January 2018
There
is a new cold war raging and its frontline warriors are Russian hackers -
gang-members working freelance for the FSB, successor to the KGB. Massive
thefts of personal information, electoral interference, catastrophic disruption
of commercial and social services, banks, airlines, even whole countries
disabled - this is happening now. Nicknamed 'Boot' because of his obsession
with the Duke of Wellington and the battle of Waterloo, Edwin Coker is a case
officer at the Vauxhall headquarters of MI6. When a young hacker falls into his
hands and reveals details of a secret meeting, Boot conceives a daring plan to
strike back - not with a computer virus of his own, but with a bomb that will
seriously damage the Russian operation, spreading fear and distrust. Now Boot
and his little team need a 'deniable' handler to deliver the explosives across
the border from Estonia into Russia and bring the hacker back out. They turn to
Merc, an ex-soldier fighting in Iraq, a gun-for-hire who knows how to get out
of a tight spot. They hope. From the moment Merc sets out to cross the River
Narva things do not go to plan and when the hacker's sister becomes involved,
his mission turns from tough to near impossible. The scene is set for a classic
story of pursuit and evasion and an epic battle for survival. A Damned Serious
Business is by Gerald Seymour.
The Shout is by Stephen Leather. Vicky
Lewis is a force to be reckoned with: not yet thirty and already crew manager
in the London Fire Brigade, she's destined for great things. But when she enters a burning building to
save a man's life and leaves it with catastrophic injuries, all that changes.
She's shunted over to the Fire Investigation Unit, where she's forced to team
up with cantankerous veteran Des Farmer, aka the Grouch. When Vicky stumbles
across the Grouch's off-the-books investigation into the fiery deaths of a
series of young, blonde women, she decides to join him in his search for the
truth.
Earth Storm is by Mons
Kallentoff In the early hours of the morning, the naked body of a young man is
discovered in a ditch next to Gota Kanal. The cause of death is mysterious; the
body bears no visible traces of violence.
The man is soon identified as Peder Akerlund, a former Swedish
politician, excluded from his party for racism but since reformed. Then
sixteen-year-old Nadja Lundin is reported missing, possibly abducted, the same
evening, and there are signs that suggest the two cases might be
connected. But what do the victims have
in common? And why were they chosen? Gradually, Malin Fors realises that they
are dealing with someone who is playing a game with them, who speaks through
murders and who will not be silenced. What is he or she trying to say?
Desperate to fine Nadja alive, the team race against the clock to find an
answer before it's too late...
A Map of the Dark is by
Karen Ellis. FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people. She knows
how it feels to be lost... Though her father lies dying in a hospital
north of New York City, Elsa cannot refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has
gone missing from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of
the case, a series of false leads hides the fact that she did not go
willingly. With each passing hour, as
the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man who may have been killing for
years, the case starts to get underneath Elsa's skin. Everything she has buried
- her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive
past, her mother's death - threatens to resurface, with devastating
consequences. In order to save the
missing girl, she may have to lose herself...and return to the darkness she's
been hiding from for years.
The police think Crystal
Heathers isn't missing. The trainee
detective assigned to the case isn't so sure.
McAvoy thinks someone was being held at the derelict building where they
just found a body pinned to the wall...and that all the signs point to it being
a little girl. But why would anyone not
report a kidnapping? And how far would
someone go to get revenge? The case will
test McAvoy to breaking point - as the crimes of the present lead him to a
final violent confrontation with an enemy from his own past. Scorched Earth is by David Mark.
February 2018
London 1888: George 'Zulu'
Hart is the mixed-race illegitimate son of a Dublin actress and (he suspects)
the Duke of Cambridge, commander-in-chief of the army. George has fought his
way through wars in Africa and Afghanistan, won the VC and married his
sweetheart, but he's also a gambler, short of money and in no position to turn down
the job of 'minder' to Prince Albert Victor, second in line to the
throne. George is to befriend the charming young cavalry officer and keep
him out of trouble - no easy task, given that the Prince is a known target for
Irish nationalist assassins, while his secret sexual orientation leaves him
open to blackmail and scandal. To make matters worse, the Prince is also
in the habit of heading out late at night to sample the dubious pleasures of
the East End. Both outsiders in their different ways, perhaps the two men
have more in common than they know, but when a series of horrible murders
begins in Whitechapel, on just the nights the Prince has been there, George is
drawn into an investigation which forces him to confront the unthinkable... The
Prince and the Whitechapel Murders is by Saul David.
Hanson thought he had
witnessed the worst of humanity after a tour of duty in Vietnam and a stint as
a cop in Oregon. Then he moves to Oakland, California to join the under-funded,
understaffed police department. Hanson
chooses to live - alone - in the precinct that he patrols; he, unlike the rest
of the white officers, takes seriously his duty to serve and protect the black
community of East Oakland. He will
encounter prejudice and hate on both sides of the line... and struggle to keep
true to himself against powerful opposition and personal danger. Green Sun is by Kent Anderson.
Charles Street was once a
highly-respected agent working for MI6, until a terrible mistake cost him his
job. Now he's a desperate man, living on past glories and struggling to make
ends meet. Until he makes a discovery
that has the power to bring down the new President of the United States. But when Street tries to cash in on this
discovery, he finds himself pursued by a Russian snatch squad. Strike Back hero John Porter and Regiment
renegade John Bald are recruited by their handler to head to Washington, D.C.
Their mission: find Street before the Russians.
What begins as a routine exfiltration quickly descends into a brutal
struggle and the ex-SAS legends will need to use all of their fighting
instincts to stay alive. It seems
someone is desperate to stop Street from going public with the dossier. Bald
and Porter face a race against time to protect him. A startling revelation that leads from the
White House to the Kremlin threatens to trigger a new global conflict... Global Strike is by Chris Ryan.
March 2018
When a Member of
Parliament shows up in the office of the Assistant Commissioner at New Scotland
Yard, trouble quickly follows. He is there to request an investigation into the
suicide of the son of one of his constituents in the medieval town of Ludlow,
who happens to be a wealthy brewer with a team of solicitors ready to file a
major lawsuit over the death. The Assistant Commissioner sees two opportunities
in this request: the first is to have an MP owing him a favour, and the second
is to get rid of Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, whose career at the Met has
been hanging by a thread for quite some time. So he assigns Barbara Havers to
the case and partners her not with her regular partner but with the one person
who shares his enthusiasm for ridding the Metropolitan Police of Barbara
Havers, Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery. But Ardery has her own
difficulties, the most heart-breaking of which is the loss of her twin sons to
a move to New Zealand. She is not happy to be sent away from London and as a
result is in a rush to return. This rush causes her to overlook things,
important things, and prevents her from uncovering an earlier crime that set
everything in motion. The Punishment she
Deserves is by Elizabeth George.
The Reckoning is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.
In 2016 the following people are going to die: K, S, BT, JJ, OV and I. Nobody will miss them. Least of all me. I can’t wait.
A chilling note predicting the deaths of six people is found in a
school's time capsule, ten years after it was buried. But surely, if a
thirteen-year-old wrote it, it can't be a real threat...Detective Huldar
suspects he's been giving the investigation simply to keep him away from real
police work. He turns to psychologist Freyja to help understand the child who
hid the message. Soon, however, they find themselves at the heart of another
shocking case.For the discovery of the letter coincides with a string of
macabre events: body parts found in a garden, followed by the murder of the man
who owned the house. His initials are BT, the first name on the note. Huldar and Freyja must race to identify the
writer, the victims and the murderer, before the rest of the targets are
killed...
Maverick agent Valentine
Pescatore is back and investigating a brutal killing that leads him across
borders and reveals a vast conspiracy of wealth and power terrifyingly close to
home. Valentine Pescatore, the former
U.S. agent, finds himself back on American soil, investigating the merciless
killing of a group of women in a motel room. At first, the crime seems to be a
straightforward case of gangsters battling for territory. Soon, however, the motive
is revealed to be much deeper and more sinister: a single witness who knows too
much is being hunted. Rip Crew is by
Sebastian Rotella.
Hap and Leonard are an unlikely pair - Hap,
a self-proclaimed white trash rebel, and Leonard, a tough-as-nails black gay
Vietnam vet and Republican - but they're the closest friend either of them has
in the world. Hap is celebrating his wedding to his long time girlfriend, when
their backyard barbecue is interrupted by a couple of Pentecostal white
supremacists. They're not too happy to see Leonard, and no one is happy to see
them, but they have a problem and they want Hap and Leonard to solve it. Judith Mulhaney's daughter, Jackrabbit, has
been missing for five years. That is, she's been missing from her family for
five years, but she's been missing from everybody, including the local no-goods
they knew ran with her, for a few months. Despite their misgivings, Hap and
Leonard take the case. It isn't long until they find themselves mixed up in a
revivalist cult believing that Jesus will return flanked by an army of
lizard-men, and solving a murder to boot.
Jackrabbit Smile is by Joe. R Lansdale.
April 2018
The Woman in the Woods is
by John Connolly. It is spring, and the
semi-preserved body of a young Jewish woman is discovered buried in the Maine
woods. It is clear that she gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby. Private detective Charlie Parker is engaged by
the lawyer Moxie Castin to shadow the police investigation and find the infant,
but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left
by the woman, someone with an interest in more than a missing child, someone
prepared to leave bodies in his wake.
And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring. For a young boy is about to receive a call
from a dead woman . . .
Flavia Albia is a private
investigator, always drawn to an intriguing puzzle - even if it is put to her
by her new husband's hostile ex-wife. On the Quirinal Hill, Clodia Volumnia, a
very young girl with stars in her eyes, has died, amid suggestions that she was
poisoned by a love-potion. It will have been supplied by a local witch, who
goes by the name of Pandora, though Albia learns that Pandora carries on a
trade in herbal beauty products while hiding much more dangerous connections.
Pandora's beloved grandson, a trainee hack lawyer, is one of the dead girl's
empty-headed friends; can this be relevant?
As she homes in on the truth, Albia has to contend with the occult,
organised crime, an unusual fertility symbol, and celebrity dining. She
discovers the young girl was a handful; her father mediates in disputes, yet
has divorced his grief-stricken wife and is now suing his own mother-in-law;
Clodia's so-called friends were none too friendly. The supposedly sweet air of
the Quirinal hides the smells of loose morality, casual betrayal and even
gangland conflict. When a friend of her own is murdered, Albia determines to
expose as much of this local sickness as she can - beginning with the truth
about the death of little Clodia.
Pandora’s Boy is by Lindsey Davis
May 2018
The Cutting Edge is by
Jeffery Deaver. Lincoln Rhyme is back –
and facing a particularly brutal killer, who seems to be targeting couples just
as they start out on their lives together.
While Amelia Sachs tracks the case on the street, and Rhyme analyses the
clues in his townhouse, new information forces them to realise the story is
deeper than either of them had thought.
They are a group of
misfits who go online for fun. Their hobby is giving names to the missing dead.
But a killer is online with them, and his game is in deadly earnest . . .Shaun
Ryan's brother, Teddy, died in 1989. Only he didn't. Looking through his
grievously ill mother's personal effects, Shaun finds a postcard that Teddy
posted from New York, dated October 22nd 1990. And in his mother's family Bible
is a picture of an adult Teddy. Could Teddy somehow be alive? And how do you
find someone who has never been declared missing and who vanished nearly thirty
years ago? Missing-linc.com are an oddball assortment of geeks and obsessives
whose macabre hobby is matching unidentified bodies with missing people. Ellie
Caines' first and biggest case was The Boy in the Dress, a corpse found not ten
miles from where she lived in Minnesota, two years after Teddy's postcard. Her
obsession nearly broke her marriage and she left the group - but when the
Ryan's enquiry is passed onto her she knows they have likely matched the
missing Teddy with that decades-old corpse. And that she will be sucked back
into the old nightmare, where the dead are more real than the living. Missing Persons is by Sarah Lotz.
Murder at the Grand Raj
Palace is by Vaseem Khan. For a century
the iconic Grand Raj Palace Hotel has welcomed the world's elite. From film
stars to foreign dignitaries, anyone who is anyone stays at the Grand Raj. The last thing the venerable old hotel needs
is a murder... When American billionaire
Hollis Burbank is found dead - the day after buying India's most expensive
painting - the authorities are keen to label it a suicide. But the man in
charge of the investigation is not so sure. Chopra is called in - and discovers
a hotel full of people with a reason to want Burbank dead. Accompanied by his sidekick, baby elephant
Ganesha, Chopra navigates his way through the palatial building, a journey that
leads him steadily to a killer, and into the heart of darkness . . .
June 2018
Bianca St. Ives makes her
living as a high-end thief and a genius of disguise, conning criminals out of
the money they stole - and all for the greater good. A femme fatale Robin Hood,
she's learnt everything she knows from her father. Now that she's taken over
running the family business, it's not just Richard St. Ives on most-wanted lists,
but Bianca, too. After faking his own death, the word is out that Bianca's
father is, in fact, alive, and having just pulled off a major heist in Austria,
he has a dangerous task for Bianca that will see her travelling to Russia to
steal ancient jewels and artifacts. But now all eyes are on Bianca, and
escaping international pursuit will be harder than ever... The Moscow Deception is by Karen Robards
How it Happens is by
Michael Koryta. 'And that is how it
happened. Can we stop now?' Kimberly
Crepeaux is no good, a notorious jailhouse snitch, teen mother, and heroin
addict whose petty crimes are well-known to the rural Maine community where she
lives. So when she confesses to her role in the brutal murders of Jackie
Pelletier and Ian Kelly, the daughter of a well-known local family and her
sweetheart, the locals have little reason to believe her story. Not Rob Barrett, the FBI investigator and
interrogator specializing in telling a true confession from a falsehood. He's
been circling Kimberly and her conspirators for months, waiting for the right
avenue to the truth, and has finally found it. He knows, as strongly as he's
known anything, that Kimberly's story-a grisly, harrowing story of a hit and
run fuelled by dope and cheap beer that becomes a brutal stabbing in cold
blood-is how it happened. But one thing remains elusive: where are Jackie and
Ian's bodies? After Barrett stakes his
name and reputation on the truth of Kimberly's confession, only to have the
bodies turn up 200 miles from where she said they'd be, shot in the back and
covered in a third person's DNA, the case is quickly closed and Barrett
forcibly reassigned. But something still nags at locals, and at a local
newspaper reporter who's been chasing the story as doggedly as Barrett himself.
Never Go There is by
Rebecca Tinnelly. What if you found out that you'd been married to a
stranger? 'Never go there, Nuala.
Please, never go there.'
Nuala knows nothing of her husband James's past. He made her
swear that she would never contact his family and never, EVER visit the place
he was from. But now James is dead, and
Nuala is alone. Grieving and desperate, she decides to ignore his warning. Nuala is about to find out that some secrets
are better left buried - and that uncovering the truth about the man she
married will have terrible consequences...
The Death Knock is by
Elodie Harper. Is there a serial killer
in East Anglia? The police deny it. Journalist Frankie suspects they're wrong.
Student Ava knows they're wrong... because she's just been abducted by
him. As Ava struggles to stay alive, and
Frankie finds herself far closer to the case than she'd anticipated...
He saved your
son's life. Does that mean you have
to give him yours? It starts with a
holiday. A three-year-old boy on a beach,
and the hero who saves his life. But nothing is ever that simple. Tessa and Marcus know they owe Dave Jepsom
more than they can ever repay. Yet even
as he is walking from the sea with their son in his arms, there is
something about him that makes them uneasy.
He is not like other people that they know. Being with him makes them confront truths
about themselves they would rather not see.
The shock of that moment will change everything. And it's not how things start that
matter. But how they end . . . Take Me In is by Sabine Durrant.
Liar, Liar is by Lisa
Jackson. A woman jumps to her death. She looks a lot like washed up beauty queen
Didi Storm, but her daughter is adamant: that’s not her mother. To solve the mystery of who jumped – and why
– Remmi Storm and cop Dani Settler have to go back to the start, to a deal
conducted in the Las Vegas desert twenty-two years ago, which went terribly
wrong.
