A Night with Crime Novelist Bernard Minier 7 February 2019

Meet Bernard Minier, one of the most applauded contemporary French crime novelists and discover his best-selling novel, Night, just launched in the UK by Mulholland Book Trade Paperpack. Night follows detective Kirsten Nigaard and commandant Martin Servaz on a terrifying chase. Winner of the prestigious Prix Polar at the Cognac Crime Festival and translated into twenty languages, Bernard Minier became a sensation in France when his first novel Glacé (The Frozen Dead, 2013) was published. It was made into a very successful television series now available on NETFLIX.

Chaired by Ayo Onatade, freelance crime fiction critic and Associate member of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain.

More information can be found here.

Tickets can be bought here.

Night by Bernard Minier (Mulholland Books) Published 7 February 2019

When a body is found in a church in the far north of Norway, the trail leads to an offshore oil rig. Searching the rooms of one of the rig workers, detective Kirsten Nigaard finds a pile of photos taken with a long-lens camera. The subject of the photos is Martin Servaz. And someone has been watching him.  Signs suggest the killer is none other than Julian Hirtmann, a serial murderer on the run. Martin, after all, has a long and painful history with Hirtmann. Now it seems he has struck again.  Their one clue is in amongst the photos. A picture of a young boy in a beautiful Austrian village, and on the back of it, the name 'Gustav'. Martin and Kirsten set off on the trail and soon find themselves in a terrifying cat-and-mouse chase, not knowing who is chasing whom, and which of them might pay the ultimate price.

Books to Look Forward to From Hodder & Stoughton and Mulholland Books

January 2019

Cold Bones is by David Mark.  It's the coldest winter in Hull for years.  When McAvoy is told by a concerned stranger that an elderly woman hasn't been seen for a few days, he goes to check on her - only to find her in the bath, encased in ice: the heating off; the windows open; the whole house frozen over.  It could be a macabre accident, but McAvoy senses murder. Someone watched her die.  As he starts to uncover the victim's story and her connections to a lost fishing trawler, his boss Trish is half a world away, investigating a mysterious death in Iceland. Hull and Iceland have traditionally been united by fishing - in this case, they are linked by a secret concealed for half a century, and a series of brutal killings that have never been connected.  Until now - when the secrets of the dead have returned to prey on the living.

Battle Sight Zero is by Gerald Seymour.  The Kalashnikov AK47. A weapon with a unique image. A symbol of freedom fighters and terrorists across the globe. Undercover officer Andy Knight has infiltrated an extremist group intent on bringing the rifle to Britain - something MI5 have been struggling for years to prevent.  He befriends Zeinab, the young Muslim student from Yorkshire who is at the centre of the plot. All Zeinab needs to do is travel to the impoverished high-rise estates of Marseilles and bring one rifle home on a test run. Then many more will follow - and with them would come killing on an horrendous scale.  Zeinab is both passionate and attractive, and though Andy knows that the golden rule of undercover work is not to get emotionally attached to the target, sometimes rules are impossible to follow.

Last Man Standing is by Stephen Leather. Friendships forged in the heat of combat can be stronger than anything.  So when SAS trooper Matt Standing is told that the former Navy SEAL who saved his life is in trouble, he doesn't hesitate to go to his aid - even if that means flying half way around the world to Los Angeles.  Navy SEAL-turned-bodyguard Bobby-Ray Barnes has been accused of killing the man he was supposed to be protecting. Three other bodyguards were also killed and now Bobby-Ray is on the run.  The dead client was a Russian oligarch with connections to the Kremlin. But who wanted him dead? And if Bobby-Ray wasn't the killer, who carried out the assassination and why is Bobby-Ray being framed? Standing is the only man who can answer those questions - providing he can stay alive long enough.

How can you get lost in a city that never sleeps?  Nineteen-year-old Titus 'Crisp' Crespo is a smart kid on his way to a bright future. But on the eve of his high school graduation, a chance encounter with a cop who can't see beyond the colour of his skin puts everything in jeopardy.  When he doesn't return home two nights later his mother knows something is wrong. Seeking answers, she turns to Detective Lex Cole, who starts to follow his traces: a bad decision, a trip into a dangerous part of the city; blood...  As Crisp heads into trouble and discovers the New York he's lived alongside for years but never really seen, Lex, a day later, must find out what happened last night - before it's too late.  Last Night is by Karen Ellis.

February 2019

When a body is found in a church in the far north of Norway, the trail leads to an offshore oil rig. Searching the rooms of one of the rig workers, detective Kirsten Nigaard finds a pile of photos taken with a long-lens camera. The subject of the photos is Martin Servaz. And someone has been watching him.  Signs suggest the killer is none other than Julian Hirtmann, a serial murderer on the run. Martin, after all, has a long and painful history with Hirtmann. Now it seems he has struck again.  Their one clue is in amongst the photos. A picture of a young boy in a beautiful Austrian village, and on the back of it, the name 'Gustav'. Martin and Kirsten set off on the trail and soon find themselves in a terrifying cat-and-mouse chase, not knowing who is chasing whom, and which of them might pay the ultimate price.  Night is by Bernard Minier.

The Stranger Inside is by Laura Benedict.  There's a stranger in your house. And he knows your biggest secret.  When Kimber Hannon returns home from a work trip, she's ready to kick back and relax on the sofa. But on reaching the front door, she is shocked to discover that her key no longer works and there's a man in the bedroom window.  Kimber calls the police, but the intruder tells them he's renting the house. Her neighbour corroborates his story and it is Kimber who is forced to leave. But before she does, the stranger whispers 'I was there. I saw what you did.'  These words reveal a connection to Kimber's distant past, and dark secrets she'd long ago left buried. Her trespasser isn't after anything as simple as her money or her home. He wants to move into her carefully orchestrated life - and destroy it.

Trigger is by David Swinson.  Frank Marr was a good cop, until his burgeoning addictions forced him into retirement from the Washington D.C. police. Now, he's barely eking out a living as a private investigator.  Ostracized by his family after a botched case that led to the death of his cousin, Frank is now clean. He passes the time by robbing the houses of local dealers, taking their cash and flushing their drugs down the toilet. But when an old friend from the police needs his help, Frank is drawn back into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts.  Never one to play by the rules, Frank recruits a young man he nearly executed years before. Together, detective and criminal charge headfirst into the D.C. drug wars. Neither may make it out.

Red Strike is by Chris Ryan.  A former Russian spy goes on the run after an attempt to poison him.  Now he’s gone to ground, and M!6 went to get old of him before the Russians do.  When a retired British general learns about this he reports back to his Russian paymasters.  They decide the former spy must be killed before he is found and spills his guts to Mi6.  Series hero John Porter and John Bald must work together to track down the spy and expose the general before it’s too late and Russia reconquers the Baltic states.

March 2019

Missing Person is by Sarah Lotz.  They are a group of misfits who go online for fun. Their hobby is giving names to the missing dead. But a killer is online with them, and his game is in deadly earnest . . .  Shaun Ryan's brother, Teddy, died in 1989. Only he didn't. Looking through his grievously ill mother's personal effects, Shaun finds a postcard that Teddy posted from New York, dated October 22nd 1990. And in his mother's family Bible is a picture of an adult Teddy. Could Teddy somehow be alive? And how do you find someone who has never been declared missing and who vanished nearly thirty years ago?  Missing-linc.com are an oddball assortment of geeks and obsessives whose macabre hobby is matching unidentified bodies with missing people. Ellie Caines' first and biggest case was The Boy in the Dress, a corpse found not ten miles from where she lived in Minnesota, two years after Teddy's postcard. Her obsession nearly broke her marriage and she left the group - but when the Ryan's enquiry is passed onto her she knows they have likely matched the missing Teddy with that decades-old corpse. And that she will be sucked back into the old nightmare, where the dead are more real than the living.

What if you found out that you'd been married to a stranger?  Nuala and James had the perfect relationship.  They were young and in love, and so Nuala didn't question why James told her to never contact his family or to visit the small Somerset town he was from.  But now James is dead, and Nuala needs to know what he was keeping from her all of those years.  Nuala is on her way to a town full of her husband’s secrets. And she is about to discover that sometimes secrets are better left buried.  Never Go There is by Rebecca Tinnelly.

Joshua is convinced there's a family curse. It's taken his loved ones, robbed him of his eyesight, and now his father has been killed chasing down a murderer.  His dad's last wish seems like a blessing: the chance for Joshua to see. But as Joshua navigates the world of sight, he realises he is seeing things through his father's eyes. Dark things; things he never knew.  His father was living a secret life. And there are consequences coming for Joshua - along with a killer drawing closer and closer...  A Killer Harvest is by Paul Cleave.

Hap and Leonard are an unlikely pair - Hap, a self-proclaimed white trash rebel, and Leonard - a tough-as-nails Black, gay, Vietnam vet and Republican - but they're the closest friend either of them has in the world.  After years of crime-solving companionship, something's changed: Hap, recently married to their P.I. boss, Brett, is now a family man. Amidst the worst flood East Texas has seen in years, the two run across a woman who's had her tongue nearly cut out, pursued by a heavily armed pair of goons. Though she can't talk much, on account of the tongue, it turns out the girl survived a mob hit, and the boss has come to clean up the mess.  On a chase that blows even the East Texas swampgrass back, Hap and Leonard must save the girl, and vanquish her foes, before the foes get them first. With a new case to solve, and a brand-new challenge to their relationship, will Hap and Leonard's friendship survive? Will Hap and Leonard survive?  The Elephant of Surprise is by Joe R Lansdale.

April 2019

A Capital Death is by Lindsey Davis.  A tragic accident . . . or was it?  Emperor Domitian has been awarded (or rather, has demanded) yet another Triumph to celebrate two so-called victories. Preparations are going smoothly until one of the men overseeing arrangements for the celebration accidentally falls to his death from a cliff on the symbolic Capitoline Hill.  But Flavia Albia suspects there's more to the incident than meets the eye, as there are plenty of people who would have been delighted to be rid of the overseer. He was an abusive swine who couldn't organise a booze-up in a winery and was caught up in a number of scams, including one surrounding the supply of imperial purple dye and a family of shellfish-boilers.  As Flavia finds herself drawn into a theatrical world of carnival floats, musicians, incense and sacrificial beasts, can she see to the heart of the matter and catch those responsible for the unpopular man's untimely death?

Life as a private investigator is non-stop for Ravi Chandra Singh and his gleefully amoral colleagues at the Golden Sentinels Agency.  Ravi is getting used to his visions of Hindu gods, but the cases are as crazy as ever. There's the actress who hires them to track down the source of a sex tape she never made, the party in a rock star's mansion that gets way out of control, and the terrorist leader who goes missing in London before he can hand himself in.  But soon Ravi finds himself in worse trouble than he could ever have imagined when his boss' secret plan to make himself a player on the world stage blows up in everyone's face.  The future of Golden Sentinels hangs in the balance in the madcap, exhilarating conclusion to the Ravi PI series.  Her Fugitive Heart is by Adi Tantimedhl. 

You can't keep the secret.  You can't tell the truth.  You can't escape the past...  Marianne was seventeen when she fled her home, her family, her boyfriend Jesse and the body they buried.  Now, forced to return, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving, is finally threatening to expose the truth.  Marianne will do anything to protect the life she's built; the husband and daughter who must never know. Even if it means turning to her worst enemy...  But Marianne may not know the whole story - and she isn't the only one with secrets they'd kill to keep.  Stone Mothers is by Erin Kelly

A Book of Bones is by John Connolly.  He is our best hope.  He is our last hope.  On a lonely moor in the northeast of England, the body of a young woman is discovered near the site of a vanished church. In the south, a girl lies buried beneath a Saxon mound. To the southeast, the ruins of a priory hide a human skull.  Each is a sacrifice, a summons.  And something in the darkness has heard the call.  But another is coming: Parker the hunter, the avenger. From the forests of Maine to the deserts of the Mexican border, from the canals of Amsterdam to the streets of London, he will track those who would cast this world into darkness. Parker fears no evil.  But evil fears him . .

The police find out about the crime the way everyone does: on Snapchat. The video shows the terrified victim begging for forgiveness. When her body is found, it is marked with a number 2...  Detective Huldar joins the investigation, bringing child psychologist Freyja on board to help question the murdered teenager's friends. Soon, they uncover that Stella was far from the angel people claim - but even so, who could have hated her enough to kill?  Then another teenager goes missing, and more clips are sent. Freyja and Huldar can agree on two things at least: the truth is far from simple. And the killer is not done yet.  A brilliantly suspenseful story about the dark side of social media, The Absolution is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and will make you wonder what you should have said sorry for...

June 2019

l

The Fifth Doctrine is by Karen Robards.  With her back against the wall, everything's on the line for Bianca St. Ives. She's either going to save the world-or die trying.  It took one hell of an effort for the authorities to finally get the jump on master manipulator Bianca St. Ives, but now that they have, it's far from the capture she expected.  Instead of taking her in, there's an offer on the table, a one-shot deal that would allow Bianca to walk away scot-free as if they'd never found her. And all she has to do is run one last mission-the kind she might never return from. But if Bianca wants to go back to her normal life in Savannah, it's not like she has a choice . . .

Tara Beckley is a college senior assigned to chaperone a visiting engineer to a conference. On the road, she is the victim of a brutal accident that kills the engineer but leaves Tara in a vegetative state - or, at least, so her doctors think.  Really, Tara is the prisoner of locked-in syndrome, fully alert, but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, she discovers that someone powerful wants her dead. But why? And what can she do, lying in a hospital bed, to stop them?  Meanwhile, Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is assigned to Tara's case. A former stunt driver, Abby has returned to Maine after a disaster in Hollywood left a beloved actor dead and her own reputation - and nerves - shattered. She has nothing left to give to the case, but she can tell there's more to the accident than meets the eye.  When Abby starts asking questions, things spin out of control fast, leaving her boss murdered, Abby on the run, and an enigmatic young hit man on her heels.  If She Wakes is by Michael Koryta.

July 2019

This is Gomorrah is by Tom Chatfield.  The Dark Web is everywhere - and those who know where to look, and who to ask, can find anything. Drugs, guns, porn, ideologies, lives and deaths are all up for sale . . . and everything must go.  Set in the technological underbelly of the 21st century, this conspiracy thriller follows elite hacker Azi Bello on a journey of

discovery into the dark marketplace known as Gomorrah, within which the world's worst people trade lives and influence. Taking the reader between London, Berlin, Athens and Los Angeles, as well as into terrorist-controlled Syrian cities, THIS IS GOMORRAH explores what it means to win, and to lose, at the global game of ideology and power.  A loner, charmer, idealist and connoisseur of other people's mistakes, Azi's life is spun around by a mysterious approach from a young Muslim woman called Munira, and before long his carefully crafted privacy comes crashing down. Munira is at her wits' end, a fellow hacker whose cousin has been recruited by terrorists, and who has unearthed a terrible conspiracy in her struggle to bring him home. She needs Azi's help and connections to track him down.  But can she be trusted? Can Azi trust anyone when identities can be changed with just a few clicks. . ?

Books to Look Forward to from Hodder and Stoughton and Mulholland

June

Clare Riordan and her son Mikey are abducted from Clapham Common early one morning. Hours later, the boy is found wandering disorientated. Soon after, a pack of Clare's blood is left on a doorstep in the heart of the City of London. Alice Quentin is brought in to help the traumatised child uncover his memories - which might lead them to his mother's captors. But she swiftly realises Clare is not the first victim...nor will she be the last. The killers are driven by a desire for revenge...and in the end, it will all come down to blood. Blood Symmetry is by Kate Rhodes

July

Blood Sister is by Dreda Say Mitchell.  There are two ways out of Essex Lane Estate, better known as The Devil. You make good, or you turn bad. Jen Miller is determined not to make the same mistakes her mother did. She's waiting to find herself a good job and a decent man. Her younger sister Tiff is running errands for a gangster and looking for any opportunity for fun and profit. But she might just be in over her head...The choices you make and the plans you have don't always turn out like you expect. Especially if you live on The Devil's Estate. When their paths cross with the unstoppable Dee - a woman with her own agenda - Jen and Tiff will learn that lesson the hard way. At least they can rely on each other. Can't they?

In a remote countryside lane in North Yorkshire, the body of a young girl is found, bruised

and beaten, having apparently been thrown from a moving vehicle. While DI Annie Cabbot investigates the circumstances in which a 14-year-old could possibly fall victim to such a crime, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Alan Banks is faced with a similar task - but the case Banks must investigate is as cold as they come. Fifty years ago Linda Palmer was attacked by celebrity entertainer Danny Caxton, yet no investigation ever took place. Now Caxton stands accused at the centre of a historical abuse investigation and it's Banks's first task as superintendent to find out the truth. While Annie struggles with a controversial case threatening to cause uproar in the local community, Banks must piece together decades-old evidence, and as each steps closer to uncovering the truth, they'll unearth secrets much darker than they ever could have guessed … When The Music’s Over is by Peter Robinson.

Scotland, 1932. Aristocratic private investigator Dandy Gilver strikes again with her witty sidekick Alec Osbourne to solve sinister goings on at a convent on a bleak Lanarkshire moor. The convent was set alight following a mass breakout at a neighbouring psychiatric hospital on Christmas Eve, resulting in the death of the mother superior. Most patients were returned safely but a few are still at large...As Dandy interviews each nun in turn she senses a stranger is still lurking in the corridors at night - could they be the same person who left blood-red footprints in the sacristy? Dandy Gilver and the Most Misleading Habit is by Catriona McPherson.

A Death at Fountains Abbey is by Antonia Hodgson. Late spring, 1728 and Thomas Hawkins has left London for the wild beauty of Yorkshire - forced on a mission he can't refuse. John Aislabie, one of the wealthiest men in England, has been threatened with murder. Blackmailed into investigating, Tom must hunt down those responsible, or lose the woman he loves forever. Since Aislabie is widely regarded as the architect of the greatest financial swindle ever seen, there is no shortage of suspects. Far from the ragged comforts of home, Tom and his ward Sam Fleet enter a world of elegant surfaces and hidden danger. The great estate is haunted by family secrets and simmering unease. Someone is determined to punish John Aislabie - and anyone who stands in the way. As the violence escalates and shocking truths are revealed, Tom is dragged, inexorably, towards the darkest night of his life.

It starts with a lie. The kind we've all told - to a former acquaintance we can't quite place but still, for some reason, feel the need to impress. The story of our life, embellished for the benefit of the happily married lawyer with the kids and the lovely home. And the next thing you know, you're having dinner at their house, and accepting an invitation to join them on holiday - swept up in their perfect life, the kind you always dreamed of...Which turns out to be less than perfect. But by the time you're trapped and sweating in the relentless Greek sun, burning to escape the tension all around you - by the time you start to realise that, however painful the truth might be, it's the lies that cause the real damage...well, by then, it could just be too late. Lie with Me is by Sabine Durrant

Mister Memory is by Marcus Sedgwick.  In Paris in the year 1899, Marcel Despres is

arrested for the murder of his wife and transferred to the famous Salpetriere asylum. And there the story might have stopped. But the doctor assigned to his care soon realises this is no ordinary patient: Marcel Despres, Mister Memory, is a man who cannot forget. And the policeman assigned to his case soon realises that something else is at stake: for why else would the criminal have been hurried off to hospital, and why are his superiors so keen for the whole affair to be closed? This crime involves something bigger and stranger than a lovers' fight - something with links to the highest and lowest establishments in France. The policeman and the doctor between them must unravel the mystery...but the answers lie inside Marcel's head. And how can he tell what is significant when he remembers every detail of every moment of his entire life? 

Three generations - torn apart by one bullet. Philadelphia 1965: Two street cops - one black, one white - are gunned down in a robbery gone wrong. The killer is never prosecuted. One of the fallen officers, Stanislaw Walczak, leaves behind a twelve-year-old boy, Jimmy...Philadelphia 1995: Homicide detective Jim Walczak learns that his father's alleged killer, Terrill Lee Stanton, is out of prison. Walczak will be waiting, determined to squeeze the truth out of him - any way he can. Philadelphia 2015: Jim Walczak's daughter Audrey, studying forensic science in grad school, reinvestigates her grandfather's murder for her dissertation. But the deeper Audrey digs, the more she realises: the man everyone thinks killed Walczak didn't do it...And when the truth comes out, the danger's only going to grow.  Revolver is by Duane Swierczynski.

August

A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide. An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing. Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea. They have one thing in common: they all lied. And someone is determined to punish them... Why Did You Lie is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Mark Novak's greatest mystery might just be his own ...Private Investigator Mark Novak's relentlessness as an investigator has been his professional calling card and curse, but the one case he has couldn't bring himself to pursue is the one closest to his heart: that of his wife's death. Returning to the scene of her murder, a country road outside Cassadaga, Florida, he uncovers disturbing leads that show how her murder might be connected to Novak's own troubled youth in Montana. The investigation leads him back to the mining towns of Montana which he thought he'd left behind forever. On returning, he discovers there are more than just bad memories to be found when you go digging up the past. Novak faces an adversary more frightening than he's ever known, and a secret that has wended its way through his entire life: from the caverns beneath Indiana to the abandoned streets of a southern gothic town to the darkest corners of the Northwest. Novak is about to discover that evil and heroism are inextricably and tragically linked. Rise the Dark is by Michael Koryta.

The Trespasser is by Tana French.  Antoinette Conway, the tough, abrasive detective from

The Secret Place, is still on the Murder squad, but only just. She's partnered up with Stephen Moran now, and that's going well - but the rest of her working life isn't. Antoinette doesn't play well with others, and there's a vicious running campaign in the squad to get rid of her. She and Stephen pull a case that at first looks like a slam-dunk lovers' tiff, but gradually they realise there's more going on: someone on their own squad is trying to push them towards the obvious solution, away from nagging questions. They have to work out whether this is just an escalation in the drive to get rid of her - or whether there's something deeper and darker going on.

Death in the Tuscan Hills is by Marco Vichi.  Spring, 1967. The trail of tragedy and destruction that followed the previous winter's flood seems to have died down; Florence is beginning to recover. But Inspector Bordelli does not feel the same sense of relief - he has not had a moment's peace since his investigation of a young boy's murder went disastrously wrong. Unsettled and embittered, Bordelli resigns from the force and leaves the city. He could not continue to work as a policeman while the perpetrators of such a terrible crime were still at large. Now, in the solitude of his new home in the Tuscan hills, he spends his days cooking, going for long walks and learning to grow his own vegetables. But the thought of that case - of justice not served - is constantly with him. Until fate, in which he has never believed, unexpectedly offers him the chance of retribution...

The name's Gideon Tau, but everyone just calls me London. I work for the Delphic Division,

the occult investigative unit of the South African Police Service. My life revolves around two things - finding out who killed my daughter and imagining what I'm going to do to the bastard when I catch him. I have two friends. The first is my boss, Armitage, a fifty-something DCI from Yorkshire who looks more like someone's mother than a cop. Don't let that fool you. The second is the dog, my magical spirit guide. He talks, he watches TV all day, and he's a mean drunk. Life is pretty routine - I solve crimes, I search for my daughter's killer. Wash, rinse, repeat. Until the day I'm called out to the murder of a ramanga - a low-key vampire - basically, the tabloid journalist of the vampire world. It looks like an open and shut case. There's even CCTV footage of the killer. Except...the face on the CCTV footage? It's the face of the man who killed my daughter. I'm about to face a tough choice. Catch her killer or save the world? I can't do both. It's not looking good for the world.  Poison City is by Paul Crilley.

September

If the good guys can't save you, call a bad guy.  When viral video of an explosive terrorist attack on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge reveals that a Federal witness long thought dead is still alive, the organization he'd agreed to testify against will stop at nothing to put him in the ground.  FBI Special Agent Charlie Thompson is determined to protect him, but her hands are tied; the FBI's sole priority is catching the terrorists before they strike again. So Charlie calls the only person on the planet who can keep her witness safe: Michael Hendricks.  Once a covert operative for the US military, Hendricks makes his living hitting hitmen... or he "did," until the very organization hunting Charlie's witness--the Council--caught wind and targeted the people he loves. Teaming up with a young but determined tech whiz, Cameron, on the condition she leave him alone after the case, Hendricks reluctantly takes the job.  Of course, finding a man desperate to stay hidden is challenging enough without deadly competition, let alone when the competition's shadowy corporate backer is tangled in the terrorist conspiracy playing out around them. And now Hendricks is determined to take the Council down, even if that means wading into the center of a terror plot whose perpetrators are not what they seem.  Red Right Hand is by Chris Holm.

October

The most corrupt judge in US history. A young investigator with a secret informant.  The Whistler is by John Grisham.

Don’t Turn Out the Lights is by Bernard Minier.  "You did nothing." Christine Steinmeyer thought the suicide note she found in her mailbox on Christmas Eve wasn't meant for her. But the man calling in to her radio show seems convinced otherwise. "You let her die..." The note and the call are only the beginning. Bit by bit, her life is progressively turned upside down: someone is trying to destroy her. But who among her friends and family can hate her that much? And why? Commandant Martin Servaz is on leave in a clinic for depressed cops, haunted by the latest crime committed by his nemesis, serial killer Julian Hirtmann. Then he receives a key card to a hotel room - the room where an artist committed suicide a year earlier. He soon realises that the key opens up a most intriguing mystery. Could someone really be cruelly, consciously driving women to kill themselves? Both he and Christine are about to find out...but it may already be too late.

November

Thomas De Quincey is beginning to control his opium addiction when the excitement of his current case threatens to unravel his grip on reality once and for all. On their way home to the Lake District, the De Quinceys become unwitting witnesses to a truly historic murder: the first to take place on one of England's newly constructed railways. The railways changed everything in the Victorian era, transforming the English countryside, revolutionizing modern industry, and as the De Quinceys discover, providing the perfect escape. Giving chase in a cat-and-mouse game unlike any that have come before, the De Quinceys uncover a dangerous secret that reaches all levels of English society.  Ruler of the Night is by David Morrell.

December

Expecting to Die is by Lisa Jackson.  THE WOODS ARE DARK, AND DEEP, AND DEADLY...Some places earn their bad reputation through tall tales or chance. Grizzly Falls is different. Here, killers aren't just the stuff of legends and campfire lore. Someone is in the nighttime shadows, watching the local teens in the moonlit woods. Waiting for the right moment, the right victim. Waiting to take away a life. Detective Regan Pescoli is counting the days until her maternity leave. Exhausted and emotional, the last thing she needs is another suspected serial killer. Especially when her daughter, Bianca, is swept up in the media storm. When a reality show arrives in town, the chaos only makes it harder for Pescoli and her partner, Selena Alvarez, to distinguish rumour from truth. Another body is found...and another. And as the nightmare strikes closer to home, Pescoli races to find the terror lingering in the darkness, where there are too many places to hide...and countless places to die...