January 2020
Detective Michael Bennett is New York's public enemy no. 1. But when the Mayor's daughter goes missing, there's only cop who can bring her home. After a mugging gone wrong, Detective Michael Bennett becomes public enemy no. 1 when the citizens of New York rally around the dead shooter's family. Amidst the controversy and media chaos, Bennett must wait for his name to be cleared. Though he is suspended from active duty, the Mayor has a secret mission for Bennett with an irresistible incentive. Find the Mayor's missing daughter, and Bennett's beloved son Brian will be released from prison. Desperate to get back to work and free his son, Bennett sets out to solve the mystery of Natalie's disappearance. When Natalie's friends start turning up dead around the city, Bennett soon realises that wherever she is, Natalie is in more danger than he could have ever imagined. As links start emerging to a dangerous underground hacking network, Bennett must go beyond his jurisdiction to bring Natalie home. A proud and loving father, Bennett will do whatever it takes to bring his son back to his family. But has Natalie fallen too deep into the dangerous world of the dark web to ever come back? Blindsided is by James Patterson and James O. Born.
Long Bright River is by Liz Moore. Kensington ave, philadelphia: the first place you go for drugs or sex. The last place you want to look for your sister. Mickey Fitzpatrick has been patrolling the 24th District for years. She knows most of the working women by name. She knows what desperation looks like and what people will do when they need a fix. She's become used to finding overdose victims: their numbers are growing every year. But every time she sees someone sprawled out, slumped over, cold to the touch, she has to pray it's not her sister, Kacey. When the bodies of murdered sex workers start turning up on the Ave, the Chief of Police is keen to bury the news. They're not the kind of victims that generate a whole lot of press anyway. But Mickey is obsessed, dangerously so, with finding the perpetrator - before Kacey becomes the next victim.
'Our lives were good - great, even. We were happy and secure. We had everything we needed. There was no way for anyone to know - least of all me - that it would all end the way it did.' Thomas Martin is everything a man is supposed to be. He has a beautiful wife and a loving daughter, a good house on Long Island, a flourishing career at a prestigious Manhattan advertising firm. He's a good son and brother, taking it upon himself to support his ailing mother and adult sisters. He knows it's his God-given duty to shield them, his girls, from the everyday horrors of the world. But he has failed, and unspeakable tragedy has befallen his family. Now, Thomas struggles to come to terms with what has become of his life. If only he can tell the story as he saw it, he believes he might find out how and why things unravelled so horribly; how he failed so disastrously. Because Thomas Martin is a good man. A Good Man is by Ani Katz.
It's been 192 days, seven hours and fifteen minutes since her last drink. Now Astrid is trying to turn her life around. Having reluctantly moved back in with her mother, in a quiet seaside town away from the temptations and painful memories of her life before, Astrid is focusing on her recovery. She's going to meetings. Confessing her misdeeds. Making amends to those she's wronged. But someone knows exactly what Astrid is running from. And they won't stop until she learns that some mistakes can't be corrected. Some mistakes, you have to pay for ... Who Do You Tell is by Lesley Kara.
He'll silence them all - unless she can stop him . . . The first novel in an exciting new detective series from a fresh talent in crime writing. A brutal murder. A young woman’s body is discovered with horrifying injuries, a recent newspaper cutting pinned to her clothing.
A detective with everything to prove.
This is her only chance to redeem herself. A serial killer with nothing to lose. He’s waited years, and his reign of terror has only just begun. Hold Your Tongue is by Deborah Masson.
Happy Ever After is by C C MacDonald On the outside it looks like Naomi has everything. A
beautiful daughter, a gorgeous house on the Kent coast, a perfect life. But in reality, Naomi's husband is depressed, their house is still a building site, and they are struggling to conceive their second child. Then Naomi meets a parent at her daughter's nursery. Sean seems to understand her. Looking for a connection, for a friend, she joins him at a swimming lesson with their children. That day, in a moment of madness, she makes a terrible mistake. Weeks later, Naomi discovers she is pregnant. She decides she must give her marriage a chance, and is determined to end things with Sean. But when she tries to contact him, he has disappeared without a trace. As she tries to piece her life back together, someone else knows her secret and they want to make sure she never forgets what she did that day. Will that day cost Naomi her Happy Ever After?
February 2020
One wild party. Four counts of murder. A mansion in Beverly Hills is leased out to host an event wild enough to herald the end of days. The next day there isn't a living soul to be seen. But in the driveway sits a super-stretch limo, unlocked, with four bodies inside it. Nothing links the victims together. Each has been killed in a different way. Now it's up to brilliant psychologist Alex Delware and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis to begin their grisliest and most baffling case yet. As they struggle to make sense of the mass slaying, they will be forced to confront a level of evil that nothing can prepare them for. The Museum of Desire is by Jonathan Kellerman.
Independence Square is by A D Miller. Twelve years ago, Simon Davey prevented a tragedy, and ruined his own life. Once a senior British diplomat in Kiev, he lost everything after a lurid scandal. Back in London, still struggling with the aftermath of his disgrace, he is travelling on the Tube when he sees her … Olesya is the woman Simon holds responsible for his downfall. He first met her on an icy night during the protests on Independence Square. Full of hope and idealism, Olesya could not know what a crucial role she would play in the dangerous times ahead, and in Simon’s fate. Or what compromises she would have to make to protect her family. When Simon decides to follow Olesya, he finds himself plunged back into the dramatic days which changed his life forever. Independence Square is a story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. It is a story about corruption and personal and political betrayals. It is a story about where, in the twenty-first century, power really lies.
When You See Me is by Lisa Gardner. A body is found in the hills - but the truth still lies buried... In a small town in the Deep South, Flora Dane is part of a task force committed to hunting down every last trace of notorious serial kidnapper Jacob Ness. As his last victim, imprisoned by Ness in a small box for over a year, she knew him better than most. Even after his death, his evil still lingers. But this is the kind of town that doesn't take kindly to strangers asking questions. The kind of town where dark secrets lurk just beneath the surface. The kind of town she might not leave alive.
A world half in darkness. A secret she must bring to light. 2059. The world has stopped turning. One half suffers an endless frozen night; the other, nothing but burning sun. Only in a slim twilit region can life survive. In an isolationist Britain, Ellen Hopper receives a letter from a dying man. It contains a powerful and dangerous secret. One that those in power will kill to conceal... The Last Day is by Andrew Hunter Murray.
The Better Lie is by Tanen Jones. How well do you know your family? Estranged for a decade, sisters Leslie and Robin must reunite if they are to claim the fortune their father left them. Leslie desperately needs that money, but when she arrives at her sister's apartment, she finds her body instead. Leslie needs another plan. Without Robin, she won't see a penny. Mary, an aspiring actress, spends her nights slinging beers at a seedy restaurant. She'd do anything to start her life over. When Leslie offers her a huge sum of money and the chance to be someone else – to be Robin – she takes it. But Robin's life isn't as straightforward as Mary thought it would be. And Leslie seems to have secrets and a past of her own . . . Told from three perspectives: Leslie, Mary, Robin. The question is: who is the better liar?
Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It’s the only home he’s ever known. Elissa has only just arrived. And she’ll do everything she can to escape. When Elijah stumbles across thirteen-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his twelve years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn’t want Elissa to leave. Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn’t the first girl he’s found inside the Memory Wood. As her abductor’s behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat- and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood. Memory Wood is by Sam Lloyd.
March 2020
20th Victim is by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. The Women's Murder Club face the fight of their lives in the latest thriller from the bestselling series Three victims, three bullets, three cities. Simultaneous murders in LA, Chicago, and San Francisco - SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer's jurisdiction. The shooters are precise, as is their target selection. Each one of the men and women down excels at an illegal and deadly activity that is dominating public debate. As the casualty list expands, the fear and fascination with this shooting gallery galvanises the county. Are the shooter villains or heroes? And who will be next?
The Boy in the Woods is by Harlan Coben. Thirty years ago, a child was found in the New Jersey backwoods. He had been living a feral existence, with no memory of how he got there or even who he is. Everyone just calls him Wilde. Now a former soldier and security expert, he lives off the grid, shunned by the community - until they need him. A child has gone missing. With her family suspecting she's just playing a disappearing game, nobody seems concerned except for criminal attorney Hester Crimstein. She contacts Wilde, asking him to use his unique skills to find the girl. But even he can find no trace of her. One day passes, then a second, then a third. On the fourth, a human finger shows up in the mail. And now Wilde knows this is no game. It's a race against time to save the girl's life - and expose the town's dark trove of secrets...
Everyone brings baggage to a new relationship. When Alex met Natalie she changed his life. After the tragic death of his first wife, which left him a single parent to teenage daughter Jade, he’s determined to build a happy family. But his new-found happiness is shattered when the family home is gutted by fire and his loyalties are unexpectedly tested. Jade insists she saw a man in the house on the night of the fire; Natalie denies any knowledge of such an intruder. Alex is faced with an impossible choice: to believe his wife or his daughter? And as Natalie’s story unravels, Alex realises that his wife has a past he had no idea about, a past that might yet catch up with her. But this time, the past could be deadly . . . The Second Wife is by Rebecca Fleet.
Trace Elements is by Donna Leon. A woman's cryptic dying words in a Venetian hospice lead Guido Brunetti to uncover a threat to the entire region in Donna Leon's haunting twenty-ninth Brunetti novel. When Dottoressa Donato calls the Questura to report that a dying patient at the hospice Fatebenefratelli wants to speak to the police, Commissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, waste no time in responding. 'They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no', Benedetta Toso gasps the words about her recently-deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto. Even though he is not sure she can hear him Brunetti softly promises he and Griffoni will look into what initially appears to be a private family tragedy. They discover that Fadalto worked in the field collecting samples of contamination for a company that measures the cleanliness of Venice's water supply and that he had died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. Distracted briefly by Vice Questore Patta's obsession with youth crime in Venice, Brunetti is bolstered once more by the remarkable research skills of Patta's secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. Piecing together the tangled threads, in time Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the woman's accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region. But justice in this case proves to be ambiguous, as Brunetti is reminded it can be when, seeking solace, he reads Aeschylus's classic play The Eumenides.
One son lied. One son died. Alice’s son is dead. Indigo’s son is accused of murder. Indigo is determined to prove her beloved Kane is innocent. Searching for evidence, she is helped by a kind stranger who takes an interest in her situation. Little does she know that her new friend has her own agenda. Alice can’t tell Indigo who she really is. She wants to understand why her son was killed – and she needs to make sure that Indigo’s efforts to free Kane don’t put her remaining family at risk. But how long will it take for Indigo to discover her identity? And what other secrets will come out as she digs deeper? No one knows a son like his mother. But neither Alice nor Indigo know the whole truth about their boys, and what happened between them on that fateful night. Keep Him Close is by Emily Koch.
He's been looking in the windows again. Messing with cameras. Leaving notes.
Supposed to be a refuge. But death got inside. When Katie Straw's body is pulled from the waters of the local suicide spot, the police decide it's an open-and-shut case. A standard-issue female suicide. But the residents of Widringham women's refuge where Katie worked don't agree. They say it's murder. Will you listen to them? Keeper is by Jessica Moor.
It is 1940 and the bombs are falling thick and fast on London. The royal family must do all they can to assure the British public of their solidarity. But what of the two young princesses - Elizabeth and Margaret? How can they be kept safe without jeopardizing morale in the capital? Meanwhile Celia Nashe is delighted when she finally gets her long-awaited transfer to MI5. But whatever she was expecting of her mission for the war effort, it wasn't this. A crumbling castle in remote, rural Ireland, playing nursemaid to two pampered young girls. But her posting soon turns out to be very far from tame. Questions are being asked by the locals about the identities of Celia's secret charges. And when a dead body turns up at the castle gates, it will take every effort to uncover the truth, and to stop it from coming to light. The Secret Guests is by B W Black (John Banville)
Also due to be published in March is NYPD Red 6 by James Patterson.
April 2020
6.27am. The sky is blue. The air is warm with a summer breeze. And in the last 27 minutes, seven people have been murdered. In a series of coordinated attacks, seven men and women across London have been targeted. For journalist Famie Madden, the horror unfolds as she arrives for the morning shift. The victims have one thing in common: they made up the investigations team at the news wire service where Famie works. The thought in everyone's minds, what were they working on that could prompt such brutal devastation? And as Famie starts to receive mysterious messages, she has to find out whether she is being warned of the next attack, or being told that she will be the next victim... Second Eyes is by Simon Mayo
May 2020
Gathering Dark is by Candice Fox. Detective Jessica Farnham loves the cases no one else can solve. But after ten years on the job her relationship with the LAPD is on the rocks, and she is forced to take stress leave and move to the home turf of a husband-killer she put away nine years ago. Disgraced doctor Bugs Hawthorn pleaded guilty to bludgeoning her husband to death with a brass bunny statue. She has spent years living life as a felon and trying to get custody of the son she never knew. When Bugs discovers Jessica sharing a fence with the in-laws taking care of her child, Jessica is surprised to be met with a plea - to finally crack the case of a missing prostitute. For Jessica, helping Bugs and her ex-con buddies will mean taking a tour behind enemy lines. But she goes where victims need her most - and she will soon begin to wonder if the villains she's associating with might just be safer than those behind the badge...
Lost is by Leona Deakin. There is an explosion at a military ball. The casualties are rushed to hospital in eight ambulances, but only seven vehicles arrive. Captain Harry Peterson is missing. His girlfriend calls upon her old friend Dr Augusta Bloom, who rushes to support the investigation. But no one can work out what connects the bomb and the disappearance. When Harry is eventually discovered three days later, they hope he holds the answers to their questions. But he can't remember a single thing.
Dark Waters is by G R Halliday. Three mistakes. Two murders. One more victim to go . . . Annabelle loves to drive. It helps her escape her world, her past. Speeding on a mountain road in the Scottish Highlands, she sees a little girl step out in front of her. She swerves to avoid her. The next thing Annabelle remembers is waking up in a dark, damp room. A voice from the corner of the room says, ‘The Doctor will see you now.’ Scott is camping in the woodlands in the Scottish Highlands – but in the middle of the night, he hears something outside his tent. When he goes out to have a look, a little girl is standing among the trees, staring right at him. Scott is never seen again. When a dismembered body is discovered, DI Monica Kennedy gets called to the scene immediately. After six months away from the Serious Crimes team, they need her back on board. As Monica searches for the murderer, another body is found. Monica knows the signs . . . She’s on the hunt for a serial killer.
The Sandpit is by Nicholas Shakespeare. When John Dyer returns to Oxford from Brazil with his young son, he doesn't expect to find them both in danger. Every day is the same. He drops Leandro at his smart prep school and walks to the library to research his new book. His time living on the edge as a foreign correspondent in Rio is over. But the rainy streets of this English city turn out to be just as treacherous as those he used to walk in the favelas. Leandro’s schoolmates are the children of influential people, among them an international banker, a Russian oligarch, an American CIA operative and a British spook. As they congregate round the sports field for the weekly football matches, the network of alliances and covert interests that spreads between these power brokers soon becomes clear to Dyer,. But it is a chance conversation with an Iranian nuclear scientist, Rustum Marvar, father of a friend of Leandro, that sets him onto a truly precarious path. When Marvar and his son disappear, several sinister factions seem acutely interested in Marvar’s groundbreaking research at the Clarendon Lab, and what he might have told Dyer about it, given Dyer was the last person to see Marvar alive.
When Margot goes in search of her birth mother for the first time, she meets her aunt, Nikki, instead. Margot learns that her mother, Susan, was a sex worker murdered just years after Margot's birth. To this day, Susan's killer has never been found. Nikki asks Margot for help. She has received threatening and haunting letters from the murderer, known as Billy Goat, for decades. She is determined to find him, but she can't do it alone. It's too much to take in for Margot. But when Margot receives her own letter, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with Susan's and Nikki's, in an investigation that could risk everything she loves the most. The Less Dead is by Denise Mina.
June 2020
Your child is missing She was only six years old when she disappeared. Posters went up, the police investigated. But no one could find her. Now she’s home And knocking at your door. You’re so happy to see her. But soon you start to wonder why she can’t answer your questions. Where has she been all this time? How did she find her way home? Who is she? Safe is by S K Barnett.
One Sunday morning, the outspoken Speaker of the House of Commons steps out of his front door only to be crushed under a mountain of citrus fruit. Bizarre accident or something more sinister? The government needs to know because here's a man whose knowledge of parliament's biggest secret could put the future of the government at stake? It should be the perfect case for Bryant & May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit, but unfortunately one detective is in hospital, the other is missing and the staff have all been dismissed. It seems the PCU is no more. But events escalate: a series of brutal crimes seemingly linked to an old English folk-song threatens the very foundation of London society and suddenly the PCU is offered a reprieve and are back in (temporary) business! And if the two elderly detectives, 'old men in a woke world', do manage to set aside their differences and discover why some of London's most influential figures are under life-threatening attack, they might not just save the unit but also prevent the entire city from descending into chaos . . . Bryant & May – Oranges and Lemons is by Christopher Fowler.
Outbreak is by Frank Gardner. Deep within the Arctic Circle, three muffled figures trudge through a blindingly white, bitterly cold and barren landscape landscape. They are environmental scientists from the UK's Arctic Research Station, forced by a raging blizzard to abandon their fieldwork and go in search of shelter. The cabin they're heading for seems abandoned. No tell tale smoke or lights glowing. No snow-cat parked outside. The first thing they notice when they enter is the smell - rank, rotting - and then there's movement. A man, barely recognisable, lies on a sofa, his face hideously disfigured by livid pustules, rivulets of blood run from his nostrils, his neck swollen, his chest covered in black bile. Momentarily, the team's medic Dr Sheila Mackenzie, can't comprehend what she's seeing but then the alarm bells begin to ring ... These are the sure signs of chronic infection. The man is trying to say something, she edges closer to hear and it's then that he begins to convulse, and coughs suddenly, violently, vomiting out a rank mix of blood, bile and mucus...contaminating Dr Mackenzie and two companions and setting in train a terrifying chain of events that points to an extraordinary conspiracy that threatens millions with a deadly contagion.
An artistic young English woman travels to Havana on the island of Cuba where she has
been hired to sketch portraits of the guests at a high society wedding. Little does she know that beneath the glittering veneer of glamorous socialites lies a web of deceit and secrecy. As her heart breaks over the love of a handsome Cuban, she is drawn into the dark history of a wealthy family. Island of Secrets is by Rachel Rhys
Don’t Turn Around is by Jessica Barry. Two strangers, Cait and Rebecca, are driving across America. Rebecca is trying to escape something. Cait doesn’t know what Rebecca has left behind her – she doesn’t ask any questions – her job is solely to transport women to safety. But the secrets Rebecca holds could put them both in danger. Cait too has a past of her own – there’s a reason she chooses to spend time on the road, looking out for others. Because she knows what it’s like to be followed. As the two women travel across America, it quickly becomes clear someone is right behind them, watching their every move. The question is: who, and why?
The Search Party is by Simon Lelic. The killer isn't out there. It's one of you. Sixteen-year-old Sadie Saunders is missing. Five friends set out into the woods to find her. But they're not just friends . . .
THEY'RE SUSPECTS.
You see, this was never a search party.
It's a witch hunt.
And not everyone will make it home alive.
July 2020
1st Case is by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts. Angela Hoot is a young tech genius. But when she's kicked off her Masters degree course at MIT for hacking into the computer of a
fellow student, she fears she's blown her chances of a glittering career. Angela is wrong. Instead, she's offered a dream internship with the FBI. She jumps at the chance, and is thrown straight into her first case at house in the Boston suburbs where a family of five have been brutally murdered. As Angela struggles to overcome the painful reality of her new job, a phone is found that could hold the secrets of this mass murder - if Angela is unable to uncover them.
