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

In London's smoky taverns, a conspiracy is brewing: a group of wealthy young Catholic dissidents plot to assassinate Elizabeth, free Mary Queen of Scots - and open England to Spanish invasion.  But the conspirators have been infiltrated by Sir Francis Walsingham's top intelligencer, John Shakespeare. Shakespeare, however, is torn: the woman he loves stands accused of murder.  In a desperate race against time he must save her from the noose and the realm from treachery.  And then it dawns that both investigations are inextricably linked - by corruption very close to the seat of power ... Holy Spy is by Rory Clements and is due to be published in February 2015.

After moving with her family from London to Devon, Justine Merrison notices that her daughter Ellen is growing increasingly withdrawn.  When probed, Ellen tells Justine that her best friend at her new school, George Donbavand, has been unfairly expelled.  But when Justine investigates, the school’s headmistress tells her that she must be mistaken: George Donbavand has not been expelled, because there has never been a boy with that name at the school.  Ellen insists that George is real, but the teachers suddenly appear very nervous - as if they're hiding something.  And then the phone calls start.  Someone keeps ringing Justine demanding that she stop trying to scare and intimidate them.  But what's even stranger is that the mystery caller addresses Justine as 'Sandie', which is not and has never been her name...  A Game for all the Family is by Sophie Hannah and is due to be published in April 2015.

In the 1970s, a terrifying serial killer stalked the streets of Tynemouth.  The press called him the Joker.  The crimes stopped - but the man was never caught.  And now he's back.  A body has been found in a sleazy motel room, murdered in exactly the same way as the Joker's first victims.  Is it a copycat?  A trick?  Or is the Joker at work once more?  It's only DI Jack Brady's first day back - and this will be his most twisted case yet.  As Brady digs into both the old murders and the new, he must confront revenge, betrayal, love and lies...and a truly ruthless killer.  Dead Man Walking is by Danielle Ramsay and is due to be published in March 2015.

Last Words is by Michael Koryta and is due to be published in June 2015.  Still mourning the death of his wife, private investigator Mark Novak accepts a case that may be his undoing.  On same day his wife died, the body of a teenage girl was pulled from the extensive and perilous cave system beneath Southern Indiana.  Now the man who rescued the girl, who was believed to be her killer, begs Novak uncover what really happened.  The only problem is in small-town Midwest, cold cases stay cold.  Garrison is much like any place in America, proud and fortified against outsiders.  So Mark is forced to delve beneath the town's secrets, and more frighteningly match wits with the man who knows the caverns better than anyone.  A man who seemed to lose his mind.  A man who seems to know Mark Novak all too well.

Solitude Creek is by Jeffery Deaver and is due to be published in May 2015.  As an investigator with the California Bureau of Investigation, Kathryn Dance is used to putting criminals behind bars.  But when she's suspended after a dangerous gang member she interviews - and deems innocent - is proven guilty and escapes in a violent shoot out, she begins to question her judgement.  With her badge removed and forced to act as a consultant, Dance must turn her hand to another pressing case: a terrifying stampede of panicked music fans at a concert venue which left half a dozen people dead.  When her investigations suggest that the stampede was deliberately instigated by assailant Anthony Marsh - a hired criminal renowned for using people's herd mentality as a weapon - Dance must use her skills to aid Chief Detective Michael O'Neil in a race against the clock to find Marsh before he makes his next deadly strike.

Gone is by Rebecca Muddiman and is due to be published in January 2015.  250,000 people go missing in the UK every year.  91% of those reported to police are found within 48 hours.  99% of cases are solved within a year.  And 1% stay gone.  Eleven years ago, troubled teenager Emma Thorley went missing.  The police assumed she was a runaway.  But now a body has been found in woods near Blyth.  DI Michael Gardner knows he didn't take Emma's disappearance seriously enough back then, and is determined to make up for it now.  But when he and DS Nicola Freeman start to reinvestigate, they discover that nothing is as simple as it seems.  As news of the discovery travels, the past will come back to haunt all those involved.  Because there are consequences when good people do bad things, and some secrets cannot stay buried forever...

The Passage and Lost.  Four days into a five-day singles cruise on the Gulf of Mexico, the ageing ship Beautiful Dreamer stops dead in the water.  With no electricity and no cellular signals, the passengers and crew have no way to call for help.  But everyone is certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon.  All they have to do is wait.  That is, until the toilets stop working and the food begins to run out.  When the body of a woman is discovered in her cabin the passengers start to panic.  There's a murderer on board the Beautiful Dreamer...and maybe something worse.  Day Four is by Sarah Lotz and is due to be published in April 2015.

Young Willie is on the run, having fled his Texas home when an infamous local landowner murdered his father.  A man named Loving takes him in and trains him in the fine arts of shooting, riding, reading, and gardening.  When Loving dies, Willie renames himself Nat Love in tribute to his mentor and heads west.  In Deadwood, South Dakota Territory, Nat becomes a Buffalo Soldier and is befriended by Wild Bill Hickok.  After winning a famous shooting match, Nat's peerless marksmanship and charm earn him the nickname Deadwood Dick, as well as a beautiful bride.  But the hellhounds are still on his trail, and they brutally attack Nat Love's wife, driving him to a final, deadly showdown that will be one for the history books.  Paradise Sky is by Joe R Lansdale and is due to be published in June 2015.

London,  1728.  A young man is dragged to the Tyburn gallows.  His name is Tom Hawkins and he is innocent.  Somehow he has to prove it, before the noose tightens around his neck.  It’s all Tom’s fault.  He should never been told the most dangerous criminal in London that he was looking for adventure.  He should never have offered to help the king’s mistress with her brutal husband.  And most of all, he should never have trusted the calculating Queen.  She promises a royal pardon if he holds his tongue, but there is nothing more silent than a hanged man.  The currently untitled novel by Antonia Hodgson is due to be  published in February 2015.

When a married couple is found dead in their Jacuzzi and their adopted five year old daughter has vanished, Inspector Malin Fors, the troubled but brilliant star of the Linköping police force, is put in charge of the case.  But this a haunting case where the borders have become blurred: those between the living and the dead, between good and evil.  As the investigation forces Malin to confront his own demons, will she hold out long enough to find the missing girl before it’s too late? Water Angels is by Mons Kallentoft and is due to be published in April 2015.

Afraid is by Mandasue Heller and is due to be published in January 2015.  When fifteen-year-old Skye's mother finally does something so shocking that it can't be hushed up, the police turn her over to the social workers - and that's when the nightmare begins.  No one will let her talk to her father; the woman who is supposed to be helping her dumps her in a terrifying 'home' that's more like a jail.  But she still has one friend to turn to: the sympathetic girl she's met in an internet chat room, the one who seems to have a home life as unhappy as Skye's.  And Jade offers her a safe place to stay ...Alone in Manchester, nearly penniless, Skye is willing to trust Jade.  Even when it isn't Jade who turns up at the rendezvous, but a grown-up man who says he's Jade's brother ...

Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis is due to be published in April 2015.  We first met Flavia Albia, Falco's feisty adopted daughter, in The Ides of April.  Albia is a remarkable woman in what is very much a man's world: young, widowed and fiercely independent, she lives alone on the Aventine Hill in Rome and makes a good living as a hired investigator.  An outsider in more ways than one, Albia has unique insight into life in ancient Rome, and she puts it to good use going places no man could go, and asking questions no man could ask.  When a body is discovered inside a large chest that's about to go under the hammer at the Falco family auction house, Albia throws herself into the investigation.  For one thing, it'd be nice to beat her adoptive father at his own game.  For another, it'll give her yet another chance to work with Manlius Faustus, the man she just can't quite get enough of.  But when Faustus then invites her to get involved in the Roman elections, Albia discovers links between the politician they're working for and the murder she's investigating.  And those links implicate none other than Faustus. 

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution legalized federal income tax, but what if there were problems with the 1913 ratification of that amendment?  Problems that call into question decades of tax collecting, and could even bring down the US economy. Cotton Malone, once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department known as the Magellan Billet, is now retired.  But when his former-boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files-the kind that could bring the United States to its knees-Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four-hour chase that begins on the water in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia. The Patriot Threat is by Steve Berry and is due to be published in May 2015.

Swedish Lapland: 1717; a group of disparate settlers struggles to forge a new life in the

shadow of the grim mountain Blackasen whose dark mythology lies at odds with the repressive, almost feudal control exerted by the church.  Into this setting, Maija, her husband, and two daughters arrive, yearning to forget the traumas that caused them to abandon their native Finland and start anew.  Not long after their arrival, their teenage daughter Frederika stumbles across the savagely mutilated body of a fellow settler, Eriksson, in a picturesque glade.  The locals are quick to dismiss the culprit as wolf or bear.  Maija, however, is unconvinced and compelled by the ghosts of her past she determines to investigate a murder.  As the seasons change and a harsh winter known as a 'Wolf Winter' descends, Maija begins a dangerous quest to unearth the secrets that both her neighbours and the church have conspired to bury. Now as the snow begins to fall, she will come to know the full cost of survival demanded from those who would live in the shadow of Blackasen - and the terrible truth about those who have paid the price. Wolf Winter is by Cecilia Ekbäck and is due to be published in January 2015.

Ten ears after the peace deal between Britain and Germany, international tensions are rearing their heads.  Especially in Africa, where the British, Portuguese and expanding German colonies rub against each other.  Burton Cole is back in England, desperate to find his lover, Madeleine.  When he discovers that her husband has had her deported to Madagaskar, the African island converted by the Nazis into a vast prison camp for the Jews, he jumps at the chance to join a secret mission to go there and make contact with Jewish nuclear scientists.  But Burton is heading into more danger than he could possibly imagine.  The Madagaskar Plan is by Guy Saville and is due to be published in July 2015.

Beecher White, a humble archivist at the U.S. National Archives by day, has a secret: he belongs to the Culper Ring, a network of spies founded by George Washington during the American Revolution.  Over the course of his time working for the Culper Ring, White has discovered countless secrets and saved more lives than he knows - including the President's.  And then, one day, White makes an alarming discovery on the White House grounds: a severed arm buried in the Rose Garden.  As he investigates, he realizes it's a message...one that may have dire repercussions for the President.  But that's not all - the message also turns Beecher's personal life upside-down, pointing him towards the dark truth about his father's death.  The President’s Shadow is by Brad Meltzer and is due to be published in June 2015.

Every student needs a part-time job.  Hers is hunting criminals.  Sarie Holland is a good kid.  An Honours student.  She doesn't even drink.  So when a narcotics cop busts her while she's doing a favour for a friend, she has a lot to lose.  Desperate to avoid destroying her future, Sarie agrees to become a CI - a confidential informant.  Armed only with a notebook, she turns out to be as good at catching criminals as she is at passing tests.  But it's going to take more than one nineteen-year-old to clean up Philadelphia.  Soon Sarie is caught in the middle of a power struggle between corrupt cops and warring gangs, with nothing on her side but stubbornness and smarts.  Which is bad news for both the police and the underworld.  Because when it comes to payback, CI #137 turns out to be a very fast learner...  Canary is by Duane Swierczynski and is due to be published in February 2015.

They found the boy by the swimming pool, dolls floating on its surface.  Inside the house, his professor lay dead.  But Hugo claims to remember nothing...and his mother is one of Commandant Servaz's oldest friends.  When Servaz receives Marianne's desperate phone call, he is drawn back to Marsac - the town where he studied, and where his daughter is now at university too.  It brings back memories...and as more people die in strange and unsettling circumstances, it becomes clear that if he is to close the case, Servaz must reopen old and terrible wounds.  It will be his most dangerous - and his most personal - investigation yet. A Song for Drowned Souls is by Bernard Minier and is due to be published in June 2015.

Black River is by Tom Harper and is due to be published in May 2015.  When Kel MacDonald joins an expedition looking for a legendary lost city in the Peruvian Amazon, he's expecting the adventure of a lifetime.  But things are not what they seem.  Paramilitaries, drug cartels, and wildcat prospectors all want what the jungle has to offer - while untamed local tribes will fight desperately to protect their way of life.  Maps of the region have been doctored.  And what exactly happened to the previous expedition, a government vaccination program that went upriver and never returned?  Soon finding the lost city is the least of their troubles.  The jungle hides deadly secrets that must be hidden at all costs.  And someone in the group wants to make sure they never get out.

In the midst of post-war Boston two old friends are trying to scrape a living.  WWII veteran

Cal is getting by: heroin addict Dante is trying – and mostly failing –to kick the habit.  But when the girl they fought over in their hardscrabble youth is found murdered, they take it upon themselves to track down her killer.  Their investigation leads them from the drug-ravaged neighbourhood they know to gangsters and corrupt politicians.  And as their quest gets ever more dangerous, it seems clear that even if they can find answers, they may end up losing themselves.  Serpents in the Cold is by Thomas O’Malley & Douglas Graham Purdy and is due to be published in January 2015.

Having survived his assignment in Arabia, imperial agent Cassius Corbulo now spends most of his time on women and wine.  But, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt, Cassius is called back into action and sent north, tasked with smashing a counterfeiting gang.  After tracking the criminals to the city of Berytus, Cassius’s investigations are hampered by civil unrest and uncooperative officials.  Under pressure from his superiors, Cassius closes in on the counterfeiters.  But the gang will stop at nothing to protect their profits, leading Cassius and his companions in a deadly pursuit across the slopes of Mount Lebanon.  Agent of Rome: The Emperor’s Silver is by Nick Brown and is due to be published in June 2015.

At the Ruin of the World is by John Henry Clay and is due to be published in May 2015.  The Roman Empire is on the brink of extinction.  This is felt most keenly in Gaul, which is besieged on all sides by barbarians: the Huns and the Goths.  As the Empire starts to crumble, enemies to approach and battles begin to be fought, the lives of four people are drawn into this conflict: the poet and courtier Sidonius, soldier Ecdicius, low-born but crafty Arvandus, and the beautiful but enigmatic Attica.

It's Ella's senior year of high school and she and her best friend Linds plan to make it the best year ever.  At Brock Cochran's end of summer pool party, the girls vow to have as much fun as possible before they head off to different colleges in the fall.  But when Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from the party, everything changes.  Ella's carefree senior year plans disintegrate as she finds herself at the centre of an attempted murder investigation.  Ella is determined to move on; to get her life back to normal, but she can't seem to shake the feeling that she's still being watched.  Suddenly, the people closest to her seem the most suspicious, like the elusive Jensen Carver.  In her seemingly safe West Virginia town, Ella starts to wonder who she can actually trust.  The Dead List is by Jennifer L Armentrout and is due to be published in April 2015.

Lizzie Snow was first introduced in the final book of Sarah Graves's previous series, Bat in the Belfry, in which she helped Jake Tiptree find who killed a girl and left her body in a church steeple.  Now Lizzie has taken over as Eastport's police chief, and is quickly finding the job - and her life - more complicated than she expected.  Then she learns that someone seems to be killing retired detectives in the state... and that she has been followed from Boston to Maine by a mysterious stalker whose chilling intentions will drive her to the edge.  Winter at the Door is due to be published in January 2015.

A historical novel of suspense, seasoned with recipes and remedies for broken hearts, The Penny Heart draws on age-old themes of cooking, trickery and revenge.  Manchester 1809.  Would-be industrialist Michael Croxon chases young street hawker Mary Jebb into a wretched warren after she cons his brother out of his money.  In an unguarded moment he develops a suppressed attraction to the girl.  After he bears witness in court against her, Mary sends him a Penny Heart token from the prison hulks bearing a strange verse, the reverse announcing that she will be transported for 7 years.  Two years later, in order to build a manufactory, Michael has married awkward Jane Moore, who is overjoyed at her luck, but soon disappointed to learn it was only to gain her land.  Meanwhile, Mary escapes from Botany Bay to be shipwrecked on the wild coast of New Zealand, where she loses her lover and the last of her scruples.  Using her conning skills, Mary returns home and adopts the identity of 'Peg', the Croxon's cook at their lonely Hall.  After Mary helps Jane compile a book of husband-pleasing recipes, Jane's new womanly wiles seem to earn Michael's affection.  But when Jane discovers two matching Penny Heart love tokens that tell of banishment to the ends of the earth, she enters a world of deceit and double-crossing, and uncovers a tale of revenge that culminates in murder.  The Penny Heart is by Martine Bailey and is due to be published in May 2015.

Every life is uncertain.  Every choice is a danger.  Set on the dark side of Los Angeles, this is a masterful collection of edge-of-your-seat tales: a prison guard must protect an inmate being tried for heinous crimes.  A father and son set out to rescue a young couple trapped during a wildfire after they cross the border.  An ex-con trying to make good as a security guard stumbles onto a burglary plot.  A young father must submit to blackmail to protect the fragile life he's built.  Sweet Nothing is by Richard Lange and is an intense and gripping journey through real lives with big problems.  It is due to be published in February 2015.

Lives Lost is by Britta Bolt and is due to be published in June 2015.  A minute can make all the difference...Pieter Posthumus is enjoying a quiet drink in his favourite bar when the screaming starts.  A minute later, the owner of the guesthouse next-door rushes in: one of her tenants has been murdered.  Marloes, the guesthouse owner, is an odd but kind soul.  Posthumus cannot believe it when she is arrested - for both her tenant Zig's murder and another death years before.  He knows there are questions unanswered: what is the link between the two cases?  Why are people so keen to think Marloes is guilty?  And why did Zig paint just one picture every year - a copy of a Dutch master, but with one peculiar twist?  As his investigation progresses, he comes to see that a few minutes can mean all the difference in the world: between saving a life and taking one; between innocence and guilt.  And that sometimes asking questions leads to a truth that's hard to bear.

Northern Ireland, 1993.  For high-flying MI5 officer Avery Chance the real war has only just

begun.  When Chance is abducted by the IRA's notorious Nutting Squad, her hopes lie in the hands of a young SAS recruit who must risk everything to bring her home.  Twenty years after his act of self-sacrifice in Belfast ex-SAS legend John Bald is a scarred shadow of his former self.  But when a face from the past appears and rescues him from deep trouble, Bald is offered one last shot at redemption.  His target is Kurt Pretorius, a ruthless mercenary operating deep in the wilds of war-ravaged Somali.  In a world where rogue mercenaries operate beyond the reach of the law, Kurt Pretorius has transformed himself into a god.  It is up to Bald to stop Pretorius before he turns Somalia into a terrorist haven.  But Bald quickly finds himself sucked into a twisted game of survival, where the stakes could not be higher - and the price of failure is his life...With time running out, Bald must kill Pretorius before he brings down everyone around him.  It's a mission Bald was born to do.  Because sometimes, the only way to beat your deadliest enemy...is to be like your deadliest enemy. Silent Kill is by Chris Ryan and is due to be published in January 2015.

Forthcoming books to look forward to from Mulholland Books and Hodder &Stoughton

Kind of Cruel is by Sophie Hannah and is due to be published in February 2012. When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn't expect that anything much will change. She doesn't expect it to help with her chronic insomnia ...She doesn't expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: 'Kind, cruel, kind of cruel' - words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where ...She doesn't expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she's never heard of ...

In Broken Harbour, a ghost estate outside Dublin - half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned - two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case because he is the Murder squad's star detective. At first he and his rookie partner, Richie, think this is a simple one: Pat Spain was a casualty of the recession, so he killed his children, tried to kill his wife Jenny, and finished off with himself. But there are too many inexplicable details and the evidence is pointing in two directions at once. Scorcher's personal life is tugging for his attention. Seeing the case on the news has sent his sister Dina off the rails again, and she's resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family, one summer at Broken Harbour, back when they were children. The neat compartments of his life are breaking down, and the sudden tangle of work and family is putting both at risk ... Broken Harbour is by Tana French and is due to be published in June 2012.

Death and the Olive Grove is the second book in the Inspector Bordelli series by Marco Vichi and is set in 1960s Florence. April 1964, but spring hasn't quite sprung. The bad weather seems suited to nothing but bad news. And bad news is coming to the police station. First, Bordelli's friend Casimiro, who insists he's discovered the body of a man in a field above Fiesole. Bordelli races to the scene, but doesn't find any sign of a corpse. Only a couple of days later, a little girl is found at Villa Ventaglio. She has been strangled, and there is a horrible bite mark on her belly. Then another little girl is found murdered, with the same macabre signature. And meanwhile Casimiro has disappeared without a trace. The investigation marks the start of one of the darkest periods of Bordelli's life: a nightmare without end, as black as the sky above Florence. Death and the Olive Grove is due to be published in January 2012.

Summertime Death is the second book in the Malin Fors series by Mons Kallentoff and is due to be published in May 2012. As the temperature in Sweden reaches a record-breaking 45-, forest fires break out. All those who have failed to escape Linkoping for the summer take shelter indoors, shocked and paralysed by the heat.However, when a teenage girl is discovered naked and bleeding in the local park, it is clear that the raging heat is not the only plague affecting the town. Then a second girl is found dead. Alarmed by the fact that the victims are the same age as her daughter, Tove, detective Malin Fors will work round-the-clock to capture the perpetrator. But as every lead comes to nothing, it is as though the oppressive heat is clogging up the wheels of her investigation. And time is not on Malin's side ...

It feels like the safest place on earth. A family-friendly, floating palace. But, as Anya Crichton soon discovers, cruise ships aren't all that they seem...Statistics tell us that a woman is twice as likely to be sexually assaulted on a cruise ship than on dry land. Customers aren't screened, so the ships are a haven for sex offenders and paedophiles. With no policing, and floating in international waters, sexual assaults and passengers 'disappearing' are uncommonly frequent...So when a teenage girl is discovered, dead on the deck of the ship that she is holidaying on, Anya feels compelled to get involved. There's no apparent cause of death, but Anya's forensics expertise uncovers more than the ship's doctors can...or want to. With the killer still on board, and subsequently a crew-member found shot, it becomes clear that the safe haven of the cruise-ship is actually anything but. And, as Anya comes under increasing pressure to abandon her investigations, will she continue? Or do whatever it takes to keep her own family safe? Cold Grave is by Kathryn Fox and is due to be published in March 2012.

AD81. The Roman Emperor Domitian seizes power. Afflicted by classic paranoia, the self-styled Master and God sees enemies everywhere - and he is right. The Senate loathes him, his advisers are terrified, he cannot trust his wife and barbarians menace the frontiers. As he vents his suspicions, no one is safe...Gaius Vinius Clodianus survives physical and mental scars to reach high rank in the Praetorian Guard. Flavia Lucilla tends the privileged women at court; when Domitian's inherited talent unravels into madness, she loses her patron cruelly. In the haven of their shared apartment, Gaius and Lucilla find solace together, yearning for normality while living in a Reign of Terror. Moves against Domitian are begun by his own household. Lucilla has to watch Gaius choose between love for her and risking death; between his sworn duty to protect the Emperor and killing Domitian for the good of Rome. The plot careers close to exposure. Rome teeters on the brink of its Golden Age. A group of unlikely conspirators must now act with decency and courage, whatever the personal cost. Master and God is the epic story of a despot whose contemporaries wrote him out of history. Told in Lindsey Davis' sardonic style, it is an intimate portrait of resilience, friendship and love. Master and God is due to be published in March 2012.

Point and Shoot is the final book in the Charlie Hardie trilogy by Duane Swierczynski. On a day like any other day, Kendra Hardie picks up the phone. A voice says, 'leave the house and you're dead'. Then the line is cut. Kendra hasn't seen her husband Charlie for nearly a decade. He hasn't forgotten about her - but neither have his enemies. And he has a lot of enemies. Charlie thought he could protect her by staying away. But now he has access to secrets his enemies will kill to keep hidden, and they're planning to start with his family. After years in exile, Charlie's arming up...and heading home. Point and Shoot is due to be published in March 2012.

The Leopard Sword is by Anthony Riches and is due to be published in April 2012. Britannia has been subdued - and an epic new chapter in Marcus Valerius Aquila's life begins. The murderous Roman agents who nearly captured Marcus have been defeated by his friends. But in order to protect those very friends from the wrath of the emperor, he must leave the province which has been giving him shelter. As Marcus Tribulus Corvus, centurion of the second Tungrian auxiliary cohort, he leads his men from Hadrian's Wall to the Tungrians' original home in Germania Inferior. There he finds a very different world from the turbulent British frontier - but one with its own dangers. Tungrorum, the center of a once-prosperous farming province, a city already broght low by the ravages of the eastern plague that has swept through the empire, is now threatened by an outbreak of brutally violent robbery. A bandit chieftain called Obduro, his identity always hidden behind an iron cavalry helmet, is robbing and killing with impunity. His sword - sharper, stronger and more deadly than any known to the Roman army - is the lethal symbol of his unstoppable power. And now he has moved beyond mere theft and threatens to destabilize the whole northern frontier of the empire ...

Guilt by Degrees is by Marcia Clark and is the second book in the series to feature Deputy DA Rachel Knight. It is due to be published in May 2012. Rachel Knight has never been one to let justice slide from the grip of the law. So when a deputy district attorney mishandles a murder case and then shrugs it off - the victim was a homeless guy, so who cares? - she decides to take the case on herself. With the help of Detective Bailey Keller, Rachel soon finds a missing piece of the puzzle. And a new mystery: the homeless man's death is somehow connected to the vicious murder of a LAPD cop a year earlier. The prime suspect in the murder was acquitted - but now Rachel and Bailey are hot on the trail of new leads. What Rachel doesn't know is that she's being watched. Someone is following her every move, and just waiting for a chance to strike...

Full Back is by Brad Thor and is due to be published in February 2012. Everybody knows that governments engage in activities that are top secret and not always carried out by-the-book. They are knows as 'black ops'. But perhaps less well known is that there is a level beyond this, when the very existence of the state is threatened and the situation needs fixing instantly and utterly secretly and probably violently. Sometimes, it's necessary to go 'full black'. And when the USA is in that position, the man most likely to lead the mission is former Navy SEAL Scot Harvath. FULL BLACK finds Harvath in Sweden, executing in an audacious plan to prevent a massive attack on the Unites States by leading a team to capture a suspected terrorist and infiltrate his cell with a double agent.At the same time, Larry Solomon, one of the most famous film producers in Hollywood, is attacked in his home by a special forces-style group of assassins and only escapes with the help of his friend and former Delta Force operative Luke Ralston.In making a documentary film, Solomon has unknowingly exposed one of the world's wealthiest and highly connected power-brokers as a man determined to plunge the West into deadly chaos. Now, both Solomon and Ralston are living on borrowed time.As the plots rocket to their pulse-pounding conclusions, Harvath will be left with only one means to save his country. Unable to trust anyone, he will be forced to go FULL BLACK.

It is 612 AD and Aelric - senator of the Roman Empire, fresh from a bloodbath in Egypt - is forced to divert the Imperial galley to Athens. He finds a demoralized and corrupt provincial city threatened by an army rumoured to contain twenty million starving barbarians. Not to mention an explosive religious dispute, an unexplained corpse, and hints of something worse than murder ...He will have to call upon all his formidable intellect and lethal ingenuity to survive his enemies inside and outside the city walls ... The Ghosts of Athens is by Richard Blake and is due to be published in June 2012

Things start going wrong the day Johnny Conroy meets Ruth Hynes. He just wants to show his mates that he can pull hard-man Frankie Hynes' daughter, but before he knows it he is part of the Hynes family. And the Hynes family business, which is stealing cars. And there is no way he is ever going to get out of the marriage or the business alive ...The only good thing in their hellhole of a marriage is his daughter Angel, as nice as her name and as innocent. And the only thing keeping Johnny sane is his secret life. But then Angel grows up and meets Johnny's new employee Ryan. He loves Angel - but the family secrets involve him, too. And they are about to explode. Lost Angel is by Mandasue Heller and is due to be published in March 2012.

ALPHA Jonathan 'Jad' Bell has spent a lifetime in the US army. He can be relied on to get the job done, whatever happens, whatever the cost. So when someone needs to go undercover at the nation's biggest amusement park, Jad is the obvious choice. Aside from dealing with fights and missing children, his main responsibility is to prevent the nightmare scenario from coming to pass. This is the nightmare scenario: A group of well-trained, highly motivated terrorists infiltrate the park. They cut off all escape routes. They take hostages. They ensure every camera in the world is trained on Wilsonville...and then they turn it into a bloodbath. And on the day the nightmare becomes real, Jad and his team are all that stands between a band of ruthless killers and thousands of innocent people...including Jad's estranged wife and daughter. Alpha is by Greg Rucka and is due to be published in May 2012.

Agent of Rome: The Imperial Banner is by Nick Brown and is due to be published in May 2012. 272 AD The Roman Emperor Aurelian has defeated Queen Zenobia and crushed the Palmyran revolt. Faridun's Banner, hallowed battle standard of the Persian Empire, has fallen into Roman hands and is to be returned to the Persians as part of a historic peace treaty. But on the eve of the signing the banner goes missing. Recalled to Syria, imperial agent Cassius Corbulo is charged with recovering the flag. Accompanied by his faithful servant Simo and ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara, Cassius must journey across the dangerous wastes of Syria to the equally perilous streets of Antioch. He and his companions face ruthless brigands, mysterious cults, merciless assassins and intrigue at every turn.

Jack Nightingale was a cop who quit his job over a little girl's death. He's saved his own soul from a devil, and now he's haunted by the cries for help of that same little girl. Is she trapped in eternal torment? Or are demons torturing and deceiving him in order to gain the ultimate prize? Nightingale will have to face down the powers of the police, south London gangs and Hell itself to find out... Nightmare is by Stephen Leather and is due to be published in January 2012.

Also due to be published in May 2012 is The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry, a thriller featuring Christopher Columbus, the last treasures of Jerusalem and much, much more.

No Going Back is by Matt Hilton and is the seventh book in the Joe Hunter series. It is due to be published in February 2012. Jameson Walker approaches Joe Hunter when his daughter Jay and her friend Nicole go missing at a gas station in the Arizona desert while on a cross-country trek across the North American interior. He mentions that a robbery/homicide at the gas station as worrying as the girls were due to be in the vicinity at that time. Joe accepts the job of locating the girls, though not at first convinced there's much to worry about. As Joe picks up the girls' trail he discovers that other young women have also disappeared in the area, and comes across the brutish Logan family.

In the midst of a grueling training exercise, Navy Seal Commander Thomas Crocker unearths a pocket of terrorism that leads straight from the slopes of K2 to the cities of Europe and the Middle East. Crocker and his team, who are trained for the most intense kinds of combat in the most extreme environments, must work their way through a perilous web of terrorist cells. Their goal: to track down the ruthless sheikh behind an international kidnapping ring before his captives pay the ultimate price. Hunt the Wolf is by Don Mann along with Ralph Pezzullo and is due to be published in June 2012.

Iraq 2005 Seven mercenaries journey deep into the desert in search of Saddam's gold. They form an unlikely crew of battle-scarred privateers, killers and thieves, veterans of a dozen war zones, each of them anxious to make one last score before their luck runs out. They will soon find themselves marooned among ancient ruins, caught in a desperate battle for their lives, confronted by greed, betrayal, and an army that won't stay dead... Juggernaut is by Adam Baker and is due to be published in February 2012.

Tonight I said Goodbye is by Michael Koryta and is due to be published in May 2012. Investigator and former Marine Wayne Weston is found at home, killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, the gun still lying in his right hand. There is no sign of his wife and six-year-old daughter.The police believe Wayne Weston killed his family before turning the gun on himself. Weston's father is convinced his son was murdered. He turns to Lincoln Perry, former cop, now private investigator, for help.All the evidence supports the police's conclusions, but as soon as he starts asking questions, Lincoln hears rumours of gambling, extortion, and links to Cleveland's Russian mob. When the FBI asks him to back off, followed by a second murder, Lincoln is more determined than ever to uncover the truth, even if that means putting himself in danger ...

Ray and Marie Benson killed thirteen women before they were caught, tried, and imprisoned. Five of their victims were never found. Six years later, psychologist Alice Quentin discovers a woman's body abandoned on the waste ground at Crossbones Yard. The wounds make it clear: someone wants to continue the Bensons' crimes. Alice hates getting involved in police work, but feels she owes it to the victim to help if she can. Soon her feelings don't matter. The murderer isn't going to let her walk away. Because he seems to know everything about Alice. And if she wants to stop him - and survive - she's going to have to find out all about him. The body at Crossbones Yard is just the start... Crossbones Yard is the debut novel by Kate Rhodes and is due to be published in June 2012

Edge of Dark Water is by Joe R Lansdale and is due to be published in March 2012. May Lynn was a pretty girl from a mean family who dreamed of becoming a film star. Now she's dead - her body dredged up from the Sabine River, bound with wire and weighted down. Her best friend, Sue Ellen, has a family meaner than May's and a yearning for something greater than she's been given. She thinks the least she can do for her friend is take her ashes to Hollywood, and place them on her favourite actor's grave. But May Lynn's diary holds a secret: the location of a large sum of money. What seems like a stroke of fortune has disastrous consequences, and Sue Ellen's escape is about to get more complicated than she'd ever imagined.

Two novels by Nick Santora are due to be published in April 2012. Firstly, Slip and Fall - Robert Principe thought it would be a one-time deal. When he graduated from law school, Rob believed his future was set - he was part of the professional world now, far from his impoverished upbringing. But faced with a struggling firm, a pregnant wife, and a sister in trouble, Rob realises the white-collar world isn't as easy as he thought. He needs money...fast. Desperate, he approaches his wiseguy cousin Jackie with an insurance scheme - a way for the Mob to collect from guys who owe but can't pay and a chance for Robert to use his law degree to make a few quick bucks when he needs it most. The scheme works well - too well. The money flows, the violence escalates, and Rob soon learns that getting out of a deal with the Mafia isn't exactly easy...especially when the FBI is onto you. Rob Principe is a good man. But he's made a seriously bad decision. Secondly, Fifteen Digits - 'The benefit of being invisible is that people don't see you when you're robbing them blind ...now how about you and I get rich, Rich?' The men who work in the print and post room at legal firm Olmstead and Taft are far too unimportant for anyone to notice. But the information that passes through their office is a goldmine: bank deals, mergers, acquisitions...everything you need to play the stock market and win big. All of them could use the money. None of them can see how it would hurt anyone. They should have known that when millions of dollars are involved, all bets are off. Each of the five men picks three numbers. Together, they make up a code to an offshore bank account. It seems like a fool-proof system - that way, no-one can access the cash on their own. But what happens when if one of them learns all fifteen digits?

Faster - Stronger – Deadlier! Former SAS Warrant Officer Joe Gardner has fought the Regiment's deadliest enemies, in some of the most desolate places on earth. And he's always won. Now he's about to face his toughest challenge yet. After losing his hand whilst on a covert operation in Afghanistan, Gardner is forced to stand down from active duty. Now he lives off the grid. But trouble finds him in the shape of a phone call from an old friend. Ex-Regiment legend John Bald is trapped in a bullet-ridden favela in Rio de Janeiro and a violent gang is out to kill him. Unless Gardner helps, Bald is a dead man. What begins as a simple rescue mission soon descends into a desperate struggle for survival as Gardner finds himself caught up in a conceit that stretches from the slums of Brazil to the frozen steppes of Siberia. Stalked by elusive MI6 agents and ruthless ex-Blades, Gardner must draw on all his training and instincts to hunt down the hardest target of all - before disaster strikes... Hard Target is by Chris Ryan and is due to be published in January 2012.

Agent of the State is the debut novel by Roger Pearce. A suspected terrorist is frisked for explosives on the Embankment. Operators do this so skilfully he remains completely unaware...In New Scotland Yard a new brand of manager fails to deal with escalating threats - 'aggressive indecision' is what Detective Chief Inspector John Kerr calls it...He discovers that cocaine-fuelled sex parties in Knightsbridge are pulling in businessmen, Russian diplomats and senior members of the British government...When Kerr's investigations are blocked by his bosses in Scotland Yard, he decides to go it alone and begins to expose a cover-up that extends to all levels of the British Establishment. Agent of the State is due to be published in June 2012.