January 2026
A Gift Before Dying is by Malcolm
Kempt. At the edge of the world, can justice still be found. After a botched high-profile murder
investigation, Sergeant Elderick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape
of Nunavut, a vast territory in the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty,
frigid temperatures, and endless winter nights.
His bleak existence takes a sinister turn when he discovers the hanging
body of Pitseolala, a troubled Inuit girl whom he had sworn to protect. Her
death dredges up demons he thought he'd buried along with the scars of a
fractured marriage and the aching divide between himself and his estranged
daughter. As Cole's life unravels - and with it, the fragile thread of his
investigation - he turns to Pitseolala's younger brother, Maliktu, a fellow
outsider. It's then that Cole uncovers what binds them: a singular mission to
find her killer. Against fierce backlash, Cole's overriding desire to redeem
just one aspect of his otherwise failed life becomes an obsession - and he's
willing to break every rule in his unyielding pursuit of justice and the
smallest shred of redemption.
For over a century two rival
organisations of women have gone to deadly lengths to secure a precious scrap
of fraying embroidery in the hopes of finding the original medieval manuscript
from which it was torn. There's the Order of St Katherine: devoted to the
belief that women must pull strings in the shadows in order to exercise covert
control. And the Fellowship of the Larks: determined to amass as many overt
positions of power for women as possible . . . while making sure their methods
never come to light. When trailblazing paleographer Dr Anya Brown is headhunted
by the exclusive Institute of Manuscript Studies at St Andrews, she's unaware
that she is in grave danger - her new employers are the Larks, and they'll stop
at nothing to achieve their mission. As Dr Brown is drawn deeper into this
ancient web, events spiral beyond her control. To uncover the truth, and escape
with her life, she must summon all her expertise to decipher a series of
messages that have lain hidden for centuries. The Burning Library is by Gilly
Macmillan.
February 2026
In August 1940, a man
walked into Leon Trotsky's study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his
skull. The killer? Ramon Mercader - an aristocratic Spaniard turned Soviet
assassin. The mastermind? Joseph Stalin. But this was no simple hit. It was the
climax of a decade-long global hunt: a story of seduction and betrayal, of fake
identities and secret loyalties, of idealists and fanatics, lovers and spies.
While Trotsky raged in exile - still clinging to his revolutionary dream -
Stalin's agents closed in. At the heart of it all was Mercader: a man trained
to lie, charm and ultimately to kill. Tracing a path from the cafes of Paris to
the battlefields of Spain, from Stalin's Kremlin to a bloodied study in
Mexico, The Death of Trotsky by Josh Ireland unfolds like a
spy thriller - a story of obsession and betrayal, of dreams destroyed and
loyalties twisted, culminating in one of the most shocking murders of the
modern age.
From James Wolff a former spy
comes Spies and Other Gods an electrifying novel about the mystery, paranoia and ruthlessness of the
secretive world of British espionage. The Head of British Intelligence is
having a bad day. Only six months off retirement and Sir William Rentoul is
wondering if he'll make it that far, what with the sudden descent of a brain
fog dense enough to turn every day into a series of small humiliations. To make
matters worse, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee - the body that
oversees Sir William - has received an anonymous complaint from one of his
officers. Sir William dimly recalls accepting that there should be a channel
for whistleblowers, but he never expected that they would pick his most
sensitive case, one involving an Iranian assassin and a trail of dead bodies,
or that the person who turned up to poke their nose into his files should be a
lowly parliamentary researcher named Aphra McQueen, who displays smarts,
tenacity and rebelliousness in unsettling measures. Aphra seems to know more
about the operation than she is letting on. What will she uncover? What is
she really up to? And can she survive the unexpected events
that will bounce her from London to Birmingham to Paris to Lausanne?
March 2026
All Them Dogs is by Djamel White.
Things are different since Tony Ward landed back in town. The West Dublin
gangland has changed. His old mentor is dead, and his best pal Kenny Boyle is
on the straight and narrow. After five years keeping quiet across the way, Tony
is keen to reinstate himself, and when the opportunity arises to work side by
side with Darren 'Flute' Walsh, a top enforcer of notorious crime boss Aengus
Lavelle, it feels like a no brainer. Biting off more than he can chew has never
bothered Tony Ward, but Flute Walsh is not the meek, quiet boy Tony remembers
from school. Brooding, stoic, and unpredictably dangerous, Tony finds himself
drawn to his new associate in more ways than one. With retribution from his
past actions always close in the rear view, the protection offered by Flute's
standing in the gang is crucial. But how safe is Tony really, when a mutual
attraction starts to complicate matters?
When the daughter of the Swedish
Ambassador disappears from her prestigious London school in broad daylight, the
authorities are on high alert. There are no witnesses and no ransom demand:
thirteen-year-old Freya Sjöberg has vanished into thin air. With the
Metropolitan Police out of their depth, specialist agent DS Madeleine Farrow is
called in to handle the case. As a former pupil at Wimpole Girls, she knows the
school's affluent corridors only too well. But even she can't anticipate the
dark secrets held within its walls. With the clock ticking since Freya's
disappearance, Madeleine must return to a place that holds painful memories to
find a girl who has left no trace. For help, she calls on dogged - and
occasionally maverick - young private investigator Ramona Chang. Together the
unlikely pair find themselves plunged into a world of extreme wealth and
dangerous secrets. The deeper they dig, the more they uncover - exposing a
tangled web of conspiracy and lies that could change everything they thought
they knew about the case, and each other. Lost Girls is by Charlotte Philby.
May 2026
Murder at the Hotel Orient is by
Alessandra Ranelli. In modern Vienna, the infamous Hotel Orient glitters at the
heart of the city, luring lovers inside for an evening of debauchery. Behind
its velvet curtain, cameras are forbidden, aliases are required, and every
guest has something to hide. For those seeking illicit liaisons, Sterling
Lockwood is the perfect concierge. Sultry and poised, she's the ultimate keeper
of secrets, including her own. But when dawn breaks and two of the anonymous
guests are found dead in their suite, Sterling must break the Orient's sacred
code of discretion, turning detective to find a killer and clear her own name. Alongside
Fernando, her quick-witted friend and bellhop, Sterling steps beyond the
hotel's stained-glass doors, venturing from grand coffee houses where power
whispers between porcelain cups, to dimly lit bars where the curious seek
rapturous oblivion, and risking everything to solve an impossible case.
What happens when you can no
longer keep a secret? When Arthur Cotton sees a body washed up on the beach,
difficult memories come flooding back. He kept the books for the Brighton mob
back in the day and got out on friendly terms. But retirement came with
conditions - mainly to keep his mouth shut. Fifty years on, it's trickier.
Dementia is taking hold and he's getting leaky. His former bosses are worried.
Arthur didn't just keep their accounts; he also kept their secrets. Now there's
going to be a reckoning. It's up to Arthur's daughter, Susan, a carer for the
elderly, to find out what her father knows. What he's been saying and to whom.
There are dangerous people around, and they're beginning to lose their
patience. She'll have to turn detective to encounter a Brighton she barely knew
existed, and to turn up parts of her father's past that are just as dark. The
Darkest Tide is by Peter Hanington.
Nine nights to solve a
murder...or she'll be next. When Bigglesweigh's notorious gangster, Cuttah,
uses up the last of his nine lives, and is found dead at his flat, there is
only one person who can solve the mystery of who killed him: indomitable
retired NHS nurse Miss Hortense. Cuttah left a letter with a list of suspects.
There's just one problem: Miss Hortense's name is on the list and she only has
nine days before his cronies seek retribution... Miss Hortense and the Last
Rites is by Mel Pennant.
June 2026
Death by Noir is by Olly Smith. Barclay
Flint is the eccentric proprietor of The Bottle Bank wine shop in Lewes, the
small Sussex town renowned for its annual Bonfire Night festival. Barclay can
taste a kaleidoscopic universe in a single glass of wine - and will delight in
luring you to share in its charms. Barclay passes his days happily matching his
customers to the wines of their dreams, but when his friend, struggling
regenerative vineyard owner Victor Crawshaw, goes missing, Barclay falls under
suspicion and must deploy his wine detection skills to crack the case and clear
his name. As the clock ticks down to Bonfire Night's epic festival of flames,
the fireworks might not be all that start exploding...
