2024 CWA Dagger Short lists announced

 

The 2024 shortlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced.

Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

 The shortlist for the Gold Dagger, which is awarded for the best crime novel of the year, includes the debut novel Black River from Nilanjana Roy. She is up against stalwarts of the genre, Mick Herron for The Secret Hours, and Dennis Lehane, with Small Mercies. 

The bestselling children’s author Maz Evans also makes the list with her debut adult novel, Over My Dead Body. As does the Irish-American author Una Mannion, with her haunting second novel, Tell Me What I Am, and the Chinese-Indonesian author, Jesse Sutanto, with Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

Past winners of the prestigious Gold Dagger, include Ian Rankin, John le Carré, Reginald Hill, and Ruth Rendell.

The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, showcases the thriller of the year.

The shortlist sees relative newcomer Jordan Harper, with his second thriller, Everybody Knows, up against TJ Newman, the former flight attendant who became a Hollywood sensation, with her latest thriller, Drowning, and Japanese author Kotaro Isaka for The Mantis; Kotaro is best-known for Bullet Train, which was adapted into a Brad Pitt movie. 

They’re joined on the Fleming shortlist by SA Crosby, Eli Cranor, and Femi Kayode.

The much-anticipated John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger highlights the best debut novels.

Among the rising stars of 2024 is Jo Callaghan with her BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick, The Blink of an Eye; and the Victorian gothic, The Tumbling Girl from Bridget Walsh. The shortlist also includes Amy Chua’s The Golden Gate, Kate Foster with The Maiden, Dan McDorman’s West Heart Kill and Go Seek by Michelle Teahan.

The Historical Dagger shortlist sees Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry in contention with A Bitter Remedy by Alis Hawkins. 

They’re joined by Lucy Ashe with Clara & Olivia, Louise Hare’s Harlem After Midnight, Jake Lamar’s Viper’s Dream, and Scarlet Town by Lenora Nattrass.

The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction shortlist sees Nicholas Shakespeare’s Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, up against The Art Thief by Michael Finkel, the true story of the world’s most prolific art thief who accumulated a collection worth over $1.4 billion. 

Also in the Non-Fiction category are Matt Johnson and John Murray for No Ordinary Day, Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson for Devil’s Coin, Alex Mar’s Seventy Times Seven and How Many More Women? by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida.

The shortlist for the Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger includes The Prey from the Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s, translated by Victoria Cribb, and Maud Ventura’s My Husband, translated by Emma Ramadan, which was a sensation in France, likened to Patricia Highsmith and Gone Girl. 

They’re joined by the Spanish journalist and author, Juan Gómez-Jurado, Sweden’s Âsa Larsson, French author Cloé Mehdi, and Korea’s Im Seong-sun. 

Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: “Once again, our independent judges across all the Dagger categories have come up trumps. Their selections feature well-established authors and new faces, a refreshingly diverse palette highlighting the talent of writers from all origins and publishers large and small, and a steadfast affirmation of how healthy the crime and mystery field is right now. We at the CWA couldn't be prouder.”

 The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story.

This year sees the bestselling juggernaut Lee Child with his story Safe Enough. He’s up against Mia Dalia, J Benedict Jones, Sanjida Kay, Ambrose Parry, and FD Quinn.

The Dagger in the Library nominees are voted by librarians and library users, chosen for the author’s body of work and support of libraries. This year sees firm favourites from the genre on the shortlist: Louise Candlish, MW Craven, Anthony Horowitz, Cara Hunter, and LJ Ross.

The Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and diversity in crime writing, pits big publishing houses Headline (Hachette), Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House), Simon & Schuster, and Pushkin Vertigo (Pushkin Press) against independent publishers Joffe Books and Canelo Crime. 

The CWA Diamond Dagger, awarded to an author whose crime-writing career has been marked by sustained excellence, is announced in early spring and in 2024 it was jointly awarded to Lynda La Plante and James Lee Burke.

The CWA Dagger shortlists were announced on 10 May at the UK’s largest crime fiction convention, CrimeFest, hosted in Bristol.

The winners will be announced at the award ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 4.

The Shortlists in Full:

GOLD DAGGER

Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans, Headline

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron,  Baskerville (John Murray)

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane, Abacus (Little Brown)

Tell me What I Am by Una Mannion, Faber & Faber

Black River by Nilanjana Roy, Pushkin (Vertigo)

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Sutanto  HQ (Harper Collins)

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

All the Sinners Bleed by S A Cosby , Headline (Hachette)

Ozark Dogs, by Eli Cranor  Headline (Hachette)

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper, Faber & Faber

The Mantis, by Kotaro Isaka Harvill Secker (PRH) 

Gaslight, by Femi Kayode Raven Books (Bloomsbury)

Drowning by T J Newman, Simon & Schuster

 

ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

In The Blink of An Eye by Jo Callaghan Simon & Schuster UK

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua, Corvus (Atlantic Books)

The Maiden by Kate Foster, Mantle (Pan Macmillan)

West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman, Raven Books

Go Seek by Michelle Teahan, Headline Publishing Group

The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh, Gallic Books

 

HISTORICAL DAGGER

Clara & Olivia by Lucy Ashe, Magpie (Oneworld Publications)

Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare, HQ (HarperCollins)

A Bitter Remedy by Alis Hawkins, Canelo

Viper's Dream by Jake Lamar, No Exit Press

Scarlet Town, by Leonora Nattrass Viper (Profile Books)

Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry, Canongate Books

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

 Red Queen by Juan Gómez-Jurado  (translated by Nick Caistor,) Macmillan

The Sins Of Our Fathers by Âsa Larsson, (translated by Frank Perry), Maclehose Press

Nothing Is Lost by Cloé Mehdi (translated by Howard Curtis), Europa Editions UK

The Consultant by Im Seong-Sun, (translated by An Seong Jae) Raven Books

The Prey by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Victoria Cribb), Hodder & Stoughton

My Husband by Maud Ventura, (translated by Emma Ramadan), Hutchinson Heinemann

 

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel, Simon & Schuster

No Ordinary Day by Matt Johnson with John Murray, Ad Lib Publishers

Devil’s Coin by Jennifer McAdam with Douglas Thompson  Ad Lib Publishers Ltd

 Seventy Times Seven, by Alex Mar Bedford Square Publishers

How Many More Women? by Jennifer Robinson & Keina Yoshida  Endeavour

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare  Vintage

 

SHORT STORY DAGGER

Safe Enough by Lee Child from An Unnecessary Assassin, edited by Lorraine Stevens, Rivertree

The Last Best Thing by Mia Dalia from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction, edited by Andrew Hook, Head Shot Press

The Also-Rans by Benedict J Jones from Bang!:An Anthology of Modern Noir Fiction edited by Andrew Hook, Head Shot Press

The Divide by Sanjida Kay from The Book of Bristol edited by Joe Melia and Heather Marks, Comma Press

The Spendthrift and the Swallow by Ambrose Parry, Canongate Books

Best Served Cold by FD Quinn  from An Unnecessary Assassin edited by Lorraine Stevens, Rivertree

 DEBUT DAGGER

Burnt Ranch by Katherine Ahlert

Unnatural Predators by Caroline Arnoul

Makoto Murders by Richard Jerram

Not a Good Mother by Karabi Mitra

Long Way Home by Lynn McCall

The Last Days of Forever by Jeremy Tinker

The Blond by Megan Toogood

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

 Louise Candlish 

MW Craven

Cara Hunter

Anthony Horowitz

LJ Ross 

 

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

 

Canelo

Headline (Hachette)

Joffe Books

Michael Joseph (PenguinRandomHouse)

Pushkin Press

Simon & Schuster

Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival Reveals 2019 Programme

Including David Baldacci, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin, Shari Lapena and debut author, straight from Pointless, Richard Osman

STIRLING 20-22 SEPTEMBER 2019

‘It's a dizzying weekend of pleasure.' Val McDermid, 2019
 

Bloody Scotland revealed its 2019 programme today followed by a one-off performance by Val McDermid who will be in New Zealand during the festival itself this year. The London launch will be in Scotland House at 6.30pm tomorrow evening, hosted by bestselling author and Bloody Scotland director Abir Mukherjee.

Bloody Scotland has been praised for going beyond the usual remit of a literary festival to create a fringe featuring football, a torchlit procession, a cabaret, a podcast, a quiz and this year will also include a ‘Killer Ceilidh’; a procession of Harley Davidson riders; a play at the Sheriff Court which will allow the audience to vote on the verdict of a real murder trial and a screening of classic crime films from The 39 Steps to Reichenbach Falls, introduced by Ian Rankin.  We hope it gives the authors a unique experience and makes the weekend more appealing to those who might not normally go to a book festival. There continues to be a discount for local residents, tickets for the unemployed and we continue to improve disabled access with a mini bus between venues for those that need it.

The gala opening on Friday 20 September will once again feature the announcement of the winner of the McIlvanney Prize for the Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and will also reveal the first winner of the new prize for Scottish crime fiction debut.  The winners will join one of the world’s leading thriller writers, David Baldacci, at the head of the annual torchlight procession down to the Albert Halls.

Highlights include Ian Rankin; Alexander McCall Smith; Alex Gray and Lin Anderson, interviewed by the BBC’s Janice Forsyth; Denise Mina and Louise Welsh; two married couple writing partnerships, Nicci French and Ambrose Parry; Icelandic queen of crime Yrsa Sigurdardottir; Stuart MacBride; Mark Billingham and, straight from Pointless, Richard Osman who has just signed a much publicised seven-figure deal for his first crime novel The Thursday Murder Club to be published by Viking next year. No sooner had he signed the deal than we’d moved things around to get him in the programme.

Non-fiction highlights include Alice Vinten (police constable in the Met) appearing with Mim Skinner (insight into the experiences of women in prison); former prison governor Dr David Wilson (soon to be on TV) and forensic scientist Professor Angela Gallop (whose book details her high profile work on cases such as Damilola Taylor, Stephen Lawrence and Rachel Nickell).

Panels that are likely to spark some debate include Till Death Do Us Part talking about novels based around highly dysfunctional marriages and the festival holds up a Mirror to

Society with novels which address contemporary issues like online stalking and knife crime.

First time visitors to the festival this year include the Canadian best-seller Shari Lapena who will be appearing with Caroline Kepnes, author of the massive Netflix hit You; Lisa Jewell (well known for her contemporary fiction now getting rave reviews for her thrillers); Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland (writing under the pseudonym of Sam Bourne); Boston-based lawyer David Hosp (aka Jack Flynn); Charlotte Philby (the granddaughter of the infamous double-agent Kim Philby); Lynne Truss (author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves) and Catherine Steadman (Mabel Lane Fox in Downton Abbey).

Bloody Scotland remains an open and welcoming international festival despite all the chaos at Westminster - this year welcoming authors from Spain, France, Iceland, Norway and Ireland as well as the US, Canada, Australia, India and Mexico.

The full programme can be found here.

Books to look forward to from Hodder & Stoughton and Mulholland Books

The Three is by Sarah Lotz and is due to be published in May 2014.  They're here ...The boy. The boy watch the boy watch the dead people oh Lordy there's so many ...They're coming for me now. We're all going soon. All of us. Pastor Len warn them that the boy he's not to-- The last words of Pamela May Donald (1961 - 2012) Black Thursday. The day that will never be forgotten. The day that four passenger planes crash, at almost exactly the same moment, at four different points around the globe. There are only four survivors. Three are children, who emerge from the wreckage seemingly unhurt. But they are not unchanged. And the fourth is Pamela May Donald, who lives just long enough to record a voice message on her phone. A message that will change the world. The message is a warning.

Three brutal attacks. One near-fatal beating. And a deadly score to settle. DI Jack Brady is

riding high after the successful outcome of his previous case, but his world is about to come crashing down. There's a serial rapist plaguing the streets of Whitley Bay. Three young women have been horribly abused, and his boss and the press are screaming for answers. Everything seems to point to his old friend and foe, gangster Martin Madley, though Brady still struggles to believe he's capable of such acts. With time running out before the villain strikes again, Brady must follow every scrap of evidence. But there are forces at work he knows nothing about, and his persistence is leading both him and those close to him ever further into danger...  Blind Alley is by Danielle Ramsay and is due to be published in January 2014.

A new type of serial killer is stalking the streets of New York - one more devious and disturbing than ever before. They call this butcher The Skin Collector: a tattooist with a chamber of torture hidden deep underground. But instead of using ink to create each masterpiece, the artist uses a lethal poison which will render targets dead before they can even entertain the prospect of escape ...Drafted in to investigate, NYPD detective Lincoln Rhyme and his associate Amelia Sachs have little to go on but a series of cryptic messages left etched into the skin of the deceased. As the pair struggle to discover the meaning behind the designs, they are led down a treacherous and twisting path where nothing is as it seems. And with the clock rapidly ticking before the killer strikes again, they must untangle the twisted web of clues before more victims - or they themselves - are next. The Skin Collector is by Jeffrey Deaver and is due to be published in May 2014.

The Queen’s Man is by Rory Clements and is due to be published in February 2014.  England is a Judas nest of conspiracy.  It is 1582, and the conflict between Protestant and Catholic threatens to tear the country in two. While Queen Elizabeth I holds the reins of power, there are those whose loyalty lies with her imprisoned cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.  On his first major mission for Sir Francis Walsingham, the young John Shakespeare is ordered to discover a conspiracy to free the Stuart queen from Sheffield Castle. All too soon, he realises that the tentacles of the plot reach deep into his native Warwickshire and threaten his own friends and family. His duty lies with Elizabeth - but how far will he go to protect those he loves?

Those Who Wish Me Dead is by Michael Koryta and is due to be published in June 2014.  When Jace Wilson accidentally witnesses a brutal murder, his life is changed forever. An ordinary teenager growing up in Indiana, Jace is suddenly forced into the Witness Protection Program and given a new name and history. Taken in by a couple ho run a wilderness program for young boys, Jace finds himself hiking through the Montana mountains, tortured by his memories and by the fear that he'll never be safe again. The killers, known as the Blackwell Brothers, are two of the most heinous criminals the country has ever known. Jace was the one person to catch them in the act, and he slipped through their fingers. Now they've tracked him down and are making their way across the country, ruthlessly slaughtering anyone who gets in their way.

The third book in the Chris Ryan Extreme series is Most Wanted. The world order may be changing, but for ex-Blade John Bald, old habits die hard. Lured out of retirement for one last mission, he heads to the snow-capped peaks of Courchevel, where old splendour meets new money - and a chance to redeem his dark past. Amidst the debauched oligarchs and the corrupt politicians, Bald must kill a man who poses a major threat to Western security interests. But when the mission goes badly wrong and the target escapes, Bald suddenly finds himself implicated in a deadly deceit that goes right to the very core of the establishment.  Most Wanted is due to be published in January 2014.

‘Mummy dead.' The child's pure treble was uncomfortably clear. It was the last thing Brynjar - and doubtless the others - wanted to hear at that moment. 'Daddy dead.' It got worse. 'Adda dead. Bygga dead.' The child sighed and clutched her grandmother's leg. 'All dead.' A luxury yacht arrives in Reykjavik harbour with nobody on board. What has happened to the crew, and to the family who were on board when it left Lisbon?  Thora Gudmundsdottir is hired by the young father's parents to investigate, and is soon drawn deeper into the mystery. What should she make of the rumours saying that the vessel was cursed, especially given that when she boards the yacht she thinks she sees one of the missing twins? Where is Karitas, the glamorous young wife of the yacht's former owner? And whose is the body that has washed up further along the shore?  The Silence of the Sea is by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and is due to be published in February 2014.

When a Senator's wife and teenage daughter are kidnapped, Crocker and SEAL Team Six are sent to the cities of Mexico and the jungles of South and Central America, hot on the trail of Mexican drug lords and a Colombian narco-terrorist who is known as the Jackal. A self-styled narcotics kingpin who has undergone plastic surgery to disguise his looks, the Jackal is as ruthless as he is colourful, and must be stopped. With drugs, gangs, double-crosses, and plenty of bullets, Hunt the Jackal will throw the team into a new environment and an unexplored corner of the world, allowing Don Mann to display his extensive knowledge about how elite warriors can adapt and fight in any situation.  Hunt the Jackal is by Don Mann with Ralph Pezzullo and is due to be published in May 2014.

The Wolf in Winter is by John Connolly and is due to be published in April 2014.  Prosperous, and the secret that it hides beneath its ruins . . . The community of Prosperous, Maine has always thrived when others have suffered. Its inhabitants are wealthy, its children's future secure. It shuns outsiders. It guards its own. And at the heart of the Prosperous lie the ruins of an ancient church, transported stone by stone from England centuries earlier by the founders of the town . . . But the death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter draw the haunted, lethal private investigator Charlie Parker to Prosperous. Parker is a dangerous man, driven by compassion, by rage, and by the desire for vengeance. In him the town and its protectors sense a threat graver than any they have faced in their long history, and in the comfortable, sheltered inhabitants of a small Maine town, Parker will encounter his most vicious opponents yet.  Charlie Parker has been marked to die so that Prosperous may survive.

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them-and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.  Panic is by Lauren Oliver and is due to be published in March 2014.

The girl was found on the steps of the Foundling Museum, dressed all in white. Four girls have disappeared in North London. Three are already dead. Britain's most prolific child killer, Louis Kinsella, has been locked up in Northwood high-security hospital for over a decade. Now more innocents are being slaughtered, and they all have a connection to his earlier crimes. Psychologist Alice Quentin is doing research at Northwood. She was hoping for a break from her hectic London life, but she'll do anything to help save a child - even if it means forming a relationship with a charismatic, ruthless murderer. But Kinsella is slow to give away his secrets, and time is running out for the latest kidnap victim, who is simply trying to survive.  The Winter Foundlings  is by Kate Rhodes and is due to be published in June 2014.

Pieter Posthumus is a member of Amsterdam's Lonely Funerals team. It's his responsibility to give the anonymous or abandoned dead a decent send-off. A determined, passionate man, Postumus cannot let things go when they don't seem quite right. When a young Moroccan immigrant is found in the Prinsengracht canal, the police write it off as an accident or suicide. Posthumus is sure there's more to it than that. He takes up the case and starts digging...an investigation that leads to him getting caught up in a terror plot and in the way of the Dutch secret service. Britta Bolt is the pseudonym of the South African-born novelist and travel writer Rodney Bolt, and the German former lawyer Britta Bohler, who has worked on high-profile terrorism and security cases. Amsterdam is their adopted city, and this first novel in the Posthumus series brings both its charms and its concerns - immigration, terrorism, crime - to thrilling life.  Lonely Graves is by Britta Bolt and is due to be published in May 2014.

  

Stuck in a traffic jam on her way to deliver her son's forgotten sports kit to school, Nicki Clements sees a face she hoped never to see again. It's definitely him, the same police officer; he's stopping all the cars on Elmhirst Road one by one, talking to every driver. Keen to avoid him, Nicki does a U-turn and takes a long and inconvenient detour, praying he won't notice her panicky escape. He doesn't, but a CCTV camera does, as Nicki finds out when detectives pull her in for questioning the next day in connection with the murder of Damon Blundy, controversial newspaper columnist and resident of Elmhirst Road. Nicki can't answer any of the baffling questions detectives fire at her. She has no idea why a killer might sharpen nine knives at the murder scene, then use two blunt ones to kill, in a way that involves no stabbing or spilling of blood. She doesn't know what 'HE IS NO LESS DEAD' means, or why the murderer painted it on the wall of Blundy's study. And she can't explain her desire to avoid Elmhirst Road on the day in question without revealing the secret that could ruin her life. Because, although Nicki is not guilty of murder, she is far from innocent...  The Telling Error is by Sophie Hannah and is due to be published in April 2014.

AD 273. Obsessed by the solar religions of the east, the emperor Aurelian sets out to obtain every sacred object within his realm. But one - a conical rock said to channel the very voices of the gods - lies beyond his reach. Arabian king Amir Adi has captured the stone and intends to use its fabled power to raise an army against Rome. For imperial agent Cassius Corbulo and his bodyguard Indavara, recovering the stone will constitute their toughest mission yet.  Agent of Rome: The Black Stone of Emesa is by Nick Brown and is due to be published in June 2014.

Respect is by Mandasue Heller and is due to be published in January 2014.  Chantelle has

everything going against her. She's a good student who only wants to pass her exams and find a way out of the sink estate in Manchester where she grew up. But now her feckless mother has taken off for Spain with her latest boyfriend and she's single-handedly raising her tearaway nine-year-old brother Leon. She thinks her worst problem is the debt collectors at the door. But Leon has made some new friends: teenage gang members who have given him a mobile phone, a knife - and some drugs to hide in her flat. A part-time job seems to be the answer to Chantelle's prayers. But the violence is about to come home to her - with a vengeance. And the only person who's offering any help seems to be just as bad as the people she's trying to escape from ...

The Edge of the Water is by Elizabeth George and is due to be published in April 2014.  On Whidbey Island, secrets never stay buried.  A mysterious girl who won't speak; a coal-black seal named Nera that returns to the same place every year; a bitter feud of unknown origin - strange things are happening on Whidbey Island and Becca King is drawn into the maelstrom of events.  But Becca, first met in The Edge of Nowhere, has her own secrets to hide. Still on the run from her criminal stepfather, Becca is living in a secret location. Even Derric, the Ugandan orphan with whom Becca shares a close, romantic relationship, can't be allowed to know her whereabouts.  As secrets of past and present are revealed, Becca becomes aware of her growing paranormal powers and events build to a shocking climax anticipated by no one.

Luke is a true crime write in search of a story.  When he flees to Brighton after an explosive break-up, the perfect subject lands in his lap: reformed gangster Joss Grand.  Now in his eighties, Grand once ruled the Brighton underworld with his sadistic sidekick Jacky Nye – until Jacky washed up by the West Pier in 1968, strangled and thrown into the sea.  Luke is drawn deeper into the mystery of Jacky Nye’s murder, was Grand there that night?  Is he really as reformed a character as he claims?  And who was the girl in the red coat seen fleeing the murder scene?  Soon Luke realises that in stirring up secrets from the past, he may have placed himself in terrible danger.  The Ties That Bind is by Erin Kelly and is due to be published in May 2014

Lastnight is by Stephen Leather and is due to be published in January 2014. A killer is murdering Goths with relish - skinning and butchering them. The cops aren't getting anywhere so Jack Nightingale's nemesis, Superintendent Chalmers, asks him for help. Nightingale discovers that the murdered Goths had one thing in common: a tattoo connected to the secretive Satanic child-sacrificing cult called the Order Of Nine Angles. As Nightingale closes in on the killers, the tables are turned and he finds himself in the firing line, along with his friends and family. The Order will stop at nothing to protect their secrets and Nightingale realises that there is nothing he can do to protect himself. Nor can he run, for the Order has connections across the world. It leaves him with only one way to stop the carnage - and that's to take his own life ...

I've chased him for over twenty years, and across countless miles, and though often I was running, there have been many times when I could do nothing but sit and wait. Now I am only desperate for it to be finished. In 1944, just days after the liberation of Paris, Charles Jackson sees something horrific: a man, apparently drinking the blood of a murdered woman. Terrified, he does nothing, telling himself afterwards that worse things happen in wars. Seven years later he returns to the city - and sees the same man dining in the company of a fascinating young woman. When they leave the restaurant, Charles decides to follow...A Love Like Blood is a dark, compelling thriller about how a man's life can change in a moment; about where the desire for truth - and for revenge - can lead; about love and fear and hatred. And it is also about the question of blood.  A Love Like Blood is by Marcus Sedgwick and is due to be published in March 2014.

Breathe is by Dominick Donald and is due to be published in May 2014.  Already a veteran of two wars – in Europe and Korea – PC Richard Bourton has joined the Met later in life than most of his fellow trainees on the rough streets of Notting Dale, a grimy, unloved corner of west London.  It is hard for him to fit in.  Amongst the bomb-sites and boarding houses, Bourton stumbles on a man who has been beaten nearly to death.  This discovery, in the swirly fog of 1952, will either make or beak his nascent career.

It's early May when a young family out on a forest walk stumble upon a heavily mutliated

body. The female corpse is in eerily good condition, and signs of torture are all too visible. Inspector Malin Fors immediately draws parallels between this case and that of Maria Murvall, the young woman who was found raped and brutally beaten in the forest several years ago. Maria has been living as a mute in the local psychiatric hospital ever since the attack, and Malin is haunted by her inability to help her. In the course of her investigation, Malin meets with a psychologist who tells her about another similar case, and suddenly Maria appears to be a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. But what is it that is so terrible it can't be put into words? Malin is determined to find out the truth, no matter where it might take her. The Fifth Season is by Mons Kallentoft and is due to be published in April 2014.

Trouble in Mind is a cunning collection of short stories from the master of misdirection Jeffery Deaver, with tales featuring the hugely popular series characters Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance. Tension ...An aging actor attempts to revive his career by entering a celebrity poker game for a reality TV show. Can he outwit his devious opponents, or is his fate doomed from the outset? Conspiracy ...A successful crime writer dies under seemingly natural circumstances, but for one cop, doubts are lingering. There's certainly motive for murder - or is there more to the case than meets the eye? Murder ...Lincoln Rhyme is announced dead, shot by one of his suspects in cold blood. Is this the end of the line for the criminalist, or just another twist in the tale? Trouble in Mind is due to be published in March 2014.

Enemies at Home is by Lindsey Davis and is due to be published in April  2014.  Albia is a remarkable woman in what is very much a man's world: young, widowed and fiercely independent, she lives alone on the Aventine Hill in Rome and makes a good living as a hired investigator. An outsider in more ways than one, Albia has unique insight into life in ancient Rome, and she puts it to good use going places no man could go, and asking questions no man could ask. Even as the dust settles from her last case, Albia finds herself once again drawn into a web of lies an intrigue. A mysterious death at a local villa begs may be murder and, as the household slaves are implicated, Albia is once again forced to involve herself. Her fight is not just for truth and justice, however; this time, she's also battling for the very lives of people who can't fight for themselves.

The Lawless Kind is by Matt Hilton and is due to be published in January 2014.  Ex-counterterrorist soldier Joe Hunter has been called to Mexico to bring an end to a cartel that preys on the people they smuggle across the US border. Once the mission's ended, however, Joe's mission leader and mentor, CIA Black Ops director Walter Hayes Conrad, confesses that the bloody mission is not the real reason Joe has been summoned south of the border. For years, Walter has kept the details of his private life - especially his family - secret from everyone, even his closest friends. But disaster has struck: his great-grandson Benjamin has been abducted, kidnapped by Walter's sworn enemy, the leader of one of Mexico's largest drug cartels. Walter will do whatever it takes to get the boy back. And he know Hunter is the man for the job. But there's one complication -- the drug boss just happens to be Benjamin's father.

Death in the Tuscan Hills is by Marco Vichi and is due to be published in May 2014.  Spring, 1967. The trail of tragedy and destruction that followed the previous winter's flood seems to have died down; Florence is beginning to recover. But Inspector Bordelli does not feel the same sense of relief - he has not had a moment's peace since his investigation of a young boy's murder went disastrously wrong. Unsettled and embittered, Bordelli resigns from the force and leaves the city. He could not continue to work as a policeman while the perpetrators of such a terrible crime were still at large. Now, in the solitude of his new home in the mountains, he spends his days cooking, going for long walks in the woods and learning to grow his own vegetables. But the thought of that case - of justice not served - is constantly with him. Until fate, in which he has never believed, unexpectedly offers him the chance of retribution ...

Cobra is by Deon Meyer and is due to be published in July 2014.  Benny Griessel is first on scene at a bloodbath in a luxury guesthouse on a beautiful Fransschoek wine farm; three dead bodies and a missing Englishman.  The only clue is an engraving on a shell casing – the flaring head of a spitting cobra.  Interpol believes these shell casting belong to The Cobra, a ruthless assassin for hire.  The big question is: Whom is he working for, and why?

Deep inside the Arctic circle, the US Coast Guard icebreaker Terra Nova batters its way through the frozen sea. One day, a gaunt figure skis out of the fog. The crew bring him aboard and give him medical treatment for prolonged exposure, malnutrition - and a gunshot wound. The man has escaped from ice-bound research station two hundred miles south of the pole. And the tale he tells is one of secrets, insanity and death.  Zodiac Station is by Tom Harper and is due to e published in June 2014.

Two books by Noah Hawley are due to be published in April 2014. In A Conspiracy of Tall Men Linus Owen is a professional conspiracy theorist. A college professor by day, he is unable to leave his suspicions at the classroom door. He is deeply mistrustful of money and all signs of financial success. Little does he expect, however, that a true conspiracy will come knocking at his door, in the form of two FBI agents.  Linus's wife, Claudia, an advertising executive, is meant to be visiting her mother in Chicago. But according to the FBI, she has just been killed in a plane crash on a flight to Brazil. The man who bought her ticket, and died alongside her, was the vice president of a large pharmaceutical company. Together with two friends and fellow theorists, Linus sets out to solve the mystery. Following a number of strange and troubling encounters, the trio begins to realise that they have a new mission: to try to stay alive.  In The Punch two brothers must accompany their alcoholic mother to their father’s memorial service.  Along the way a family secret is revealed, two hotels are nearly blown up and the trio explores what it means to be a family.

London 1727 - and Tom Hawkins is about to fall from his heaven of card games brothels and coffee-houses to the hell of a debtors' prison.  The Marshalsea is a savage world of its own with simple rules: those with family or friends who can lend them a little money may survive in relative comfort. Those with none will starve in squalor and disease. And those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate at the hands of the gaol's ruthless governor and his cronies.  The trouble is Tom Hawkins has never been good at following rules - even simple ones. And the recent grisly murder of a debtor Captain Roberts has brought further terror to the gaol. While the Captain's beautiful widow cries for justice the finger of suspicion points only one way: to the sly enigmatic figure of Samuel Fleet.  Some call Fleet a devil a man to avoid at all costs. But Tom Hawkins is sharing his cell. Soon Tom's choice is clear: get to the truth of the murder - or be the next to die.  A twisting mystery a dazzling evocation of early 18th Century London The Devil in Marshalsea is by Antonia Hodgson and is a debut novel full of intrigue and suspense.  It is due to be published in February 2014.

The seventh novel in Anthony Riches' acclaimed Empire sequence brings Marcus Aquila back to Rome, hunting the men who destroyed his family.  But the revenge he craves may cost him and those around him dearly. The young centurion's urge to exact his own brutal justice upon the shadowy cabal of assassins who butchered his family means that he must face them on their own ground, risking his own death at their hands.  A senator, a gang boss, a praetorian officer and, deadliest of all, champion gladiator Mortiferum - the Death Bringer - lie in wait.  The knives are unsheathed, and ready for blood . . The Emperor’s Knives: Empire VII is due to be published in March 2014.

Irrepressible Biddy Leigh, under-cook at the foreboding Mawton Hall, only wants to marry her childhood sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries the young Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwittingly swept up in a world of scheming, secrets and lies. Forced to accompany her new mistress to Italy, Biddy takes with her an old household book of recipes, The Cook's Jewel, in which she records her observations. When she finds herself embroiled in a murderous conspiracy, Biddy realises that the secrets she holds could be the key to her survival - or her downfall ...  An Appetite for Violets is by Martine Bailey and is due to be published in May 2014.

Remember Me This Way is by Sabine Durrant and is due to be published in June 2014.  On the anniversary of her husband's death, Lizzie Carter decides to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place. She parks the car in a layby, crosses the road to the other side and walks up the hard shoulder the way she has just come. As she trudges, trying to remember exactly where it happened, buffeted by lorries, she thinks about their life together. She reflects on whether she has changed since he died. She wonders whether she will ever feel whole again. She reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a cellophane-wrapped bunch of lilies. Another accident in the same place, of course. But the flowers are for her husband. Someone has been there before her...