Crime Cymru Digital Festival Programme

 

EVENT 1. MONDAY 26TH APRIL AT 6PM.

Our launch event. Crime Cymru associate member, Amy Williams interviews CWA Diamond Dagger winner, Martin Edwards, award-winning Swansea author, Cathy Ace and up-and-coming Crime Cymru talent, Gail William

EVENT 2. MONDAY 26TH APRIL AT 8PM.

The Pembrokeshire Murders

Join Andrea Byrne from ITV for the inside track on the story behind the arrest of Wales’ most famous serial killers.  In 2006, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins, decided to reopen two cold murder cases, employing pioneering forensic methods. The team he put together found microscopic DNA and fibres that potentially linked the murders to a string of burglaries and a suspect.

EVENT 3. TUESDAY 27TH APRIL AT 6PM.

Join Carol Westron in conversation with the team from Diamond Books as we learn what it takes to make those brave steps from Crime Writer to e-publisher.

EVENT 4. TUESDAY 27TH APRIL AT 8PM.

Join Crime Cymru founder and Co-chair, Alis Hawkins, in conversation with Emma Kavanagh, Mari Hannah and Alison Layland.

EVENT 5. WEDNESDAY 28TH APRIL AT 6PM.

Y Lolfa panel. Details to be confirmed.

EVENT 6. WEDNESDAY 28TH APRIL AT 8PM.

RISING STARS.

Join Crime Cymru author Philip Gwynne-Jones as he chats with Louise Mumford and CWA Dagger winners Trevor Wood and Abir Mukherjee.

THURSDAY 29TH APRIL AT 7PM.

CRIME CYMRU EVENT 7. MYFANWY ALEXANDER IN CONVERSATION WITH GARETH W WILLIAMS AND GWEN PARROTT. THIS IS A WELSH LANGUAGE EVENT.

EVENT 9. FRIDAY 30TH APRIL AT 8PM.

KEEPING FAITH

With Series 3 of this immensely popular series now on TV, Crime Cymru festival organiser Nellie Williams is joined by writer Matthew Hall and actor Aneirin Hughes.

EVENT 10.SATURDAY 1ST MAY AT 1PM.

HISTORICAL CRIME FICTION

Crime Cymru Founder member Kath Stansfield is joined by two of the Historical Crime Fiction Genre’s greatest exponents, S G MacLean and Elly Griffiths.

EVENT 11. SATURDAY 1ST MAY 4PM.

WALES, INDIA, ENGLAND AND IRELAND. CRIME WRITING FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

Join Crime Cymru member Mark Ellis in conversation with Vaseem Khan, Sam Blake and R G Adams.

EVENT 12. SATURDAY 1ST MAY 7PM.

CRIME CYMRU CO-CHAIR, MATT JOHNSON, IN CONVERSATION WITH LEE AND ANDREW CHILD.

One of the highlights of this years digital festival. The Sentinel, the latest Jack Reacher thriller, and the first to be written by Lee and Andrew Child, is published in paperback by Penguin on 18th March this year. The Sentinel was the second bestselling crime/thriller title of 2020. It was No. 1 on the Sunday Times hardback bestseller for 2 weeks and  remained in the top 10 throughout 2020. Total world-wide sales of Lee Child’s book are in excess of 100 million copies.

The Jack Reacher books will soon be a major Amazon Prime TV series. Lee and Andrew join the festival from their homes in the United States. This may prove to be a fascinating opportunity to learn about the transition process that will soon see Andrew Child take on the Jack Reacher mantle.

EVENT 13. SUNDAY 2ND MAY 1PM.

LEGENDARY INTERVIEWER, DR JACKY COLLINS, PICKS THREE OF HER FAVOURITE MEN FOR A GRILLING.

Dr Noir is joined by Peter James (WH Smith reader choice as the best-ever crime writer of all time), Ragnar Jonasson (The Times pick as one the best ever crime writers) and Chris Lloyd (A rising star amongst talented Welsh crime writers)

EVENT 14. SUNDAY 2ND MAY 4PM.

LEGENDARY INTERVIEWER AND NEWCASTLE NOIR ORGANISER, DR JACKY COLLINS, IN CONVERSATION WITH TWO OF HER FAVOURITE FEMALE AUTHORS.

Join Jacky Collins as she chats to CWA Dagger shortlisted welsh author Alis Hawkins and international best-selling author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir from Iceland.

EVENT 15. SUNDAY 2ND MAY 7PM.

THE CREAM OF THE CROP.

Crime Cymru associate member, Amy Willams talks to Clare Mackintosh and B E (Bev) Jones, two authors from Wales who are are the very top of their game.

EVENT 16. MONDAY 3RD MAY 1PM.

‘HORRIBLE HISTORIES’ – GOTHIC CRIME FICTION.

Crime Cymru member, Thorne Moore, is joined by Sarah Ward and E S Thomson, two very popular crime fiction authors to discss – amongst other things – stretching the imagination within the crime genre.

‘EVENT 17. MONDAY 3RD MAY 4PM.

MEET THE ‘GUV’NORS’ OF CRIME CYMRU. THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND WALES’ FIRST INTERNATIONAL CRIME LITERATURE FESTIVAL.

Name a Welsh crime author. No, sorry, you’re not allowed ‘the person who wrote ‘Hinterland’. That’s a TV series. Come on, one Welsh crime author… No?

Welsh crime fiction is a vibrant and rapidly-growing genre but, unless you’ve got your ear to the corpse-strewn, crime-fiction world, you may not have heard much about it. 

What is Crime Cymru?

Crime Cymru, as an idea, came about because those of us who live and set our work in Wales are determined to challenge the notion that ‘nobody who wants to be read sets their books in Wales’. As Welsh writers, we believe that Wales is simply under sold: by publishers, by booksellers, even by authors and readers. And we’re determined to change that. Crime Cymru authors are proud to set our ambitious fiction in Wales. We don’t feel the need to move our characters to London, or to make up fictitious cities to police. We set our characters – contemporary and historical – in real contexts. Welsh contexts. We believe we have something unique to offer the world of crime fiction, that the social issues which crime fiction naturally explores have a different flavour in Wales because of our very particular history.

Taking things a step further to organise Wales’ first international crime festival? Now that takes courage.

Dr Noir talks to Alis Hawkins and Matt Johnson, as we discover what’s involved.

EVENT 18. MONDAY 3RD MAY 7PM.

AS THE SUN SETS ON ABERYSTWYTH, ALIS HAWKINS INVITES YOU TO SPEND THE FINAL HOUR OF OUR FESTIVAL IN THE COMPANY OF M W CRAVEN AND IMRAN MAHMOOD.

‘The Puppet Show’ author, M W (Mike) Craven needs no introduction. A former soldier and probation officer, he has taken the crime writing world by storm, rattled it around, told it a few good jokes and raised a high bar for others to follow. Imran Mahmood is a criminal barrister whose first novel ‘You Don’t Know Me ‘ also caused ripples in the crime writing world. It was original, new and exciting. Readers loved it. This promises to be an entertaining and informative end to Crime Cymru Digital Festival. Charge your glasses, relax and be prepared to be entertained by two of the most engaging crime writers in the UK.

More information can be fond here.

Books to Look Forward to From Quercus Publishing, MacLehose Press and Riverrun

July 2020

Summer, 1658, and the Republic may finally be safe: the combined Stuart and Spanish forces have been heavily defeated by the English and French armies on the coast of Flanders, and the King’s cause appears finished.   Yet one last, desperate throw of the dice is planned. And who can stop them if not Captain Damian Seeker?   The House of Laminations is the final gripping book in this acclaimed and award- winning series of historical thrillers by S G Maclean. Will Seeker’s legacy endure? 

Tell Me How it Ends is by V B Grey.  Delia Maxwell is an international singing sensation and adored by millions. Lily Brooks has watched Delia all her life. Now she has a dream job as her assistant – but is there more to her attachment than the admiration of a fan? Private investigator Frank is beginning to wonder.   As Lily steps into Delia’s spotlight, Frank’s suspicions of Lily’s ulterior motives increase. If Delia thought she had put her past behind her, she had better start watching her back. 

It's November 1983 in Essex and there are reasons to be cheerful. Uptown Girl is sitting pretty at the top of the charts, Risky Business is raking it in at the box office, and there are now four channels on the telly. However, social tensions are beginning to bubble beneath the surface: Mrs Thatcher has embarked on her second controversial term, and the situation in Northern Ireland is ever-escalating.  Yet in the garrison town of Colchester, it's another deadly standoff that is hogging the headlines. The body of a nineteen-year-old Lance Corporal has been discovered on the local High Street, the result of what appears to be a bizarre, chivalrous duel. It seems he was the victim of a doomed army love triangle. As such, the military police are wishing to keep the matter confined within military ranks.  This is all just fine, as far as Colchester CID is concerned. They have enough on their plate as is: with DI Nick Lowry in a tailspin following the breakdown of his marriage, WPC Jane Gabriel

exasperated by the male-favoured system, Detective Daniel Kenton relying on substance abuse to quieten his demons from his last case; and their boss, DCS Sparks, shortly to become a first-time father at 55.  However, it is not long before the blood from the duel runs into civilian police affairs, and the trail presents CID with a local rogues' gallery. A savvy entrepreneur. A wayward skinhead. A member of the landed gentry. And a shadowy Mauritian travel agent with a chilling reputation. Soon, they will discover, a real estate deal, a racist, and the town's Robin Hood pub hold the key to the killing...  Whitethroat is by James Henry.

"Look what the fucking dogs did to them, someone muttered. No-one mentioned the rope, or the monkey-wrench, or the gun, or the knife, or the stick, or the whip, or the blood-stained boots. In fact, no-one said much at all. It seemed simpler that way. There was no sense in pointing fingers.'"  At dusk, on a warm evening in 2016, a group of forty men gathered in the corner of a dusty field on a farm outside Parys in the Free State. Some were in fury. Others treated the whole thing as a joke - a game. The events of the next two hours would come to haunt them all. They would rip families apart, prompt suicide attempts, breakdowns, divorce, bankruptcy, threats of violent revenge and acts of unforgivable treachery.  These Are Not Gentle People is by Andrew Harding and is the story of that night, and of what happened next. It's a murder story, a courtroom drama, a profound exploration of collective guilt and individual justice, and a fast-paced literary thriller.

August 2020

Pete Riley answers the door one morning to a parent's worst nightmare. On his doorstep is a

stranger, Miles Lambert, who breaks the devastating news that Pete's two-year-old, Theo, isn't his biological child after all - he is Miles's, switched with the Lamberts' baby at birth by an understaffed hospital.  Reeling from shock, Peter and his partner Maddie agree that, rather than swap the children back, it's better to stay as they are but to involve the other family in their children's lives. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an official investigation that unearths some disturbing questions about just what happened on the day the babies were switched.  And when Theo is thrown out of nursery for hitting other children, Maddie and Pete have to ask themselves: how far do they want this arrangement to go? What are the secrets hidden behind the Lamberts' smart front door? And how much can they trust the real parents of their child - or even each other?  Playing Nice is By J P Delaney.

A corpse that wakes up on the mortuary slab.  A case of spontaneous human combustion.  There is little by the way of violent crime and petty theft that Capitaine Victor Coste has not encountered in his fifteen years on the St Denis patch - but nothing like this. Something unusual is afoot, and Coste is about to be dragged out of his comfort zone. Stranger still, anonymous letters addressed to him personally have begun to arrive, highlighting the fates of two women, invisible victims whose deaths were never explained. Just two more blurred faces among the ranks of the lost and the damned.  The Lost and The Damned is Olivier Norek's first novel and draws on all his experience as a police officer in one of France's toughest suburbs - the same experience he drew on as a writer for the hit TV series Spiral.

September 2020

The Old Enemy is by Henry Porter.  Ex-MI6 officer Paul Samson prefers to work privately these days. He has been tasked with guarding a young woman, Joni Freemantle. He doesn't know who she is, or why she's important, but the money's good enough for him not to dig too deeply.   Then a shooter disguised as a homeless man abducts her before his eyes and Samson wishes he'd asked more questions. When his former colleague, Robert Harland, is found dead, the news comes with the threat that Samson's own life - and that of others he holds dear - is on the line.   Samson is sure he knows why there's a target on his back. What he doesn't know is who put it there - the Americans or the Russians?   Two things quickly become clear. One, it was a big mistake to lose Freemantle. And two, Robert Harland, ever the consummate spy, has one final, crucial part to play from beyond the grave.

When librarian and budding private investigator Kitt Hartley visits her ex-assistant Grace Edwards in Durham, she soon learns of an unsolved murder.   A year ago Jodie Perkins, a Mechanics student, disappeared after her student-radio broadcast was cut short with a deafening scream. The police suspect Jodie was murdered although her body was never found. Keen to be on the front line of one of Kitt's investigations, Grace convinces Kit to use her recent private investigator training to solve the mystery. Can Kitt and Grace uncover the truth?  Death Awaits in Durham is by Helen Cox.

After the Silence is by Louise O’Neill.  Nessa Crowley's murderer has been protected by silence for ten years.  Until a team of documentary makers decide to find out the truth.  On the day of Henry and Keelin Kinsella's wild party at their big house a violent storm engulfed the island of Inisrun, cutting it off from the mainland. When morning broke Nessa Crowley's lifeless body lay in the garden, her last breath silenced by the music and the thunder.  The killer couldn't have escaped Inisrun, but no-one was charged with the murder. The mystery that surrounded the death of Nessa remained hidden. But the islanders knew who to blame for the crime that changed them forever. Ten years later a documentary crew arrives, there to lift the lid off the Kinsella's carefully constructed lives, determined to find evidence that will prove Henry's guilt and Keelin's complicity in the murder of beautiful Nessa.

The legendary Laestadius becomes a kind of Sherlock Holmes in this exceptional historical crime novel.  It is 1852, and in Sweden's far north, deep in the Arctic Circle, charismatic preacher and Revivalist Lars Levi Laestadius impassions a poverty-stricken congregation with visions of salvation. But local leaders have reason to resist a shift to temperance over alcohol.  Jussi, the young Sami boy Laestadius has rescued from destitution and abuse, becomes the preacher's faithful disciple on long botanical treks to explore the flora and fauna. Laestadius also teaches him to read and write - and to love and fear God.   When a milkmaid goes missing deep in the forest, the locals suspect a predatory bear is at large. A second girl is attacked, and the sheriff is quick to offer a reward for the bear's capture. Using early forensics and Daguerrotype, Laestidius and Jussi find clues that point to a far worse killer on the loose, even as they are unaware of the evil closing in around them.   To Cook a Bear is by Mikael Niemi and explores how communities turn inwards, how superstition can turn to violence, and how the power of language can be transformative in a richly fascinating mystery.

Radio Life is by Derek B Miller.  In this riveting political thriller, The Commonwealth, a post-apocalyptic civilisation on the rise, is locked in a clash of ideas with the Keepers, a fight which threatens to destroy the world . . . again.  When Lilly was first Chief Engineer at The Commonwealth, nearly fifty years ago, the Central Archive wasn't yet the greatest repository of knowledge in the known world, protected by scribes copying every piece of found material - books, maps, even scraps of paper - and disseminating them by Archive Runners to hidden off-site locations for safe keeping. Back then, there was no Order of Silence to create and maintain secret routes deep into the sand-covered towers of the Old World or into the northern forests beyond Sea Glass Lake. Back then, the world was still quiet, because Lilly hadn't yet found the Harrington Box.  But times change. Recently, the Keepers have started gathering to the east of Yellow Ridge - thousands upon thousands of them - and every one of them determined to burn the Central Archives to the ground, no matter the cost, possessed by an irrational fear that bringing back the ancient knowledge will destroy the world all over again. To prevent that, they will do anything.  Fourteen days ago the Keepers chased sixteen-year-old Archive Runner Elimisha into a forbidden Old World Tower and brought the entire thing down on her. Instead of being killed, though, she slipped into an ancient unmapped bomb shelter where she has discovered a cache of food and fresh water, a two-way radio like the one Lilly's been working on for years . . . and something else. Something that calls itself 'the internet' . . .

October 2020

The Postcript Murders is by Elly Griffiths.  PS: Thanks for the murders.   The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka’s account of Peggy Smith’s death.   But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her . . .   And that Peggy Smith had been a ‘murder consultant’ who plotted deaths for authors, and knew more about murder than anyone has any rightto...   And when clearing out Peggy’s flat ends in Natalka being held at gunpoint by a masked figure . . .   Well then DS Harbinder Kaur thinks that maybe there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.   PS: Trust no one.

To Say Goodbye is by Marcello Fois.  When Michele, a young autistic child goes missing, Commissario Sergio Striggio is put in charge of the investigation. Searches turn up nothing, but there is an interesting connection with the mother's past: when she was a child, her twin brother went missing, never to be found.   However, Striggio is finding it difficult to concentrate on the case. He is waiting for his father, Pietro, to come and stay. The idea of the visit is torturing him. He fears having to reveal that he is gay - most of all he fears that his partner, Leo, will reveal his sexuality to his father. Pietro, however, has other matters on his mind: he has news of a devastating diagnosis to share with his son.  And when his life with Leo unexpectedly collides with his investigation into Michele's disappearance, it seems that in the complicated web of the small town of Bolzano, the truth behind the mystery cannot hide for long.

Pamela, a criminal lawyer struggling to balance work with family, is torn with guilt after her bereaved father suffers a domestic accident. Desperation sets in and her brother draws on the help of Maggie - a live-in carer.  A stranger.  Pamela is impressed by Maggie, who nursed both her own parents at home and now wants to help other families by taking the load. But Pamela soon suspects that Maggie has an alternate agenda.   For her father has a secret, long-buried. As past and present mingle, she begins to question whether he is the man she thought he was. And what she learns will have a devastating impact on everyone...  The Haunted Shore is by Neil Spring.

November 2020

Dog Island is by Philippe Claudel.   When three bodies wash up with the morning tide, the initial reaction of the islanders is that this tragedy must be covered up, lest any association with the drownings damages their tourism industry . . .   But when a detective arrives on the island and starts asking awkward questions, it becomes clear that the deaths indicate something far more sinister and rotten at the heart of this insular fragment of sea-bound land. 

Books to Look Forward to From Quercus, Riverrun and Maclehose Press

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July 2018

Captain Damian Seeker has gone north. Charged with preparing the way for the rule of the major generals, he is now under the command of Colonel Robert Lilburne at York. But when Lilburne orders him to a small village on the North York moors with details of the stringent new anti-Royalist laws, Seeker finds that what should be a routine visit will reveal a plot to rival anything in scheming London.  An invitation to dinner at the house of local businessman Matthew Pullan lifts the lid on the bubbling cauldron of grudges and resentment that is Faithly village. The local constable, drunk on the tiny bit of power he holds, using it to avenge old resentments. The hated lord of the manor, the last of a staunchly Royalist family who has managed to avoid suspicion of treachery - for now. The vicar on trial for his job and his home, accused of ungodly acts. And the Pullans themselves, proudly Puritan but disillusioned with Cromwell's government, respected and despised in Faithly in equal measure. The man for whom this unlikely gathering was organised - The Trier, the enforcer of Puritan morality for the local villages - hasn't shown up. And by the end of the night, on of those gathered around Matthew Pullan's table will be fatally poisoned.  Seeker must find out the motive behind the death - mushroom misidentification, petty revenge, or part of a larger plot against Cromwell's government in the north? But who in Faithly, if anyone, can he trust? And when the most painful part of his past reappears after eleven years, will the Seeker meet his match? Destroying Angel is by S G Maclean

Believe Me is by J P Delenay.  I'm just an actress. I wanted to stand on a stage and have people applaud. How on earth did I get into all this?Claire Wright likes to play other people. A struggling British actress, in New York without a green card, Claire needs work. She takes the only part she's offered: as a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers, hired to entrap straying husbands, catching them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules?  Never hit on them directly. Make it clear you're available, but they have to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not entrapment. The innocent should have nothing to hide.  Then the game changes.  When the police start investigating one of Claire's targets for murdering his wife - and potentially others too - they ask her to help lure their suspect into a confession. Claire can do this. She assumes a voice and an attitude, something from an old film noir. A master class in deception. But who's deceiving who?  And that's when Claire realises she's playing the deadliest role of her life. 

July 1983, Essex. Fox Farm is, thanks to two corpses, neither picturesque nor peaceful. The body in its kitchen belongs to eminent historian Christopher Cliff, who has taken his own life with an antique shotgun. The second, found on the property boundary, remains unidentified.  DI Nick Lowry's summer is neither sleepy nor serene. And the two deaths are just the half of it. The fact County Chief Merrydown was a college friend of Cliff's means Lowry is now, in turn, under scrutiny from his severely stressed and singularly unsympathetic boss, Sparks.  To catalyse his investigation, Lowry enlists the services of DC Daniel Kenton and WPC Jane Gabriel. Gabriel needs direction, if she is to begin a career as a detective. While Kenton, who appears solely focused on beginning a relationship with Gabriel, needs distraction.  Both the heat and the investigation soon intensify. The team find themselves interrogating enigmatic neighbours, antiques merchants, jilted lovers and wronged relatives; all the while negotiating the caprices of Sparks - whose attitudes remain as dated as Fox Farm's antiques.  Only when they fully open their eyes and minds will they begin to unpick a web of rural rituals, dodgy dealings and fragmented families - and uncover not just one murder, but two.  Yellowhammer is by James Henry.

Stick Together is by Sophie Hénaff.  After their successful solving of three cold cases exposing corruption at the very highest level of the Paris police force, Anne Capestan's squad of misfits and no-hopers should be in a celebratory mood. However, now despised by their colleagues at 36 quai des Orfevres and worried for their future, morale has never been lower among the members of the Awkward Squad.and  Capestan does her best to motivate her troops, but even she cannot maintain a cheerful facade when she has to investigate the murder of Commissaire Serge Rufus, the father of her ex-husband. Worse, it soon appears that his murder is linked to two other victims, both of whom were warned by the killer before they struck . . .

August 2018

After an attempted assassination of a prominent minister goes spectacularly wrong, No sooner has Akyl Borubaev been reinstated as an Inspector in the Bishkek Murder Squad than he's suspended for alleged serious crimes against the state. Akyl is a fugitive from his former colleagues and involved with one of Kyrgyzstan's most dangerous criminals.  On the run, caught up in an illegal scheme that can only end badly, it's time for Akyl to take a stand for everything he believes in.  An Autumn Hunting is by Tom Callaghan.

A Summer of Murder is by Oliver Bottini.  When the fire brigade is called to a burning shed in the Black Forest idyll of Kirchzarten, a volunteer is killed as a weapons cache beneath it explodes. Louise Boni, back with Freiburg Kripo after treatment and recuperation for her alcoholism, is assigned to the task force dealing with this case. The meagre evidence they have points to a possible connection with German neo-Nazis or illegal arms dealers from the former Yugoslavia, while the arrival of secret service agents suggests more is at stake. For Louise to solve the riddle she needs to overcome the ghosts of her past that continue to haunt her.

September 2018

'Island of the Lost was the isle's name long before the hospital was built. In winter, they say the fog falls so heavy there that you can't see your hand in front of your face. Storms rage so forcefully you can be blown from the cliffs. Once St. Christina's was built, the name took on a new meaning. Very few who went into that place ever left.'

Christmas day, and DCI Tom Reynolds receives an alarming call. A mass grave has been discovered on Oilean na Caillte, the island which housed the controversial psychiatric institution St. Christina's. The hospital has been closed for decades and onsite graves were tragically common. Reynolds thinks his adversarial boss is handing him a cold case to side line him.  But then it transpires another body has been discovered amongst the dead - one of the doctors who went missing from the hospital in mysterious circumstances forty years ago. He appears to have been brutally murdered.  As events take a sudden turn, nothing can prepare Reynolds and his team for what they are about to discover once they arrive on the island . . . The Darkest Place is by Jo Spain. 

Alain Delambre is a 57-year-old former HR executive, drained by four years of hopeless unemployment.  All he is offered are small, demoralizing jobs. He has reached his very lowest ebb, and can see no way out.  So when a major company finally invites him to an interview, Alain Delambre is ready to do anything, borrow money, shame his wife and his daughters and even participate in the ultimate recruitment test: a role-playing game that involves hostage-taking.  Alain Delambre commits body and soul in this struggle to regain his dignity.  But if he suddenly realised that the dice had been loaded against him from the start, his fury would be limitless.  And what began as a role-play game could quickly become a bloodbath. Inhuman Resources is by Pierre Lemaitre.

October 2018

Leave No Trace is by Mindy Mejia. Ten years after a boy and his father went missing in the wilderness of Minnesota's Boundary Waters, the boy - who is no longer a boy - walks back out of the forest. He is violent and uncommunicative. The authorities take him to Congdon Mental Institution in Duluth, on the edge of mighty Lake Superior.There, language therapist Maya Stark is given the task of making a connection with this boy/man who came back from the dead. But their celebrity patient tries to escape and refuses to answer any questions about his father or the last ten years of his life. In many ways he is old far beyond his years; in others, still a child.  But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she's drawn closer to this enigmatic boy, she'll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world - but at what cost to herself?

The Burning House is by Neil Spring.  It was a victimless crime...  Estate Agent Clara is struggling to make a sale. With her abusive ex-husband on the brink of finding where she's hiding, she needs to make a commission soon or lose her chance to escape.  Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness has remained unsold for years, and Clara is sure that an 'innocent' fire will force the price down. But the perfect crime soon turns into the perfect nightmare: there was a witness, a stranger in the village, and he's not going to let Clara get away with it…. 

When one Israeli citizen disappears from Charles de Gaulle airport with a woman in a red dress, you could put it down to youthful indiscretion.   When a second from the same flight is disappeared from his hotel room by a girl with a gun, you might just have a diplomatic crisis on your hands.  Enter Colonel Abadi, recently appointed head of the special branch of Unit 8200, Israel's most secretive intelligence service.  His only allies are his deputy back in Israel, the dazzling and hot-headed Lieutenant Orianna Talmor, and a hungover French detective, hung out to dry by his superiors.  Together they face a squad of ruthless Chinese commandos who have no qualms about leaving Paris littered with bodies.  And then there are their enemies in the Paris establishment and the labyrinthine, back-stabbing Israeli intelligence community.  All in all, it could be a long night.  A Long Night in Paris by Dov Aflon.

November 2018

Bloodline is by Nigel McCrery. When Isabel, a British university student, travels to a remote Spanish town it isn't only to enjoy the atmosphere. It's also to trace how and why her family name might have derived from the town, a quest her father, Sebastian made nine years ago, not long before his death in a car accident. But as Isabel, aided by local guide Mauricio, starts digging into her family's possible links with Alarcon, she's unprepared for the dark secrets uncovered; secrets that the current ruling nobility of Alarcon are keen to keep buried.Ten days into her stay in Alarcon, Isabel mysteriously disappears, presumed dead. Inspector Mark Lapslie and DC Emma Bradbury are sent out to investigate alongside the local Spanish police. A possible gangland link is suspected - Isabel's stepfather in Valencia is a retired British gangster and a mob-hitman from Malaga is identified in Alarcon at the time of Isabel's disappearance. But Mauricio, suspects the Mayor's son, Dario, is the real culprit - to uncover the truth, Lapslie and Bradbury must delve into the murky, chequered past of Isabel's gangland stepfather while also following in her footsteps through Alarcon's dark and tempestuous history.

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. As a literature teacher specialising in the Gothic writer RM Holland, she teaches a short course on it every year. Then Clare's life and work collide tragically when one of her colleagues is found dead, a line from an RM Holland story by her body. The investigating police detective is convinced the writer's works somehow hold the key to the case.  Not knowing who to trust, and afraid that the killer is someone she knows, Clare confides her darkest suspicions and fears about the case to her journal. Then one day she notices some other writing in the diary. Writing that isn't hers...  The Stranger Diaries is by Elly Griffiths.

December 2018

Village of Lost Girls is by Augustín Martínez.  Five years after their disappearance, the village of Monteperdido still mourns the loss of Ana and Lucia, two eleven-year-old friends who left school one afternoon and were never seen again. Now, Ana reappears unexpectedly inside a crashed car, wounded but alive and next to the body of a man.While the people of the village struggle to comprehend the startling turn of events, the case reopens and a race against time begins to discover the identity of the dead man and who was behind the girls' kidnapping. Most importantly, where is Lucia and is she still alive? Inspector Sara Campos and her boss Santiago Bain, who are called in from Madrid's head office, are forced to work with the local police. Five years ago fatal mistakes were made in the investigation conducted after the girls first vanished, and this mustn't happen again. But Monteperdido has rules of its own.