Forthcoming Books from Profile Books and Viper

January 2024

Helle & Death is by Oskar Jensen. A snowstorm. A country house. Old friends reunited It's going to be murder. Torben Helle - art historian, Danish expat and owner of several excellent Scandinavian jumpers - has been dragged to a remote snowbound Northumbrian mansion for a ten-year reunion with old university friends. Things start to go sideways when their host, a reclusive and irritating tech entrepreneur, makes some shocking revelations at the dinner table. And when these are followed by an apparent suicide, the group faces a test of their wits... and their trust. Snowed in and cut off, surrounded by enigmatic housekeepers and off-duty police inspectors, not to mention a peculiar last will and testament, suspicion and sarcasm quickly turn to panic. As the temperature drops and the tension mounts, Torben decides to draw upon all the tricks of Golden Age detectives past in order to solve the mystery: how much money would it take to turn one of his old friends into a murderer? But he'd better be quick, or someone else might end up dead.

February 2024

On the beautiful and windswept island of Tresco, two worlds live side by side. The wealthy visitors come by helicopter to stay at their lavish time-share properties. The estate staff travel by boat, and work all hours to keep them happy, to keep the money flowing in. But while the blue skies and savage waves make the island seem a wild paradise, under the surface the inhabitants are concealing more than they dare reveal. The truths about their marriages, their love affairs, and what they do in the darkness while their neighbours are sleeping. As black clouds come rolling in and a storm hits the island, truths and rumours begin to tumble out, wreaking terrible damage. In the midst of the tempest, two women are attacked and one goes missing. The secrets of this fragile community can no longer be hidden if it hopes to survive. The islanders must finally reveal what they did in the storm, no matter the cost. What We Did in the Storm is by Tina Baker.

April 2024

The Underhistory is by Kaaron Warren. People come to visit my home and I love to show them around. It's not the original house of course. That was destroyed the day my entire family died. But I don't think their ghosts know the difference. Pera Sinclair was nine the day the pilot intentionally crashed his plane into her family's grand home, killing everyone inside. She was the girl who survived the tragedy, a sympathetic oddity, growing stranger by the day. Over the decades she rebuilt the huge and rambling building on the original site, recreating what she had lost, each room telling a piece of the story of her life and that of the many people who died there, both before and after the disaster. Her sister, murdered a hundred miles away. The soldier, broken by war. Death follows Pera, and she welcomes it in as an old friend. And while she doesn't believe in ghosts, she's not above telling a ghost story or two to those who come to visit Sinclair House. As Pera shows a young family around her home on the last haunted house tour of the season, an unexpected group of men arrive. One she recognises, but the others are strangers. But she knows their type all too well. Dangerous men, who will hurt the family without a second thought, and who will keep an old woman alive only so long as she is useful. But as she begins to show them around her home and reveal its secrets, the dangerous men will learn that she is far from helpless. After all, death seems to follow her wherever she goes...

June 2024

It's always the husband... Isn't it? Astrid Webb is missing. The police have found her car crashed near the woods, the driver's door open, the seat spotted with blood. But there's no sign of Astrid herself. Her husband Bryan is sure that she's alive - after all, this isn't the first time she's vanished, only to reappear without explanation. As the days pass, Bryan starts to look like a suspect in his wife's disappearance, perhaps in her murder. But Bryan isn't telling the police the whole truth. Not about Astrid's stalker, their broken-in back door, or the threatening messages. Then a woman's body is found in the woods. By staying silent, is Bryan protecting Astrid, or protecting himself? The Wreckage of Us is by Dan Malakin. 

When the Locked-room Itself Wants to Kill You. by Kate Simants

 

It was a kind of masochism in a way, writing a locked-room thriller in the height of lockdown when the last thing I – and everyone else – really wanted was to be locked in. My third novel, Freeze, which is published by Viper on March 2nd, follows the cast and crew of Frozen Out, a reality TV show set in the Arctic. The fear of the threat from within the boat – the killer – is rivalled only by the threat from without – the endless wastes of ice, the sea, the frankly terrifying weather. But though that climate is many people’s idea of hell, I found it to be the escape I desperately needed. 

Heat, for a born goth like myself, has been a lifelong adversary. When the post-Christmas adverts break out, seemingly tapping in to our collective yearning for bikinis and baking sand, I look out the window and wish the frost would last forever. So when it came to looking for a location for my new book – a place which could double as an imagined escape while under Covid house arrest – somewhere very, very cold was the top of my list. 

Not that it’s anything new, of course. Locked-room mysteries – or more accurately, closed-circle mysteries, where the murderer must be among a very limited number of characters – are often set in less-than welcoming environments. Though I’d shy away from the well-worn cliché of the location of a novel being one of its characters, the backdrop of Arctic certainly did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to manipulating the events of the book. Early in my research, I spoke to a handful of Arctic guides, who talked me through what Greenland would really be like for a group of inexperienced people like those in my fictional TV show. I knew I’d made the right choice when one source told me, ‘make no mistake – the Arctic wants you dead.’ Obviously I shamelessly stole that line and gave it to the character of Craig Nduka, Frozen Out’s Arctic expert, then built on that sense of innate hostility at every opportunity. 

Ally Reynolds, author of Shiver, says a similar thing of her choice of the French Alps for her acclaimed debut Shiver. Twenty years ago, she was a freestyle snowboarder, and spent her first winter season in Chamonix. ‘It was such a unique environment,’ she told me, ‘stunningly beautiful, yet also incredibly dangerous. The weather could change at short notice, bringing storms, heavy snowfall and avalanches that could cut off roads and villages. The terrain is full of crevasses and cliffs, meaning you are literally one step away from death a lot of the time, so it seemed a perfect setting.’

Writing a powerful thriller means keeping the sense of fear close to hand at all times, so choosing a location that has some menace built-in means your baseline level of fear is already pretty high. Emma Haughton, author of locked-room Antarctica thriller The Dark and, more recently The Sanctuary based in the Mexican desert, says a similar thing. 

‘In terms of research,’ she says, ‘it came down to making deep isolation plausible as possible to the reader. That was easy to do with Antarctica because people there are completely cut off during winter. I always feel you’ve got to maximize the obstacles that any location might bring for your characters, so [in The Sanctuary] I built in scenes that hung on dangers like heat stroke, thirst, snake bites, large spiders (ugh!) and so on.’ 

For me, it was the location for Freeze that took up the bulk of my research time. As a former investigative journalist I have a terror of misrepresentation, and without the chance to go to Greenland myself, I spent weeks and months meticulously reading around the place. I made life slightly easier for myself by using a boat as the base, and writing about a TV show: having lived on boats and worked in TV, these were things I could write about naturally. But the deep-dive I did into resources about the Arctic served a dual purpose: not only of making the setting authentic, but also of taking me away from the crushing tedium of being stuck at home -even if it was only in my mind. 

That said, it wasn’t until I’d finished the novel that I noticed how much Covid itself had informed my story. Without even realising it, Freeze was a reflection of the real-life horror-show that started in 2020: a claustrophobic world of enforced enclosure, while an even greater threat lurked outside. 

Freeze by Kate Simants published by Viper (Out Now) £14.99

The show is Tori Matsuka's baby. After years working her way up the ladder, she's finally launching her own production company with Frozen Out, and the late nights, the debts, the strain on her relationship will all be worthwhile. Everything is riding on the next twelve days. For camerawoman Dee, it's a chance to start again after the tragedy that tanked her undercover journalism career. Not even Tori, her oldest friend, knows the full truth of why Dee left her previous job, and she plans to keep it that way. But as errors and mishaps mount on set, tempers among the cast and crew start to fray. And when one of the contestants is found dead, only Dee realises the death wasn't natural - and from what she's seen from behind the camera, it won't be the last. As the Arctic ice closes in around them and all chance of escape is cut off, it becomes clear that although the world outside wants them dead, it's the secrets inside the ship that might cost them their lives.

More information about Kate Simants and her books can be found on her website. You an also follow her on Twitter @Kateboats and she can also be found on Facebook.

BM CARROLL - Defending the Indefensible

Many years ago, when I was researching an earlier novel, I spoke to a criminal lawyer who was brilliant, dedicated and extremely tolerant of my naïve questions. The lawyer was also, at the time, representing a woman who had stabbed her estranged husband to death on a Sydney freeway during morning peak-hour traffic. It was a horrific crime, deeply shocking for witnesses, responding emergency services and the general public. I couldn’t help deviating from my research to ask the lawyer: Why on earth would you want to defend this case? And what defence can there possibly be? 

The lawyer’s answer was along these lines. Because what happened on the freeway is only one part of the story. And because everyone – no matter how awful the crime – is entitled to a thorough, high-quality defence. 

The danger of a good defence 

 Her response has been percolating in my mind for almost twenty years and every time a similarly shocking crime occurs, I think not only of the victim, but also the accused, and what caused them to commit such a terrible act … and also the defence team who step up to defend the indefensible. 

 In my latest novel, You Had It Coming, a barrister, who has made a name for himself defending sexual assault cases, is shot outside his home. William Newson is a beloved father, a considerate boss and a strong advocate for the rights of the accused. He is also responsible for the acquittal of defendants who are guilty of their crimes and enabling at least one repeat offender. His profession leads to irreconcilable differences with his wife, who divorces him because ‘all those girls can’t be lying, William’. His profession causes numerous threats on his personal safety by angry complainants and their distraught families. His profession ultimately costs him his life. 

 It’s true that every defendant, no matter how heinous the crime, is entitled to the presumption of innocence and a strong legal defence. Without these basic standards, our legal system would be neither just nor fair and innocent people could be wrongly accused and convicted of crimes they did not commit. 

 However, it is a mistake to believe that the verdict in a trial is always just and fair. A miscarriage of justice seems more likely in sexual assault cases, because most of the time only two people know what actually happened and their perceptions of reality can be very different. ‘Reasonable doubt’ can flourish and all too often there is simply not enough evidence to return a guilty verdict. But just because there is not enough evidence and the final verdict is NOT GUILTY, doesn’t necessarily mean that the crime did not occur. It can even be argued that the more diligent and aggressive the defence, the better chance that a rapist will walk free … and go on to reoffend. 

He said vs. She said 

 You Had It Coming explores the murky matters of consent, admissible evidence, reasonable doubt, the rights of the accused, victim blaming, and the appalling reality that some offenders are not convicted for their crimes. Our legal system is imperfect, lawyers on both sides are endeavouring to do their jobs to the highest standard, and what can really be done if it’s one person’s word against another’s? 

 She said: Everything done and said that night was funnelled down, down, down until it became one singular question: had consent been given? The one thing she knows for sure is that she did not consent. Therefore, it should have been black-and-white. 

 He said: It’s one thing convincing a judge and jury you’ve done nothing wrong, it’s another convincing yourself ... I was sorry and ashamed, but incredibly relieved when we were acquitted. I thought I could walk out of court, leave it all behind me, and finally start my life. But something like that doesn’t go away. It affected every relationship I had, every job I interviewed for. To be upfront or not. To tell the truth, or hope they’d never find out. 

 Back to the woman on the freeway, where the crown and the defence agreed that the defendant was suffering from schizophrenia when the attack occurred. The court was told she had delusional beliefs about her estranged husband, that he was poisoning her food and abusing their daughter. She pleaded not guilty due to mental illness and was acquitted of the charges. 

 The criminal lawyer had done her job superbly and, in this case at least, there was a legitimate defence despite the damning circumstances.

• 
  
  
  YOU HAD IT COMING
• Publisher : Viper; Main edition (13 May 2021)

B.M. Carroll (also known as Ber Carroll) was born in Blarney, a small village in Ireland. The third child of six, reading was her favourite pastime (and still is!). Ber moved to Sydney in 1995 and spent her early career working in finance. Her work colleagues were speechless when she revealed that she had written a novel that was soon to be published. Ber now writes full-time and is the author of ten novels. Over the last few years, Ber's writing has become darker and more suspenseful (probably reflecting her state of mind). Her most recent novels The Missing Pieces of Sophie McCarthy, Who We Were, and You Had It Coming are published under B.M. Carroll.

Books to Look forward to from Serpent's Tail and Viper

July 2020

Resident is by David Jackson.  Thomas Brogan is a serial killer. Having left a trail of bodies in his wake, and with the police hot on his heels, it seems like Thomas has nowhere left to hide. That is until he breaks into an abandoned house at the end of a terrace on a quiet street. And when he climbs up into the loft, he realises that the can drop down into all the other houses on the street through the shared attic space. That's when the real fun begins. Because the one thing that Thomas enjoys even more than killing, is playing games with his victims. And his new neighbours have more than enough dark secrets to make this game his best one yet... Do you fear The Resident? Soon you'll be dying to meet him. '

August 2020

Two boys loved her. But which one buried her? Two years ago, teenagers Rob and Paige broke into the house of Paige's school counsellor and stole only a necklace, but traumatised their victims in the process. No one knows why. And Paige hasn't been seen since that night. Having spent her life in children's homes and the foster system, no one cared enough to look for her. Now Rob is out of prison, and probation officer Wren Reynolds has been tasked with his rehabilitation. But Wren has her own reasons for taking on Rob as a client. Convinced that Rob knows what happened to Paige, and hiding a lifetime of secrets from her heavily pregnant wife, Wren's obsession with finding a missing girl may tear her family apart...  The Knocks is by Kate Simants

October 2020

Constable Paul Hirschhausen runs a one-cop station in the dry farming country south of the Flinders Ranges. He’s still new in town but his community work – welfare checks and a light touch – is starting to pay off. Now Christmas is here and, apart from a grass fire, two boys stealing a vehicle and Brenda Flann entering the front bar of the pub without exiting her car, Hirsch’s life has been peaceful. Until he’s called to an incident on Kitchener Street, a strange and vicious attack that sickens the community. And when the Sydney police ask him to look in on a family living on a forgotten back road, it doesn’t look like a season of goodwill at all ...   Peace is by Garry Disher.

Forthcoming Books from Profile Books (Incl Serpent's Tail and Viper)

February 2020

A Famished Heart is by Nicola White.  Her head was bowed, and the hands braced on the chair arms were not like hands at all, but the dry dark claws of a bird... The Macnamara sisters hadn't been seen for months before anyone noticed. It was Father Timoney who finally broke down the door, who saw what had become of them. Berenice was sitting in her armchair, surrounded by religious tracts. Rosaleen had crawled under her own bed, her face frozen in terror. Both had starved themselves to death. Francesca Macnamara returns to Dublin after decades in the US, to find her family in ruins. Meanwhile, Detectives Vincent Swan and Gina Considine are convinced that there is more to the deaths than suicide. Because what little evidence there is, shows that someone was watching the sisters die...

March 2020

The Broken Ones is by Ren Richards.  When her child was taken what did she really see? A bestselling true crime writer, Nell Way tells other people's stories. But there is one story Nell won't tell. Ten years ago and with a different name, she was a teenage mother with a four-year-old she found desperately hard to love. Then the little girl disappeared, and Nell has never shaken off the shadow of suspicion. As she begins to interview the subject of her next book - a woman convicted of murdering her twin sister - it becomes clear that someone has uncovered her true identity. And they know that Nell didn't tell the truth about the day her daughter disappeared...

April 2020

Bitter Wash Road is by Garry Disher.  Hirsch is a whistle-blower. Formerly a promising metropolitan detective, now hated and despised, he's been exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia's wheatbelt. Threats. Pistol cartridge in the mailbox. So when he heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate gunfire and finds himself cut off without backup, there are two possibilities. Either he's found the fugitive killers thought to be in the area. Or his 'backup' is about to put a bullet in him. He's wrong on both counts. But Tiverton when the next call-out takes him to the body of a sixteen-year-old girl, his investigation has disturbing echoes of the past he's trying to leave behind...

May 2020

It's been twenty years but all is not forgiven. Katy is not the shy schoolgirl she once was, and she's looking forward to showing her classmates who she's become. Annabel was the queen bee. But her fall from grace changed her life forever. Zach was cruel, but he thinks he's changed. Robbie was a target. And he never stood a chance. The reunion will bring together friends and enemies, many for the first time in decades. But someone is still holding a grudge... Who We Were is by B M Carroll.