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January 2019
A breath-taking missing persons thriller set under the
menacing peaks of the Pyrenees. Five
years after their disappearance, the village of Monteperdido still mourns the
loss of Ana and Lucia, two eleven-year-old friends who left school one afternoon
and were never seen again. Now, Ana reappears unexpectedly inside a crashed
car, wounded but alive. The case reopens
and a race against time begins to discover who was behind the girls'
kidnapping. Most importantly, where is Lucia and is she still alive? Inspector Sara Campos and her boss Santiago
Bain, from Madrid's head office, are forced to work with the local police. Five
years ago fatal mistakes were made in the investigation conducted after the
girls first vanished, and this mustn't happen again. But Monteperdido has rules
of its own. Village of the Lost Girls is by Agustín Martínez.
A reporter with no fear - Brussels, 1979. Jaded Edinburgh
journalist Neil Bannerman arrives in the capital of European politics intent on
digging up dirt. Yet it is danger he discovers, when two British men are found
murdered. A child with no father - One
victim is a journalist, the other a Cabinet Minister: the double-assassination
witnessed by the former's autistic daughter. This girl recalls every detail about
her father's killer - except for one.
The man with no face - With Brussels rocked by the tragedy, Bannerman is
compelled to follow his instincts. He is now fighting to expose a murderous
conspiracy, protect a helpless child, and unmask a remorseless killer. The Man
With No Face is by Peter May.
A Long Night in Paris is by Dov Aflon. When an Israeli tech entrepreneur disappears from Charles de Gaulle airport with a woman in red, logic dictates youthful indiscretion. But Israel is on a state of high alert nonetheless. Colonel Zeev Abadi, the new head of Unit 8200's autonomous Special Section, who just happens to be in Paris, also just happens to have arrived on the same flight. For Commissaire Leger of the Paris Police coincidences have their reasons, and most are suspect. When a second young Israeli is kidnapped soon after arriving on the same flight, this time at gunpoint from his hotel room, his suspicions are confirmed - and a diplomatic incident looms. Back in Tel Aviv, Lieutenant Oriana Talmor, Abadi's deputy, is his only ally, applying her sharp wits to the race to identify the victims and the reasons behind their abduction. In Paris a covert Chinese commando team listens to the investigation unfurl and watches from the rooftops. While by the hour the morgue receives more bodies from the river and the city's arrondissements. The clock has been set. And this could be a long night in the City of Lights.
February
2019
Fight Back is by
Anna Smith. Kerry Casey is now a
fully-fledged gangland boss. With her business partner Sharon and her wily
lawyer Marty at her side, she is busy ridding her organisation of the
drug-dealing, people-trafficking scum her dead brother Mickey got them involved
with. But her great dream is still to take the Casey’s straight. Her plan to turn her organisation around
hinges on building a property empire in Spain. But Kerry has some deadly rivals
- in Glasgow, on the Costa del Sol, and even further afield. They will never
believe she has what it takes to defend her turf, and they won't rest until the
Casey’s are destroyed. When her enemies
strike at the heart of the Casey family, Kerry must prepare for the fight of
her life - for her business, her friends and her own survival.
The Stone Circle is
by Elly Griffiths. DCI Nelson has been
receiving threatening letters telling him to 'go to the stone circle and rescue
the innocent who is buried there'. He is shaken, not only because children are
very much on his mind, with Michelle's baby due to be born, but because
although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like
the letters that first drew him into the case of The Crossing Places, and
to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they? Meanwhile Ruth is working on a dig in the
Saltmarsh - another henge, known by the archaeologists as the stone circle -
trying not to think about the baby. Then bones are found on the site, and
identified as those of Margaret Lacey, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared
thirty years ago. As the Margaret Lacey
case progresses, more and more aspects of it begin to hark back to that first
case of The Crossing Places, and to Scarlett Henderson, the girl Nelson
couldn't save. The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is
deadly.
Death stalked the Vale.
In every corner, every whisper.
They just didn't know it yet. Six
neighbours, six secrets, six reasons to want Olive Collins dead. In the exclusive gated community of Withered
Vale, people's lives appear as perfect as their beautifully manicured lawns.
Money, success, privilege - the residents have it all. Life is good. There's just one problem. Olive Collins' dead body has been rotting
inside number four for the last three months. Her neighbours say they're
shocked at the discovery but nobody thought to check on her when she vanished
from sight. The police start to ask
questions and the seemingly flawless facade begins to crack. Because, when it
comes to Olive's neighbours, it seems each of them has something to hide,
something to lose and everything to gain from her death. Dirty
Little Secrets is by Jo Spain.
To Kill The Truth
is by Sam Bourne. Someone is trying to
destroy the evidence of history's greatest crimes. Academics and Holocaust survivors dead in
mysterious circumstances. Museums and libraries burning. Digital records and
irreplaceable proofs, lost for ever.
Former White House operative Maggie Costello has sworn off politics. But
when the Governor of Virginia seeks her help to stop the lethal spiral of
killings, she knows that this is bigger than any political game. As Black Lives Matter protestors clash with
slavery deniers, America is on a knife-edge and time is running out. This
deadly conspiracy could ignite a new Civil War - but who stands to gain most
from the chaos?
March 2019
Even the deepest buried secrets can find their way to the
surface... Moments before she dies,
Nicola's grandmother Betty whispers to her that there are babies at the bottom
of the garden. Nicola's mother claims
she was talking nonsense. However, when Nicola's daughter finds a bone while
playing in Betty's garden, it's clear that something sinister has taken
place. But will unearthing painful
family secrets end up tearing Nicola's family apart? The Last Thing She Told Me is by Linda Green.
The Burning House
is by Neil Spring. It was a victimless
crime... Estate Agent Clara is
struggling to make a sale. With her abusive ex-husband on the brink of finding
where she's hiding, she needs to make a commission soon or lose her chance to
escape. Boleskine House on the shores of
Loch Ness has remained unsold for years, and Clara is sure that an 'innocent'
fire will force the price down. But the perfect crime soon turns into the
perfect nightmare: there was a witness, a stranger in the village, and he's not
going to let Clara get away with it that easily...
Beautiful Bad is by Annie Ward. Maddie and Ian's romance began when he was serving in the British Army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend Jo in Europe. Now sixteen years later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America. But when an accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian's PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son Charlie; and the couple's tangled and tumultuous past with Jo. From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, the years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of shocking crime.
Prefecture D is
by Hideo Yokoyama. A collection of four novellas: each taking place in
1998, each set in the world of Six
Four, and each centring around a mystery and the unfortunate officer tasked
with solving it. Season of Shadows - "The
force could lose face . . . I want you to fix this." Personnel's
Futawatari receives a horrifying memo forcing him to investigate the behaviour
of a legendary detective with unfinished business. Cry of
the Earth - "It's too easy to
kill a man with a rumour." Shinto of Internal Affairs receives an
anonymous tipoff alleging a Station Chief is visiting the red-light district --
a warning he soon learns is a red herring.
Black Lines - "It was supposed to be her special day." Section
Chief Nanao, responsible for the force's 49 female officers, is alarmed to
learn her star pupil has not reported for duty, and is believed to be
missing. Briefcase - "We need to
know what he's going to ask." On the eve of a routine debate,
Political Liaison Tsuge learns a wronged politician is preparing his revenge.
He must now quickly dig up dirt to silence him.
Prefecture D continues
Hideo Yokoyama's exploration of the themes of obsession, saving face, office
politics and inter-departmental conflicts. Placing everyday characters between
a rock and a hard place and then dialling up the pressure, he blends and
balances the very Japanese with the very accessible, to spectacular effect.
A murdered diplomat, planted evidence and a treacherous
sister: once again, Helga had better find the real killer quickly, before heads
start rolling - literally - in this brand-new Viking noir mystery. Helga Finnsdottir left her foster parents,
the old Viking chieftain Unnthor Reginson and his knowing wife Hildigunnur, to
see the world, but she stopped in Uppsala when she fell in love. Now she's
established herself as a local healer and herb-woman on the outskirts of town,
and life is good - until King Eirik the Victorious calls a trade council and
hairy northerners and southern Swedes alike descend on the town. Unfortunately for Helga, one delegation is
headed by a very determined young woman who has her own agenda and will let nothing
- and no one - get in her way. But the last time Helga saw Jorunn
Unthorsdottir, her foster-sister was being cast out by their father for killing
their brother Bjorn and trying to pin the blame on Helga. So perhaps it's no great surprise when one of
the delegates is murdered, or that Helga's soon tagged as the lead suspect. It
doesn't take her long to clear her own name, but that only leads suspicion to
fall on to her man. Once again, Helga
must solve a murder, and fast, before the innocent pays with his head. The
Council is by Snorri Kristjansson.
April 2019
Berlin, 1928, the dying days of the Weimar Republic shortly
before Hitler and the Nazis came to power. It was a period of decadence and
excess as Berliners - after the terrible slaughter of WWI and the hardships
that followed - are enjoying their own version of Babylon. Bernie is a young
detective working in Vice when he gets a summons from Bernard Weiss, Chief of
Berlin's Criminal Police. He invites Bernie to join KIA - Criminal Inspection A
- the supervisory body for all homicide investigation in Kripo. Bernie's first
task is to investigate the Silesian Station killings - four prostitutes
murdered in as many weeks. All of them have been hit over the head with a
hammer and then scalped with a sharp knife.
Bernie hardly has time to acquaint himself with the case files before
another prostitute is murdered. Until now, no one has shown much interest in
these victims - there are plenty in Berlin who'd like the streets washed clean
of such degenerates. But this time the girl's father runs Berlin's foremost
criminal ring, and he's prepared to go to extreme lengths to find his
daughter's killer. Then a second series
of murders begins - of crippled wartime veterans who beg in the city's streets.
It seems that someone is determined to clean up Berlin of anyone less than
perfect. The voice of Nazism is becoming a roar that threatens to drown out all
others. But not Bernie Gunther's ... Metropolis is by Philip Kerr.
As an ex-SAS officer, Aubrey Savage is used to noticing small
things. So when he offers a lift to a terrified runaway bride on the moors, he
knows that there is more to her story than meets the eye. But when she is snatched away immediately,
leaving behind a holdall and Glock, he is thrust into a terrifying world of
corruption, and a threat that is all too close to home. In High
Places is by JJ Holland.
Murder convict Sean Hennessy is released from prison to
return to a seaside community in Dublin. He has always professed his innocence.
But within months of his release, two bodies appear in the peaceful suburb of
Clontarf. With a TV documentary pushing
the public's sympathies in Hennessy's direction, the original evidence against
him is called into question and Detective Frankie Sheehan finds herself
doubting her original analysis of the case.
But when another, fresh victim connects the two cases and the threat
closes in around her family, Sheehan must look deep within herself in order to
spot the killer who hides in plain sight.
The Killer in Me is by Olivia
Kiernan.
May 2019
You Can Run - The
two boys never fitted in. Seventeen, the worst age, nothing to do but smoke
weed; at least they have each other. The day they speed off on a moped with a
stolen mobile, they're ready to celebrate their luck at last. Until their
victim comes looking for what's his - and ready to kill for it. You
Can Hide - On the other side of Kent's wealth divide, DS Alexandra Cupidi
faces the strangest murder investigation of her career. A severed limb, hidden
inside a modern sculpture in Margate's Turner Contemporary. No one takes it
seriously - not even the artwork's owners, celebrity dealers who act like
they're above the law. You Can Die - But as Cupidi's case
becomes ever more sinister, as she wrangles with police politics and personal
dilemmas, she can't help worrying about those runaway boys. Seventeen, the same
age as her own headstrong daughter. Alone, on the marshes, they're pawns in
someone else's game. Two worlds are about to collide. Dungeness
is by William Shaw.
The Carrier is by Mattias Berg. Erasmus Levine has a job like no other. He travels with the President of the United States at all times, and holds in his hands the power to obliterate life
June 2019
The Body in the Castle Well is by
Martin Walker. A rich American art
student is found dead at the bottom of a well in an ancient hilltop castle. The
young woman, Claudia, had been working in the archives of an eminent French art
historian, a crippled Resistance war hero, at his art-filled chateau. As Claudia's White House connections get the
US Embassy and the FBI involved, Bruno traces the people and events that led to
her death - or was it murder? Bruno
learns that Claudia had been trying to buy the chateau and art collection of
her tutor, even while her researches led her to suspect that some of his attributions
may have been forged. This takes Bruno down a trail that leads him from the
ruins of Berlin in 1945, to France's colonial war in Algeria. The long arm of French history has reached
out to find a new victim, but can Bruno identify the killer - and prove his
case?
Life for Paul Samson has gone downhill since he last saw
Denis Hisami. His luck on the turf has run out and, broke and a little
desperate, he has accepted a dangerous assignment searching for a missing
American businessman in Russia. Then he receives a call from Hisami asking him
for a meeting. Hisami has a bombshell to
drop: Anastasia Christakos, the third member of the unlikely trio who searched
for Naji 'Firefly' Touma across the Balkans three years ago, has been
kidnapped, and Hisami wants Samson to find her. Given that Anastasia recently
left Samson for Hisami, it's a bold request, but Samson is unable to say
no. It soon becomes clear that Anastasia
is being held by parties with Russian connections in order to manipulate
Hisami's business dealings. Is there a connection to Hisami's early business
dealings, or even to actions taken by Hisami twenty five years before when he
was a member Kurdish special-forces and intelligence? It will take all of
Samson's courage and guile to find out - and meanwhile the life of the only woman
he has ever loved hangs in the balance. White Hot Silence is by Henry Porter.
Carey Logan - She
was the genius wild child of the New York art scene, and my idol. Fake
- I was a no-name painter from the Florida backwater, clawing my way into their
world. Like - When she died, she left a space that couldn't be filled.
Except, maybe, by Me - Everything
that gets created destroys something else.
When a fire rips through her studio and burns the seven enormous
paintings for her next exhibition, a young, no-name painter is left with an
impossible task: recreate her art in just three months - or ruin her fledgling
career. Thirty-four, single and homeless, she desperately secures a place at an
exclusive upstate retreat. Brimming with creative history and set on a
sparkling black lake, Pine City and its founders - a notorious collective of
successful artists - is what she's idolized all her life. She's dreamt of the
parties, the celebrities, the privilege. What she finds is a ghost of its
former self. The recent suicide of
founding member Carey Logan haunts everyone, lurking beneath the surface like a
shipwreck. And one thought begins to shadow her every move - what really
happened to her hero? Fake Like Me is by Barbara Bourland.
