January
2018
Looking back, it all started on the day of the fair and the
terrible accident.
When 12 year old
Eddie first met the Chalk Man.
It was
the Chalk Man who gave Eddie the idea for the drawings; a way to leave secret messages
between his group of friends.
And it was
fun, to start with, until the figures led them to the body of a young
girl.
That was 30 years ago and Ed had
thought the past was behind him.
Then he
receives a letter containing just two things: a piece of chalk, and a drawing
of a stick figure.
As history begins to
repeat itself, Ed realizes that the game was never over…. Everyone has
secrets.
Everyone is guilty of
something.
And children are not always
so innocent.
The Chalk Man is by C J
Tudor.
A truck driver loses control in central Edinburgh, ploughing
into a crowded bus stop and spilling his vehicle's toxic load. The consequences
are devastating. DI Tony McLean witnesses the carnage. Taking control of the
investigation, he soon realises there is much that is deeply amiss - and
everyone involved seems to have something to hide. But as McLean struggles to
uncover who caused the tragedy, a greater crisis develops: the new Chief
Superintendent's son is missing, last seen in the area of the crash . . .
The Gathering Dark is by James Oswald.
February
2018
Sins Like Scarlet is by Nicolás Obregón. Inspector Kosuke Iwata, formerly of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police, is now working as a private investigator in California. He
may have left his home country behind him, but the crimes he has to face here
are just as horrific, and as mystifying. A dead transgender woman is found out
on the train tracks near LA's Skid Row. A Mexican homicide investigator riddled
with cancer and corruption. A river of dirty money flowing through the Sonoran
Desert. And a mother's secrets, tracing all the way from 1970s Tokyo to Japan's
48th prefecture - Torrance, California. Lives untangle, fates converge and
blood is spilled as Inspector Iwata returns.
Hellbent is by Gregg Hurwitz.
To some he was Orphan X. Others knew him as the Nowhere Man. But to
veteran spymaster Jack Johns he was a boy named Evan Smoak. Taken from an orphanage, Evan was raised
inside a top secret programme designed to turn him into a deadly weapon. Jack
became his instructor, mentor, teacher and guardian. Because for all the
dangerous skills he instilled in his young charge, he also cared for Evan like
a son. And now Jack needs Evan's help. The Orphan programme hid dark secrets.
Now those with blood on their hands want every trace of it gone. And they will
stop at nothing to make sure that Jack and Evan go with it. With little time remaining, Jack gives Evan
his last assignment: to find and protect the programme's last recruit. And to
stay alive long enough to uncover the shocking truth ...
Everything is Lies is by Helen Callaghan.
No-one is who you think they are Sophia's
parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she's always believed.
Everyone has secrets. Until the day she arrives at her childhood
home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree.
Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death. Especially those closest to you The police
are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the
woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is
up to Sophia to clear her mother's name. And to do this she needs to delve deep
into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were
there . . .What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were
born?
March
2018
Is Moscow pulling the strings? Urgent, topical and shot
through with insider knowledge, this is thriller writing on a grand scale. Russian counterintelligence chief Colonel
Dominika Egorova has been a recruited asset of the CIA - stealing Kremlin
secrets for her handler Nate Nash - for over seven years. In the dazzling
finale of the Red Sparrow trilogy, their forbidden and tumultuous love affair
continues, mortally dangerous for them both, but irresistible. In Washington, a
newly-installed administration is selecting its cabinet members. Dominika hears
whispers of a closely-held Kremlin operation to place a mole in a high
intelligence position. If the Kremlin's candidate is confirmed, the Russians
will have access to all the names of assets spying for the CIA in Moscow,
including Dominika's. Dominika recklessly immerses herself in the palace
intrigues of the Kremlin, searching for the mole's identity, and stealing as
many of President Putin's secrets for her CIA handlers before her time runs
out. With a plot ripped from tomorrow's headlines, The Kremlin's Candidate is
by Jason Matthews and is a thrilling conclusion to the trilogy than began with
Red Sparrow and Palace of Treason.
Exhibit Alexandra is by Natasha Bell. Alexandra Southwood: a
devoted mother, a talented artist and now a missing wife. Marc's world is
seemingly perfect, complete with two daughters and a loving wife. Until the day
she vanishes. Police, friends and family pull together to find Alex but their
hopes quickly turn into a nightmare as the missing person case becomes a murder
investigation. But Marc refuses to
accept his wife is dead and embarks on his own frantic search which leads him
into the heart of the New York art world that so gripped his wife. Meanwhile, in a locked room, news clips of
the police investigation and the family's grief are played out in front of a
terrified woman. It is Alex. As the weeks pass all she can do is torment
herself with images of her family's life without her. As Marc begins to piece
together hidden parts of Alex's life, he begins to question whether he really
knew her at all . . . But this is Alex's story.
Before Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir of the
Reykjavik Police is forced into early retirement she is told to investigate a
cold case of her choice, and she knows just the one. A young woman found dead on remote
seaweed-covered rocks. A woman who was looking for asylum and found only a
watery grave. Her death ruled a suicide after a cursory investigation. But Hulda soon realizes that there was
something far darker to this case. This was not the only young woman to
disappear around that time. And no one is telling the whole story. When her own force tries to put the brakes on
the investigation Hulda has just days to discover the truth. Even if it means
risking her own life . . . The
Darkness is by Ragnar Jónasson.
A global threat.
The
world's sea levels are rising at an alarming rate, too quickly to be
caused by glacier melt. A risk so big it sends Kurt Austin, Zoe Zavala and the NUMA team rocketing around the world in search for answers. A desperate mission. Their hunt takes them
from the shark-filled waters of Asia to the high-tech streets of Tokyo to a
forbidden secret island, but it's in the East China Sea that a mysterious
underwater mining operation is discovered. A devastating endgame Kurt uncovers
a plot more dangerous than they could have imagined: a plan to upset the
Pacific balance of power, threatening the lives of millions. It falls to the
NUMA team to risk everything to stop it and save the world from the coming
catastrophe. The Rising Sea is by Clive
Cussler and Graham Brown.
April
2018
‘Once I had cleared the bottles away and washed the blood off
the floor, I needed to get out of the flat.' Cordelia Russell has been living
on the Cote d’Azur for ten years, posing a posh English woman fallen on hard
times. But her luck is running out. Desperate to escape her grotty flat and
grim reality, Cordelia spends a night at a glittering party. Surrounded by the
young, beautiful and privileged she feels her age and her poverty. As dawn
breaks she stumbles home through the back streets. Even before she opens her
door she can hear the flies buzzing. It hasn’t taken long for the corpse in her
bedroom to commence decomposing. Skin
Deep is by Liz Nugent.
The Insider is by Matthew Richardson.
Oscar Quinn is the best and the brightest of
his generation. The youngest fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, he's destined
for a glittering academic career. But then a mysterious letter arrives inviting
him for an interview with Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. The
role hasn't been advertised. He appears to be the only candidate. And the
salary on offer seems almost too good to be true.Soon Quinn finds himself
plunged into the heart of power. He gets his own office in the Palace of
Westminster, a cut-price deal on a luxurious apartment in Chelsea and a chance
to work on some of the nation's most highly-classified secrets. But when he
learns that the security services are asking questions, Quinn begins to
discover a dark truth buried at the centre of his new life. The last person to
do his job died suddenly, and now his apartment is under surveillance and his
movements are being watched. Was the previous researcher's death really just an
accident? Or something much worse?
Trapped in the middle of a terrifying conspiracy, Quinn is forced to
consider stepping outside the law to save those he loves. But who can be trusted?
And can he survive long enough to find out...
Paper Ghosts is by Julia Haeberlin. Having lived his life suspected of being a
serial killer, Carl Louis Feldman begins his journey into old age at a nursing
home in Texas. Though he was never charged with any crimes, the staff aren't
sorry to see him go when his estranged daughter arrives to take her father on
what could be his last road trip. When
Carl protests that this is not his daughter at all, the nurses are all too
ready to excuse it as a product of his steadily deteriorating mind. But were
those old suspicions about him true? And if he is an honest man, who has just
driven him away from safety?
Angel in the Shadows is by Walter Lucius.
Farah Hafez raised her head and stared into
the camcorder's reflective black hole.
'Now say what I want you to say. And do it convincingly. You can save
this girl's life.'
That's when the words
came. Unexpected and forceful. Like vomit.'
I, Farah Hafez, support the jihad against President Potanin's criminal
regime. 'He smiled coldly and pulled the
trigger anyway. After investigating what
appeared to be a simple hit-and-run, journalist Farah Hafez became caught up in
a web of crime and corruption that led to her kidnap. Detained in Russia, she
was forced to pledge her allegiance to a terrorist group on camera. Now sought
by international security and members of the criminal class alike, Farah flees
to Jakarta to continue her investigation while her friends and allies attempt
to clear her name from across the globe. If Farah is ever going to regain her
freedom, she needs to discover the root of the evil that bought her here. The
problem is that discovering this might cost her her life.
May
2018
Major Tom Fox is despatched to East Berlin to bring home a
traitor who defected to escape justice. But it's clear that there's more at stake than an old man wanting to return home to face the music. Powerful forces on both sides of the Iron Curtain stand to lose if the defector is given his day in court. Fox soon finds that in the upside-down world of Cold War Berlin he's operating alone in the enemy's backyard, unsure of who he can trust. And if Fox is going to succeed in his mission, let alone escape with his life, he will need to draw on skills learned during a past he's trying to forget . Nightfall Berlin is by Jack
Grimwood.
.
.
The untitled book is by Tim Weaver. A woman walks into a
police station and tells officers she's been missing for eight years. She has
no phone and no ID, just a piece of paper with a name on it: David Raker. Raker specializes in locating missing people.
After his wife died, they became how he coped and moved on - and, almost a
decade later, the disappeared aren't just his job any more, they're his life.
So when the police call him, Raker agrees to meet the woman. But this is no ordinary case - and no
ordinary woman. She looks exactly like
his dead wife. She knows everything about their marriage, their history, even
private conversations the two of them had. And soon, everything Raker thought
he knew about his life, and about the woman he loved, will be exposed as a
devastating lie . . .
June
2018
The Dead Ex is by Jane Corry.
I wish he'd just DIE. 'He said in sickness and in health. But after Vicki was attacked at work and left suffering with epilepsy, her husband Daniel left her for his mistress. So when Vicki gets a call one day to say that he's gone missing, her first thought is 'good riddance'. But then the police find evidence suggesting that Daniel is dead. And they think Vicki had something to do with it. What really happened on the night of Daniel's disappearance?
And how can Vicki prove her innocence, when
she's not even sure of it herself?
The Poison Bed is by E C Fremantle and is a chilling, noirish
thriller ripped straight from the headlines.
A king, his lover and his lover's wife. One is a killer.
In the autumn of 1615 scandal rocks the
Jacobean court when a celebrated couple are imprisoned on suspicion of murder.
She is young, captivating and from a notorious family. He is one of the richest
and most powerful men in the kingdom. Some believe she is innocent; others
think her wicked or insane. He claims no knowledge of the murder. The king
suspects them both, though it is his secret at stake. Who is telling the truth?
Who has the most to lose? And who is willing to commit murder?
On a break between missions, Jack Ryan Jr is asked by his
mother to visit Sarajevo and track down a girl whose life she saved during the
war. Finally, he thinks, life might be quietening down. That's until he meets
Aida - grown from a child into a beautiful and selfless woman. Jack finds
himself drawn to her, not to mention impressed by her dangerous work helping
Syrian refugees enter Europe. But the region is increasingly unstable, and just
as Jack lets his guard down, Aida is violently kidnapped by the Serbian
mafia. With no official status, Jack's
pleas for help fall on deaf ears, and he realises he must act alone to save the
woman he loves. But as the simmering tensions threaten to bubble over, Jack
will soon discover Bosnia is a dangerous place to fly solo… Tom Clancy’s Line of Sight is by Mike
Maden.
July
2018
A woman and child are found locked in a basement room, barely
alive. No-one knows who they are - the woman can't speak, and there are no
missing persons reports that match their profile. The elderly man who owns the house claims he
has never seen them before. The inhabitants of the quiet Oxford street are in
shock - how could this happen right under their noses? But DI Adam Fawley knows that nothing is
impossible. And that no-one is as innocent as they seem.... In the Dark is by Cara Hunter.
When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of
a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn’t a random act of violence. With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops. McCoy’s boss doesn’t want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouchable. But McCoy has other ideas . . .Bloody
January is by Alan Parks.
In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines and we
shiver when the cold wind blows. For
over a century, the murder ballad has held a prominent place in American roots
music, although its origins lie in Britain and Scandinavia. These songs tell
raw stories of unrequited love, betrayal, violence, life, and death. Inspired
by classics of the genre such as "Pretty Polly" and "Long Black Veil," as well as contemporary songs by Steve Earle, Nick Cave, and Gillian Welch, Erik Kriek has crafted five graphic narratives that embody the spirit of the murder ballad tradition and prove that the deepest darkness harbours tales that daylight would never tolerate. Eerie, bloody, wistful, and strange, In the
Pines will lead you down to the very heart of the forest - where the wild roses
grow and where the ghosts wander, their long-buried secrets unfurling in song. In The Pines is by Erik Kriek.
