Books from Headline Publishing incl Wildfire and Tinder Press

July 2020

They went out to the woods to have fun. And two of them didn't return.   I Shot the Devil is by Ruth McIver and is a dark, twisty thriller of small town buried secrets.  Twenty years ago, the devil visited the woods around Southport, Long Island, claiming the lives of two boys. A local youth was charged with murder. Case closed.   Now journalist Erin Sloane has been commissioned to dig deeper into the story and is sent notes from someone long forgotten. But can she trust what she unearths? And how can she unravel what happened when she has her own secrets to hide?

All My Lies Are True is by Dorothy Koomson.  Verity is telling lies...  And that's why she's about to be arrested for attempted murder.  Serena has been lying for years. . .  And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable...  Poppy's lies have come back to haunt her . . .  So will her quest for the truth hurt everyone she loves?  Everyone lies.  But whose lies are going to end in tragedy?

Operative 66 is by Andy McDermott.  Every operative knows the rules. The mission comes first. You are a deniable asset. Betrayal is punished by death.   Alex Reeve is Operative 66. A former special ops soldier and one of the UK’s deadliest weapons, he is part of the secretive SC 9 - an elite security service with a remit to neutralize the country’s most dangerous enemies.   But now Reeve is in the firing line. Accused of treason, Reeve is forced to flee as his team is instructed to eliminate the ‘rogue asset’ at any cost. Reeve must survive, alone and under the radar, with the full power of the state arrayed against him. He doesn’t know why he’s a target. Or who betrayed him. But if one man has the skills necessary to uncover the truth...it is Operative 66. 

Two years ago, Miff Ferguson chose to opt out of the rat race. Since then he's been living rough and happily so. That is until now. For, as the first signs of winter approach, everything changes. While looking for shelter, Miff stumbles across the dead body of a young woman inside a dilapidated warehouse. Quickly realising he's not alone, and what's worse he's been spotted, Miff becomes embroiled in a game of cat-and-mouse with a killer that forces him to abandon his life on the streets and take refuge with his aunt and uncle in the village of Weston St Ambrose. But, despite his best efforts to lie low, trouble seems to follow him and when another dead body is discovered at a local farm, it's clear Miff is not free from danger.  With the clock ticking, Inspector Jess Campbell and Superintendent Ian Carter must join forces once again with the team of police at Bamford to piece together the puzzle before another innocent life is lost...  A Matter of Murder is by Ann Granger

Senseless is by Ed James.  Day one - Six weeks after vanishing, Sarah Langton is suddenly found - delirious and starved close to death.  The police struggle to find any answers.  Day two - When another missing person reappears, half-crazed and hysterical, a terrifying pattern emerges: a twisted predator is pushing his victims to insanity.  DS Corcoran, haunted by a previous case, and Dr Marie Palmer, a leading criminal psychiatrist, must try to establish a link between the survivors.   Day three - As it becomes clear others are in grave danger, every second will be critical. But can Corcoran and Palmer unravel the deadliest of puzzles in time?

The Lies You Told is by Harriet Tyce.  Has she left her child in the care of a killer? Sadie has moved back to London so her daughter can attend the exclusive school her domineering father has secured her a place at. It’s highly sought-after and highly competitive - just like the other mothers, Sadie soon discovers.   While she’s trying to get her daughter settled and navigate the fraught politics of the school gate, Sadie is also trying to reclaim a position in her old legal chambers - she used to practice as a criminal barrister. She’s given the junior brief on a scandalous case involving a male teacher and his student. It’s an opportunity to prove herself, but will she let a dangerous flirtation cloud her professional judgement? And will her sudden close friendship with another mother prevent her from seeing the truth - and the threat that she’s Wildfire inviting into her home? 

August 2020

Beauregard "Bug" Montage: honest mechanic, loving husband, devoted parent. He's no longer the criminal he once was - the sharpest wheelman on the east coast, infamous from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida.  But when his respectable life begins to crumble, a shady associate comes calling with a clean, one-time job: a diamond heist promising a get-rich pay out. Inexorably drawn to the driver's seat - and haunted by the ghost of his outlaw father - Bug is yanked back into a savage world of bullets and betrayal, which soon endangers all he holds dear... Blacktop Wasteland is by S A Crosby.

Blackout is by Simon SCarrow.  Berlin, December 1939   As Germany goes to war, the Nazis tighten their terrifying grip. Paranoia in the capital is intensified by a rigidly enforced

blackout that plunges the city into oppressive darkness every night, as the bleak winter sunsets.  When a young woman is found brutally murdered, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is under immense pressure to solve the case, swiftly. Treated with suspicion by his superiors for his failure to joining the Nazi Party, Schenke walks a perilous line - for disloyalty is a death sentence.  The discovery of a second victim confirms Schenke's worst fears. He must uncover the truth before evil strikes again.  As the investigation takes him closer to the sinister heart of the regime, Schenke realises there is danger everywhere - and the warring factions of the Reich can be as deadly as a killer stalking the streets . . .

Innocent is by Erin Kinsley.  The pretty market town of Sterndale is a close-knit community where everyone thinks they know everyone else. But at a lavish summer wedding a local celebrity is discovered slumped in the gardens, the victim of a violent assault that leads to a murder investigation.  As the police search for answers, suspicion and paranoia build - and the lives of the locals are turned upside down. Secrets that lurk beneath the pristine facade of Sterndale come to light as detectives close in on the truth...

Say No More is by Karen Rose.  If they ever catch you, say nothing. Admit nothing. Never tell.  Mercy Callahan never thought she'd be able to talk about her past. When she arrives in Sacramento to make peace with her brother Gideon, and to help find the brutal cult that took away her childhood, she is finally ready to talk. But when Ephraim Burton - the man who made her life a living hell - follows her there, she realises she might never be safe.   Rafe Sokolov would do anything to have Mercy back in his life and would go to any length to protect her. But when it becomes apparent that Ephraim is more determined than ever to get Mercy back, even Rafe might not be able to stop the trail of destruction he leaves in his wake. As Ephraim draws near, it's clear it's not just Mercy who is in danger; those closest to her are firmly in his sights.

October 2020

Also due to be published is Loyalty by Martina Cole.

November 2020

Hermit is by S R White. He disappeared for 15 years … She has 12 hors to find out why. After the puzzling death of a shopkeeper in rural Australia, troubled detective Dana Russo has just 12 hours to interrogate the prime suspect - a silent, inscrutable man found at the scene of the crime, who simply vanished 15 years earlier.  Where has he been? And just how dangerous is he? Without conclusive evidence linking him to the killing, Dana must race against time to persuade him to speak. But over a series of increasingly intense interviews, Dana is forced to confront her own past if she wants him to reveal the shocking truth.

Fortune Favours the Dead is by Stephen Spotswood. New York, 1946. Lillian Pentecost is the most successful private detective in the city, but her health is failing. She hires an assistant to help with the investigative legwork. Willowjean Parker is a circus runaway. Quick-witted and street-smart, she's a jack-of-all-trades with a unique skill-set. She can pick locks blindfolded, wrestle men twice her size, and throw knives with deadly precision - all of which come in handy working for Ms P.  When wealthy young widow Abigail Collins is murdered and the police are making no progress, Pentecost and Parker are hired by the family to track down the culprit. On Halloween night, there was a costume party at the Collins' mansion, where a fortune teller performed a séance, which greatly disturbed Abigail. Several hours later her body was discovered bludgeoned to death in her late husband's office. Problem is, the door to the office was locked from the inside. There was no-one else in the room, and the murder weapon was beside the victim; the fortune teller's crystal ball.   It looks like an impossible crime, but Pentecost and Parker know there is no such thing...

Also published is The Roots of Evil by Quintin Jardine.

The Bad Fire is coming

It’s hard to believe that Quintin Jardine’s Bob Skinner detective series reaches 31, in November.

Scotsman Jardine first introduced his Edinburgh Policeman in 1993, with Skinner’s Rules.

So what’s in store for Bob Skinner in THE BAD FIRE?

Nine years ago, divorcee Marcia Brown took her own life. A pillar of the community, she had been accused of theft, and it’s assumed that she was unable to live with the shame. Now her former husband wants the case reopened. Marcia was framed, he says, to prevent her exposing a scandal. He wants justice for Marcia. And Alex Skinner, Solicitor Advocate, and daughter of retired Chief Constable Sir Robert Skinner, has taken on the brief, aided by her investigator Carrie McDaniels.

When tragedy strikes and his daughter comes under threat, Skinner steps in. His quarry is about to discover that the road to hell is marked by bad intentions . . .

We’re delighted to provide Shots Reader’s an exclusive extract, the opening of THE BAD FIRE

EXTRACT: Chapter One

By Scottish standards, it was an unusual summer. It had survived the first fortnight in May, continued into June, and was threatening to extend into July. Edinburgh’s city-centre shoppers were sweltering, the nation’s golf courses were turning brown in spite of their automatic watering systems and beach car parks were earning a small fortune for local councils all around the country.

‘Get you,’ June Crampsey laughed, as Bob Skinner walked past the open door of her office on the way to his own, dressed in shorts, sandals and a close-fitting blue T-shirt. ‘Not even the directors of our parent company in Spain dress like that. Nice legs, by the way,’ she added. ‘I don’t recall ever seeing them before.’ He paused. ‘Don’t you start,’ he replied. ‘Trish, the kids’ carer, said I look like the guy from Baywatch.’

‘Which version? David Hasselhoff or Dwayne Johnson?’

‘I like to think she meant the younger one.’

‘Could you do me a selfie?’ the managing editor of the Saltire newspaper asked. ‘I’m thinking of doing a photo feature in the next Sunday edition on unusual office attire. ’‘This doesn’t count as an office day for me; I was here all day yesterday, remember, Sunday or not, talking to Spain about the UK expansion programme. Sarah’s car’s had a recall, so I drove her to work, then thought I’d come in to check my mail.’

She looked at him afresh. ‘I don’t see room for a phone in that skimpy outfit.’

‘Left it at home, didn’t I? The heat must be getting to me, for I’m finding that I quite like being out of touch, from time to time. I don’t think I have been in years, since even before we all started carrying mobiles, or had them wired into our cars.’

‘That explains why your daughter was up here looking for you half an hour back. She asked if you’d call in on her if you showed up.’

‘I thought she was due in the high court this morning.’

‘The trial’s been postponed, she said. The prosecution have offered her client a plea deal.’

Skinner chuckled. ‘Which means that the Crown Office doesn’t think it can get a conviction. Okay, I’ll go down and see her.’

‘Don’t forget that selfie,’ she called after him.

He stepped into his own office; unlike that of his colleague, it looked towards the morning sun. The high-rise block was faced in glass that was meant to be heat-reflecting. It seemed to be doing its job, although the air-conditioning system was working full blast, ruffling the correspondence in his in-tray. Skinner was a part-time executive director of InterMedia, a family-owned company that was the proprietor of the Saltire, as well as titles and radio stations across Spain and Italy. He had been doubtful about the post when it had been offered by his friend Xavi Aislado. After a career in the police service, it had been a radical departure, but he had been persuaded – not least by the substantial salary – to give it a go. To his surprise he had risen to the challenge, to the extent that while his contract specified one day a week, he spent at least three in his office, and had become effectively the managing director of the Saltire, as the board’s British presence.

He spent fifteen minutes reviewing his mail, physical and electronic, and acting on it where urgency was required, then headed for the stairs that led to the office suite he had secured for his daughter as her legal practice grew to the point where it could no longer be run from home or from a law library.

‘Bloody hell!’ Alexis Skinner laughed as her father appeared in her doorway. ‘Why didn’t you just put on budgie-smugglers and be done with it?’

Continue reading THE BAD FIRE by QUINTIN JARDINE from Headline Publishing [available 14^th November 2019]

More information available HERE

Text Credit © 2019 Quintin Jardine

Photo Credit © 2019 Chris Close and © 2019 Headline Publishing

Shots Magazine pass thanks to Rosie Margesson of Headline Publishing for providing our readers an exclusive look at the latest Bob Skinner thriller.

Books to Look Forward to from Headline, Tinder Press & Wildfire Press

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June 2018

A senseless murder. A Terrifying legend. A Family haunted. 1990: In the darkest woods, three girls devote themselves to a sinister figure.  2000: A young mother disappears, leaving behind her husband and baby daughter.  2018: A teenage girl is charged with murder, and her trial will shock the world.  Three chilling events, connected by the shadow he casts.  He is the Tall Man. He can make you special...  The Tall Man is by Phoebe Locke.

July 2018

The Story Keeper is by Anna Mazzola.  Audrey Hart is on the Isle of Skye to collect the folk and fairy tales of the people and communities around her. It is 1857 and the Highland Clearances have left devastation and poverty, and a community riven by fear. The crofters are suspicious and hostile to a stranger, claiming they no longer know their fireside stories.Then Audrey discovers the body of a young girl washed up on the beach and the crofters reveal that it is only a matter of weeks since another girl disappeared. They believe the girls are the victims of the restless dead: spirits who take the form of birds.  Initially, Audrey is sure the girls are being abducted, but as events accumulate she begins to wonder if something else is at work. Something which may be linked to the death of her own mother, many years before.

When Thea Paris's flight is hijacked over the Libyan Desert, her first priority is the two former child soldiers she is escorting to a new life in London.  As an international kidnap specialist, Thea Paris negotiates for hostage release as part of her job. She knows one wrong move could lead to deadly consequences.  After she is forcibly separated from the boys and the other passengers, Thea and her tactical team quickly regroup. And in their desperate search for the hostages that follows, unearth a conspiracy involving the CIA, the Vatican and the Sicilian Mafia, and a plot far more sinister than Thea could ever have imagined.  Skyjack is by K J Howe.

Lying to You is by Amanda Reynolds.  You’d know if you were lying to yourself, wouldn’t  you? When Jess Tidy was Mark Winter's student, she made a shocking accusation. Mark maintained his innocence, but the damage was done.  Karen Winter stood by her husband through everything, determined to protect her family.  Now, ten years later, Jess is back. And the truth about that night is finally going to come out . . .

No Time to Cry is by James Oswald.  Undercover ops are always dangerous, but DC Constance Fairchild never expected things to go this wrong.  Returning to their base of operations, an anonymous office in a shabby neighbourhood, she finds the bloodied body of her boss, and friend, DI Pete Copperthwaite. He's been executed - a single shot to the head.  In the aftermath, it seems   There's no place to hide, and no time to cry.

someone in the Met is determined to make sure that blame for the wrecked operation falls squarely on Con's shoulders. She is cut loose and cast out, angry and alone with her grief... right until the moment someone also tries to put a bullet through her head.

In the ring, Cameron King is known as The Hunter. A celebrated champion. A warrior.  But when her brother, science genius Nate, deliberately crashes the car they're in and vanishes without trace Cameron is left with a career in ruins, a reconstructed body and one burning question: why?  18 months later, working to find bail-jumping fugitives, Cameron discovers a dead body - apparently killed with her gun. As a detective comes through the door, she receives a panicked call from her missing brother: 'They're coming, Cam. Get out.'  Sucked into a lethal and sinister conspiracy hidden in the darkest shadows of power, Cameron is forced to fight her toughest, bloodiest battle yet - not only to survive, but to uncover the terrifying truth. The Hunter is by Andrew Reid.

August 2018

Grist Mill Road is by Christopher J Yates.  Everyone knows what happened there. No one knows why.   Matthew and Hannah were just playing in the woods, a little way from home.  But now he's tying Hannah to a tree. And she has never been so terrified.  Patrick is there too, hidden, watching. He can't move. He can't take his eyes off Matthew's gun.  Years later, in New York City, living adult lives they never would have imagined, the three will meet again. With even more devastating consequences.  It all began on Grist Mill Road . . .

The Girl I Used to Be is by Mary Torjussen.  How can you hide your mistakes when you don't know what they are?  Gemma Brogan needs a break from her life.  A work event looks the ideal chance to get away. And a friendly new client seems like the perfect gentleman when he joins Gemma for an innocent dinner . . .  But the next morning she has no memory of how the night ended and he has vanished into thin air.  Suddenly, Gemma is plunged into a twisted nightmare she can't control. To protect her future, and her family, she will have to confront shocking secrets from her past - and the truth about the girl she used to be.

November 2018

On her own wedding night, beautiful and complicated Evie White leaps off a cliff to her death.  What drove her to commit this terrible act? It's left to her best friend and her husband to unravel the sinister mystery.  Following a twisted trail of clues leading to Evie's darkest secrets, they begin to realize they never knew the real Evie at all...  The Night She Died is by Jenny Blackhurst.

After Anna is by Lisa Scottoline.  Everyone deserves a second chance at happiness.  Dr Noah Alderman, a widower and single father, is finally content after marrying the wonderful Maggie. And they're both thrilled when Maggie gets an unexpected chance to be a mother to Anna, the daughter she once thought she'd lost forever.  But when seventeen-year-old Anna arrives everything changes - and the darkest turn of events will shatter their lives in ways no one could have imagined.  What if your perfect family becomes your worst nightmare?

Look Alive Twenty Five is by Janet Evanovich There's nothing like a good deli, and the Red River Deli in Trenton is one of the best. World-famous for its pastrami, coleslaw, and for its disappearing managers. Over the last month, three have vanished from the face of the earth, and the only clue in each case is one shoe that's been left behind. The police are baffled. Lula is convinced that it's a case of alien abduction. Whatever it is, they'd better figure out what's going on before they lose their new manager, Ms. Stephanie Plum.

They believed that it was over.  Having survived the lethal Pendulum conspiracy, photographer John Wallace atones for his past mistakes.  DI Patrick Bailey clings to the hope that he can, at last, return to a normal life in London.  But it’s only just beginning.  FBI investigator Christine Ash - alone and paranoid - hunts down the remaining members of the ruthless Foundation organisation.  Dark forces are rising again.  But when masked assassins strike at the heart of the UK government, a shocking new threat emerges that forces all three to reunite.  Deadlier than ever before. With time running out, they must defeat a lethal new adversary: a manipulative mastermind with sinister powers unlike anything they've seen before. Aftershock is by Adam Handy.

Cold Case is by Quintin Jardine.  Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner may have left the police service, but he's never far from a case. When his old mentor on the force, Jimmy Proud, finds himself in a desperate situation, Skinner gets pulled into a murder investigation that's been closed for thirty years.  The Body in the Quarry case was well-known around Edinburgh at the time: a popular priest found dead in a frozen quarry; a suspect with a clear motive charged; a guilty verdict. But with a journalist uncovering new evidence, the cold case has come back to haunt Proud - and only Skinner can help him.  With the clock ticking and his friend's reputation at stake, Skinner must uncover the truth to find out if an innocent man was convicted for murder. And if a killer is still on the loose...

So this is how it ends. It is clear to me now: one of us has to die.  Mark and Evie had a whirlwind romance. Evie brought Mark back to life after the sudden death of his first wife. Cleo, Mark's sister, knows she should be happy for him. But Cleo doesn't trust Evie... When Evie starts having accidents at home, her friends grow concerned. Could Mark be causing her injuries? Called out to their cliff-top house one night, Sergeant Stephanie King finds two bodies entangled on blood-drenched sheets.  Where does murder begin? When the knife is raised to strike, or before, at the first thought of violence? As the accused stands trial, the jury is forced to consider - is there ever a proper defence for murder?  And So it Begins is by Rachel Abbott.

Other books being published include No Mercy by Martina Cole (October) and The Coldest Blood by J S Law (November)

Books to Look Forward to from Headline Publishing

February 2018

The Gone World is by Tom Sweterlitsch.  1997 - When ex Navy Seal Patrick Mursult's family are found murdered, he is the number one suspect. But NCIS Special Agent Shannon Moss isn't convinced, particularly after Patrick apparently commits suicide.  2014 - Years after the brutal killings, while working undercover, Moss stumbles across a witness from the Mursult case who unwittingly tells her far more than she had at the time. Inspired by this retrospective progress, Moss determines to travel through time to a host of potential futures to track down the killer and close this cold case once and for all.

A brilliant criminal psychologist, Alex works with the police to help solve the most complex of crimes in Los Angeles, city of illusions, glamour and infamy.  An affluent family returns home from Sunday dinner only to find the murdered and brutalized corpse of a total stranger in their house. This baffling, twisted tale tests Alex and Milo to their intellectual and emotional limits.  Night Moves is by Jonathan Kellerman.

March 2018

The Killing House is by Claire McGowan. When a puzzling missing persons' case opens up in her hometown, forensic psychologist Paula Maguire can't help but return once more.  Renovations at an abandoned farm have uncovered two bodies: a man known to be an IRA member missing since the nineties, and a young girl whose identity remains a mystery.  As Paula attempts to discover who the girl is and why no one is looking for her, an anonymous tip-off claims that her own long-lost mother is also buried on the farm.  When another girl is kidnapped, Paula must find the person responsible before more lives are destroyed. But there are explosive secrets still to surface. And even Paula can't predict that the investigation will strike at the heart of all she holds dear.

April 2018

Come and Find Me is by Sarah Hilary.  On the surface, Lara Chorley and Ruth Hull have nothing in common, other than their infatuation with Michael Vokey. Each is writing to a sadistic inmate, sharing her secrets, whispering her worst fears, craving his attention.  DI Marnie Rome understands obsession. She's finding it hard to give up her own addiction to a dangerous man: her foster brother, Stephen Keele. She wasn't able to save her parents from Stephen. She lives with that guilt every day.  As the hunt for Vokey gathers pace, Marnie fears one of the women may have found him - and is about to pay the ultimate price.

When millionaire Leo Speight is found poisoned at his Ayrshire mansion, Police Scotland has a tough case on its hands. The charismatic young Speight was a champion boxer with national hero status. A long list of lovers and friends stand to benefit from his estate. Did one of them decide to speed things up? Or was jealousy or rivalry the motive?  Suspecting links to organized crime, the Security Service wants to stay close to the investigation. They have just the man to send in: ex-Chief Constable Bob Skinner. Skinner might have retired from the police force, but solving crimes is in his blood. Combining forces with DI Lottie Mann and DS Dan Provan of Serious Crimes, he's determined to see Speight's murderer put away for a long, long time. But there's a twist even Bob Skinner couldn't see coming...  A Brush With Death is by Quintin Jardine

The Silenced is by Stephen Lloyd Jones.  Mallory Grace just killed a man. To survive the next hour, she'll have to kill again. To survive the night, she'll need a miracle.  Obadiah Macintosh doesn't seem like a miracle. He is a recluse who works alone at an animal sanctuary, and he has a secret. When the dogs in his care alert him to intruders hidden by the darkness, he knows they are coming for him.  Mallory and Obadiah were strangers, brought together for one purpose.  To give new light to a terrifying world.  But now they are on the run and evil intends to find them.

Now You See is by Max Manning.  I, Killer has posted two photos of his first victim online - Before Death and After Death. They've gone viral before DCI Fenton's team even discovers the body.  Soon, another victim's photo is similarly posted ...and so begins the killer's following.  DCI Fenton is determined to discover the identity of I, Killer. Then the murderer makes the hunt personal, and Fenton's search becomes a matter of life or death for him and his daughter.  But as I, Killer's body-count rises, his number of online followers is growing - and he loves to give his fans what they want...

June 2018

You don’t find him. He finds you. SADIE - Sadie Banner has been haunted by the Tall Man since she was a child. She hears his voice in her head, sees his shadow on the wall, and is so afraid of what he might make her do that she abandons her husband and one-week-old daughter. Sadie returns for Amber's sixteenth birthday, but has she brought the Tall Man back with her?  AMBER -Two years later Amber has just been acquitted of a murder charge in a high profile case. She's set to be the subject of a true-crime documentary - but who did she kill, and why?  The Tall Man is by Phoebe Locke.

Incorruptible is by Barbara Nadel.  In the backstreets of Istanbul, a young woman's body is found. Dumped in a dustbin and covered in cut flowers, she is the victim of a frenzied and vicious stabbing.  Inspector Ikmen discovers that the woman was well known in Istanbul. Newspapers had been calling her the blessed woman; cured of cancer in a Christian miracle and a proclaimed messenger of the Virgin Mary. These controversial claims had made her fierce enemies in the predominantly Islamic community and she had unwittingly stirred up divisions amongst the Christians of the city. But as Ikmen digs further into the case he uncovers powerful hatred and dark secrets lurking within her family. And to find the truth he must delve into a toxic world of fear, concealment and lies. The question is: was this a killing in the name of faith or does the answer lie somewhere else?

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