Latest Crime News Round-Up

Awards

The Edgar® Awards

Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction,
non-fiction  and television published or produced in 2010. The Edgar® Awards were presented to the winners at our 65th
Gala Banquet, April 28, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.  

Best Novel: The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur Books)  

Best First Novel By An American Author: Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates - Forge Books)  

Best Paperback Original:  Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House - Bantam)  

Best Fact Crime: Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity by Ken Armstrong
and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press - Bison  Original)   

Best Critical/Biographical: Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective
and his Rendezvouz with American History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)   

Best Short Story: "The Scent of Lilacs" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)   

Best Juvenile: The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)  

Best Young Adult: Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price (Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers)   
Best Play - The Psychic by Sam Bobrick (Falcon Theatre - Burbank, CA)  

Best Television Episode Teleplay: "Episode 1" - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)   

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award: "Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man" - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
by Evan Lewis (Dell Magazines)   

Grand Master: Sara Paretsky  

Poirot Award: Janet Rudolph.

Raven Awards: Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Illinois Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minnesota  

The Simon & Schuster- Mary Higgins Clark Award: (Presented at MWA's Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 27, 2011) 
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Agatha Awards

Agatha Awards The Agatha Awards are given for materials first published in the United States by a living author during the calendar year 2010 (1^st January – 31^st December), either in hardcover, as a paperback original, or e-published by an e-publishing firm. They were presented at Malice Domestic that took place on 30^th April 2011.

Best Novel: Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

Best First Novel: The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames

Best Non-fiction: Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran

Best Short Story: "So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Sept./Oct. 2010

Best Children's/Young Adult: The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith

Congratulations to all the winners and the nominees and especially to Louise Penny who has won her fourth Agatha Award in row.

Congratulations go to Tom Franklin who was awarded the Los Angeles Times Mystery/ Thriller Award 2010 for his novel Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (William Morrow). It was presented by Attica Locke on Friday April 29, 2011, in a ceremony at the Los Angeles Times building.

The 2011 Spinetingler Awards have also been awarded –

Best Novel: New Voice (1-3 Novels) Pike by Benjamin Whitmer

Best Novel: Rising Star (4-8 Novels) Do They Know I'm Running by David Corbett

Best Novel: Legend (9+ Novels) I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

Best Anthology: Requiems for the Departed edited by Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone

Best Short Story Collection: Bad Juju by Jonathan Woods

Best Mystery/Crime Comic or Graphic Novel: Sweets by Kody Chamberlain (Image Comics)

Best Short Story on the Web nominees: Times Past by Matthew C. Funk from All Due Respect

Best Mystery/Crime Fiction Press, Publisher or Imprint: Tyrus Books

David Thompson Community Leader Award: Mulholland Books website

Best Cover: Bad Juju

A full list of the nominees and the winners can be found here.

Nominations

The nominees for the 2011 Arthur Ellis Awards have been announced by the Crime Writers of Canada, recognizing excellence in Canadian crime writing. The winners will be announced at an award banquet on June 2nd, 2011 at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Victoria, BC.

Best Crime Novel:
Slow Recoil by C. B Forrest (RendezVous Crime )
In Plain Sight by Mike Knowles (ECW Press)
The Extinction Club by Jeffrey Moore (Penguin Group)
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Little, Brown)
A Criminal to Remember by Michael Van Rooy (Turnstone Press)

Best First Crime Novel:
The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson (St. Martin's Press)
The Debba by Avner Mandleman (Random House)
The Penalty Killing by Michael McKinley (McClelland & Stewart)
The Parabolist by Nicholas Ruddock (Doubleday)
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin's Press )

Best Crime Novel in French:

La société des pères meurtriers by Michel Châteauneuf (Vent d’Ouest)
Dans le quartier des agités by Jacques Côté (Éditions Alire)
Quand la mort s'invite à la première by Bernard Gilbert (Québec Amerique)
Cinq secondes by Jacques Savoie (Libre Expression)
Vanités by Johanne Seymour (Libre Expression)

Best Crime Non-Fiction:
On the Farm by Stevie Cameron (Alfred A. Knopf)
Northern Light by Roy MacGregor (Random House)
Our Man in Tehran by Robert Wright (HarperCollins)

Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book:
Pluto's Ghost by Sharee Fitch (Doubleday)
Lost For Words (The Worst Thing She Ever Did) by Alice Kuipers (HarperCollins)
Victim Rights by Norah McClintock (Red Deer Press)
The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz (HarperCollins)
Borderline by Allan Stratton (HarperCollins)

Best Crime Short Story:

"The Bust" by William Deverall (Whodunnit: Sun Media’s Canadian Crime Fiction Showcase)

"So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
"The Big Touch" by Jordan McPeek (Thuglit.com)
"In it Up to My Neck" by Jas R. Petrin (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
"The Piper's Door" by James Powell (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Best First Unpublished Crime Novel:
When the Bow Breaks by Jayne Barnard
Better Off Dead by John Jeneroux
Uncoiled by Kevin Thorton

The 2011 Ned Kelly Award Nominations (Australian Crime Writers): Long-list has been released.

Best First Fiction
Diamond Eyes by AA Bell
Undercover by Keith Bulfin
Prime Cut by Alan Carter
While I Have Perdo by John Chesterman
Who Killed Dave? By Linda Cockburn
The Pericles Commission by Gary Corby
Mosquito Creek by Robert Engwerds
Beyond Fear by Jaye Ford
Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James
The Old School by PM Newton
Five Parts Dead by Tim Pegler
Line of Sight by David Whish-Wilson

Best Fiction
The Ghost Of Waterloo by Robin Adair
Follow The Money by Peter Corris
Sharp Turn by Marianne Delacourt
The Maya Codex by Adrian d'Hage
Death Mask by Kathryn Fox
Watch The World Burn by Leah Giarrantano
Dead Man's Chest by Kerry Greenwood
Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell
Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland
Fall Girl by Toni Jordan
Silk Chaser by Peter Klein
The Genesis Flaw by L.A. Larkin
Naked Cruelty by Colleen McCullough
Diggers Rest Hotel by Geoff McGeachin
Let The Dead Lie by Malla Nunn
How The Dead See by David Owen
Red Ice by James Phelan
Thrill City by Leigh Redhead
Mice by Gordon Reece
Hot Rock Dreaming by Martin Roth
The Half-Child by Angela Savage
The Neon Lady of Towitta by Patricia Summerling
Bereft by Chris Womersley
Shattered Sky by Helene Young

Best True Crime
They Shot Phar Lap, Didn't They? by Geoff Armstrong & Peter Thompson
The Job by Charlie Bezzina with Ben Collins
Enforcer by Caesar & Donna Campbell
Murder No More by Colleen Egan
Sin Bin by John Elias
City of Evil by Sean Fewster
Badlands by Liam Houlihan
Abandoned by Geesche Jacobsen
Inside Story by Peter Lloyd
McVillain The Man Who Got Away by David McMillan
Shot Gun and Standover by James Morton & Russell Robinson
Bank Robbery For Beginners by Anthony Prince
King of Thieves by Adam Shand
Mr Asia by Jim Sheperd
Honeymoon Dive by Lindsay Simpson & Jennifer Cooke
Snitch by Jimmy Thomson
Bumper by Larry Writer

The SD Harvey Short Story
TBA

If you are like me and are looking forward to the final Harry Potter film that is due out in July, then you will be pleased to know that the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 has been released and can be seen below.

According to Publishers Weekly F and W media have bought Tyrus books. Tyrus Books publish crime fiction: stories dealing with crime and its repercussions. Their authors included Shamus Award winning author Reed Farrel Coleman, Loren D. Estleman, Bill Cameron, Victor Gischler and Seth Harwood to name a few.

Publishers Weekly state that Robert B Parker’s Jesse Stone and Spenser series are to be continued. According to deal cut by Robert B. Parker's estate, Penguin's Putnam imprint will continue to publish two of the author's most popular series -- Spenser and Jesse Stone -- under the authorship of writers Michael Brandman and Ace Atkins. The Spenser series debuted in 1974 and is made up of 39 novels; the Jesse Stone series began in 1997 and is comprised of nine novels.

 Brandman produced (and wrote the screenplays) for the TV movies based on Parker's small-town Massachusetts detective, Jesse Stone, that appeared on CBS and starred Tom Selleck in the title role. The first Jesse Stone novel Brandman will release is Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues, which is scheduled for September 13, 2011. Atkins, a tested crime author at Putnam with books like White Shadow and Infamous to his credit, will release the first new Parker-branded Spenser novel in Spring 2012. Parker's longtime editor, Chris Pepe, will be overseeing both projects. Robert B Parker died in January 2010.

Macmillian have launched a new crime and mystery website called CriminalElement.com It is a site for fans of crime and mystery fiction and one that will no doubt become well-known and used as it is publisher neutral.

Excellent article on the BBC Entertainment website on breathing new life into new assassins with Don Winslow who has recently written a new story featuring super-assassin named Nicholai Hel, the hero of 1979 best-seller Shibumi. Satori is out now!

Interesting article on the BBC Website about Danny Cohen who wants to cull male crime dramas. The full article in the Guardian which the initiated the BBC article can be found here along with responses from the general public about the decision to axe Zen.

With the axing of Zen by the BBC, Jess McCabe of the Guardian has an article on whom she considers to be the top 10 female detectives.

Deadline.com report that John Travolta and Uma Thurman have joined the cast of Savages, the drama based on Don Winslow’s best-selling novel that Oliver Stone is due to direct. Already cast are Salma Hayeck and Benicio Del Toro.

Publishers Weekly report that Gretchen Young at Hyperion closed on a two-book deal with Jeanine Pirro. David Vigliano sold world rights to two mysteries that will feature a young district attorney named Dani Fox in New York City. The first book is scheduled for winter 2012 and the second book for winter 2013. Pirro, the former DA for Westchester County and a one-time Republican nominee for New York attorney general, is now the star of the courtroom television show Judge Jeanine Pirro.

According to The Bookseller publishers Headline have acquired a debut literary suspense novel from Australian author Poppy Gee. Set in a small Tasmanian coastal community, the society turns in on itself when the body of a young girl is washed up on the beach. The novel entitled Bay of Fires will be published in 2013.

The Scotsman have an excellent interview with Denise Mina who discusses her new novel The End of the Wasp Season that is due to be published by Orion on 12 May 2011.

Publishers Hodder have linked up with Bentley Motors to create an exclusive edition of the new James Bond novel Carte Blanche by Jeffrey Deaver.

According to c21media.net Entertainment One Television and Sony Pictures have agreed a 22-part adaptation of John Grisham’s best-selling novel The Firm. The two-hour pilot script for the TV series is set 10 years after the 1993 feature film starring Tom Cruise. The series will reintroduce the young lawyer after several years in the Federal Witness Protection Program.

Part 1 of an excellent interview with Declan Burke can be found over at the blog - May Contain Nuts. Declan himself has an excellent blog Crime Always Pays which always needs to be read. He is also the editor of DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS: IRISH CRIME WRITING IN THE 21st CENTURY (Liberties Press).

Excellent article on the Good Men Project Blog from Dennis Lehane who talks about good and evil in literature.

Interesting article in the Independent about Gavin Knight’s Hood Rat that is due to be published in July from Macmillan. Hood Rat has been likened to David Simon’s non-fiction book Homicide: Life on the Streets which lifted the lid on the Baltimore Police homicide squad and Roberto Saviano's bestseller Gomorrah which cast light into the murky Neapolitan underworld.

Congratulations go to three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee and Diamond and Gold Dagger Award-winning crime fiction writer Val McDermid who will be special honorees at the 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards ceremony to be hosted by comedienne Lea DeLaria on Thursday, May 26 in New York City at the School of Visual Arts Theater. Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally will introduce Albee, and pioneering lesbian mystery writer Katherine V. Forrest will introduce McDermid. The full press notice can be found here.

Congratulations again go to Chris Ewan who has signed television development deal on the Good Thief's Guide novels with eOne Entertainment. The full press release can be found here.

Further congratulations also go to Elizabeth Haynes who won Amazon’s Rising Star award for best debut novel with Into the Darkness.

According to IMDB Javier Bardem has officially signed on to star as Roland Deschain in Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.

Author Jason Goodwin whose fourth book featuring Yashmin the eunch detective An Evil Eye which is due to be released in the UK in July is currently touring Southern USA to promote the book. He is also writing an exclusive online column in the Telegraph about his trip. His first column can be found here, whilst the second column is here along with the third one so far. As Jason Goodwin also explains crime fiction is the best guide book.

If you are like me and enjoy reading pulp novels or listening to them on audio, then you will be interested in the fact that Radio Archives have announced a new series of audiobooks, based on favourite pulp novels of the 1930s and 1940s.

According to Variety Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson have come on board to produce the Paramount crime drama "When Corruption Was King." The script is based on the Robert Cooley novel about a Southside Chicago lawyer who becomes the mob's most trusted attorney until, as a state witness, he brings the organization down.

Guest Blog: C J Box - Letter From Wyoming

Exclusive to SHOTS, we are delighted to announce a regular new blog series by multi award-winning US crime writer C.J. Box. In his monthly 'Letter from Wyoming', Box [or Chuck] will give us a unique personal insight into life in the great American outdoors, the landscape and the cast of real life characters from cowboys to ranchmen and game wardens that have provided the inspiration for his acclaimed Joe Pickett series.

Letter From Wyoming

By C.J. Box

The Beast

Several years ago, I was fly-fishing with some friends in backcountry Yellowstone Park. We’d secured one of the few official campsites and we had the remote area all to ourselves. After we’d pitched our tents and secured the site – meaning hoisting food twenty feet into the air a quarter mile from our camp to keep man-eating grizzly bears away – we spent the day catching and releasing magnificent Yellowstone Cutthroat trout until our casting arms were tired. Then we staggered back to camp, ate, and two of us decided to go back to the river. We knew we were foolish for fishing in the dark in strange and wild country without cell phones or radios.


The dusk sky turned Technicolor and the temperature dropped as the sun slipped behind the mountains. The stream cut deeply into the terrain and tall cut-banks obscured the view both ways. It was almost like fishing in a wide curving hallway and we couldn’t see anything up or down river. My friend was on the other side of the water.


The silence was immense as it got darker. As I cast into a riffle, I caught a smell I could only describe as musky and primitive. I looked up at my friend and he was frowning: he smelled it too. It was coming from upriver, over the high bank. We froze.


Suddenly there was an watery explosive splash no more than 20 yards upstream around the blind corner. A moment later, the current filled with feathers, a slick of blood, and dismembered pieces of a Canada goose. My friend and I exchanged worried glances and we clambered out of there, speed walking toward our distant campfire, shooting glances over our shoulders the entire way.


We never saw the bear. But I’m often reminded when I think back on the incident it is sometimes it’s the beast we don’t see that stays with us.


Corvus - the Atlantic Books imprint - is showing their undivided commitment to publishing Box in the UK with the unprecedented roll-out of a book a month featuring Wyoming Game warden Joe Pickett.

COMPETITION TIME

Trophy Hunt is the fourth in the Joe Pickett series, published by Corvus. The next Joe Pickett adventure Out Of Range, is published on the 1st June.
To win a copy of Trophy Hunt simply tell us the name of the first book in the Joe Pickett series. Send your answer to the Shots editor . Don’t forget to add your name and address in case you are the lucky winner. Good Luck.

Books to look forward to from Macmillan

The Unlucky Lottery is by Håkan Nesser and is due to be published in October 2011. Four pensioners celebrate the fact that they have won 20,000 kronor in the lottery. Just hours later, one of them - Waldemar Leverkuhn - is found in his home, stabbed to death. With Chief Inspector Van Veeteren on sabbatical, working in a second hand bookshop, the case is assigned to Inspector Munster. But when another member of the lottery group disappears, as well as Leverkuhn's neighbour, Munster appeals to Van Veeteren for assistance. Soon Munster will find himself interviewing the Leverkuhn family, including the eldest - Irene - a resident of a psychiatric clinic. And as he delves deeper into the family's history, he will discover dark secrets and startling twists, which not only threaten the clarity of the case - but also his life...

Following his investigations in The Holy Thief, which implicated those at the very top of authority in Soviet Russia, Captain Alexei Korolev finds himself decorated and hailed as an example to all Soviet workers. But Korolev lives in an uneasy peace - his new-found knowledge is dangerous, and if it is discovered what his real actions were during the case, he will face deportation to the frozen camps of the far north. But when the knock on the door comes, in the dead of night, it is not Siberia Korolev is destined for. Instead, Colonel Rodinov of the NKVD security service asks the detective to look into the suspected suicide of a young woman: Maria Alexandovna Lenskaya - Masha, a model citizen. Korolev is unnerved to learn that Masha had been of interest to Ezhov, the feared Commissar for State Security. Ezhov himself wants to matter looked into. And when the detective arrives on the set for Bloody Meadow, in the bleak, battle-scarred Ukraine, he soon discovers that there is more to Masha's death than meets the eye. The Bloody Meadow is by William Ryan and is due to be published in September 2011. It is the second book in the series to feature Captain Alexei Korolev.

The Lost Daughter is by Lucretia Grindle and is due to be published in August 2011. 'Her past.' Pallioti tapped the files. 'This,' he said, 'is how you'll find her.' In Florence, a young American student goes missing. At first neither Alessandro Pallioti, one of the city's most senior policemen, nor Enzo Saenz, his deputy, are too concerned. But soon the men are horrified to discover that the older man Kristen has been spending time with is Antonio Tomaselli, a member of the notorious Red Brigades. Then, before the police can get a handle on the case, Kristen's step-mother, Anna, also vanishes. Before long Enzo finds himself enmeshed in a web of false identities, betrayed loyalties, and revenge. At its centre is Anna, a woman he is increasingly drawn to, but knows he should not trust; and at stake is the life of an eighteen year old girl. With the horrors of the past rising behind him and the women's futures hanging in the balance, Enzo Saenz is on unfamiliar ground and playing the most deadly game of his life.

When newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, clutching a shotgun in his lifeless hands, few see his demise as cause for sorrow. But before long Doctor Quirke and Inspector Hackett realise that, rather than the suspected suicide, 'Diamond Dick' has in fact been murdered. Jewell had made many enemies over the years and suspicion soon falls on one of his biggest rivals. But as Quirke and his assistant Sinclair get to know Jewell's beautiful, enigmatic wife Francoise d'Aubigny, and his fragile sister Dannie, as well as those who work for the family, it gradually becomes clear that all is not as it seems. As Quirke's investigations return him to the notorious orphanage of St Christopher's, where he once resided, events begin to take a much darker turn. Quirke finds himself reunited with an old enemy and Sinclair receives sinister threats. But what have the shadowy benefactors of St Christopher's to do with it all? Set against the backdrop of 1950's Dublin, A Death in Summer is the fourth in the Quirke Dublin series by Benjamin Black and is due to be published in July 2011.

Beneath the Dark Ice is by Grieg Beck. Terror From The Deep...When a plane crashes into the Antarctic ice in a violent storm, exposing a massive cave beneath, a rescue and research team is dispatched. Twenty-four hours later, all contact is lost. Captain Alex Hunter and his crack team of highly trained commandos are fast-tracked there to find out what went wrong, accompanied by an assortment of researchers, including petrobiologist Aimee Weir. Within the caves lies an unidentified - and unnatural seeming - substance. If it proves to be an energy source, every country in the world will want to know about it - some even kill for it. Beneath the Dark Ice is due to be published in August 2011.

Herring on the Nile is by LC Tyler and is due to be published in July 2011. In an effort to rejuvenate his flagging career, crime novelist Ethelred Tressider decides to set his new book in Egypt and embarks on a 'research trip' with his literary agent, Elsie Thirkettle, in tow. No sooner has their cruise on the Nile begun, however, than an attempt is made on Ethelred's life. When the boat's engine explodes and a passenger is found bloodily murdered, suspicion falls on everyone aboard - including a third-rate private eye, two individuals who may or may not be undercover police, and Ethelred himself. As the boat drifts out of control, though, it seems that events are being controlled by a party far more radical than anyone could have guessed.

Olympic rowing hopeful and senior Metropolitan Police officer DCI Rebecca Meredith goes out alone to train on the river in Henley on a dark afternoon in late October - and doesn't return. When a desperate search by the police and a K9 team reveals the possibility of foul play, Scotland Yard wants one of their own on the case. Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, returning from celebrating his marriage to long-time partner Detective Inspector Gemma James, is called to Henley to investigate. He soon finds that the world of elite rowing can be brutal, and that Rebecca Meredith's ex-husband was not the only person with good reason for wanting her dead. Then, when a search-and-rescue team member is threatened, Kincaid realizes the case may be even more complex and more dangerous than he believed. But it is only when he enlists Gemma's aid that they find that the answers lie closer to home than they could have imagined - and are infinitely more deadly. It seems that more than one innocent life depends on their ability to track down the killer. No Mark Upon Her is by Deborah Crombie and is due to be published in August 2011.

Cold Justice is by Katherine Howell and is due to be published in July 2011. On an early morning walk, a young girl finds the body of her classmate, Tim Pieters, hidden amongst some bushes. The boy's family are desperate for answers but the killer is never found. Almost two decades later, political pressure sees the cold case reopened and Detective Ella Marconi inherits the job. Ella attacks the case with vigour, determined to shake off the memories of her last investigation, which ended with her being shot in the line of duty. But she knows it won't be easy - after all this time the murderer is probably long gone and the memories of any witnesses are fading. Georgie Riley, the girl who found Tim's body, is now a paramedic, trying to face up to her own demons. There's never been any reason to doubt her story, but when Ella receives an anonymous call insisting that Georgie has information about the Pieters' case, she decides to dig deeper. As long-buried secrets and lies finally come to light, can Ella track down the killer before more people are hurt?

Lizzie and Evie are inseparable. They walk home from school together, sleep over at each other's houses, even flirt with boys together. And they tell each other everything. Or at least, that's what Lizzie thinks - until Evie goes missing, and Lizzie suddenly realises their friendship wasn't quite what she thought. A novel about two young girls discovering their sexuality; about fathers and daughters; about family and friendship; about jealousy, secrets and lies, The End of Everything is by Megan Abbott and is a powerful reminder that things aren't always what they seem. The End of Everything is due to be published in August 2011.

Swanson and his beautiful girlfriend, CIA agent Lauren Carson, are on a mission in Pakistan when their world is turned inside out. Kyle is captured and thrown in prison. Lauren is accused of being a double agent. The one person they trust to help is the man who sent them on the black operation—Jim Hall, a legendary CIA agent, Kyle’s sniper mentor, and Lauren’s boss and former lover. But Hall has gone rogue. He is selling America’s innermost secrets to a ruthless Pakistani warlord who wants to mold al- Qaeda into a legitimate political party, and secure a nuclear arsenal. For Jim Hall, his former protégé Swanson is the final obstacle. Success or failure pivots on whether Swanson can stop the old friend who trained him to be a shooter. From the streets of Washington to the Bavarian Alps, the two snipers stalk each other in a deadly hunt that has only one possible outcome. Act of Treason is by Jack Coughlin and is due to be published in December 2011.

Ian Hunt is the police dispatcher for the small town of Bulls Mouth, East Texas. Just as his shift is ending he gets a call from his fourteen-year-old daughter, Maggie. Maggie, who has just been declared dead, having been snatched from her bedroom seven years ago. Her call ends in a scream. The trail leads to a local couple, but this is just the start of his battle to get his daughter back. What follows is a bullet-strewn cross-country chase along Interstate 10, from Texas to California. The Dispatcher is by Ryan David Jahn and is due to be published in July 2011.

After alleged serial killer Edgar Roy is apprehended and locked away in a mental facility private investigators Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are called in by Roy's lawyer-an old friend of Sean King- to look into the case. But their investigation is derailed before it begins: while en route to their first meeting with the lawyer, King and Maxwell discover his dead body. A rash of terrifying events begins to unfold and it is up to King and Maxwell to uncover the truth: is Roy a killer or not? But the more they dig into his past, the more they are bombarded with obstacles, half-truths, and dead ends that make filtering the facts nearly impossible. As each new theory brings a new revelation, King and Maxwell will be pushed to the limit. Could this deadly case be the one that leaves the duo permanently parted? The Sixth Man is by David Baldacci and is due to be published in July 2011. Also due to be published in November by David Baldacci is Zero Day.

In Moss Side, Manchester, Anders Svensson is on the trail of drug baron Merlin and his lieutenant Flow, a man so dangerous his type is said to appear only once in a decade. Svensson himself is a renegade detective with a network of informants second to none - mainly the girlfriends of gang members, who come to him for protection. Among the housing estates of Glasgow, the city with the highest murder rate in Europe, Karen McCluskey is on a one-woman mission to reform the force. And in Hackney, 19-year-old Pilgrim has made himself one of the most feared gang-members in East London, wanted for attempted murder and seemingly condemned to a life of crime. In Hood Rat these narratives interlock in a shocking expose of Britain's underworld that ranks with Roberto Saviano's bestselling Gomorrah. Hood Rat is the debut novel by Gavin Knight and is due to be published in July 2011.

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

What’s the worst thing you have ever done? Randall Haight has a secret: when he was a teenager, he and his friend killed a 14-year-old girl. Randall did his time and built a new life, but somebody is threatening to reveal the truth about Randall. And he wants private detective Charlie Parker to make it stop. But another 14-year-old girl has gone missing. Now Parker must unravel a web of deceit involving the police, the FBI, a doomed mobster named Tommy Morris, and Randall Haight himself. Because Randall Haight is telling lies…. The Burning Soul is the latest Charlie Parker novel by John Connolly and is due to be published in September 2011.

Killing for the Company is the latest book by Chris Ryan. 2003. Invalided out of the SAS Chet Freeman makes his living in high-end security, on a temporary contract for an American corporation called the Grosvenor Group. He catches a young woman, a peace campaigner, eavesdropping on a meeting the Group is holding with the British Prime Minister. The Group's interests include arms manufacture, and what Chet and the young woman overhear seems to imply that it is bribing the Prime Minister to take his country into an illegal war. Could this possibly be true? Somebody believes that this is a secret that needs covering up, because Chet and the girl are attacked. Hunted down, they go into hiding, and a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. Nearly ten years later tension is reaching breaking point in Jerusalem. The now ex-Prime Minister is working as a Middle East peace envoy. As the city descends into anarchy and rival armies are poised to turn it into a battlefield, Chet's best buddy, Luke, is part of a team tasked by the Regiment with extracting the ex-Prime Minister. At the height of the battle Luke discovers a conspiracy far more devastating than any arms deal. Killing for the Company is due to be published in September 2011.

I see everything now. Everything the dead people see. This is where they live. It's beautiful and terrifying and all the answers I ever looked for are hovering right here in front of me in a million shadowy riddles. If you have a supernatural problem that won't go away, you need Buck Carlsbad: private eye, exorcist, and last resort. Buck's got a way with spirits that no one else can match. He was normal, once. Until he saw his parents killed by something old, and dark, and evil. Buck has spent years looking deep into the black light on the other side of death, trying to trace his family. It's dangerous, but it's his only hope of finding out what happened to them - and what made him the way he is. But now the voices on the other side are fading to a whisper, and all they'll say is that something big is coming. Then Buck takes a call from a billionnaire and finds himself plunged into the most harrowing case of his career. One that will either reveal the secrets of his life, or end it. Black Light is by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan and Stephen Romano and is due to be published by Mulholland Books in October 2011.

The Revisionists is by Thomas Mullen and is due to be published by Mulholland Books in September 2011. The future will be perfect. No hate, no hunger, no war. Zed knows because he's seen it. He's from there. His mission is to ensure that history happens exactly as it's meant to. Even the terrible events. Even the one that's about to happen, the one that will destroy our civilisation for good. In present-day Washington, Zed watches as people go about their daily lives. People like Leo, a disgraced former spy; Tasha, a lawyer grieving for a brother killed in action in Iraq; Sari, the downtrodden employee of a foreign diplomat. Unlike Zed, they have no idea what difference their choices will make. The clock is ticking. But Zed has doubts. What are his superiors not telling him? What truths has he hidden from himself? And, as he becomes more entangled in the lives of those around him, will he be able to sacrifice their present for his future?

Charlie Hardie has been sent to a facility hidden in a blank spot on the map. A place where the world sends people who are too dangerous to kill. Here, they can be contained – and studied. Hardie is there as punishment for scuttling a billion-dollar deal. He’s not an inmate, though – he’s in charge. He can leave if he wants, but that means everyone in the prison dies. Including innocent guards. When Hardie realises he’s unwittingly endangered the lives of his wife and son, he vows to protect them at any cost. Even if it means blasting his way out, one inmate at a time. Hell & Gone is by Duane Swierczynski and will be published by Mulholland books in October 2011. It is the second in the Charlie Hardie trilogy.

Deployed worldwide on countless missions, Jonathan Chase, the United States' top operative, is sworn to protect and serve his country at all costs. His new target is the Zero Directorate, who have amassed a wealth of state secrets from captured, brain-washed spies - their confessions videotaped just before their execution, prepared for sale to the highest bidder. To pursue them, he must risk the most valuable asset of all: the knowledge contained in his own memories, the sum total of a life of endless, covert action. Chase is on the hunt. But the Directorate lies in wait, and the closer he gets to stopping his enemies, the closer his enemies get to their target. Assassin of Secrets is the first in the Jonathan Chase series by QR Markham due to be published by Mulholland Books in November 2011.

Matt Hilton’s Joe Hunter return’s in Dead Men’s Harvest. When Rink is ambushed by a team of highly skilled killers, Joe is pretty sure that his friend is being used as bait and the intended prey is Hunter himself. Forced to operate without official sanction, Joe penetrates the kidnappers’ lair and finds his ultimate quarry is back from beyond the grave and with a bone to pick. Dead Men’s Harvest is the sixth in the Joe Hunter series and is due to be published in August 2011.

For 140 years , Nathaniel Cade has been the President’s vampire, sworn by a blood oath to protect the President and America from their supernatural enemies. Helped by his partner, political liaison officer Zach Barrows, Cade is looking for the sources of a deadly new virus that is being used to attack armies across the world – a virus that transforms its victims into vicious animals in seconds and spreads in minutes. To ‘protect and serve’ often means settling old scores and confronting new betrayals … as only a century old predator can. The President’s Vampire is by Christopher Farnsworth and is due to be published in July 2011.

Spider Shepherd is up against the most violent enemies he’s ever encountered. Somali pirates have kidnapped the crew of a yacht in a brutal attack, and are demanding a huge ransom in return for the hostages. The pirates have chilling terrorist ambitions in the UK, and are making terrible plans to change the London skyline forever. Thousands of lives are on the line. Spider is sent to sea on an undercover mission to stop the pirates. But time is running out. Fair Game is by Stephen Leather and is due to be published in July 2011.

Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found. Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You'd struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his. But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley. And then another. With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he's the only man with a hope of finding the killer. If the killer doesn't find him first. Low Town: The Straight Razor Cure is by Daniel Polansky and is due to be published in August 2011.

Agent of Rome: The Seige is the debut historical novel by Nick Brown. 270 AD Rome has ruled Syria for over three centuries. But now the weakened empire faces a desperate threat: Queen Zenobia of Palmyra has turned her Roman-trained army against her former masters and the once invincible legions have been crushed. Arabia, Palestine and Egypt have fallen and now Antioch, Syria's capital, stands exposed. Cassius Corbulo is a young intelligence agent fresh from officer training. He has been assigned the menial task of rounding up wounded legionaries but then urgent new orders arrive. He is the only ranking Roman officer left in the line of the Palmyran advance. He must take command of the fort of Alauran, the last stronghold still in Roman hands, and hold it against the enemy until reinforcements arrive. What Cassius finds at Alauran would daunt the most seasoned veteran, let alone a nineteen year old with no experience of war. A mere scattering of divided and demoralised legionaries remain, backed up by some fractious Syrian auxiliaries and a drunken Praetorian Guardsman. With the Palmyrans just days away, Cassius must somehow find the discipline, resourcefulness and courage to organise the garrison, save Alauran and secure Rome's eastern frontier... Agent of Rome: The Seige is due to be published in July 2011.

Brodmaw Bay is by F G Cottam and is due to be published in November 2011. It's the perfect seaside village - no crime, no Londoners ...When things start to go badly wrong for James Greer in London, Brodmaw Bay seems to be calling him and his family. There's a perfect house, excellent schools - and welcoming neighbours who assure the Greers that they'd be delighted to have some new blood in the Bay. But perhaps the village isn't so much welcoming them as luring them. To something ancient and evil…

When all contact is lost with two Icelanders working in a harsh and sparsely populated area on the northeast coast of Greenland, Thora is hired to investigate. Is there any connection with the disappearance of a woman from the site some months earlier? And why are the locals so hostile? The Day is Dark is the fourth book by Yrsa Sigurdardottir to feature Thóra Gudmundsdóttir and is due to be published in July 2011.

Peter Robinson returns with a standalone novel Before the Poison. Through the years of success in Hollywood composing film scores, Chris always promised his wife they’d return to the Yorkshire Dales one day. Now a widower, Chris feels he must not forget his promised. Back in the Dales, he rents an isolated house that will allow him the space to grieve and the peace to compose his piano sonata. But when he finds that the house was the scene of a murder in the 1950s, and the convicted murderer was one of the last women hanged in England, he fins himself increasingly distracted by the events of sixty years before. Before the Poison is due to be published in August 2011.

Cotton Malone has been called on to defend his country’s safety in many exotic locations around the world, often using his knowledge of history to get to the heart of mysteries and conspiracies stretching back for centuries. But never has danger been so close to home. In The Jefferson Key, Malone finds himself battling an extraordinary group of families whose unseen influence dates back to the pages of the US Constitution – and whose thirst for power is about to be satisfied by the cracking of a code devised by Thomas Jefferson himself. The Jefferson Key is by Steve Berry and is due to be published in November 2011.

It is the coldest February in recent memory. In the early hours of a particularly freezing night, the body of a man is found hanging from a lone oak tree in the middle of the withered, windswept plains outside Linkoping, Sweden. Young superintendent Malin Fors, a single mother plagued by person tragedies is assigned to the case. She and her colleagues must track down the identity of the man hanging from the tree and the reason he ended up there. And at the same time they must follow in the frigid wake of a killer – a manhunt that takes Malin Fors into the darkest corners of the human heart. Midwinter Sacrifice is by Mons Kallentoft and is due to be published in October 2011.

A Deniable Death is the twenty-eight novel by Gerald Seymour Covert Rural Observation Posts are places where men like Danny ‘Badger’ Baxter hide for endless, motionless hours, secretly recording criminal or terrorist activity. Improvised Explosive Devices are the roadside bombs, which account for 80% of British casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. MI6 have a plan to assassinate the leading maker of these weapons as soon as he leaves Iran. But first they need to know when he is leaving, and where he is going. Thus Badger finds himself on the wrong side of the border, lumbered with a partner that he loathes, lying under a merciless sun in a mosquito-invested marsh observing the man’s house. Knowing that if they are caught, H.M.G will deny all knowledge of them. A Deniable Death is due to be published in August 2011.