The Venetian Redemption by Philip Gwynne Jones

This year’s a Venice year. By which I mean, I have a Venice novel out instead of a Sicilian novel. And so, welcome to The Venetian Redemption a title which, I think, works in a number of ways.

This is the ninth novel to feature Nathan Sutherland, British Honorary Consul in Venice and occasional and accidental crime fighter. The usual cast are back as well – Federica brings the smarts, Dario brings his encyclopaedic knowledge of Progressive Rock, and Gramsci – the stroppy Marxist cat – is there to bring his bad attitude. I’m not quite sure how we got to nine novels – it doesn’t seem all that long ago since The Venetian Game came out, but it seems that’s almost ten years ago. And, along the way, Nathan’s adventures kind of became my job, which I’m very grateful for.

But, back to the current novel. In some ways, this is a tying together of a number of themes from the previous two – The Venetian Candidate and The Venetian Sanctuary. I’m not going to say they form a trilogy, but there’s a kind of a consistent theme throughout. 

Back in The Venetian Candidate, I introduced Giuseppe Meneghini as a recurring nemesis for Nathan. A shady businessman with designs on politics, but someone who hasn’t quite crossed the line into downright serious criminality. Or, at least, nothing that could be proved. I enjoyed writing the scenes between him and Nathan so much, I brought him back for The Venetian Sanctuary. 

Now, I like a good Bond/Blofeld confrontation as much as anyone, but this, I thought, was as far as I could go with the character. And that was a shame. I enjoyed writing him, but I wasn’t sure there was anywhere left to develop. 

Unless – what if there was something that would force the two of them to work together? I kept thinking (warning : the Cloister Bell is about to sound a geek alert!) about the cliffhanger to the third episode of the Doctor Who episode Logopolis, where the Doctor and the Master shake hands. Now that was something I really wanted to try my hand at. 

I also needed to develop Meneghini’s back story. I gave him a little romance which I never expected to happen - it was just a story that came about during the writing and I enjoyed it so much I started to wonder if I’d missed my calling as a romance author. (As a side note, my previous editor once suggested I make a side track into romantasy. “You’re Welsh, aren’t you? Stick a dragon in it!”. I’m still not quite sure if she was serious).

There were also things I had to dig into from personal experience. Serious things. About getting older. And about loss. I lost both my mum and dad within the space of eighteen months. Quite simply, this wasn’t something I could ignore. Of course, all those feelings about loss and about rootlessness were going to come out on the page.

Redemption, then? Sympathy for the Devil, if you like? Perhaps, but the title also alludes to the great Venetian festival of Redentore, or, if you prefer, the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer. It was originally established in thanksgiving for Venice’s deliverance from the great plague of 1576, a plague which killed perhaps a third of the city’s population. Today, it remains – obstinately, and against the odds – as perhaps the most Venetian of festivals. People line the Giudecca canal on both sides, a pontoon bridge is built across the canal linking the area of the Zattere with Andrea Palladio’s great church of Redentore, much eating and drinking is done and fireworks light up the sky (following which everyone will shake their heads sadly, and comment that they were better last year).

But there’s more than that. Redentore was also the occasion of Pink Floyd’s famous – or, rather, infamous – Night of Wonders concert. Two hundred thousand spectators crammed alongside the side of the San Marco Basin to watch the Floyd performing on a floating platform in the lagoon. The amount of rubbish left behind required the intervention of the Italian army to clean up. This, surely, was something I couldn’t ignore and also gave me an opportunity to bring back Nathan’s friend Lucia Frigo, guitarist with the greatest (and possibly only) Black Metal band in Venice.

So, there we are – we have a mixture of the usual nonsense and, I think, something just a little bit more serious in the mix as well. Venice is there in all its beauty and shadowy mystery, there’s a quick visit to the Dolomites and to the cemetery of San Michele, and there might just be a bit of eating and drinking as well.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Venetian Redemption by Philip Gwynne Jones Out now in hardback, eBook and Audio, £22 (Constable). 

The city of Venice is alive with celebrations for Redentore, the most spectacular festival of the year. The streets are lined with revellers eating and drinking, and boats travel along the canals into the bacino of San Marco in anticipation of the firework display. It's going to be a night to remember, and all the more so for Nathan Sutherland and his wife Federica, who have been invited to an exclusive party in the company of the British Ambassador. The festivities take a turn, however, when Nathan suddenly finds himself struggling for breath and is rushed to hospital. Tests show he has all the symptoms of aconite poisoning, a toxin derived from the deadly wolfsbane plant. An unfortunate accident? Or a deliberate attempt to poison him? As Nathan investigates, he discovers many guests might just have had a motive for murder . . .

More information about Phillip Gwynne Jones and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook, On X @PGJonesVenice on Instagram @Philipgwynnejones

Blood Ties and the return of Ben Devlin by Brian McGilloway

 

In 2011, I wrote the final words of The Nameless Dead, the fifth in the Ben Devlin series. It was a strange experience. I already knew as I wrote the book that my publisher at the time would not be continuing with the series. The book then, while always intended as another instalment in Devlin’s story, also revisited some of the characters from Borderlands, bringing the series full circle in a way so that, if it was the end, it could serve as a satisfying conclusion.

My leaving Devlin behind also reflected the status of the Border itself in some ways. When I started Devlin, in 2002/2003, the Good Friday Agreement had, in effect, facilitated the removal of the last of the military infrastructure off the border crossings. Still, after so many years, the border was still a very real presence, at a psychological level at least, even after the border posts had gone. But, as I wrote the Devlin books over the next seven or eight years, charting the development of his growing friendship with Jim Hendry in the north, that psychological border began to weaken too. In the real world, I drove back and forth across the frontier without any awareness of its presence. My children were growing up, not really knowing what it meant in any concrete way. That may be why, by the time I’d written four Devlins, I turned my attention to the North and introduced a new character in Lucy Black with Little Girl Lost. I went back to Devlin for that fifth novel in 2011 to round out his story.

And then he stopped speaking to me., just as the border itself seemed to vanish.

The Nameless Dead came out in 2012 and, with that, I was out of contract. And then, for some reason, a year later, Little Girl Lost began to take off, both here and in the US, selling over half a million copies in a few months between the two territories and offering me a chance to keep telling stories. But the readership, and my focus, seemed to be on Lucy and her stories. Once or twice, I began to write a new Devlin story but found his voice was not there. The story was not his.

Brexit changed that. All at once, the border became a feature of conversation again, of discussion in the media – over here at least, though, strangely, seemingly not in Britain. Sides were redrawn, tribal identities reasserted. The psychological border reappeared. And with that, Devlin re-emerged in my consciousness.

Devlin has always been a punchbag for me – a chance for me to work out how I feel about things, and to explore my own responses and reactions based on his. Two years ago, I lost my dad after a short illness. It left me reeling – we were very close and Devlin’s kindness and decency were very much a reflection of my father, a truly kind, gentle man himself. So, while I did not set out to write a book that reflected on the loss of my father, it was natural that when I heard Devlin’s voice again, had his story begin to compel itself on me, it should be a story of loss and grief. One that looks at how family changes over time and the relationship between fathers and their sons.

It was important to me that Devlin should be the voice who tells that story in Blood Ties. The Devlin books have always explored the borderlands – the grey areas between certainties – and Devlin himself has always reflected an awareness that, here in the border area especially, there are no simple answers, no simple definitions. Devlin is father to both his son and his own father in this book, and yet also still a son himself, learning from both his parent and child. But now his children are moving on to college and his parents have passed: all the things by which he defined himself have changed. And, in the book, he must redefine himself. Or, at the very least, learn to accommodate those changes in his own sense of self-identity.

So, identity became the key theme of the novel, as reflected by the epigraph from the wonderful Elizabeth Jennings poem of that name. Issues of victimhood and the habit (in Northern Ireland especially) of creating a hierarchy of worthiness among victims, as if one person’s grief is more deserving than another’s, feed into that same theme of how we create an identity for ourselves and how it is created for us by others. In this book, the lines between victim and perpetrator are blurred and Devlin must constantly reassess how others are defined by his community even as he tries to redefine himself.

I am grateful to have found Devlin’s voice again, though in all honesty, it is not far from my own. I’m grateful to have him as a way to work out how I feel about the world. And I’m hugely grateful that anyone else would be kind enough to continue following both of us on that journey by reading one of these stories.

Blood Ties by Brian McGilloway (Constable) Out Now 

How can a dead woman avenge herself on her killer twelve years after her murder? This is the puzzle facing Ben Devlin in his latest case. He is called to the scene of a murder - a man has been stabbed to death in his rented room and when his identity is discovered Devlin feels a ghost walk over his grave as he knows the name Brooklyn Harris well. As a teenager, Harris beat his then-girlfriend Hannah Row to death, and then spent twelve years in prison for the murder. As Devlin investigates the dead man's movements since his release it becomes apparent Harris has been grooming teenage girls online and then arranging to meet them. But his activities have been discovered by others, notably a vigilante, who goes straight to the top of Devlin's list of suspects... until he uncovers that Harris was killed on the anniversary of Hannah's death - just too big a coincidence in Devlin's books. So Hannah's family join the ever-growing list of suspects being interviewed by his team. And then forensics contact Devlin with the astounding news that blood found on Harris's body is a perfect match to that of Hannah Row's. Yet how can this be; the girl was murdered many years ago - and Devlin doesn't believe in ghosts.

More information about Brian McGilowaay and his books can be found on his website. You can also follow him on Twitter @BrianMcGilloway.

The Reacher Guy: Always Lucky by Dr Heather Martin

He loved stories. He’d always loved them, ever since he was a little boy. One day he would grow up to write them. But the one story Lee Child didn’t want to write was his own. He knew too much about it. He might get bored. He wanted new stories. There were too many unread books in the world to go back over old ones.

It was something the author of the bestselling Jack Reacher novels had become famous for - not planning his writing in advance. Mainly this was down to his preoccupation with authenticity. He didn’t want to mess with the instinctive narrative voice that had served him so well from the start, and anyway, once he’d set Reacher up, it was up to Reacher to ‘sort things out’. But it was partly to save his own sanity. It was already a monumental challenge to write book after book about the same character, to keep the series going for upwards of twenty years. If he knew the ending before he started out, he wouldn’t be able to summon the necessary energy and enthusiasm. He wanted to experience as a writer the joys of the reader: the same twists and turns, the nail-biting suspense, the righteous passion, the pursuit of justice, and the satisfaction of resolution.

So no, he wasn’t going to write his own story. It wasn’t that he’d never thought about it. He had a title, ‘Always Lucky’, which I stole for chapter 13 of my biography The Reacher Guy, a title that Lee had likewise served up on a plate in countless interviews across the globe. Still, he’d done a few rough sketches, three of which are included in my book. 

The first dates from 2014, when on the one hundredth anniversary of the declaration of war, Lee wrote a letter to his late Irish grandfather (wounded at Suvla Bay), reassuring him that he would survive to father a son, who in turn would father another, who would be born into ‘a different world’. ‘It comes out well in the end,’ he signs off. ‘I promise.’ It’s precisely the promise Lee makes to his readers, and so reliably keeps (hence in the same year Forbes magazine pronounced him the strongest brand in publishing, commanding the greatest loyalty among returning readers). At 277 words, this is the longest of the mini-autobiographies, informed not only by his big-picture view of history, but his warmth and humanity too.

The second dates from 2017, when Lee reestablished contact with his best friend from Sixth Form at King Edward’s School in Birmingham. ‘Not much to report . . . 18 years at Granada TV, which was a fun job, but it all fell apart in the upheavals of the 1990s, and I became a writer as a desperation move, but fortunately it worked out OK.’ Only forty words, but eloquently conveying the lack of self-importance that so endears Lee to his millions of fans both in and beyond the book-writing world.

‘I learned to write in my Physics class,’ Lee said. ‘The teacher was an absolute tyrant, but he taught me how to be brief and concise.’

He wrote the third in 2017, for me. It started well: After ten years as Aston Villa’s top scorer and a brief marriage to Charlize Theron ... But he never got beyond those 15 gem-like words.

Therein lies the problem. This is a guy who loves making things up, not least about his own life. In The Reacher Guy I’ve tried to stick to the facts - and to be fair, Lee did his best to help.

There are a few ways I tested his memory. One of the most instructive was by sifting through the 22 boxes of his literary archive, held at the British Archive for Contemporary Writing at the University of East Anglia. Another was by interviewing witnesses at the scene. I spoke to old school friends, and teachers, and colleagues from Granada Television, and sometimes I would go back to Lee with what they’d said, setting up a dialogue between past and present in the hope of locating the truth somewhere in between. 

‘I don’t want to be remembered,’ Lee told me. But I doubted others would feel the same way. ‘No one will want to read about me,’ he said. ‘No one will be interested.’ In writing The Reacher Guy, I hope just for once to prove him wrong. 

The Reacher Guy by Heather Martin is out from Constable at Little, Brown on 29 September. 

Jack Reacher is only the second of Jim Grant's great fictional characters: the first is Lee Child himself. Heather Martin's biography tells the story of all three. Lee Child is the enigmatic powerhouse behind the bestselling Jack Reacher novels. With millions of devoted fans across the globe, and over a hundred million copies of his books sold in more than forty languages, he is that rarity, a writer who is lauded by critics and revered by readers. And yet curiously little has been written about the man himself. The Reacher Guy is a compelling and authoritative portrait of the artist as a young man, refracted through the life of his fictional avatar, Jack Reacher. Through parallels drawn between Child and his literary creation, it tells the story of how a boy from Birmingham with a ferocious appetite for reading grew up to become a high-flying TV executive, before coming full circle and establishing himself as the strongest brand in publishing. Heather Martin explores Child's lifelong fascination with America, and shows how the Reacher novels fed and fuelled this obsession, shedding light on the opaque process of publishing a novel along the way. Drawing on her conversations and correspondence with Child over a number of years, as well as interviews with his friends, teachers and colleagues, she forensically pieces together his life, traversing back through the generations to Northern Ireland and County Durham, and following the trajectory of his extraordinary career via New York and Hollywood until the climactic moment when, in 2020, having written a continuous series of twenty-four books, he finally breaks free of his fictional creation.

Books to Look Forward to from Little, Brown, Constable, Robinson and Piatkus

July 2020

Midnight Atlanta is the new novel in Darktown series by Thomas Mullen, and sees a newspaper editor murdered against the backdrop of Rosa Parks' protest and Martin Luther King Jnr's emergence.  Atlanta, 1956.  When Arthur Bishop, editor of Atlanta's leading black newspaper, is killed in his office, cop-turned-journalist Tommy Smith finds himself in the crosshairs of the racist cops he's been trying to avoid. To clear his name, he needs to learn more about the dangerous story Bishop had been working on.  Meanwhile, Smith's ex-partner Lucius Boggs and white sergeant Joe McInnis - the only white cop in the black precinct - find themselves caught between meddling federal agents, racist detectives, and Communist activists as they try to solve the murder.  With a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr making headlines of his own, and tensions in the city growing, Boggs and Smith find themselves back on the same side in a hunt for the truth that will put them both at risk.

This is an indispensable guide for fans of true crime and crime fiction, whether in books, film or on TV, who want to look behind the crime, to understand the mechanics of an investigation, to walk in their favourite detectives' shoes and, most importantly, to solve the clues.   To do that, one needs to be fluent in the language of the world of crime. We need to know what that world-weary DI is talking about when she refers to another MISPER. We have to immediately grasp the significance of the presence of paraquat, and precisely why it is still a poison of choice.   If you want to know how many murders it takes for a killer to be defined as a serial killer, what Philip Marlowe means when he talks about being 'on a confidential lay' and why the 'fruit of a poisonous tree' is a legal term rather than something you should avoid on a country walk, this is the reference book you've been waiting for. It covers police and procedural terms and jargon of many different countries; acronyms; murder methods; criminal definitions, including different types of killers; infamous killers and famous detectives; notorious cases often referred to in crime fiction and true crime; gangster slang, including that of the Eastern European mafia; definitions of illegal drugs; weapons; forensic terminology; types of poisons; words and phrases used in major crime genres, including detective fiction, legal thrillers, courtroom dramas, hardboiled crime, Scandi and Tartan Noir, cosy crime and psychological thrillers; criminology terms; and the language of the courts and the legal systems of British, American, French, Nordic and other countries.   From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is by Amanda Lees and is an essential, go-to resource for readers and even for writers of crime fiction. More than simply a glossary, this is a guide that provides a doorway into a super genre, and one that is not just for readers, but also for the many fans of film and TV dramas, of podcasts, and crime blogs. It is also an indispensable resource for writers or would-be writers of crime fiction.

Has the woman killed her child? Is she at risk to herself? Someone in the neighbourhood of old terraced streets has the answers. But detectives Donna Bell and Jade Bradshaw find lies and obstruction at every turn, in a community living on the edge, ground down by austerity and no hope. A place of broken dreams. Of desperation. And murder.  When a stranger crashes into Jade's life, her past comes hurtling back, threatening to destroy her and the world she has carved out for herself. Donna struggles to juggle everything: work, marriage, kids. It's a precarious balancing act, and the rug is about to be pulled from under her.  Acts of Violence is by Cath Staincliffe. 

It's 1996. Detective Sergeant Tom Thorne is a haunted man. Haunted by the moment he ignored his instinct about a suspect, by the horrific crime that followed and by the memories that come day and night, in sunshine and shadow.  So when seven-year-old Kieron Coyne goes missing while playing in the woods with his best friend, Thorne vows he will not make the same mistake again. Cannot.  The solitary witness. The strange neighbour. The friendly teacher. All are in Thorne's sights.   This case will be the making of him . . . or the breaking.  Cry Baby is by Mark Billingham. 

They ask for your husband.  They just want to talk.  They’re lying.  Your husband isn’t who says he is, say the people at your door.  Come with us.  Don’t trust them, says a voice on the phone.  Run.  Who would you believe? A Knock at The Door is by T W Ellis.

The Revelators is by Ace Atkins.  Shot up and left for dead, Sheriff Quinn Colson has revenge on his mind. With the help of his new wife Maggie, rehabilitation, and sheer force of will, he's walking again, eager to resume his work as a southern lawman and track down those responsible for his attempted murder. But someone is standing in his way: an interim sheriff, appointed by the newly elected Governor Vardaman, the man who Quinn knows ordered his murder. Vardaman sits at the top of the state's power structure - both legal and criminal - and little does he know Quinn is still alive. And coming for him.  Quinn will enlist the help of his most trusted friends, including federal agent Jon Holliday, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, and Donnie Varner, a childhood buddy now working for the Feds as an informant. Since Quinn's been gone, the criminal element in north Mississippi has flourished, with queen-pin Fannie Hathcock enjoying unbridled freedom. As an ice storm bears down on north Mississippi and Memphis, and Tibbehah County is isolated from the outside world, the killers will return to finish the job.  But this time, Quinn Colson and company will be waiting, ready to bust apart a criminal empire running on a rigged system for far too long. This is the battle of Jericho, the epic showdown that's been years in the making. In the end, the war will end - for better or worse.

She has secrets.  Evie Cormac's whole life is a lie. She has spent years hiding her true identity, making sure nobody ever discovers what happened to her and who she really is. Because the people who find out always end up dead.  He needs answers.  But Cyrus Haven, a gifted forensic psychologist and Evie's closest friend, is determined to know the truth. When the body of a retired Detective is found in his car it's clear that someone wanted it to look like suicide. But as Cyrus digs deeper, he uncovers an insidious web of lies reaching further than he could have ever imagined, with Evie is at its heart.  Powerful people have spent years hunting her, the only living witness to their crimes. Who is Evie running from, and is Cyrus inadvertently leading her straight to them?  When She was Good is by Michael Robotham.

August 2020

Still Life is by Val McDermid.  When lobster fishermen pull a body out of the sea, local police quickly discover the murdered man was the prime suspect in a mysterious disappearance ten years before. Cold case detective Karen Pirie's name is on the file as the last person to review the case. As she starts to unpick the threads of the past, Karen finds herself at the heart of a tangled web of dark and troubling secrets . . .

The Wicked Sister is by Karen Dionne.  You have been cut off from society for fifteen years, shut away in a mental hospital in self-imposed exile as punishment for the terrible thing you did when you were a child.  But what if nothing about your past is as it seems?  And if you didn't accidentally shoot and kill your mother, then whoever did is still out there. Waiting for you.  For a decade and a half, Rachel Cunningham has chosen to lock herself away in a psychiatric facility, tortured by gaps in her memory and the certainty that she is responsible for her parents' deaths. But when she learns new details about their murders, Rachel returns, in a quest for answers, to the place where she once felt safest: her family's sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of Michigan.  As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns - as her mother did years earlier - that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.

September 2020

How to Raise an Elephant is by Alexander McCall Smith.  Unusual requests are commonplace at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, but so are very ordinary ones, such as a plea for money: when a distant cousin calls on Mma Ramotswe to ask for help with another relative's hip operation, tricky questions arise in regard to family responsibility. Mma Makutsi and Mr J. L. B Matekoni are far from convinced of the merits of the request, but it is hard for Mma Ramotswe, with a heart her size, to turn people away. Meanwhile, Charlie has become involved in a mysterious transaction that involves an attractive but rather large animal. If it takes a village to raise a child, what does it take to raise a baby elephant?

Private detective Foster Gates is a father is in search of his missing daughter, and sound engineer Mitzi harbors a secret that may help him solve the case. It's Mitzi's job to create the dubbed screams used in horror films and action movies. She's the best at what she does.  But what no one in Hollywood knows is the screams Mitzi produces are harvested from the real, horror-filled, blood-chilling screams of people in their death throes--a technique first employed by Mitzi's father and one she continues on in his memory--a deeply conflicted serial killer compelled beyond her understanding to honor her father's chilling legacy.  Soon Foster finds himself on Mitzi's trail. And in pursuit of her dark art, Mitzi realizes she's created the perfect scream, one that compels anyone who hears it to mirror the sound as long as they listen to it--a highly contagious seismic event with the potential to bring the country to its knees.  The Invention of Sound is by Chuck Palahniuk.

Stone Cold Trouble is by Amer Anwar.  Trying - and failing - to keep his head down and to stay out of trouble, ex-con Zaq Khan agrees to help his best friend, Jags, recover a family heirloom, currently in the possession of a wealthy businessman. But when Zaq's brother is

viciously assaulted, Zaq is left wondering whether someone from his own past is out to get revenge. Wanting answers and retribution, Zaq and Jags set out to track down those responsible. Meanwhile, their dealings with the businessman take a turn for the worse and Zaq and Jags find themselves suspected of murder.   It'll take both brains and brawn to get themselves out of trouble and, no matter what happens, the results will likely be deadly. The only question is, whether it will prove deadly for them, or for someone else . . . ? 

The Mitford Trial is by Jessica Fellowes.  It's lady's maid Louisa Cannon's wedding day, but the fantasy is shattered shortly after when she is approached by a secretive man asking her to spy on Diana Mitford - who is having an affair with the infamous Oswald Mosley - and her similarly fascist sister Unity.  Thus as summer 1933 dawns, Louisa finds herself accompanying the Mitford’s on a glitzy cruise, full of the starriest members of Society. But the waters run red when a man is found attacked, with suspects everywhere.  Back in London, the case is taken by lawyer Tom Mitford, and Louisa finds herself caught between worlds: of a love lost to blood, a family divided, and a country caught in conflict.

Detective Inspector Jabulani Sibanda is back! With his sharp instincts and relentless hunger for justice, he returns to the bush territory he became so familiar with in Sibanda and the Rainbird. In this second installment, he is once again accompanied by his trusty sidekicks, Sergeant Ncube and the infamous Miss Daisy. In Sibanda and the Death’s Head Moth by CM Elliott Sibanda is short on clues, but, with his uncanny intuition, a fragment of material found in the brain of one victim, a puncture wound in the thigh of another and a diary full of coded names, he starts to build a case. Sibanda is still haunted by Berry, the unattainable love of his life. She is missing under mysterious circumstances. Ncube, on the other hand, is still haunted by myths, folklore, frightening figments and a stomach that requires constant attention. Are the murders connected? Will Berry be found? Will Miss Daisy finally splutter and die?

As it often did since he'd married a cop, murder interrupted more pleasant activities. The again, Roarke supposed, the woman lying in a pool of her own blood a few steps inside the arch in Washington Square Park had a heftier complaint.  When a night out at the theatre is interrupted by the murder of a young woman in Washington Square Park, it seems like an ordinary case for Detective Eve Dallas and her team. But when her husband Roarke spots a shadow from his past in the crowd, Eve realises that this case is far from business as usual. Eve has two complex cases on her hands - the shocking murder of this wealthy young mother and tracking down the shadow before he can strike again, this time much closer to home. Eve is well used to being the hunter, but how will she cope when the tables are turned? As Eve and the team follow leads to Roarke's hometown in Ireland, the race is on to stop the shadow making his next move . . . Shadows in Death is by J D Robb.

Also published in September is Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith, The House by Tom Watson and Imogen Robertson and All the Devils Are Here is by Louise Penny. 

October 2020

While other children were devouring the works of Enid Blyton and Beatrix Potter, Carla Valentine was poring through the pages of Agatha Christie novels - and that early fascination lead to her job as a pathology technician working in mortuaries and trained in forensics.  Nearly every Agatha Christie story involves one - or more commonly several - dead bodies, and for a young Carla, a curious child already fascinated with biology, these stories and these bodies were perfect puzzles.   Of course Agatha herself didn't talk of 'forensics' which, in the way we use it now, but each tale she tells twists and turns with her expert weave of human observation, ingenuity and genuine science of the era. Through the medium of the 'whodunit', Agatha Christie was a pioneer of forensic science, and in Murder Isn't Easy by Carla Valentine illuminates all of the knowledge of one of our most beloved authors.

The Reacher Guy by Heather Martin is an explosive and riveting biography of a much loved and mythologised author.  In it Heather Martin looks closely at where Child really sprang from.  Based on disarmingly frank personal conversations and years of correspondence with the author, as well as privileged access to archival materials, it is the nearest thing the world is ever likely to get to the autobiography Lee Child does not intend to write. 

Private Detective Agatha Raisin immerses herself in the glittering lifestyle of the fabulously wealthy when Sir Charles Fraith is accused of murder - and Agatha is named as his accomplice! A high-society wedding, a glitzy masked ball, and an introduction to the world of international show-jumping where the riders are glamorous, the horses are beautiful, and intrigue runs deep, leave Agatha with a list of suspects as long as a stallion's tail.   Sinister evidence then emerges that appears to seal Sir Charles's fate and Agatha must uncover the truth before a net of skulduggery closes around him and he loses his ancestral home, his entire estate, and his freedom. And if events weren't complicated enough... Agatha's ex-husband James Lacey is back in Carsely and back in Agatha's heart... Agatha Raisin: Hot to Trot is by M C Beaton.

Four months have passed since the shocking death of Frankie Greenwood, but Liberty Greenwood has managed to keep the rest of her family safe and expand their criminal empire. But when Liberty and Jay set out to teach a protection racketeer a lesson things get out of hand and the Greenwoods soon find themselves under attack: the Black Cherry is fire bombed and Crystal is arrested.  Liberty must hold her nerve, make alliances with old enemies and discover exactly who is trying to destroy her. But that's easier said than done with Sol back on the scene, Crystal's baby to care for and DI Angel holding enough information on Liberty to put her away for good. Is Liberty Greenwood hard enough?  Hard as Nails is by Helen Black.

Everyone is keeping a secret. One of them is murder. The book club was her idea, of course.  It was her way into our group. A chance to get close.  I knew from the day she arrived that she couldn't be trusted.  And I was right.  Alice didn't come to the village for peace and quiet.  She came for revenge.  The Book Club is by C J Cooper.

November 2020

One winter night in 1932, at the top of the Empire State Building, Frances and Agnes, possible lovers and co-conspirators, are waiting for a man who has done something terrible to both of them. They plan to seek the ultimate revenge.   Set over the course of a single night, with flashbacks to the weeks leading up to the potential murder, One Night, New York by Lara Thompson is a detective story, a romance and a coming-of-age tale. It is also a story of old New York, of bohemian Greenwich Village between the wars, of floozies and artists and addicts, of a city that sucked in creatives and immigrants alike, lighting up the world, while all around America burned amidst the heat of the Great Depression.

The House of the Hanged Woman is by Kate Ellis.  1921, Derbyshire. When a Member of Parliament goes missing in a small Derbyshire village, Scotland Yard detective Albert Lincoln is sent up North to investigate. He finds that a grim discovery has been made in a cave next to an ancient stone circle called the Devil's Dancers: the naked body of a middle-aged man mutilated beyond recognition. The local police assume it is the missing politician but when Albert arrives in Wenfield he begins to have doubts. Two years earlier he conducted another traumatic murder investigation in the same village and he finds reminders of a particularly personal tragedy all around him as he tries to help a vicar's widow who claims her husband was murdered. Then there is another murder in Wenfield when an unfaithful young wife with a passion for books is accused of killing her husband. Could there be a link between all of Albert's cases? And can the detective, damaged by war and love, find peace at last?

Spring is in the air ... and so, too, is the sound of music as the residents of Honeychurch Hall are stunned to learn that the Dowager Countess Lady Edith Honeychurch has agreed to the staging of a production of The Merry Widow in the dilapidated grand ballroom.  Fears that the fiercely private octogenarian must be going senile are soon dismissed when our heroine, Kat Stanford, learns that the favour is a result of a desperate request from Countess Olga Golodkin. As one of Edith's oldest friends Olga is the director of the amateur Devon Operatic Dramatic Organization.   Just a week before, D.O.D.O's original venue was destroyed in a mysterious fire but since tickets have been sold, costumes made and lucrative local sponsorships secured, Olga is determined that the show must go on. After decades at the helm of D.O.D.O., The Merry Widow will be Olga's swansong and she wants to go out with a bang . . . Death of a Diva at Honeychurch Hall is by Hannah Dennison.

Books to Look Forward to from Little, Brown and Constable

July 2019

American Spy is by Lauren Wilkinson.  What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? It's 1986, the heart of the Cold War. Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She's brilliant and talented, but she's also a black woman working in an all-white boys' club, and her career has stalled with routine paperwork - until she's recruited to a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic, revolutionary president of Burkina Faso, whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention.  In the year that follows, Marie will observe Thomas, seduce him, and ultimately, have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, and a good American.

A girls' night out.  A bad decision.  A life, unravelling.  When Georgie is persuaded to join two old friends for Ladies' Night, she intends to have fun, to behave like the Georgie she was before marriage and motherhood changed her life.   But one drink too many and Georgie's not sure what happened the night before. Now she's starting to wonder just what she's invited in to her life .   A Secret Life is by Christobel Kent.

As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline. The problem is that she's the daughter of notorious crime baron, Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. And Ben's father George is Bath's Deputy Chief Constable. But mothers and sons are a formidable force: a wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are set in place before the career-obsessed DCC can step in.  Peter Diamond, Bath's head of CID, is appalled to be put in charge of security on the day. Ordered to be discreet, he packs a gun and a guest list in his best suit and must somehow cope with potential killers, gang rivals, warring parents, bossy photographers and straying bridesmaids. The laid-back Joe Irving seems oblivious to the danger he is in from rival gang-leaders, while Brace can't wait for the day to end. Will the photo-session be a literal shoot? Will Joe Irving's speech as father of the bride be his last words? Can Diamond pull off a miracle, avert a tragedy and send the happy couple on their honeymoon? Killing with Confetti is by Peter Lovesey.

The Other Mrs Miller is by Allison Dickson.  Two women are watching each other.  Phoebe

isn't sure when the car started showing up. At first she put it down to the scandal around her late father, but she's certain now it's there for her. What's interesting about an unhappily married housewife, who barely leaves her house?  Only one knows why.  Every morning, not long before your husband leaves for work, I wait for the blinds beside your front door to twitch. You might think I'm sitting out here waiting to break into your house and add a piece of your life to my collection. Things aren't quite that simple. It's not a piece of your life I want.  When a new family move in across the street, it provides Phoebe with a distraction. But with her head turned she's no longer focused on the woman in the car. And Phoebe really should be, because she's just waiting for an opportunity to upend Phoebe's life...

Good Girl, Bad Girl is by Michael Robotham.  The girl with no past.  Six years ago, Evie Cormac was discovered, filthy and half-starved, hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a shocking crime. Now approaching adulthood, Evie is damaged, self-destructive and has never revealed her true identity.  The boy who survived. Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven, a man haunted by his own past, is investigating the death of champion figure-skater Jodie Sheehan. When Cyrus is called upon to assess Evie, she threatens to disrupt the case and destroy his ordered life. Because Evie has a unique and dangerous gift - she knows when someone is lying. And nobody is telling the truth.

August 2019

After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to reassess everything they thought they knew about right and wrong, both are dealing with the fallout in their own separate ways. While Tony must pay the price for his actions, Carol is conducting investigations into suspected miscarriages of justice.  With Tony behind bars and Carol finally out of road as a cop, he’s finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she’s joined forces with a small informal group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they’re doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate. Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried in the grounds. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime. But then a different set of skeletons are discovered in a far corner, young men from as recent as ten years ago. When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars—and the subject of one of Carol’s miscarriage investigations—it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other’s orbit once again.  How the Dead Speak is by Val McDermid.

On the Caribbean island of Camaho, forensics expert Michael 'Digger' Digson is in deep trouble.  His fellow CID detective Miss Stanislaus kills a man in self-defence - their superiors believe it was murder, and Digger given just six weeks to prove his friend is innocent.  While the authorities bear down on them, Digger and Miss Stanislaus investigate a shocking roadside murder, the first tremors of a storm of crime and corruption that will break over Camaho at any moment. Black Rain Falling is by Jacob Ross.

Drowned Lives is by Stephen Booth.  When council officer Chris Buckley is approached by an odd old man demanding help in healing a decades-old family rift, he sends the stranger away.  But then the old man is murdered, and the police arrive on the Chris's doorstep asking questions to which he has no answers. As Chris begins to look into the circumstances of the murder, he uncovers a deadly secret in the silt and mud of the local canals that he'll realise was better kept buried.

September 2019

To the Land of Long Lost Friends is by Alexander McCall Smith. As Botswana waits for rain to nourish the land, Precious Ramotswe's thoughts turn to love and friendship as vital nourishment for the soul. Times are changing, she realises. These days, more and more women are not content just to be a man's wife. The men, however, are suspicious of the notion of vegetarianism, let alone gender equality . . .  At a local wedding Mme Ramotswe bumps into a long-lost friend, Calviniah, who confesses that her only daughter Nametso has inexplicably turned away from her. Not only that, an old acquaintance has simultaneously lost all her money and found solace in a charismatic ex-mechanic turned reverend, who seems to have cast a spell over several ladies in the region. With little work on at the agency, Precious and her colleague Mme Makutsi see no harm in investigating these curious situations.  Meanwhile, part-time detective Charlie is anxious. He has few prospects and little money, so how can he convince his beloved Queenie-Queenie's father to approve of their marriage?  As Precious and Mme Makutsi dig deeper into the stories of Nametso and the mysterious reverend, Precious once again ponders the human condition. She chooses to believe in goodness, that if our hearts are open, true equality can be found with one another. But in this world can that assumption be justified? It will take all her ingenuity and great moral sense to get to the heart of the matter.

The year is 1928, and after the death of a maid at a glamorous society party, fortune heir Bryan Guinness seizes life and proposes to eighteen year old Diana, most beautiful of the six Mitford sisters.  The maid’s death is ruled an accident, and the newlyweds put it behind them to begin a whirlwind life zipping between London’s Mayfair, chic Paris and hedonistic Berlin.  Accompanying Diana as her Lady’s maid is Louisa Cannon, as well as a coterie of friends, family and hangers on, from Nancy Mitford to Evelyn Waugh. When a second victim is found in Paris in 1931, Louisa begins to see links with the death of the maid two years previously.  Now she must convince the Mitford sisters that a murderer could be within their midst…. all while shadows darken across Europe, and within the hear of Diana Mitford herself. The Mitford Scandal: Diana Mitford and a Death at the Party is by Jessica Fellowes.

Vendetta in Death is by J D Robb and sees Eve Dallas take on a serial killer dispensing their own form of justice.   When a family man is tortured, killed and left in front of his family home for all the world to see, Eve Dallas knows she is on the hunt for a particularly dangerous killer.   But death uncovers secrets and the killer leaves a note revealing the victim to be far from the family man he appears. As Eve scrambles to find out what she can to link victim and killer, another body is found. Another man with a dark and murky past.   The race is on before the killer strikes again but Eve must wrestle with her demons and her conscience as she decides whether she really wants to protect men who probably deserve everything they get...

October 2019

When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems. The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?   Agatha Raisin: Beating Around the Bush is by M C Beaton and is the 30^th book in the series.

Liberty Greenwood is back. County lines. Blurred lines. Crossed lines.  Things are looking up for Liberty Greenwood. She's brokered a deal with the local rival gangster and it looks like the police have finally stopped investigating her. She even has a plan to steer her family away from their criminal activities. But when a spate of violence on the estates points to a hostile takeover bid from a crew from out of the area, Liberty is forced to take decisive and dangerous action - action which ends up with her doing a stint in prison.  Meanwhile, Liberty's partner, ex-copper Sol Connolly is recruited to join an off-the-books team who will stop at nothing to infiltrate the new drugs gang, hell bent on sending kids 'up county.'  As Liberty and Sol attack the same problem from different angles, who will give out first? And how many people will have to get hurt as they fight for what they each believe in?  Playing Dirty is by Helen Black

From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is by Amanda Lees.  This is an indispensable guide for fans of true crime and crime fiction, whether in books, film or on TV, who want to look behind the crime, to understand the mechanics of an investigation, to walk in their favourite detectives' shoes and, most importantly, to solve the clues. To do that, one needs to be fluent in the language of the world of crime. We need to know what that world-weary DI is talking about when she refers to another MISPER. We have to immediately grasp the significance of the presence of paraquat, and precisely why it is still a poison of choice. If you want to know how many murders it takes for a killer to be defined as a serial killer, what Philip Marlowe means when he talks about being 'on a confidential lay' and why the 'fruit of a poisonous tree' is a legal term rather than something you should avoid on a country walk, this is the reference book you've been waiting for. It covers police and procedural terms and jargon of many different countries; acronyms; murder methods; criminal definitions, including different types of killers; infamous killers and famous detectives; notorious cases often referred to in crime fiction and true crime; gangster slang, including that of the Eastern European mafia; definitions of illegal drugs; weapons; forensic terminology; types of poisons; words and phrases used in major crime genres, including detective fiction, legal thrillers, courtroom dramas, hardboiled crime, Scandi and Tartan Noir, cosy crime and psychological thrillers; criminology terms; and the language of the courts and the legal systems of British, American, French, Nordic and other countries. From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is an essential, go-to resource for readers and even for writers of crime fiction. More than simply a glossary, this is a guide that provides a doorway into a supergenre, and one that is not just for readers, but also for the many fans of film and TV dramas, of podcasts, and crime blogs. It is also an indispensable resource for writers or would-be writers of crime fiction.

November 2019

For the first time in years, Tatiana Goodwin feels in control. She has survived events which would make most people give up and go into hiding. Yet Tati is still here, surrounded by her loyal family and even daring to expand the Goodwin empire.  But when her son Ben gets kidnapped by a rival gang and the blame lies with her, the ghosts of Tati's past catch up and she begins to crumble. Now, it is down to the ever-loyal Frank to do everything he can to get Ben back and keep the family together. Frank has been in this business for a long time - he knows who to confide in and who will give up the information he so desperately needs. But what he doesn't realise is that there is a new threat in town, and all those old trusted sources are answering to a different power. Tati needs to wake up fast to the fact that it is not just their empire on the line - their lives are at serious risk, and only a heartbreaking sacrifice can save them. Good Dark Night is by Harry Brett.

Stone Cold Trouble is by Amer Anwar.  Trying - and failing - to keep his head down and to stay out of trouble, ex-con Zaq Khan agrees to help his best friend, Jags, recover a family heirloom, currently in the possession of a wealthy businessman. But when Zaq's brother is viciously assaulted, Zaq is left wondering whether someone from his own past is out to get revenge. Wanting answers and retribution, Zaq and Jags set out to track down those responsible. Meanwhile, their dealings with the businessman take a turn for the worse and Zaq and Jags find themselves suspected of murder. It'll take both brains and brawn to get themselves out of trouble and, no matter what happens, the results will likely be deadly. The only question is, whether it will prove deadly for them, or for someone else . . . ?

A Death at the Hotel Mondrian is by Anja De Jager.  When Lotte Meerman is faced with the choice of interviewing the latest victim in a string of assaults or talk to a man who claims he really isn't dead, she picks the interview. After all, the man cannot possibly be who he claims he is: Andre Nieuwkamp was murdered as a teenager over thirty years ago, and it had been a police success story nationwide when the skeletal remains found in the dunes outside Amsterdam had been identified, and the murderer subsequently arrested. Yet concerned about this encounter, Lotte goes to the Hotel Mondrian the next day to talk to the man, but what she finds is his corpse. And his passport shows that he wasn't Andre Nieuwkamp as he said, but Theo Brand, a British citizen.   Subsequent DNA tests reveal that the man was Andre Nieuwkamp so now Lotte has a double mystery on her hands and needs to figure out not only why Andre waited so long to tell anyone he was still alive, but also who was the teenager murdered in the dunes all those decades ago.

Extract from Cold Breath by Quentin Bates

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I am pleased to host an extract from Cold Breath by Quentin Bates as part of the #ColdBreath blog tour

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The boat bucked and juddered. Spray cascaded over the windows of the wheelhouse that was just big enough for Gunna to perch on the stool, its steel stalk bolted to the floor, with a hand on the wheel as she peered into the darkness while Osman’s face became progressively paler. 

‘The weather,’ he said. ‘Is this safe?’ 

‘I’ve slowed down so it’ll be more comfortable. But it’s still going to be bumpy,’ she told him, looking at the radar screen. ‘We have the wind going one way and the tide the other, so that’s always going to whip the waves up.’ 

‘How long will this go on?’ 

‘Like I said, we’re fighting the tide, so we’re only making five knots. It’s another eighteen miles, so let’s say a bit less than four hours. Do you want to lie down?’ 

‘No. I’m fine,’ Osman said and she could see he was making a huge effort to control himself. 

Gunna slid from the stool and stepped down into the little cabin, clicked on the light and hunted for the five-litre container she knew was there. She slopped water into a kettle, lit the gas on the camping stove that was built into the bench and put the water on to boil before going back up to the wheelhouse. 

Osman’s face was ashen. She wondered whether to o er him a bucket, just in case, but decided not to dent his pride. 

‘There’s no coffee on board, but there are a few teabags down there, so you can have a hot drink in a few minutes.’ 

Osman nodded and sat in unhappy silence while she checked the radar and adjusted the autopilot a couple of degrees. 

‘Gunnhildur, this is your boat?’




‘Not exactly,’ she said. ‘Well, sort of.’




‘I don’t understand what you mean.’




‘On paper it’s half my boat. My son bought it last year, but for all sorts of reasons it’s in both our names. He’s been fixing it up, which is why it doesn’t look much. But everything under the engine hatch is as good as new.’ 

With a glance at the radar, Gunna swung herself back down the steps into the cabin, turned off the kettle, poured water into a couple of mugs, dropped a teabag in each and stirred with an almost black teaspoon. She handed one mug out of the cabin’s opening. Osman opened his eyes and took it, cradling it in both hands to warm his fingers. 

‘Sorry, there wasn’t time to get any stores,’ she told him cheerfully. ‘If you’re hungry you’ll have to wait until we tie up.’

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Quentin Bates is the author of Cold Breath, published by Constable 11th October.

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Gunnhildur reluctantly allows herself to be taken off police duties to act as bodyguard to a man with a price on his head . . .  Hidden away in a secure house outside Reykjavik, Gunna and the high-profile stranger, a guest of the interiors minister, are thrown together - too close for comfort. They soon find they are neither as safe nor as carefully hidden as Gunna and her boss had thought. Conflicting glimpses of the man's past start to emerge as the press begin to sniff him out, as does another group with their own reasons for locating him. Gunna struggles to come to terms with protecting the life of a man who may have the lives of many on his conscience - or indeed may be the philanthropist he claims to be.  Isolated together, the friction grows between Gunna and the foreign visitor, and she realises they are out of their depth as the trails lead from the house outside Reykjavik to Brussels, Russia and the Middle East.