Books to look forward to from Quercus and MacLehose Press

Baptism is by Max Kinnings and is due to be published in June 2012.  07:45 Am.  A monk lies dead in Snowdonia, a knife protruding from his throat.  A young family is being held at gunpoint in a house in Wimbledon.  The mission has begun.  08:56 Am.  A London Underground train is stationary in a tunnel, four hundred passengers trapped inside.  All efforts to communicate with it have been met with silence.  09:15Am. DCI Ed Mallory has just started his day.  The Met's top hostage negotiator - despite having been blinded thirteen years earlier - Mallory is about to discover that, today, an underground train is not the only thing on the line.

  

Springtime in St Denis.  It's two weeks before Easter, and Satanism has reared its ugly head.  A female body has been found on a boat, bearing the ghastly signs of a black magic ritual.  The victim is unknown and nobody is coming forward.  This is the last thing Bruno needs.  The Chief of Police-come-culinary connoisseur has too much on his plate as it is, mediating both a domestic abuse case and a local development proposal that seems just too good to be true.  Moreover, he has no one to share these stresses with.  His dog, Gigi, is gone, as are his usual roster of ladies.  He's never felt so alone.  But Bruno soon finds himself back at his best; which is just as well if he's to solve the mystery that's threatening to scar his town's reputation. The Devil’s Cave is by Martin Walker and is due to be published in August 2012.

When Sam's last adventure in France ended, he thought it'd be a while before he went back, especially with the charms of Elena Morales to keep him in Los Angeles. But when the immensely wealthy Francis Reboul asks him to take a job in Marseille, it's impossible for Sam and Elena to resist the possibility of further excitement . . . to say nothing of the pleasures of the region. Soon the two are enjoying the coastal sunshine and the delectable wine and bouillabaisse for which Marseille is known. Quelle joie! Yet as a competition over Marseille's valuable waterfront grows more hotly disputed, Sam, representing Reboul, finds himself in the middle of an increasingly intrigue-ridden and dangerous real estate grab. Will Sam survive this caper unscathed? Will he be able to enjoy another bowl of bouillabaisse? The Marseille Caper is by Peter Mayle and is due to be published in November 2012.

Dark Heart is by Tony Park and is due to be published in September 2012. Richard, Carmel and Liesl are an unlikely trio with a complex shared past. They met while working in Rwanda during the genocide. Now the three are back together, united both by a photograph and attempts on their lives. After receiving a summons from the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, someone has tried to kill both Carmel and Richard. Could this be connected to the photograph they saw in Rwanda, or to the summons? Embarking on a mission to find the answers, they are drawn into the violent and harrowing world of animal smuggling, a world more frightening then they ever could have predicted. It is not just animals that are being smuggled, but human organs from living donors. Soon, their lives are all on the line and only one person can help them.

2012: London is hosting the Olympics and the East End is at the centre of the world.  Yet surrounding the glamorous Olympic Park are some of the most deprived areas of the city.  PI Lee Arnold and his assistant, Mumtaz Hakim, work in these streets, in a community fraught with tensions.  When Arnold is hired by a controversial stand- up comedian, he already knows that her routine could make her a target.  Arnold and Hakim's new client is being followed.  Are her fears justified?  As they delve deeper, they discover that this investigation is more complex and sinister than a simple, straightforward case of stalking. A Private Business is the first in a new series featuring former policeman and soldier turned PI and his Muslim assistant by Barbara Nadel.  A Private Business is due to be published in July 2012.

The head of Francisco Goya was stolen from his tomb in the wake of his death. No one has ever known what happened to it. Until now. Leon Golding has always been ignored by the art world he loves, but he's finally going to make his name as the man who found the skull of Goya. But he's asked the wrong people to help him prove he's right. Now everyone wants to own the most prized piece of art history ever to come to light ...And they're ready to kill for it. Memory of Bones is by Alex Connor and is due to be published in August 2012.

Let the Old Dreams Die is a collection of short stories by John Ajvide Lindqvist and contains the sequel to Let the Right One In. Whatever happened to Oskar and Eli? And what became of the beleaguered families in Handling the Undead? Find out in Let the Old Dreams Die. In other tales from this collection, a woman finds a dead body and decides to keep it for herself, a customs officer has a mysterious gift, which enables him to see what others hide, and a man believes he knows how to deceive death. These are the stories of John Ajvide Lindqvist's rich imagination. They are about love and death and what we do when the two collide and the monsters emerge. Let the Old Dreams Die is due to be published in September 2012.

A frustrated publisher receives a mysterious angst-ridden manuscript: “a friend” must send it in instalments; its contents would put the author in danger. As he pieces together the story, he learns that the author is the wife of one of the two Martelli brothers – gangsters who dominate a small town in the Brazilian interior.  Surely, her dark outpourings are a cry for help?  One by one, he dispatches his motley collection of friends to Frondosa – a town totally obsessed with five-a-side football – to investigate and bring her to safety.  The Spies is by Luis Fernando Verissimo and is due to be published in November 2012.

Sleepwalkers is the debut novel by Tom Grieves and is due to be published in August 2012.  Ben is your average married man: wife, two kids, and steady job.  Toby is your average schoolboy: fifteen years old, sweet natured and shy.  Two people, two separate, unremarkable lives.  Except for their dreams.  Dreams of violence.  Dreams of rage.  Dreams of torture.  Dreams that are always followed - the next morning - by scratches, scars, pain.  When their dreams and doubts become too powerful to ignore, one fact will become clearer than any other: that the truth they are running towards is the very thing that they should be running away from.

Saed Gadaffi has escaped from Libya with a fistful of dangerous secrets. The British Government want ex-Special Forces operative Steve Range, the go-to man for any Black-Ops missions, to lead an ultra-covert mercenary group to seize him from his near-impregnable desert stronghold. Saed is defended by Tuareg warriors armed to the teeth with stolen NATO hardware. If Range's team can somehow overcome them, then they will earn themselves gold bullion worth $500 million. But as the bullets begin to fly and the body count rises, Range realises that he's been double-crossed. Unwilling to lose the gold, he begins to contemplate cutting a deal with the devil.  Desert Fire is the debut novel by Phil Campion and is due to be published in September 2012.

Harry and Michel live in the basement of a luxury apartment block, guarding the inhabitants. No-one goes outside. The world might be at war - it might even have been plunged into nuclear winter. No-one knows. All Harry and Michel know is that if they are vigilant, 'the Organization' will reward them: promotion to an elite cadre of security officers remains their shining goal. But what if there were no-one left to guard? And if the promised relief shift arrives, how will they fit in to Michel and Harry's studied routine of boredom and paranoia? After months of crippling paranoia, they begin a terrifying ascent to the floors above.  The Guard is by Peter Terrin and is due to be published in September 2012.

Yukio's two best friends are dead. Tormented and blackmailed by the Yakuza - the Japanese mafia - they have taken their own lives. Yukio is a kendo champion and he knows all the stories of the samurai. Heartbroken and furious, he is determined to avenge the deaths of his beloved Hiroshi and Miko. And so begins a deadly struggle between Yukio and the Yakuza, and between Yukio's capacity for love, and his thirst for revenge.  Summertime of the Dead is by Gregory Hughes and is due to be published in August 2012.

Books to look forward to from Quercus

Robert B Parker's legendary private eye Spenser returns in Sixkill. When the body of a girl who has been strangled is found in the hotel room of movie star Jumbo Nelson Spenser is asked by his lawyers to find out whether or not he committed the murder so that they can work out a

plan to get him off. Not only does Spenser not like Jumbo Nelson, but he also has an

assortment of hanger-ons to contend with. There is Sixkill a Cree Indian who wasted away his football talent because he could not control his temper and who know uses alcohol as a substitute and a cold-blooded assassin who may be Spenser's most dangerous foe yet. If Sixkill can turn

his life around then Spenser may have just have found the ally that he needs. Sixkill will be published in April 2011.

Trashed is the first crime novel by Anna Smith. When the body of a young teenage hooker is washed up on the beach near Glasgow it barely makes the headlines. But the young girl in question was only fourteen years old and living in a children's home so how did she wind up dead. One of the dead girl's friends gives tabloid journalist Rosie Gilmour a tip-off that is

explosive

but too hot to print. As she digs deeper her investigation exposes a ordid tale of corruption and child abuse that goes to the very top. However, there are also those that will stop Rosie from revealing the truth. Trashed is due to be published in May 2011.

The Dinosaur Feather is by Sissel-Jo Gazan and is due to be published in May 2011. Just two weeks away from defending her thesis and Anna Bella Nor's supervisor is found dead in his office with his severed tongue on his bloodied shirtfront and a copy of her thesis in his lap. Police Superintendent Soren Marhauge is assigned to investigate the matter. Helland the supervisor had been infected with a rare parasite that only an expert would have access to. But when a fellow graduate friend of Nor's is also murdered it appears that the killings are linked to Nor herself. But as Marhauge investigates it is clear that there is competition for academic success and dark secrets abound in the faculty.

In The Bone Yard (which is a Body Farm thriller) Dr Bill Brockton and his team investigate the murky past of a reform school for boys, when a number of shallow graves are unearthed. As they investigate and draw nearer to the truth they find that some prominent people have skeletons in their closet that they do not want revealed. Furthermore, the ghosts of the past are still present. The Bone Yard is by Jefferson Bass and is due for publication in April 2011.

The Watermen is the start of a new historical crime series set against the backdrop of the 18th Century docklands. Boylin a cruel villain holds sway in the Port of London. His face is scarred and he holds Captain Tom Pascoe responsible for his disfigurement. When they meet again

Pascoe has become River Surveyor for the newly formed marine police with orders to investigate the sudden fall in government revenue. Pascoe is certain that Boylin is behind this but has no evidence to prove this. The Watermen follows the two adversaries as they pit their wits against one another. The Watermen is by Patrick Easter and is due to be published in March 2011.

In Flashback it is 2036 America and ex-cop Nick Bottom is about to receive a proposition. Dependency on Flashback has taken all that he holds dear. All that he has at the moment are his memories. Now a powerful magnate Hiroshi Nakamura needs Nick's services and his memories. As the head of the original unsolved murder of Nakamura's son it appears that six years later his flashbacks may hold the key. But as he digs deeper it becomes harder to trust those around him and what does the death of Nakamura's son have to do with the death of his wife? Flashback is by Dan Simmons and will be published in March 2011

For thirty-two years, archaeologist Julius Gabriel studied the Mayan calendar, a 2,500 year old enigma that predicts the Apocalypse. His research lead him to a number of theories but when he dies they die with him and are subsequently ridiculed and discredited. Eleven years later his son Michael must escape from an insane asylum where he has been falsely imprisoned. With the help of a part-Mayan intern he must travel to the Yucatan Peninsula where he believes he can find the evidence to prove his father's theory and at the same time convince the world of the global

catastrophe that is approaching. The Mayan Prophecy is by Steve Alten and is due to be published in March 2011.

After an assassination goes wrong ex-soldier turned mercenary Sonja Kurtz finds herself alone in the African wilderness. Elsewhere groups of revolutionaries are plotting to destroy a dam being erected in the Delta and also attempt to bring about a change of government in Zimbabwe. Kurtz finds herself crossing paths with documentary presenter Sam Chapman who is desperate to cover the story but he has been stranded and deserted by his crew. Kurtz on the other hand has other things on her mind like blowing up the dam. The Delta is by Tony Park and is due to be published in March 2011.

CWA Dagger in the Library Winner Colin Cotterill starts a new series with Killed at the Whim of a Hat. When crime reporter Jimm Juree is forced to follow her family's move to a fishing village she is convinced that her career is over, but that is until a local palm oil plantation owner finds two bodies (one of them wearing a hat) whilst digging a well. A monk is also murdered in the nearest town with no apparent motive but there appears to be a link with this killing and others that have taken place around the world. Suddenly Jimm's life takes on new meaning and becomes a lot more dangerous. Killed at the Whim of a Hat is due to be published in March 2011.

Breach of Trust is the second book in the Jason Kolarich series. This time around Jason finds himself investigating the murder of a key witness in a criminal case that he tried. Jason had forced the witness to testify and believes that this lead to his murder. When his investigations leads him to an obscure agency in state government before he realises it Jason finds himself not only in the middle of a high level conspiracy and fraud but also a covert federal investigation. Breach of Trust is by David Ellis and is due to be published in February 2011.

When a brutal murder takes place on the Isle of Lewis it bears all the hallmarks of a similar murder that happened in Edinburgh. Police Detective Fin Macleod is sent to investigate the killing. Fin grew up on the Isle of Lewis so his return there represents a journey home and into his past. With the islanders performing the hunting of the gugas a savage custom that is no longer necessary for survival it appears that whilst they cling to it in the face of the demands of modern morality after all this time demand may have begun for another sacrifice. The Black House is by Peter May and is due to be published in February 2011.

The Rembrandt Secret is the debut crime novel by Alex Connor.

Marshall Ziegler's father ran a gallery in London. Something which he had studiously ignored until his father is brutally attacked and left for dead. Now Marshall needs to know every last detail of his life. He discovers that his father knew a dark secret that was at the heart of Rembrandt's life and it is a secret that could destroy one of the world's must lucrative industries. Someone does not want that secret out in the open and they are killing in an increasingly brutal manner in order to keep it hidden. Can Marshall get to the truth before the killer and can he stay alive long enoughto do so especially since he is not sure whom to trust! The Rembrandt Secret is due to be published in January 2011.

The third novel to feature forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway is The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths. Having just returned from maternity leave, Ruth Galloway is struggling to combine work with motherhood. When six bodies are found buried at the foot of a cliff Galloway is put on the case. However Galloway and DCI Nelson who is running the case have unfinished business. Tests reveal that the bodies are from Southern Europe killed some sixty years ago. When a further body washes up on the beach Galloway and Nelson that there is still someone alive who does not want the events that happened sixty years ago revealed. The House at Sea's End is published in January 2011.