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 and Stoughton (Incl Mulholland Books)

January 2020

He had been to the limit. Then they sent him further.  Gary - 'Gaz' - Baldwin is a watcher, not a killer. Operating with a special forces unit deep in Syria, he is to sit in a hide, observe a village, report back and leave.  But the appalling atrocity he witnesses will change his life forever.  Before long, he is living as a handyman on the Orkney islands, far from Syria, far from the army, not far enough from the memories that have all but destroyed him.  'Knacker' is one of the last old-school operators at the modern MI6 fortress on the Thames. He presides over the Round Table, a little group who meet in a pub and yearn for simpler, less bureaucratic times.  When news reaches Knacker that the Russian officer responsible for the Syrian incident may be in Murmansk, northern Russia, he sets in motion a plan to kill him. It will involve a sleeper cell, a marksman and other resources - all unlikely to be sanctioned by the MI6 top brass, so it must be done off the books.  But first, he will need a sure identification. And for that, he needs a watcher...  Beyond Recall is by Gerald Seymour.

Haven’t They Grown is by Sophie Hannah.  All Beth has to do is drive her son to his Under-14s away match, watch him play, and bring him home.  Just because she knows that her former best friend lives near the football ground, that doesn't mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why would Beth do that, and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn't seen Flora Braid for twelve years. But she can't resist. She parks outside Flora's house and watches from across the road as Flora and her children, Thomas and Emily, step out of the car. Except... There's something terribly wrong. Flora looks the same, only older - just as Beth would have expected. It's the children that are the problem. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily Braid were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are still five and three. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt - Beth hears Flora call them by their names - but they haven't changed at all.  They are no taller, no older.  Why haven't they grown?

Sally Page is an MI5 'footie', a junior Secret Service Agent who maintains 'legends': fake identities or footprints used by real spies. Her day consists of maintaining flats and houses where the legends allegedly live, doing online shopping, using payment, loyalty and travel cards and going on social media in their names - anything to give the impression to hostile surveillance that the legends are living, breathing individuals.  One day she goes out for coffee leaving the safe house from which she and her fellow footies operate. When she comes back they have all been murdered and she barely escapes with her own life. She is on the run: but from whom she has no idea. Worse, her bosses at MI5 seem powerless to help her. To live, she will have to use all the lies and false identities she has so carefully created while discovering the truth . . . The Runner is by Stephen Leather.

February 2020

The Burning Man is by Will Shindler.  When a development in South London catches fire mid-construction, a close-knit team of fire fighters runs in to save a man spotted at the window.  They come out without a body. They quit the service. They plan never to speak to each other again.  Five years later one of them is set alight at his own wedding. Soon after, a second is found, nothing but a smoking corpse. It appears that someone knows what they did that night. What they chose over their duty. And there are still three men left to burn . . . DI Alex Finn and his new partner DC Mattie Paulsen are an unlikely pairing, but they need to discover who is behind these killings before the next man faces the fire.

Circle of Death is by Chris Ryan.  Three years ago, Julian Norwood was the rising star of the political universe. As the co-founder of a wildly successful London-based political consultancy, Norwood and his colleagues used controversial tactics to help win the election for the American President and played a decisive role propping up odious governments around the world. But after a scandal broke, the company's reputation was shredded. All of a sudden, Norwood was toxic. People stopped returning his calls. Nobody wanted to work with him. In desperation, he fled to the Seychelles to escape the media spotlight. But when Norwood uncovers a terrifying secret - one that threatens to trigger a brutal new conflict - he senses an opportunity for political redemption...and a hefty payday. He reaches out to his former mentor, a close confidante of the American President and a shadowy populist puppet-master. Before he can tell his mentor what he has discovered, however, masked gunmen ambush the meeting, killing the populist and kidnapping Norwood. In Hereford, former SAS legends John Porter and Jock Bald are brought in from the cold and tasked with a dangerous new mission. A close-knit gang of ex-Navy SEALs, dishonourably discharged from the US military, have gone rogue down in the badlands of Mexico, offering their services to the highest bidder. Now American and British intelligence experts believe that the gang is plotting a sinister new attack - and they want Bald and Porter to infiltrate the gang and find out what they're up to. Amid the deadly carnage and daily, horrifying violence of the Mexican drug wars, Bald and Porter must earn the trust of the ex-SEALs and their charismatic leader, survive brutal cartel attacks and uncover a deadly conspiracy involving the 'Deep State' in both the US and the UK. When their cover is blown, however, Bald and Porter must act to stop a deadly plan to assassinate the Venezuelan President and trigger a bloody civil war. In a breathtaking finale, they must fight alongside their fellow SAS comrades, taking on the gang in a deadly battle of SAS versus Navy SEALs - and only the strongest will survive.

March 2020

The Stranger is by Simon Conway.  ISIS can't control him.  MI6 can't find him.  But he's coming...  Things change quickly in the world of espionage and clandestine operations. Jude Lyon of MI6 remembers the captured terrorist bomb-maker. He watched him being flown off to Syria, back when Syria was 'friendly'. No-one expected him to survive interrogation there.  Yet the man is alive and someone has broken him out of jail.  Bad news for the former foreign secretary who authorised his rendition. And Jude's boss Queen Bee who knew he wasn't a terrorist at all, but an innocent bystander. Now she calls Jude back from a dangerously enjoyable mission involving a Russian diplomat's wife.  He has a new job: close down this embarrassment. Fast. But embarrassment is only the beginning. Someone is using the former prisoner to front a new and unspeakably terrifying campaign. Someone not even ISIS can control.  He is like a rumour, a myth, a whisper on the desert wind. But he is real and he is coming for us ...  He is the genius known only as ... The Stranger.

The Familiar Dark is by Amy Engel.  In a small town beset by poverty in the Missouri Ozarks two 12-year-old girls are found dead in the park. Their throats have been cut.  Eve Taggert's daughter was one of them. Desperate with grief, she takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened to her little girl. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life - having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose parenting lessons she tried hard not to mimic. But with her daughter gone, Eve has no reason to stay soft. And she is going to need her mother's cruel brand of strength if she's going to face the truth about her daughter's death.

April 2020

Dirty South is by John Connolly.  It is 1999, and someone is slaughtering young black women in Burdon County, Arkansas.  But no one wants to admit it, not in the Dirty South.  In an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD detective, stricken by grief. He is mourning the death of his wife and child, and searching in vain for their killer. He cares only for his own lost family.  But that is about to change . .. Witness the becoming of Charlie Parker.

When Elspeth arrives at the fiftieth birthday party of her ex-husband, the famous British film director Richard Bryant from whom she has been estranged for 10 years, she expects a crowd in his sprawling LA mansion. Instead, there are only eight other people, and Richard's pet octopus Persephone, floating dreamily in a wall-sized aquarium. By the morning, Richard is dead. All of the guests are suspects.  As she is interviewed by the police, Elspeth pieces together her memories of the party that evening. She also remembers her marriage, her early film career, and the consuming power of a monstrous man.  The Octopus is by Tess Little.

The Grove of the Caesars is by Lindsey Davis.  Julius Caesar left his gardens to the citizens of Rome, a peaceful sanctuary across the Tiber. Now the gardens and their sacred grove are dangerous haunts, especially for women alone.  'Don't go to the Grove,' people mutter, but when her husband has to leave Rome, it falls to Albia to supervise his building project in an old grotto. Why has someone buried tattered scrolls by philosophers - and does it involve a worse crime than terrible writing?  Soon that puzzle is overtaken. A woman disappears from her husband's birthday party; she meets a dire fate, then Albia learns that on the same night, two louche slaves given to her family by the brooding Emperor Domitian also vanished in the gardens. Apparently, it is well known that a killer lurks there.  The vigiles have failed to investigate properly for decades and this won't improve when the sinister agent Karus arrives. Albia must co-operate, in order to give the many victims justice and find answers for grieving relatives. But can she herself remain safe? And, after others have failed, can she at last identify the predator who has made the Grove his killing ground?

On a jagged, bleak lava field just outside Reykjavik stands the Gallows Rock. Once a place of execution, it is now a tourist attraction. Until this morning, when a man was found hanging from it...  The nail embedded in his chest proves it wasn't suicide. But when the police go to his flat, a further puzzle awaits: a four-year-old boy has been left there. He doesn't seem to have any link with the victim, his parents cannot be found, and his drawings show he witnessed something terrible. As detective Huldar hunts the killer, and child psychologist Freyja looks for the boy's parents, the mystery unfolds: a story of violence, entitlement, and revenge.  Gallows Rock is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

The Return by Rachel Harrison. Her best friend disappeared. A stranger came back.  Julie is missing, and the missing don't often return. But Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and she feels in her bones that her best friend is out there.  She's right. Two years to the day that Julie vanished, she reappears with no memory of what happened to her. But she is different. She's emaciated, with sallow skin, chipped teeth and odd appetites. In so many ways, Julie seems to be the friend they all loved and lost. But in others, she seems to be a stranger.  Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, they decide to reunite at the eccentric, remote Red Honey Inn. But when bad weather traps them inside the hotel, tensions flare. Elise begins to hear scratching within the walls, to see the slither of shadows cast by nothing. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back.

The Darlings is by Cristina Alger.  The Darlings of New York are untouchable. But no one is safe from a scandal this big. When Carter Darling's business partner commits suicide, it triggers a huge financial investigation. The allegations are serious. The danger of it exposing their private lives is equally threatening. In times of crisis, the Darlings have always stuck together. But with the stakes so high, how long will their loyalty last?

May 2020

Seven patients. One dark secret.  Jennifer Nielsen has her life on track. Until she gets news that her former psychiatrist, Phillip Walton, has been brutally murdered, and that she is implicated. Philip knew her darkest secrets. And circumstances of his murder suggest that someone else out there knows them too. Jenny needs to speak to old friends, and old enemies, from her dark years spent at Hillside Psychiatric Hospital. Because they are the only ones who know what really happened at Hillside, about the secret that Phil kept for them all, and that this is not the first murder.  Cracked is by Louise McCreesh.

June 2020

A Safe Place is by Anna Downes.  A beautiful home might hide dangerous secrets . . Emily Proudman has been offered the chance of a lifetime - leave her messy London life, move to a beautiful estate in France and help her boss's wife take care of their daughter. It seems like the perfect opportunity to start again.  But once there, Emily soon starts to suspect that her charismatic new employers aren't telling her the whole truth. That there are even dangerous secrets hidden beneath the glamorous facade.  Why have the family been moved to this isolated house so far from home? Why does her bosses' daughter refuse to speak or be touched? Why are there whispers in the night? The only problem is, the more Emily knows, the less chance there is she will ever be able to leave . . .

As a school nurse.  Anna Pierce is a trusted member of the community.  So when she is accused of hitting a pupil,  the reaction is one of shock and disbelief.  The pupil of Tori Carmichael – Anna’s mentee and a child known for her lies.  Anna is hurt by the accusation but determined to clear her name.  Before she can, the worst happens: Tori is fund dead.  Suspicion against Anna spreads quickly in the close-knit community.  At the very least, Anna should have protected this vulnerable girl.  At worst, she is a killer.  But which is it? I Tell a Lie is by Julie Corbin.

Also published in July 2020 is Camino 2 by John Grisham.

Books to look forward to from Mulholland Books and Hodder & Stoughton

With so many mystery novels to choose from and so many new titles appearing each year, where should the reader start?  What are the classics of the genre?  Which are the hidden gems?  In the most ambitious anthology of its kind yet attempted, the world's leading mystery writers have come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written.  In a series of personal essays that often reveal as much about themselves and their work as they do about the books that they love, more than 120 authors from twenty countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers.  From Christie to Child and Poe to PD James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlow to Peter Wimsey, Books to Die For brings together the cream of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover.  This is the one essential book for every reader who has ever finished a mystery novel and thought.  Books to Die For is edited by crime writers John Connolly and Declan Burke and is due to be published in August 2012.

XO is by Jeffery Deaver and sees the return of Kathryn Dancer.  XO is due to be published in June 2012.  Kayleigh Towne is a beautiful and successful singer-songwriter, and Edwin Sharp is her biggest fan.  When she replies to one of his fan letters with 'XO', Edwin is convinced she loves him, and that her latest hit song 'Your Shadow' was written for him.  Nothing Kayleigh or her lawyers can say persuades him otherwise.  Then the singer gets an anonymous phone call; it's the first verse of 'Your Shadow' playing.  Soon after, one of the crew is horribly murdered.  Kayleigh's friend Kathryn Dance, a special agent with the California Bureau of Investigation, knows that stalking crimes are not one-off occurrences, and, sure enough, more verses of the song are played as warnings of death to follow.  With a little help from forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, Dance must use her investigative skills in an attempt to find the killer before more people die.

Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered.  Judge Raymond Fogletree just became number five.  His body was found in the small basement of a lakeside cabin he had built himself and frequently used on weekends.  When he did not show up for a trial on Monday morning, his law clerks panicked, called the FBI, and in due course the agents found the crime scene.  There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies - Judge Fogletree and his young secretary.  I did not know Judge Fogletree, but I know who killed him, and why.  I am a lawyer, and I am in prison.  It's a long story.  The Racketeer is by John Grisham and is due to be published in October 2012.

The one thing to remember about an adventure is that if it turns out the way you expect it to, it has not been an adventure at all ...Shanghai, 1925. Irene, a museum curator (and, unofficially, a treasure hunter) is searching for a set of legendary copper scrolls which describe the forgotten history of Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilisation. Her mentor has sent her to China to enlist the help of Simone, a mercurial Frenchwoman who - along with her notoriously violent husband, 'the most dangerous man in the Orient' - has a reputation for both stealing artefacts and starting revolutions. Irene and Simone set off through the Cambodian jungle to search for the scrolls, but it soon becomes clear that each is determined to acquire them for her own reasons, and that once they have located them it will be every woman for herself.  The Map of Lost Memories is by Kim Fay and is due to be published in August 2012.

The Outsiders is by Gerald Seymour and is due to be published in July 2012.  They used to meet for a smoke behind the MI5 building.  They were disbanded after the death of the youngest member of their team at the hands of a Russian gangster.  Now, suddenly, the Graveyard Team is being called back together.  Word is that the gangster is staying at a villa in Spain - the Costa del Sol being a multi-billion dollar hub in the worldwide drug trade.  Winnie Monks has never forgotten - or forgiven - the murder of her agent.  Now she asks permission to put a photo surveillance unit in the empty house next door to the villa, not mentioning that she is also sending one of the Graveyard Team - Sparky the sniper.  In another part of London, likeable young man Jonno is starting a relationship with a girl called Posie.  They are offered the chance to spend a week in a little house belonging to family friends on the Costa del Sol.  A house that MI5 thinks is empty.

Five years ago, Nicky's best friend Grace was brutally murdered. No one was ever charged with this terrible crime and Nicky in her grief sought solace in the arms of Grace's widower. They're now married but he is often out of the country for work, and when Nicky meets Adam, who is young, good-looking and obviously interested, she's tempted. But what starts as an innocent flirtation leads to a terrible ordeal, and a dark secret. A secret that involves her husband, and Adam, and what happened to Grace all those years before. Nicky finds herself fighting for answers. But, when love is worth killing for, the price paid for the truth can be very high indeed ... The First Cut is by Ali Knight and is due to be published in October 2012.

In the depths of the Maine woods, the wreckage of an aeroplane is discovered.  There are no bodies, and no such plane has ever been reported missing, but men both good and evil have been seeking it for a long, long time.  What the wreckage conceals is more important than money: it is power.  Hidden in the plane is a list of names, a record of those who have struck a deal with the Devil.  Now a battle is about to commence between those who want the list to remain secret and those who believe that it represents a crucial weapon in the struggle against the forces of darkness.  The race to secure the prize draws in private detective Charlie Parker, a man who knows more than most about the nature of the terrible evil that seeks to impose itself on the world, and who fears that his own name may be on the list.  It lures others too: a beautiful, scarred woman with a taste for killing; a silent child who remembers his own death; and the serial killer known as the Collector, who sees in the list new lambs for his slaughter.  But as the rival forces descend upon this northern state, the woods prepare to meet them, for the forest depths hide other secrets.  Someone has survived the crash.  Something has survived the crash.  And it is waiting ... The Wrath of Angels is by John Connolly and is due to be published in August 2012.

Watching the Dark is by Peter Robinson and is due to be published in September 2012.  Banks is back - and this time he's investigating the murder of one of his own.  Detective Inspector Bill Reid is killed by a crossbow in the tranquil grounds of a police rehabilitation centre, and compromising photos are found in his room.  DCI Banks, brought in to investigate, is assailed on all sides.  By Joanna Passero, the Professional Standards inspector who insists on shadowing the investigation in case of police corruption.  By his own conviction that a policeman shouldn't be deemed guilty without evidence.  By Annie Cabbot, back at work after six months' recuperation, and beset by her own doubts and demons.  And by an English girl who disappeared in Estonia six years ago, who seems to hold the secret at the heart of this case ...

In 1299, exiled in Ireland and hunted by a relentless assassin, Robert Bruce is as far from realising his grandfather’s claim to the throne of Scotland as he could ever be.  Even worse, in order to protect his remaining lands, he is forced to feign loyalty to his sworn enemy, Edward, King of England.  But the cauldron of conspiracy, ambition and betrayal must boil over in time, and when it does, Robert finds himself back in Scotland at last, at the head of an army, ready to seize his destiny. Renegade is the second book in the Insurrection series by Robyn Young and is due to be published in August 2012.

Death in Sardinia is by Marco Vichi and is due to be published in July 2012.  Florence, 1965. A man is found murdered, a pair of scissors stuck through his throat. Only one thing is known about him - he was a loan shark, who ruined and blackmailed the vulnerable men and women who would come to him for help. Inspector Bordelli prepares to launch a murder investigation. But the case will be a tough one for him, arousing mixed emotions: the desire for justice conflicting with a deep hostility for the victim. And he is missing his young police sidekick, Piras, who is convalescing at his parents' home in Sardinia. But Piras hasn't been recuperating for long before he too has a mysterious death to deal with ...

 The Edge of Nowhere: Saratoga Woods is the first in a new series by Elizabeth George and is due to be published in September 2012.  Becca King and her mother are on the run from her stepfather who has used Becca's talent for hearing 'whispers' to make a large and illegal sum of money.  Now their options for safety are running out.  In the town of Langley on Whidbey Island, Becca finds refuge in the home of her mother's childhood friend while her mother continues on to Canada in search of safety.  But on her first day in town Becca meets sixteen years old Derric Nyombe Matheson a Ugandan orphan who was adopted as a ten-year-old by the town's Deputy Sheriff.  Derric has a secret that no one on Whidbey Island knows.  Derric and Becca form an un-severable bond.  Becca is convinced that she's the only person who can truly help him, and just maybe Derric can convince Becca that life is too short to live on the run.

Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses is by Catriona McPherson and is due to be published in July 2012.  Before she was a detective, before she was a reluctant wife and distracted mother, before she was even a debutante, Dandy Gilver spent one perfect summer with the Lipscotts of Pereford. The golden memories of it have sustained her through many a cold snap in Perthshire. So when two of the Lipscott sisters beg her to help the third, she can hardly refuse. Sweet, pretty Fleur Lipscott: where is she now? The astonishing answer to this is that Fleur - still Miss Lipscott, indeed more Miss Lipscott than ever - is buried alive in the tiny seaside village of Portpatrick, working as a schoolmistress at St Columba's College for Young Ladies. But she is one of the few remaining, for St Columba's has been shedding mistresses as a snake its skins and the exodus is far from over. With mistresses vanishing and corpses mounting up, can Mrs Gilver, detective, pass herself off as Miss Gilver, English mistress, to solve the one and stop the other?

Hanneke Sloet, a lawyer working on one of the biggest Black Empowerment deals in South African history is found stabbed to death in her Cape Town apartment.  Then a terrifying email arrives – I’ll shoot one policeman every day, until you arrest the murderer of Hanneke Sloet” – and the bodies of the South African Police Services start piling up.  Benny Griessel takes the case with no leads and no motive to go on.  At the same time, his colleague Captain Mbali Kaleni is determined to find a connection between the shooter and Sloet before time runs out.  Can they endure seven days of hell?  7 Days is by Deon Meyer and is due to be published in September 2012.

The most wanted man in the world is dead.  Now those loyal to him seek revenge.  When Navy Seals track down and kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, it's obvious there was a traitor on the inside.  After the false friends are revealed to be two British students, Malik and Chaudhry - former Islamic fundamentalists recruited by MI5 - they become targets themselves.  Dan 'Spider' Shepherd must teach the pair how to survive undercover with al-Qaeda closing in.  But Spider is not used to playing the handler.  And with the line between mentor and friend beginning to blur, and a terrorist plot putting thousands of lives at stake, can he protect everyone before it's too late?  False Friends is the ninth book in the bestselling Dan 'Spider' Shepherd series by Stephen Leather and is due to be published in July 2012.

I Remember You is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and is due to be published in October 2012.  In an isolated village in the Icelandic Westfjords, three friends set to work renovating a derelict house.  But soon they realise they are not alone there - something wants them to leave, and it's making its presence felt.  Meanwhile, in a town across the fjord, a young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son.  When the two stories collide the terrifying truth is uncovered .

Two years ago, Ava Garrison's cherished two-year-old son Noah disappeared from a house full of party guests. There was no ransom demand; his body was never found. Most people assumed that Noah drowned after falling off the dock of their Church Island home into the Pacific Ocean. Ava, wracked with grief, has been in and out of mental institutions since that night. Back on the family estate now, though, Ava is having strangely lifelike visions - visions of Noah on the dock, or in his nursery. Visions that seem to be urging her to risk her own life ...Ava doesn't trust anyone now. Not her husband. Not her cousins. Not the servants her wealth is paying for, or the new handyman who always seems to be there when she leaves the island. They know more than they are saying. They appear to be anxious about her well-being. But the truth is more dangerous than Ava can imagine; and the price is higher than she ever thought to pay.  You Don’t Want to Know is by Lisa Jackson and is due to be published in August 2012.

In the small town of Chambers, Ohio, there is one thing that everyone gets excited about: high school football.  Coach Kent Austin has led the team to an undefeated season, and they're finally headed for the state championships after decades of waiting.  Kent's older brother, Adam, is the local bail bondsman, known for finding people who don't want to be found.  So, when high school student Rachel Bond wants help tracking down her father, an ex-con who has just been released from prison, she turns to Adam for help.  But just days after Adam gives Rachel an address for her father, she is found murdered on the side of the road.  The death shakes the town and Rachel's boyfriend, star of the college football team's, to the core.  It also causes Adam and Kent to relive the tragedy of their sister's murder many years before.  Feeling responsible for Rachel's death, Adam vows to find the killer ... The Prophet is by Michael Koryta and is due to be published in October 2012. Sorrow’s Anthem which is the second book in the Lincoln Perry series and A Welcome Grave the third book in the series will also be published in August and November 2012.

Rock Creek Park is by Simon Conway the 2010 winner of the CWA Steel Dagger Award and is due to be published in August 2012.  As science develops more and more sophisticated military hardware, inevitably it has also turned to the genetic 'enhancement' of military personnel.  Scottish former police protection officer Harriet 'Harry' Armstrong discovers the body of a beautiful young woman outside the home of a powerful US Senator.  Detective Michael Freeman knows this case means pressure - pressure to close the case quickly, pressure to keep the Senator out of it, pressure from his ambitious wife not to rock the political boat.  But Harry and Freeman have both become involved in a conspiracy that is impossible to walk away from.  What is the Senator's link to a shady genetic engineering company? Why does MI6 want Harry to take a job with the company's founder? An edgy combination of political thriller and police procedural.

Bobby Dollar would like to know what he was like when he was alive, but too much of his time is spent working as an extremely minor functionary in the heavenly host judging recently departed souls. Until the day a soul goes missing, presumed stolen by 'the other side'. A new chapter in the war between heaven and hell is about to open. And Bobby is right in the middle of it, with only a desirable but deadly demon to aid him.  Bobby Dollar is a private investigator like no other.  For one, he’s dead.  For another, he’s an angel.  The Dirty Streets of Heaven is by Tad Williams and is due to be published in September 2012.

  

Tomorrow, the killing is the second novel in the Warden series. Once he was a hero of the Great War, and then a member of the dreaded Black House. Now he is the criminal linchpin of Low Town. His name is Warden. He thought he had left the war behind him, but a summons from up above brings the past sharply, uncomfortably, back into focus. General Montgomery's daughter is missing somewhere in Low Town, searching for clues about her brother's murder. The General wants her found, before the stinking streets can lay claim to her, too. Dark, violent, and shot through with corruption Tomorrow, the killing is by Daniel Polansky and is due to be published in August 2012.

Theft. Kidnapping. Assassination. There are some acts no government can sanction. There are some things all politicians must deny. Sometimes the left hand cannot know what the right hand is doing. Austin Clay is that right hand. His latest task: to track down a fellow CIA operative who has gone missing near Moscow. But nothing is what it seems, and he soon finds himself protecting a desperate woman with a deadly secret. Clay has always preferred to work on his own. But this time he has no choice - and no idea who to trust.  The Right Hand is by Derek Haas and is due to be published in November 2012.

In Blood Diamond the fearless pirate captain Devlin is invited to London by the Prince of Wales, no less, and offered an amnesty if he will carry out a daring crime. Devlin is tasked with going to Paris to steal the biggest, most valuable diamond ever found - the Pitt Diamond - now in the possession of the French Prince Regent. Set against the unsure frenzy of speculation known as the South Sea Bubble, with action and suspense on the filthy streets and great palaces of London and Paris, not to mention an epic confrontation with the French navy in the English Channel, Blood Diamond is the most exciting novel yet in the Devlin series by Mark Keating and is due to be published in July 2012.

Hunt the Scorpion is by Don Mann with Ralph Pezzullo and is due to be published in December 2012.  When a nuclear device goes missing and surfaces in the clutches of known terrorists, the United States turns to its most prized anti-terrorism force: Navy SEAL Team Six. Thomas Crocker and his squad must work fast to protect the world from this most lethal of threats. With real-life insight and pulse-pounding action, Hunt the Scorpion takes readers inside the most elite combat unit on the planet and on an action-packed ride.

The second Lisa Jackson book  due to be published this year features detectives Alvarez and Pescoli as they investigate a murderer who nearly makes his killings look like accidents - until a small-town doctor notices something disturbing. At first Kacey Lambert thinks it's a sad, strange coincidence. Two women with an amazing resemblance to her have died suddenly. But detective Selena Alvarez suspects otherwise. An autopsy confirms that one of the women had traces of poison in her blood ...And Kacey has started to notice ties between the dead women's lives and her own. They were all close in age. They were born within a few miles of each other. And they all have ties with Trace O'Halleran, the single father Kacey is dating. Soon more lookalikes are dying and as the body count rises, the killer gets bolder and more brutal. All Kacey knows is that it's only a matter of time before hers is the next name on a list of those who were born to die.  Born to Die is due to be published in December 2012.

Osama is by Chris Ryan and is due to be published in September 2012.  Osama Bin Laden is dead. The President of the United States knows it. The world knows it. And SAS hero Joe Mansfield knows it. He was on the ground in Pakistan when it happened. He saw Seal Team 6 go in, and he saw them extract with their grisly cargo. He was in the right place at the right time. Or maybe, the wrong place at the wrong time. Because now, somebody wants Joe dead, and they're willing to do anything to make it happen. His world is violently dismantled. His family is targeted, his reputation destroyed. And as a mysterious and ruthless enemy plans a devastating terror attack on both sides of the Atlantic, Joe knows this: his only chance of survival is to find out what happened in Bin Laden's compound the night the Americans went in. But an unseen, menacing power has footprints it needs to cover. And it will stop at nothing to prevent him uncovering the sinister truth...