Books to Look forward to from Head of Zeus

Some secrets destroy you.  Rob and Anna have only just met Owen and Kim.  Now they've boarded their handsome old boat to travel to a far off island in the Caribbean.  With only the four of them on board, it should be paradise: lazy afternoons spent snorkelling; long nights enjoying the silence and solitude of the sea. But why does Owen never sleep?  Why is he so secretive about his past?  And why does Kim keep a knife zipped into her money-belt?  Anna can usually get people to talk...but this time, does she want to?  After the Storm is by Jane Lythell and is due to be published in January 2015.

The Absolution is by John Holt and is due to be published in May 2015.  The Rendition - An Italian Muslim has been snatched by the CIA.  His crime: a plot to engulf Venice in flames.  The Gossip - Carnivia is awash with rumour and speculation.  Have the CIA extradited an innocent man?  The Evidence - Holly and Kat must find the powerful men who truly run Italy.  But time is running out to save their city.  The Atrocity - will destroy it all.

Jim says he's an undercover policeman.  His daughter Sam thinks he's a liar.  On holiday in

Orkney, beneath an endless midsummer sky, Sam spies on Jim as he runs secretive errands across the island.  What did he take from the old watchtower on the edge of a cliff?  Why is he so interested in Norse mythology?  And why does Sam have the eerie feeling that she too is being watched?  When Sam finally discovers the truth, it will draw her into a dangerous world of darkness and deception...  Orkney Twilight is by Clare Carson and is an original and haunting thriller about fathers, daughters, and the ghosts of the past.  It is due to be published in April 2015.

Paris Spring is by James Naughtie and is due to be published in March 2015.  Paris in 1968 - seething with revolutionaries and spies - sees Will Flemyng's world turned upside down, after a mysterious encounter on the metro and a chance revelation from a rival operative.  In a city alive with talk of revolution, Will finds himself in the thick of the action, a young spy whose first adventures behind the Iron Curtain have already given him a secret glamour.  But now he gets news that threatens the closest and most complicated relationship in his life, with his younger brother.  In the unforgettable weeks of a crisis that claims blood and tests his deepest loyalties, Flemyng lives and loves the tumult of a city in which his private fears teach him the secrets that lie beneath the raucous politics of the streets.  This is the making of the man whose journey leads to The Madness of July - Will Flemyng, trapped with his friends and enemies in The Paris Spring.

City players know they aren't well liked in Greece, but they never expected to face death on the football pitch.  Scott Manson and London City are in Athens battling for the UEFA Champion's League title.  The situation in Athens is tense, and some of City's players are so unpopular in Greece they've been assigned bodyguards.  Karaiskakis Stadium is packed to the rafters when tragedy strikes.  Christoph Bundchen collapses and dies mid-match.  Is it a heart attack?  Or something more sinister?  The team have a crucial match in England - but they can't go home until the investigation is complete.  The Greek authorities are dragging their heels...Can Scott Manson find the truth and get the team home in time? Hand of God is by Philip Kerr and is due to be published in June 2015.

Border Angels is by Anthony Quinn and is due to be published in January 2015.  A charred

corpse and a set of footprints in the snow lead Celcius Daly into the twilight world of people trafficking.  Inspector Celcius Daly is hunting for a missing woman, Lena Novak, who mysteriously disappeared one winter's night along the Irish border, leaving in her wake the corpses of two men.  Daly finds himself hooked together with a prostitute and a hit man in a life-or-death chase.  His investigation leads them deep into border country, a wild terrain of disappearing lanes and blown-up bridges, abandoned ghost-estates and thick forests - the ultimate refuge for anyone who does not want to be found.

Detective Inspector Hanlon is back.  She's been promoted and now she goes undercover in Oxford to find the sadomasochistic killer of two students.  Philosophy lecturer Dr Gideon Fuller, with his penchant for high-end sadistic sex, is in the frame, but Hanlon is not convinced.  From the specialist brothels in Oxford and Soho, to the inner sanctum of a Russian people trafficker with a taste for hurting women, the trail leads Hanlon deeper and deeper into danger - until she herself becomes the killer's next target.  Cold Revenge is by Alex Howard and is due to be published in March 2015.

The Exile by Mark Oldfield is the second instalment in a trilogy that unlocks the dark heart of Spain, weaving past and present together to portray a country still scarred by civil war, still riven by fear and hatred, still plagued by secrets that refuse to die.  1954: Comandante Guzman has been posted deep into the Basque country to confront a man known only as 'El Lobo'.  High in the mountains, Guzman will have to fight for his life, not only against El Lobo, but also against someone who has been searching for him for a very long time...2010, Madrid: Forensic Investigator Ana Maria Galindez has spent seven months in hospital recovering from the blast that nearly killed her.  Her obsession with Guzman's fate has disturbed long dormant forces.  Now she shall reap the consequences: she will be purposely humiliated, abandoned by colleagues and friends, accused of murder...and worse.  The Exile is due to be published in April 2015.

Taken for Dead is the fourth book in the Katie Maguire series by Graham Masterton and is

due to be published in February 2015.  It is a sunny Saturday in county Cork, and an Irish wedding is in full swing.  Drunk uncles are toasting the bride.  The Ceilidh band have played for hours.  But the cutting of the cake will bring the wedding to a horrifying end.  For there, grinning gruesomely up from the bottom tier is the severed head of the local baker.  Katie Maguire, of the Irish Garda, does not have any leads - until another local businessman goes missing in horrific circumstances.  The murders appear to link to The Kings of Erin, a terrifying gang of torturers and extortionists.  But these are dangerous men.  And they will stop at nothing to throw Katie off the trail...

Gower Street: 1883.  March Middleton is the niece of London's greatest (and most curmudgeonly) personal detective, Sidney Grice.  March has just discovered a wealthy long-lost relative she never knew she had.  When this newest family member meets with a horrible death, March is in the frame for murder - and only Sidney Grice can prove her innocence.  Grice agrees to investigate (for his usual fee) but warns that he is not entirely convinced of her innocence.  If he were in her position, he might have been tempted.  But the more he uncovers, the more all the clues point to Grice himself...  Death Descends on Saturn Villa is by M R C Kasasian and is due to be published in June 2015.

Joe Pickett has good reason to dislike Dallas Cates, rodeo champion.  Now he has even more reason - Joe's eighteen-year-old foster daughter April has run off with him.  And then comes even worse news: the body of a girl has been found in a ditch along the highway - alive, but just barely, the victim of blunt force trauma.  It is April, and the doctors don't know if she'll recover.  Cates denies having anything to do with it - says she ran off from him, too - but Joe knows in his gut who's responsible.  The problem is that there's no proof, and when Joe sets out to find some he faces terrifying opposition: the entire Cates clan, including two notoriously violent brothers and a mother like no one Joe has ever met.  But Joe's going to find out the truth, if it kills him.  And this time, it just might.  Endangered is by C J Box and is due to be published in March 2015.

She's only alive because he thinks she's already dead...Everyone in the quiet Jersey Shore town of Silver Bay knows the story: on a Sunday evening in September 1991, Ramsey Miller threw a block party, then murdered his beautiful wife and three-year-old daughter and disappeared...But everyone is wrong.  Ramsey's daughter got away.  Meg, now known as Melanie, has lived in isolation, protected by her adoptive aunt and uncle.  Now she is nearly eighteen and sick of hiding.  Melanie's determined to confront her father, but can she find him before he finds her?  Before He Finds Her is by Michael Kardos and is due to be published in February 2015.

 

The Detective’s Secret is by Lesley Thomson is due to be published in April 2015.  October 1987: as a hurricane sweeps through Britain, a man's body slowly rots, locked inside an old water tower in west London.  He carries no identification and fits no missing persons' description.  His corpse is never claimed.  October 2013: the month of the great storm of St Jude.  A man dies beneath a late night Piccadilly line train.  His brother insists he was murdered, but Jack, a train driver, is sure it was suicide.  Jack and Stella uncover the secrets of the case - but Jack is carrying a secret of his own...

Books to Look Forward to From Head of Zeus

Can you hide your deepest fear?  To the outside world, Kathy is the very picture of a happy and fulfilled modern woman.  She has a beautiful baby boy, a clever, handsome husband and a glamorous, high-powered job.  However, not everybody is fooled.  Her employee, Heja, knows the truth the cracks in Kathy's marriage, her self-doubt, her fear of failure at work.  Heja is perfectly placed to destroy Kathy's life.  In addition, if she succeeds, she can claim the one thing she wants most...  The Lie of You is the debut novel by Jane Lythell and is a chilling psychological thriller about obsession, jealousy, and lying to those you love. The Lie of You is due to be published in January 2014.

Ghost Girl is the second book in the Detective’s Daughter series by Lesley Thomson and is due to be published in May 2014.  Stella Darnell cannot shake her father's legacy.  A year after his death, she still visits his house every day.  Now she has discovered what looks like an unsolved case in his darkroom: a folder of unlabelled photographs of deserted streets.  But why did her father - a Detective Chief Superintendent and a stickler for order - never file them at the station?  The oldest photo dates back to 1966.  To a day when a young girl, just ten years old, is taking her little brother home from school in time for tea.  That afternoon, as the Moors Murderers are sent to prison for life, Mary witnesses something horrible that will haunt her forever.  As Stella inches closer to the truth, the events of that day will begin to haunt her too.

The Killing Machine is by Phillip Hunter and is due to be published in February 2014.  Massive, glowering, and ugly as death, former soldier and ex-boxer Joe has always invited violence.  But now Hackney's most vicious gangs all want to kill him.  Why?  As he tries to unravel the knot of events that have made him a target, Joe is drawn back into his past, back to the memory of the only woman he ever loved.  Brenda was a prostitute who dreamed of something better.  Now she is dead, and her murder, unsolved, haunts Joe every night.  Then a twelve-year-old runaway enters his life.  Kid is traumatised, mute, and sees Joe as her saviour.  Life has made Joe a machine.  Can Kid - as Brenda once did - make him human again?  The Killing Machine is a thriller about betrayal, vengeance and redemption.

AD 1193, England lies uneasy, a land without a king.  Richard the Lionheart languishes in an Austrian dungeon, his brother John conspires to usurp the crown.  On the throne sits Eleanor Aquitaine, determined to prevent the outbreak of civil war, but there are a few she can trust.  Justin de Quincy is one of the few.  But now the King’s brother has asked for de Quincy’s aid.  John tells of a document implicating him in a plot to kill his brother.  Despite his hunger for the crown, John swears that he is innocent.  Justin must unearth the forger and prove the document is false before the Lionheart hears of it.  His quest will ultimately lead to the unravelling of a powerful conspiracy that could have changed the course of history.  Prince of Darkness is by Sharon Penman and is due to be published in April 2014.

The Curse of the House of Foskett is the second book in the Gower Street Detective series by M R C Kasasian and is due to be published in June 2014.  Sidney Grice and March Middleton investigate the murky world of Victorian Death Societies in a quirky crime novel that oozes atmosphere.  Sidney Grice, of 125 Gower Street, is London’s premier personal detective.  But since his last case led an innocent man to the gallows, business has been light.  Listless and depressed, Grice has taken to lying in the bath for hours.  Once a voracious reader, he will pick up neither book nor newspaper.  His ward, March Middleton, has been left to dine alone.  Then an eccentric member of a Final Death Society has the temerity to die on his study floor.  Finally, Sidney Grice and March Middleton have an investigation to mount – an investigation that will draw them to an eerie house in Kew, and the mysterious Baroness Foskett.

  

The Abduction is the second book in the Carnivia Trilogy by Jonathan Holt and is due to be published in May 2014.  The Spy: Holly Boland is trained to think differently.  When a US major’s daughter is kidnapped, she knows the abductors want more than ransom.  The Policewoman: Kat Tapo has found a webcam feed in encrypted site Carnivia.com.  It shows a terrified teenage girl, tied to a chair.  But where is she?  The Webmaster: Daniele Barbo, creator of Carnivia, never allows access to his servers.  Why would he help Kat and Holly?  Then secrets are unearthed from Italy’s wartime past.  Secrets that could put them all in danger.

The Boat is by Clara Salaman and is due to be published in January 2014.  It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime...Johnny and his new bride Clem have arrived in Turkey for a year's honeymoon.  Young, blissfully happy but poor, they are surviving on love, luck and a spirit of adventure.  So when a boat appears out of a raging storm, crewed by a bohemian couple who represent everything Johnny and Clem want to be, they do not think twice about stepping on board.  But all is not as it seems. And when they finally open their eyes to the truth, the boat is in the middle of the vast open sea.

A terrified, frozen child is found close to death on an icy Cape Town mountainside. But no-one reported her missing. Where does she come from? Who does she belong to? Dr Clare Hart is baffled - and then another young woman disappears, and a frightening pattern begins to emerge. Rosa is a gifted but troubled young cellist, and her grandfather is at his wits end. Why did she walk out of her music school that day? Where has she gone now? As winter tightens its grip, Clare must find Rosa and unravel the secrets of these two cases...all the while carrying a secret of her own.  Water Music is by Margie Orford and is due to be published in February 2014.

Stone Cold is by C J Box and is due to be published in April 2014.  Everything about the ranch is a mystery.  Rumours abound about the reclusive millionaire who owns it, the women who live with him, the private airstrip, and the sudden disappearances.  And, most persistent of all, that it is all funded by murder.  Joe Pickett is tasked by the governor to find out the truth.  But he soon discovers a lot more than he had bargained for.  There are two other men living up at the ranch.  One is a stone-cold killer who takes an instant dislike to Joe.  The other, Joe knows all too well.  The first man does not frighten him.  But the second is another story entirely.

Angel of Death is the second book in the Jim Monahan series by Ben Cheetham and is due to be published in May 2014.  Would you break the law to see justice done?  A feverish page-turner starring Sheffield detective Jim Monahan.  In Sheffield, a bankrupt businessman has murdered his family.  It seems like an open-and-shut case: a desperate man resorting to desperate measures.  In Middlesbrough, a woman named Angel is heading south.  She is a woman alone.  A prostitute.  Now a murderer.  And she has only one thing on her mind: revenge.  Two crimes, a hundred miles apart, but a terrible secret connects them.  And although the courts may not agree, DI Jim Monahan has all the proof he needs to bring down justice on a group of particularly vicious criminals...

Jack McClure must outrun the CIA to complete his most dangerous mission yet...Dennis Paull, Secretary of Homeland Security, has been shot dead - and Special Agent Jack McClure has been accused of his murder.  Someone must have framed him, someone who would do anything to forestall his next move.  For before Paull died, he had tasked McClure with a mission as secret as it is deadly.  Find the mole in beloved the FBI, and track down their spymaster, The Syrian.  If McClure is to complete his mission now, he must evade the CIA officers on his tail.  And to do that, he must find Annika Dementieva, the woman he once loved and lost...  Beloved Enemy is by Eric Van Lustbader and is due to be published in January 2014.

She has a habit of breaking rules.  Her loyalty is unshakeable.  Introducing DI Hanlon: the fiercest crime heroine since Lisbeth Salander.  Intensely private, tough as teak, DI Hanlon is not a woman to cross.  Assistant Commissioner Corrigan knows she is dangerous and unorthodox.  Her ruthless disregard for rules could cost him the top job he craves.  But he also knows there is no one as fearless on a mission.  And he likes her.  When two seemingly unrelated murders point to a mole in the Met, Corrigan turns to Hanlon – though not without asking Enver Demirel, Turkish boxer turned London policeman, to stick to her like glue.  Then a diabetic twelve-year-old boy is abducted, and what began as an investigation becomes an ugly, frightening race against time, in which Hanlon will take no prisoners.  Come Unto Me is the debut novel by Greg Howard and is due to be published in May 2014.

Someone is murdering the brutal pimps who traffic young girls into Cork.  In a grimy flat in the city of Cork, a man lies dead on a bloodstained mattress.  His face is unrecognisable: seven gunshots have shattered cartilage and bone.  Yet DS Katie Maguire, of the Irish Garda, knows exactly who he is: Amir Xaaji Maxamed, a Somali pimp she has been trying to convict for years.  Katie knows it is her job to catch the killer.  However, Maxamed was an evil man who trafficked young girls into Ireland to be sold for sex.  Now that he is dead, the city is a safer place.  When a second pimp is killed, Katie must decide.  Are these vigi­lante murders justified?  Moreover, how can she stop them spiralling out of control?  Red Light is the third book in the Katie Maguire series by Graham Masterton and is due to be published in June 2014.

Girl Seven is the second book in the London Underground series by Hanna Jameson and is due to be published in April 2014.  Kiyomi Ishida was eighteen when she left Japan for a better life in London.  Then her parents died tragically, and she was left alone.  Now nicknamed Seven, she has worked her way up from the streets to The Underground, an exclusive club that fuels the nighttime urges of those that stalk south London's streets.  As her last spark of humanity flares, Seven must make a decision.  How many people will she betray to further her own ends?  Spare and visceral, laced with razor-sharp dialogue, Girl Seven is for those who like their thrillers violent and cutthroat.