My Nonna, the Storyteller…

Today's guest blog author is Luca di Fulvio an Italian born writer.  He studied dramaturgy at the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico in Rome under Andrea Camilleri. He spent 6 months as a member of The Living Theatre, where he worked in London together with Paola Bourbons, Sergio Graziani, Mario Maranzana, Andrzej Wajda and Julian Beck. Since 1996, Di Fulvio has also worked as a writer. Some of his novels have been published in German. In 2008 he published the novel "La gang dei sogni".  In the novel The Boy Who  Granted Dreams he focuses not only violence against women, but also processes the lives of immigrants in New York City in the 1920s, where he was close to Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York-based film.

I think it's always difficult for writers to explain (honestly) where the spark of an idea for a story came from. One thing I can say with some certainty is that, as they write, they gradually discover that the story was already inside them, waiting to get out. At least that's how it works for me. I recognise it.

In the early days of my career, when I was asked where my passion for writing came from, I would reply with some pseudo-intellectual waffle. Then, a few years ago, I realised the answer was really very simple: I wrote because of my grandmother, and the example she set me. When I was little, I used to go and stay with Nonna every September. She was a very special lady who lived in the north, in Piedmont, in an old farmhouse among the rice fields which had a huge fireplace, so big that we used to sit inside it when it was cold, as people did in the days before central heating. And there, in the evenings, as we sat on the creaking rush seats, Nonna told us stories. Scary stories, funny stories, adventure stories, love stories. She made them up on the spot. And we children listened intently. And our mouths would slowly drop open and our eyes widen as we entered the worlds she had conjured up, having forgotten we were sitting in a blackened fireplace in a farmhouse in Novara. So now, when I'm asked why I write (or more aptly, why I tell stories), I reply that it's because I want to feel once more, and to make my readers feel, that childish sensation of being transported to another place, into worlds that don't exist but which arouse such real emotions.

I believe that The Boy Who Granted Dreams was born in that fireplace. When I was a boy. And I think I carried it within me for years, until the moment I discovered it as I was writing the story, which allowed me to reconnect with that sense of childlike amazement.

The main character, Christmas, is a storyteller. The boss of the New York Jewish mob, Arnold Rothstein (a real-life character of the time), says to him: 'So, ya go around tellin’ lies.'

And Christmas replies: 'No, Mister, I just know how to tell stories. It’s the only thing I’m good at. Stories people believe in. People like to dream.'

That, right there, is the heart of my novel. And that's how it was born (even if I had to learn this along the way). It grew out of the excitement and amazement my grandmother instilled in me. And this is why, when I'm asked what kind of writer I am, I usually reply that I'm not a writer but a wandering minstrel.

But Nonna plays another vitally important role in the birth of this novel. When she wasn't telling stories, she made me listen to the radio.

'Can't we watch TV?' I'd ask.

To which she would respond: 'What's the point in something you put nothing into? The pictures scroll by and all you can do is watch them. And they're the same pictures for you as for millions of other people. No difference. But if there's nothing to see, like when you're listening to the radio, you can make up pictures which are yours alone.'

What she was talking about had to do with dreams. And that's precisely why the book describes the early days of radio, in the roaring twenties. Which is how Christmas becomes a peddler of dreams. Because Christmas represents what my grandmother taught me (without being aware of what an incredible gift she was giving me). He is a kid who knows how to dream big. Who knows how to dream up a life for himself. Who knows how to dream dreams that can come true, whatever they may be. And the only way to make it happen is to never stop playing.

The third gift my grandmother gave me was love. When she was young, she was engaged to the wealthiest jeweller in Novara, who bought her an extravagant ring so jam-packed with precious stones that she used to say it looked like 'a garish bowl of sparkly minestrone soup'. But the match had been made by the families, as was the norm once upon a time. Then Nonna met Nonno and this time it was love at first sight. True love. An apparently impossible love. My grandfather came from an old family, his father was a general in the army of the kings of Italy, the Savoys, and his brother was the king's equerry. My grandmother, on the other hand, was a nobody, beneath him. But my grandfather didn't give a damn about anything or anyone, was cut off, disowned by his family, and took a job as a chemist at a pharmaceutical company to scrape together enough money to marry my grandmother. And Nonna went to see the jeweller to give him back his minestrone, that is, the ring. But he proudly refused to take it. 'No really, take it. I'm not attached to it,' my grandmother told him. Still he refused. And so Nonna took the train to Milan, made her way inside the great, majestic cathedral, walked up to an alms box and threw the ring inside.

This sequence of events might sound like a storyline from a soap opera, but it really happened. It's about love, true love. The eternal story of Romeo and Juliet, of two young people whose kiss wipes out a long-fought feud between two families, breaks the chains of hatred, overcomes social barriers and conventions. 'With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls; / For stony limits cannot hold love out, / And what love can do, that dares love attempt,' wrote Shakespeare.

And this is precisely what guided me as I wrote the tumultuous love story between Christmas, the scruffy Italian kid from the Lower East Side, and Ruth, the rich Jewish girl from Fifth Avenue.

I could say that the opening pages of the book (set in a depressed and violent Calabria) were inspired by Sherwood Anderson's novel Dark Laughter. And that the name Christmas is an homage to Faulkner's Light in August, whose protagonist, Joe Christmas, isn't black but nor is he white, and is seeking an identity, much like my Christmas. And of course I could state in all honesty that Christmas reads Martin Eden by Jack London, of which my novel might be read as a retelling with a happy ending (and it's no coincidence that Ruth is also the name of the girl Martin is in love with). And in the same way I could tell you that Cetta, Christmas's mother, reads him another Jack London book, White Fang, whose eponymous hero is neither wolf nor dog, just as Christmas is neither Italian nor American, and manages to get by because of the love of Weedon Scott. Or else I could talk about a life in the New York ghetto built on 'great expectations', to quote my beloved Dickens.  

But, true as they may be, these would only be the intelligent explanations of a writer, whereas I, thanks to my grandma, am simply an enthusiastic minstrel.

The Boy Who Granted Dreams by Luca Di Fulvio is published 23rd March by Bastei Entertainment, price £4.99 in eBook.       

Books to Look Forward to from PanMacmillan and Mantle

Harbour Street is by Anne Cleeves and is due to be published in January 2014.  As the snow falls thickly on Newcastle, the shouts and laughter of Christmas revellers break the muffled silence. Detective Joe Ashworth and his daughter Jessie are swept along in the jostling crowd onto the Metro. But when the train is stopped due to the bad weather, and the other passengers fade into the swirling snow, Jessie notices that an old lady hasn't left the train: Margaret Krukowski has been fatally stabbed as she sat on the crowded train. Why would anyone want to harm this reserved, elegant lady? Arriving at the scene, DI Vera Stanhope is relieved to have an excuse to escape the holiday festivities. As she stands on the silent, snow-covered station platform, Vera feels a familiar buzz of anticipation, sensing that this will be a complex and unusual case. Soon Vera and Joe are on their way to the south Northumberland town of Mardle, where Margaret lived, to begin their inquiry. Then, just days later, a second woman is murdered. Vera knows that to find the key to this new killing she needs to understand what had been troubling Margaret so much before she died -- before another life is lost. Retracing Margaret's final steps, Vera finds herself searching deep into the hidden past of this seemingly innocent neighbourhood, led by clues that keep revolving around one street ...Why are the residents of Harbour Street so reluctant to speak?

Oslo, 1968. Ambitious young detective Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen is called to an apartment block, where a man has been found murdered. The victim, Harald Olesen, was a legendary hero of the Resistance during the Nazi occupation and at first it is difficult to imagine who could have wanted him dead. But as Detective Inspector Kolbein Kristiansen (known as K2) begins to investigate, it seems clear that the murderer could only be one of Olesen's fellow tenants in the building. Soon, with the help of Patricia -- a brilliant, young woman confined to a wheelchair following a terrible accident -- K2 will begin to untangle the web of lies surrounding Olesen's neighbours; each of whom, it seems, had their own reasons for wanting Olesen dead. Their interviews, together with new and perplexing clues, will lead K2 and Patricia to dark events that took place during the Second World War ...This gripping, evocative and ingenious mystery -- the first in a series featuring K2 and Patricia -- pays homage to the great Agatha Christie and will plunge readers into Norwegian history, and into a world of deceit and betrayal, revenge and the very darkest murder.  The Human Files  is by Hans Olav Lahlum and is due to be published in March 2014.

Towards the end of the Second World War a young British artist called Kenneth Brill is arrested for painting landscapes near the old village of Heathrow. The authorities suspect his paintings contain coded information about the new military airfield that is to be built there. Brill protests that he is merely recording a landscape that will soon disappear. Under interrogation a more complicated picture emerges as Brill tells the story of his life - of growing up among the market gardens of The Heath, of his life on the London art scene of the 1930s, and his brief spell as a master at a minor public school. But a darker picture also comes to light, of dealings with the prostitutes and pimps of the Soho underworld, of a break-in at a royal residence and of connections with well-known fascist sympathisers at home and abroad. So who is the real Kenneth Brill? The hero of El Alamein who, as a camouflage officer, helped pull off one of the greatest acts of military deception in the history of warfare, or the lover of Italian futurist painter and fascist sympathiser Arturo Somarco? Why was he expelled from the Slade? And what was he doing at Hillmead, the rural community run by Rufus Quayle, friend of Hitler himself? Vanishing sees the world through the eyes of one of the forgotten geniuses of British Art, a man whose artistic vision is so piercing he has trouble seeing what is right in front of him.  Vanishing is a blackly comic novel of camouflage and mystery by Gerard Woodward and is due to be published in March 2014.

The Nashes are a close-knit family. Tom, a popular teacher, is father to the handsome, roguish Eli and his younger sister Deenie, serious and sweet. But their seeming stability is thrown into chaos when two of Deenie's friends become violently ill, and rumours of a dangerous outbreak sweep through the whole community. As hysteria swells and as more girls succumb, tightly held secrets emerge that threaten to unravel the world Tom has built for his kids, and destroy friendships, families, and the town's fragile idea of security. The Fever is by Megan Abbott and is a chilling story about guilt, family secrets, and the lethal power of desire.  The Fever is due to be published in June 2014.

Cell is by Robin Cook and is due to be published in February 2014. George Wilson, M.D., a radiology resident in Los Angeles, is about to enter a profession on the brink of an enormous paradigm shift, foreshadowing a vastly different role for doctors everywhere. A new smartphone app is being developed that is far more than a mere reference tool, rather it is a fully customizable personal physician capable of diagnosing and treating patients more efficiently than the real thing. It is called iDoc. George's initial collision with this incredible innovation is devastating. He awakens one morning to find his fiancee dead in bed alongside him, not long after she participated in an iDoc beta test. Then several of his patients die after undergoing imaging procedures. All of them had been part of the same beta test. Is it possible that iDoc is being subverted by hackers -- and that the US government is involved in a cover-up? Despite threats to both his career and his freedom, George relentlessly seeks the truth, knowing that if he's right, the consequences could be lethal.

New Orleans, 1919. As a dark serial killer - The Axeman - stalks the city, three individuals set out to unmask him ...Though every citizen of the 'Big Easy' thinks they know who could be behind the terrifying murders, Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot, heading up the official investigation, is struggling to find leads. But Michael has a grave secret - and if he doesn't get himself on the right track fast - it could be exposed ...Former detective Luca d'Andrea has spent the last six years in Angola state penitentiary, after Michael, his protegee, blew the whistle on his corrupt behaviour. Now a newly freed man, Luca is back working with the mafia, whose need to solve the mystery of the Axeman is every bit as urgent as the authorities'. Meanwhile, Ida is a secretary at the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and dreaming of a better life, Ida stumbles across a clue which lures her and her musician friend, Louis Armstrong, to the case - and into terrible danger ...As Michael, Luca and Ida each draw closer to discovering the killer's identity, the Axeman himself will issue a challenge to the people of New Orleans: play jazz or risk becoming the next victim. And as the case builds to its crescendo, the sky will darken and a great storm will loom over the city ...Inspired by a true story, The Axeman’s Jazz is set against the heady backdrop of jazz-filled, mob-ruled New Orleans. The Axeman’s Jazz  is an ambitious, gripping debut historical thriller by Ray Celestin and it is due to be published in May 2014. 

The mission is to enter one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The target is one of the toughest to reach. The result could be momentous - or it could be Armageddon. There is no margin for error. US government operatives Will Robie and Jessica Reel have to prove they are still the best team there is. But are they invincible when pitted against an agent whose training has been under conditions where most would perish? An old man is dying in an Alabama prison hospital, it seems there is one more evil game he has still to play. And it's a game which comes close to home for Reel and Robie. But this time the stakes might be way too high. The Target is by David Baldacci and is due to be published in April 2014.

He's touching the front of his coat, feeling the shape of the gun. Should have got rid of it. On any other night, any other job, he would. This isn't any other job. This, he intends, will be his last ...It begins with two deaths: a money-man and a grass. Deaths that offer a unique opportunity to a man like Calum MacLean. A man who has finally had enough of killing. Meanwhile two of Glasgow's biggest criminal organisations are at quiet, deadly war with one another. And as Detective Michael Fisher knows, the biggest -- and bloodiest -- manoeuvres are yet to come ...The stunning conclusion to Malcolm Mackay's lauded Glasgow Trilogy, The Sudden Arrival of Violence will return readers to the city's underworld: a place of dark motives, dangerous allegiances and inescapable violence ...  The Sudden Arrival of Violence is due to be published in January 2014.

San Francisco, 1876: a stifling heat wave and smallpox epidemic have engulfed the City. Deep in the streets of Chinatown live three former stars of the Parisian circus: Blanche, now an exotic dancer at the House of Mirrors, her lover Arthur and his companion Ernest. When an eccentric outsider joins their little circle, secrets unravel, changing everything - and leaving one of them dead. Frog Music is by Emma Donoghue and is inspired by true events. It is an evocative novel of intrigue and murder: elegant, erotic and witty and is due to be published in March 2014.

Virtual romance becomes terrifying obsession in Want You Dead...Single girl, redhead, 33, with a love life that's crashed and burned, seeks new flame for fun, friendship and -- who knows -- more maybe? When Red Cameron meets handsome, charming and rich Bryce Laurent through an online dating agency, there is an instant attraction. But as their love blossoms, the truth about his past, and his dark side, begins to emerge. Everything he has told Red about himself turns out to be a tissue of lies, and her infatuation with him gradually turns to terror. Within a year, and under police protection, she evicts him from her flat and her life. But her nightmare is only just beginning. For Bryce is obsessed with her, and he intends to destroy everything and everyone she has ever known and loved - and then her too...  Want You Dead is by Peter James and is due to be published in June 2014.

Where Evil Lies  is by Jøgen Brekke and is due to be published in January 2014.  1528. A young Franciscan monk travels to Norway to collect a set of scalpels from a barber surgeon with whom he shares a dark and mysterious obsession with the dissection of human corpses. He travels north and settles in a remote village. His deadly legacy is a mysterious manuscript, the Book of John, bound in human skin. Nearly five hundred years later, it seems that the ancient practice is experiencing a revival. 2010. Trondheim, Norway. Inspector Odd Singsaker leads the investigation into the flaying of the University librarian, Gunn Brita Dahle, and the theft of the priceless Book of John. The prime suspect is a security guard at the library who was once an academic high-flier, and now lives an isolated, almost twilight, existence following the unexplained disappearance of his wife and son some years back. 2010. Richmond, Virginia. When the curator of the Edgar Allan Poe museum suffers the same fate as Dahle, US Detective Felicia Stone flies to Norway to join Singsaker in the hunt for a serial killer. The more they delve into the past, the more sinister their discoveries become. The key to the psychopath's next move is held in the manuscript. Can they work out the clue before another person has to die.

Detective Inspector for homicide, Sarah Lund, is contacted by old flame Mathias Borch from National Intelligence. Borch fears that what first appeared to be a random killing at the docks is the beginning of an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Troels Hartmann. The murder draws attention towards the shipping and oil giant, Zeeland, run by billionaire Robert Zeuthen. When Zeuthen's 9-year-old daughter, Emilie, is kidnapped the investigation takes on a different dimension as it soon becomes clear that her disappearance is linked to the murder of a young girl in Jutland some years earlier. Hartmann is in the middle of an election campaign, made all the more turbulent because of the mounting financial crisis. He needs Zeeland's backing. Lund needs to make sense of the clues left by Emilie's perpetrator before it's too late. And can she finally face the demons that have long haunted her? The Killing 3 is by David Hewson and is due to be published in February 2014.

Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has barely left her house in months, isolated away from friends and colleagues. She may have given up on herself but one man is sure she still has something to offer. DCI Jack Cole gives her a chance at redemption: An opportunity to help a neighbouring force by discovering what is going on with a reclusive community living in a stately home in the middle of nowhere. People are going missing, turning up dead with only a vague link back to the house. But can Jessica beat her own demons in time to find out exactly what's going on behind closed doors?  Behind Closed Doors is by Kerry Wilkinson and is due to be published in January 2014.

The House of Dolls is by David Hewson and is due to be published in April 2014. Anneliese Vos, sixteen-year-old daughter of Amsterdam detective, Pieter Vos, disappeared three years ago in mysterious circumstances. Her distraught father's desperate search reveals nothing and results in his departure from the police force. Pieter now lives in a broken down houseboat in the colourful Amsterdam neighbourhood of the Jordaan. One day, while Vos is wasting time at the Rijksmuseum staring at a doll's house that seems to be connected in some way to the case, Laura Bakker, a misfit trainee detective from the provinces, visits him. She's come to tell him that Katja Prins, daughter of an important local politician, has gone missing in circumstances similar to Anneliese. In the company of the intriguing and awkward Bakker Vos finds himself drawn back into the life of a detective. A life which he thought he had left behind. Hoping against hope that somewhere will lay a clue to the fate of Anneliese, the daughter he blames himself for losing ...

This was a big mistake ...Because he didn't think at all about the investigation, the burglars, or Mr. Z. He thought about Angelica ...When Vigata's elite are targeted in a series of perfectly executed burglaries, Inspector Montalbano reluctantly takes the case. It isn't long though before the irascible detective finds himself taken with one of the victims, the captivatingly beautiful young Angelica. But as Montalbano's growing attraction to Angelica begins to consume him, a series of dangerous, anonymous letters begin to arrive, threatening not only his relationship with his girlfriend Livia, but the Inspector's entire career ...With the allure of Angelica ever in his mind, his relationship with Livia crumbling, and his job under threat, Montalbano must focus his mind to solve this complex investigation before it is too late ...  Angelica’s Smile is by Andrea Camilleri and is due to be published in June 2014.

Maybe it was time I forgot about Nico Peterson, and his sister, and the Cahuilla Club, and Clare Cavendish. Clare? The rest would be easy to put out of my mind, but not the black-eyed blonde ...It is the early 1950s. In Los Angeles, Private Detective Philip Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new client arrives: young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, Clare Cavendish wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Soon Marlowe will find himself not only under the spell of the Black-Eyed Blonde; but tangling with one of Bay City's richest families -- and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune ...In this gripping and deeply evocative crime novel, Benjamin Black returns us to the dark, mesmerising world of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye and his singular detective Philip Marlowe; one of the most iconic and enduringly popular detectives in crime fiction.  The Black-Eyed Blonde  is due to be published in February 2014.

Jessica Mayhew has a new client at her psychotherapy practice. Artist Pandora Powell is in shock following the death of her mother, Ursula, who was murdered during the theft of a valuable painting at her studio. And Jess has problems of her own, as she struggles to adjust to the demands of being a single parent. Pandora is a beautiful but shy and vulnerable young woman who has grown up in the shadow of her famous ancestors, the Welsh painters Augustus and Gwen John, and under the wing of her twin sister, Isobel. There is a suggestion that Isobel's husband, art dealer Blake Thomas, might be responsible for Ursula's murder. Blake is riding high with the success of his latest protege, reclusive ex-miner and would-be revolutionary Hefin Morris, who is fast becoming the enfant terrible of the contemporary art world. When Blake too dies in mysterious circumstances, Jessica is drawn into a quest that not only leads her into mortal danger but also threatens to destroy her entire moral code as a therapist. Black Valley tells the story of how Jessica and Pandora, as therapist and client, slip between their different roles, becoming caught in a net from which neither can escape - except through treachery and betrayal.  Black Valley is by Charlotte Williams and is due to be published in June 2014.

Never Look Back is a chilling and compelling debut crime thriller by Clare Donoghue set in South East London and is due to be published in March 2014. Three women have been found brutally murdered in south London, the victims only feet away from help during each sadistic attack. And the killer is getting braver ...Sarah Grainger is rapidly becoming too afraid to leave her house. Once an outgoing photographer, she knows that someone is watching her. A cryptic note brings everything into terrifying focus, but it's the chilling phone calls that take the case to another level.DI Mike Lockyer heads up the regional murder squad. With three bodies on his watch, and a killer growing in confidence, he frantically tries to find the link between these seemingly isolated incidents. What he discovers will not only test him professionally but will throw his personal life into turmoil too.

Detective Inspector James Quill and his wily squad of supernatural crime-busters are coming to terms with their new-found second sight. They have a handle on the ghosts and ghouls, but the rest of London's supernatural underworld is still unknown. When a seemingly invisible murderer kills a top cabinet minister in unusual circumstances, the team knows this is a case for them. Attempts to learn more about this mysterious figure are hampered when their chief detective goes missing, and a core member of their team becomes more focussed on bringing her father back to life than finding their missing detective. Soon the team seems to be falling apart as each member pursues their own interests. Throw in an ancient and vengeful spirit and a Rat King, and their mission soon becomes a trip to Hell - literally. The Severed Streets is by Paul Cornell and is due to be published in May 2014.

Marked is by David Jackson and us due to be published in January 2014.  In New York's East Village a young girl is brutally raped, tortured and murdered. Detective Callum Doyle has seen the victim's remains. He has visited the distraught family. Now he wants justice. Doyle is convinced he knows who the killer is. The problem is he can't prove it. And the more he pushes his prime suspect, the more he learns that the man is capable of pushing back in ways more devious and twisted than Doyle could ever have imagined. Add to that the appearance of an old adversary who has a mission for Doyle and won't take no for an answer, and soon Doyle finds himself at risk of losing everything he holds dear. Including his life.

The Acolyte follows on from events in Seth Patrick's first novel, Reviver and is due to be published in June 2014.  A woman is violently murdered in an alleyway. Strange shadows are appearing on people's shoulders. Could these both be linked?

The first thing I notice is her face. It is so perfect it seems unlikely that it could ever exist in the real world. Her white skin is flawless, her features perfectly symmetrical, her lips red and wet and full, parting with every gasp. It is her eyes that hold me, though. They are a shade of blue I have never seen, with flecks of gold and crystal, and they are so penetrating it feels as though they are reaching out straight through his eyes into mine, begging me for ...something I can't quite make out. It's like those eyes have captured the dialectic of every human emotion that ever mattered -- love and hate; ecstasy and terror; comfort and jealousy -- and rolled them into a single glance that could level entire cities. I am slaughtered. Imagine being able to create and experience your deepest dreams and your darkest fantasies ...Boston entrepreneur and techno whizz-kid, Nick Caldwell with the help of his long-time friend and colleague, Yvette, has worked on a programme where people can do just that -- all from the safety and comfort of their home. NextLife is an exciting young company which promises its subscribers the chance to experience anything they want. Climb Everest. Dive off the Barrier Reef. Go to a 1970s Rolling Stones concert. Walk the Great Wall of China. But it seems that one of their clients has much more sinister desires. And it involved the girl with the wonderful blue eyes ...  The Game of Death is by David Hosp and is due to be published in February 2014.

The Second World War has ended, leaving a bruised and fragile peace. But this tranquillity is threatened when a shocking murder takes place in the Sussex countryside. Before long, police experts discover a link to another, earlier, killing hundreds of miles away ...While Scotland Yard detective Billy Styles struggles to find a link between these two murders, a strange twist of fate brings former Detective Inspector John Madden into the investigations. As the victim count rises it becomes clear that to catch this serial killer Madden, Styles and young policewoman Detective-Constable Lily Poole must act quickly. But Madden remains haunted by the mysteries at the heart of the case. Why was his name in a letter the second target had been penning, just before he died? Could the real clue to these perplexing murders lie within the victims' pasts? And within his own? With this stunning, atmospheric crime novel teeming with twists and moving between the 1950s, the First and Second World Wars, in The Reckoning which is due to be published in June 2014 Rennie Airth, presents his greatest and most compelling novel yet.

The Hidden Girl is by Louise Millar and is due to be published in May 2014.  Hannah Riley and her musician husband, Will, hope that a move to the Suffolk countryside will promise a fresh start.Hannah, a human rights worker, is desperate for a child and she hopes that this new life will realise her dream.Yet when the snow comes, Will is working in London and Hannah is cut off in their remote village. Life in Tornley turns out to be far from idyllic, who are the threatening figures who lurk near their property at night? And why is her neighbour so keen to see them leave? Plus Will's behaviour is severely testing the bonds of trust.Hannah has spent her professional life doing the right thing for other people. But as she starts to unbury a terrible crime, she realises she can no longer do that without putting everything she's ever wanted at risk. But if she does nothing, the next victim could be her ...

Fukuoka Prison, 1944. Beyond the prison walls the war rages; inside a man is found brutally murdered. Watanabe, a young guard with a passion for reading, is tasked with finding the killer. The victim, Sugiyama - also a guard - was feared and despised throughout the prison and investigations have barely begun when a powerful inmate confesses. But Watanabe is unconvinced; and as he interrogates both the suspect and Yun Dong-ju, a talented Korean poet, he begins to realise that the fearsome guard was not all he appeared to be ...As Watanabe unravels Sugiyama's final months, he begins to discover what is really going on inside this dark and violent institution, which few inmates survive: a man who will stop at nothing to dig his way to freedom; a governor whose greed knows no limits; a little girl whose kite finds her an unlikely friend. And Yun Dong-ju - the poet whose works hold such beauty they can break the hardest of hearts. As the war moves towards its devastating close and bombs rain down upon the prison, Watanabe realises that he must find a way to protect Yun Dong-ju, no matter what it takes. This decision will lead the young guard back to the investigation - where he will discover a devastating truth ...At once a captivating mystery and an epic lament for lost freedom and humanity in the darkest of times The Investigation  is by Jung-Myung Lee and is due to be published in March 2014.

A family tragedy. A buried secret. What lies hidden in the flames? A dense, bitterly cold fog

has settled over the Wye Valley when Bristol Coroner Jenny Cooper is called to the scene of a dreadful tragedy: in the village of Blackstone Ley, a house has burned to the ground with three members of a family inside. Though evidence of foul play is quickly uncovered, it isn't long before the police investigation is drawn to a close. It seems certain that the fire was started by one of the victims, Ed Morgan, in a fit of jealous rage. But their infant son is still missing and Ed had left a message for his surviving wife, Kelly Hart, telling her that she would never find the child ...As Jenny prepares the inquest, she finds herself troubled by the official version of events. What could have provoked Ed's murderous rampage? How might the other, guarded inhabitants of the village have been involved? And what could the connection be with the mysterious abduction of a little girl ten years ago? Battling to supress gruelling events in her own life, Jenny soon becomes entangled in another perplexing inquiry that may have surprising links to this one. Can she unearth Blackstone Ley's secrets, before it's too late?   The Burning is by M R Hall and is due to be published in February 2014.

The Lying Down Room is the debut novel by Anna Jaquiery and is due to be published in April 2014. At night Armand lay in bed with a sadness in his heart that ballooned until there was room for nothing else. He thought with horror of the lying-down room ...Paris; in the stifling August heat, Commandant Serge Morel is called to a disturbing crime scene. An elderly woman has been murdered to the soundtrack of Faure's Requiem, her body then grotesquely displayed. At first this strange case seems to offer few clues; and Morel has problems of his own. His father - always a great force in his life - is beginning to succumb to senility; and he is unsettled by the reappearance of the beautiful Mathilde, the woman he once loved. Only origami can help calm the detective and focus his thoughts on this troubling crime. As the investigation progresses, the key suspects to emerge are a middle-aged man and a mute teenage boy who have been delivering religious pamphlets in the city's suburbs. But as more elderly ladies are targeted, Morel will find his enquiries leading him back into the past, from the French countryside to Soviet Russia - and to two young boys with the most terrible of stories to tell ...

Summer in the High Arctic. When young Inuit Martha Salliaq goes missing from her

settlement, her teacher, ex Polar Bear Hunter Edie Kiglatuk enlists her police friend Derek Palliser to help search for the girl. But once a body is discovered floating in a polluted lake on the site of a decommissioned Radar Station, Edie's worst fears are realised. As the investigation into Martha's murder begins, the Inuit community -- and Martha's devastated family -- are convinced the culprits lie within the encampment of soldiers stationed nearby. Before long Sergeant Palliser finds evidence linking two of the men with the dead girl. But Edie and local lawyer Sonia Gutierrez remain unconvinced. Why are the military quite so willing to cooperate with the investigation? What has Edie's boyfriend Chip Muloon, a simple academic researcher, got to hide? And why has the lake where Martha's body was found been suddenly cordoned off? A gripping, atmospheric thriller set in the Arctic's long white nights, in The Bone Seeker the very personal murder of a young girl will explode a decades-long tale of the very darkest betrayal.  The Bone Seeker is by M J McGrath and is due to be published in June 2014.

Some Books I am Looking Forward to in the first half of 2014

There are a vast number of books due out during the first six months of 2014 and there are quite a few that I am looking forward to reading.  So far between January 2014 and June 2014 I am looking forward to the following in no particular order!

The Ghost Runner is by Parker Bilal and is due to be published in February 2014.  It is 2002 and as tanks roll into the West Bank and the reverberations of 9/11 echo across the globe, tensions are running high on Cairo's streets.  Private Investigator Makana, in exile from his native Sudan and increasingly haunted by memories of the wife and daughter he lost, is shaken out of his grief when a routine surveillance job leads him to the horrific murder of a teenage girl.  In a country where honour killings are commonplace and the authorities seem all too eager to turn a blind eye, Makana determines to track down the perpetrator.  He finds unexpected assistance in the shape of Zahra, a woman who seems to share Makana's hunger for justice.  Seeking answers in the dead girl's past he travels to Siwa, an oasis town on the edge of the great Sahara desert, where the law seems disturbingly far away and old grievances simmer just below the surface.  As violence follows him through the twisting, sand-blown streets and an old enemy lurks in the shadows, Makana discovers that the truth can be as deadly and as changeable as the desert beneath his feet.

  

The Tournament is by Matthew Reilly and is due to be published in January 2014.  England, 1546: A young Princess Elizabeth is surrounded by uncertainty.  The Black Death stalks the land and with it deadly conspiracies against her.  She is not currently in line for the throne, but she remains a threat to her older sister and brother.  In the midst of this fevered atmosphere comes an unprecedented invitation from the Sultan in Constantinople.  He seeks to assemble the finest players of chess from the whole civilised world and pit them against each other.  The prize?  Fabulous wealth but also the honour of Christendom.  Roger Ascham, Elizabeth's teacher and mentor, is determined to keep her out of harm's way and continue her education in the art of power and politics.  Ascham resolves to take Elizabeth with him when he accompanies the English chess champion to the Ottoman capital.  But once there, the two find more danger than they left behind.  There's a grotesque killer on the loose and a Catholic cardinal has already been found mutilated in the grounds of the palace.  Ascham is asked by the Sultan to use his razor-sharp mind to investigate the crime.  But as he and Elizabeth delve deeper into the murky world of the court and the glittering chess tournament, they find dark secrets, horrible crimes, and unheard-of depravity.  Things that mark the young princess for life and define the queen that she will become...

The First Horseman is by D K Wilson and is due to be published in June 2014.  1536. In the corrupt heart of Tudor London a killer waits in the shadows...The Real Crime Before dawn on a misty November morning in 1536, prominent mercer Robert Packington was gunned down as he crossed Cheapside on his way to early morning mass.  It was the first assassination by handgun in the history of the capital and subsequently shook the city to its core.  The identity of his assassin has remained a mystery.  Our Story Thomas Treviot is a young London goldsmith and a close family friend of Robert Packington.  Through his own upstanding social connections - and some less upstanding acquaintances he has made along the way -, Thomas launches a dramatic investigation into Packington's death.  As Thomas searches for revenge, he must travel from the golden heart of merchant London, to the straw-covered backstreets of London's poorest districts before reaching the country's seat of power: the court of King Henry VIII.  Before long, he is drawn into a dark conspiracy beyond his wildest imaginings and claiming justice for his friend starts to look impossible.  Especially when Thomas realises that Robert wasn't the man he thought he knew...In the first of a new series investigating real unsolved Tudor crimes, D. K. Wilson brings the streets of Tudor London to spectacular life as Thomas Treviot faces a fight to bring the truth to light in the corrupt world of Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII.

The Donnybrook is a three-day bare-knuckle tournament held on a thousand-acre plot out in the sticks of southern Indiana.  Twenty fighters.  One wire-fence ring.  Fight until only one man is left standing while a rowdy festival of onlookers - drunk and high on whatever's on offer - bet on the outcome.  Jarhead is a desperate man who'd do just about anything to feed his children.  He's also the toughest fighter in south eastern Kentucky, and he's convinced that his ticket to a better life is one last fight with a cash prize so big it'll solve all his problems.  Meanwhile, there's Chainsaw Angus - an undefeated master fighter who isn't too keen on getting his face punched anymore, so he and his sister, Liz, have started cooking meth.  And they get in deep.  So deep that Liz wants it all for herself, and she might just be ready to kill her brother for it.  As we travel through the backwoods on the way to the Donnybrook, we meet a cast of nasty, ruined characters driven to all sorts of evil, all in the name of getting their fix - drugs, violence, sex, money, honour.  Donny-Brook is by Frank Bill and is due to be published in March 2014.

Rea Carlisle has inherited a house from an uncle she never knew.  It doesn’t take her long to clear out the dead man’s remaining possessions, but one room remains stubbornly locked.  When Rea finally forces it open, she discovers inside a chair, a table – and a leather-bound book.  Inside its pages are locks of hair, fingernails: a catalogue of victims.  Horrified, Rea wants to go straight to the police but when her family intervene, Rea turns to the only person she can think of: DI Jack Lennon.  However, Lennon is facing his own problems, not least of all his suspension from the police force.  The Final Silence is by Stuart Neville and is due to be published in July 2014.

Judges is three crime stories by Italy’s most renowned crime writers Camilleri, best known for the Inspector Montalbano series, weaves a tale of a Turin judge who moves to a small Sicilian town, and tackles both entrenched mafia corruption and a string of culinary delicacies.  Lucarelli brings us a far darker tale.  “La Bambina” is a beautiful young judge, whose attempts to expose the complicity of the secret service in money laundering lead to multiple attempts on her life, and a desperate struggle for justice.  De Cataldo, a judge himself, tells a tale of an unending feud between a prosecutor and a mayor, set against the background of murder, sleaze, and impenetrable bureaucracy.  Judges is due to be published in May 2014.

The Wolf in Winter is by John Connolly and is due to be published in April 2014.  Prosperous, and the secret that it hides beneath its ruins . . . The community of Prosperous, Maine has always thrived when others have suffered.  Its inhabitants are wealthy, its children's future secure.  It shuns outsiders.  It guards its own.  And at the heart of the Prosperous lie the ruins of an ancient church, transported stone by stone from England centuries earlier by the founders of the town . . . But the death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter draw the haunted, lethal private investigator Charlie Parker to Prosperous.  Parker is a dangerous man, driven by compassion, by rage, and by the desire for vengeance.  In him the town and its protectors sense a threat graver than any they have faced in their long history, and in the comfortable, sheltered inhabitants of a small Maine town, Parker will encounter his most vicious opponents yet.  Charlie Parker has been marked to die so that Prosperous may survive.

The New Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction is edited by Maxim Jakubowski and is due to be published in February 2014.  A truly mammoth collection of 7 decades of pure, unadulterated pulp fiction, jam-packed with tough guys and femme fatales.  Join shady operators, voluptuous molls, ruthless big shots and crooked – or just occasionally, honest – cops on a rollercoaster ride through the mean streets of popular literature in the company of outstanding writers of hardboiled crime such as Dashiell Hammett, Bill Pronzini and Micky Spillane, as well as some forgotten authors well worth rediscovering.

Maybe it was time I forgot about Nico Peterson, and his sister, and the Cahuilla Club, and Clare Cavendish.  Clare? The rest would be easy to put out of my mind, but not the black-eyed blonde . . . It is the early 1950s. In Los Angeles, Private Detective Philip Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new client arrives: young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, Clare Cavendish wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson.  Soon Marlowe will find himself not only under the spell of the Black-Eyed Blonde; but tangling with one of Bay City’s richest families – and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune . . . The Black-Eyed Blonde is by Benjamin Black and is due to be published in February 2014.  It sees a return of Raymond Chandler’s iconic private detective Philip Marlowe and the dark mesmerising world of The Long Goodbye.