Friday 11 December 2015

Books to Look Forward to from Pan Macmillan

January 2016

I'm not a bad person, but maybe I did a bad thing ...Life is good for Anna Wright. She's a successful media executive working for one of the UK's largest TV corporations. She's got a great boyfriend, some close friends and a lovely home. She adores her dog, Wispa, and she loves to run to help her de-stress. But Anna's perfect life starts to crumble from the moment when, out jogging on the Heath one day, she meets a handsome stranger. She takes a route into unfamiliar territory, and then she has to face the consequences. There's a dark, growing creepiness as the atmosphere becomes unsettled and, as Anna's professional life becomes increasingly pressured and poisonous, her obsession with the intriguing stranger intensifies.  Rebound is by Aga Lesiewicz.


February 2016

Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories is a brilliant collection of short stories, personally chosen by Andrea Camilleri, which follows Inspector Montalbano from his very first case in Vigata, in which he stumbles upon a young girl lurking outside a courthouse with a pistol in her handbag. When she is taken in for questioning and won't utter a single word, Montalbano must find another way to learn who she is trying to kill, and why ...Other cases include a missing woman who has run away from the love of her life; an old married couple who appear to be rehearsing their suicides; and a crime so dark there's only one person the inspector can call for help. With twists and turns aplenty, these stories have all the wit, mystery and culinary gusto that Camilleri's fans have come to love him for.

Three houses have been burgled in five weeks. The robbers barge in through the back, disable any way to contact the outside world, and then ransack everything - before distributing the stolen cash to local charities. It might be robbing from the rich to give to the poor - but Detective Inspector Jessica Daniel is not a happy bunny. The new DCI has a whiteboard with far too many things on the 'unsolved' side and he wants the burglars found. Doesn't he know she has other things to do? There's a lottery winner who's gone bankrupt, the homeless teenager she's taken in, the botched drugs raid, a trip to London with DC Archie Davey, and a man-mountain Serbian with a missing wife who's been pimping out young women. All the while, someone's watching from the wings and waiting for Jessica to mess up. Officers are being pensioned off and booted out - with a certain DI Daniel firmly in their sights.  For Richer, For Poorer is by Kerry Wilkinson.

The House at Baker Street is by Michelle Birkby.  When Sherlock Holmes turns down
the case of persecuted Laura Shirley, Mrs Hudson, the landlady of Baker Street, and Mary Watson resolve to take on the investigation themselves. From the kitchen of 221b, the two women begin their inquiries and enlist the assistance of the Baker Street Irregulars and the infamous Irene Adler. A trail of clues leads them to the darkest corners of Whitechapel, where the feared Ripper supposedly still stalks. They discover Laura Shirley is not the only woman at risk as it rapidly becomes apparent that the lives of many others are in danger too. As Mrs Hudson and Mary Watson put together the pieces of an increasingly complicated puzzle, the investigation becomes bigger than either of them could ever have imagined. Can they solve the case or are they just pawns in a much larger game? It is time for Mrs Hudson and Mary Watson to emerge from the shadows and stand in the spotlight.


March 2013

Trust No One is the third crime novel from Clare Donoghue in the DS Jane Bennett and DI Mike Lockyer series. Set in south London, a father dies in mysterious circumstances, leaving Jane Bennett to untangle the events leading up to his death, discovering hidden family secrets as she investigates...

When a Lesley Kinnock buys a lottery ticket on a whim, it changes her life more than she could have imagined ...Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a GBP15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams. But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone. DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life - a secret from the past that could shatter everything she's worked so hard to build. As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy ...Money can't buy you happiness. The truth could hurt more than a lie. One moment really can change your life forever.  Gone Astray is by Michelle Davies.

  
April 2016

Annie Carter finally believes that life is good. She and Max are back together and she has a new and uncomplicated life sunning herself in Barbados. It's what she's always dreamed of. Then she gets the news that her old friend Dolly Farrell is dead, and suddenly she finds herself back in London and hunting down a murderer with only one thing on her mind . . . revenge. But the hunter can so quickly become the hunted, and Annie has been keeping too many secrets. She's crossed and bettered a lot of people over the years, but this time the enemy is a lot closer to home and she may just have met her match . . . Stay Dead is by Jessie Keane

The Last Mile is by David Baldacci.  Ex-detective Decker suffered a life changing head injury when he played professional football as a young man. His accident resulted in a condition known as Savant syndrome, where the sufferer demonstrates extraordinary abilities far in excess of what is considered normal. In Decker's case, he has gained a phenomenal memory. Decker is still suffering from the devastating loss of his wife and only daughter. They were murdered in his home two years previously. Overwhelmed with grief, his life spiralled out of control and he lost his job, his home, and his self-respect. It is only when teenagers are gunned down in a shooting at a local school, and Decker's special skills can help to find the killer, that he goes back to work with the help of his former partner, detective Mary Lancaster. As the investigation deepens, new evidence reveals that one of the weapons used in the shooting was the same as that used to kill Decker's wife and daughter. The case turns even more personal as he attempts to track down the killer. This sequel takes Decker to a new case where he will be required to test his special skills to the very limit of his endurance.



May 2016

The Trap by Melanie Raabe is set, and ready to spring. I know who killed my sister. I wrote this novel for him. Twelve years ago, Linda's sister Anna was murdered. Her killer was never caught, but Linda saw him. Now, all these years on, she's just seen him again. On TV. He has since become a well-known reporter, and Linda - a famous novelist and infamous recluse - knows no one will believe her if she accuses him, so she does the only thing she can think of: she writes a thriller about a woman who is murdered, her killer never caught. When the book is published, she agrees to give just one media interview. At home. To the one person who knows more about the case than she does. He knows what happened that night and she wrote a book about it but, when the doorbell rings, neither of them can be sure how the story will end.

Chicago, 1928. Al Capone runs the city but cracks in his rule are starting to show ... In the heavy summer heat, a series of shocking events takes place. A group poisoned in a swanky hotel. A rich white man found dead in a down-and-out neighbourhood he should never have been in. A socialite, known across the city, vanished without trace. Could these events be connected? Is someone trying to bring down Al Capone? Ida and Michael at Pinkerton Detective Agency; Jacob, a police photographer with a personal vendetta; and Dante, working on behalf of Capone himself, are all trying to find answers in the city of jazz, dancing and corruption.  Dead Man’s Blues is by Ray Celestin.


Kim and Mia Timmers were ten years old when they were accused of murdering the rest of their family and the lead singer of the world famous band, The Cupids. The evidence seemed irrefutable at the time, and the sisters, who have been in a Marken institution for ten years, are now due for release. Pieter Vos, DI in the Amsterdam police, is given cause to re-open the case when the girls disappear along with a nurse who was supposed to escort them to a half-way house in Amsterdam. As the police investigation continues, it soon becomes evident that there is more than meets the eye at Marken, and senior staff at the institution are beginning to panic as they fear certain secrets might come to light. Even Vos's boss, De Groot, seems to have something to hide which is relevant to this case. When the dead body of the nurse washes up on the beach at Marken, and the case takes a different turn as the various band members are implicated in the murders, it becomes clear that someone is posing as the third sister, Little Jo, who died ten years ago. Who is it, and is there a cover-up at a higher level to protect those in power?  Little Sister is by David Hewson.

 Love you Dead is by Peter James.  An ugly duckling as a child, Jodie Danforth had two dreams in life - to be beautiful and rich. She's achieved the first, with a little help from a plastic surgeon, and now she's working hard on the second. Her philosophy about money is simple. You can either earn it or marry it. Marrying is easy, it's getting rid of the husband afterwards that's harder, that takes real skill. But hey, practice makes perfect ...





June 2016

The Searcher is by Chris Morgan Jones.  When Private Spy Ben Webster goes missing on a job, his colleague Hammer promises Webster's anxious wife that he will travel to Georgia to find him. On the pretext of attending a funeral, Webster had been investigating the mysterious death of a journalist and had become embroiled in something far darker than he ever could have imagined. As Hammer follows his friend's trail, it soon becomes clear that he is putting himself, too, in grave danger - as his dark past returns to haunt him . . .

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott is set in the high-pressure world of competitive gymnastics, where Devon has had her sights set on the US Olympic team since she was tiny. Strong, determined, the star of her training centre, she is the absolute focus of her parents' lives, and the lynchpin of their marriage. Yet Devon, for all her brightness on the floor, is a deeply private person, unknowable even to her mother, Katie. Told from Katie's point of view, with irresistible momentum and devastating detail, this is the story of what happens when a person is driven by their own unique talent beyond the bounds of tolerance, even of morality.

'Dubai is a good place to win. And a really, really bad place to lose . . .' Junior advertising creative Tim Callaghan can hardly believe his luck when his idea for a commercial is commissioned by an international charity. He's flown out to Dubai to supervise the project and is immediately enticed by the city - a futuristic environment unlike anywhere he's ever been before. The first few days go by in a blur: Tim meets the heads of the charity and the production team; a movie star flies in to appear in the advert; and The Village, the five-star resort in which they're staying, offers an almost uncanny level of customer service. Then filming begins, a crew member dies, and things get complicated . . . Beautiful, seductive, brilliantly managed and a bit frightening, Dubai itself is like an advert, and takes on an increasingly unsettling atmosphere as the murder investigation begins. The longer Tim stays, the more surreal everything seems: the mysterious death, the ad campaign, even the charity. As Tim's assumptions evaporate one by one in the heat of the desert city, all that's certain is that he needs to get out before it's too late.  Dubai Story is by Mark Watson.

Meet Siri and Irma, best friends and the queen bees of Sunset Grove, a retirement community for those still young at heart. With a combined age of nearly 180, Siri and Irma are still just as inquisitive and witty as when they first met decades ago. But when their comfortable world is suddenly upturned by a suspicious death at Sunset Grove, Siri and Irma are shocked into doing something about it. Determined to find out exactly what happened and why, they begin their own private investigations and form The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency. The trouble is, beneath Sunset Grove's calm facade, there is more going on than meets the eye, and Siri and Irma soon discover far more than they bargained for.  The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency: Death in Sunset Grove is by Minna Lindgren.

Who Killed Sherlock Holmes is by Paul Cornell. Someone has murdered the ghost of Sherlock Holmes. But who is responsible - and will the murderer strike again? As a fictional character remembered by the people of London, Holmes' ghost walked the city. But someone put a ceremonial dagger through his chest, with fatal consequences. What could be the motive? A small team of Metropolitan Police detectives have 'the Sight' and they find themselves assigned to this twisty new investigation. They pursue a criminal genius, who lures them into a Sherlockian maze of too many clues and too much evidence. Yet they also have their own demons to fight. Lisa Ross finds herself drawn to an actor who may or may not be a deity, and goes on a quest to win back her happiness. Lofthouse seeks to finally answer the question as to why she brought the team together. And while Quill battles for his sanity, Costain battles for his soul. Sefton just wants to bring his team back together - even if that takes him to the edge of death.

No comments: