Books To Look Forward To From Bloomsbury and Raven Crime

January 2022 

Best friends share everything. But murder is different. Isn't it? Keeley and Jude are closer than blood. Inseparable since childhood, they share everything: clothes, secrets, booze - and blame. So when they wake up after a new year's party to find Keeley's boyfriend stabbed to death beside them, they agree to share something else: the story they'll tell the police. But who is that story really meant to protect? Is Jude risking her bright future to protect her friend? Is there more to sharp-eyed Keeley than she lets on? Or are they conspiring to let Keeley's brother get away with the drugs he's been selling in their small town? As the murder investigation sends ripples through their community, the history of the girls' claustrophobic relationship comes under scrutiny - and they start to realise they might not, always, have shared as much as they thought. Can their friendship survive sharing everything? She and I is by Hannah King.

February 2022

The Leviathan is by Rosie Andrews. She is awake Norfolk, 1643. With civil war tearing England apart, reluctant soldier Thomas Treadwater is summoned home by his sister, who accuses a new servant of improper conduct with their widowed father. By the time Thomas returns home, his father is insensible, felled by a stroke, and their new servant is in prison, facing charges of witchcraft. Thomas prides himself on being a rational, modern man, but as he unravels the mystery of what has happened, he uncovers not a tale of superstition but something dark and ancient, linked to a shipwreck years before. Something has awoken in England, and now it will not rest...

March 2022

The Devil's Bargain is by Sheila Rimington. Harry Bristow: policeman, father, chauffeur, fraud. In 1988 Harry made one mistake: he took a bribe, letting a man he knew as Igor into Britain - and he's regretted it ever since. So when he recognises 'Igor' fifteen years later as his newly-elected MP, he knows he has to come clean. But the MP recognises him too - and Harry fears what he might do next. Peter Robinson, MP: salesman, politician, bachelor, spy. It was easy to get into Britain in 1988 as an illegal, working deep undercover, but the break-up of the Soviet Union cut Robinson off from his homeland. He's inching closer to Britain's levers of power - but now the one man who knows his secret has reappeared. With no way to contact Moscow, he must act fast to preserve his position and reap its rewards - at any cost. Manon Bradley, CIA analyst, has just boarded a plane to London - with a report on Russian illegals to read.

April 2022

The Cove is by Alice Clark Platts. A luxury resort they never want to leave. One of them never will. A holiday to an idyllic Malaysian island is just what the two families need. For Lou, it is make or break for her marriage. For Eliza, it is a chance to reconnect with her husband and a respite from a busy lifestyle. The resort is remote, surrounded by sea and jungle, and an escape from the outside world and all of the troubles that plague them. But as soon as they arrive at the cove, it becomes evident that things are not all they seem. There are secrets between the two families and strange goings on at the hotel, and when tensions reach breaking point on the final night, they can't wait to leave.Then a violent storm comes in, trapping then on the island. That's when the first person goes missing.

May 2022

Tensions between friends spiral towards disaster in this thrilling novel set on a luxury Greek resort. Liv Travers never knew real friendship until she met fellow mums Beth and Binnie. The three women become soulmates as they muddle through early parenthood. Then along comes Ange... Ambitious, wealthy and somehow able to do it all. Under Ange's guiding presence, the group finds new vigour and fresh aspirations - bigger houses, better schools, dinners at exclusive restaurants. But Liv can't keep up and is increasingly edged out. When the four families take a three-week trip to a luxurious holiday resort, Liv seizes the opportunity to reclaim her place at the heart of the group, only to discover the true, devastating cost of a friendship with Ange. Set over the course of a single, life-changing trip to a Greek island paradise, Little Nothings is a sly, suspenseful novel about female bonds turned toxic, and the desperate ends one woman will go to keep her friends close - and her enemy closer. Little Nothings is by Julie Mayhew.

Books to Look Forward to From Bloomsbury Publishing

 January 2021

Wicked deeds require the cover of darkness... A struggling silhouette artist in Victorian Bath seeks out a renowned child spirit medium in order to speak to the dead - and to try and identify their killers - in this beguiling new tale from Laura Purcell. Silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another... Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them. But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back... What secrets lie hidden in the darkness? The Shape of Darkness is by Laura Purcell.

Post Mortem is by Gary Bell. Can Rook keep his criminal past a secret when facing the most dangerous case of his life? Thirteen men have died in a London prison. Barrister Elliot Rook QC, who risks losing everything if his secret criminal past is revealed, must defend Charli Meadows, the vulnerable single mother accused of smuggling the deadly tainted drugs inside. But just as Rook becomes suspicious of those closest to Charli, a note arrives at his flat - threatening violence if the trial is not called off. While Rook battles to defend Charli and protect himself, his young protege Zara Barnes is fighting for her livelihood. In a few short weeks, only one tenancy at the legal chambers will be available to the ever-multiplying mass of pupils. Determined to make it hers, Zara takes on her biggest solo case yet. But will her gamble pay off?

Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith is by Richard Bradford. Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith is lauded as one of the great modern writers. However, there has never been a clear picture of the woman behind the books. The triangular relationship between Highsmith's lesbianism, her fraught personality - by parts self-destructive and malicious - and her fiction has been largely avoided by other biographers. She was openly lesbian and would, in modern times, be venerated as a radical exponent of an LGBT lifestyle. However, her status as an exemplar of gay radicalism is undermined by the incontrovertible fact that she was gratuitously cruel and exploitative of her lovers. In this new biography, Richard Bradford brings his sharp, incisive style to one of the great, and most controversial, writers of the twentieth century. He considers Highsmith's best-sellers in the context of her troubled personal life; her alcoholism, her anti-Semitism and her misogyny.

February 2021

Lightseekers is by Femi Kayode. Three young students are brutally murdered in a Nigerian university town, their killings - and their killers - caught on social media. The world knows who murdered them; what no one knows is why. As the legal trial begins, investigative psychologist Philip Taiwo is contacted by the father of one of the boys, desperate for some answers to his son's murder. Philip is an expert in crowd behaviour and violence but travelling to the sleepy university town that bore witness to the killings, he soon feels dramatically out of his depth. Years spent first studying, then living in the US with his wife and children mean he is unfamiliar with many Nigerian customs and no one involved in the case seems willing to speak out. The more Philip digs, and the more people he meets with a connection to the case, the more he begins to realise that there is something very wrong concealed somewhere in this community.

March 2021

The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer is by Shrabani Basu. In the village of Great Wyrley near Birmingham, someone is mutilating horses. Someone is also sending threatening letters to the vicarage, where the vicar, Shahpur Edalji, is a Parsi convert to Christianity and the first Indian to have a parish in England. His son George - quiet, socially awkward and the only boy at school with distinctly Indian features - grows up into a successful barrister, till he is improbably linked to and then prosecuted for the above crimes in a case that left many convinced that justice hadn't been served. When he is released early, his conviction still hangs over him. Having lost faith in the police and the legal system, George Edalji turns to the one man he believes can clear his name - the one whose novels he spent his time reading in prison, the creator of the world's greatest detective. When he writes to Arthur Conan Doyle asking him to meet, Conan Doyle agrees. From the author of Victoria and Abdul comes an eye-opening look at race and an unexpected friendship in the early days of the twentieth century, and the perils of being foreign in a country built on empire.

Musician Charlotte Dove has vanished after playing in a concert for a prestigious orchestra led by a conductor world-renowned as a charismatic, obsessive genius who pushes his musicians to their very limit. The police insist that there are no signs of foul play and that with Charlotte's passport missing, she is unlikely to be in any danger. But where did Charlotte go? And why would she leave without a word to her husband, fellow musician Henry, having just secured the job of a lifetime? Journalist Richard Blake is struggling to find work in the new online world. He sees Charlotte's disappearance as an opportunity to restart his career by exploiting the growing obsession with true crime podcasts. But the more he delves into Charlotte's past, and the more his audience grows, bringing him into direct conflict with the police, the murkier her story becomes... The Disappearance of Charlotte Dove is by Alice Clark-Platts.

April 2021

Greenwich Park is by Katherine Faulkner. Helen has it all... Daniel is the perfect husband. Rory is the perfect brother. Serena is the perfect sister-in-law. And Rachel? Rachel is the perfect nightmare. When Helen, finally pregnant after years of tragedy, attends her first antenatal class, she is expecting her loving architect husband to arrive soon after, along with her confident, charming brother Rory and his pregnant wife, the effortlessly beautiful Serena. What she is not expecting is Rachel. Extroverted, brash, unsettling single mother-to-be Rachel, who just wants to be Helen's friend. Who just wants to get know Helen and her friends and her family. Who just wants to know everything about them. Every little secret...

May 2021

When the police are called to the report of a late-night shooting, they expect it to be drugs or gang-related. They don't expect to find a young student executed on his way home. Jordan Radley was an aspiring journalist: hard working, well-liked, dedicated. His first major story - looking at the fallout following the closure of a major local factory - had run recently and looked to be the first step in his longed-for career. Even after the story ran, Jordan continued to stay in contact with those he interviewed: he was on his way back from their social club the night he was murdered. But as the detectives quickly discover, not only was Jordan killed, but those responsible also broke into his house, taking his laptop and notes. What was he researching that might have led to his death? And can this really be linked to another case - long ruled an accident - in the same area or are the police being forced to prioritise those with the best connections rather than the ones that most need their help? One Half Truth is by Eva Dolan.

June 2021

I know What I Saw is by Imran Mahmood.  I saw it. He smothered her, pressing his hands on her face. The police don't believe me, they say it's impossible - but I know what I saw. This is Xander Shute: once a wealthy banker, now living on the streets. As he shelters for the night in an empty Mayfair flat, he hears its occupants returning home, and scrambles to hide as the couple argue. Trapped in his hiding place, he soon finds himself witnessing a vicious murder. But who was the dead woman, who the police later tell him can't have been there? And why is the man Xander saw her with evading justice? As Xander searches for answers, his memory of the crime comes under scrutiny, forcing him to confront his long-buried past and the stories he's told about himself. How much he is willing to risk to understand the brutal truth?

Books to Look Forward to from Bloomsbury Publishing

January 2019

The Flower Girls is by Alice-Clark Platts.  Three children went out to play, only two came back. The Flower Girls. Laurel and Primrose. One convicted of murder, the other given a new identity. Now, nineteen years later, another child has gone missing. And the Flower Girls are about to hit the headlines all over again...

February 2019

A journalist must follow the clues, no matter how far that takes her. Casey Benedict, star reporter at the Post, has infiltrated the lives and exposed the lies of countless politicians and power players. Using her network of contacts, Casey is always on the search for the next big story, no matter how much danger this might place her in, no matter what cost emotionally. Tipped off by an overheard conversation at an exclusive London nightclub, she begins to investigate the apparent suicide of a wealthy young British man, whose death has left his fiancee and family devastated. Casey's determined hunt for the truth will take her from the glitz of St-Tropez to the deserts of Libya and on to the very darkest corners of the human mind.  To The Lions is by Holly Watt.

March 2019

The Road to Granchester by James Runcie is the captivating prequel to the treasured Grantchester series follows the life, loves and losses of a young Sidney Chambers in post-war London It is 1938, and eighteen-year-old Sidney Chambers is dancing the quickstep with Amanda Kendall at her brother Robert's birthday party at the Caledonian Club. No one can believe, on this golden evening, that there could ever be another war. Returning to London seven years later, Sidney has gained a Military Cross, and lost his best friend on the battlefields of Italy. The carefree youth that he and his friends were promised has been blown apart, just like the rest of the world - and Sidney, carrying a terrible, secret guilt, must decide what to do with the rest of his life. But he has heard a call: constant, though quiet, and growing ever more persistent. To the incredulity of his family and the derision of his friends - the irrepressible actor Freddie, and the beautiful, spiky Amanda - Sidney must now negotiate his path to God: the course of which, much like true love, never runs smooth. 

The thrilling true story of Richard Sorge - the man John le Carre called `the spy to end spies', and whose actions turned the tide of the Second World War Richard Sorge was a man with two homelands. Born of a German father and a Russian mother in Baku in 1895, he moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. A member of the angry and deluded generation who found new, radical faiths after their experiences on the battlefields of the First World War, Sorge became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union's most formidable spy. Like many great spies, Sorge was an effortless seducer, combining charm with ruthless manipulation. He did not have to go undercover to find out closely guarded state secrets - his victims willingly shared them. As a foreign correspondent, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese and Japanese society in the years leading up to and including the Second World War. His intelligence regarding Operation Barbarossa and Japanese intentions not to invade Siberia in 1941 proved pivotal to the Soviet counteroffensive in the Battle of Moscow, which in turn determined the outcome of the war. Never before has Sorge's story been told from the Russian side as well as the German and Japanese.  An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent is by Owen Matthews.

April 2019

Impossible Causes is by Julie Mayhew. Four elements. Four seasons. Four points on the compass. Four teenage girls. And one body. Black-haired, pure islander, Britta. The alpha female of the so-called Eldest Girls. 'Half-blood' Jade-Marie, her missionary father long drowned. Blonde, angelic looking Anna - the moral compass of the trio. And then red-headed Viola. Viola, the newcomer to the island, escaping tragedy and desperate to belong. Viola, who turns three girls into four and completes the set. Viola, who finds the man's body, lying in the stone circle. Viola, who has watched and waited for her opportunity to become one of the inner circle, whatever it takes. In Julie Mayhew's mesmerising and compelling thriller, a remote and deeply religious island with a history of paganism is riven when a man is found dead. As rumours spread and tensions rise, and fog descends, sealing the island off from the mainland, the four teenage girls of Lark Island find themselves accused of witchcraft - and murder.

Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps is by Ursula Buchan.  John Buchan's name is known across the world for The Thirty-Nine Steps. In the past one hundred years the classic thriller has never been out of print and has inspired numerous adaptations for film, television, radio and stage, beginning with the celebrated version by Alfred Hitchcock. Yet there was vastly more to `JB'. He wrote more than a hundred books, fiction and non-fiction and about a thousand articles for newspapers and magazines. He was a scholar, antiquarian, barrister, colonial administrator, journal editor, literary critic, publisher, war correspondent, director of wartime propaganda, member of parliament and imperial proconsul - given a state funeral when he died, a deeply admired and loved Governor-General of Canada. His teenage years in Glasgow's Gorbals, where his father was the Free Church minister, contributed to his ease with shepherds and ambassadors, fur-trappers and prime ministers. His improbable marriage to a member of the aristocratic Grosvenor family means that this account of his life contains, at its heart, an enduring love story.

May 2019

It's been a year since Leo Stanhope lost the woman he loved, and came closing to losing his own life. Now, more than ever, he is determined to keep his head down and stay safe, without risking those he holds dear. But Leo's hopes for peace and security are shattered when the police unexpectedly arrive at his lodgings: a woman has been found murdered at a club for anarchists, and Leo's address is in her purse. When Leo is taken to the club by the police, he is shocked to discover there a man from his past, a man who knows Leo's birth identity. And if Leo does not provide him with an alibi for the night of the woman's killing, he is going to share this information with the authorities. If Leo's true identity is unmasked, he will be thrown into an asylum, but if he lies... will he be protecting a murderer?  The Anarchists’ Club is by Alex Reeve.

Books to Look Forward to From Penguin and Michael Joseph.

When a bloated corpse is found floating in the River Thames the police can at least sure that identifying the victim will be straightforward. Around the dead man's wrist is a hospital band. On it are the words Dr F Klein...But psychotherapist Frieda Klein is very much alive. And, after evidence linking her to the murder is discovered, she becomes the prime suspect. Unable to convince the police of her innocence, Frieda is forced to make a bold decision in order to piece together the terrible truth before it's too late either for her or for those she loves.  Friday on My Mind is by Nicci French and is due to be published in July 2015.

There are many rumours about the bay off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some say it was the site of the lost empire of the Solomon king and that great treasure lies beneath the waters. Others say terrible things happened here, atrocities and disappearances at the hands of cannibal giants, and those who venture there do not return. It is cursed. Which is exactly what attracts the attention of husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. How could they resist? Clues and whispers lead them on a hunt from the Solomons to Australia to Japan, and what they find at the end of the trail is both wonderful and monstrous-and like nothing they have ever seen before...  The Solomon Curse is by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake and is due to be published in September 2015.

What Remains is by Tim Weaver and is due to be published in July 2015.  When all has been

lost what is there left to find? Colm Healy used to be one of the Met's best detectives. Until, haunted by the unsolved murders of a mother and her twin daughters, his life was left in ruins. His failure to find an elusive killer - or even a motive for such a merciless crime - consumed him, his career and his family. Missing person’s investigator David Raker is the only friend Healy has left. The only one who understands that redemption rests on solving these murders. As they reopen the investigation together, Raker learns the hard way how this case breeds obsession - and how an unsolvable puzzle can break even the best detective. Their search will take them down a trail of darkness, unravelling a thread of tragedy spanning years, and will force them to sacrifice everything they have left.

Liar, Liar is by M J Arlidge and is due to be published in September 2015. Faced with yet another ruthless serial killer, one with a penchant for pyromania, DI Helen Grace is an unwilling participant in a race against this new sadistic combatant.

This is a chilling new thriller that gets into the heart and mind of the killer, and the victim...Seventeen-year-old Tessa, dubbed a 'Black-Eyed Susans' by the media, became famous for being the only victim to survive the vicious attack of a serial killer. Her testimony helped to put a dangerous criminal behind bars - or so she thought. Now, decades later the black-eyed Susan’s planted outside Tessa's bedroom window seem to be a message from a killer who should be safely in prison. Haunted by fragmented memories of the night she was attacked and terrified for her own teenage daughter's safety, can Tessa uncover the truth about the killer before it's too late?  Black Eyed Susans is by Julie Heaberlin and is due to be published in August 2015.

Jefferson Hinkley is back. In his role as an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, Jeff is approached by the multi-time champion jockey, Dave Swinton, to discuss the delicate matter of losing races on purpose. Little does Jeff realise that the call would result in an attempt on his life, locked in a sauna with the temperature well above boiling point. Dave Swinton is then found dead, burnt beyond recognition in his car at a deserted beauty spot. The police think it's a suicide but Jeff is not so sure. He starts to investigate the possible races that Swinton could have intentionally lost but discovers instead that others are out to prevent him from doing so, at any cost.  Front Runner is by Felix Francis and is due to be published in September 2015.

Following Stormbird and Trinity this novel will continue through the brutal Civil War that we now know as the Wars of the Roses. Bloodline sees the Lancastrian and Yorkist factions clash at the battle of Towton - the single most bloody conflict every fought on British soil. The victorious Edward of York seals his claim to the English throne. Bloodline is by Conn Iggulden and is due to be published in October 2015.

The murder of a first-year university student shocks the city of Durham. The victim, Emily

Brabents, was from the privileged and popular set at Joyce College, a cradle for the country's future elite. As Detective Inspector Erica Martin investigates the college, she finds a close-knit community fuelled by jealousy, obsession and secrets. But the very last thing she expects is an instant confession...The picture of Emily that begins to emerge is that of a girl wanted by everyone, but not truly known by anyone. Anyone, that is, except Daniel Shepherd. Her fellow student, ever-faithful friend and the only one who cares. The only one who would do anything for her… Bitter Fruits is by Alice Clark-Platts and is due to be published in July 2015.

The Drowning Ground is the debut novel by James Marrison and is due to be published in August 2015.  A man is found dead near his home with a pitchfork through his neck. When DCI Guillermo Downes is called to the scene he realizes the victim is well known to him. A decade earlier, Downes made a promise to the families of two missing girls that he would find their daughters. Although cleared of any involvement, the dead man had been a suspect in their disappearance. And as the ripples from his death spread through the local community it happens to offer fresh hope that the detective might finally make good on his promise. But as Downes, tormented by his own troubled past, pursues the case alongside a new partner, Sergeant Graves, it soon becomes clear to them both that there's a darkness at the heart of the investigation more dreadful than either could ever have imagined. As past and present bind ever more tightly, Downes and Graves are forced to confront a terrible truth that lies just beneath the surface.

Religion, madness and murder align amongst the teeming spires of Oxford, England, in this terrifying Halloween thriller from Jason Sharp. Perfect for fans of Karen Rose, Richard Montanari, Chris Carter, and Alastair Gunn. Oxford in October: on the outskirts of the city, the mutilated body of a local doctor is found flayed and robed in his own skin. The gruesome crime scene displays religious iconography leading DI Lauren Rose the detective assigned to the case, to University's theology department. Here, Professor Matthew Brask - on exchange from Harvard - identifies the agonies suffered by the victim as identical to those that killed martyred apostle St Bartholomew. A series of unsolved deaths across Europe suggest a murderer with a dangerous religious obsession is on the loose and that the doctor's death is likely only to be the first of a pattern of three. And it's up to Rose and Brask to stop the Halloween Killer... Trick or Treat is the debut novel by Jason Sharp and is due to be published in October 2015.

For a lucky few, death is merely an inconvenience. With the help of technology the mind can survive long after a body has been laid to rest. This afterlife, however, is far from paradise...Making A Living. Rhodes is a 'Husk'. It's an illegal, controversial and highly lucrative job - renting out control of his body and mind to the highest bidder. It's a sure way to gain a better life, but some clients go too far. Sometimes, he wakes up with scars. Making A Killing. Then the visions start - terrible sights that haunt his waking hours. They could be dreams, or they could be something far worse - they just might be memories...  Husk is by J Kent Messum and is due to be published in July 2015.

Only to Die Again is by Patrick Lee and is due to be published in August 2015.  In the dead of night, ex-Special Forces operative Sam Dryden gets a call from an old colleague, desperate for help with a last-minute secret mission.  Together they race to a remote shack, break in, rescue four kidnapped girls, fleeing seconds ahead of the arriving police and FBI.  Only then does Sam Dryden learn the secret behind this mission.  His former team-mate has been working security for an old friend whose company has made a discovery which could change the curse of history.  And there are some very bad people determined to ensure that it goes their way.

My Sunshine Away is the debut novel from M O Walsh, and is due to be published in July 2015. Welcome to Woodland Hills, Louisiana: a place of lush, sweltering summers, neighbourhood cookouts in every backyard and vats of chilled beer under the crepe myrtles. A terrible crime is just about to take place...One day Lindy Simpson cycles home from school and straight into a trap: someone is lying in wait for her, a wire strung between lampposts blocking the path. She is raped just yards from her front door. No one sees a thing and the perpetrator is not caught. Her fourteen year old neighbour has cherished a crush on Lindy, the ultimate girl next door, since they were kids. After her assault he becomes determined to solve the crime, investigating each suspect in the neighbourhood. But before this long, hot summer is out, it will become clear that the friendly community of Woodland Hills has much to hide. Behind every white picket fence in suburbia lies a tangled web of darkness. In his zeal to solve the mystery, the teenage detective stumbles across a sinister world he doesn't recognise, drawing ever closer to a terrifying denouement.