Books to Look Forward to from Cornerstone

January 2017

Private Delhi is by James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi.  Santosh Wagh quit his job as head of Private India after harrowing events in Mumbai almost got him killed. But Jack Morgan, global head of the world's finest investigation agency, needs him back. Jack is setting up a new office in Delhi, and Santosh is the only person he can trust. Still battling his demons, Santosh accepts, and it's not long before the agency takes on a case that could make or break them. Plastic barrels containing dissolved human remains have been found in the basement of a house in an upmarket area of South Delhi. But this isn't just any house, this property belongs to the state government. With the crime scene in lockdown and information suppressed by the authorities, delving too deep could make Santosh a target to be eliminated.

When the bones of a 21-year old woman who went missing without trace in Thailand in

1990, are discovered in the grounds of an old Catholic school in Buckinghamshire, an enduring mystery takes on a whole new twist. Her boyfriend at the time, and the man who reported her missing, Henry Forbes, now a middle-aged university lecturer, comes forward with his lawyer and tells DI Ray Mason of the Met's Homicide Command that he knows what happened to Kitty, and who killed her. So begins a hunt for the truth that will focus on a ruthless crime gang, a rich, dysfunctional family with a terrible past, and a highly ambitious man so cruel and ruthless that he must be brought down at any cost...  The Bone Field is by Simon Kernick.

The Book of Mirrors is by  E O Chirovici. How would you piece together a murder? Do you trust other people's memories? Do you trust your own? Should you? Princeton, 1987: renowned psychologist Professor Joseph Weider is brutally murdered. New York, twenty-five years later: literary agent Peter Katz receives a manuscript. Or is it a confession? Today: unearth the secrets of The Book of Mirrors and discover why your memory is the most dangerous weapon of all.

February 2017

When soon-to-be mother, Charlotte 'Charlie' Cates begins to have recurring dreams about harm coming to her unborn daughter, she starts to panic. Is her dream simply the product of an anxious mind, or is it a premonition, a message that she and her daughter are in danger? Before she can decipher what it means, Charlie learns that the mother who abandoned her as a toddler, is the victim of a double murder in Arizona. The other victim-a half-sister Charlie never knew she had-has left behind a child, a little girl who speaks to Charlie in her dreams. Convinced that she must help her orphaned niece, Charlie travels to Arizona, where she must confront her own painful ties to her mother ...and untangle a web of secrets that will reveal the truth of her own nightmare.  The Shimmering Road is by Hester Young.

March 2017

16th Seduction is by James Patterson.  Fifteen months ago, Detective Lindsay Boxer's life was perfect - she had a beautiful child and a doting husband, Joe, who helped her catch a ruthless criminal who'd detonated a bomb in downtown San Francisco, killing twelve people. But Joe isn't everything that Lindsay thought he was, and she's still reeling from his betrayal as a wave of mysterious, and possibly unnatural, heart attacks strikes seemingly unrelated victims across San Francisco. Now the bomber she and Joe captured is about to go on trial, and his defense raises damning questions about Lindsay and Joe's investigation. Not knowing whom to trust, and struggling to accept the truth about the man she thought she knew, Lindsay must connect the dots of a deadly conspiracy before a brilliant criminal puts her on trial.

April 2017

The Woman Who Fell Through the Ice is by Tony Parsons.  There is a fate worse than death. As dawn breaks on a snowy February morning, a refrigerated lorry is found parked in the heart of London's Chinatown. Inside twelve women, apparently illegal immigrants, are dead from hypothermia. But in the cab of the abandoned death truck, DC Max Wolfe of West End Central finds thirteen passports. Twelve dead women. Thirteen passports. The hunt for the missing woman will take Max Wolfe into the dark heart of the world of human smuggling, mass migration and 21st century slave markets. A world where the borders are coming down and the blackest forces in history are once again on the rise. As Max discovers the ultimate fate of the woman who fell through the ice, he is forced to ask the question that haunts our time. What would you do for a home?

The first body comes as a shock, the second brings horror, the third signals the beginning of a nightmare. The Cumbrian community is small, tight-knit, and settle. When it comes to crime, everyone knows the victims. And everyone knows the criminals. So when three bodies are found in close succession in this small farming community, the world holds its breath. This was fifteen years ago. Since then, there have been more deaths, and the town is no closer to finding the killer. Emilia Hellier is twenty five years old. She has grown up in the shadow of a serial killer, suffered the pain of her cousin's death, watching her father's hunt for him twist and change her family. Now she belongs to the same CID department. Now it's her turn to figure out who has cast such a shadow over their lives.  The Killer on the Wall is by Emma Kavanagh.

May 2017

How can you prove your innocence when you can't remember the crime? Being a cop runs in Billy Harney's family. The son of Chicago's Chief of Detectives whose twin sister, Patty, also followed in their father's footsteps, there's nothing Billy won't give up for the job, including his life. Left for dead alongside his tempestuous former partner and a hard-charging assistant district attorney out for blood, Billy miraculously survives. But he remembers nothing about the events leading up to the shootout. Charged with double murder and desperate to clear his name, Billy retraces his steps to get to the bottom of what happened. When he discovers the existence of a little black book that everyone who's anyone in Chicago will stop at nothing to get their hands on, Billy suspects it contains the truth that will either set him free...or confirm his worst fears.  The Black Book is by James Patterson and David Ellis.

  

June 2017

Dr Death is by James Patterson.  The next hand he deals you...may be your last. A serial killer is loose on the streets of Manhattan. His victims appear to be total strangers. The only clue that links the crimes is the playing card left behind at each scene that hints at the next target. The killer, known in the tabloids as The Dealer, is baiting the police into a deadly guessing game that has the city increasingly on edge. Following her instincts, the tenacious cop in charge of the case turns to an unlikely ally - Dylan Reinhart, a brilliant professor with a keen insight into the criminal mind whose book turned up in connection with the murders. As the tabloid frenzy over The Dealer reaches fever pitch, Dylan and Elizabeth must connect the clues to discover what the victims have in common before The Dealer runs through his entire deck.

Kingmaker: Kingdom Come is by Toby Clements.  1470 - The recent tensions between King Edward and his great ally the Earl of Warwick lie forgotten these past months, but even as winter tightens her grip on the land, the peace is shattered by a vicious attack on one of the King’s allies.  Long buried secrets are brought to the surface, and Thomas and Katherine must finally decide where their loyalties lie and choose between fight or flight, knowing either choice will incur a terrible price. From Lincoln to Bruges, from Barnet to the great battle at Tewkesbury, both must play their part in one of the most savage wars in history.  The Wars of the Roses...

An idyllic white, two-storey, beautiful house in Sweden. Inside, a family has been brutally murdered mother, father and two young children all shot in broad daylight. And the killer has got away. Sebastian Bergman has been brought in to solve the crime, but with no credible suspects, he is at a dead end. Until he discovers that there was a witness to the crime. A young girl who saw it all happen, and she has fled, in fear for her life. Bergman has to track the young girl down before it s too late. But the killer is chasing her too and he is determined to finish what he started.  The Silent Girl is by Michael Hjorth and Hans Rosenfeldt.

Do we write together? Hjorth Rosenfeldt - A Personal Message

When The Man Who Watched Women was published in Sweden in 2011, it was the result of a long held ambition of ours to work together.

We – Michael (Hjorth) and Hans (Rosenfeldt) – met as early as 1992, when we both worked at the Swedish national public broadcaster SVT. Hans was writing for a soap opera, and Michael for a sitcom. We hit it off straight away and were convinced that we would end up doing something great together, but it just never happened. Years went by. We both went on to make a career in writing TV and feature films scripts and each time we met at different parties, events, award shows and fairs, we said to each other that we really ought to make something together.

But it took us all of fourteen years and until 2006 before we finally sat down together and created a TV-series that we were convinced was fantastic, but that no TV channel wanted.

Despite our not entirely successful first try, we didn’t give up. In 2008 we tried again. This time the story centred on an eccentric – to say the least – and in all honesty quite hard-to-like criminal psychologist working with a team of murder investigators. Once again we received a no from the TV-channels. But instead of the idea, we decided to do an experiment.

What if we were to write a book instead? Based on the stories and characters we had created for TV.

Writing a novel was one of the things we had said that we wanted to try, so why not?

At present, we have written four novels. The fifth will be published in Sweden this September. The novels all revolve around Sebastian Bergman – our antihero caught in a struggle against everything and everyone, including himself – and the team, but there the similarities end.

Because since we were experimenting anyway, why not see if we could split our crime stories into different categories? From a family tragedy in a small village to a conspiracy thriller to something more “high concept” like a real serial killer.

The Man Who Watched Women is our serial killer novel. We wanted to give Sebastian Bergman a real challenge. A number of women are found brutally murdered. The killer’s MO is an exact copy of an old serial killer’s: Edward Hinde. As the investigation continues, Sebastian begins to realise that the copycat killings are simply too perfect for Hinde not to be involved. There’s just one problem. Hinde is sitting behind bars at the high security facility Lövhaga and could never have committed the murders. Sebastian was in fact the one who put him there in 1996, and later wrote a bestselling book about him. There is in other words plenty of reason to believe that the murders are a personal message directed at Sebastian. The only question is, how far is the killer willing to go?

Here we might take the opportunity to answer the most common question we get from our readers: How do we write together?

The simple answer is, we don’t.

We work side by side for the time it takes us at the beginning of a novel to come up with its contents. We then break down the story, chapter by chapter. Then we do the same with our characters. Where do they begin, where do we want them to end up. Then we both retire to our separate homes and begin writing.

It’s not that we don’t enjoy working alongside each other, we just have other projects going on as well: Hans has written three seasons of The Bridge, Michael has produced films and TV – the Easy Money-trilogy among else – so it’s difficult to synchronise our calendars.

Until the end. Then we meet up again and go through the material, cut, rework, wash through, and make sure that the entire novel has the same voice throughout, a clear narrative.

So now you know.

All the best,

Michael and Hans.

The trailer can be seen below:

The Man Who Watched Women -

From the creator of The Bridge comes a gripping crime thriller. As a heatwave blazes in Stockholm a series of women are found brutally murdered. The killings bear all the hallmarks of convicted serial killer Edward Hinde.