Books to Look Forward to from Cornerstone

England: October, 1463. The great slaughter of the battle of Towton is two years past, but England is still not at peace. The Northern Parts of the land remain in the hands of the Lancastrian king, while in the south, the princes of the house of York prepare for war. Uneasy alliances are forged and just as quickly broken: a friend one day might be your enemy the next, and through this land, pursued by the Church and the Law, a young man, Thomas, and a young woman, Katherine, must make their way, bearing proof of a secret both sides would kill to learn. Bent on revenge for a past outrage, Thomas and Katherine must turn their backs on their friends and journey to the mighty castle of Bamburgh, there to join a weakened king as he marshals his army to take up arms in one of the most savage civil wars in history: the Wars of the Roses.  Kingmaker: Broken Faith is by Toby Clements and is due to be published in July 2015.

Even for Private Investigations, the world's top detective agency, it's tough to find a man who doesn't exist...Craig Gisto has promised Eliza Moss that his elite team at Private Sydney will investigate the disappearance of her father. After all, as CEO of a high-profile research company, Eric Moss shouldn't be difficult to find. Except it's not just the man who's gone missing. Despite the most advanced technology at their disposal, they find every trace of him has vanished too. And they aren't the only ones on the hunt. Powerful figures want Moss to stay 'lost', while others just as ruthlessly want him found. Meanwhile, a routine background check becomes a frantic race to find a stolen baby and catch a brutal killer - a killer Private may well have sent straight to the victim's door...  Private Sydney is by James Patterson and Kathryn Fox and is due to be published in August 2015.

No. 7 Ocean Drive is a multimillion-dollar beachfront house in the Hamptons, but its beautiful exterior hides a horrific past. This house was the setting for a series of depraved killings that have never been solved. Neglected, empty and rumoured to be cursed, it's known as the Murder House, and locals keep their distance. Detective Jenna Murphy has moved to the area to escape her troubled past and rehabilitate a career on the rocks. But when a Hollywood power broker and his mistress are found dead in the abandoned Murder House, Jenna becomes involved in a case that at first seems open and shut, but reveals more secrets than she could possibly imagine. As more bodies surface and Jenna is drawn deeper into the dark history of No. 7, she must risk her own life to expose the truth – before the Murder House claims another victim.  Murder House is by James Patterson and David Ellis and is due to be published in September 2015.

Dark Corners is by Ruth Rendell and is due to be published in October 2015. When Carl sells a box of slimming pills to his close friend Stacey, inadvertently causing her death, he sets in train a sequence of catastrophic events which begin with subterfuge, extend to lies, and culminate in murder. In Rendell's dark and atmospheric tale of psychological suspense, we encounter mistaken identity, kidnap, blackmail, and a cast of characters who are so real that we come to know them better than we know ourselves. Infused with her distinctive blend of wry humour, acute observation and deep humanity. 

Every New Yorker's worst nightmare is about to become a reality. New York has seen more

than its fair share of horrific attacks, but the city is about to be shaken in a way it never has before. After two devastating catastrophes in quick succession, everyone is on edge. Detective Michael Bennett is assigned to the case and given the near impossible task of hunting down the shadowy terror group responsible. With troubles at home to contend with, Bennett has never been more at risk, or more alone, fighting the chaos all around him. Then a shocking assassination makes it clear that these inexplicable events are just the prelude to the biggest threat of all. Now Bennett is racing against the clock to save his beloved city - before the most destructive force he has ever faced tears it apart.  Alert is by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge and is due to be published in July 2015.

When Billy Ellison, the son of Washington, D.C.’s most influential African-American family, is found dead in the Potomac near a violent drug haven, veteran metro reporter Sully Carter knows it’s time to start asking some serious questions—no matter what the consequences. With the police unable to find a lead and pressure mounting for Sully to abandon the investigation, he has a hunch that there is more to the case than a drug deal gone bad or a tale of family misfortune. Digging deeper, Sully finds that the real story stretches far beyond Billy and into D.C.’s most prominent social circles. An alcoholic still haunted from his years as a war correspondent in Bosnia, Sully now must strike a dangerous

balance between D.C.’s two extremes—the city’s violent, desperate back streets and its highest corridors of power—while threatened by those who will stop at nothing to keep him from discovering the shocking truth. Murder DC is by Neely Tucker and is due to be published in July 2015.

The Gates of Evangeline is by Hester Young and is due to be published in August 2015. When grieving mother and New York journalist Charlie Cates begins to experience vivid dreams about children after her only son passes away, she’s sure that she’s lost her mind. Yet she soon realizes these are not the hallucinations of a bereaved mother. They are messages and warnings that will help Charlie and the children she sees—if she can make sense of them. The disturbing images lead her from her home in suburban New York City to small-town Louisiana, where she takes a commission to write a true-crime book based on the case of Gabriel Deveau, the young heir to a wealthy and infamous Southern family, whose kidnapping thirty years ago has never been solved. There she meets the Deveau family, none of whom are telling the full truth about the night Gabriel disappeared. And as she uncovers long buried secrets of love, money, betrayal, and murder, the facts begin to implicate those she most wants to trust—and her visions reveal an evil closer than she could have imagined.

Cross Justice is by James Patterson and is due to be published in November 2015. When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades. As he tries to prove his cousin's innocence in a town where everyone seems to be on the take, Cross unearths a family secret that forces him to question everything he's ever known. Chasing a ghost he believed was long dead, Cross gets pulled into a case that has local cops scratching their heads and needing his help: a grisly string of socialite murders. Now he's hot on the trail of both a brutal killer, and the truth about his own past – and the answers he finds might be fatal.

When forensic anthropologist Dr Tempe Brennan is approached by amateur detective Hazel 'Lucky' Strike, at first she is inclined to dismiss the woman's claims that she's matched a previously unidentified set of remains with a name. But as the words of a terrified young woman echo round her office from an audio recorder found near where the bones were discovered, something about the story won't let Tempe go. As Tempe investigates further she finds herself involved in a case more complicated and horrifying than she could ever have imagined.  Speaking in Bones is by Kathy Reichs and is due to be published in July 2015.

New books to look forward to from Hodder and Stoughton and Mulholland Books

Hodder and Stoughton along with Mulholland Books have a number of good books coming out in the first half of 2011.

John Grisham returns with the second book in the series to feature Theodore Boone. Theodore Boone 2 is due out in June 2011. Already mentioned earlier on the blog is Project X aka the new James Bond book by Jeffery Deaver. The book is due to be published in May 2011.

Lasting Damage due to be published in February is the new book by author Sophie Hannah. When in the early hours of the morning Connie Bowskill clicks on the “virtual tour” button of a house in Cambridge she is shocked to see the body of a woman in a pool of blood. But when she wakes her husband to show him what she has seen everything has changed and all that they see is an immaculate room.

The Sick Rose, the follow-up novel to Erin Kelly’s debut novel The Poison Tree is published in June 2011.

Edgar® Award winning author and CWA Diamond Dagger winning Sara Paretsky's new V I Warshawski novel Body Work is due to be published in March 2011. V.I Warshawski finds herself involved in investigating the death of a young woman who is a body artist after she is shot and dies in V.I’s arms.

Forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton returns in Death Mask by Kathryn Fox. Dr Crichton is asked to investigate an allegation of violent assault by five leading sportsmen. As she digs deeper and deeper it appears that there is a lot more going on. Death Mask is due to be published in March 2011.

Debut crime writer Shy Keenan’s novel The Stolen Ones is the tale of Cordelia a survivor of abuse who is helping the police with the enquiries into an Internet paedophile ring. However, she becomes involved in a much more frightening case when she realises that a child is sending her secret messages from a live film that only she can see. The Stolen Ones is due to be published in April 2011.

The first in a new series of an Italian police procedural set in 1960s Florence is due to be published in June 2011. Inspector Bordelli (aka Death in August) by Marco Vichi features police inspector Bordelli who finds himself investigating the murder of a wealthy woman whose dead body is found in her villa.

Michael Koryta’s The Cypress House will be published in March 2011. Arlen Wagner and Paul Brickhill escape from a train with death imminent and find themselves stranded at an isolated guesthouse called The Cypress House. Unfortunately for them both death has still followed them.

Book five in the Joe Hunter series by Matt Hilton is due to be published in February 2011. In Blood and Ashes this time Joe Hunter is asked to find the people responsible for the death of a young woman. However, those responsible are also on the hunt for Joe Hunter and find him first.

A new Cotton Malone adventure from Steve Berry is due to be published in April 2011. Cotton on hearing that an old friend is in trouble follows the few clues that he has but soon realises (after two bodies are found) that there is a lot more going on. The title is The Emperor’s Tomb.

Brad Meltzer’s new book The Inner Circle is the start of a series featuring Benjamin January a young archivist who finds a priceless document hidden inside a desk chair. Curious to find out why this precious artefact has been hidden away he soon finds himself mixed up in a web of deception that goes right to the top of the White House. The Inner Circle is due to be published in March 2011.

Brad Thor returns with an explosive new book entitled Foreign Influence. Former Navy SEAL Scot Harvath is asked to investigate a bombing that has taken place in Rome killing some American students. At the same time a taxi in Chicago hits a young woman. The two cases soon collide. Foreign Influence is due for release in February 2011.

From Mulholland Books comes Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski, the first in a trilogy of thrillers. Ex-cop Charlie Hardie is guarding a mansion in Hollywood when a drug-taking actress breaks in claiming that some hit men are after her. Charlie initially thinks that she is not only high but also paranoid but soon revises his opinion when he comes to realise that she is telling the truth and it looks as if neither of them will get out alive after the hit men track her down to the mansion. Fun and Games is due for publication in June 2011.

From O J Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark comes Guilt by Association featuring Rachel Knight a Deputy D A in Los Angeles. Guilt by Association is due out in May 2011.