Showing posts with label Tim Weaver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Weaver. Show all posts

Friday, 29 May 2026

Bute Noir 2026

 

Bute Noir Programme


Friday 7th August

4.00pm – 5.00pm 

Heard it Through The Grapevine

Craig Robertson & Alexandra Sokoloff

Interviewed by Louise Fairbairn


5.30pm - 6.30pm 

It’s The Police

G.R. Halliday, William Shaw & G.D. Wright

Chaired by Nicola Meighan


7.00pm - 8.00pm 

Hard Truths

Claire McGowan & Andi Osho

Interviewed by Nicola Meighan


8.30pm – 9.30pm 

Criminal Complexities

Louise Candlish & Liz Nugent

Interviewed by Bryan Burnett


10.00pm – 11.00pm 

The Friday Night Quiz

Or it might be a game show, we haven’t decided yet... But there will be a bunch of crime writers and lots of laughs. More to come!


Saturday 8th August

10.00am – 11.00am 

Crime, Coffee and Croissants

Kick off a crime-filled day with a chat, a cuppa, and a croissant or two in the company of Myra Duffy & Alex Gray


11.30am – 12.30pm 

Pride and Prejudice

D.V. Bishop, Allan Gaw & Louise Welsh

Chaired by Bob McDevitt


1.00pm – 2.00pm 

In Conversation:

Harriet Tyce & Erin Kelly

Two of the UK’s best writers talk books


2.30pm – 3.30pm 

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Remi Kone, Jay Stringer & Luca Veste

Chaired by Heather Fitt


4.00pm – 5.00pm

Scandi Noir

Ørjan Karlsson & Jenny Lund Madsen

Interviewed by Craig Sisterson


5.30pm – 6.30pm 

Missing Without A Trace

Tim Weaver

Interviewed by Ayo Onatade


7.00pm – 8.00pm 

21st Century Christie

Ruth Ware

Interviewed by Bryan Burnett


8.30pm – 10.00pm 

Dead Good Anniversaries

Chris Brookmyre & Doug Johnstone

Celebrating 30 years of Brookmyre and 20 years of Johnstone.

Interviewed by Marisa Haetzman


Sunday 9th August

10.00am – 11.30am Island Bus Tour

10.30am – 11.30am 

Hunting Shadows: Peter Tobin

Jane Hamilton

Interviewed by Craig Robertson


12.00pm – 1.00pm 

Thrillers and Killers

Ilona Bannister, Gavin Bell & Ajay Chowdhury

Chaired by Colin Sinclair


1.30pm – 2.30pm 

First Blood

Debut panel with Frances Crawford, Linda Duncan McLaughlin & May Rinaldi

Chaired by Craig Robertson


3.00pm – 4.00pm 

Gangland Girls

Alex Kane & Anna Smith

Interviewed by Alistair Liddle


4.30pm – 5.30pm 

Soldier, Soldier

C.J. Howell & Alan Parks

Interviewed by Craig Sisterson


Bute Museum

7 Stuart Street, Rothesay,

Isle of Bute, PA20 0EP

Opening Times

Summer: April - Sept (incl)

Monday to Saturday ~ 10.30 – 3.30

Sunday ~ 1.30 – 3.30

Winter: Oct - Nov and Feb - Mar (incl)

Tues, Wed, Thurs & Sat. ~ 1.30 – 3.30

Closed : Dec -Jan

Admission: Adults £5.00 ~ Concessions £4.00

Children (15 & under) – Free if accompanied by a paying adult

Bute Museum

Bute Museum, one of our original venues, will continue to host pop-up author events throughout the year and their volunteers remain an integral part of our Bute Noir team.

More information can be found on the Bute Noir website.

The programme can be found here.


Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Michael Joseph PenguinRandomHouse Crime Party 2025

 


The Shots Magazine team of Blogger Ayo Onatade accompanied by Editors Mike Stotter and Ali Karim were delighted to accept invitations to the 2025 Michael Joseph annual crime fiction party, hosted in The Crypt at St Martins-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square,. London.  

We have been attending for many years now, previewing the forthcoming crime fiction publications that would be released by this important imprint of the PenguinRandomHouse group.


Previous reports remain archived, here for 2019, and video footage from 2018 Joel Richardson's welcoming speech - 


....and  2017 as well as a video collage from 2008 -



The Michael Joseph 2024 Crime Fiction Catalogue & Publishing Schedules can be downloaded as a .pdf HERE OR click the link below >

https://www.penguin.co.uk/about/publishing-houses/penguin-michael-joseph

2025 marks the 90th anniversary of the formation of Penguin Publishing.

Michael Joseph was a bestselling author before he turned publisher in 1935 – the same year Penguin paperbacks were launched. In 1985, exactly half a century after their mutual founding, Michael Joseph became the commercial imprint of Penguin Books.

So it was a delight to chat to Penguin’s Publishers Rowland White and Joel Richardson together with Deputy Publicity Director Gaby Young and her colleagues – who we thanked for throwing a wonderful party as ever – a far cry from the days of The Union Club in Soho, where Rowland would stand precariously on a rickety chair to welcome the guests to the Penguin Michael Joseph annual soiree.

We were delighted to learn that Steve Mosby’s alter ego is coming to film featuring Robert De Niro and directed by James Ashcroft –

What is The Whisper Man about?

Based on the New York Times bestselling novel by North: When his 8-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer looks to his estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as “The Whisper Man.”



Read More HERE

We feature and array of photos for the event as we mingled with the Penguin authors and their Editorial and Publicity teams – and many colleagues from the London Literary scene.

To plan your own crime and thriller reading, download the Penguin schedule HERE

Shots Magazine would like to thank Rowland White, Joel Richardson and Gaby Young for inviting us to the 2025 Penguin MJ Crime Party.

 





The Michael Joseph 2024 Crime Fiction Catalogue & Publishing Schedules can be downloaded as a .pdf HERE



Friday, 24 December 2021

Books To Look Forward To From Penguin Michael Joseph

 January 2022

When her husband Harry walks out after just six months, a girls' weekend away with two friends seems like just what Sam needs. But they aren't even halfway to their destination when things start to go wrong: car trouble that just happens to leave them stranded in the town where Harry lives. And that's only the beginning. Because there are three things Sam doesn't yet know: One of her friends is lying about what happened. One is lying about who she is. And one of them will never make it home . . . The Perfect Escape is by Leah Konen

February 2022

Dark Horse is by Gregg Hurwitz. The hero - Evan Smoak: former off-the-books assassin - code name Orphan X. His world is divided into those who deserve his help and those who've brought his singular brand of justice upon themselves. The victim - A desperate father reaches out. His teenage daughter Anjelina has been kidnapped by a brutal criminal cartel and spirited over the border into Mexico. And while money is no object, Evan soon realises that his prospective client's past is as clouded and compromised as his own. The mission - If Evan is going to put his life on the line to rescue Anjelina, he must first decide whether he can act on behalf of a bad man. And even then, up against the men who are holding his daughter, there will be no guarantee of success...

When struggling journalist Cecily Wong is invited to join an expedition to climb one of the world's tallest mountains, it seems like the chance of a lifetime. She doesn't realise how deadly the climb will be. As their small team starts to climb, things start to go wrong. There's a theft. Then an accident. Then a mysterious note, pinned to her tent: there's a murderer on the mountain. The higher they get, the more dangerous the climb becomes, and the more they need to trust one another. Breathless is by Amy McCulloch. 

March 2022

This Might Hurt is by Stephanie Wrobel. Natalie Collins always has a plan. Her troubled younger sister Kit rarely does. Until Kit finds Wisewood, a secretive self-help retreat on a secluded Maine island. It promises you'll leave a better, braver version of yourself. But why does it forbid contact with the outside world? Why are there no testimonies from previous guests? Natalie fears it is some kind of cult. Then, after six months of silence, she receives an email from Wisewood: Would you like to come tell your sister what you did - or should we? Who is digging into the sisters' past? How did they discover Natalie's secret? A secret that will destroy Kit. She has no choice but to go to Wisewood, to find out if this place of healing has more sinister motives. But as she's about to discover, Wisewood is far easier to enter than to leave.

April 2022

Four friends. One night. Not everyone will come out alive. In the swirling snow of a deadly Icelandic storm, four friends seek shelter in a small abandoned hunting lodge. Miles from help, and knowing they will die outside in the cold, they break open the lock and make their way inside, hoping to wait out the storm until morning. But nothing can prepare them for what they find behind the door . . . Inside the cabin lurks a dangerous presence that chills them to their core. Outside, certain death from exposure awaits. So with no other option, they find themselves forced to spend a long, terrifying night in the cabin, watching as intently and silently as they are being watched themselves. But as the evening darkens, old secrets are beginning to find their way to the light. And as the tension escalates between the four friends, it soon becomes clear that the danger they discovered lurking in the cabin is far from the only mystery that will be uncovered tonight. Nor the only thing to be afraid of . . . Outside is by Ragnar Jónasson

Nobody But Us is by Laure Van Rensburg. Steven Harding is a handsome, well-respected professor. Ellie Masterson is a wide-eyed young college student. Together, they are driving south from New York, for their first holiday: three days in an isolated cabin, far from the city. Ahead of them, the promise of long, dark nights - and the chance to explore one another's bodies, away from prying eyes. It should be a perfect, romantic trip for two. Except that he's nt who he says he is. But then again, neither is she...

Two sisters went missing. Only one of them came back... Detective Jonah Sheens is enjoying a moment of peace and quiet, when a teenage girl wanders out of the wood. She's striking, with flame-red hair and a pale complexion. She's also covered in blood. She insists she's fine. It's her sister he needs to worry about. Jonah quickly discovers that Keely and her sister, Nina, disappeared from a children's home a week ago. Now, Keely is here - but Nina's still missing. Keely likes to play games. She knows where her sister is - but before she tells, she wants Jonah's full attention. Is she killer, witness, or victim? And will Jonah find out what Keely's hiding, in time to save Nina? Little Sister is by Gytha Lodge.

May 2022

It's every parent's nightmare. Your happy, funny, innocent son commits a terrible crime: murdering a complete stranger. You don't know who. You don't know why. You only know your teenage boy is in custody and his future lost. That night you fall asleep in despair. Until you wake . . . . . . and it is yesterday. Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. Another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lie the answers, and you don't have a choice but to find them . . . Wrong Place Wrong Time is by Gillian McAllister.

A Kiss After Dying is by Ashok Banker. This is a story about Hannah. She seems shy. Some would even say spiky. People don't pay much attention to Hannah. Which is exactly how she's planned it. It's also a story about Ricky. Ricky is anything but shy. Rich, charming, good-looking, Ricky has never had a problem getting what he wants. And now he wants Hannah. There's a spark between them from the moment they meet. Even Hannah can't resist a man like Ricky for long. But this is not a love story. In fact, it's a little like Hannah. First you'll be intrigued. Then you'll realise there are hidden depths. And then, when you least expect it, you'll be hit by a twist you never saw coming...

The Inheritance is by Howard Linskey. You will inherit everything. The house. The money. There's just one condition. You have to catch a killer first... Sarah always had a soft spot for her Aunt Evelyn, a famous writer, but she'd always assumed the elderly woman was penniless. But when Evelyn dies, Sarah gets a shock. Evelyn has a significant fortune, including a foreboding mansion, Cragsmoor, on the outskirts of a small Northumberland town. She wants to leave it to Sarah. But that's not all she wants. For most of her life, she'd been haunted by a cold case. Many years ago, her childhood friend Lucy went missing. She was last seen in the house Evie has now left to Sarah. Evie spent years searching for the truth, desperate to find out what really happened the day Lucy disappeared. Now, her final wish is for Sarah to go back to the house where it all began, and uncover the truth. If she does, she will inherit everything. But if there is a secret at Cragsmoor, someone has benefitted from it remaining hidden. Someone who has already killed once before...

June 2022

David Raker is back with another heart-pounding and tense missing persons case. Ten seconds before the crash, Cate and Aiden Gascoigne are recorded on CCTV. The couple are laughing - happy, untroubled. Then their car plunges into a ninety-foot ravine. The impact should kill them. And if that doesn't, the fire will. Within seconds, the vehicle is an inferno - with the Gascoignes trapped inside. But when fire crews arrive at the scene, they find something impossible. The vehicle is empty. Cate and Aiden have vanished. Now only missing persons investigator David Raker can solve the mystery... The Blackbird is by Tim Weaver.

When fifteen-year-old Anabelle King was raped, she reported it immediately. But corrupted evidence meant the jury let her attacker go. Eighteen years later, Anabelle is Ava, a barrister who always follows the rules. But that changes when she reads a familiar name in a case file: Michael Osborne. This time, Michael is the alleged victim, and in the dock is a young girl; Lily Hawthorne, who pleads guilty to GBH without hesitation. Ava is sure that Lily's plea is false. She knows this man is not innocent. But how much will she have to risk to uncover the truth. Your Word is Mine is by Lia Middleton.

William Wisting is in a race against time. When a severed head is found on a stake in the quiet town of Larvik, Police Inspector William Wisting is called in to investigate. The only clue? The killer is trying to send a message. All roads lead back to the Night Man. As the media closes in on the biggest story of the year, Wisting's journalist daughter Line receives a tip. Soon, it becomes clear that there is more to this case than anyone thought. A criminal network has lodged itself deep into the roots of the city, and it's up to Wisting to take down the elusive and dangerous Night Man. This is just the beginning. But hunting down The Night Man will take everything Wisting has, and it's all too easy for the hunter to become the prey. The Night Man is by Jørn Lier Horst.



Friday, 27 November 2020

Books To Look Forward To From Michael Joseph Books

 January 2021

What if your experience of motherhood was nothing like what you hoped for - but everything you always feared? The women in this family, we're different . . .' The arrival of baby Violet was meant to be the happiest day of my life. A fresh start. But as soon as I held her in my arms, I knew something wasn't right. I have always known that the women in my family weren't meant to be mothers. My husband Fox says I'm imagining it, but she's different with me. Something feels very wrong. Is it her? Or is it me? Is she the monster? Or am I? Push is by Ashley Audrain.

The Burning Girls is by C J Tudor. 500 years ago: eight martyrs were burnt to death. 30 years ago: two teenagers vanished without trace. Two months ago: the vicar committed suicide. Welcome to Chapel Croft. For Rev Jack Brooks and teenage daughter Flo it's supposed to be a fresh start. New job, new home. But, as Jack knows, the past isn't easily forgotten. And in a close-knit community where the residents seem as proud as they are haunted by Chapel Croft's history, Jack must tread carefully. Ancient superstitions as well as a mistrust of outsiders will be hard to overcome. Yet right away Jack has more frightening concerns. Why is Flo plagued by visions of burning girls? Who's sending them sinister, threatening messages? And why did no one mention that the last vicar killed himself? Chapel Croft's secrets lie deep and dark as the tomb. Jack wouldn't touch them if not for Flo - anything to protect Flo. But the past is catching up with Chapel Croft - and with Jack. For old ghosts with scores to settle will never rest . . .

Thomas Cale has been running from his enemies. Raised and trained in an underground programme - the Sanctuary - he was sent to destroy God's greatest mistake, mankind itself. Cale is a paradox: arrogant and innocent, generous and pitiless. Feared and revered by those that created him, he has already used his terrifying talent for violence and destruction to bring down the most powerful civilisation in the world. But Thomas Cale has been caught. He's been given a choice. Bring down the world's best hope for order, for honesty and for progress, or condemn his soul to hell. The fate of humankind rests on Cale's decision. The White Devil is by Paul Hoffman.

February 2021

Prodigal Son is by Gregg Hurwitz. He can escape anything. Except his own past . . . 'Evan. It's your mother. I heard you help people . . ' Evan Smoak used to be known as Orphan X: a figure as elusive as a rumour, until he came to the rescue of those who most desperately needed his help. The kind of help no one else could provide. The kind that caused concern in the corridors of power. As a boy he'd been plucked from a foster home and trained as an off-the-books assassin inside a top secret US government programme. Which is why, even forced into early retirement, he dare not trust the phone call. Nor the caller claiming to be his mother. Asking him to protect a complete stranger who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of it stacks up. Yet it bears the tell-tale signs of the secret world that made him. And from inside it, a deadly new threat to the nation's security. But this time the danger is more personal than he could have ever imagined. Because blood runs deep … 

Louise wakes up. Her head aches, her mouth is dry, her memory is fuzzy. But she suspects she's done something bad. She rolls over towards her husband, Niall. The man who, until recently, made her feel loved. But it's not Niall who's lying beside her. In fact, she's never seen this man before. And he's dead . . . As Louise desperately struggles to piece her memories back together, it's clear to Detective Jonah Sheens and his team that she is their prime suspect - though they soon find she's not the only one with something to hide. Did she do it? And, if not, can they catch the real killer before they strike again? Lie Beside Me is by Gytha Lodge.

March 2021

Get ready to meet Rebekah in Missing by Tim Weaver's in his first standalone. She is stranded on an island, left for dead and determined to get home, but danger will continue to stalk her . . . Crow Island was meant to be the perfect break. A chance for Rebekah to reconnect with her brother Jonny and forget about her crumbling marriage. But stepping onto this island puts her in more danger than she could ever imagine. After finding themselves in the forest Rebekah and her brother are attacked. When she wakes up her phone is missing and Jonny has vanished. At that moment Rebekah realises the island has become her living hell. By the time she makes it back to safety the island has closed for the season – and it'll be seven months before anyone returns.With her brother missing and no boats, no phones, no people, Rebekah must survive and make her way off this island. But is finding a way back to the mainland the end of her nightmare, or just the beginning? 

This Nowhere Place is by Natasha Bell. 'That's the thing about our town: people only come here if they're going somewhere else.' One grey afternoon, high on the cliffs of Dover, two girls agree to help a stranger. Within months, two of the three girls are dead. In the years that follow, local legend grows around the events of that summer - and, with the one survivor refusing to speak, it seems the truth will never emerge. Until a documentary-maker arrives, determined to solve the mystery of the Dover Girls. But some will stop at nothing to keep this town's secrets...

In the early days of World War II, the infamous German Luftwaffe embark upon an expedition to Antarctica, hoping to set up a military base to support their goal of world domination. Though the military outpost never comes to fruition, what the Nazis find on the icy continent indeed proves dangerous...and will have implications far into the future. In the present day, Kurt Austin and his assistant Joe Zavala embark for the freezing edge of the world after a former NUMA colleague disappears in Antarctica. While there, they discover a photo of the Luftwaffe expedition of 1939, and are drawn into a decades-old conspiracy. Even as they confront perilous waters and frigid temperatures, they are also are up against a terrifying man-made weapon--a fast-growing ice that could usher in a new Ice Age. Pitted against a determined madman and a monstrous storm, Kurt and the NUMA team must unravel the Nazi-era plot in order to save the globe from a freeze that would bury it once and for all. Fast Ice is by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown. 

April 2021

The Saboteurs is by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul. Detective Isaac Bell's wife has said that he is always in the wrong place at the right time. This is certainly the case when Bell thwarts the attempted assassination of a United States Senator shortly after meeting the man. This heroic rescue is just the start of the mystery for Bell, who suspects that the would-be assassins have a much larger and more dangerous agenda--one involving the nearly constructed Panama Canal. While the Senator supports the building of the canal, there are many, including a local Panamanian insurgency known as the Red Vipers, who never want to see the its completion. With millions of dollars and the fates of two nations at stake, Bell heads to Panama to find answers. After a deadly bombing at the Canal's construction site, he is determined to stop the insurgents--or whoever is funding them--before they can attack again.

The teacher wanted on the edge of the world. Una knows she is struggling to deal with her father's sudden, tragic suicide. She spends her nights drinking alone in Reykjavik, stricken with thoughts that she might one day follow in his footsteps. So when she sees an advert seeking a teacher for two girls in the tiny village of Skalar - population of ten - on the storm-battered north coast of the island, she sees it as a chance to escape. But once she arrives, Una quickly realises nothing in city life has prepared her for this. The villagers are unfriendly. The weather is bleak. And, from the creaky attic bedroom of the old house where she's living, she's convinced she hears the ghostly sound of singing. Una worries that she's losing her mind. And then, just before Christmas, there's an unexplained death and Una's life going from bad to worse..... The Girl Who Died is by Ragnar Jónasson.

Don't let Him In is by Howard Linskey. He's always been there. Now he's looking for you.  There have always been deaths in the small town of Eriston over the years - more than can easily be explained. People dying in their houses, behind locked doors. Sean Cole thought he'd spotted a pattern. Thought he was on the trail of a killer. Now he's dead too. When his daughter Rebecca returns to the town, she realises that her father might have been onto something. But can she find the murderer before he finds her? Because if she can't, her father's shabby old Victorian house is no place to hide.

May 2021

An unlikely spy. July 1940. As Britain braces itself for invasion, ex-Tommy and safecracker Bill O'Hagan is glad to have escaped the battlefield. But when a job goes wrong, he finds himself forced to serve his country once more. A former king. Spurned by his government and fearing for his life, the Duke of Windsor flees to Portugal with the woman for whom he abdicated the throne, Wallis Simpson. As a web of Nazi trickery threatens to ensnare him, his fate and the fate of Britain rest on one man. The fate of a nation in their hands. Dropped on an occupied Channel Island without backup, Bill must crack an enemy safe and get its contents to safety. Failure will devastate any hope Britain has of winning the war. But with the layers of deception and intrigue drawing ever more tightly around them, Bill and the Duke both learn they aren't the only players in this game. And Berlin - which has the Duke in its own sights - is plotting its greatest move yet... Island Reich is by Jack Grimwood.

In Harm's Way is by Anthony Mosawi. Sara Eden isn't like other agents. She was the greatest asset MI5 had ever had. But then she disappeared without a trace. Now, she's out of hiding. And she'll do whatever it takes to save innocent lives. Robert Waterman is the director of GCHQ. He trusts numbers. He trusts data. He's learned that whilst humans are unreliable, patterns and codes never lie. But then he meets Sara. What Sara can do isn't rational. What Sara can do defies logic. He can't trust her - but he needs her.

June 2021

Scorpion is by Christian Cantrell. Around the world, twenty-two people have been murdered. The victims fit no profile, the circumstances vary wildly, but one thing links them all: in every case the victim is branded with a number. With police around the globe floundering and unable to identify any pattern, let alone find a killer, CIA Analyst Quinn Mitchell is called in to investigate. Before long, Quinn is on the trail of an ice-hearted assassin with seemingly limitless resources - but she's prepared for that. What she isn't prepared for is the person pulling the strings.









Sunday, 16 April 2017

Books to Look Forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph

July 2017

It's always darkest before the light. In the chilling seventh instalment of the bestselling, critically acclaimed Frieda Klein series, evil circles close to home. Psychotherapist Frieda Klein's home is her refuge. Then she returns to find it has become a crime scene. Beneath the floorboards the police have found the body of a man she had hired to help protect her. The message from the killer is clear: you're mine. But when those closest to Frieda begin to be targeted the picture becomes more confused, the patterns uncertain. And unless Frieda can find and stop whoever is threatening her friends and family her love and loyalty could come at a fatal cost .... Sunday Morning Coming Down is by Nicci French.

The Marriage Pact is by Michelle Richmond.  Your marriage is for ever. Would you stake your life on that? Jake believes Alice is the perfect woman to spend the rest of his life with. So when they're offered a mysterious wedding gift - the chance to join a society which ensures they'll never divorce - he doesn't hesitate to sign the contract. Always answer when your spouse calls. Exchange thoughtful gifts each month. Plan a trip together once per quarter. Have no secrets from your spouse. They are initially seduced by the elite society, with its glamorous parties and like-minded couples. Then one of them breaks the rules. Don't even think about trying to escape ...The Pact will stop at nothing to enforce the contract. And once you're in, there's no way out. As the society's punishments grow more extreme, Jake and Alice fear for their lives. Members never divorce, but why are they so often widowed? Is their love for ever, as The Pact demands ...or have they made a fatal mistake? The marriage of their dreams is about to become their worst nightmare.

I Am Missing is by Tim Weaver.  A man with no memory of who he is or where he is from enlists the help of missing persons investigator David Raker.  When a young man wakes up bruised, beaten and with no memory of who he is or where he came from, the press immediately dub him 'The Lost Man'.  Ten months later, Richard Kite - if that is even his real name - remains as desperate as ever. Despite appeals and the efforts of the police, no one knows this man.  Kite's last hope may be private investigator David Raker – a seasoned locator of missing people. But Raker has more questions than answers.  Who is Richard Kite?  Why does no one know him?  And what links him to the body of a woman found beside on a London railway line two years ago?

August 2017

When Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are called to a crime scene in a heavily wooded city park, everything about the setting is all too familiar. And when they discover a playing card on the victim's body, their worst fears are confirmed there s a serial killer operating in the city for the first time in years. Across town, Grace MacBride and her unconventional partners at Monkeewrench Software find themselves at both personal and career crossroads. Weary of the darker side of their computer work for law enforcement, they agree to take on a private missing-persons case in a small farming community in southwestern Minnesota. As the violence accelerates in Minneapolis, Magozzi and Gino soon realize their killer is planning to complete the deck, and they enlist Monkeewrench to help stop the rampage. As a baffling tangle of evidence accumulates, the cops and Monkeewrench make the unlikely connections among a farmer s missing daughter, a serial killer, and a decades-old stabbing that brings them face-to-face with pure evil.  Nothing stays Buried is by P J Tracy

September 2017

Romanov Ransom is by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell.  From Russia to Jamaica to South America, husband-and wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo are plunged into a dark and disturbing mystery.  Adventurers Sam and Remi Fargo soon learn that a long-lost fortune may be back in play, but those responsible are behind a series of unspeakable crimes. As the Fargos follow the trail across Europe, Northern Africa, and South America, they know only one thing, this adventure will be greater than anything before. Should they fail, the world may witness the resurgence of one of the most terrifying evils of the modern world.

A Legacy of Spies is by John Le Carré.  Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, has retired to his family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London are to be scrutinised by a generation with no memory of the Cold War. Somebody must be made to pay for innocent blood once spilt in the name of the greater good.

November 2017

Seventy years after the end of World War II, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon find themselves in deep waters as they try to stop a war that would engulf the entire continent of Asia.  A search for an art collection worth half a billion dollars leads the Oregon to Salvador Locsin, the vicious Filipino rebel leader. But with access to a powerful serum designed to create an army of supersoldiers, Locsin's insurgency threatens more than just the Philippines. To stop him, the crew of the Oregon must battle a ruthless South African mercenary, hundreds of swarming torpedo drones and an approaching catastrophic megastorm.  If Juan and his team of elite operatives can't defeat Locsin and destroy all remnants of the horrific drug, the fall of the Philippines will be imminent. And with it, will come the beginning of a new and apocalyptic world war.  Typhoon Fury is by Clive Cussler

Shoot the Crows is by Karen Perry. 'Three months before the killings I returned to Thornbury Hall . . .' It's been nearly twenty years since Patrick Bagenal stood with this group of friends at Thornbury Hall - his family's crumbling home that he can no longer afford to keep. The last time was Patrick's eighteenth birthday, an occasion swiftly followed by his father's suicide. Before Patrick sells up, he and his sister Rachel, school friends Niall, Hilary and Marcus and old flame Lindsey are back here for one last visit, a shooting party to rid the grounds of the legion of crows. But as the weekend wears on, the layers of the past are stripped away and murky secrets begin to surface. Ones that compel revenge at any cost . . .

Nobody remembers the young men entering the abandoned London flat a few weeks ago. Nobody cares if they left.  Until the unbearable smell of decay.  DCI Antonia Hawkins is called in to view the dead men; three, lying neat in a row. There's no damage to the bodies, no obvious cause of death. Is this a suicide pact? Or is that just how it's meant to look? But Hawkins soon discovers the link between the three men. They had all been fascinated by the supernatural and the occult. And they had recently met in a tiny village just outside London.  A village named Cold Christmas . . .  Cold Christmas is by Alistair Gunn

The House is by Simon Lelic.  What if your perfect home turned out to be the scene of the perfect crime? Londoners Jack and Syd moved into the house a year ago. It seemed like their dream home: tons of space, the perfect location, and a friendly owner who wanted a young couple to have it. So when they made a grisly discovery in the attic, Jack and Syd chose to ignore it. That was a mistake. Because someone has just been murdered. Right outside their back door. And now the police are watching them...

December 2017

Someone took Daisy mason.  Someone you know. How can a child vanish without a trace?  Last night, 8-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from a summer party at her home. No one at the party noticed her leave. Even her parents aren't sure of the last time they saw her. DS Adam Fawley is trying to keep an open mind. But he knows that in nine cases out of ten, it's someone close to the victim. When a pair of bloody tights is discovered, Fawley's worst suspicions are concerned. Someone knows where Daisy is. And her time is running out.  Close to Home is by Cara Hunter.
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Saturday, 4 June 2016

Books to Look Forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph

July

The Last One is by Alexandra Oliva.  Survival is the name of the game as one woman's mind and body are pushed to the limit. TWELVE CONTESTANTS When Zoo agrees to take part in a new reality TV show, In the Dark, she knows that she will be tested to the limits of her endurance. Beating eleven competitors in a series of survival tasks deep in the forest, living on camera at the extremes of her comfort zone, will be the ultimate challenge before she returns home to start a family. A GAME WITH NO END As the contestants are overcome by hunger, injury and psychological breakdown, the mind games, tricks and hazards to which Zoo is subjected grow dark beyond belief. This isn't what she signed up for: the deserted towns and gruesome props, the empty loneliness. Is this a game with no end? And what is happening away from the cameras' gaze? Discovering the truth will be just the beginning…

A hit-and-run on a woodland road near Amsterdam involving an Afghan boy is connected to a powerful international crime syndicate. Journalist Farah Hafez, together with her colleague Paul Chapelle, gets caught up in an investigation that takes them all the way to Moscow and has greater political and personal ramifications than they bargained for. After this perilous journey, their lives will never be the same again. Butterfly on the Storm is by Walter Lucius and is the first instalment of The Heartland Trilogy.

Broken Heart is by Tim Weaver.  A woman drives to a beautiful headland overlooking the Devon coast.  She is never seen again, and no trace of where she went can be found.  The woman’s sister calls missing person investigator David Raker.  As Raker tries to find her whereabouts – fearing the worst – he learns that she was recently widowed from a reclusive film director.  It seems that, going through her husband’s belongings she found a secret so dark and shocking that it forced her to leave her entire life behind.  Chasing the truth will consume Raker and place him in grave danger…

Truly, Madly Guilty is by Liane Moriarty.  Despite their differences, Erika and
Clementine have been best friends since they were children. So when Erika needs help, Clementine should be the obvious person to turn to. Or so you'd think. For Clementine, as a mother of a two desperately trying to practise for the audition of a lifetime, the last thing she needs is Erika asking for something, again. But the barbecue should be the perfect way to forget their problems for a while. Especially when their hosts, Vid and Tiffany, are only too happy to distract them. Which is how it all spirals out of control..


August

Cold Kill is by P J Tracy.  The peaceful Christmas season in Minneapolis is shattered when two friends, Chuck Spencer and Wally Luntz, scheduled to meet in person for the first time, are murdered on the same night, two hours and several miles apart, dramatically concluding winter vacation for homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth. An hour north of Minneapolis, Lydia Ascher comes home to find two dead men in her basement. When Leo and Gino discover her connection to their current cases, they suspect that she is a target, too. The same day, an elderly, terminally ill man is kidnapped from his home, an Alzheimer's patient goes missing from his care facility, and a baffling link among all the crimes emerges. This series of inexplicable events sends the detectives sixty years into the past to search for answers-and straight to Grace MacBride's Monkeewrench, a group of eccentric computer geniuses who devote their time and resources to helping the cops solve the unsolvable. What they find is an unimaginable horror-a dormant Armageddon that might be activated at any moment unless Grace and her partners Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, along with Leo and Gino, can find a way to stop it.

Husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo try to unravel another ancient and cryptic mystery. An 800-year-old treasure ...An ancient cypher wheel ...A brutal murder ...And a man who will stop at nothing to claim what he considers rightfully his. Husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo have gone on impossible missions before and faced many perils, but never have they faced an adversary as determined as the one before them now. The battle will take them halfway around the world, and at its end will be either one of the most glorious finds in history-or certain death. Pirate is by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake.

The old Victorian pier was once a thing of beauty. It's also where twenty-one-year-old Sophie Collier vanished eighteen years ago. Francesca has spent the last twenty years haunted by the disappearance of her best friend. But when she receives a phone call from Sophie's brother saying that a body has been found, she knows she can't keep hiding from what happened. With her own secrets to keep, Francesca doesn't relish the idea of digging up the past or returning to Oldcliffe. But it is time to go back to where she grew up, and it looks like she isn't the only one there hiding truths.  Local Girl Missing is by Claire Douglas.


September

Helen awaits trial in a crumbling women’s prison in Southampton.  She has a fight on to prove her innocence from inside her prison cell, but this soon turns out to be the least of her worries.  A serial killer is picking off fellow inmates, thriving in an environment where there is truly nowhere to run.  Is it a criminal giving in to their dark urges or a member of the prison staff preying  on the captive population.  Helen must work fast to reveal this devious killer, all the time wondering if she will be next on her list.  Hide and Seek is by M J Arlidge.

The Sleepless Ones the second in the DCI Guillermo Downes series by James Marrison.

No longer a trainee but a freshly-minted Detective Constable, Joseph Stark finds himself working a double homicide. Thomas and Mary Chase were shot dead in their London home, and first impressions are that this is a burglary-gone-bad. But Stark is unconvinced. Burglary-Murders are usually a tragic case of unfortunate timing, but this felt like something else entirely. And when evidence arises to link this murder to a twenty year old cold case the hunt is well and truly on.  Between the Crosses is by Matthew Frank.


October

There is something hiding in the forest.  A man is found dead near an isolated forest outside of London.  When another body is discovered a few days later, DCI Antonia Hawkins knows that she must move fast.  The hunt is on.  With each passing day,  Hawkins struggles to find a patter in this seemingly random scattering of murders.  But who is the hunter? With more disappearances, Hawkins must stop a cold, careful killer whose twisted game can only be guessed at, before the next disappearance.  The Keeper is by Alastair Gunn.

November

A desperate attempt in 1917 to preserve the wealth and power of the Romanov Empire. A Cold War bomber lost with a deadly cargo. Mysterious deaths on the Black Sea linked to modern-day smugglers of nuclear materials. At the center of it all is Dirk Pitt and his team from NUMA. As the danger escalates, there's only one man who can avert catastrophe. From London to Washington, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the action never stops, as Pitt races to prevent the next global war.  Odessa Sea is by Clive and Dirk Cussler.

The Taken is by Alice Clark-Platts.  In a Durham boarding house at dawn, Pastor Ramsay Snow is murdered while he prays.  Detective Inspector Erica Martin’s investigation encounters a host of suspects all staying in the boarding house.  Violet Snow, his daughter, who seems unsurprised by her father’s murder.  Sera Snow, his inscrutable wife.  Her sister, Antonia, who was closer to the Pastor than anyone yet knows. And Fraser McKenzie, Snow’s manager and best friend, who has his own dark secrets to hide.  DI Martin soon learns that this is a case in which nothing is what it seems, and no-one is innocent…