Books to Look Forward to from Head of Zeus

July 2020

The Englishman is by David Gilman.  A clandestine war on the desert border of Mali and Algeria; murder and kidnap on the suburban streets of West London; a Moscow CID police inspector investigating the assassination of four of her fellow officers by the Russian mafia; a young MI6 officer facing the possibility that a long-running operation has been fatally compromised: connecting them all is the Englishman - Dan Raglan, outsider, exile, one-time member of the French Foreign Legion, fully trained killer. Raglan's quest for answers will become a quest for vengeance. It will lead him to the winter-ravaged wasteland of the Sverdlovskaya Oblast and Penal Code #74, a place that holds Russia's most brutal murderers. A place of death and retribution. How will he get in? More importantly, how will he get out?

Have you seen Lucia Blix? Lucia went home from school for a playdate with her new friend Josie. Later that evening, Lucia's mother Elisa dropped her overnight things round and kissed her little girl goodnight. That was the last time she saw daughter. The next morning, when Lucia's dad arrived to pick her up, the house was empty. No furniture, no family, no Lucia. Playdate by Alex Dahl puts a microscope on a seemingly average, seemingly happy family plunged into a life-altering situation. Who has taken their daughter, and why?

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Evolution is by Brian Freeman.  After the death of his wife in a

mass shooting, secret agent Jason Bourne is convinced that there is more to her murder than it seems. Worse, he believes that the agency that trained him is behind the killing. Bourne goes rogue, leaving Treadstone behind and taking on a new mission to infiltrate and expose an anarchist group, Medusa. But when a congresswoman is assassinated in New York, Bourne is framed for the crime, and he finds himself alone and on the run. In his quest to stay one step ahead of his enemies, Bourne teams up with a journalist, Abbey Laurent, to figure out who was behind the frame-up, and to learn as much as he can about the ever-growing threat of the mysterious Medusa group. As more and more enemies begin to hunt Bourne, it's a race against the clock to discover who led him into a trap... and what their next move may be.

Hunter Killer is by Brad Taylor.  They're one step ahead. They're killing his team. He's coming for them. The Taskforce were once apex predators, an unrivalled hunting machine that decimated those out to harm the USA, but they may have met their match. While Pike is preparing to join the team on a counter-terrorist mission in South America, a friend is killed in South Carolina. The authorities believe it was an accident, but Pike suspects the attack was meant as a message to him.   When he loses contact with the team in South America, Pike becomes convinced the Taskforce is under attack. His men are the closest thing to family he has, which means he will do anything - even ignore direct orders to stand down - to find them.

August 2020

The Package is by Sebastien Fitzek.  All you've done is taken in a parcel for a neighbour. You have no idea what you've let into your home.  Emma's the one that got away. The only survivor of a killer known in the tabloids as 'the barber' - because of the trophies he takes from his victims. Or she thinks she was. The police aren't convinced. Nor is her husband. She never even saw her tormentor properly, but now she recognises him in every man. Questioning her sanity, she gives up her job as a doctor in the local hospital and retreats from the world. It is better to stay at home. Quiet. Anonymous. Safe. He won't find her here. And all she did was take a parcel for a neighbour. She has no idea what she's let into her home.

September 2020

The Night of the Flood is by Zoe Somerville.  An atmospheric literary thriller set in north Norfolk in the shadow of the Cold War, in which a love triangle turns murderous. Summer, 1952. Verity Frost, stranded on her family farm on the Norfolk coast, is caught between two worlds: the devotion of her childhood friend Arthur, just returned from National Service, and a strange new desire to escape it all. Arthur longs to escape too, but only with Verity by his side. Into their world steps Jack, a charismatic American pilot flying secret reconnaissance missions off the North Sea coast. But where Verity sees adventure and glamour, Arthur sees only deception. As the water levels rise to breaking point, this tangled web of secrets, lies and passion will bring about a crime that will change all their lives.

'Danny ‘Abs’ Cruikshank was the biggest reality star in the UK – the lovable star of hit reality show Laid In Essex! But during a weekend break, Abs and his friends were questioned by police after they were the last people to see a missing girl alive. Three years later, the man who captured the hearts of millions of TV viewers is reduced to opening a Quid Store on the high street. And when one of Abs’s mates is murdered, it’s clear someone is targeting him and his friends. DI Sasha Dawson and her team must race against the clock to find the killer before they strike again, and discover what happened to Rhiannon Jenkins on the night she vanished… The truth may save Abs - or bury him. The Woman in the Wood is by M.K. Hill.'

Fate: Death Notice 2 is by Zhou Haohui.  After the death of 'Eumenides', a former police student who was sending 'death notices' to unpunished criminals before brutally murdering them, the Chengdu Police Department assumed that the killing spree would stop. But the murders continue, leading the 4/18 task force to the terrifying truth: Eumenides had a protege. Captain Pei Tao and his task force redouble their efforts to catch this new opponent, but relationships become fraught. Can they trust each other?

October 2020

Marry in haste... Murder at leisure? London, 1888: Susannah rushes into marriage to a young and wealthy surgeon. After a passionate honeymoon, she returns home with her new husband wrapped around her little finger. But then everything changes. Thomas's behaviour becomes increasingly volatile and violent. He stays out all night, returning home bloodied and full of secrets. The gentle caresses she enjoyed on her wedding night are now just a honeyed memory. When the first woman is murdered in Whitechapel, Susannah's interest is piqued. But as she follows the reports of the ongoing hunt for the killer, her mind takes her down the darkest path imaginable. Every time Thomas stays out late, another victim is found dead. Is it coincidence? Or is her husband the man they call Jack the Ripper?  People of Abandoned Character is by Clare Whitfield.

November 2020

Passenger 23 is by Sebastien Fitzek.  On average 23 people a year disappear from the world's cruise ships. They are written off as accidents or suicides. But what if they're not?   Five years ago Martin Schwarz, a police psychologist, lost his wife and son. They were holidaying on a cruise ship when they simply vanished. A lacklustre investigation was unable to shed any light on what happened - murder-suicide being the coroner's verdict. It is a verdict that has haunted Martin ever since, blighting his life. But then he is contacted by an elderly woman, a writer, who claims to have information regarding their fate and wants him to come on board The Sultan of the Seas immediately.   She explains that his wife and son are not the only mother and child pair to have disappeared. Only a few months ago another mother and daughter also vanished. She believes there may be a serial killer on board.   But when the missing daughter reappears - carrying the teddy bear of Martin's missing son - it becomes apparent that the truth could be much, much worse...

A Galway Epiphany is by Ken Bruen.  Jack Taylor. He's the world's worst detective. Cases get solved not because of him, but despite him. He's an alcoholic, an addict, rude, obnoxious. And in very bad shape. And yet... He gets the job done... somehow, and he desperately wants to connect even though he'd never admit it. But now, He's getting old. Losing his hearing. Has a limp. You ask, Jesus, how much longer can he go on? Indeed.

Eleven guests. Three nights. One murderer...In a crumbling old mansion in the English countryside, eleven people gather, each one famous in their field. They have been invited for a three-day house party, to celebrate the launch of a ground breaking virtual reality game that promises to unite the worlds of technology, politics and the environment. DCI Marten Jansen has been summoned to join the house party. His instructions are to offer police protection in case of an outside attack. Instead, he finds simmering tensions, long-buried secrets - and a murderer in their midst...  Into the Fire is by Rachael Blok

Books to look forward to from Head of Zeus

January 2018

Eighteen Below is by Stefan Ahnhem.  ON A HOT SUMMER'S DAY. The police chase a speeding car through the streets of Helsingborg. When they reach the quay, the driver keeps going, straight into the cold, dark water.  A TRAGIC ACCIDENT. The body recovered from the wreck is Peter Brise, a wealthy tech entrepreneur. Fabian Risk and his team are confident this is a suicide. Young, rich, successful, Brise just didn't know how to ask for help.  TURNS EVERTHING A LITTLE COLDER...   But then the autopsy reveals something unexpected. Brise was already dead when his car crashed. He'd been brutally murdered two months ago. His body was frozen in perfect condition, at eighteen degrees below zero...

Grace Ozmian, missing daughter of a tech billionaire has been found.  Most of her, anyway. Her head is still missing.  Lieutenant CDS Vincent D'Agosta knows his investigation will attract fierce media scrutiny, so he's delighted when his old acquaintance FBI Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is assigned to the case.  But neither man is prepared for what lies ahead. A diabolical presence is haunting New York City and Grace is only the first of many victims to be murdered... and decapitated.  As mass hysteria sweeps the city, it will take all of Pendergast's skill and strength to unmask this most dangerous foe - let alone survive to tell the tale.  City of Endless Night is by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

February 2018

Dead Men Whistling is by Graham Masterton.  A garda sergeant is found beheaded with an Irish tin whistle sticking out of his neck. He was due to give evidence at a major inquiry into police corruption. His murder sends a clear message to any future whistleblowers: only silence is safe.  The inquiry hinges on the arrest of one of Cork's most ruthless drug dealers. Though there was evidence to convict him, he walked free. DCI Katie Maguire is determined to expose the full truth.  But when another officer is murdered in the exact same way, Katie finds that murder is the best way to stop people talking.

Eight years a soldier, Peter Ash came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls 'white static', a buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming the Pacific coast's mountains and forests, sleeping under the stars. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man's widow and two young children. While repairing her dilapidated porch, he makes two unwelcome discoveries: The first is a dog, the meanest, ugliest dog he's ever laid eyes on, guarding a Samsonite suitcase; the second unwelcome surprise is the suitcase's contents - $400,000 in cash and four slabs of plastic explosive. Just what was his friend caught up in during his final days? Ash will find that the demons of war aren't easy to leave behind...  The Drifter is by Nick Petrie.

Like Lions is by Brian Panowich.  Clayton Burroughs is sheriff of Bull Mountain and one-time black sheep of the brutal and blood-steeped Burroughs clan. It's been a year since a rogue government agent systematically crippled the family's criminal empire that left two of the brothers dead, and Clayton, the youngest and only surviving member of the clan, broken and haunted by wounds that may never heal.  Now Bull Mountain is vulnerable, ripe for predators wanting to re-establish the flow of dope and money through the town. And the death of a boy belonging to a rival clan brings the wolves straight to Clayton's door.  The only good son born of a crooked tree, Clayton wants to bury his bloody family legacy for good. But he'll need to call on it if he wants to save his family, and his mountain, from the destruction that awaits.

March 2018

The Disappeared is by C J Box. The new State Governor, Colter Allen, needs a favour from Game Warden Joe Pickett. The British consulate is asking questions over in Denver: a rich English woman visiting a high-end guest ranch has gone missing. Joe has a habit of investigating outside the lines of the local law and Allen needs this done quietly. But Joe's inquiries soon uncover not one, but three missing women.  At the same time, with his friend Nate Romanowski, he's called to investigate a serious federal crime: the killing of several bald and golden eagles. The more questions Joe asks about each case, the clearer it becomes someone wants him to disappear.  And the answers, when they finally come, reveal a violently darker Wyoming that he ever imagined.

April 2018

In the Cage Where Your Saviors Hide is by Malcolm Mackay.  The independent kingdom of

Scotland flourished until the beginning of the last century. Its great trading port of Challaid, in the north west of the country, sent ships around the world and its merchants and bankers grew rich on their empire in Central America.  But Scotland is not what it was, and the docks of Challaid are almost silent. The huge infrastructure projects collapsed, like the dangerous railway tunnels under the city. And above ground the networks of power and corruption are all that survive of Challaid's glorious past.  Darian Ross is a young private investigator whose father, an ex cop, is in prison for murder. He takes on a case brought to him by a charismatic woman, Maeve Campbell. Her partner has been stabbed; the police are not very curious about the death of a man who laundered money for the city's criminals. Ross is drawn by his innate sense of justice and his fascination with Campbell into a world in which no-one can be trusted.

Queen's Jubilee, 1977: Cassie Baker sees her boyfriend kissing another girl at the village disco. Upset, she heads home alone and is never seen again. Millennium Eve, 1999: DCI Paul Mercer finds Cassie's remains in a field. Now he must prove the man who led him there is guilty. When Mercer's daughter asks Stella Darnell for help solving the murder, Stella see echoes of herself. Another detective's daughter. With her sidekick sleuth, Jack, Stella moves to Winchcombe, where DCI Mercer and his prime suspect have been playing cat and mouse for the past eighteen years...  The Death Chamber is by Lesley Thomson

May 2018

Ex-journalist Kay and her family are spending the summer in a rented farmhouse in Vermont. Kay is haunted by her traumatic past in Africa, and is struggling with her troubled marriage and the constraints of motherhood. Then her husband is called away unexpectedly on business and Kay finds herself alone with the children, obsessed by the idea that something terrible has happened to the owners of the house. The locals are reticent when she asks about their whereabouts; and she finds disturbing writing scrawled across one of the walls.  As she starts to investigate she becomes involved with a local man, Ben, whose life is complicated by his own violent past, his involvement in a drug-trafficking operation, and his desire to adopt an abused child.  Their two stories collide and intertwine, heading towards a dramatic denouement.  The Underneath is by Melanie Finn

The End of Days has been predicted for the last two thousand years. But now, without warning, it is upon us.  Braverman 'Bravo' Shaw, member of a secret Franciscan splinter sect, has survived a battle as old as time itself: the battle between good and evil. Working with his once-blind sister, Emma, and his confessor, Fra Leoni, Bravo went to war with the Fallen, Lucifer's advance guard and emerged with The Book of Deathly Things - Lucifer's first and last Testament.  Now, back in New York, the book's secrets have revealed themselves to Emma. With the testament stolen by Bravo, Emma realises the Fallen army will awaken fully. And come to claim what is theirs.  Four Dominions is by Eric Van Lustbader.

A young Czech girl, missing for eight days, is found abandoned in a deserted playground. She is so traumatised she cannot speak.  DCI Eve Clay is on her way to try and interview the victim, when another case is called in. Two Polish migrant workers have been found dead in their burnt out flat. But this is no normal house fire. The men's bodies were set alight, after the killer had clinically removed both of their hearts.  Then reports come in that the Czech girl's mother has disappeared.  Then Clay and her team receive an anonymous call. Someone else will die before the day ends.  Killing Time is by Mark Roberts.

June 2018

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Nemsis is by Eric Van Lustbader.  Jason Bourne returns. He's fought against the NSA, black off-site cyber operations, a Somali terrorist organisation and been accused of treason against the US.  Now the Russians have planted a mole to uncover Bourne's secrets and launch cyber-warfare against the United States.  Meanwhile, Bourne's former colleague, Soroya Moore, needs his help. Six highly skilled field agents have disappeared, the body parts of three found in a national park in Georgia. Facing death and destruction in the shadows of civilisation, Bourne will battle his deadliest nemesis yet.

Death Notice is by Zhou Haohui.  Online, a vigilante announces their intention of meting out justice for unpunished crimes. Users are invited to submit names for judgement. Those found guilty will be sentenced. And there is just one punishment: death. Despite publishing the name of each victim and the date of execution - their death notice - the police are simply unable to stop the killer. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is assembled, comprising a criminal psychologist, a SWAT captain, an Online Surveillance Officer and Detective Luo Fei. As they pursue the killer, the SIT will be drawn ever deeper into dark and dangerous territory. What is the connection to a highly classified eighteen-year-old case that saw two similar 'death notice' murders? What is Detective Luo's personal connection to that case? And finally, what crimes might the members of the SIT guilty of? And what will they do to keep them secret?