager he's clearly grooming. Bridget is sent spiralling back into her past.  Anthony begins to stalk Bridget, trying to ensure her silence - until suddenly, she snaps.  And now Bridget must find away to deal with the aftermath of her actions...

Gunnhildur reluctantly allows herself to be taken off police duties to act as bodyguard to a man with a price on his head . . .  Hidden away in a secure house outside Reykjavik, Gunna and the high-profile stranger, a guest of the interiors minister, are thrown together - too close for comfort. They soon find they are neither as safe nor as carefully hidden as Gunna and her boss had thought. Conflicting glimpses of the man's past start to emerge as the press begin to sniff him out, as does another group with their own reasons for locating him, and Gunna struggles to come to terms with protecting the life of a man who may have the lives of many on his conscience - or indeed may be the philanthropist he claims to be.  Isolated together, the friction grows between Gunna and the foreign visitor, as she realises they are out of their depth as the trails lead from the house outside Reykjavik to Brussels, Russia and the Middle East.  Cold Breath is by Quentin Bates.

Tarot reader Dolly Greene, returning from a Very Happy Holiday in St Lucia with her hot new police sergeant boyfriend, arrives home to find a surly Russian girl waiting for a reading. Marina is young and beautiful but oddly charmless - and her cards reveal nothing but conflict, misery . . . and death. Dolly knows she should feel concerned, but the girl is so disagreeable she's only too relieved when the reading is over and she can escape to catch up with her daughter and neighbours.  And what news! During Dolly's two week absence squatters have taken over No.7, and a mysterious Brazilian woman has moved into No.3. Dolly would prefer to forget about the Russian beauty's malign reading . . . but, like ripples radiating from a stone tossed into Barnes pond, Marina's cards come back to disturb Dolly and all those around her - and Death will surely leave his calling card for someone on Tinderbox Lane.  The Case of the Fool is by E V Harte.

June 2018

The Good Son is by You-Jeong Jeong.  Yu-jin is a good son, a model student and a successful athlete. But one day he wakes up covered in blood. There's no sign of a break-in and there's a body downstairs. It's the body of someone who Yu-jin knows all too well.  Yu-jin struggles to piece together the fragments of what he can remember from the night before. He suffers from regular seizures and blackouts. He knows he will be accused if he reports the body, but what to do instead? Faced with an unthinkable choice, Yu-jin makes an unthinkable decision.  Through investigating the murder, reading diaries, and looking at his own past and childhood, Yu-jin discovers what has happened. The police descend on the suburban South Korean district in which he lives. The body of a young woman is discovered. Yu-jin has to go back, right back, to remember what happened, back to the night he lost his father and brother, and even further than that.

The Puppet Show is by M W Craven. Welcome to the Puppet Show...  A serial killer dubbed the Immolation Man is burning old men alive in the middle of the Lake District's prehistoric

stone circles.  When the name of disgraced detective Washington Poe is found carved deep into the chest of the third victim, Poe is forced back from suspension and into an investigation in which he wants no involvement. Reluctantly partnered with the brilliant but socially awkward civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw, Poe begins to uncover a trail only he is meant to see. The Immolation Man has a plan and, for some reason, Poe is part of it.  As the body count rises, Poe realises that he has far more invested in the case than he could possibly have imagined. And in a shocking finale - one that will change his life forever - he learns that there are far worse things than being burned alive...