Books to Look Forward to From Transworld Publishers

Convicted of a series of horrific crimes against young women in the up-market California town of Santa Barbara, wealthy playboy Charlie Mendez has fled across the US border into Mexico.  As one bounty hunter after another meets a grisly end at the hands of the murderous drug cartel his family have hired to keep him safe, it seems that Mendez is one fugitive destined to remain beyond the reach of the law.  Or at least that's how it looks until one determined victim persuades high-end security specialist Ryan Lock and his partner, retired Marine Ty Johnson, to take on the case.  Plunged into a nightmare world where no one can be trusted, least of all the authorities, the two men discover a city more deadly than any war zone.  Worse still, when an attractive young American tourist is snatched from the streets, it appears that Mendez has returned to his old ways.  But in order to stop him before he claims another victim, will Lock and Ty have to pay the Devil's Bounty?  The Devil’s Bounty is by Sean Black and is due to be published in August 2012.

Fatal Frost is by James Henry and was published in May 2012.  May 1982.  Britain celebrates the sinking of the Belgrano, Jimmy Saville has the run of the airwaves and Denton Police Division welcomes its first black policeman, DS Waters - recently relocated from East London.  While the force is busy dealing with a spate of local burglaries, the body of fifteen-year-old Samantha Ellis is discovered in woodland next to the nearby railway track.  Then a fifteen-year-old boy is found dead on Denton's golf course, his organs removed.  Detective Sergeant Jack Frost is sent to investigate - a welcome distraction from troubles at home.  When the murdered boy's sister goes missing, Frost and Waters must work together to find her ...before it's too late.

The Labyrinth of Osiris is by the late Paul Sussman and is due to be published in July 2012.  Since they last met, life has moved on for Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor Police and Jerusalem detective Arieh Ben-Roe.  About to become a father for the first time, Ben-Roi finds himself investigating a gruesome murder in Jerusalem's Armenian Cathedral.  The victim, a journalist named Rivka Kleinberg, had been researching an article into the Israeli sex-trafficking industry.  When a link emerges between Kleinberg and an English engineer who disappeared from Luxor in 1931, Ben-Roi turns for help to his old friend and sparring partner Khalifa.  Khalifa's life too has changed, although in his case not for the better.  Preoccupied with personal tragedy and immersed in an investigation of his own - a series of mysterious well-poisonings in Egypt's Eastern desert - he agrees for old time's sake to do some digging for his Israeli colleague.  In the process, Ben-Roi might just be giving Khalifa his lust for life back.  Inexorably the two investigations entwine, drawing Ben-Roi and Khalifa into a sinister web of violence, abuse, corporate malpractice and anti-capitalist terrorism.  And at the heart of the web, lies the Labyrinth - a three-thousand year-old ancient Egyptian mystery that has already taken Rivka Kleinberg's life - and hers will not be the last...

  

Last To Die is by Tess Gerritsen and is due to be published in August 2012.  Three children, strangers to each other, are brought together by seemingly motiveless and extreme acts of violence.  Orphaned and alone, they are taken in as students at Evensong, a boarding school for emotionally traumatized children in the remote Maine wilderness.  A Place of Safety?  Forensic pathologist Maura Isles already has a connection with the school - Julian 'Rat' Perkins, the 16-year-old boy she met during a previous case, is now living there.  However, she suspects that the Evensong founders may be using the school for their own agenda.  Moreover, her concerns grow when Detective Jane Rizzoli is asked to investigate yet another attempt on the life of one of the orphans at the school...Or A Place of Danger?  What both Jane and Maura soon discover is that even a school protected by locked gates and acres of forest cannot shut out a gathering threat.  When three blood-spattered twig dolls are found hanging from a tree, they wonder if the threat comes from outside the school ...or from within.

They are known as the Legion of the Damned ...Throughout the Roman Army, the Twelfth Legion is notorious for its ill fortune.  It faces the harshest of postings, the toughest of campaigns, and the most vicious of opponents.  For one young man, Demalion of Macedon, joining it will be a baptism of fire.  Yet, amid all of the violence and savagery of his life as a legionary, he realizes he has discovered a vocation - as a soldier and a leader of men.  He has come to love the Twelfth and all the bloody - minded, dark - hearted soldiers he calls his brothers.  However, just when he has found a place in the world, all that he cares about is ripped from him.  During the brutal Judean campaign, the Hebrew army inflict defeat upon the legion - not only decimating their ranks, but also taking away their soul, the eagle.  There is one final chance to save the legion's honour - to steal back the eagle.  To do that, Demalion and his legionaries must go undercover into Jerusalem, into the very heart of their enemy - where discovery will mean the worst of deaths - if they are to recover their pride.  Moreover, that, in itself, is a task worthy only of heroes.  The Eagle of the Twelfth is by MC Scott and was published in May 2012.

 The King’s Spy is the debut novel by Andrew Swanston and is due to be published in August 2012.  Summer, 1643 England is at war with itself.  King Charles I has fled London, his negotiations with Parliament in tatters.  The country is consumed by bloodshed.  For Thomas Hill, a man of letters quietly running a bookshop in the rural town of Romsey, knowledge of the war is limited to the rumours that reach the local inn.  When a stranger knocks on his door one night and informs him that the king's cryptographer has died, everything changes.  Aware of Thomas's background as a mathematician and his expertise incodes and ciphers, the king has summoned him to his court in Oxford.  On arrival, Thomas soon discovers that nothing at court is straightforward.  There is evidence of a traitor in their midst.  Brutal murder follows brutal murder.  And when a vital message encrypted with a notoriously unbreakable code is intercepted, he must decipher it to reveal the king's betrayer and prevent the violent death that failure will surely bring.

  
The Summer of Dead Toys is a skilfully plotted story of misdeeds and murder in Barcelona high society: When the death of a vulnerable young witness in a case of human trafficking and voodoo causes the normally calm Inspector Salgado to beat someone up, he is moved off the project and sent instead to investigate a teenager's fall to his death in one of Barcelona's uptown areas.  As Salgado begins to uncover the inconvenient truths behind the city's most powerful families, two seemingly unsolvable cases are set to implode under the hot Barcelona sun.  The Summer of Dead Toys was published in May 2012 and is by Antonio Hill.

A frosty December night in Stockholm.  Inside the City Hall, over a thousand guests attend the prestigious Nobel Prize-winner’s dinner.  With a lavish meal laid on to the backdrop of a full orchestra, this is one of the city's most glamorous events of the year.  However, things are different tonight.  Two shots are fired on the dance floor.  Crime reporter Annika Bengtzon is there, covering the event for the Evening Post.  As the police realize she caught a glimpse of the suspect, she is far more interested in getting back to the newsroom.  However, as murders that are more brutal follow, Annika finds herself in the middle of something far larger than she had anticipated.  No longer just a reporter but also a vulnerable key witness, she begins to close up the gaps linking these crimes, just as the suspect starts closing the net on Annika herself...  Last Will is by Liza Marklund and is due to be published in September 2012.

"The Vanishing Triangle": A woman's body is found in Ireland's most notorious body dump zone, an area in the Dublin mountains where a number of women disappeared in the past.  "Nun's Cross": The victim is from an exclusive gated development in the suburbs - where the prime suspect in the vanishing triangle cases, Derek Carpenter, now lives.  It looks like the past is coming back to haunt the present.  However, DI Jo Birmingham doesn't believe the case is open and shut.  Her husband Dan was part of the original investigation team; is she trying to protect her own fragile domestic peace?  The one person who could help her crack the case, Derek's wife Liz, is so desperate to protect her family that she is going out of her way to thwart all efforts to establish the truth.  Can both women emerge unscathed?  Too Close for Comfort is by Niamh O’Connor and is due to be published in June 2012.

Red Notice is by Andy McNab and is due to be published in October 2012.  Deep beneath the English Channel, a small army of vicious terrorists has seized control of the Eurostar to Paris, taken 400 hostages at gunpoint - and declared war on a government that has more than its own fair share of secrets to keep.  One man stands   in their way.  An off-duty SAS soldier is hiding somewhere inside the train.  Alone and injured, he is the only chance the passengers and crew have of getting out alive.  Meet Andy McNab's explosive new creation, Sergeant Tom Buckingham, as he unleashes a whirlwind of intrigue and retribution in his attempt to stop the terrorists and save everyone on board - including Delphine, the beautiful woman he loves.  Hurtling us at breakneck speed between the Regiment's crack assault teams, Whitehall's corridors of power and the heart of the Eurotunnel action.  RED NOTICE: You have been warned.

  

Two small children are playing a game called 'Witch-Hunter'.  They place a curse on a young woman taking lunch in a church courtyard and wait for her to die.  An hour later, the woman is indeed found dead inside St Bride's Church - a building that no one else has entered.  Unfortunately, Bryant & May are refused the case.  Instead, there are hired by their greatest enemy to find out why his wife has suddenly started behaving strangely.  She's become an embarrassment to him at government dinners, and he is convinced that someone is trying to drive her insane.  She has even taken to covering the mirrors in her apartment, and believes herself to be the victim of witchcraft.  Then a society photographer is stabbed to death in a nearby park and suddenly a link emerges between the two cases.  And so begins an investigation that will test the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit to their limits, setting Arthur Bryant off on a trail that leads to Bedlam and Bletchley Park, and into the world of madness, codes and the secret of London's strangest relic.  As the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit dig behind the city's facades to expose a world of private clubs, hidden passages and covert loyalties, they realise that the case might not just end in disaster - it might also get everyone killed.  Bryant & May and the Invisible Code is by Christopher Fowler and is due to be published in August 2012.

AD 68.  The tyrant emperor Nero has no son and no heir.  Suddenly there's the very real possibility that Rome might become a republic once more.  However, the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption, chaos and untold bloodshed to the many.  Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca, Aulus Caecina Severus.  Caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar's dynasty, he commits treason, raises a rebellion, faces torture and intrigue - all supposedly for the good of Rome.  The boundary between the good of Rome and self-preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he's chosen requires all Severus' skills as a cunning soldier and increasingly deft politician.  And so Severus looks back on the dark and dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors, and the part he played - for good or ill - in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy and civil war...  The Last Caesar is the debut novel by Henry Venmore-Rowland and is due to be published in June 2012.

Rome, summer 66AD and Nero's agents mercilessly hunt down the last survivors of the Piso Conspiracy.  Yet, despite purging this viper's nest with fire and iron, the increasingly unstable young Emperor feels his grip on power weakening.  In Judaea, rebels have bested his army and taken an eagle, in Germania, the Rhenus legions agitate for better conditions.  In Hispana, his governor plots.  But the most dangerous threat is in the east where Rome's greatest general, Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, presides over an Empire within an Empire.  Is Corbulo preparing to march against Rome and take the purple?  Gaius Valerius Verrens, Hero of Rome, is ordered to Antioch with the power of life and death over the soldier he worships.  There he finds every man's hand against him and Corbulo's eyes not on Rome, but on a new threat from the Parthian King of Kings, Vologases.  Outnumbered, Corbulo marches with Valerius at his side into the barren wastes beyond the Tigris, to meet Vologases in a mighty confrontation that will decide the future of the Empire.  In Avenger of Rome, Valerius will face his greatest enemy and his greatest challenge, but neither will be what he believes.  Avenger of Rome is by Douglas Jackson and is due to be published in August 2012.

A Letter from Lee Child..."Like any reader, I love old favourites ...but I love new voices too, and I especially love it when a new voice starts to become an old favourite.  It doesn't happen often, but right now, it's happening with Marcus Sakey.  He's got it all.  he writes like a dream, he creates characters exactly like people you know, he scares you, and above all keeps you turning the pages.  But most of all he does the 'what if' thing better than anyone in the business.  'What if' questions power a lot of plots, but Sakey is special.  He doesn't just check a box or construct a neat twist for the sake of it.  Reading him between the lines, I guarantee he lives this stuff ...he thinks it through and sweats it out, probably for weeks at a time.  I can see him, looking around at all the things he loves, looking at his house, turning and looking at his wife, asking himself, 'What if?  What if I had to put all this at risk?  Would I?  Could I?  How would it feel?  What would be the effect on me?’  It's that kind of depth, intelligence, passion, and emotion that sets Sakey apart.  These are not just clever plots.  These are real people with night sweats and wide eyes and everything to lose.  The "Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes" takes 'what if' in a new direction and to new heights.  Every writer muses, 'What if the reader isn't sure whether the husband killed his wife, or not?’  That's a basic whodunit.  But Sakey asks, 'What if the husband isn't sure whether he killed his wife, or not?’  That's a terrific premise, and it boosts an already-terrific thriller plot into the stratosphere.  The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes is by Marcus Sakey and is due to be published in July 2012.

AD 64 Roman Centurion Marcus Domitus leads an expedition to find the mythical treasure hidden deep inside Queen Dido’s temple.  AD 1945 In the confusion and burning Berlin, two high powered Nazis disappear, and so does a precious object.  Art recovery specialist Jamie Saintclair receives a call from a Boston detective, asking for his help to investigate a brutal murder.  He believes that Saintclair might hold the key to solving the crime through his detailed knowledge of specialist Nazi units.  But as they delve deeper into the sinister world of the occult, they uncover a dark secret that men must have lusted over for more than two millennia.  Long ago, in the ancient temple of Isis, something was stolen, and the repercussions have resonated through the centuries.  Saintclair must discover the truth before the curse claims more victims, and finally catches up with him.  The Isis Covenant is by James Douglas and is due to be published in August 2012.

A Wanted Man is by Lee Child and is due to be published in September 2012.  When you're as big and rough as Jack Reacher - and you have a badly-set, freshly-busted nose, patched with silver duct tape - it isn't easy to hitch a ride. But Reacher has some unfinished business in Virginia, so he doesn't quit. And at last, he's picked up by three strangers - two men and a woman. But within minutes it becomes clear they're all lying about everything - and then they run into a police roadblock on the highway. There has been an incident, and the cops are looking for the bad guys...Will they get through because the three are innocent? Or because the three are now four? Is Reacher just a decoy?

He Who Kills The Dragon is the second instalment of Leif G W Persson's trilogy of police procedurals featuring the "small, fat and primitive" Evert Backstrom, the grand master's most appallingly repulsive (and funniest) character is finally given his fifteen minutes of fame by way of his patented combination of laziness, luck, and an unbelievable sense of timing.  A seemingly ordinary murder puzzles Backstrom, who is struggling with strict orders from his doctor to lead a healthier life.  His gut feeling proves him right: within days, his team has another murder linked to the first on their hands, and reports of alleged ties to a Securicor heist gone out of control, killing two.  The nation needs a hero, and the newly appointed head of the Vasterort police force Anna Holt needs somebody to kill the dragon for her.  Who better to heed to the task than Evert Backstrom: self-sufficient, ostentatious, devoid of moral, Hawaii shirt-clad, and, latterly, armed?  He Who Kills The Dragon is due to be published in October 2012.

Forthcoming books to look forward to from Transworld Publishers

The eight-year-old boy had vanished from the car and - as if by slick, sick magic - had been replaced by a note on the steering wheel...'You don't love him'...At the height of summer a dark shadow falls across Exmoor. Children are being stolen from cars. Only a terse note - a brutal accusation, marks each disappearance. There are no explanations, no ransom demands ...and no hope. Policeman Jonas Holly faces a precarious journey into the warped mind of the kidnapper if he's to stand any chance of catching him. But - still reeling from a personal tragedy - is Jonas really up to the task? Because there's at least one person on Exmoor who thinks that, when it comes to being the first line of defence, Jonas Holly may be the last man to trust... Finders Keepers is by the CWA Gold Dagger winner Belinda Bauer and is due to be published in January 2012.

Imagine the unimaginable – You’re happily married, but your husband dies unexpectedly, and at his funeral you are confronted by a woman who says, ‘I’m Lottie, I’ve shared a home with your husband for the last twenty years. This is our son.’ The Wife’s Dossier is a psychological thriller focusing on a woman who learns at her husband’s funeral that he had another family. The betrayed wife’s quest is to get to the bottom of her late husband’s double life and mysterious death and, in doing so learns who and what she really is. The Wife’s Dossier is by Tamar Cohen and is due to be published in June 2012.

Siege is by Simon Kernick and is due to be published in January 2012. London is under attack. People are dead. Many more lives hang in the balance as a group of highly trained gunmen storm the historic Lanchester Hotel on Park Lane. The gunmen have given the government just five hours to meet their demands before they blow up the building. Shots ring out. Some guests panic. Others text their loved ones. Still more try to escape. All are united by one thing: fear for their lives. All - except one man who has information so dangerous that it must be kept safe - at any price. Darkness falls. The gunmen become increasingly violent. One question is in everybody's minds. Will they survive the night?

A critically acclaimed thriller spanning twenty-five years, centred around the still unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. Stockholm 1975: Six young people take the entire staff of the West German embassy hostage, demanding that the Baader-Meinhof members being held as prisoners in West Germany be released immediately. The long siege ends with the deaths of two hostages and the wounding of several others, including the captors. 1989: When a Swedish civil servant is murdered, the two leading detectives on the case, Anna Holt and Bo Jarnebring, find their investigation hastily shelved by an incompetent and corrupt senior investigator. 1999. Lars Johansson, having just joined the Swedish Security Police, decides to tie up a few loose ends left behind by his predecessor: specifically, two files on Swedes who had allegedly collaborated on the 1975 takeover of the West German embassy, one of whom turned out to be the murder victim in 1989. Johansson reopens the investigation and, with help from detectives Jarnebring and Holt, follows the leads - right up to the doorstep of Sweden's newly minted minister of justice. Another Time, Another Life is by Leif G W Persson and is due to be published in March 2012.

The Contract is by David Levien and is due to be published in January 2012. The Company: Troubled former cop Frank Behr is working for an exclusive Indianapolis investigation company, when he finds himself on a protection detail for Bernard "Bernie Cool" Kolodnik. The Client: Bernard "Bernie Cool" Kolodnik is a hard driving business mogul on the verge of making a move into big-time politics. The Corrupt: An attempt on Kolodnik's life is quickly buried by the police. But Behr wants the truth, and his hunt will put him a collision course with a dangerous sociopath... Frank Behr, working for a high-end investigation company, is tasked with protecting businessman, Bernard Kolodnik, who is on the precipice of making the move into politics. And when an attempt is made on the prominent client’s life, Behr manages to repel the attackers and get himself and Kolodnik to safety. Behr returns to work the following day, greeted by a round of applause from his co-workers, and is soon placed on a new case concerning a string of robberies. But while it seems everyone has moved on from the attempted shooting, the circumstances of the failed Kolodnik hit nag Behr and he soon discovers his probing and is urged by his superiors to let it go as well. But this only fires his suspicions further. Soon Behr discovers a link between his company and massive corruption where politics, law enforcement, and a state work contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars intersect. Embroiled in a perilous situation, Behr must rely on his guts, his skill and the help of an unlikely new friend if he is to live to see the birth of his child.

The Rings of Olympus is by James Becker and is due to be published in June 2012. Chris Bronson is back in this edge-of-your seat thriller involving a secret Nazi WW2 weapon and a plot against the 2012 London Olympics. Berlin, 1936: Hitler is determined to hold the best Olympic Games the world has ever seen. German athletes have trained full-time to ensure that ‘Aryans’ take all the top honours. Unfortunately, the African-American Jesse Owens spoils their plan, winning four gold medals. In a secret Nazi underground laboratory, scientists are at work on a devastating revenge. London, 2012: Chris Bronson is working undercover for the Metropolitan Police, infiltrating a group of anarchists who have been smashing windows, sabotaging machinery and even digging tunnels under some of the Olympic sites in attempts to disrupt the Games. But he uncovers a plot that hints at a much more sinister plan and will lead him on a chase into the dark corners of German’s Nazi past.

The Devil’s Looking-Glass is by Mark Chadbourn and is the third in the swashbuckling supernatural adventure featuring Elizabethan England’s answer to James Bond, the dashing swordsman and spy, Will Swyfte. 1593: The dreaded alchemist, black magician and spy Dr John Dee is missing...Terror sweeps through the court of Queen Elizabeth, for in Dee's possession is an obsidian mirror, a mysterious object of great power which legend says could set the world afire. And so the call goes out to celebrated swordsman, adventurer and rake Will Swyfte - find Dee and his feared looking glass and return them to London before disaster strikes. But when Will discovers the mirror may help him solve the mystery that has haunted him for years - the fate of his lost love, Jenny - the stakes become acutely personal. With a frozen London under siege by supernatural powers, the sands of time are running out. Will is left with no choice but to pursue the alchemist to the devil-haunted lands of the New World - in the very shadow of the terrifying fortress home of England's hidden enemy, the Unseelie Court. Surrounded by an army of these unearthly fiends, with only his sword and a few brave friends at his back, the realm's greatest spy must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice - or see all he loves destroyed.

They are known as the Legion of the Damned...Throughout the Roman Army, the XIIth Legion is notorious for its ill fortune. It faces the harshest of postings, the toughest of campaigns, the most vicious of opponents. For one young man, Demalion of Macedon, joining it will be a baptism of fire. And yet, amid all of the violence and savagery of his life as a legionary, he realises he has discovered a vocation - as a soldier and a leader of men. He has come to love the Twelth and all the bloody-minded, dark-hearted soldiers he calls his brothers. But just when he has found a place in the world, all that he cares about is ripped from him when, during the brutal Judaean campaign, the Hebrew army inflict a catastrophic defeat upon the legion - not only decimating their ranks, but taking away their soul - the eagle. There is one final chance to save the legion's honour - to steal back the eagle. To do that, Demalion and his legionnaries must go undercover into the city of Jerusalem, into the very heart of their enemy, where discovery will mean the worst of deaths, if they are to recover their pride. And that, in itself, is a task worthy only of heroes. Rome: The Eagle of the Twelfth is by M C Scott and is due to be published in May 2012.

Vanished is by Liza Marklund and is due to be published in February 2012. People can’t just disappear… or can they? Five murders in one week, a smuggling operation gone wrong, and a crime reporter desperate to find the truth…. At a derelict port in Stockholm, a young woman is on the run from a deranged gunman. The following morning, two brutally murdered men are found by a security guard patrolling the area. Meanwhile, Annika Bengtzon of the Evening Post is approached by a woman claiming to have founded an organisation able to erase people’s pasts. She says it can give vulnerable individuals a new identity and help to rebuild their lives. But as Annika investigates her claims, more bodies turn up and she finds herself getting dangerously close to the truth – that all is not as it seems…..

Fatal Frost is by James Henry and is due to be published in May 2012. May 1982. Britain celebrates the sinking of the Belgrano, Jimmy Savile has the run of the airwaves and Denton Police Division welcomes its first black policeman, DC Waters – recently relocated from Bethnal Green. While the force is busy dealing with a spate of local burglaries, the body of fifteen-year-old Samantha Evans is discovered in woodland next to the nearby railway track. The a fifteen-year-old boy is found dead on Denton’s golf course, his organs removed. Detective Sergeant Jack Frost is sent to investigate – a welcome distraction from troubles at home. And when the murdered boy’s sister goes missing. Frost and Waters must work together to find her before it’s too late.

“We must prise opinion from fact, belief from supposition and guesswork from whatever evidence must exist...” It is surely a simple case of hysteria. Four young women allegedly witness a terrifying apparition while walking in the woods. Has the devil really revealed himself to them? Are they genuine victims of demonic possession? Or, as most suspect, is their purpose in claiming all of this considerably more prosaic? The eyes of the country turn to a small Nottinghamshire town, where an inquiry is to be held. Everyone there is living through hard, uncertain times. The king is recently dead. It is a new century - a new world looking to the future. But here, in the ancient heart of England, an old beast stirs...Four men must examine the substance of the girls' tales and decide their fate: a minister, a doctor, a magistrate, and Merritt, an investigator - a seemingly perfect blend of the rational, the sacred and the judicial. And yet, as the feverish excitement all around them grows ever more widespread and infectious, there is both doubt and conflict among the members of this panel. The "Devil's Beat" explores the unforeseeable and unstoppable outcome of this inquiry - an alarming and unsettling time during which the whole of that small world seems in turmoil as one after another hitherto dependable natural checks and balances, beliefs and superstitions are challenged and then lost. Devil’s Beat is by Robert Edric and is due to be published in March 2012.

The Queen’s Secret is by Victoria Lamb is due to be published in March 2012. It's July 1575: Elizabeth I, Queen of England, arrives at Kenilworth Castle amid pomp, fanfare and a wealth of lavish festivities, laid on by the Earl of Leicester. The hopeful Earl knows this is his very last chance to persuade the Queen to marry him. But despite his attachment to the Queen and his driving ambition to be her King, Leicester is unable to resist the seductive wiles of Lettice, wife of the Earl of Essex. And soon whispers of their relationship start spreading through the court. Enraged by the adulterous lovers growing intimacy, Elizabeth employs Lucy Morgan, a young black singer and court entertainer, to spy on the couple. But Lucy, who was raised by a spy in London, uncovers far more than she bargains for. For someone at Kenilworth that summer is plotting to kill the queen. No longer able to tell friend from foe, it is soon not only the queen who is in mortal danger - but Lucy herself.

Not all scars are visible. Jonathan Kellaway needs no reminding of that on the verge of his retirement from China clay conglomerate Intercontinental Kaolins. The company has left its mark in pits and spoil heaps around the world. But it has also left a no less enduring mark on some of those that have worked for it. Kellaway included. Its past, as well as its future, is a treacherous place. So Kellaway is surprised when IK’s founder and former chairman Greville Lashley, sets him a final task before he quits. The academic hired by the board to write the company’s history has discovered a gap covering several years in the records of the small Cornish china clay outfit Lashley started with and where Kellaway also began his career. He is despatched to Cornwall to learn what has become of the missing documents. But the search is a voyage into dangerous waters. A dead friend, a lost lover and a clutch of mysteries from Kellaway’s youth in Cornwall and Italy in the late 1960s come back to haunt him – and to tempt him with the hope that he may at last learn the truth about the tragedies and misfortunes that blighted those years. It is a truth that has claimed several victims before. If he pursues it hard and long enough, he may only add himself to the list. But pursue it he must. Because the truth, he belatedly realizes, is the secret that has consumed his life. This time – this last time – he will not stop. Until he has found it. Fault Line is by Robert Goddard and is due to be published in March 2012.

Some people help the less fortunate. Others kill them. Evil has many guises. Jack Taylor has encountered most of them but nothing before has ever truly terrified him until a group called Headstone rears its ugly head. An elderly priest is viciously beaten until nearly dead. A special needs boy is brutally attacked. A series of seemingly random, insane, violent events even has the Guards shaken. Most would see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this coterie of evil intends to act as a death knell to every aspect of Jack’s life as an act appalling violence alerts him to the horror enveloping Galway. Accepting the power of Headstone, Jack realizes that in order to fight back he must relinquish the remaining shreds of what has made him human – knowledge that may have come too late to prevent an act of such ferocious evil that the whole country would be changed forever - and in the worst possible way. With awful clarity, Jack knows that not only might he be powerless to stop it but that he may not even have the grit needed to even face it. Headstone is by Ken Bruen and is due to be published in April 2012.

A man wakes up naked and cold, half-drowned on an abandoned beach. The only sign of life for miles is an empty BMW. Inside the expensive car he finds clothes that fit perfectly, shoes for his tattered feet, a Rolex, and a bank envelope stuffed with cash and an auto registration in the name of Daniel Hayes, resident of Malibu, California. None of it is familiar. What is he doing here? How did he get into the ocean? Is he Daniel Hayes, and if so, why doesn't he remember? While he searches for answers, the world searches for him-beginning with the police that kick in the door of his dingy motel, with guns drawn. Lost, alone, and on the run, the man who might be Daniel Hayes flees into the night. All he remembers is a woman's face, so he sets off for the only place he might find her. The fantasy of her becomes his home, his world, his hope. And maybe, just maybe, the way back to himself. But that raises the most chilling question of all: What will he find when he gets there? The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes is by Marcus Sakey and is due to be published in July 2012.

The Dark Angel is by Mari Jungstedt and is due to be published in March 2012. Inspector Anders Knutas is back in the sixth instalment of Mari Jungstedt's dark and compelling series of crime novels, set on the island of Gotland. This crime adventure builds on the already strong series, which combines chilling atmosphere, razor sharp plot twists and a brilliant cast of subtly crafted characters. In "The Dark Angel", Jungstedt's writing is as thrilling and poignant as ever, ensuring that Knutas will continue to have the reader gripped from start to finish. After the glamorous party planner Viktor Algard is found murdered at one of his own glitzy events, Inspector Knutas has several leads to follow. But his investigation uncovers a terrifying trail of abuse which forces Knutas to confront his own demons, and has devastating consequences for TV journalist Johan Berg and his new wife, Emma.

When a Cambridge student dramatically attempts to take her own life, DI Mark Joesbury realizes that the university has developed an unhealthy record of young people committing suicide in extraordinary ways. Against huge personal misgivings, Joesbury sends young policewoman DC Lacey Flint to Cambridge, with a brief to work under-cover, posing as a depression-prone, vulnerable student. Psychiatrist Evi Oliver is the only person in Cambridge who knows who Lacey really is - or so they both hope. But as the two women dig deeper into the darker side of university life, they discover a terrifying trend ...And when Lacey starts experiencing the same disturbing nightmares reported by the dead girls, she knows that she is next. Dead Scared is by S J Bolton is due to be published in April 2012.

The Summer of Dead Toys is by Antonio Hill and is due to be published in May 2012. Inspector Salgado is known for his violent moments. He has a murky emotional past and a runaway wife. So he is moved off his current case to investigate the story behind a young boy’s fall to his death from a balcony in one of Barcelona’s uptown areas. Salgado digs deeper, poking at the seedy underbelly of Spain’s most popular city, to unearth a case of human trafficking and voodoo. But Hector’s fierce, complex personality (with his passion for cinema) and a seemingly unresolvable case are set to implode under Barcelona’s hot sun.

I am Pilgrim is the debut novel by Terry Hayes and is due to be published in June 2012. When your past comes calling , its time to disappear…. Pilgrim was the codename for a world class and legendary secret agent. The adopted son of a wealthy New York family, he was once head of a secret internal affairs force for US intelligence and held the title ‘Rider of the Blue’. He wrote the definitive book on forensic investigation before disappearing into an anonymous retirement taking the secrets of the Rider of the Blue with him. A Murder in New York: the body of a woman is found face down in a bath of acid, her features have been ripped from her face, her teeth are missing, her fingerprints gone. The rooms have been sprayed with DNA eradicating spray. Someone has seemingly committed the perfect crime using the techniques outlined in Pilgrim’s book. A terrorist known only as The Arab, was radicalised when, as a young boy, he witnessed the beheading of his father in a public square in Saudi Arabia. He has dedicated his life to destroying the special relationship between the Kingdom and the United States. He learnt his trade fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, and now from hiding in Germany plots a terrible act of mass murder. When NYPD detective Ben Bradley tracks down Pilgrim, neither man can imagine the terrifying journey they are about to begin, as what begins as an unusual and challenging murder investigation leads them into a direct collision with the dark forces of jihadist terrorism.

The Last Caesar is the debut historical novel by Henry Venmore-Rowland telling the story of the brutal and bloody power struggle that followed the suicide of Nero – a period in Roman history that came to be called ‘The Year of the Four Emperors’…. AD68: The tyrant emperor Nero has no son and no heir. Suddenly there’s the very real possibility that Rome might become a Republic once more. But the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption, chaos and untold bloodshed to the many. Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca, Aulus Caecina Severus. Caught up in a conspiracy against to overthrow Caesar’s dynasty, he commits treason, raises a rebellion, faces torture and intrigue – all supposedly for the good of Rome. The boundary between the good of Rome and self preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he’s chosen requires all Severus’ skills as a cunning soldier and increasingly deft politician. And so Severus looks back on the dark and dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors, and the part he played - for good or ill – in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy and civil war …. The Last Caesar is due to be published in June 2012.

New books to look forward to from Transworld

In the cathedral tower lives a strange boy with a limp who talks about bells. In a luxury penthouse lives a high class prostitute who is in mortal danger. And in a low-rent hotel lives a private investigator who has no idea how she got there. Jay Harper finds himself in Switzerland on the trail of a missing Olympic athlete. A hard drinker he is unsure why he accepted the job. But when he meets the stunning Katherine a high-class hooker he realises that he is not the only one for hire. In the meantime Marc Rochat spends his time in the belfry talking to the statutes, his cat and the occasional ghost. When he sees Katherine as he watches over Lausanne at night he believes that she is the angel that his mother told him that one day he will save, but not in a good way. The Watchers is by Jon Steele and is due to be published in June 2011.

Seven days. Three killings. And one woman who knows too much. Crime reporter Annika Bengtzon is woken by a phonecall in the early hours of a wintry morning. An explosion has ripped apart the Olympic Stadium. And a victim has been blown to pieces. As Annika delves into the details of the bombing and the background of the victim, there is a second explosion. These chilling crimes could be her biggest news story yet. When her police source reveals they are hot on the heels of the bomber, Annika is guaranteed an exclusive with her name on it. But she is uncovering too much, and soon finds herself the target of a deranged serial killer. The Bomber is by Liza Marklund and is due to be published in June 2011.

2010 CWA International Dagger Award winner Johan Theorin returns with his latest novel A Place of Blood. 81 year old Gerlof Davidsson has moved back to his summer cottage at the old quarry but his peace is soon disturbed when he discovers his wife's diaries and discovers secrets from the past that have never been told before. Per Morner also lives at the old quarry with his ill daughter but when his estranged father turns up suddenly asking for help Per is determined to find out who would want to kill his father. Along the way he makes some rather disturbing discoveries. A Place of Blood is due to be published in May 2011.

In Now You See Me Lacey Flint is a London Policewoman with a secret past and an unusual social life. She also has a morbid fascination about serial killers. One evening she finds a woman fatally stabbed beside her car and finds herself taken in for questioning. But when a letter is hand delivered it appears the killer's focus is in fact Lacey. She soon finds herself in the middle of a rather dangerous murder hunt with a smart but damaged Detective Inspector Tulloch and DI Mark Joesbury whose interest in her she is wary of. Will Lacey be able to cope with the limelight and will the team be able to track down a nasty serial killer. Now You See Me is by S J Bolton and is due to be published in May 2011.

It is AD65 and Sebastos Pantera spy to the Emperor Nero has undertaken his most dangerous mission. He must find Saulos who is considered to be the most dangerous person in the Roman Empire and bring him to justice. Saulos has only one thought in mind and that is to bring about the destruction of the Roman Empire. He is not bothered about the devastation and death that it will bring along the way. Standing between them is the huntress Ikshara who must decide which of the two men she will support if she is to avenge her father's death. Rome: The Coming of the King is by M C Scott and is due to be published in May 2011.

Detective Jo Birmingham returns in Between the Lies the second novel by Niamh O'Connor. Thinking that she is attending a routine domestic murder in an upscale part of Dublin Detective Jo Birminghamgets a shock when she recognises the murder victim. A sex tape had recently been delivered to Birmingham with the victim on the tape. However, there is also an anonymous note with the tape implicating her boss the Justice Minister as the unidentified male also on the tape. As she investigates the matter results point to the victim's husband but she can't ignore the letter and it looks as if the cover-up goes right to the top. Between the Lies is due for publication in April 2011.

Before I go to Sleep is the debut novel by S J Watson and it is due to be published in April 2011.

'As I sleep, my mind will erase everything that I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a

child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choices ahead of me..' Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep and the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story? Welcome to Christine's life. Before I go to Sleep has also been acquired for film by Ridley Scott's production company with filming scheduled to start in 2011.

Summertime is the fifth book in the series by Mari Jungstedt to feature Inspector Anders Knutas. The murder of a young jogger on the beach at Faro - executed with a single bullet to the back of the head is an opportunity for Anders Knuta's newly appointed deputy Jacobsson to prove her worth whilst her boss is away on holiday. But when a second body is discovered, murdered in the same way, Jacobsson's investigation point to a horrifying conclusion. Summertime is due to be published in April 2011.

Cal, married to a successful businessman has always been a bit of a dreamer and has never had to worry about anything until her teenage daughter gets into difficulty and she needs to get her hands on some cash fast. Zoe (the sister) on the other hand is a detective inspector with a good career but a secret that goes back twenty years and if revealed could destroy everything that she has built up. Two sisters bent on survival until one of them does something terrifying that there is no way back. Hanging Hill is by Mo Hayder and is due to be published in April 2011.

Thirteen years ago surgeon Edward Hammond performed a life saving operation on Serbian gangster Dragan Gazi. Gazi is now standing trial for

war crimes and his family want Hammond's help in exchange for keeping his secret. They want Hammond to find the man who

has the mone

y that has been salted away. But Marco Piravani does not want to be found by anyone especially not Hammond. Tracking him takes

Gazi to the Hague, Milan and on to Belgrade where

everything started. It is there were where he must confront his decisions he once took so easily. Blood Count is by Robert Goddard and is due to be published in March 2011.

Charles Webster i

s an improverished photographer working for the famed actor-manager Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre. He finds himself sucked into a shadowy demi-monde which exists beneath the surface of civilised society. It is a world of pornographers and prostitutes where Webster is unwittingly being manipulated by the sinister Marlow. The knowledge of this enterprise comes to the attention of Lyceum's upright theatre manager Bram Stoker who suspects Webster's involvement. As the net tightens around Marlow and his cohorts, a member of the aristocracy is accused of killing a child prostitute and public outrage sweeps the capital. It is not the best time for Webster's wife to become a professional medium. The London Satyr is due to be published in March 2011 and is by Robert Edric.

John Tanner is the wheelman, an undercover cop with an awesome driving ability. He earned his stripes racing stock cars through city streets and now he is the best in the business. But his legendary skills are about to be put to the ultimate test. Tanner must infiltrate the criminal under world of The Indian, the most feared gang leader in New Orleans - a man so terrifying that people claimed he has voodoo powers. But when a figure from his past appears, Tanner must face an even more deadly enemy. Driver is by Alex Sharp and is due to be published in February 2011.

In Safe Hands is by Abbie Taylor and is due to be published in February 2011. Nursing is everything to Dawn. Having lost her beloved grandmother to cancer, it breaks her heart to see a terminally ill patient suffering in the same way. So when an old lady begs Dawn to end her life, Dawns knows it is the kindest thing to do. What she does not realise is that someone in the

hospital is watching her. Someone who is intent on making her pay for what she has done. Wracked with guilt, dawn struggles to meet her tormentor's demands. But she is already way out of her depth. Things are about to take a very sinister turn.

Payback sees the return of Dennis Milne. A former cop, he's earned his living killing the bad guys - those who in his opinion deserve to die. For the last two days he has been in Manila waiting for his next target: a young woman who's made some bad life choices and enemies. DI Boyd is a woman on a mission. She is looking for the man she holds responsible for the death of her lover. She knows he is dangerous and he is in Manila. She is determined to find him and kill him before he kills her. These are two cops with pasts that haunt them and a present that could see them both dead. They are about to meet. Payback is by Simon Kernick and is due to be published in February 2011.

The Calling of the Grave is the latest book in the series to feature forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter. Eight years ago a body was found buried on the moor. At the time it was certain that this was one of the victims of psychotic rapist and multiple murderer Jerome Monk. But that left two bodies to be found. The search ended badly with them gradually being forgotten and Monk is behind bars. However, Monk has managed to escape and seems to be targeting all those involved in the original investigation. Persuaded to go back to the moors, Hunter soon realises that neither the current events taking place nor the events that took place eight years ago are what they seem. The past is not really dead and buried. The Calling of the Grave is by Simon Beckett and is due to be published in February 2011.

The death of an unknown American in Stockholm, though tragic, should be an open-and-shut case, a simple. But when Superintendent Lars Martin Johansson begins to delve beneath the layers of corruption, incompetence and violence currently strangling the Stockholm police department, he

uncovers a complex web of treachery, politics and espionage. Johansson quickly realises that there is nothing routine about this little death as it quickly catapults him from mere domestic drama straight to the rotten heart of Sweden's government. Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End is by Leif G W Persson and is due to be published in February 2011.

First Frost is a prequel to the bestselling police procedural series by the late RD Wingfield. It is 1981 in Denton and Britain is in a recession, the IRA are becoming increasingly active and the country is on alert for an outbreak of rabies. Detective Sergeant Jack Frost is working under his mentor and inspiration DI Bert Williams whilst just about coping with his strained marriage. But when DI Williams cannot be found and DI Allen fails to return from his walking holiday, Superintendent Mullett whois trying to cope with depleted ranks finds himself putting DS Frost in charge when a 12 year-old girl goes missing. First Frost is by James Henry and will be published in January 2011.

Darkside is the second novel by CWA Gold Dagger winner by Belinda Bauer. Shipcott in bleak mid-winter: a close knit community where no stranger goes unnoticed. So when an elderly

woman is murdered in her bed, village policeman Jonas Holly is doubly shocked. How could someone have killed and left no trace. Jonas finds himself sidelined by an abrasive senior detective. But this is not the end for Jonas. Someone in the village is taunting him, blaming him for the tragedy, and watching every move that he makes. But when the killer claims another victim, the taunts turn into sinister threats. Darkside will be published in January 2011.

America in 1963 is a country at a crossroads: Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the Cuban missile crisis, the sexual revolution, FBI, CIA, LSD - and a promise of a change offered by a new president, John F Kennedy. Some people believe in the future. Other conspire to control it. Chandler Forrestal is a man whose life is changed for ever when he is unwittingly dragged into a CIA mind-control experiment. After being given a massive dose of LSD, Chandler develops a frightening array of mental powers. With his heightened perception he uncovers a plot to assassinate President Kennedy. Chased by the dark powers of world government, will Chandler be able to harness his 'shift' and rewrite history? Shift is by Tim Kring and Dale Peck and is due to be published in January 2011.