Books to Look Forward to From Transworld Publishers

 July 2021

It's 1936, war is brewing, tempers are running high, and by his thirteenth birthday, Sheldon Horowitz has been orphaned - twice. While a terrible accident took his mother, Sheldon is convinced that his father was murdered. But no-one else thinks so, least of all the police. Determined to track down the culprit, and leaving behind his only friend Lenny, Sheldon moves to Hartford, Connecticut to live with his uncle. He is told to keep his head down and forget the past. But that just isn't his style. Fired up by his politically-minded cousin Abe (and quite possibly in love with other cousin Mirabelle), he sets out on a quest to discover the truth that will take him from industrial Hartford to a ritzy hotel in the Catskills, back to his childhood home and finally on to New York. Sheldon quickly discovers that it's a jungle out there, and to survive, he will have to learn to make his own luck. Fortunately, that's one thing he's very good at... How To Find Your Way in The Dark is by Derek B Miller.

The Rising Tide is by Sam Lloyd. How did it come to this? The news doesn't strike cleanly, like a guillotine's blade. Nothing so merciful. This news is a slovenly traveller, dragging its feet, gradually revealing its horrors. And it announces itself first with violence - the urgent hammering of fists on the front door. Life can change in a heartbeat. Lucy has everything she could wish for: a beautiful home high on the clifftops, a devoted husband and two beloved children. Then one morning, time stops. Their family yacht is recovered, abandoned far out at sea. Lucy's husband is nowhere to be found and as the seconds tick by, she begins to wonder - what if he was the one who took the boat? And if so, where is he now? As a once-in-a-generation storm frustrates the rescue operation, Lucy pieces together what happened onboard. And then she makes a fresh discovery. One that plunges her into a nightmare more shocking than any she could ever have imagined .

Bryant and May: London Bridge is Falling Down is by Christopher Fowler. It was the kind of story that barely made the news. When 91-year-old Amelia Hoffman died in her top-floor flat on a busy London road, it's considered an example of what has gone wrong with modern society: she slipped through the cracks in a failing system. But detectives Arthur Bryant and John May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit have their doubts. Mrs Hoffman was once a government security expert, even though no one can quite remember her. When a link emerges between the old lady and a diplomat trying to flee the country, it seems that an impossible murder has been committed. Mrs Hoffman wasn't the only one at risk. Bryant is convinced that other forgotten women with hidden talents are also in danger. And, curiously, they all own models of London Bridge. With the help of some of their more certifiable informants, the detectives follow the strangest of clues in an investigation that will lead them through forgotten alleyways to the city's oldest bridge in search of a desperate killer. But just when the case appears to be solved, they discover that Mrs Hoffman was smarter than anyone imagined. There's a bigger game afoot that could have terrible consequences. It's time to celebrate Bryant and May's twentieth anniversary as their most lunatic case yet brings death and rebirth to London's most peculiar crimes unit.

One missing boy. Marissa Irvine arrives at 14 Tudor Grove, expecting to pick up her young son Milo from his first playdate with a boy at his new school. But the woman who answers the door isn't a mother she recognises. She isn't the nanny. She doesn't have Milo. And so begins every parent's worst nightmare. Four guilty women. As news of the disappearance filters through the quiet Dublin suburb and an unexpected suspect is named, whispers start to spread about the women most closely connected to the shocking event. Because only one of them may have taken Milo - but they could all be blamed . . . In a community full of secrets, who is really at fault. All Her Fault is by Andrea Mara.

The year is 1962, and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin is searching for ghosts: for evidence of the long-rumoured existence of an American spy embedded at the highest echelons of Soviet power. But it's while on this wild goose chase, a high-stakes espionage race against a rival State agency, that Vasin first hears whispers of an ominous top-secret undertaking: Operation Anadyr. As tensions flare between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy over Russian missiles hidden in Cuba, four Soviet submarines - each carrying tactical ballistic missiles armed with thermonuclear warheads - are ordered to make a covert run at the U.S. blockade in the Caribbean . Red Traitor is by Owen Matthew.

Not a Happy Family is by Shari Lapena. In this family, everyone is keeping secrets - even the dead. In the quiet, wealthy enclave of Brecken Hill, an older couple is brutally murdered hours after a tense Easter dinner with their three adult children. Who, of course, are devastated. Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of them is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened. After all, if one of the family were capable of something as gruesome as this, you'd know. Wouldn't you?

August 2021

The Wedding Party is by Tammy Cohen. Till death do us part . . . Lucy has dreamt of her wedding day for as long as she can remember. And now the day is almost here. Her nearest and dearest are gathered on an idyllic Greek island and she just knows it's going to be perfect. It has to be. But even the best-laid plans can go horribly wrong. Why are her parents behaving so strangely? Why won't the rather odd lady from the airport stop hanging around? Who is the silent stranger her sister brought as a plus-1? And then they find the body. It's going to be a day to remember.

‘What is wrong with you?’ Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She’s seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous. Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn’t mean she’s a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace? Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill. Look what you started. A Slow Fire Burning is by Paula Hawkins.

September 2021

To those who think they know her, Eliza Curran has it all: two healthy children, a stunning home and a wealthy, adoring husband. No one would guess the reality of her life: trapped in an unhappy marriage to a controlling man, she longs for a way out. When she takes on a new tenant, her life changes unexpectedly. Dan Jones is charming and perceptive, and quickly becomes a close friend to the whole family. But Dan's arrival threatens to tip Eliza's fragile world out of balance. And when someone has as many secrets as Eliza does, the smallest slip could destroy everything . . . Invite Me In is by Emma Curtis. 

The Hunt is by Leona Deakin. The Foreign Secretary is being held under the Terrorism Act. He will answer the police's questions on one condition - they let him speak to Dr Augusta Bloom. He asks Bloom to track down his niece, Scarlett, who hasn't spoken to her family for ten years. The last they heard, Scarlett was getting involved with Artemis - an organisation dedicated to women's rights and the feminist movement, led by the charismatic Paula Kunis. But as Bloom learns more about Artemis, she's torn. Is this organisation everything it claims to be, or do they have a secret side and an alternative agenda? And if so, what has become of Scarlett? The only way to find out for sure is for Bloom to go undercover. But will she make it out safely - or will she become the next Artemis woman to disappear?

What if you left your child alone, and something terrible happened? Anna James is an anxious mother. So when she has to leave eleven-year-old Harrie home alone one evening, she can't stop worrying about her daughter. But nothing bad ever happens in the sleepy village of Barton St Martin. Except something goes wrong that night, and Anna returns to find Harrie with bruises she won't explain. The next morning a local businessman is reported missing and the village is sparking with gossip. Anna is convinced there's a connection and that Harrie is in trouble. But how can she protect her daughter if she doesn't know where the danger is coming from? Safe at Home is by Lauren North.

October 2021

Better off Dead is by Lee Child and Andrew Child.  Reacher isn’t one to back down from a fight. And when a shadowy crew raises the stakes, he won’t hesitate to teach them a lesson: When you pick a fight with Reacher, you’re better off dead.

The Slow Burn of Inspiration by Derek B Miller

 

Inspiration doesn't always strike. More often it simmers.

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I had a killer stereo system. I'd saved up — and gladly forked over – over $500 (serious money then) for an NAD 7155 stereo receiver to drive my B&O turntable, Luxman cassette player, and Klipsche speakers. My bedroom wasn't big so there was no perfect place to sit to catch the sound right. My solution was turn the speakers towards me from either side of the dresser, and then lean back on the drawers, creating enormous defacto headphones that came at me from either side. 

This is how I first listened to Telegraph Road from Dire Straits.

I normally had enough money for one or two albums a month at $10 each. Without a car, that left me with one (and only one) record and tape shop in my hometown outside Boston, Massachusetts. I padded this meagre haul with a few albums I stole from the high school library (BB King's Live at the Cook County Jail; With a Little Help from my Friends by Joe Cocker; A Farewell to Kings by Rush). But those were stuck in Pergatory and … how had they gotten there anyway? No, they were better off with me. Stealing is bad, but letting art languish or die is wrong. 

Decisions were made. 

Anyway: I had first heard Telegraph Road on the radio — all fourteen minutes and eighteen seconds of it — in a car park at a mall on a truly god-awful car stereo that I did not switch off until the WCOZ DJ (bless his heart) mentioned the name of the song. I was gobsmacked. So when I dropped my coin to buy it, and spun it up at home off a crisp and shiny LP (the plastic film still clinging to my jeans). I was whisked away. So much so that some thirty-five years later I can confidently trace the first inspirations to my new novel, RADIO LIFE, to that song and that moment. 

Mark Knopfler's first stanza reads, 'Well a long time ago, came a man on a track /Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back / And he put down his load where he thought it was the best / He made a home in the wilderness.' In my mind, back then, the wilderness as a western American desert. I can still picture the rock formations. The color of the sands. The river nearby. The distant hills with touches of green. In RADIO LIFE, this is where The Few came upon the Stadium to later create the Commonwealth.

I started writing fiction (quite alone, and without a word to anyone about it) in a tiny apartment in Geneva, Switzerland on the Rue Louis Favre in 1996, when I moved there to pursue a doctorate. I had no TV, no internet (of course) and nothing to do but read and write. So I did. Twelve years (and about four manuscripts) I published my debut novel, Norwegian by Night, and only in 2020 — among a host of contributing factors — would the tiny spark of Mark Knopfler's song help inspire my latest novel.

I believe that inspiration is made possible by a cumulative process of artistic growth, which is itself made possible by exposure to both unmediated experience on the one hand, and art itself on the other. We too frequently look on objects and events as sources of inspiration — imbuing them with almost magical force and effect. A bridge. A tree. A sunset. A smile. There are such moments, it's true, but it's our Romantic philosophic inheritence that makes us fetishize them. The harm is that it turns our attention away from the slower burn that is the crucible for our artistic sensibilities — as artists and appreciators of art. And to me this is a pity because it sets the artist on a mistaken quest to seek out a kind of inspirational Grail, with all the incumbant possibilities of failure. Instead, I see a virtue in reflecting on our simple lives and how sometimes the smallest experiences lay the foundations for some of the greatest; like how an old song can help craft a new novel, and the imagination of a teenager can later inspire others with a new work of art.

Radio Life by Derek B Miller Published by Quercus Books. (Out Now)

When Lilly was first Chief Engineer at The Commonwealth, nearly fifty years ago, the Central Archive wasn't yet the greatest repository of knowledge in the known world, protected by scribes copying every piece of found material - books, maps, even scraps of paper - and disseminating them by Archive Runners to hidden off-site locations for safe keeping. Back then, there was no Order of Silence to create and maintain secret routes deep into the sand-covered towers of the Gone World or into the northern forests beyond Sea Glass Lake. Back then, the world was still quiet, because Lilly hadn't yet found the Harrington Box. But times change. Recently, the Keepers have started gathering to the east of Yellow Ridge - thousands upon thousands of them - and every one of them determined to burn the Central Archives to the ground, no matter the cost, possessed by an irrational fear that bringing back the ancient knowledge will destroy the world all over again. To prevent that, they will do anything. Fourteen days ago the Keepers chased sixteen-year-old Archive Runner Elimisha into a forbidden Gone World Tower and brought the entire thing down on her. Instead of being killed, though, she slipped into an ancient unmapped bomb shelter where she has discovered a cache of food and fresh water, a two-way radio like the one Lilly's been working on for years . . . and something else. Something that calls itself 'the internet'.

Books to Look Forward to From Quercus Publishing, MacLehose Press and Riverrun

July 2020

Summer, 1658, and the Republic may finally be safe: the combined Stuart and Spanish forces have been heavily defeated by the English and French armies on the coast of Flanders, and the King’s cause appears finished.   Yet one last, desperate throw of the dice is planned. And who can stop them if not Captain Damian Seeker?   The House of Laminations is the final gripping book in this acclaimed and award- winning series of historical thrillers by S G Maclean. Will Seeker’s legacy endure? 

Tell Me How it Ends is by V B Grey.  Delia Maxwell is an international singing sensation and adored by millions. Lily Brooks has watched Delia all her life. Now she has a dream job as her assistant – but is there more to her attachment than the admiration of a fan? Private investigator Frank is beginning to wonder.   As Lily steps into Delia’s spotlight, Frank’s suspicions of Lily’s ulterior motives increase. If Delia thought she had put her past behind her, she had better start watching her back. 

It's November 1983 in Essex and there are reasons to be cheerful. Uptown Girl is sitting pretty at the top of the charts, Risky Business is raking it in at the box office, and there are now four channels on the telly. However, social tensions are beginning to bubble beneath the surface: Mrs Thatcher has embarked on her second controversial term, and the situation in Northern Ireland is ever-escalating.  Yet in the garrison town of Colchester, it's another deadly standoff that is hogging the headlines. The body of a nineteen-year-old Lance Corporal has been discovered on the local High Street, the result of what appears to be a bizarre, chivalrous duel. It seems he was the victim of a doomed army love triangle. As such, the military police are wishing to keep the matter confined within military ranks.  This is all just fine, as far as Colchester CID is concerned. They have enough on their plate as is: with DI Nick Lowry in a tailspin following the breakdown of his marriage, WPC Jane Gabriel

exasperated by the male-favoured system, Detective Daniel Kenton relying on substance abuse to quieten his demons from his last case; and their boss, DCS Sparks, shortly to become a first-time father at 55.  However, it is not long before the blood from the duel runs into civilian police affairs, and the trail presents CID with a local rogues' gallery. A savvy entrepreneur. A wayward skinhead. A member of the landed gentry. And a shadowy Mauritian travel agent with a chilling reputation. Soon, they will discover, a real estate deal, a racist, and the town's Robin Hood pub hold the key to the killing...  Whitethroat is by James Henry.

"Look what the fucking dogs did to them, someone muttered. No-one mentioned the rope, or the monkey-wrench, or the gun, or the knife, or the stick, or the whip, or the blood-stained boots. In fact, no-one said much at all. It seemed simpler that way. There was no sense in pointing fingers.'"  At dusk, on a warm evening in 2016, a group of forty men gathered in the corner of a dusty field on a farm outside Parys in the Free State. Some were in fury. Others treated the whole thing as a joke - a game. The events of the next two hours would come to haunt them all. They would rip families apart, prompt suicide attempts, breakdowns, divorce, bankruptcy, threats of violent revenge and acts of unforgivable treachery.  These Are Not Gentle People is by Andrew Harding and is the story of that night, and of what happened next. It's a murder story, a courtroom drama, a profound exploration of collective guilt and individual justice, and a fast-paced literary thriller.

August 2020

Pete Riley answers the door one morning to a parent's worst nightmare. On his doorstep is a

stranger, Miles Lambert, who breaks the devastating news that Pete's two-year-old, Theo, isn't his biological child after all - he is Miles's, switched with the Lamberts' baby at birth by an understaffed hospital.  Reeling from shock, Peter and his partner Maddie agree that, rather than swap the children back, it's better to stay as they are but to involve the other family in their children's lives. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an official investigation that unearths some disturbing questions about just what happened on the day the babies were switched.  And when Theo is thrown out of nursery for hitting other children, Maddie and Pete have to ask themselves: how far do they want this arrangement to go? What are the secrets hidden behind the Lamberts' smart front door? And how much can they trust the real parents of their child - or even each other?  Playing Nice is By J P Delaney.

A corpse that wakes up on the mortuary slab.  A case of spontaneous human combustion.  There is little by the way of violent crime and petty theft that Capitaine Victor Coste has not encountered in his fifteen years on the St Denis patch - but nothing like this. Something unusual is afoot, and Coste is about to be dragged out of his comfort zone. Stranger still, anonymous letters addressed to him personally have begun to arrive, highlighting the fates of two women, invisible victims whose deaths were never explained. Just two more blurred faces among the ranks of the lost and the damned.  The Lost and The Damned is Olivier Norek's first novel and draws on all his experience as a police officer in one of France's toughest suburbs - the same experience he drew on as a writer for the hit TV series Spiral.

September 2020

The Old Enemy is by Henry Porter.  Ex-MI6 officer Paul Samson prefers to work privately these days. He has been tasked with guarding a young woman, Joni Freemantle. He doesn't know who she is, or why she's important, but the money's good enough for him not to dig too deeply.   Then a shooter disguised as a homeless man abducts her before his eyes and Samson wishes he'd asked more questions. When his former colleague, Robert Harland, is found dead, the news comes with the threat that Samson's own life - and that of others he holds dear - is on the line.   Samson is sure he knows why there's a target on his back. What he doesn't know is who put it there - the Americans or the Russians?   Two things quickly become clear. One, it was a big mistake to lose Freemantle. And two, Robert Harland, ever the consummate spy, has one final, crucial part to play from beyond the grave.

When librarian and budding private investigator Kitt Hartley visits her ex-assistant Grace Edwards in Durham, she soon learns of an unsolved murder.   A year ago Jodie Perkins, a Mechanics student, disappeared after her student-radio broadcast was cut short with a deafening scream. The police suspect Jodie was murdered although her body was never found. Keen to be on the front line of one of Kitt's investigations, Grace convinces Kit to use her recent private investigator training to solve the mystery. Can Kitt and Grace uncover the truth?  Death Awaits in Durham is by Helen Cox.

After the Silence is by Louise O’Neill.  Nessa Crowley's murderer has been protected by silence for ten years.  Until a team of documentary makers decide to find out the truth.  On the day of Henry and Keelin Kinsella's wild party at their big house a violent storm engulfed the island of Inisrun, cutting it off from the mainland. When morning broke Nessa Crowley's lifeless body lay in the garden, her last breath silenced by the music and the thunder.  The killer couldn't have escaped Inisrun, but no-one was charged with the murder. The mystery that surrounded the death of Nessa remained hidden. But the islanders knew who to blame for the crime that changed them forever. Ten years later a documentary crew arrives, there to lift the lid off the Kinsella's carefully constructed lives, determined to find evidence that will prove Henry's guilt and Keelin's complicity in the murder of beautiful Nessa.

The legendary Laestadius becomes a kind of Sherlock Holmes in this exceptional historical crime novel.  It is 1852, and in Sweden's far north, deep in the Arctic Circle, charismatic preacher and Revivalist Lars Levi Laestadius impassions a poverty-stricken congregation with visions of salvation. But local leaders have reason to resist a shift to temperance over alcohol.  Jussi, the young Sami boy Laestadius has rescued from destitution and abuse, becomes the preacher's faithful disciple on long botanical treks to explore the flora and fauna. Laestadius also teaches him to read and write - and to love and fear God.   When a milkmaid goes missing deep in the forest, the locals suspect a predatory bear is at large. A second girl is attacked, and the sheriff is quick to offer a reward for the bear's capture. Using early forensics and Daguerrotype, Laestidius and Jussi find clues that point to a far worse killer on the loose, even as they are unaware of the evil closing in around them.   To Cook a Bear is by Mikael Niemi and explores how communities turn inwards, how superstition can turn to violence, and how the power of language can be transformative in a richly fascinating mystery.

Radio Life is by Derek B Miller.  In this riveting political thriller, The Commonwealth, a post-apocalyptic civilisation on the rise, is locked in a clash of ideas with the Keepers, a fight which threatens to destroy the world . . . again.  When Lilly was first Chief Engineer at The Commonwealth, nearly fifty years ago, the Central Archive wasn't yet the greatest repository of knowledge in the known world, protected by scribes copying every piece of found material - books, maps, even scraps of paper - and disseminating them by Archive Runners to hidden off-site locations for safe keeping. Back then, there was no Order of Silence to create and maintain secret routes deep into the sand-covered towers of the Old World or into the northern forests beyond Sea Glass Lake. Back then, the world was still quiet, because Lilly hadn't yet found the Harrington Box.  But times change. Recently, the Keepers have started gathering to the east of Yellow Ridge - thousands upon thousands of them - and every one of them determined to burn the Central Archives to the ground, no matter the cost, possessed by an irrational fear that bringing back the ancient knowledge will destroy the world all over again. To prevent that, they will do anything.  Fourteen days ago the Keepers chased sixteen-year-old Archive Runner Elimisha into a forbidden Old World Tower and brought the entire thing down on her. Instead of being killed, though, she slipped into an ancient unmapped bomb shelter where she has discovered a cache of food and fresh water, a two-way radio like the one Lilly's been working on for years . . . and something else. Something that calls itself 'the internet' . . .

October 2020

The Postcript Murders is by Elly Griffiths.  PS: Thanks for the murders.   The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka’s account of Peggy Smith’s death.   But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her . . .   And that Peggy Smith had been a ‘murder consultant’ who plotted deaths for authors, and knew more about murder than anyone has any rightto...   And when clearing out Peggy’s flat ends in Natalka being held at gunpoint by a masked figure . . .   Well then DS Harbinder Kaur thinks that maybe there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.   PS: Trust no one.

To Say Goodbye is by Marcello Fois.  When Michele, a young autistic child goes missing, Commissario Sergio Striggio is put in charge of the investigation. Searches turn up nothing, but there is an interesting connection with the mother's past: when she was a child, her twin brother went missing, never to be found.   However, Striggio is finding it difficult to concentrate on the case. He is waiting for his father, Pietro, to come and stay. The idea of the visit is torturing him. He fears having to reveal that he is gay - most of all he fears that his partner, Leo, will reveal his sexuality to his father. Pietro, however, has other matters on his mind: he has news of a devastating diagnosis to share with his son.  And when his life with Leo unexpectedly collides with his investigation into Michele's disappearance, it seems that in the complicated web of the small town of Bolzano, the truth behind the mystery cannot hide for long.

Pamela, a criminal lawyer struggling to balance work with family, is torn with guilt after her bereaved father suffers a domestic accident. Desperation sets in and her brother draws on the help of Maggie - a live-in carer.  A stranger.  Pamela is impressed by Maggie, who nursed both her own parents at home and now wants to help other families by taking the load. But Pamela soon suspects that Maggie has an alternate agenda.   For her father has a secret, long-buried. As past and present mingle, she begins to question whether he is the man she thought he was. And what she learns will have a devastating impact on everyone...  The Haunted Shore is by Neil Spring.

November 2020

Dog Island is by Philippe Claudel.   When three bodies wash up with the morning tide, the initial reaction of the islanders is that this tragedy must be covered up, lest any association with the drownings damages their tourism industry . . .   But when a detective arrives on the island and starts asking awkward questions, it becomes clear that the deaths indicate something far more sinister and rotten at the heart of this insular fragment of sea-bound land. 

Books to Look Forward to From Faber and Faber

July 2017

In Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, Officer Henry Farrell's life is getting complicated. Widowed and more traumatised than he cares to admit, he is caught up in an affair with a local woman, and with helping out his friend's barn construction job - on which the clock is ticking. When a troubled old acquaintance of theirs becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of his girlfriend, it becomes increasingly clear that something seriously dark is at large in the woods that surround them. Against this old and strange landscape - where silence rules - a fascinating and troubling case ensues, as Henry struggles for his very survival. Fateful Mornings is by Tom Bouman.

Walk in Silence is by John Gordon Sinclair.  Find the boy. Bring him home. Keep him safe. Keira Lynch is a lawyer who's used to trouble, but she's only just landed in Albania, and already, she's neck deep. She thought money would help her find the boy, in an underworld where bribes are as common as bent cops, but his kidnappers want something else. They want the freedom of one of their gang members. A man Keira is about to help bring to trial back in the UK; a man who once put three bullets in her chest. Can she stay silent, and save the boy? Or will she have to play the game in a brutal world where anything can be bartered - trust, loyalty, even lives?

What really happened to Sarah Cook? A beautiful blonde teenager, Sarah Cook disappeared fifteen years ago, the same night her parents were brutally murdered in their suburban Ohio home. Her boyfriend Brad Stockton - black and from the wrong side of the tracks - was convicted of the murders and sits on death row, though he always maintained his innocence. As his execution nears, his devoted sister, insisting she has spotted Sarah at a local gas station, hires PI Roxane Weary to look at this cold case. Reeling from the recent death of her cop father, Roxane is drawn to the story of Sarah's disappearance, especially when she suspects a link between it and one of her father's unsolved murder cases. Despite her self-destructive tendencies, Roxane starts to hope that she can save Brad's life and her own. The Last Place You Look is by Kristen Lepionka.

Kitty Peck and the Daughter of Sorrow is by Kate Griffin.  Summer 1881: the streets of Limehouse are thick with opium...and menace. At eighteen Kitty Peck has inherited Paradise, a sprawling criminal empire on the banks of the Thames. Determined to do things differently to her fearsome grandmother, she now realises that the past casts a long and treacherous shadow. Haunted by a terrible secret and stalked by a criminal cabal intent on humiliation and destruction, Kitty must fight for the future of everyone she cares for...

August 2017

The Girl in Green is by Derek B Miller and takes us deep into modern Iraq, where British journalist Thomas Benton and relief worker Marta Strom are persuaded by ex-US soldier Arwood Hobbes to embark on what may be a fools' errand in a last-chance effort to atone for their failure to save a local girl more than twenty years previously, following Operation Desert Storm. Set against the shattered landscape and broken heart of Iraq. 

Former Army Ranger Van Shaw is recently single, out of money, and struggling to keep on the straight and narrow. So when an old contact, Mick O’Hassan, shows up on his doorstep, fresh out of prison and claiming to know the whereabouts of a hidden stash of gold, Van feels the powerful pull of his past. The trouble is, some things are too good to be true, and before they know it Van and O’Hassan are trapped in a game with few rules and too many deadly players. Turns out, the only easy part of a life of crime is getting sucked back in . . .  Every Day Above Ground is by Glen Erik Hamilton.

September 2017

A Patient Fury is by Sarah Ward.  When Detective Constable Connie Childs is dragged from her bed to the fire-wrecked property on Cross Farm Lane she knows as she steps from the car that this house contains death. Three bodies discovered - a family obliterated - their deaths all seem to point to one conclusion: One mother, one murderer. But D.C. Childs, determined as ever to discover the truth behind the tragedy, realises it is the fourth body - the one they cannot find - that holds the key to the mystery at Cross Farm Lane. What Connie Childs fails to spot is that her determination to unmask the real murderer might cost her more than her health - this time she could lose the thing she cares about most: her career.

October 2017

Nine Lessons is by Nicola Upson.  In the years before the Great War, M. R. James told ghost stories by candlelight to a handful of friends and scholars. Now, twenty-five years later, those men are dying, killed off one by one . . . In contemporary Cambridge, the people of the town are gripped by fear and suspicion as a serial rapist stalks the streets. In the shadow of King’s College Chapel, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose faces some of the most horrific and audacious murders of his career.

Crimefest Award Nominees Announced

The winners of the CRIMEFEST awards will be announced during the Gala Dinner on Saturday, 17 May. The organisers would like to thank the sponsors and congratulates all the shortlisted nominees and their publishers.

Audible Sounds Of Crime Award

The Audible Sounds of Crime Award is for the best unabridged crime audiobook first published in the UK in 2013 in both printed and audio formats, and available for download from audible.co.uk, Britain’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks. Courtesy of sponsor Audible UK, the winning author and audiobook reader share the £1,000 prize equally.

Nominees:

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Orion Audio)

A Delicate Truth by John le Carré, read by John le Carré (Penguin)

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio)

Dead Man’s Time by Peter James, read by Daniel Weyman (Macmillan Audio)

The Chessmen by Peter James, read by Peter Forbes (Quercus)

Natural Causes by James Oswald , read by Ian Hanmore (Penguin)

  

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and Audible UK listeners established the shortlist and the winning title.

eDunnit Award

The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2013. The winning author receives £500 and a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.

Nominees:

The Beauty of Murder by A.K. Benedict  (Orion)

Sandrine by Thomas H Cook (Head of Zeus)

Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran (Faber and Faber)

Under a Silent Moon by Elizabeth Haynes (Sphere)

Cross and Burn by Val McDermid (Sphere)

Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller (Faber and Faber)

The Red Road by Denise Mina (Orion)

Sign of the Cross by Thomas Mogford(Bloomsbury)

The Double by George Pelecanos (Orion)

The Feast of Artemis by Anne Zouroudi (Bloomsbury)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

Goldsboro Last Laugh Award

The Goldsboro Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the British Isles in 2013. The £500 prize is sponsored by Goldsboro Books, the UKs largest specialist in first edition, signed books.

Nominees:

Fire and Brimstone by Colin Bateman(Headline)

Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley (Orion)

The Axe Factor by Colin Cotterill (Quercus)

Calamitous Chinese Killing by Shamini Flint (Little, Brown)

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen (Little, Brown)

A Little Murder by Suzette A Hill (Allison & Busby)

Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller (Faber and Faber)

The Sound of One Hand Killing by Teresa Solona (Bitter Lemon Press)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers for the longlist, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

All the winners also receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.