Forthcoming Books from Simon and Schuster

 January 2024

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

February 2024

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

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

March 2024

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

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

April 2024

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

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

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

May 2024

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

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

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

June 2024

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

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

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

Also due out in June is Redemption by Jack Jordan. 

Forthcoming Crime Books from Simon & Schuster

 January 2023

In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye. DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal. AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic? In The Blink of an Eye is by Jo Callaghan.

Cold People is by Tom Rob Smith. What if the only hope for survival becomes the greatest threat? The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has thirty days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist... Antarctica. Cold People follows the journeys of a handful of those who endure the frantic exodus to the most extreme environment on the planet. But their goal is not merely to survive the present. Because as they cling to life on the ice, the remnants of their past swept away, they must also confront the urgent challenge: can they change and evolve rapidly enough to ensure humanity's future? Can they build a new society in the sub-zero cold?

A riveting, decades-in-the-writing memoir from the determined young prosecutor who, in two of America's most celebrated trials, managed to convict famed mob boss John Gotti-and subsequently took down the Mafia altogether. John Gotti was without a doubt the flashiest and most feared Mafioso in American history. He became the boss of the Gambino Crime Family in spectacular fashion-with the brazen and very public murder of Paul Castellano in front of Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan in 1985. Not one to stay below law enforcement's radar, Gotti instead became the first celebrity crime boss. His penchant for eye-catching apparel earned him the nickname "The Dapper Don;" his ability to beat criminal charges led to another: "The Teflon Don." This is the captivating story of Gotti's meteoric rise to power and his equally dramatic downfall. Every step of the way, Gotti's legal adversary-John Gleeson, an Assistant US Attorney in Brooklyn-was watching. When Gotti finally faced two federal racketeering prosecutions, Gleeson prosecuted both. As the junior lawyer in the first case-a bitter seven-month battle that ended in Gotti's acquittal-Gleeson found himself in Gotti's crosshairs, falsely accused of serious crimes by a defense witness Gotti intimidated into committing perjury. Five years later, Gleeson was in charge of the second racketeering investigation and trial. Armed with the FBI's secret recordings of Gotti's conversations with his underboss and consigliere in the apartment above Gotti's Little Italy hangout, Gleeson indicted all three. He "flipped" underboss Sammy the Bull Gravano, killer of nineteen men, who became history's highest-ranking mob turncoat-resulting in Gotti's murder conviction. Gleeson ended not just Gotti's reign, but eventually that of the entire mob. An epic, page-turning courtroom drama, The Gotti Wars is by John Gleeson is a brilliantly told crime story that illuminates a time in our nation's history when lawyers and mobsters dominated the news, but it's also the story of a tenacious young man, in the glare of the media spotlight, who mastered the art of becoming a great attorney.

February 2023

The Only Suspect is by Louise Candlish. There's the obvious story. And then there's the truth. Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he's not the most outgoing guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he's a good husband and an easy-going neighbour. That's until Beth announces the creation of a nature trail on a local site that's been disused for decades and suddenly Alex is a changed man. Now he's always watching. Questioning. Struggling to hide his dread... As the landscapers get to work, a secret threatens to surface from years ago, back in Alex's twenties when he got entangled with a seductive young woman called Marina, who threw both their lives into turmoil. And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed. And it still isn't.

March 2023

The Favour is by Nicci French. A good deed can turn deadly... When Liam unexpectedly turns up in Jude's life after ten years of no contact, asking her for a favour, she just can't say no. He was her first love, and even though she is now a successful doctor and about to get married, he will always be someone special to her. But after she does the favour, she is contacted by the police, informing her that Liam has been found dead, and suddenly she is caught up in a murder investigation. And she realises this one decision could cost her everything - even her life...

April 2023

1978, Rhode Island: A freshman senator is gunned down, sending shockwaves through Washington that are still reverberating over four decades later. Now: In a world on the brink of war facing rampant inflation, political division, and shocking assassinations, a secret cabal of global elites are ready to assume control. And with the world's most dangerous man locked in solitary confinement, the conspirators believe the final obstacle to complete domination has been eliminated. They're wrong. From the firms of Wall Street to the corridors of power in Washington, DC and Moscow, secrets from the past have the uncanny ability to rise to the surface and with the odds stacked against him, James Reece is on a deadly mission that is generations in the making. But for a man on the warpath, odds are not important. Only The Dead is by Jack Carr.

May 2023

Conviction is by Jack Jordan. He trusts his lawyer with his life... He shouldn't. Wade Darling stands accused of killing his wife and teenage children as they slept and burning their house to the ground. When the case lands on barrister Neve Harper's desk, she knows it could make her career. A matter of days before the case, as Neve is travelling home for the night, she is approached by a man. He tells her she must throw the case or the secret about her husband's disappearance will be revealed. Failing that, he will kill everyone she cares about, until she does as she is told. Neve must make a choice - go against every principle she has ever had, or the people she loves will die.

Independence Square is by Martin Cruz Smith. Arkady Renko is back . . . Renko has been confined to a desk job by his superiors to keep him out of the way. Although he's more disillusioned with policing and the general state of Russia than ever, he feels an odd sense of hope. A rebellion is bubbling in the country, with new values butting heads against old-school regimes. People want change and politician Leonid Lebedev could be the man to do it. When Karina, a staunch supporter of Lebedev and member of the Forum, goes missing, Renko is asked by her father to find her. Soon after his investigation begins, Alex, a close friend of Arkady's son, is found dead. He was also a member of the Forum. The night before his murder, Alex sent Arkady a cryptic message, simply containing three pictures of Russian writers. The link between the pictures is there, if only Renko could see it. But Arkady has just been diagnosed with Parkinson's and the physical and psychological effects of the disease are taking their toll. This time, he must fight more than the impenetrable Russian regime to get answers - he will need to fight himself.

The Devil You Know is by Chris Hauty. A Supreme Court justice is murdered and a conspiracy with potentially cataclysmic effects is uncovered in the latest of the nationally bestselling 'edge-of-your-seat' (Book Riot) Hayley Chill series. When a justice of the Supreme Court is killed by the police officer assigned to protect him, the country is shocked. Hayley Chill's superiors suspect the assassination is part of a major conspiracy. In Maui, where one member of the Supreme Court owns a vacation home, a busload of children is taken hostage with the justice's death as ransom. Together with a deputy US marshal, Hayley embarks on the monumental task of rescuing the children while also protecting the justice. But with danger around every corner and no one to trust, has Hayley finally bitten off more than she can chew?

June 2023

'I wasn't always crazy, but I was never sane.' How do you solve your own murder before it happens? That's the question that haunts three women. Convinced that a mysterious urban myth called the rule of three is real, they must find a way to break the curse or be doomed to die like those who came before them. But when you're not sure if what you think is happening is even the truth, how do you know if you are actually in danger?
And if you don't know, how will you be able to protect yourself? Amy. Ila. Zoe. Death comes in threes. Who will survive and who will solve the rule of three? The Rule of Three is by Sam Ripley.

Books to Look Forward to From Simon & Schuster

 January 2022

Monster? Murderer? Child? Victim? Michelle Cameron's name is associated with the most abhorrent of crimes. A child who lured a younger child away from her parents and to her death, she is known as the black girl who murdered a little white girl; evil incarnate according to the media. As the book opens, she has done her time, and has been released as a young woman with a new identity to start her life again. When another shocking death occurs, Michelle is the first in the frame. Brought into the police station to answer questions around a suspicious death, it is only a matter of time until the press find out who she is now and where she lives and set about destroying her all over again. Natalie Tyler is the officer brought in to investigate the murder. A black detective constable, she has been ostracised from her family and often feels she is in the wrong job. But when she meets Michelle, she feels a complicated need to protect her, whatever she might have done. The Gosling Girl is by Jacqueline Roy.

February 2022

Tell Me Your Lies is by Kate Ruby. Lily Appleby will do anything to protect the people she loves. She's made ruthless choices to make sure their secrets stay buried, and she's not going to stop now. When her party-animal daughter, Rachel, spins out of control, Lily hires a renowned therapist and healer to help her. Amber is the skilled and intuitive confidante that Rachel desperately needs. But as Rachel falls increasingly under Amber's spell, she begins to turn against her parents, and Lily grows suspicious. Does Amber really have Rachel's best interests at heart or is there something darker going on? Only one thing is clear: Rachel is being lied to. Never quite knowing who to believe, her search for the truth will reveal her picture-perfect family as anything but flawless.

Berlin. 1963. The height of the Cold War. An early morning spy swap, not at Glienecke Bridge, the familiar setting for such exchanges, or at Checkpoint Charlie, where international visitors cross into the East, but at a more discreet border crossing, usually reserved for East German VIPs, next to the Charite hospital complex. The Communists are trading two American students caught helping people to escape over the wall and a lower level CIA operative. Not the stuff of headlines and, as planned, no journalists are here to write them. On the other side of the trade: Martin Keller, an American physicist who once indeed made headlines, but who then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller's most critical possession: his American passport. Keller's most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife Sabine and their young son. The exchange is made with the formality characteristic of these swaps - equal paces to the concrete barrier, etc. - with each side sizing up the relative value of the other. Three for one? Small fry for a nuclear spy? But Martin has other questions: who asked for him? who negotiated the deal? Just the KGB bringing home one of its agents? Or, as he hopes, a more personal intervention? He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics - his expertise is years out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot. The Berlin Exchange is by Joseph Kanon. 

March 2022.

Reputation is by Sarah Vaughan. Reputation: it takes a lifetime to build and just one moment to destroy. Emma Webster is a respectable MP. Emma Webster is a devoted mother. Emma Webster is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist. Emma Webster is a liar. #Reputation: The story you tell about yourself. And the lies others choose to believe...

Lost something? Gabriela Rose knows how to get it back. As a recovery agent, she's hired by individuals and companies seeking lost treasures, stolen heirlooms, or missing assets of any kind. She's reliable, cool under pressure, and well trained in weapons of all types. But Gabriela's latest job isn't for some bamboozled billionaire, it's for her own family, whose home is going to be wiped off the map if they can't come up with a lot of money fast.  Inspired by an old family legend, Gabriela sets off for the jungles of Peru in pursuit of the Ring of Solomon and the lost treasure of Cortez. But this particular job comes with a huge problem attached to it - Gabriela's ex-husband, Rafer. It's Rafer who has the map that possibly points the way to the treasure, and he's not about to let Gabriela find it without him. Rafer is as relaxed as Gabriela is driven, and he has a lifetime's experience getting under his ex-wife's skin. But when they aren't bickering about old times the two make a formidable team, and it's going to take a team to defeat the vicious drug lord who has also been searching for the fabled ring. A drug lord who doesn't mind leaving a large body count behind him to get it. The Recovery Agent is by Janet Evanovich. 

April 2022

County Ghost is by Chris Petit. When a government minister is shot there are many suspects but few leads. Days before the attempted assassination, Charlotte Waites, a Home Office analyst, dismissed a crucial intel flag and now has to account for her actions. Dragged into a web of intrigue that will draw in everybody from the prime minister to her ailing father, she must try to get the bottom of the mystery while confronting dark secrets from her family's past.

May 2022

A body is discovered in a frozen lake, its wrists bound. When it is linked to a case from 2002, Tyler, DC Rabbani and the CCRU team are called in. But fresh blood is soon discovered at the scene and the disturbing events from all those years ago are dragged sharply into the present . . . Cold Reckoning is by Russ Thomas.

Do No Harm is by Jack Jordan. My child has been taken. And I've been given a choice... Kill a patient on the operating table. Or never see my son again. The man lies on the table in front of me. As a surgeon, it's my job to save him. As a mother, I know I must kill him. You might think that I'm a monster. But there really is only one choice. I must get away with murder. Or I will never see my son again. I've saved many lives. Would you trust me with yours?

Storm Rising is by Chris Hauty. Ex-White House intern Hayley Chill is in training as an MMA fighter, trying to leave her past behind her. But hard as she may try to escape it, the past finds her. Under the floorboards of her father's house, she uncovers a ciphered document titled 'The Storm'. More Clues lead her into the Deeper State. What begins as incidental evidence of a subculture of white supremacy within the US military emerges as a much more extensive and dire threat. Hayley's lonely and often violent investigative pursuit travels up a mysterious cabal's chain of command, leading to the revelation of a fully-realized conspiracy to break off several southern states from the US, forming a new country and one founded on white nationalist ideals. It is up to Hayley Chill alone to stop a second civil war before it starts, while at the same time revealing the ultimate truth about her own father's role in this harrowing chapter of American history.

A woman boards a plan in Burkina Faso having just completed a targeted assassination for the state of Israel. Two minutes after takeoff her plane is blown out of the sky. 6000 miles to the east, James Reece watches the names and pictures of the victims cross cable news. One face triggers a distant memory of a Mossad operative attached to the CIA years earlier in Iraq, a woman with ties to the intelligence services of two nations, a woman Reece thought he would never see again... In a global pursuit spanning four continents, James Reece will enlist the help of friends new and old to track down her killer and walk right into a trap set by a master sniper, a sniper who has enlisted help of his own... In The Blood is by Jack Carr.

June 2022

The Terminal List is by Jack Carr. On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece's entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government. Now, with no family and free from the military's command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he's learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward avenging the deaths of his family and teammates. With breathless pacing and relentless suspense, Reece ruthlessly targets his enemies in the upper echelons of power without regard for the laws of combat or the rule of law.

Books to Look Forward to from Simon and Schuster

July 2021 

My Best Friend's Murder is by Polly Phillips. There are so many ways to kill a friendship . . . You're lying, sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, legs bent, arms wide. And while this could be a tragic accident, if anyone's got a motive to hurt you, it's me. Bec and Izzy have been best friends their whole lives. They have been through a lot together - from the death of Bec's mother to the birth of Izzy's daughter. But there is a darker side to their friendship. And Bec is about to reach breaking point. Then Izzy's body is found at the bottom of the stairs. It could have been an accident - perhaps she fell - but if the police decide to look for a killer, Bec is certain she will be the prime suspect. Because she knows better than anyone that those closest to you can hurt you the most. And that someone can only be pushed so far before they snap . .

Deep in the wilds of Siberia, a woman is on the run, pursued by a man harboring secrets - a man intent on killing her. Half a world away, James Reece is recovering from brain surgery in the Montana wilderness, slowly putting his life back together with the help of investigative journalist Katie Buranek and his longtime friend and SEAL teammate Raife Hastings. Unbeknown to them, the Russian mafia has set their sights on Reece in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Savage Son is by Jack Carr

August 2021

The Heights is by Louise Candlish..He thinks he's safe up there. But he'll never be safe from you. The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building among the warehouses of Shad Thames, its roof terrace so discreet you wouldn't know it existed if you weren't standing at the window of the flat directly opposite. But you are. And that's when you see a man up there - a man you'd recognize anywhere. He's older now and his appearance has subtly changed, but it's definitely him. Which makes no sense at all since you know he has been dead for over two years. You know this for a fact. Because you're the one who killed him.

America is threatened by cyber attacks only one woman can put a stop to them running a double agent from inside the white house to spy on the russians is not easy, but hayley chill has never backed down from a challenge. Then suddenly her whole operation is at risk as a series of cyber-attacks are launched on Washington, D.C. Tasked by the covert organisation she works for to solve the situation, her hunt for the hacker takes her straight to the heart of the intelligence community. SAVAGE ROAD -address. The location of Fort Meade, headquarters for the NSA and Cyber Command. Hayley must stop the hacker quickly, before global politics is disrupted and World War III breaks out. But when she uncovers dark truths about her own past, her characteristic calm is threatened... Nothing is as it seems. Nobody can be trusted. Hayley Chill is on her own. Savage Road is by Chris Hauty

September 2021

Enemy at the Gates is by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills. America is reeling from the national blackout that swept the nation, continuing to dig out of the power outage. And the new president is unlike any Mitch has worked with in the past; he is extremely dictatorial and sees cracks in America's democratic institutions that he believes can be exploited to put his family in power permanently. As Mitch backs away from the new president, he, in turn, questions Rapp's loyalty. Mitch decides to take a much needed break and moves to his house in Cape Town, where he gets pulled into a job with Nicholas Ward, the world's first trillionaire. It has been discovered that there is a mole in the CIA who's been digging through their systems for information on Ward so, after thwarting an attempt to kidnap him Uganda, Mitch makes it look like the abduction was successful. The hope is that this will give Rapp the freedom to track down the person who has been able to gain such deep access into the CIA's mainframe. Rapp, completely cut off from the agency, must uncover the identity of the mole and deal with him. But the situation is deeper and more complex than he ever could have imagined, involving the President of the United States himself.

The Unheard is by Nicci French. He did kill. Kill and kill and kill.' Tess's number one priority has always been her three-year-old daughter Poppy. But splitting up with Poppy's father Jason means that she cannot always be there to keep her daughter safe. When she finds a disturbing drawing, dark and menacing, among her daughter's brightly coloured paintings, Tess is convinced that Poppy has witnessed something terrible. Something that her young mind is struggling to put into words. But no one will listen. It's only a child's drawing, isn't it? Tess will protect Poppy, whatever the price. But when she doesn't know what, or who, she is protecting her from, how can she possibly know who to trust . . . ?

Miles Pussett is a former steeplechase jockey. Now he gets his adrenaline rush from riding down the Cresta Run, a three-quarter-mile Swiss ice chute, head first, reaching speeds of up to eighty miles per hour. Finding himself in St Moritz during the same weekend as White Turf, when high-class horseracing takes place on the frozen lake, he gets talked into helping out with the horses. It is against his better judgement. Seven years before, Miles left horseracing behind and swore he would never return. When he discovers something suspicious is going on in the races, something that may have a profound impact on his future life, Miles begins a search for answers. But someone is adamant to stop him - and they'll go to any lengths to do it . . . Iced is by Felix Francis.

Winter Counts is by David Heska Wanbli Weiden.  If you have a problem, if no one else can help, there's one person you can turn to.  Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way onto the reservation and finds Virgil's nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realises that being a Native-American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

November 2021

It has been two decades since 9/11. The enemy has been patient. The enemy has been learning. The enemy has been adapting. The enemy is ready to strike again . . . Former Navy SEAL James Reece must embark on a top-secret CIA mission of retribution twenty years in the making in this riveting and timely thriller that will leave you gasping for breath. The Devil's Hand is by Jack Carr.