Books to Look Forward to From Orion Publishing

January 2022

The end is here. Jack West Jr has made it to the Supreme Labyrinth. Now he faces one last race - against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself - a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth. An impossible maze. But the road will be hard. For this is a maze like no other: a maze of mazes. Uncompromising and complex. Demanding and deadly. A cataclysmic conclusion. It all comes down to this. It ends here - now - in the most lethal and dangerous place Jack has encountered in all of his many adventures. And in the face of this indescribable peril, with everything on the line, there is only one thing he can do. Attempt the impossible. The One Impossible Labyrinth is by Matthew Reilly. 

February 2022

The Goodbye Coast: A Philip Marlowe Novel is by Joe Ide. The seductive and relentless figure of Raymond Chandler's detective, Philip Marlowe, is vividly re-imagined in present-day Los Angeles. Here is a city of scheming Malibu actresses, ruthless gang members, virulent inequality, and washed-out police. Acclaimed and award-winning novelist Joe Ide imagines a Marlowe very much of our time: he's a quiet, lonely, and remarkably capable and confident private detective, though he lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective, famous throughout the city, who's given in to drink after the death of Marlowe's mother. Marlowe, against his better judgement, accepts two missing person cases, the first a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet, and the second, a British child stolen from his mother by his father. At the center of COAST is Marlowe's troubled and confounding relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who's unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy. Together, they will realise that one of their clients may be responsible for murder of her own husband, a washed-up director in debt to Albanian and Russian gangsters, and that the client's trouble-making daughter may not be what she seems.

Notes on an Execution is by Danya Kukafka. Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he's done, and now awaits the same fate he forced on those girls, years ago. Ansel doesn't want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. But this is not his story. As the clock ticks down, three women uncover the history of a tragedy and the long shadow it casts. Lavender, Ansel's mother, is a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation. Hazel, twin sister to his wife, is forced to watch helplessly as the relationship threatens to devour them all. And Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, is devoted to bringing bad men to justice but struggling to see her own life clearly. This is the story of the women left behind.

Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose is by T A Willberg. The envelope was tied with three delicate silk ribbons: "One of the new recruits is not to be trusted..." It's 1959 and a new killer haunts the streets of London, having baffled Scotland Yard. The newspapers call him The Florist because of the rose he brands on his victims. The police have turned yet again to the Inquirers at Miss Brickett's for assistance, and second year Marion Lane is assigned the case. But she's already dealing with a mystery of her own, having received an unsigned letter warning her that one of the three new recruits should not be trusted. She dismisses the letter at first, focusing on The Florist case, but her informer seems to be one step ahead, predicting what will happen before it does. But when a fellow second-year Inquirer is murdered, Marion takes matters into her own hands and must come face-to-face with her informer-who predicted the murder-to find out everything they know. Until then, no one at Miss Brickett's is safe and everyone is a suspect.

Was it an accident? Or was it murder? Marc Mercier appears to have it all - a successful business man with a loving family who has risen above his upbringing. So when he vanishes while on a hunting trip in the Atchafalaya Basin, the mystery appears to be nothing more than a tragic accident. But all is not what it seems in Marc Mercier's life. As detectives launch the investigation into his death, the picture of his perfect life begins to unravel. Family members begin to make accusations, his wife and best friend change their stories, and the police are left floundering as the secrets begin to pile up. The clock is ticking - can detectives Nick and Annie discover the truth before someone else ends up as a case number? Bad Liar is by Tami Hoag.

Disappeared is by Laura Jarrett. Let it burn. Let everything burn. One day Cerys walks out of her comfortable life, never to return. Standing on a hillside at night with no phone and no possessions, watching her car set alight, she believes this is the end. And then Lily walks into her life. Lily is desperate for a new start for herself and her child. More than that, she knows she has to disappear in order to keep them both safe. The two women strike a fierce bond, and are both running from things that soon threaten to catch up with them. Can these two women keep each other safe... Can they trust each other ? Or are the pasts they've escaped too much for either of them to bear?

In the dead of winter, even brothers become strangers... Running from a troubled childhood, Jack Devereaux left home as soon as he could and never looked back - until the day a stranger calls, begging him to return to his hometown of Jasperville, Quebec. Jack's brother Calvis - the little boy he left behind more than twenty years ago - has viciously attacked a man and left him for dead. Nobody knows why he did it, though Jack suspects it has something to do with the Jasperville girls who were lost all those years ago.  But as he begins the long journey home through the frozen, unforgiving landscape, Jack isn't wondering why his little brother lost his mind. He's wondering why it took so long . . .The Darkest Season is by R J Ellory.

March 2022

Hidden Depths is by Araminta Hall. Passenger... Lily is pregnant, travelling onboard the Titanic to her beloved family in the United States, hoping she can get there before her mind and body give up. For a long time now she's known her husband is not the man he's pretending to be and she's not safe. So, when she meets widower Lawrence she knows he's her last chance for help. Or Prisoner... But Lawrence knows he hasn't got time to save Lily. Lawrence is the only person on board the unsinkable ship who knows he will not disembark in New York. And the danger is much worse than either of them could imagine. Can Lily and Lawrence help each other to safety before it's too late?

For The Lost is by Lina Bengtsdotter. A missing child. In Karlstad, nine-month-old Beatrice is missing from her pram. Her parents are in shock and the media is in a frenzy. A personal struggle. DI Charlie Lager is struggling with her own demons when she's called to investigate, forced to push them aside as the case intensifies. A clock running down. As lead after lead goes nowhere, Charlie starts to feel like nobody actually wants the truth to come out about Beatrice as reluctant locals shut down in the face of her questions. And with each passing hour, the chance of finding Beatrice alive becomes less and less likely...

The Clockwork Girl is by Anna Mazzola. Paris, 1750. In the midst of an icy winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, chambermaid Madeleine Chastel arrives at the home of the city's celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter. Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose: to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom. For as children quietly vanish from the Parisian streets, rumours are swirling that the clockmaker's intricate mechanical creations, bejewelled birds and silver spiders, are more than they seem. And soon Madeleine fears that she has stumbled upon an even greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the very heart of Versailles...

Jodie Martindale and her boyfriend were kidnapped a decade ago. Her boyfriend was found dead the next week. Jodie was never seen again. Journalist David Kelman, once a hotshot but now washed up, illegally comes into possession of Jodie's brother's old phone. And on that phone is an unheard voicemail from two weeks ago. The voice is unmistakeably that of Jodie Martindale. The message begins an obsession for Kelman - which takes him down a rabbit hole of lies, to a dark and deadly truth... Never Seen Again is by Paul Finch. 

Sorry Isn't Good Enough is by Jane Bailey. 'The trouble is, we don't recognise every danger when we see it. And that's how Mr Man manages to creep into our lives.' It is 1966, and things are changing in the close-knit Napier Road. Stephanie is 9 years old, and she has plans: 1. Get Jesus to heal her wonky foot 2. Escape her spiteful friend Dawn 3. Persuade her mum to love her. But everything changes when Stephanie strikes up a relationship with Mr Man, who always seems pleased to see her. When Dawn goes missing in the woods during the World Cup final, no one appears to know what happened to her - but more than one of them is lying. May 1997, and Stephanie has spent her life trying to bury the events of that terrible summer. When a man starts following her on the train home from London, she realises the dark truth of what happened may have finally caught up with her.

April 2022

Paris Requiem is by Chris Lloyd. Paris, 1940. As the city adjusts to life under Nazi occupation, Detective Eddie Giral struggles to reconcile his job as a policeman with his new role enforcing a regime he cannot believe in but must work under. He's sacrificed so much in order to survive in this new world, but the past is not so easily forgotten. When an old friend and an old flame reappear, begging for his help, Eddie must decide how far he will go to help those he loves. He can remain a good man and do nothing, or risk it all in a desperate act of resistance...

June 2022

Complicit is by Winnie M Li. You know what it's like. A comment here, a closed door there, turning a blind eye to get ahead. My name is Sarah Lai. You won't have heard of me. A decade ago I was on the cusp of being a big deal. But that was a long time ago. Now, instead of working in Hollywood, I teach students about it. And these are the two most important lessons you need to know about the film industry: 1) Those with the money have all the power. 2) Those with the power get whatever they want. Ignore these rules and the whole system will crumble. Stick to the rules and you'll succeed. But at what cost? Ask yourself, what would you have done?

Keep your family safe whatever the cost. Jamie and Victoria are expecting their first baby. With a few weeks to go, they head off for a final weekend break in a remote part of the North Pennines. The small and peaceful guesthouse is the ideal location to unwind together before becoming parents. Upon arrival, they are greeted by Barry and Fiona, the older couple who run the guesthouse. They cook them dinner and show them to their room before retreating to bed themselves. The next morning, Jamie and Victoria wake to find the house deserted. Barry and Fiona are nowhere to be seen. All the doors are locked. Both their mobile phones and car keys have disappeared. Even though it's a few weeks early, Victoria knows the contractions are starting. The baby is coming, and there's no way out. The Guest House is by Robin Morgan Bentley.

July 2022

The Red Notebook is by Michel Bussi. Leyli Maal is a beautiful Malian woman, mother of three, living in a tiny apartment on the outskirts of Marseille. Her quiet life as a well-integrated immigrant is suddenly shaken when her beautiful eldest daughter, Bamby, becomes the main suspect in two murders linked to a lethal illegal immigration racket. Is Bamby really involved? And why is everyone desperate to get their hands on Leyli’s mysterious red notebook? 

On the worst night of her life, in the middle of nowhere, lonely Charlotte Wilderwood saves a runaway bride from falling to her death. Soon Maggie is staying in Charlotte's home, safely hidden from the man that she was so desperate to escape. The immediate bond between the two women eclipses anything they've ever known and before long they will go to extreme lengths to protect each other. But is Maggie the best friend Charlotte has always dreamed about, or the nightmare she never saw coming... The Woman on the Bridge is by Holly Seddon.

The Starlings is by Isabel Ashdown. They were perfect neighbours. Now they are prime suspects. Security, a sparkling sea view and the best kind of neighbours - The Starlings gated community has it all. The residents are like family to each other, in a place where doors are left open and children run free. But that all changes when an idyllic street party takes a dark turn. Who knows what really happened to him? And what answers are harboured within the old building, a former asylum?

The tiny outback town of Dead Tree Creek is a rough place - and the locals are even rougher - but they've never seen anything like this . . . When a man is found gruesomely murdered in the local pub, all fingers point to the backpackers working behind the bar that night - two American girls who skipped town before the body was discovered. Despite all the evidence against them, rookie cop Tara Harrison knows there must be more to this case than a pair of sorority sisters who couldn't take a joke. She's determined to uncover the truth, and is soon on the trail of a devastating secret that could tear her hometown apart. But sorority sisters Lauren and Beth have their own dark secrets and they've made an oath to take them to the grave - which they will, all too soon, unless Tara can stop it . . . Blood Sisters is by Cate Quinn.

Books to Look Forward to from Orion Publishing

July 2020

Before - A man running along a remote clifftop path on an icy-cold February morning.  A woman standing on the cliff's edge.  A red scarf on the ground between them.  After - The man is alone on the cliff - adrenaline pumping through his veins.  The woman is on the beach below - dead.  The red scarf is also on the beach -   beautifully (and impossibly) wrapped around the woman's broken neck. What happened? Two lives colliding by chance?  Or a revenge decades in the making?  Never Forget is by Michel Bussi.

How to Be Nowhere is by Tim MacGabhann.  Life is finally on the right track for reporter

and recovering addict Andrew: he is slowly coming to terms with the murder of his photographer boyfriend Carlos, pursuing sobriety and building a new home with a new partner. Andrew has almost forgotten about the story that ruined his life - but that story hasn't forgotten about him, and a series of deadly threats forces him into helping the very man whose gang murdered his boyfriend and left him homeless.

The Portland Spy Ring was one of the most notorious spy cases from the Cold War. It seized international attention and revealed the shadowy world of deep cover KGB spies operating under false identities ('illegals').  The CIA's revelation to MI5 that a KGB agent was stealing crucial secrets from the sensitive submarine research base at Portland in Dorset looked initially like a dangerous but contained lapse of security by a British man and his mistress. But the unsuspecting couple passed the secrets to a Canadian businessman, Gordon Lonsdale. Lonsdale in turn led MI5's spycatchers to an innocent-looking couple in suburban Ruislip called the Krogers, who were transmitting the vital information to Moscow. A sudden defection forced the arrest of the spy ring.  The Krogers were discovered to be two of the most important Russian 'illegals' ever. The Americans had been searching for them for years. In a previous undercover life they had been a conduit to the KGB atomic spies at Los Alamos. And Lonsdale was no Canadian, but a senior KGB controller called Konon Molody - who years later turned out to have been running other key Soviet agents in the UK.  This astonishing but true story of MI5's spyhunt is straight from the world of John le Carre. It criss-crosses the world between the USSR, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and the UK, and ends with dramatic spy swaps familiar to viewers of Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. This extraordinary story is a fascinating vignette of the Cold War stand-off between the USSR and the West, and a case that fully justified the West's paranoia about infiltration and treachery.  Dead Doubles: The Portland Spy Ring is by Trevor Barnes.

The only thing the three women had in common was their husband. And, as of this morning, that they're each accused of his murder.  Blake Nelson moved into a hidden stretch of land - a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah - where he lived with his three wives:  Rachel, the chief wife, obedient and doting to a fault.  Tina, the other wife, who's everything Rachel isn't.  And Emily, the youngest wife, who knows almost nothing else.  When their husband is found dead under the desert sun, the questions pile up.   What are these women to each other now that their husband is dead? Will the police uncover the secrets each woman has spent her life hiding? And is one of them capable of murder...?  Black Widows is by Cate Quinn.

Fifty-Fifty is by Steve Cavanagh.  Two sisters on trial for murder. They accuse each other.  Who do YOU believe?  '911 what's your emergency?'  'My dad's dead. My sister Sofia killed him. She's still in the house. Please send help.'  'My dad's dead. My sister Alexandra killed him. She's still in the house. Please send help.'  One of them is a liar and a killer.  But which one?

Like Mother, Like Daughter is by Elle Croft.  If what they said was true, then the grotesque and the monstrous ran in her blood. It was imprinted within her very core, her DNA, a part of every cell in her body.   Kat's children are both smart and well-adjusted. On the outside.  Kat has always tried to treat Imogen and Jemima equally, but she struggles with one of her daughters more than the other.   Because Imogen's birth mother is a serial killer. And Imogen doesn't know.  They say you can't choose your family, but what if your family chooses you?

August 2020

'The Sleeping Nymph': a work of art of magnetic beauty, painted by a young partisan fighter during the last days of the Second World War. A painting carrying a shocking secret hidden in the red pigment on the canvas, made with the blood of a human heart. But whose heart?   There is no body, no confession. Only that faint trace of blood. And that's what leads commissioner Teresa Battaglia - herself hiding an unspeakable truth - to the Resia Valley, in the north eastern part of Italy: a perfect genetic enclave protected for centuries from the outside world.   The valley and the portrait are the only clues for a murder that occurred more than 70 years before. A red thread leading to the shadow of someone hell-bent on protecting a sacred secret.  Painted in Blood is by Ilaria Tuti.

Nancy, Eleanor and Mary met at college and have been friends ever since, through marriages, children and love affairs. Nancy married her college sweetheart and is now missing that excitement of her youth.  Eleanor put her career above all else and hasn't looked back, despite her soft spot for Nancy's husband.  Mary fell pregnant far too young and is now coping with three children and a mentally unwell husband.  But when Nancy is killed, Eleanor and Mary must align themselves to uncover her killer. And as each of their stories unfold, they realise that there are many ways, different truths to find, and many different ways to bring justice for those we love...  Imperfect Women is by Araminta Hall.

Inside Out is by Chris McGeorge.  Cara Lockhart has just commenced a life sentence in HMP

New Fern - the newest maximum security woman's prison in the country. She was convicted of a murder she is adamant she didn't commit.   One morning she wakes up to find her cellmate murdered - shot in the head with a gun that is missing. The door was locked all night, which makes Cara the only suspect. There is only one problem - Cara knows she didn't do it and she has no idea who did.   Being the only one who knows the truth, Cara sets about trying to clear her name, unravelling an impossible case, with an investigation governed by a prison timetable. Cara starts to learn more about her fellow prisoners, finding connections between them and herself that she would never have imagined.   Indeed it seems that her conviction and her current situation might be linked in strange ways...

The Dance of the Serpents is by Oscar De Muriel.  There are many bad days in Edinburgh police's subdivision 'The Commission for the Elucidation of Unsolved Cases Presumably Related to the Odd and Ghostly'. And in the pantheon of the worst days - today takes the podium.  Because the English Inspector Ian Frey, and his Scottish boss 'Nine-Nails' McGray are called into a meeting in the middle of the night with none other than the Prime Minister himself.  And he tells them that Queen Victoria - the most powerful woman in the world - wants them both dead.

September 2020

Thomas Bexley has become a drunkard and recluse, haunted by terrible visions of the dead.  But when he learns of a spate of kidnappings – in which his dear friend and former mentor, Elijah hawthorn, is the lead suspect – Thomas embarks on a journey to find the missing Hawthorn and prove his innocence,  Though as the mystery of Hawthorn’s disappearance deepens, so too does Thomas’s apparently growing insanity.  How can Thomas be certain of the truth when he can’t trust anybody around him, not even himself …?  Letters from the Dead is by Sam Hurcom.

The Unwanted Dead is by Chris Lloyd.  Paris, June 1940.   The Nazi occupation of Paris begins. Detective Eddie Giral - a survivor of the last World War - watches helplessly on as his world changes forever. But there is something he still has control over.   Finding whoever is responsible for four murdered refugees: the unwanted dead, forgotten amid the headlines.  To do so, he must tread carefully between the Occupation and the Resistance, all the while becoming whoever he must be to survive in this new and terrible order descending on his home.

October 2020

When struggling photojournalist Harper tries to return a dress she bought that morning for a job that's fallen through something catches her eye: the same little girl who was waiting there that morning is still there.  The sales assistant doesn't know   whose she is. The security guard at the mall hasn't had anyone come looking for her. Same goes for the local police, and the media.   In fact, no one seems to be looking for little May at all.  Harper knows from bitter experience what awaits May in Child Protection Services. But, without any clues, how do you put the needle back in the haystack? And who would just leave a child like this? And what if finding her home was the worst thing   you could do?  Take Me Home is by Alex Hart.

Nowhere to be Found is by Louisa de Lange.  She found the body.  Now Lucy Barker is missing … Lucy Barker has disappeared, and her distraught husband Scott says he has no idea where she is.   But rumours abound about this seemingly perfect couple. Why is Scott behaving so strangely? And why was Lucy lying to him about where she went every Tuesday night?  Then, while investigating the recent murder of man found floating in a lake, DS Kate Munro learns that it was Lucy Barker who discovered the body and called the police.  Now she must find out if the two crimes are connected. Before Lucy's time runs out . . .

Also due to be published in October is the new John Rebus book entitled A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin.

November 2020

33 women...one big secret.  When sisters Celine and Pip get a call telling them their mother has died, the two women are forced to return to their family home in Arundel to pick up the pieces. But someone is missing - their sister, Vanessa, brutally murdered years ago and the victim of an unsolved .  . As the sisters confront ghosts from the past, the discovery of another body in the town throws new light on Vanessa's death. Could there be more to her case than the police first thought? And what do the mysterious women of Two Cross Farm, the women's commune in Arundel, have to do with it? What secrets are lurking behind their gates?  Two Crosses is by Isabel Ashdown.

Murder at the Castle is by M B Shaw.  After uncovering the mystery of the mill, amateur sleuth iris Grey returns with another crime to solve.

December 2020

Fool Me Twice is by Jeff Lindsay.  Riley Wolfe, the master thief and master of disguise is back with Fool Me Twice, with a bigger take and much higher stakes.  Can he steal a fresco in Rome, an actual painted wall, for the arms dealer who has captured him and threatened him in the most personal way?   If anyone can get away with it, it's Riley Wolfe. He's always liked a challenge, and there is nothing more satisfying than robbing, and perhaps even double-crossing, the rich!

Faith Diamond grew up on the wrong sides of the track.  With a family incapable of abiding by the law, her future is more about survival than dreams.  But then a series of prostitutes are murdered, necks broken and stripped naked , their only connection the pimp, Marshall Vella – a man connected in more ways than one with the Diamond family.  And Faith is forced to consider the possibility that the people in her life might be more evil than even she could ever imagined.   Loaded is by Niki Mackay

The List is by Cary Jones. Beth Belmont runs every day, hard and fast on the trail near home. She knows every turn, every bump in the road. So when she spots something out of place - a slip of white paper at the base of a tree - she's drawn to it.  On the paper are five names. The third is her own.  Beth can't shake off the unease the list brings. Why is she on it? And what ties her to the other four strangers?  Then she discovers that the first two are dead. Is she next?  Delving into the past of the two dead strangers, the truth Beth finds will lead her headlong into her darkest, deadliest and most dangerous nightmares...

January 2021

Buenos Aires, 2001:  the streets are overflowing with protestors, frustrated by the Government’s inability to face a mounting economic crisis.  Inspector Alzada is convinced of the futility of yet another doomed Argentinean attempt at democracy and is determined to remain a detached bystander.  But the disappearance of a woman from one of the city’s wealthiest families brings back painful memories of Alzada’s work in the Buenos Aires police force during the Dirty War of the 80s, a war that tore a nation apart and destroyed the inspectors family for ever.  Repentance is by Eloĺsa Dĺaz

The Wanted is by Holly Seddon. What would you do if you found your name on a hit list? And your late husband put it there?  Things go from bad to worse for Marianne when she discovers that not only has her seemingly ordinary late husband, Greg, been accessing the dark web, but that her name is also on a hit list on his laptop.  Marianne must figure out whether Greg was trying to protect her or whether he was complicit in the conspiracy to murder her.  As she is pulled deeper into an underworld that Greg was seemingly hostage to, she gets closer to meeting Sam – the assassin hired to kill her.

Books to Look Forward to from Orion Publishing (Incl Trapeze, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, Gollancz and Orion)

January 2020

Backlash is by Marnie Riches. Keep your enemies close and your neighbours closer...  When Private Investigator Beverley Saunders is tasked with going undercover, she relishes the chance to disguise herself as a cleaner in order to get close to Manchester bad boy Anthony Anthony, aka 2Tone. Anthony's neighbours are suspicious of his wealth and sick of his anti-social behaviour, and Bev's just the woman they need to find out what's going on behind closed doors.  As Bev begins to infiltrate Anthony's world, she soon realises she's in danger - and this time, she might be too far in to get out. Alongside her sidekick Doc, Bev must fight to discover the truth - but when people begin to die, she has to ask herself - is exposing Anthony worth risking her own life?

Can you ever really know your neighbours?  When human remains are found in a ground floor flat, the residents of Nelson Heights are shocked to learn that there was a dead body in their building for over three years.   Sarah lives at the flat above and after the remains are found, she feels threatened by a stranger hanging around the building.  Laura has lived in the building for as long as she can remember, caring for her elderly father, though there is more to her story than she is letting on.  As the investigation starts to heat up, and the two women become more involved, it's clear that someone isn't telling the truth about what went on all those years ago...  The Woman Downstairs is by Elisabeth Carpenter.

February 2020

Things will never be the same again... Ben is driving on the motorway, on his usual commute to the school where he works.  A day like any other, except for Adam, who in a last despairing act jumps in front of Ben's car, and in killing himself, turns the teacher's world upside down.  Wracked with guilt and desperate to clear his conscience, Ben develops a friendship with Alice, Adam's widow, and her 7-year-old son Max. But as he tries to escape the trauma of the wreckage, could Ben go too far in trying to make amends?  The Wreckage is by Robin Morgan-Bentley

Witness X is by S E Moorhead.  She's the only one who can access the truth...  Fourteen years ago, the police caged a notorious serial killer who abducted and butchered two victims every February. He was safe behind bars. Wasn't he?  But then another body is discovered, and soon enough, the race is on to catch the real killer. Neuropsychologist Kyra Sullivan fights to use a new technology that accesses the minds of the witnesses, working with the police to uncover the truth. Will Kyra discover the person behind the murders, and if so, at what cost? And how far will she go to ensure justice is served.

False Value is by Ben Aaronvitch.  Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with emigre Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner's brand new London start up - the Serious Cybernetics Company.  Drawn into the orbit of Old Street's famous 'silicon roundabout', Peter must learn how to blend in with people who are both civilians and geekier than he is. Compared to his last job, Peter thinks it should be a doddle. But magic is not finished with Mama Grant's favourite son.  Because Terrence Skinner has a secret hidden in the bowels of the SCC. A technology that stretches back to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, and forward to the future of artificial intelligence. A secret that is just as magical as it technological - and just as dangerous.

One Fatal Mistake is by Tom Hunt.  Her son accidentally kills a man.  They cover it up.  Then everything goes wrong.  When eighteen-year-old Joshua Mayo takes a man's life in a terrible accident, he leaves the scene without reporting the crime to the police. He hopes to put the awful night behind him and move on with his life. But, of course, he ends up telling his mother, Karen, what happened.  Karen has raised Joshua on her own in Cedar Rapids, Iowa--and she'd thought they'd finally made it. He was doing well in school and was only months away from starting college at his dream school. After hearing his dark confession, she's forced to make a choice no parent should have to make. A choice that draws them both into a web of deceit that will change their lives forever--if they can make it out alive.

The Holdout is by Graham Moore.  One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?  Ten years ago we made a decision together... Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a

billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It's an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed.   Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.  Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect.  The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago?

March 2020

Against all odds, Aydin Torkal - aka Sleeper 13 - broke free from the terrorist group that took him as a child and raised him into a life of violence and hate.   In the two years since, he's been tracking and killing all those responsible. But he's not done yet.  Now living a secret life in London, he receives a surprise visit from Rachel Cox of MI6. She needs his help to infiltrate a sinister new terrorist cell who've taken root in the USA. Aydin is initially reluctant. But when he learns that a member of the group is the brother of Aziz Al-Addad, 'the Teacher' responsible for Aydin's horrific upbringing, his mind is changed.   Aydin thought he'd broken free from life as an insurgent. But in order to scupper their deadly plans, he must now convince the world's most dangerous terrorist cell that he's one of them.  He must do it before the world suffers another deadly attack.  He will have to do it on his own.  He is IMPOSTER 13.  Imposter 13 is by Rob Sinclair.  

An international disaster.  A plane on route from London to New York City has disappeared out of the sky. This breaking news dominates every TV channel, every social media platform, and every waking hour of the Metropolitan Police and US Homeland Security.   A private tragedy.  The love of DCI Kate Daniels' life was on that aircraft, but she has no authority to investigate. This major disaster is outside of her jurisdiction and she's ordered to walk away.  A search for the truth.  But Kate can't let it lie. She has to find out what happened to that plane - even if it means going off book. No one is safe. And there are some very dangerous people watching her.  Without a Trace is by Mari Hannah.

Hi Five is by Joe Ide.  Christiana is the daughter of the biggest arms dealer on the West Coast, Angus Byrne. She's also the sole witness and number-one suspect in the murder of her boyfriend - found dead inside her Newport Beach boutique. Angus will do anything to save his daughter and he thinks private eye Isaiah Quintabe is just the man for the job - an offer IQ soon learns he can't refuse.  The catch: Christiana has multiple personalities. Five radically different ones - among them, a naive shopkeeper, an obnoxious drummer in a rock band and a wanton seductress.  IQ's dilemma: no one personality saw the entire incident. To find out what really happened the night of the murder, Isaiah must piece together clues from each of the personalities - before the cops catch up.

April 2020

She’s got nowhere left to hide. A year ago, in desperation, Felicity Lloyd signed up for a lengthy research trip to the remote island of South Georgia. It was her only way to escape.  And now he is coming for her.  Freddie Lloyd has served time for murder. Out at last, he's on her trail.  And this time, he won't stop until he finds her.  Because no matter how far you run, some secrets will always catch up with you….  The Split is by Sharon Bolton.

 

Blood Relations is by Jonathan Moore.  Who is Claire Gravesend?  So wonders PI Lee Crowe when he finds her dead, in a fine cocktail dress, on top of a Rolls Royce in the most dangerous neighbourhood in San Francisco.   Claire's mother doesn't believe the coroner: her daughter did not kill herself. But the questions about the Gravesend family pile up fast.  Until Crowe finds their secret home in San Francisco. Sleeping in an upstairs bedroom, he finds Claire and as far as he can tell, she's alive…

Last night my sister was murdered. The police think I killed her.  I was there. I watched the knife go in. I saw the man who did it.  And heard him laugh because he knows he'll never get caught.  He knows I have prosopagnosia - I can't recognise faces.  And if I don't find the man who killed my sister, I'll be found guilty of murder.  Remember Me is by Amy McLellan.

You Can Trust Me is by Emma Rowley.  You can trust me.  But can I trust you?  Olivia is the domestic goddess who has won millions of followers by sharing her picture-perfect life online. And now she's releasing her tell-all autobiography.  For professional ghost-writer Nicky it's the biggest job of her career. But as she delves deeper into Olivia's life, cracks begin to appear in the glamorous facade. From the strained relationship with her handsome husband, to murky details of a tragic family death in her childhood, the truth belies Olivia's perfect public image.  But why is Olivia so desperate to leave an old tragedy well alone? And how far will she go to keep Nicky from the truth?

Alison is more alone than she's ever been. She is convinced that her ex-husband Jack is following her. She is certain she recognises the strange woman who keeps approaching her in the canteen.  She knows she has a good reason to be afraid. She just can't remember why.  Then the mention of one name turns her life upside down.  Alison feels like she's losing her mind . . . but it could just lead her to the truth.  All in Her Head is by Nikki Head. 

The Devil You Know is by Emma Kavanagh.  How do you get away with murder? You lead the world to believe that it has already been solved.  Rosa Fischer has lived a perfectly normal life. That is, until the day that she discovers that she is not Rosa Fischer after all. That she is someone entirely different. But who?   She struggles to unpick the lies that surround her until finally she is left with a crime - one that was solved decades ago. A family dead in a barn, and a baby girl left to be found.  The thing about closed cases - no-one is investigating them. And when Rosa begins to dig deeper beneath the layers of the family annihilation, she discovers that all is not as it seems, and that the answers provided all those years ago may not be quite right.   Because if the dead people are not who you believe the dead people to be, who are they?   And what happened to the ones who were mourned in their place?

May 2020

Never Forget is by Michel Bussi.  BEFORE.  A man running along a remote clifftop path on an icy-cold February morning.  A woman standing on the cliff's edge.  A red scarf on the ground between them.  AFTER  The man is alone - paralysed by fear.  The woman is on the beach below - dead.  The red scarf is now perfectly - and impossibly - arranged around the woman's broken neck.  A handful of seconds. Two lives colliding. WHAT HAPPENED?

All Fall Down is by M J Arlidge.  "You have one hour to live."  Those are the only words on the phone call. Then they hang up. Surely, a prank? A mistake? A wrong number? Anything but the chilling truth... That someone is watching, waiting, working to take your life in one hour.  But why?  The job of finding out falls to DI Helen Grace: a woman with a track record in hunting killers. However, this is one case where the killer seems to always be one step ahead of the police and the victims.  With no motive, no leads, no clues - nothing but pure fear - an hour can last a lifetime...

The hero of The Poet and The Scarecrow is back in a new thriller. Jack McEvoy, the journalist who never backs down, tracks a serial killer who has been operating completely under the radar - until now.  Veteran reporter Jack McEvoy has taken down killers before, but when a woman he had a one-night stand with is murdered in a particularly brutal way, McEvoy realizes he might be facing a criminal mind unlike any he's ever encountered.  McEvoy investigates - against the warnings of the police and his own editor - and makes a shocking discovery that connects the crime to other mysterious deaths across the country. But his inquiry hits a snag when he himself becomes a suspect.  As he races to clear his name, McEvoy's findings point to a serial killer working under the radar of law enforcement for years, and using personal data shared by the victims themselves to select and hunt his targets.  Fair Warning is by Michael Connelly.  

June 2020

'The Sleeping Nymph': a work of art of magnetic beauty, painted by a young partisan fighter during the last days of the Second World War. A painting carrying a shocking secret hidden in the red pigment on the canvas, made with the blood of a human heart.   But whose heart? There is no body, no confession. Only that faint trace of blood. And that's what leads commissioner Teresa Battaglia - herself hiding an unspeakable truth - to the Resia Valley, in the north eastern part of Italy: a perfect genetic enclave protected for centuries from the outside world.   The valley and the portrait are the only clues for a murder that occurred more than 70 years before. A red thread leading to the shadow of someone hell-bent on protecting a sacred secret.  The Sleeping Nymph is by Ilaria Tuti.

Inside Out by Chris McGeorge.  Kara Lockhart has just commenced a life sentence in HMP New Fern - the newest maximum security woman's prison in the country. She was convicted of a murder she is adamant she didn't commit.   One morning she wakes up to find her cellmate murdered - shot in the head with a gun that is missing. The door was locked all night, which makes Kara the only suspect. There is only one problem - Kara knows she didn't do it and she has no idea who did.   Being the only one who knows the truth, Kara sets about trying to clear her name, unravelling an impossible case, with an investigation governed by a prison timetable. Kara starts to learn more about her fellow prisoners, finding connections between them and herself that she would never have imagined.   Indeed it seems that her conviction and her current situation might be linked in strange ways...

The Unwanted Dead is by Chris Lloyd.  On the first day of the Paris Nazi occupation, four Polish refugees are gassed in a railway truck. A fifth commits suicide later that day. Paris police detective Eddie Giral is determined to find out what happened...   But as he investigates, he is led to shocking evidence backing up the rumours of atrocities coming out of Poland.   As Eddie tries to bring the killers to justice and uncover the truth, he finds himself in a more dangerous and sinister world than any he’s known before... 

Two sisters. One guilty of murder. A trial to discover the truth.  Alexandra Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body. She believes her sister killed him.   Sofia Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body. She believes her sister did it.   Both women are to go on trial together, in front of one jury. One of these women is lying. One of them is a murderer. Sitting in a jail cell, about to go on trial for murder, you might think that this is the last place she expected to be.   You’d be wrong. Fifty-Fifty is by Steve Cavanagh.  

July 2020

Dead Doubles is by Trevor Barnes.  The Portland Spy Ring was one of the most notorious spy cases from the Cold War. It seized international attention and revealed the shadowy world of deep cover KGB spies operating under false identities ('illegals').  The CIA's revelation to MI5 that a KGB agent was stealing crucial secrets from the sensitive submarine research base at Portland in Dorset looked initially like a dangerous but contained lapse of security by a British man and his mistress. But the unsuspecting couple passed the secrets to a Canadian businessman, Gordon Lonsdale. Lonsdale in turn led MI5's spycatchers to an innocent-looking couple in suburban Ruislip called the Krogers, who were transmitting the vital information to Moscow. A sudden defection forced the arrest of the spy ring.  The Krogers were discovered to be two of the most important Russian 'illegals' ever. The Americans had been searching for them for years. In a previous undercover life they had been a conduit to the KGB atomic spies at Los Alamos. And Lonsdale was no Canadian, but a senior KGB controller called Konon Molody - who years later turned out to have been running other key Soviet agents in the UK.

Like Mother, Like daughter is by Elle Croft.  How far would you go to reveal the truth about your own family?   Imogen Brown is a normal 16-year-old... and she feels like she doesn’t belong. She thinks her parents, Kat and Dylan, are hypocrites, playing the perfect family. But they’re in financial difficulty and Kat is trying to work things out, to save her tight-knit family.   One Friday evening, her parents have their biggest fight yet. When Kat goes to wake Imogen the next day, she’s not in her bed, and no one has seen her since school the previous day. Imogen has gone missing. 

Imperfect Women is by Araminta Hall.  Three women. Three best friends. Three untimely deaths   Eleonor, Nancy and Mary met at college and have been friends ever since, through marriages, children and love affairs.   So when Nancy is brutally murdered, Eleonor and Mary are determined to uncover her killer. But as each of their stories unfold, they realise that there are many different truths to find, and many different ways to bring justice for those we love... 

Neon is by G S Locke.  A detective desperate for revenge. A hitwoman with one last job. A killer with both on his list.  Detective Matt Jackson has reached the end. His beloved wife, Polly, is the latest victim of 'Neon' - a serial killer who displays his victims in snaking neon lights - and he can't go on without her.  Unable to take his life, Jackson hires a hit-woman to finish the job. But on the night of his own murder, he makes a breakthrough in the case, and at the last minute his hit-woman, Iris, is offered an irresistible alternative: help Jackson find and kill Neon in return for the detective's entire estate.  What follows is a game of cat and mouse between detective, hit-woman and serial killer. And when Jackson discovers it's not a coincidence that all their paths have crossed, he begins to question who the real target has been all along...

Hunted is by Alex Knight.  You're woken early by the doorbell. It's a young girl, the daughter of the love of your life. She's scared, covered in blood, she says her mother is hurt.  You let her in, try to calm her down, tell her you're going to get help. You reach for your phone, but it lights up with a notification before you touch it.  It's an Amber alert - a child has been abducted by a dangerous suspect.  The child is the girl standing in front of you.  The suspect? You.