Saturday 31 December 2022

The Joffe Book Prize 2022 Shortlist announced.

 

Joffe Books have announced the shortlist for the Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour 2022! The second Joffe Books Prize received a flood of fantastic entrants. Completely anonymised for judging, the pool of scripts covered the gamut of gritty police procedurals to wrenching domestic suspense, evocative historical mysteries to page-turning cosies. 

Out of the longlist of twenty, five really stood out, forming the official shortlist:

The Labelled Bones by FQ Yeoh

Everyone Is Going To Know by Kingsley Pearson

The Smiling Mandarin by Mai Le Dinh

Red Obsession by Rose Lorimer

Savage Territory by Sam Genever

The winner will be announced in January 2023.


Forthcoming Crime Books from Faber & Faber

January 2023

Other Half is by Charlotte Vassell. The night before Rupert's 30th is a black tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald's - catered with cocaine and Veuve Clicquot. The morning after His girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath. All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally. This investigation is going to be about Classics degrees and aristocrats, Instagram influencers and who knows who. Or is it whom? Detective Caius Beauchamp isn't sure. He's sharply dressed, smart, and as into self-improvement as Clemmie - but as he searches for the dark truth beneath the luxury, a wall of staggering wealth threatens to shut down his investigation before it's begun. Can he see through the tangled set of relationships in which the other half live, and die, before the case is taken out of his hands?

February 2023

He was locked inside an abandoned house. But he's not the only one . . . When a dead man is found locked in the basement of an abandoned house, deep in the woods, there is no evidence of what happened beyond his name - scratched into the wall before he died. The regional police can't find anyone who knew him. But no-one knows the locals like Detective Eira Sjoedin. When her expert knowledge of her home town is again called in, she knows one of them must have seen something. Then, a shock: before she can uncover the truth, someone close to her disappears. Has he fallen victim to the same criminal they've been chasing? And can Eira put the pieces together in time to save him? You will Never Be Found is by Tove Alsterdal.

She narrowly escaped disaster. Beth is desperate to return to normality. After a years-long ordeal, her daughter is finally home and safe. But Carmel has questions she can't ignore about the cult that kidnapped her, and about the preacher who gave her another girl's name. Found, she must survive a miracle. Digging into her past, Carmel uncovers secrets which suggest that she wasn't the only lost girl - and which puts her in danger all over again. While her mother struggles to salvage the safety they've only just found, Carmel tries to come to terms with who she has become. One question, a mystery at the heart of her disappearance as a child, haunts her: What happened to the other lost girls? The Lost Girls is by Kate Hamer.

March 2023

Old God's Time is by Sebastien Barry. 'Have you ever been the custodian of a story no one else believed?' 'Oh yes,' he said. 'You have?' 'Yes,' he said. 'Then I can tell you.' Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children. But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past. A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God's Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

'Do you remember me?' she asked, after stepping into my office. When private detective and former teacher Henry Kimball is hired to investigate an ex-pupil's cheating husband, he senses all is not quite what it seems, and before he knows it he's gotten far too close to the other woman. As the case gets ever stranger, he turns to the only person he can trust, Lily Kintner, someone with dark secrets of her own... With its ingenious clockwork-like plot, and twists aplenty, The Kind Worth Saving is by Peter Swanson.

April 2023

Strafford and Quirke investigate the supposed suicide of a woman found in a lock-up where suspicions turn to foul play. 1950s Dublin, in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered, an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play. The victim's sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle? The Lock-Up is by John Banville.

June 2023

Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin is reissued with a new introduction by Chris Simmons. (CrimeSquad). Another face, cool and smiling, framed against another rose arch, fifteen years ago. Cool in spite of the summer heat; smiling for the last time before the fearful discovery was made ... The holidays have begun. In a seaside caravan resort, Isabel and her sister Meg build sandcastles with the children, navigate deckchair politics, explore the pier's delights, gorge ice cream in the sun. But their half-sister Mildred has returned to a nearby coastal cottage where her husband - the mysterious Uncle Paul - was arrested for his first wife's attempted murder: and family skeletons emerge. Now, on his release from prison, is he returning for revenge, seeking who betrayed him? Or are all three women letting their nerves get the better of them? Though who really is Meg's new lover? And whose are those footsteps ...?




 

Friday 30 December 2022

Forthcoming Crime Books From Atlantic Books

 February 2023

Bright and Deadly Things is by Lexie Elliott. A retreat doesn't always mean safety... Following the death of her husband, Emily is happy to find herself surrounded by friends and fellow Oxford peers at the rustic Chalet des Anglais in the French Alps. With no electricity, running water, or access by car, surely this trip will offer her the time and space she needs to heal. But before she makes it to the airport, Emily interrupts a break-in at her home, and on the first night at the chalet, she discovers an inappropriate sexual liaison between an undergrad and a colleague. When the student suddenly disappears, and Emily sees her deceased husband's number in her call history, she realizes she had better figure out who she can trust - or the next disappearance may be her own...

March 2023

The Bandit Queens is by Parini Shroff. For Geeta, life as a widow is more peaceful than life as a wife... Until the other women in her village decide they want to be widows, too. Geeta is believed to have killed her vanished husband - a rumour she hasn't bothered trying to correct, because a reputation like that can keep a single woman safe in rural India. But when she's approached for help in ridding another wife of her abusive drunk of a husband, her reluctant agreement sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all the women in the village....

April 2023

Cleeve is not for everyone... When Eve's husband is appointed housemaster at his old boarding school, Cleeve College, she gives up her life in London to join him. But the isolation and loss of autonomy threaten both her happiness and her marriage. The arrival of Fen, an enigmatic artist and wife of the new Classics teacher, is a welcome distraction. Fen doesn't play by the rules, and she and Eve enter into a game of escalating dares, disrupting the delicate balance of school life. Then, the morning after Hazard Night, a tradition that allows the students to run wild and play pranks for one day, a body is found. Someone has been murdered. And it seems everyone has something to hide... Hazard Night is by Laura Vaughan.

The Sinner's Mark is by S.W. Perry. Treason, heresy and revolt in Queen Elizabeth's England . . . The year is 1600. With a dying queen on the throne, war raging on the high seas and famine on the rise, England is on the brink of chaos. And in London's dark alleyways, a conspiracy is brewing. In the court's desperate bid to silence it, an innocent man is found guilty - the father of Nicholas Shelby, physician and spy. As Nicholas races against time to save his father, he and his wife Bianca are drawn into the centre of a treacherous plot against the queen. When one of Shakespeare's boy actors goes missing, and Bianca discovers a disturbing painting that could be a clue, she embarks on her own investigation. Meanwhile, as Nicholas comes closer to unveiling the real conspirator, the men who wish to silence him are multiplying. When he stumbles on a plan to overthrow the state and replace it with a terrifying new order, he may be forced to make a decision between his country and his heart . . 

May 2023

Claire and Sophie aren't your typical murder investigators . . . Claire Hendricks is a hapless 30-something true crime fan working as a freelance medium. When she is Invited to an old university friend's country pile to provide entertainment for a family party, her best friend Sophie tags along. In fact, Sophie rarely leaves Claire's side, because she's been haunting her ever since she was murdered at the age of 17. When the pair arrive at The Cloisters it's clear this family is hiding more than just the good china, as Claire realizes someone has recently met an untimely end at the house. Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family - depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage reactionary Alex - Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when. Together they must race against incompetence to find the murderer before the murderer finds them, in this funny, modern, media-literate mystery for the My Favourite Murder generation. Grave Expectations is by Alice Bell. 

Charlotte is a British expatriate who has recently settled in Washington, D.C. with her second husband, but enviable dinner parties aren't the only thing she is planning. Meanwhile, Charlie Leigh-Hunt has been posted to Washington as a replacement for Guy Burgess, last seen disappearing around the corner and into the Soviet Union. Charlie is surprised to cross paths with Charlotte, an old flame of his, who, thanks to her gossipy parties, has a packed pocketbook full of secrets she is eager to share. Two decades later, in 1969, Joe Wilderness is stuck on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, held captive by the KGB, a chip in a game way above his pay grade - but his old friends Frank and Eddie are going to try to spring him out of the toughest prison in the world. All roads lead back to Berlin, and to the famous Bridge of Spies... Featuring crackling dialogue and brilliantly plotted Cold War intrigue, Moscow Exile is by John Lawton and is a gripping thriller populated by larger-than-life personalities in a Cold War plot that feels strangely in tune with our present.

June 2023

Killingly by Katharine Beutner is based on the unsolved real-life disappearance of a university student in 1897The young women at Mount Holyoke are famed for their beauty and goodness - except for Agnes and Bertha. With their strange dresses, love of studying and insular friendship, these two students are peculiar. One autumn morning, Bertha is spotted in the woods. Then, she vanishes, leaving Agnes to wander the cold university halls alone. When an infamous detective is hired to investigate Bertha's case, alongside the local doctor, both men become strangely obsessed with finding the missing girl. As Bertha's secrets start to come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for her. Bertha might be gone, but she left clues behind her. Clues which might put her best friend in mortal danger and shatter the peaceful world of Mount Holyoke forever . . . Where did Bertha go? Who would want to hurt her? And could she still be alive?







Thursday 29 December 2022

Forthcoming Crime Books From Little Brown (Incl, Constable, Sphere Books, Piatkus)

 January 2023

Bath's top detective, Peter Diamond, doesn't believe in jinxes. So when he's asked to investigate a top TV show plagued by a series of misfortunes, Diamond is unmoved. He's no fan of the show - which glorifies criminals and mocks the police - and the incidents were spread across six years. It's clear this is the press making a sensation out of nothing. So Diamond puts the junior member of his squad on the case. But when young officer Paul Gilbert goes on location with the TV unit and witnesses another near-death incident, Diamond is forced to take an interest. To make matters worse, the press get wind of his involvement and Diamond his under pressure from all quarters. But his troubles have scarcely started. Devastating traps and surprises make this the most baffling case of his entire career. Showstopper is by Peter Lovesey.

Age of Vice is by Deepit Kapoor. This is the age of vice, where pleasure and power are everything, and the family ties that bind can also kill. New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the kerb, and in the blink of an eye five people are dead. It's a rich man's car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold. Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family-loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all. In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals, and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family's ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire. Against a sweeping plot fueled by loss, pleasure, greed, yearning, violence, and revenge, will these characters' connections become a path to escape, or a trigger of further destruction? Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption.

Remie Yorke has one shift left at the Mackinnon Hotel in the remote Scottish Highlands before she leaves for good. Then Storm Ezra hits. As temperatures plummet and phone lines go down, an injured man stumbles inside. PC Don Gaines was in a terrible accident on the mountain road. The only other survivor: the prisoner his team was transporting. When a second stranger arrives, Remie reluctantly lets him in from the blizzard. He, too, is hurt. He claims to be a police officer. His name is alsoDon Gaines. Someone is lying and, with no means of escape, Remie must work out who. If the cold doesn't kill her, one of these men will get there first . . . The Second Stranger is by Martin Griffin.

Encore In Death is by J D Robb. Eve Dallas is investigating the murder of a much-loved actor at a glittering party. The spotlight has never been brighter. Or deadlier... It was a glittering event full of A-listers, hosted by Eliza Lane and Brant Fitzhugh, the most glittering of all celebrity couples. Everyone had expected the party to be in the newspapers the next day but not because one of the hosts was murdered! As the crowd had gathered to watch Eliza sing, Fitzhugh had raised a final toast to his glamorous wife and fallen to the floor. Death by cyanide poisoning. It's time for Lt. Eve Dallas to make her entrance. From all accounts, Fitzhugh wasn't the kind of star who made enemies. Eliza, on the other hand, had many rivals, and a few of them could class as enemies. Since the champagne cocktail that killed Brant was originally intended for Eliza, could it be that she was the real target? With so many people at the party, Eve has her work cut out determining who could commit murder in the middle of a crowd. As one who's not fond of the spotlight, she dreads the media circus surrounding a case like this. All she wants is to figure out who's truly innocent, and who's only acting that way...

The Hither Green murder... William Benson knows what it's like to be accused of something you didn't do - the fear, the vulnerability and the nightmare of watching your life unravel. Now he speaks on behalf of those who have no voice, defending anyone who claims to be innocent. This time, it's Karmen Naylor, estranged daughter of a south London crime boss, fighting a murder charge and desperate to be believed. But Benson becomes trapped into a grudge match between two rival clans, endangering himself and those he loves. Tess de Vere is by Benson's side but she's keeping something from him. A stranger on the trail of a secret death squad operating in Northern Ireland during the Troubles brings a terrible secret into the heart of her own life. And he won't go away. Can Tess and Will find their way through all the secrets and the lies? Should justice always be served - and if so, at what cost? Fatal Proof is by John Fairfax.

The Private Lives of Spies is by Alexander McCall Smith. During WW2 there was a rumour that German spies were landing by parachute in Britain, dressed as nuns... Conradin Muller was an unusual spy. He was recruited in Hamburg in June 1943, much against his will, and sent on his first, and only, mission in late September that year. He failed to send a single report back to Germany, and when the War came to an end in May 1945, he fell to his knees and wept with relief. From a highly reluctant German spy who is drawn to an East Anglian nunnery as his only means of escape, to the strange tale of one of the Cambridge spy ring's adventures with a Russian dwarf, these are Alexander McCall Smith's intriguing and typically inventive stories from the world of espionage.

She lay so still, blue eyes shining, blonde hair fanned out, her mouth stuck forever open in a soundless scream… When Rachel Mullen is found dead by her only sister Beth, her body twisted in an arc of pain,Detective Lottie Parker knows that she has been murdered the minute she enters the bedroom. Lottie’s heart aches for Beth, all alone in the world, whose last memory of her sister will forever be the brutal way she was taken. And when Lottie finds a shard of glass placed in the young girl’s throat, she fears that Rachel may be just the first victim. The night before, Rachel had attended a party at a luxurious new restaurant in Ragmullin, and Lottie wastes no time in tracking down the other guests. But there are several things troubling her: Rachel’s handbag and keys are nowhere to be found, and no one at the party seems to have seen her leave. Just as Lottie thinks she’s onto something, her worst fears are confirmed: another woman is found murdered… with glass in her throat. The brilliant, young doctor wasn’t a guest at the party and Lottie is forced to question everything. Desperate to find proof of what really happened that night, Lottie gets close to the hostess of the party, whose two daughters were friends with Rachel. But Lottie’s hunt for the truth must be getting under the killer’s skin, because then her beloved fiancé, Boyd, goes missing. Can Lottie get in the mind of this twisted killer before it’s too late? Or will the man she loves be silenced forever? Silent Voices is by Patricia Gibney.

Questions for a Dead Man is by Alex Gray. . How do you solve a murder when all you have are questions? When a prominent MSP goes missing, DSI William Lorimer wastes no time in investigating. Robert Truesdale was fronting the controversial campaign to legalise drugs in Scotland, and his enemies were numerous. With every passing day, the chances of finding him alive grow slimmer. Then the worst happens. A car bomb explodes in a nearby village, and the blackened body pulled from the wreckage appears to be Truesdale's. Yet there are details that don't add up and soon Lorimer is questioning whether the victim was all he claimed to be. Lorimer calls on the assistance of his friend, PC Daniel Kohi, who has infiltrated a local gang as part of a police initiative to crack down on drug-related crime in Glasgow. As their investigation draws them into the dark heart of Glasgow's criminal underworld, Lorimer and Kohi discover that danger is everywhere and nobody is as they seem.

Death of a Traitor is by M C Beaton with R W Green. A missing person report is not usually something that Hamish Macbeth sees as cause for undue distress. Should a child or a vulnerable person vanish, it's an urgent matter that needs to be treated seriously, but in Macbeth's experience, most other people who go missing tend to turn up again before long. So when Kate Hibbert disappears after having last been seen struggling along the road with a heavy suitcase, he is convinced she has gone travelling and reluctantly goes through the motions of investigating. Interviewing those who were closest to her, Macbeth is perplexed by their apparent lack of concern but sees no reason to suspect foul play. When Hibbert does eventually resurface, however, a storm of lies, intrigue and scandal threatens Macbeth's tranquil village of Lochdubh. Torn between loyalty to his local community and his responsibilities as a police officer, he begins threading his way through a maze of deceit, quickly finding himself on the trail of a ruthless, treacherous murderer. If he catches the killer, peace can return to the village. If he fails, he will lose everything - his job, his home and the life he so loves in Lochdubh.

This is the story of a house. The cabin lies deep in the woods, where the trees are so dense it's easy to miss. On the outside it might look like it's crumbling, crawling with weeds, but on the inside it's warm and cosy. A fire crackles in the fireplace. Dinner simmers on the stove. Maya once saw this cabin as an idyllic place, like a cottage from a fairy tale, but now she knows the danger that lurks beneath. The summer she visited the cabin was the summer her best friend Aubrey died. Now, another woman from Maya's hometown has died in the same strange, unexplained way, and Maya believes only she can save the next innocent girl. Guided by her fractured memory and a mysterious, unfinished book by her late father, Maya returns home to face the house in the pines and the man who waits there - the man she's tried so hard to forget ... The House in the Pines is by Ana Reyes.

The Proof is in the Pudding is by Rosemary Shrager. Preparing a midwinter's feast for all hundred residents of the little Yorkshire village of Scrafton Busk is exactly the kind of challenge Prudence Bulstrode adores. A chance to show off her muffin-topped winter stew, lamb shank hotpot and Scarborough woof - and, of course, her famous figgy pudding - is just the thing to shake off the winter blues. But on the night of the feast, local vagabond Terry Chandler is found dead - his body entombed in the pristine snowman standing pride of place on the village green. Who could have wanted Chandler dead? Why would they stow his body in such strange circumstances? And what is the meaning of his last enigmatic message, directing his brother to Mystery Hills, a place of which no one has ever heard? Crime and cookery continue to collide as Prudence and her granddaughter Suki get drawn into another mystifying murder . . .

March 2023

Murder at Home is by David Wilson. The home is the place where murder most commonly occurs. In England and Wales, each year on average 75 per cent of female murder victims and 39 per cent of murdered men are killed at home. This gripping new title from the author of My Life with Murderers and A Plot to Kill explores the tragic prevalence of domestic murder and how, for so many victims, their own home is the place they are most in danger. David Wilson is the UK's leading criminologist and his knowledge of murder is unparalleled. By walking through each part of the house, he explains how each room's purpose has changed over time, the weapons they contain, and ultimately, how these things combine in murder. Delving into infamous as well as lesser-known true crime cases, this examination of the tragic, ordinary nature of murder is both a chilling read and a startling insight into the everyday impact of violence and how it can touch us all.

Eleven Liars is by Robert Gold. Journalist Ben Harper is on his way home when he sees the flames in the churchyard. The derelict community centre is on fire. And somebody is trapped inside. With Ben's help the person escapes, only to flee the scene before they can be identified. Now the small town of Haddley is abuzz with rumours. Was this an accident, or arson? Then a skeleton is found in the burnt-out foundations. And when the identity of the victim is revealed, Ben is confronted with a crime that is terrifyingly close to home. As he uncovers a web of deceit and destruction that goes back decades, Ben quickly learns that in this small town, everybody has something to hide.

April 2023

The Blind Spots is by Thomas Mullen. In a world where a global event has blinded every person on the planet, one detective seeks a murderer who should not, cannot, exist. Seven years ago, everyone in the world went blind in a matter of months. Technology helped people adjust to the new normal, creating a device that approximates vision, downloading visual data directly to people's brains. But what happens when someone finds a way to manipulate it and change what people see? Homicide detective Mark Owens has been on the force since before The Blinding. When a scientist is murdered, and the only witness insists the killer was blacked out of her vision, Owens doesn't believe her - until a similar murder happens in front of him. With suspects ranging from tech billionaires to anti-modernity cultists, Owens must conduct an investigation in which he can't even trust his own eyes...

Everyone has a past...Yours is coming to kill you. Alex and Morven have a pretty perfect marriage. Still madly in love after 10 years they have no secrets from each other and their life in London with daughter Poppy is... happy. Until one day it changes. Morven disappears, her car is found abandoned and the police come around to Alex's house to tell him things about his wife he never knew: her real name, her past life, the secrets she kept from him. And Alex realises he's been loving a lie. He needs answers... and on the shore of a dark and remote lake in Wales he learns that the tragic events which shaped the past now threaten to rip the present apart. I Know Who You Were is by Nick Curran.

May 2023

Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So when he's called in to investigate a homicide at a local apartment, he is surprised at first to see that the victim appears to be a rather typical techie. But on closer inspection, he finds the victim is over seven feet tall. And even though he doesn't look a day over thirty, he is actually ninety years old. Clearly, he is a Titan - one of this dystopian, near-future society's genetically-altered elites. There are only a few thousand Titans worldwide, all thanks to Stefan Tonfamecasca's discovery of the controversial T7 genetic therapy, which elevated his family to near godlike status. A dead Titan is big news . . . a murdered Titan is unimaginable. But Titans are Cal's specialty. In fact, his ex-girlfriend, Athena, is a Titan. And not just any Titan - she's Stefan's daughter, heir to the Tonfamecasca empire. As Cal digs deeper into the murder investigation, he begins to unravel the complicated threads of what should have been a straightforward case, and it soon becomes clear he's on the trail of a crime whose roots run deep into the dark heart of the world.Titanium Noir is by Nick Harkaway and is a tightly woven, intricate tale of murder, betrayal, and vengeance.

The Last Dance is by Mark Billingham. Meet Detective Miller: unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated... He's a detective, a dancer, he has no respect for authority - and he's the best hope Blackpool has for keeping criminals off the streets. Meet Detective Declan Miller. A double murder in a seaside hotel sees a grieving Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Just why were two completely unconnected men taken out? Despite a somewhat dubious relationship with both reality and his new partner, can the eccentric, offbeat Miller find answers where his colleagues have found only an impossible puzzle?

Identity is by Nora Roberts. Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighbourhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan's job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party--attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who'd been chatting her up at the bar--her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor. Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. "Luke" is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder. What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn't his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan's nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother's home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn't flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn't forgotten the one who got away.

Obsessed is by Liza North. Laura has a husband, children, a home in a city she loves. She thinks she can be happy, despite her past. If they only knew my secret. Until someone walks back into her life who she knows will shatter everything. Alexis was her first love. A love so exhilarating, it is impossible to resist. I know I should end it. But I can't. Then Alexis is found dead, and the police are knocking at Laura's door. They're asking her questions and she's telling them lies. I didn't kill him. I promise.


June 2023

In the hilarious new novel in the best-selling Detective Varg series, Ulf Varg will need to resolve both a sensitive crime and his own delicate dilemma in the hopes of preserving the peace. The Department of Sensitive Crimes is downsizing in light of a recent downturn of sensitive crime, and staff members are wondering who among them will be transferred elsewhere. As the bickering between colleagues intensifies, Ulf tries his best to stay above the fray. But when Anna, a longtime friend and coworker, appears to blame him for an old case that went sideways, it seems she may be putting her own job prospects above their friendship. In the midst of all this, Ulf embarks on an important inquiry: a man's cabin has mysteriously disappeared and Ulf is tasked with finding out what happened. How exactly does one steal a house? And, more to the point, how does one track down a stolen house? Meanwhile, a promising veterinary treatment for deafness in dogs has been announced, and Ulf's dog, Martin, might be the perfect patient. The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf is by Alexander McCall Smith.

The Quiet Tennant is by Clémence Michallon. He took you and you have been his for five years. But you have been careful. Waiting for him to mess up. It has to be now. Aidan Thomas is a hardworking family man and a respected member of his community. He's also a kidnapper and serial killer who has murdered eight women. And there's a ninth, a woman he's renamed Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed where she fears for her life. When Aidan's wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Cecilia, are forced to move. Aidan brings Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a family friend who needs a place to stay. After five years of captivity, surely Rachel is too brainwashed to attempt to escape - and no-one in the town has any idea of the terrible secrets the seemingly perfect father and widower is hiding. Especially his daughter and the quiet, shy owner of the local family restaurant who has started to fall in love with him...

No Justice is by Kate Evans and is a new police procedural series set in Scarborough and following DC Donna Morris - middle-aged, seemingly ordinary - but hiding many secrets. . .Rape and organised crime sully even the pretty streets of the small Yorkshire town DC Donna Morris is beginning to think of as home. The National Crime Agency inevitably gets involved but their methods put more people in danger. Guns - though she used one once in anger and fear - are really not how Donna would prefer to nail the guilty. And there are some people who believe their actions are always justified. Then there are others who will never get justice. Can DC Donna Morris negotiate some kind of resolution while dealing with betrayal in her own life?

A dark, riveting thriller set in 1920s Hollywood about "the greatest horror movie ever made", the curse said to surround it, and a deadly search, decades later, for the single copy rumoured still to exist. 1927: Hollywood studio fixer Mary Rourke is called to the palatial home of "the most desirable woman in the world", silent movie actress Norma Carlton, star of The Devil's Playground. When Rourke finds Carlton dead, she wonders if the dark rumours she's heard are true: that The Devil's Playground really is a cursed production. But nothing in Hollywood is ever what it seems, and cynical fixer Rourke, more used to covering up the truth for studio bosses, finds herself seeking it out. 1967: Paul Conway, film historian and fervid silent movie aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumour: that a single copy of The Devil's Playground-a Holy Grail for film buffs that was supposedly cursed and lost to time-may exist. His search takes him deep into the Mojave Desert, to an isolated hotel that hasn't changed in forty years but harbours only one occupant-and a shocking secret. Separated by decades, both Rourke and Conway begin to suspect that the real Devil's Playground is in fact Hollywood itself. The Devil's Playground is by Craig Russell. 

The Good Ones is by Polly Stewart. On a hot August day, Lauren Ballard mysteriously vanished from her home, leaving signs of a violent struggle. Sixteen years on, still haunted by her friend's disappearance, Nicola Bennett returns to her hometown. For Nicola, Tyndall County has remained frozen in time. Everywhere she turns she's reminded of Lauren. Yet startlingly, her former friends and neighbours have all moved on. Nicola begins to trace over the events of that summer, hoping to discover a clue to Lauren's fate. Deep down she knows the answers are tucked in the hollows and valleys of this rural Virginia county. But as secrets come to light and the truth begins to unravel, will Nicola finally break free of the past - or lose herself completely in the questions she can never answer?

Five million reasons why Ben Koenig had to disappear. Only one to bring him back . . . Ben Koenig is a ghost. He doesn't exist any more. Six years ago it was Koenig who headed up the US Marshal's elite Special Ops group. They were the elite unit who hunted the bad guys – the really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to. Until the day Koenig disappeared. He told no one why and he left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Invisible. He drifted from town to town, state to state. He was untraceable. It was as if he had never been. But now Koenig's face is on every television screen in the country. Someone from his past is trying to find him and they don't care how they do it. In the burning heat of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a town called Gauntlet, and there are people in there who have a secret they'll do anything to protect. They've killed before and they will kill again. Only this time they've made a mistake. They've dismissed Koenig as just another drifter - but they're wrong. Because Koenig has a condition, a unique disorder that makes it impossible for him to experience fear. And now they're about to find out what a truly fearless man is capable of. Because Koenig's coming for them. And hell's coming with him . . . Fearless is by M W Craven.

Murder and the Moggies of Magpie Row is by Kate High. When Clarice Beech finds her friend Peter Ramsey dead in his kitchen, she believes he's succumbed to a fatal heart attack. Peter, who lived in one of the five cottages on Magpie Row in the Lincolnshire Wolds, was a keen supporter of stray cats - which made him very unpopular with the neighbours. And after Chris Morris, an alcoholic neighbour, disrupts Peter's funeral, insisting Peter was murdered - and he knows who the murderer is - Clarice discovers there's no shortage of possible suspects among the Magpie Row inhabitants. Who, behind Magpie Row's idyllic facade, might have had murder in mind? And, after his outburst at Peter's funeral, where is Chris? And is Clarice, with her mission to tend to Peter's strays, as well as uncover the truth about her friend's death, putting herself in danger's way?

Also due to be published in June is Red Metal 2 by Mark Greaney and Lieutenant Colonel Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV. USMC

















Wednesday 28 December 2022

Forthcoming Crime Books from Orion Publishing

January 2023

She Had it Coming is by Carys Jones. 'Someone needs to bring her down a peg or two...' When Pippa's best friend goes missing on a school run, no one thinks twice. Heather is pretty, popular and more than a little wild. Most people think she ran away for the attention... Others say girls like her always get what's coming to them. Pippa's mother, Abbie, has never liked Heather. Or her mother Michelle, a successful doctor who thinks she's too good for the school mums' group. ut when Heather turns up dead, everything changes. Because Pippa was the last person to see her alive... and now Abbie's own house of cards is about to come tumbling down.

February 2023

Paris Requiem is by Chris Lloyd. 'You have a choice which way you go in this war...' Paris, September 1940. After three months under Nazi Occupation, not much can shock Detective Eddie Giral. That is, until he finds a murder victim who was supposed to be in prison. Eddie knows, because he put him there. The dead man is not the first or the last criminal being let loose onto the streets. But who is pulling the strings, and why? This question will take Eddie from jazz clubs to opera halls, from old flames to new friends, from the lights of Paris to the darkest countryside - pursued by a most troubling truth: sometimes to do the right thing, you have to join the wrong side...

The Only Child is by Kayte Nunn. 1949 - It is the coldest winter Orcades Island has ever known, when a pregnant sixteen-year-old arrives at Fairmile, a home for 'fallen women' run by the Catholic Church. She and her baby will disappear before the snow melts. 2013 Frankie Gray has come to the island for the summer, hoping for one last shot at reconnecting with her teenage daughter, Izzy, before starting a job as a deputy sheriff. They are staying with her mother, Diana, at The Fairmile Inn, soon to be a boutique hotel, but when an elderly nun is found dead in suspicious circumstances, and then a tiny skeleton is discovered in the grounds of the house, Frankie is desperate for answers.

March 2023

On the Savage Side is by Tiffany McDaniel. Six women - mothers, daughters, sisters - gone missing. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this is the story of two sisters, both of whom could be the next victims. Arcade and Daffodil are twin sisters born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for an escape, they form an unbreakable bond nurtured by their grandmother's stories. Together they disappear into their imagination and forge a world where a patch of grass reveals an archaeologist's dig, the smoke emerging from the local paper mill becomes the dust rising from wild horses galloping deep beneath the earth, and an abandoned 1950s convertible transforms into a time machine that can take them anywhere. But no matter how hard they try, Arc and Daffy can't escape the generational ghosts that haunt their family. And so, left to fend for themselves in the shadow of their rural Ohio town, the two sisters cling tight to one another. Years later, as the sisters wrestle with the memories of their early life, a local woman is discovered dead in the river. Soon, more bodies are left floating in the water, and as the killer circles ever closer, Arc's promise to keep herself and her sister safe becomes increasingly desperate - and the powerful riptide of the savage side more difficult to survive.

All That Is Mine I Carry With Me is by William Landay.A mother vanished. A father presumed guilty. There is no proof. There are no witnesses. For the children, there is only doubt. One afternoon in November 1975, ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find the house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of struggle. Her mom's pocketbook remains in the front hall, in its usual spot. So begins a mystery that will span a lifetime. What happened to Jane Larkin? Investigators suspect Jane's husband. A criminal defense attorney, surely Dan Larkin would be an expert in outfoxing the police. But no evidence is found linking him to a crime, and the case fades from the public's memory, a simmering, unresolved mystery. Jane's three children-Alex, Jeff, and Miranda-are left to be raised by a man who may have murdered their mother. Two decades later, the remains of Jane Larkin are found. The investigation is awakened. The children, now grown, are forced to choose sides. With their father or against him? Guilty or innocent? And what if they are wrong?

The Last Highway is by R J Ellory. A sheriff investigates his own brother's murder, deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains... Estranged after a devastating betrayal, brothers Victor and Frank Landis - sheriffs of neighbouring counties - hadn't spoken for years. In truth, Victor didn't care if Frank was alive or dead. Until the day somebody killed him. Crossing county lines in search of answers, Victor is soon on the trail of a sinister conspiracy that takes him deep into the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. From the poorest communities to the most powerful and corrupt organisations, he soon becomes ensnared in a dangerous web of drugs, trafficking and murder. For Victor, finding the truth will mean uncovering dark secrets he'd rather have left buried, and risking everything to protect the family his brother left behind...

April 2023

The House of Whispers is by Anna Mazzola. Sometimes the secrets of the past are more dangerous than the present... Rome, 1938. As the world teeters on the brink of war, talented pianist Eva Valenti enters the house of widower Dante Cavallera to become his new wife. On the outside, the forces of Fascism are accelerating, but in her new home, Eva fears that something else is at work, whispering in the walls and leaving mysterious marks on Dante's young daughter. Soon she starts to wonder whether the house itself is trying to give up the secrets of its mysterious past - secrets that Dante seems so determined to keep hidden. However, Eva must also conceal the truth of her own identity, for if she is discovered, she will be in greater danger than she could ever have imagined...

One last chance to become who we were supposed to be... The trip was supposed to be the perfect holiday. Six friends, reuniting after two decades, spending the weekend in a beautiful riad in Marrakesh. Only, these friends are linked by more than their university days. Together, they've kept a dark secret that changed the course of all their lives forever. And as the truth threatens to surface in the stifling Morrocan heat, they all begin to question what really happened that terrible night twenty years ago... The Trip is by Rebecca Ley.

May 2023

Broken Light is by Joanna Harris. A bold and timely novel that explores how women can feel invisible as they grow older- and what happens when they decide to take back control. Bernie Moon's ambitions and dreams have been forgotten by everyone else - including Bernie herself. At 19 she was full of promise, but now facing 50 and going through the menopause, she's a fading light. Until the murder of a woman in a local park unlocks a series of childhood memories, and with them, a talent that she has hidden all her adult life. What happens when the frustrations and power of an older woman are finally given their chance to be revealed?

Are you ready to save a life. Why her? Becca Palmer has just been fired from her job as assistant to Simon Jones - the Policing Minister at the House of Commons. But Becca claims Simon was more than her boss, that she is in love with him. Why here? So when a heartbroken Becca leaves Parliament for the final time, she decides to take matters into her own hands and head to Westminster Bridge to take her own life. Which is where hostage negotiator Alex Lewis meets her, to talk her down off the ledge. Why now? It's clear Becca knows something about the Policing Minister that she shouldn't. Something that could get him in serious trouble if it were to come out. But can Alex save Becca and get to the bottom of a conspiracy that goes deep inside the highest levels of government- before it's too late? The Fallen is by John Sutherland. 

June 2023

A Death in the Parish is by The Reverend Richard Coles. Canon Daniel Clement is back... It's been a few months since murder tore apart the community of Champton apart. As Canon Daniel Clement tries to steady his flock, the parish is joined with Upper and Lower Badsaddle, bringing a new tide of unwanted change. But church politics soon become the least of Daniel's problems. His mother - headstrong, fearless Audrey - is obviously up to something, something she is determined to keep from him. And she is not the only one.And then all hell breaks loose when murder returns to Champton in the form of a shocking ritualistic killing...

Was it an accident? Or was it murder? Marc Mercier appears to have it all - a successful business man with a loving family who has risen above his upbringing. So when he vanishes while on a hunting trip in the Atchafalaya Basin, the mystery appears to be nothing more than a tragic accident. But all is not what it seems in Marc Mercier's life. As detectives launch the investigation into his death, the picture of his perfect life begins to unravel. Family members begin to make accusations, his wife and best friend change their stories, and the police are left floundering as the secrets begin to pile up. The clock is ticking - can detectives Nick and Annie discover the truth before someone else ends up as a case number? Bad Liar is by Tami Hoag.

Black Fell is by Mari Hannah. The truth can be hidden . . . but secrets always surface.The peace of Kielder Water is shattered when tourists open a barrel they found floating in the reservoir at dawn. Detectives Stone and Oliver are called to examine the skeletal remains inside.The tourists are eliminated from the investigation, but that same day a second body is discovered - this one with skin. Have the police let the killer leave the scene? While Stone investigates the remains, Oliver travels to Iceland to gather evidence and track down the tourists who have fled. Someone will do anything to protect the secrets of the past...

Welcome to The Starlings... sun, sea and neighbours to die for. Security, a sparkling sea view and the best kind of neighbours - The Starlings gated community has it all. Here, doors are left open, children run free, and at the heart of it all is the entrepreneurial Gold Family, who first dreamed up this aspirational vision of 'Dorset's Safest Community'. To the outside world the popular family appears glitteringly blessed... until an idyllic party takes a dark turn and one of their number is found slumped at the foot of the clocktower. Who knows what really happened? And what answers are harboured within the old building, the former Highcap Mother and Baby Home? Homecoming is by Isabel Ashdown. 

July 2023

Paris, a misty night a few days before Christmas: a young woman is saved from the waters of the Seine. She is naked, doesn't remember her name or how she ended up in the river, but is still alive. The mysterious woman is taken to the hospital - and then disappears in thin air. DNA testing reveals her to be celebrated concert pianist Milena Bergman - but that cannot be: Milena died in a plane crash more than a year before. As police captain Roxane begins to investigate, his fate becomes intertwined with that of writer Raphael Batailley, Milena's former boyfriend, and the two men are plunged deep into an impossible enigma: is it possible to be alive and dead at the same time? The Stranger in the Seine is by Guillaume Musso.

Consumed is by Greg Buchanan. On a lonely farmstead, a seventy year old woman falls down outside and, unable to move, is consumed overnight by two of her pigs. It seems like a tragic accident , except the woman was well-known photographer Sophia Bertilak – and inside her house, someone has removed all her photos from their frames seemingly erasing her past. The first photo sophia ever took remains her most famous, a missing girl who was never seen again. Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen is darfted in for the autopsy – and slowly becomes obsessed with the victim, her family and the crimes she brought to light decades ago.

The Dead Wife by Sharon Bolton is a suspense thriller that begins when a chance extra marital liason goes disastrously wrong and an injured woman is trapped in a crashed car amid heavy snow. As she waits for a rescue that might never come, we learn more about her diffcult marriage to a high profile MP, her struggles to live in the shadow of his late wife, and the sinsiter secrets that they are all keeping.

Three sisters find themselves lost in a storm at night, and seek safety at Moirthwaite Manor, where their mother once worked. They are shocked to find the isolated mansion that loomed so large through their troubled childhoods has long been abandoned. Drawing straws to decide who should get help, one sister heads back into the darkness. With the siblings separated, the deadly secrets hidden in the house finally make themselves known and we learn the unspeakable secret that binds the family together. The Short Straw is by Holly Seddon.