Showing posts with label Fred Vargas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fred Vargas. Show all posts

Thursday, 26 July 2018

2018 CWA Dagger Shortlists


On Wednesday 26 July at Daunts bookshop the 2018 CWA Dagger Shortlists were announced. Congratulations to all the nominated authors.

The long list can be found here.

Gold Dagger
The Liar by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
London Rules by Mick Herron (John Murray)
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane (Little Brown)
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic (Pushkin Vertigo)

The CWA Historical Dagger
A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
Lightning Men by Thomas Mullen (Little Brown)
Money in the Morgue
 by Ngaio Marsh & Stella Duffy (HarperCollins)
Fire by L. C. Tyler (Constable)
Nine Lessons by Nicola Upson (Faber & Faber)
Nucleus by Rory Clements (Zaffre Publishing)

The CWA International Dagger 
Zen and the Art of Murder by Oliver Bottini tr. Jamie Bulloch (MacLehose)
Three Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre tr. Frank Wynne (MacLehose)
After the Fire by Henning Mankell tr. Marlaine Delargy (Harvill Secker)
The Frozen Woman by Jon Michelet tr. Don Bartlett (No Exit Press)
Offering to the Storm by Dolores Redondo tr. Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garzía, (HarperCollins)
The Accordionist by Fred Vargas tr. Sian Reynolds (Harvill Secker)

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger
London Rules by Mick Herron (John Murray Publishers)
If I Die Before I Wake by Emily Koch (Harvill Secker)
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Serpent’s Tail)
An Act of Silence by Colette McBeth (Wildfire)
The Chalk Man by C J Tudor (Michael Joseph)
The Force by Don Winslow (HarperFiction)

The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger
Gravesend by William Boyle (No Exit Press)
I.Q by Joe Ide (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Girl In Snow by Danya Kukafka (Picador)
Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love (Point Blank)
East Of Hounslow by Khurrum Rahman (HQ)
Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic Pushkin Vertigo

The CWA Short Story Dagger 
The Last Siege of Bothwell Castle by Chris Brookmyre from Bloody Scotland ( Historic Environment Scotland)
Second Son by Lee Child from No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Stories(Bantam Press)
Smoking Kills by Erin Kelly from “The Body” Killer Women Crime Club Anthology 2 Edited by Susan Opie (Killer Women Ltd)
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit by Denise Mina from Bloody Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland)
Accounting for Murder by Christine Poulson from Mystery Tour: CWA Anthology of Short Stories Edited by Martin Edwards (Orenda Books)

CWA Debut Dagger
The Eternal Life of Ezra Ben Simeon by Bill Crotty
The Last Googling of Beth Bailly by Luke Melia
Riverine Blood by Joseph James
Original Sins by Linda McLaughlin
Trust Me, I’m Dead by Sherryl Clark

CWA ALCS Gold Dagger For Non-Fiction
Black Dahlia Red Rose by Piu Eatwell (Coronet)                                              
 Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Simon & Schuster)            
 Blood on the Page by Thomas Harding (Heinemann
The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Mariano-Lesnevich (Macmillan)
A False Report by Christian Miller & Ken Armstrong (Hutchinson)
Rex V Edith Thompson by Laura Thompson (Head of Zeus)

CWA Dagger In The Library 
Selected by nominations from libraries.
Martin Edwards
Nicci French
Simon Kernick
Edward Marston
Peter May
Rebecca Tope

The winners of the CWA Daggers will be announced at the Dagger Awards dinner in London on 25 October, for which tickets are now available. Visit www.thecwa.co.uk for more information or emailadmin@thecwa.co.uk .




Monday, 17 April 2017

Forthcoming books from Transworld and Vintage

April 2017

There's a new killer on the streets.  A woman is found murdered after an internet date. The marks left on her body show the police that they are dealing with a particularly vicious killer. He's in your house.  He's in your room.  Under pressure from the media to find the murderer, the force know there's only one man for the job. But Harry Hole is reluctant to return to the place that almost took everything from him. Until he starts to suspect a connection between this killing and his one failed case.  He's out for blood.  When another victim is found, Harry realises he will need to put everything on the line if he's to finally catch the one who got away.  The Thirst is by Jo Nesbo.

May 2017

In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind. But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped. And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . .  Into the Water is by Paula Hawkins
 
What Alice Knew is by T A Cotterell. How far would you go to keep a secret? Alice has a perfect life - a great job, happy kids, a wonderful husband. Until he goes missing one night; she receives a suspicious phone call; things don't quite add up. Alice needs to know what's going on. But when she uncovers the truth she faces a brutal choice. And how can she be sure it is the truth? Sometimes it's better not to know.

Frost at Midnight is by James Henry.  August, 1983. Denton is preparing for a wedding. Detective Sergeant Waters should be on top of the world with less than a week to go until he marries Kim Myles. But the Sunday before the big day, instead of a run-through with his best man, the church is sealed off. The body of a young woman has been found in the churchyard, and their idyllic wedding venue has become a crime scene. Detective Sergeant Jack Frost has been homeless for the past three months, ever since his wife's family sold the matrimonial house. He's been staying with Detective Constable Sue Clarke but with a baby to take care of and the imminent arrival of her mother, she's given him his marching orders. But as best man to Waters, he's got a responsibility to solve the mystery of the dead girl in the churchyard. Can he put his own troubles aside and be the detective they need him to be? All in all, August looks set to be a wicked month in Denton...

Jack 'No Middle Name' Reacher, lone wolf, knight errant, ex military cop, lover of women, scourge of the wicked and righter of wrongs, is the most iconic hero for our age. This is the first time all Lee Child's shorter fiction featuring Jack Reacher has been collected into one volume. A brand-new novella, Too Much Time, is included, as are those previously only published in ebook form: Second Son, James Penney's New Identity, Guy Walks Into a Bar, Deep Down, High Heat, Not a Drill and Small Wars. Added to these is every other Reacher short story that Child has written: Everyone Talks, Maybe They Have a Tradition, No Room at the Motel and The Picture of the Lonely Diner. Read together, these twelve stories shed new light on Reacher’s past, illuminating how he grew up and developed into the wandering avenger who has captured the imagination of millions around the world.  No Middle Name is by Lee Child.

June 2017

Vicky thought that nobody would know if she just stepped out for twenty minutes. Everything was quiet; it was so easy for her to slip away ...One little lie. One little secret. One little mistake has changed everything. Now Vicky's best friend is going to help stop her whole life from falling apart. But if she's keeping Vicky's secret, then Vicky is going to have to keep hers in return...One Little Mistake is by Emma Curtis.

Fierce Kingdom is by Gin Phillips.  Lincoln is a good boy. At the age of four, he is curious, clever and well behaved. He does as his mum says and knows what the rules are. "The rules are different today. The rules are that we hide and do not let the man with the gun find us." When an ordinary day at the zoo turns into a nightmare, Joan finds herself trapped with her beloved son. She must summon all her strength, find unexpected courage and protect Lincoln at all costs - even if it means crossing the line between right and wrong; between humanity and animal instinct. It's a line none of us would ever normally dream of crossing. But sometimes the rules are different.

The Child is by Fiona Barton.  When a paragraph in an evening newspaper reveals a decades-old tragedy, most readers barely give it a glance. But for three strangers it's impossible to ignore. For one woman, it's a reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to her. For another, it reveals the dangerous possibility that her darkest secret is about to be discovered. And for the third, a journalist, it's the first clue in a hunt to uncover the truth. 

July 2017

There are some surprises that no-one should ever have to experience. Standing over the
body of your beloved - and murdered - niece is one of them. For Detective Inspector Harry Virdee, a man perilously close to the edge, it feels like the beginning of the end. His boss may be telling him he's too close to work the case, but this isn't something that Harry can just let lie. He needs to dive into the murky depths of the Bradford underworld and find the monster that lurks there who killed his flesh and blood. But before he can, he must tell his brother, Ron, the terrible news. And there is no predicting how he will react. Impulsive, dangerous and alarmingly well connected, Ron will act first and think later. Harry may have a murderer to find but if he isn't careful, he may also have a murder to prevent.  Girl Zero is by A A Dhand

They All Fall Down is by Tammy Cohen.  She knows there's a killer on the loose. But no-one believes her. Will she be next? Hannah had a normal life - a loving husband, a good job. Until she did something shocking. Now she's in a psychiatric clinic. It should be a safe place. But patients keep dying. The doctors say it's suicide. Hannah knows they're lying. Can she make anyone believe her before the killer strikes again?

A Stranger in the House is by Shari Lapena.  Why would you run scared from a happy home? You're waiting for your beloved husband to get home work. You're making dinner, looking forward to hearing about his day. That's the last thing you remember. You wake up in hospital, with no idea how you got there. They tell you that you were in an accident; you lost control of your car whilst driving in a dangerous part of town. The police suspect you were up to no good. But your husband refuses to believe it. Your best friend isn't so sure. And even you don't know what to believe…
 
Here and Gone is by Haylen Beck. Audra has finally left her abusive husband. She's taken the family car and her young children, Sean and Louise, are buckled up in the back. This is their chance for a fresh start. She keeps to the country roads to avoid attention and finds herself on an empty road in the Arizona desert, far from home. Looking for a safe place to stay for the night she spots something in her rear-view mirror. A police car is following her and the lights are flickering. Blue and red. As Audra pulls over she is intensely aware of how isolated they are. Her perfect escape is about to turn into a nightmare beyond her imagining.

Someone is Watching You is by Arne Dahl.  Someone is watching. At each abandoned crime scene there's a hidden clue: a tiny metal cog, almost invisible to the naked eye. Someone is sending Detective Sam Berger a message, someone who knows that only he will understand the cryptic trail. Someone knows. When another teenaged girl disappears without trace, Sam must convince his superiors that they're dealing with a serial killer. As the police continue the hunt to find the latest victim, Sam is forced to unearth long-buried personal demons. He has no choice if he is to understand the killer's darkly personal message before time runs out. Somebody is killing just for him.

August 2017

I have a secret. And someone wants to make sure I never tell ...In a house decorated with horror movie posters, a young woman's body is found. She lies on her bed, two bloodied objects clutched in her palm. Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles are called to the murder scene, but even faced with this gruesome sight they are unable to identify the immediate cause of death. Their investigation leads them to a high-profile murder case that was seemingly solved years before. But when another body is found in horrific circumstances, the link between the two victims is clear. Was the wrong person sent to prison? Is the real killer out there right now, picking off new targets? One woman knows the killer is coming for her next. She's the only one who can help Rizzoli and Isles catch him. But she has a secret that she has to keep...  I Know a Secret is by Tess Gerritsen.

Last Stop Tokyo is by James Buckler.  The funny thing with suffering is just when you think you've suffered enough, you realize it's only the beginning. Alex thought running away would make everything better. Six thousand miles from the mistakes he's made and the people he's hurt, Tokyo seems like the perfect escape. A new life, a new Alex. The bright lights and dark corners of this alien and fascinating city intoxicate him, and he finds himself transfixed by this country, which feels like a puzzle that no one can quite explain. And when Alex meets the enigmatic and alluring Naoko, the peace he sought slips ever further from his grasp. After all, trust is just betrayal waiting to happen and Alex is about to find out that there's no such thing as rock bottom. There's always the chance it'll get worse...

 After helping to avert a deadly attack on London, Luke Carlton has been welcomed on board as a full-fledged member of SIS and is assigned the role of case officer running agents. He is sent undercover into Iran to 'turn' and recruit an officer in that country's infamous Revolutionary Guard Corps: the word is that a conservative group within the IRGC doesn't like the direction post-revolutionary Iran appear to be taking and are planning something big to embarrass their own government - and frighten the country's new 'allies' in the West. The intelligence services need to find out who and what, and fast...but then a senior British government minister on an official visit to Iran goes missing, his close protection officers are found murdered...  Ultimatum is by Frank Gardner.

Fatal Sunset is by Jason Webster. In the hills above Valencia is a notorious nightclub called Sunset. When its larger-than-life owner, Jose Luis, dies suddenly, everyone assumes it was a heart-attack. Perfectly understandable for a man of his age, size and lifestyle. Meanwhile, all is not well for Max Camara at HQ. His new boss, Rita Hernandez, has it in for him and his idiosyncratic methods. He must abandon a complex investigation into home-grown extremism to check out what looks like a routine death at Sunset. But an anonymous phone-call suggests otherwise...Back in the city, Max's journalist girlfriend Alicia is working on a lead that could turn out to be the story of her career. How her own investigation connects with Max's at Sunset, and an unholy network of drug dealers, priests and shady officials protecting a dark government secret, will place both their lives in jeopardy and push everything to the very edge.

The Accordionist is by Fred Vargas.  Louis Kehlweiler of the Three Evangelists trilogy returns, along with his beloved pet toad, Bufo. Vauquer Clement, a young accordionist in his thirties has disappeared, believed by police forces from Nevers to Paris to have killed two women, both shockingly violent murders. But Kehlweiler is not so sure he’s guilty. With his team of experts, he must go back and look at all the facts, and see if he can clear Clement’s name before it’s too late.

Susan Svendsen has a special talent: she has a unique ability to make people confide in her and tell her their innermost secrets. She has exploited that talent, and now has a prison sentence hanging over her head for punching a Bollywood actor in an Indian casino. To make matters worse, her husband is on the run from the mafia, one of her children has been accused of antiquity smuggling and the other has run off with a monk. But Susan gets an offer from a former government official - an offer to use her power one more time and have all her charges dropped so she can return to Denmark. Together with her family, she must track down the last surviving members of a secret think tank of young talents founded in the 1970s, the so - called Future Committee, and find out what was written in the committee's final report. But the report is apparently covering up information of great value, and some powerful people are determined it is not revealed.  The Susan Effect is by Peter Høeg.

October 2017

Stone has returned to London.  Both the UK and the US are in a state of unrest and ever more extreme politicians are looking to take advantage of an unstable world.  Their motives are unclear. But their threat is real.  Who are they really working for?  Line of Fire is by Andy McNabb

After The Fire is the final novel by Henning Mankell. Fredrik Welin is a seventy-year-old retired doctor. Years ago he retreated to the Swedish archipelago, where he lives alone on an island. He swims in the sea every day, cutting a hole in the ice if necessary. He lives a quiet life. Until he wakes up one night to find his house on fire. Fredrik escapes just in time, wearing two left-footed wellies, as neighbouring islanders arrive to help douse the flames. All that remains in the morning is a stinking ruin and evidence of arson. The house that has been in his family for generations and all his worldly belongings are gone. He cannot think who would do such a thing, or why. Without a suspect, the police begin to think he started the fire himself. 

November 2017

The Badger is back! In the middle of a gang war, wanted for murder, truly alone and outside the law, Detective Inspector LeBrock is on the run from both the police and gangster assassins, the victim of a diabolical scheme to annihilate himself and everyone he holds dear, engineered by mastermind crime lord Tiberius Koenig, one of the most despicable villains in the history of detective fiction. A fiendishly ingenious story of love, tenacity, treachery and tragedy, featuring Grandville's trademark high-octane excitement, humour and deduction on a Holmesian scale as we finally meet LeBrock's mentor, Stamford Hawksmoor, and discover LeBrock's untold backstory. Fan favourite characters, Detective Sergeant Roderick Ratzi and LeBrock's vivacious fiancee, Parisian prostitute Billie, are joined by a new badger in town! Enter Tasso, an Italian badger who's bigger, meaner and uglier than LeBrock - but is he a force for good - or evil? A battle royale ensues as LeBrock fights against truly outrageous odds. How can he possibly survive? Prepare to be royally badgered!  Grandville Force Majeure is by Bryan Talbot.








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Sunday, 18 December 2016

Books to Look Forward to from Harvill Secker


January 2017

You can run from your past. But you can't run from murder! The body is found by the river, near a spot popular with runners. With a serial rapist at work in the area, DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are initially confused when the Hate Crimes Unit is summoned to the scene. Until they discover that the victim, Corinne Sawyer, was born Colin Sawyer. Police records reveal there have been violent attacks on trans women in the local area. Was Corinne a victim of mistaken identity? Or has the person who has been targeting trans women stepped up their campaign of violence? With tensions running high, and the force coming under national scrutiny, this is a complex case and any mistake made could be fatal...  Watch Her Disappear is by Eva Dolan

February 2017

The Follower is by Koethi Zan. How fine is the line between victim and murderer?  Julie has the perfect life. Kind boyfriend, loving parents, good grades. Everything ahead of her. Until the night she runs into trouble while waiting alone for a late train.  Cora’s life is a nightmare. A violent father, a terrible secret, a psychopath for a husband.  No way out. Until Julie comes into her life.  Locked together in a deadly bond, these two women must work out where to put their trust and how they ended up in the house of a killer.

March 2017

William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Peter Manuel has them. But Peter Manuel is a liar. William Watt is an ordinary businessman, a fool, a social climber. Peter Manuel is a famous liar, a rapist, a criminal. He claims he can get hold of the gun used to murder Watt's family. One December night in 1957, Watt meets Manuel in a Glasgow bar to find out what he knows. Based on true events, The Long Drop is an extraordinarily unsettling, evocative and compelling novel from a writer at the height of her power.

April 2017

OLD CRIMES, NEW CONSEQUENCES.  THE PAST.  In wartime
Reykjavik, a young woman is found strangled behind the National Theatre, a rough and dangerous area of the city known as ‘the shadow district’. An Icelandic detective and a member of the American military police are on the trail of a brutal killer.  THE PRESENT.  A 90-year-old man is discovered dead on his bed, smothered with his own pillow. Konrad, a former detective now bored with retirement, finds newspaper cuttings in the dead man’s home reporting the shadow district murder that date back to the second world war. It’s a crime that Konrad remembers, having grown up in the same neighbourhood.  A MISSING LINK.  Why, after all this time, would an old crime resurface? Did the police arrest the wrong man? How are these cases linked across the decades? Will Konrad's link to the past help him solve the case and finally lay the ghosts of wartime Reykjavik to rest?  The Shadow District is the start of a new series by Arnaldur Indridason.

The Thirst is by Jo Nesbo.  There's a new killer on the streets. A woman is found murdered after an internet date. The marks left on her body show the police that they are dealing with a particularly vicious killer. He's in your house...he's in your room. Under pressure from the media to find the murderer, the force know there's only one man for the job. But Harry Hole is reluctant to return to the place that almost took everything from him. Until he starts to suspect a connection between this killing and his one failed case. He's out for blood. When another victim is found, Harry realises he will need to put everything on the line if he's to finally catch the one who got away.

June 2017

A Necessary Evil is by Abir Mukherjee.  India, 1920. Captain Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee of the Calcutta Police Force investigate the dramatic assassination of a Maharajah's son.  The fabulously wealthy kingdom of Sambalpore is home to tigers, elephants, diamond mines and the beautiful Palace of the Sun. But when the heir to the throne is assassinated in the presence of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-Not' Banerjee, they discover a kingdom riven with suppressed conflict. Prince Adhir was a moderniser whose attitudes - and romantic relationship - may have upset the more religious elements of his country, while his brother – now in line to the throne – appears to be a feckless playboy.  As Wyndham and Banerjee desperately try to unravel the mystery behind the assassination, they become entangled in a dangerous world where those in power live by their own rules and those who cross their paths pay with their lives. They must find a murderer, before the murderer finds them…

The Lying Game is by Ruth Ware.  An unexpected discovery forces four school friends to confront a dark secret from their childhood. Can we trust them?  And can they trust one another?  How much can you trust your friends...  The text message is just 3 words: I need you.  Isa Leigh drops everything, packs up her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten where she and her 3 best friends attended prestigious boarding school, Salten House.  Only Kate still lives in the area, at the crumbling Tide Mill she inherited when her disgraced art tutor father vanished when she was just 17.  Each of the women is running from something, from an act that has haunted them for many years but which they have tried their best to bury: in work, in alcohol, in family, faith and routine.  At school together, the girls used to play a game – the lying game – in which they competed to tell the most outrageous stories to fool tourists. But for some, did the boundaries between fact and fantasy become too blurred?  ....and how much can you trust one another?

July 2017

Watching You is the start of a new series from international best-seller Arne Dahl. Someone is watching. At each abandoned crime scene there's a hidden clue: a tiny metal cog, almost invisible to the naked eye. Someone is sending Detective Sam Berger a message, and that someone knows that only he will understand the cryptic trail. Someone knows. When another teenaged girl disappears without trace, Sam must convince his superiors that they're dealing with a serial kidnapper and possible killer. As the police continue the hunt to find the latest kidnap victim, Sam is forced to unearth long buried personal demons - he has no choice if he is to understand the brute's darkly personal message before time runs out. Somebody is killing just for him.

Here and Gone is by Haylen Beck.  She swears she didn’t do it. The whole world thinks she did.  Audra has finally left her abusive husband. She’s taken the family car and her young children, Sean and Louise, are buckled up in the back. This is their chance for a fresh start.  She keeps to the country roads to avoid attention and finds herself on an empty road in the Arizona desert, far from home. Looking for a safe place to stay for the night she spots something in her rear-view mirror. A police car is following her and the lights are flickering. Blue and red.  As Audra pulls over she is intensely aware of how isolated they are. Her perfect escape is about to turn into a nightmare beyond her imagining…

August 2017

The Accordionist is by Fred Vargas.  The opera singer Sophia Siméonidis wakes up one morning to discover that a tree has appeared overnight in the garden of her Paris house. Intrigued and unnerved, she turns to her neighbours: Vandoosler, an ex-cop, and three impecunious historians, Mathias, Marc and Lucien - the three evangelists. They agree to dig around the tree and see if something has been buried there. They find nothing but soil.   A few weeks later, Sophia disappears and her body is found burned to ashes in a car. Who killed the opera singer? Her husband, her ex-lover, her best friend, her niece? They all seem to have a motive.  Vandoosler and the three evangelists set out to find the truth.