Books to look forward to from Pan Macmillan

Celia used to lie for a living. Henry still does. Can they ever trust each other? Six years ago, Henry and Celia were lovers and colleagues, working for the CIA station in Vienna, until terrorists hijacked a plane at the airport. A rescue attempt, staged from the inside, went terribly wrong. Everyone on board was killed. That night has continued to haunt all of those involved; for Henry and Celia, it brought to an end their relationship. Celia decided she'd had enough; she left the agency, married and had children, and is now living an ordinary life in the Californian suburbs. Henry is still a CIA analyst, and has travelled to the US to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all. But neither of them can forget that question: had their agent been compromised, and how? And each of them also wonders what role their lunch companion might have played in the way things unfolded... All the Old Knives is Olen Steinhauer's most intense, most thrilling and most unsettling novel to date and is due to be published in August 2015.

Down Among the Dead Men is a dark underworld thriller from Kerry Wilkinson. 'I'm going to do you a favour: I'm going to tell you my name and then I'm going to give you thirty seconds to turn and run. If any of you are still here after those thirty seconds, then we're going to have a problem'. Jason Green's life is changed for good after he is saved from a mugging by crime boss, Harry Irwell. He is then drawn into Manchester's notorious underworld, where smash and grab is as normal as making a cup of tea. But Jason isn't a casual thug. He has a life plan that doesn't involve blowing his money on the usual trappings. That is until a woman walks into his life offering the one thing that money can't buy - salvation.  Down Among the Dead Men is due to be published in October 2015.

Dark Hour is by Ryan David Jahn and is due to be published in July 2015.  Private

Investigator Damien Lamb: a man hardened by life and seeking justice against those who have wronged society. When the vulnerable Abigail walks into his office asking Lamb to retrieve her daughter from the confines of infamous cult, the Children of God, Lamb can't help but fall for her story. And so begins a breath-taking and dangerous journey as Lamb attempts to rescue Abigail's daughter, Lily, and bring down the charming yet heinous leader of the cult, Rhett Mosley. But Abigail's motivations might not be as clear as they first seem and Lamb finds himself in more danger than he could ever have imagined ...

A promising young singer is found dead in a clearing in a forest, gruesomely murdered-her larynx cut out, and an antique music box placed carefully atop her body, playing a mysterious lullaby that sounds familiar, but that no one can quite place. Chief Inspector Odd Singsaker, of the Trondheim Police Department, still recovering from brain surgery, is called in to investigate. Singsaker, now married to Felicia Stone, the American detective he met while tracking down a serial killer, fears the worst when another young girl, also known for her melodic singing voice, suddenly goes missing while on a walk with her dog one night. As the Trondheim police follow the trail of this deadly killer, it becomes clear that both cases are somehow connected to a centuries-old ballad called "The Golden Peace," written by a mysterious composer called Jon Blund, in the seventeenth century. This lullaby promises the most sound, sweet sleep to the listener-and as time ticks by, the elusive killer seems as if he will stop at nothing to get his hands on this perfect lullaby.  Death Song is by Jørgen Brekke and is due to be published in November 2015.

The Special Dead is by Lin Anderson and is due to be published in August 2015. When Mark Howitt strikes lucky on a Friday night in Glasgow, he expects a fun, no-strings night of passion with Leila. But when he wakes up in the early hours of the morning and tries to find the exit to Leila's flat, he is horrified to stumble upon his former bed partner dead and suspended from the ceiling of the next room, alongside twenty-seven Barbie dolls. Rhona Macleod's forensic investigation of the scene reveals the cord used to hang Leila to be a cingulum, an artefact used in the practise of Wicca, and sketches hidden in nine of the dolls suggest the dolls are linked with nine men, and as the investigation continues, it looks increasingly likely that other wiccan witches will be targeted too. Helping with the investigation is the newly demoted DI Michael McNab, who is desperate to stay sober and not disgrace himself further. But an encounter with Leila's colleague and fellow Wiccan Shannon threatens to throw his plans out the window. Soon, McNab realises Shannon may hold the key to uncovering who the killer is and identifying the nine men linked to the dolls. If he can get to her before the killer does ...

Something Wicked is the first in a new series from Kerry Wilkinson. Nicholas Carr disappeared on his eighteenth birthday and the world has moved on. His girlfriend has left for university, his friends now have jobs and the police are busy dealing with the usual gallery of suspects. But his father, Richard, can't forget the three fingers the police dug up from a sodden Manchester wood. What happened to Nicholas on the night he disappeared and why did he never return home? A private investigator is Richard's last hope - but Andrew Hunter has his own problems. There's something about his assistant that isn't quite right. Jenny's brilliant but reckless and he can't figure out what's in it for her. By the time he discovers who's a danger and who's not, it might all be too late...  Something Wicked is due to be published in July 2015.

Host is the new medical thriller from Robin Cook.  It takes readers back to where the genre began, and the questions posed in Coma: what happens when innocent hospital patients are used as medical 'incubators' against their will? Lynn Pierce, a fourth-year medical student at Mason Dixon University, thinks she has her life figured out. But when her otherwise healthy boyfriend, Carl, enters the hospital for routine surgery, she doesn't know it's the last time she will see him whole again. Devastated by Carl's death, Lynn searches for answers. Convinced there's more to the story than what the authorities are willing to reveal, Lynn uses all her resources at Mason Dixon - including her initially reluctant lab partner, Edward - to hunt down evidence of medical error or malpractice. What she uncovers, however, is far more disturbing. Hospitals associated with Sentinel Healthcare, including the one attached to Mason Dixon, have unnervingly high rates of unexplained complications in the wake of routine surgery. When Lynn and Edward begin to receive death threats, they know they're into something bigger than either of them anticipated. They soon enter a desperate race against time for answers before shadowy forces behind Sentinel Healthcare can put a stop to their efforts once and for all.  Host is due to be published in October 2015.

The Moth Catcher is the seventh book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope. 'This case was different from anything Vera had ever worked before. Two bodies, connected but not lying together. And nothing made her feel as alive as murder.' Life seems perfect in Valley Farm, a quiet community in Northumberland. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter, a young ecologist named Patrick, to look after the place while they're away. But Patrick is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley - a beautiful, lonely place to die. DI Vera Stanhope arrives on the scene, with her detectives Holly and Joe. When they look round the attic of the big house - where Patrick has a flat - she finds the body of a second man. All the two victims have in common is a fascination with moths - catching these beautiful, rare creatures. Those who live in the Valley Farm development have secrets too: Annie and Sam's daughter is due to be released from prison any day; Nigel watches, silently, every day, from his window. As Vera is drawn into the claustrophobic world of this increasingly strange community, she realizes that there may be deadly secrets trapped here.  The Moth Catcher is due to be published in September 2015. 

A security van sets off for Durham prison, a disgraced Special Branch officer in the back. It never arrives. On route it is hijacked by armed men, the prisoner sprung. Suspended from duty on suspicion of aiding and abetting the audacious escape of his former boss, Detective Sergeant Matthew Ryan is locked out of the investigation. With a manhunt underway, Ryan is warned to stay away. Keen to preserve his career and prove his innocence, he backs off. But when the official investigation falls apart, under surveillance and with his life in danger, he goes dark, enlisting others in his quest to discover the truth. When the trail leads to the suspicious death of a Norwegian national, Ryan uncovers an international conspiracy that has claimed the lives of many.  The Silent Room is by Mari Hannah and is due to be published in November 2015.

THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE SAFE ...The Sanctum is a luxurious, self-sustaining survival

condominium situated underground. It's a plush bolt-hole for the rich and paranoid - a place where they can wait out the apocalypse in style. When a devastating super-flu virus hits, several families race to reach The Sanctum. All have their own motivations for entering. All are hiding secrets. But when the door locks and someone dies, they realize the greatest threat to their survival may not be above ground - it may already be inside ...  Under Ground is by S L Grey and is due to be published in July 2015.

X is the thrilling twenty-fourth book in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series from the New York Times bestselling author, Sue Grafton. In hindsight, I marvel at how clueless I was ...What I ask myself even now is whether I should have picked up the truth any faster than I did, which is to say not fast enough ...When a glamorous red head wishes to locate the son she put up for adoption thirty-two years ago, it seems like an easy two hundred bucks for P. I. Kinsey Millhone. But when a cop tells her she was paid with marked bills, and Kinsey's client is nowhere to be found, it becomes apparent this mystery woman has something to hide. Riled, Kinsey won't stop until she's found out who fooled her and why. Meanwhile, the widow of the recently murdered P. I. - and Kinsey's old friend - Pete Wolinsky, needs help with her IRS audit. This seemingly innocuous task takes a treacherous turn when Kinsey finds a coded list amongst her friend's files. It soon leads her to an unhinged man with a catalogue of ruined lives left in his wake. And despite the devastation, there isn't a single conviction to his name. It seems this sociopath knows exactly how to cause chaos without leaving a trace. As Kinsey delves deeper into the investigation she quickly becomes the next target of this tormentor. But can Kinsey prove her case against him before she becomes the next victim? X is due to be published in August 2015.

Grace Scott returns from honeymoon with her new husband, Mac, to find a man lying dead in their new Edinburgh flat. They don't know who he is or where he's come from. The mystery of his identity remains unsolved. Then, three months later, Grace finds a note tucked inside one of the wedding gifts which sends her on a journey to discover what really happened in her flat. A journey that becomes more dangerous the closer she comes to the truth ...What she discovers will change her life. Set in Edinburgh and travelling to Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen, City of Strangers is by Louise Millar and is due to be published in October 2015.  It is a gripping story of deception, lies and corruption.

The first murder was only the spark ...1970. Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen, known as K2, witnesses a young woman desperately trying to board a train only to have the doors close before her face. The next time he sees her, she is dead ...As K2 investigates, with the help of his precocious young assistant Patricia, he discovers that the story behind Marie Morgenstierne's murder really began two years ago, when a group of politically active young people set out on a walking tour in the mountains. There, one night, the party's charismatic leader - and Marie's boyfriend - Falko Reinhardt vanished without a trace. But were the relationships between this group of friends and comrades all they appeared to be? What did Marie see, that made her run for her life that day? And could both mysteries be linked to Falko's research into a cell of Norwegian Nazis he suspected may still be active? It soon becomes clear that Marie's death is not only a complex case in its own right, but will act as a catalyst in a dark set of events which will leave K2 and Patricia confronting their most dangerous and explosive investigation yet. And as the pair work hard to unravel the clues before Marie's killer can strike again, the detective fails to notice that his young assistant has her own problems to face ...  The Catalyst Killing is by Hans Olav Lahlum and is due to be published in August 2015.

When Special Agent Will Robie gets the call to make his first visit home since he was a teenager, it’s because his father, the local judge, has been arrested fr murdering a man who came before him in court. The small remote Bayou town hasn’t changed and its residents remember Robie as a wild sports star and a girl magnet.  He left lots of hearts broken and a lot of people angry.  Will and his father, Dan are estranged, and his mother left years ago.  When he visits Dan in jail, he finds that time hasn’t healed old wounds.  There’s too much bad blood between the men, and although Will feels no good will come of staying around, he is persuaded to confront his demons by fellow agent Jessica Reel.  But then another murder changes everything, and stone cold killer Robie will finally have to get to grips with his toughest assignment of all.  His family.  The Guilty is by David Baldacci and is due to be published in November 2015.

He was called to redeem a debt of honour ...Top-ranked sniper Kyle Swanson was a promising young Marine on a dangerous peace-keeping mission in Mogadishu, Somalia when he first captured 'the Cobra', and it could have cost him his life - had it not been for the schoolteacher who risked her own to save him. Now Swanson is sent on a mission to track down two targets: one is the Cobra, the warlord who spent twenty years imprisoned after Swanson captured him and is now back in charge of the Somali underworld, vowing vengeance on the Marine; the other is the grandson of the schoolteacher who once saved his life, who has joined the Cobra's army of terror. The boy had been swept up in a Detroit-based Somali gang before fleeing back to the protection of the Cobra. His grandmother swears he's innocent, but the CIA tells Kyle to kill him. To find the truth and accomplish his mission, Swanson must return to the one place he had hoped he'd never see again - where the Cobra lies in wait.  One Hit is by Jack Coughlin and Donald A Davis and is due to be published in December 2015.

There is nobody in the world who knows that we are here ...A woman arrives in the village of Winsford on Exmoor. She has travelled a long way and chosen her secluded cottage carefully. Maria's sole intention is to outlive her beloved dog Castor. And to survive the torrent of memories that threaten to overwhelm her. Weeks before, Maria and her husband Martin fled Stockholm under a cloud. The couple were bound for Morocco, where Martin planned to write an explosive novel; one that would reveal the truth behind dark events within his commune of writers decades before. But the couple never made it to their destination. As Maria settles into her lonely new life, walking the wild, desolate moors, it becomes clear that Winsford isn't quite the sanctuary she thought it would be. While the long, dark evenings close in and the weather worsens, strange things begin to happen around her. But what terrible secrets is Maria guarding? And who is trying to find her? The Living and the Dead in Winsford, is by Håkan Nesser and is due to be published in July 2015.

Blade of Light is a gripping addition to the phenomenally successful Inspector Montalbano mysteries by Andrea Camilleri.  It is due to be published in September 2015. For a brief moment, as Montalbano was looking, a bright blade of light flashed from the loft and shone straight in his eyes. Despite the sunglasses, he instinctively shut his eyes and when he reopened them the light was gone ...When a gentleman arrives at Montalbano's station to report an armed robbery on his wife that ended with a kiss, the inspector's suspicions are aroused. As he delves deeper into the case, Montalbano finds that none of the witnesses' stories are adding up, and he can't help but feel that they're not meant to. When a body turns up showing all the signs of a mafia hit, the inspector knows he must excavate the truth from what he is being led to believe. Meanwhile there's a case that keeps winding its way back to Montalbano's office. A locked door has suddenly appeared on a farmer's disused shed, and then, just as quickly, the door disappears. The anti-terrorist police soon intervene, but why are they so keen to keep this away from the inspector? And why does he sense that this case is connected to him somehow? With deceit at every turn and a distraction of the heart taking over his head, Inspector Montalbano must focus if he is ever going to solve this mystery.

Nate Colgan: a violent man; 'smart muscle' for the Jamieson organization. Someone to be afraid of. But now, with its most powerful individuals either dead or behind bars, things within the Jamieson organization are beginning to shift. When Nate, long working on the fringes of the business, is reluctantly appointed its new 'security consultant', he can little imagine how things are about to unravel ...It begins with an execution, a message; and soon the various factions within the organization are sent into chaos. But out of the confusion comes one clear fact: a new group has arrived in Glasgow, and in their quest for power they are prepared to ignite a war. But who is behind the group? And why has the calculating Zara Cope - the mother of Nate's child - suddenly appeared back in town? Meanwhile DI Fisher, buoyed by his recent successes in finally jailing some of the city's most notorious criminals, is prowling on the edges of these latest battles, looking for his chance to strike before all hell breaks loose. Every Night I Dream of Hell is by Malcolm Mackay and is due to be published in August 2015.

Books to Look forward to from Pan Macmillan, Mantle and Picador

Four books by Neil Gordon are being published in July 2014.  When journalist Benjamin Schulberg discovers a link between liberal lawyer Jim Grant and a notorious Vietnam-era fugitive, the world that Jim has carefully built for himself and his daughter collapses.  His cover blown, Jim is forced to go on the run after decades living under his false identity.  Still wanted for his part in an act of domestic terrorism in 1974, he must travel deep into his past to clear his name and save his young daughter.  Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.  The Company You Keep is an intelligent thriller about political ideals, family loyalties, and the shadowy world of the radical anti-war group the Weather Underground.  In The Gun Runner’s Daughter law student Allison Rosenthal has lived a life of privilege - the finest schools, summers on Martha's Vineyard - her future is both brilliant and certain.  But when her father is arrested for illegally selling arms to Bosnian Muslims on behalf of an Israeli weapons manufacturer, Allison's life is thrown into chaos. As the trial rocks the presidential administration and the media's unblinking eye focuses on her family, Allison is forced to decide where her loyalties lie.  Audacious and thrilling, The Gun

Runner's Daughter cleverly explores the consequences of personal and political entanglement.  Luke Benami is twenty-six-years-old when his father's sudden death compels him to return to Israel from America.  Until now, he believed that his father was a great man, an Israeli national hero, and that his brother was the army deserter and criminal his family said he was.  But, as he searches for his estranged brother, he begins a dangerous investigation that will challenge every certainty - about his father, his brother, and his homeland.  Spellbinding and provocative, Sacrifice of Isaac is a thrilling novel about personal and political choices that probes the dark history of modern Israel.  Isabel Montgomery had an unusual upbringing.  It started conventionally enough: she was the daughter of an actress and a lawyer, living in small-town America.  But this was all shattered when, as a seven-year-old, she was abandoned by her father in a New York hotel room and everything she knew fell apart.  Her father, it turned out, wasn't the man he said he was, but

was actually one of America's most wanted fugitives, owing to his involvement in a notorious bank robbery.  You're A Big Girl Now picks up the story some years later.  Isabel is now a twenty-nine-year-old tech-savvy, freelance investigative journalist, one of the USA's best, despite some self-medication problems.  She decides to turn her skills on her own family in the hope of finally understanding the truth about her grandfather, her father, and everything that's happened to her.  You’re A Big Girl Now is a smart, page-turning, emotional, and political thriller with a fantastic female protagonist.

 A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Unst, Shetland's most northerly island, to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a Shetlander.  But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air.  It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists.  The following day, Eleanor's friend Polly receives an email.  It appears to be a suicide note, saying she'll never be found alive.  And then Eleanor's body is discovered, lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge.  Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to Unst to investigate.  Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s.  Her interest in the ghost had seemed unhealthy - obsessive, even - to her friends: an indication of a troubled mind.  But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than they first thought.  Is there a secret that lies behind the myth?  One so shocking that someone would kill - many years later - to protect?  Ann Cleeves' striking new Shetland novel Thin Air explores the tensions between tradition and modernity that lie deep at the heart of a community, and how events from the past can have devastating effects on the present.  Thin Air is due to be published in September 2014.

The Ploughmen is the story of two men - a killer awaiting trial, and a troubled young deputy - sitting across from each other in the dark, talking through the bars of a county jail cell.  John Gload, so brutally adept at his craft that only now, at the age of 71, has he faced the prospect of long-term incarceration; and Valentine Millimaki, low man in the Copper County sheriff's department, who draws the overnight shift after Gload's arrest, tasked with getting the killer to talk about a string of unsolved murders.  With a disintegrating marriage now further collapsing under the strain of his night duty, and his safety threatened from within his own department, Millimaki finds himself seeking counsel from a remorseless criminal.  The strange intimacy of their connection takes a startling turn with a brazen act of violence, a manhunt, and a stunning revelation that leave Gload's past and Millimaki's future forever entwined.  The Ploughmen is by Kim J Zupan and is due to be published in August 2014.

Combining stories from eBook story collections Short Shockers One and Short Shockers Two, and with never-before-seen new material, this is a story collection you won't forget.  From a woman intent on revenge, to a restaurant critic with a fear of the number thirteen, and from a story of ghostly terror to the first ever case of his best-loved Detective, Roy Grace, Peter James exposes the Achilles heels of each of his characters, and makes us question how well we can trust ourselves, and each other.  Funny, sad, but always shocking, each tale carries a twist that will haunt readers for days after they turn the final page ... A Twist of the Knife is due to be published in November 2014.

1987. Verlangan, a former cop turned private detective is hired by a woman to follow her husband Jaan 'G' Hennan.  A few days later, his client is found dead at the bottom of an empty swimming pool.  Maardam police, led by Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, investigate the case.  Van Veeteren has encountered Jaan 'G' Hennan before and knows only too well the man's dark capabilities.  As more information emerges about G's shadowy past, the Chief Inspector becomes more desperate than ever to convict him.  But G has a solid alibi - and no one else can be found in relation to the crime.  2002. Fifteen years have passed and the G File remains the one case former Chief Inspector Van Veeteren has never been able to solve.  But when Verlangan's daughter reports the private detective missing, Van Veeteren returns to Maardam CID once more.  For all Verlangan left behind was a cryptic note; and a telephone message in which he claimed to have finally discovered the proof of G's murderous past...  The G File is by Håkan Nesser and is due to be published in July 2014.

Nitric acid, baseball bats, and HIV-filled syringes: people are being attacked publically by a masked figure in the centre of Manchester and Jessica Daniel doesn’t know how to catch the person responsible.  Not that she’ll get much help from the media – it is twenty-five years since the Stretford Slasher was caught and those who can remember it are feeling nostalgic.  With the city held in a wintry grip, Jessica has a caseload stacking up and an old friend to look after – all while she wilts under the shadow of secrets a quarter of a century old.  Crossing the Line is by Kerry Wilkinson and is due to be published in September 2014.

There's nothing so terrifying as money...Two friends, Alex Glass and Oliver Peterkinney, look for work and for escape from their lives spent growing up on Glasgow's most desperate fringes.  Soon they will become involved in one of the city's darkest and most dangerous trades.  But while one rises quickly up the ranks, the other will fall prey to the industry's addictive lifestyle and ever-spiralling debts.  Meanwhile, the three most powerful rivals in the business - Marty Jones, ruthless pimp; Potty Cruickshank, member of the old guard; and Billy Patterson, brutal newcomer - vie for prominence.  And now Peterkinney, young and darkly ambitious, is beginning to make himself known ...Before long, violence will spill out onto the streets, as those at the top make deadly attempts to out-manoeuvre one another for a bigger share of the spoils.  Peterkinney and Glass will find themselves at the very centre of this war; and as the pressure builds, each will find their actions - and inactions - coming back to haunt them.  But it is those they love who will suffer most ...From the award-winning author of the Glasgow Trilogy, The Night the Rich Men Burned is a novel for our times, and by Malcolm Mackay and is due to be published in August 2014.

  

Set in London and Essex, The Informant is a story of ruthless criminals, corrupt cops, obsessive love and the villainy that operates on both sides of the law.  As a drug-fuelled teenage tearaway, Kaz Phelps took the rap for her little brother Joey over a bungled armed robbery and went to jail.  Six years later she's released on licence.  Clean and sober, and driven by a secret passion for her lawyer, Helen, Kaz wants to escape the violence and abuse of her Essex gangster family.  Joey is a charming, calculating, and cold psychopath.  He worships the ground Kaz walks on and he's desperate to get her back in the family firm.  All Kaz wants is a fresh start and to put the past behind her.  When Joey murders an undercover cop, DS Nicci Armstrong is determined to put him behind bars.  What she doesn't realise is that her efforts are being sabotaged by one of their own and the Met is being challenged at the highest level.  The final test for Kaz comes when her cousin, Sean, gets out of jail.  He is a vicious, old-school thug and wants to show Kaz who is boss.  Kaz may be tough enough to face down any man, but is she strong enough to turn her back on her family and go straight?  The Informant is by Susan Wilkins and is due to be published in November 2014.

Sicily, 1880.  When a stranger arrives in Vigata, the town's inhabitants immediately become unsettled.  It seems the young man, Fofo, is the son of a local peasant legendary for his home-grown medicines; a man who was murdered many years before.  Fofo opens his own pharmacy in Vigata and his remedies are sought by many.  But he soon finds himself entangled with the local nobility: Don Filippo - a philandering marchese set on producing a new heir, his long-suffering wife Donna Matilde, his eccentric elderly father Don Federico, his son Federico and beautiful daughter Ntonto, above all.  But it won't be long before death visits Vigata and the town and its most noble family will never be the same again ...Both a delightful murder mystery and a comic novel of huge brio, fired by love and obsession and filled with memorable characters, Hunting Season is the captivating new book from Andrea Camilleri the bestselling author of the Inspector Montalbano series and is due to be published in October 2014.

Satellite People is by Hans Lav Lahlum and is due to be published in November 2014.  Oslo, 1969.  When a wealthy man collapses and dies during a dinner party, Norwegian Police Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen, known as K2, is left shaken.  For the victim Magdalon Schelderup, a multimillionaire businessman and former resistance fighter, had contacted him only the day before, fearing for his life.  It soon becomes clear that every one of Schelderup's ten dinner guests is a suspect in the case.  The businessman was disliked, even despised, by many of those close to him; and his recently revised will may have set events in motion.  But which of the guests - from his current and former wives and three children to his attractive secretary and old cohorts in the resistance - had the greatest motive for murder?  With the inestimable help of Patricia - a brilliant, acerbic young woman who lives an isolated life at home, in her wheelchair - K2 begins to untangle the lies and deceit within each of the guests' testimonies.  But as the investigators receive one mysterious letter after another warning of further deaths, K2 realises he must race to uncover the killer.  Before they strike again ...

When Amy MacKenzie agrees to attend a meeting at a local spiritualist church, the last person she expects to hear calling to her from beyond the grave is her son.  The son whom she'd only spoken to an hour before.  Then the body of a young man is found inside a neolithic stone circle high above the city of Glasgow and forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is soon on the case.  The hands have been severed and there is a stone in the victim's mouth with the number five scratched on it.  DI Michael McNab is certain it's a gangland murder, but Rhona isn't convinced.  When a second body is found in similar circumstances, a pattern begins to emerge, of a killer intent on masterminding a gruesome Druidic game that everyone will be forced to play ... Paths of the Dead is by Lin Anderson and is due to be published in August 2014.

Only the lawless will survive ...It is 1975 and Ruby Darke is struggling to deal with the brutal murder of her lover, Michael Ward.  As her children, Daisy and Kit, battle their own demons, her retail empire starts to crumble.  Meanwhile, after the revenge killing of Tito Danieri, Kit is the lowest he's ever been.  But soon doubt is thrown over whether Kit killed the right person, and now the Danieris are out for his blood and the blood of the entire Darke family.  As the bodies pile up, the chase is on - can the Darkes resolve their own family conflicts and find Michael Ward's true killer before the vengeful Danieris kill them?  Or will they take the law into their own hands?  Lawless is by Jessie Keane and is due to be published in July 2014. 

Friends: can you really trust them?  Friends to Die for is by Hilary Bonner and is due to be published in August 2014..  A group of friends living in London's Covent Garden are subjected to the whims of a dangerous prankster.  At first, whilst disturbing, the tricks are funny.  But as they continue they become more serious and violent, until finally someone lies dead.  As the remaining friends struggle to manage their grief and identify the culprit, suspicion soon falls close to home and secrets furtively kept hidden are brought to light.  Alliances are formed, and the once-cosy group begins to turn on each other.  Could one of them really be capable of murder?

Military CID investigator John Puller has returned from his latest case in Florida to learn that his brother, Bobby on death row at Leavenworth Military Prison for national security crimes has escaped.  Now Bobby’s on the run and he’s the military’s number one target.  John Puller has a dilemma.  Which comes first, loyalty to his country or to his brother?  Bobby has state secrets that certain people will literally kill for.  But the brothers are close, and blood is thicker than water.  With the help of John’s long-time friend and colleague, General Julie Carson, both brothers move closer to the truth from opposing directions.  This case puts John Puller in a place he thought he’d never be – on the other side of the law – where even his skills as an investigator, and his strength as a fighter might not be enough to save him.  Or his brother.  The Escape is by David Baldacci and is due to be published in November 2014.

In 1963 a couple are brutally killed in their own home.  The only survivor is the baby taken that night.  Twenty-six years later, in Louisville, Kentucky, Andrew Combs confronts the man who cold-bloodedly murdered his mother.  Consumed by his need for revenge, Andrew sets in motion a violent chain of events that can only end in someone's death.  Andrew's father, Harry Combs, former assassin and man on the run, discovers his past has finally caught up with him.  His son thinks he knows the truth, but the real story is far darker.  As shadowy figures threaten Harry's new life, Harry and Andrew must work together to save themselves, and each other.  The Gentle Assassin is by Ryan David Jahn and is due to be published in September 2014.

A lost cipher.  A race against time to decode it.  Marine archaeologists Kate Wetherall and Lou Bates are diving off Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, when a torpedo-shaped object hurtles through the water towards them; the fuselage Amelia Earharts’s lost plane.  In the cockpit, they find a corroded metal cylinder the size of a baton.  Landing back on US soil, Kate and Lou are arrested and interrogated by Special Forces, and the cylinder confiscated.  Behind the arrests is Glena Buckingham, CEO of the powerful energy conglomerate Eurenergy, as she too has discovered that the wrecked plane may have held precious secret cargo.  Meanwhile, an extraordinary piece of footage has come to light – of Einstein talking about a radical new defence technology he had been working on.  Whoever can decrypt the lost cipher, which holds the key to Einstein’s secret defence technology, could hold the key to global power.  The Einstein Code is by Tom West and is due to be published in November 2014.

Two brothers from the same criminal family die within hours of each other, five miles apart.  One is wrapped around the wheels of a Mercedes van on the edge of a Newcastle industrial estate, the other in a busy A & E department of a local hospital, unseen by the triage team.  Both victims have suffered horrific injuries.  Who wanted them dead?  Will they kill again?  Investigating these brutal and bloody killings leads maverick cop, DCI Kate Daniels, to break some rules, putting her career as well as her life on the line.  As the body count rises, in the worst torture case Northumbria Police has ever seen, the focus of the enquiry switches, first to Glasgow, and then to Europe.  It ends in a confrontation with a dangerous offender, a legend of his time.  The currently untitled Mari Hannah novel is due to be published in December 2014.

Books to look forward to from Macmillan

The Unlucky Lottery is by Håkan Nesser and is due to be published in October 2011. Four pensioners celebrate the fact that they have won 20,000 kronor in the lottery. Just hours later, one of them - Waldemar Leverkuhn - is found in his home, stabbed to death. With Chief Inspector Van Veeteren on sabbatical, working in a second hand bookshop, the case is assigned to Inspector Munster. But when another member of the lottery group disappears, as well as Leverkuhn's neighbour, Munster appeals to Van Veeteren for assistance. Soon Munster will find himself interviewing the Leverkuhn family, including the eldest - Irene - a resident of a psychiatric clinic. And as he delves deeper into the family's history, he will discover dark secrets and startling twists, which not only threaten the clarity of the case - but also his life...

Following his investigations in The Holy Thief, which implicated those at the very top of authority in Soviet Russia, Captain Alexei Korolev finds himself decorated and hailed as an example to all Soviet workers. But Korolev lives in an uneasy peace - his new-found knowledge is dangerous, and if it is discovered what his real actions were during the case, he will face deportation to the frozen camps of the far north. But when the knock on the door comes, in the dead of night, it is not Siberia Korolev is destined for. Instead, Colonel Rodinov of the NKVD security service asks the detective to look into the suspected suicide of a young woman: Maria Alexandovna Lenskaya - Masha, a model citizen. Korolev is unnerved to learn that Masha had been of interest to Ezhov, the feared Commissar for State Security. Ezhov himself wants to matter looked into. And when the detective arrives on the set for Bloody Meadow, in the bleak, battle-scarred Ukraine, he soon discovers that there is more to Masha's death than meets the eye. The Bloody Meadow is by William Ryan and is due to be published in September 2011. It is the second book in the series to feature Captain Alexei Korolev.

The Lost Daughter is by Lucretia Grindle and is due to be published in August 2011. 'Her past.' Pallioti tapped the files. 'This,' he said, 'is how you'll find her.' In Florence, a young American student goes missing. At first neither Alessandro Pallioti, one of the city's most senior policemen, nor Enzo Saenz, his deputy, are too concerned. But soon the men are horrified to discover that the older man Kristen has been spending time with is Antonio Tomaselli, a member of the notorious Red Brigades. Then, before the police can get a handle on the case, Kristen's step-mother, Anna, also vanishes. Before long Enzo finds himself enmeshed in a web of false identities, betrayed loyalties, and revenge. At its centre is Anna, a woman he is increasingly drawn to, but knows he should not trust; and at stake is the life of an eighteen year old girl. With the horrors of the past rising behind him and the women's futures hanging in the balance, Enzo Saenz is on unfamiliar ground and playing the most deadly game of his life.

When newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, clutching a shotgun in his lifeless hands, few see his demise as cause for sorrow. But before long Doctor Quirke and Inspector Hackett realise that, rather than the suspected suicide, 'Diamond Dick' has in fact been murdered. Jewell had made many enemies over the years and suspicion soon falls on one of his biggest rivals. But as Quirke and his assistant Sinclair get to know Jewell's beautiful, enigmatic wife Francoise d'Aubigny, and his fragile sister Dannie, as well as those who work for the family, it gradually becomes clear that all is not as it seems. As Quirke's investigations return him to the notorious orphanage of St Christopher's, where he once resided, events begin to take a much darker turn. Quirke finds himself reunited with an old enemy and Sinclair receives sinister threats. But what have the shadowy benefactors of St Christopher's to do with it all? Set against the backdrop of 1950's Dublin, A Death in Summer is the fourth in the Quirke Dublin series by Benjamin Black and is due to be published in July 2011.

Beneath the Dark Ice is by Grieg Beck. Terror From The Deep...When a plane crashes into the Antarctic ice in a violent storm, exposing a massive cave beneath, a rescue and research team is dispatched. Twenty-four hours later, all contact is lost. Captain Alex Hunter and his crack team of highly trained commandos are fast-tracked there to find out what went wrong, accompanied by an assortment of researchers, including petrobiologist Aimee Weir. Within the caves lies an unidentified - and unnatural seeming - substance. If it proves to be an energy source, every country in the world will want to know about it - some even kill for it. Beneath the Dark Ice is due to be published in August 2011.

Herring on the Nile is by LC Tyler and is due to be published in July 2011. In an effort to rejuvenate his flagging career, crime novelist Ethelred Tressider decides to set his new book in Egypt and embarks on a 'research trip' with his literary agent, Elsie Thirkettle, in tow. No sooner has their cruise on the Nile begun, however, than an attempt is made on Ethelred's life. When the boat's engine explodes and a passenger is found bloodily murdered, suspicion falls on everyone aboard - including a third-rate private eye, two individuals who may or may not be undercover police, and Ethelred himself. As the boat drifts out of control, though, it seems that events are being controlled by a party far more radical than anyone could have guessed.

Olympic rowing hopeful and senior Metropolitan Police officer DCI Rebecca Meredith goes out alone to train on the river in Henley on a dark afternoon in late October - and doesn't return. When a desperate search by the police and a K9 team reveals the possibility of foul play, Scotland Yard wants one of their own on the case. Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, returning from celebrating his marriage to long-time partner Detective Inspector Gemma James, is called to Henley to investigate. He soon finds that the world of elite rowing can be brutal, and that Rebecca Meredith's ex-husband was not the only person with good reason for wanting her dead. Then, when a search-and-rescue team member is threatened, Kincaid realizes the case may be even more complex and more dangerous than he believed. But it is only when he enlists Gemma's aid that they find that the answers lie closer to home than they could have imagined - and are infinitely more deadly. It seems that more than one innocent life depends on their ability to track down the killer. No Mark Upon Her is by Deborah Crombie and is due to be published in August 2011.

Cold Justice is by Katherine Howell and is due to be published in July 2011. On an early morning walk, a young girl finds the body of her classmate, Tim Pieters, hidden amongst some bushes. The boy's family are desperate for answers but the killer is never found. Almost two decades later, political pressure sees the cold case reopened and Detective Ella Marconi inherits the job. Ella attacks the case with vigour, determined to shake off the memories of her last investigation, which ended with her being shot in the line of duty. But she knows it won't be easy - after all this time the murderer is probably long gone and the memories of any witnesses are fading. Georgie Riley, the girl who found Tim's body, is now a paramedic, trying to face up to her own demons. There's never been any reason to doubt her story, but when Ella receives an anonymous call insisting that Georgie has information about the Pieters' case, she decides to dig deeper. As long-buried secrets and lies finally come to light, can Ella track down the killer before more people are hurt?

Lizzie and Evie are inseparable. They walk home from school together, sleep over at each other's houses, even flirt with boys together. And they tell each other everything. Or at least, that's what Lizzie thinks - until Evie goes missing, and Lizzie suddenly realises their friendship wasn't quite what she thought. A novel about two young girls discovering their sexuality; about fathers and daughters; about family and friendship; about jealousy, secrets and lies, The End of Everything is by Megan Abbott and is a powerful reminder that things aren't always what they seem. The End of Everything is due to be published in August 2011.

Swanson and his beautiful girlfriend, CIA agent Lauren Carson, are on a mission in Pakistan when their world is turned inside out. Kyle is captured and thrown in prison. Lauren is accused of being a double agent. The one person they trust to help is the man who sent them on the black operation—Jim Hall, a legendary CIA agent, Kyle’s sniper mentor, and Lauren’s boss and former lover. But Hall has gone rogue. He is selling America’s innermost secrets to a ruthless Pakistani warlord who wants to mold al- Qaeda into a legitimate political party, and secure a nuclear arsenal. For Jim Hall, his former protégé Swanson is the final obstacle. Success or failure pivots on whether Swanson can stop the old friend who trained him to be a shooter. From the streets of Washington to the Bavarian Alps, the two snipers stalk each other in a deadly hunt that has only one possible outcome. Act of Treason is by Jack Coughlin and is due to be published in December 2011.

Ian Hunt is the police dispatcher for the small town of Bulls Mouth, East Texas. Just as his shift is ending he gets a call from his fourteen-year-old daughter, Maggie. Maggie, who has just been declared dead, having been snatched from her bedroom seven years ago. Her call ends in a scream. The trail leads to a local couple, but this is just the start of his battle to get his daughter back. What follows is a bullet-strewn cross-country chase along Interstate 10, from Texas to California. The Dispatcher is by Ryan David Jahn and is due to be published in July 2011.

After alleged serial killer Edgar Roy is apprehended and locked away in a mental facility private investigators Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are called in by Roy's lawyer-an old friend of Sean King- to look into the case. But their investigation is derailed before it begins: while en route to their first meeting with the lawyer, King and Maxwell discover his dead body. A rash of terrifying events begins to unfold and it is up to King and Maxwell to uncover the truth: is Roy a killer or not? But the more they dig into his past, the more they are bombarded with obstacles, half-truths, and dead ends that make filtering the facts nearly impossible. As each new theory brings a new revelation, King and Maxwell will be pushed to the limit. Could this deadly case be the one that leaves the duo permanently parted? The Sixth Man is by David Baldacci and is due to be published in July 2011. Also due to be published in November by David Baldacci is Zero Day.

In Moss Side, Manchester, Anders Svensson is on the trail of drug baron Merlin and his lieutenant Flow, a man so dangerous his type is said to appear only once in a decade. Svensson himself is a renegade detective with a network of informants second to none - mainly the girlfriends of gang members, who come to him for protection. Among the housing estates of Glasgow, the city with the highest murder rate in Europe, Karen McCluskey is on a one-woman mission to reform the force. And in Hackney, 19-year-old Pilgrim has made himself one of the most feared gang-members in East London, wanted for attempted murder and seemingly condemned to a life of crime. In Hood Rat these narratives interlock in a shocking expose of Britain's underworld that ranks with Roberto Saviano's bestselling Gomorrah. Hood Rat is the debut novel by Gavin Knight and is due to be published in July 2011.