Books to Look Forward to From Head of Zeus

January 2021 

The Scorpion's Tail is by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. After a shoot-out leaves a senior FBI agent gravely wounded, Corrie Swanson finds herself under investigation. Her supervisor assures her she's not to blame and the black mark on her record will be cleared in short order. But Corrie finds she cannot shake off an overwhelming feeling of guilt. As a distraction, she takes on a new case involving a fifty-year-old, mummified corpse discovered in a hidden enclave at High Lonesome, a long-abandoned New Mexico ghost town. Quickly out of her depth, she realizes she needs the help of her old enemy, archaeologist Nora Kelly. The two women soon uncover a startling truth: the deceased was poisoned, and died clutching a priceless artifact. Can the two women solve the mystery of the scorpion's tail? Or will they - like others before them - die in the attempt?

Anyone can be a traitor. FBI Agent Peter Sutherland waits in the White House Situation Room. He monitors an emergency line for calls that might never come... Then the phone rings. A terrified young woman says two people have been murdered and the killer might still be in the house with her. One of the victims gave her this phone number with urgent instructions: 'Tell them OSPREY was right. It's happening...' The call thrusts Peter into the heart of a conspiracy years in the making. There's a Russian mole in the U.S. Government and Peter must uncover who it is. The nation's at stake and innocent lives are in his hands. The Night Agent is by Matthew Quirk.

The Pact is by Dawn Goodwin. I'll kill yours, if you kill mine. Maddie's life has come crashing down around her. Her husband has left her and moved on with a new woman and baby. No longer can she run from the past that's been haunting her. The past has destroyed her future. In a new flat, trying to start a new life, Maddie meets Jade and her young son, Ben. All too swiftly Maddie finds the dark thoughts whirring through her brain. But Jade's different, she loves Ben, doesn't she? As the two women begin to open up about their exes over a few glasses of wine, Jade conjures a plan, a pact. She'll kill Maddie's if Maddie kills hers. Laughing it off, Maddie returns to her normal life. But what if it wasn't a joke at all...

Can you defeat an enemy you can't fight? The Taskforce - a highly classified Special Forces unit - finds an ex-member in serious trouble. Clifford Delmonty was working at an Australian F 35 facility when he saw something he shouldn't have. Now he's on the run from Chinese agents. Yet Delmonty's attackers are a dangerous part of a bigger scheme. China plans to bait Taiwan into all-out war by destabilizing their government and manipulating Taiwan's artificial intelligence defence system. As the threat of conflict reaches boiling point, Pike Logan, top Taskforce operator and ex-soldier, realises that what is being seen is not what is happening. With the help of a Taiwanese intelligence agent, he races to prevent a catastrophic conflict from consuming a whole region of the world - and the lives of his teammates. American Traitor is by Brad Taylor. 

February 2021

Falcon Bay was the world's most popular soap opera, filmed on location on a tiny, idyllic island off Jersey. But with ratings falling, a new network owner, the beautiful and malevolent Madeline Kane, arrives on the private island determined to do whatever it takes to get the show back to number one.Writer Farrah, star Catherine and producer Amanda are the driven, ambitious women who keep the show on the road. But Farrah is losing episodes to the network's lead male writer, Catherine is terrified of the public falling out of love with her and Amanda's evil husband Jake, vice president of the network, is plotting to get his wife kicked off the show. In a true battle of the sexes, these women will do anything to stay on top. But can they team up to bring down their rivals? Or will jealousy and revenge tear their friendship apart? As their story reaches its shocking climax, one thing is certain: only the most ruthless woman will survive... Ruthless Women is by Melanie Blake.

Accident is by Dawn Goodwin. Veronica Pullman's comfortable suburban life comes to a shuddering halt when her young daughter, Grace, tragically dies in a car accident. Months later, unable to come to terms with her daughter's death, detached from her husband and alienated from her friends and family, a chance encounter on a rainy street pushes her into an unlikely new friendship. Scarlet is everything Veronica could've been: feisty, adventurous, unpredictable. But as she approaches what would have been Grace's 10th birthday, it becomes clear to Veronica that the friendship she thought was saving her life could be costing her everything. Consumed by grief and left questioning her own sanity, is there anyone she can really trust or is someone out to torment her as part of their twisted game.

Spoils of the Dead is by Dana Stabenow. It's Labor Day in Blewestown, Alaska, and it seems most of the town's thirty-five hundred residents have turned out to celebrate - or to cause trouble. Not Liam Campbell, though. He's checking out the local watering hole in his new town. He's finally made it out of Newenham and is ready for a quiet life with his wife.He's been in town for about a week when an archaeologist invites him out to his dig site outside of town. He's on the verge of a momentous discovery, one he says will be worth the State Trooper's time. Two days later, the archaeologist is dead, murdered on his own dig site. And Liam Campbell is about to learn that he's traded one troubled bush town for another.

Operation Treadstone made Jason Bourne, but he's not the only agent they trained. After the revival of Operation Treadstone, former operative Adam Hayes has retreated to Africa, determined to escape the black-ops CIA program for good. Hayes knows just how destructive the program can be, as it turns government agents into nearly superhuman assassins. But his quiet life in Africa changes irrevocably, when Hayes is attacked by extremists while flying a charitable mission in Burkina Faso. Forced to make an emergency landing, his plane is damaged and he is left in a hornet's nest of trouble. In order to get back in the air, Hayes agrees to transport a passenger - Zoe Cabot, the daughter of a tech baron - to a small coastal city. But on arrival, Zoe is abducted. Searching for the missing girl, Hayes runs afoul of multiple enemies, including a rogue Treadstone operative, all of whom are searching for him - and for the information about a wire transfer of millions of dollars bound for the relief effort in Burkina Faso. Hayes must outrun and outgun the factions that are hunting him, and prevent the theft of the much-needed millions from one of Africa's poorest nations. Robert Ludlum's™The Treadstone Exile is by Joshua Hood.

March 2021

The Woman in the Wood is by M K Hill. Three years ago, Danny 'Abs' Cruikshank, star of reality show Laid in Essex!, was living the dream. And then, on the night of the party, everything changed. It was supposed to be an intimate weekend gathering. Just a few close friends in a remote cottage in Wales. But after a night of heavy drinking in the village pub, a local girl was reported missing, presumed dead. Abs and his friends had been the last to see her alive. No-one was ever charged, but the controversy destroyed Abs's career. So now, three years later, the celebrity who once captured the heart of millions is opening Southend's new branch of Quidstore. And then one of Abs's mates is murdered. Does someone know what really happened that night in Wales? DI Sasha Dawson and her team must race against the clock to find the killer before they strike again - but first she must discover what happened to Rhiannon Jenkins on the night she vanished. Will the truth set Abs free? Or bury him?

I Am Vengeance is by Mason Cross.. Vengeance is in my heart. Murder in my mind. With the help of Special Agent Marcus Williams, notorious murderer Francis Ackerman Jr. works on a twenty-year old cold case connected to a string of abductions surrounding the Navajo Nation. Their investigation leads them deep into the largest American Indian reservation in the US, where a drug gang has established its own kingdom. When one of his team goes missing, Ackerman has no choice but to declare war...

Dark Sky is by C J Box. The governor of Wyoming has given game warden Joe Pickett the thankless assignment of taking a tech baron on a hunting trip. But unbeknownst to them, as they trek further into the wilderness, a hunter is hot on their heels. Joe must rely on his wits and his knowledge of the outdoors to protect himself and his charge. Meanwhile, when Joe's closest friend Nate Romanowski and his own daughter Sheridan learn of the threat to his life, they follow him into the woods to rescue him, and all three come together for one final showdown.

The Long Dark Road is by P R Black. The governor of Wyoming has given game warden Joe Pickett the thankless assignment of taking a tech baron on a hunting trip. But unbeknownst to them, as they trek further into the wilderness, a hunter is hot on their heels. Joe must rely on his wits and his knowledge of the outdoors to protect himself and his charge. Meanwhile, when Joe's closest friend Nate Romanowski and his own daughter Sheridan learn of the threat to his life, they follow him into the woods to rescue him, and all three come together for one final showdown.

April 2021

Jack Taylor has finally traded in his violent life in Galway for a quiet retirement in the country. But on a day trip back into the city, Jack is hit by a truck and left in a coma, mysteriously without a scratch on him. When he awakens weeks later, he finds Ireland in a frenzy over the so-called 'Miracle of Galway'. People have become convinced that the two children who tended to him are saintly, and the site of the accident sacred. The Catholic Church isn't so sure, and Jack is commissioned to help find the children to verify the miracle or expose the stunt. But Jack isn't the only one looking for these children, and he'll need all the help he can get - and a stiff drink of Jameson - once he finds them. A Galway Epiphany is by Ken Bruen.

If you go into the woods, you're in for a dark surprise. Thirty years ago, three girls followed a stranger into the woods. Only two returned. The surviving pair have never been able to remember what happened or what the fate of the third girl was. Local rumours talk of hippies and drugs and mystic rituals, but no one has learned the truth. This story is just what Rowan Blake needs. He's in debt, his journalistic career is in tatters - as well as his damaged body - and he's retreated to the Lake District to write. Yet even Rowan isn't prepared for the evil he is about to unearth, for the secrets that have been buried in that wood for far too long... Into The Woods is by David Mark.

Kiss Me, Kill Me is by Louise Mullins. I practise my shock-horror face in the mirror for the seventh time. 'My husband, he's . . . dead.' Bethan Phillips has only one thing on her mind: killing her rich and elderly husband for his fortune. But after several thwarted attempts, it is a horrific accident while holidaying together in Snowdonia that takes Humphrey down. Now she must pretend he's alive, continuing social gatherings alone under the guise he is undertaking business abroad. Because someone witnessed her leaving Humphrey to die, and should the police investigate his death they'll discover the series of 'accidents' he's survived in the previous few days... and it won't take them long to connect the dots. There are many reasons Bethan would rather the police didn't look too closely at her. Or the life she lived before becoming Bethan Philips. Unfortunately for her, DI Emma Locke is on the case.

May 2021

Seat 7a is by Sebastien Fitzek. Psychiatrist Mats Kruger knows that his irrational fear of flying is just that - irrational. He knows that flying is nineteen times safer than driving. He also knows that if something does happen on a plane, the worst place to be is seat 7A. That's why on his first plane journey in 20 years - to be with his only daughter as she gives birth - he's booked seat 7A, so no one else can sit there. If no one is sat there, surely nothing will go wrong. But shortly after take-off, Mats receives a worrying phone call. The caller has kidnapped his daughter and will murder her - and her unborn child - unless Mats convinces the pilot to crash the plane, killing everyone on board.. As the plane nears its destination, Mats must make an impossible choice and face the fact he might be the arbiter of his own worst fear.

London, 1940. A woman lies dead in a bombed-out house. It looks like she's another tragic casualty of the Blitz, until police pathologist Aleck Northcote proves she was strangled and placed at the scene. But Northcote himself has something to hide. And when his past catches up with him, he too is murdered. Tewkesbury, 2020. Beneath the vast stone arches of Tewkesbury Abbey, a man has been fatally stabbed. He is Roddy March, an investigative journalist for a podcast series uncovering miscarriages of justice. He was looking into the murder of police pathologist Dr Aleck Northcote - and was certain he had uncovered Northcote's real killer. Stella Darnell used to run a detective agency alongside her cleaning business. She's moved to Tewkesbury to escape from death, not to court it - but Roddy died in her arms and, Stella is someone impelled to root out evil when she finds it. Now she is determined to hunt down Roddy's killer - but then she finds another body... The Distant Dead is by Lesley Thomson.

Face of Evil is by George Morris De'Ath. If you play games with a killer... you can't afford to lose. Looking for a subject for her book about evil, Lydia Tune travels to the infamous Mortem Asylum in Richmond, Virginia. Her target is Jason Devere, a death row serial killer notorious for his precise and grotesque murders. Lydia is beautiful, ruthless and manipulative - she always gets what she wants. She knows the only way to get Jason to speak is to engage him in a dangerous battle of wits. Local detective and old friend Alex Gilbey warns her off the case, but he has no idea just how far Lydia will go to court darkness. The more Lydia digs into Jason's story, the clearer it becomes that there is a bigger story to uncover. But the problem with playing with killers is that they never play nice...

June 2021

The Cover Wife is by Dan Fesperman. Paris, October 1999. CIA agent Claire Saylor is looking after low-level surveillance ops. Her career has stalled after a misguided dalliance with her handler Paul Bridger - so when Bridger asks Claire to join a team, she prepares herself for a stint on tea duties. But in fact, he's finally put her back in the game. She'll be going undercover as the wife of Professor Winston Armitage - an expert in the Quran and its translations. He's presenting his controversial new theory on the fabled promise of 72 virgins for each martyr, and needs protection. But when Claire arrives in Hamburg, it soon becomes clear that this is no routine protection job: she's there to uncover a conspiracy that will lead to the 9/11 terror attacks. And if she blows her cover, she could lose her life...

It's now or never for Gemma, will she finally be able to step away from a life of crime? Mob boss Alfie has new rivals in town - and they might be more than a match for the Essex gangster. Between defending his turf, appeasing his crime lord father and holding onto the woman of his dreams, Alfie knows that something's got to give... Nathan's recovering from his coma and trying to come to terms with his wife's bombshell secret - that her son Luca was fathered by Alfie. Unconvinced of Gemma's loyalty, he turns to his estranged ex-con father for help... Gemma will do anything to give her son a normal life - and she's surprised to find she has unexpected allies. But when the moment of truth arrives, can she trust Nathan to protect her and Luca? Forgive and Forget is by Stephanie Harte.

The Taken Girl is by Glenn Cooper. They were taken. They returned. They never aged. A family is abducted. There are no signs of a struggle. Their Italian holiday villa is untouched. There are no ransom demands. The parents and two little girls, Victoria and Elizabeth, have simply vanished. The daughters are returned. Four years later, the girls appear back at the family's holiday home. But they are the exact same ages they were at the time of their abduction. Their parents are still nowhere to be seen. Only one man can solve the mystery. Marcus Handler, a retired CIA officer, is hired to investigate. He wants Victoria and Elizabeth's disappearance explained. But his hunt for answers leads Marcus to a disturbing truth and a reckoning with his own troubled past...

Hour of the Assassin is by Matthew Quirk. Think like a killer. Act like a hero. His job is to protect them. As a secret service agent, Nick Averose spent a decade guarding the most powerful people in the US. Now, he's a mock killer, testing the security around the highest officials to find vulnerabilities, before America's enemies can. But now someone's out to get him. Nick's latest assignment leads him to the home of a former CIA director. But when he breaches the director's study, Nick is entangled in a vicious crime. One that will shake Washington to its foundations. He's the perfect scapegoat. Nick needs to find out who is framing him for the crime and why. If he can't uncover the truth, a dark conspiracy will consume him and everyone else within the Oval Office...

July 2021

Kyiv is by Graham Hurley. On Sunday 22nd June, 1941, at 03.05, three and a half million Axis troops burst into the Soviet Union along a 1,800 mile front to launch Operation Barbarossa. The southern thrust of the attack was aimed at the Caucuses and the oil fields beyond. Kyiv was the biggest city to stand in their way. Within six weeks, the city was under siege. Surrounded by Panzers, bombed and shelled day and night, Soviet Commissar Nikita Krushchev was amongst the senior Soviet officials co-ordinating the defence. Amid his cadre of trusted personnel is British defector Bella Menzies, once with MI5, now with the NKVD. With the fall of the city inevitable, the Soviets plan a bloody war of terror that will extort a higher toll on the city's inhabitants than the invaders. As the noose tightens, Bella finds herself trapped, hunted by both the Russians and the Germans.

Amber is by Heather Burnside. Nobody to call. With a mother unfit for purpose and a brother who despises her, working girl Amber can rely on no one but herself - until the meanest pimp in Manchester, Kevin Pike, offers her his protection. Unfortunately, this attracts the fury of Cora, a prostitute no one wants to get on the wrong side of... Nowhere to hide. When Cora is found strangled to death, the late-night city streets feel increasingly exposed with a killer on the loose. And as Amber grows closer to Kevin, she realises his security comes at a price she might not be willing to pay... Nothing to lose. Amber is frozen in fear, knowing one wrong move will risk her life. But then she discovers a horrifying secret that forces her to choose: stay or run?

After thwarting the violent international fascist syndicate known as Nemesis, Evan Ryder returns to Washington, D.C., only to find her secret division of the Department of Defense shut down and her deceased sister's children missing. Now the target of a cabal of American billionaires who were among Nemesis's supporters, Evan and her former boss, Ben Butler, must learn to work together as partners - and navigate their intricate past - as they hunt down her family's kidnappers. Their search will take them from Istanbul to Odessa to an ancient church deep within the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. And all along the way, an unimaginable enemy stalks in the shadows, an adversary whose secretive past will upend Evan's entire world, and might just annihilate her. The Kobalt Dossier is by Eric Van Lustbader.

The Guest House is by David Mark. How much would you pay to survive? Mum-of-three Ronni Ashcroft had just pieced her life back together after her husband left. On a remote spur of the Scottish Highlands, she kept her successful guest house going and even met a new man, Bishop. But it turned out that Bishop had secrets. He had shady connections and shadier plans to use the coastal town as a European gateway for drugs, guns - and something far worse. Now he's disappeared, and Ronnie wants answers. Is he in trouble or simply ignoring her? Was she just his play-thing from the start? And, most importantly, is he dragging them both into something that neither of them will survive?

You are her therapist. Kristina is a successful therapist in central Oslo. She spends her days helping clients navigate their lives with a cool professionalism that has got her to the top. She is your client. But when her client Leah arrives at her office clearly distressed, begging Kristina to come to her remote cabin in the woods, she feels the balance she's worked hard to achieve begin to slip. But out here in the woods When Leah fails to turn up to her next two sessions, Kristina reluctantly heads out into the wilderness to find her. Nothing is as it seems. Alone and isolated, surrounded by snow and trees, Kristina soon realises what a huge mistake she has made... Cabin Fever is by Alex Dahl.

The Runner is by P R Black. You can't escape him. He abducts lone joggers and forces them to run for their lives. When he catches them, he pulls out his blade...Now he's locked away and will be in prison for years. They call him a psychopath, a murderer, the 'Woodcutter Killer'. But what if you just found out you're supposed to call him father?

August 2021

Farewell to the Liar is by D K Fields. There's power in stories. But power can be deadly.Detective Cora Gorderheim is a detective no longer. Stripped of her badge by the corrupt chief inspector, Cora's job now is to protect her sister, Ruth, the new Wayward storyteller. Ruth must tell her tale of the Tear widening if people are to know the truth of what's happening in the Union of Realms. But Lowlander Chambers Morton wants the Wayward to change their election story, and will stop at nothing to achieve this - including murder. Keeping Ruth alive in Fenest is hard enough, but when the sisters set sail for West Perlanse the dangers come thick and fast. And slowly Cora realises she must make a terrible choice: her sister's life, or the future of the Union.

The Soul Breaker destroys women. He doesn't kill them, or mutilate them. But he leaves them completely dead inside, paralysed and catatonic. His only trace a note left in their hands. There are three known victims when suddenly the abductions stop. The Soul Breaker has tired of his game, it seems. Meanwhile, a man has been found in the snow outside an exclusive psychiatric clinic. He has no recollection of who he is, or why he is there. Unable to match him to any of the police's missing people, the nurses call him Casper. Casper makes little progress regaining his memory, but he grows restless and wants to leave the clinic to piece together the few clues to his life. But the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and the clinic becomes completely cut off to the world outside. No one is able to reach the clinic, and its staff and patients cannot leave. So when the head psychiatrist is found trembling, naked and distraught, with a slip of paper clasped in her hands, it seems somehow the Soul Breaker has returned... The Soul Breaker is by Sebastian Fitzek.

September 2021

It's not who you know, it's what you know about them . . . Among Washington D.C. power players, everyone has something to hide, including Sean Serrat, a Supreme Court lawyer. Sean transformed his misspent youth into a model adulthood, and now has one of the most respected legal careers in the country. But just as he learns he's on the short list to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, his daughter, Abby, a talented and dedicated law student, goes missing. When Abby's lifeless body is discovered shoved into a shelf at the Supreme Court Library, Sean is wracked with grief. Does her murder have anything to do with the secret he's been keeping for years? He follows the footsteps of his daughter's last days and stumbles over secrets within his own family - as well as the lies of some of the most powerful people in the country. People who will stop at nothing to prevent Sean from exposing the truth . .. The Advocate's Daughter is by Anthony Franze.

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Books to Look Forward to from Head of Zeus

July 2020

The Englishman is by David Gilman.  A clandestine war on the desert border of Mali and Algeria; murder and kidnap on the suburban streets of West London; a Moscow CID police inspector investigating the assassination of four of her fellow officers by the Russian mafia; a young MI6 officer facing the possibility that a long-running operation has been fatally compromised: connecting them all is the Englishman - Dan Raglan, outsider, exile, one-time member of the French Foreign Legion, fully trained killer. Raglan's quest for answers will become a quest for vengeance. It will lead him to the winter-ravaged wasteland of the Sverdlovskaya Oblast and Penal Code #74, a place that holds Russia's most brutal murderers. A place of death and retribution. How will he get in? More importantly, how will he get out?

Have you seen Lucia Blix? Lucia went home from school for a playdate with her new friend Josie. Later that evening, Lucia's mother Elisa dropped her overnight things round and kissed her little girl goodnight. That was the last time she saw daughter. The next morning, when Lucia's dad arrived to pick her up, the house was empty. No furniture, no family, no Lucia. Playdate by Alex Dahl puts a microscope on a seemingly average, seemingly happy family plunged into a life-altering situation. Who has taken their daughter, and why?

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Evolution is by Brian Freeman.  After the death of his wife in a

mass shooting, secret agent Jason Bourne is convinced that there is more to her murder than it seems. Worse, he believes that the agency that trained him is behind the killing. Bourne goes rogue, leaving Treadstone behind and taking on a new mission to infiltrate and expose an anarchist group, Medusa. But when a congresswoman is assassinated in New York, Bourne is framed for the crime, and he finds himself alone and on the run. In his quest to stay one step ahead of his enemies, Bourne teams up with a journalist, Abbey Laurent, to figure out who was behind the frame-up, and to learn as much as he can about the ever-growing threat of the mysterious Medusa group. As more and more enemies begin to hunt Bourne, it's a race against the clock to discover who led him into a trap... and what their next move may be.

Hunter Killer is by Brad Taylor.  They're one step ahead. They're killing his team. He's coming for them. The Taskforce were once apex predators, an unrivalled hunting machine that decimated those out to harm the USA, but they may have met their match. While Pike is preparing to join the team on a counter-terrorist mission in South America, a friend is killed in South Carolina. The authorities believe it was an accident, but Pike suspects the attack was meant as a message to him.   When he loses contact with the team in South America, Pike becomes convinced the Taskforce is under attack. His men are the closest thing to family he has, which means he will do anything - even ignore direct orders to stand down - to find them.

August 2020

The Package is by Sebastien Fitzek.  All you've done is taken in a parcel for a neighbour. You have no idea what you've let into your home.  Emma's the one that got away. The only survivor of a killer known in the tabloids as 'the barber' - because of the trophies he takes from his victims. Or she thinks she was. The police aren't convinced. Nor is her husband. She never even saw her tormentor properly, but now she recognises him in every man. Questioning her sanity, she gives up her job as a doctor in the local hospital and retreats from the world. It is better to stay at home. Quiet. Anonymous. Safe. He won't find her here. And all she did was take a parcel for a neighbour. She has no idea what she's let into her home.

September 2020

The Night of the Flood is by Zoe Somerville.  An atmospheric literary thriller set in north Norfolk in the shadow of the Cold War, in which a love triangle turns murderous. Summer, 1952. Verity Frost, stranded on her family farm on the Norfolk coast, is caught between two worlds: the devotion of her childhood friend Arthur, just returned from National Service, and a strange new desire to escape it all. Arthur longs to escape too, but only with Verity by his side. Into their world steps Jack, a charismatic American pilot flying secret reconnaissance missions off the North Sea coast. But where Verity sees adventure and glamour, Arthur sees only deception. As the water levels rise to breaking point, this tangled web of secrets, lies and passion will bring about a crime that will change all their lives.

'Danny ‘Abs’ Cruikshank was the biggest reality star in the UK – the lovable star of hit reality show Laid In Essex! But during a weekend break, Abs and his friends were questioned by police after they were the last people to see a missing girl alive. Three years later, the man who captured the hearts of millions of TV viewers is reduced to opening a Quid Store on the high street. And when one of Abs’s mates is murdered, it’s clear someone is targeting him and his friends. DI Sasha Dawson and her team must race against the clock to find the killer before they strike again, and discover what happened to Rhiannon Jenkins on the night she vanished… The truth may save Abs - or bury him. The Woman in the Wood is by M.K. Hill.'

Fate: Death Notice 2 is by Zhou Haohui.  After the death of 'Eumenides', a former police student who was sending 'death notices' to unpunished criminals before brutally murdering them, the Chengdu Police Department assumed that the killing spree would stop. But the murders continue, leading the 4/18 task force to the terrifying truth: Eumenides had a protege. Captain Pei Tao and his task force redouble their efforts to catch this new opponent, but relationships become fraught. Can they trust each other?

October 2020

Marry in haste... Murder at leisure? London, 1888: Susannah rushes into marriage to a young and wealthy surgeon. After a passionate honeymoon, she returns home with her new husband wrapped around her little finger. But then everything changes. Thomas's behaviour becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He stays out all night, returning home bloodied and full of secrets. The gentle caresses she enjoyed on her wedding night are now just a honeyed memory. When the first woman is murdered in Whitechapel, Susannah's interest is piqued. But as she follows the reports of the ongoing hunt for the killer, her mind takes her down the darkest path imaginable. Every time Thomas stays out late, another victim is found dead. Is it coincidence? Or is her husband the man they call Jack the Ripper?  People of Abandoned Character is by Clare Whitfield.

November 2020

Passenger 23 is by Sebastien Fitzek.  On average 23 people a year disappear from the world's cruise ships. They are written off as accidents or suicides. But what if they're not?   Five years ago Martin Schwarz, a police psychologist, lost his wife and son. They were holidaying on a cruise ship when they simply vanished. A lacklustre investigation was unable to shed any light on what happened - murder-suicide being the coroner's verdict. It is a verdict that has haunted Martin ever since, blighting his life. But then he is contacted by an elderly woman, a writer, who claims to have information regarding their fate and wants him to come on board The Sultan of the Seas immediately.   She explains that his wife and son are not the only mother and child pair to have disappeared. Only a few months ago another mother and daughter also vanished. She believes there may be a serial killer on board.   But when the missing daughter reappears - carrying the teddy bear of Martin's missing son - it becomes apparent that the truth could be much, much worse...

A Galway Epiphany is by Ken Bruen.  Jack Taylor. He's the world's worst detective. Cases get solved not because of him, but despite him. He's an alcoholic, an addict, rude, obnoxious. And in very bad shape. And yet... He gets the job done... somehow, and he desperately wants to connect even though he'd never admit it. But now, He's getting old. Losing his hearing. Has a limp. You ask, Jesus, how much longer can he go on? Indeed.

Eleven guests. Three nights. One murderer...In a crumbling old mansion in the English countryside, eleven people gather, each one famous in their field. They have been invited for a three-day house party, to celebrate the launch of a ground breaking virtual reality game that promises to unite the worlds of technology, politics and the environment. DCI Marten Jansen has been summoned to join the house party. His instructions are to offer police protection in case of an outside attack. Instead, he finds simmering tensions, long-buried secrets - and a murderer in their midst...  Into the Fire is by Rachael Blok

Books to Look Forward to from Head of Zeus

July 2018

What would you do for the perfect life? Would you LIE? Would you CHEAT? Would you KILL? Cecilia Wilborg has THE PERFECT LIFE. A handsome husband, two beautiful daughters and a luxurious house in the picture-postcard town of Sandefjord.  But Cecilia also has A DARK SECRET. A secret so damaging it can never be brought to light.  Then Tobias enters her life. He is a small, friendless eight-year-old boy who just wants to find a home. But he threatens to bring Cecilia's world crashing down. The Boy at The Door is by Alex Dahl.

The End of Days has been predicted for the last two thousand years, but now it is upon us.  A secret war was raged for millennia, a bitter conflict as old as time itself: the battle between Good and Evil. Brother and sister Emma and Bravo Shaw now stand at the epicentre of the confrontation, for they possess the only copy of The Book of Deathly Things - the fallen Archangel Lucifer's first and last Testament.  While Emma and Bravo struggle to decipher the book's dreadful secrets, Lucifer's advance guard, the Fallen, are awakening. Should they can reclaim the Testament, Humankind will be irrevocably enslaved by the forces of evil. Time is running out, leviathan is coming, the apocalypse is nigh.  Four Dominions is by Eric Van Lustbader.

September 1939. A new day dawns in Sackwater, not that this sleepy backwater is taking much notice...  Inspector Betty Church - one of the few female officers on the force - has arrived from London to fill a vacancy at Sackwater police station. But Betty isn't new here. This is the place she grew up. The place she thought she'd left behind for good.  Time ticks slowly in Sackwater, and crime is of a decidedly lighter shade. Having solved the case of the missing buttons, Betty's called to the train station to investigate a missing bench. But though there's no bench, there is a body. A smartly dressed man, murdered in broad daylight, with two distinctive puncture wounds in his throat. While the locals gossip about the Suffolk Vampire, Betty Church readies herself to hunt a dangerous killer. Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire is by M R C Kasasian.

August 2018

In southeast London, a young mother has been accused of an unthinkable crime: poisoning her own child - and then leaving him to die.  The mother, Ellie, is secretive and challenging - she's had a troubled upbringing - but does that mean she's capable of murder?  Balancing the case with raising her disabled five-year-old son, criminal defence lawyer Sarah Kellerman sets out in desperate pursuit of the truth. But when her own child becomes unwell, Sarah realises she's been drawn into a dangerous game.  In The Blood is by Ruth Mancini.

You have to know when to say no. That's one of the first things they tell you. But from the first day I arrived in Los Angeles, I said yes. Jessica Harris is a struggling Hollywood reporter hungry for her big break. When her editor asks her to profile movie star Clark Conrad, Jessica is sure her luck is on the turn. Clark is an A-lister with access to everyone. If Jessica can impress him, she's made it.  When she arrives at Clark's mansion in the Hollywood Hills, he is just as she always imagined. Charming, handsome yet disarmingly vulnerable. But then things take a darker turn. Clark's world is not as straightforward as it seems and Jessica's puff piece soon becomes something much more delicate - and dangerous. As Jessica draws herself deeper into Clark's inner circle, events begin to spiral out of her control.  Transfixing, insightful and unsettling, Through His Eyes drops is by Emma Dibdin and drops you into the mind of a young woman with everything to play for - and everything to lose...

The Psychology of Time Travel is a time travel murder mystery by Kate Mascarenhas.  1967: Four female scientists invent a time travel machine. They are on the cusp of fame: the pioneers who opened the world to new possibilities. But then one of them suffers a breakdown and puts the whole project in peril...  2017: Ruby knows her beloved Granny Bee was a pioneer, but they never talk about the past. Though time travel is now big business, Bee has never been part of it. Then they receive a message from the future - a newspaper clipping reporting the mysterious death of an elderly lady... 2018: When Odette discovered the body she went into shock. Blood everywhere, bullet wounds, that strong reek of sulpher. But when the inquest fails to find any answers, she is frustrated. Who is this dead woman that haunts her dreams? And why is everyone determined to cover up her murder?

Joe Brody is just your average Dostoevsky-reading, Harvard-expelled strip club bouncer who has a highly classified military history and a best friend from Catholic school who happens to be head mafioso Gio Caprisi.  FBI agent Donna Zamora, the best shot in her class at Quantico, is a single mother stuck at a desk manning the hotline. Their storylines intersect over a tip from a cokehead that leads to a crackdown on Gio's strip joint in Queens and Joe's arrest.  Outside the jailhouse, the Fed and the bouncer lock eyes, as Gordon launches them both headlong into a non-stop plot that goes from back-road gun running to high-stakes perfume heist, and manages to touch everyone from the CIA to the Triads. Beneath it all lurks a sinister criminal mastermind whose manipulations could cause chaos on a massively violent scale. The Bouncer is by David Gordon.

September 2018

Gallows Court is by Martin Edwards.  LONDON, 1930.  Sooty, sulphurous, and malign: no woman should be out on a night like this. A spate of violent deaths - the details too foul to print - has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. But Rachel Savernake - the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge - is no ordinary woman. To Scotland Yard's embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now she's on the trail of another killer.  Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion's crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He's certain there is more to the Miss Savernake's amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He's not the only one. His predecessor on the crime desk was of a similar mind - not that Mr Betts is ever expected to regain consciousness after that unfortunate accident...Flint's pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever-deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder-by-murder, he'll be swept ever-closer to its dark heart - to that ancient place of execution, where it all began and where it will finally end: Gallows Court.

In Kossuth square, Lajos Kolompar, a local politican is found dead, face down in a pond in front of Parliament. With his blood alcohol nudging fatal levels, he's believed to have fallen and drowned Gypsy cop Balthazar Kovacs of the Budapest murder squad reads of Kolompar's death in the news. It stays in the back of his mind until his old girlfriend, journalist Eniko Szalay, receives a tip-off from the coroner's office that Kolompar's autopsy results were tampered with.  And his body accidentally cremated.  Soon, Kovacs is drawn into the Budapest underworld of people smuggling, blackmail and violent political tensions - always caught between the two worlds of the Gypsy and the non-Gypsy, of the law and family loyalty.  Kossuth Square is by Adam Lebor.

The Accusation is by Zosia Wand.  Eve and Neil live in the beautiful Cumbrian town of Tarnside. After years of trying for a baby, they are in the final stages of adopting four-year-old Milly.  They just have to pass the 'settling in' period - three months of living together as a family under watchful eyes - and then they can make it official.  For Eve, her heartbreak is nearly at an end. She now has this perfect little girl in her life, a little girl who calls her mummy.  But Eve's dream of a happy family is fragile. Any hint of trouble and the adoption could collapse. One misunderstanding, one rumour, one accusation, could smash Eve's family to pieces.

October 2018

She arrived into Heathrow after a difficult week at work. Her bag had been stolen. Her whole life was in there - passport, wallet, house key. When she tried to report the theft, she couldn't remember her own name. All she knew was her own address.  Now she is at the door of Tony and Laura, a young couple living in Wiltshire. She says she lives in their home. They say they have never met her before.  One of them is lying. But which one?  Forget my Name is by J S Munroe.

Christmas whodunits starring Poirot, Marple, Rebus, More, Rumpole, Sherlock, Cadfael and many many more. Festive felonies, unscrupulous santas, deadly puddings, and misdemeanors under the mistletoe...  From Victorian detective stories to modern mysteries, police procedurals to pulp fiction, comic gems to cozy crime, there's something for every festive mood in this must-read collection starring sixty of the world's favourite detectives.  Featuring an all-star cast of authors including Isaac Asimov, Mary Higgins Clark, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Colin Dexter, Thomas Hardy, H.R.F. Keating, Ngaio Marsh, John Mortimer, Ellis Peters, Sara Paretsky, Robert Louis Stevenson and - of course - Agatha Christie, this is the biggest and best Christmas crime anthology in print today.  The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries is edited by Otto Penzler.

November 2018

Imagine inheriting two billion dollars. Then imagine the money is left to you by your mortal enemy...  Blind Special Ops agent Jenny Aaron has just survived the worst thirty-six hours of her life. She has a standing offer to re-join the Department, the secret elite unit she used to belong to before she lost her sight. But first she must rest, and think.  Then Aaron receives a message that changes everything. The man she hates most in the world has left her an enormous fortune. The money is life-changing - but why is it in her hands?  A Shadow Falls is by Andreas Pflüger.

After much tragedy and violence, Jack Taylor has at long last found contentment. Of course, he still knocks back too much Jameson and dabbles in uppers, but he has a new woman in his life, a freshly bought apartment, and little sign of trouble on the horizon.  But once again, trouble comes to him, this time in the form of a wealthy Frenchman who wants Jack to investigate the double-murder of his twin sons. Jack is meanwhile roped into looking  after his girlfriend's nine-year-old son, and is in for a shock with the appearance of a character from his past.The plot is a chess game and all of the pieces seem to be moving at the behest of one dangerously mysterious player: a vigilante called 'Silence', because he's the last thing his victims will ever hear.  In The Galway Silence is by Ken Bruen.

Swords in the East is by P F Chisholm.  1592. Courtier Sir Robert Carey and Carey's surly, larcenous, and loyal henchman Henry Dodd, Land Sergeant of Gilsland, are back in Carlisle and the Debateable Lands.  As Carey struggles to solve the murder of a local minister, he battles with his deep adoration for Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, while despising her elderly, abusive husband - will the man never die?  Plunging readers straight into the raucous world of late-sixteenth century border reivers and unfettered Elizabethan intrigue, Swords in the East, the third chronicle of Sir Robert Carey's adventures, collects the novels A Chorus of Innocents and A Clash of Spheres under one volume.