Showing posts with label Mullholland Books UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mullholland Books UK. Show all posts

Monday, 28 January 2019

A Night with Crime Novelist Bernard Minier 7 February 2019

Meet Bernard Minier, one of the most applauded contemporary French crime novelists and discover his best-selling novel, Night, just launched in the UK by Mulholland Book Trade Paperpack. Night follows detective Kirsten Nigaard and commandant Martin Servaz on a terrifying chase. Winner of the prestigious Prix Polar at the Cognac Crime Festival and translated into twenty languages, Bernard Minier became a sensation in France when his first novel Glacé (The Frozen Dead, 2013) was published. It was made into a very successful television series now available on NETFLIX.

Chaired by Ayo Onatade, freelance crime fiction critic and Associate member of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain.

More information can be found here.

Tickets can be bought here.

Night by Bernard Minier (Mulholland Books) Published 7 February 2019

When a body is found in a church in the far north of Norway, the trail leads to an offshore oil rig. Searching the rooms of one of the rig workers, detective Kirsten Nigaard finds a pile of photos taken with a long-lens camera. The subject of the photos is Martin Servaz. And someone has been watching him.  Signs suggest the killer is none other than Julian Hirtmann, a serial murderer on the run. Martin, after all, has a long and painful history with Hirtmann. Now it seems he has struck again.  Their one clue is in amongst the photos. A picture of a young boy in a beautiful Austrian village, and on the back of it, the name 'Gustav'. Martin and Kirsten set off on the trail and soon find themselves in a terrifying cat-and-mouse chase, not knowing who is chasing whom, and which of them might pay the ultimate price.

Saturday, 24 November 2018

Books to Look Forward to From Hodder & Stoughton and Mulholland Books


January 2019

Cold Bones is by David Mark.  It's the coldest winter in Hull for years.  When McAvoy is told by a concerned stranger that an elderly woman hasn't been seen for a few days, he goes to check on her - only to find her in the bath, encased in ice: the heating off; the windows open; the whole house frozen over.  It could be a macabre accident, but McAvoy senses murder. Someone watched her die.  As he starts to uncover the victim's story and her connections to a lost fishing trawler, his boss Trish is half a world away, investigating a mysterious death in Iceland. Hull and Iceland have traditionally been united by fishing - in this case, they are linked by a secret concealed for half a century, and a series of brutal killings that have never been connected.  Until now - when the secrets of the dead have returned to prey on the living.

Battle Sight Zero is by Gerald Seymour.  The Kalashnikov AK47. A weapon with a unique image. A symbol of freedom fighters and terrorists across the globe. Undercover officer Andy Knight has infiltrated an extremist group intent on bringing the rifle to Britain - something MI5 have been struggling for years to prevent.  He befriends Zeinab, the young Muslim student from Yorkshire who is at the centre of the plot. All Zeinab needs to do is travel to the impoverished high-rise estates of Marseilles and bring one rifle home on a test run. Then many more will follow - and with them would come killing on an horrendous scale.  Zeinab is both passionate and attractive, and though Andy knows that the golden rule of undercover work is not to get emotionally attached to the target, sometimes rules are impossible to follow.

Last Man Standing is by Stephen Leather. Friendships forged in the heat of combat can be stronger than anything.  So when SAS trooper Matt Standing is told that the former Navy SEAL who saved his life is in trouble, he doesn't hesitate to go to his aid - even if that means flying half way around the world to Los Angeles.  Navy SEAL-turned-bodyguard Bobby-Ray Barnes has been accused of killing the man he was supposed to be protecting. Three other bodyguards were also killed and now Bobby-Ray is on the run.  The dead client was a Russian oligarch with connections to the Kremlin. But who wanted him dead? And if Bobby-Ray wasn't the killer, who carried out the assassination and why is Bobby-Ray being framed? Standing is the only man who can answer those questions - providing he can stay alive long enough.

How can you get lost in a city that never sleeps?  Nineteen-year-old Titus 'Crisp' Crespo is a smart kid on his way to a bright future. But on the eve of his high school graduation, a chance encounter with a cop who can't see beyond the colour of his skin puts everything in jeopardy.  When he doesn't return home two nights later his mother knows something is wrong. Seeking answers, she turns to Detective Lex Cole, who starts to follow his traces: a bad decision, a trip into a dangerous part of the city; blood...  As Crisp heads into trouble and discovers the New York he's lived alongside for years but never really seen, Lex, a day later, must find out what happened last night - before it's too late.  Last Night is by Karen Ellis.

February 2019

When a body is found in a church in the far north of Norway, the trail leads to an offshore oil rig. Searching the rooms of one of the rig workers, detective Kirsten Nigaard finds a pile of photos taken with a long-lens camera. The subject of the photos is Martin Servaz. And someone has been watching him.  Signs suggest the killer is none other than Julian Hirtmann, a serial murderer on the run. Martin, after all, has a long and painful history with Hirtmann. Now it seems he has struck again.  Their one clue is in amongst the photos. A picture of a young boy in a beautiful Austrian village, and on the back of it, the name 'Gustav'. Martin and Kirsten set off on the trail and soon find themselves in a terrifying cat-and-mouse chase, not knowing who is chasing whom, and which of them might pay the ultimate price.  Night is by Bernard Minier.

The Stranger Inside is by Laura Benedict.  There's a stranger in your house. And he knows your biggest secret.  When Kimber Hannon returns home from a work trip, she's ready to kick back and relax on the sofa. But on reaching the front door, she is shocked to discover that her key no longer works and there's a man in the bedroom window.  Kimber calls the police, but the intruder tells them he's renting the house. Her neighbour corroborates his story and it is Kimber who is forced to leave. But before she does, the stranger whispers 'I was there. I saw what you did.'  These words reveal a connection to Kimber's distant past, and dark secrets she'd long ago left buried. Her trespasser isn't after anything as simple as her money or her home. He wants to move into her carefully orchestrated life - and destroy it.

Trigger is by David Swinson.  Frank Marr was a good cop, until his burgeoning addictions forced him into retirement from the Washington D.C. police. Now, he's barely eking out a living as a private investigator.  Ostracized by his family after a botched case that led to the death of his cousin, Frank is now clean. He passes the time by robbing the houses of local dealers, taking their cash and flushing their drugs down the toilet. But when an old friend from the police needs his help, Frank is drawn back into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts.  Never one to play by the rules, Frank recruits a young man he nearly executed years before. Together, detective and criminal charge headfirst into the D.C. drug wars. Neither may make it out.

Red Strike is by Chris Ryan.  A former Russian spy goes on the run after an attempt to poison him.  Now he’s gone to ground, and M!6 went to get old of him before the Russians do.  When a retired British general learns about this he reports back to his Russian paymasters.  They decide the former spy must be killed before he is found and spills his guts to Mi6.  Series hero John Porter and John Bald must work together to track down the spy and expose the general before it’s too late and Russia reconquers the Baltic states.

March 2019

Missing Person is by Sarah Lotz.  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.

What if you found out that you'd been married to a stranger?  Nuala and James had the perfect relationship.  They were young and in love, and so Nuala didn't question why James told her to never contact his family or to visit the small Somerset town he was from.  But now James is dead, and Nuala needs to know what he was keeping from her all of those years.  Nuala is on her way to a town full of her husband’s secrets. And she is about to discover that sometimes secrets are better left buried.  Never Go There is by Rebecca Tinnelly.

Joshua is convinced there's a family curse. It's taken his loved ones, robbed him of his eyesight, and now his father has been killed chasing down a murderer.  His dad's last wish seems like a blessing: the chance for Joshua to see. But as Joshua navigates the world of sight, he realises he is seeing things through his father's eyes. Dark things; things he never knew.  His father was living a secret life. And there are consequences coming for Joshua - along with a killer drawing closer and closer...  A Killer Harvest is by Paul Cleave.

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.  After years of crime-solving companionship, something's changed: Hap, recently married to their P.I. boss, Brett, is now a family man. Amidst the worst flood East Texas has seen in years, the two run across a woman who's had her tongue nearly cut out, pursued by a heavily armed pair of goons. Though she can't talk much, on account of the tongue, it turns out the girl survived a mob hit, and the boss has come to clean up the mess.  On a chase that blows even the East Texas swampgrass back, Hap and Leonard must save the girl, and vanquish her foes, before the foes get them first. With a new case to solve, and a brand-new challenge to their relationship, will Hap and Leonard's friendship survive? Will Hap and Leonard survive?  The Elephant of Surprise is by Joe R Lansdale.

April 2019

A Capital Death is by Lindsey Davis.  A tragic accident . . . or was it?  Emperor Domitian has been awarded (or rather, has demanded) yet another Triumph to celebrate two so-called victories. Preparations are going smoothly until one of the men overseeing arrangements for the celebration accidentally falls to his death from a cliff on the symbolic Capitoline Hill.  But Flavia Albia suspects there's more to the incident than meets the eye, as there are plenty of people who would have been delighted to be rid of the overseer. He was an abusive swine who couldn't organise a booze-up in a winery and was caught up in a number of scams, including one surrounding the supply of imperial purple dye and a family of shellfish-boilers.  As Flavia finds herself drawn into a theatrical world of carnival floats, musicians, incense and sacrificial beasts, can she see to the heart of the matter and catch those responsible for the unpopular man's untimely death?

Life as a private investigator is non-stop for Ravi Chandra Singh and his gleefully amoral colleagues at the Golden Sentinels Agency.  Ravi is getting used to his visions of Hindu gods, but the cases are as crazy as ever. There's the actress who hires them to track down the source of a sex tape she never made, the party in a rock star's mansion that gets way out of control, and the terrorist leader who goes missing in London before he can hand himself in.  But soon Ravi finds himself in worse trouble than he could ever have imagined when his boss' secret plan to make himself a player on the world stage blows up in everyone's face.  The future of Golden Sentinels hangs in the balance in the madcap, exhilarating conclusion to the Ravi PI series.  Her Fugitive Heart is by Adi Tantimedhl. 

You can't keep the secret.  You can't tell the truth.  You can't escape the past...  Marianne was seventeen when she fled her home, her family, her boyfriend Jesse and the body they buried.  Now, forced to return, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving, is finally threatening to expose the truth.  Marianne will do anything to protect the life she's built; the husband and daughter who must never know. Even if it means turning to her worst enemy...  But Marianne may not know the whole story - and she isn't the only one with secrets they'd kill to keep.  Stone Mothers is by Erin Kelly

A Book of Bones is by John Connolly.  He is our best hope.  He is our last hope.  On a lonely moor in the northeast of England, the body of a young woman is discovered near the site of a vanished church. In the south, a girl lies buried beneath a Saxon mound. To the southeast, the ruins of a priory hide a human skull.  Each is a sacrifice, a summons.  And something in the darkness has heard the call.  But another is coming: Parker the hunter, the avenger. From the forests of Maine to the deserts of the Mexican border, from the canals of Amsterdam to the streets of London, he will track those who would cast this world into darkness. Parker fears no evil.  But evil fears him . .

The police find out about the crime the way everyone does: on Snapchat. The video shows the terrified victim begging for forgiveness. When her body is found, it is marked with a number 2...  Detective Huldar joins the investigation, bringing child psychologist Freyja on board to help question the murdered teenager's friends. Soon, they uncover that Stella was far from the angel people claim - but even so, who could have hated her enough to kill?  Then another teenager goes missing, and more clips are sent. Freyja and Huldar can agree on two things at least: the truth is far from simple. And the killer is not done yet.  A brilliantly suspenseful story about the dark side of social media, The Absolution is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and will make you wonder what you should have said sorry for...

June 2019

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The Fifth Doctrine is by Karen Robards.  With her back against the wall, everything's on the line for Bianca St. Ives. She's either going to save the world-or die trying.  It took one hell of an effort for the authorities to finally get the jump on master manipulator Bianca St. Ives, but now that they have, it's far from the capture she expected.  Instead of taking her in, there's an offer on the table, a one-shot deal that would allow Bianca to walk away scot-free as if they'd never found her. And all she has to do is run one last mission-the kind she might never return from. But if Bianca wants to go back to her normal life in Savannah, it's not like she has a choice . . .


Tara Beckley is a college senior assigned to chaperone a visiting engineer to a conference. On the road, she is the victim of a brutal accident that kills the engineer but leaves Tara in a vegetative state - or, at least, so her doctors think.  Really, Tara is the prisoner of locked-in syndrome, fully alert, but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, she discovers that someone powerful wants her dead. But why? And what can she do, lying in a hospital bed, to stop them?  Meanwhile, Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is assigned to Tara's case. A former stunt driver, Abby has returned to Maine after a disaster in Hollywood left a beloved actor dead and her own reputation - and nerves - shattered. She has nothing left to give to the case, but she can tell there's more to the accident than meets the eye.  When Abby starts asking questions, things spin out of control fast, leaving her boss murdered, Abby on the run, and an enigmatic young hit man on her heels.  If She Wakes is by Michael Koryta.

July 2019

This is Gomorrah is by Tom Chatfield.  The Dark Web is everywhere - and those who know where to look, and who to ask, can find anything. Drugs, guns, porn, ideologies, lives and deaths are all up for sale . . . and everything must go.  Set in the technological underbelly of the 21st century, this conspiracy thriller follows elite hacker Azi Bello on a journey of
discovery into the dark marketplace known as Gomorrah, within which the world's worst people trade lives and influence. Taking the reader between London, Berlin, Athens and Los Angeles, as well as into terrorist-controlled Syrian cities, THIS IS GOMORRAH explores what it means to win, and to lose, at the global game of ideology and power.  A loner, charmer, idealist and connoisseur of other people's mistakes, Azi's life is spun around by a mysterious approach from a young Muslim woman called Munira, and before long his carefully crafted privacy comes crashing down. Munira is at her wits' end, a fellow hacker whose cousin has been recruited by terrorists, and who has unearthed a terrible conspiracy in her struggle to bring him home. She needs Azi's help and connections to track him down.  But can she be trusted? Can Azi trust anyone when identities can be changed with just a few clicks. . ?


Monday, 16 July 2018

Books to Look Forward to from Hodder & Stoughon & Mulholland Books




July 2018

He is one of the world's most ruthless terrorists, codenamed Saladin. He plans and executes devastating attacks and then, ghost-like, he disappears.  Ten years ago he blew a plane out of the sky above New York - and now he's killed dozens in a London strike.  But one of the latest victims is related to the acting head of MI5, who knows exactly who she wants on the case: Spider Shepherd. Dean Martin, a psychologically damaged former Navy SEAL, is the only person in the world who can identify Saladin. But Martin was killed ten years ago - wasn't he?  Shepherd must find Martin and take him back to the killing fields on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Revenge on the world's most wanted terrorist is long overdue, and Shepherd is determined to be the one to deliver it . . .   Tall Order is by Stephen Leather.

Careless Love is by Peter Robinson.  A young local student has apparently committed suicide. Her body is found in an abandoned car on a lonely country road. She didn't own a car. Didn't even drive. How did she get there? Where did she die? Who moved her, and why?  Meanwhile a man in his sixties is found dead in a gully up on the wild moorland. He is wearing an expensive suit and carrying no identification. Post-mortem findings indicate he died from injuries sustained during the fall. But what was he doing up there? And why are there no signs of a car in the vicinity?  As the inconsistencies multiply and the mysteries proliferate, Annie's father's new partner, Zelda, comes up with a shocking piece of information that alerts Banks and Annie to the return of an old enemy in a new guise. This is someone who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to get what he wants - and suddenly the stakes are raised and the hunt is on.

The only thing worse than finding out that your husband is dead, is discovering the secrets he left behind.  Annabel's seemingly perfect ex-patriate life in Geneva is shattered when her  banker husband Matthew's plane crashes in the Alps. When Annabel finds clues that his death may not be all it seems, she puts herself in the crosshairs of powerful enemies and questions whether she really knew her husband at all. Meanwhile, journalist Marina is investigating Swiss United, the bank where Matthew worked. But when she uncovers evidence of a shocking global financial scandal that implicates someone close to home, she is forced to make an impossible choice.  The Banker’s Wife is by Cristina Alger


Some Die Nameless is by Wallace Stroby.  Ex-mercenary Ray Devlin is living a simple life off the grid in Florida, when a visit from an old colleague stirs some bad memories - and ends with a gunshot. Soon Devlin is forced to face a past he'd hoped to leave behind, as a member of a private military force that helped put a brutal South American dictator in power. Tracy Quinn is an investigative journalist at a struggling Philadelphia newspaper. What appears at first to be a straightforward homicide draws her and Devlin together, ultimately entangling them in a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the US government.  Before long, they become the targets of a ruthless assassin haunted by his own wartime memories. For Devlin, it could mean a last shot at redemption. For Tracy, the biggest story of her career might just cost her her life.

The Death Knock is by Elodie Harper.  Three women have been found dead in East Anglia. The police deny a connection. TV news reporter Frankie smells a story...  Ava knows that the threat is real. She's been kidnapped by someone claiming to be the killer: a stranger who seems to know everything about her.  As Frankie follows the case, she enters a terrifying online world where men's rage against women may be turning murderous - and where her persistence might just make her a target. And Ava must struggle not only to stay alive... but to stay sane.


Make Them Sorry is by Sam Hawken.  Camaro doesn't particularly want to get involved with other people's lives, other people's problems. But she can tell that the woman in her gym is looking for help. And when she learns that Faith has a stalker, she agrees to give her a few defence lessons.  She's not expecting the stalker to become so violent so quickly. Or to have been hired by someone. Faith, it seems, has made some serious enemies... and now they're going after Camaro too.  They're about to find out that that was a mistake.

 August 2018

This is a fact: Ryan Summers walked into Three Rivers College and killed thirteen women, then himself.  But no one can say why.  The question is one that cries out to be answered - by Ryan's mother, Moira; by Ishbel, the mother of Abigail, the first victim; and by DI Helen Birch, put in charge of the case on her first day at her new job. But as the tabloids and the media swarm, as the families' secrets come out, as the world searches for someone to blame... the truth seems to vanish.  All The Hidden Truths is by Claire Askew.



The Red Ribbon is by H B Lyle.  Captain Vernon Kell's fledgling secret intelligence service faces being shut down before it has even begun its job of saving the Empire from German and Russian spies.  Harassed by politicians, like the ambitious Winston Churchill, bullied by Special Branch, undermined by his colleague Cumming's ill-advised foreign ventures and alarmed at his wife's involvement with militant suffragettes, Kell is making no progress in tracking high-profile leaks from the government. To make matter worse, his only agent, Wiggins, would rather be working on cases of his own. Wiggins grew up on the streets, one of the urchins trained in surveillance by Sherlock Holmes and known as the Baker Street Irregulars. He has promised to avenge the death of his best friend, and to track down a missing girl.  But when his search takes him towards a club in Belgravia - a club containing a lot of young women and presided over by the fearsome Big T, one of his former gang-mates - Wiggins is drawn into a conspiracy that will test both his personal and his professional resolve.

September 2018

London, 1952. Dick Bourton is not like the other probationer policemen in Notting Hill. He's older, having fought in Europe and then Korea. And he's no Londoner, being from a different planet. Cotswold farming stock. Then there's Anna, the exotically beautiful White Russian fiancee he has brought back to these drab streets and empty bombsites. She may as well come from   The new copper also has a mind of his own. After an older colleague is shot by a small-time gangster they are chasing in a pea-souper fog, something nags at Bourton's memory. He begins to make connections which his superiors don't want to see, linking a whole series of deaths and the fogs that stop the city in its tracks. Desperate to prove himself and his theories, Bourton fails to notice the fear which his mysterious bride is doing her best to conceal - and overcome.  Soon both Anna and Bourton are taking dangerous paths into the worst fog London has ever known...  "London had gone. As he stepped through the wicket, a dry smoky chill puffing over the lintel, everything that made the city - skyline, street signs, crowds, scarlet double-deckers - had disappeared, lost in the murk. I can't see the kerb, for God's sake, let alone Barker's across the road. He looked both ways, the chill crawling down his neck . . . Coshing gangs will love this. And our man. But we're on your trail, sunshine. He raised his hat to Marling, locking up behind. Tomorrow we nab you." Breathe is by Dominick Donald.

In The Prometheus Man, Reese hunted down his brother's killers - and destroyed any chance at a normal life. He stole the identity of a CIA agent, exposed a grisly stem cell experiment to enhance the human body, and made himself an enemy of the United States. Now Tom lives on the run with the woman he loves, knowing he'll lose her one day because a life with him is a life without a future.Thousands of miles away, in an abandoned oil rig off the Alaskan coast, a new Prometheus lab operates in secret. When the test subjects - all death-row inmates - revolt and slaughter their way out, the entire world is shocked and terrified. Knowing authorities will hunt them to the ends of the earth, they crash the power grid in half the continental U.S., and 100 million people are thrown into chaos.  As a nation collapses on itself, Tom is offered a deal: help bring in the men responsible, and he can come home. He signs on for a recon mission, but finds that it will take him to places and force him to do things far darker than he ever imagined.  The Pandora Equation is by Scott Reardon.

Do you ever feel that prickle on the back of your neck, as though someone's watching you?  Someone is watching Hannah.  Her name is Ruby, and her job as CCTV operative means she can follow Hannah everywhere she goes.  It's against the law, but Ruby can't help herself.  And there's no harm in just watching. Until just watching isn't enough . . .  So the next time you get that feeling, and you think you're alone . . . think again.  Her Watchful Eye is by Julie Corbin.

In the remote Swedish wetlands lies Mossmarken: the village on the edge of the mire where, once upon a time, people came to leave offerings to the gods.  Biologist Nathalie came in order to study the peat bogs. But she has a secret: Mossmarken was once her home, a place where terrible things happened. She has returned at last, determined to confront her childhood trauma and find out the truth.  Soon after her arrival, she finds an unconscious man out on the marsh, his pockets filled with gold - just like the ancient human sacrifices. A grave is dug in the mire, which vanishes a day after. And as the police investigate, the bodies start to surface...  Is the mire calling out for sacrifices, as the superstitious locals claim? Or is it an all-too-human evil?  The Forbidden Place is by Susanne Jansson 

The attack dog had its jaws clamped round the target's forearm and had sunk its teeth into his flesh. Danny could see the dark stain of blood through his night-vision goggles. The screaming had stopped. The target was staring blindly into the darkness, but he clearly knew there were armed men approaching him...  Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban are on the rise.  A top-secret SAS kill team is assassinating high-value targets. It is bloody, violent, relentless work, suitable only for the Regiment's most skilled and ruthless head hunters.  Like Danny Black.  But when Danny joins the kill team, he learns that Taliban militants are not his only problem. There are elements within the British Army who want to bring the SAS to book. And there are elements within the SAS who have their crosshairs on Danny himself.  Framed for a sickening war crime, Danny finds himself hunted in a brutal, dangerous terrain where his wits, training and strength may not be enough to survive.  And in a world where his enemies are closer than he could have imagined, he must do whatever it takes to get to the truth. If he fails, it will mean the end not only of Danny Black, but of the SAS itself.  Head Hunters is by Chris Ryan.


October 2018

John Grisham returns to Clanton, Mississippi in The Reckoning to tell the story of an unthinkable murder, the bizarre trial that followed it, and its profound and lasting effect on the people of Ford County.  Pete Banning was Clanton's favourite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbour, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning in 1946. he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell.  As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends, and to the people of Clanton - was 'I have nothing to say'.  And so the murder of the esteemed Reverend Bell became the most mysterious and unforgettable crime Ford County had ever known.

Shell Game is by Sara Paretsky.  Legendary sleuth V.I. Warshawski returns to the Windy City to save an old friend's nephew from a murder arrest. The case involves a stolen artifact that could implicate a shadowy network of international criminals. As V.I. investigates, the detective soon finds herself tangling with the Russian mob, ISIS backers, and a shady network of stock scams and stolen art that stretches from Chicago to the East Indies and the Middle East.   In Shell Game, nothing and no one are what they seem, except for the detective herself, who loses sleep, money, and blood, but remains indomitable in her quest for justice.

It's been five years since Mia and Brynn murdered Summer Marks, their best friend, in the woods.  Increasingly obsessed with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn and by their fan-fiction imagining of its sequel, the girls were drawn by an undertow of fantasy into the magical world they'd created. But eventually, their delusions turned sick, and the Shadow, Lovelorn's central evil, began to haunt them.  Or so the story goes. The only thing is: they didn't do it.  Brynn and Mia have both found different ways to hide from their notoriety, seeking refuge from a world that hates them-a world that will never feel magical, or safe, ever again.  On the anniversary of Summer's death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as past and present, fiction and reality, begin again to intertwine, Brynn and Mia must confront painful truths they tried for so long to bury-and face the long shadow of memory that has, all this time, been waiting.  Broken Things is by Lauren Oliver.

November 2018

Wedding bells are set to ring as Dandy Gilver, family in tow, arrives in windswept Wester Ross on Valentine's Day. They've come to celebrate Lady Lavinia's fiftieth birthday and to meet her daughter Mallory, a less-than-suitable bride-to-be for Dandy's son Donald.  But soon love is the last thing on Dandy's mind when the news breaks that Lady Lavinia has been found dead, brutally murdered in the middle of her famous knot garden. Strange superstitions and folklore abound among the Gaelic-speaking locals. But , Dandy suspects that the tangled boughs and branches around Applecross House hide something much more earthly at work . . . A Step so Grave is by Catriona McPherson.