Books to Look Forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph

July

The Last One is by Alexandra Oliva.  Survival is the name of the game as one woman's mind and body are pushed to the limit. TWELVE CONTESTANTS When Zoo agrees to take part in a new reality TV show, In the Dark, she knows that she will be tested to the limits of her endurance. Beating eleven competitors in a series of survival tasks deep in the forest, living on camera at the extremes of her comfort zone, will be the ultimate challenge before she returns home to start a family. A GAME WITH NO END As the contestants are overcome by hunger, injury and psychological breakdown, the mind games, tricks and hazards to which Zoo is subjected grow dark beyond belief. This isn't what she signed up for: the deserted towns and gruesome props, the empty loneliness. Is this a game with no end? And what is happening away from the cameras' gaze? Discovering the truth will be just the beginning…

A hit-and-run on a woodland road near Amsterdam involving an Afghan boy is connected to a powerful international crime syndicate. Journalist Farah Hafez, together with her colleague Paul Chapelle, gets caught up in an investigation that takes them all the way to Moscow and has greater political and personal ramifications than they bargained for. After this perilous journey, their lives will never be the same again. Butterfly on the Storm is by Walter Lucius and is the first instalment of The Heartland Trilogy.

Broken Heart is by Tim Weaver.  A woman drives to a beautiful headland overlooking the Devon coast.  She is never seen again, and no trace of where she went can be found.  The woman’s sister calls missing person investigator David Raker.  As Raker tries to find her whereabouts – fearing the worst – he learns that she was recently widowed from a reclusive film director.  It seems that, going through her husband’s belongings she found a secret so dark and shocking that it forced her to leave her entire life behind.  Chasing the truth will consume Raker and place him in grave danger…

Truly, Madly Guilty is by Liane Moriarty.  Despite their differences, Erika and

Clementine have been best friends since they were children. So when Erika needs help, Clementine should be the obvious person to turn to. Or so you'd think. For Clementine, as a mother of a two desperately trying to practise for the audition of a lifetime, the last thing she needs is Erika asking for something, again. But the barbecue should be the perfect way to forget their problems for a while. Especially when their hosts, Vid and Tiffany, are only too happy to distract them. Which is how it all spirals out of control..

August

Cold Kill is by P J Tracy.  The peaceful Christmas season in Minneapolis is shattered when two friends, Chuck Spencer and Wally Luntz, scheduled to meet in person for the first time, are murdered on the same night, two hours and several miles apart, dramatically concluding winter vacation for homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth. An hour north of Minneapolis, Lydia Ascher comes home to find two dead men in her basement. When Leo and Gino discover her connection to their current cases, they suspect that she is a target, too. The same day, an elderly, terminally ill man is kidnapped from his home, an Alzheimer's patient goes missing from his care facility, and a baffling link among all the crimes emerges. This series of inexplicable events sends the detectives sixty years into the past to search for answers-and straight to Grace MacBride's Monkeewrench, a group of eccentric computer geniuses who devote their time and resources to helping the cops solve the unsolvable. What they find is an unimaginable horror-a dormant Armageddon that might be activated at any moment unless Grace and her partners Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, along with Leo and Gino, can find a way to stop it.

Husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo try to unravel another ancient and cryptic mystery. An 800-year-old treasure ...An ancient cypher wheel ...A brutal murder ...And a man who will stop at nothing to claim what he considers rightfully his. Husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo have gone on impossible missions before and faced many perils, but never have they faced an adversary as determined as the one before them now. The battle will take them halfway around the world, and at its end will be either one of the most glorious finds in history-or certain death. Pirate is by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake.

The old Victorian pier was once a thing of beauty. It's also where twenty-one-year-old Sophie Collier vanished eighteen years ago. Francesca has spent the last twenty years haunted by the disappearance of her best friend. But when she receives a phone call from Sophie's brother saying that a body has been found, she knows she can't keep hiding from what happened. With her own secrets to keep, Francesca doesn't relish the idea of digging up the past or returning to Oldcliffe. But it is time to go back to where she grew up, and it looks like she isn't the only one there hiding truths.  Local Girl Missing is by Claire Douglas.

September

Helen awaits trial in a crumbling women’s prison in Southampton.  She has a fight on to prove her innocence from inside her prison cell, but this soon turns out to be the least of her worries.  A serial killer is picking off fellow inmates, thriving in an environment where there is truly nowhere to run.  Is it a criminal giving in to their dark urges or a member of the prison staff preying  on the captive population.  Helen must work fast to reveal this devious killer, all the time wondering if she will be next on her list.  Hide and Seek is by M J Arlidge.

The Sleepless Ones the second in the DCI Guillermo Downes series by James Marrison.

No longer a trainee but a freshly-minted Detective Constable, Joseph Stark finds himself working a double homicide. Thomas and Mary Chase were shot dead in their London home, and first impressions are that this is a burglary-gone-bad. But Stark is unconvinced. Burglary-Murders are usually a tragic case of unfortunate timing, but this felt like something else entirely. And when evidence arises to link this murder to a twenty year old cold case the hunt is well and truly on.  Between the Crosses is by Matthew Frank.

October

There is something hiding in the forest.  A man is found dead near an isolated forest outside of London.  When another body is discovered a few days later, DCI Antonia Hawkins knows that she must move fast.  The hunt is on.  With each passing day,  Hawkins struggles to find a patter in this seemingly random scattering of murders.  But who is the hunter? With more disappearances, Hawkins must stop a cold, careful killer whose twisted game can only be guessed at, before the next disappearance.  The Keeper is by Alastair Gunn.

November

A desperate attempt in 1917 to preserve the wealth and power of the Romanov Empire. A Cold War bomber lost with a deadly cargo. Mysterious deaths on the Black Sea linked to modern-day smugglers of nuclear materials. At the center of it all is Dirk Pitt and his team from NUMA. As the danger escalates, there's only one man who can avert catastrophe. From London to Washington, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the action never stops, as Pitt races to prevent the next global war.  Odessa Sea is by Clive and Dirk Cussler.

The Taken is by Alice Clark-Platts.  In a Durham boarding house at dawn, Pastor Ramsay Snow is murdered while he prays.  Detective Inspector Erica Martin’s investigation encounters a host of suspects all staying in the boarding house.  Violet Snow, his daughter, who seems unsurprised by her father’s murder.  Sera Snow, his inscrutable wife.  Her sister, Antonia, who was closer to the Pastor than anyone yet knows. And Fraser McKenzie, Snow’s manager and best friend, who has his own dark secrets to hide.  DI Martin soon learns that this is a case in which nothing is what it seems, and no-one is innocent…

Matthew Frank on not wanting to be a novelist

Today’s guest blog is by debut author Matthew Frank.  Matthew is a Kent-based author

who works as an architect during non-writing hours. His debut novel, If I Should Die, introduces Trainee Detective Constable Joseph Stark, newly discharged from the Territorial Army on medical grounds following a firefight in Helmand. Swapping one uniform for another, Stark is about to discover that the criminals of south-east London can be just as taxing as the Taliban.

I didn’t always want to be a novelist. As a child I wanted, among other things, to be a spaceman. As a teenager I wanted fun, food, female company and, if not a spaceship, at least some independent mode of transport. Becoming an architect in adult life was mostly accident, the path that emerged from the mist before me. Mostly through life I’ve happily followed my feet, chance and good fortune lighting my way.

Thus I find myself a happily married father of three with an interesting job and hobbies I hardly have time for. Everything seems set. Why then, write? There was an initial spark but I’ve already covered that on my website blog. Nevertheless, I do have a theory about one of the shallower reasons. If, like me, you’ve lain awake at night constructing the perfect retort, the winning line you had neither the courage nor speed to summon when it mattered, then you might know what I mean: - Writing is a way of winning arguments. It allows me to put the perfect lines in my characters mouths, letting them say exactly the right thing, or wrong thing, when it matters.

However, just when I think I’m in charge, my characters come up with lines I didn’t expect. I know that somewhat contradicts what I’ve just said, but it happens. As the dialogue flows through my fingers to the screen new thoughts pop into existence seemingly from the characters themselves, driving conversations in unexpected directions, often dragging the plot with it. To me this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing, as exciting as it can be disconcerting. I was trying to express some of all this whilst on my first ever ‘panel’ at Crimefest in Bristol a couple of weeks ago. The question asked was how carefully we authors mould the plot before putting pen to paper? Laura Wilson, who moderated, described two types of writers – ‘Plotters’ and ‘Pantsers’. Those who plot everything out and stick to it and those who fly by the seat of their pants.

I start by making copious notes as ideas pop into my head until, impatient, I plunge into the writing. Like a general on the eve of battle I know what I want to happen but as the first bullet flies strategy goes out the window. If I get stuck I childishly skip to the good bits, having a whale of a time writing the exiting scenes, even the dénouement, before eventually grinding to a shuddering halt. At this point I draft a timeline – a simple chronological list of scenes in an attempt to join the dots. This usually ends up so riddled with notes and new ideas that I give up and, impatient again, return to writing the story that emerges from the mist before me, following my fingers, characters and sudden notions lighting my way.

I look to the Plotters with admiration and envy, thinking of the time they must save. So next time out I plan to be a Plotter, but I expect the characters will mutiny and I’ll be flying by the seat of my pants again, and enjoying the ride.  In the meantime I’m eternally grateful to be published and hoping it continues for a long time, though the child inside will always hanker to be a spaceman.

You can find out more information about Matthew Frank and his work on his website and his blog.  You can also follow him on Twitter @M_Frank_Author and he can also be found on Facebook.

If I Should Die by Matthew Frank (Michael Joseph, Hardback & E-book- 05 June 2014, £14.99)