Fever Island is by Martin Edwards. A cursed island. A macabre party. An impossible crime. Five years after film star Godiva Lee died under suspicious circumstances, Boris Unthank gathers everyone connected to her death for a ‘party’ on the isolated Fever Island. A reluctant Rachel Savernake is invited for one reason: Unthank believes she can solve the impossible crime. She only agrees to attend for another reason, however: he knows something that could ruin her. As storms rage and the island is cut off from the outside world, old scandals resurface as hidden identities are revealed. With suspicion running rife, Rachel must unravel the deadly mystery or risk exposing an even greater secret: who she truly is...
Archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Special Agent Corrie Swanson team up against supernatural foes. On a construction site in the foothills of Santa Fe, New Mexico, workers have uncovered a row of ancient skeletons buried upside down. It is revealed that this was the work of the Spanish Inquisition, who in 1676 condemned six women as witches and executed them, burying them head downwards to speed their way to hell. Nora Kelly soon makes a further shocking discovery – a fresh inverted burial in the same place… and only two months old. As more murders and bizarre burials start mounting up, Nora and FBI Special Agent Corrie Swanson find themselves in pursuit of a mass killer who possesses a terrifying, ancient power defying human understanding. Dead Man's Journey is by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.
February 2027
You Reap is by Michael Wendroff. Kidnappings are terrifying a small town.There is no pattern: the missing children and their families appear to have nothing in common and police are baffled. As the number of victims grows, so does the fear that time is running out. With the police department stretched to its limits, bitter rivals Jill Jarred and Jack Ludlum are drawn into the investigation. For Jill, the case hits close to home, reopening the wounds of a family tragedy she’s never escaped. Searching for the children is only the beginning. The kidnapper has a deeper purpose than anyone realised and the closer Jill and Jack get to the truth, the more dangerous the hunt becomes.
Joe Pickett is back in the saddle as he investigates a case of missing children and a community full of secrets. After the attack that nearly took his life, Joe Pickett is back at work, despite lingering issues from the gunshot wounds he sustained. Joe has been tasked with helping an FBI task force search for two missing children in western Wyoming's Star Valley. The siblings went missing while their wealthy father was out hunting and their socialite mother was staying in the local town. Star Valley is an insular community run by religious elders who keep inserting themselves into the case. With a whole cast of potential suspects but no obvious motive, Joe must use all his expertise to find the children before it's too late. Meanwhile, in Joe's absence, his daughter Sheridan investigates a poaching case that proves to be far more sinister than she imagined. The Missing is by C J Box.
March 2027
Shadow Game is by Nick Petrie. When military veteran Peter Ash steps in to save a fellow hiker on the Appalachian Trail, he ends up accused of murder and faces a fight for his life and his freedom. In the mountains of Tennessee, Marine Corps veteran Peter Ash is hiking the 2200-mile Appalachian Trail when he meets a mysterious older hiker being threatened by two men. Peter intervenes, but soon finds himself at the wrong end of the older man's pistol. Before the day is out, Peter will be wanted for murder, for he has unwittingly ended up in a decades-old story of espionage, betrayal, and homicide. Along with his friend Lewis and a pair of retired spies, Peter must dodge killers and solve this mystery himself or spend the rest of his life in prison. If he survives the day...
April 2027
Marcus Ulpius Bellator survived the brutality of war on the furthest frontiers of the Roman Empire. Now living in the Eternal City itself, things haven't worked out the way he’d envisaged. Civilian life is proving difficult and his drinking and gambling are taking a toll on his marriage to Tillia. Everything changes the night his home goes up in flames, when Bellator arrives to find that Tillia, trapped inside, has died in the fire. In order to prevent similar tragedies, Bellator becomes one of the Vigiles - the Watchmen of Rome. He soon discovers that the blaze that took Tillia’s life was no accident. A killer is on the loose, striking seemingly at random. With the victim count slowly increasing, piece by piece Bellator seeks a pattern in the madness as he hunts the murderer through the streets of Rome. Guardian of Rome:Incendium is by Matthew Harffy.
Omega Authority is by Brad Taylor. When a new bioweapon is stolen by hostile forces, the Taskforce must prevent worldwide devastation. American AI company Romulus Solutions has created a biomedical AI model that can target bacteria: a potential game-changing healthcare solution. When a cyber-attack from North Korea obtains the model, nobody is too worried, because of the unbreakable encryption. That is, until a mole inside Romulus vanishes with the keys to break the encryption, and with them, the power to engineer a devastating bioweapon. Pike Logan and the Taskforce are ordered to recover the keys. Their mission will take them through Japan and into the shadow world where the Yakuza and North Korea converge. With an enemy determined not to surrender, Pike and the team must recover the keys at all costs… even if it risks war on the Korean Peninsula.
No good deed goes unpunished. Jan Hughes prides herself on being helpful. An ordinary woman with an ordinary life, she processes background checks for people who want to work with the vulnerable. It feels good to be useful, to smooth things along, to say yes. So when someone asks her for a small favour – a name, an address – Jan tells herself it’s nothing. She just wants to be helpful. Until a news report shows a family has been found dead in the very house she identified. Now Jan is an unwitting accomplice, and the person who drew her in hasn’t finished yet. They want another favour – and this time Jan knows exactly what her answer could cost. One Last Favour is by Charlie Gallagher.
The Baker is Tim Sullivan. Murder is both a science and an art. Brian Fothergill co-owns a thriving Bristol bakery with two close friends that was built on a shared dream: to use their success to give something back, offering opportunities to those most often overlooked. Brian has always believed in doing good, in giving people second chances. So how has he ended up head down and lifeless at the bottom of an industrial dough mixer? Even in a place built on kindness, pressure can build. But who turned up the heat? DS George Cross is back to find out.
