Kings of Ashes by S A Cosby (Headline)
A son returning home. A dangerous debt. Secrets about to ignite . . . and a family consumed by flames. Roman Carruthers left the smoke and fire of his family's crematory business behind in his hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia. He is enjoying a life of shallow excess as a financial adviser in Atlanta until he gets a call from his sister, Neveah, telling him their father is in a coma after a hit-and-run accident. When Roman goes home, he learns the accident may not be what it seems. His brother, Dante, is deeply in debt to dangerous, ruthless criminals. And Roman is willing to do anything to protect his family. Anything. A financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, Roman must use all his skills to try to save his family while dealing with a shadow that has haunted them all for twenty years: the disappearance of their mother when Roman and his siblings were teenagers. It's a mystery that Neveah, who has sacrificed so much of her life to hold her family together, is determined to solve once and for all. As fate and chance and heartache ignite their lives, the Carruthers family must pull together to survive or see their lives turn to ash. Because, as their father counselled them from birth, nothing lasts forever. Everything burns.
Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan (Bonnier Books)
Q is out of MI6 and into a new world of deceit and death. After Q (aka Major Boothroyd) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6's OO agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a cryptic note. The police seem uninterested, but Q feels compelled to investigate and soon discovers that Napier's ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces . . . Can Q decode the truth behind Napier's death, even as danger closes in?
The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani (Profile Books)
'This is a work of fiction. This is not a confession.' Lucas Cole is a bestselling writer. A quiet and unassuming man, he's a beloved celebrity in his small town. Lucas Cole is also a serial killer. Nathan Cole has always known the truth about his father. But it isn't until Lucas is found dead that Nathan discovers The Midnight King, his father's fictionalised account of his hideous crimes, hidden in a box of trinkets taken from his victims. Trinkets that include a ribbon belonging to a missing girl who disappeared only days before Lucas's death. Now, Nathan must deal with the consequences of keeping his father's secret. But The Midnight King holds Nathan's secrets as well as Lucas's, and he is not the only one searching for the truth...
Clown Town by Mick Herron (John Murray Press)
Spies lie. They betray. It's what they do. Slow horse River Cartwright is waiting to be passed fit for work. With time to kill, and with his grandfather - a legendary former spy - long dead, River investigates the secrets of the old man's library, and a mysteriously missing book. Regent's Park's First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn't appreciate threats. So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner turns blackmail into opportunity. Over at Slough House, the repository for failed spies, Catherine Standish just wants everyone to play nice. But as far as Jackson Lamb is concerned, the slow horses should all be at their desks. Because when Taverner starts plotting mischief people get hurt, and Lamb has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions and fool around, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault. But they're his clowns. And if they don't all come home, there'll be a reckoning.
The Darkest Winter by Carlo Lucarelli (Orenda Books)
Bologna, 1944. World-weary Comandante De Luca is tasked with investigating three brutal murders, with the lives of ten Italian hostages on the line. In November 1944, in the worst winter ever known in Bologna, in the depths of the war, the bomb-scarred streets are home to starving refugees who have fled the advancing Allies. The Fascist Black Brigades, the officers of the S.S. and the partisans of the Italian Resistance compete for control of the city streets in bloody skirmishes. Comandante De Luca, who has proved himself “the most brilliant investigator” in Bologna, but who is now unwillingly working for the Political Police in a building that doubles as a torture facility, finds himself in trouble when three murders land on his desk: a professor shot through the eye, an engineer beaten to death, and a German corporal left to be gnawed on by rats in a flooded cellar. De Luca must rapidly unravel all three cases with ten lives on the line: ten Italian hostages who will face a Nazi firing squad if the corporal’s killing is not solved to the German command’s satisfaction. As he navigates a web of personal and political motivations – his life increasingly at risk – De Luca will not stop until he has uncovered the dangerous secrets concealed in the frozen heart of his city.
Midnight Streets by Phil Lecomber (Titan Books)
When Cockney private detective George Harley saves a young girl's life on a dark London night in 1929, he doesn't realise it marks the beginning of an investigation which will change his life forever. The incendiary book which inspired the girl's abduction also seems to be linked to a series of grisly murders that are taking place on Harley's patch, and though he's delighted to be asked by Scotland Yard to help find the killer before they strike again, he could do without the local razor- and cosh-wielding mobsters thinking he's in the police's pocket. Set during the Golden Age of Crime Fiction, Harley's world is a far cry from the country house of an Agatha Christie whodunnit. This working-class sleuth does his 'sherlocking' in the frowsy alleyways and sleazy nightclubs of Soho - the city's underbelly - peopled with lowlife ponces, jaded streetwalkers, and Jewish and Maltese gangsters: a world of grubby bedsits, all-night cafes, egg and chips, and Gold Flake cigarettes. Here, the midnight streets are black as pitch and, as Harley finds himself embroiled in the macabre mysteries of a city in which truth is as murky as the pea-souper smog and the sins are as dark as stout porter beer, he begins to realise he may never find a way out.
The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly (Orion)
Following his "resurrection walk" and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty. Representing the victim's family, Mickey's case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails. Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy, who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it. But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy's digging ultimate delivers the key witness, a whistle-blower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake. It is said that machines became smarter than humans on the day in 1997 that IBM's Deep Blue defeated chess master Garry Kasparov with a gambit called "the knight's sacrifice." Haller will take a similar gambit in court to defeat the mega forces of the AI industry lined up against him and his clients.
Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman (Faber & Faber)
Meet Mrs Blossom. . . A widow who has never left the US. A grandmother with a knack for blending in A lottery winner with an unexpected fortune. Determined to finally see the world, she's starting with a cruise along the Seine. Just twenty-four hours into Mrs Blossom's trip, however, a man is dead, a precious artefact is missing, and a mysterious stranger is claiming her life is in danger. Surrounded by luxury food, quaint towns and people with staggeringly high net worth, she has no idea who she can trust. But maybe blending into the background has its perks - whoever is responsible will never see this most unlikely of detectives coming.
The Good Liar by Denise Mina
(Vintage Publishing)
Blood spatter expert Doctor
Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put a killer behind bars – or so everyone thinks.
Since the trial, Claudia has learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her
testimony were wrong. Now as she takes the stage to give a speech before
London’s elite specialists, Claudia has to choose: keep lying and leave the
wronged killer behind bars or stand up, tell the truth and rip her life apart.
Strange Pictures by Uketsu
A Japanese mystery horror
bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader
is the detective - from the Youtube sensation Uketsu. A series of drawings made
by a young woman before her death. A child's disturbing picture of his home. A
desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments. Each contains a
chilling warning. Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight. Uketsu's
eerie mysteries have captivated millions of readers. Can you find the clues in
these strange pictures and uncover the sinister truth that connects them all?
Moscow Underground by Catherine
Merridale (HarperCollins Publisher)
Moscow, 1934. When the body of an
archaeologist connected to the construction of the glittering new Moscow subway
is discovered in a deserted mansion, Procuracy Investigator Anton Belkin
initially wants nothing to do with the case. It will mean asking difficult
questions of the wrong people, and Anton has a reason to keep his head down.
But he has not reckoned with Vika, his former lover and now a powerful member
of the secret police, who is adamant Anton is the best man for the job. Deep
underground, Anton discovers a priceless secret. Yet excavating it will mean
disturbing a complex web of political and personal rivalries, deceptions and
betrayals. Soon Anton must make a choice between the truth, and everything else
he holds dear.
The Art of a Lie by Laura
Shepherd Robinson (Pan Macmillan)
'That’s the trouble with stories,
especially the ones you write for yourself. Sometimes you think they've ended,
when they've barely begun . . .'
London, 1749. Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent
street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. Her
confectionery shop on Piccadilly is barely turning a profit and Henry Fielding,
the famous author and new magistrate, is threatening to confiscate the money in
her husband’s bank account, because he believes it might be illicitly acquired.
Even those who claim to be Hannah’s friends have darker intent. Only William
Devereux seems different. A friend of her late husband, Devereux helps Hannah
unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his death. But their friendship opens
Hannah to speculation and gossip, and draws Henry Fielding’s attention her way,
locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than anything, even her
husband’s murder . . .
Honourable mentions go to the
following as well.
Hang on St. Christopher by Adrian
McKinty
Rain slicked streets, riots,
murder, chaos. It's July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still
grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy
got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to "Shortbread
Land." Duffy's a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a
month to get his pension. It's an easy gig, if he can keep his head down. But
then a murder case falls into his lap while his protégé is on holiday in Spain.
A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But
something's not right, and as Duffy probes, he discovers the painter was an IRA
assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hit man and why?
Murder at Worlds End by Ross
Montgomery (Penguin Random House)
Secrets, murder and mayhem
collide as this unlikely sleuthing duo - an under-butler and a foul-mouthed
octogerian - hunt a killer in a manor sealed against the end of the world. Cornwall,
1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in
feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the
passing of Halley's Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom - every
window, chimney and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the
pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that
lies within... By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his
own ancestral crossbow. All eyes turn to Steven Pike, Tithe Hall's newest
under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn't commit, he is the
wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima
Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, 80-year-old family matriarch.
Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder
is just the thrill she's been waiting for. Together, this mismatched duo must
navigate secret passages, buried grudges and rising terror to unmask the killer
before it's too late.
The Good Nazi by Samir Marchado
de Machado (Pushkin Press)
A zeppelin leaves Nazi Germany
bound for Rio de Janeiro. For those on board it's a luxury holiday, until one
of them is murdered. Police Detective Bruno Brückner, travelling on the
airship, is immediately asked to investigate - and soon discovers that the
murdered man was not the proud Nazi he claimed to be. What's more, he was
carrying a stash of banned 'degenerate' material. As Brückner interviews his
fellow passengers - a wealthy baroness, an antisemitic doctor, a debonair Englishman
- his inquiries will uncover a startling story of fake identities, queer love
and revenge, where nothing is as it appears, until finally the secret of the
'good Nazi' is revealed...
The Burning Ground by Abir Mukherjee
(Vintage Publishing)
In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta
where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from
ear to ear. The body is that of a popular patron of the arts, a man who was, by
all accounts, beloved by all: so what was the motive for his murder? Despite
being out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is
assigned to the case and finds himself thrust into the glamorous world of
Indian cinema. Meanwhile Surendranath Banerjee, recently returned from Europe
after three years spent running from the fallout of his last case, is searching
for a missing photographer; a trailblazing woman at the forefront of the
profession. When Suren discovers that the vanished woman is linked to Sam's
murder investigation, the two men find themselves working together once again -
but will Wyndham and Banerjee be able to put their differences aside to solve
the case?
