Flying in the Dark by James Swallow

I’ve always been a bit of an aviation geek; I mean, with a surname like mine, how could I not love things that fly? 

I grew up in North London under the approaches to Heathrow, not far from the aerial car park known as the “Lambourne Stack” – for the uninitiated, that’s one of the four volumes of sky around the edges of Greater London, where airliners circle in race-track patterns while they’re waiting permission to land at one of the world’s busiest airports. I watched jets from my bedroom window when I wasn’t making models of them; I had parents who shared my interest, who toured me around museums and air shows, and when I reached seventeen, they gifted me my first flying lesson, in a little single-engine Cessna 152. 

I love the drama of flight, the romance and the excitement of it. The thrill never gets old for me, even when I’m experiencing it from back in coach class, crammed into a seat too small for my long-legged frame. I’m still looking out of that window, watching the sky streak by. 

In my previous novel AIRSIDE (Welbeck,2022) I wrote a thriller about a man whose luck had run out, bumped off the last flight home and trapped in a storm-bound airport terminal. Following it with my newest book DARK HORIZON, I realized I was writing a loosely-connected duology, with both books carrying a common aviation theme – but where AIRSIDE is about being stuck on the ground, DARK HORIZON’s pilot heroine Kate Hood finds herself trapped in the air, in the middle of a violent conspiracy that she wants no part of...but that fate won’t let her escape.

When I write a thriller, my stock in trade is a narrative at a fast pace, a page-turner high on the action. So to give that a foundation, I do my best to make sure the setting of the story is as genuine as I can make it. Writing DARK HORIZON, I talked to experts, aviation historians, fighter pilots and civil flyers alike, to make Kate’s dramatic journey feel authentic.

The concept behind her story takes inspiration from real events – several years ago, after I moved south to the leafy environs of Kent, I once more found myself under an airport approach path, but this time it was for Biggin Hill, a former World War II RAF airfield. I still get to watch flights from my office window, but now they are sleek executive jets, helicopters and occasionally, my old friend the Cessna.

As I read up on the history of the area, a detail pinged on my thriller writer radar and I immediately filed it away as the seed of a potential story. In the early-to-mid 2000s there was a scandal about the alleged use of British airports like Biggin as waypoints for clandestine “renditions” undertaken by America's Central Intelligence Agency. In these covert operations, the CIA would transport suspected terrorist captives outside of US borders, to countries with non-extradition treaties and lax laws with regard to forcible interrogation. The end-point of these flights were the infamous off-grid prisons known in the intelligence community as “black sites”. Morally and ethically grey, operations like these challenge us to consider the lines our governments and security forces are prepared to cross in the name of security. 

It’s the nature of the author that we go through life sifting the world around us for the starting points of our stories, and when I read about these “dark flights” I knew that the enclosed set-up and the secret, highly-charged nature of it would form the solid bedrock of a compelling thriller novel; and from that concept, I formulated the plot line that would become the novel DARK HORIZON, putting a lone pilot with a past she can’t escape on a collision course with a mysterious passenger who may be an innocent victim, or a murderous terrorist hiding in plain sight.

DARK HORIZON by James Swallow is published by Welbeck, out now in hardcover and eBook.

At 40,000 feet up... There is no place to hide. A fatal crash on a rain-slick road and a brutal murder in an English village set off a deadly chain of events, leading from stormy skies over the Mediterranean Sea to an explosive confrontation on a remote airstrip in North Africa... Only a handful of people know the reason why Kate Hood left the military in disgrace; now a contract pilot for a private jet company, she’s looking for a second chance and a better life. But to keep her secrets, she must take a last-minute assignment to fly a covert cargo out of the country to a non-extradition nation, with no questions asked. The cargo is a prisoner who may be the key to a violent terrorist conspiracy – but he swears he is an innocent man, wrongly accused of crimes he played no part in. And as Kate races through the night, on the ground a team of ruthless killers are hunting the people she cares about, threatening their lives to force the pilot to hijack her own aircraft. But do they plan to liberate the captive – or execute him? Trapped at the heart of an escalating crisis, Kate and her mysterious passenger must navigate the conflicting agendas of enemies and allies alike, on a flight into danger that neither of them may survive...

Learn more about James Swallow and his writing at his website www.jswallow.com. You can also find him on Twitter @jmswallow

2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Best Published Novel Award Short List

 

The Foundation encourages readers to select the one that appeals to them most, then read, share and recommend. 

'Most of 2020 was a challenging time for all of us, including booksellers and publishers around the world. This said, we at the Foundation have an utmost respect for the authors, publishers and agents in their continued drive to reach readers in new ways. We are fortunate to work with a team of dedicated and passionate librarians and library staff to help select the shortlist.

 These shortlisted novels are thrilling, sometimes witty, and will make you weep. There are so many emotions brilliantly put to paper in all these books that they are guaranteed to keep you up at night. Read one and it will present you with a fresh take on the world, read all six and the power of adventure will sweep you off your feet.'

- Niso Smith, Founder of The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation

Throughout June and July, the Prize will run an online campaign with a public vote element, where the reader’s choice equates to one seat on the judging panel. Over the course of the campaign, the Foundation will host a series of online events which you will able to sign up for via the Foundation’s website, plus engagement opportunities for libraries and reading groups, to let you get to know the books and authors. 

The winner of this year's Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize will be revealed at a special online ceremony on 8th September 2021.

The following 6 authors all in the running for the £10,000 prize:

THE DEEP BLUE BETWEEN by Ayesha Harruna Attah (Pushkin Press)

CITY OF VENGEANCE by D.V. Bishop (Pan Macmillan)

OTTO ECKHART’S ORDEAL by Niall Edworthy (Universe, Unicorn Publishing)

MISS BENSON’S BEETLE by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday)

TOTAL BLACKOUT by Alex Shaw (HQ)

ROGUE by James Swallow (Bonnier Books UK)

Congratulations to all the authors long listed for the award.

2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Best Published Novel Award

 After a year’s hiatus, the Best Published Novel award has returned with a 12-strong longlist. The Prize is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English, and this year we are recognising the best adventure fiction published between 1^stMay 2020 and 30^th April 2021.

The following 12 authors all in the running for the £10,000 prize:

THE DEEP BLUE BETWEEN by Ayesha Harruna Attah (Pushkin Press)

CITY OF VENGEANCE by D.V. Bishop (Pan Macmillan)

A TRAVELLER AT THE GATES OF WISDOM by John Boyne (Doubleday)

THE HILL by Ali Bryan

OTTO ECKHART’S ORDEAL by Niall Edworthy (Universe, Unicorn Publishing)

THE ENGLISHMAN by David Gilman (Head of Zeus)

OPERATION CERTAIN DEATH by Kim Hughes (Simon & Schuster UK)

MISS BENSON’S BEETLE by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday)

THE GLASS KINGDOM Lawrence Osborne (Hogarth)

TOTAL BLACKOUT by Alex Shaw (HQ)

ROGUE by James Swallow (Bonnier Books UK)

THE COLD MILLIONS by Jess Walter (Viking)

Congratulations to all the authors long listed for the award.

Niso Smith, Founder of The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation, commented

‘Books are a lifeline for many people and have been more so than ever over the past year. While we have not been able to travel, to experience other places and cultures, to meet the people who make our world so colourful, we have relied on books to take us there. This longlist truly has an adventure for everyone.’

The Foundation encourages readers to select the one that appeals to them most, then read, share and recommend.

The Prize received 127 entries from publishers and literary agents, by authors from across the world, including Australia, Canada, Ghana, Ireland, South Africa, India, New Zealand and the UK.

The longlist is selected by a panel of librarians and library staff, who looked for novels which both honour the traditions of the great adventure stories and are unafraid to try something new.

Six titles will be selected by the same panel to progress to the shortlist, after which the novels progress to the 2021 judging panel.The Prize will also include a public vote over the summer with the reader’s choice equating to one seat on the judging panel. We look forward to hearing what you think!

Shortlist Announced: 20th May 2021

Winner Announced: 8th September 2021

Books to Look Forward to from Bonnier Zaffre

January 2020

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

Stasi Winter is by David Young.   In 1978 East Germany, nothing is at it seems. The state's power is absolute, history is re-written, and the 'truth' is whatever the Stasi say it is. So when a woman's murder is officially labelled 'accidental death', Major Karin Muller of the People's Police is faced with a dilemma. To solve the crime, she must disregard the official version of events. But defying the Stasi means putting her own life - and the lives of her young family - in danger. As the worst winter in living memory holds Germany in its freeze, Muller must untangle a web of state secrets and make a choice: between truth and lies, justice and injustice, and, ultimately, life and death.

 

February 2020

The Oath is by Klaus-Peter Wolf. If the system can't make them pay, then he will . . . Former chief of police, Ubbo Heide, is enjoying a peaceful seaside retirement - until a gruesome package containing a severed head turns up on his doorstep and catapults him back into a world he left behind. When a torso is found on the local beach, it's assumed it's from the same victim. That is until a second head turns up. As the investigation reaches fever pitch, Chief Inspector Ann Kathrin Klaasen, now assigned to the case, realises that the two victims are connected. Soon it's clear that this quiet coastal community is facing a brutal serial killer. One who is taking justice into his own hands.

March 2020 

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

April 2020

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

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

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

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

May 2020

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

June 2020

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

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

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

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

Capital Crime's Social Out Reach

As part of Capital Crime's social outreach initiative for the forthcoming crime festival 10 state-funded schools in and around the capital were asked to select two sixth form students who had an interest and ability in creative writing to take part in a seminar evening.  It was an opportunity for them to hear not only from authors but also others who work in publishing and other areas of the book world.  The event took place on Tuesday 2 April 2019 at

Photo Credit Seb Higgins (www.sebhiggins.com)

Goldsboro Books. 

The evening started off with an introduction by Adam Handy (co-organiser of Capital Crime) who explained what was planned for the evening.

Ali Land (author of Good Me Bad Me) was the first to give a talk from the perspective of an author.  As she explained her route to being publishing was rather unique and very rarely happened. She sent three chapters off to an agent who very quickly asked her for the rest of the bookend not long after that offered to represent her.  It was then pre-empted by Penguin She also explained that she initially spent over a decade working as a Mental Health nurse in the UK and Australia before her writing took off. Her work as a Mental Health  Nurse did help with her writing to the extent with her main character Milly.  Ali explained that in the end it took quite sometime before the book was finally ready to be published.  It was however well-worth it as Good Me Bad Me was not only shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Dagger, short-listed twice for Dead Good Reader Awards, short-listed for the Glass Bell Award for Contemporary Fiction.  It was also a Richard and Judy Book Club pick.

After Ali Land talked about being a writer Ruth Tross spoke about what it was like working in publishing.  Ruth Tross currently works as Hodder and Mulholland crime and fiction publisher and publishes authors such as Erin Kelly, Vaseem Khan and Yrsa Sigurdardottir's 

Photo credit - Seb Higgins

to name a few.  Ruth's talk was about the day in the life of an editor.  She also went on to explain  that she didn't actually start out in publishing but in bookselling.  When she moved into publishing it wasn't initially as an editor.  Ruth explained that there were a number of different jobs available in publishing such as working in marketing and public relations, working on book covers, selling book rights and copy editing to name a few.  She also went on to explain that it sometimes took a bit of time to find your niche within publishing. Publishing, Ruth explained was fascinating place to work in but she accepted the fact that it did still have a way to go when it came to diversity.  There are not that many people of colour  One thing that she did highlight was the fact that you had to love books to work in publishing. 

Ruth Tross was followed by author James Swallow.  He also explained that his route to becoming a writer was very different to that of Ali Land's. James Swallow explained that before he started writing his Marc Dane series of action thriller novels that he had written a number of other genre novels and had worked in a number of different mediums.  He had written tie-in novels, written for Dr Who, 24, Star Trek, Stargate as well as doing audio drama for 2000AD to name a few.  James explained that as enjoyable as it was being a writer was not easy and one had to work hard at it.  The reason why he enjoyed writing the Marc Dane series of books was because they were the type of books that he himself enjoyed reading. 

After a brief break David Headley also spoke.  David spoke from the point of view of a literary agent and what as an agent he looks for in a book. He explained that he gets a huge number of submissions but what can be frustrating is the fact that those submitting manuscripts do not bother to read the agents websites first of all and to follow their submission guidelines. That he explained was the first rule would be writers should be following.  There was for example no point in submitting a YA. (Young Adult) book to an agent tat does not deal with YA authors.    He also expressed the view that championing books that he felt strongly about was one of the best things about being an agent.

Photo Credit Seb Higgins

Faridah Ábiké-Íyímídé was also another author that spoke at the event to the students in attendance.  A YA author Faridah Ábiké-Íyímídé is currently studying English and Chinese at university.  Her YA novel Ace of Spades is due to be published in 2020. Faridah when talking to those in attendance explained that she was conscious of the fact that whilst her family were supportive it was not what they expected her to become.  They would have preferred her to become a Doctor, Lawyer, Scientist etc as they were seen as "responsible" jobs and not work in the creative industries.  Part of the problem was the fact that the publishing world did not really think that people of colour actually read which was not true.  

Selina Walker who is a publisher also gave a publishers perspective about what she does and the different stages of a book's publication.  Selina spoke about what happens when she first receives a manuscript from an author.  Unlike many editors she prefers to print out a manuscript and work on it on paper.  To show what she does Selina brought along a manuscript that she is working on so that the students could see exactly how a manuscript is marked up with comments. Selina also brought along others stages of a manuscript amongst which included a proof copy of a book. 

There was a great amount of enthusiasm from those in attendance who had the opportunity to see the different stages.  There was also a great deal of discussion about the different areas available in publishing tat one could actually work in.  

After the talk finished there was also further opportunity to have an informal chat and mingle with those that gave presentations and ask any other questions that they had.  The Out Reach event was a spectacular success and it was great to see so many enthusiastic questions being asked.

Furthermore as part of the initiative the selected students were also given a day pass for all Capital Crime events on the Saturday and further opportunity to meet established authors and publishing professionals.

Capital Crime's Social Out Reach event was a brilliant initiative in opening up the publishing world to those who would not normally think of working in the industry.  

Photo Credit - Seb Higgins

Tickets for Capital Crime are available now and can be bought from the website. 

books to look Forward to From Bonnier Zaffre

January 2019

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

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

February 2019

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

March 2019

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

April 2019

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

May 2019

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

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

June 2019

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

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

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

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

August 2019

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