My inspiration for The Good Death, by S.D Sykes

 

‘Good’ and ‘Death’ are not words that we necessarily associate with one another, are they? In fact, there was something about the awkward juxtaposition of these two words that almost shocked me when I first came across this term. But it was once an expression that was all-too familiar to people. In fact, it was once profoundly important to society. 

But let me rewind a little. I’m the author of a series of historical crime novels, set in 14th century Kent and which follow the exploits of my protagonist – a young nobleman called Oswald de Lacy – the ‘spare’ who unexpectedly becomes head of his family when his older brothers die of plague. My latest novel ‘The Good Death’ centres around a death-bed confession that Oswald makes to his dying mother – a confession that tells the story of a murder investigation that Oswald undertook as a novice monk (before he was called upon to become Lord Somershill) and finally reveals the truth behind a very dark and long-hidden family secret.

So, what was a ‘good death?’ And why did it matter so much in the past – especially to the people of the Middle Ages? In essence, it was the belief that the soul should be prepared for the afterlife in the days and hours before death, to make sure that the sufferer’s passage through Purgatory would be quick, and that the gates of Heaven would be open upon arrival. As such, there was a strict set of religious rituals undertaken during these last hours, and in particular the administering of the sacraments of Confession, Communion and Anointing. If these rituals were properly observed, then the person could be said to have achieved a ‘good death.’ But the opposite is also true – in an age where superstition and fear prevailed to die without a ‘good death’ was a truly terrifying prospect. 

One of the most important aspects of this ritual, was the idea that you must use these hours to completely and utterly forgive those who might have harmed you in this life. In the words of the Lord’s Prayer, it was important for the dying person to ‘forgive those who have trespassed against us.’ For me, this particular concept was irresistible, as it sets up all sorts of scintillating possibilities. In such circumstances, what secrets and indiscretions might others confess to, and then ask their dying relative to forgive? After all, there is little to lose and everything to gain in this scenario… for both parties. The confessor will be unburdening a secret before it’s too late, and the sufferer will achieve another point towards their ‘good death’. … as long as they can find it in their hearts to forgive, that is. And of course, if they can’t forgive the sinner, then they have only doomed themselves to eternal damnation – or an eternity in Purgatory at the very least.

I guess, in our more secular world, we might find this obsession with the rituals of the death-bed a little quaint? If we think about the concept of a ‘good death’ then it’s probably in the context of a quick and painless exit from this world, rather than any particular concerns about our eternal soul. That’s if we think about death at all. Because I think we’re pretty good at ignoring death in our modern world. I say this, even in the aftermath of this last year, when the Covid 19 pandemic has been raging. Despite this experience, I think that we are still determined ‘death ignorers’, if not exactly ‘death deniers.’ 

But the average person in the Middle Ages could be neither. Death was a constant companion throughout their lives, in a world where life expectancy was short, child mortality was high, and there was little in the way of effective medicine – for even the most basic of illnesses. This is not to mention the many plagues and pandemics that swept through society at regular intervals (not the 100 year gap that we might expect.) And when a person died, their body was not spirited away to a funeral parlour, never to be seen again. Instead it was washed and prepared for death by the family themselves, before it was proudly put on display, for everybody to visit – until it was finally buried in the ground of the local church, where the grave would be visible every time the surviving family attended weekly communion. 

Under these circumstances, I think it’s very easy to understand our ancestors’ preoccupation with a good death, and the importance of following the rules. In his book, The Black Death, John Hatcher tells us that, ‘In the later Middle Ages the deathbed was commonly portrayed as a battlefield where the forces of good and evil, mercy and condemnation, fought over the soul of the dying.’ I hope to have given a true flavour of this ‘battlefield’ in my novel, and to have fully explored the fall-out of the death-bed confessional!

The Good Death by S D Sykes ( Hodder and Stoughton) Out Now

1370. Oswald de Lacy was not always Lord of the Manor, or even meant to be. The third son, he was sent off to become a novice monk. Now, with winter closing in on Somershill, his wife flirting with their houseguest, his sister sniping from the sidelines and his mother still ruling his life even from her deathbed, Oswald is forced to confront the secret that has haunted him ever since those days in the monastery. 1349. Sent to gather herbs in the forest by his tutor, Brother Peter, 18-year-old Oswald encounters a terrified girl, who runs into the swollen river and drowns. In her village, he discovers that she is only one of many poor young women who have disappeared, with no-one in authority caring enough to investigate. Convinced the girls are dead, Oswald turns to the village women for help in finding the murderer - in particular to the beautiful Maud Woodstock, who provokes feelings in Oswald that no monk should entertain. Soon, however, another killer stalks the land. Plague has come and the monastery is locked against it. Brother Peter insists that Oswald should forget his quest. But Oswald will not stop until he has discovered the shocking truth, which will echo down the years to a letter, clutched in his dying mother's hand.

More information about S D Sykes and the Oswald de Lacy series can be found on her website.  You can also follow her on Twitter @SD_Sykes

Books to Look Forward to From Hodder & Stoughton

 July 2021

What was it like? Living in that house. Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into a rambling Victorian estate called Baneberry Hall. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a memoir called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon.  Now, Maggie has inherited Baneberry Hall after her father's death. She was too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father's book. But she doesn't believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don't exist. But when she returns to Baneberry Hall to prepare it for sale, her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the pages of her father's book lurk in the shadows, and locals aren't thrilled that their small town has been made infamous. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself - a place that hints of dark deeds and unexplained happenings. As the days pass, Maggie begins to believe that what her father wrote was more fact than fiction. That, either way, someone - or something- doesn't want her here. And that she might be in danger all over again . . . Home Before Dark is by Riley Sager.

From Max Barry comes The 22 Murders of Madison May a mind-bending speculative psychological suspense about a serial killer pursuing his victim across time and space, and the woman who is determined to stop him, even if it upends her own reality. "I love you. In every world." Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love - shortly before he murders her. Felicity Staples hates reporting on murders. As a journalist for a mid-size New York City paper, she knows she must take on the assignment to research Madison May's shocking murder, but the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes. Soon, Felicity senses her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity's encounter with the mysterious man. And her cat is missing. Felicity realizes that in her pursuit of Madison's killer, she followed him into a different dimension - one where everything about her existence is slightly altered. At first, she is determined to return to the reality she knows, but when Madison May - in this world, a struggling actress - is murdered again, Felicity decides she must find the killer - and learns that she is not the only one hunting him. Traveling through different realities, Felicity uncovers the opportunity - and danger - of living more than one life.

The Nameless One is by John Connolly. In Amsterdam, four people are butchered in a canal house, their remains arranged around the crucified form of their patriarch, De Jaager: fixer, go-between, and confidante of the assassin named Louis. The men responsible for the murders are Serbian war criminals. They believe they can escape retribution by retreating to their homeland. They are wrong. For Louis has come to Europe to hunt them down: five killers to be found and punished before they can vanish into the east. There is only one problem. The sixth.

A priceless manuscript. A missing scholar. A trail of riddles. Bombay, 1950. For over a century, one of the world's great treasures, a six-hundred-year-old copy of Dante's The Divine Comedy, has been safely housed at Bombay's Asiatic Society. But when it vanishes, together with the man charged with its care, British scholar and war hero, John Healy, the case lands on Inspector Persis Wadia's desk. Uncovering a series of complex riddles written in verse, Persis - together with English forensic scientist Archie Blackfinch - is soon on the trail. But then they discover the first body. As the death toll mounts it becomes evident that someone else is also pursuing this priceless artefact and will stop at nothing to possess it . . . Harking back to an era of darkness, The Dying Day is the second thriller in the Malabar House series by Vaseem Khan and pits Persis, once again, against her peers, a changing India, and an evil of limitless intent.

Fast Track is by Stephen Leather. Who can you trust if you can't trust the people tasked with protecting the nation? Murderous jihadists have been crossing the English Channel, passing themselves off as asylum seekers. MI5 have been keeping them under surveillance, but what starts as a simple terrorist takedown goes badly wrong and dozens of innocent civilians are killed in the heart of London. And the screw is tightened when a bomb takes out senior members of the Secret Intelligence Service. Someone within the security services has been working to their own agenda, and only Dan 'Spider' Shepherd can identify the bad apple. His search for the rogue agent takes him to Turkey and then to Dubai, where his masters order him to carry out a breathtaking act of revenge.

The Doll is by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. It was meant to be a quiet family fishing trip, a chance for mother and daughter to talk. But it changes the course of their lives forever. They catch nothing except a broken doll that gets tangled in the net. After years in the ocean, the doll a terrifying sight and the mother's first instinct is to throw it back, but she relents when her daughter pleads to keep it. This simple act of kindness proves fatal. That evening, the mother posts a picture of the doll on social media. By the morning, she is dead and the doll has disappeared. Several years later and Detective Huldar is in his least favourite place - on a boat in rough waters, searching for possible human remains. However, identifying the skeleton they find on the seabed proves harder than initially thought, and Huldar must draw on psychologist Freyja's experience to help him. As the mystery of the unidentified body deepens, Huldar is also drawn into an investigation of a homeless drug addict's murder, and Freyja investigates a suspected case of child abuse at a foster care home. What swiftly becomes clear is that the cases are linked through a single, missing, vulnerable witness: the young girl who wanted the doll all those years ago.

August 2021

Billy Summers is by Stephen King. Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He's a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he'll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong? How about everything.

The Woman in the Blue Cloak and Other Stories is by Deon Meyer. The brilliant two-time-frame novella The Woman in the Blue Cloak has not appeared before in mass-market paperback. It is joined here by several shorter stories, published for the first time in book form. The title story features Meyer's much-loved detective Benny Griessel at a key moment in his relationship with his new love, Alexa.

In the most inhospitable environment - cut off from the rest of the world - there's a killer on the loose. A&E doctor Kate North has been knocked out of her orbit by a personal tragedy. So when she's offered the opportunity to be an emergency replacement at the UN research station in Antarctica, she jumps at the chance. The previous doctor, Jean-Luc, died in a tragic accident while out on the ice. The move seems an ideal solution for Kate: no one knows about her past; no one is checking up on her. But as total darkness descends for the winter, she begins to suspect that Jean-Luc's death wasn't accidental at all. And the more questions she asks, the more dangerous it become. The Dark is by Emma Haughton.

The Courier is by Holly Down. She sees much more than you think . . . Five years ago, Laurel Lovejoy had it all. The high-powered city job, the loving husband, the perfect daughter. Now, she is forty and alone, and working for a courier service. But she has discovered that being a delivery driver comes with a superpower: it makes her invisible. People accept her presence without question. They go about their lives, unaware of just how much she sees - how much she knows. Laurel is particularly fascinated by the residents of Paradise Found, an exclusive gated cul-de-sac. She sometimes even finds her way there when she's not working, using her days off to soak up as much information about the inhabitants and their lives as she can. Everyone needs a hobby. Then one day Laurel sees something in one of the houses - something that blows her whole world apart, and will have devastating consequences for everyone involved . . .

The terrorist Guy Fowle has escaped from prison. Jude Lyon of MI-6 has been saved from a Syrian ambush by his lover - and enemy? - Julia Ermolaeva. A mysterious Russian has been murdered in London and his thumb cut off. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made an unfortunate social connection at a party, which he hopes he can keep secret. And suddenly, the world is literally going up in flames. Jude needs to start putting together the pieces of this jigsaw and quickly, because someone is putting into play a terrifying Russian plan to disable and destroy the UK. Once it has begun, it is designed to be impossible to stop. Bad enough if that someone is the Russian government. Worse if it is the psychopathic genius Fowle, otherwise known as The Stranger. Packed with stunning action, political intrigue, authentic tradecraft, emotion, shocks and nail-biting suspense, The Saboteur by Simon Conway takes the spy thriller to new heights.

The Good Death is by S D Sykes. Oswald de Lacy, Lord of Somershill, sits at his mother's deathbed. Before she dies, he must make a confession. He needs to tell of the days when he was eighteen years old, the third, disregarded son of the family, sent off to become a monk, working in the infirmary while plague raged outside the monastery. Of how he was sent to a nearby village and witnessed the death of a local girl, and how he swore to investigate... and how he was drawn into a crime so dark and terrifying, it haunts him - and his family – still.

The Madness of Crowds is by Louise Penny. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is asked to provide crowd control at a statistics lecture given at the Universite de l'Estrie in Quebec, he is dubious. Why ask the head of homicide to provide security for what sounds like a minor, even mundane lecture? But dangerous ideas about who deserves to live in order for society to thrive are rapidly gaining popularity, fuelled by the research of the eminent Professor Abigail Robinson. Yet for every person seduced by her theories there is another who is horrified by them. When a murder is committed days after the lecture, it's clear that within crowds can lie madness. To uncover the truth, Gamache must put his own feelings about the divisive Professor to one side. But with her ideas gaining ground, the line separating good and evil, right and wrong, is quickly blurring - especially when the case leads unexpectedly close to home …

The Origins of Iris is by Beth Lewis. 'I opened my eyes and the woman wearing my face opened hers at the same time.' Iris flees New York City, and her abusive wife Claude, for the Catskill Mountains. When she was a child, Iris and her father found solace in the beauty and wilderness of the forest; now, years later, Iris has returned for time and space to clear her head, and to come to terms with the mistakes that have led her here. But what Iris doesn't expect in her journey of survival and self-discovery is to find herself – literally. Trapped in a neglected cabin deep in the mountains, Iris is grudgingly forced to come face to face with a seemingly prettier, happier and better version of herself. Other Iris made different choices in life and love. But is she all she seems? Can she be trusted? What is she hiding? As a storm encroaches, threatening both their lives, time is running out for them to discover why they have been brought together, and what it means for their futures.

September 2021

At 8am the first shots are fired. At 1pm, the police establish the gunman has a hostage. By 5pm, a siege is underway. At 9pm, DI Helen Birch walks, alone and unarmed, into an abandoned Borders farmhouse to negotiate with the killer. One day. One woman. One chance to get everyone out alive. A Matter of Time is by Claire Askew.

The Refuge is by Jérôme Loubry. Where to hide when there's nowhere left to run?  Sandrine is asked to empty her late grandmother's house on a small island near the Normandy coast. She soon discovers that its elderly inhabitants haven't left the island since their arrival as children during World War II. Sandrine can tell they are terrified of someone, or something. Yet, they refuse to leave the island. What happened to the children from the holiday camp which was suddenly shut down in 1949? And who was Sandrine's grandmother, really?

Blind Tiger is by Sandra Brown. 1920, Texas. With World War One over and Prohibition beginning, soldier Thatcher Hutton returns home to a country unlike the one he left behind. He is eager to resume his pre-war life as a cowboy but when he is caught up in a local crime along the way he must gain the sheriff's trust to clear his name. Laurel Plummer has suffered enough tragedies for a lifetime. Now left to fend for herself, she vows never to be beholden to a man again. But honourable sources of income are scarce and she must rely on her knowledge f peddling illegal whiskey. She becomes taken with the new boy in town but getting too close to someone in the company of the sheriff risks her livelihood. 

The Last Guest is by J P Pomare. Ever get the feeling that you're being watched? Newlyweds Lina and Cain don't make it out to their vacation home on gorgeous Lake Tarawera as often as they'd like, so when Cain suggests they rent the property out on weekends, Lina reluctantly agrees. While the home has been special to her family for generations, their neighbours are all signing up to host renters, and to be honest, she and Cain could use the extra money. What could go wrong? At first, Lina is amazed at how quickly guests line up to spend a weekend - and at how much they're willing to pay. But both Lina and Cain have been keeping secrets, secrets that won't be kept out by a new alarm system or a locked cupboard. When strange things begin happening on their property, and a visit takes a deadly turn, Lina becomes convinced that someone out there knows something they shouldn't. And when they come for her, there will be nowhere left to hide.

October 2021

In this spellbinding collection, Love & Other Crimes Sara Paretsky showcases her extraordinary talents with fourteen short stories, including one new V.I. story and seven other classics featuring the indomitable detective. In 'Miss Bianca' a young girl becomes involved in espionage when she befriends a mouse in a laboratory that is conducting dark experiments. Ten-year-old V.I. Warshawski appears in 'Wildcat,' embarking on her very first investigation to save her father. A hardboiled New York detective and elderly British aristocrat team up to reveal a murderer in Chicago during the World's Fair in 'Murder at the Century of Progress'. In the new title story, 'Love & Other Crimes' V.I. treads the line between justice and vengeance when the wrongful firing of a family friend makes him a murder suspect.

Whispers of a Scandal is by Julie Corbin. Friends Nina, Bel and Rachel share everything with one another. Or do they? After every parents' evening, they look forward to a catch-up at the local pub, swapping friendly gossip. But there will be no clinking Prosecco tonight. A malicious note has been left in a child's schoolbag: This class has secrets. All the parents tell lies. Nina, Bel and Rachel wouldn't dare suspect each other of the scandalous accusations that emerge. But when their own secrets are at risk, something has to be done...

Ramsay MacDonald is elected in 1929 to make a 'land fit for heroes', but is immediately subject to blackmail from a Viennese prostitute. MI5 and MI6 both set out to secure the evidence... but do they want to save their Prime Minister, or destroy him? The Prime Minister's Affair is by Andrew Williams.

One murder, twelve suspects. Twelve motives for murder.....This Christmas, sit back and become a real armchair detective. A murder mystery told entirely through interviews. Private Investigator Elizabeth Howell needs YOU to help her solve this case. It's a beautiful Christmas day in Como, and the Caswell-Jones family are celebrating with their nearest and dearest in their Villa Janus. Merriment and limoncello abound . . . That is, until Jonty Caswell-Jones is found dead in his study. With no staff today, the only suspects are the guests and the family. Under the surface, tensions have been brewing, guests seething, and rivalries have reared their ugly head . . . Jonty's wife, Catherine, knows there's a killer among them so she calls her acquaintance, Elizabeth Howell, to investigate. She wants to keep this firmly within the family if she can. No one else must know. As each suspect is interviewed in turn, Elizabeth must work out who killed Jonty and why. And is anyone else in danger? But with twelve suspects each with their own very clear motive, anything is possible . . . Twelve Motives for Murder is by Fiona Sherlock.

As an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct, Lacy Stoltz sees plenty of corruption among the men and women elected to the bench. In The Whistler, she took on a crime syndicate that was paying millions to a crooked judge. Now, in The Judge's List, by John Grisham the crimes are even worse. The man hiding behind the black robe is not taking bribes - but he may be taking lives.

November 2021

The Rise of the Red Monarch is by Bella Ellis. The Bronte sisters' first poetry collection has just been published, potentially marking an end to their careers as amateur detectors, when Anne receives a letter from her friend Lydia Robinson. Lydia has eloped with a young actor, Harry Roxby, and following her disinheritance, the couple been living in poverty in London. Harry has become embroiled with a criminal gang and is in terrible danger after allegedly losing something very valuable that he was meant to deliver to their leader. The desperate and heavily pregnant Lydia has a week to return what her husband supposedly stole, or he will be killed. She knows there are few people who she can turn to in this time of need, but the sisters agree to help Lydia, beginning a race against time to save Harry's life. In doing so, our intrepid sisters come face to face with a terrifying adversary whom even the toughest of the slum-dwellers are afraid of...The Red Monarch.

Conspiracy of Blood is by Katarzyna Bonda. Sasza decides to return to the police, but first she must ensure the safety of her daughter by putting to rest the demons of the terrifying ordeal that lead her to leave Poland for seven years in England. No sooner has she begun the process, however, than she is drawn into the deeply disturbing case of a woman who has disappeared from a village – and she is not the first to do so. The roots of the crime seem to reach all the way back to the dark enmities of te Second World War.

How much did she just say the salary was? Was Ruth Miller returns a dropped scarf to Elena Shilkov, she is whisked from a dreary shared flat to a world of unimagined luxury. The super-rich Russian wants a new personal assistant and won't take no for an answer. Ruth gets accommodation, an amazing pay-cheque and a complete wardrobe makeover. And she is good at the job, distributing gifts, attending galas, dealing with high-society movers and shakers fighting for Elena's attention. But the sinister truth is that nothing is quite what it seems in Elena's dangerous, deceptive world. Ruth should get away. But it's already too late. The Russian Doll is by Marina Palmer.

It's Christmas 1943 and Lady Anne Coke has returned to Holkham Hall from Scotland. But her home is now an army base, with large sections out of bounds. And 11-year-old Anne is in the care of a new governess, whom she hates and believes to be hiding something. At least her beloved grandfather is there with her, to share stories and keep her entertained.  But even though she's been told to stay away from certain parts of the house, Anne knows secrets about the hall that others do not; the passageways and the cellars that allow her to move around unnoticed, watching. And when mysterious events lead to a murder and disappearance, Anne is determined to uncover the truth. A Haunting at Holkham is by Anne Glenconner.

December 2021

Survive the Night is by Riley Sager. Casey Jordan is being driven across the country by a serial killer. Maybe. Behind the wheel is Josh Baxter, a stranger Casey met by the college ride share board, who also has a good reason for leaving university in the middle of term. On the road they share their stories, carefully avoiding the subject dominating the news - the Campus Killer, who's tied up and stabbed three students in the span of a year, has just struck again. Travelling the lengthy journey between university and their final destination, Casey begins to notice discrepancies in Josh's story. As she begins to plan her escape from the man she is becoming certain is the killer, she starts to suspect that Josh knows exactly what she's thinking. Meaning that she could very well end up as his next victim. A game of cat and mouse is about to play out. In order to win, Casey must do only one thing . . . survive the night.

Books to Look Forward to from Hodder & Stoughton and Mulholland

July 2019

If you know what you're doing, you can find anything on the internet. Drugs, guns, porn, ideologies, elections, even lives and deaths are all up for sale . . . and everything must go. Elite hacker Azi Bello lives his life in the technological underbelly of the 21st century. A loner, charmer, and lover of grey areas, he works for himself and answers to no one - until his online existence crashes violently into the real world.   The secretive but intriguing Munira has reached out to Azi for help, and her story has sparked his interest: Munira's cousin has been recruited by terrorists and, in her attempts to find out more, she has attracted the attention of some very dangerous people.   Now forced to go on the run, Azi and Munira are drawn into a conspiracy, at the heart of which is Gomorrah: an exclusive online marketplace where anything can be acquired, and where the world's worst individuals lurk. As he throws himself into uncovering Gomorrah's dark secrets, it isn't long before Azi realises that the stakes are high and the risks even higher when you're no longer behind a screen.  The gates of Gomorrah have been opened.  All hell is about to break loose.  This is Gomorrah is by Tom Chatfield.

Short Range is by Stephen Leather.  Dan 'Spider' Shepherd's career path - soldier, policeman, MI5 officer - has always put a strain on his family. So he is far from happy to learn that MI5 is using teenagers as informants. Parents are being kept in the dark and Shepherd fears that the children are being exploited.  As an undercover specialist, Shepherd is tasked with protecting a 15-year-old schoolboy who is being used to gather evidence against violent drug dealers and a right-wing terrorist group. But when the boy's life is threatened, Shepherd has no choice but to step in and take the heat.  And while Shepherd's problems mount up at work, he has even greater problems closer to home. His son Liam has fallen foul of the Serbian Mafia and if Shepherd doesn't intervene, Liam will die.

For seven years, Sasza Zaluska has lived with her little girl in the north of England. Far from her previous job as an undercover cop, far from her dependence on alcohol and the traumatic case that made her flee from the police, her family and her native Poland. But now she is coming back.  This time, Sasza is looking for a quieter life. She has studied to become a psychological profiler and she soon picks up a freelance job to check out some threats made against the owner of a nightclub. But no sooner has Sasza visited the club than a man is murdered there and Sasza finds herself drawn back towards the world she left behind.  The dead man is a musician - famous for one song in particular: Girl at Midnight. Both the song and the crime seem to be connected to a double tragedy of years before, when a brother and sister both died on the same day.  Now Sasza Zaluska must follow a crooked, complex trail from a violent past to a more sophisticated criminal present, in which the gangsters have corrupted every level of society.  Girl at Midnight is by Katarzyna Bonda.

The Bone Fire is by S D Sykes.  1361. Plague has returned to England - thirteen years after the devastation of The Black Death. As destruction advances towards his estate in Kent, Oswald de Lacy leads his family to the safety of a remote castle in the marshes - where his friend Godfrey is preparing a fortress to survive the coming disaster.  The rules are clear: once the de Lacys and other guests are inside the castle the portcullis will be lowered and no-one permitted to enter or leave until the Pestilence has passed.  And then a murderer strikes.  Oswald is confronted with a stark choice - leave and face the ravages of the plague, or stay and place his family at the mercy of a brutal killer. With word of his skills as an investigator preceding him, it falls to Oswald to unmask the murderer in their midst. Host, guest, or servant - everyone is a suspect in this poisoned refuge of secrets, deceit and malice.

Girls Like Us is by Cristina Alger.  FBI Agent Nell Flynn is about to work the most personal case of her life.  Back home for the first time in a decade, Nell is getting ready to close the family estate after her father's death.  But there's one piece of unfinished business. Her father, a homicide detective, was investigating the murders of two young women. Now his partner has asked for Nell's help.  Nell soon realises that her father should be the prime suspect, and that his friends on the force are covering for him.  With no idea who she can trust, Nell also starts to question events that took place when she was a child. Could it be that the answers she so desperately needs are buried deep within her own memory?

August 2019

Outfox is by Sandra Bown. One man with multiple identities. Eight women who vanished without a trace.  The next likely victim...his wife   FBI agent Drex Easton is relentlessly driven by a single goal: to outmanoeuvre the conman once known as Weston Graham. Over the past thirty years, Weston has assumed many names and countless disguises, enabling him to lure eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace. The only common trait among the victims: a new man in their life who also vanished, leaving behind no evidence of his existence.  Drex is convinced that these women have been murdered, and that the man he knows as Weston Graham is the sociopath responsible. But each time Drex gets close to catching him, Weston trades one persona for another and disappears again. Now, for the first time in their long game of cat and mouse, Drex has a suspect in sight.  Attractive and charming, Jasper Ford is recently married to a successful businesswoman many years his junior, Talia Shafer. Drex insinuates himself into their lives, posing as a new neighbour and setting up surveillance on their house. The closer he gets to the couple, the more convinced he becomes that Jasper is the clever, merciless predator he's sought-and that his own attraction to Talia threatens to compromise his purpose and integrity.   This is Drex's one chance to outfox his cunning nemesis before he murders again and eludes justice forever. But first he must determine if the desirable Talia is a heartless accomplice . . . or the next victim.

DI Birch joined the police to find her little brother, who walked out of his life one day and was never seen again. She stayed to help others, determined to seek justice where she could.  On the fourteenth anniversary of Charlie's disappearance, Birch takes part in a raid on one of Scotland's most feared criminal organisations. It's a good day's work - a chance to get a dangerous man off the streets. Two days later, Charlie comes back. It's not a coincidence. When Birch finds out exactly what he's been doing all those years, she faces a terrible choice: save the case, or save her brother. But how can you do the right thing when all the consequences are bad?   As she interrogates Charlie, he tells his story: of how one wrong turn leads to a world in which the normal rules no longer apply, and you do what you must to survive.  What You Pay For is by Claire Askew. 

The Art of Dying is by Douglas Lindsay.  When businessman Thomas Peterson is killed outside a football ground in the Highlands, there are several witnesses. Yet the hunt for the killer is proving as futile as the search for a motive.  Possible connections to Russian money and an eerie retirement home are soon thrown into the mix. To further complicate things, DI Westphall's MI6 past is coming back to haunt him. Guilt stalks his dreams, but could there be a message in these nightmares? Westphall is in danger of losing his head just when he needs it the most. He must find answers, and fast, before the murderer strikes again.

A series of gruesome killings take place in Dubai, Ghana and America. The victims are all connected with the SAS. In Hereford Danny Black realises they have something more specific in common - they were all involved in training a young Muslim soldier, Ibrahim Khan.  Khan has been working under cover in Islamic State in a mission organised by MI6. Danny Black sets out to track him down with the help of Khan's MI6 handler on a trail that leads him to a library of ancient manuscripts in Damascus, the Syrian desert and finally back in the Brecon Beacons. There Danny discovers that he has finally met his match, his deadliest enemy - and it is the last person he ever expected.  Black Ops is by Chris Ryan.

Bad Day at The Vulture Club is by Vaseem Khan. In the gripping new Baby Ganesh Agency novel, Inspector Chopra and his elephant sidekick investigate the death of one of Mumbai's wealthiest citizens, a murder with ramifications for its poorest.  The Parsees are among the oldest, most secretive and most influential communities in the city: respected, envied and sometimes feared.  When prominent industrialist Cyrus Zorabian is murdered on holy ground, his body dumped inside a Tower of Silence - where the Parsee dead are consumed by vultures - the police dismiss it as a random killing. But his daughter is unconvinced. Chopra, uneasy at entering this world of power and privilege, is soon plagued by doubts about the case.  But murder is murder. And in Mumbai, wealth and corruption go in hand in hand, inextricably linking the lives of both high and low...

The shot is impossible.  In the middle of a blizzard, down a busy New York avenue, into a moving car. And there's nothing worse than hunting a killer with a rifle in a city of windows. The agent in charge knows only one man with the skills to work out where the bullet came from. Lucas Page, physics professor and maths prodigy, quit the FBI after it nearly cost him his life. But he can't resist the call to help, to prove that he is still capable of extraordinary things. Because Page is wired to see crime from a different angle. The science that explains the impossible shot. The geometry that reveals the killer's location. The logic that tells him this shooter has killed like this before. And will do it again, and again, until they are stopped... City of Windows is by Robert Pobi.

September 2019

Missing-linc.com comprises a group of misfit sleuths scattered across the States. Their macabre passion is giving names to the unidentified dead. When Ellie Caine starts investigating the corpse known as the Boy in the Dress, the Boy's killer decides to join the group. The closer they get to the truth, the closer he will get to them. The Boy was Teddy Ryan. He was meant to have been killed in a car crash in the west of Ireland in 1989. Only he wasn't. There is no grave in Galway and Teddy was writing letters from New York a year after he supposedly died. But one night he met a man in a Minnesota bar and vanished off the face of the earth.  Teddy's nephew, Shaun, is no hero, but he is determined to solve the thirty-year-old mystery. He joins forces with the disparate members of Missing-linc to hunt down the killer. The only problem: the killer will be with them every step of the way . . .  Missing Person is by Sarah Lotz.

Sam is doing well in her career, she has a husband and a baby and life is going well. That is until she gets the note through her door that stops her heart in her chest. Never Have I Ever Been Punished For What I Have Done.  Sam is catapulted back to those teenage years spent with her best friends, teasing out each other's secrets by announcing things they had Never, ever done. Pushing each other's boundaries, growing closer and growing up.   If only they had stopped there. But they added their own rules. They went from sharing secrets to sharing firsts. First kisses, first drinks, first fake IDs. And that was before it all went spiralling out of control. Before that day in the woods ended it all.  Because no matter how far it goes, you have to obey the rules of the game. Even if what you've never done should stay that way. And now Sam is about to discover that the game isn't over.  Never Have I Ever is by Lucy Hay.

She Lies in Vines is by Benjamin Stevenson.  Four years ago Eliza Dacey was brutally murdered.  Within hours, her killer was caught.  Wasn't he?  So reads the opening titles of Jack Quick's new true-crime documentary.  A skilled producer, Jack knows that the bigger the conspiracy, the higher the ratings. Curtis Wade, convicted of Eliza's murder on circumstantial evidence and victim of a biased police force, is the perfect subject. Millions of viewers agree.  Just before the finale, Jack uncovers a minor detail that may prove Curtis guilty after all. Convinced it will ruin his show, Jack disposes of the evidence and delivers the finale unedited: proposing that Curtis is innocent.  But when Curtis is released, and a new victim is found bearing horrifying similarities to the original murder, Jack realizes that he may have helped a guilty man out of jail. And, as the only one who knows the real evidence of the case, he is the only one who can send him back...

Some family secrets demand to be told . . . Connie lost her words at the age of five, the day she witnessed her mother and father's untimely death. Since then she has been all but mute, only being able to choke out a few select words. Now, years on, Connie's husband is on his deathbed and all she can do is quietly sit by his side.   But there are so many dreadful secrets locked up in Connie's silent prison. And time is running out to set them free . . .  Don’t Say A Word is by Rebecca Tinnelly.

A skinny young boy is found dead - his body carelessly stuffed into wheelie bin. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called to investigate. Who is the boy, and where did he come from? Was he discarded as rubbish, or left as a warning to someone? He looks Middle Eastern, but no one on the East Side Estate has seen him before.  As the local press seize upon an illegal immigrant angle, and the national media the story of another stabbing, the police are called to investigate a less newsworthy death: a middle-aged heroin addict found dead of an overdose in another estate, scheduled for redevelopment.  Banks finds the threads of each case seem to be connected to the other, and to the dark side of organised crime in Eastvale. Does another thread link to his friend Zelda, who is facing her own dark side? The truth may be more complex - or much simpler - than it seems . . .  Many Rivers to Cross is by Peter Robinson.

October 2019

London 1963. The Beatles, Carnaby Street, mini-skirts. But the new mood hasn't reached the drab and fearful corridors of MI5 and MI6. Many agents joined the secret service to fight the Nazis. Now they are locked in a Cold War against the Russians.  And some of them are traitors.  The service has been shaken to its core by the high-profile defections of Cambridge-educated spies Burgess, MacLean and now Philby. Appalled at such flagrant breaches of British security, the Americans are demanding a rigorous review.  Harry Vaughan is brought back from Vienna to be part of it. The Chief asks him to join two investigators - Arthur Martin and Peter Wright - who are determined to clean out the stables, and the first target of their suspicions is the Deputy Director General of MI5, Graham Mitchell.  Harry slips back into a relationship with an old flame, Elsa, and joins the hunt - somewhat reluctantly. He is sceptical of the case against Mitchell and wary of the messianic fervour of the two spy-catchers. But the further the investigation goes - and the deeper his commitment to Elsa becomes - the greater the sense of paranoia and distrust that spreads through the 'wilderness of mirrors' that is the secret service. The only certainty is that no-one is above suspicion. Including Harry Vaughan. Witchfinder is by Andrew Williams.

November 2019

A cold case for Captain Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido of the Hawks - not what they were looking for. And a difficult case too, surrounded by mystery, lies and evasion. The body of Johnson Johnson, ex-cop, has been found by the side of a railway line. He appears to have jumped from the world's most luxurious train, and two suspicious characters seen with him have disappeared into thin air. The regular police have already failed to make progress and others are intent on muddying the waters.  Meanwhile in Bordeaux, Daniel Darret is settled in a new life on a different continent. But his skills as an international hit-man are required one more time, and Daniel is given no choice in the matter. He must hunt again - his prey the corrupt president of his homeland. Two strands of the same story become a race against time - for the Hawks to stop the assassination, for Daniel to evade the relentless Russian agents tracking him, for Benny Griessel to survive long enough to finally ask Alexa Bernard to marry him . . .  The Last Hunt is by Deon Meyer.

Yorkshire, 1845.  A young woman has gone missing from her home, Chester Grange, leaving no trace, save a large pool of blood in her bedroom and a slew of dark rumours about her marriage. A few miles away across the moors, the daughters of a humble parson, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte are horrified, yet intrigued.  Desperate to find out more, the sisters visit Chester Grange, where they notice several unsettling details about the crime scene: not least the absence of an investigation. Together, the young women realise that their resourcefulness, energy and boundless imaginations could help solve the mystery - and that if they don't attempt to find out what happened to Elizabeth Chester, no one else will.  The path to the truth is not an easy one, especially in a society which believes a woman's place to be in the home, not wandering the countryside looking for clues. But nothing will stop the sisters from discovering what happened to the vanished bride, even as they find their own lives are in great peril...  The vanished Bride is by Bella Ellis.  

You're at home with your family. You think you're safe. You're wrong... Ava's life is the kind other people envy: loving husband; great kids; beautiful house. Until the night a violent home invasion turns the dream into a nightmare, and leaves her beautiful daughter fighting to survive. And then things get worse. Ava realises that the attack wasn't random. Someone is targeting her family. Why? Who could hate them enough to kill?  Ava must find out what really happened that night, to save those she loves from even greater danger. But when everyone around you has been lying, how do you decide who to trust? And Ava has secrets of her own... In Her Eyes is by Sarah Alderson.

History in the Court

It's very nearly time for the extremely well attended History in the Court that is hosted annually by Goldsboro Books.

The event will take place on June 30th from 6-9pm and you can purchase tickets here and they have some serious entertainment in store for you.

Already confirmed as attending on the evening they have an incredible list of authors.

It includes, but is not limited to:

Robyn Young, Antonia Hodgson, Emily Hauser, Hallie Rubenhold, Harry Sidebottom, Simon Tolkien, Barbara Erskine, SJ Parris, Andrew Taylor, Nick Brown, Elizabeth Buchan, S D Sykes, William Ryan, Paul Fraser Collard, Anna Mazzola, Anthony Riches, Michael Arnold, Elizabeth Fremantle, L C Tyler, David Gilman, Linda Porter, Robin Blake, Andrew Swanston, Imogen Robertson, Angus Donald, Sarah Dunant. Paul M.M. Cooper, Natasha Pulley, Giles Kristian, Tom Harper, Elizabeth Chadwick, Kate Riordan, Michael Ridpath.

There are more to be confirmed

Tickets cost £5 but this is redeemable on the night against any purchases of books so really you're just getting yourself some credit. Don't miss out on the opportunity to come and meet these wonderful authors in person and get your books signed.

That's not all...

There will be treats for those who join us in the form of goodie bags and we will also see the announcement of the HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown shortlist. Join us and see who is on the shortlist and meet many of the authors!

For those of you not already aware of these events, they are celebrations of their respective genres and an opportunity for fans to come and meet some of the best names being published today. They always get a wonderful crowd and you can see the brilliant line up of attending authors.

Come, join us, and celebrate historical fiction in one of London's most beautiful streets. It's an evening not to be missed.

Books to look forward to from Hodder and Stoughton and Mulholland

Brush Back is by Sara Paretsky and is due to be published in July 2015.  Twenty-five years ago, Stella Guzzo beat her daughter to death and then walked up the street to play bingo at her parish church. Chicago detective V.I. Warshawski grew up with the Guzzo family. She dated Frank Guzzo when they were teens and knew Stella's murderous rages first-hand, so she was relieved when a judge sent Stella to prison for a long stretch. V.I. and Frank went their different ways, V.I. to university and law school, Frank to marriage, children, and a job as a truck driver. She didn't think about the family again until the day Frank came to her office, wanting V.I. to help his mother with an exoneration claim. The detective wants no part of Stella Guzzo's world, but she realizes how hard life has been for Frank, stuck in the gang-ridden streets around Chicago's dead steel mills, and she doesn't feel able to say no. V.I. starts asking questions, but the answers leave her puzzled. Was Stella's daughter Annie the ardent girl V.I. remembers, looking for a college education as a way out of South Chicago? Or was she a calculating, amoral person, as Stella claims? And what about the lawyers Annie worked for - why did they insist on representing Stella in her murder trial? V.I.'s inquiries put her smack in the path of a notorious Mob enforcer. When she gets jumped in her old 'hood, her biggest question becomes whether she will live long enough to find the answers.

Two young men -Jago and Marcantonio - both studying business and finance: Jago is a kid from a rough part of London who has worked hard to get a job in a bank and is now on a fast-track secondment to the Berlin office. Marcantonio is one of the new generation in the 'Ndrangheta crime families from Calabria, Southern Italy. He is in Germany to learn how to channel their illicit millions towards legitimate businesses all over Europe. When Jago witnesses Marcantonio commit a vicious assault and the police seem uninterested, the Englisman refuses to let the matter drop. But by pursuing the gangster to his grandfather's mountain lair, Jago is stepping into the middle of a delicate surveillance operation, which sets alarm bells ringing in Rome, London and Berlin. It also leads him to Consolata, a young woman who sees in Jago the chance to turn her non-violent protest campaign against the crime families into something altogether more lethal... No Mortal Thing is by Gerald Seymour and is novel of relentless power and mounting suspense, a brilliant portrayal of organised crime in Europe and the under-resourced men and women who fight it.  No Mortal Thing is due to be published in July 2015.

The Undesired is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and is due to be published in October 2015. The light spilling in from the corridor would have to do. Though weak, it was sufficient to show Aldis a boy sitting in the gloom at the furthest table. He had his back to her, so she couldn't see who it was, but could tell that he was one of the youngest. A chill ran down her spine when he spoke again, without turning, as if he had eyes in the back of his head. 'Go away. Leave me alone.' 'Come on. You shouldn't be here.' Aldis spoke gently, fairly sure now that the boy must be delirious. Confused, rather than dangerous. He turned, slowly and deliberately, and she glimpsed black eyes in a pale face. 'I wasn't talking to you.' Aldis is working in a juvenile detention centre in rural Iceland. She witnesses something deeply disturbing in the middle of the night; soon afterwards, two of the boys at the centre are dead. Decades later, single father Odinn is looking into alleged abuse at the centre following the unexplained death of the colleague who was previously running the investigation. The more he finds out, though, the more it seems the odd events of the 1970s are linked to the accident that killed his ex-wife. Was her death something more sinister?

If She Only Knew is by Lisa Jackson ad is due to be published in December 2015. She woke up with a new face. She woke up with no memories. And she woke up to murder...Not only has Marla Cahill survived a deadly car accident, but her beautiful features have been restored through plastic surgery. She should be grateful. Instead, she's consumed by confusion...and panic. For the people gathered at her bedside - her family - are strangers. And so is the woman whose haunted eyes stare back from the mirror...Secluded at the magnificent Cahill mansion, Marla waits for something to trigger recognition. Yet the only thing she's left with is the unshakable feeling that she is not who everyone says she is, and that something is very, very wrong. Determined to piece together the truth of her identity, she finds herself drawn to her brother-in-law, Nick - a man who seems both to want and despise her. And as her fractured mind slowly clears, Marla begins to have flashes of another life...of cruel betrayals and deadly secrets. Marla's life isn't just different - it's in danger, controlled by a twisted killer who's waiting for the right moment to strike...the moment Marla remembers...

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

DI Rio Wray returns in this breakneck-speed thriller Death Trap. A married couple and their housekeeper are brutally murdered at their home on a quiet suburban street. But this isn't a one-off case. There are clues linking their murders to a string of violent attacks and burglaries on other affluent families. Who is behind them? And will DI Rio Wray and her team catch them before they attack again?  Death Trap is by Dreda Say Mitchell and is due to be published in August 2015.

Oswald de Lacy is growing up fast in his new position as Lord of Somershill Manor. The Black Death changed many things, and just as it took away his father and elder brothers, leaving Oswald to be recalled from the monastery where he expected to spend his life, so it has taken many of his villagers and servants. However, there is still the same amount of work to be done in the farms and fields, and the few people left to do it think they should be paid more - something the King himself has forbidden. Just as anger begins to spread, the story of the Butcher Bird takes flight. People claim to have witnessed a huge creature in the skies. A new-born baby is found impaled on a thorn bush. And then more children disappear. Convinced the bird is just a superstitious rumour, Oswald must discover what is really happening. He can expect no help from his snobbish mother and his scheming sister Clemence, who is determined to protect her own child, but happy to neglect her step-daughters. From the plague-ruined villages of Kent to the thief-infested streets of London and the luxurious bedchamber of a bewitching lady, Oswald's journey is full of danger, dark intrigue and shocking revelations.  The Butcher Bird is by S D Sykes and s due to be published in October 2015.

Black Ops is by Stephen Leather and is due to be published in July 2015. Who Can you trust

if you can’t trust yourself. Spider Shepherd's MI5 Controller, Charlie Button, has gone rogue, using government resources to get revenge on the men who killed her husband. Spider is told to betray her. Worse, he's asked to cooperate with his nemesis at MI6, Jeremy Willoughby Brown, in taking Charlie down. And he will have to cross the assassin, Lex Harper, currently on the trail of two Irish terrorists, who may be able to lead him to his ex-boss. Meanwhile, Spider's sixteen-year-old son is caught with drugs, expelled from school and threatened with prosecution. But the drug police offer Spider a deal: go undercover, unmask a local dealer and his son will go free. Spider has no option but to cooperate. But is he any better than Charlie, using work resources to resolve personal issues? There's little time to debate because another high profile mission is about to engulf him. President Vladimir Putin is about to visit the UK and a father who lost his son on the downed Malaysian plane over the Ukraine holds Putin directly responsible for his death and wants revenge. Along with everything else, it's down to Spider to stop the assassination of a head of state on British soil.

Friction is by Sandra Brown and is due to be published in August 2015. A Texas Ranger, relegated to deskwork due to past recklessness, petitions to regain custody of his five-year-old daughter, and his case is assigned to a family court judge who is as attractive as she is ambitious. When a masked gunman barges in during the custody hearing with his sights on the judge, the Ranger reacts instinctually and goes after him. But authorities apprehend the wrong man, and the real gunman remains unknown, at large, and a threat. Will this take-charge lawman jeopardize his chances of custody by going after the would-be assassin? And will this unlikely pair be able to deny the forbidden attraction building between them?

Jude Shelley, daughter of a prominent cabinet minister, had her whole life ahead of her until she was attacked and left to drown in the Thames. Miraculously, she survived. A year later, her family ask psychologist Alice Quentin to re-examine the case. But then an elderly priest is attacked in Battersea, his body washed up at Westminster Pier. An ancient glass bead is tied to his wrist. The river has always demanded sacrifices, and now it seems a killer believes it's calling out for more. Alice is certain that Jude and her family are hiding something, but unless she can persuade them to share what they know, more victims will drown...  River of Souls is by Kate Rhodes and is due to be published in June 2015.

Before you discovered DCI Banks, Dectective Arvo Hughes was on the case in this vintage standalone crime thriller from Peter Robinson. In 1990s Los Angeles, the beautiful star of a hit TV cop show is being sent strange letters. At first, Sarah Broughton dismisses the letters as the ramblings of a lonely fan. But when the letters take on a disturbing tone and Sarah discovers a body in the sand outside her Malibu beach house, the experts are brought in. Working as a detective in the LAPD Threat Management Unit, Arvo Hughes has seen it all before: stalkers, love obsessionals,

erotomaniacs - willing to kill themselves and their supposed love objects over their devotion. He knows the language they use and the patterns they follow. But there is no pattern to follow here. Dealing with a highly unpredictable but extremely violent killer, Arvo feels certain Sarah's stalker must have met her before. But with the squeaky-clean star doing all she can to keep memories of a shady history locked away, Arvo must delve into her past himself.  No Cure for Love is by Peter Robinson and is due to be published in July 2015.

After 602 days dry, Captain Benny Griessel of the South African police services can't take any more tragedy. So when Benny is called in to investigate a multiple homicide, it pushes him close to breaking point - a former friend and detective colleague has shot his wife and two daughters, then killed himself. Benny wants out - out of his job, his home and his relationship with his singer girlfriend, Alexa. He moves into a hotel and starts drinking. Again. But Benny's unique talent is urgently required to help investigate another crime - the high profile murder of Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech startup, Alibi, whose body is discovered buried in the sand dunes north of Cape Town. Alibi is a service that creates false appointments, documents and phone calls to enable people to cheat on their partners. It has made Richter one of the most notorious people in South Africa. Can Benny pull together the strands of his life in time to catch the killer?  Icarus is by Deon Meyer and is due to be published in August 2015.

A Banquet of Consequences is by Elizabeth George and is due to be published October 2015. The suicide of William Goldacre is devastating to those left behind. But what was the cause of his tragedy and how far might the consequences reach? Is there a link between the young man's leap from a Dorset cliff and a horrific poisoning in Cambridge? Following various career-threatening misdemeanours, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is desperate to redeem herself. So when a past encounter with bestselling feminist writer Clare Abbott and her pushy personal assistant Caroline Goldacre gives her a connection to the Cambridge murder, Barbara begs DI Thomas Lynley to let her pursue the crime. Soon, Lynley finds himself investigating the London end of an ever more darkly disturbing case, while Havers and DS Winston Nkata look behind the peaceful facade of country life to discover a twisted world of desire and deceit. 

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

Darkness is by Karen Robards and is due to be published in November 2015.  Beautiful, brilliant Dr Gina Solomon is one of a handful of scientists stationed on a remote island off the Arctic Circle. Out conducting research in the last few days before winter wraps the area in months-long darkness, she witnesses a small plane crash over the Bering Sea, and rescues a survivor from the wreckage - Mal Connolly. With a snowstorm stranding them unexpectedly, it's at least twenty-four hours before they return to the research station. When they do, Gina is horrified to discover that the rest of her party has been murdered. Whoever killed the scientists is still on the island, hunting Mal, who is a military weapons expert with a terrible secret. Someone will do anything to stop him from revealing what he knows. And now Gina is in danger too. With no escape until the plane comes for them the following week, Gina and Mal try to stay one step ahead of the killers, and discover a potent sexual chemistry ...But will they get off the island before they are swallowed up in darkness forever?

Glasgow, 1932, is a city in the grip of dance-fever. Public ballrooms and backstreet dancehalls are thronged every night and competition for professional titles is fierce. Even after the sudden death of one of last year's hopefuls there are plenty willing to take his place, and few who stop to wonder why he died. In the melting pot of the Locarno Ballroom in Sauchiehall Street, a debutante rubs shoulders with denizens of Glasgow's meanest streets, her respectable fiance oblivious, her parents dismayed. When she starts receiving threats from a rival, they grow frantic enough to call on Dandy Gilver to save their precious daughter from harm. But as Dandy and her sidekick, Alec Osborne, begin to unravel the secrets of the dancehall, they soon discover that the rot goes much deeper than rivalry and there's more at stake than a silver cup. Despite the pretty frocks and dancing shoes, this apparently glittering world is a darker place than they've ever been before ...  Dandy Gilver and the Unpleasantness in the Ballroom is by Catriona McPherson and is due to be published in July 2015.

The Tudor Vendetta is by Christopher Gortner and is due to be published in October 2015.

  It is the final book in the Elizabeth’s Spymaster Trilogy.  November, 1558: Elizabeth I has ascended the throne but the first days of her reign are already fraught with turmoil, the kingdom weakened by past strife and her ability to rule uncertain. When Brendan Prescott, her intimate spy, returns to court at the new queen's behest, he soon finds himself thrust into a deadly gambit against his old foe, Robert Dudley. But Elizabeth has an even more dangerous assignation in store for him when her favoured lady-in-waiting, Lady Parry, vanishes in Yorkshire. Sent from court to a crumbling manor that may hold the key to Lady Parry's disappearance, Brendan becomes the quarry of an elusive stranger with a vendetta- one that could expose both Brendan's own secret past and a long-hidden mystery that will bring about Elizabeth's doom.

NEVER DROP YOUR GUARD. NEVER CLOSE YOUR EYES. OR YOU'LL NEVER SEE HIM COMING...It should be the best day of their lives. Too bad they never get to see it. On the cusp of their twenty-first birthday, he strikes. His victims are always twins, their ritualistic murders planned in exquisite detail, down to the moment when they breathe their last together. An innocent man is in prison and Brianna Hayward needs to convince the New Orleans police. Not just to free her cousin, but to save others who will suffer until the true culprit is found. Reporter Jason Bridges is intrigued. It's a story that could make his career - as long as Brianna never guesses the secret in Jason's past...Detective Rick Bentz had his doubts about the '21' conviction when he worked the case in L.A. Now the real murderer may be loose in his backyard. Twin sisters have vanished, days before their birthday. And as Bentz and his partner Reuben Montoya desperately follow the trail, a killer prepares to unite his next victims in death forever...  Never Die Alone is by Lisa Jackson and is due to be published in August 2015.

2 July 1644. Five armies converge outside York. It will be a battle for honour, glory, and the fate of three kingdoms. And it will pit two great leaders - Oliver Cromwell and Prince Rupert - directly against one another for the first time. It is a day that will change the course of history. Into the cannon fire and musket smoke marches Major Innocent Stryker, battle-scarred hero of the Royalist cause. He must not only lead his men through the bloody horror and outwit his Parliamentary enemies, but uncover foul treachery on his own side. He will need every shred of experience and determination to survive. Marston Moor will be the decisive turning point in the British Civil Wars. This is the thrilling and shocking story of that battle.  Marston Moor is by Michael Arnold and is due to be published in July 2015.

Mumbai, murder and a baby elephant combine in a charming, joyful mystery for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Rachel Joyce. On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries. The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved. And the second is a baby elephant. As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought. And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs...  The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra is the debut novel by Vaseem Khan and is due to be published in October 2015.

The Killing Kind is by Chris Holm and is due to be published in August 2015.  Michael Hendricks is not a good man. He doesn't deserve a good life. But he is very good at his job. He's the killing kind. He doesn't accept contract kills. He doesn't work for any criminal organisation. And he never kills civilians. He only hits hitters. He's not the kind of guy you call if you want to pop somebody who's pissed you off or done you wrong. He's not a guy you call at all - he calls you. And when he does, you'd be advised to take his call. Because it means that someone wants you dead, and time is running out to save your life. It's not a bad way to make a living, but it's a great way to make enemies. And now both the FBI and the mafia have Hendricks in their sights, he's about to learn just how good he really is...

'The system has no place for a cop who puts justice above the interests of the Party. It's a miracle that I survived as long as I did.' For years, Chen Cao managed to balance the interests of the Communist Party and the demands made by his job. He was considered a rising star until, after one too many controversial cases that embarrassed powerful men, he found himself neutralised. Under the guise of a promotion, he's been stripped of his title and his influence, discredited and isolated. Soon it becomes clear that his enemies still aren't satisfied, and that someone is attempting to have him killed - quietly. Chen has been charged with the investigation into a 'Red Prince' - a high Party figure who embodies the ruthless ambition, greed and corruption that is on the rise in China. But with no power, few allies, and his own reputation and life on the line, he knows he is facing the most dangerous case of his career.  The Shanghai Redemption is by Qiu Xiaolong and is due to be published in July 2015.