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

May 2019

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

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

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

June 2019

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

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

July 2019

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

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

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

 August 2019

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

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

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

October 2019

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

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

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

 November 2019

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

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

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

Books to Look Forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph Books

July 2018

At long last, a final reckoning is coming for Frieda Klein... On a north London high street, a runaway vehicle crashes to a halt. The man in the driving seat was murdered a week earlier. On Hampstead Heath, a bonfire blazes: in the flames lies the next victim. As autumn leaves fall, a serial killer runs amok in the capital, playing games with the police. The death toll is rising fast, and the investigation is floundering. But this is no ordinary killer, and every new victim is intended as a message to just one woman. Because psychologist Frieda Klein is in hiding. And someone is coming to find her . . .  Day of the Dead is by Nicci French

 

The Break Line is the debut novel by James Brabazon.  Officially, Max McLean doesn't exist. .' The British government denies all knowledge of the work he does on their behalf to keep us safe. But Max and his masters are losing faith in each other. And they've given him one last chance to prove he's still their man. Sent to a military research facility to meet a former comrade-in-arms, Max finds the bravest man he ever knew locked up for his own protection. His friend lost his mind during an operation in West Africa. The reason? Absolute mortal terror. Max is determined to find out why. Ahead lies a perilous, breathtaking mission into the unknown that will call into question everything that Max once believed in. Acting alone, without back-up, Max lands in Sierra Leone with his friend's last words ringing in his ears: 'They're coming, Max. They're coming . .

Former homicide detective Kosuke Iwata is on the run from his past. Living in LA and working as a private detective he spends his days spying on unfaithful spouses and his nights with an unavailable woman. Still he cannot forget the family he lost in Tokyo. But that all changes when a figure from his old life appears at his door demanding his help. Meredith Nichol, a transgender woman and his wife's sister, has been found strangled on the lonely train tracks behind Skid Row. Soon he discovers that the devil is at play in the City of Angels and Meredith's death wasn't the hate crime the police believe it to be. This is dangerous territory. But Iwata knows that risking his life and future is the only way to silence the demons of his past. Reluctantly throwing himself back in to the dangerous existence he only just escaped, Iwata discovers a seedy world of corruption, exploitation and murder - and a river of sin flowing through LA's underbelly, Mexico's dusty borderlands, and deep within his own past.  The Sins As Scarlet is by Nicolás Obregón.

A woman and child are found locked in a basement room, barely alive... No one knows whom they are - the woman can't speak, and there are no Missing Persons reports that match their profile. And the elderly man who owns the house claims he has never seen them before. The inhabitants of the quiet Oxford street are in shock - how could this happen right under their noses? But DI Adam Fawley knows that nothing is impossible. And that no one is as innocent as they seem . . . In the Dark is by Cara Hunter.

August 2018

Twenty-four years ago Katharina Haugen went missing. All she left behind was her husband Martin and a mysterious string of numbers scribbled on a piece of paper. Every year on October 9th Chief Inspector William Wisting takes out the files to the case he was never able to solve. Stares at the code he was never able to crack. And visits the husband he was never able to help. But now Martin Haugen is missing too. As Wisting prepares to investigate another missing persons case he's visited by a detective from Oslo. Adrian Stiller is convinced Martin's involved in another disappearance of a young woman and asks Wisting to close the net around Martin. But is Wisting playing cat and mouse with a dangerous killer or a grief-stricken husband who cannot lay the past to rest? Set between the icy streets and dark forests of Norway, The Katharina Code is by Jorn Lier Horst and is a heart-stopping story of one man's obsession with his coldest case. 

The Guilty Dead is by P J Tracey.  Gregory Norwood, wealthy businessman and close friend of Minnesota's leading candidate for Governor, is found dead on the first anniversary of his son's drug overdose. It seems clear to Detectives Gino and Magozzi that grief drove him to suicide. Until they realise the left-handed man seems to have used his right hand to pull the trigger. And they find the second body. As the seemingly open-and-shut case becomes a murder enquiry, the detectives begin to delve into the dark secrets of one of the city's most powerful families. It seems the murders are not the first in the Norwoods' tragic story - and they won't be the last . . .

The Liar’ s Room is by Simon Lelic.  Susanna Fenton has a secret. Fourteen years ago she left her identity behind, reinventing herself as a counsellor and starting a new life. It was the only way to keep her daughter safe. But everything changes when Adam Geraghty walks into her office. She's never met this young man before - so why does she feel like she knows him? Adam starts to tell her about a girl. A girl he wants to hurt. And that's when Susanna realises she was wrong. She doesn't know him. He knows her. And the girl he plans to hurt is her daughter.

September 2018

The Spy and the Traitor is by Ben McIntyre and is a thrilling Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain's greatest historians. On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket. The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying.

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

October 2018

A photograph found in the effects of a murdered polar explorer reveals evidence of something that should not be there. A military team from a top-secret unit is dispatched. But the South Atlantic in winter is about the most hostile environment on earth. And before you can fight, first you have to survive.  Deception Island is by Chris Larsson.

Murder by the Book is by Claire Harman.  A gripping investigation into the crime that scandalized literary London, from Dickens to Thackeray On a spring morning in 1840, on an ultra-respectable Mayfair street, a household of servants awoke to discover that their unobtrusive master, Lord William Russell, was lying in bed with his throat cut so deeply that the head was almost severed. The whole of London, from monarch to maidservants, was scandalized by the unfolding drama of such a shocking murder, but behind it was another story, a work of fiction. For when the culprit eventually confessed, he claimed his actions were the direct result of reading the best-selling crime-novel of the day. This announcement amazed the key literary figures of the time, from Thackeray to Dickens, and posed the question: can a work of fiction do real harm?

November 2018

On a crowded tourist beach in Portugal, US operatives use a high-tech drone to watch a French arms dealer flirt with a beautiful woman. It's only when she leaves that they realise she has shot him dead.  In Iran, protests are growing against the oppressive regime, whipped up by a charismatic student. Most external observers are excited, but on the ground a spy of questionable loyalty senses something is badly amiss.  And meanwhile, with the United States reeling from a string of natural disasters, Russian troops and ships are massing on the borders of the Ukraine, bringing the two powers ever closer to war.  Across the globe a conspiracy is brewing, so darkly brilliant that no-one has yet joined the dots. And the distracted President Ryan has no time to play catch-up: little does he know that he faces a madman with a plan more devastating than he could possibly imagine... Tom Clancy’s Oath of Office is by Marc Cameron.

Books to look Forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph

January 2018

Looking back, it all started on the day of the fair and the terrible accident.  When 12 year old Eddie first met the Chalk Man.  It was the Chalk Man who gave Eddie the idea for the drawings; a way to leave secret messages between his group of friends.  And it was fun, to start with, until the figures led them to the body of a young girl.  That was 30 years ago and Ed had thought the past was behind him.  Then he receives a letter containing just two things: a piece of chalk, and a drawing of a stick figure.  As history begins to repeat itself, Ed realizes that the game was never over…. Everyone has secrets.  Everyone is guilty of something.  And children are not always so innocent.  The Chalk Man is by C J Tudor.

A truck driver loses control in central Edinburgh, ploughing into a crowded bus stop and spilling his vehicle's toxic load. The consequences are devastating. DI Tony McLean witnesses the carnage. Taking control of the investigation, he soon realises there is much that is deeply amiss - and everyone involved seems to have something to hide. But as McLean struggles to uncover who caused the tragedy, a greater crisis develops: the new Chief Superintendent's son is missing, last seen in the area of the crash . . . The Gathering Dark is by James Oswald.

February 2018

Sins Like Scarlet is by Nicolás Obregón.  Inspector Kosuke Iwata, formerly of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, is now working as a private investigator in California. He may have left his home country behind him, but the crimes he has to face here are just as horrific, and as mystifying. A dead transgender woman is found out on the train tracks near LA's Skid Row. A Mexican homicide investigator riddled with cancer and corruption. A river of dirty money flowing through the Sonoran Desert. And a mother's secrets, tracing all the way from 1970s Tokyo to Japan's 48th prefecture - Torrance, California. Lives untangle, fates converge and blood is spilled as Inspector Iwata returns.

Hellbent is by Gregg Hurwitz.  To some he was Orphan X. Others knew him as the Nowhere Man. But to veteran spymaster Jack Johns he was a boy named Evan Smoak.  Taken from an orphanage, Evan was raised inside a top secret programme designed to turn him into a deadly weapon. Jack became his instructor, mentor, teacher and guardian. Because for all the dangerous skills he instilled in his young charge, he also cared for Evan like a son. And now Jack needs Evan's help. The Orphan programme hid dark secrets. Now those with blood on their hands want every trace of it gone. And they will stop at nothing to make sure that Jack and Evan go with it.  With little time remaining, Jack gives Evan his last assignment: to find and protect the programme's last recruit. And to stay alive long enough to uncover the shocking truth ...

Everything is Lies is by Helen Callaghan.  No-one is who you think they are Sophia's parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she's always believed.   Everyone has secrets.  Until the day she arrives at her childhood home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree. Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death.  Especially those closest to you The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother's name. And to do this she needs to delve deep into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

March 2018

Is Moscow pulling the strings? Urgent, topical and shot through with insider knowledge, this is thriller writing on a grand scale.  Russian counterintelligence chief Colonel Dominika Egorova has been a recruited asset of the CIA - stealing Kremlin secrets for her handler Nate Nash - for over seven years. In the dazzling finale of the Red Sparrow trilogy, their forbidden and tumultuous love affair continues, mortally dangerous for them both, but irresistible. In Washington, a newly-installed administration is selecting its cabinet members. Dominika hears whispers of a closely-held Kremlin operation to place a mole in a high intelligence position. If the Kremlin's candidate is confirmed, the Russians will have access to all the names of assets spying for the CIA in Moscow, including Dominika's. Dominika recklessly immerses herself in the palace intrigues of the Kremlin, searching for the mole's identity, and stealing as many of President Putin's secrets for her CIA handlers before her time runs out. With a plot ripped from tomorrow's headlines, The Kremlin's Candidate is by Jason Matthews and is a thrilling conclusion to the trilogy than began with Red Sparrow and Palace of Treason.

Exhibit Alexandra is by Natasha Bell. Alexandra Southwood: a devoted mother, a talented artist and now a missing wife. Marc's world is seemingly perfect, complete with two daughters and a loving wife. Until the day she vanishes. Police, friends and family pull together to find Alex but their hopes quickly turn into a nightmare as the missing person case becomes a murder investigation.  But Marc refuses to accept his wife is dead and embarks on his own frantic search which leads him into the heart of the New York art world that so gripped his wife.  Meanwhile, in a locked room, news clips of the police investigation and the family's grief are played out in front of a terrified woman. It is Alex. As the weeks pass all she can do is torment herself with images of her family's life without her. As Marc begins to piece together hidden parts of Alex's life, he begins to question whether he really knew her at all . . . But this is Alex's story.

Before Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the Reykjavik Police is forced into early retirement she is told to investigate a cold case of her choice, and she knows just the one.  A young woman found dead on remote seaweed-covered rocks. A woman who was looking for asylum and found only a watery grave. Her death ruled a suicide after a cursory investigation.  But Hulda soon realizes that there was something far darker to this case. This was not the only young woman to disappear around that time. And no one is telling the whole story.  When her own force tries to put the brakes on the investigation Hulda has just days to discover the truth. Even if it means risking her own life . . .  The Darkness is by Ragnar Jónasson.

A global threat.  The world's sea levels are rising at an alarming rate, too quickly to be caused by glacier melt. A risk so big it sends Kurt Austin, Zoe Zavala and the NUMA team rocketing around the world in search for answers.  A desperate mission. Their hunt takes them from the shark-filled waters of Asia to the high-tech streets of Tokyo to a forbidden secret island, but it's in the East China Sea that a mysterious underwater mining operation is discovered. A devastating endgame Kurt uncovers a plot more dangerous than they could have imagined: a plan to upset the Pacific balance of power, threatening the lives of millions. It falls to the NUMA team to risk everything to stop it and save the world from the coming catastrophe.  The Rising Sea is by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown. 

April 2018

‘Once I had cleared the bottles away and washed the blood off the floor, I needed to get out of the flat.' Cordelia Russell has been living on the Cote d’Azur for ten years, posing a posh English woman fallen on hard times. But her luck is running out. Desperate to escape her grotty flat and grim reality, Cordelia spends a night at a glittering party. Surrounded by the young, beautiful and privileged she feels her age and her poverty. As dawn breaks she stumbles home through the back streets. Even before she opens her door she can hear the flies buzzing. It hasn’t taken long for the corpse in her bedroom to commence decomposing.  Skin Deep is by Liz Nugent. 

The Insider is by Matthew Richardson.  Oscar Quinn is the best and the brightest of his generation. The youngest fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, he's destined for a glittering academic career. But then a mysterious letter arrives inviting him for an interview with Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. The role hasn't been advertised. He appears to be the only candidate. And the salary on offer seems almost too good to be true.Soon Quinn finds himself plunged into the heart of power. He gets his own office in the Palace of Westminster, a cut-price deal on a luxurious apartment in Chelsea and a chance to work on some of the nation's most highly-classified secrets. But when he learns that the security services are asking questions, Quinn begins to discover a dark truth buried at the centre of his new life. The last person to do his job died suddenly, and now his apartment is under surveillance and his movements are being watched. Was the previous researcher's death really just an accident? Or something much worse?  Trapped in the middle of a terrifying conspiracy, Quinn is forced to consider stepping outside the law to save those he loves. But who can be trusted? And can he survive long enough to find out...

Paper Ghosts is by Julia Haeberlin.  Having lived his life suspected of being a serial killer, Carl Louis Feldman begins his journey into old age at a nursing home in Texas. Though he was never charged with any crimes, the staff aren't sorry to see him go when his estranged daughter arrives to take her father on what could be his last road trip.  When Carl protests that this is not his daughter at all, the nurses are all too ready to excuse it as a product of his steadily deteriorating mind. But were those old suspicions about him true? And if he is an honest man, who has just driven him away from safety?

Angel in the Shadows is by Walter Lucius.  Farah Hafez raised her head and stared into the camcorder's reflective black hole.  'Now say what I want you to say. And do it convincingly. You can save this girl's life.'  That's when the words came. Unexpected and forceful. Like vomit.'   I, Farah Hafez, support the jihad against President Potanin's criminal regime.  'He smiled coldly and pulled the trigger anyway.  After investigating what appeared to be a simple hit-and-run, journalist Farah Hafez became caught up in a web of crime and corruption that led to her kidnap. Detained in Russia, she was forced to pledge her allegiance to a terrorist group on camera. Now sought by international security and members of the criminal class alike, Farah flees to Jakarta to continue her investigation while her friends and allies attempt to clear her name from across the globe. If Farah is ever going to regain her freedom, she needs to discover the root of the evil that bought her here. The problem is that discovering this might cost her her life.

May 2018

Major Tom Fox is despatched to East Berlin to bring home a traitor who defected to escape justice. But it's clear that there's more at stake than an old man wanting to return home to face the music. Powerful forces on both sides of the Iron Curtain stand to lose if the defector is given his day in court. Fox soon finds that in the upside-down world of Cold War Berlin he's operating alone in the enemy's backyard, unsure of who he can trust. And if Fox is going to succeed in his mission, let alone escape with his life, he will need to draw on skills learned during a past he's trying to forget . Nightfall Berlin is by Jack Grimwood. 

 . .

The untitled book is by Tim Weaver. A woman walks into a police station and tells officers she's been missing for eight years. She has no phone and no ID, just a piece of paper with a name on it: David Raker.  Raker specializes in locating missing people. After his wife died, they became how he coped and moved on - and, almost a decade later, the disappeared aren't just his job any more, they're his life. So when the police call him, Raker agrees to meet the woman.  But this is no ordinary case - and no ordinary woman.  She looks exactly like his dead wife. She knows everything about their marriage, their history, even private conversations the two of them had. And soon, everything Raker thought he knew about his life, and about the woman he loved, will be exposed as a devastating lie . . .

June 2018

The Dead Ex is by Jane Corry.  I wish he'd just DIE. 'He said in sickness and in health. But after Vicki was attacked at work and left suffering with epilepsy, her husband Daniel left her for his mistress. So when Vicki gets a call one day to say that he's gone missing, her first thought is 'good riddance'. But then the police find evidence suggesting that Daniel is dead. And they think Vicki had something to do with it. What really happened on the night of Daniel's disappearance?  And how can Vicki prove her innocence, when she's not even sure of it herself?

The Poison Bed is by E C Fremantle and is a chilling, noirish thriller ripped straight from the headlines.  A king, his lover and his lover's wife. One is a killer.  In the autumn of 1615 scandal rocks the Jacobean court when a celebrated couple are imprisoned on suspicion of murder. She is young, captivating and from a notorious family. He is one of the richest and most powerful men in the kingdom. Some believe she is innocent; others think her wicked or insane. He claims no knowledge of the murder. The king suspects them both, though it is his secret at stake. Who is telling the truth? Who has the most to lose? And who is willing to commit murder?

On a break between missions, Jack Ryan Jr is asked by his mother to visit Sarajevo and track down a girl whose life she saved during the war. Finally, he thinks, life might be quietening down. That's until he meets Aida - grown from a child into a beautiful and selfless woman. Jack finds himself drawn to her, not to mention impressed by her dangerous work helping Syrian refugees enter Europe. But the region is increasingly unstable, and just as Jack lets his guard down, Aida is violently kidnapped by the Serbian mafia.  With no official status, Jack's pleas for help fall on deaf ears, and he realises he must act alone to save the woman he loves. But as the simmering tensions threaten to bubble over, Jack will soon discover Bosnia is a dangerous place to fly solo…  Tom Clancy’s Line of Sight is by Mike Maden. 

July 2018

A woman and child are found locked in a basement room, barely alive. No-one knows who they are - the woman can't speak, and there are no missing persons reports that match their profile.  The elderly man who owns the house claims he has never seen them before. The inhabitants of the quiet Oxford street are in shock - how could this happen right under their noses?  But DI Adam Fawley knows that nothing is impossible. And that no-one is as innocent as they seem....  In the Dark is by Cara Hunter.