Forthcoming Books from Michael Joseph

 January 2024

The Actor is by Chris MacDonald. . At long last, Adam Sealey has an Oscar within reach. Working with his controversial former mentor, Jonathan, he's given the performance of a lifetime, and he almost believes it might be worth the cost. Because Adam subscribes to "the method". It's the secret that the world's greatest actors swear by - digging into their darkest, most personal traumas to bring a role to life. And Adam's greatest trauma is worse than most. Losing his mother when he was just a boy. A forced choice between the success he craved and the girl he loved. And that night back in drama school, the night of Adam's darkest secret, when everyone knows about the dead body, but nobody suspects the truth. And then he gets a message: someone knows. And if they tell, everything Adam's worked for will come crashing down.

Welcome to Hampshire, 1795, where a young Jane Austen has her sights set on securing a marriage proposal from the dashing Tom Lefroy at a local ball. But when a shocking discovery is made - a milliner's lifeless body tucked away in a linen closet - Jane finds herself embroiled in an unexpected murder mystery. As she races against the clock to clear her beloved brother Georgy's name, Jane uses her sharp wits to navigate the treacherous waters of society, unmasking secrets and unearthing hidden motives along the way. With every twist and turn, Jane's determination to solve the case deepens. And if she fails, her brother will face the ultimate punishment - the hangman's noose. Join Jane on her quest for justice as she faces down danger, deceit, and scandal amidst her own friends and neighbours. Will she uncover the truth in time, or will the real killer go free? One thing's for certain - in Hampshire, nothing is as it seems. Miss Austen Investigates is by Jessica Bull.

February 2024

The Fury is by Alex Michaelides 'There were seven of us in all, trapped on the island.One of us was a murderer...' On a small private Greek island, former movie star Lana Farrar - an old friend - invites a select group of us to stay. It'll be hot, sunny, perfect. A chance to relax and reconnect - and maybe for a few hidden truths to come out. Because nothing on this island is quite what it seems. Not Lana. Not her guests. Certainly not the murderer - furiously plotting their crime... But who am I? My name is Elliot Chase, and I'm going to tell you a story unlike any you've ever heard.

Lone Wolf is by Gregg Hurwitz. An assassin in freefall. Following a career in which he was always the most dangerous man in the room, ex-government assassin Evan Smoak is the last person his friends should ever have to worry about. But when Evan, formerly codenamed Orphan X, drops out of sight they’re concerned. They were right to be. A personal crisis has left him on his knees. A reclusive billionaire. If anyone remembered his first name they never cared to use it. But Allman’s lack of empathy hasn’t proven any barrier to building a tech empire whose tentacles reach into every aspect of people’s lives. And in the rush to praise his genius, no one’s asking what it could mean for humanity. Nor what Allman’s got coming next. A killer at large. Someone is leaving a trail of dead in their wake. Apparently chosen at random, their deaths dressed up as accidents or suicides. The woman responsible is known only as the Wolf and looks to be every bit Evan’s equal. She now has him in her sights. How does it all connect? What is at stake? And will Evan rediscover the instinct and skill he needs to prevail? Or die trying . . .

Six writers. Five detectives. Four days. Three weapons. Two murders. One train... When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out. The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty: the debut writer (me!), the forensic science writer, the blockbuster writer, the legal thriller writer, the literary writer, the psychological suspense writer. But when one of us is murdered, six authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime. Or commit one... But how do you catch a killer, when all your suspects know how to get away with murder? Everyone on This Train is a Suspect is by Benjamin Stevenson. 

March 2024

The Wrong Sister is by Claire Douglas. Tasha has always felt in the shadow of her older sister, Alice. Their lifestyles couldn't be more different; Alice is married to wealthy entrepreneur Kyle and has a high-flying career, Tasha is married to her childhood sweetheart and lives in a Bristol suburb with their four-year-old twins. When Alice realises that Tasha is struggling - with money, the kids, losing her identity - she suggests they do a lifeswap for a week. Alice and Kyle will come to stay at Tasha's terraced house to look after the twins, while Tasha and Harry spend the week in Alice and Kyle's Venice apartment. But a few days in, it all goes terribly wrong. Tasha receives a phonecall to say Alice is in hospital and Kyle is dead after an intruder broke into their house. They think it must have been a burglary gone wrong. Until a note arrives through the letterbox saying It was supposed to be you. Who was there that night, and why? Is it really Tasha they are targeting? And can these two sisters find the answers they need, or are they about to stumble upon something more sinister?

April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They're on a long dark road, late at night, and they see a woman up ahead, clearly in trouble. They stop and pick her up. It's only once she's in the car that they see the blood. And then they see the headlights, and at last, the woman speaks, her voice faint. "I'm sorry, he's coming." Murder Road is by Simone St James. 

April 2024

The Gathering is by C J Tudor. A small Alaskan town. A missing boy. A brutal murder. A detective brought in from out of state to assist the former sherriff who investigated a similar murder twenty-five years ago. But are they hunting a twisted psychopath - or something even more terrifying?

Books to Look Forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph

July

The Last One is by Alexandra Oliva.  Survival is the name of the game as one woman's mind and body are pushed to the limit. TWELVE CONTESTANTS When Zoo agrees to take part in a new reality TV show, In the Dark, she knows that she will be tested to the limits of her endurance. Beating eleven competitors in a series of survival tasks deep in the forest, living on camera at the extremes of her comfort zone, will be the ultimate challenge before she returns home to start a family. A GAME WITH NO END As the contestants are overcome by hunger, injury and psychological breakdown, the mind games, tricks and hazards to which Zoo is subjected grow dark beyond belief. This isn't what she signed up for: the deserted towns and gruesome props, the empty loneliness. Is this a game with no end? And what is happening away from the cameras' gaze? Discovering the truth will be just the beginning…

A hit-and-run on a woodland road near Amsterdam involving an Afghan boy is connected to a powerful international crime syndicate. Journalist Farah Hafez, together with her colleague Paul Chapelle, gets caught up in an investigation that takes them all the way to Moscow and has greater political and personal ramifications than they bargained for. After this perilous journey, their lives will never be the same again. Butterfly on the Storm is by Walter Lucius and is the first instalment of The Heartland Trilogy.

Broken Heart is by Tim Weaver.  A woman drives to a beautiful headland overlooking the Devon coast.  She is never seen again, and no trace of where she went can be found.  The woman’s sister calls missing person investigator David Raker.  As Raker tries to find her whereabouts – fearing the worst – he learns that she was recently widowed from a reclusive film director.  It seems that, going through her husband’s belongings she found a secret so dark and shocking that it forced her to leave her entire life behind.  Chasing the truth will consume Raker and place him in grave danger…

Truly, Madly Guilty is by Liane Moriarty.  Despite their differences, Erika and

Clementine have been best friends since they were children. So when Erika needs help, Clementine should be the obvious person to turn to. Or so you'd think. For Clementine, as a mother of a two desperately trying to practise for the audition of a lifetime, the last thing she needs is Erika asking for something, again. But the barbecue should be the perfect way to forget their problems for a while. Especially when their hosts, Vid and Tiffany, are only too happy to distract them. Which is how it all spirals out of control..

August

Cold Kill is by P J Tracy.  The peaceful Christmas season in Minneapolis is shattered when two friends, Chuck Spencer and Wally Luntz, scheduled to meet in person for the first time, are murdered on the same night, two hours and several miles apart, dramatically concluding winter vacation for homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth. An hour north of Minneapolis, Lydia Ascher comes home to find two dead men in her basement. When Leo and Gino discover her connection to their current cases, they suspect that she is a target, too. The same day, an elderly, terminally ill man is kidnapped from his home, an Alzheimer's patient goes missing from his care facility, and a baffling link among all the crimes emerges. This series of inexplicable events sends the detectives sixty years into the past to search for answers-and straight to Grace MacBride's Monkeewrench, a group of eccentric computer geniuses who devote their time and resources to helping the cops solve the unsolvable. What they find is an unimaginable horror-a dormant Armageddon that might be activated at any moment unless Grace and her partners Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, along with Leo and Gino, can find a way to stop it.

Husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo try to unravel another ancient and cryptic mystery. An 800-year-old treasure ...An ancient cypher wheel ...A brutal murder ...And a man who will stop at nothing to claim what he considers rightfully his. Husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo have gone on impossible missions before and faced many perils, but never have they faced an adversary as determined as the one before them now. The battle will take them halfway around the world, and at its end will be either one of the most glorious finds in history-or certain death. Pirate is by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake.

The old Victorian pier was once a thing of beauty. It's also where twenty-one-year-old Sophie Collier vanished eighteen years ago. Francesca has spent the last twenty years haunted by the disappearance of her best friend. But when she receives a phone call from Sophie's brother saying that a body has been found, she knows she can't keep hiding from what happened. With her own secrets to keep, Francesca doesn't relish the idea of digging up the past or returning to Oldcliffe. But it is time to go back to where she grew up, and it looks like she isn't the only one there hiding truths.  Local Girl Missing is by Claire Douglas.

September

Helen awaits trial in a crumbling women’s prison in Southampton.  She has a fight on to prove her innocence from inside her prison cell, but this soon turns out to be the least of her worries.  A serial killer is picking off fellow inmates, thriving in an environment where there is truly nowhere to run.  Is it a criminal giving in to their dark urges or a member of the prison staff preying  on the captive population.  Helen must work fast to reveal this devious killer, all the time wondering if she will be next on her list.  Hide and Seek is by M J Arlidge.

The Sleepless Ones the second in the DCI Guillermo Downes series by James Marrison.

No longer a trainee but a freshly-minted Detective Constable, Joseph Stark finds himself working a double homicide. Thomas and Mary Chase were shot dead in their London home, and first impressions are that this is a burglary-gone-bad. But Stark is unconvinced. Burglary-Murders are usually a tragic case of unfortunate timing, but this felt like something else entirely. And when evidence arises to link this murder to a twenty year old cold case the hunt is well and truly on.  Between the Crosses is by Matthew Frank.

October

There is something hiding in the forest.  A man is found dead near an isolated forest outside of London.  When another body is discovered a few days later, DCI Antonia Hawkins knows that she must move fast.  The hunt is on.  With each passing day,  Hawkins struggles to find a patter in this seemingly random scattering of murders.  But who is the hunter? With more disappearances, Hawkins must stop a cold, careful killer whose twisted game can only be guessed at, before the next disappearance.  The Keeper is by Alastair Gunn.

November

A desperate attempt in 1917 to preserve the wealth and power of the Romanov Empire. A Cold War bomber lost with a deadly cargo. Mysterious deaths on the Black Sea linked to modern-day smugglers of nuclear materials. At the center of it all is Dirk Pitt and his team from NUMA. As the danger escalates, there's only one man who can avert catastrophe. From London to Washington, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the action never stops, as Pitt races to prevent the next global war.  Odessa Sea is by Clive and Dirk Cussler.

The Taken is by Alice Clark-Platts.  In a Durham boarding house at dawn, Pastor Ramsay Snow is murdered while he prays.  Detective Inspector Erica Martin’s investigation encounters a host of suspects all staying in the boarding house.  Violet Snow, his daughter, who seems unsurprised by her father’s murder.  Sera Snow, his inscrutable wife.  Her sister, Antonia, who was closer to the Pastor than anyone yet knows. And Fraser McKenzie, Snow’s manager and best friend, who has his own dark secrets to hide.  DI Martin soon learns that this is a case in which nothing is what it seems, and no-one is innocent…