Books to Look Forward to from Head of Zeus.

January 2020

The Other You is by J S Monroe.  Is he who you think he is? Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror. At least she has Rob. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health, in his high-tech, modernist house on the Cornish coast. When she's with him, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved. Until, one day, Kate looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor. Is she right? Have her old recognition skills returned? Or is it all in her damaged mind?

... though there is no fixed line between wrong and right,  There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed. It is New Year's Eve, nearly six weeks into an off-and-on blizzard that has locked Alaska down, effectively cutting it off from the outside world. But now there are reports of a plane down in the Quilak mountains. With the National Transportation Safety Board unable to reach the crash site, ex-Trooper Jim Chopin is pulled out of retirement to try to identify the aircraft, collect the corpses, and determine why no flight has been reported missing. But Jim discovers survivors: two children who don't speak a word of English.  Meanwhile, PI Kate Shugak receives an unexpected  and unwelcome accusation from beyond the grave, a charge that could change the face of the Park forever.  No Fixed Line is by Dana Stabenow.  

House on Fire is by Joseph Finder.  Nick Heller, private spy, exposes secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. At the funeral of his good friend Sean, an army buddy who struggled with opioid addiction, a stranger approaches Nick with a job. The woman is a member of the Kimball family, whose immense fortune was built on opiates. Now she wants to become a whistleblower, exposing evidence that Kimball Pharmaceutical knew its biggest money-maker was dangerously addictive. Nick agrees instantly - but he soon realizes the sins of the Kimball patriarch are just the beginning. Beneath the surface are the barely concealed cabals and conspiracies: a twisting story of family intrigue and lethal corporate machinations.

I am the Night is by Ethan Cross.  Marcus Williams and Francis Ackerman Jr. are both killers. But while Williams is tortured by the deaths he has caused, Ackerman takes pleasure in his murders. Williams is a former New York City homicide detective. Ackerman is a serial killer. And both men are about to become unwilling pawns in a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of US government. They will be plunged deep into a hellish underworld of murderers and killers. They will find that there is more that connects them than divides them... and that their lives depend on it.

February 2020.

Sean Tennant and Molly Winter are living quietly and cautiously in Houston when a troubled, obsessive stranger shatters the safety they have carefully constructed for themselves. Sean is at a shopping mall when Henry Alan Keen, scorned by a woman he's been dating, pulls out a gun at the store where she works and begins shooting everyone in sight. A former soldier, Sean rushes toward Keen and ends the slaughter with two well-placed shots - becoming a hero with his face plastered across the news. But Sean's newfound notoriety exposes him to the wrath of two men he thought he had left safely in his past. One of them blames Sean for his brother's death. The other wants to recover a treasure that Sean and Molly stole from him. Both men are deadly and relentless enemies, and Sean and Molly will need to draw on all their strength and devotion to each other if they hope to elude them. Thus begins a cross-country chase that leads from Texas to Montana, from Tennessee to New York to Michigan, as the hunters and their prey grow ever closer and, in a heart-stopping moment, converge.  The Good Killer is by Harry Dolan.

The Last Drop of Blood is by Graham Masterton.  It started with the judge. He was about to sentence five of Cork's most notorious criminals. But his body has just turned up, beaten and broken, on an isolated road in his burned-out car. Now four members of a rival gang have been shot, and in retaliation three civilians have been blown up. To Katie's horror, Cork is becoming a gang battleground like Dublin. Can Katie save the city? Can she save herself?

Robert Ludlum's ™ The Treadstone Resurrection is by Joshua Hood.   Operation Treadstone has nearly ruined Adam Hayes. The top-secret CIA Black Ops program trained him to be a nearly invincible assassin, but it also cost him his family and any chance at a normal life. Which is why he was determined to get out. Working as a cabinet-maker in rural Oregon, Adam thinks he has left Treadstone in the past, until he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague, and soon after is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site. Adam must regain the skills that Treadstone taught him - lightning reflexes and a cold conscience - in order to discover who the would-be killers are, and why they have come after him now. Are his pursuers enemies from a long-ago mission? Rival intelligence agents? Or, perhaps, someone inside Treadstone? His search will unearth secrets in the highest levels of government and pull him back into the shadowy world he worked so hard to forget.

Nga-Yee, a librarian, lives a quiet life with her fifteen-year-old sister Siu-Man. After a difficult, impoverished upbringing and the deaths of their parents, they are finally finding a bit of stability. Then one day, Nga-Yee comes home to find her teenage sister has jumped to her death. Was it suicide, or was she pushed? And does it have anything to do with a recent trip on the Hong Kong subway which left Siu-Man silent and withdrawn? Nga-Yee cannot rest until she knows the truth about her sister - even if that means tracking down her sister's friends one by one and making them confess. Part detective novel, part revenge thriller, Second Sister is by Chan Ho-Kei and explores themes of sexual harassment, internet bullying and teenage suicide - and vividly captures the zeitgeist of Hong Kong today.

March 2020

New Year's Eve, London. Outside the Hope & Glory pub, a man has been left to die. A victim of extraordinary violence, he will never walk or speak again. He remains in hospital, nameless, until criminal defence lawyer Sarah Kellerman walks onto his ward.  Sarah barely recognises the man she once worked with - he was honourable and kind - what was he involved in? Who wanted him dead? But in her race to uncover the truth, Sarah comes to realise there are two men in her life that she never really knew at all...  From one of crime fiction's most compelling voices, One Dark, Two Light is by Ruth Mancini and is where the personal and criminal collide, as Sarah works to bring dark secrets into the light.

The wife of a prominent local judge is shot and killed on Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett's turf. But as Joe investigates, all signs point to the shot having been taken from an impossibly long distance. Joe has seen a lot in his time as warden, but he's never seen a killing like this. How could the shooting have been arranged? And who else is in the cross hairs? At the same time - just as he's adjusting to the arrival of a new baby, his first child - Joe's best friend Nate Romanowski is attempting to decipher a startling grizzly attack in the area. Beset by threats both man-made and natural, the two men must go to great lengths to figure out how to keep their loved ones safe.  Long Range is by C J Box.  

The Message is by Mai Jia.  China, 1941.  While war rages in Europe, Japan has established itself as the supreme power in Asia. The beautiful province of Hangzhou has become a stronghold of the Japanese puppet government. One day, five officers from the code-breaking department are escorted to an isolated mansion outside the city. One of them has been sharing secrets with the communists. No-one is leaving until the traitor is uncovered. It should be a straightforward case of sifting truth from lies. But as each code-breaker spins a story that proves their innocence, events are re-framed, and what really happened is called into question again and again. Part revisionist history, part playful meta-fiction, The Message is at once an absorbing and cerebral spy thriller. 

Crooked River is by Preston & Child.  Before he can return to New York from Miami, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is called to investigate something very strange that has happened on the west coast of Florida. Dozens of human feet, identically clad in blue have washed up on beaches. All exhibit unmistakeable signs of violence. Beyond that, nothing is known about the feet, except that they are fresh and haven't been in the water long. Pendergast reluctantly makes his way to the barrier islands off South Florida to investigate a case he believes to be outside his area of expertise and his interest. Once there, he finds the case both disturbing and intriguing, and is drawn into the mystery almost against his will. A preliminary pathology report indicates the feet were chopped, torn, or even wrenched from their bodies in the crudest of ways. Over the next few days, still more continue to wash in, until the number tops one hundred. Soon the case begins to take a most surprising and complex turn, and Pendergast finds it necessary to call in Special Agent Armstrong Coldmoon for a risky and very specific undercover assignment. And when, at last, the true origin of this awful gift from the sea becomes clear, the former partners are forced to confront an enemy, and a horror, more powerful and deadly than any they have faced before.

April 2020

Mortmain Hall is by Martin Edwards.  1930. A chilling encounter on London's Necropolis Railway leads to murder. At the Old Bailey, a man accused of a 'blazing car' killing escapes the gallows after a surprise witness gives sensational evidence. And journalist Jacob Flint finds himself framed for murder.To save himself, Jacob needs to discover what links these strange events to a remote estate on a northern coast, Mortmain Hall. At Mortmain Hall, an eccentric female criminologist hosts a gathering of people who have narrowly escaped the consequences of miscarriages of justice. But the house party culminates in tragedy when a body is found beneath the crumbling cliffs.  Is the death an accident or the result of an ingenious plot to get away with murder? An eclectic mix of suspects and victims includes a radical publisher risen from the grave, a fake medium with a sinister past, and a cricketer mauled to death by an escaped lion. Jacob sets out to uncover the labyrinthine secrets of Mortmain Hall, alongside a woman whose relentless quest for the truth might just bring down the British establishment...Who can we turn to, if justice betrays us?

Old enemies... Francis Ackerman Jr. is one of America's most prolific serial killers. Having kept a low profile for the past year, he is ready to return to work - and he's more brutal, cunning, and dangerous than ever. New threats... Scarred from their past battles, Special Agent Marcus Williams cannot shake Ackerman from his mind. But now Marcus must focus on catching the Anarchist, a new killer who drugs and kidnaps women before burning them alive. Hidden terrors... Marcus knows the Anarchist will strike again soon. And Ackerman is still free. But worse than this is a mysterious figure, unknown to the authorities, who controls the actions of the Anarchist and many like him. He is the Prophet - and his plans are more terrible than even his own disciples can imagine. I am Fear is by Ethan Cross.

Tobias Hawke was the tech genius boss of the British Institute for Deep Learning. Now his body has been found in his lab: he has been brutally murdered. Hawke was on the brink of an astonishing breakthrough in the field of Artificial Intelligence. His creation, 'Syd', a machine-learning device that mimics human thought, promised to change the face of humanity forever. But, in the wake of her creator's murder, Syd has gone into emergency shutdown procedure. What secrets are her neural networks hiding? Michael North, ex-assassin and spy-for-hire, is the man to find out. But he can't work alone. Teenage hacker Fangfang, and Hawke's widow, a prize-winning ethicist, have their own reasons to solve the murder. But can they uncover the truth before it's too late?  Curse the Day is by Judith O’Reilly.

May 2020

Freddy left her childhood home in Newhaven twenty-two years ago and swore never to return. But now her parents are dead, and she's back in her hometown to help her brothers manage the family fishmonger. Nothing here has changed: the stink of fish coming up from the marshes; the shopping trolleys half-buried by muddy tides; the neighbours sniffing for a new piece of gossip. It's not what Freddy would have chosen, but at least while she's here she'll get to see her childhood best friends, Toni and Mags. At school, the three of them were inseparable. The teachers called them the Mermaids for their obsession with the sea, and with each other. Then Mags goes missing, and Freddy must decide. Go back home to her new life, or stay in Newhaven and find her friend?  Death of a Mermaid is by Lesley Thomson

X Ways to Die is by Stefan Ahnhem.  X Ways to Die continues the tense, multi-stranded story which begun with Motive X. It is at once an explosive, high-voltage thriller and a fearless exploration of the darkest side of human nature. To enter Stefan Ahnhem's world, with its interwoven plotlines and sprawling cast of characters, is to put yourself in the hands of a master storyteller.

 

In Fate: Death Notice 2 by Zhou Haohui a terrifying killer crowd-sourced his victims online.  Playing a deadly but ingenious game of cat and mouse with his pursuers.  That killer only known by his online handlers as Eumendies, murder civilians and police with impunity.  Now Sergeant Zheng Haoming of the Chengdu Police Department is determined to hunt him down and avenge his colleagues.

June 2020

All of Us is by A F Carter.  It’s not enough that Carolyn Grand endured a horrific childhood that sent her father to jail for thirty years. It’s not enough that she was given to a foster family who pushed her over the edge. It’s not enough that five Carolyn Grands are forced to share a single body. It’s not enough that she spent years in two psychiatric hospitals, was fed psychotropic drugs that left her little more than a zombie. It’s not enough that all five Carolyns struggle every day to remain independent, to pay the rent, to put dinner on the table. It’s not enough that the unreformed and unrepentant father who destroyed Carolyn’s childhood, newly released from prison, has once again thrust himself into her life. Carolyn Grand now has to defend herself against a charge of murder. 

1914: Sixteen-year-old Etterly, running from something, hides inside the trunk of a tree and disappears. The police search but find no trace. Her family and friends wrack their brains, but come up with nothing. And so slowly life returns to normal. The hole in the tree is boarded up and the village of Sackwater moves on. Only Etterly's best friend, Betty, clings to hope, insisting she can hear her friend calling for help. 1940: A skeleton is discovered buried in the woods. Though most clues have long since decayed, it is wearing the necklace Etterly had on the day she went missing. Long haunted by her friend's fate, Detective Betty Church is determined to solve the case once and for all.  The Ghost Tree is by M R C Kasasian.

Blood of the Wolf is by Graham Hurley.  Berlin, 1942.  For four years, the men in field grey have helped themselves to country after country across Western Europe. For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Promi - the Ministry of Propaganda - this dizzying series of victories has felt like a party without end. But now the Reich's attention has turned towards the East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning. Werner's boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. A small man with a powerful voice and coal-black eyes, Goebbels has a deep understanding the dark arts of manipulation. His words, his newsreels, have shaken Germany awake, propelling it towards its greater destiny and he won't let - he can't let - morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence. And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad...

Books to look forward to from Random House - Cornerstone.

Everyone thinks Emma Dockery is crazy.  Obsessed with finding the link between hundreds of unsolved cases, Emma has taken leave from her job as an FBI researcher.  Now all she has are the newspaper clippings that wallpaper her bedroom, and her nightly recurring nightmares of an all-consuming fire.  Not even Emma's ex-boyfriend, field agent Harrison 'Books' Bookman, will believe her that hundreds of kidnappings, rapes, and murders are all connected.  That is, until Emma finds a piece of evidence he can't afford to ignore.  More murders are reported by the day - and they're all inexplicable.  No motives, no murder weapons,, no suspects.  Could one person really be responsible for these unthinkable crimes?  Invisible is by James Patterson and David Ellis and is due to be published in July 2014.

 A father returns home to find that his family has been kidnapped and the only way to save their lives is for him to kill another innocent person.  So begins a journey that will force Special Agent Marcus Williams of the Shepherd Organization to question all that he believes, unearth his family's dark legacy, and sacrifice everything to save those he loves.  In order to stop this brutal and deadly game, Williams must enlist the help of one of the world's most infamous and wanted men ...the serial killer Francis Ackerman Jr.  Darkest Fear is by Ethan Cross and is due to be published in October 2014.

Burn is by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge and is due to be published in September 2014.  Detective Michael Bennett finally returns to New York City - and to the most unsettling, horrific case of his career.  At last, Detective Michael Bennett and his family are coming home to New York City.  Thanks to Bennett, the ruthless crime lord whose vengeful mission forced the Bennett family into hiding has been brought down for good.  Back in the city that never sleeps, Bennett takes over a chaotic Outreach Squad in Harlem, where he receives an unusual call: a man claims to have seen a group of well-dressed men holding a bizarre party in a condemned building.  With no clear crime or evidence, Bennett dismisses the report.  But when a charred body is found in that very same building, he is forced to take the caller seriously - and is drawn into an underground criminal world of terrifying depravity.

 

The Weight of Blood is the debut psychological crime novel about family lies and dark secrets in an isolated community as a series of women go missing.  People still whisper about Lucy Dane's mother who vanished years ago from the town of Henbane, deep in the Ozark Mountains.  When one of Lucy's friends is found murdered, Lucy feels haunted by the two lost women: by the mother she never knew, and the friend she couldn't protect.  But her search for answers, in a place where secrets are easily concealed, leads her to a chilling discovery.  And with this revelation, she must grapple with the meaning of family, the secrets we keep, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love.  The Weight of Blood is by Laura McHugh and is due to be published in July 2014.

When Santosh Wagh isn't struggling out of a bottle of whisky he's head of Private India, the Mumbai branch of the world's finest PI agency.  In a city of over thirteen million he has his work cut out at the best of times.  But now someone is killing women - seemingly unconnected women murdered in a chilling ritual, with strange objects placed carefully at their death scenes.  As Santosh and his team race to find the killer, an even greater danger faces Private India - a danger that could threaten the lives of thousands of innocent Mumbai citizens.  Private India is by James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi and is due to be published in August 2014.

When Ram and Tulsi fall in love, the young woman's parents are dead set against the union.  She's from a high-caste family; he's an Untouchable, from the lowest strata of Indian society.  Young Tulsi's father locks her up and promises to hunt down the "loverboy dog”.  Fortunately, India's Love Commandos, a group of volunteers dedicated to helping mixed-caste couples, come to the rescue.  But just after they liberate Tulsi, Ram is mysteriously snatched from his hiding place.  The task of finding him falls to India's "Most Private Investigator".  Unfortunately, Vish Puri is not having a good month.  He's failed to recover a cache of stolen jewels.  His wallet has been stolen and he's having to rely on his infuriating Mummy-ji to get it back.  And to top it all, his arch-rival, suave investigator Hari Kumar, is also trying to locate Ram.  To reunite the star-crossed lovers, Puri and his team of operatives must infiltrate Ram's village and navigate the caste politics shaped by millennia-old prejudices.  The Case of the Love Commandos is by Tarquin Hall and is due to be published in October 2014.

 

A match has obtained on DNA sample 7426 to Canadian national number 64899, identified as: Anique Pomerleau, White/Female DOB: 12/10/75 the subject is currently not in custody.  For a decade, Temperance Brennan has been haunted by the monster.  Anique Pomerleau.  Killer of young women.  The one who got away.  The one who has now come back.  Feeding on fear, grief, and rage.  Killing again.  Killing girls.  Getting closer.  Coming for Tempe.  Bones Never Lie is by Kathy Reichs and is due to be published in September 2014.

 

London, May 1665.  On a dark road outside London, a simple robbery goes horribly wrong - when the gentlemanly highwayman, William Coke, discovers that his intended victims have been brutally slaughtered.  Suspected of the murders, Coke is forced into an uneasy alliance with the man who pursues him - the relentless thief-taker, Pitman.  Together they seek the killer - and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from the glittering, debauched court of King Charles to the worst slum in the city, St Giles in the Fields.  But there's another murderer moving through the slums, the taverns, and palaces, slipping under the doorways of the rich.  A mass murderer.  Plague.  Plague is by C C Humphreys and is due to be published in July 2014.

Detective Alex Cross is being stalked by a psychotic genius, forced to play the deadliest game of his career.  Cross' family - his loving wife Bree, the wise and lively Nana Mama, and his precious children - have been ripped away.  Terrified and desperate, Cross must give this mad man what he wants if he has any chance of saving the most important people in his life.  The stakes have never been higher: What will Cross sacrifice to save the ones he loves?  Hope to Die is by James Patterson and is due to be published in November 2014.

DI Jack Delaney is trying to make a clean break.  Tormented by his troubled past, he has taken his young family out of London, swapping the mayhem of London for the tranquil calm of the north Norfolk coast.  Except it's not so tranquil.  After a terrible storm hits Sheringham, a body is discovered beneath the rubble of a collapsed cliff.  Natural disaster?  No, this looks like murder, and Jack is the only local resident qualified to investigate.  But when more disappearances follow and the local police step in, Jack finds himself plunged dangerously deep into the investigation - and in the sights of the killer on the loose.  The Killing Season is by Mark Pearson and is due to be published in August 2014.

Washington, DC.  Former soldier and elite CIA operative Ryan Drake is heading out for dinner when he witnesses a sniper attack on a crowded freeway.  A motorcade full of Russian Federal Security Force members - in Washington for a top level conference with their US counterparts - has been ambushed.  Many have been killed and worst of all, Drake discovers that the leader of the strike team was Anya - the dangerous and enigmatic woman he once risked everything to protect.  Drake cannot believe her capable of such an atrocity but with the Russians baying for blood and tensions rising, Drake and his depleted team head for Siberia to discover the truth.  And here he must confront the terrifying possibility that Anya's betrayal will unmask secrets greater and more devastating than he could ever have imagined.  Betrayal is by Will Jordan and is due to be published in September 2014.

Rea Carlisle has inherited a house from an uncle she never knew.  It doesn't take her long to clear out the dead man's remaining possessions, but one room remains stubbornly locked.  When Rea finally forces it open she discovers inside a chair, a table - and a leather-bound book.  Inside its pages are locks of hair, fingernails: a catalogue of victims.  Horrified, Rea wants to go straight to the police but when her family intervene, Rea turns to the only person she can think of: DI Jack Lennon.  But Lennon is facing his own problems.  Suspended from the force and hounded by DCI Serena Flanagan, the toughest cop he's ever faced, Lennon must unlock the secrets of a dead man's terrifying journal.  The Final Silence is by Stuart Neville and is due to be published in July 2014.

The Soul of Discretion is by Susan Hill and is due to be published in October 2014.The cathedral town of Lafferton seems idyllic, but in many ways it is just like any other place.  As part of the same rapidly changing world, it shares the same hopes and fears, and the same kinds of crime, as any number of towns up and down the land.  When one day DC Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton's new Chief Constable, Kieron Bright, he is met by four plainclothes officers.  He is asked to take the lead role in a complex, potentially dangerous undercover operation and must leave town immediately, without telling anyone - not even his girlfriend Rachel, who has only just moved in with him.  Meanwhile, Simon's sister Cat is facing difficult choices at work that will test her dedication to the NHS.  But an urgent call about her and Simon's father, Richard, soon presents her with a far greater challenge much closer to home.  To complete his special op, Simon must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal.  As the op unfolds, Lafferton is dragged into the sort of case every town dreads.  And Simon faces the fight of his life.

Atlanta, 1974.  As a brutal killing and a furious manhunt rock the city, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the police force will also be her last.  For life is anything but easy in the male-dominated world of the Atlanta Police Department, where even the other female cops have little mercy for the new girl.  Kate isn't the only woman on the force who is finding things tough.  Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes.  When Maggie and Kate become partners, and are side-lined in the search for the city's cop killer, their fury, pain, and pride finally reach boiling point.  With the killer poised to strike again, will Kate and Maggie have the courage to pursue their own line of investigation?  And are they prepared to risk everything as they venture into the city's darkest heart?  Cop Town is by Karin Slaughter and is due to be published in July 2014.

It is December 6, 1941, in Los Angeles.  World War II has raged for two years in Great Britain and Europe.  Japan has gone on a rampage in Asia and the Pacific - and America's entrance into the war is a widely accepted and utterly foregone conclusion.  Los Angeles is mainland America's gateway to the Pacific conflict, home to the largest Japanese community in the United States.  Bomber squadrons of the Imperial Japanese Air Corps will attack the U.S. fleet moored at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, within 24 hours.  That catastrophic moment in U.S. history will be preceded by the murders or ritual suicides of a Japanese family in L.A., a scant dozen hours earlier.  Massive roundups of suspected Japanese subversives will soon begin; racial hysteria will overtake L.A.  The stage has been set for James Ellroy's largest, most historically dense and factually detailed novel - and the first book in his 'Second L.A. Quartet' - Perfidia.  Perfidia is an epic-length novel that will transpire within only 24 days - December 6, 1941 through to New Year's Eve.  A crime novel, a war novel and a historic romance, it will unfold in real time as two police officers, a Japanese-American forensic chemist and a young woman coerced into a cabal of Hollywood leftists work around the clock, while Los Angeles comports under night time blackouts, war fever and escalating racial tension spawned by the Pearl Harbour bombings.  Characters from Ellroy's previous seven novels - including arch villain Dudley Smith, anti-hero of The Big Nowhere, White Jazz and L.A. Confidential - will be joined by new characters - both real-life and fictional - in this grand drama of Los Angeles during the first month of America's entry into the war.  Perfidia is due to be published in September 2014.

When the bones of two severed hands are discovered in a box, an investigation into a long buried crime of passion begins.  And a group of friends, who played together as children, begin to question their past.  'For Woody, anger was cold.  Cold and slow.  But once it had started it mounted gradually and he could think of nothing else.  He knew he couldn't stay alive while those two were alive.  Instead of sleeping, he lay awake in the dark and saw those hands.  Anita's narrow white hand with the long nails painted pastel pink, the man's brown hand equally shapely, the fingers slightly splayed.’  Before the advent of the Second World War, beneath the green meadows of Loughton, Essex, a dark network of tunnels has been dug.  A group of children discover them.  They play there.  It becomes their secret place.  Seventy years on, the world has changed.  Developers have altered the rural landscape.  Friends from a half-remembered world have married, died, grown sick, moved on or disappeared.  Work on a new house called Warlock uncovers a grisly secret, buried a lifetime ago, and a weary detective, more preoccupied with current crimes, must investigate a possible case of murder. Ruth Rendell digs deep beneath the surface to investigate the secrets of the human psyche.  The interconnecting tunnels of Loughton in The Girl Next Door lead to no single destination.  But the relationships formed there, the incidents that occurred, exert a profound influence - not only on the survivors but in unearthing the true nature of the mysterious past. The Girl Next Door is due to be published in August 2014.

Grandville Noel is by Bryan Talbot and is due to be published in November 2014.  With his trusty adjunct, Detective Sergeant Ratzi, away for Christmas, there's no holiday for Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard as he embarks on an investigation into the disappearance of his housekeeper's niece, Bunty Spall.  The trail leads to a growing religious cult, where a charismatic unicorn messiah and his con men cronies, already responsible for mass murder in the United States, are about to lead a crusade for the ethnic cleansing of the French Empire's doughfaces - the derogatory nickname for humans used by the majority, animal-headed population.  Teaming up with Chance Lucas, a gun-slinging operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and reigniting his steamy love affair with the voluptuous Parisian badger prostitute Billie, LeBrock clashes with both cult fanatics and doughface terrorists, uncovering in the process a centuries-old religious conspiracy that threatens to plunge the world into bloody civil war.  With Paris in the grip of the mysterious crime lord, Tiberius Koenig, and an increasingly violent backlash by human extremists, can LeBrock stop the seemingly inevitable slide into fascism?  What is the secret of the legendary True Gospels?  Can he rescue Bunty Spall from the clutches of the strangely hypnotic unicorn named Apollo?  But does Bunty want to be saved?  And will LeBrock be back in time for Christmas dinner?  No badger does it better!

The loner Erlendur has recently joined the police force as a young officer.  The beat on the streets in Reykjavik is busy: traffic accidents, theft, domestic violence, and contraband...  And an unexplained death.  When a tramp he met regularly on the night shift is found drowned in a ditch no one seems to care.  But his fate haunts Erlendur and drags him inexorably into the strange and dark underworld of the city.  Reykjavik Nights  is by Arnaldur Indridason and is due to be published in September 2014.

The hands were warm.  Soft fingers, but flesh inflected with iron.  Squeezing.  The tongue lolled and protruded from the mouth.  Vertebrae fragmented, one, two, three, until finally the hands relaxed and the limp body slid from their embrace.  Blood turned to ice and sealed the nostrils.  It's the week before Christmas.  Catherine Berlin sits alone gazing at a bank of monitors, each capturing a slice of a vast industrial estate.  A van appears: two men delivering crates, moving quickly.  Her boss tells her to ignore them, but she can't.  Berlin's scars have faded, but she still walks with a limp.  She's broke and working nights as a relief CCTV operator, and looking for something more substantial.  Her heroin habit is under control - only just.  The night shifts end, but now Berlin herself is being watched.  When an old friend offers her a job in Russia, she quickly agrees.  The details are vague: a mysterious businessman with money to spend, a UK company offering a high fee for Berlin to investigate.  Easy enough.  But Berlin arrives in Moscow to find that her problems are only just beginning.  She is soon forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about her past, and her present.  A body is found at the airport: a man clutching a sign with her name on it.  Her pursuers reappear, and her guide, a Brit named Charlie, has secrets to hide.  When Berlin's businessman goes missing, she realises that she cannot trust anyone or anything, if she is to survive.  A Morbid Habit is by Annie Hauxwell and is due to be published in July 2014.

DCI Billy McCartney has gone to ground, disillusioned with his job.  When a runaway turns up on his doorstep, her story plunges Mac back to the summer of 1990, and one of his most traumatic cases.  Ibiza - a joint venture with the Spanish serious crime agency.  McCartney and his partner DS Millie Baker have been detailed to infiltrate the Liverpool-based drug gang responsible for a wave of ecstasy-related deaths.  But their stakeout takes both Mac and Millie to the heart of a dark empire whose tentacles stretch from Ireland to Morocco, and whose activities include industrial-scale drug production - and terrorism.  They're close to their big bust when Millie is abducted by the gang, and killed.  McCartney never quite recovers from it.  The waif who knocks on Mac's door twenty-four years later has escaped from those same captors; a dynasty of international dope dealers based high in the Moroccan Rif.  What she tells McCartney blasts his apathy away, and sends him on a mission that goes far beyond law and order.  This is his chance for redemption.  The House on the Hill is by Kevin Sampson and is due to be published in August 2014.

Charlo Torp has problems.  He's grieving for his late wife, he's lost his job, and gambling debts have alienated him from his teenage daughter.  Desperate, his solution is to rob an elderly woman of her money and silverware.  But Harriet Krohn fights back, and Charlo loses control.  Wracked with guilt, Charlo attempts to rebuild his life.  But the police are catching up with him, and Inspector Konrad Sejer has never lost a case yet.  Told through the eyes of a killer, The Murder of Harriet Krohn poses the question: how far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterwards?  The Murder of Harriet Krohn is by Karin Fossum and is due to be published in June 2014.

Some cases aren't as cold as you'd think Kurt Wallander's life looks like it has taken a turn for the better when his offer on a new house is accepted, only for him to uncover something unexpected in the garden - the skeleton of a middle-aged woman.  As police officers comb the property, Wallander attempts to get his new life back on course by finding the woman's killer with the aid of his daughter, Linda.  But when another discovery is made in the garden, Wallander is forced to delve further back into the area's past.  This is a never before published Kurt Wallander novella.  An Event in Autumn is by Henning Mankell and is due to be published in September 2014.

Morris Duckworth has a dark past.  Having married and murdered his way into a wealthy Italian family he has long left aside the paperweight and the pillow to become a respected member of Veronese business life.  But it's not enough.  Never satisfied with being anything short of the best, he comes up with a plan to put on the most exciting art exhibition of the decade, based on a subject close to his heart: killing.  All the great slaughters of scripture and classical times will be on show, from Cain and Abel, to Brutus and Caesar.  But as Morris meet stiff resistance from the Neapolitan director of Verona's Castelvecchio museum, everything starts to unravel around him.  His children are rebelling, his mistress is asking for more than he wants to give, his wife is increasingly attached to her ageing confessor, and worst of all it's getting harder and harder to ignore the ghosts that swirl around him, and the skeletons rattling in every cupboard.  The shame of it is that Morris Arthur Duckworth really did not want to have to kill again.  Painting Death is by Tim Parks and is due to be published in July 2014. 

Books to look forward to from Cornerstone (Century, Hutchinson, Random House Books, William Heinemann, Preface Publishing and Arrow)

The past will always find you.  A woman is found brutally murdered in a sordid Atlanta apartment.  Her blood-soaked body bears a startling similarity to a woman found dead almost 40 years earlier.  Soon Special Agent Will Trent finds himself returning to the home he grew up in.  And a past that could hold the clue to the killings.  Criminal is the latest book in the Georgia Series by Karin Slaughter and is due to be published in July 2012.

Bones are Forever is by Kathy Reichs and is due to be published in August 2012. A newborn baby is found wedged in a vanity cabinet in a rundown apartment near Montreal.  Dr Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist to the province of Quebec, is brought in to investigate. While there, she discovers the mummified remains of two more babies within the same room.  Shocked and distressed, Tempe must use all her skills and inner strength to focus on the facts. But when the autopsies reveal that the children died of unnatural causes, the hunt for the mother - a young woman with a seedy past and at least three aliases - is on. The trail leads Tempe to Yellowknife, a cold, desolate diamond-mining town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, where her quest for the truth only throws up more questions, more secrets, and more dead bodies.  Taking risks and working alone, Tempe refuses to give up until she has discovered why the babies died. But in such a hostile environment, can she avoid being the next victim?

Francis Ackerman is back!  The terrifying serial killer has kept a low profile for the past year. Now he is ready to return to work – still as brutal, but more cunning, calculated and dangerous as ever.  Marcus Williams cannot shake Ackerman from his mind.  But now fully integrated into The Shepherd Organisation, Marcus has to focus on catching a new serial killer.  ‘The Anarchist’, who drugs and kidnaps young women before savagely disposing of them.  Marcus and his colleagues face a race against time: the Anarchist will strike again soon.  And Ackerman is still free.  Even worse than this is a mysterious figure, unknown to the authorities, who controls the actions of the Anarchist and many like him.  He is: The Prophet.  The Prophet is by Ethan Cross and is due to be published in October 2012.

Guilty Wives is by James Patterson and David Ellis and is due to be published in July 2012.  Only minutes after Abbie Elliot and her three best friends step off of a private helicopter, they enter the most luxurious, sumptuous, sensually pampering hotel they have ever been to.  Their lavish presidential suite overlooks Monte Carlo, and they surrender to the sun and pool, to the sashimi and sake, to the Bruno Paillard champagne.  For four days, they're free to live someone else's life.  As the weekend moves into pulsating nightclubs, high-stakes casinos, and beyond, Abbie is transported to the greatest pleasure and release she has ever known.  In the morning's harsh light, Abbie awakens on a yacht, surrounded by police.  Something awful has happened - something impossible, unthinkable.  Abbie, Winnie, Serena, and Bryah are arrested and accused of the foulest crime imaginable.  And now the vacation of a lifetime becomes the fight of a lifetime - a fight for survival.  "Guilty Wives" is the ultimate indulgence, the kind of non-stop joy ride of excess, friendship, betrayal, and danger. Also being published in August 2012 by James Patterson is Maximum Ride: Nevermore the final book in the Maximum Ride Series.  In the beginning, there was maximum ride...A girl.  A fighter.  A leader.  A superhuman with a mission to save the world.  She's gone to the ends of the earth seeking her destiny.  And now, the end isn't near...It's here.

When ten-year-old Rainey Teague disappears on his way home from school in idyllic Niceville, Detective Nick Kavanaugh traces the boy to his last sighting - staring into the window of old pawn shop in town.  CCTV shows Rainey there one minute and then gone the next.  In the days that follow, any hope Rainey's family has of finding him alive starts to fade but then Rainey is found - alive but in a coma, and there's no telling when, or if, he'll ever wake up...One year on, Kavanagh is still haunted by the case.  And now another member of the town - this time an elderly woman - has been reported missing.  It's as though she vanished into thin air.  Once again, Kavanagh's on the case and, as he starts to dig back through the town's history, he can't help but notice that Niceville has a much higher than average number of stranger abductions... Niceville is by Carsten Stroud and is due to be published in August 2012.

The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken is by Tarquin Hall and is due to be published in July 2012.  Vish Puri is as fond of butter chicken as the next Punjabi.  And when there's plenty on offer at the Delhi Durbar hotel where he's attending an India Premier League cricket match dinner, he's the first to tuck in.  Irfan Khan, father of Pakistani star cricketer Kamran Khan, can't resist either.  But the creamy dish proves his undoing.  After a few mouthfuls, he collapses on the floor, dead.  Clearly, this isn't a case of Delhi Belly.  But who amongst the Bollywood stars, politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists poisoned Khan is a mystery.  And with the capital's police chief proving as incompetent as ever, it falls to Most Private Investigators to find out the truth.  Puri is soon able to link Khan to a bald bookie called Full Moon and all the clues point to the involvement of a gambling syndicate that controls the illegal X billion dollars betting industry.  The answers seem to lie in Surat, the diamond cutting and polishing capital of the world (where Puri's chief undercover operative Tubelight meets his match) and across the border in Pakistan, Puri's nemesis, the one country where he has sworn never to set foot.  Or do they? A certain determined, grey-haired lady with a unique insight into the murder believes that the portly detective is barking up 'a wrong tree'. Is Mummy-ji right? Is there more to the murder than meets the eye? And why, to make life even more complicated for Vish Puri, has someone tried to steal the longest moustache in the world - from right under the nose of its owner? Literally.

  

Free Alex Cross is by James Patterson and is due to be published in October 2012.  Detective Alex Cross arrests renowned plastic surgeon Elijah Creem for sleeping with teenage girls.  Now, his life ruined, Creem is out of jail, and he's made sure that no one will recognize him - by giving himself a new face.  A young woman is found hanging from a sixth-floor window, and Alex is called to the scene.  The victim recently gave birth, but the baby is nowhere to be found.  Before Alex can begin searching for the missing newborn and killer, he's called to investigate a second crime.  All of Washington DC is in a panic, and when a third body is discovered, rumours of three serial killers send the city into an all-out frenzy.  Alex's investigations are going nowhere, and he's too focused on the cases to notice that someone has been watching him - and will stop at nothing until he's dead.  With white-hot speed, relentless drama, and hairpin turns, Free Alex Cross is an ultimate thrill ride.  The other Alex Cross book due to be published in November 2012 is Merry Christmas Alex Cross.  It’s Christmas Eve in Washington DC, Detective Alex Cross is at home with her family decorating the tree and enjoying a Cross family tradition, a big bowl of egg nog, when he receives a phone call that causes the festivities to be put on hold.  Across town in a mansion house, Henry Fowler, a hard-nosed corporate lawyer turned small-time drug hustler, is holding his children, his ex-wife, her new husband and a neighbour at gun point.  High on crystal meth and heavily armed, Fowler is refusing to speak with the negotiator.  As an expert in hostage situations, Alex has been called in to try and save a potential massacre.  But with Fowler crazed and irrational, will Alex be able to save the lives of these hostages, as well as coming out alive himself?  At the same time, international terrorist Hala al Dossari has been planning a devastating attack to strike at the heart of the Western world on the most important day of the year – Christmas Day!

An F-18 Navy fighter careens out of the blue sky above the Mojave desert. A TV cameraman, who grew up in a small town just miles away, can see what is going to happen next. Frantically, Wes Stewart races to the downed jet and tries to save the pilot's life. When the plane explodes, Wes escapes without harm - and plunges into a murderous conspiracy. It's been fifteen years since Wes has been back to the desolate landscape of his childhood. Now, he finds himself up against the US military, the local police and someone who is tracking his every move. In the moments he spent with the dying pilot, Wes discovered something that could get him killed. But while he tries to untangle a web of lies and secrets surrounding the crash, another danger is stalking him. And this one he will never see coming.  No Return is by Brett Battles and is due to be published in August 2012.

On a freezing October morning, Detective Inspector Frank Keane is called to the scene of a crime on Liverpool's shoreline. The body of what looks like a man, brutally tortured and burned, has been tied to a pole on the beach. With very little evidence to go on, Keane and his partner, DS Emily Harris, rely on their gut feeling that this murder is gang-related and their investigation takes them, once again, into the murky underworld of organised crime. Over in Australia, ex-Liverpool Police detective Menno Koopman - Frank's former boss - is enjoying his retirement. He has no plans to ever return to England but when the body on the beach turns out to be his son, Stevie - whom he only ever met once as a baby - he knows he has to go back and seek justice for his horrific murder. But there's a fine line between justice and revenge.  A Dark Place to Die is the debut crime novel by Ed Chatterton and is due to be published in September 2012.

The Saint Zita Society is by Ruth Rendell and is due to be published in July 2012.  'Someone had told Dex that the Queen lived in Victoria.  So did he, but she had a palace and he had one room in a street off Warwick Way.  Still he liked the idea that she was his neighbour'.  Dex works as a gardener for Dr Jefferson at his home on Hexam Place in Pimlico: an exclusive street of white-painted stucco Georgian houses inhabited by the rich, and serviced by the not so rich.  The hired help, a motley assortment of au pairs, drivers and cleaners, decide to form the St Zita Society (Zita was the patron saint of domestic servants) as an excuse to meet at the local pub and air their grievances.  When Dex is invited to attend one of these meetings, the others find that he is a strange man, seemingly ill at ease with human beings.  These first impressions are compounded when they discover he has recently been released from a hospital for the criminally insane, where he was incarcerated for attempting to kill his own mother.  Dex's most meaningful relationship seems to be with his mobile phone service provider, Peach, and he interprets the text notifications and messages he receives from the company as a reassuring sign that there is some kind of god who will protect him.  And give him instructions about ridding the world of evil spirits...Accidental death and pathological madness cohabit above and below stairs in Hexam Place.

The life of a young police officer is hard enough, yet Samantha Ryan is not only a member of the Boston PD but also a now defunct coven based in Salem.  So when two students are murdered in quick succession, pentagons smeared onto their foreheads, it becomes clear that Sam must delve into her terrifying past and go undercover to solve these occult-soaked crimes.  Through her head screams no, she must embrace her long forgotten magical powers in order to save the society who have rejected her.  But against such a powerful and sadistic coven in such a weakened state she will be lucky to make it out alive. The 13^th Sacrifice is the first in the Witch Hunt Trilogy by Debbie Viguié and is due to be published in October 2012.

Spartacus Rebellion: is by Ben Kane and is due to be published in August 2012.   The mighty slave army, led by Spartacus, has carried all before it, scattering the legions of Rome. Three praetors, two consuls and one proconsul have been defeated. Spartacus seems invincible as he marches towards the Alps and freedom. But storm clouds are massing on the horizon. Crixus the Gaul defects, taking all his men with him. Crassus, the richest man in Rome, begins to raise a formidable army, tasked specifically with the defeat of Spartacus. And within the slave army itself, there are murmurings of dissent and rebellion. "Spartacus", on the brink of glory, must make a crucial decision - to go forward over the Alps to freedom, or back to face the might of Rome and try to break its stranglehold on power forever

Capital Crimes "tells the shifting story of crime and punishment in London through vivid recreations of a series of murders that stretch from the killing of the Lord Chancellor Roger Lyett during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 through to the hanging of Syllou Christofi in 1953. Some of the murderers, such as the psychopath Neville Heath, are still remembered. Others, including the eighteenth-century throat-cutter Gerard Dromelius, are largely forgotten. But all their lives and fates have much to tell us -- about London's changing underworld, about the slow evolution of policing in the capital, and about the strange workings of the law (Elizabeth Lillyman, for example, who murdered her husband in 1675, was found guilty of 'petty treason'). Above all, they provide a fascinatingly sidewise view of London itself over the centuries -- from the crime-ridden alleyways of the Georgian capital to the supposedly respectable suburbs of Finchley, where the notorious 'baby-farmers' Amelia Sach and Annie Walters operated at the beginning of the twentieth century. Illustrated throughout with contemporary engravings and photographs, this is an essential read for all devotees of London -- and of crime.  Capital Crimes is by Max Décharné and is due to be published in September 2012.

Donnie Miller counts himself lucky. Living in a beautiful, spacious house in the wild and remote landscape of central Canada, he spends his days writing for the local newspaper, working on a film script, and acting as house-husband. After a troubled and impoverished upbringing in Scotland, he now has all he wants: a caring wife, a bright and happy son, a generous father-in-law. As the brutal northern winter begins to bite, he can sit back and enjoy life. But his peace is soon to be broken. There are noises in the nearby woods, signs of some mysterious watcher. When the family dog disappears, Donnie makes a horrifying discovery. Is it wolves, as the police suspect, or something far more dangerous, far darker? What secrets has Donnie been keeping? And why does he have the terrible sense that his dream was never going to last?   A taut, shocking and visceral thriller that will leave you gasping for breath, "Cold Hands" is the first in an exciting new series by John J. Niven and is due to be published in August 2012.

The Kings of Cool is the much awaited prequel to the bestseller Savages.   In Savages, Don Winslow introduced Ben and Chon, twenty-something best friends who risk everything to save the girl they both love, O.  Now in the high octane prequel, Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben, Chon and O became the people they are.  Spanning fifty years, from 19602 Southern California to the recent past, it is a tale of family in all its forms – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers.  As the younger generation does battle with a cabal of drug dealers and crooked cops, they come to learn that their future is inextricably linked with their parents’ history.  A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon and O to choose between their real families, and their love for each other. The Kings of Cool is due to be published in August 2012.

 

The Splintered Kingdom is by James Aitcheson and is due to be published in September 2012. The story begins on the Welsh Marches, where Tancred has been given land by his new lord, Robert Malet, in return for his services in the battle for York. Now a lord in his own right, he has knights of his own to command and a manor to call home. But all is far from peaceful. The Welsh are joining forces with the English against the Normans and when skirmishes turn into a full scale battle at Shrewsbury, Tancred is betrayed by a rival border lord and taken prisoner by the Welsh. Meanwhile the woman he loves is taken hostage by enemy English forces and the Vikings invade the east coast. Never has Tancred faced a more impossible situation.

When journalist Mark Bretton is asked to write an article on Professor Abigail Marchant, who has been denounced by the American Psychology Association for her belief that rebirth is a genuine phenomenon, he’s more than a little sceptical about the assignment.  An ambitious journalist, Mark would much rather be writing  about current affairs but, once he meets the beautiful Professor and hears her theories, he can’t help but be won over.  Eventually persuaded to undergo regressive hypnosis himself, Mark is shocked and horrified by what he sees.  He is returned to the early 60s when he worked for the Kennedy administration and not only does he learn the truth about the conspiracy that led to JFK’s assassination but also his own murder.  Struggling to make sense of it all, Mark turns to Abi for help but someone is watching Mark’s every move and will stop at nothing to ensure that the truth about JFK’s murder never comes to light…. The Kennedy Conspiracy is by Michael White and is due to be published in October 2012

Confessions of a Murder Suspect is by James Patterson and is due to be published in September 2012.  On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, their daughter, Tandy, knows just three things: she was one of the last people to see her parents alive. She and her brothers are the only suspects. She can't trust anyone - maybe not even herself. Having grown up under their parents' intense perfectionist demands, none of the Angel children have come away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to solve the crime on her own, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous game. As she uncovers haunting secrets and slowly begins to remember flashes of disturbing past events buried in her memory, Tandy is forced to ask: What is the Angel family truly capable of? Returning to the genre that made him the world's bestselling author, James Patterson introduces a teen detective on a mission to bring her parents' killer to justice, even if it means uncovering her family's darkest secrets - and confessing some of her own.