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.

Books to Look Forward to From Pan Macmillian

The Mourner is by Susan Wilkins and is due to be published in May 2015.  If she can't get justice, will she settle for vengeance?  Kaz Phelps has escaped her brother and her criminal past to become an anonymous art student in Glasgow.  But can life under the witness protection scheme ever give her the freedom she craves?  Banged up and brooding, Joey Phelps faces thirty years behind bars.  Still, with cash and connections on the outside, can an overstretched prison system really contain him?  Helen Warner, once Kaz's lawyer and lover, is a rising star in Parliament.  But has she made the kind of enemies who have no regard for the democratic process, or even the law?  Ousted from the police and paralysed by tragic personal loss, Nicci Armstrong is in danger of going under.  Can a job she doesn't want with a private security firm help her to put her life back on track?  A murder dressed up as suicide and corruption that goes to the heart of government unite ex-cop and ex-con in a deadly quest to learn the truth.  What they discover proves what both have always known - villainy is rife on both sides of the law.

DI Jessica Daniel is not having a good week.  Her wallet's been nicked, the refurbished incident room is already falling apart, and a new football-mad constable is driving her crazy.  She also has bigger things on her mind.  A student's body has been dumped in a wheelie bin at the back of a university building, with a vague link to an Olympic medallist and a theory that it could have been an induction, which went wrong.  There's the tattooed shop raider who has her team stumped; someone attacking lone women; a chief inspector who seems to have a problem with her; and someone putting letters through her front door insisting that she's caught 'the wrong man'.  Worlds are colliding for Jessica - and, if she's not careful, someone close to her might not make it out in one piece.  Scarred for Life is by Kerry Wilkinson and is due to be published in January 2015.

The Wronged Girl is by David Hewson and is due to be published in May 2015.  Sinterklaas, a beaming, friendly saint with a white beard, was set to mark his arrival in Amsterdam with a parade so celebrated it would be watched live on television throughout the Netherlands.  Today the crowds would run into three hundred thousand or more, and the police presence top four figures.  The city centre was closed to all traffic as a golden barge bore Sinterklaas down the Amstel river, surrounded by a throng of private boats full of families trying to get close.’  Amsterdam is bursting at the seams with children trying to get a glimpse of their hero and families enjoying the occasion.  The police are out in force, struggling to manage the crowds on one of the busiest days of the year.  Brigadier Pieter Vos is on duty with his young assistant, Laura Bakker, when the first grenade hits.  As Sinterklaas prepares to address the crowds a terrorist outrage grips the heart of the city.  In the chaos a young girl wearing a pink jacket is kidnapped.  But the abducted child isn't the daughter of an Amsterdam aristocrat as the terrorists first thought.  She's the daughter of an impoverished Georgian prostitute, friendless and trapped in the web of vice that is Amsterdam's Red Light District.  As the security forces and the police clash over the ensuing investigation the perpetrator's horrifying demands become clear.  Vos, trapped in a turf war with state intelligence, tries to unravel a conspiracy that reaches from the brothels of the city to the hierarchy of the security services.  And at its heart lies an eight-year-old girl, snatched from a loving mother then ferried from one criminal lair to the next, her life in the balance as Vos and Laura Bakker struggle to uncover the shocking truth behind her abduction.  What is the life of one immigrant child worth in the greater political game emerging around them?

From father to daughter.  From sister to brother.  The legacy is passed on.  Drug dealer

Jorge is just out of prison but already bored with his new existence selling lattes and cappuccinos at a cafe.  Who wouldn’t be?  But big money looms, if he can pull off an audacious last heist.  What he doesn’t know is that the police are already closing in: an undercover investigator has wormed his way deep into Stockholm’s criminal circles, close to Jorge.  And also close to JW, the part-time student, part-time cab driver who turned to crime – and got in over his head – in order to keep himself in with a rich party crowd. At the same time, someone is trying to take down the Godfather himself, Radovan Kranjic.  What would Stockholm be like with Radovan gone?  Who would be Stockholm’s new king – or queen – of crime?  As the novel unfurls, answers will be found amid the voracious hunt for money, power, and a carefree life.  The goal is easy – and the life deluxe.  Life Deluxe is by Jens Lapidus and is due to be published in February 2015.

Amos Decker is a former professional football player whose career was ended by a terrible injury.  Now a police detective, Amos is still haunted by a side effect from the accident he can never forget.  One night Decker comes home from a stakeout to find his wife, young daughter and brother-in-law horrifically murdered.  Obviously scarred and nearly broken, Decker has to use his skills as a detective and his unusual brain capacity to try and catch the monster who killed his family.  The untitled David Baldacci novel is due to be published in April 2015

Never Look Back is by Clare Donoghue and is due to be published in March 2015.  DS Jane Bennett takes charge of South London’s Lewisham murder squad following the temporary suspension of her boss, DI Mike Lockyer.  His involvement with a female witness resulted in her murder.  Jane is sent to a site in Elmstead Woods where she stumbles upon a sinister murder scene.  It seems that the body is that of missing university student, Maggie Hungerford.  Her killer recorded her last moments, until the game lost its thrill . . . Two men admit to having had a sexual relationship with Maggie.  Both deny murder.  Someone is lying.  Lockyer returns to work and is shocked into supporting Bennett in a case where it is evident that their hunt is for a killer with a mind so twisted that he, or she, is likely to stop at nothing.

What Doesn’t Kill Her is by Carla Norton and is due to be published in May 2015.  Reeve is moving closer to the normal life she so craves, no longer defined by the kidnapping that changed her life.  But when her abductor, Daryl Wayne Flint, escapes from a hospital for the criminally insane, Reeve’s newfound strength and tranquillity are about to be tested in ways neither she nor Flint could have imagined.

Death in a Rainy Season is by Anna Jaquiery and is due to be published in April 2015.  When a French man is found brutally murdered in the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh, Commandant Serge Morel finds his holiday drawn to an abrupt halt.  The victim - Hugo Quercy - was the dynamic head of a humanitarian organisation, which looked after the area's troubled local teenagers.  But what was Quercy doing in a hotel room under a false name?  What is the significance of his recent investigations into land grabs in the area?  And who broke into his house the night of the murder, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints? 

A lost cipher.  A race against time to decode it.  Marine archaeologists Kate Wetherall and Lou Bates are diving off Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, when a torpedo-shaped object hurtles through the water towards them; the fuselage of Amelia Earhart's lost plane.  In the cockpit, they find a corroded metal cylinder the size of a baton.  Landing back on US soil, Kate and Lou are arrested and interrogated by special forces, and the cylinder confiscated.  Behind the arrests is Glena Buckingham, CEO of the powerful energy conglomerate Eurenergy, as she too has discovered that the wrecked plane may have held precious secret cargo.  Meanwhile, an extraordinary piece of footage has come to light - of Einstein talking about a radical new defence technology he had been working on.  Whoever can decrypt the lost cipher, which holds the key to Einstein's secret defence technology, could hold the key to global power.  The Einstein Code is by Tom West and is due to be published in March 2015.

Satellite People is by Hans Olav Lahlum and is due to be published in February 2015.  Oslo, 1969.  When a wealthy man collapses and dies during a dinner party, Norwegian Police Inspector Kolbjorn Kristiansen, known as K2, is left shaken.  For the victim, Magdalon Schelderup, a multimillionaire businessman and former resistance fighter, had contacted him only the day before, fearing for his life.  It soon becomes clear that every one of Schelderup's ten dinner guests is a suspect in the case.  The businessman was disliked, even despised, by many of those close to him; and his recently revised Will may have set events in motion.  But which of the guests - from his current and former wives and three children to his attractive secretary and old cohorts in the resistance - had the greatest motive for murder?  With the inestimable help of Patricia - a brilliant, acerbic young woman who lives an isolated life at home, in her wheelchair - K2 begins to untangle the lies and deceit within each of the guests' testimonies.  But as the investigators receive one mysterious letter after another warning of further deaths, K2 realises he must race to uncover the killer.  Before they strike again ...

Dangerous is by Jessie Keane and is due to be published in April 2015.  Whatever the Cost, she would pay it....  Coronation year: 1953.  Fifteen-year-old Clara Dolan's world is turned upside down following the shock death of her mother.  Battling to keep what remains of her family together, Clara vows to keep her younger siblings, Bernadette and Harry, safe whatever the cost.  With the arrival of the swinging sixties, Clara finds herself swept up in London's dark underworld where the glamour of Soho's dazzling nightclubs sit in stark contrast to the terrifying gangland violence that threatens the new life she has worked so hard to build.  Sinking further into an existence defined by murder and betrayal, Clara soon realises that success often comes at a very high price ...

Where Evil Lies is by Jørgen Brekke and is due to be published in April 2015.  1528. A young

Franciscan monk travels to Norway to collect a set of scalpels from a barber surgeon with whom he shares a dark and mysterious obsession with the dissection of human corpses.  He travels north and settles in a remote village.  His deadly legacy is a mysterious manuscript, the Book of John, bound in human skin.  Nearly five hundred years later, it seems that the ancient practice is experiencing a revival.  2010. Trondheim, Norway.  Inspector Odd Singsaker leads the investigation into the flaying of the University librarian, Gunn Brita Dahle, and the theft of the priceless Book of John.  The prime suspect is a security guard at the library who was once an academic high-flier, and now lives an isolated, almost twilight, existence following the unexplained disappearance of his wife and son some years back.  2010. Richmond, Virginia.  When the curator of the Edgar Allan Poe museum suffers the same fate as Dahle, US Detective Felicia Stone flies to Norway to join Singsaker in the hunt for a serial killer.  The more they delve into the past, the more sinister their discoveries become.  The key to the psychopath's next move is held in the manuscript.  Can they work out the clue before another person has to die.

The Last Post is by M R Hall and is due to be published in May 2015.  The garrison town of Highcliff is on tenterhooks waiting for the return of the last British soldiers from war-torn Helmand.  Meanwhile, as one of the last remaining platoons prepare to leave its isolated post for the final time, 19-year-old Private Pete Lyons is taken hostage during the night. A patrol sent to rescue him finds itself in a bloody and disastrous firefight.  How was Private Lyons abducted from a heavily fortified command post?  And why does the Army close ranks to disguise what happened during the mission to save him?  The bewildered wives and families of the dead are left craving answers.  Their fight for justice is every bit as ugly as the one fought by their loved ones in the poppy fields of Afghanistan. Their hopes lie with Coroner Jenny Cooper, who takes on the full might of the military to stop the truth being buried with the boy soldiers.  But in a town filled with secrets and rumours, it's not only the Army that has something to hide.

NASA is building a probe to be splashed down in the Kraken Mare, the largest sea on Saturn's great moon, Titan.  It is one of the most promising habitats for extra-terrestrial life in the solar system, but the surface is unstable and dangerous, requiring the probe to be outfitted with artificial intelligence software.  Melissa Shepherd, a brilliant programmer, has developed 'Dorothy', a powerful, self-modifying AI whose potential is both revolutionary and terrifying.  When miscalculations lead to a catastrophe during testing, Dorothy flees into the internet.  Former CIA agent Wyman Ford is tapped to help track down the rogue AI.  As Ford and Shepherd search for Dorothy, they realize that her horrific experiences in the wasteland of the Internet have changed her in ways they can barely imagine.  And they're not the only ones looking for the wayward program: the AI is also being pursued by a pair of Wall Street traders who want to capture her code and turn her into a high-speed trading bot. Traumatized, angry, and relentlessly hunted, Dorothy devises a plan.  As the pursuit of Dorothy converges on a deserted house on the coast of Northern California, Ford faces the question: is rescuing Dorothy the right thing?  Is the AI bent on saving the world ...or on wiping out the cancer that is humankind?  The Kracken Project is by Douglas Preston and is due to be published in April 2015.

In the depths of the ocean, no one will hear you scream 1941.  German submarine U-471 patrols the stormy in hospitable waters of the north Atlantic.  It is commanded by Siegfried Lorenz, a maverick SS officer who does not believe in the war he is bound by duty and honour to fight in.  U-471 receives a triple-encoded message with instructions to collect two prisoners from a vessel located off the Icelandic coast and transport them to the base at Brest, and British submarine commander, Sutherland, and an Austrian academic, Klein, are taken on board.  Contact between the prisoners and Lorenz has been forbidden, and it transpires that this special mission has been ordered by an unknown source, high up in the SS.  It is rumoured that Klein is working on a secret weapon that could change the course of the war . . . Then, Sutherland goes rogue, and a series of shocking, brutal events occur.  In the aftermath, disturbing things start happening on the boat.  It seems that a lethal, supernatural force is stalking the crew, wrestling with Lorenz for control.  A thousand feet under the dark, icy waves, it doesn’t matter how loud you scream . . .  The Silence is by F R Tallis and is due to be published in May 2015.

The last words Nick Walton hears from his fiancée, Logan Somervile, are in a terrified mobile phone call from her.  She has just driven into the underground car park beneath the block of flats where they live in Brighton.  Then she screams and the phone goes dead.  The police are on the scene within minutes, but Logan has vanished, leaving behind her neatly parked car and telephone.  That same afternoon, workmen digging up an old asphalt pat in a park in another part of the city, unearth the remains of a young woman in her early twenties, who has been dead for 30 years.  At first, to Roy Grace and his team, these two events seem totally unconnected.  But then another young woman in Brighton goes missing and another body from the past surfaces.  Meanwhile, an eminent London psychiatrist meets with a man who claims to know a piece of information about Logan.  Later Roy Grace makes the chilling realization that this one thing is the key to both the past and the present ...Brighton has its first serial killer in over eighty years.  You Are Dead is by Peter James and is due to be published in June 2015.

The Liar’s Chair is by Rebecca Whitney and is due to be published in January 2014.  Rachel Teller and her husband David appear happy, prosperous, and fulfilled.  The big house, the successful business ...They have everything.  However, control, not love, fuels their relationship and David has no idea his wife indulges in drunken indiscretions.  When Rachel kills a man in a hit and run, the meticulously maintained veneer over their life begins to crack.  Destroying all evidence of the accident, David insists they continue as normal.  Rachel though is racked with guilt and as her behaviour becomes increasingly self-destructive she not only inflames David's darker side, but also uncovers her own long-suppressed memories of shame.  Can Rachel confront her past and atone for her terrible crime?  Not if her husband has anything to do with it ..

Game of Mirrors is by Andrea Camilleri and is due to be published in May 2015.  While Inspector Montalbano is assisting his beautiful new neighbour, Liliana Lombardo, after her car breaks down, a bomb explodes in Vigata.  While no one is hurt, it is likely the explosion was perpetrated by one of the local mafia families as some kind of warning ...As Montalbano investigates, he finds himself drawn ever closer to Liliana.  But is she trying to seduce the Inspector simply because she is attracted to him or are her motives more sinister?

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.  Her 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 now is trying to find her?  A haunting, masterly unravelling of a dreadful crime, in The Living and the Dead in Winsford Håkan Nesser, the bestselling, award-winning author of the Van Veeteren series, tightens the tension like a noose ....  The Living and the Dead in Winsford is due to be published in April 2015.