Books to Look Forward to From Little Brown (Incl Constable)

 

January 2022

Breaking Point is by Edel Coffey. An innocent mistake. A lifetime of guilt. Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a high-flying medical career, a successful husband and an enviable life. Her hair is glossy, her clothes are expensive; she truly has it all. But when - on the hottest day of the year - her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realises she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car and it is too late to save her. As the press close in around her, Susannah is put on trial for negligence. It is plain to see that this is not a trial, it's a witch hunt. But what will the court say?

Blotto Twinks and the Suspicious Guests is by Simon Brett. 'What? You mean the earl does it for money? That's way beyond the barbed wire!' This explosion of disgust from Blotto is provoked when Twinks informs him of the activities of the Earl of Woking. The gentleman in question is owner of Clusters, a stately home not far from Tawcester Towers, and he has been renting out parts of Clusters for private functions - and charging his guests! The discovery of this appalling lapse in aristocratic behaviour sets Blotto and Twinks off on their latest adventure. Determined to find out more about the Earl of Woking's activities, they discover the existence of a sinister group called Aristotours - brokers between impoverished owners of stately homes and the common people, offering 'a taste of the high life' to characters such as stockbrokers, surgeons and solicitors. And if this were not bad enough, the siblings discover Aristotours trying to infiltrate their evil practises into Tawcester Towers itself! So Blotto and Twinks set off on a quest to identify - and stop - the evil genius behind Aristotours.

February 2022

Sierra Six ix by Mark Greaney. Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior member of a CIA action team. In their first mission they took out a terrorist leader, but at a terrible price - the life of a woman Court cared for. Years have passed and now The Gray Man is on a simple mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, but he's remarkably energetic for a dead man. A decade may have gone by but the Gray Man hasn't changed. He isn't one to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt unpaid.

Say goodnight, baby darling. Three young women have gone missing. They're all pretty, mid-twenties - someone clearly has a type. But no one links their disappearances until the first - Lauren Elder - is found lying peacefully on a bench in a children's playground. She is neatly dressed with a wide black velvet ribbon covering where her neck has been precisely slit. Her hands are folded over a childish sign on which is written in black crayon - BAD MOMMY. Lt Eve Dallas and her team are brought in to investigate Lauren's murder and uncover the links to the other two women. Can they find out enough about the missing women and unmask their captor before they kill again....? Abandoned In Death is by J D Robb.

Reader, I Buried Him is by Peter Lovesey. A twisty collection of short stories from the master of classic crime fiction, Peter Lovesey, one of which stars his most popular creation, Peter Diamond. More than fifty years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey's life-long passion for short form crime fiction. More than a hundred stories later, Peter Lovesey has assembled this devilishly clever collection, fifteen yarns of mystery, melancholy, and mischief, inhabiting such deadly settings as a theatre, a monastery, and the book publishing industry. The collection includes that first story that launched his story-writing career as well as three new stories exclusive to this volume. In addition, Lovesey fans will delight in a personal essay by the author about the historical inspirations for his creation - and in an appearance by the irascible Bath detective Peter Diamond, who has, in the author's words, 'bulldozed his way' into this collection.

The Murder Stones is by Hania Allen. Polish-born DS Dania Gorska is called upon to investigate a seemingly straightforward case of an RTA - a car has crashed into a tree, having first hit a deer on an icy road. But a witness has come forward to say he saw someone fleeing the scene and then the autopsy reveals vicious marks on the head of the dead man. Suddenly Dania is looking at murder. The dead man, Eddie Sangster, has had an intriguing past - the youngest of three brothers, he inherited the family estate after the oldest committed suicide and the other simply disappeared. But decades on it would seem someone is out for vengeance as murder stones - carved headstones attesting to the brutal murders of both brothers - start to appear on the grounds of the estate. Clearly the key to the puzzle of the murder stones lies at Sangster Hall, where a calamitous incident in the past is now shaping the present, and it is up to Dania to discover the murderous secret of the Sangster family.

The Taste of Blood is by James Craig. Victim or assassin - the lines are blurred... A badly beaten woman walks into A&E and is promptly arrested by the Home Office on suspicion of being an illegal alien. However, she is neither illegal, nor a victim. After she escapes detention, the bodies of her attackers start to pile up. Commander Carlyle faces a race against time to find out who she really is - and to stop her from killing again.

March 2022

The Empty Room is by Brian McGilloway. What do you do when your child disappears? Pandora - Dora - Conlon wakes one morning to discover her 17-year old daughter Ellie, has not come home after a party. The day Ellie disappears, Dora is alone as her husband Eamon has already left for the day in his job as a long-distance lorry driver. So Dora does the usual things: rings around Ellie's friends... but no one knows where she is. Her panic growing, Dora tries the local hospitals and art college where Ellie is a student - but then the police arrive on her doorstep with the news her daughter's handbag has been discovered dumped in a layby. So begins Dora's ordeal of waiting and not knowing what has become of her girl. Eamon's lack of empathy and concern, Dora realises, is indicative of the state of their marriage, and left on her own, Dora begins to reassess everything she thought she knew about her family and her life. Increasingly isolated and disillusioned with the police investigation, Dora feels her grip on reality slipping as she takes it upon herself to find her daughter - even if it means tearing apart everything and everybody she had ever loved, and taking justice into her own hands.

Death of A Green Eyed Monster is by M C Beaton & R W Green. Hamish's new constable, Dorothy McIver, may be the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Completely bewitched by her sparkling blue eyes, Hamish spends the summer traveling with her up and down Sutherland until finally, he can take it no longer. He gets down on one knee beside the Land Rover and begs her to marry him—and to his amazement and delight, she says yes.
But just as the town of Lochdubh gets ready to celebrate, Hamish finds himself with a new murder on his hands. If he doesn't find the killer fast, Hamish's dream wedding could become a nightmare.

Twelve Secrets is by Robert Gold. Ben Harper's life changed for ever the day his older brother Nick was murdered by two classmates. It was a crime that shocked the nation and catapulted Ben's family and their idyllic hometown, Haddley, into the spotlight. Twenty years on, Ben is one of the best true crime journalists in the country and happily settled back in Haddley, thanks to the support of its close-knit community. But when a fresh murder case shines new light on his brother's death and throws suspicion on those closest to him, Ben's world is turned upside down once more. He's about to discover that Haddley is a town full of secrets. No one is as they seem. Everyone has something to hide.  And someone will go to any length to keep the truth buried...

After a stressful winter, DSI William Lorimer is enjoying some time away from Glasgow. He and his new friend, Daniel Kohi, have retreated to the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to unwind. But what awaits them is far from a holiday. Despite its troubled history, the mountain village of Glencoe is now a popular resort, famed for its close-knit community, its breath-taking scenery and the warm welcome it offers weary travellers. So it's particularly shocking when two bodies are discovered in quick succession on the nearby peaks . . . With a potential serial killer on the loose, Lorimer's Major Incidents Team are drafted in from Glasgow. It's clear that a dark secret lurks beneath the wild beauty of this place. But will Lorimer manage to root it out before the killer strikes again? Echo of the Dead is by Alex Gray.

April 2022

Beat The Devils is by Josh Weiss. USA, 1958. President Joseph McCarthy sits in the White House, elected on a wave of populist xenophobia and barely-concealed anti-Semitism. The country is in the firm grip of McCarthy's Hueys, a secret police force evolved from the House Un-American Activities Committee. Hollywood's sparkling vision of the American dream has been suppressed; its remaining talents forced to turn out endless anti-communist propaganda. LAPD detective Morris Baker-a Holocaust survivor who drowns his fractured memories of the unspeakable in schnapps and work-is called to the scene of a horrific double-homicide. The victims are John Huston, a once-promising but now forgotten film director, and an up-and-coming young journalist named Walter Cronkite. Clutched in the hand of one of the dead men is a cryptic note containing the phrase "beat the devils" followed by a single name: Baker. Did the two men die in an attack fueled by better-dead-than-red sentiment, as the Hueys are quick to conclude, or were they murdered in a cover-up designed to protect-or even set in motion-a secret plot connected to Baker's past? In a country where terror grows stronger by the day, and paranoia rises unchecked, Baker is determined to find justice for two men who raised their voices in a time when free speech comes at the ultimate cost. In the course of his investigation, Baker stumbles into a conspiracy that reaches deep into the halls of power and uncovers a secret that could destroy the City of Angels-and the American ideal itself.

One wrong step and you're in deep water. Sukie has had enough of not putting herself out there. She has had enough of her mother thinking so very little of her timid daughter. On a whim, she accepts an offer to go to a Greek island for the weekend with Jake, a man she has barely begun dating. If that isn't putting herself out here, she doesn't know what is. Heather is at the airport when she sees a young woman with an older man - and immediately she understands that the woman is in danger. Because in fifteen years, Heather hasn't been able to forget what Jake did to her. And the next thing she knows, she's buying a plane ticket and following them. What should have been a perfectly pleasant weekend away quickly descends into something much darker. As these two women come ever closer to each other - and to Jake - it becomes increasingly unclear who will walk away from the weekend with their life. In Deep Water is by Christobel Kent. 

May 2022

Murder at Mount Ephraim is by Julie Wassmer. Pearl Nolan receives a wedding invitation from an old school friend. Journalist Amy has chosen somewhere very special for the wedding ceremony - the historic Kent manor house of Mount Ephraim - and the invite includes a pre-nuptial stay for Pearl and other guests at this venue. Nestled in an 800-acre estate, and surrounded by beautiful gardens and a lake, Pearl sees this break as a chance to leave crime behind, along with her own detective agency and her restaurant, The Whitstable Pearl. Accepting the invitation, Pearl looks forward to meeting the happy couple's friends and family, as well as Amy's fiance, Guy, a handsome and successful adventurer who appears to be Mr Perfect. She also has time to reflect on her own engagement to Canterbury CID detective, DCI Mike McGuire... But before any wedding bells sound, murder strikes - and Pearl and McGuire are thrust together again - as partners in crime.

The Night They Vanished is by Vanessa Savage. A family with a secret. A past about to catch up with them. At thirty, Hanna has finally decided she's better off without her family. They hold her responsible for the incident that ruined their lives fourteen years ago and they've barely spoken since. But then, whilst browsing a true crime website, she sees her family home listed as the site of a brutal murder. Number of victims: three. Date of crime: today. When the police investigate, they find no bodies, but the house is abandoned. Hanna's family have disappeared. To find them, Hanna will have to confront what happened all those years ago. And the person determined to make her pay for it . . .

June 2022

'I swear I'm one bad mood away from calling it black magic and going home . . .' Detective Sergeant Washington Poe can count on one hand the number of friends he has. And he'd still have his thumb left. There's the insanely brilliant, guilelessly innocent civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw of course. He's known his beleaguered boss, Detective Inspector Stephanie Flynn for years as he has his nearest neighbour, full-time shepherd/part-time dog sitter, Victoria. And then there's Estelle Doyle. It's true the caustic pathologist has never walked down the sunny side of the street but this time has she gone too far? Shot twice in the head, her father's murder appears to be an open and shut case. Estelle has firearms discharge residue on her hands, and, in a house surrounded by fresh snow, hers are the only footprints going in. Since her arrest she's only said three words: 'Tell Washington Poe.' Meanwhile, a poisoner the press have dubbed the Botanist is sending high profile celebrities poems and pressed flowers. The killer seems to be able to walk through walls and, despite the advance notice he gives his victims, and regardless of the security measures the police take, he seems to be able to kill with impunity. For a man who hates locked room mysteries, this is going to be the longest week of Washington Poe's life . . . The Botanist is by M W Craven.

She Knows is by Chris Brookmyre. One hen weekend, seven secrets... but only one worth killing for. Jen's hen party is going to be out of control... She's rented a luxury getaway on its own private island. The helicopter won't be back for seventy-two hours. They are alone. They think. As well as Jen, there's the pop diva and the estranged ex-bandmate, the tennis pro and the fashion guru, the embittered ex-sister-in-law and the mouthy future sister-in-law. It's a combustible cocktail, one that takes little time to ignite, and in the midst of the drunken chaos, one of them disappears. Then a message tells them that unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. Problem is, everybody has a secret. And nobody wants to tell.

The Murder Book is by Mark Billingham. Tom Thorne has it all. In Nicola Tanner and Phil Hendricks, Thorne has good friends by his side. He finally has a love life worth a damn and is happy in the job to which he has devoted his life... Tom Thorne has it all.... to lose. Hunting the woman responsible for a series of grisly murders, Thorne has no way of knowing that he will be plunged into a nightmare from which he may never wake. A nightmare that has a name. Finally, Thorne's past has caught up with him and a ruinous secret is about to be revealed. If he wants to save himself and his friends, he must do the unthinkable.

Lying Beside You is by Michael Robotham. When a man is murdered and his daughter disappears, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must decide if Maya Kirk is running, hiding, or a hostage. Cyrus understands how killers think better than anyone; after all, he's a survivor. Evie is a troubled teenager with an incredible gift: she knows when someone is lying. She is working at a Nottingham bar when a second woman goes missing, a nurse with links to Maya Kirk. Both women have a secret they have tried to hide, but the past is never history. Evie witnesses the second abduction, glimpsing the driver, but only two people believe her. One is Cyrus. The other is the killer.

Bottom line, if a man is known by his enemies, I'm one helluva guy.' Former anti-terrorist cop John Corey is NYU - New York Unemployed - and watching his back, ever more convinced his past will soon catch up with him. Then a new opportunity comes calling, and with it, plenty of trouble . . . A series of bodies has been found along a beach close to his home and he can no longer deny that a serial killer is on the loose, and no one seems able to find the culprit. Is the failure to find the perpetrator a result of the department's oversight? Is it due to the fact the victims are prostitutes? Or is it something darker? Could the killer be someone on the inside? The Maze is by Nelson DeMille.

The Missing Wife and the Stone Fen Siamese is by Kate High. Driving home from a ceramics evening class, Clarice Beech reflects on the absence of one of her students, Colin Compton-Smythe. Later, Emily, Colin's daughter, telephones to say her father has died during routine surgery. Distraught, Emily opens up to Clarice about his wretched childhood and the day five-year-old Colin returned home to discover Avril, his mother, gone. Colin never believed she would have left without him and had been trying to find out more about Avril's disappearance all those years ago. Clarice readily agrees to accompany Emily to Colin's funeral. On arriving at the stunning Victorian Gothic manor house, with Bellatrix, the majestic stone Siamese cat reposing at its entrance, Clarice soon becomes drawn into the fractious world of the Compton-Smythe family: Colin's argumentative father Ralph and his equally combative partner Tessa, their daughter, Dawn, being stalked by an ex-lover and, most unsettling of all, Ernestine, Ralph's emotionally unpredictable sister. And then there's Johnson, Ralph's menacing manservant. Clarice discovers the nearer she gets to the truth, the greater she is in danger as somebody is intent that the mystery of the missing wife should never be resolved.

Books to Look Forward to From Little, Brown and Constable & Robinson

The Chelsea Strangler is by Susanna Gregory and is due to be published in January 2016. In the sapping summer heat of 1665 there is little celebration in London of the naval victory at the Battle of Lowestoft. The King, his retinue and anyone with sufficient means has fled the plague-ridden city, its half-deserted streets echoing to the sound of bells tolling the mounting number of deaths. Those who remain clutch doubtful potions to ward off the relentless disease and dart nervously past shuttered buildings, watchful for the thieves who risk their lives to plunder what has been left behind. At Chelsea, a rural backwater by the river, with fine mansions leased to minor members of the Court avoiding the capital, there are more immediate concerns: the government has commandeered the theological college to house Dutch prisoners of war and there are daily rumours that those sailors are on the brink of escaping. Moreover, a vicious strangler is stalking the neighbourhood. Thomas Chaloner is sent to investigate the murder of the first victim, an inmate of a private sanatorium known as Gorges. There have been thefts there as well, but the few facts he gleans from inmates and staff are contradictory and elusive. He realises, though, that Gorges has stronger links to the prison than just proximity, and that the influx of strangers offers plenty of camouflage for a killer - a killer who has no compunction about turning on those determined to stop his murderous rampage.

Awakening the sleeping dragon...Smooth expat Michael Nicholson is a fixer, getting on by doing favours for the rich and powerful in booming China. When he makes the mistake of getting too close to one of his clients, the wife of a leading Communist Party official, the ageing Lothario fears for his life as a vengeful husband decides to put his house in order. So when a domestic dispute from the other side of the world leads to a shoot-out in a luxury penthouse apartment in Chelsea, an ex-cop called Marvin Taylor is one of the casualties. Inspector John Carlyle is little more than a casual onlooker until Taylor's widow turns up, looking for answers. The inspector is drawn into the morass of dealing and double-dealing, much to the dismay of his boss, Carole Simpson, who wants him to focus on Barbara Hutton, a Bloomsbury housewife who may - or may not - be a former German terrorist wanted for a forty-year-old murder...'  Acts of Violence is by James Craig and is due to be published in February 2016.

Black Widow is by Chris Brookmyre and is due to be published in January 2016.  There is no perfect marriage. There is no perfect murder. Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing. Then she meets Peter. He's kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past: the second chance she's been waiting for. Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead - and Diana on trial for his murder, a nightmare end to their fairytale romance. But Peter's sister Lucy doesn't believe in fairytales, and tasks maverick reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling Black Widow...

When an elderly woman is found dead at her home, newly fledged DC Kirsty Wilson is called to the scene. It appears that the woman had a mysterious visitor in the early hours of that morning - someone dressed as a carer, but with much darker intentions. It soon becomes obvious that this was not death by natural causes, in fact, it was murder. Before she can catch her breath, DC Wilson is thrown in at the deep end as another body turns up - this time it's a gruesome crime scene, the victim a well-known drug dealer from Glasgow's mean streets, and there's no question that this was a brutal execution. The two cases appear to have nothing in common, but when a second vulnerable person is murdered in their sleep, the police realise that it's only a matter of time before the next victim emerges and Detective Superintendent William Lorimer is called in to help DC Wilson investigate. This case is big and it's about to get more personal than either of them could have imagined…  The Darkest Day is by Alex Gray and is due to be published in March 2016.

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine is by Alexander McCall Smith and is due to be published in June 2016.  Mma Ramotswe, the proprietress of the No 1. Ladies' Detective Agency, is not one to sit about. Her busy life gives her little time for relaxation (apart from the drinking of tea, of course). Nonetheless, she is convinced by co-director Mma Makutsi to take a holiday. But Mma Ramotswe finds it impossible to resist the temptation to follow the cases taken on by Mma Makutsi, and to interfere in them - secretly, she intends ...This leads her to delve into the past of a famous man whose reputation has been called into question, and to join forces with a new assistant detective (and part-time science teacher), Mr. Polopetsi. While 'on holiday' Mma Ramotswe also manages to help a young boy named Samuel in the search for his missing mother; and then of course there is the agency's arch-enemy Violet Sephotho, scheming to set up a rival secretarial college. Lessons must be learned, whether we are willing or not, and in the end Mma Ramotswe finds that a little trust goes a long way, especially when it comes to having confidence in our dearest friends and colleagues.

Thin Ice is by Quentin Bates and is due to be published in March 2016.  Snowed in with a couple of psychopaths for the winter...When two small-time crooks rob Reykjavik's premier drugs dealer, hoping for a quick escape to the sun, their plans start to unravel after their getaway driver fails to show. Tensions mount between the pair and the two women they have grabbed as hostages when they find themselves holed upcountry in an isolated hotel that has been mothballed for the season. Back in the capital, Gunnhildur, Eirikur and Helgi find themselves at a dead end investigating what appear to be the unrelated disappearance of a mother, her daughter and their car during a day's shopping, and the death of a thief in a house fire. Gunna and her team are faced with a set of riddles but as more people are quizzed it begins to emerge that all these unrelated incidents are in fact linked. And at the same time, two increasingly desperate lowlifes have no choice but to make some big decisions on how to get rid of their accidental hostages...

Welcome to Rockton: a secret town cut off from the rest of the world. If you need a place to hide, this is the perfect place to start again. There's just one catch. You can't leave. Even if there's a killer on the loose. Detective Casey Duncan has a dark past, and it's about to catch up with her. When her best friend Diana is attacked by an abusive ex, the two women realise they have to disappear, fast. And they need sanctuary. Diana's heard of a hidden town that's so remote it's almost impossible to reach. A town that desperately needs a new detective. Casey has barely arrived in Rockton when they discover a body. A man's been murdered - butchered - and there's no time to waste. Casey's job won't be easy: everyone in town has a secret. Meanwhile her boss, Sheriff Eric Dalton, is a brooding, troubled man who's hard to read and very hard to please. With no chance of help from the outside world, Casey will have to rely on her own wits to solve the case. But she's running out of time. Rockton's killer is on the hunt, and this deep in the wilderness, no one is safe. The City of the Lost is by Kelley Armstrong and is due to be published in January 2016.

Apologies for the general email, but I desperately need your help. My goddaughter, Coco Jackson, disappeared from her family's holiday home in Bournemouth on the night of Sunday/Monday August 29/30th, the bank holiday weekend just gone. Coco is three years old. When identical twin Coco goes missing during a family celebration, there is a media frenzy. Her parents are rich and influential, as are the friends they were with at their holiday home by the sea. But what really happened to Coco? Set across two weekends - the first when Coco goes missing and the second fifteen years later at the funeral of her father, where at last, the darkest of secrets will be revealed.  The Darkest Secret is by Alex Marwood and is due to be published in April 2016.

Identifying the murderer of the Chancellor of the University is not the only challenge facing physician Matthew Bartholomew.  Many of is patients have been made worse by the ministrations of a ‘surgeon’ recently arrived from Nottingham, his sister is being rooked by the mason she has commissioned to build her husband’s tomb, and his friend, Brother Michael, has been offered a Bishopric which will cause him to leave Cambridge.  A Grave Concern is by Susanna Gregory and is due to be published in June 2016.

Penance is by Kate O’Riordan and is due to be published in March 2016.  'You know I did a terrible thing. What you cannot know is that there exists an extreme irony, in that, but for one unforgivable sin - far more terrible things might have transpired.' The lives of Rosalie Douglas and her teenage daughter, Maddie, are changed forever when they meet Jed, a beautiful, charismatic young man at Bereavement Counselling. Inexplicably and self-destructively, Maddie holds herself accountable for her brother's drowning accident in Thailand. Jed moves into their lives and their home. Calming the tensions between mother and daughter. He understands the twisted wilderness of grief. Lover and confidante to a besotted Maddie, gentle surrogate son to a grateful Rosalie - on the surface their lives are transformed. But underneath a deadly and morally corrupt triangle is taking shape...Rosalie commits an unspeakable act which forces her to unravel the truth behind the beautiful stranger in their midst. The truth behind the death of her son. And the true extent of just how far she's prepared to go - to save what remains of her family.

The House of Eyes is by Kate Ellis and is due to be published in February 2016.  When Darren Hatman reports his daughter missing, DI Wesley Peterson isn't too concerned. Leanne Hatman is an aspiring model, keen to abandon her native Devon for the bright lights of London. However, Darren's claim that a photographer has been stalking Leanne soon changes Wesley's opinion. Leanne works at Eyecliffe Castle, once home to the wealthy D'Arles family and now converted into a luxury hotel. When Darren himself is found brutally murdered in the castle grounds, the police fear is that Leanne has met a similar fate. But, if so, where is her body? Meanwhile, Wesley's friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, recently returned from a thrilling Sicilian excavation, makes a disturbing discovery near Eyecliffe Castle and surprises Wesley with the news that, while in Sicily, he met Leanne's alleged stalker. With Eyecliffe Castle becoming the scene of another violent death, Wesley suspects a connection between the recent crimes, the disappearance of two girls back in the 1950s and a mysterious Sicilian ruin called the House of Eyes, a place feared by superstitious locals. As he works to solve one of his most challenging cases yet, Wesley must face alarming revelations, rooted in centuries of fear and evil ...as well as dealing with a nightmare of his own.

Blood Torment is by T.F. Muir and is due to be published in May 2016.When a three-year old girl is reported missing, DCI Andy Gilchrist is assigned the case. But Gilchrist soon suspects that the child's mother - Andrea Davis - may be responsible for her daughter's disappearance, or worse, her murder. The case becomes politically sensitive when Gilchrist learns that Andrea is the daughter of Dougal Davis, a former MSP who was forced to resign from Scottish Parliament after being accused of physically abusing his third wife. Now a powerful businessman, Davis demands Gilchrist's removal from the case when his investigation seems to be stalling. But then the case turns on its head when Gilchrist learns that a paedophile, recently released from prison, now lives in the same area as the missing child. The paedophile is interrogated but hours later his body is found floating in the harbour with evidence of blunt force trauma to the head, and Gilchrist launches a murder investigation. As pressure relentlessly mounts on Gilchrist, he begins to unravel a dark family secret, a secret he believes will solve the fate of the missing child

The House of Moriarty is by Sam Christer and is due to be published in March 2016.  Big Ben chimes in the first seconds of the first day of 1900, the start of a fresh century. Inside London's oldest gaol, preparations are afoot to hang Victorian England's deadliest assassin, a man wanted for two decades' worth of murders. Cold-blooded killer Simeon Lynch has lived a brutal and glorious life in the employ of the House of Moriarty - the most feared criminal enterprise in the world. Now, as he faces the noose, Simeon learns dark truths about his master, about Sherlock Holmes and about his own past. Truths that make him determined to escape and kill again...Follow Simeon's bloody footsteps through the capital's cobbled alleyways, wretched workhouses and flash taverns as he crosses swords with Sherlock Holmes and the villainous characters of Victorian London.

A Masterpiece of Corruption is by L C Tyler and is due to be published in January 2016.  It is December 1657. John Grey, at his cramped desk in Lincoln's Inn, is attempting to resume his legal career. A mysterious message from a 'Mr SK' tempts him out into the snowy streets of London and to what he believes will be a harmless diversion from his studies. Mr SK's letter proves to have been intended for somebody else entirely and Grey finds himself unwittingly in the middle of a plot to assassinate the Lord Protector - a plot about which he now knows more than it is safe to know. Can he both prevent the murder and (of greater immediate relevance) save his own skin? Both the Sealed Knot and Cromwell's Secretary of State, John Thurloe believe he is on their side, but he is unsure that either is on his. As somebody is kind enough to point out to him: 'You are a brave man, Grey. The life of a double agent can be exciting but very short.' Grey just has to hope that prediction is wrong.

In a single night, Kyle Davidson's life is derailed. His relationship is over, he is denied access to his young son and everything important to him is at risk. His thoughts stumble between fear and revenge. Kyle Davidson has a choice to make. Meanwhile, after the tragic end to a previous case, DC Gary Goodhew finds himself questioning his reasons for returning to work until the badly beaten body of a homeless man is found on Market Hill. Having known the homeless man for several years Goodhew feels compelled to be part of the investigation - but routine lines of enquiry soon take a dark and unexpected turn. Suddenly the Cambridge back streets hold deadly secrets for Goodhew and the only person who has the answers is planning one final, desperate act.  The Promise is by Alison Bruce and is due to be published in February 2016.

Operation Goodwood is by Sara Sheridan and is due to be published in April 2016.  1955. When Mirabelle Bevan is rescued from a fire at her home on the Brighton seafront she's lucky to escape unharmed - but the blaze takes the life of her neighbour, Dougie Beaumont, a dashing and successful racing driver living in the flat above. It soon becomes clear that this was arson, raising questions about the young man's death that Mirabelle can't resist investigating further. With her curiosity piqued and on the trail of a potential killer she finds herself taking on the mysterious world of Fleet Street with its long lunches and dodgy deals as well as the glamorous motor racing world at Goodwood. It gradually becomes clear to Mirabelle that Dougie Beaumont's life was not as above-board as it first seemed and that this talented man had many secrets, hidden when he was alive by his international lifestyle where he was constantly on the move. Then, when a second shocking murder takes place, Mirabelle's pursuit is frustrated first by Dougie's well-connected and suspicious family and then by the official investigation - led by her would-be lover Superintendent McGregor. With the help of her colleague at McGuigan & McGuigan Debt Recovery, Vesta, and some of her ex-intelligence service connections, Mirabelle discovers the dark secrets of the glamorous racing driver have ramifications far beyond the English coastline.

When Frances wakes one night to the sound of her baby crying, she realises that her marital bed is empty.  As she wanders through the house looking for her husband, she finds the back door open and his cooling dead body not far outside.  Her husband has been murder.  As Fran tries desperately to unravel the mystery of her husband’s death, she soon finds out that absolutely nothing about their marriage was as it seemed.  The Loving Husband is by Christobel Kent and is due to be published in April 2016.

The Primrose Path is the debut novel by Rebecca Griffith and is due to be published in March 2016.  As a teenager, Sarah D'Villez famously escaped a man who abducted and held her hostage for eleven days. The case became notorious, with Sarah's face splashed across the front of every newspaper in the country. Seventeen years later, Sarah's attempt to build a normal life for herself in London has failed. When she hears of her kidnapper's impending release from prison, fearful of the media storm that is sure to follow, she decides to flee to rural Wales under a new identity, telling nobody where she's gone. As Sarah settles in to her isolated new home and gets to know the small community she is now part of, it soon becomes creepily apparent that someone is watching her. Meanwhile, back in London, her mother makes a shocking discovery - something she fears will put Sarah's life in danger. She must urgently find her missing daughter before it's too late...

The tourist hotspots of the Peak District are attracting a different kind of visitor this summer. A series of suicidal individuals have decided it’s a good place to die.  For Detective Inspector Ben Cooper and his team in Derbyshire’s ‘E’ Division, there’s no way of predicting where the next body will turn up.  But what connection can there be between the seemingly ordinary people who have chosen the Peak District as the location to end their lives?  And there is one among them whose fate wasn’t suicide at all?  Cooper discovers that behind every death, there are always secrets to be revealed.  The Secrets of Death is by Stephen Booth and is due to be published in June 2016.

Making a killing in the market...A bomb takes out a CIA station chief in Geneva. A serial killer strikes apparently at random across the UK. In Algeria a terrorist network that controls the illicit trade in guns, drugs, oil and cigarettes is preparing to murder a hundred US and British energy workers unless a ransom is paid. The British and the American intelligence services are competing to find the kidnappers for very different reasons. One person can see how everything is linked, and that both MI5 and the CIA are being manipulated as part of a grotesque marketing campaign. But Kate Pendragon threatens vested interests who don't want the truth to surface. And some of them are very close to home...  Hostage is by Jamie Doward and is due to be published in January 2016.

In 88 B.C., it seems as if the entire ancient world is at war. In the west, the Italian states are rebelling against Rome; in the east, Mithridates is marching through and conquering the Roman Asian provinces. Even in the relatively calm Alexandria, a coup has brought a new Pharaoh to power and chaos to the streets. The young Gordianus has been waiting out the chaos in Alexandria, with Bethesda, when he gets a cryptic message from his former tutor and friend, Antipater. Now in Ephesus, as part of Mithridates' entourage, Antipater seems to think that his life is in imminent danger. To rescue him, Gordianus concocts a daring, even foolhardy, scheme to go "behind enemy lines" and bring Antipater to safety. But there are powerful, and deadly forces, at work here, which have their own plans for Gordianus. Not entirely sure whether he's a player or a pawn, Gordianus must unravel the mystery behind the message if he's to save himself and the people he holds most dear.  Wrath of the Furies is by Steven Saylor and is due to be published in March 2016.

Christmas 1939. In Europe the Phoney War hides carnage to come. In Ireland Detective Inspector Stefan Gillespie keeps tabs on Irishmen joining the British Forces. It's unpleasant work, but when an IRA raid on a military arsenal sends Garda Special Branch in search of guns and explosives, Stefan is soon convinced his boss, Superintendent Terry Gregory, is working for the IRA. At home for Christmas, Stefan is abruptly called to Laragh, an isolated mountain town. A postman has disappeared, believed killed, and Laragh's Guards are hiding something. Stefan is the nearest Special Branch detective, yet is he only there because Gregory wants him out of the way? Laragh is close to the lake where Stefan's wife Maeve drowned years earlier, and when events expose a connection between the missing postman and her death, Stefan realises it wasn't an accident, but murder. And it will be a difficult, dangerous journey where Stefan has to finally confront the ghosts of the past in the mountains of Wicklow, before he can return to Dublin and the truth of his boss's duplicity.  The City in Darkness is by Michael Russell and is due to be published in May 2016.

Beloved Poison is by E. S. Thomson and is due to be published in March 2016.  The object I

drew out was dusty and mildewed, and blotched with dark rust-coloured stains. It smelt of time and decay, sour, like old books and parchments. The light from the chapel's stained glass window blushed red upon it, and upon my hands, as if the thing itself radiated a bloody glow. Ramshackle and crumbling, trapped in the past and resisting the future, St Saviour's Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors the doctors bicker and fight. Ambition, jealousy and hatred seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything, but says nothing. And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of mouldering rags. When Jem comes across these strange relics hidden inside the infirmary's old chapel, her quest to understand their meaning prises open a long-forgotten past - with fatal consequences. In a trail that leads from the bloody world of the operating theatre and the dissecting table to the notorious squalor of Newgate and the gallows, Jem's adversary proves to be both powerful and ruthless. As St Saviour's destruction draws near, the dead are unearthed from their graves whilst the living are forced to make impossible choices. And murder is the price to be paid for the secrets to be kept.

May Day Murder is by Julie Wassmer and is due to be published in April 2016.  It's springtime and Whitstable is emerging from hibernation. While neither the restaurant nor detective agency is too busy, Pearl resolves to spend some time at the family allotment. But her best friend, Nathan, has persuaded one of his favourite actresses to open the May Day festivities at Whitstable Castle and involves Pearl in his plans. Like Pearl, Faye Marlowe is a Whitstable native, but having left the town more than two decades ago, the star has been living in the South of France since her agent's phone stopped ringing. Charming but 'sensitive', she arrives with a small entourage and though her presence in the town causes a stir Pearl's mother Dolly remains unimpressed, choosing to remember Faye Marlow when she was plain old Frankie Murray, the daughter of a local whelk merchant. Nathan soon realises he has made a mistake with this invitation and his doubts are confirmed when Faye is nowhere to be found on the morning of May Day. And as 'Jack in the Green' puts on his impressive costume to lead the parade, the actress's dead body is discovered - tethered to the maypole on the Castle grounds ...and so it's left to Pearl and DCI Mike McGuire to unravel the mystery of the May Day murder.

Inspector Singh is irate. He's been instructed to attend a Commonwealth conference on policing in London: a job for paper pushers, not real cops, as far as he is concerned. And as if that isn't bad enough, his wife is determined to come along to shop for souvenirs and visit previously unknown relatives. But it isn't long before the cold case that lands on Singh's ample lap turns into a hot potato and he has to outwit Scotland Yard, his wife and London's finest criminals to prevent more frightful executions from occurring on his watch - or indeed, from being added to their number.  Inspector Singh Investigates a Frightful English Execution is by Shamini Flint and is due to be published in April 2016.

JUSTICE IS SERVED. Edward Mira is a powerful man, with a lot of enemies. But when the

former senator is violently abducted, Lieutenant Eve Dallas suspects his kidnap is more personal than political. Someone is seeking justice; the bloodier the better. Edward's cousin Dennis was injured during the abduction - and that makes things very personal for Eve and her husband Roarke. Dennis is a beloved friend, married to NYPSD's top profiler Charlotte Mira. But as Eve delves deeper into the case, dark secrets emerge that could tear the family apart. Edward Mira has friends in high places - and they all seem to be hiding something. As her investigation takes a shocking turn, Eve finds that not all victims are innocent, and that some bonds are forged not in friendship, but in blood.  Brotherhood in Death is by J D Robb and is due to be published in February 2016.

Books to Look Forward to from Constable and Robinson

Hunted by 9 international Intelligence Agencies for a terrorist atrocity he did not commit, hostage negotiator Danny Shanklin is now the world's most Wanted man, with a reward of $10,000,000 being offered for his capture dead or alive. Trapped in a deadly race against the clock, as well as protecting his family, Danny's got to track down the terrorists who framed him. And stop them before they get their hands on 6 lethal smallpox formulations, any one of which could trigger a global pandemic, which would leave only 1 in 3 people alive. With just a 7 foot Ukrainian mercenary and a ruthless female assassin hell-bent on avenging her father's death to help him, Danny soon finds himself being forced into becoming both predator and prey as he desperately tries to win the fight of his life. Wanted is the sequel to Hunted and is by Emlyn Rees.  It is due to be published in June 2014.

When Sorrows Come is by Matt McGuire and is due to be published in May 2014.  Belfast, 2 a.m, Tomb Street. A young man lies dead in an alley.  Cracked ribs, broken jaw, fractured skull.  With the Celtic Tiger purring and the Troubles in their death throes, Detective Sergeant John O’Neill is called in to investigate.  Meanwhile O’Neill’s partner, DI Jack Ward, a veteran detective, is receiving death threats from an unknown source.

 

The First Rule of Survival is the debut novel by Paul Mendelson and is due to be published in April 2014.  Seven years ago in Cape Town three young white South African schoolboys were abducted in broad daylight on three consecutive days. They were never heard of again. Now, a new case for the unpredictable Senior Superintendent Vaughn DeVries casts a light on the original enquiry; for him, a personal failure which has haunted him for those seven years and has cost him his marriage and peace of mind. A former British government agent, friend to DeVries, provides intelligence on this new case, but is any of it admissible? Struggling in a mire of departmental and racial rivalry, DeVries seeks the whole truth and unravels a complex history of abuse, deception and murder. Challenging friends, colleagues and enemies, DeVries comes to realise he doesn't know who is which any more. Set against the background of Cape Town and the endless rolling South African velt, this chilling thriller reveals layer after layer of abuse - physical, political and psychological.

 Kitsap County forensic pathologist Birdy Waterman is well-known for giving a voice to the voiceless: the corpses of people who are often victims of violent crimes. When an unidentified foot is found in Banner Forest, she teams up with homicide detective Kendall Stark to investigate. The pair soon discover that people all over town are hiding secrets – even Birdy – that can prove deadly if they are uncovered.  Unquiet Bones is by Gregg Olsen and is due to be published in June 2014.

From one of the best living exponents of new Sherlock Holmes stories, a collection of 12 new strange tales and unusual mysteries of the kind loved by Holmes aficionados. The stories, which include ‘The Adventure of the Crimson Arrow’ and ‘An Incident in Society’, faithfully recreate the atmosphere of Conan Doyle’s early Holmes stories, and are set during the 1880s and early 1890s, before Holmes’s disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls.  The Mammoth Book of the Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes is edited by Denis O Smith and is due to be published in January 2014.

Hunting down a paeodophile priest, Carlyle finds himself up against his old adversary Christian Holyrod. The Mayor of London is responsible for hosting an upcoming visit by the Pope and does not want any more scandals involving the Catholic church. Carlyle, however, is not prepared to let crimes side, putting him on a collision course with both the mayor and the church. Without his sympathetic boss, Carole Simpson, to protect him, could this be the end of the line for Carlyle? Never one to fight only one battle at a time, he also has to deal with an armed robbery at an upscale jewellers in Mayfair...and a serious health scare for Helen, his wife.  A Man of Sorrows is the sixth book in the Inspector Carlyle series by James Craig and it is due to be published in February 2014.

When Vince Treadwell spots a famous jewel thief in Soho one night and the next day reads about a daring robbery at the Ritz, he takes it upon himself to investigate the case as the missing jewels belong to the beautiful French movie star Capuchine, with whom Vince is smitten. But it soon leads to murder - and he is the chief suspect. In prison and looking at a life sentence, Vince is offered a lifeline from his old friend at Interpol, Ray Dryden. He wants Vince to go undercover and return the jewels to the movie star, who is secretly dating hotshot producer, Carlo Messina. But in reality Messina is one of the biggest gangsters in Marseille , running a heroin pipeline to America. So after a daring prison escape, and armed with fake jewels, Vince finds himself on the French Riviera - and it just happens to be the eve of the 1965 Cannes film festival. Against the backdrop of movie star glamour, Vince soon finds himself embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the charismatic and psychotic criminal; a man for whom movies and reality are indivisible, and murder and mayhem are on the script.  Exit the Thief is by Danny Miller and is due to be published in March 2014.

The Third Gate is by Lincoln Child and is due to be published in June 2014. In the harsh locale of the northern Sudan, an archaeological team under the direction of renowned explorer Porter Stone attempts to locate the tomb of ancient pharaoh King Narmer, whose famed crown is supposedly possessed of mythical powers. After a series of harrowing and inexplicable occurrences befall the team and have them living in fear of a centuries-old curse, Professor Jeremy Logan is brought in to investigate. What he finds will raise new questions … and alarm.

Letters to My Daughter’s Killer is by Cath Staincliffe and is due to be published in April 2014.  Grandmother Ruth Sutton writes to the man she hates more than anyone else on the planet: the man who she believes killed her daughter Lizzie in a brutal attack four years earlier. Ruth's burden of grief and hatred, has only grown heavier with the passing of time, her avid desire for vengeance ever stronger. In writing to him Ruth hopes to exorcise the corrosive emotions that are destroying her life, to find the truth and with it release and a way forward. Whether she can ever truly forgive him is another matter - but the letters are her last, best hope.  Letters to My Daughter's Killer exposes the aftermath of violent crime for an ordinary family and explores fundamental questions of crime and punishment. How do we deal with the very human desire for revenge? If we get justice does reconciliation follow? Can we really forgive those who do us the gravest wrong? Could you?

The Lost Ones is by Ace Atkins and is due to be published in May 2014. When Army Ranger Quinn Colson, the new sheriff of Tebbehah County, is called out to investigate a child abuse case, what he finds is a horrifying scene of neglect, thirteen empty cribs, and a shoe box full of money. Janet and Ramon Torres seem to have skipped town - but Colson's sure they'll come back for the cash. Meanwhile, Colson's sister has returned - clean and sober for good she says. His friend Boom has been drinking himself into oblivion and picking fights at the local bar. And his old flame is pregnant. But Colson can't focus on his personal problems. He and Deputy Lillie Virgil are convinced that Janet and Ramon have a taste for guns, drugs, and human trafficking. Soon Colson and Virgil find a link between the fugitive couple and a drug cartel that controls most of the Texas border, taking their investigation far beyond the rough hills of northeast Mississippi...

Also due to be published in May by Ace Atkins is The Broken Places.  A year after becoming sheriff, Quinn Colson is faced with the release of an infamous murderer from prison.  Jamey Dixon comes back to Jericho preaching redemption, and some believe him, but for the victim’s family, the only thought is revenge. Colson has his work cut out for him, made all the worse by a tornado that hits nearby.  Communications are down, the roads are impassable – and the rule of law is just about to snap.

 A Brief Guide to Agatha Christie is by Nigel Cawthorne and is due to be published in June 2014.  Agatha Christie’s 80 novels and short-story collections have sold over 2 billion copies in more than 45 languages; more than any other author. When he died, Poirot, that ‘detestable, bombastic, tiresome, egocentric little creep’ in Christie’s words, received a full-page obituary in the New York Times. From her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, a Poirot mystery, to her last, Sleeping Murder, featuring Miss Marple, Cawthorne explores Christie’s life and fiction.

A pen pusher from Head Office soon finds himself pushing up the daisies...Local police stations all over the Scottish Highlands are being threatened with closure and this presents the perfect opportunity for Detective Chief Inspector Blair, who would love nothing more than to get rid of Sergeant Hamish Macbeth. Blair suggests that Cyril Sessions, a keen young police officer, visit the town of Lochdubh to monitor exactly what Hamish does every day. On hearing of Blair's plans Hamish is fully prepared to ensure young Cyril returns back to headquarters with a full report ...but before he can do that, Cyril is found dead and Hamish very quickly becomes the prime suspect for his murder... Death of a Policeman is by M C Beaton and is due to be published in February 2014.

When a claimant to the title of Lord Darlymple comes to an unexpected sticky end, the cry goes up: 'Was it murder?' The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple is recruited by her cousin Edgar - the current Lord Dalrymple - to help him find the next heir to the viscountcy. With the involvement of the family lawyer, they come up with four claimants who, along with Daisy, are invited to Fairacres, the family estate, to celebrate Edgar's fiftieth birthday. And they're a mixed bunch. A hotelier from Scarborough, a diamond merchant from South Africa, a mixed-race boy from Trinidad and a sailor from Jamaica. But then the sailor goes missing ...and so begins a series of inexplicable and troubling accidents, resulting in the death of one of the would-be heirs. Daisy and her husband, DCI Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, are left wondering who might be behind all of this and, more importantly ...who's next?  Heirs to the Body is by Carola Dunn and is due to be published in December 2013.

Chief Inspector Henrique Monroe of the Lisbon Police Department is not your usual cop, and his peculiar behaviour at crime scenes is legendary. But his colleagues put up with it because, in the end, Monroe’s the best of the best. But he has a double-sided secret. And when he’s called to investigate the brutal slaying of well-connected Portuguese businessman Pedro Coutinho, it’s not just the murder case that will unravel – but his own identity, too.  The Night Watchman is by Richard Zimler and is due to be published in June 2014.

Pagan Spring is by G M Malliet and is due to be published in March 2014.  Vicar Max Tudor feels that life at the moment holds no greater challenge than writing his Easter sermon. But when a guest is poisoned at a local dinner, Max knows a criminal atmosphere has once again enveloped his perfect village of Nether Monkslip. Connections to past crimes, some sparked by the paintings of a famous local artist, help Max unravel the clues – but will he be too late to restore peace to the village?

The British Museum in Bloomsbury is home to one of the Caryatids, a beautiful and priceless statue of a maiden that Lord Elgin brought to London in the 19th century. Lord Francis Powerscourt finds himself summoned by the museum to attend a most urgent matter: the Caryatid has been stolen and an inferior copy left in her place. Powerscourt agrees to handle the case discreetly – but then comes the first death: an employee of the British Museum is pushed under a rush-hour train before he and the police can question him. What had he known about the statue’s disappearance? And who would want such a priceless object? Powerscourt and his friend Johnny Fitzgerald embark on a mission that takes them deep into the heart of London’s Greek community and the upper echelons of English society to uncover the bizarre truth of the vanishing lady.  Death of an Elgin Marble is by David Dickinson and is due to be published in January 2014.

The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime Volume 11 is edited by Maxim Jakubowski and is due to be published in June 2014.  A superb collection of the year’s most outstanding short crime fiction published in the UK it showcases the impressive breadth of crime writing, from cosy tales of detection to noir mayhem and psychological suspense and terror. There are puzzles to solve, questions about the nature of society, but, above all, there is an abundance of first-class entertainment by writers of the calibre of Robert Barnard, Lee Child, Simon Kernick, Val McDermid and Zoë Sharp.

When Gordianus’ lover Bethesda is kidnapped by mistake, he must seek out her captors before they realise they have the wrong woman and dispose of her for good. A raid on the golden tomb of Alexander the Great, a shady troupe of travelling performers, highwaymen, amorous innkeepers, the politics of the pharaohs and an adventure on the Nile all combine to make this a rescue mission neither Gordianus – or Bethesda – will ever forget.  Raiders of the Nile is by Steven Saylor and is due to be published in May 2014.

 Night Kills is by John Lutz and is due to be published in June 2014.  Frank Quinn is sure he is hunting for a madman: someone is shooting young women in the heart and defiling their bodies, leaving only torsos to be found. Quinn, a former NYPD detective, is called on to the case by an ambitious chief of police and mobilises his team of brilliant law-enforcement misfits. But in the concrete canyons of New York, this shocking serial murder case is turning into something very different …

Late December. A 16-year-old girl is found dead on a train line. Detective Sergeant Lucy Black is called to identify the body. The only clues to the dead teenager’s last movements are stored in her mobile phone and on social media – and it soon becomes clear that her ‘friends’ were not as trustworthy as she thought. Lucy is no stranger to death: she is still haunted by the memory of the child she failed to save, and the killer she failed to put behind bars. And with a new boss scrutinizing her every move, she is determined that – this time – she will leave no margin for error. Hurt is a tense crime thriller about how, in the hands of a predator, trust can turn into terror.  Hurt is by Brian McGilloway and is due to be published in November 2013.

 

The New Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction is edited by Maxim Jakubowski and is due to be published in February 2014.  A truly mammoth collection of 7 decades of pure, unadulterated pulp fiction, jam-packed with tough guys and femme fatales. Join shady operators, voluptuous molls, ruthless bigshots and crooked – or just occasionally, honest – cops on a rollercoaster ride through the mean streets of popular literature in the company of outstanding writers of hardboiled crime such as Dashiell Hammett, Bill Pronzini and Micky Spillane, as well as some forgotten authors well worth rediscovering.