House of Two Pharaohs is by Wilbur Smith. Hidden in the shadows, an evil will rise . . .Piay, appointed Nomarch of Memphis by the God-Pharoah Rameses, has transformed his city, rebuilding the famous white walls, feeding the once starving citizens and returning the wealth plundered by the barbarian Hyksos. But when a murdered scribe is found sealed inside the city's newly-constructed vault - with the mark of Anubis, god of death, scrawled next to him in blood - panic tears through the people. Piay calls on the only man in Egypt he knows can discover the truth: his mentor, the great sage Taita. But soon after Taita's arrival in Memphis, the bloody mark of Anubis appears again.Taita and Piay are pitted against a criminal mastermind turned warlord. The pair's adversary has a simple, brutal aim: restore the Red Pretender's kingdom - and obliterate Rameses's forces. Drawn into a desperate battle of wits, can Taita and Piay finally reunite the two kingdoms? Or will the shadow of the Red Pretender tear Egypt apart once again? Who will survive the battle in the house of the two pharaohs?
Dark Horse is by Felix Francis. Imogen Duffy is a young Irish jockey, whose fledgling career is given a huge boost when she wins a prestigious horse race at the Cheltenham Steeplechasing Festival. But all is not well in her life. She has a violent and controlling boyfriend, also a jockey, and he becomes increasingly jealous of her success. As a result, she tries to break off their relationship, but he won't take 'no' for an answer. He attacks her, and claims that he'd rather kill her than allow her to leave him. Imogen flees her home in Ireland, coming to England to get away from him, and to continue her riding career at a racing stable in Lambourn, where she finds increasing success. But the abusive boyfriend follows her across the Irish Sea, stalks her, steals from her, attacks her again, and then tries to ruin both her career and her reputation. Imogen's desperate father turns to Sid Halley for help, and Sid reluctantly agrees to investigate, but then finds that he is also being stalked and threatened. Can Sid find out what the hell is going on, and before it is too late?
1829. Mahikeng Mission Station. Highveld, Southern Africa. The warrior king is dead. Ralph Courtney and Ann Waite have escaped. From the chaos and bloodshed that consumed the Zulu nation after the murder of King Shaka. From Ralph's enemies. From the man who would have enslaved Ann and sold her to the highest bidder. Now Ralph and Ann, and their son Harry, are safe. Rescued by the missionaries at Mahikeng, they can finally dream of a new life. Or can they . . . ? For what awaits them is a journey of unimaginable horrors, that will take Ralph from the bandit outposts on the border of Cape Colony, across oceans, and into the dark heart of the brutal system by which the British Crown imposes obedience on its subjects, while Ann is drawn inexorably back into her old life in Zululand. Can Ralph finally lay to rest the ghosts that haunt him? Can Ann overcome the enemy she believed they'd escaped forever? Can Harry make his peace with the secrets and lies that have shaped his life? On a blood-soaked battlefield, as a new nation is forged in violence and slaughter, all three will be given a choice - to succumb to the past, or to stand and fight for their family's future. Vengeance is by Wilbur Smith and Tom Harper.
June 2026
Never Be Found is by Jo Spain. She helped him disappear. She'll wish she hadn't . . . There is a chilling phenomenon in Japan known as Johatsu - people who vanish voluntarily from their lives. It's said 100,000 people per year are Johatsu, and an entire industry has sprung up to support those who choose to. Life is hard. For some people, it's just too much. That's what I thought when I brought the concept to England. People will disappear anyway. What if I could help them? So I pack their belongings discreetly, create new identities, forge documents, give directions to the cities and towns where the 'night-mover' can live anonymously. It's just a business. I never saw it as a shameful act. I've helped people flee from abusive relationships, from work pressure, from debt, from unfulfilled lives. People in need. I consider what I do to be honourable. Until now that is. Because I've just learned that I'm not absent of responsibility. That I am capable of doing a terrible thing. That it's not just a business. I helped somebody flee from a crime. From the police. I evaporated a murderer. And if I don't find him, I can't live with what he might do next.
Eight months after helping to prevent a devastating attack on Britain's nuclear deterrent, ex-SAS hero David Hawkins is down on his luck. But when an act of reckless violence costs him his job, Hawkins is recruited by MI6 for a highly sensitive mission. The job: infiltrate a gang of cut-throat mercenaries led by a notorious former Regiment officer. Six believes this team is planning a once-in-a-century heist. Now they want Hawkins to find out who else is involved - and why. But as he gets closer to the target, Hawkins uncovers an even more deadly plot. One that threatens to upend the world order and trigger a terrifying new conflict between East and West . . . Breakout is by Chris Ryan.
Blood Root is by Jill Johnson. Lies are poison . . . but so is the truth. Professor Eustacia Rose has been arrested. Her charge: possession of poisonous plants without the appropriate licence. But behind the scenes, ulterior motives are at play... Locked in a windowless cell, Eustacia begins to uncover memories she didn't know she had. Her father's work on a mysterious academic paper. The night he was arrested, accused of murder. And a woman with long black hair that Eustacia does not recognise. Linking all the memories is Marcus Smith, her father's unscrupulous assistant, a man she thought was long dead. Marcus ruined her father's career, stole his research and vanished after a heated confrontation. But the past never stays buried, as Eustacia knows all too well. With the help of DCI Roberts and determined allies, Eustacia races against time to expose the deceptions of the past and solve a fresh murder before it's too late. This is her only chance to clear her father's name and settle a decades-old score, but the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow...
Jane Hepburn is still recovering from solving the murder at last year's Killer Lines festival when she is dragged into another very bookish murder. When a young editorial assistant is found dead at her friend's launch in a famous Cecil Court bookshop, Jane must use all her knowledge and experience as a writer of crime fiction to solve the mystery. A Killer Plot is by E C Nevin.
A Girl's Girl is by Emma Robertson. You've got everything she ever wanted... At school, Darcy Starr was the girl everyone wanted to be - effortlessly beautiful, confident and most importantly, popular. Two decades later, she still appears to have the perfect life: a devoted husband, a beautiful daughter and a picture-perfect suburban home, until her old school friend Alex Rigby reappears. Newly divorced, post-glow-up and harbouring a mysterious vendetta, Alex is about to turn Darcy's world upside down. On a group holiday to celebrate a friend's wedding, secrets, lies and old rivalries bubble to the surface, threatening to change everything Darcy thought she knew about her past. . . and herself.
Emma Sharp knows the rules of survival. From being raised by a doomsday-fearing father and hardened by the startup world, she has learned how to endure - especially in her marriage to Logan Grant, a charismatic tyrant who keeps her under tight control. To Emma, her marriage is a cage: it keeps you in, but it also keeps you safe. Until it doesn't. When Emma forms an unexpected bond with Logan's former girlfriend, the two women form a plan to help Emma reclaim her life. Destination: the punishing final stretch of the Appalachian Trail. After all, bad things happen in the woods all the time. As the three venture deeper into Maine's backcountry, desire and dread curdle into something unpredictable, dark and deadly. Someone is lying. Someone is watching. And in the remote heart of the forest, someone is about to be lost . . . or found. How to Survive in the Woods is by Kat Rosenfield.
July 2026
The Kill Switch is by Robert Peston. Journalist Gil Peck is back; in therapy, married to Jess - now editor of the Financial Chronicle - and still driven by the need to prove a point that he can't quite identify. Yet all is not well at home. Jess is fed up with Gil's obsession with his job, and she's kicked him out of their home. But Gil has never let anything get in the way of a scoop. He and Jess have landed the interview of a lifetime with the Prime Minister, Stella Barnsbury, for the podcast they co-host, and Gil has no intention of missing it. During the interview, Barnsbury begins to pale, her coughing intensifying before she finally collapses. Within 48 hours, the Prime Minister is dead. Gil is used to landing the biggest stories. But as the last person to see the PM alive, he's now a main character. And when foul play is confirmed, he's also a prime suspect . . .
It's 1961 and the Queen is planning her state visit to Italy aboard Britannia. But before she goes, an unreliable witness claims to have seen a brutal murder from the royal train. Did it really happen, and could the victim be a missing friend of Princess Margaret's new husband, Tony Armstrong Jones? The Queen and her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, get to work on their second joint investigation, little imagining that this time it will take them all the way to Venice in a tale of spies, lies and Cold War skulduggery. The Queen Who Came in From The Cold is by Sophia Bennett.
The Woman Who Wasn't There is by William Hussey. Bestselling crime author Marian Lane is surrounded by adoring readers when she learns that her husband Dane is dead. Marian returns home in shock to discover a stranger on her doorstep. A woman who not only claims she's Marian's biggest fan but says that she comforted Dane in his final moments. At first, this woman, Mary, is a source of comfort. Until she admits Dane confessed a secret. One she can't quite remember; one Marian is desperate to learn. But Mary is a storyteller too. And though Marian knows every twist in the genre, she won't see this one coming . ..
Their dream holiday is about to turn into a nightmare...When upscale travel agent Allegra is offered a complimentary stay for her extended family at a new, high-end woodland retreat, she's delighted to discover it has everything you could ask for: luxury tree house accommodation, activities for the kids, spa treatments, fine dining - what could be more relaxing? But relationships within the group are fraught, and an impromptu family celebration seems only to worsen matters. Frustrated with her family, and taken for granted by her husband for years, Allegra forms an unexpected bond with someone new, and things begin to go wrong... Resentments grow and tensions rise, it seems the family's problems might run deeper than anyone suspected. When the warning signs become dangerous, the family realise they haven't been asking the right questions: how did they really come to be here? And which of them won't be going home? The Family Break is by Ruth Irons
August 2026
Flashpoint is by Wilbur Smith and David Churchill. 1943, America SOE's Saffron Courtney is back in New York, but even as she recovers from her mission to Washington, events on the other side of the Atlantic are making her return to England inevitable. The War Office need someone to extract an asset - a Jewish scientist, Caleb Ezra, a man vital to the war effort - from his hideaway on the besieged island of Leros. But first there is a debt to settle, and the mob do not wait - even for a decorated war hero . . . 1946, Kenya. Back in her beloved homeland, and reunited with her lover-now-husband Gerhard von Meerbach, Saffron thinks that she might finally have found the peace that she craves. The war is over. But when she's paid a visit by an English operative who blackmails her with accusations of Gerhard's involvement in Nazi atrocities, Saffron has no choice but to return to the US at his bidding. With not only her life, but her family at stake, Saffron must track down Ezra once more - before it's too late . . .
It's 1966 and Queen Elizabeth II is touring the Caribbean aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Her schedule is measured in ten-minute increments for five weeks, and nothing can afford to go wrong. But something does. Early in the trip, the Queen's new diary secretary, Pamela Sinclair, is found dead in her cabin. Rumours abound about how she died, but the truth is, nobody really knows. However, this time, suspicion falls on the Queen's longstanding confidante, Joan McGraw. The royal yacht is a busy, working ship, from the admiral at the bridge to the chefs in the galleys and the engineers attending to the turbines. It houses a crew of hundreds. Is one of them a murderer? The Queen and Joan must use every skill and trick to solve the mystery while seeming to glide, unflustered, from one be-hatted engagement to the next, as the multi-island visit unfolds with the whole world watching. Death on the Royal Yacht is by S J Bennett.
