Books to Look Forward to from Pan Macmillan

July 2016

Fans of Peter James and his bestselling Roy Grace series of crime novels know that his books draw on in-depth research into the lives of Brighton and Hove police and are set in a world every bit as gritty as the real thing. His friend Graham Bartlett was a long-serving detective in the city once described as Britain's 'crime capital'. Together, in Death Comes Knocking, they have written a gripping account of the city's most challenging cases, taking the reader from crime scenes and incident rooms to the morgue, and introducing some of the real-life detectives who inspired Peter James's characters. Whether it's the murder of a dodgy nightclub owner and his family in Sussex's worst non-terrorist mass murder or the race to find the abductor of a young girl, tracking down the antique trade's most notorious 'knocker boys' or nailing an audacious ring of forgers, hunting for a cold-blooded killer who executed a surfer or catching a pair who kidnapped a businessman, leaving him severely beaten, to die on a hillside, the authors skilfully evoke the dangerous inside story of policing, the personal toll it takes and the dedication of those who risk their lives to keep the public safe. Death Comes Knocking is by Graham Bartlett with Peter James.

He has to clear thoughts of Joanne and thoughts of the past out of his mind. He has to think

about himself, his situation. Think about the next hour. The last thirty-two years don't matter; whatever remains of the rest of his life doesn't matter. It's the next hour. In that hour, everything will be decided. Usman Kassar is comfortable in his older brother's shadow, for now. Staying off the radars of the big players lets him plan big scores with little danger of detection. But dangerous jobs will get you noticed, whether you want them to or not. Martin Sivok is a gunman without a target. An outsider in a new city who doesn't know how to make a fresh start. But when you desperately need doors to start opening, someone like Usman might just persuade you to pull at the wrong handle - like the one that opens a safe full of dirty money. Dirty money that the Jamieson organization, one of the most dangerous criminal outfits in town, wants back. Any job can have brutal consequences when it threatens the reputation of Nate Colgan. Nate can't help being frightening; a man with darkness inside him. As the reluctant 'security consultant' for a fracturing criminal organization, he knows that unless he recovers the stolen money quickly, much more than his livelihood will be on the line. But if you've been forced into a job that you know could be your ending, how hard will you fight to keep it? A multi-layered, humane and unnerving portrait of gangland Glasgow, For Those Who Know the Ending is the gripping new novel from the award-winning Malcolm Mackay.

You Will Know Me is by Megan Abbott.  Katie and her husband Eric have made their daughter Devon the centre of their world. Talented, determined, a rising gymnastics star, Devon is the focus of her parents' lives and the lynchpin of their marriage. There is nothing they wouldn't do for her. When a violent hit-and-run accident sends shockwaves through their close-knit community, Katie is immediately concerned for her daughter. She and Eric have worked so hard to protect Devon from anything that might distract or hurt her. That's what every parent wants for their child, after all. Even if they don't realize how much you've sacrificed for them. Even if they are keeping secrets from you ...A mother knows best ...doesn't she?

August 2016

Dead Man's Blues is a gripping historical crime novel from Ray Celestin, Chicago, 1928. In the stifling summer heat three disturbing events take place. A clique of city leaders is poisoned in a fancy hotel. A white gangster is found mutilated in an alleyway in the Blackbelt. And a famous heiress vanishes without a trace. Pinkerton detectives Michael Talbot and Ida Davis are hired to find the missing heiress by the girl's troubled mother. But it proves harder than expected to find a face that is known across the city, and Ida must elicit the help of her friend Louis Armstrong. While the police take little interest in the Blackbelt murder, Jacob Russo, crime scene photographer, can't get the dead man's image out of his head, and so he embarks on his own investigation. And Dante Sanfelippo - rum-runner and fixer - is back in Chicago on the orders of Al Capone, who suspects there's a traitor in the ranks and wants Dante to investigate. But Dante is struggling with his own problems as he is forced to return to the city he thought he'd never see again ...As the three parties edge closer to the truth, their paths cross and their lives are threatened. But will any of them find the answers they need in the capital of jazz, booze and corruption?

The Constant Soldier is by William Ryan.  The pain woke him up. He was grateful for it. The train had stopped and somewhere, up above them, the drone of aircraft engines filled the night sky. He could almost remember her smile ...It must be the morphine ...He had managed not to think about her for months now. 1944. Paul Brandt, a soldier in the German army, returns wounded and ashamed from the bloody chaos of the Eastern front to find his village home much changed and existing in the dark shadow of an SS rest hut - a luxurious retreat for those who manage the concentration camps, run with the help of a small group of female prisoners who - against all odds - have so far survived the war. When, by chance, Brandt glimpses one of these prisoners, he realizes that he must find a way to access the hut. For inside is the woman to whom his fate has been tied since their arrest five years before, and now he must do all he can to protect her. But as the Russian offensive moves ever closer, the days of this rest hut and its SS inhabitants are numbered. And while hope - for Brandt and the female prisoners - grows tantalizingly close, the danger too is now greater than ever. And, in a forest to the east, a young female Soviet tank driver awaits her orders to advance….

None But The Dead is by Lin Anderson. Sanday, one of Britain's northernmost islands,

inaccessible when the wind prevents the ferry crossing from the mainland, or fog grounds the tiny, island-hopping plane. When human remains are discovered to the rear of an old primary school, forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod and her assistant arrive to excavate the grave. Approaching midwinter, they find daylight in short supply, the weather inhospitable and some of the island's inhabitants less than co-operative. When the suspicious death of an old man in Glasgow appears to have links with the island, DS Michael McNab is dispatched to investigate. Desperately uncomfortable in such surroundings, he finds that none of the tools of detective work are there. No internet, no CCTV, and no police station. As the weather closes in, the team - including criminal profiler and Orkney native Professor Magnus Pirie - are presented with a series of unexplained incidents, apparently linked to the discovery of thirteen magic flowers representing the souls of dead children who had attended the island school where the body was discovered. But how and in what circumstance did they die? And why are their long forgotten deaths significant to the current investigation? As a major storm approaches, bringing gale-force winds and high seas, the islanders turn on one another, as past and present evil deeds collide, and long buried secrets break the surface, along with the exposed bones.

September 2016

Chameleon People is the fourth murder mystery in the K2 and Patricia series by Hans Olav Lahlum. 1972. On a cold March morning the weekend peace is broken when a frantic young cyclist rings on Inspector Kolbjorn 'K2' Kristiansen's doorbell, desperate to speak to the detective. Compelled to help, K2 lets the boy inside, only to discover that he is being pursued by K2's colleagues in the Oslo police. A bloody knife is quickly found in the young man's pocket: a knife that matches the stab wounds of a politician murdered just a few streets away. The evidence seems clear-cut, and the arrest couldn't be easier. But with the suspect's identity unknown, and the boy refusing to speak, K2 finds himself far from closing the case. And then there is the question that K2 can't get out of his head: why would a guilty man travel directly to a police detective from the scene of his own brutal crime?

Annie Carter finally believes that life is good. She and Max are back together and she has a new and uncomplicated life sunning herself in Barbados. It's what she's always dreamed of. Then she gets the news that her old friend Dolly Farrell is dead, and suddenly she finds herself back in London and hunting down a murderer with only one thing on her mind ...revenge. But the hunter can so quickly become the hunted, and Annie has been keeping too many secrets. She's crossed and bettered a lot of people over the years, but this time the enemy is a lot closer to home and she may just have met her match ... Stay Dead is by Jessie Keane.

The One Man is by Andrew Gross.  Auschwitz, 1944. Alfred Mendl's days are numbered. But

he has little left to live for - his family were torn away from him, his life's work burned in front of his eyes - until a glimmer of hope arises as he watches a game of chess. To the guards Mendl is just another prisoner, but in fact he holds knowledge that only two people in the world possess. The other is working hard for the Nazi war machine. Four thousand miles away, in Washington DC, intelligence lieutenant Nathan Blum decodes messages from occupied Poland. After the Nazis murdered his family, Nathan escaped the Krakow ghetto and is determined to support his new country - and the US government knows exactly how he can. They want to send Nathan on a mission to rescue one man from a place no one can break in to - or out of. Even if Nathan does make it in and finds him, can they escape the most heavily guarded place on earth?

A BODY. A COVER UP. A BURIED SECRET. A father who will do anything to solve the mystery of his son's disappearance. A mother who will do anything to find her daughter. The man who tries to keep both parents alive. Sonja Kurtz - former soldier, supposedly retired mercenary - is in Vietnam carrying out a personal revenge mission when her daughter sends a call for help. Emma, a student archaeologist on a dig at the edge of Namibia's Etosha National Park, has discovered a body dating back to the country's liberation war of the 1980s. The remains of the airman, identified as Hudson Brand, are a key piece of a puzzle that will reveal the location of a modern day buried treasure - a find people will kill for. Sonja returns to the country of her birth to find Emma, who since her call has gone missing. Former CIA agent Hudson Brand is very much alive and is also drawn back to Namibia to finally solve a decades-old mystery whose clues are entombed in an empty corner of the desert. An Empty Coast is by Tony Park.

October 2016

It occurred to him that he might not have had anything to do with Strangio's death. It was a

voice in the night, an anonymous voice, that had told him this. A voice in the night that could easily have been the voice of his conscience. Feeling his age, as his birthday rolls round once again, Inspector Montalbano decides to cheer himself up by dealing with a young driver's road rage in his own unique way. But his joy is short-lived, as at police headquarters he receives an angry phone call from a supermarket boss; there's been a robbery at his store and Montalbano's colleague is treating him as a suspect. On arrival at the scene, Montalbano quickly agrees with Inspector Augello that this was no ordinary break-in, but with the supermarket's infamous links to the Mafia creating problems at every turn, this isn't going to be an easy case for the inspector to solve. And to add to Montalbano's burden, the young driver he made an enemy of earlier in the week has returned to police headquarters to report a shocking crime ...  A Voice in the Night is by Andrea Camilleri.

Cold Earth is by Ann Cleeves.  In the dark days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main Lerwick-Sumburgh road and sweeps down to the sea. At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of mud and peaty water smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. In his mind, she shares his Mediterranean ancestry and soon he becomes obsessed with tracing her identity. Then it emerges that she was already dead before the landslide hit the house. Perez knows he must find out who she was, and how she died.

Set against Iceland's volcanic hinterlands, four thirty-somethings from Reykjavik - the reckless hedonist Egill; the recovering alcoholic Hrafin; and their partners Anna and Vigdis - embark on an ambitious camping trip, their jeep packed with supplies. Victims of the financial crisis, the purpose of the trip is to heal both professional and personal wounds, but the desolate landscape forces the group to reflect on the shattered lives they've left behind in the city. As their jeep hurtles through the barren land, an impenetrable fog descends, causing them to suddenly crash into a rural farmhouse. Seeking refuge from the storm, the group discover that the isolated dwelling is inhabited by a mysterious elderly couple who inexplicably barricade themselves inside every night. As past tensions within the group rise to the surface, the merciless weather blocks every attempt at escape, forcing them to ask difficult questions: who has been butchering animals near the house? What happened to the abandoned village nearby where bones lie strewn across the ground? And most importantly, will they ever return home? The Ice Lands is by Steinar Bragi.

November 2016

No Man's Land is by David Baldacci and is a thriller featuring special investigator John Puller, who is pursuing a case that will send him deep into his own troubled past. John Puller's mother disappeared nearly thirty years ago. Despite an intensive search and investigation, she was never seen again. But new allegations have come to light suggesting that Puller's father - now suffering from dementia and living in a VA hospital - may have murdered his wife. Puller is officially barred from working on the case - and faces a potential court martial if he disobeys orders - but he knows he can't sit this investigation out. When intelligence operative Veronica Knox turns up, Puller realizes that there is far more to this case than he had originally thought. He will stop at nothing to discover the truth about what happened to his mother ...even if it means proving that his father is a killer.

At dawn on a lonely stretch of road, a body is found hanging from an ancient gallows the morning after a country show. Hours earlier, DCI Kate Daniels had seen the victim alive. With her leave period imminent, she's forced to step aside when DCI James Atkins is called in to investigate. There's bad blood between them. When Kate discovers that Atkins' daughter was an eyewitness to a fight involving the victim, the two detectives lock horns and he's bumped off the case. It's the trigger for a vicious attack on Kate, exposing a secret she's kept hidden for years and unearthing an even darker one. Shaken but undeterred, Kate sets out to solve a case that has shocked a close-knit village community. As suspects emerge, she uncovers a curious historical connection with a hangman, a culture of systematic bullying, a web of deceit and a deep-seated psychosis, any one of which could be motive for murder.  Gallows Drop is by Mari Hannah.

The Killer is by Susan Wilkins. Kaz Phelps: the sister of a dead gangster on the run from all the sins of her past. Nicci Armstrong: an ex-cop turned security consultant forced to service the global rich who use her city as a playground.  Tom Rivlin: a charming and ambitious Detective Inspector desperate to prove that he is up to the job.  Robert Hollister: a disgraced politician bent on revenge.  Asil Kemal: a Turkish drug baron obsessed with his honour – and also bent on revenge. Viktor Pudovkin: an ex-KGB Russian billionaire anxious to prove his loyalty to his political masters. The Killer moves between organised crime and the police: the underworld, the overworld, the rich and the dispossessed – and between violence and love.

December 2016

To Catch a Killer by Nele Neuhaus.  Detective Pia Kirchhoff is about to leave on her long-

delayed honeymoon when she hears that a woman has been shot while out walking her dog. Then more long-range shootings swiftly follow, and it becomes clear that a highly trained serial killer is on the loose. The victims seem to have just one thing in common: they were all good people with apparently no enemies. So why are they dead? As fear of the sniper grows among local residents, all leave is cancelled for the Frankfurt police department as they are put on red alert. The pressure is on Kirchhoff and her colleague, Oliver von Bodenstein, to find the killer before he can tick another name off his hit list.

A top Russian intelligence agent has defected to the West and the only man with whom he will speak is Kyle Swanson, who busted him out of the U.S. Marine Corps Scout/Sniper School years ago. The defector proves to be an Edward Snowden-type gold mine of amazing secrets about the when, where and how of the Russian President's next grab for lost Soviet territory. But Swanson, now a special contractor with the CIA, soon begins to believe that it is all fool's gold being sprinkled by Moscow to ignite

an open military fight with NATO and the United States. Using his own deadly methods, the sniper sets out to find the truth, but to slow him down, the Russians kidnap Swanson's beautiful friend Calico, the CIA station chief in Estonia. From Italy to the Arctic Circle, Kyle Swanson is on the hunt, convinced that the defector is actually running a complex plot to hand Russia a kingdom in the north. But Swanson seems always to be a step behind - there is a traitor within his own chain of command. To stop the madness, Swanson must deliver a kill shot a hundred miles away from a border bridge in Estonia ... Long Shot is by Jack Coughlin and Donald A Davis.

The Burning Page is by Genevieve Cogman.  Librarian spy Irene has

professional standards to maintain. Standards that absolutely do not include making hasty, unplanned escapes through a burning besieged building. But when the gateway back to your headquarters dramatically malfunctions, one must improvise. And after fleeing a version of Revolutionary France astride a dragon (also known as her assistant, Kai), Irene soon discovers she's not the only one affected. Gates back to the Library are malfunctioning across a multitude of worlds, creating general havoc. She and Kai are tasked with a mission to St Petersburg's Winter Palace, to retrieve a book, which will help restore order. However, such plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy - particularly when the enemy is the traitor Alberich. A nightmare figure bent on the Library's destruction, Alberich gives Irene a tainted 'join me or die' job offer. Meanwhile, Irene's old friend Vale has been damaged by exposure to chaotic forces and she has no idea how to save him. When another figure from her past appears, begging for help, Irene has to take a good hard look at her priorities. And of course try to save the Library from absolute annihilation. Saving herself would be a bonus. Irene's adventures feature stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies.

2016 Petrona Award shortlist

Top quality crime fiction from Scandinavia is shortlisted for the 2016 Petrona Award.

Crime novels from Finland, Norway and Sweden have made the shortlist for the 2016 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year, which is announced today.

They are:

THE DROWNED BOY by Karin Fossum tr. Kari Dickson (Harvill Secker; Norway)
THE DEFENCELESS by Kati Hiekkapelto tr. David Hackston (Orenda Books; Finland)
THE CAVEMAN by Jorn Lier Horst tr. Anne Bruce (Sandstone Press; Norway)
THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB by David Lagercrantz tr. George Goulding (MacLehose Press; Sweden)
SATELLITE PEOPLE by Hans Olav Lahlum tr. Kari Dickson (Mantle/Pan Macmillan; Norway)
DARK AS MY HEART by Antti Tuomainen tr. Lola Rogers (Harvill Secker; Finland)

The winning title will be announced at the Gala Dinner on 21 May during the annual international crime fiction event CrimeFest, held in Bristol 19-22 May 2016.

The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.

The judges’ comments on the shortlist:

THE DROWNED BOY by Karin Fossum tr. Kari Dickson (Harvill Secker; Norway)
Fossum’s spare prose and straightforward narrative belie the complexity at the heart of this novel. After the drowning of a young child with Down’s Syndrome, Chief Inspector Sejer must ask himself if one of the parents could have been involved. The nature of grief is explored, along with the experience of parenting children with learning difficulties. There’s a timeless feel to the writing and a sense of justice slowly coming to pass.

THE DEFENCELESS by Kati Hiekkapelto tr. David Hackston (Orenda

Books; Finland)
The second in Hiekkapelto’s ‘Anna Fekete’ series is an assured police procedural rooted in the tradition of the Nordic social crime novel. Its exploration of immigrant experiences is nuanced and timely, and is woven into an absorbing mystery involving an elderly man’s death and the escalating activities of an international gang. A mature work by a writer who is unafraid to take on challenging topics.

THE CAVEMAN by Jorn Lier Horst tr. Anne Bruce (Sandstone Press; Norway)
Horst’s The Caveman begins with the discovery of a four-month-old corpse just down the road from William Wisting’s home. Troubled by his neighbour’s lonely death in an apparently uncaring society, the Chief Inspector embarks on one of the most disturbing cases of his career. Beautifully written, this crime novel is a gripping read that draws on the author’s own experiences to provide genuine insights into police procedure and investigation.



THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB by David Lagercrantz tr. George

Goulding (MacLehose Press; Sweden)
The late Stieg Larsson created the groundbreaking, two-fingers-to-society, bisexual anti-heroine Lisbeth Salander. When Larsson’s publishers commissioned a fourth book, they turned to David Lagercrantz, whose The Girl in the Spider’s Web often reads uncannily like Larsson’s own text. His real achievement is the subtle development of Salander’s character; she remains (in Lagercrantz’s hands) the most enigmatic and fascinating anti-heroine in fiction.

SATELLITE PEOPLE by Hans Olav Lahlum tr. Kari Dickson (Mantle/Pan Macmillan; Norway)
An accomplished homage to Agatha Christie, Satellite People adds a Nordic twist to classic crime fiction tropes. References to Christie novels abound, but Lahlum uses a Golden Age narrative structure to explore Norway’s wartime past, as Inspector Kristiansen and Patricia investigate a former Resistance fighter’s death. Excellent characterisation, a tight plot and a growing sense of menace keep the reader guessing until the denouement.

DARK AS MY HEART by Antti Tuomainen tr. Lola Rogers (Harvill

Secker; Finland)
Tuomainen’s powerful and involving literary crime novel has a mesmerising central concept: thirty-year-old Aleksi is sure he knows who was behind his mother’s disappearance two decades ago, but can he prove it? And to what extent does his quest for justice mask an increasingly unhealthy obsession with the past? Rarely has atmosphere in a Nordic Noir novel been conjured so evocatively.

With grateful thanks to each of the translators for their skill and expertise in bringing us these outstanding examples of Scandinavian crime fiction.

The judges are:

Barry Forshaw – Writer and journalist specialising in crime fiction and film; author of four books covering Scandinavian crime fiction: NORDIC NOIR, DEATH IN A COLD CLIMATE, EURO NOIR and the first biography of Stieg Larsson.

Dr. Katharina Hall – Associate Professor of German at Swansea University; editor of CRIME FICTION IN GERMAN: DER KRIMI for University of Wales Press; international crime fiction reviewer/blogger at MRS. PEABODY INVESTIGATES.

Sarah Ward – Crime novelist, author of IN BITTER CHILL (Faber and Faber), and crime fiction blogger at CRIMEPIECES.

(L-R Sarah Ward, Barry Forshaw, Karen Meek and Kat Hall)

More information can be found on the Petrona Award website.

(http://www.petronaaward.co.uk).

Books to look forward to from Pan Macmillan

Celia used to lie for a living. Henry still does. Can they ever trust each other? Six years ago, Henry and Celia were lovers and colleagues, working for the CIA station in Vienna, until terrorists hijacked a plane at the airport. A rescue attempt, staged from the inside, went terribly wrong. Everyone on board was killed. That night has continued to haunt all of those involved; for Henry and Celia, it brought to an end their relationship. Celia decided she'd had enough; she left the agency, married and had children, and is now living an ordinary life in the Californian suburbs. Henry is still a CIA analyst, and has travelled to the US to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all. But neither of them can forget that question: had their agent been compromised, and how? And each of them also wonders what role their lunch companion might have played in the way things unfolded... All the Old Knives is Olen Steinhauer's most intense, most thrilling and most unsettling novel to date and is due to be published in August 2015.

Down Among the Dead Men is a dark underworld thriller from Kerry Wilkinson. 'I'm going to do you a favour: I'm going to tell you my name and then I'm going to give you thirty seconds to turn and run. If any of you are still here after those thirty seconds, then we're going to have a problem'. Jason Green's life is changed for good after he is saved from a mugging by crime boss, Harry Irwell. He is then drawn into Manchester's notorious underworld, where smash and grab is as normal as making a cup of tea. But Jason isn't a casual thug. He has a life plan that doesn't involve blowing his money on the usual trappings. That is until a woman walks into his life offering the one thing that money can't buy - salvation.  Down Among the Dead Men is due to be published in October 2015.

Dark Hour is by Ryan David Jahn and is due to be published in July 2015.  Private

Investigator Damien Lamb: a man hardened by life and seeking justice against those who have wronged society. When the vulnerable Abigail walks into his office asking Lamb to retrieve her daughter from the confines of infamous cult, the Children of God, Lamb can't help but fall for her story. And so begins a breath-taking and dangerous journey as Lamb attempts to rescue Abigail's daughter, Lily, and bring down the charming yet heinous leader of the cult, Rhett Mosley. But Abigail's motivations might not be as clear as they first seem and Lamb finds himself in more danger than he could ever have imagined ...

A promising young singer is found dead in a clearing in a forest, gruesomely murdered-her larynx cut out, and an antique music box placed carefully atop her body, playing a mysterious lullaby that sounds familiar, but that no one can quite place. Chief Inspector Odd Singsaker, of the Trondheim Police Department, still recovering from brain surgery, is called in to investigate. Singsaker, now married to Felicia Stone, the American detective he met while tracking down a serial killer, fears the worst when another young girl, also known for her melodic singing voice, suddenly goes missing while on a walk with her dog one night. As the Trondheim police follow the trail of this deadly killer, it becomes clear that both cases are somehow connected to a centuries-old ballad called "The Golden Peace," written by a mysterious composer called Jon Blund, in the seventeenth century. This lullaby promises the most sound, sweet sleep to the listener-and as time ticks by, the elusive killer seems as if he will stop at nothing to get his hands on this perfect lullaby.  Death Song is by Jørgen Brekke and is due to be published in November 2015.

The Special Dead is by Lin Anderson and is due to be published in August 2015. When Mark Howitt strikes lucky on a Friday night in Glasgow, he expects a fun, no-strings night of passion with Leila. But when he wakes up in the early hours of the morning and tries to find the exit to Leila's flat, he is horrified to stumble upon his former bed partner dead and suspended from the ceiling of the next room, alongside twenty-seven Barbie dolls. Rhona Macleod's forensic investigation of the scene reveals the cord used to hang Leila to be a cingulum, an artefact used in the practise of Wicca, and sketches hidden in nine of the dolls suggest the dolls are linked with nine men, and as the investigation continues, it looks increasingly likely that other wiccan witches will be targeted too. Helping with the investigation is the newly demoted DI Michael McNab, who is desperate to stay sober and not disgrace himself further. But an encounter with Leila's colleague and fellow Wiccan Shannon threatens to throw his plans out the window. Soon, McNab realises Shannon may hold the key to uncovering who the killer is and identifying the nine men linked to the dolls. If he can get to her before the killer does ...

Something Wicked is the first in a new series from Kerry Wilkinson. Nicholas Carr disappeared on his eighteenth birthday and the world has moved on. His girlfriend has left for university, his friends now have jobs and the police are busy dealing with the usual gallery of suspects. But his father, Richard, can't forget the three fingers the police dug up from a sodden Manchester wood. What happened to Nicholas on the night he disappeared and why did he never return home? A private investigator is Richard's last hope - but Andrew Hunter has his own problems. There's something about his assistant that isn't quite right. Jenny's brilliant but reckless and he can't figure out what's in it for her. By the time he discovers who's a danger and who's not, it might all be too late...  Something Wicked is due to be published in July 2015.

Host is the new medical thriller from Robin Cook.  It takes readers back to where the genre began, and the questions posed in Coma: what happens when innocent hospital patients are used as medical 'incubators' against their will? Lynn Pierce, a fourth-year medical student at Mason Dixon University, thinks she has her life figured out. But when her otherwise healthy boyfriend, Carl, enters the hospital for routine surgery, she doesn't know it's the last time she will see him whole again. Devastated by Carl's death, Lynn searches for answers. Convinced there's more to the story than what the authorities are willing to reveal, Lynn uses all her resources at Mason Dixon - including her initially reluctant lab partner, Edward - to hunt down evidence of medical error or malpractice. What she uncovers, however, is far more disturbing. Hospitals associated with Sentinel Healthcare, including the one attached to Mason Dixon, have unnervingly high rates of unexplained complications in the wake of routine surgery. When Lynn and Edward begin to receive death threats, they know they're into something bigger than either of them anticipated. They soon enter a desperate race against time for answers before shadowy forces behind Sentinel Healthcare can put a stop to their efforts once and for all.  Host is due to be published in October 2015.

The Moth Catcher is the seventh book in Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope. 'This case was different from anything Vera had ever worked before. Two bodies, connected but not lying together. And nothing made her feel as alive as murder.' Life seems perfect in Valley Farm, a quiet community in Northumberland. Then a shocking discovery shatters the silence. The owners of a big country house have employed a house-sitter, a young ecologist named Patrick, to look after the place while they're away. But Patrick is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley - a beautiful, lonely place to die. DI Vera Stanhope arrives on the scene, with her detectives Holly and Joe. When they look round the attic of the big house - where Patrick has a flat - she finds the body of a second man. All the two victims have in common is a fascination with moths - catching these beautiful, rare creatures. Those who live in the Valley Farm development have secrets too: Annie and Sam's daughter is due to be released from prison any day; Nigel watches, silently, every day, from his window. As Vera is drawn into the claustrophobic world of this increasingly strange community, she realizes that there may be deadly secrets trapped here.  The Moth Catcher is due to be published in September 2015. 

A security van sets off for Durham prison, a disgraced Special Branch officer in the back. It never arrives. On route it is hijacked by armed men, the prisoner sprung. Suspended from duty on suspicion of aiding and abetting the audacious escape of his former boss, Detective Sergeant Matthew Ryan is locked out of the investigation. With a manhunt underway, Ryan is warned to stay away. Keen to preserve his career and prove his innocence, he backs off. But when the official investigation falls apart, under surveillance and with his life in danger, he goes dark, enlisting others in his quest to discover the truth. When the trail leads to the suspicious death of a Norwegian national, Ryan uncovers an international conspiracy that has claimed the lives of many.  The Silent Room is by Mari Hannah and is due to be published in November 2015.

THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE SAFE ...The Sanctum is a luxurious, self-sustaining survival

condominium situated underground. It's a plush bolt-hole for the rich and paranoid - a place where they can wait out the apocalypse in style. When a devastating super-flu virus hits, several families race to reach The Sanctum. All have their own motivations for entering. All are hiding secrets. But when the door locks and someone dies, they realize the greatest threat to their survival may not be above ground - it may already be inside ...  Under Ground is by S L Grey and is due to be published in July 2015.

X is the thrilling twenty-fourth book in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series from the New York Times bestselling author, Sue Grafton. In hindsight, I marvel at how clueless I was ...What I ask myself even now is whether I should have picked up the truth any faster than I did, which is to say not fast enough ...When a glamorous red head wishes to locate the son she put up for adoption thirty-two years ago, it seems like an easy two hundred bucks for P. I. Kinsey Millhone. But when a cop tells her she was paid with marked bills, and Kinsey's client is nowhere to be found, it becomes apparent this mystery woman has something to hide. Riled, Kinsey won't stop until she's found out who fooled her and why. Meanwhile, the widow of the recently murdered P. I. - and Kinsey's old friend - Pete Wolinsky, needs help with her IRS audit. This seemingly innocuous task takes a treacherous turn when Kinsey finds a coded list amongst her friend's files. It soon leads her to an unhinged man with a catalogue of ruined lives left in his wake. And despite the devastation, there isn't a single conviction to his name. It seems this sociopath knows exactly how to cause chaos without leaving a trace. As Kinsey delves deeper into the investigation she quickly becomes the next target of this tormentor. But can Kinsey prove her case against him before she becomes the next victim? X is due to be published in August 2015.

Grace Scott returns from honeymoon with her new husband, Mac, to find a man lying dead in their new Edinburgh flat. They don't know who he is or where he's come from. The mystery of his identity remains unsolved. Then, three months later, Grace finds a note tucked inside one of the wedding gifts which sends her on a journey to discover what really happened in her flat. A journey that becomes more dangerous the closer she comes to the truth ...What she discovers will change her life. Set in Edinburgh and travelling to Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen, City of Strangers is by Louise Millar and is due to be published in October 2015.  It is a gripping story of deception, lies and corruption.

The first murder was only the spark ...1970. Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen, known as K2, witnesses a young woman desperately trying to board a train only to have the doors close before her face. The next time he sees her, she is dead ...As K2 investigates, with the help of his precocious young assistant Patricia, he discovers that the story behind Marie Morgenstierne's murder really began two years ago, when a group of politically active young people set out on a walking tour in the mountains. There, one night, the party's charismatic leader - and Marie's boyfriend - Falko Reinhardt vanished without a trace. But were the relationships between this group of friends and comrades all they appeared to be? What did Marie see, that made her run for her life that day? And could both mysteries be linked to Falko's research into a cell of Norwegian Nazis he suspected may still be active? It soon becomes clear that Marie's death is not only a complex case in its own right, but will act as a catalyst in a dark set of events which will leave K2 and Patricia confronting their most dangerous and explosive investigation yet. And as the pair work hard to unravel the clues before Marie's killer can strike again, the detective fails to notice that his young assistant has her own problems to face ...  The Catalyst Killing is by Hans Olav Lahlum and is due to be published in August 2015.

When Special Agent Will Robie gets the call to make his first visit home since he was a teenager, it’s because his father, the local judge, has been arrested fr murdering a man who came before him in court. The small remote Bayou town hasn’t changed and its residents remember Robie as a wild sports star and a girl magnet.  He left lots of hearts broken and a lot of people angry.  Will and his father, Dan are estranged, and his mother left years ago.  When he visits Dan in jail, he finds that time hasn’t healed old wounds.  There’s too much bad blood between the men, and although Will feels no good will come of staying around, he is persuaded to confront his demons by fellow agent Jessica Reel.  But then another murder changes everything, and stone cold killer Robie will finally have to get to grips with his toughest assignment of all.  His family.  The Guilty is by David Baldacci and is due to be published in November 2015.

He was called to redeem a debt of honour ...Top-ranked sniper Kyle Swanson was a promising young Marine on a dangerous peace-keeping mission in Mogadishu, Somalia when he first captured 'the Cobra', and it could have cost him his life - had it not been for the schoolteacher who risked her own to save him. Now Swanson is sent on a mission to track down two targets: one is the Cobra, the warlord who spent twenty years imprisoned after Swanson captured him and is now back in charge of the Somali underworld, vowing vengeance on the Marine; the other is the grandson of the schoolteacher who once saved his life, who has joined the Cobra's army of terror. The boy had been swept up in a Detroit-based Somali gang before fleeing back to the protection of the Cobra. His grandmother swears he's innocent, but the CIA tells Kyle to kill him. To find the truth and accomplish his mission, Swanson must return to the one place he had hoped he'd never see again - where the Cobra lies in wait.  One Hit is by Jack Coughlin and Donald A Davis and is due to be published in December 2015.

There is nobody in the world who knows that we are here ...A woman arrives in the village of Winsford on Exmoor. She has travelled a long way and chosen her secluded cottage carefully. Maria's sole intention is to outlive her beloved dog Castor. And to survive the torrent of memories that threaten to overwhelm her. Weeks before, Maria and her husband Martin fled Stockholm under a cloud. The couple were bound for Morocco, where Martin planned to write an explosive novel; one that would reveal the truth behind dark events within his commune of writers decades before. But the couple never made it to their destination. As Maria settles into her lonely new life, walking the wild, desolate moors, it becomes clear that Winsford isn't quite the sanctuary she thought it would be. While the long, dark evenings close in and the weather worsens, strange things begin to happen around her. But what terrible secrets is Maria guarding? And who is trying to find her? The Living and the Dead in Winsford, is by Håkan Nesser and is due to be published in July 2015.

Blade of Light is a gripping addition to the phenomenally successful Inspector Montalbano mysteries by Andrea Camilleri.  It is due to be published in September 2015. For a brief moment, as Montalbano was looking, a bright blade of light flashed from the loft and shone straight in his eyes. Despite the sunglasses, he instinctively shut his eyes and when he reopened them the light was gone ...When a gentleman arrives at Montalbano's station to report an armed robbery on his wife that ended with a kiss, the inspector's suspicions are aroused. As he delves deeper into the case, Montalbano finds that none of the witnesses' stories are adding up, and he can't help but feel that they're not meant to. When a body turns up showing all the signs of a mafia hit, the inspector knows he must excavate the truth from what he is being led to believe. Meanwhile there's a case that keeps winding its way back to Montalbano's office. A locked door has suddenly appeared on a farmer's disused shed, and then, just as quickly, the door disappears. The anti-terrorist police soon intervene, but why are they so keen to keep this away from the inspector? And why does he sense that this case is connected to him somehow? With deceit at every turn and a distraction of the heart taking over his head, Inspector Montalbano must focus if he is ever going to solve this mystery.

Nate Colgan: a violent man; 'smart muscle' for the Jamieson organization. Someone to be afraid of. But now, with its most powerful individuals either dead or behind bars, things within the Jamieson organization are beginning to shift. When Nate, long working on the fringes of the business, is reluctantly appointed its new 'security consultant', he can little imagine how things are about to unravel ...It begins with an execution, a message; and soon the various factions within the organization are sent into chaos. But out of the confusion comes one clear fact: a new group has arrived in Glasgow, and in their quest for power they are prepared to ignite a war. But who is behind the group? And why has the calculating Zara Cope - the mother of Nate's child - suddenly appeared back in town? Meanwhile DI Fisher, buoyed by his recent successes in finally jailing some of the city's most notorious criminals, is prowling on the edges of these latest battles, looking for his chance to strike before all hell breaks loose. Every Night I Dream of Hell is by Malcolm Mackay and is due to be published in August 2015.