Books to look forward to from Atlantic and Corvus

One man.  On the hunt for the truth.  On the edge of London.  And way outside the law.  Daniel Connell is a disgraced ex-City lawyer now scraping a living in Essex, a man trying to escape the long shadows of his past.  When an old childhood friend visits him, asking for his help with a case of police brutality, Daniel wants nothing to do with it.  But obligations are obligations, and he soon finds himself on the wrong end of police attention, and dragged into the shady business of a local gangster.  But there is far more at stake than he could ever have anticipated - including the mystery of what happened to his mother, who disappeared months after he was born.  Daniel must keep ahead of his pursuers long enough to uncover the bloody mysteries of the past - and the fate of another young woman, too innocent to protect herself in the midst of a dangerous game.  Welcome to Essex.  East of Innocence is by David Thorne and is due to be published in January 2014.

The Templar Prophecy is by Mario Reading and is due to be published in February 2014.

  June 1190.  A Knight Templar, Johannes von Hartelius, rescues the Holy Lance from his drowning King during the Third Crusade.  April 1945.  A courier arrives at the Hitlerbunker with a parcel.  The Fuhrer calls for a vacuum canister to be brought, seals the documents he has received inside it, attaches the canister to a leather case containing the Holy Lance, and sends it away, guarded by a descendant of Johannes von Hartelius.  Present Day.  British photojournalist John Hart finds his father crucified, with the mark of a spear in his side.  Shattered and bewildered, Hart learns for the very first time of his family's destiny - to be the Guardians of the Lance.  As Hart begins to investigate, he discovers a German occult rightwing organization called the Brotherhood of the Lance.  Hart infiltrates the organization to investigate his father's murder - but the secret of the Lance is more terrifying than he could ever have imagined...

Sophie Kohl is living her worst nightmare.  Minutes after she confesses to her husband, a mid-level diplomat at the American embassy in Hungary, that she had an affair while they were in Cairo, he is shot in the head and killed.  Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight calls.  But his heart skips a beat when he hears the voice of the only woman he ever truly loved, calling to ask why her husband has been assassinated.  Omar Halawi has worked in Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to play the game.  Foreign agents pass him occasional information, he returns the favour, and everyone's happy.  But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fall-out wherever it leads.  American analyst Jibril Aziz knows more about Stumbler, a covert operation rejected by the CIA, than anyone.  So when it appears someone else has obtained a copy of the blueprints, Jibril alone knows the danger it represents.  As these players converge in Cairo in The Cairo Affair, Olen Steinhauer's masterful manipulations slowly unveil a portrait of a marriage, a jigsaw puzzle of loyalty and betrayal, against a dangerous world of political games where allegiances are never clear and outcomes are never guaranteed.  The Cairo Affair is due to be published in May 2014.

Rome’s Fallen Eagle is by Robert Fabbri and is due to be published in January 2014.  Rome, AD41.  Caligula has been assassinated and the Praetorian Guard have proclaimed Claudius Emperor - but his position is precarious.  His three freedmen, Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus, must find a way to manufacture a quick victory for Claudius - but how?  Pallas has the answer: retrieve the Eagle of the Seventeenth, lost in Germania nearly 40 years before.  Who but Vespasian could lead a dangerous mission into the gloomy forests of Germania?  Accompanied by a small band of cavalry, Vespasian and his brother try to pick up the trail of the Eagle.  But they are tailed by hunters who kill off men each night and leave the corpses in their path. Someone is determined to sabotage Vespasian's mission.  In search of the Eagle and the truth, while being pursued by barbarians, Vespasian must battle his way to the shores of Britannia.  Yet can he escape his own Emperor's wrath?

A house of dreams.  A place of nightmares.  Lacey has longed for a home of her own all her

life - a place where she can feel safe, where she and her new husband can raise their first, precious child.  When Lacey views the dilapidated Victorian clapboard property on an exquisite tree-lined street, she instantly falls in love.  She believes that soon its beautiful sunlit rooms will be filled with the joy of the new family she will build there.  But Lacey is mistaken.  The house doesn't want her.  It already has an occupant of its own - an angry little boy who hides terrors that Lacey cannot begin to understand.  Beneath the dark stairway, at the bottom of the shadowed hall, there lies a secret: for decades, no child has survived this house; no woman has emerged anything less than broken.  Lacey has made a mistake.  Now she must fight to survive it - and to save those she loves most.  The Starter House is the debut novel by Sonja Condit and is due to be published in February 2014.

The Gallowglass is by Gordon Ferris and is due to be published in April 2014.  He's dead.  So says his own newspaper, the Glasgow Gazette: Douglas Brodie, 25 January 1912-20 July 1947.  Just four weeks before, a senior banker was kidnapped.  Brodie delivered the ransom money on the instructions of the abducted man's

wife, but the drop went disastrously wrong.  Brodie was coshed in the kidnappers' den.  He woke with a gun in his hand next to a very dead banker with a bullet in his head.  The case against Brodie is watertight: the bullet comes from his own revolver, the banker's wife denies knowing him, and his pockets are stuffed with ransom notes.  In an apparent act of desperation, Brodie cheats justice by committing suicide in his prison cell.  Could this be the sordid end for a distinguished ex-copper, decorated soldier and man of parts?

Alexander the Great rests in Babylon as he decides which should be his next world to conquer.  A war elephant, Colossus, disturbs the peace of the camp when he is provoked to a killing rampage.  Only one young mahout has the courage to stop Colossus.  And when Alexander notices his bravery, Gajendra begins a meteoric climb through the ranks of the Macedonian army.  Gajendra is fiercely loyal to Alexander, the great General who plucked him from obscurity.  But as he rises to become Captain of the Elephants, Gajendra sees how Alexander is being corrupted by luxury and power.  Forced to choose between keeping faith with Alexander or with his comrades, Gajendra must find the strength to make the right decision as Alexander's army approaches the gates of Rome.  Colossus is by Alexander Cole and is due to be published in January 2014.

What She Saw is the second book in the DCI Rosen series by Mark Roberts and is due to be published in February 2014.  When a nine-year-old boy is left to die inside a burning car on a sink estate in Peckham, DCI David Rosen is drafted in to investigate.  The young boy has been severely burned, and is now fighting for his life.  As Rosen and his team begin to scour the crime scene for forensic evidence, they discover something chilling; a graffiti image of a sinister eye, drawn in exquisite detail above the site of the wreckage - and behind it, a series of mysterious markings, etched into the wall.  Could the markings represent a secret code left by the killer - a code that will hold the key to the investigation?

When you open up, who will you let in?  When Alex Morris loses her fiancé in dreadful circumstances, she moves from London to Edinburgh to make a break with the past.  Alex takes a job at a Pupil Referral Unit, which accepts the students excluded from other schools in the city.  These are troubled, difficult kids and Alex is terrified of what she's taken on.  There is one class - a group of five teenagers - who intimidate Alex and every other teacher on The Unit.  But with the help of the Greek tragedies she teaches, Alex gradually develops a rapport with them.  Finding them enthralled by tales of cruel fate and bloody revenge, she even begins to worry that they are taking her lessons to heart, and that a whole new tragedy is being performed, right in front of her...  The Amber Fury is by Natalie Haynes and is due to be published in March 2014.

The Return is by Michael Gruber and is due to be published in June 2014.  The real Richard Marder would shock his acquaintances, if they ever met him.  Even his wife, long dead, didn’t know the real man behind the calm, cultured mask he presents to the world.  Only an old army buddy from Vietnam, Patrick Skelly, knows what Marder is capable of.  Then a shattering piece of news awakens Marder’s buried desire for vengeance, and with nothing left to lose, he sets off to punish the people whose actions, years earlier, changed his life.  Uninvited, Skelly shows up and together the two of them raise the stakes far beyond anything Marder could have envisioned.

 Manhattan 62 is by Reggie Nadelson and is due to be published in January 2014.  During the stifling autumn of 1962, NYPD detective Pat Wynne catches the hardest case of his career.  A young Cuban man's body has been found on the High Line freight railroad, mutilated beyond recognition.  His is the second Cuban murder in New York that year - both bodies displaying the same tattoo of a worm and the words Cuba Libre.  Meanwhile, international tension is mounting and missiles are trained on America.  The city is terrified.  Pat is not only investigating a disturbing, politically sensitive case: there may be a spy on his own doorstep.  Are his instincts correct, or is he about to commit the ultimate act of betrayal?

Four friends, caught in a terrible job market, joke about turning to kidnapping to survive.  And then, suddenly, it's no joke.  For two years, the strategy they devise works like a charm - until they kidnap the wrong man.  Now two groups are after them - the law, in the form of veteran state investigator Kirk Stevens and hotshot young FBI agent Carla Windermere, and an organized crime outfit looking for payback.  As they crisscross the country in a series of increasingly explosive confrontations, each of them is ultimately forced to recognize the truth: the real professionals, cop or criminal, are those who are willing to sacrifice everything.  The Professionals is by Owen Laukkanen and is due to be published in April 2014.

  

No witnesses.  Twelve-year-old Josy has an inexplicable illness.  She vanishes without a trace from her doctor's office during treatment.  Four years later, Josy's father, psychiatrist Viktor Larenz, has withdrawn himself to an isolated North Sea island in order to deal with the tragedy.  No body.  Then he's paid a surprise visit by a beautiful stranger.  Anna Glass is a novelist who suffers from an unusual form of schizophrenia: all the characters she creates for her books become real to her.  In her last novel she has written about a young girl with an unknown illness who has disappeared without a trace.  Where is his daughter?  Can Anna's delusions describe Josy's last days?  Reluctantly, Viktor agrees to take on her therapy in a final attempt to uncover the truth behind his daughter's disappearance.  But very soon these sessions take a dramatic turn as the past is dragged back into the light - with terrifying consequences.  Therapy is by Sebastian Fitzek and is due to be published in January 2014.

Magnus and Oli Jonson have spent two decades trying to escape a past overshadowed by their grandfather’s burial violence.  When Constable Páll Gylfason gets a call to investigate a suspected homicide, he is surprised to find Detective Magnus Jonson already at the scene – the dead man is his estranged grandfather, and Magus’s version of events doesn’t add up.  Magnus is arrested on suspicion of murder.  But when it emerges that his younger brother, Oli, is in Iceland after twenty years in America, Páll begins to think that Magnus may not be the only family member in the frame.  Sea of Stone is the latest in the Fire & Ice series by Michael Ridpath and is due to be published in May 2014.

The Spider of Sarajevo is by Robert Wilton and is due to be published in June 2014.  Spring 1914 Europe is on the brink of war, and two master spies are at work.  – the Comptroller-General for Scrutiny and Survey and the man with whom he wages a personal war, an agent of manipulation known as The Spider.  Obsessed with the man he has been fighting for twenty years, the Comptroller-General sends four young agents into Europe, where they are surrounded by the manoeuvrings of the warring spies.  But these agents are more than mere pawns in a game.  They have a secret mission all of their own – to assassinate the heir to the Austrian Throne. 

Books to Look Forward to From Europa Editions

It’s October 2006. In a few months, Romania will join the European Union. Meanwhile, the northern Italian town of Turin has been rocked by a series of crimes involving Albanians and Romanians. Is this the latest eruption of a clan feud dating back centuries, or is the trouble being incited by local organized crime syndicates who routinely “infect” neighbourhoods and then “cleanse” them in order to earn big on property developments? Enzo Laganà, born in Turin to Southern Italian parents, is a journalist with a wry sense of humour who is determined to get to the bottom of this crime wave. But before he can do so, he has to settle a thorny issue concerning Gino, a small pig belonging to his Nigerian neighbour, Joseph. Who brought the pig to the neighbourhood mosque? And for heaven’s sake, why?  Dispute over a Very Italian Piglet is by Amara Lakhous and is due to be published in May 2014.

Game for Five is the first in the Bar Lume series by Marco

Malvaldi and is due to be published in April 2014.  At the Bar Lume, in a small coastal resort near Pisa, between shots of espresso and hands of cards, four old-timers and Massimo the Barman, while away the time chatting, arguing, and theorizing about the murder of a young woman in their town. The victim’s now notoriously licentious lifestyle has everyone thinking that her death must be connected to the world of drug trafficking and dangerous sex that she inhabited. The prime suspects in the case are two of the girl’s nightlife associates. But out of love of gossip, the group of old friends at the Bar Lume begin to pull the case to pieces, forcing Massimo into the role of amateur sleuth. And they discover that all is not as it first seems. The four old-timers analyze the crime and the suspects, contextualizing both, and in the process put a comic spin on their often narrow-minded neighbours. From this amateur investigation, in Malvaldi’s lively and colourful prose, emerges an entertaining picture of life in a small town that, for all its faults, stubbornly resists the devastation of mindless global tourism.

A woman has gone missing. Her husband, too ashamed to admit to the police that he and his wife were part of a ring of sexual adventurers that organized sadomasochistic orgies, turns instead to the Alligator. Marco Buratti, a.k.a the Alligator, enters a depraved demi-world where ferocious deviants prey upon lonely victims. But the savagery of this world is only the first surprise this investigation holds in store for the Alligator. Encountering such violence and desperation triggers memories of his own time in prison. And while the unwritten rule of ex-cons is that you must never talk about your experiences behind bars, the Alligator and his two long-time associates, Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini, are forced to confront demons they thought long buried. In The Master of Knots, “the reigning king of Mediterranean Noir” Massimo Carlotto gives his readers a work of hardboiled noir fiction that is darker than ever before as he digs into the shadowy corners of human experience. This stunning novel sets a new standard in the history of the Mediterranean Noir novel.  The Master of Knots is due to be published in January 2014.

The Day of the Dead is by Maurizio de Giovanni and is due to be published in April 2014. 

Commissario Ricciardi solves crimes with a swiftness that leaves his colleagues dumbfounded. Indeed, there are those who think his abilities are the work of the devil, an unnatural and ungodly gift to be exorcised. And maybe they’re right. Ricciardi sees and hears the final moments in the lives of those who have suffered violent deaths. It may be a talent, or it may be black magic. Whatever it is, it makes him a remarkably effective investigator. In this fourth instalment of the internationally acclaimed Commissario Ricciardi series, Ricciardi is investigating the death of Matteo, one of the many street kids who live hand-to-mouth in the dark alleys of 1930s Naples. It’s a rainy autumn and fog lays thick over the city as its inhabitants celebrate the week of the dead. Ricciardi’s instincts tell him that the boy’s death is not a result of natural causes, but his superiors will have none of it. The city is preparing for Benito Mussolini’s state visit and a murder on the front pages of the local newspapers is the last thing they need. But something sinister is afoot and Ricciardi will not let the matter rest.

One day, Manuel Gemoni travels to the other end of the world to kill an old man in the Dominican Republic. When questioned by police, he can only explain his bizarre actions by saying, “I killed him because he had killed me.” Unable to comprehend why an ordinary family man with no history of violent behavior would go to such lengths to kill a man he didn’t even know, Police Commissioner Amédée Mallock decides to investigate. In order to save Manuel from death, the misanthropic Mallock will have to journey through the harsh tropical jungles of the Dominican Republic and the cold, snow-covered streets of Paris. In the course of the investigation, certain alarming facts will emerge. For example, Manuel knows many details about the victim’s life, details that, in theory, he cannot possibly know because they concern events that happened during WWII, before he was even born. Is this a case of reincarnation? Or will Mallock need to uncover some other kind of dark mystery in order to solve the case?  The Cemetery of Swallows is by Mallock and is due to be published in May 2014

Exit 39 with Russell James

Russell James is a former Chairman of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain, an author of over 12 historical novels and crime novels as well as a number of non-fiction books including Great British Fictional Detectives and its companion work, Great British Fictional Villains.  His latest book is Exit 39 which is as he explains an “iPhone novel”.

Ayo:         What was the inspiration for Exit 39?

 

Russell:          Despite the apparent lightness of tone (yes, I do do lightness - sometimes!) this is a very personal book for me, one that had to be dragged out practically against my will. (I've sat on this story for decades.) The dysfunctional family is based on my own - the one I was brought up in. Yes, the mother-from-hell was, or could be seen as, an unkind portrait of my own. Am I saying she was that terrible to me? No, but to my step-brother - and it's his story that Exit 39 tells. He is the narrator. Having said that, I should make it clear that the book moves a long way from either his life or mine - or my mother's come to that. Our childhood was the inspiration. Exit 39 is not an account of it. (Any resemblance . . . et cetera.)

 

Ayo:                Do you use an iPhone yourself and if so did it make you view the use of your phone in a different way?

 

Russell:          Of course. My kids bought me one a couple of years ago - and I don't use it in the way Crosby does in the book. Writers aren't constantly on the move (okay, you, Ali and Mike are but . . . ); we sit at our desks; we work from home. So I use mine mainly as a tablet. For Facebook, Twitter and, especially, as a portable iPlayer. (Oh, also as a camera.) Everyone uses their phone in their own way. That's part of the joy of the things.

 

Ayo:                How different was Exit 39 to write compared to your other novels?

 

Russell:          Totally. Well, "Pick Any Title" had a similar lightness and humour (though it was a thriller, for Christ's sake). No other book was as personal, and that may be why I went for the light touch here rather than anything resembling a misery memoir, It certainly isn't that! Also, after a couple of historicals and several non-fiction books, this is my most bang up-to-date 2013 novel.

 

Ayo:                Is there a message in Exit 39 that you would like readers to grasp?

 

Russell:          Slow down and smell the coffee. Better still, smell the trees. I remember Tom Wolfe saying the best advice he could give anybody was, "Leave the building." I agree. We're in a 24/7 world - but you don't have to obey all the rules. They're other people's rules.

 

Ayo:                Exit 39 is an unusual book. What are your expectations for the book?

 

Russell:          I want a lot of people to read it. I know, I know - doesn't every writer? But now that I've allowed it to come out - and because it's a breakout novel for me - I've chosen this unusual way of launching it: by making it entirely free for the first month. Will it work? Watch this space.

 

Ayo:                What are you working on now?

 

Russell:          Another crime book - but with a twist. Yes, again, I know, I know, but I don't mean a twist in the sense that so many crime novels have twists, I mean a twist that practically no other writer has come up with. So, yet again, I shall come out with a book nobody expects. That's what has infuriated my publishers over the years; I'm unpredictable; I don't do what they want; I don't obey the rules.

Anyway, you're going to have to wait for that one. You may see it in spring. Or maybe summer. This winter your task, should you choose to accept it, is to read Exit 39. - And get it now, in November - while it's free.

 

More information about Russell and his work can be found here.  Russell can also be found on Twitter @getRussellJames.

BOSCH on the Box...

BESTSELLING AUTHOR MICHAEL CONNELLY’S BELOVED HARRY BOSCH SERIES TO BE DEVELOPED INTO A PILOT BY AMAZON STUDIOS

Following an official announcement by Amazon, Orion is delighted to confirm that Number One Sunday Times bestselling author Michael Connelly’s famed Harry Bosch series will be developed for a pilot episode, Bosch, to air exclusively on Amazon Instant Video and Amazon’s LOVEFiLM in the UK in early 2014. Bosch, is written by Eric Overmyer (The Wire, Treme) and Michael Connelly, and will star Titus Welliver (Argo, The Good Wife). Henrik Bastin of Fabrik Entertainment (The Killing) is producing.

The pilot episode will follow Bosch, a relentless LAPD homicide detective, as he pursues the killer of a 13-year-old boy while standing trial in federal court on accusations that he murdered a suspected serial killer in cold blood. Amazon Instant Video will host the one hour drama pilot episode and viewer response will help determine if the show goes into full-season production.

‘It is very exciting after so many years and so many books to finally be realizing Harry Bosch on the screen’ said Michael Connelly. ‘I have partnered with companies and creative people that I think will insure that the Harry Bosch we realize on screen is the tough, relentless and wounded character from the books. Loyalty to the character is the number one goal and every step we take we keep that in mind. The biggest step was in choosing the actor to portray Harry. My choice is Titus Welliver and I have every confidence in the world in his skill and craft. He is Harry. This is going to be great!’
Bill Massey, Deputy Publishing Director at Orion, said ‘Harry Bosch on screen at last – it doesn’t get much more exciting than this.’

About Michael Connelly:

Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of twenty-five novels and one work of nonfiction. With over fifty million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into thirty-six foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today. A former newspaper reporter who worked the crime beat at the Los Angeles Times and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Connelly has won numerous awards for his journalism and his fiction. His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly’s 1998 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his Number 1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, was released worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. His most recent Sunday Times bestsellers include The Black Box, The Drop, The Fifth Witness, The Reversal, The Scarecrow, and The Brass Verdict. His next book is a Lincoln Lawyer novel titled THE GODS OF GUILT and will be published on 21 November 2013, when Michael will visit the UK for a publicity tour. Michael spends his time in California and Florida.

About Amazon Studios:

Amazon Studios launched in 2010 as a new way to develop feature films and episodic series―one that's open to great ideas from creators and audiences around the world. Anyone can upload a script and will then be notified within 45 days if that script is optioned. Amazon Studios will read and review all submissions and those who choose to make their projects public will also receive feedback from the Amazon Studios community. Recently, Amazon Studios announced six new kids pilots including Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, Grid Smasher, Hard-Boiled Eggheads, The Jo B. & G. Raff Show, The Maker Shack Agency and Wishenpoof! The pilots will be available on Amazon Instant Video in early next year for all customers to watch and provide feedback. This fall, Amazon Studios will debut its first full comedy series Alpha House, available exclusively on Prime Instant Video and Amazon LOVEFiLM in the UK.

Since launch, more than 19,000 movie scripts and 5,000 series projects have been submitted to Amazon Studios. Amazon Studios continues to invite series creators to upload their proposals for comedy and children’s programming at http://studios.amazon.com/getting-started/series or submit them privately via Amazon Studios.