January 2021
At first glance, Leonard Graves' death was unremarkable. Sleeping pills, a bottle of vodka, a note saying goodbye. But when Detective Henry Hobbes discovers a grave in the basement, he realizes there is something far more sinister at work. Further investigation unearths more disturbing evidence. Scattered around the old house are women's dresses. All made of the same material. All made in the same colours. And all featuring a rip across the stomach, smeared in blood. As the investigation continues and the body count rises, Hobbes must also deal with the disappearance of his son, the break-up of his family and a growing sense that something horrific happened in the Graves' household. And he's running out of time to find out what. House With No Door is by Jeff Noon.
Exit is by Belinda Bauer It was never supposed to be murder. Pensioner Felix Pink is about to find out that it's never too late . . . for life to go horribly wrong. When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he's there to perform an act of charity: to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath . . . But just fifteen minutes later Felix is on the run from the police - after making the biggest mistake of his life. Now his world is turned upside down as he must find out if he's really to blame, or if something much more sinister is at play. All while staying one shaky step ahead of the law.
How far would you go to correct your worst mistake? When Chloe goes to university and meets wild, carefree Zadie, she is utterly seduced by her and her lifestyle. It doesn't take long for Chloe to ditch her studies in favour of all-night parties at Zadie's huge house off campus.nnBut when something goes badly wrong one night and Zadie disappears in the aftermath, Chloe knows she should have done more to help her friend. It's something she'll always regret. Fifteen years later, Chloe finally gets the chance to make it right. But in order to do so, she'll have to put everything at stake . . . Two Wrongs is by Rebecca Reid.
February 2021
The Sanatorium is the debut novel by Sarah Pearse. Everyone's in danger. Anyone could be next.An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it's beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous - as does her brother, Isaac. And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancee Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin's unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic. But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they're all in . . .
March 2021
The Dare is by Lesley Kara. As a child, it was just a game. As an adult, it was a living nightmare.'This time it's different. She's gone too far now. She really has.' When teenage friends Lizzie and Alice decide to head off for a walk in the countryside, they are blissfully unaware that this will be their final day together - and that only Lizzie will come back alive. Lizzie has no memory of what happened in the moments before Alice died, she only knows that it must have been a tragic accident. But as she tries to cope with her grief, she is shocked to find herself alienated from Alice's friends and relatives. They are convinced she somehow had a part to play in her friend's death. Twelve years later, unpacking boxes in the new home she shares with her fiance, Lizzie is horrified to find long-buried memories suddenly surfacing. Is the trauma of the accident finally catching up with her, or could someone be trying to threaten her new-found happiness?
Tokyo, Japan. Umiko Wada has had enough excitement in life. With an overbearing mother and her husband recently murdered, she just wants to keep her head down. As a secretary to a private detective, her life is pleasantly filled with coffee runs and paperwork. That is, until her boss takes on a new case. A case that is surrounded by shadows. A case that means Wada will have to leave Tokyo and travel to London. London, England. Nick Miller never knew his father, and was always told he wasn't missing much. But when an old friend of his late mother says there are things that Nick needs to know about his parents, he can't ignore it. When a chance encounter brings Wada and Nick together, they couldn't know the series of violent events set off by their investigations. And when they discover Nick's father might have been the only witness to a dark secret forever buried, they realise there are some powerful people who will do whatever it takes to keep it that way... The Fne Art of Invisblle Detection is by Robbert Goddard.
April 2021
Tall Bones is by Anna Bailey. When seventeen-year-old Emma leaves her best friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes, like most girls her age, that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, but Emma will never see her friend again. Abi's disappearance cracks open the facade of the small town of Whistling Ridge, its intimate history of long-held grudges and resentment. Even within Abi's family, there are questions to be asked - of Noah, the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of Jude, the shining younger sibling who hides his battle scars, of Dolly, her mother and Samuel, her father - both in thrall to the fire and brimstone preacher who holds the entire town in his grasp. Then there is Rat, the outsider, whose presence in the town both unsettles and excites those around him. Anything could happen in Whistling Ridge, this tinder box of small-town rage, and all it will take is just one spark - the truth of what really happened that night out at the Tall Bones...
May 2021
Sometimes the only way to catch a killer is to become their prey. In Bristol, a young woman jumps into an icy reservoir. In Leeds, a girl cuts ties with her family and disappears. The only thing that links them is a shared obsession with a mysterious woman called Paula. For Dr Bloom, the stories told by their families are disturbingly familiar. She has seen this all before. She is sure that this charismatic, charming woman is the leader of a cult. She begins investigating the Artemis community but is met with walls of secrecy. Which leaves only one option. The Hunt is by Leona Deakin
Outbreak is by Frank Gardner. Deep within the Arctic Circle, three environmental scientists from the UK's Arctic Research Station trudge through a blizzard landscape in search of shelter. There's a cabin ahead. It appears abandoned. No lights or tell-tale smoke. No snowmobile parked outside.The first thing the team's medic, Dr Sheila Mackenzie, notices when she enters is the smell. It's rank, rotting, foetid. Then suddenly there's movement. A figure, barely recognisable as human, lies slumped on a sofa, his face staring back at her in the torchlight. It's hideously disfigured by livid pustules, rivulets of blood run from his nostrils, his chest covered in black bile. Momentarily Dr Mackenzie can't comprehend what she's seeing. Then the alarm bells begin to ring. These are the signs of chronic, deadly infection . . .But the man is trying to say something. She edges closer to him, and it's then that the convulsions begin. His body erupts into a violent fit of coughing, spewing out a toxic cocktail of blood, bile and mucus . . .Dr Mackenzie already knows it's too late. She is contaminated . . . Setting in train a terrifying chain of events that threatens millions with a deadly, man-made contagion.
Luke Truman is a junior officer on board the USS Leviathan, the most advanced and powerful warship ever built. It is an eight-hundred-foot-long submarine which, among its vast array of weaponry and secret systems, boasts a top secret “cloaking technology.” Bending light around objects to render them invisible, it is the hottest military research innovation not just in the US, but throughout the world. Now the time has come for the first large-scale trial of its effectiveness. But neither Luke nor the United States government realize the astonishing forces this experiment will unleash. What Luke discovers on board the Leviathan is that the future of our world is at a deadly tipping point and that only he will be able to stop the cascade of events which are leading them all inexorably towards doom. The Year of the Locust is by Terry Hayes.
Triple Cross is by Tom Bradby. Attempting to rebuild her shattered life in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell - and he needs her help. A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London. Against her better judgement, Kate is forced back into the fray in a top-secret, deeply flawed and dangerous investigation. But now she's damaged goods. Her one-time allies no longer trust her. And neither do her enemies. With the stakes this high, can the truth ever come out? Or is the cost of uncovering it a price that no one, least of all Kate, can afford to pay?
June 2021
What happens to those girls who go missing? What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?' In the early hours of Saturday, December 17th, 2011, Zoe Nolan, a 19-year-old Manchester University student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months. She was never seen again. True Crime Story is by Joseph Knox.
