Books to Look Forward to from Atlantic Books & Corvus.

January 2017

You went to bed at home, just like every other night. You woke up in the back of a taxi, 300 miles away. You have no memory of the last ten hours. You have a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing. You know you weren't planning to kill yourself. Your family and friends think you are lying. Someone knows exactly what happened to you. But they're not telling.  Everything You Told Me is by Lucy Dawson.

All of a Winter’s Night is by Phil Rickman.  When Aidan Lloyd's bleak funeral is followed by a nocturnal ritual in the fog, it becomes all too clear that Aidan, son of a wealthy farmer, will not be resting in peace. Aidan's hidden history has reignited an old feud, and a rural tradition begins to display its sinister side. It's already a fraught time for Merrily Watkins, her future threatened by a bishop committed to restricting her role as diocesan exorcist for Hereford. Suddenly there are events she can't talk about as she and her daughter Jane find themselves potentially on the wrong side of the law. In the city of Hereford, DI Frannie Bliss, investigating a shooting, must confront the apparent growth of organised crime, also contaminating the countryside. On the Welsh border, the old ways are at war with the modern world. As the days shorten and the fog gives way to ice and snow, a savage killing draws Merrily Watkins into a conflict centred on one of Britain's most famous medieval churches, its walls laden with ancient symbolism. 

What Dark Clouds Hide is by Anne Holt. On a summer's day, Johanne Vik arrives at the home of her friends Jon and Ellen Mohr and was greeted by a scene of devastation: their young son, left unattended, has tragically fallen to his death. Meanwhile, Oslo is under attack. An explosion has torn the city apart and newly qualified police officer Henrik Holme is the only one available to attend the Mohr household. As Holme investigates, he casts doubt on the claim that the death was a tragic accident and calls upon Johanne's profiling expertise to understand what really happened. But neither realise that those involved are determined to hide the truth - no matter what. Before the summer is over, more shocking deaths will occur...

February 2017

It's been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend,

Corinne, disappeared without trace. Then a letter from her father arrives - 'I need to talk to you. That girl. I saw that girl.' Has her father's dementia worsened, or has he really seen Corinne? Returning home, Nicolette must finally face what happened on that terrible night all those years ago. Then, another young woman goes missing, almost to the day of the anniversary of when Corinne vanished. And like ten years ago, the whole town is a suspect. Told backwards - Day 15 to Day 1 - Nicolette works to unravel the truth, revealing shocking secrets about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne.  All the Missing Girls is by Megan Miranda

Offline is by Anne Holt.  It has been eleven years since Hanne Wilhelmsen's life was forever changed by an assault that left her wheelchair bound. Now, Hanne's self-imposed exile is nearing its end. When Oslo comes under attack from Islamic extremists in a series of explosions, the city is left reeling. A militant group claim responsibility, but the Norwegian police force doubt on the authenticity of the declaration, and the group's very existence. The unfolding drama is brought to Hanne's door by her former partner Billy T., who is convinced that his son, Linus, is involved in the recent events. He begs Hanne for help. But Hanne soon learns that she cannot protect Linus, Billy T. or the people of Oslo. Those bent of destruction are one step ahead, and many lives will be lost before the truth is revealed.

October 1987: the morning after the Great Storm. Fifteen-year-old Tania Mills walks out her front door and disappears. Twenty-seven years later her mother still prays for her return. DS Sarah Collins in the Met's Homicide Command is determined to find out what happened, but is soon pulled into a shocking new case and must once again work with a troubled young police officer from her past, Lizzie Griffiths. PC Lizzie Griffiths, now a training detective, is working in the Domestic Violence Unit, known by cops as the 'murder prevention squad'. Called to an incident of domestic violence, she encounters a vicious, volatile man - and a woman too frightened to ask for help. Soon Lizzie finds herself drawn into the centre of the investigation as she fights to protect a mother and daughter in peril. As both cases unfold, Sarah and Lizzie must survive the dangerous territory where love and violence meet.  Death Message is by Kate London.

March 2017

Tess is visiting friends in rural Vermont when she is driving alone at night and sees a young,

half-dressed toddler in the middle of the road, who then runs into the woods like a frightened deer. The entire town begins searching for the little girl. But there are no sightings, no other witnesses, no reports of missing children. As local police point out, Tess's imagination has played her false before. And yet Tess is compelled to keep looking, in a desperate effort to save the little girl she can't forget.  Where I lost Her is by T Greenwood.

Every Man a Menace, is by Patrick Hoffman and is the inside story of an increasingly ruthless ecstasy-smuggling ring. San Francisco is about to receive the biggest delivery of MDMA to hit the West Coast in years. Raymond Gaspar, just out of prison, is sent to the city by his boss - still locked up on the inside - to check in on the increasingly erratic dealer expected to take care of distribution. In Miami, meanwhile, the man responsible for shipping the drugs from Southeast Asia to the Bay Area has just met the girl of his dreams - a woman who can't seem to keep her story straight. And thousands of miles away, in Bangkok, someone farther up the supply chain, a former conscript of the Israeli army, is about to make a phonecall that will put all their lives at risk. Stretching from the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia to the Golden Gate of San Francisco, Every Man a Menace offers an unflinching account of the making, moving and selling of the drug known as Molly - pure happiness sold by the brick, brought to market by bloodshed and betrayal.

Books to Look Forward to from Corvus and Atlantic

AD 58: Rome is in turmoil once more. Emperor Nero has surrounded himself with sycophants and together they rampage by night through the city, visiting death and destruction as they go. Meanwhile, Nero's extravagance has reached new heights. The Emperor's spending is becoming profligate at the same time as the demands of keeping the provinces subdued have become increasingly unaffordable. Could Nero withdraw from Britannia, and at what price for the Empire? As the bankers of the Empire scramble to call in their loans, Vespasian is sent to Londinium on a secret mission, only to become embroiled in a deadly rebellion led by Boudicca, a female warrior of extraordinary bravery. As the uprising gathers pace, Vespasian must fight to stay ahead of Rome's enemies and complete his task- before all of Britannia burns. The Furies of Rome is by Robert Fabbri and is due to be published in January 2016.

When celebrity chef Brede Ziegler is discovered stabbed to death on the steps of the Oslo police headquarters it sends a shockwave through the city’s in-crowd.  Police investigator Billy T takes on the case, but I seems nobody really knew the dead man – including is wife, the restaurant co-owner and the editor of his memoir.  While Billy T struggles to find evidence, Hanne Wilhelmsen returns to Oslo after a long absence.  Hanne discovers that Ziegler has also ingested a lethal dose of painkillers.  As the plot thickens, Hanne and Billy T are pulled deeper into the nefarious world in which Ziegler lived.  Was who he said he was? And can those who claim to have known him best be trusted?  No Echo is by Anne Holt and is due to be published in May 2016.

Promises of Blood is by David Thorne and is due to be published in February 2016.  Even the dead like to keep their secrets. When William Gove, a dying millionaire and patriarch of a vast estate in Essex, asks Daniel Connell to execute his will, Daniel has no idea what he's getting himself into. Rather than leave his fortune to his three children, Gove has chosen ten names at random from the phone book. When he dies, Daniel sets out to track down the recipients. But a chance remark by one of them - that perhaps this is God's way of compensating her for the disappearance of her daughter - gives him pause. When another recipient also mentions a missing person, Daniel begins to suspect that there may be something darker at work. What he discovers is both shocking and dangerous - it sets him on a lethal trajectory with a powerful family who believe themselves to be above the law, no matter how dark and twisted their secrets may be...

Laura is making a fresh start.  Recently divorced and relocated to Bristol, she is carving a new life for her and her nine-year-old daughter, Autumn.  But things aren’t going as well as she hoped.  Autumn’s sweet nature and artistic bent are making her a target for bullies.  When Autumn fails to return home from school one day, Laura goes looking for her and finds a crowd of older children taunting her little girl.  In the heat of the moment, Laura makes a terrible mistake.  A mistake that will have devastating consequences for her and her daughter.  Bone by Bone is by Sanjida Kay and is due to be published in March 2016.

Distress Signals is by Catherine Ryan Howard and is due to be published in June 2016.  The day Adam Dunne’s girlfriend Sarah, fails to return from a business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart.  Days later, the arrival of her passport ad a note that reads ‘I’m sorry – S’ sets off real alarm bells.  Adam connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate – and to Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in similar circumstances a year before.  To get answers, Adam must do things of which he never thought himself capable.  And he must try to outwit a murderer who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground. 

You Sent me a Letter is by Lucy Dawson and is due to be published in March 2016. On the morning of her fortieth birthday, Sophie wakes in the darkness of her bedroom – and finds a stranger watching her from the foot of the bed.  The intruder hands Sophie a letter and issues an ultimatum: the message is to be opened at her forthcoming party, at exactly 8p.m.  Any failure to comply will not end well. What can the letter possibly contain? And why must it be read in front of everyone she loves?  When the clock strikes eight, the course of several people’s lives will be altered forever.

1998, John Hart, a photojournalist determined to capture the devastation of the civil war in Kosovo, risks his own life to free three women imprisoned by Serbian soldiers.  2015, John is left to care for the daughter of one of the women he freed in Kosovo.  She is determined to track down the Captain: a war criminal and her father.  But when the Captain takes her life, John Hart sets out for revenge.  His quest takes him across Europe and into Africa, where he confronts the man who shows no remorse, and no regard for life.  The Templar Succession is by Mario Reading and is due too be published in April 2016.

Having shot someone in what he believed was self-defense in the chaotic streets of postwar

Berlin, East End Londoner turned spy Joe Wilderness finds himself locked up with little chance to escape. But an official pardon from Burne-Jones, a senior agent at MI6, means he is free to go. His return to London is brief, for another assignment from Burne-Jones puts him into the line of danger again. The operation will take him back to Berlin, where he spent several years working the black market after the war, the city now the dividing line between the West and the Soviets. Khrushchev and Kennedy are playing a game of chicken, gambling with the fate of millions of German lives.  On August 13, 1961, barbed wire is laid down, separating the Soviet controlled sectors from the rest of the city. With an old paramour at threat in the divided city, and the inscrutable Khrushchev developing plans for something that could change the fate of the Cold War, Wilderness is thrust into matters well beyond his control. And meanwhile, MI6's new man in Moscow has to improvise some quite unusual techniques in order to get the information he needs . . .  The Unfortunate Englishman is by John Lawton and is  due to be published in May 2016.

Some secrets never die. They’re just locked away.  Alex Dale is lost. Destructive habits have cost her a marriage and a journalism career. All she has left is her routine: a morning run until her body aches, then a few hours of forgettable work before the past grabs hold and drags her down. Every day is treading water, every night is drowning. Until Alex discovers Amy Stevenson. Amy Stevenson, who was just another girl from a nearby town until the day she was found after a merciless assault. Amy Stevenson, who has been in a coma for fifteen years, forgotten by the world. Who, unbeknownst to her doctors, remains locked inside her body, conscious but paralysed, reliving the past.  Soon Alex’s routine includes visiting hours at the hospital, then interviews with the original suspects in the attack. But what starts as a reporter’s story becomes a personal obsession. How do you solve a crime when the only witness lived, but cannot tell the tale? Unable to tear herself away from uncovering the unspeakable truth, Alex realises she’s not just chasing a story—she’s seeking salvation. Try not to Breathe is by Holly Seddon and is due to be published in January 2016.