Books to Look Forward to from Quercus Books

Coffin Road is by Peter May and is due to be published in January 2016.  A man is washed up on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris, barely alive and borderline hypothermic. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his identity is a map tracing a track called the Coffin Road. He does not know where it will lead him, but filled with dread, fear and uncertainty he knows he must follow it. A detective crosses rough Atlantic seas to a remote rock twenty miles west of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. With a sense of foreboding he steps ashore where three lighthouse keepers disappeared more than a century before - a mystery that remains unsolved. But now there is a new mystery - a man found bludgeoned to death on that same rock, and DS George Gunn must find out who did it and why. A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her father's death. Two years after the discovery of the pioneering scientist's suicide note, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would wilfully abandon her. And the more she discovers about the nature of his research, the more she suspects that others were behind his disappearance. Coffin Road follows three perilous journeys towards one shocking truth - and the realisation that ignorance can kill us.

I talked to my mother the night she died, losing myself in memories of when we were happiest together. But I held one memory back, and it surfaces now, unbidden. I see a green post-box and a small hand stretching up to its oblong mouth. I am never sure whether that small hand is mine. But if not mine, whose? Louise Redmond left Ireland for London before she was twenty. Now, more than two decades later, her heart already breaking from a failing marriage, she is summoned home. Her mother is on her deathbed, and it is Louise's last chance to learn the whereabouts of a father she never knew. Stubborn to the end, Marjorie refuses to fill in the pieces of her daughter's fragmented past. Then Louise unexpectedly finds a lead. A man called David Prescott ...but is he really the father she's been trying to find? And who is the mysterious little girl who appears so often in her dreams? As each new piece of the puzzle leads to another question, Louise begins to suspect that the memories she most treasures could be a delicate web of lies.  What She Never Told Me is by M R McQuaile and is due to be published in March 2016.

Retribution is by Steffen Jacobsen and is due to be published in February 2016. On a warm

Autumn afternoon, Tivoli Gardens - Denmark's largest amusement park - is devastated by a terrorist attack. 1,241 people are killed. The unknown bomber is blown to bits; the security forces have no leads. One year later, the nation is still reeling, and those behind the attack are still at large. Amidst the increasingly frustrated police force, Superintendent Lene Jensen is suffering the effects of tragedy closer to home. Everyone is aware the terrorists may soon strike again. Then Lene receives a strange call. A young desperate Muslim woman needs her help, but by the time Lene reaches her she's already dead - supposedly suicide. Already suspicious, Lene's initial investigations suggest that the woman was unknowingly part of a secret services research project. Silenced by her superiors, Lene turns to her old ally Michael Sander to dig deeper. But with even her allies increasingly adamant her actions are a risk to national security, Lene begins to understand that finding the truth might be the most dangerous thing of all.

Ruth Galloway's friend Cathbad is housesitting in Walsingham, a Norfolk village famous as a centre for pilgrimages to the Virgin Mary. In an attempt to stop a malevolent cat from escaping, Cathbad sees a strange vision in the graveyard beside the cottage: a young woman dressed in blue. Cathbad thinks that he may have seen the Madonna herself but, the next morning, the woman's body, dressed in white nightdress and blue dressing-gown, is found in a ditch outside Walsingham. DCI Nelson and his team are called in and establish that the dead woman was a recovering addict being treated at a nearby private hospital. Ruth, a devout atheist, has managed to avoid Walsingham during her seventeen years in Norfolk. But then an old university friend, Hilary Smithson, asks to meet her in the village. When Ruth arrives at the Blue Lady cafe, she's amazed to discover that her friend is now a priest. Hilary has been receiving vitriolic anonymous letters targeting women priests - letters containing references to local archaeology and a striking phrase about a woman 'clad in blue, weeping for the world.' Then another woman is murdered - a priest. As Walsingham prepares for its annual Easter re-enactment of the Crucifixion, the race is on to unmask the killer before they strike again. Ruth has got herself tangled up in a grisly mystery play ...  The Woman in Blue is by Elly Griffiths and is due to be published in April 2016.

Arnaud Mars – a former police divsionnaire on the run after being implicated in a seismic defence contracts scandal – has been found dead in Africa.  The Smith & Wesson that killed him belongs to Commandant Sacha Duguin, a longstanding friend of Lola’s.  Who was really behind Mars’ death?  And what is it that has made Duguin the ideal scapegoat?  Lola joins forces once again with her partner-in-crime-fighting, Ingrid Diesel, in an investigation that will take them from France to Africa to Hong Kong.  Shadows and Sun is by Dominique Sylvain and is due to be published in June 2016.

When a young Pakistani bride falls to her death from a window, Rosie has to navigate the

story with care, trying not to upset the girl's devastated family or the local Pakistani community. After talking to the family, however, Rosie becomes convinced that there is more to the story than a tragic accident, and that something is being kept from her and the police. Meanwhile, on the other side of Glasgow, Nikki and Julie, two prostitutes, find themselves in trouble when a client dies during an assignment and it looks like one of them is to blame. Their problems become far worse though, when a briefcase they steal from the dead man turns out to contain some very valuable rough diamonds and several fake passports. It's clear it belonged to some serious criminals, and now they have much more to worry about than a dead body. Investigating the Pakistani girl's death, Rosie has been talking to Laila, another young girl from the community, who has voiced her fears of being forced into marrying a much older man in Pakistan. When Laila disappears, Rosie is sure her fears have been realised. Then Nikki contacts her asking for help, and Rosie senses a parallel with her current case. Sure enough, as Rosie flies to Pakistan to try and rescue Laila, it becomes clear that the 'accidental' death, Laila's disappearance and the briefcase are all linked - and once back in Glasgow, she, Julie and Nikki discover just how much danger they are in...  Rough Cut is by Anna Smith and is due to be published in January 2016.

The Man Who Wanted to Know is by M A Mishani and is due to be published in June 2016.Called on a stormy day to his first murder scene as the new commander of investigations, Inspector Avraham Avraham is astounded to discover he knows the victim: a middle-aged woman who had been assaulted in the past. His only lead is an eyewitness claiming he saw a policeman going down the building's staircase a few minutes after the murder. Eager to solve his first murder case, Avraham is determined to follow this lead even though it puts him in conflict with the entire police force. It'll take him to Mazal Bengtson - a young woman who doesn't know anything about the murder. She remembers the day of the storm for a different reason. And she will change everything Avraham thought about the case.

SIX FOUR. THE NIGHTMARE NO PARENT COULD ENDURE. THE CASE NO DETECTIVE COULD SOLVE. THE TWIST NO READER COULD PREDICT. For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again. For the fourteen years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police's apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as 'Six Four'. They would never forgive the authorities their failure. For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case. He could never imagine what he would uncover. He would never have looked if he'd known what he would find.  Six Four is by Hideo Yokoyama and is due to be published in March 2016.

The Other Side of Silence is by Philip Kerr and is due to be published in May 2016.  Bernie Gunther has done various jobs since the war. Now it's the 1950s and he's working in a hotel on the Cote D'Azur. It's winter, and the Riviera is empty and a little sad. In a bar one evening he bumps into Herr Leuthard, an acquaintance from the war, who offers him a most enticing job. Leuthard owns the Grand Hotel du Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. It's the best hotel on the Cote D'Azur and everyone has heard of it. Leuthard knows of Bernie' skills and thinks he could use them. Bernie's not so sure, says his detective days are over and he couldn't find a missing person in a phone booth. No matter, Leuthard tells him, I need a concierge, not a detective. A good concierge has to be like a detective. He's expected to know things, to fix things - sometimes he has to know things he's not supposed to know, and do things that others wouldn't want to do. Pleasing guests can be a tricky business, especially the ones with a lot of money. It sounds like a cushy number for a man like Bernie Gunther. And so begins a new adventure for him, where he'll discover just how many bad people pass through the doors of the Grand Hotel du Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

A volatile Zimbabwe and the jungles of the Congo are the battlefields for a deadly game of cat and mouse in Africa's wildlife wars. Canadian researcher Michelle Parker jumps at the chance to visit the famed mountain gorillas, but she is wary of the man offering it, a professional big game hunter, Fletcher Reynolds. He represents everything that she has fought against - the slaughter of animals for material gain - but she is reassured by his apparent support for the stamping out of poaching. Ex-SAS officer Shane Castle has been recruited by Fletcher to spearhead the anti-poaching campaign. Shane has seen what bullets can do to both man and animal. He makes Michelle start to doubt the choices she has made.  Safari is by Tony Park and is due to be published in March 2016.

Once a year, Corso Bramard receives a message from the man who destroyed his life. He left the police after a serial killer he was tracking murdered his wife and daughter, but fifteen years later he is still taunted by his old adversary. Mocking letters arrive at his home outside Turin, always from a different country, always typed on the same 1972 Olivetti. But this time the killer may have gone too far. A hair left in the envelope of his latest letter provides a vital clue. Bramard is a teacher now - no gun, no badge, just a score to settle. Isa, an academy graduate whose talent just about outweighs her attitude is assigned to fight his corner. They're a mismatched team, but if they work together they have a chance to unmask the killer before he strikes again - and to uncover a devastating secret that will cut Corso Barmard to the bone.  The Bramard Case is by Davide Longo and is due to be published in May 2016.

A Spring Betrayal is by Tom Callaghan and is due to be published in April 2016.   We uncovered the last of the bodies in the red hour before dusk, as the sun stained the snowcaps of the Tian Shan mountains the colour of dried blood and the spring air turned sharp and cold ...Inspector Akyl Borubaev of Bishkek Murder Squad has been exiled to the far corner of Kyrgystan, but death still haunts him at every turn. Borubaev soon finds himself caught up in a mysterious and gruesome new case: several children's bodies have been found buried together - all tagged with name bands. In his search for the truth behind the brutal killings, Borubaev hits a wall of silence, with no one to turn to outside his sometime lover, the beautiful undercover agent Saltanat Umarova. When Borubaev himself is framed for his involvement in the production of blood-soaked child pornography, it looks as though things couldn't get any worse. With the investigation at a dangerous standstill, Borubaev sets out to save his own integrity, and to deliver his own savage justice on behalf of the many dead who can't speak for themselves ...

A bloody and tragic run-in with ivory hunters in Mozambique left Mike Williams, former Australian Army officer, in despair. A year on, the authorities are on the poachers' trail and need his help to catch them. Now, as an overland tour guide, he must choose between his duty to keep the young tourists in his care safe, and his hunger for retribution. Thrown into the mix is tenacious English journalist Sarah Thatcher, who is determined to cover the story. She'll risk anything and anyone for a scoop, but little does she realize the danger that lies ahead. The murderous hunters and the innocent travellers are on a parallel journey through Africa's most spectacular locations. Eventually their paths will cross and Mike will have his shot at revenge. But at what cost? Far  Horizon is by Tony Parks and is due to be published in May 2016.

Shot Through the Heart is by Isabelle Grey and is due to be published in March 2016. Who can you turn to, if not the police? Essex, Christmas Day. As the residents of a small town enjoy their mince pies, shots ring out in the street. Five people are gunned down before the lone shooter turns his weapon on himself. Grace Fisher, now Detective Inspector, is tasked with making some sense of this

atrocity - all the more sensitive because the first of the victims was one of their own: a police officer. The case throws her back together with crime reporter Ivo Sweatman, but as she investigates it becomes clear that the police connection goes much deeper than she thought. As the evidence of corruption grows and she is obstructed at every turn, Grace knows she is walking further into danger. Then, her young key witness disappears ...What far-reaching compromises will Grace have to make to safeguard the innocent?

Dungeness, Kent Police Sergeant William South has a reason for not wanting to be on the murder investigation. He is a murderer himself. But the victim was his only friend. A quiet, reticent birdwatcher, South finds himself paired with the strong-willed Detective Sergeant Alexandra Cupidi, newly recruited to the Kent coast from London. Together they find the body, violently beaten, inside a wooden chest. The man's sister, broken hearted, cannot guess why he was murdered. But soon - too soon - they find a suspect: Donnie Fraser, a drifter from Northern Ireland. His presence in Kent disturbs William - because he knows him. As a boy, South and his mother fled their home in County Armagh, and, for many reasons, he has never looked back. If the past is catching up with him, South wants to meet it head on. For even as he desperately investigates the connections, he knows there is no crime, however duplicitous or cruel, that can compare to the great lie of his childhood. The Birdwatcher is a crime novel of suspense, intelligence and powerful humanity, that forces open scars from old terrors and faces the fear of retribution.  The Birdwatcher is by William Shaw and is due to be published in May 2016.

A Woman Much Missed is by Valerio Varesi and is due to be published in February 2016.  A few days before Christmas, with Parma gripped by frost, Ghitta Tagliavini, the elderly owner of a student guesthouse in the old town centre, is found dead in her apartment by Commissario Soneri himself. The investigation that follows holds a painful, personal element for Soneri. Tagliavini's guesthouse is where he met his late wife Ada, and where the young couple spent unforgettable hours in each other's company. But the present can embitter even the sweetest memories. An old photograph of Ada with another man sends Soneri into a spiral of despondency, ever more so when he realises her death may be linked to Tagliavini's sideline as a backstreet abortionist. And his retrospective jealousy is compounded when he learns that Ghitta rented her rooms by the hour for the illicit liaisons of Parma's rich and powerful. Did Ada have a part to play? Though Soneri would like nothing more than to be allowed to drop the case, he doggedly persists, uncovering at last, along with the truth behind Tagliavini's death, rife corruption at Parma's rotten heart and a raft of ghosts from Italy's divisive past.

The Wednesday Club is by Kjell Westö and is due to be published in May 2016. 1938. Hitler's expansionist policies are arousing both anger and admiration, not least in the 'Wednesday Club' in Helsinki. Something of a relaxed gentlemen's club, the group's members are old friends of lawyer Claes Thune. They socialise, discuss politics and drink together, but this year it is apparent that the political unrest in Europe is having an effect on the cohesion of the club. Thune, who has returned home after several years serving as a diplomat in Moscow and Stockholm, has recently divorced and is at something of a loss; he runs his law practice without any great enthusiasm, and the growing political anxiety and the chaos in his own life feel like two sides of the same coin. Fortunately he has the assistance of his new secretary, Matilda Wiik. But behind her polished exterior Matilda is tormented by memories of the Finnish Civil War, when at the age of just seventeen she experienced things she has been trying to forget ever since. Then one day her memories catch up with her. When the Wednesday Club gathers for a meeting in Thune's office, she hears a voice she had hoped she would never have to hear again. She is suddenly plunged back into the past, but this time she is no longer a helpless victim.

One time government agent Piet Hoffmann is on the run: both from the life prison sentence he escaped, and from the Polish drug mafia he double- crossed. Only Hoffmann’s handler, Erik Wilson knows he now hides in Cali, Columbia living under a false identity with his wife Zofia and sons Rasmus and Hugo.  But life on the run is precarious. And so when Hoffmann, in order to survive, accepts employment as a bodyguard and hit man for the Columbian cocaine mafia, and is simultaneously approached by the US DEA to infiltrate the same cartel.  He chooses to say yes to both. Hoffmann has a new lucrative double life. However, Hoffmann’s successful balancing act is short-lived.  When Timothy D Crouse, Chairman of the US House of Representatives, is kidnapped while on a trip to Columbia, US forces settle on a new enemy for their War on Terror.  This gives the cartel and the US government the same problem Pet Hoffmann.  Condemned and hung out to dry by both sides, Hoffmann is stranded.  Yet help will come from the most unusual of figures – the stubborn, ascorbic Swedish detective who has doggedly tracked his whereabouts, DC Ewert Grens – the enemy who Hoffmann once tricked – will now become the only ally he can trust.  Three Minutes is by Roslund and Hellström and is due to be published in June 2016.

Books to Look Forward to from Quercus Books

The Dordogne town of St Denis may be picturesque and sleepy, but it has more than its fair share of mysteries, as Bruno, chef de police, knows all too well. But when Bruno is invited to the 90th birthday of a powerful local patriarch - a war hero with high-level political connections in France, Russia and Israel - he encounters a family with more secrets than even he had imagined. When one of the other guests is found dead the next morning and the family try to cover it up, Bruno knows it's his duty to prevent the victim from becoming just another skeleton in their closet. Even if his digging reveals things Bruno himself would rather keep buried. Meanwhile, very modern battles are being fought in St Denis between hunters defending their traditions and environmentalists protecting local wildlife. Neither side, it seems, is above the use of violent tactics. At the centre of it all, Bruno must use all his cunning and character to protect his community's future from its present - and its past.  The Dying Season is by Martin Walker and is due to be published in July 2015.

After two years in the Seattle Police Department Detective Alice Madison seems to have found the kind of peace in her private and working life that she has not known before. However when a burglary escalates into an horrific murder she is put in charge of the investigation and finds herself tracking a killer who might have stalked the city for years and whose existence is the stuff of myth in high security prisons. Her own past comes under scrutiny and enemies close to home want her to fail as Madison and her partner hunt down a skillful, determined murderer with a talent for death, and Madison's private life falls apart.  Blood and Bone is by V M Giambanco and is due to be published in August 2015.

Box 21 is by Roslund and Hellstrom and is due to be published in December 2015.  CI Ewert Grens comes face to face with the cruel reality of human trafficking.  Lydia Grajauskas will never forget the face.  The face of the trafficker who brought her to Stockholm: the man responsible for three unrelenting years of forced prostitution and slavery.  DCI Ewert Grens will never forget the name.  The name of the prisoner the day his life was destroyed: the man responsible for twenty-five years of torturous heartache. Sweden will never forget their revenge . . . Box 21 is a steely, airtight thriller containing both the harshest aspects of degradation and retaliation, and the toughest questions surrounding the morality of violent and obsessive reprisal.

Taking Pity is by David Mark and is due to be published in July 2015. They have taken DS Aector McAvoy's family. They have taken DCI Colin Ray's foundation. They have taken DS Trish Pharaoh's fight. Now the ruthless criminal network that has tightened its stranglehold on Hull intends to take everything that remains from those who dare to stand in its way. Taking Pity is a police procedural thriller that pulls no punches. It is the story of three officers who can take no more, and a merciless nemesis that takes no chances, no prisoners and no pity.

The Memory of Evil is the final instalment in Roberto Costantini's internationally bestselling crime trilogy, and revisits Commissario Balistreri in 2011, five years on from the events of The Deliverance of Evil.  It is due to be published in September 2015. Now head of Homicide in Rome, Michele Balistreri is forced again to team up with investigative journalist Linda Nardi, as the pair follow a malevolent trail that stretches from Nairobi to San Francisco, and which will eventually lead Balistreri back to the island of La Moneta, the scene of his mother's apparent suicide in the summer of 1969, where a secret and sinister truth that has evaded him for five decades lies sickeningly in wait.

Dear Elizabeth, I've been watching you. I hope to see you...Soon. Liz Cafferky is on the up. Rescued from her dark past by the owner of a drop-in centre for older men, Liz soon finds herself as the charity's face - and the unwilling darling of the Dublin media. Amidst her claustrophobic fame, Liz barely notices a letter from a new fan. But then one of the Centre's clients is brutally murdered, and Elizabeth receives another, more sinister note. Running from her own ghosts, Liz is too scared to go to the police. And with no leads, there is little Sergeant Claire Boyle can do to protect her. Are You Watching Me is by Sinéad Crowley and is due to be published in July 2015.

Enough Rope is by Barbara Nadel and is due to be published in August 2015.  Private investigator and ex-soldier Lee Arnold and superintendent Paul Venus are by no means friends, but when Venus' son Harry is kidnapped and ransom demands arrive from an address in Arnold's patch in east London, the superintendent doesn't know who else to turn to. Arnold and his partner Mumtaz Hakim soon find themselves chasing leads into several of the East End's uneasily coexisting communities. Mumtaz uncovers a link to one of the area's powerful Bangladeshi families, whose property empire has always seemed suspicious, while Arnold suspects the involvement of more old-fashioned East End gangsters, and wonders if some of the nastier rumours about Venus himself might be true. And neither Mumtaz nor Lee like the look of the children of the super-rich, arriving in droves in the trendy parts of Hoxton and Shoreditch and living in luxury just a stone's throw from grinding urban poverty. The truth, however, is stranger and more dangerous than either Arnold or Hakim imagine. Enough Rope is a powerful and thrilling novel of London's ever-evolving dark side.

To shed light on a recent murder in Duluth, Jonathan Stride is forced to relive the darkest days of his and the city's past. NINE YEARS- It is almost a decade since Duluth said goodbye to its innocence. The city creeps ever closer to the tenth anniversary of the year in which it found itself both gripped by murder and united in terror; and during which the pillar of its community, DS Jonathan Stride, had his home and heart torn to ribbons by the claws of cancer.  NINE LIVES - Cat Mateo, an orphan with a knack of landing on her feet, has bid farewell to a life on the streets. This once-stray teenager owes her rescue to Detective Stride, the father figure she holds close to her heart. But Cat holds something else to her chest - a secret: the sheer power of which she could not possibly comprehend.  A secret that, once out of the bag, will not just viciously scratch at Duluth's still-healing wounds, but will make DS Jonathan Stride wave goodbye to his convictions about the events nine years before, and say hello to his darkest fears.  Goodbye to the Dead is by Brian Freeman and is due to be published in October 2015.

Smoke and Mirrors is by Elly Grifiths and is due to be published in November 2015. Brighton, 1951.  Pantomime season is in full swing on the snowy pier with Max Mephisto starring in Aladdin. But Max's headlines have been stolen by the disappearance ­­of two local children. With fairy tales in the air, it's not long before the press have found a nickname for the case: 'Hansel and Gretel'.  DI Edgar Stephens has plenty of leads to investigate. The missing girl, Annie, used to write plays and perform them with her friends. Does the clue lie in Annie's unfinished - and rather disturbing - last script? Or might it lie with the eccentric theatricals who have assembled for the pantomime?  For Stan (aka the Great Diablo), who's also appearing in Aladdin, the case raises more personal memories. Back before the Great War, he witnessed the murder of a young girl while he was starring in another show, an event which has eerie parallels to the current case.  Once again Edgar enlists Max's help in penetrating the shadowy theatrical world that seems to hold the key. But with both distracted by their own personal problems, neither can afford to miss a trick. For Annie and her friend, time is running out.

Unexplained bloodstains appear in a young couple's apartment; a disembodied hand is found in a rubbish dump; political prisoners resort to horrific measures in order to make a point. In this brilliant new collection of stories, Alberto Barrera Tyszka casts an eye on the violence that afflicts Latin America, and in particular its intimate effects on the individuals who suffer and inflict it. Mixing the surreal with the quotidian, the banal with the unspeakable, Tyszka has created a fragmentary panorama of man's misdeeds against his own kind. These windingly elliptical stories are ceaselessly surprising, and will bury themselves into your subconscious long after the final page is turned.  Crimes is due to be published in August 2015.

Pen 33 is by Roslund and Hellstrom and is due to be published in November 2015.  Bernt Lund harbours a sickness. He is a monster: in the mind of society, in the mind of his two nine-year-old victims' parents, and in the mind of his fellow inmates.  Lennart Oscarsson harbours a secret. Yet he is seen as dependable: in the eyes of his family, in the eyes of colleagues, and in the eyes of the prisoners he oversees.  These men's weaknesses will soon hand DCI Ewert Grens the most profoundly sickening and impossibly sensitive case of both his career and Stockholm's history.  Pen 33 is both an unforgiving collision between a time-hardened policeman and a truly heinous crime, and an unflinching exploration of what people - whether criminals or victims - are capable of when they choose to relinquish self-control.

The First Man is by Xavier-Marie Bonnot and is due to be published in July 2015.  Commandant Michel de Palma, known by his colleagues as 'the Baron', has chosen early retirement and plans to travel the world. But he is dragged back into the force when a case that has haunted him for a decade erupts once more. Resurfacing from Le Guen's Cave, a prehistoric grotto thirty-eight metres below sea level outside Marseille, an experienced diver mysteriously gets into difficulties. Meanwhile, Thomas Autran, a serial killer with a peculiar interest in the supernatural, suffering from a dangerous form of schizophrenia, is once again on the run. Ancient cave paintings, savage murders committed according to a precise ritual: a return to the first ages of humanity, the era of the great Palaeolithic hunters. And despite the gory trail left at each crime scene, de Palma must first understand the child, the secrets of a family, a story of exploitation - and revenge - before he can track down the First Man

She is the girl with the dragon tattoo. Lisbeth Salander. An uncompromising misfit whose burning sense of injustice and talent for investigation will never respect boundaries of state or status. He is a campaigning journalist. Mikael Blomkvist. A lone wolf whose integrity and championing of the truth bring him time and again to the brink of unemployment - and prosecution. The call comes in late at night: a superhacker has gained access to critical, top secret U.S. intelligence. Blomkvist knows only one person who could crack the best security systems in the world. This case has all the hallmarks of Salander. She is accused of acting without reason, taking risks just because she can, but though they have lost touch, Blomkvist knows Lisbeth better than that. There must be something deeper at the heart of this - maybe even the scoop that Millennium magazine so desperately needs for its survival. A tangled web of truth that someone is prepared to kill to protect...  The Girl in the Spider’s Web is by David Lagercrantz and is due to be published in August 2015

The Great Swindle is by Pierre Lemaitre and is due to be published in November 2015.  1918. The war on the Western Front is all but over. Wanting to impress his superiors, an ambitious officer, Lieutenant Henry D'Aulnay Pradelle, sends two soldiers over the top and shoots them in the back to incite their comrades to attack the German lines.  When Albert Maillard reaches the bodies and realises how they must have died, the Lieutenant pushes him into a shellhole in the hope of silencing him for good. But Albert is rescued by a fellow soldier, Edouard Péricourt, who takes a piece of shrapnel in the face for his troubles. In the field hospital, Edouard refuses cosmetic surgery and will not face his family in his current state. Albert finds him a new identity and informs Edouard's wealthy father of his son's "death".  Back in civilian life, Albert becomes Edouard's carer. A young girl, Louise, is Edouard's salvation. In her company his talent for art is rekindled, as is his sense of mischief. He devises a confidence trick that can make them a fortune - taking money for never-to-be-built war memorials from gullible towns. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Pradelle has married Edouard's sister Madeline and is running a scam of his own . . .

The Reality behind Roslund and Hellstrom

I had the recent pleasure of attending Bouchercon, the world Crime, Mystery & Thriller Convention held in San Francisco. Prior to my trip, I had the personal delight with my Shots Colleagues Mike Stotter and Ayo Onatade, to finally meet the Swedish writing duo Roslund and Hellstrom in London, at Quercus Publishing’s launch party for ‘Three Seconds’; during which I recorded a two part feature interview for The Rap Sheet -

Part I

Part II

Then in San Francisco, I moderated a panel with these two crime-writers, during which I discovered that the darkness that they write about, is matched equally by their charming personalities.

I have always believed in the statement by Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke - “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" and I admire journalists who expose the true nature of evil, especially the dangers posed by the political extremes, be they threats to society from the far-right, or the extreme-left.

Anders Roslund like Stieg Larsson is one of those men, fearless in expressing and exposing the truths that lie beneath the evil of extremism, something that he revealed in our interview –

Ali Karim: So, I cannot help but ask this: What do you think of the Stieg Larsson global phenomenon?

Anders Roslund : For me he is not global; he is still local to me. This is because my contacts with Stieg Larsson were--and are--very important to me. I was for a long time publishing investigative journalism about extreme right-wing organizations. At one point I was on top of their “death list” and was physically abused, and was referred to as the “Threatened TV Man” in all the newspapers. I had a bodyguard. I was living in hotels without addresses, and as soon as my new number and address were known, I had to move fast to yet another “safe house.” Then the death threats returned. At that time, I contacted Stieg, since he had the same problem with the extreme right, and he had the knowledge and experience I needed to survive the Nazi threats. We shared the same problem, we worked it out together. I miss him immensely.

I am partway writing up my report about the wonderful time I had in Bouchercon, [with R J Ellory, my friend the award-winning thiller-writer], but with a deal with my wife; I have just returned from a week in France [for allowing to me to escape to the US West Coast for a few days]. During this time in Europe, I noticed another symptom of the economic crisis - the march of the extreme-right in that once bastion of truly liberal values – Sweden. I was pleased to see that Anders Rolsund commented on the situation last week in The Guardian –

So, it happens again. A town in flames. A nation changes complexion. A democracy looks for a new direction.

It started in 1991, August; a quiet Stockholm summer evening. The silence is shattered: a man is shot and wounded. For another six months the whole of Swedish society is wounded; fear becomes a part of all of us. One person dies, and others damaged for life. Slowly a pattern emerges: a Swedish citizen who shot with a rifle and laser sights at victims who all had something in common – darker skin, dark hair, or an immigrant background.

I was then the chief reporter for Swedish television on the story, which was the biggest police operation and trial that Sweden had seen since the 1986 assassination of the prime minister, Olof Palme. I reported from the first shots till the last day of the trial. I saw Sweden changed: Nazi flags were raised; there were riots between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators; young people found their way into extremist groups. And out of that time an anti-immigrant party emerged – called New Democracy – which a few months later gained a popular vote and entered Sweden's parliament.

As a journalist I continued to cover the growth of rightwing extremism and xenophobia in Sweden. Just like my fellow journalist and author Stieg Larsson, death threats were made against me, and I lived in hiding with armed bodyguards.

Then everything changed again. A few years later, democracy and openness had pushed back the fear of foreignness. We could once more be proud of our Sweden. Until now. Until it happened again – but this time the other way round.
This time the anti-immigrant party, the Sweden Democrats, were formed first. During the autumn's election campaign they ran on one issue only and in September were voted into the Swedish parliament. Xenophobia became established and – I am certain of this – legitimised what we see happening again, this time in Malmö, Sweden's third largest city, situated a long way south, close to the continent, and with a high proportion of immigrants, who, the police believe, are now being targeted by a racially motivated gunman. The latest attack was on an Iranian-born hairdresser on Saturday.

Read More from Anders Roslund on the rise of Swedish Xenophobia here

If you’ve not read Roslund and Hellstrom’s Three Seconds, you will find that their narrative is edged with the darkest edges of reality, and here are my thoughts –

Three Seconds ushers you into the grim, violent world of undercover police and the Polish mafia’s plan to corner the drug market in the prison systems of Sweden, Finland, and Norway. When a clandestine drug operation handled by undercover Swedish agent Piet Hoffmann goes wrong, and a Danish covert operative is murdered, Hoffmann’s handler, Erik Wilson, concocts a scheme that will place his agent in full view of the Polish mafia, to take control of the drug supply at a Swedish penal complex. Sniffing an irregularity in the investigation of the dead Danish agent are Roslund and Hellström’s series cops, Ewert Grens and Sven Sundqvist, who encounter barriers at every turn. Meanwhile, agent Hoffmann infiltrates a maximum-security penitentiary with the idea of assuming dominion there, using the drugs supply as leverage. However, the Polish mafia, in the guise of Wojtek Security, has other ideas.Tense and gripping, with a chilling climax, Three Seconds is not a book to miss if you like your crime fiction edged with the steel blades of reality. Roslund and Hellström pepper their narrative with insider knowledge and perspectives, and their story’s brutal violence pushes this new book firmly into the thriller category.

Sometimes the best fiction puts a mirror to reality, even if that reflection is not pleasant.

Photo © 2010 Ali Karim

From London to San Francisco

It’s a busy time with Mike Stotter, Ayo Onatade and I. We’re in London to celebrate the best of the best in the crime fiction genre this Friday at The Specsavers CWA Dagger Awards. This year we have both Literary as well as Cinematic work under the judge’s microscope.

Then next week, Roger Ellory and I make the long journey to San Francisco for this year’s biggest event in the Crime and Fiction Diary – Bouchercon, the world crime and mystery convention. It’s going to a very large event. Shots gives a huge round of applause to Chair Rae Helmsworth and her dedicated team of organizers. It really is a mammoth task managing one the biggest Bouchercon events ever - looking at the attendance register it seems everyone is coming!

Roger and I have a very busy time planned in the US for Bouchercon, following which Roger travels to Canada for the International Festival of Authors. Roger since his debut novel ‘Candlemoth’ has been globe-trotting, racking up international recognition for his fiction, including this summer, one from Britain & gaining readers including from business. I always enjoy traveling with Roger, as we always have a lot of fun and amusing misadventures. I have known Roger for many years, and I am amazed at how hard he works and actually finds time to write his internationally recognized fiction, including his latest ‘Saints of New York’. I was delighted to view this disturbing book video which shows you just how dark Ellory’s imagination is -



If you find yourself around San Francisco next week, why not meet Roger Ellory at Bouchercon where he’s featured on an interesting panel moderated by Jen Forbus entitled ‘Dead or Alive : Making Crime Fiction Come Alive’ on Thursday October 14th at 1130 hrs in Bayview B. Joining Roger and Jen are Brad Parks, Hilary Davidson and Douglas Corleone.

Incidentally I am moderating a couple of interesting panels myself –

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED - our favorite books

Thursday Oct 14th 10:00am in Seacliff A

Ali Karim (M) - Chris Aldrich, Sarah Byrne, Janet Rudolph, Andi Shechter

I am as ever flattered to be moderating the book reviewing panel where we will discuss our favourite books, past present and future with key critics of the genre. Remember it was at Bouchercon that word about Stieg Larsson travelled from Europe to America, so you may well discover what the critics reckon will become the big books of 2010.

Joining me are the following key reviewers -

Janet Rudolph is the editor of the Mystery Readers Journal, and creative director/writer at Murder on the Menu and TeamBuilding Unlimited. She blogs daily at Mystery Fanfare and DyingforChocolate.com, facilitates a weekly mystery bookgroup, hosts literary salons with crime writers, and has been a committee member on numerous mystery conventions. She has won the Anthony Award for Special Service to the Field and the Don Sandstrom Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Mystery Fandom. A long time contributor to the mystery genre, she received her Ph.D. in religious mystery fiction. She lives in the Berkeley (CA) hills with her husband, a golden retriever, and two cats. Her websites are: www.mysteryreaders.org, www.murderonthemenu.com, www.teambuilding-unlimited.com and Blogs: Mystery Fanfare (mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com) and DyingforChocolate www.dyingforchocolate.com.

Chris Aldrich - For 12 years, Chris Aldrich was the co-publisher, with Lynn Kaczmarek, of Mystery News, the Anthony Award winning interview and review publication. Chris loves introducing readers to new and wonderful crime fiction authors. She has written essays for other publications, including They Died in Vain, the 2006 MWA Annual and the Bouchercon 2003 program book. In real life, Chris is a global product Manager for a software company that specializes in international compliance and logistics but she secretly yearns to be a PI. She lives in the New York suburbs and is an avid soccer aunt.

Seattle-based Andi Shechter chaired Left Coast Crime in 1997 and 2007. A long-time reviewer and blogger, Andi lives in the SF and mystery communities and spends little time in the real world, except when the library and coffee shops are open. She was Fan Guest of Honor at LCC in Anchorage in 2001. Andi can frequently be found watching figure skating, reading cookbooks and hanging out with a fabulous collection of toy gorillas and monkeys. Andi lives with the amazing Stu Shiffman. OR she's a blond, coke-addicted runway model with an attitude from New York. Go ahead, ask her.

Sarah Byrne is a lawyer from Canberra Australia, who you'd think would get enough of this sort of thing at the office. She also sings jazz, and any time left over is given to reading crime fiction, writing about crime fiction, or talking about crime fiction at such events as Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, the Melbourne Crime & Justice Festival and the Canberra Writer's Festival. She's also twice been a Ned Kelly judge. This is her 7th Bouchercon and she's thrilled to be part of it.

And the following day, I am very excited about this last minute addition; a panel that I am sure will be very well attended due to the truly international nature of the crime fiction genre. It includes a very rare appearance from two of the most viscerally interesting writers of crime thrillers since Stieg Larsson; the Swedish writing duo Roslund & Hellström.

INFERNO : Where will the next great idea come from?
Ali Karim (M), Zoë Ferraris, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Anders Roslund, Börge Hellström, Joshua Sobol

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15 11:30AM-12:30PM in Grand Ballroom C

Zoë Ferraris moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to live with her then-husband and his family, a group of Saudi-Palestinian Bedouins. Her first novel, FINDING NOUF, [aka Night of the Mi’raj] won the LA TIMES book award for Best First Novel. Her debut was also shortlisted by The CWA [in Britain] for the 2008 John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, with the judges describing it as “A young woman from a wealthy Saudi family is found murdered in the desert. Her death is investigated by Nayir the Bedouin. He is a sympathetic hero with a genuine sense of modesty. The novel is tense and well paced.” A follow-up novel, CITY OF VEILS, has just been published by Little, Brown. She lives in San Francisco.

Anders Roslund & Börge Hellström are awarding winning Swedish crime writers who collaborate on very dark, fast moving and socially aware crime thrillers such as The Beast, Box 21 [aka The Vault] and the upcoming 3 Seconds, with two earlier novels currently in translation into English.

Anders Roslund Born 1961. Founder and former head of Kulturnyheterna (Culture News) on Swedish Television. For many years he worked as a news reporter – specializing in criminal and social issues – and as an Editor-in-chief at Rapport and Aktuellt, the two major News programmes on Swedish Television. He has worked in a canning factory in Israel, as a kiwi farmer in New Zealand, and as a waiter in Colorado.

Börge Hellström Born 1957. One of the founders of the crime prevention organization KRIS (Criminals Return Into Society). He has worked with rehabilitation of young offenders and drug addicts. He has been a singer and guitar player in different bands, and made a living as a travelling troubadour.

Joshua Sobol is a playwright, director and author. He wrote sixty two plays, two novels and short stories. His play "GHETTO" has been produced by leading theatres worldwide and won the Evening Standard award and London Critics award for Best Play 1989 and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier award. His play "A Palestinian Girl" won the Issam Sirtawi award. Sobol developed and explored together with director Paulus Manker new forms of drama and wrote the Polydrama "ALMA". Joshua Sobol is committed to the struggle for a peaceful solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sobol’s latest American publication is the novel "Cut Throat Dog" by Melville House Publishers.

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic writer, of both crime-novels and children's fiction. She has been writing since 1998. Her crime novels feature lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir and include Last Rituals, My Soul to Take and Ashes to Dust. Iceland's only female crime novelist she told the Scotsman newspaper earlier this year “The problem with being a crime writer in Iceland, is that there's not that much crime there to write about. Icelandic murders, as well as being rare, tend to have a depressing stupidity about them.” She also has a career as a civil engineer and lives in the Reykjavík suburb of Seltjarnarnes. She is married with two children

This week at The Rap Sheet, we’re featuring a pre-Bouchercon special feature length 2-part interview with Roslund & Hellström to coincide with their rare visit to the US, which will include a look at their disturbing debut novel The Beast [2005], Box 21 aka The Vault [2007] and just released, the prison psycho-drama that is 3 Seconds. A warning, their work is not for those of a sensitive nature, but if you like challenge in your crime thrillers…….check out The Rap Sheet this week and come to San Francisco next week to attend the biggest event in the International crime-fiction genre - Bouchercon.

If you want to know what all the fuss is about the disturbing novel ‘3 SECONDS' by Roslund & Hellström click below -



We hope to see you in the US West Coast next week!

Photos (c) Ali Karim, with Roger Ellory and Lee Child

Covers (c) Orion Publishing