The Hidden Story by Jeff Noon

I have been writing science fiction for all of my career. However, I have always loved the crime genre as a reader. I am especially drawn to the puzzle of the murder mystery. So I’ve always been on the lookout for ideas that might lead to a crime novel of my own. But all my ideas were too weird! I’ve have a lot of fun channelling those ideas into my science fiction private eye series, the Nyquist Mysteries. But I still had an itch to write a proper crime novel. And then by chance a friend of mine told me a true story: that members of the Irish bands U2 and the Virgin Prunes, when they were young teenagers, invented an imaginary village for themselves, which they named Lipton Village. This would be back in the early 1970s. I was fascinated by the idea of an imaginary village that, a few years later, leads to rock and roll, to songs, to creativity. Might it also lead to murder? Out of these thoughts came my first crime novel, Slow Motion Ghosts, featuring Detective Inspector Hobbes. The imaginary village aspect allowed me to explore some of my weirder themes, while at the same time keeping it real, mired in flesh and blood.

The sequel, House With No Doors, began with a fascination with the “Bella in the Wych Elm” case, the skeleton of a woman found in a hollow tree trunk in 1943. She has never been identified. I always like to metaphorise the hell out of things, pushing ideas into new realms, new expressions, rather than taking a direct influence. So my mind went on a trip. What if there was no corpse, no known victim, no identified person, nothing: only the surety that a murder had taken place? How would Hobbes tackle such a crime, if crime it was? The story would by necessity have a “hollow” at its centre: the missing woman. I needed a symbol for the woman, so that became a dress, a very particular dress. Soon I had the vision of many of these dresses being found in a house, all identical, each arranged in a certain fashion, all of them torn and daubed with blood at the same place. The dress is the symbolic version of the victim. At least, that’s the natural assumption. But what if there was some other secret behind it? So that was the basic concept. Hobbes becomes obsessed with finding the woman who once wore these dresses, and it leads him into a kind of madness.

I’m still writing science fiction and fantasy, I’ll never give up on that. But the crime genre interests me deeply. I like the central form: that two stories are being told, one inside the other. The outward story details the events as they appear to be happening, while the inner story tells the real version of events. But this inner story is hidden from the reader! That’s such an amazing concept. I remember writing the final chapters of House With No Doors, knowing that here the two stories would finally meet: the outer story would fall away, and the inner story would be revealed. It was an intense writing experience. I write without any planning, discovering plot and character as I go, so I was quite unprepared for what would happen. And then the moment unfolds... 

In both novels past events lead to present day murders. This is the general idea of the “slow motion ghost”, that sometimes years need to pass before a final outcome plays out. But the connection between past and present is complicated, and devious. Hobbes has to understand one version of events, a story that needs to be “read.” This leads to a second version of events. And then again, a further uncovering. I think this mirrors the way I write, a series of discoveries, each with its own set of clues, locales and masks.

Favourite crime writers? I have recently been revisiting Agatha Christie, and taking great delight in her plotting, and the care she takes over her puzzles. In terms of noir, I absolutely love Ross Macdonald, probably my favourite crime writer. I think a little of his work has influenced the Hobbes novels, especially in terms of the family (or substitute family) that destroys itself. More up to date, I like the madcap plotting of Joe Nesbo, especially in earlier books like Nemesis. Devil’s Star, The Snowmen – events and characters all rolling forward with great abandon. The imagination set free.

House With No Doors by Jeff Noon (Published by Transworld Publishers) 14 January 2021 

At first glance, Leonard Graves' death was unremarkable. Sleeping pills, a bottle of vodka, a note saying goodbye. But when Detective Henry Hobbes discovers a grave in the basement, he realizes there is something far more sinister at work. Further investigation unearths more disturbing evidence. Scattered around the old house are women's dresses. All made of the same material. All made in the same colours. And all featuring a rip across the stomach, smeared in blood. As the investigation continues and the body count rises, Hobbes must also deal with the disappearance of his son, the break-up of his family and a growing sense that something horrific happened in the Graves' household. And he's running out of time to find out what.

Books to Look Forward to From Transworld Publishers

January 2021

At first glance, Leonard Graves' death was unremarkable. Sleeping pills, a bottle of vodka, a note saying goodbye. But when Detective Henry Hobbes discovers a grave in the basement, he realizes there is something far more sinister at work. Further investigation unearths more disturbing evidence. Scattered around the old house are women's dresses. All made of the same material. All made in the same colours. And all featuring a rip across the stomach, smeared in blood. As the investigation continues and the body count rises, Hobbes must also deal with the disappearance of his son, the break-up of his family and a growing sense that something horrific happened in the Graves' household. And he's running out of time to find out what. House With No Door is by Jeff Noon.

Exit is by Belinda Bauer It was never supposed to be murder. Pensioner Felix Pink is about to find out that it's never too late . . . for life to go horribly wrong. When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he's there to perform an act of charity: to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath . . . But just fifteen minutes later Felix is on the run from the police - after making the biggest mistake of his life. Now his world is turned upside down as he must find out if he's really to blame, or if something much more sinister is at play. All while staying one shaky step ahead of the law.

How far would you go to correct your worst mistake? When Chloe goes to university and meets wild, carefree Zadie, she is utterly seduced by her and her lifestyle. It doesn't take long for Chloe to ditch her studies in favour of all-night parties at Zadie's huge house off campus.nnBut when something goes badly wrong one night and Zadie disappears in the aftermath, Chloe knows she should have done more to help her friend. It's something she'll always regret. Fifteen years later, Chloe finally gets the chance to make it right. But in order to do so, she'll have to put everything at stake . . . Two Wrongs is by Rebecca Reid.

 February 2021

The Sanatorium is the debut novel by Sarah Pearse. Everyone's in danger. Anyone could be next.An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it's beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous - as does her brother, Isaac. And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancee Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin's unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic. But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they're all in . . .

March 2021

The Dare is by Lesley Kara. As a child, it was just a game. As an adult, it was a living nightmare.'This time it's different. She's gone too far now. She really has.' When teenage friends Lizzie and Alice decide to head off for a walk in the countryside, they are blissfully unaware that this will be their final day together - and that only Lizzie will come back alive. Lizzie has no memory of what happened in the moments before Alice died, she only knows that it must have been a tragic accident. But as she tries to cope with her grief, she is shocked to find herself alienated from Alice's friends and relatives. They are convinced she somehow had a part to play in her friend's death. Twelve years later, unpacking boxes in the new home she shares with her fiance, Lizzie is horrified to find long-buried memories suddenly surfacing. Is the trauma of the accident finally catching up with her, or could someone be trying to threaten her new-found happiness?

Tokyo, Japan. Umiko Wada has had enough excitement in life. With an overbearing mother and her husband recently murdered, she just wants to keep her head down. As a secretary to a private detective, her life is pleasantly filled with coffee runs and paperwork. That is, until her boss takes on a new case. A case that is surrounded by shadows. A case that means Wada will have to leave Tokyo and travel to London. London, England. Nick Miller never knew his father, and was always told he wasn't missing much. But when an old friend of his late mother says there are things that Nick needs to know about his parents, he can't ignore it. When a chance encounter brings Wada and Nick together, they couldn't know the series of violent events set off by their investigations. And when they discover Nick's father might have been the only witness to a dark secret forever buried, they realise there are some powerful people who will do whatever it takes to keep it that way... The Fne Art of Invisblle Detection is by Robbert Goddard.

April 2021

Tall Bones is by Anna Bailey. When seventeen-year-old Emma leaves her best friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes, like most girls her age, that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, but Emma will never see her friend again. Abi's disappearance cracks open the facade of the small town of Whistling Ridge, its intimate history of long-held grudges and resentment. Even within Abi's family, there are questions to be asked - of Noah, the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of Jude, the shining younger sibling who hides his battle scars, of Dolly, her mother and Samuel, her father - both in thrall to the fire and brimstone preacher who holds the entire town in his grasp. Then there is Rat, the outsider, whose presence in the town both unsettles and excites those around him. Anything could happen in Whistling Ridge, this tinder box of small-town rage, and all it will take is just one spark - the truth of what really happened that night out at the Tall Bones...

May 2021

Sometimes the only way to catch a killer is to become their prey. In Bristol, a young woman jumps into an icy reservoir. In Leeds, a girl cuts ties with her family and disappears. The only thing that links them is a shared obsession with a mysterious woman called Paula. For Dr Bloom, the stories told by their families are disturbingly familiar. She has seen this all before. She is sure that this charismatic, charming woman is the leader of a cult. She begins investigating the Artemis community but is met with walls of secrecy. Which leaves only one option. The Hunt is by Leona Deakin

Outbreak is by Frank Gardner. Deep within the Arctic Circle, three environmental scientists from the UK's Arctic Research Station trudge through a blizzard landscape in search of shelter. There's a cabin ahead. It appears abandoned. No lights or tell-tale smoke. No snowmobile parked outside.The first thing the team's medic, Dr Sheila Mackenzie, notices when she enters is the smell. It's rank, rotting, foetid. Then suddenly there's movement. A figure, barely recognisable as human, lies slumped on a sofa, his face staring back at her in the torchlight. It's hideously disfigured by livid pustules, rivulets of blood run from his nostrils, his chest covered in black bile. Momentarily Dr Mackenzie can't comprehend what she's seeing. Then the alarm bells begin to ring. These are the signs of chronic, deadly infection . . .But the man is trying to say something. She edges closer to him, and it's then that the convulsions begin. His body erupts into a violent fit of coughing, spewing out a toxic cocktail of blood, bile and mucus . . .Dr Mackenzie already knows it's too late. She is contaminated . . . Setting in train a terrifying chain of events that threatens millions with a deadly, man-made contagion.

Luke Truman is a junior officer on board the USS Leviathan, the most advanced and powerful warship ever built. It is an eight-hundred-foot-long submarine which, among its vast array of weaponry and secret systems, boasts a top secret “cloaking technology.” Bending light around objects to render them invisible, it is the hottest military research innovation not just in the US, but throughout the world. Now the time has come for the first large-scale trial of its effectiveness. But neither Luke nor the United States government realize the astonishing forces this experiment will unleash. What Luke discovers on board the Leviathan is that the future of our world is at a deadly tipping point and that only he will be able to stop the cascade of events which are leading them all inexorably towards doom. The Year of the Locust is by Terry Hayes.

Triple Cross is by Tom Bradby. Attempting to rebuild her shattered life in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell - and he needs her help. A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London. Against her better judgement, Kate is forced back into the fray in a top-secret, deeply flawed and dangerous investigation. But now she's damaged goods. Her one-time allies no longer trust her. And neither do her enemies. With the stakes this high, can the truth ever come out? Or is the cost of uncovering it a price that no one, least of all Kate, can afford to pay?

June 2021

What happens to those girls who go missing? What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?' In the early hours of Saturday, December 17th, 2011, Zoe Nolan, a 19-year-old Manchester University student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months. She was never seen again. True Crime Story is by Joseph Knox.

Books to Look Forward to From Transworld Publishers

January 2019

A dark and labyrinthine thriller from a bold new voice in crime fiction It is 1981. London is bruised by austerity, social unrest and racial tension, and the police are at war. Anger has erupted in the Brixton Riots and is finding expression in protest, anarchy and punk. For Detective Inspector Hobbes, the battle lines are being redrawn within his own ranks as right and wrong are clouded by prejudice. Into this mess comes a murder. A promising young singer has been maimed and killed and the artistry of the crime is disturbing. On the hunt for the killer, Hobbes begins an investigation that will lead him deep into a subculture hidden beneath the everyday. A cult of personality that hides from the problems of the city and escapes to a world of its own, a world that is at once seductive and devastating. How far will Hobbes have to go to learn the truth? And how many more must die before he does?  Slow Motion Ghosts is by Jeff Noon.

Suspect is by Fiona Barton.  The police belonged to another world - the world they saw on the television or in the papers. Not theirs.' When two eighteen-year-old girls go missing on their gap year in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft and frantic with worry. Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth - and this time is no exception. But she can't help but think of her own son, who she hasn't seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling. This time it's personal. And as the case of the missing girls unfolds, they will all find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think . . .

February 2019

 Look around you. Who holds the most power in the room? Is it the one who speaks loudest, who looks the part, who has the most money, who commands the most respect? Or perhaps it's someone like Christine Butcher: a meek, overlooked figure, who silently bears witness as information is shared and secrets are whispered. Someone who quietly, perhaps even unwittingly, gathers together knowledge of the people she's there to serve - the ones who don't notice her, the ones who consider themselves to be important. There's a fine line between loyalty and obsession. And when someone like Christine Butcher is pushed to her limit, she might just become the most dangerous person in the room.  The Secretary is by Renée Knight.

March 2019

One False Move is by Robert Goddard.  What value can be put on a human mind? How Joe Roberts does what he does is a mystery. He has a brain that seems able to outperform a computer. To a games company like Venstrom that promises big profits if his abilities can be properly exploited. So they send Nicole Nevinson to track him down and make him an offer too good to refuse. But Venstrom aren't the only people interested in Joe. His current boss, a shady businessman, is already making serious money out of Joe's talents and isn' going to let him go without a fight. And then there are other forces, with still darker intentions, who have their own plans for him. Almost before she knows it, Nicole's crossed an invisible line into a world where the game being played has rules she doesn't understand and where no-one can help her win. But win she must. Because the battle now isn't just for Joe's mind, it's for Nicole's life.

In Which Mr May Makes A Mistake And Mr Bryant Goes Into The Dark On a rainy winter night outside a run-down nightclub in the wrong part of London, four strangers meet for the first time at 4:00am. A few weeks later the body of an Indian textile worker is found hanging upside down inside a willow tree on Hamstead Heath. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to investigate. The victim was found surrounded by the paraphernalia of black magic, and so Arthur Bryant and John May set off to question experts in the field. But the case is not what it appears. When another victim seemingly commits suicide, it becomes clear that in the London night is a killer who knows what people fear most. And he always strikes at 4:00am. In order to catch him, the PCU must switch to night shifts, but still the team draws a blank. John May takes a technological approach, Arthur Bryant goes in search of academics and misfits for help, for this is becoming a case that reveals impossibilities at every turn, not least that there's no indication of what the victims might have done to attract the attentions of a murderer that doesn't seem to exist. But impossibilities are what the Peculiar Crimes Unit does best. As they explore a night city where all the normal rules are upended, they're drawn deeper into a case that involves murder, arson, kidnap, blackmail, bats and the psychological effects of loneliness on Londoners. It's a trail that takes them from the poorest part of the East End to the wealthiest homes in North London - an investigation that can only end in tragedy...  The Lonely Hour is by Christopher Fowler.

The Boy in the Headlights is by Samuel Bjork.  Munch and Krüger. An unexpected pairing. A brilliant team.  Winter 1999. An old man is driving home when his headlights catch an animal on the empty road up ahead. He stamps hard on the brakes.  But it is not an animal at all. It is a young boy, frightened and alone, with a set of deer antlers strapped firmly to his head.  Fourteen years later, a body is found in a mountain lake. Within weeks, three people have died. Each time, the killer has left a clue, inviting Special Investigations Detectives Munch and Krüger to play a deadly game – a game they cannot possibly win. Against the most dangerous and terrifying kind of serial killer. One who chooses their victims completely at random.  To find the killer they must look deep within their own dark pasts, but how can you stop a murderer when you cannot begin to predict their next move?

April 2019

Too Close is by Natalie Daniels.  How close is too close? There's a moment, when you meet someone new, when the connection is so strong that making a friend can feel like falling in love. That's how it was for Connie and Ness. They met in the park while their children played and as they talked, they realised they were neighbours. Perhaps it was only natural that they and their families would become entirely inseparable. But when Ness's marriage ends in a bitter divorce, she is suddenly at Connie's house all the time. Connie doesn't have a moment to herself, no time alone with her husband, not a second to chat to her kids. It's all too much. Something has to give. Connie has woken up in a psychiatric hospital. They say she committed a terrible crime but she says she can't remember a thing.

May 2019

Four strangers are missing. Left at their last-known locations are birthday cards that read: YOUR GIFT IS THE GAME. DARE TO PLAY? The police aren't worried - it's just a game. But the families are frantic, and psychologist and private detective Dr Augusta Bloom is persuaded to investigate. As she delves into the lives of the missing people, she finds something that binds them all. And that something makes them very dangerous indeed. As more disappearances are reported and new birthday cards uncovered, Dr Bloom races to unravel the mystery and find the puppeteer. But is she playing into their hands?  Mind Games is by Leona Deakin.

Even the best intelligence play has consequences – good and bad.  When a young woman working undercover for S15 as the nanny for an oligarch’s family is found brutally murdered, Kate Henderson, head of the Russian desk, knows that something is very wrong.  What’s more the intel that she has helped uncover seems to be pointing towards the existence of a high level Russian mole in the British Government.  Particularly when that mole might be in line to be the next Prime Minister.  Secret Service is by Tom Bradby.

June 2019

'I thought she was our friend. I thought she was trying to help us.' After the sudden death of her husband, Tess Clarke is drowning in grief. All she has left is her son, Jamie, and she'll do anything to protect him - but she's struggling to cope. When grief counsellor Shelley knocks 

on their door, everything changes. Shelley is beautiful, confident and takes control when Tess can't bear to face the outside world. But when questions arise over her husband's death and strange things start to happen, Tess begins to suspect that Shelley may have an ulterior motive. Tess knows she must do everything she can to keep Jamie safe - but who can she trust?  The Perfect Betrayal is by Lauren North.

The Warehouse is a near-future thriller set in an America addicted to consumerism where gun violence, climate change and unemployment have ravaged the nation, and an online retail giant named Cloud reigns supreme. Cloud brands itself not just as an online storefront but a sort of global saviour. However beneath that sunny exterior is a grinding, soul-sucking machine which will stop at nothing to make a buck. The Warehouse is by Rob Hart.

The Second Wife is by Rebecca Fleet.  After the suicide of his first wife, Alex has been given a second lease of life with Natalie.  Newly married and living in Brighton with his thirteen year old daughter Jade, the couple seem to be made for one another – but their idyllic domestic calm is shattered when the family narrowly escapes a devastating fire in their home,  Alex soon discovers that Natalie and Jade have different accounts of what happened that terrible night – but which one of his family is lying and why?

Books to Look Forward to from Transworld

July 2018

Seven-year-old Hanna has never spoken a word. She is a sweet but silent angel in the eyes of her adoring father, but with Mummy, things are different. Suzette loves her daughter but difficulties with babysitters and teachers over the years have put a strain on their relationship and her sanity. Then Hanna speaks for the first time, to Suzette alone, and what she says is chilling. Suzette wants to write it off as a scary joke, but she's becoming increasingly frightened by Hanna's little games. Could she be in danger from her own child? And when it's her word against her daughter's, can she make her husband believe her? Bad Apple is by Zoje Stage.

An Unwanted Guest is by Shari  Lapena.  We can't choose the strangers we meet. As the guests arrive at beautiful, remote Mitchell's Inn, they're all looking forward to a relaxing weekend deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. They watch their fellow guests with interest, from a polite distance. Usually we can avoid the people who make us nervous, make us afraid. With a violent storm raging, the group finds itself completely cut off from the outside world. Nobody can get in - or out. And then the first body is found . . . and the horrifying truth comes to light. There's a killer among them - and nowhere to run. Until we find ourselves in a situation we can't escape. Trapped.

1948: an English housewife trapped in a dull marriage escapes to the South of France to claim a mystery inheritance. But rivals to her unexplained fortune begin to emerge, and now they want her out of the way ... She didn't have an enemy in the world... until she inherited a fortune London 1948: Eve Forrester is trapped in a loveless marriage, in a gloomy house, in a grey suburb. Out of the blue, she received a solicitor's letter. A wealthy stranger has left her a mystery inheritance but in order to find out more, she must travel to the glittering French Riviera. Eve discovers her legacy is an enchanting villa overlooking the Mediterranean sea and suddenly, life could not be more glamorous. But while she rubs shoulders with film-stars and famous writers, under the heat of the golden sun, rivals to her unexplained fortune begin to emerge. Rivals who want her out of the way. Alone in paradise, Eve must unlock the story behind her surprise bequest - before events turn deadly... Fatal Inheritance is by Rachel Rhys.

August 2018

A Treachery of Spies is by Manda Scott and is an espionage thriller to rival the very best, a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse, played in the shadows, which will keep you guessing every step of the way. An elderly woman of striking beauty is found murdered in Orleans, France. Her identity has been cleverly erased but the method of her death is very specific: she has been killed in the manner of traitors to the Resistance in World War Two. Tracking down her murderer leads police inspector Ines Picaut back to 1940s France where the men and women of the Resistance were engaged in a desperate fight for survival against the Nazi invaders. To find answers in the present Picaut must discover what really happened in the past, untangling a web of treachery and intrigue that stretches back to the murder victim's youth: a time when unholy alliances were forged between occupiers and occupied, deals were done and promises broken. The past has been buried for decades, but, as Picaut discovers, there are those in the present whose futures depend on it staying that way - and who will kill to keep their secrets safe...

Denton, 1984. After a morning's betting at the races, bookmaker George Price is found in his car, barely alive with a bullet in his head. As he's rushed to hospital, Detective Inspector Jack Frost and the Denton police force start their hunt for the would-be murderer. But with a long list of enemies who might want the bookie dead, the team have got their work cut out for them. And with a slew of other crimes hitting the area, from counterfeit goods to a violent drugs gangs swamping Denton with cheap heroin, the stakes have never been higher. Will Frost find the answers he's looking for before things go from bad to worse?A Lethal Frost is by Danny Miller.

Resin is by Ane Riel and is the story of what can happen when you love someone too much - when your desire to keep them safe becomes the thing that could irrevocably harm them. * Liv died when she was just six years old. At least, that's what the authorities think. Her father knew he was the only one who could keep her safe in this world. So one evening he left the isolated house his little family called home, he pushed their boat out to sea and watched it ruin on the rocks. Then he walked the long way into town to report his only child missing. But behind the boxes and the baskets crowding her Dad's workshop, Liv was hiding. This way her Dad had said, she'd never have to go to school; this way, she'd never have to leave her parents. This way, Liv would be safe.

Slow Motion Ghosts is by Jeff Noon.  It is 1981. London is bruised by austerity, social unrest and racial tension, and the police are at war. Anger has erupted in the Brixton Riots and is finding expression in protest, anarchy and punk. For Detective Inspector Hobbes, the battle lines are being redrawn within his own ranks as right and wrong are clouded by prejudice. Into this mess comes a murder. A promising young singer has been maimed and killed and the artistry of the crime is disturbing. On the hunt for the killer, Hobbes begins an investigation that will lead him deep into a subculture hidden beneath the everyday. A cult of personality that hides from the problems of the city and escapes to a world of its own, a world that is at once seductive and devastating. How far will Hobbes have to go to learn the truth? 

September 2018

Most weapons do what you tell them. Most weapons you can control. But what if the most dangerous weapon in the world isn't a smart missile or a stealth submarine or even an AI computer programme? What if it's a 17-year-old boy with a blisteringly brilliant mind, who can run rings around the most sophisticated security services across the globe, who can manipulate that weaponry and turn it against the superpowers themselves? How valuable would he be? And what wouldn't you do to get hold of him? The Fox is a race-against-time thriller across continents to find and capture, or protect and save, an asset with the means to change the balance of world power. Whatever happens he must not fall into the wrong hands. Because what follows after that is unthinkable...  The Fox is by Frederick Forsyth.

November 2018

Past Tense is by Lee Child.  Jack Reacher plans to follow the autumn sun on an epic road trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been - the town where his father was born. He thinks, what’s one extra day? He takes the detour.   At the very same moment, close by, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to get to New York City to sell a treasure. They're stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. It’s a strange place … but it’s all there is.  The next morning in the city clerk's office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in that town. He knows his father never went back. Now he wonders, was he ever there in the first place?