Julia Haeberlin talks about We Are All The Same in The Dark

My thrillers always begin the same way—with a tiny visual in my head that won’t go away. In the case of BLACK-EYED SUSANS, it was the bird’s-eye view of a young woman lying in a field of yellow and black flowers with a bunch of scattered old bones.

A younger, wispier girl began to haunt me for WE ARE ALL THE SAME IN THE DARK. She was wishing on dandelions on the side of a Texas road that yawned with desperate emptiness. I couldn’t see her face. But I knew two things for sure: She only had one eye. And she was lost.

The gritty atmosphere of this cold case thriller overwhelmed me, even sneaking into my dreams. An ominous Texas town had taken an ugly shape down the road, with a mystery of its own. I had already decided not to give it a name to enhance its creepiness and myth.

Even before I wrote the first word, I was warning my one-eyed girl not to go there. 

She didn’t reply. No matter how much I tugged her arm, she stayed in the shadows behind a barbed wire fence. 

This was a big problem for a novelist who is not an outliner. My characters always drive the plot on a twisted road where I can never see around the curve. Every day of writing, I want to be surprised as much as the reader.

I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who struggles with writer’s block, but when I’m typing cliches and blather, I know that I need to do one of two things. Go read poetry. Or research. 

Both open up my brain. As a writer, I need to fly with poetry’s bird of freedom when my words are too straightforward. And as a tactile journalist, I want all of my underlying themes—the Texas death penalty, mitochondrial DNA, or, in this case, prosthetics—to be based on solid ground, on the advice of experts.

I realized that for my character to reveal herself, she wanted my respect. I needed to understand as much as I could what it felt like physically and emotionally to be missing an eye. 

I began with Randy Trawnik, a legendary ocularist in Dallas, Texas, who can create a prosthetic eye so beautiful, so much a perfect twin to a natural eye, that women and men are able to keep them a secret. 

And they do. Beauty queens, actresses, professional athletes, models. Kids trying to navigate through the tribal phase of childhood. The thousands of other people who don’t want to be defined first by what they are missing. What did Shakespeare say? The eyes are the windows of the soul, and by extension the soul itself? Well, he was wrong.

I began to meet some of Randy Trawnik’s patients. An Instagram model whose eye was blown apart by a firecracker set off by a family member on her grandmother’s Oklahoma ranch when she was nine.

A teenager who could not remember a time she did not wear a prosthetic eye—almost since birth—and still only told her closest friends. 

A woman accidentally hit with a ping-pong ball by a boy she had a crush on, who started her freshman year of high school with a crude prosthesis she called her “teddy-bear eye.” 

And Lauren Scruggs, a popular athletic U.S. influencer, whose arm and eye were destroyed by a small plane’s propeller but who can do almost every single thing she did before the accident. 

She posed this question to me: “What do ‘disabled’ and ‘differently abled’ even mean?” 

When I hung up the phone with her, I decided to avoid using those labels for the rest of my life.

I broadened my scope, to a veteran and ex-cop who lost a leg but still trains SWAT teams, and a college student who lost a hand and almost her life when she slammed into the back of a car parked with its lights off on a dark highway. Now she works in the prosthetics industry herself.

Two ferocious female heroines began to take shape instead of one.

My perceptions of physical beauty, so muddled by stereotypes that persist on social media and beyond, were transformed into something deeper, more transcendant. 

I didn’t know what I needed to know. 

I find that I ask myself that a lot these days, as the world explodes in shocking ways around us, as we sort out the kind of humans we want to be.

I hope you will love the thrill ride of this novel but mostly I hope that it makes you think twice—about how we are either all missing pieces, or none of us are.

The two heroines, one without a leg, one without an eye, are no different than any of my other characters.

They are defined by their guts, maneuvering a path to redemption.

And isn’t that how we all want to be defined?

We Are All the Same in The Dark by Julia Haeberlin (Published by Michael Joseph on 6 August 2020)

It's been a decade since the town's sweetheart Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Since her disappearance, Tru's brother, Wyatt, has lived as an outcast, desperate to know what happened to his sister. So when Wyatt finds a lost girl, he believes she is a sign. But for new cop, Odette Tucker, this girl's appearance reopens old wounds. Determined to solve both cases, Odette fights to save a lost girl in the present and in doing so digs up a shocking truth about that fateful night in the past . . . the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town's dark, violent mythology.

Books to Look Forward to From Michael Joseph and Vintage Publishers

 July 2020

If it had happened to you, you would have run away too.  Twenty-five years ago, Paul's friend Charlie Crabtree brutally killed their classmate - and then vanished without a trace.  Paul's never forgiven himself for his part in what happened. He's never gone back home.  Until his elderly mother has a fall. It's finally time to stop running.  It's not long before things start to go wrong. His mother claims there's someone in the house. Paul realises someone is following him. And, in a town many miles away, a copycat killer has struck.  Which makes him wonder - what really happened to Charlie the day of the murder?  And can anyone stop it happening again?  The Shadow Man is by Alex North.

How to Disappear is by Gillian McAllister. What do you do when you can't run, and you can't hide? Lauren's daughter Zara witnessed a terrible crime. But speaking up comes with a price, and when Zara's identity is revealed online, it puts a target on her back.  The only choice is to disappear.  To keep Zara safe Lauren will give up everything and everyone she loves, even her husband.  There will be no goodbyes. Their pasts will be rewritten. New names, new home, new lives.  The rules are strict for a reason. They are being hunted. One mistake - a text, an Instagram like - could bring their old lives crashing into the new.  They can never assume someone isn't watching, waiting.

Imagine you've finally escaped the worst relationship of your life, running away with only a suitcase and a black eye.  Imagine your new next-door neighbours are the friends you so desperately needed - fun, kind, empathetic, very much in love.  Imagine they're in trouble. That someone is telling lies about them, threatening their livelihoods - and even their lives.  Imagine your ex is coming for you.  If your new best friends needed you to tell one small lie, and all of these problems would disappear, you'd do it, wouldn't you?  It's only one small lie, until someone turns up dead.  One White Lie is by Leah Konen.

Out of Time is by David Klass.  American’s most wanted man.  The world’s only hope? For months, the FBI have been on the hunt for a terrorist who seems invincible. The death toll is rising, yet somehow the killer, known only as the "Green Man", has avoided leaving a single clue.  This is no ordinary villain. Each attack is carefully planned to destroy a target that threatens the environment. Each time, the protest movement that supports the Green Man grows ever larger.  Tom Smith is a young computer programmer with the FBI, trying to escape his father's domineering shadow. An expert in pattern recognition, Tom believes he's spotted something everyone else has missed.  At long last, Tom makes a breakthrough. But as he closes in on America's most dangerous man, he's forced to ask himself one question: What if the man you're trying to stop is the one who's trying to save the world?

Dark Waters is by G R Halliday.  THREE MISTAKES. TWO MURDERS. ONE MORE VICTIM TO GO . . .Annabelle has come to the Scottish Highlands to escape. But as she speeds along a deserted mountain road, she is suddenly forced to swerve. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a dark, damp room. A voice from the corner of the room says 'The Doctor will be here soon'.  Scott is camping alone in the Scottish woodlands when he hears a scream. He starts to run in fear of his life. Scott is never seen again.  Meanwhile DI Monica Kennedy has been called to her first Serious Crimes case in six months - a dismembered body has been discovered, abandoned in a dam. Days later, when another victim surfaces, Monica knows she is on the hunt for a ruthless killer.  But as she begins to close in on the murderer, her own dark past isn't far behind ...

Don’t Turn Around is by Jessica Barry.  Two strangers, Cait and Rebecca, are driving across America. Rebecca is trying to escape something. Cait doesn't know what Rebecca has left behind her - she doesn't ask any questions - her job is solely to transport women to safety. But the secrets Rebecca holds could put them both in danger.  Cait too has a past of her own - there's a reason she chooses to spend time on the road, looking out for others. Because she knows what it's like to be followed. As the two women travel across America, it quickly becomes clear someone is right behind them, watching their every move. The question is: who, and why?

When John Dyer returns to Oxford from Brazil with his young son, he doesn't expect to find them both in danger. Every day is the same. He drops Leandro at his smart prep school and walks to the library to research his new book. His time living on the edge as a foreign correspondent in Rio is over.  But the rainy streets of this English city turn out to be just as treacherous as those he used to walk in the favelas. Leandro's schoolmates are the children of influential people, among them an international banker, a Russian oligarch, an American CIA operative and a British spook. As they congregate round the sports field for the weekly football matches, the network of alliances and covert interests that spreads between these power brokers soon becomes clear to Dyer. But it is a chance conversation with an Iranian nuclear scientist, Rustum Marvar, father of a friend of Leandro, that sets him onto a truly precarious path.  When Marvar and his son disappear, several sinister factions seem acutely interested in Marvar's groundbreaking research at the Clarendon Lab, and what he might have told Dyer about it, given Dyer was the last person to see Marvar alive.  The Sandpit is by Nicholas Shakespeare

August 2020 

Eight Detectives is by Alex Pavesi.  All murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules. Grant McAllister, an author of crime fiction and professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked them all out.  But that was thirty years ago. Now he's living a life of seclusion on a quiet Mediterranean island - until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor, knocks on his door. His early work is being republished and together the two of them must revisit those old stories: an author, hiding from his past, and an editor, keen to understand it.  But as she reads, Julia is unsettled to realise that there are things in the stories that don't make sense. Intricate clues that seem to reference a real murder, one that's remained unsolved for thirty years.  If Julia wants answers, she must triumph in a battle of wits with a dangerously clever adversary. But she must tread carefully: she knows there's a mystery, but she doesn't yet realise there's already been a murder…

It's been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared from a farm, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her face still hangs on the posters on the walls of the town's Baptist Church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you.  Meanwhile, her brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new crime documentary.  But when Wyatt finds a lost girl, he believes she is a sign. And for the town's youngest cop, Odette Tucker, the girl's mysterious appearance resurrects old wounds. Odette is haunted by her own history with the missing Tru. Desperate to solve both cases, Odette fights to save a lost girl in the present and to dig up the shocking truth about a fateful night in the past . . . We are all the Same in the Dark is by Julia Heaberlin.  

When Margo goes in search of her birth mother for the first time, she meets her aunt, Nikki, instead. Margo learns that her mother, Susan, was a sex worker murdered soon after Margo's adoption. To this day, Susan's killer has never been found. Nikki asks Margo for help. She has received threatening and haunting letters from the murderer, for decades. She is determined to find him, but she can't do it alone...  The Less Dead is by Denise Mina.

Three sisters.  Three secrets.  Three ways to fall… Forcibly seduced by George Villers, Duke of Buckingham and the King’s favourite, doctor’s daughter Hester was cast aside to raise her illegitimate son, Rafe, alone and in sereet.  She hopes never to see his father again.  Melis’s visions cause disquiet and talk.  She sees what others can’t – and what has yet to be.  She’d be denounced as a witch if Hester wasn’t so carefully protective.  Young Hope’s beauty marks her out, drawing unwelcome attention to the family. Yet she cannot always resist others’ advances.  And her sisters cannot always be on their guard.  So when the powerful Duke decides to claim his son against Hester’s wishes, the sisters find themselves almost friendless and at his mercy.  But are their secrets their undoing or their salvation?  Because in the right hands a secret is the deadliest weapon of all…  The Honey and the Sting is by E C Fremantle.

Arkhangel is by James Brabazon.  Officially Max McLean doesn't exist. An off-the-books government asset he operates alone and without back-up.  But when a routine mission is fatally compromised Max is lucky to escape alive. His only clue is a marked $100 dollar bill prised from the hands of a dead man. And the knowledge that he's been set up.  To reveal the bill's secrets, Max must follow a trail that leads him from Paris to Tel Aviv and to a remote Russian village: Arkhangel. If he can survive long enough. Because it's soon clear there are other forces who will stop at nothing to get there first. And that the consequences of failure are too terrible to contemplate ...

On a cold, windswept night, Fiona arrives on a tiny, isolated island in Orkney. She accepted her old friend's invitation with some trepidation - her relationship with Madison has never been plain sailing. But as she approaches Madison's cottage, she sees that the windows are dark. The place has been stripped bare. No one knows where Madison has gone.  As Fiona tries to find out where Madison has vanished to, she begins to unravel a web of lies. Madison didn't live the life she claimed to, and now Fiona's own life is in danger . . .  Night Falls, Still Missing is by Helen Callaghan.

They'll call her a bad mother.  Cole can live with that. Because when she breaks her son Miles out of the Male Protection Facility - designed to prevent him joining the 99% of men wiped off the face of the Earth - she's not just taking him back.  She's setting him free.  Leaving Miles in America would leave him as a lab experiment; a pawn in the hands of people who now see him as a treasure to be guarded, traded, and used. What kind of mother would stand by and watch her child suffer? But as their journey to freedom takes them across a hostile and changed country, freedom seems ever more impossible.  It's time for Cole to prove just how far she'll go to protect her son.  Afterland is by Lauren Beukes.

16-year-old Sadie Saunders is missing.  Five friends set out into the woods to find her.   But they're not just friends...  THEY'RE SUSPECTS.  You see, this was never a search party. It's a witch hunt.   And not everyone will make it home alive.  The Search Party is by Simon Lelic.

􏰿Una Richardson may finally be able to put her dark past behind her. As companion to the elegant Elspeth McKenzie, Una steps into a world of luxury and feels her heart beginning to mend.  That is, until she meets Elspeth’s daughter, Kathryn, who resents Una’s place in her mother’s home.   As Una becomes more entangled in Kathryn’s jealousy, she uncovers the family’s dark secrets. Including the mysterious deaths of the two girls who came before her.  Just Like The Other Girls is by Claire Douglas.

September 2020

The Kingdom is by Jo Nesbo.  In the mountains of Norway a man lives a peaceful existence. However one day his younger brother, always the more successful and charming of the two, turns up to visit, accompanied by his new wife. It soon turns out that the little brother is not quite as angelic as he seems.

October 2020

He's always been there. Now he's looking for you.  There have always been deaths in the small town of Eriston over the years - more than can easily be explained.  People dying in their houses, behind locked doors.  Sean Cole thought he'd spotted a pattern. Thought he was on the trail of a killer.  Now he's dead too.  When his daughter Rebecca returns to the town, she realises that her father might have been onto something.  But can she find the murderer before he finds her?  Because if she can't, her father's shabby old Victorian house is no place to hide.  Don’t Let Him In is by H A Linskey.

The Accident is by Nicola Moriarty.  After a long year, three generations of a family are looking forward to spending a relaxing Christmas together.  Driving together on Christmas Eve they are suddenly involved in an accident that will change their lives forever. But it is not just the physical scars that will take time to heal. The accident has exposed secrets which everyone hoped had would stay hidden.  But this is just the beginning.  No one has noticed that someone is missing. With no search party, and no one to sound the alarm, the clock is ticking. And time is running out.

November 2020

The Dublin Railway Murder is by Thomas Morris.  One morning in November 1856 George Little, the chief cashier of the Broadstone railway terminus in Dublin, was found dead, lying in a pool of blood beneath his desk. His head had been almost severed; a knife lay nearby, but strangely the office door was locked, apparently from the inside. This was a deed of almost unheard-of brutality for the peaceful Irish capital: while violent crime was commonplace in Victorian London, the courts of Dublin had not convicted a single murderer in more than thirty years.  From the first day of the police investigation it was apparent that this was no ordinary case. Detectives struggled to understand how the killer could have entered and then escaped from a locked room, and why thousands of pounds in gold and silver had been left untouched at the scene of the crime. Three of Scotland Yard's most celebrated sleuths were summoned to assist the enquiry, but all returned to London baffled. It was left to Superintendent Augustus Guy, the head of Ireland's first detective force, to unravel the mystery.  Five suspects were arrested and released, with every step of the salacious case followed by the press, clamouring for answers. Under intense public scrutiny, Superintendent Guy found himself blocked at almost every turn. But then a local woman came forward, claiming to know the murderer....

Snow is falling in the exclusive alpine ski resort of Saint Antoine, as the shareholders and directors of Snoop, the hottest new music app, gather for a make or break corporate retreat to decide the future of the company. At stake is a billion-dollar dot com buyout that could make them all millionaires, or leave some of them out in the cold. The clock is ticking on the offer, and with the group irrevocably split, tensions are running high. When an avalanche cuts the chalet off from help, and one board member goes missing in the snow, the group is forced to ask - would someone resort to murder, to get what they want? One by One is by Ruth Ware.

Christmas 1938. The Westbury family and assorted friends have gathered together for another legendary Christmas at the family seat in Sussex. The champagne flows, the family silver sparkles and upstairs the bedrooms are made up ready for their occupants. But one bed will lie empty that night...  Come Christmas morning David Campbell-Scott is found lying in the snow, crimson staining the white around him. A hunting rifle is lying beside him and there's only one set of footprints but something doesn't seem right to amateur sleuth Hugh Gaveston. Campbell-Scott had just returned from the East with untold wealth - why would he kill himself? Hugh sets out to investigate...  A Christmas Murder is by Ada Moncrieff.

The Guest Book is by C L Pattinson.  Charles and Grace wanted a quiet staycation honeymoon, but when their train terminates early due to a storm up ahead, they wonder if they made the wrong decision. Forced to take shelter in the nearest seaside town, Saltwater, they discover their fellow passengers have filled all the recommended B&Bs to the brim. There is only one guesthouse left. Unlike the rest of Saltwater, The Anchorage is entirely deserted. That night, with the storm howling relentlessly, Grace is woken by a child crying. She is haunted by the sound, until Charles convinces her it was only her imagination. But the next day, she finds a warning scrawled in the guest book: Leave now. Do not trust them. As the storm rages on, days go by and phone lines are down, transport links cut off. Grace is desperate to leave, but Charles remains unaffected by the eerie stillness of the house. Is it just Grace's imagination or do the owners, and Charles, have something to hide?  THANK YOU FOR STAYING AT THE ANCHORAGE. WE HOPE YOU'LL BE BACK SOON...

Books to Look Forward to from Penguin Random House incl Michael Joseph

May 2019

Catching Teller Crow is by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina.  Nothing's been the same for Beth Teller since she die.  Her dad, a detective, is the only one who can see and hear her, and he's drowning in grief. Only a suspected murder, and a mystery to solve, might save them both.  And they have a potential witness: Isobel Catching. Aboriginal by birth, like Beth, she seems lost and isolated in the world.  But as the two get closer, Isobel's strange tale of glass-eyed monsters and stolen colours will intertwine with Beth's investigation - and reveal something dark and terrible at the heart of this Australian town . . .

PARIS 2017. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE HAS RULED EUROPE FOR OVER 300 YEARS.  As a respected special investigator for the state police, Kamal Agha is committed to keeping the empire safe from threats inside and out. But these are dangerous times in the empire. Under the sultan's autocratic regime, no one is beyond suspicion. When a naked man covered in tattoos appears on the banks of the Seine and murders a passer-by, Kamal is tasked with tracking him down. But asking too many questions can be a highly risky endeavor-especially when the mysterious man's trail leads Kamal to a secret buried deep in the empire's past, a secret that goes to the very core of the empire's success. A secret the sultan and his security services will do anything to silence.  Kamal is forced to question his own loyalty when his own family attracts unwelcome attention from the security services. Soon, he has no choice but to flee. But on the run from the all-seeing organisation with which he made his reputation, can he save himself and his family?  And, if he does, what might that mean for the existence of the Empire itself? Its past, its present and its future .... The Ottoman Secret is by Raymond Khoury.

The Copy Cat is by Jake Woodhouse.  Jaap Rykel is on the brink, his dark past driving him to breaking point - and ending his police career.   Visiting the station one last time, he stumbles across an investigation into a particularly violent murder. A murder where the details exactly match a case he solved years earlier.  But that killer was caught - and is still in prison.  Is there a copycat killer on the loose, playing games with Rykel's fragile mind? Or did he get it wrong, and send an innocent man to prison?  This might be his last chance to make things right - or it could be the blow that finally takes him over the edge . . .

June 2019

On a remote island off the coast of Argentina, a team of elite counter-terror commandos prepare to assault a newly-discovered Hezbollah hideout.   What they don't expect is to be brutally ambushed themselves - slaughtered with no survivors.   What they don't realise is that, on screens around the world, the enemies of the West are watching.  Back in Washington DC, the growing obstruction in the Senate has reached crippling levels, as a crucial treaty to strength NATO in Eastern Europe is inexplicably blocked. Suspecting that key politicians may have been compromised - but aware of the explosive consequences of making such accusations in public - the President dispatches Jack Ryan Jr to Poland to investigate.   In Warsaw, Jack partners with beautiful and brilliant Polish agent Liliana Zaleski, and it's not long before they find evidence of a tangled web of corruption. But what Jack and Liliana don't realise is that this conspiracy stretches further than they could ever have imagined, and the danger has already crept terrifyingly close to home… Tom Clancy’s Enemy Contact is by Mike Maden.  

Every Monday, 49-year-old Ellie looks after her grandson Josh. She loves him more than anyone else in the world. The only thing that can mar her happiness is her husband's affair. But he swears it's over now, and Ellie has decided to be thankful for what she's got.  Then one day, while she's looking after Josh, her husband gets a call from that woman. And just for a moment, Ellie takes her eyes off her grandson. What happens next will change her life forever.  Because Ellie is hiding something in her past.  And what looks like an accident could start to look like murder . . .  I looked Away is by Jane Corry.

July 2019

A Fatal Game is by Nicholas Searle.  A terrorist attack has just hit a busy railway station. Jake Winter was the British intelligence officer in charge of stopping the attack and now his career, and his conscience, are in freefall . . .  Jake's next anti-terror operation has to be a success. He has got himself a new source - a young British Asian man, Rashid, recently returned, apparently disillusioned, from battle, who he hopes is the key to foiling the next attack and to getting Jake to the leader of the network. But is Rashid really working for British intelligence, or has Jake put his faith in the wrong man once again?

It's evening, you're leaving work, and in your pigeonhole is a note:  A DEATH THREAT  - and it warns that time is running out.  But the note is for another person. And soon you learn that they are dead. They are just the first.  As more victims are found, you know that soon, very soon, a note will arrive for you - unless you do something . .  Tell No Lies is by Gregg Hurwitz

Inspector Kosuke Iwata returns to Japan after ten years to confront the ghosts of his past, and catch a dangerous killer.  Tokyo. 2020, As Japan prepares to host the Olympic Games an English exchange student is found bludgeoned to death in a love hotel. She lies in an empty room with only a dead spider for morbid company. Could this be a calling card from her killer?   The world's eyes are on Tokyo's Homicide department who are so desperate that the Commissioner picks up the phone and calls his old protege, Kosuke Iwata. A brilliant detective whose haunted personal life has forced him into exile thousands of miles away. Iwata wants no part in an investigation that means stepping back into a past he had no intention of revisiting. Until he is is given an offer he can't refuse.  Black Suit City is by Nicolás Obregón

 August 2019

It's been fifteen years since Simon Meier walked out of his house, never to be seen again. And just one day since politician Bernard Clausen was found dead at his cabin on the Norwegian coast. When Chief Inspector William Wisting is asked to investigate he soon discovers he may have found the key to solving Meier's disappearance.  But doing so means he must work with an old adversary to piece together what really happened all those years ago. It's a puzzle that leads them into a dark underworld on the trail of Clausen's interests and vices . A shady place from which may never emerge - especially when he finds it leads closer to home than he ever could have imagined.   The Cabin is by Jørn Lier Horst.

Ice Cold Heart is by P J Tracey.  On a bitterly cold winter night, Kelly Ramage leaves her suburban home, telling her husband she's going to meet a friend.  She never comes back.  When her body is discovered, murdered in what seems to be a sex game gone horribly wrong, Detectives Gino and Magozzi take the case, expecting to find a flirtatious trail leading straight to the killer.   However, Kelly's sinister lover has done a disturbingly good job of hiding his identity. This isn't his first victim - and that she won't be the last.

 One missing. One a murderer. One trying to find the truth.Flora has her whole life ahead of her - until the summer night she vanishes.  Her sister Heather was a good girl - until the spring morning she kills two people. Jess Fox was once like a sister to them both.  But called home to investigate Heather's crime, she begins to wonder if she really knew either sister at all . . .  And Then She Vanishes is by Claire Douglas.

October 2019

Set in London in 2018, Agent Running in the Field follows a twenty-six year old solitary figure who, in a desperate attempt to resist the political turbulence swirling around him, makes connections that will take him down a very dangerous path.  Agent Running in the Field is by John le Carré.

All the Rageis by Cara Hunter.  A teenage girl is found wandering the outskirts of Oxford, dazed and distressed. The story she tells is terrifying. Grabbed off the street, a plastic bag pulled over her face, then driven to an isolated location where she was subjected to what sounds like an assault. Yet she refuses to press charges. DI Fawley investigates, but there's little he can do without the girl's co-operation. Is she hiding something, and if so, what? And why does Fawley keep getting the feeling he's seen a case like this before?

The Dying Room is by Nicci French.  Neve Connolly looks down at a murdered man.  She doesn't call the police.   You know, it's funny,' Detective Inspector Hitching said. `Whoever I see, they keep saying, talk to Neve Connolly, she'll know. She's the one people talk to, she's the one people confide in.'  A trusted colleague and friend. A mother. A wife. Neve Connolly is all these things.  She has also made mistakes; some small, some unconsciously done, some large, some deliberate. She is only human, after all.  But now one mistake is spiralling out of control and Neve is bringing those around her into immense danger.  She can't tell the truth. So how far is she prepared to go to protect those she loves? And who does she really know? And who can she trust?  A liar. A cheat. A threat. Neve Connolly is all these things.  Could she be a murderer?

 November 2019

In an off-limits computer lab near Chicago, a mole infiltrates and steals a sophisticated piece of government security software. The implications are devastating - but it's only half the prize.  In Indonesia, an American engineer is seduced into spilling secrets about a cutting edge Artificial Intelligence chip. The information seems harmless, but will wreak havoc the wrong hands.  In the White House, discontent with the President is rising - but could it amount to treason?  Tom Clancy's Code of Honour is by Marc Cameron

As usual, seventeen-year-old Alice Teale walked out of school at the end of a bright spring day.  She's not been seen since.  Alice was popular and well-liked, and her boyfriend, friends and family are desperate to find her. But when the police start asking questions, it becomes clear that almost everyone has something to hide.  Torn between a host of suspects, Detectives Beth Winter and Lucas Black don't know which way to turn. But then they receive a disturbing package: pages from Alice's precious diary.  Who could have sent them? And what have they done with Alice? Alice Teale is Missing is by Howard Linskey

Come a Little Closer is by Karen Perry.  Leah is in love. It should be the happiest summer of her life, but she can't help feeling lonely with Jake's attention divided between her, his ex-wife and his young son. As insomnia sets in, the walls of their new basement flat feel as if they're closing in around her.  Until she meets her upstairs neighbour, Anton, who has recently moved back in after a long absence from the street. He's a sympathetic ear when Jake can't be, and even though others on the street seem strangely hostile towards him, Leah soon comes to rely on Anton and their secret conversations in the night.  Leah has no idea that nineteen years before, Anton was convicted of killing his wife. A wife who looked a little bit like Leah. He has always said he didn't do it.  Is Leah his redemption? Or is she befriending a killer intent on luring her closer and closer?

Books to Look Forward to from Penguin Random House incl Michael Joseph

January 2019

One blustery October morning in a quiet suburb of Copenhagen, the police make a terrible discovery. A young woman is found brutally murdered in a playground and one of her hands

is missing. Above her hangs a small doll made of chestnuts. Ambitious young detective Naia Thulin is assigned the case. Her partner, Mark Hess, is a burned-out investigator who's just been kicked out of Europol. They soon discover a mysterious piece of evidence on the chestnut man - evidence connecting it to a girl who went missing a year earlier and is presumed dead - the daughter of politician Rosa Hartung. The man who confessed to her murder is behind bars and the case is long since closed. Soon afterwards, another woman is found murdered, along with another chestnut man. Thulin and Hess suspect that there's a connection between the Hartung case, the murdered women and a killer who is spreading fear throughout the country. But what is it? Thulin and Hess are racing against the clock, because it's clear that the murderer is on a mission that is far from over. The Chestnut Man is by Søren Sveistrup.

BREAKING: Nuclear weapon detonates over Washington.  BREAKING: London hit, thousands feared dead.  BREAKING: Munich and Scotland hit. World leaders call for calm.  Historian Jon Keller is on a trip to Switzerland when the world ends. As the lights go out on civilisation, he wishes he had a way of knowing whether his wife, Nadia, and their two daughters are still alive. More than anything, Jon wishes he hadn't ignored Nadia's last message.  Twenty people remain in Jon's hotel. Far from the nearest city and walled in by towering trees, they wait, they survive.  Then one day, the body of a young girl is found. It's clear she has been murdered. Which means that someone in the hotel is a killer.  As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate. But how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? And what kind of justice can he hope for, when society as he knows it no longer exists?  The Last is by Hanna Jameson.

February 2019

Out of the Dark is by Gregg Hurwitz. As a boy, Evan Smoak was taken from the orphanage he called home and inducted into a top secret Cold War programme. Trained as a lethal weapon, he and his fellow recruits were sent round the world to do the government's dirty work. But the programme was rotten to the core. And now the man responsible needs things to be nice and clean. All evidence must be destroyed. That includes Evan. To survive, Evan's going to have to take the fight to his nemesis. There's just one problem with that. Jonathan Bennett is President of the United States and Evan isn't his only victim. To save himself - and the country - Evan is going to have to figure out how to kill the most well-protected man on the planet...

One night, Annie went missing. Disappeared from her own bed. There were searches, appeals. Everyone thought the worst. And then, miraculously, after forty-eight hours, she came back. But she couldn't, or wouldn't, say what had happened to her. Something happened to my sister. I can't explain what. I just know that when she came back, she wasn't the same. She wasn't my Annie. I didn't want to admit, even to myself, that sometimes I was scared to death of my own little sister.  The Taking of Annie Thorne is by C J Tudor.

'For me it all goes back to that night, the dark corroded hinge between before and after, the slipped-in sheet of trick glass that tints everything on one side in its own murky colours and leaves everything on the other luminous and untouchable.'  One night changes everything for Toby. He's always led a charmed life - until a brutal attack leaves him damaged and traumatised, unsure even of the person he used to be. He seeks refuge at his family's ancestral home, the Ivy House, filled with memories of wild-strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins.  But not long after Toby's arrival, a discovery is made: a skull, tucked neatly inside the old wych elm in the garden.  As detectives begin to close in, Toby is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about his family, his past, and himself.  The Wych Elm is by Tana French.

Day of the Accident is by Nuala Ellwood. Sixty seconds after she wakes from a coma, Maggie's world is torn apart.  The police tell her that her daughter Elspeth is dead. That she drowned when the car Maggie had been driving plunged into the river. Maggie remembers nothing.  When Maggie begs to see her husband Sean, the police tell her that he has disappeared. He was last seen on the day of her daughter's funeral.  What really happened that day at the river?  Where is Maggie's husband?  And why can't she shake the suspicion that somewhere, somehow, her daughter is still alive?

March 2019

Adam Brandt is a forensic psychologist, used to dealing with the most damaged members of society.  But he's never met anyone like Kassie. The teenager claims to have a terrible gift. With just one look, she can foresee when and how you will die.  Adam knows Kassie must be insane. But a serial killer is terrorising the city. And only Kassie seems to know who his next victim will be.  Against all his intuition, Adam starts to believe her.  But he doesn't realise how deadly his faith might prove...  A Gift for Dying is by M J Arlidge.

She Lies in Wait is by Gytha Lodge.  Six friends. One killer. Who do you trust?  On a hot July night in 1983, six school friends go camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and young Aurora Jackson is dazzled to be allowed to tag along. 

Thirty years later, a body is discovered. DCI Sheens is called to the scene, but he already knows what's waiting for him: Aurora Jackson, found at long last.  But that's not all. The friends have all maintained their innocence, but the body is found in a hideaway only the six of them knew about.  It seems the killer has always lurked very close to home...

The murder of a team of U.N. scientists while investigating mysterious deaths in El Salvador. A deadly collision in the waterways off Detroit. An attack from tomb raiders on an archeological site along the Nile. Is there a link between these violent events? The answer may lie with the tale of an Egyptian princess forced to flee the armies of her father three thousand years ago.  From the desert sands of Egypt to the rocky isles of Ireland to the deep water lochs of Scotland, only Dirk Pitt can unravel the secrets of an ancient enigma that could change the very future of mankind. Celtic Empire is by Clive and Dirk Cussler.

It's one of the most disturbing cases DI Fawley has ever worked.  The Christmas holidays, and two children have just been pulled from the wreckage of their burning home in North Oxford. The toddler is dead, and his brother is soon fighting for his life.  Why were they left in the house alone? Where is their mother, and why is their father not answering his phone?  Then new evidence is discovered, and DI Fawley's worst nightmare comes true.  Because this fire wasn't an accident.  It was murder.  No Way Out is by Cara Hunter.

April 2019

Ellidaey is a collection of isolated islands off the coast of Iceland. It is has a beautiful, unforgiving terrain and is an easy place to vanish.  The Island is the second thrilling book in Ragnar Jónasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy. This time Hulda is at the peak of her career and is sent to investigate what happened on Ellidaey after a group of friends visited but one failed to return.  Could this have links to the disappearance of a couple ten years previously out on the Westfjords? Is there a killer stalking these barren outposts?

Major Leo Black was once one of the SAS's most fearsome and effective warriors and after twenty years of war, is now striving to be a force for peace. A junior tutor without tenure at Oxford University, his lectures on the ethics of conflict are an inspiration to his students but a threat to colleagues wary of admitting him to their gilded circle.  When his oldest friend and comrade is brutally murdered as a part of a dark international conspiracy, Black's new-found principles are put to the ultimate test. There's a violent job to be done and he's the man called upon to do it: the unrivalled expert in the art of killing.  The Black Art of Killing is by Matthew Hall.

Liberation Square is by Gareth Rubin.  1952. Soviet troops control British streets.  After the disastrous failure of D-Day, Britain is occupied by Nazi Germany, and only rescued by Russian soldiers arriving from the east and Americans from the west. The two superpowers divide the nation between them, a wall running through London like a scar.  When Jane Cawson calls into her husband's medical practice and detects the perfume worn by his former wife, Lorelei, star of propaganda films for the new Marxist regime, she fears what is between them. But when Jane rushes to confront them, she finds herself instead caught up in the glamorous actress's death.  Nick is soon arrested for murder. Desperate to clear his name, Jane must risk the attention of the brutal secret police as she follows a trail of corruption right to the highest levels of the state.  And she might find she never really knew her husband at all.

May 2019

My Lovely Wife is by Samantha Downing.  Every marriage has secrets. Everyone has flaws. Your wife isn't perfect - you know that - but then again nor are you.  But now a serial killer is on the loose in your small town, preying on young women. Fear is driving your well-behaved young daughter off the rails, and you find yourself in bed late at night, looking at the woman who lies asleep beside you.  Because you thought you knew the worst about her. The truth is you know nothing at all.

On Halloween night, four households gather for a party in the tiny Yorkshire village of Black Gale. Three hours in, they head outside, onto the darkened moors, to play a drunken game of hide and seek. None of them return. There's no trail, no evidence and no answers. An entire village has just vanished. With the police investigation dead in the water, the families of the disappeared ask missing persons investigator David Raker to find out what happened. But nothing can prepare him for the truth.  The currently untitled book in the David Raker series is by Tim Weaver.

June 2019

If you leave a door half-open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken...  Still devastated after the loss of his wife, Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake move to the sleepy village of Featherbank, looking for a fresh start.  But Featherbank has a dark past. Fifteen years ago a twisted serial killer abducted and murdered five young boys. Until he was finally caught, the killer was known as 'The Whisper Man'.  Of course, an old crime need not trouble Tom and Jake as they try to settle in to their new home. Except that now another boy has gone missing. And then Jake begins acting strangely.  He says he hears a whispering at his window...  The Whisper Man is by Alex North.