Saturday 4 February 2023

Books from Head of Zeus

February 2023 

1936, London. A celebrity psychiatrist is discovered dead in his locked study. There seems to be no way a killer could have escaped unseen. There are no clues, no witnesses, and no evidence of the murder weapon. Stumped by the confounding scene, Inspector Flint, the Scotland Yard detective on the case, calls on retired stage magician turned part-time sleuth Joseph Spector. Spector has a knack for explaining the inexplicable, but even he finds that there is more to this mystery than meets the eye. As he and the Inspector interview the colourful cast of suspects, they uncover no shortage of dark secrets... or motives for murder. And when a second murder occurs, this time in an impenetrable elevator, they realise the crime wave will become even more deadly unless they can catch the culprit soon. Death and the Conjuror is by Tom Mead.

No Place to Hide is by JS Monroe. Adam lives a picture-perfect life: happy marriage, two young children, and a flourishing career as a doctor. But Adam also lives with a secret. Hospital CCTV, strangers' mobile phones, city traffic cameras - he is convinced that they are all watching him, recording his every move. All because of something terrible that happened at a drunken party when he was a medical student. Only two other people knew what happened that night. Two people he's long left behind. Until one of them, Clio - Adam's great unrequited love - turns up on his doorstep, and reignites a sinister pact twenty-four years in the making...

Storm Watch is by C J Box. When a prominent University of Wyoming professor goes missing, authorities are stumped. That is, until Game Warden Joe Pickett makes two surprising discoveries in his district. First, Joe finds the professor's vehicle parked on a remote mountainside. Then he finds the professor's frozen and mutilated body. When he attempts to learn more, Joe's investigation is obstructed by Federal agents, extreme environmentalists, and Governor Colter Allen. Meanwhile, Joe's associate, falconer Nate Romanowski, is approached by a shadowy group of local militant activists who are gaining in power and influence, and demanding that Wyoming join other western states in seceding from the Union - by force, if necessary. They ask Nate to throw in his lot with them, but should he trust them, or is he being set up? As a storm of peril gathers around them, Joe and Nate confront it in different ways - and maybe, for the first time, on opposite sides.

We live with our history, but it can kill us. Faces from the past appear from nowhere at a family funeral, and Will Flemyng, spy-turned-ambassador, is drawn into twin mysteries that threaten everything he holds dear. From Washington, he's pitched back into the Troubles in Northern Ireland and an explosive secret hidden deep in the most dangerous but fulfilling friendship he has known. And while he confronts shadowy adversaries in American streets, and looks for solace at home in the Scottish Highlands, he discovers that his government's most precious Cold War agent is in mortal danger and needs his help to survive.In an electric story of courage and betrayal, Flemyng learns the truth that his life has left him a man with many friends, but still alone. The Spy Across the Water is by James Naughtie.

March 2023

She says he's a victim. They say he's a killer. When an armed man massacres several people in central London, Claudine witnesses the whole thing. To her horror, one of the victims is her brother, Jethro. Driven by grief, Claudine retreats to the family home in the Fens, which is where the police find her. She is left reeling when they tell her Jethro orchestrated the attack. Why would a gentle, if troubled, middle-aged man cause such bloodshed - and why would he include himself in the list of victims? The truth could lie in Jethro's research on a mediaeval cult. If Claudine can't solve the mystery in time, more people will die... and the darkness will claim her too. Twist of Fate is by D L Mark.

What Have We Done is by Alex Finlay. The foster children of Savior House never knew the peace of a normal childhood. Raised in an institution, a group of four friends from the home have now grown and gone their separate ways. They haven't seen one another since they left those abusive foster-home halls, until, twenty-five years later, they are reunited for a single, inescapable reason: someone is trying to kill them. To save their lives, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their past: a past that holds the key to everything.

Robert Ludlum's The Treadstone Rendition is by Joshua Hood. Adam Hayes has stepped away from the field for the very last time. He's promised his wife that he won't put his life on the line any more, and nothing will make him break that promise. Well... almost nothing. With America withdrawing from Afghanistan and the Taliban closing in, Abdul Nassir reaches out to his old partner, Hayes. Ten years ago, Nassir saved the American's life, and the time has come for repayment. Nassir is desperate to get his family out of the country. He is scared of the Taliban... but he can't trust the Americans either: his daughter witnessed a massacre committed by rogue CIA contractors. That only leaves one man who can get them out of the country: Adam Hayes.

April 2023

A mid-air collision in the Alaskan wilderness between two small aircraft leaves ten people dead. Was it a bird strike, pilot error... or premeditated murder? Then an eleventh body is found in the wreckage: a man shot gangland style, twice in the chest and once in the head. In an investigation that reaches to the highest levels of government, justice may not be served, but Kate Shugak is determined that the truth will out, even at the risk of her life and the lives of those she loves most. Not The Ones Dead is by Dana Stabenow.

Death Comes to Costa Del Sol is by M H Ecclestone. Amateur sleuth Astrid Swift swaps the sporting summer in England for a British expat enclave in Spain, where everyone has a mysterious reason for leaving the UK. The sunniest days, the deadliest nights. It's the end of the summer season in the harbour town of Estepona. The holiday makers are heading home, leaving the British expats to reclaim their little corner of paradise. Among them is art restorer Astrid Swift's estranged father. She's sailed into town to reunite with him but has instead been tasked with catching an internet troll who's been threatening his wife online. Soon Astrid is entwined in the lives of these expats, from the boozy local heckler to the socially awkward beachcomber. And then she discovers a body in the bunker of the local golf course... Can Astrid uncover the 'Costa del Troll' behind the poison-pen campaign before they reveal everyone's secret past? Or will they tear this cosy community - including Astrid and her father - even further apart?

The Monk is by Tim Sullivan. The Detective DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he's used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality.The Question - The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic's past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don't know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk? The past - Discovering who Brother Dominic once was only makes the picture more puzzling. He was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, son - he had no enemies. Or, at least, none that are obvious. But looking into his past reveals that he was a very wealthy man, that he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin after all...

May 2023

Sepulchre Street is by Martin Edwards. 'This is my challenge for you,' the woman in white said. 'I want you to solve my murder.' London, 1930s: Rachel Savernake has been invited to a private view of an art exhibition at a fashionable gallery. The artist, Damaris Gethin, known as 'the Queen of Surrealism', is debuting a show featuring live models pretending to be waxworks of famous killers. Before her welcoming speech, Damaris asks a haunting favour of the amateur sleuth: she wants Rachel to solve her murder. As Damaris takes to a stage set with a guillotine, the lights go out. There is a cry and the blade falls. Damaris has executed herself. While Rachel questions why Damaris would take her own life - and just what she meant by 'solve my murder' - fellow party guest Jacob Flint is chasing a lead on a glamorous socialite with a sordid background. As their paths merge, this case of false identities, blackmail, and fedora-adorned doppelgangers, will descend upon a grand home on Sepulchre Street, where nothing - and no one - is quite what it seems.

June 2023

The Inmate is by Sebastian Fitzek. A missing child. A desperate father. A terrible secret. Serial killer Guido T has already confessed to two horrific child murders and led the Berlin police to the horribly disfigured bodies. The police are sure he is also the kidnapper and murderer of six-year-old Max, who disappeared without trace a year ago. But now Guido T, who is being held in the high-security ward of a psychiatric prison hospital, is staying silent. The investigators have no reliable evidence. And without the prisoner's statement, Max's parents will have no certainty and will never be able to say goodbye to their son. But then an investigator from the homicide commission makes Max's desperate father an unbelievable offer: he will smuggle the distraught parent into the hospital where Guido T is imprisoned. Max's father will be listed as a fake patient, equipped with a fake medical record. He will be as close as he possibly can to the child killer, and plans to force the killer into a confession. Because nothing is worse than uncertainty. Or so he thinks. Until he, as an inmate, learns the gruesome truth...

Burning Bridges by Stephanie Harte is also due to be published in June




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