Forthcoming books from Little Brown Books

 January 2026

Two girls went into the Hanging Woods. Only one returned. Twenty years ago Caitlin vowed never to return to her small Irish hometown. Now she drifts from temporary jobs to temporary men, trying to escape memories of the Hanging Woods. Of what happened to Roisin there. But with news of her estranged mother's sudden death, Caitlin is forced to return home, back to the town where everyone knows each other's business and old resentments run deep. Roisin's sister Deedee, now a Garda, has never given up on finding the truth of what happened in those woods. And Caitlin's return makes old wounds fresh, threatening to exhume secrets that have lain buried for two decades - while the Hanging Woods begin their siren call to Caitlin and Deedee once more . . . Darkrooms is by Rebecca Hannigan.

Killing in the Shadows is by Kate Ellis. The quaint Yorkshire village of Eaglethorpe was a sanctuary for famous TV personality, Lexi Verity, away from prying eyes and camera flashes. But a life led in the spotlight can create envy in its shadows. When Lexi is found dead in her swimming pool, DI Joe Plantagenet and DCI Emily Thwaite are called to investigate. The murder of the celebrity is front-page news and the pressure is on the Eborby CID to find the killer. As Joe and Emily unravel the last moments of Lexi's life, they discover various motives for murder - as well as events in Lexi's distant past that would horrify the public if the facts were ever revealed. Sinister secrets are also haunting the residents of the ancient cathedral city of Eborby nearby. 

As a college English professor, Elizabeth looks forward to the start of each new semester teaching her creative writing seminar. At least until she reads chapter one of The Reckoning, a tale about a high school senior who has an affair with her teacher. To anyone else it would be the beginning of a great page-turner, but to Elizabeth it is the beginning of the end. She knows this story. It's all familiar because she lived it. The girl in the story was her best friend Jocelyn, and Elizabeth knows exactly how the story will end-with the professor dead. Because she was the one who killed him. Someone knows what Elizabeth did twenty years ago and her secret is about to be exposed, but who is the mystery student submitting the chapters? In an effort to find out, Elizabeth returns to her Louisiana hometown where it soon becomes clear that no matter how many years have gone by, she can't escape her past. Someone Knows is by Vi Keeland.

February 2026

It's Not Her is by Mary Kubica. A stunning discovery. Courtney Gray's tranquil family vacation is shattered when she hears a blood-curdling scream from the lakeside cottage next door. There she finds the lifeless bodies of her brother and sister-in-law. Her teenage niece Reese is nowhere to be found, while her nephew Wyatt lies asleep upstairs, unharmed. A shocking investigation. As the police descend on the quiet resort town, disturbing secrets about Courtney's family start to emerge. When she learns that the town has secrets of its own, it makes her wonder if Reese is another victim in a brutal crime or if she's the killer. A truth no one could have imagined . . As Courtney begins to unravel the terrible mystery, she realizes that everyone around her has something to hide. And the closer she gets to the truth, the harder it is to see . . .

Twenty years ago, Eddie's career as a journalist was destroyed by the Juliet Fox case. Juliet was young and beautiful, born into the privileged world of the Manhattan elite. Pulled into their orbit by her investigation, Eddie discovered how far the rich and powerful are prepared to go when their way of life is threatened . . . Eddie has always known that the wrong man was made the scapegoat for Juliet's murder. So when a new luxury sky-rise is opened by Juliet's father, just metres from where her body was discovered two decades before, Eddie can't resist finding her way in, back into a world where dangerous people operate in the shadows, and anyone might kill to keep a secret safe. In Glass Houses is by Edel Coffey.

I'm Not The Only Murderer in my Retirement Home is by Fergus Craig. Retirement will have to wait. When former serial killer Carol takes her place in a luxury retirement home, she begins to find her feet with a small new group of friends. If she can only keep her past hidden, maybe she has a chance at happiness. That's when she discovers that, absurdly, every other one of Sheldon Oaks' residents was involved in the law somehow. It's not long before her true identity is leaked, and when a former police commissioner resident is murdered, naturally all eyes turn to her... Now she must solve the case to prove her innocence - just as her new friends start their own investigations into whether there is more than one killer at Sheldon Oaks.

For a man who works in the shadows, a family is not just a luxury - it's a weakness. When an unknown enemy uses threats against Zack Hightower's estranged daughter to blackmail the injured operative into taking on a dangerous mission, his friend, Court Gentry, aka the Gray Man, volunteers to take Zack's place. But Court has problems of his own. He's already got a expert assassin on his trail for no apparent reason. And now his quest to protect Zack's family may drag his own family into the maelstrom. There's one lesson that Court has found undeniable: There's a reason superheroes have secret identities. The Hard Line is by Mark Greaney. 

Stolen in Death is by J D Robb. A violent death and a vault of stolen treasures has Eve Dallas struggling to solve crimes old and new  A blow to the head with a block of amethyst has left multibillionaire Nathan Barrister dead. Meanwhile, a nearby vault, its door ajar, sits filled with priceless paintings, jewelry, and other treasures and yet only one item seems to be missing. Is this a simple case of a burglar caught in the act or does Eve have a much bigger, bloodier mystery to solve....? 

March 2026

The Shark is by Emma Styles. Every monster has a weakness. At the height of Australian summer, a serial killer known as The Shark stalks a coastal suburb, hunting young female swimmers. Afraid and furious at the failure of the police to protect them, two women fight back. Raych is grieving someone she'd have died to save, while Carmen hides her own disturbing connection to the murders. In desperation, they form an uneasy alliance. And when another girl vanishes, they take matters into their own hands - by kidnapping the prime suspect. But as their interrogation spirals, horrifying truths surface on both sides of the table. The clock is ticking to save the missing girl. And in their quest for justice, Raych and Carmen must face the darkest question of all: have they caught a monster - or become one?

The wildest places often conceal the darkest secrets... DSI William Lorimer never expected that the next time he'd visit the Isle of Mull - where he and his wife, Maggie, have often wandered its windswept coasts and picturesque lochs - it would be for the funeral of an old friend. Mary Grant's sudden heart attack was a shock to the small community on the island, but Lorimer has no reason to suspect foul play, until he is approached at the funeral by one of Mary's closest friends. She is convinced there was more to Mary's death than meets the eye. And when she, too, dies in a sudden accident, Lorimer finds himself investigating a double murder. Mull is a place of spectacular beauty and characterful towns, but Lorimer knows that even here old secrets can resurface, resentments can run deep, and evil can lurk undetected. Blood on Old Stones is by Alex Gray.

Guilt is by Keigo Higashino. A body has been found on a Central Tokyo riverbank, and Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate. The victim is identified as a lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi, and Godai's investigations lead him to one Tatsuro Kuraki, who ends up confessing to not only to the lawyer's murder, but also another one from thirty years ago - for which another man was arrested and died in custody before trial. Kuraki's confession neatly resolves two cases, but there is just one problem: Detective Godai doesn't believe him. What's more, there are two other people who can't accept Kuraki's confession. One is the son of Kuraki, the professed murderer; the other is the daughter of Shiraishi, the victim. As they get closer to the truth it becomes clear that the link between the two murders is murkier and more complicated than they could possibly have imagined - and so is the line between innocence and guilt. 

In a house built on lies, the truth will get you killed. London, 1953. One foggy night, in the dead of February, a diffident young man arrives unannounced at 42 Tregunter Road in Chelsea. Self-styled Bohemian Mrs Honor Wilson, who runs a minor literary journal and lodgings from this timeworn Victorian house, introduces him to her 'dear house guests': Robbie, the writer; Mina, the aspiring socialite; George, the debutante; and Saul, the refugee poet. Jimmy Sullivan is a family friend, Honor says - yet clearly, something is very amiss. Despite everyone's suspicions, she lets the stranger move into the attic. As they each try to disprove Jimmy's dubious account of himself, secrets, jealousies, and disturbing schemes come to light, fracturing the household's delicate allegiances and setting in motion, unstoppably, a tale of perilous self-invention, complicated love, and murderous revenge. The Kindness of Strangers is by Emma Garman.

May 2026

An Atlantic voyage. A family at war. A secret worth killing over. Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show's renewed relevance, he's not there to stoke controversy: he's there to solve a murder. Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he's in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret. And that's not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve two murders, otherwise the only way he's getting off this ship is in handcuffs - or in a body bag. Quite Ugly One Evening is by Chris Brookmyre and is a zeitgesty locked-room mystery that sees the return of rogue journalist Jack Parlabane thirty years after his first appearance in Quite Ugly One Morning.

Tom Clancy's Rules of Engagement is by Ward Larsen. The White House is stunned when the Secretary of Commerce is killed in a plane crash in Turkey. President Jack Ryan isn't ready to write this off as a simple accident. Not only has he lost a good friend, but the Secretary was on an important mission: on the surface he was making an appearance at an economic conference, but the CIA was also using the flight as cover to extract an important asset from the Middle East. Soon, Lt. Commander Katie Ryan and her team are working with the investigators to find the cause of the tragedy, but one shocking revelation changes everything. There were supposed to be 16 people on the plane, but there are only 15 bodies. The quest for answers will lead the team deeper and deeper into a quagmire of lies and deception that will force President Ryan to face an unprincipled enemy with global ambitions.

True Crime: A Memoir is by Patricia Cornwell where she finally tells the story that rivals all of the works that precede it: her own. Patricia Cornwell is best known for her international bestselling thriller series about forensic pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta. Every story comes from somewhere, and Scarpetta's began when Patricia Cornwell embedded herself in a morgue. In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalised twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalisation and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon. Cornwell leaves no stone unturned in this deeply candid account of her life, offering inspiring insight into what made her into the international sensation she is today.

It's high summer in Slovenia. The charming resort town of Portorož is swarming with holidaymakers, and Inšpektorica Petra Vidmar is losing her cool. Fresh from her success solving the baffling murder of a beloved colleague, Petra's been enjoying sunshine, ice cream and very little crime in her new home on the stunning Slovenian coast. Life is blissful... until a super yacht drifts into the harbour with a body sprawled on deck. Steffi de Vries was a star on the social media scene, but her glittering career and picture-perfect life were brutally cut short. It seems that among her millions of followers, were many enemies: jealous boyfriends; ambitious rivals; illicit lovers and vengeful business partners. But who took their dislike beyond their phone screen and into real life? Petra and her assistant Policist Aleš Koren soon find themselves deep in the world of wealth, glamour, luxury and 'likes'. But not all is at it seems... can they prise off the filter of perfection to reveal the murderous truth? Death Under The Slovenian Sun is by Georgina Stewart.

June 2026

Backstabbers is by Eliza Jabore. Never turn your back on a friend. Jade, Stef and Zoe are hiking Washington's Bones Hollow Trail, braving cougars, snakes and the storms that roll in without warning. The friends' paranoia isn't helped by listening to a true crime podcast about the serial killer whose hunting ground they're hiking through. Then when Stef twists her ankle - badly - there's no one to hear them scream for help. The only sign of life for miles is a cabin that looks straight out of a horror movie, with an owner who's a little too eager to invite them in. The friends must soon find a way to survive as things spiral out of control. After all, who can you trust when your back's against the wall? But unfortunately for them, the only thing more twisted than this nightmare is their friendship...

1973. Hours after a mysterious phone call is made to the police, a train pulls into Sunderland station with a dead body on board. Cause of death: strangulation. Victim: unknown. Witnesses: none. Undeterred by this baffling set of circumstances, newly promoted Police Sergeant Aline James vows to crack the case and prove her critics wrong. But when her famously ruthless investigation tactics yield no results, she is forced to seek help from two unlikely allies: unassuming assassin John Brown and calamitous actor Tony Davies. As bodies pile up, can this unusual trio thwart a devilishly complex plot, before one of them, actually, becomes a corpse? Actually I'm a Corpse is by Terry Deary.

Murder at St Alfred's is by Julie Wassmer. Clues for a murder are rather like ingredients for a recipe. Put them together in the right way and the results can be very satisfying...' For almost two centuries, St Alfred's Church in Whitstable, Kent, has held special significance in the lives of its parishioners - including for private detective, Pearl Nolan, owner of the Whitstable Pearl restaurant. Pearl's son, Charlie, was christened in the church and her oyster fisherman father, Tommy Nolan, is buried in the old churchyard. Now, St Alfred's is about to play another part in Pearl's life as the setting for her wedding to Canterbury police detective, DCI Mike McGuire. But two fateful events are about to threaten this happy occasion - the discovery of a body on hallowed ground and the return of a ghost from Pearl's own past...

Books to Look Forward to From Little Brown (Incl Constable)

 

January 2022

Breaking Point is by Edel Coffey. An innocent mistake. A lifetime of guilt. Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a high-flying medical career, a successful husband and an enviable life. Her hair is glossy, her clothes are expensive; she truly has it all. But when - on the hottest day of the year - her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realises she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car and it is too late to save her. As the press close in around her, Susannah is put on trial for negligence. It is plain to see that this is not a trial, it's a witch hunt. But what will the court say?

Blotto Twinks and the Suspicious Guests is by Simon Brett. 'What? You mean the earl does it for money? That's way beyond the barbed wire!' This explosion of disgust from Blotto is provoked when Twinks informs him of the activities of the Earl of Woking. The gentleman in question is owner of Clusters, a stately home not far from Tawcester Towers, and he has been renting out parts of Clusters for private functions - and charging his guests! The discovery of this appalling lapse in aristocratic behaviour sets Blotto and Twinks off on their latest adventure. Determined to find out more about the Earl of Woking's activities, they discover the existence of a sinister group called Aristotours - brokers between impoverished owners of stately homes and the common people, offering 'a taste of the high life' to characters such as stockbrokers, surgeons and solicitors. And if this were not bad enough, the siblings discover Aristotours trying to infiltrate their evil practises into Tawcester Towers itself! So Blotto and Twinks set off on a quest to identify - and stop - the evil genius behind Aristotours.

February 2022

Sierra Six ix by Mark Greaney. Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior member of a CIA action team. In their first mission they took out a terrorist leader, but at a terrible price - the life of a woman Court cared for. Years have passed and now The Gray Man is on a simple mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, but he's remarkably energetic for a dead man. A decade may have gone by but the Gray Man hasn't changed. He isn't one to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt unpaid.

Say goodnight, baby darling. Three young women have gone missing. They're all pretty, mid-twenties - someone clearly has a type. But no one links their disappearances until the first - Lauren Elder - is found lying peacefully on a bench in a children's playground. She is neatly dressed with a wide black velvet ribbon covering where her neck has been precisely slit. Her hands are folded over a childish sign on which is written in black crayon - BAD MOMMY. Lt Eve Dallas and her team are brought in to investigate Lauren's murder and uncover the links to the other two women. Can they find out enough about the missing women and unmask their captor before they kill again....? Abandoned In Death is by J D Robb.

Reader, I Buried Him is by Peter Lovesey. A twisty collection of short stories from the master of classic crime fiction, Peter Lovesey, one of which stars his most popular creation, Peter Diamond. More than fifty years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey's life-long passion for short form crime fiction. More than a hundred stories later, Peter Lovesey has assembled this devilishly clever collection, fifteen yarns of mystery, melancholy, and mischief, inhabiting such deadly settings as a theatre, a monastery, and the book publishing industry. The collection includes that first story that launched his story-writing career as well as three new stories exclusive to this volume. In addition, Lovesey fans will delight in a personal essay by the author about the historical inspirations for his creation - and in an appearance by the irascible Bath detective Peter Diamond, who has, in the author's words, 'bulldozed his way' into this collection.

The Murder Stones is by Hania Allen. Polish-born DS Dania Gorska is called upon to investigate a seemingly straightforward case of an RTA - a car has crashed into a tree, having first hit a deer on an icy road. But a witness has come forward to say he saw someone fleeing the scene and then the autopsy reveals vicious marks on the head of the dead man. Suddenly Dania is looking at murder. The dead man, Eddie Sangster, has had an intriguing past - the youngest of three brothers, he inherited the family estate after the oldest committed suicide and the other simply disappeared. But decades on it would seem someone is out for vengeance as murder stones - carved headstones attesting to the brutal murders of both brothers - start to appear on the grounds of the estate. Clearly the key to the puzzle of the murder stones lies at Sangster Hall, where a calamitous incident in the past is now shaping the present, and it is up to Dania to discover the murderous secret of the Sangster family.

The Taste of Blood is by James Craig. Victim or assassin - the lines are blurred... A badly beaten woman walks into A&E and is promptly arrested by the Home Office on suspicion of being an illegal alien. However, she is neither illegal, nor a victim. After she escapes detention, the bodies of her attackers start to pile up. Commander Carlyle faces a race against time to find out who she really is - and to stop her from killing again.

March 2022

The Empty Room is by Brian McGilloway. What do you do when your child disappears? Pandora - Dora - Conlon wakes one morning to discover her 17-year old daughter Ellie, has not come home after a party. The day Ellie disappears, Dora is alone as her husband Eamon has already left for the day in his job as a long-distance lorry driver. So Dora does the usual things: rings around Ellie's friends... but no one knows where she is. Her panic growing, Dora tries the local hospitals and art college where Ellie is a student - but then the police arrive on her doorstep with the news her daughter's handbag has been discovered dumped in a layby. So begins Dora's ordeal of waiting and not knowing what has become of her girl. Eamon's lack of empathy and concern, Dora realises, is indicative of the state of their marriage, and left on her own, Dora begins to reassess everything she thought she knew about her family and her life. Increasingly isolated and disillusioned with the police investigation, Dora feels her grip on reality slipping as she takes it upon herself to find her daughter - even if it means tearing apart everything and everybody she had ever loved, and taking justice into her own hands.

Death of A Green Eyed Monster is by M C Beaton & R W Green. Hamish's new constable, Dorothy McIver, may be the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Completely bewitched by her sparkling blue eyes, Hamish spends the summer traveling with her up and down Sutherland until finally, he can take it no longer. He gets down on one knee beside the Land Rover and begs her to marry him—and to his amazement and delight, she says yes.
But just as the town of Lochdubh gets ready to celebrate, Hamish finds himself with a new murder on his hands. If he doesn't find the killer fast, Hamish's dream wedding could become a nightmare.

Twelve Secrets is by Robert Gold. Ben Harper's life changed for ever the day his older brother Nick was murdered by two classmates. It was a crime that shocked the nation and catapulted Ben's family and their idyllic hometown, Haddley, into the spotlight. Twenty years on, Ben is one of the best true crime journalists in the country and happily settled back in Haddley, thanks to the support of its close-knit community. But when a fresh murder case shines new light on his brother's death and throws suspicion on those closest to him, Ben's world is turned upside down once more. He's about to discover that Haddley is a town full of secrets. No one is as they seem. Everyone has something to hide.  And someone will go to any length to keep the truth buried...

After a stressful winter, DSI William Lorimer is enjoying some time away from Glasgow. He and his new friend, Daniel Kohi, have retreated to the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to unwind. But what awaits them is far from a holiday. Despite its troubled history, the mountain village of Glencoe is now a popular resort, famed for its close-knit community, its breath-taking scenery and the warm welcome it offers weary travellers. So it's particularly shocking when two bodies are discovered in quick succession on the nearby peaks . . . With a potential serial killer on the loose, Lorimer's Major Incidents Team are drafted in from Glasgow. It's clear that a dark secret lurks beneath the wild beauty of this place. But will Lorimer manage to root it out before the killer strikes again? Echo of the Dead is by Alex Gray.

April 2022

Beat The Devils is by Josh Weiss. USA, 1958. President Joseph McCarthy sits in the White House, elected on a wave of populist xenophobia and barely-concealed anti-Semitism. The country is in the firm grip of McCarthy's Hueys, a secret police force evolved from the House Un-American Activities Committee. Hollywood's sparkling vision of the American dream has been suppressed; its remaining talents forced to turn out endless anti-communist propaganda. LAPD detective Morris Baker-a Holocaust survivor who drowns his fractured memories of the unspeakable in schnapps and work-is called to the scene of a horrific double-homicide. The victims are John Huston, a once-promising but now forgotten film director, and an up-and-coming young journalist named Walter Cronkite. Clutched in the hand of one of the dead men is a cryptic note containing the phrase "beat the devils" followed by a single name: Baker. Did the two men die in an attack fueled by better-dead-than-red sentiment, as the Hueys are quick to conclude, or were they murdered in a cover-up designed to protect-or even set in motion-a secret plot connected to Baker's past? In a country where terror grows stronger by the day, and paranoia rises unchecked, Baker is determined to find justice for two men who raised their voices in a time when free speech comes at the ultimate cost. In the course of his investigation, Baker stumbles into a conspiracy that reaches deep into the halls of power and uncovers a secret that could destroy the City of Angels-and the American ideal itself.

One wrong step and you're in deep water. Sukie has had enough of not putting herself out there. She has had enough of her mother thinking so very little of her timid daughter. On a whim, she accepts an offer to go to a Greek island for the weekend with Jake, a man she has barely begun dating. If that isn't putting herself out here, she doesn't know what is. Heather is at the airport when she sees a young woman with an older man - and immediately she understands that the woman is in danger. Because in fifteen years, Heather hasn't been able to forget what Jake did to her. And the next thing she knows, she's buying a plane ticket and following them. What should have been a perfectly pleasant weekend away quickly descends into something much darker. As these two women come ever closer to each other - and to Jake - it becomes increasingly unclear who will walk away from the weekend with their life. In Deep Water is by Christobel Kent. 

May 2022

Murder at Mount Ephraim is by Julie Wassmer. Pearl Nolan receives a wedding invitation from an old school friend. Journalist Amy has chosen somewhere very special for the wedding ceremony - the historic Kent manor house of Mount Ephraim - and the invite includes a pre-nuptial stay for Pearl and other guests at this venue. Nestled in an 800-acre estate, and surrounded by beautiful gardens and a lake, Pearl sees this break as a chance to leave crime behind, along with her own detective agency and her restaurant, The Whitstable Pearl. Accepting the invitation, Pearl looks forward to meeting the happy couple's friends and family, as well as Amy's fiance, Guy, a handsome and successful adventurer who appears to be Mr Perfect. She also has time to reflect on her own engagement to Canterbury CID detective, DCI Mike McGuire... But before any wedding bells sound, murder strikes - and Pearl and McGuire are thrust together again - as partners in crime.

The Night They Vanished is by Vanessa Savage. A family with a secret. A past about to catch up with them. At thirty, Hanna has finally decided she's better off without her family. They hold her responsible for the incident that ruined their lives fourteen years ago and they've barely spoken since. But then, whilst browsing a true crime website, she sees her family home listed as the site of a brutal murder. Number of victims: three. Date of crime: today. When the police investigate, they find no bodies, but the house is abandoned. Hanna's family have disappeared. To find them, Hanna will have to confront what happened all those years ago. And the person determined to make her pay for it . . .

June 2022

'I swear I'm one bad mood away from calling it black magic and going home . . .' Detective Sergeant Washington Poe can count on one hand the number of friends he has. And he'd still have his thumb left. There's the insanely brilliant, guilelessly innocent civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw of course. He's known his beleaguered boss, Detective Inspector Stephanie Flynn for years as he has his nearest neighbour, full-time shepherd/part-time dog sitter, Victoria. And then there's Estelle Doyle. It's true the caustic pathologist has never walked down the sunny side of the street but this time has she gone too far? Shot twice in the head, her father's murder appears to be an open and shut case. Estelle has firearms discharge residue on her hands, and, in a house surrounded by fresh snow, hers are the only footprints going in. Since her arrest she's only said three words: 'Tell Washington Poe.' Meanwhile, a poisoner the press have dubbed the Botanist is sending high profile celebrities poems and pressed flowers. The killer seems to be able to walk through walls and, despite the advance notice he gives his victims, and regardless of the security measures the police take, he seems to be able to kill with impunity. For a man who hates locked room mysteries, this is going to be the longest week of Washington Poe's life . . . The Botanist is by M W Craven.

She Knows is by Chris Brookmyre. One hen weekend, seven secrets... but only one worth killing for. Jen's hen party is going to be out of control... She's rented a luxury getaway on its own private island. The helicopter won't be back for seventy-two hours. They are alone. They think. As well as Jen, there's the pop diva and the estranged ex-bandmate, the tennis pro and the fashion guru, the embittered ex-sister-in-law and the mouthy future sister-in-law. It's a combustible cocktail, one that takes little time to ignite, and in the midst of the drunken chaos, one of them disappears. Then a message tells them that unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. Problem is, everybody has a secret. And nobody wants to tell.

The Murder Book is by Mark Billingham. Tom Thorne has it all. In Nicola Tanner and Phil Hendricks, Thorne has good friends by his side. He finally has a love life worth a damn and is happy in the job to which he has devoted his life... Tom Thorne has it all.... to lose. Hunting the woman responsible for a series of grisly murders, Thorne has no way of knowing that he will be plunged into a nightmare from which he may never wake. A nightmare that has a name. Finally, Thorne's past has caught up with him and a ruinous secret is about to be revealed. If he wants to save himself and his friends, he must do the unthinkable.

Lying Beside You is by Michael Robotham. When a man is murdered and his daughter disappears, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must decide if Maya Kirk is running, hiding, or a hostage. Cyrus understands how killers think better than anyone; after all, he's a survivor. Evie is a troubled teenager with an incredible gift: she knows when someone is lying. She is working at a Nottingham bar when a second woman goes missing, a nurse with links to Maya Kirk. Both women have a secret they have tried to hide, but the past is never history. Evie witnesses the second abduction, glimpsing the driver, but only two people believe her. One is Cyrus. The other is the killer.

Bottom line, if a man is known by his enemies, I'm one helluva guy.' Former anti-terrorist cop John Corey is NYU - New York Unemployed - and watching his back, ever more convinced his past will soon catch up with him. Then a new opportunity comes calling, and with it, plenty of trouble . . . A series of bodies has been found along a beach close to his home and he can no longer deny that a serial killer is on the loose, and no one seems able to find the culprit. Is the failure to find the perpetrator a result of the department's oversight? Is it due to the fact the victims are prostitutes? Or is it something darker? Could the killer be someone on the inside? The Maze is by Nelson DeMille.

The Missing Wife and the Stone Fen Siamese is by Kate High. Driving home from a ceramics evening class, Clarice Beech reflects on the absence of one of her students, Colin Compton-Smythe. Later, Emily, Colin's daughter, telephones to say her father has died during routine surgery. Distraught, Emily opens up to Clarice about his wretched childhood and the day five-year-old Colin returned home to discover Avril, his mother, gone. Colin never believed she would have left without him and had been trying to find out more about Avril's disappearance all those years ago. Clarice readily agrees to accompany Emily to Colin's funeral. On arriving at the stunning Victorian Gothic manor house, with Bellatrix, the majestic stone Siamese cat reposing at its entrance, Clarice soon becomes drawn into the fractious world of the Compton-Smythe family: Colin's argumentative father Ralph and his equally combative partner Tessa, their daughter, Dawn, being stalked by an ex-lover and, most unsettling of all, Ernestine, Ralph's emotionally unpredictable sister. And then there's Johnson, Ralph's menacing manservant. Clarice discovers the nearer she gets to the truth, the greater she is in danger as somebody is intent that the mystery of the missing wife should never be resolved.

How I plot the crime novels in my Whitstable Pearl Series by Julie Wassmer

Today’s guest blog is by Julie Wassmer who is the author of the Whistable Pearl Mystery series. A former professional television drama writer she has worked on a number of well-known television series.

Having written for popular television dramas like Eastenders for almost twenty years, I became used to having to produce detailed treatments for TV producers, showing the way my episodes would unfold. Often these come in the form of a scene breakdown in which every moment of television action is finely plotted.

This gives production staff a good sense of what to expect, but for many writers, like myself, such premeditation takes all the fun out of what I call the “journey of writing” - and the unexpected twists and turns that often appear when we simply follow our instincts with a story.

In my Whitstable Pearl Mystery novels I decided to make a complete break with the usual methods of plotting for TV and to simply trust my instincts. As whodunits, my books are filled with the drama of a murder or two (or three) to be solved, but for story and plot I rely on my characters to tell me where they want to go.

Like my heroine, Pearl Nolan, I am a “people person” so for me a story must always begin with characters – the people who bring a narrative to life and continue to drive it by keeping readers hooked. I’ve mentioned in author talks that it really doesn’t matter how wild a car chase is or whether our hero or heroine ends up hanging by a cliff-top by their fingertips, if we don’t care about those protagonists we won’t care what happens to them. Part of creating credible characters with whom we can empathise is by giving them quirks and foibles – like Pearl, the chef, who hates following recipes…

Pearl comes to readers as a woman on the brink of 40, wondering whether she can revive old dreams and become the detective she always felt that she could be. Twenty years ago she undertook police training but had to give it up when she found she had become pregnant with her son, Charlie.  Two decades on, and with her son now at university, “empty nest syndrome” leads her to start up her own detective agency.

Pearl is attractive and brave but we sense her vulnerability in her relationship with the city police detective, Mike McGuire, who has achieved the status she always wanted for herself. While Pearl acts intuitively, McGuire always relies on the certainties of police procedure. They are opposites but, as we all know, opposites attract and so Pearl and McGuire’s “will they/won’t they” love affair underscores the action of the books.

For the plotting of the central crimes I know very little when I begin – only the victim and the method employed for their murder but, by building up a clear picture of who this person was and how they might have related to others, I am actually following the methodology of the investigations used by Pearl and McGuire – though as writer I remain always one step ahead!

In my third book of the series, May Day Murder, the victim is Faye Marlow, a once famous actress who has arrived in Whitstable to open the annual May Day festivities. Like Pearl, Faye is a Whitstable native, but having left the town many years ago, the star has been living in the South of France since her agent's phone stopped ringing. Charming but 'sensitive', she arrives with a small entourage and though her presence in Whitstable causes a stir, Pearl's mother Dolly remains unimpressed, choosing to remember Faye Marlow when she was plain old Frankie Murray - the daughter of a local whelk merchant. When Faye’s body is found tethered to the Maypole at the local castle on the eve of the festival, Pearl begins to discover just how many enemies the actress left behind.

As a theme, archaeology plays a part in this story, as the work of the crime detective resonates with that of the archaeologist - both are digging to uncover a buried truth.

Allowing my characters to lead me where they want to go can sometimes feel like a bit of a magical mystery tour but there’s always a destination at the end – and hopefully it’s a satisfying one for my readers.

May Day Murder is published by Little, Brown in paperback on 1st September. £8.99

May Day Murder by Julie Wassmer

It's springtime and Whitstable is emerging from hibernation.  While neither the restaurant nor detective agency is too busy, Pearl resolves to spend some time at the family allotment. But her best friend, Nathan, has persuaded one of his favourite actresses to open the May Day festivities at Whitstable Castle and involves Pearl in his plans.  Like Pearl, Faye Marlowe is a Whitstable native, but having left the town more than two decades ago, the star has been living in the South of France since her agent's phone stopped ringing. Charming but 'sensitive', she arrives with a small entourage and though her presence in the town causes a stir Pearl's mother Dolly remains unimpressed, choosing to remember Faye Marlow when she was plain old Frankie Murray, the daughter of a local whelk merchant.  Nathan soon realises he has made a mistake with this invitation and his doubts are confirmed when Faye is nowhere to be found on the morning of May Day. And as 'Jack in the Green' puts on his impressive costume to lead the parade, the actress's dead body is discovered - tethered to the maypole on the Castle grounds . . . and so it's left to Pearl and DCI Mike McGuire to unravel the mystery of the May Day murder.

More information about Julie Wassmer you can follow her on Twitter @juliewassmer and on Facebook.

Amazon. Little Brown