2025 CWA Daggers Shortlist announced

The 2025 shortlist for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, are announced.

Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

The prestigious KAA Gold Dagger, sponsored by Kevin Anderson & Associates, is awarded for the best crime novel of the year

The shortlist includes the debut novel from Bonnie Burke-Patel’s Died at Fallow Hall, up against established authors in the genre, including RJ Ellory with The Bell Tower, Tana French’s The Hunter, and Attica Locke’s Guide Me Home.

It also features two historical crime books with D.V. Bishop’s A Divine Fury, and Anna Mazzola’s The Book of Secrets.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, showcases the thriller of the year.

The shortlist sees Lou Berne’s masterful thriller, Dark Ride, up against previous winner of the Steel Dagger, MW Craven, with Nobody’s Hero. Also making the list are Garry Disher with Sanctuary, Abir Mukherjee’s Hunted, Stuart Neville with Blood Like Mine and the iconic American author, Don Winslow with City in Ruins.

The much-anticipated ILP John Creasey First Novel Dagger highlights the best debut novels.

Among the rising stars of 2025 is the debut set in the shadow of the Yorkshire Ripper, Katy Massey’s All of Us Are Sinners. Jessica Bull’s Miss Austen Investigates, Justine Champine’s Knife River, Anders Lustgarten’s Three Burials are also contenders alongside Gay Marris with A Curtain Twitcher's Book of Murder and Marie Tierney with Deadly Animals.

The Historical Dagger, sponsored by Morgan Witzel in memory of Dr Marilyn Livingstone.

Two novels feature on both the Gold and the Historical Dagger shortlist. DV Bishop’s A Divine Fury is the fourth in the Cesare Aldo series featuring a sixteenth century detective in Florence, and Anna Mazzola’s The Book of Secrets set in 17th century Italy. 

The shortlist also includes Chris Lloyd: Banquet of Beggars, Clare Whitfield with Poor Girls, and A.J. West, The Betrayal of Thomas True which is set in a London underworld in the year 1710.

Nadine Matheson, Chair of the CWA, said: “Congratulations to everyone who has been shortlisted for these prestigious awards. It’s not only a joy but it’s inspiring to see such a rich variety of stories and voices being celebrated. The 2025 CWA Daggers shortlist is a true reflection of the growing strength of crime writing today. The contributed work of every shortlisted writer is shaping the future of the genre, and their work reminds us why we fell in love with these stories in the first place.”

The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger, sponsored in honour of Dolores Jakubowski, features the smash-hit, Waterstones Book of the Month, Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton.  The queer debut gangland thriller The Night of Baba Yaga from Japan’s Akira Otani also makes the shortlist shortly after winning the 2025 CrimeFest Debut Crime Novel of the Year, sponsored by Specsavers.

The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction includes a giant of the genre with John Grisham and Jim McCloskey’s Framed, which looks at ten wrongful convictions, and Kate Summerscale’s retelling of the Christie murders, The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place.

The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story.

This year sees multiple bestselling names from the genre up for the award including Janice Hallett, and Ruth Ware, up against lesser established names such as the academic and expert on Agatha Christie, J.C Bernthal, with the short story, A Date on Yarmouth Pier.

The Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and diversity in crime writing, pits independent publisher Bitter Lemon Press against Faber, Orenda, Pan Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. 

2025 sees the announcement of two new CWA Dagger Awards. The Twisted Dagger celebrates psychological thrillers and dark and twisty tales that often feature unreliable narrators, disturbed emotions, a healthy dose of moral ambiguity, and a sting in the tail. 

Shortlisted titles include Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings, Catherine Steadman’s Look in the Mirror, and Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra.

The Whodunnit Dagger celebrates books that focus on the intellectual challenge at the heart of a good mystery. Books in this category include cosy crime, traditional crime, and Golden Age-inspired mysteries. Amongst the six shortlisted authors are Lisa Hall with The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl and Laura Marshall with A Good Place to Hide a Body.

The Dagger in the Library nominee longlist is voted by librarians and library users, chosen for the author’s body of work and support of libraries. 

This year’s sees established names including the bestselling phenomenon Richard Osman, the acclaimed Kate Atkinson, JK Rowling’s crime alter-ego Robert Galbraith, the award-winning mystery author Janice Hallett, bestseller Lisa Jewell and author of sixty historical crime novels, Edward Marston.

The Emerging Author Dagger, which has been going for over 20 years, celebrates aspiring crime novelists and is sponsored by Fiction Feedback, also welcomes six new upcoming authors.

The competition is open to unpublished authors, and is judged on the best opening for an unpublished crime novel. The winner will gain the attention of leading agents and top editors; over two dozen past winners and shortlisted Debut Dagger authors have signed publishing deals to date.

The CWA Diamond Dagger, awarded to an author whose crime-writing career has been marked by sustained excellence, is announced in early spring and in 2025 was awarded to Mick Herron.

The winners will be announced at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on 3 July.

 The Shortlist in Full:

KAA GOLD DAGGER

A Divine Fury by D V Bishop (Macmillan)

The Bell Tower by R J Ellory (Orion)

The Hunter by Tana French (Penguin Books Ltd)

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Profile Books Ltd)

 Book of Secrets byAnna Mazzola (Orion)

I Died at Fallow Hall by Bonnie Burke-Patel (Bedford Square Publishers)

 

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

Dark Ride by Lou Berney (Hemlock Press/ HarperCollins)

Nobody's Hero by M W Craven (Constable/Little Brown, Hachette)

Sanctuary by Garry Disher (Viper/Profile Books)

Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill & Secker/ Penguin Random House)

Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville (Simon & Schuster)

City in Ruins by Don Winslow (Hemlock Press/HarperCollins)

 

ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull (Penguin Random House/ Michael Joseph)

Knife River by Justine Champine (Bonnier Books UK/ Manilla Press)

Three Burials by Anders Lustgarten (Penguin Random House/ Hamish Hamilton) 

A Curtain Twitcher's Book of Murder by Gay Marris (Bedford Square Publishers)         

All Us Sinners by Katy Massey (Little, Brown /Sphere)

Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney (Bonnier Books UK/ Zaffre)

 HISTORICAL DAGGER

A Divine Fury by D.V. Bishop (Macmillan)

Banquet of Beggars by Chris Lloyd (Orion Fiction/Orion Publishing)

The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola (Orion Fiction/Orion Publishing)

The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West  (Orenda Books)

Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield (Aries / Head of Zeus)

 

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Dogs and Wolves by Hervé Le Corre (Europa Editions UK) tr. Howard Curtis

Going to the Dogs by Pierre Lemaitre (Maclehose Press) tr. Frank Wynne

The Night of Baby Yaga by Akira Otani (Faber & Faber) tr. Sam Bett

The Clues in the Fjord by Satu Rämö (Zaffre) tr.  Kristian London  

Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate) tr. Polly Barton

Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán (4th Estate) tr. Sophie Hughes

 

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 

Unmasking Lucy Letby by Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz (Seven Dials)   

The Lady in the Lake by Jeremy Craddock (Mirror Books)   

Framed by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey (Hodder & Stoughton)  

The Criminal Mind by Duncan Harding (PRH/Michael Joseph)   

Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming (Quercus)   

The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Circus)   

SHORT STORY DAGGER

‘The Glorious Twelfth’ by S.J Bennett: in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

‘A Date on Yarmouth Pier’ by J.C Bernthal in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

'Why Harrogate?’ by Janice Hallett in Murder in Harrogate edited by Vaseem Khan (Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction)

‘City Without Shadows’ by William Burton McCormick in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

‘A Ruby Sun’ by Meeti Shroff-Shah in Midsummer Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards (Flame Tree Publishing/Flame Tree Collections)

‘Murder at the Turkish Baths’by Ruth Ware in Murder in Harrogate edited by Vaseem Khan, (Orion Publishing Group/ Orion Fiction)

WHODUNNIT DAGGER

 A Death in Diamonds by SJ Bennett, (Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre)

 Murder at the Christmas Emporium by Andreina Cordani,(Bonnier Books UK, Zaffre)

 The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl by Lisa Hall, (Hera Hera)

A Good Place to Hide a Body by Laura Marshall, (Hodder & Stoughton )

 A Matrimonial Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah, (Joffe Books)

Murder at the Matinee, by Jamie West, (Brabinger Publishing)

TWISTED DAGGER

Emma, Disappeared by Andrew Hughes (Hachette Books Ireland)

Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings (HarperCollins/ HQ FICTION)

The Stranger In Her House by John Marrs (Amazon Publishing/ Thomas & Mercer)

The Trials Of Marjorie Crowe by CS Robertson (Hodder & Stoughton)              

 Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra: (PRH/ Viking)

Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman (Quercus)           

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Kate Atkinson

Robert Galbraith

Janice Hallett

Lisa Jewell

Edward Marston

Richard Osman

 

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

Bitter Lemon Press

Faber & Faber

Orenda Books

Pan Macmillan

Simon & Schuster

 

EMERGING AUTHOR DAGGER

Bahadur Is My Name by Loftus Brown, 

Funeral Games by Shannon Chamberlain

 Soho Love, Soho Blood by Hywel Davies

Ashland by Joe Eurell

 The Fifth by Shannon Falkson,

Murder Under Wraps by Catherine Lovering, 

 

Books to Look Forward To From Europa Editions

 June 2021

In the Shadow of the Fire is by Hervé Le Corre. A breathless criminal investigation against the bloody canvas of the French Revolution. The Paris Commune's "bloody week" sees the climax of the savagery of the clashes between the Communards and the French Armed Forces loyal to Versailles. Amid the shrapnel and the chaos, while the entire west side of Paris is a field of ruins, a photographer fascinated by the suffering of young women takes "suggestive" photos to sell to a particular clientele. Young women begin disappearing, and when Caroline, a seamstress who volunteers at a first aid station, is counted among the missing, her fiance Nicolas, a member of the Commune's National Guard, and Communal security officer Antoine, sets off independently in search of her. Their race against the clock to find her takes them through the shell-shocked streets of Paris, and introduces them to a cast of fascinating characters.

August 2021

The Bastards face their hardest challenge yet. Sometimes it takes facing a formidable adversary to truly know one's worth. The Bastards of Pizzofalcone may have found just that: when the brutal murder of a baker rattles the city, they are ready to investigate. There's nothing they wouldn't do to prove themselves to their community. But this time the police are divided: for the special anti-mob branch, the local mafia is doubtlessly responsible for the crime, but the Bastards are not so sure and think there may be another reason for the murder of the renowned artisan, whose traditionally baked bread attracted customers from far and wide. A rivalry between the policeman and the magistrate is formed, one that, in the end, will extend to more than just their work lives. Bread: The Bastards of Pizzofalcone is by Maurizio Giovanni.

November 2021

An addictive and nuanced narrative about conflict-rife Colombia. A boy witnesses a violent confrontation in a remote part of town in the state of Cauca, Colombia. Minutes later, someone arrives at the scene to clear up all trace of the incident. No one in town claims to have heard or seen anything, and yet an anonymous accusation launches a dangerous investigation that unfolds within the corrupt world of the Christian churches of Latin America. A story that urgently reveals inequality and violence that govern an entire country. The Night Will Be Long is a devastatingly humorous thriller by Santiago Gambao.

 

Books to Look Forward To From Europa Editions

January 2021 

The third and final installment in the remarkable Marseilles Trilogy (Total Chaos, Chourmo), Solea continues Jean-Claude Izzo’s distinctive brand of vibrant crime writing, skillfully evoking a time and place that has captured the hearts and imaginations of readers the world over. Marseilles’ simmering issues of race, politics, organized crime and big business come to a rolling boil. Ex-cop, loner, would-be bon vivant, Fabio Montale is back and his heartfelt cry against the criminal forces devastating his beloved Marseilles provides the touching conclusion to a trilogy that epitomizes the aspirations and ideals of the Mediterranean noir movement. 

May 2021

It’s the middle of a long hot summer on the French Mediterranean shore and the town is full of tourists. Sebag and Molina, two tired cops who are being slowly devoured by dull routine and family worries, deal with the day’s misdemeanors and petty complaints at the Perpignan police headquarters without a trace of enthusiasm. Out of the blue a young Dutch woman is brutally murdered on a beach at Argelès, and another disappears without a trace in the alleys of the city. A serial killer obsessed with Dutch women? Maybe. The media goes wild. Gilles Sebag finds himself thrust into the middle of a diabolical game. If he intends to salvage something—anything—he will have to put aside his domestic cares, forget his suspicions of his wife’s unfaithfulness, ignore his heart murmur, and get over his existential angst. “He waits joylessly, patiently, and lets himself go. The stone house may end up being his grave. Who’s doing what, who’s chasing who? Who is the mouse, and who’s the cat?” Summertime, All the Cats are Bored is by Phillippe Georget.

June 2021

In the Shadow of the Fire is by Hervé Le Corre. A breathless criminal investigation set against the bloody canvas of the Paris Commune The Paris Commune’s “bloody week” sees the climax of the savagery of the clashes between the Communards and the French Armed Forces loyal to Versailles. Amid the shrapnel and the chaos, while the entire west side of Paris is a field of ruins, a photographer fascinated by the suffering of young women takes “suggestive” photos to sell to a particular clientele. Young women begin disappearing, and when Caroline, a seamstress who volunteers at a first aid station, is counted among the missing, her fiancé Nicolas, a member of the Commune’s National Guard, and Communal security officer Antoine, sets off independently in search of her. Their race against the clock to find her takes them through the shell-shocked streets of Paris, and introduces them to a cast of fascinating characters. 

Books to look forward to from Quercus

July

 

Blackwater is by James Henry.  January 1983, Colchester CID A new year brings new resolutions for Detective Inspector Nicholas Lowry. With one eye on his approaching fortieth birthday, he has given up his two greatest vices: smoking, and the police boxing team. As a result, the largest remaining threat to his health is now his junior colleague's reckless driving. If Detective Constable Daniel Kenton's orange sports convertible is symbolic of his fast track through the ranks, then his accompanying swagger, foppish hairstyle and university education only augment his uniqueness in the department. Yet regardless of this, it is not DC Kenton who is turning station heads. WPC Jane Gabriel is the newest police recruit in Britain's oldest recorded town. Despite a familial tie to top brass, Gabriel's striking beauty and profound youth have landed her with two obstacles: a young male colleague who gives her too much attention, and an older one who acts like she's not there. January 1983, Blackwater Estuary A new year brings a new danger to the Essex shoreline. An illicit shipment, bound for Colchester - 100 kilograms of powder that will frantically accelerate tensions in the historic town, and leave its own murderous trace. Lowry, Kenton and Gabriel must now develop a tolerance to one another, and show their own substance, to save Britain's oldest settlement from a new, unsettling enemy.

Sophie is haunted by the things she can't remember - and visions from the past she will never forget. One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her care is dead. She has no memory of what happened. And whatever the truth, her side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her. Her only hiding place is in a new identity. A new life, with a man she has met online. But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets. Blood Wedding is by Pierre Lemaitre

August

Lennox liked Quiet Tommy Quaid. Perhaps it's odd for a private detective to like - even admire - a career thief, but Quiet Tommy Quaid was the sort of man everyone liked. Amiable, easy-going, well-dressed, with no vices to speak of - well, aside from his excessive drinking and womanising, but then in 1950s Glasgow those are practically virtues. And besides, throughout his many exploits outside the law, Quiet Tommy never once used violence. It was rumoured to be the police who gave him his nickname - because whenever they caught him, which was not often, he always came quietly. So probably even the police liked him, deep down. Above all, the reason people liked Tommy was that he you knew exactly what you were dealing with. Here, everybody realized, was someone who was exactly, simply and totally who and what he seemed to be. But when Tommy turns up dead, Lennox and the rest of Glasgow will find out just how wrong they were.  The Quiet Death of Thomas Quaid is by Craig Russell

Ivory is by Tony Park. Alex Tremain is a pirate who needs to up his game. He's facing a mounting tide of debts and his crew of ex-military cutthroats are getting restless. A chance raid on a wildlife smugglers' ship promises both bounty and excitement. Unfortunately it also sets the Chinese triads after him. As a pleasing distraction corporate lawyer Jane Humphries lands, literally, in his lap. But once again his luck doesn't last - it turns out her lover is a ruthless shipping magnate backed up by a bunch of deadly contract killers. What Alex needs is one last, big heist. When the South African government makes a controversial decision to reinstate the culling of elephants in its national parks, Alex thinks his luck has finally changed. He couldn't be more wrong ...

Kill Me Twice by Anna Smith.  A beautiful model's death uncovers an ugly conspiracy stretching all the way to Westminster in Rosie Gilmour's darkest case to date. When rags-to-riches Scots supermodel Bella Mason plunges to her death from the roof of a glitzy Madrid hotel, everyone assumes it was suicide. Except that one person saw exactly what happened to Bella that night, and she definitely didn't jump. But Millie Chambers has no one she can tell - alcoholic, depressed herself and now sectioned by her bullying politician husband, who would believe her? And that's not all Millie knows. Being close to the heart of Westminster power can lead to discovering some awful secrets...Back in Glasgow, Rosie's research into Bella's life leads to her brother, separated from her in care years before. Dan is now a homeless heroin addict and rent boy, but what he reveals about Bella's early life is electrifying: organised sexual abuse in care homes across Glasgow. Bella had tracked him down so that they could tell the world their story. And now she's dead. As Rosie's drive to expose the truth leads her closer to Millie and the shameful secrets she has kept for so many years, it becomes clear that what she's about to discover could prove fatal: a web of sexual abuse linking powerful figures across the nation, and the rot at the very heart of the British Establishment...

After the War is by Hervé Le Corre. 1950's Bordeaux. Even now, the Second World War is never far from people's memories, particularly in a city where the scars of collaboration and resistance are more keenly felt than ever. But another war has already begun. A war without a name, far away across the sea, in Algeria, where young men are sent to fight in a brutal conflict. Daniel knows what awaits him. He's heard stories. Patrols, ambushes, reprisals, massacres, mutilations, all beneath a burning north African sun. He has just a month left before he leaves but, haunted by the loss of his parents and sister in the atrocities of the last war, Daniel questions why he is even going to fight in the first place. Meanwhile, past crimes are returning to haunt Albert Darlac, the godfather of Bordeaux: corrupt police chief, fascist sympathiser and one-time collaborator. Before long, a series of explosive events will set off a spiral of violence that will bring the horrific legacy of wars past and present to the streets of Bordeaux.

September

My husband's lover. They said her death was a tragic accident. And I believed them ...until now. Carmen is happily married to Tom, a successful London lawyer and divorc with three children. She is content to absorb the stresses of being a stepmother to teenagers and the stain of 'second wife'. She knows she'll always live in the shadow of another woman - not Tom's first wife Laura, who is resolutely polite and determinedly respectable, but the lover that ended his first marriage: Zena. Zena who was shockingly beautiful. Zena who drowned swimming late one night. But Carmen can overlook her husband's dead mistress ...until she starts to suspect that he might have been the person who killed her.  Undertow is by Elizabeth Heathcote.

Beneath the Surface is by Jo Spain. Ryan Finnegan, a high-ranking government official, is brutally slain in Leinster House, the seat of the Irish parliament. Detective Inspector Tom Reynolds and his team are called in to uncover the truth behind the murder. As the suspects start to rack up, Tom must untangle a web of corruption, sordid secrets and sinister lies. At first, all the evidence hints at a politically motivated crime, until a surprise discovery takes the investigation in a dramatically different direction. Suddenly the motive for murder has got a lot more personal ...but who benefits the most from Ryan's death?

Dr Adam Knox returns from the war in Afghanistan a little rougher, a little wiser, and a lot more inclined to kick it to the ones at the top. The ones in charge. He sets up a clinic in Los Angeles's most notorious district, tending to the vagrant, the vulnerable and the victims of skid row. One night they're beseeched by a Romanian woman who comes in with her son. Her bruises give away a story she's too scared to tell; escaping from traffickers and forced prostitution to try to get her son back. He was kidnapped by his father - who happens to be heir to one of the most influential dynasties on the West Coast. That same night, Knox is called upon for his private health service - cutting out a bullet from a businessman who was cutting himself a shady deal. Impressed by his ability to keep a secret, the impatient patient offers Knox a big tip for some extra work: helping him get revenge on the gangsters who shot him. Knox - and his clinic - need the cash. Playing one team against another, Knox must keep his wits scalpel-sharp. If his diagnosis is on the money, he might be able to trick the gangsters, free the Romanian mother and put the ones at the top in their place for once. Dr Knox is by Peter Spiegelman

The Acid Test is by Élmer Mendoza.  When the mutilated body of Mayra Cabral de Melo, a well-known stripper, is found by the side of a dusty road, detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta has personal reasons for bringing the culprit to justice. Mayra had no shortage of ardent, deluded and downright dangerous admirers, and Lefty himself is haunted by one steamy night he spent in her generous company. So begins an investigation that will bring him ever closer to the murderous world of the narcos, who are waging a war of bloody attrition against the Mexican state. The country is a powder keg, waiting for a spark, and Mendieta is about to enter the darkest days of his life. Corrupt politicians, failed boxers and unscrupulous arms dealers all lie in wait across the path to justice - none of which can prepare him for a brush with the F.B.I. when the father of the President of the United States is attacked on vacation. But for all these perils it is the weight of his own murky past that Lefty finds hardest to bear. And as he scratches around for clues, faced with a gallery of suspects who all have a motive and that murderous glint in their eye, the reappearance of Samantha Vald s, now the boss of the Cartel del Pac fico, adds one more piece to an already impenetrable puzzle.

October

Private investigator Danny Katz is trying to track down his former drug dealer. Ram n and his girlfriend Jenny have both vanished leaving behind a lot of unanswered questions. How come Ram n suddenly found himself in possession of the mother-load of drugs? And is Jenny really who she claims to be? Katz's investigation leads him to the darkest corners of Stockholm's porn industry and once again his old addiction threatens to control him. Ultimately only one thing seems certain - someone is willing to do whatever it takes to keep Katz from discovering the brutal truth.  The Tunnel is by Carl-Johan Vallgren.

The Black Friar is by S G Maclean. London, 1655, and Cromwell's regime is under threat from all sides. Damian Seeker, Captain of Cromwell's Guard, is all too aware of the danger facing Cromwell. Parliament resents his control of the Army while the Army resents his absolute power. In the east end of London, a group of religious fanatics plots rebellion. In the midst of all this, a stonemason uncovers a

perfectly preserved body dressed in the robes of a Dominican friar, bricked up in a wall in the crumbling Black Friars. Ill-informed rumours and speculation abound, but Seeker instantly recognises the dead man. What he must discover is why he met such a hideous end, and what his connection was to the children who have started to disappear from around the city. Unravelling these mysteries is challenging enough, and made still harder by the activities of dissenters at home, Royalist plotters abroad and individuals who are not what they seem...

Lola Jost, once of the Paris Police, is busy fending off boredom with a jigsaw puzzle when Gendarme Capitaine Hardy knocks on her door. Arnaud Mars - a former police divisionnaire on the run after being implicated in a seismic defence contracts scandal - has been found dead in Abidjan in they Ivory Coast. The Smith and Wesson that killed him belongs to Commandant Sacha Duguin, a longstanding friend of Lola's. Lola, convinced of Duguin's innocence, throws off her torpor. Together with her occasional partner in crime fighting Ingrid Diesel - who she must first extract from Las Vegas - she embarks on a journey from Africa back to France via Hong Kong, once again on a quest to clear an old friend's name. Who was really behind Mars' death? And what is it that has made Duguin the ideal scapegoat? Sun and Shadows is by Dominique Sylvain.

Dodger of the Revolution is by James Benmore.  The Artful Dodger faces his most dangerous adventure yet as he leaves Dickensian London and finds himself manning the barricades in defence of liberty, fraternity and larceny in the 1848 Paris uprising. For Dodger, life as a criminal kingpin is losing its allure. Leading a gang of petty thieves from the Seven Dials is not as easy as Fagin made it look and after a year in charge Jack Dawkins has been reduced to a shadow of the man who used to be the envy of every pickpocket in London. Opium-addicted and heavy-fingered, Dodger is fast becoming a laughing stock on his own patch until a chance encounter leads him to Paris and a job like nothing he's had before. In a city alive with rebellion, Dodger must avoid assassins, jilted lovers and revolutionaries, and rediscover his touch if he is to lift his most precious treasure yet. 

November

Seventeen-year-old Hattie Hoffman is a talented actress, loved by everyone in her Minnesotan hometown. So when she's found stabbed to death on the opening night of her school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of the community. Local sheriff Del Goodman, a good friend of Hattie's dad, vows to find her killer, but the investigation yields more secrets than answers; it turns out Hattie played as many parts offstage as on. Told from three perspectives: Del's, Hattie's high school English teacher and Hattie herself, The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman is by Mindy Mejia and tells the story of the real Hattie, and what happened that final year of school when she dreamed of leaving her small town behind ...

The Blood Card is by Elly Griffiths. Elizabeth II's coronation is looming, but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright's possession, and a playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the suggestion of magic are enough for him to put Stephens and Mephisto on the case. Edgar's investigation into the death of Brighton fortune-teller Madame Zabini is put on hold. Max is busy rehearsing for a spectacular Coronation Day variety show - and his television debut - so it's Edgar who is sent to New York, a land of plenty worlds away from still-rationed England. He's on the trail of a small-town mesmerist who may provide the key, but someone else silences him first. It's Sergeant Emma Holmes who finds the clue, buried in the files of the Zabini case, that leads them to an anarchist group intent on providing an explosive finale to Coronation Day. Now it's up to Edgar, Max and Emma to foil the plot, and find out who it is who's been dealing the cards ...

Books to Look Forward to from Quercus

The Dark is by V M Giambanco and is due to be published in September 2014.  Seattle Homicide Detective Alice Madison is bound to jailed murderer John Cameron and attorney Nathan Quinn by a debt that cannot be repaid, by a nightmare that changed their lives forever.  When the remains of Quinn's younger brother - murdered when he was a boy - are discovered in a shallow grave, Madison vows to follow the trail of brutal deaths that leads to the truth.  A sadistic killer stalks the investigation, as Madison's own demons threaten her future career with the police and darkness closes in.  How far is she prepared to go to save a life?

Graham Weber has been the director of the CIA for less than a week when a Swiss kid in a dirty T-shirt walks into the American consulate in Hamburg and says the agency has been hacked, and he has a list of agents' names to prove it.  This is the moment a CIA director most dreads.  Weber turns to a charismatic (and unstable) young man named James Morris who runs the Internet Operations Centre.  He's the CIA's in-house geek.  Weber launches Morris on a mole hunt unlike anything in spy fiction one that takes the reader into the hacker underground of Europe and America and ends up in a landscape of paranoia and betrayal.  Like the new world of cyber-espionage from which it's drawn, The Director is a maze of deception and double dealing, about a world where everything is written in zeroes and ones and nothing can be trusted.  The CIA has belatedly discovered that this is not your father’s Cold War, and Weber must play catch-up, against the clock and an unknown enemy, in a game he does not yet understand.  The Director is by David Ignatius and is due to be published in June 2014.

The Arc of the Swallow is by Sissel-Jo Gazan and is due to be published in November 2014.When controversial Immunology Professor Kristian Storm is found hanged in his office his assistant Marie Skov refuses to believe that he has committed suicide. Grappling with Storm’s disputed legacy, she uncovers a scandal behind vaccination programmes in West Africa, leading her behind the scene of the cut-throat pharmaceutical industry.

The Root of all Evil is the second book in the Commissario Michele Balistreri series  by Roberto

Costantini and is due to be published in August 2014.  Tripoli, 1960s. During the years in which post-colonial Libya fell prey to the sprawling greed of the West, Michele Balistreri suffered a succession of blows that would scar him for life.  The death of his mother; the unspeakable horror that befell his best friend's family; his father's role in Gaddafi's ascent to power; and the innocent blood pact that would corrupt the course of his future.  Rome, 1982. In the wake of a ruinous blunder, a ground-down Commissario Balistreri escapes his regrets through sex, alcohol, and gambling.  His sole responsibilities are now a stilted investigation into the death of a South American student, and a tiresome obligation - as a gratitude to the man who saved his career - to a rising television starlet needing protection from the pitfalls of fame.  As the risks to this girl, Claudia Teodori, begin to rise along with her reputation, the sorrows of Balistreri's past also start to push back into his present.  Both of their fates are inextricably linked - and this driven, obsessive young woman must help this damaged detective fight a foe that follows her and refuses to forget him.

  

Research is by Philip Kerr and is due to be published in July 2014.  The rolling strip across the bottom of the screen shouts the news: BESTSELLING NOVELIST JOHN HOUSTON'S WIFE FOUND MURDERED AT THEIR LUXURY APARTMENT IN MONACO.  Houston is the richest writer in the world, a book factory publishing many bestsellers a year - so many that he can't possibly write them himself. He has a team that feeds off his talent; ghost writers, agents, publishers.  So when he decides to take a year out to write something of quality, a novel that will win prizes and critical acclaim, a lot of people stand to lose their livelihoods.  Now Houston, the prime suspect in his wife's murder, has disappeared.  He owns a boat and has a pilot's licence - he could be anywhere and there are many who'd like to find him.  First there's the police. If he's innocent, why did he flee?  Then again, maybe he was set up by one of his enemies.  The scenario reads like the plot of one of Houston's million-copy-selling thrillers...

A suspicious device is found inside a suitcase near a nursery in Holon, Tel Aviv.  The children are

taken to safety; a man is caught fleeing the scene.  Then comes the phone call: ‘thee suitcase is only the beginning.’  And it is.  Chaim Sara's son is glad not to be at nursery that day.  He has been bullied - there are bruises.  Chaim, taking care of both his children since the sudden absence of his wife, watches with anticipation as the police search for clues.  Inspector Avraham is thrust into the investigation, still haunted by the failure of his last case.  Witnesses are unforthcoming; suspects are eliminated.  Then a frightening act of violence shifts his understanding.  The suitcase has alerted him to a greater danger; one more private, and deeply disturbing.  No one believes in it but him.  And he will do anything to stop it in its tracks.  A Possibility of Violence is by D A Mishani and is due to be published in September 2014.

Bavaria, Germany, 1947.  At the end of the war, Afra Zauner returns to her parents' cottage on the edge of Mauther Forest.  Unmarried, and pregnant. As she struggles to raise her child, her father's shame, her mother's fury, and the loud whispers of the neighbours begin to weigh upon her.  She doesn't believe in her sin.  But everyone else does.  And someone brings judgement down upon her.  Many years later, Hermann Muller is throwing a drunk out of his tavern.  A traveller, who won't stop ranting about a murder left unsolved, about police who never investigated.  Out of curiosity, the file is reopened.  And in the cold light of hindsight, a chilling realisation creeps upon the community.  No one ever atoned for Afra's death.  But her story is waiting to be told. The Dark Meadow is by Andrea Maria Schenkel and is due to be published in August 2014.

Lake Wales, Central Florida.  Ten years ago, a political fundraiser became a bloodbath when a hooded assassin carried out a savage public execution.  Three men were massacred, casting a dark shadow over the Sunshine State.  A decade on, history is threatening to repeat itself.  The widow of one victim, herself now running for governor, has received an anonymous threat - a newspaper clipping from that fateful day, along with the chilling words 'I'm back.’  Florida detective Cab Bolton agrees to investigate the threat against this candidate, Diane Fairmont: an attractive politician who has a complicated history with Cab's mother, Hollywood actress Tarla Bolton - and with Cab himself.  But by doing so, Cab is entering dangerous waters.  Fairmont's political party is itself swamped in secrecy - a fact that, unknown to Cab, has led one of its junior staff to start asking very sensitive questions about the death of a party employee.  Both Cab and this young researcher, Peach Piper, are digging up the kind of dirt that ten years can't wash away.  And as the powerful crosswinds of state politics swirl around Cab and Peach, and the threat of a tropical storm hangs over Florida, this whirlwind of pressure and chaos will ultimately unearth a poisonous conspiracy, and reawaken a killer who has lain dormant for a decade.  Season of Fear is by Brian Freeman and is due to be published in July 2014.

Arab Jazz is by Karim Miské and is due to be published in August 2014.  Kosher sushi, kebabs, a second hand bookshop, and a bar: the 19th arrondissement in Paris is a cosmopolitan neighbourhood where multicultural citizens live, love, and worship alongside one another.  This peace is shattered when Ahmed Taroudant's melancholy daydreams are interrupted by the blood dripping from his upstairs neighbour's brutally mutilated corpse.  The violent murder of Laura Vignole, and the roast pork placed next to her, set imaginations ablaze across the neighbourhood, and Ahmed finds himself the prime suspect.  However detectives Rachel Kupferstein and Jean Hamelot have plenty to go on, as they uncover a volatile underworld of drug trafficking and religious fundamentalism.  In this his debut novel, Karim Miské demonstrates a masterful control of setting, as he moves seamlessly between the sensual streets of Paris and the synagogues of New York to reveal the truth behind a horrifying crime.

A devastating analysis of the human capacity for violence and redemption. 1957: a pacifist goes to war.  2008: a policeman on the warpath.  Set between Paris and Algeria, the overlapping fates of these two men reveal a dark conspiracy to mask the blackest chapter of French history, which can only be undone by the most unlikely hero: a thuggish ex-boxer who’ll do anything for cash . . . Loser’s Corner is by Antonin Varenne and is due to be published in December 2014.

Stockholm, September 2011.  Carina Dymek is on a fast track for promotion at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when she is approached by a stranger and given a USB stick containing a report to circulate in her department.  Unwittingly, she delivers a time bomb of classified information that sends her career up in flames and puts her on the radar of the security service, Sapo.  Tasked with investigating how Dymek gained access to the confidential report, the formidable Bente Jensen of Sapo is quietly approached by the British MI6, who have an undisclosed interest in the leak. She finds out that Dymek's boyfriend is an Egyptian Swedish national.  But it's MI6 who link his family to an extreme faction within the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo. The case explodes into an international manhunt.  Liaising with the ruthless MI6, Bente uncovers the secretive plans contained in that leaked report: plans for an omnipotent Europe-wide Intelligence Service.  Forces hone in on Dymek, while Bente begins to suspect she is a red herring caught in a far wider net: one in which social media is abused for intelligence and civil rights are sacrificed to national security.  Into a Raging Blaze is by Andreas Norman and is due to be published in July 2014.

Four lives are about to come crashing together...Devastated by the murder of his sister in Soho seven years ago, Mark Davis travels to London to carry out an act of violence that he believes will avenge her death.  PhD student Stella is returning to London with her partner Paula to visit a fertility clinic.  But Stella is hiding a secret that could tear their lives apart.  Recovering alcoholic Seb has left his wild days behind him.  As he helps his wife prepare to launch her restaurant in Soho, he feels that his life is finally back on track. But a chance encounter with a stranger brings back tragic memories and puts his family in serious danger.  Kerstin Engel is a brilliant but troubled research analyst.  Haunted by the events of 7/7 when she narrowly escaped death, she has spent the last seven years carrying out a self-imposed penance.  But an unseen enemy lies in wait and threatens to destroy her career and her mind.  As crowds gather in Soho to mark the restaurant launch, a terrifying sequence of events brings these characters together and the last days of summer to a shocking end.  Summer Lies Bleeding is by Nuala Casey and is due to be published in August 2014.

Poisoned Ground is by Barbara Nadel and is due to be published in September 2014.  Ex-soldier Lee Arnold and his Muslim assistant Mumtaz Hakim run a detective agency in London's ethnically diverse, crime-ridden East End.  An Egyptian woman, Salwa, whose husband is in Belmarsh on terrorism charges, approaches Mumtaz.  Salwa convinces Mumtaz of her husband's innocence and persuades her to go undercover to prove it.  But Salwa is not what she seems.  Trapped in an old tunnel that leads to the London docks, will Mumtaz escape with her life?

The Bosch Deception is by Alex Connor and is due to be published in July 2014. A TRUTH CONCEALED.  Brabant, 1473. A clandestine brotherhood hides a secret that could bring down the Catholic Church.  Their chosen hiding place - the art of Hieronymus Bosch. A TERRIBLE CONSPIRACY. London, 2014. An excommunicated priest approaches both the Church and the art world, claiming to possess an artefact that will destroy their reputations.  A TICKING CLOCK. This man, Nicholas Laverne, is poised to end over 500 years of silence and injustice.  Yet, unknown to Nicholas, he has just summoned a killer intent on silencing him.

You'd know if someone close to you was capable of lethal violence, right?  Dead wrong.  Accused of grassing up a fellow officer and driven brutally out of home and job, Grace Fisher is thankful to survive some dark times and find haven with the Major Investigation Team in Essex.  One female student is missing, last seen at a popular bar in Colchester.  When a second student, also out drinking, is murdered and left grotesquely posed, the case becomes headline news.  Someone is leaking disturbing details to a tabloid crime reporter.  Is it the killer?  Or a detective close to the case? With another victim, and under siege by the media, the murder enquiry hits a dead end.  The review team brought in to shake things up is headed by Grace's old DCI.  Who is going to listen to her now?  Good Girls Don’t Die is the first in a new series by Isabelle Grey featuring Detective Grace Fisher.  It is due to be published in September 2014.

London,  1657. All that is known of the Seeker is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell, and that nothing can be hidden from him.  In  a fashionable coffee house, a murder takes place and a lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, found holding a knife over the bleeding body.  Despite the damning evidence, the Seeker is not convinced of Ellingworth’s guilt.  He will stop at nothing to bring the real killer to justice.  The Seeker is by S G Maclean and is the first in a new historical thriller series featuring Damian Seeker, one of Cromwell’s most trusted and feared adherents.  The Seeker is due to be published in October 2014.

In Mark Sullivan’s latest high-octane blockbuster, robin Monarch must seek out and steal a mysterious and much-coveted elixir of life, while at the same time attempting to reclaim something – or, more accurately, someone – cruelly stolen from him.  The perilous trail begins in the deepest recesses of the Brazilian rainforest, and will lure Monarch into a deadly trap where his nemesis will be waiting, and where the fate of those dearest to him will be decided.  Thief is due to be published in December 2014.

Two hours to get away, 22 more to survive.  Security consultant and private investigator Michael Sander is tasked with the investigation of a video that seems to show two people being hunted to their deaths.  His job is to find out who they are, and why they were murdered.  But this isn’t just another case, and these deaths are only one piece of the puzzle.  Michael is investigating the darkest reaches of humanity, uncovering crimes that reach further than he ever imagined.  Trophy is by Steffen Jacobsen and is due to be published in October 2014.

Talking to Ghosts is by Hervé Le Corre and is due to be published in July 2014.  With his son Pablo's kidnapping still unsolved, and his marriage ruined by the torment of hope, the brutal murder of a single mother in her own home is an almost welcome diversion for Commandant Vilar.  The woman leaves behind a son, Victor, thrown into the foster system with only his mother's urn for company.  Struggling with bullies, trauma and the first pangs of teenage love, Victor carries a secret that followed his mother to her grave.  Struggling for leads, Vilar is shaken when the colleague investigating Pablo's kidnapping disappears.  When a sadistic caller claims to have information about his son, Vilar is torn between duty and a desperate chance of redemption.