The Affair is the latest book by Lee Child in the excellent series featuring Jack Reacher. March 1997. A woman has her throat cut behind a bar in Carter Crossing, Mississippi. Just down the road is a big army base. Is t
he murderer a local guy - or is he a soldier? Jack Reacher, still a major in the military police, is sent in undercover. The county sheriff is a former U.S. Marine - and a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere. Is the Pentagon stonewalling her? Or doesn't she really want to find the killer? The adrenaline-pumping, high-voltage action in "The Affair" is set just six months before the opening of "Killing Floor", and it marks a turning point in Reacher's career. If he does what the army wants, will he be able to live with himself? And if he doesn't, will the army be able to live with him? And is this his last case in uniform? The Affair is due to be published in September.
Seven days. Three killings. And one woman who knows too much...Crime reporter Annika Bengtzo
n is woken by a phonecall in the early hours of a wintry December morning. An explosion has ripped apart the Olympic Stadium. And a victim has been blown to pieces. As Annika delves into the details of the bombing and the background of the victim, there is a second explosion. These chilling crimes could be her biggest news story yet. When her police source reveals they are hot on the heels of the bomber, Annika is guaranteed an exclusive with her name on it. But she is uncovering too much, and soon finds herself the target of a deranged serial killer... The Bomber is by Lisa Marklund and is due to be published in November 2011
On a rainswept London night, the wealthy unscrupulous Robert Kramer hosts a party in his penthouse just off Trafalgar Square. But something is wrong. The atmosphere is uncomfortable, the guests are on edge. And when Kramer's new young wife goes to check on their baby boy, she finds the nursery door locked from the
inside. Breaking in, the Kramers are faced with an open window, an empty cot, and a grotesque antique puppet of Mr Punch lying on the floor. It seems that young Noah Kramer was thrown from the building, but the child was strangled, and the marks of the puppet's hands are clearly on his throat...what's more, there was a witness. It's a perfect case for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. As John May and his team interrogate the guests, Arthur Bryant heads into the secret world of automata and stagecraft, illusions and effects. His suspicions fall on the staff of Kramer's company, who have been employed to stage a gruesome new thriller in the West End. As a second impossible death occurs, the detectives uncover forgotten museums and London eccentrics, and take a trip to a seaside Punch & Judy show. Then Bryant's biographer suddenly dies. Was it a tragic accident, or could the circumstances of her death be related to the case? There's just one hour left to solve the crime, but Bryant has buried himself away with his esoteric books. The stage is set for a race against time with a surprising twist... Bryant and May and the Memory of Blood is by Christopher Fowler and is due to be published in September.
Driver: Nemesis is by Alex Sharp. "The Driver": John Tanner is the wheelman, an undercover cop with an awesome driving ability. He earned his stripes racing stock cars through city streets and now he's the be
st in the business. But his legendary skills are about to be put to the ultimate test..."The Mission": Tanner must infiltrate the criminal underworld of The Indian, the most feared gang leader in New Orleans - a man so terrifying that people claim he has voodoo powers. But when a figure from his past appears, Tanner must face an even more deadly enemy..."The Nemesis": Jericho is an ice cold hitman with a longstanding grudge against Tanner, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Tanner is going to have to drive for his life to survive, complete his mission and stop the city being brought to its knees. Driver is due to be published in August.
Defender of Rome is by Douglas Jackson and is due to be published in August. Gaius Valerius Verrens returns to Rome from the successful campaign against Boudicca in Britain. Now hailed a 'Hero of Rome', Valerius is not the man he once was - scarred both physically and emotionally by the battles he has fou
ght, his sister is mortally ill, his father in self-imposed exile. And neither is Rome the same city as the one he left. The Emperor Nero grows increasingly paranoid. Those who seek power for themselves whisper darkly in the emperor's ears. They speak of a new threat, one found within the walls of Rome itself. A new religious sect, the followers of Christus, deny Nero's divinity and are rumoured to be spreading sedition. Nero calls on his 'Hero of Rome' to become a 'Defender of Rome', to seek out this rebel sect, to capture their leader, a man known as Petrus. Failure would be to forfeit his life, and the lives of twenty thousands Judaeans living in Rome. But as Valerius begins his search, a quest which will take him to the edge of the empire, he will discover that success may cost him nearly as much as failure.
Snuff is by Terry Pratchett and is book 39 in the Discworld Series. According to the writer of the best-selling cri
me novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all... Snuff is due to be published in September.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 sent shockwaves around the financial world. Ne
ver before had such a large and prestigious organisation been allowed to fail, and to fail so quickly. It began a domino effect, hitting banks and economies around the world. Theories abound as to the cause of the collapse - the sub-prime bubble, bad management, even good old-fashioned greed. But what if it was none of the above. What if Lehman Brothers had been brought to its knees by the deliberate and wilful act of one man bent on a course of financial terrorism? Moreover, what if it was only a dry run for a bigger and even bolder attack on the financial capital of the world, the City of London? Samuel Carver is about to find himself on the biggest mission of his life. Carver is by Tom Cain and is due to be published in August.
It's Egypt, 1320 BC. The future of Egypt lies in the hands of chief detective Rahotep when he undertakes a clandestine
mission across enemy empires and rogue states to deliver a top-secret letter, written by the Queen to her arch-enemy, the King of the Hittites. It is a mission from which Rahotep may not return. But he also has a wildly personal motive; to seek out a depraved murderer at the heart of a mysterious and brutal new opium cartel that has emerged within the criminal underworld of Thebes. His quest brings Rahotep face to face with his own dark demons, which he must conquer if he is to return home in time to save Egypt's greatest dynasty and his own family from the terror that threatens them all... Egypt: The Book of Chaos is by Nick Drake and is due to be published in August.
A murder committed on paper, safely within the confines of a novel, is one thing. To see that same crime in the real world, is something else entirely...Frank Fons is a very successful crime writer. His novels, famed for their visceral descriptions of violent death, have made him a household name. But now 
someone is copying his crimes. For Frank what once seemed a clever, intriguing plot twist, has suddenly become a terrifying, blood-spattered reality. In the novel, a redhead who was scared of water is drowned. In the mirror-image of the real world, she has become an ex-girlfriend chained and left to die at the bottom of the harbour. A corrupt police-officer tortured to death becomes a contact who dies with fear in his eyes. Someone is taking Franks' fiction and using it to destroy his life. The writer must become the detective. In fiction, the bad guy always gets caught, but in real life there is no such guarantee. Fear becomes real. The knife cut hurts like hell. Our narrator may not survive. No-one is promising you a happy ending. For Frank what had once been a game is now a matter of life and death. Death Sentence is by Mikkel Birkegaard and is due to be published in September.
The Colour of Death is by Michael Cordy and is due to be published in August. In a residential neighbourhood of Portland, Oregon, an unknown young woman uncovers a shocking crime scene by inexplicabl
y sensing the evil within its walls. To the police, she is a mystery. She can't even tell them her own name. They christen her Jane Doe. Suffering terrifying hallucinations, Jane is assigned to Nathan Fox, a forensic psychiatrist struggling with his own demons. Together they must piece together the jigsaw that is Jane's identity. Then a sequence of brutal killings terrorizes the city and Fox learns Jane is the only cryptic link between the unrelated victims. To solve the murders, Fox must discard his black and white preconceptions, look beyond the spectrum of normal human experience and confront the dark truth of her past...And his own.
Dead Centre is the latest Nick Stone novel by Andy McNab. Indonesia, January 2005. Nick Stone is working undercover, to retrieve incriminating material from amongst the tsunami-ravaged chaos of a devastated landscape. His team is attacked and a man dies -- but not before he makes an agonising promise that will return one day to haunt him...Moscow, March 2011. Semi-retired but restless, Stone finds himself at the centre of an extraordinary encounter which turns his world upside down. An oligarch's young son and heir has been snatched -- with his mother -- from aboard a luxury yacht in the Seych
elles, and only one man has what it takes to track them down and bring them home. The fuse is lit, and Stone is hurtled into his most complex and compelling mission yet -- a mission that leads him from the Alpine enclaves of the super-rich to the savage underbelly of war-torn Somalia. And in a world where piracy, extortion and betrayal lurk in the twisted wreckage of imperial ambition, Stone's principal objective turns remorselessly from liberation to revenge... Dead Centre is due to be published in September.
Adult movie actress, Raven Lane, is one of the most lusted after women in America, with millions of fans to prove it. But when a headless corpse turns up in the trunk of her car, she realises that fame carries a terrible price. Fearing for her life, and with the LAPD seemingly unable to protect her, Raven turns to elite bodyguard, Ryan Lock for help. Lock stops bad things happening to good people, but can he stop the tidal wave of violence now threatening the city of Los Angeles as Raven's predator targets - and kills - those closest to he
r? As events spiral out of control, Lock is drawn into a dangerous world where money rules, where sex is a commodity to be bought and sold, and where no one can be trusted, least of all his beautiful new client. But what he cannot know is the terrifying price he's about to pay - just for getting involved... Gridlock is the third book in the series by Sean Black to feature Ryan Lock and is due to be published in August.
The Silent Girl is the latest book in the Isles and Rizzoli series by Tess Gerritsen. In the murky shadows of an alley in Boston's Chinatown a hand has been discovered. On the rooftop above lies a woman's sev
ered head. Two strands of silver hair - not human - cling to the body that lies nearby. These are Detective Jane Rizzoli's only clues, but they are enough for her and Dr Maura Isles to make a startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel. Seventeen years early a horrifying attack in a Boston restaurant left five people dead. Only one woman connected to the massacre is now still alive - a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dare not tell. A secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of the city. A secret that may not even be human. It soon becomes clear than an ancient evil is stirring in Chinatown: an evil that has killed before, and will kill again - unless Jane and Maura can track it down, and defeat it. The Silent Girl was published in July.
August 1942. North Africa. The desert war hangs in the balance. Although their retreat has finally been halted, morale in the British Army is at rock bottom. When the commander of the Eighth Army, General Gott, is killed, it seems that foul play is at work. An impenetrable Axis spy circuit could be compromising any hope the 
Allies have of stemming the Nazi tide. Jack Tanner, recovering from wounds in a Cairo hospital, is astonished to receive a battlefield commission, which will propel him into a very different world when he returns to action. Fit once more, he finds himself facing the full onslaught of Rommel's latest offensive. In its aftermath, Tanner and his trusty sidekick Sykes are recruited to work behind the Axis lines in a desperate attempt to take the fight to the Nazis. But the murky world of subterfuge, deceit and murder they find themselves in is a million miles away from the certainties of the battlefield and somehow they must discover who they can trust in the cat-and-mouse world of counter-espionage. Hellfire sees Tanner fighting his way through his most dangerous adventure yet - one that takes him from the dark backstreets of Cairo to the open Mediterranean and finally to one of the decisive clashes of the entire war - the Battle of Alamein. Hellfire is by James Holland and was published in July
r of Lost Causes (In the UK, Mercy) by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dutton)
You See Me by S.J. Bolton (Bantam Press)
er by Tom Cain (Bantam Press)
