Forthcoming books from Mulholland and Hodder & Stoughton

January 2018

There is a new cold war raging and its frontline warriors are Russian hackers - gang-members working freelance for the FSB, successor to the KGB. Massive thefts of personal information, electoral interference, catastrophic disruption of commercial and social services, banks, airlines, even whole countries disabled - this is happening now. Nicknamed 'Boot' because of his obsession with the Duke of Wellington and the battle of Waterloo, Edwin Coker is a case officer at the Vauxhall headquarters of MI6. When a young hacker falls into his hands and reveals details of a secret meeting, Boot conceives a daring plan to strike back - not with a computer virus of his own, but with a bomb that will seriously damage the Russian operation, spreading fear and distrust. Now Boot and his little team need a 'deniable' handler to deliver the explosives across the border from Estonia into Russia and bring the hacker back out. They turn to Merc, an ex-soldier fighting in Iraq, a gun-for-hire who knows how to get out of a tight spot. They hope. From the moment Merc sets out to cross the River Narva things do not go to plan and when the hacker's sister becomes involved, his mission turns from tough to near impossible. The scene is set for a classic story of pursuit and evasion and an epic battle for survival. A Damned Serious Business is by Gerald Seymour.

The Shout is by Stephen Leather.  Vicky Lewis is a force to be reckoned with: not yet thirty and already crew manager in the London Fire Brigade, she's destined for great things.  But when she enters a burning building to save a man's life and leaves it with catastrophic injuries, all that changes. She's shunted over to the Fire Investigation Unit, where she's forced to team up with cantankerous veteran Des Farmer, aka the Grouch. When Vicky stumbles across the Grouch's off-the-books investigation into the fiery deaths of a series of young, blonde women, she decides to join him in his search for the truth.

Earth Storm is by Mons Kallentoff In the early hours of the morning, the naked body of a young man is discovered in a ditch next to Gota Kanal. The cause of death is mysterious; the body bears no visible traces of violence.  The man is soon identified as Peder Akerlund, a former Swedish politician, excluded from his party for racism but since reformed. Then sixteen-year-old Nadja Lundin is reported missing, possibly abducted, the same evening, and there are signs that suggest the two cases might be connected.  But what do the victims have in common? And why were they chosen? Gradually, Malin Fors realises that they are dealing with someone who is playing a game with them, who speaks through murders and who will not be silenced. What is he or she trying to say? Desperate to fine Nadja alive, the team race against the clock to find an answer before it's too late...

A Map of the Dark is by Karen Ellis. FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people.  She knows

how it feels to be lost...  Though her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, Elsa cannot refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has gone missing from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads hides the fact that she did not go willingly.  With each passing hour, as the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man who may have been killing for years, the case starts to get underneath Elsa's skin. Everything she has buried - her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother's death - threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.  In order to save the missing girl, she may have to lose herself...and return to the darkness she's been hiding from for years.

The police think Crystal Heathers isn't missing.  The trainee detective assigned to the case isn't so sure.  McAvoy thinks someone was being held at the derelict building where they just found a body pinned to the wall...and that all the signs point to it being a little girl.  But why would anyone not report a kidnapping?  And how far would someone go to get revenge?  The case will test McAvoy to breaking point - as the crimes of the present lead him to a final violent confrontation with an enemy from his own past.  Scorched Earth is by David Mark.

February 2018

London 1888: George 'Zulu' Hart is the mixed-race illegitimate son of a Dublin actress and (he suspects) the Duke of Cambridge, commander-in-chief of the army. George has fought his way through wars in Africa and Afghanistan, won the VC and married his sweetheart, but he's also a gambler, short of money and in no position to turn down the job of 'minder' to Prince Albert Victor, second in line to the throne. George is to befriend the charming young cavalry officer and keep him out of trouble - no easy task, given that the Prince is a known target for Irish nationalist assassins, while his secret sexual orientation leaves him open to blackmail and scandal. To make matters worse, the Prince is also in the habit of heading out late at night to sample the dubious pleasures of the East End. Both outsiders in their different ways, perhaps the two men have more in common than they know, but when a series of horrible murders begins in Whitechapel, on just the nights the Prince has been there, George is drawn into an investigation which forces him to confront the unthinkable... The Prince and the Whitechapel Murders is by Saul David.

Hanson thought he had witnessed the worst of humanity after a tour of duty in Vietnam and a stint as a cop in Oregon. Then he moves to Oakland, California to join the under-funded, understaffed police department.  Hanson chooses to live - alone - in the precinct that he patrols; he, unlike the rest of the white officers, takes seriously his duty to serve and protect the black community of East Oakland.  He will encounter prejudice and hate on both sides of the line... and struggle to keep true to himself against powerful opposition and personal danger.  Green Sun is by Kent Anderson.

Charles Street was once a highly-respected agent working for MI6, until a terrible mistake cost him his job. Now he's a desperate man, living on past glories and struggling to make ends meet.  Until he makes a discovery that has the power to bring down the new President of the United States.  But when Street tries to cash in on this discovery, he finds himself pursued by a Russian snatch squad.  Strike Back hero John Porter and Regiment renegade John Bald are recruited by their handler to head to Washington, D.C. Their mission: find Street before the Russians.  What begins as a routine exfiltration quickly descends into a brutal struggle and the ex-SAS legends will need to use all of their fighting instincts to stay alive.  It seems someone is desperate to stop Street from going public with the dossier. Bald and Porter face a race against time to protect him.  A startling revelation that leads from the White House to the Kremlin threatens to trigger a new global conflict...  Global Strike is by Chris Ryan.

March 2018

When a Member of Parliament shows up in the office of the Assistant Commissioner at New Scotland Yard, trouble quickly follows. He is there to request an investigation into the suicide of the son of one of his constituents in the medieval town of Ludlow, who happens to be a wealthy brewer with a team of solicitors ready to file a major lawsuit over the death. The Assistant Commissioner sees two opportunities in this request: the first is to have an MP owing him a favour, and the second is to get rid of Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, whose career at the Met has been hanging by a thread for quite some time. So he assigns Barbara Havers to the case and partners her not with her regular partner but with the one person who shares his enthusiasm for ridding the Metropolitan Police of Barbara Havers, Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery. But Ardery has her own difficulties, the most heart-breaking of which is the loss of her twin sons to a move to New Zealand. She is not happy to be sent away from London and as a result is in a rush to return. This rush causes her to overlook things, important things, and prevents her from uncovering an earlier crime that set everything in motion.  The Punishment she Deserves is by Elizabeth George.

The Reckoning is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. In 2016 the following people are going to die: K, S, BT, JJ, OV and I.  Nobody will miss them. Least of all me.  I can’t wait.  A chilling note predicting the deaths of six people is found in a school's time capsule, ten years after it was buried. But surely, if a thirteen-year-old wrote it, it can't be a real threat...Detective Huldar suspects he's been giving the investigation simply to keep him away from real police work. He turns to psychologist Freyja to help understand the child who hid the message. Soon, however, they find themselves at the heart of another shocking case.For the discovery of the letter coincides with a string of macabre events: body parts found in a garden, followed by the murder of the man who owned the house. His initials are BT, the first name on the note.  Huldar and Freyja must race to identify the writer, the victims and the murderer, before the rest of the targets are killed...

Maverick agent Valentine Pescatore is back and investigating a brutal killing that leads him across borders and reveals a vast conspiracy of wealth and power terrifyingly close to home.  Valentine Pescatore, the former U.S. agent, finds himself back on American soil, investigating the merciless killing of a group of women in a motel room. At first, the crime seems to be a straightforward case of gangsters battling for territory. Soon, however, the motive is revealed to be much deeper and more sinister: a single witness who knows too much is being hunted.  Rip Crew is by Sebastian Rotella.

Hap and Leonard are an unlikely pair - Hap, a self-proclaimed white trash rebel, and Leonard, a tough-as-nails black gay Vietnam vet and Republican - but they're the closest friend either of them has in the world. Hap is celebrating his wedding to his long time girlfriend, when their backyard barbecue is interrupted by a couple of Pentecostal white supremacists. They're not too happy to see Leonard, and no one is happy to see them, but they have a problem and they want Hap and Leonard to solve it.  Judith Mulhaney's daughter, Jackrabbit, has been missing for five years. That is, she's been missing from her family for five years, but she's been missing from everybody, including the local no-goods they knew ran with her, for a few months. Despite their misgivings, Hap and Leonard take the case. It isn't long until they find themselves mixed up in a revivalist cult believing that Jesus will return flanked by an army of lizard-men, and solving a murder to boot.  Jackrabbit Smile is by Joe. R Lansdale.

April 2018

The Woman in the Woods is by John Connolly.  It is spring, and the semi-preserved body of a young Jewish woman is discovered buried in the Maine woods. It is clear that she gave birth shortly before her death.  But there is no sign of a baby.  Private detective Charlie Parker is engaged by the lawyer Moxie Castin to shadow the police investigation and find the infant, but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in more than a missing child, someone prepared to leave bodies in his wake.  And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring.  For a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman . . .

Flavia Albia is a private investigator, always drawn to an intriguing puzzle - even if it is put to her by her new husband's hostile ex-wife. On the Quirinal Hill, Clodia Volumnia, a very young girl with stars in her eyes, has died, amid suggestions that she was poisoned by a love-potion. It will have been supplied by a local witch, who goes by the name of Pandora, though Albia learns that Pandora carries on a trade in herbal beauty products while hiding much more dangerous connections. Pandora's beloved grandson, a trainee hack lawyer, is one of the dead girl's empty-headed friends; can this be relevant?  As she homes in on the truth, Albia has to contend with the occult, organised crime, an unusual fertility symbol, and celebrity dining. She discovers the young girl was a handful; her father mediates in disputes, yet has divorced his grief-stricken wife and is now suing his own mother-in-law; Clodia's so-called friends were none too friendly. The supposedly sweet air of the Quirinal hides the smells of loose morality, casual betrayal and even gangland conflict. When a friend of her own is murdered, Albia determines to expose as much of this local sickness as she can - beginning with the truth about the death of little Clodia.  Pandora’s Boy is by Lindsey Davis

May 2018

The Cutting Edge is by Jeffery Deaver.  Lincoln Rhyme is back – and facing a particularly brutal killer, who seems to be targeting couples just as they start out on their lives together.  While Amelia Sachs tracks the case on the street, and Rhyme analyses the clues in his townhouse, new information forces them to realise the story is deeper than either of them had thought.

They are a group of misfits who go online for fun. Their hobby is giving names to the missing dead. But a killer is online with them, and his game is in deadly earnest . . .Shaun Ryan's brother, Teddy, died in 1989. Only he didn't. Looking through his grievously ill mother's personal effects, Shaun finds a postcard that Teddy posted from New York, dated October 22nd 1990. And in his mother's family Bible is a picture of an adult Teddy. Could Teddy somehow be alive? And how do you find someone who has never been declared missing and who vanished nearly thirty years ago? Missing-linc.com are an oddball assortment of geeks and obsessives whose macabre hobby is matching unidentified bodies with missing people. Ellie Caines' first and biggest case was The Boy in the Dress, a corpse found not ten miles from where she lived in Minnesota, two years after Teddy's postcard. Her obsession nearly broke her marriage and she left the group - but when the Ryan's enquiry is passed onto her she knows they have likely matched the missing Teddy with that decades-old corpse. And that she will be sucked back into the old nightmare, where the dead are more real than the living.  Missing Persons is by Sarah Lotz.

Murder at the Grand Raj Palace is by Vaseem Khan.  For a century the iconic Grand Raj Palace Hotel has welcomed the world's elite. From film stars to foreign dignitaries, anyone who is anyone stays at the Grand Raj.  The last thing the venerable old hotel needs is a murder...  When American billionaire Hollis Burbank is found dead - the day after buying India's most expensive painting - the authorities are keen to label it a suicide. But the man in charge of the investigation is not so sure. Chopra is called in - and discovers a hotel full of people with a reason to want Burbank dead.  Accompanied by his sidekick, baby elephant Ganesha, Chopra navigates his way through the palatial building, a journey that leads him steadily to a killer, and into the heart of darkness . . .

June 2018

Bianca St. Ives makes her living as a high-end thief and a genius of disguise, conning criminals out of the money they stole - and all for the greater good. A femme fatale Robin Hood, she's learnt everything she knows from her father. Now that she's taken over running the family business, it's not just Richard St. Ives on most-wanted lists, but Bianca, too. After faking his own death, the word is out that Bianca's father is, in fact, alive, and having just pulled off a major heist in Austria, he has a dangerous task for Bianca that will see her travelling to Russia to steal ancient jewels and artifacts. But now all eyes are on Bianca, and escaping international pursuit will be harder than ever...  The Moscow Deception is by Karen Robards

How it Happens is by Michael Koryta.  'And that is how it happened. Can we stop now?'  Kimberly Crepeaux is no good, a notorious jailhouse snitch, teen mother, and heroin addict whose petty crimes are well-known to the rural Maine community where she lives. So when she confesses to her role in the brutal murders of Jackie Pelletier and Ian Kelly, the daughter of a well-known local family and her sweetheart, the locals have little reason to believe her story.  Not Rob Barrett, the FBI investigator and interrogator specializing in telling a true confession from a falsehood. He's been circling Kimberly and her conspirators for months, waiting for the right avenue to the truth, and has finally found it. He knows, as strongly as he's known anything, that Kimberly's story-a grisly, harrowing story of a hit and run fuelled by dope and cheap beer that becomes a brutal stabbing in cold blood-is how it happened. But one thing remains elusive: where are Jackie and Ian's bodies?  After Barrett stakes his name and reputation on the truth of Kimberly's confession, only to have the bodies turn up 200 miles from where she said they'd be, shot in the back and covered in a third person's DNA, the case is quickly closed and Barrett forcibly reassigned. But something still nags at locals, and at a local newspaper reporter who's been chasing the story as doggedly as Barrett himself.

Never Go There is by Rebecca Tinnelly. What if you found out that you'd been married to a stranger?  'Never go there, Nuala. Please, never go there.'  Nuala knows nothing of her husband James's past. He made her swear that she would never contact his family and never, EVER visit the place he was from.  But now James is dead, and Nuala is alone. Grieving and desperate, she decides to ignore his warning.  Nuala is about to find out that some secrets are better left buried - and that uncovering the truth about the man she married will have terrible consequences...

The Death Knock is by Elodie Harper.  Is there a serial killer in East Anglia? The police deny it. Journalist Frankie suspects they're wrong. Student Ava knows they're wrong... because she's just been abducted by him.  As Ava struggles to stay alive, and Frankie finds herself far closer to the case than she'd anticipated...

He saved your son's life.  Does that mean you have to give him yours?  It starts with a holiday.  A three-year-old boy on a beach, and the hero who saves his life. But nothing is ever that simple.  Tessa and Marcus know they owe Dave Jepsom more than they can ever repay.  Yet even as he is walking from the sea with their son in his arms, there is something about him that makes them uneasy.  He is not like other people that they know.  Being with him makes them confront truths about themselves they would rather not see.  The shock of that moment will change everything.  And it's not how things start that matter.  But how they end . . .  Take Me In is by Sabine Durrant.

Liar, Liar is by Lisa Jackson.  A woman jumps to her death.  She looks a lot like washed up beauty queen Didi Storm, but her daughter is adamant: that’s not her mother.  To solve the mystery of who jumped – and why – Remmi Storm and cop Dani Settler have to go back to the start, to a deal conducted in the Las Vegas desert twenty-two years ago, which went terribly wrong.

Books to look forward to from Hodder & Stoughton and Mulholland Books

In London's smoky taverns, a conspiracy is brewing: a group of wealthy young Catholic dissidents plot to assassinate Elizabeth, free Mary Queen of Scots - and open England to Spanish invasion.  But the conspirators have been infiltrated by Sir Francis Walsingham's top intelligencer, John Shakespeare. Shakespeare, however, is torn: the woman he loves stands accused of murder.  In a desperate race against time he must save her from the noose and the realm from treachery.  And then it dawns that both investigations are inextricably linked - by corruption very close to the seat of power ... Holy Spy is by Rory Clements and is due to be published in February 2015.

After moving with her family from London to Devon, Justine Merrison notices that her daughter Ellen is growing increasingly withdrawn.  When probed, Ellen tells Justine that her best friend at her new school, George Donbavand, has been unfairly expelled.  But when Justine investigates, the school’s headmistress tells her that she must be mistaken: George Donbavand has not been expelled, because there has never been a boy with that name at the school.  Ellen insists that George is real, but the teachers suddenly appear very nervous - as if they're hiding something.  And then the phone calls start.  Someone keeps ringing Justine demanding that she stop trying to scare and intimidate them.  But what's even stranger is that the mystery caller addresses Justine as 'Sandie', which is not and has never been her name...  A Game for all the Family is by Sophie Hannah and is due to be published in April 2015.

In the 1970s, a terrifying serial killer stalked the streets of Tynemouth.  The press called him the Joker.  The crimes stopped - but the man was never caught.  And now he's back.  A body has been found in a sleazy motel room, murdered in exactly the same way as the Joker's first victims.  Is it a copycat?  A trick?  Or is the Joker at work once more?  It's only DI Jack Brady's first day back - and this will be his most twisted case yet.  As Brady digs into both the old murders and the new, he must confront revenge, betrayal, love and lies...and a truly ruthless killer.  Dead Man Walking is by Danielle Ramsay and is due to be published in March 2015.

Last Words is by Michael Koryta and is due to be published in June 2015.  Still mourning the death of his wife, private investigator Mark Novak accepts a case that may be his undoing.  On same day his wife died, the body of a teenage girl was pulled from the extensive and perilous cave system beneath Southern Indiana.  Now the man who rescued the girl, who was believed to be her killer, begs Novak uncover what really happened.  The only problem is in small-town Midwest, cold cases stay cold.  Garrison is much like any place in America, proud and fortified against outsiders.  So Mark is forced to delve beneath the town's secrets, and more frighteningly match wits with the man who knows the caverns better than anyone.  A man who seemed to lose his mind.  A man who seems to know Mark Novak all too well.

Solitude Creek is by Jeffery Deaver and is due to be published in May 2015.  As an investigator with the California Bureau of Investigation, Kathryn Dance is used to putting criminals behind bars.  But when she's suspended after a dangerous gang member she interviews - and deems innocent - is proven guilty and escapes in a violent shoot out, she begins to question her judgement.  With her badge removed and forced to act as a consultant, Dance must turn her hand to another pressing case: a terrifying stampede of panicked music fans at a concert venue which left half a dozen people dead.  When her investigations suggest that the stampede was deliberately instigated by assailant Anthony Marsh - a hired criminal renowned for using people's herd mentality as a weapon - Dance must use her skills to aid Chief Detective Michael O'Neil in a race against the clock to find Marsh before he makes his next deadly strike.

Gone is by Rebecca Muddiman and is due to be published in January 2015.  250,000 people go missing in the UK every year.  91% of those reported to police are found within 48 hours.  99% of cases are solved within a year.  And 1% stay gone.  Eleven years ago, troubled teenager Emma Thorley went missing.  The police assumed she was a runaway.  But now a body has been found in woods near Blyth.  DI Michael Gardner knows he didn't take Emma's disappearance seriously enough back then, and is determined to make up for it now.  But when he and DS Nicola Freeman start to reinvestigate, they discover that nothing is as simple as it seems.  As news of the discovery travels, the past will come back to haunt all those involved.  Because there are consequences when good people do bad things, and some secrets cannot stay buried forever...

The Passage and Lost.  Four days into a five-day singles cruise on the Gulf of Mexico, the ageing ship Beautiful Dreamer stops dead in the water.  With no electricity and no cellular signals, the passengers and crew have no way to call for help.  But everyone is certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon.  All they have to do is wait.  That is, until the toilets stop working and the food begins to run out.  When the body of a woman is discovered in her cabin the passengers start to panic.  There's a murderer on board the Beautiful Dreamer...and maybe something worse.  Day Four is by Sarah Lotz and is due to be published in April 2015.

Young Willie is on the run, having fled his Texas home when an infamous local landowner murdered his father.  A man named Loving takes him in and trains him in the fine arts of shooting, riding, reading, and gardening.  When Loving dies, Willie renames himself Nat Love in tribute to his mentor and heads west.  In Deadwood, South Dakota Territory, Nat becomes a Buffalo Soldier and is befriended by Wild Bill Hickok.  After winning a famous shooting match, Nat's peerless marksmanship and charm earn him the nickname Deadwood Dick, as well as a beautiful bride.  But the hellhounds are still on his trail, and they brutally attack Nat Love's wife, driving him to a final, deadly showdown that will be one for the history books.  Paradise Sky is by Joe R Lansdale and is due to be published in June 2015.

London,  1728.  A young man is dragged to the Tyburn gallows.  His name is Tom Hawkins and he is innocent.  Somehow he has to prove it, before the noose tightens around his neck.  It’s all Tom’s fault.  He should never been told the most dangerous criminal in London that he was looking for adventure.  He should never have offered to help the king’s mistress with her brutal husband.  And most of all, he should never have trusted the calculating Queen.  She promises a royal pardon if he holds his tongue, but there is nothing more silent than a hanged man.  The currently untitled novel by Antonia Hodgson is due to be  published in February 2015.

When a married couple is found dead in their Jacuzzi and their adopted five year old daughter has vanished, Inspector Malin Fors, the troubled but brilliant star of the Linköping police force, is put in charge of the case.  But this a haunting case where the borders have become blurred: those between the living and the dead, between good and evil.  As the investigation forces Malin to confront his own demons, will she hold out long enough to find the missing girl before it’s too late? Water Angels is by Mons Kallentoft and is due to be published in April 2015.

Afraid is by Mandasue Heller and is due to be published in January 2015.  When fifteen-year-old Skye's mother finally does something so shocking that it can't be hushed up, the police turn her over to the social workers - and that's when the nightmare begins.  No one will let her talk to her father; the woman who is supposed to be helping her dumps her in a terrifying 'home' that's more like a jail.  But she still has one friend to turn to: the sympathetic girl she's met in an internet chat room, the one who seems to have a home life as unhappy as Skye's.  And Jade offers her a safe place to stay ...Alone in Manchester, nearly penniless, Skye is willing to trust Jade.  Even when it isn't Jade who turns up at the rendezvous, but a grown-up man who says he's Jade's brother ...

Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis is due to be published in April 2015.  We first met Flavia Albia, Falco's feisty adopted daughter, in The Ides of April.  Albia is a remarkable woman in what is very much a man's world: young, widowed and fiercely independent, she lives alone on the Aventine Hill in Rome and makes a good living as a hired investigator.  An outsider in more ways than one, Albia has unique insight into life in ancient Rome, and she puts it to good use going places no man could go, and asking questions no man could ask.  When a body is discovered inside a large chest that's about to go under the hammer at the Falco family auction house, Albia throws herself into the investigation.  For one thing, it'd be nice to beat her adoptive father at his own game.  For another, it'll give her yet another chance to work with Manlius Faustus, the man she just can't quite get enough of.  But when Faustus then invites her to get involved in the Roman elections, Albia discovers links between the politician they're working for and the murder she's investigating.  And those links implicate none other than Faustus. 

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution legalized federal income tax, but what if there were problems with the 1913 ratification of that amendment?  Problems that call into question decades of tax collecting, and could even bring down the US economy. Cotton Malone, once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department known as the Magellan Billet, is now retired.  But when his former-boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files-the kind that could bring the United States to its knees-Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four-hour chase that begins on the water in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia. The Patriot Threat is by Steve Berry and is due to be published in May 2015.

Swedish Lapland: 1717; a group of disparate settlers struggles to forge a new life in the

shadow of the grim mountain Blackasen whose dark mythology lies at odds with the repressive, almost feudal control exerted by the church.  Into this setting, Maija, her husband, and two daughters arrive, yearning to forget the traumas that caused them to abandon their native Finland and start anew.  Not long after their arrival, their teenage daughter Frederika stumbles across the savagely mutilated body of a fellow settler, Eriksson, in a picturesque glade.  The locals are quick to dismiss the culprit as wolf or bear.  Maija, however, is unconvinced and compelled by the ghosts of her past she determines to investigate a murder.  As the seasons change and a harsh winter known as a 'Wolf Winter' descends, Maija begins a dangerous quest to unearth the secrets that both her neighbours and the church have conspired to bury. Now as the snow begins to fall, she will come to know the full cost of survival demanded from those who would live in the shadow of Blackasen - and the terrible truth about those who have paid the price. Wolf Winter is by Cecilia Ekbäck and is due to be published in January 2015.

Ten ears after the peace deal between Britain and Germany, international tensions are rearing their heads.  Especially in Africa, where the British, Portuguese and expanding German colonies rub against each other.  Burton Cole is back in England, desperate to find his lover, Madeleine.  When he discovers that her husband has had her deported to Madagaskar, the African island converted by the Nazis into a vast prison camp for the Jews, he jumps at the chance to join a secret mission to go there and make contact with Jewish nuclear scientists.  But Burton is heading into more danger than he could possibly imagine.  The Madagaskar Plan is by Guy Saville and is due to be published in July 2015.

Beecher White, a humble archivist at the U.S. National Archives by day, has a secret: he belongs to the Culper Ring, a network of spies founded by George Washington during the American Revolution.  Over the course of his time working for the Culper Ring, White has discovered countless secrets and saved more lives than he knows - including the President's.  And then, one day, White makes an alarming discovery on the White House grounds: a severed arm buried in the Rose Garden.  As he investigates, he realizes it's a message...one that may have dire repercussions for the President.  But that's not all - the message also turns Beecher's personal life upside-down, pointing him towards the dark truth about his father's death.  The President’s Shadow is by Brad Meltzer and is due to be published in June 2015.

Every student needs a part-time job.  Hers is hunting criminals.  Sarie Holland is a good kid.  An Honours student.  She doesn't even drink.  So when a narcotics cop busts her while she's doing a favour for a friend, she has a lot to lose.  Desperate to avoid destroying her future, Sarie agrees to become a CI - a confidential informant.  Armed only with a notebook, she turns out to be as good at catching criminals as she is at passing tests.  But it's going to take more than one nineteen-year-old to clean up Philadelphia.  Soon Sarie is caught in the middle of a power struggle between corrupt cops and warring gangs, with nothing on her side but stubbornness and smarts.  Which is bad news for both the police and the underworld.  Because when it comes to payback, CI #137 turns out to be a very fast learner...  Canary is by Duane Swierczynski and is due to be published in February 2015.

They found the boy by the swimming pool, dolls floating on its surface.  Inside the house, his professor lay dead.  But Hugo claims to remember nothing...and his mother is one of Commandant Servaz's oldest friends.  When Servaz receives Marianne's desperate phone call, he is drawn back to Marsac - the town where he studied, and where his daughter is now at university too.  It brings back memories...and as more people die in strange and unsettling circumstances, it becomes clear that if he is to close the case, Servaz must reopen old and terrible wounds.  It will be his most dangerous - and his most personal - investigation yet. A Song for Drowned Souls is by Bernard Minier and is due to be published in June 2015.

Black River is by Tom Harper and is due to be published in May 2015.  When Kel MacDonald joins an expedition looking for a legendary lost city in the Peruvian Amazon, he's expecting the adventure of a lifetime.  But things are not what they seem.  Paramilitaries, drug cartels, and wildcat prospectors all want what the jungle has to offer - while untamed local tribes will fight desperately to protect their way of life.  Maps of the region have been doctored.  And what exactly happened to the previous expedition, a government vaccination program that went upriver and never returned?  Soon finding the lost city is the least of their troubles.  The jungle hides deadly secrets that must be hidden at all costs.  And someone in the group wants to make sure they never get out.

In the midst of post-war Boston two old friends are trying to scrape a living.  WWII veteran

Cal is getting by: heroin addict Dante is trying – and mostly failing –to kick the habit.  But when the girl they fought over in their hardscrabble youth is found murdered, they take it upon themselves to track down her killer.  Their investigation leads them from the drug-ravaged neighbourhood they know to gangsters and corrupt politicians.  And as their quest gets ever more dangerous, it seems clear that even if they can find answers, they may end up losing themselves.  Serpents in the Cold is by Thomas O’Malley & Douglas Graham Purdy and is due to be published in January 2015.

Having survived his assignment in Arabia, imperial agent Cassius Corbulo now spends most of his time on women and wine.  But, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt, Cassius is called back into action and sent north, tasked with smashing a counterfeiting gang.  After tracking the criminals to the city of Berytus, Cassius’s investigations are hampered by civil unrest and uncooperative officials.  Under pressure from his superiors, Cassius closes in on the counterfeiters.  But the gang will stop at nothing to protect their profits, leading Cassius and his companions in a deadly pursuit across the slopes of Mount Lebanon.  Agent of Rome: The Emperor’s Silver is by Nick Brown and is due to be published in June 2015.

At the Ruin of the World is by John Henry Clay and is due to be published in May 2015.  The Roman Empire is on the brink of extinction.  This is felt most keenly in Gaul, which is besieged on all sides by barbarians: the Huns and the Goths.  As the Empire starts to crumble, enemies to approach and battles begin to be fought, the lives of four people are drawn into this conflict: the poet and courtier Sidonius, soldier Ecdicius, low-born but crafty Arvandus, and the beautiful but enigmatic Attica.

It's Ella's senior year of high school and she and her best friend Linds plan to make it the best year ever.  At Brock Cochran's end of summer pool party, the girls vow to have as much fun as possible before they head off to different colleges in the fall.  But when Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from the party, everything changes.  Ella's carefree senior year plans disintegrate as she finds herself at the centre of an attempted murder investigation.  Ella is determined to move on; to get her life back to normal, but she can't seem to shake the feeling that she's still being watched.  Suddenly, the people closest to her seem the most suspicious, like the elusive Jensen Carver.  In her seemingly safe West Virginia town, Ella starts to wonder who she can actually trust.  The Dead List is by Jennifer L Armentrout and is due to be published in April 2015.

Lizzie Snow was first introduced in the final book of Sarah Graves's previous series, Bat in the Belfry, in which she helped Jake Tiptree find who killed a girl and left her body in a church steeple.  Now Lizzie has taken over as Eastport's police chief, and is quickly finding the job - and her life - more complicated than she expected.  Then she learns that someone seems to be killing retired detectives in the state... and that she has been followed from Boston to Maine by a mysterious stalker whose chilling intentions will drive her to the edge.  Winter at the Door is due to be published in January 2015.

A historical novel of suspense, seasoned with recipes and remedies for broken hearts, The Penny Heart draws on age-old themes of cooking, trickery and revenge.  Manchester 1809.  Would-be industrialist Michael Croxon chases young street hawker Mary Jebb into a wretched warren after she cons his brother out of his money.  In an unguarded moment he develops a suppressed attraction to the girl.  After he bears witness in court against her, Mary sends him a Penny Heart token from the prison hulks bearing a strange verse, the reverse announcing that she will be transported for 7 years.  Two years later, in order to build a manufactory, Michael has married awkward Jane Moore, who is overjoyed at her luck, but soon disappointed to learn it was only to gain her land.  Meanwhile, Mary escapes from Botany Bay to be shipwrecked on the wild coast of New Zealand, where she loses her lover and the last of her scruples.  Using her conning skills, Mary returns home and adopts the identity of 'Peg', the Croxon's cook at their lonely Hall.  After Mary helps Jane compile a book of husband-pleasing recipes, Jane's new womanly wiles seem to earn Michael's affection.  But when Jane discovers two matching Penny Heart love tokens that tell of banishment to the ends of the earth, she enters a world of deceit and double-crossing, and uncovers a tale of revenge that culminates in murder.  The Penny Heart is by Martine Bailey and is due to be published in May 2015.

Every life is uncertain.  Every choice is a danger.  Set on the dark side of Los Angeles, this is a masterful collection of edge-of-your-seat tales: a prison guard must protect an inmate being tried for heinous crimes.  A father and son set out to rescue a young couple trapped during a wildfire after they cross the border.  An ex-con trying to make good as a security guard stumbles onto a burglary plot.  A young father must submit to blackmail to protect the fragile life he's built.  Sweet Nothing is by Richard Lange and is an intense and gripping journey through real lives with big problems.  It is due to be published in February 2015.

Lives Lost is by Britta Bolt and is due to be published in June 2015.  A minute can make all the difference...Pieter Posthumus is enjoying a quiet drink in his favourite bar when the screaming starts.  A minute later, the owner of the guesthouse next-door rushes in: one of her tenants has been murdered.  Marloes, the guesthouse owner, is an odd but kind soul.  Posthumus cannot believe it when she is arrested - for both her tenant Zig's murder and another death years before.  He knows there are questions unanswered: what is the link between the two cases?  Why are people so keen to think Marloes is guilty?  And why did Zig paint just one picture every year - a copy of a Dutch master, but with one peculiar twist?  As his investigation progresses, he comes to see that a few minutes can mean all the difference in the world: between saving a life and taking one; between innocence and guilt.  And that sometimes asking questions leads to a truth that's hard to bear.

Northern Ireland, 1993.  For high-flying MI5 officer Avery Chance the real war has only just

begun.  When Chance is abducted by the IRA's notorious Nutting Squad, her hopes lie in the hands of a young SAS recruit who must risk everything to bring her home.  Twenty years after his act of self-sacrifice in Belfast ex-SAS legend John Bald is a scarred shadow of his former self.  But when a face from the past appears and rescues him from deep trouble, Bald is offered one last shot at redemption.  His target is Kurt Pretorius, a ruthless mercenary operating deep in the wilds of war-ravaged Somali.  In a world where rogue mercenaries operate beyond the reach of the law, Kurt Pretorius has transformed himself into a god.  It is up to Bald to stop Pretorius before he turns Somalia into a terrorist haven.  But Bald quickly finds himself sucked into a twisted game of survival, where the stakes could not be higher - and the price of failure is his life...With time running out, Bald must kill Pretorius before he brings down everyone around him.  It's a mission Bald was born to do.  Because sometimes, the only way to beat your deadliest enemy...is to be like your deadliest enemy. Silent Kill is by Chris Ryan and is due to be published in January 2015.