Agathaland and MC Beaton

 

When the remarkable MC Beaton died in 2019, I was astonished that we knew so little about her. Her obituaries were full of tiny teasers about what seemed to be her 9 lives, all well-lived, spanning careers and continents as if mere paths in her way. 

A no-nonsense, no-frills Glaswegian, Marion became a crime reporter by accident, navigating razor-wielding gangs and tenement murders as a single woman reporter in the 1950s – as a result, she was a pioneering woman in Fleet Street before women were even allowed; She worked for Murdoch in the USA; Then, started writing Regency Romances when she was at home and bored – doing 100 titles under 6 pseudonyms; She married a spy; Bought a working croft in the Highlands that inspired her best-selling Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth; She then moved to the Cotswolds which in turn inspired her PR turned PI sleuth, Agatha Raisin. Phew!!!

Beside Marion Beaton most of us pale into insignificance. 

I had produced the tv series of her stellar character, Agatha Raisin, for 5 years. At the time of her death, we were on the verge of series 4, perkily planning away not knowing that covid was around the corner and laughing at the weak and shifting sands we were plotting from. 

We were also just about to travel to the TV Critics Association bash in Pasadena to relaunch Agatha Raisin in the USA as an ‘Acorn Original’ (which it wasn’t given that we’d invented it for Sky but hey-ho … truth doesn’t thrive in TV). 

I felt bereft. Marion was our creator and our collaborator. Our partner in crime. A woman who had the balls to rail against the (90’s TV) version of ‘Hamish Macbeth’ that was made and that she hated. The woman I had to persuade to let us make Agatha and who, once she had seen what we could do, asked us to ‘have a look at Hamish and see if there is anything there’. At her funeral, 4 people in a row told stories of how much she hated Hamish and how she loved Agatha. It was a relief, but I was also proud. It was hard to impress MC Beaton. And for very good reason. She didn’t suffer fools and her appreciation of us made me feel like I wasn’t a fool. 

So, Agathaland is (exists) because I wanted to do something to celebrate her life and her great creations. 

For years before, my company had made documentaries about other people’s shows: ‘Revisiting Brideshead’, ‘The Wonderful World of Roald Dahl’, ‘The Spiderman Story’ and it occurred to me that Marion deserved a tribute to her remarkable life in fiction, and that given our track record, we should be the people to make it. 

In the show we trace Marion’s colourful life and the genesis of her incredible characters. I also wanted to make a noise about our beautiful show ‘Agatha Raisin’ I wanted to celebrate our star, Ashley Jensen, and our wonderful cast and crew who have made 4 seasons of a unique television proposition. It’s a crime-comedy-drama that is hugely underrated, much-copied and one of those ‘if you know, you know’ shows that - because we are behind paywalls - continues to be hiding in the light. When the first series of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ finished, the New York Times said that ‘Agatha Raisin’ should be what people sought out if they were having ‘Only Murders…’ withdrawal – this, again, made me blush.

Agathaland is due to be shown on Monday 8th May 2023 at 8pm on Sky Max

More information can be found here.

Books to Look Forward to from Little, Brown and Constable

July 2019

American Spy is by Lauren Wilkinson.  What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? It's 1986, the heart of the Cold War. Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She's brilliant and talented, but she's also a black woman working in an all-white boys' club, and her career has stalled with routine paperwork - until she's recruited to a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic, revolutionary president of Burkina Faso, whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention.  In the year that follows, Marie will observe Thomas, seduce him, and ultimately, have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, and a good American.

A girls' night out.  A bad decision.  A life, unravelling.  When Georgie is persuaded to join two old friends for Ladies' Night, she intends to have fun, to behave like the Georgie she was before marriage and motherhood changed her life.   But one drink too many and Georgie's not sure what happened the night before. Now she's starting to wonder just what she's invited in to her life .   A Secret Life is by Christobel Kent.

As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline. The problem is that she's the daughter of notorious crime baron, Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. And Ben's father George is Bath's Deputy Chief Constable. But mothers and sons are a formidable force: a wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are set in place before the career-obsessed DCC can step in.  Peter Diamond, Bath's head of CID, is appalled to be put in charge of security on the day. Ordered to be discreet, he packs a gun and a guest list in his best suit and must somehow cope with potential killers, gang rivals, warring parents, bossy photographers and straying bridesmaids. The laid-back Joe Irving seems oblivious to the danger he is in from rival gang-leaders, while Brace can't wait for the day to end. Will the photo-session be a literal shoot? Will Joe Irving's speech as father of the bride be his last words? Can Diamond pull off a miracle, avert a tragedy and send the happy couple on their honeymoon? Killing with Confetti is by Peter Lovesey.

The Other Mrs Miller is by Allison Dickson.  Two women are watching each other.  Phoebe

isn't sure when the car started showing up. At first she put it down to the scandal around her late father, but she's certain now it's there for her. What's interesting about an unhappily married housewife, who barely leaves her house?  Only one knows why.  Every morning, not long before your husband leaves for work, I wait for the blinds beside your front door to twitch. You might think I'm sitting out here waiting to break into your house and add a piece of your life to my collection. Things aren't quite that simple. It's not a piece of your life I want.  When a new family move in across the street, it provides Phoebe with a distraction. But with her head turned she's no longer focused on the woman in the car. And Phoebe really should be, because she's just waiting for an opportunity to upend Phoebe's life...

Good Girl, Bad Girl is by Michael Robotham.  The girl with no past.  Six years ago, Evie Cormac was discovered, filthy and half-starved, hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a shocking crime. Now approaching adulthood, Evie is damaged, self-destructive and has never revealed her true identity.  The boy who survived. Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven, a man haunted by his own past, is investigating the death of champion figure-skater Jodie Sheehan. When Cyrus is called upon to assess Evie, she threatens to disrupt the case and destroy his ordered life. Because Evie has a unique and dangerous gift - she knows when someone is lying. And nobody is telling the truth.

August 2019

After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to reassess everything they thought they knew about right and wrong, both are dealing with the fallout in their own separate ways. While Tony must pay the price for his actions, Carol is conducting investigations into suspected miscarriages of justice.  With Tony behind bars and Carol finally out of road as a cop, he’s finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she’s joined forces with a small informal group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they’re doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate. Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried in the grounds. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime. But then a different set of skeletons are discovered in a far corner, young men from as recent as ten years ago. When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars—and the subject of one of Carol’s miscarriage investigations—it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other’s orbit once again.  How the Dead Speak is by Val McDermid.

On the Caribbean island of Camaho, forensics expert Michael 'Digger' Digson is in deep trouble.  His fellow CID detective Miss Stanislaus kills a man in self-defence - their superiors believe it was murder, and Digger given just six weeks to prove his friend is innocent.  While the authorities bear down on them, Digger and Miss Stanislaus investigate a shocking roadside murder, the first tremors of a storm of crime and corruption that will break over Camaho at any moment. Black Rain Falling is by Jacob Ross.

Drowned Lives is by Stephen Booth.  When council officer Chris Buckley is approached by an odd old man demanding help in healing a decades-old family rift, he sends the stranger away.  But then the old man is murdered, and the police arrive on the Chris's doorstep asking questions to which he has no answers. As Chris begins to look into the circumstances of the murder, he uncovers a deadly secret in the silt and mud of the local canals that he'll realise was better kept buried.

September 2019

To the Land of Long Lost Friends is by Alexander McCall Smith. As Botswana waits for rain to nourish the land, Precious Ramotswe's thoughts turn to love and friendship as vital nourishment for the soul. Times are changing, she realises. These days, more and more women are not content just to be a man's wife. The men, however, are suspicious of the notion of vegetarianism, let alone gender equality . . .  At a local wedding Mme Ramotswe bumps into a long-lost friend, Calviniah, who confesses that her only daughter Nametso has inexplicably turned away from her. Not only that, an old acquaintance has simultaneously lost all her money and found solace in a charismatic ex-mechanic turned reverend, who seems to have cast a spell over several ladies in the region. With little work on at the agency, Precious and her colleague Mme Makutsi see no harm in investigating these curious situations.  Meanwhile, part-time detective Charlie is anxious. He has few prospects and little money, so how can he convince his beloved Queenie-Queenie's father to approve of their marriage?  As Precious and Mme Makutsi dig deeper into the stories of Nametso and the mysterious reverend, Precious once again ponders the human condition. She chooses to believe in goodness, that if our hearts are open, true equality can be found with one another. But in this world can that assumption be justified? It will take all her ingenuity and great moral sense to get to the heart of the matter.

The year is 1928, and after the death of a maid at a glamorous society party, fortune heir Bryan Guinness seizes life and proposes to eighteen year old Diana, most beautiful of the six Mitford sisters.  The maid’s death is ruled an accident, and the newlyweds put it behind them to begin a whirlwind life zipping between London’s Mayfair, chic Paris and hedonistic Berlin.  Accompanying Diana as her Lady’s maid is Louisa Cannon, as well as a coterie of friends, family and hangers on, from Nancy Mitford to Evelyn Waugh. When a second victim is found in Paris in 1931, Louisa begins to see links with the death of the maid two years previously.  Now she must convince the Mitford sisters that a murderer could be within their midst…. all while shadows darken across Europe, and within the hear of Diana Mitford herself. The Mitford Scandal: Diana Mitford and a Death at the Party is by Jessica Fellowes.

Vendetta in Death is by J D Robb and sees Eve Dallas take on a serial killer dispensing their own form of justice.   When a family man is tortured, killed and left in front of his family home for all the world to see, Eve Dallas knows she is on the hunt for a particularly dangerous killer.   But death uncovers secrets and the killer leaves a note revealing the victim to be far from the family man he appears. As Eve scrambles to find out what she can to link victim and killer, another body is found. Another man with a dark and murky past.   The race is on before the killer strikes again but Eve must wrestle with her demons and her conscience as she decides whether she really wants to protect men who probably deserve everything they get...

October 2019

When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems. The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?   Agatha Raisin: Beating Around the Bush is by M C Beaton and is the 30^th book in the series.

Liberty Greenwood is back. County lines. Blurred lines. Crossed lines.  Things are looking up for Liberty Greenwood. She's brokered a deal with the local rival gangster and it looks like the police have finally stopped investigating her. She even has a plan to steer her family away from their criminal activities. But when a spate of violence on the estates points to a hostile takeover bid from a crew from out of the area, Liberty is forced to take decisive and dangerous action - action which ends up with her doing a stint in prison.  Meanwhile, Liberty's partner, ex-copper Sol Connolly is recruited to join an off-the-books team who will stop at nothing to infiltrate the new drugs gang, hell bent on sending kids 'up county.'  As Liberty and Sol attack the same problem from different angles, who will give out first? And how many people will have to get hurt as they fight for what they each believe in?  Playing Dirty is by Helen Black

From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is by Amanda Lees.  This is an indispensable guide for fans of true crime and crime fiction, whether in books, film or on TV, who want to look behind the crime, to understand the mechanics of an investigation, to walk in their favourite detectives' shoes and, most importantly, to solve the clues. To do that, one needs to be fluent in the language of the world of crime. We need to know what that world-weary DI is talking about when she refers to another MISPER. We have to immediately grasp the significance of the presence of paraquat, and precisely why it is still a poison of choice. If you want to know how many murders it takes for a killer to be defined as a serial killer, what Philip Marlowe means when he talks about being 'on a confidential lay' and why the 'fruit of a poisonous tree' is a legal term rather than something you should avoid on a country walk, this is the reference book you've been waiting for. It covers police and procedural terms and jargon of many different countries; acronyms; murder methods; criminal definitions, including different types of killers; infamous killers and famous detectives; notorious cases often referred to in crime fiction and true crime; gangster slang, including that of the Eastern European mafia; definitions of illegal drugs; weapons; forensic terminology; types of poisons; words and phrases used in major crime genres, including detective fiction, legal thrillers, courtroom dramas, hardboiled crime, Scandi and Tartan Noir, cosy crime and psychological thrillers; criminology terms; and the language of the courts and the legal systems of British, American, French, Nordic and other countries. From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is an essential, go-to resource for readers and even for writers of crime fiction. More than simply a glossary, this is a guide that provides a doorway into a supergenre, and one that is not just for readers, but also for the many fans of film and TV dramas, of podcasts, and crime blogs. It is also an indispensable resource for writers or would-be writers of crime fiction.

November 2019

For the first time in years, Tatiana Goodwin feels in control. She has survived events which would make most people give up and go into hiding. Yet Tati is still here, surrounded by her loyal family and even daring to expand the Goodwin empire.  But when her son Ben gets kidnapped by a rival gang and the blame lies with her, the ghosts of Tati's past catch up and she begins to crumble. Now, it is down to the ever-loyal Frank to do everything he can to get Ben back and keep the family together. Frank has been in this business for a long time - he knows who to confide in and who will give up the information he so desperately needs. But what he doesn't realise is that there is a new threat in town, and all those old trusted sources are answering to a different power. Tati needs to wake up fast to the fact that it is not just their empire on the line - their lives are at serious risk, and only a heartbreaking sacrifice can save them. Good Dark Night is by Harry Brett.

Stone Cold Trouble is by Amer Anwar.  Trying - and failing - to keep his head down and to stay out of trouble, ex-con Zaq Khan agrees to help his best friend, Jags, recover a family heirloom, currently in the possession of a wealthy businessman. But when Zaq's brother is viciously assaulted, Zaq is left wondering whether someone from his own past is out to get revenge. Wanting answers and retribution, Zaq and Jags set out to track down those responsible. Meanwhile, their dealings with the businessman take a turn for the worse and Zaq and Jags find themselves suspected of murder. It'll take both brains and brawn to get themselves out of trouble and, no matter what happens, the results will likely be deadly. The only question is, whether it will prove deadly for them, or for someone else . . . ?

A Death at the Hotel Mondrian is by Anja De Jager.  When Lotte Meerman is faced with the choice of interviewing the latest victim in a string of assaults or talk to a man who claims he really isn't dead, she picks the interview. After all, the man cannot possibly be who he claims he is: Andre Nieuwkamp was murdered as a teenager over thirty years ago, and it had been a police success story nationwide when the skeletal remains found in the dunes outside Amsterdam had been identified, and the murderer subsequently arrested. Yet concerned about this encounter, Lotte goes to the Hotel Mondrian the next day to talk to the man, but what she finds is his corpse. And his passport shows that he wasn't Andre Nieuwkamp as he said, but Theo Brand, a British citizen.   Subsequent DNA tests reveal that the man was Andre Nieuwkamp so now Lotte has a double mystery on her hands and needs to figure out not only why Andre waited so long to tell anyone he was still alive, but also who was the teenager murdered in the dunes all those decades ago.

Ashley Jensen star of the Agatha Raisin TV series - appearing at this year's Bloody Scotland Festival

Last year one of the sell-out events at Bloody Scotland was Douglas Henshall, star of Shetland with Ann Cleeves, the author of the books which inspired the TV series.

This year we are thrilled to reveal that we will be emulating that success with a similar celebrity TV / book pairing featuring Ashley Jensen, star of the TV series Agatha Raisin and well known for her roles in Ugly Betty, Extras and Nativity who will be appearing on stage with M C Beaton author of the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth novels.

The event will take place on Saturday 22 September 7-8pm in the Albert Halls.
 
M C Beaton said: I am delighted that the brilliant Ashley Jensen will still be playing Agatha Raisin in the second series to appear on Sky Television in the autumn, three episodes of ninety minutes. I enjoy Bloody Scotland because the organisers are efficient while managing to make it a friendly, almost family occasion.
 

For further information about Bloody Scotland contact fiona@brownleedonald.com
To arrange an interview with M C Beaton please contact jo.wickham@littlebrown.co.uk

Books to Look Forward to from Little Brown, Constable & Robinson

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June 2018

She can give you everything you want... But can you trust her? Kat and her husband Nick have tried everything to become parents. All they want is a child to love but they are beginning to lose hope. Then a chance encounter with Kat's childhood friend Lisa gives them one last chance.  Kat and Lisa were once as close as sisters. The secrets they share mean their trust is for life... Or is it?  Just when the couple's dream seems within reach, Kat begins to suspect she's being watched and Nick is telling her lies.  Are the cracks appearing in Kat's perfect picture of the future all in her head, or should she be scared for the lives of herself and her family? The Surrogate is by Louise Jensen.

July 2018

The Pritchards had never been worth a damn--an evil, greedy family who made their living dealing drugs and committing mayhem. Years ago, Colson's late uncle had put the clan's patriarch in prison, but now he's getting out, with revenge, power, and family business on his mind. To make matters worse, a shady trucking firm with possible ties to the Gulf Coast syndicate has moved into Tibbehah, and they have their own methods of intimidation.With his longtime deputy Lillie Virgil now working up in Memphis, Quinn Colson finds himself having to fall back on some brand-new deputies to help him out, but with Old West-style violence breaking out, and his own wedding on the horizon, this is without doubt Colson's most trying times as sheriff. Cracks are opening up all over the county, and shadowy figures are crawling out through them - and they're all heading directly for him.  The Sinners is by Ace Atkins.

London, present day - Jean, a failing journalist in her late thirties, finds herself entertaining a married man - a handsome, arrogant ex-barrister, universally known by his surname: Coates. Unsure of the relationship and wanting to develop her career, she begins to write a one-woman show about a mind-reader she comes across in her research - a woman who performed in the 19th Century under the name The Martian Girl, before disappearing without a trace.  London, 1898. - Kate French, a striking young woman with a love for the stage, is honing her craft in the music halls of East London at the turn of the century. As the Martian Girl, she performs each night with her mind-reading partner, the cynical and money-grubbing Joseph Draper.  As Jean makes progress on her show, Kate - long since dead - begins to consume her thoughts. Jean starts to suspect that Draper fully believed in Kate's ability to read minds and that he found the idea deeply disturbing. What really happened between the two of them all those years ago? And why does Jean feel such an intense bond with The Martian Girl? As the line between Jean and Kate begins to blur, the fates of the two women are destined to transcend time, and finally to intersect.  The Martian Girl is by Andrew Martin.

The Missing One is by Patricia Gibney.  The hole they dug was not deep. A white flour bag encased the little body. Three small faces watched from the window, eyes black with terror.The child in the middle spoke without turning his head. 'I wonder which one of us will be next?'  When a woman's body is discovered in a cathedral and hours later a young man is found hanging from a tree outside his home Detective Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. Both bodies have the same distinctive tattoo clumsily inscribed on their legs. It's clear the pair are connected, but how?  The trail leads Lottie to St Angela's, a former children's home, with a dark connection to her own family history. Suddenly the case just got personal.  As Lottie begins to link the current victims to unsolved murders decades old, two teenage boys go missing. She must close in on the killer before they strike again, but in doing so is she putting her own children in terrifying danger?  Lottie is about to come face to face with a twisted soul who has a very warped idea of justice.

Kill for Me is by Tom Wood.  For years, two sisters have vied for the turf of their dead crime boss father. Across the streets of Guatemala City, bodies have piled up; the US Drug Enforcement Agency, operating far from its own borders, is powerless to stop the fighting.  But now one sister has a weapon that could finally win the war - a cold, amoral hitman known, fittingly, as 'Victor'.  Freed from previous employers the CIA and MI6, Victor is a killer for-hire whose sense of self-preservation trumps all else. Yet as betrayal and counter-betrayal unspool in the vicious family feud, Victor finds himself at the centre of a storm even he could be powerless to stop.

Childhood sweethearts William and Mary have been married for sixty years. William is a celebrated surgeon, Mary a devoted wife. Both have a strong sense of right and wrong.This is what their son, Joe O'Loughlin, has always believed. But when Joe is summoned to the hospital with news that his father has been brutally attacked, his world is turned upside down. Who is the strange woman crying at William's bedside, covered in his blood - a friend, a mistress, a fantasist or a killer?  Against the advice of the police, Joe launches his own investigation. As he learns more, he discovers sides to his father he never knew - and is forcibly reminded that the truth comes at a price.  The Other Wife is by Michael Robotham.

August 2018

Broken Ground is by Val McDermid.  'Somebody has been here before us. And he's still here . . .' When a body is discovered in the remote depths of the Highlands, DCI Karen Pirie finds herself in the right place at the right time. Unearthed with someone's long-buried inheritance, the victim seems to belong to the distant past - until new evidence suggests otherwise, and Karen is called in to unravel a case where nothing is as it seems.It's not long before an overheard conversation draws Karen into the heart of a different case, however - a shocking crime she thought she'd already prevented. As she inches closer to the twisted truths at the centre of these murders, it becomes clear that she's dealing with a version of justice terrifyingly different to her own . . .

By January 1666, the plague has almost disappeared from London, leaving its surviving population diminished and in poverty. The resentment against those who had fled to the country turns to outrage as the court and its followers return, their licentiousness undiminished.  The death of a well-connected physician, the mysterious sinking of a man-of-war in the Thames and the disappearance of a popular courtier are causing concern to Thomas Chaloner's employer. When instructed to investigate them all, he is irritated that he is prevented from gaining intelligence on the military preparations of the Dutch. Then he discovers common threads in all the cases, which seem linked to those planning to set a match to the powder keg of rebellion in the city.  Battling a ferocious winter storm that causes serious damage to London's fabric, Chaloner is in a race against time to prevent the weakened city from utter destruction.  Intrigue in Covent Garden is by Susanna Gregory.

Fall Down Dead is by Stephen Booth. They knew the danger, but they went anyway...  "Almost before she'd stopped breathing, a swirl of mist snaked across her legs and settled in her hair, clutching her in its chilly embrace, hiding her body from view. It would be hours before she was found."  The mountain of Kinder Scout offers the most incredible views of the Peak District, but when thick fog descends there on a walking party led by enigmatic Darius Roth, this spectacular landscape is turned into a death trap that claims a life.  For DI Ben Cooper however, something about the way Faith Matthew fell to her death suggests it was no accident, and he quickly discovers more than one of the hikers may have had reason to murder their companion.  To make things worse, his old colleague DS Diane Fry finds herself at centre of an internal investigations storm that threatens to drag Cooper down with it.

One year on from being reunited with the family she abandoned, successful lawyer Liberty Chapman is still in Leeds - although she has stayed well away from the Greenwood's business activities. Their criminal life style may not sit right with Liberty, but blood is thicker than water and surely what they do is their business not hers?  But when her youngest brother, Frankie, is seriously injured in a shooting, Liberty is forced to decide which side she is on and how far she will go to protect her own. And if that means torturing the local gangster for information or kidnapping another at gun point, then so be it. Turns out Liberty is a Greenwood after all.  Meanwhile, PC Amira Hassani will do whatever it takes to put Liberty and her family away for good, and if that includes blackmailing her colleague Sol Connolly to secure evidence against them, then so be it too. Will Sol betray Liberty to protect his wife and his career? And how far will any of them go to do what they think is right?  Bang to Rights is by Helen Black. 

 September 2018

Mma Ramotswe's friend will persuade her to stand for election to the City Council. 'We need women like her in politics,' Mma Potokwani says, 'instead of having the same old men every time . . .' To be elected, Mma Ramotswe must have a platform and some policies. She will have to canvas opinion. She will have to get Mma Makutsi's views. Her slogan is 'I can't promise anything - but I shall do my best'. Her intention is to halt the construction of the Big Fun Hotel, a dubious, flashy business near a graveyard - an act that many consider to be disrespectful. Mma Ramotswe will take the campaign as far as she can, but lurking around the corner, as ever, is the inextinguishable Violet Sephotho.   The Colours of all the Cattle is by Alexander McCall-Smith

Brothers in Blood is by Amer Anwar.  A Sikh girl on the run. A Muslim ex-con who has to find her. A whole heap of trouble.  Southall, West London. After being released from prison, Zaq Khan is lucky to land a dead-end job at a builders' yard. All he wants to do is keep his head down and put the past behind him.  But when Zaq is forced to search for his boss's runaway daughter, he quickly finds himself caught up in a deadly web of deception, murder and revenge.  With time running out and pressure mounting, can he find the missing girl before it's too late? And if he does, can he keep her - and himself - alive long enough to deal with the people who want them both dead?

What would you do to protect your family?  When Paul Rogan sets off a bomb at his office, killing eleven people, no one can understand why. He was a loving husband and father, with everything to live for. Then his wife and daughter are found chained up in the family home, and everything becomes clear. Rogan had been given a horrifying choice - set off the bomb, or see his loved ones suffer and die. Lieutenant Eve Dallas knows the violence won't end here. The men behind the attack are determined, organised and utterly ruthless. In this shocking and challenging case, both Eve and husband Roarke are heading into serious danger.Leverage in Death is by J D Robb.

October 2018

Bright Young Dead is by Jessica Fellowes.  As the glamour of the Bright Young Things crashes into the world of the Mitford sisters, their maid Louisa Cannon finds herself at the scene of a   Meet the Bright Young Things, the rabble-rousing hedonists of the 1920s whose treasure hunts were a media obsession. One such game takes place at the 18th birthday party of Pamela Mitford, but ends in tragedy as cruel, charismatic Adrian Curtis is pushed to his death from the church neighbouring the Mitford home.  The police quickly identify the killer as a maid, Dulcie. But Louisa Cannon, chaperone to the Mitford girls and a former criminal herself, believes Dulcie to be innocent, and sets out to clear the girl's name . . . all while the real killer may only be steps away.

gripping murder mystery.

When New York psychologist Will Hardy's wife is killed, he and his teenage daughter Bernadette move into Godwin Hall, a dusty, shut-up mansion in the small town of Abbeville, Ohio.  Meanwhile, Abbeville Chief of Police Ivy Holgrave is investigating the death of a local girl, convinced this may only be the latest in a long line of murders dating back decades - including her own long-missing sister.  But what place does Will's new home have in the story of the missing girls? And what links the killings to the diary of a young woman written over a century earlier? The Buried Girl is by Richard Montanari.

Agatha Raisin and the Dead Ringer is by M C Beaton.  The team of bells at St. Ethelred church is the pride and glory of the idyllic Cotswolds village of Thirk Magna, together with the most dedicated bell ringers in the whole of England: ringing the special peal of bells created for the occasion and start bullying the other bell ringers, forcing them to rehearse and rehearse . . . so much so that Joseph Kennell, a retired lawyer, yells at the sisters that he 'felt like killing them'!the twins Mavis and Millicent Dupin.  As the village gets ready for the Bishop's visit, the twins get overly-excited at the prospect of  When the twins' home is broken into one night and Millicent is found dead, struck from a hammer blow, suspicion falls onto the lawyer.  Will Agatha unmask the real killer and clear Joseph's name?

November 2018

If everyone is lying, who can you trust?  The Halfway Inn is closed to customers, side-lined by a bypass and hidden deep in inhospitable countryside. One winter's night, two women end up knocking on the door, seeking refuge as a blizzard takes hold. But why is the landlord less than pleased to see them? And what is his elderly father trying so hard to tell them?  At the local police station PC Lissa Lloyd is holding the fort while the rest of her team share in the rare excitement of a brutal murder at an isolated farmhouse. A dangerous fugitive is on the run - but how can Lissa make a name for herself if she's stuck at her desk? When a call comes in saying the local district nurse is missing, she jumps at the chance to investigate her disappearance.  The strangers at Halfway wait out the storm, but soon realise they might have been safer on the road. It seems not all the travellers will make it home for Christmas.  Halfway is by B E Jones. 

December 2018

It is 1920 and Scotland Yard detective, DI Albert Lincoln, is still reeling from the disturbing events of the previous year. Trapped in a loveless marriage and tired of his life in London, he's pleased when he's called to a new case in the North West of England.  Before the War, he led the unsuccessful investigation into the murder of little Jimmy Rudyard in the village of Mabley Ridge in Cheshire and now a woman has been murdered there and another child is missing, the sole witness being a traumatised boy who lives in a cemetery lodge. Albert's first investigation was a failure but this time he is determined to find the truth . . . and the missing child. As Albert delves into the lives of the village residents, many of whom are wealthy cotton manufacturers from nearby Manchester, he uncovers shocking secrets and obsessions. Then there is the dramatic scenery of the Ridge itself which conceals its own disturbing mysteries while the wealthy residents of big houses nearby pursue pleasure relentlessly, trying to forget the hell of the war years.  With the help of a village schoolmistress with her own secret past, Albert closes in on Jimmy's killer. Then, as more bodies are discovered, he realises that his young witness from the cemetery lodge is in grave danger, possibly from somebody he calls 'the Shadow Man'. And as he discovers more about the victims he finds information that might bring him a step closer to solving a mystery of his own - the whereabouts of his lost son.  The Boy Who Lived With The Dead is by Kate Ellis.

Books to look forward to from Little Brown and Constable

'All you have to do is find out why Harry is prepared to blame an innocent man. That's the thread. Follow it. You'll reach the Silent Ones. This is your way - our way - of making a difference.' With this challenge from Father Edmund Littlemore, Anselm returns to the Old Bailey to fight the most difficult and troubling case of his life. The man in the dock is Littlemore himself. He is charged with grave offences against Harry Brandwell who, it seems, is both a victim and a liar. But he's the only link to these others who've chosen silence over their right to justice. Unknown to Anselm, Robert Saunders, a journalist, has been investigating Littlemore's background. And he's a man with a troubled past, always on the move, from Boston in the USA to Freetown in Sierra Leone, finally running from a London police station rather than explain himself. More disturbingly, Robert uncovers details of a carefully planned scheme to entice Anselm back into court, exploiting his reputation for honesty to secure a shock acquittal. Meanwhile Harry Brandwell - abused, abandoned and betrayed - has decided to take matters into his own hands. The Silent Ones examines the one crime that Church, State and Family thought they could hide in their own best interests; Anselm's return is a compelling novel about the anatomy of silence, the courage of victims and the redemptive power of public justice.  The Silent Ones is by William Brodrick and is due to be published in July 2015.

Splinter the Silence is by Val McDermid and is due to be published in August 2015. 'That day, waiting had been almost unbearable. He wanted something more spectacular, something that couldn't be ignored. These deaths needed to make a mark ...' Psychological profiler Tony Hill is trained to see patterns, to decode the mysteries of human behaviour, and when he comes across a series of suicides among women tormented by vicious online predators, he begins to wonder if there is more to these tragedies than meets the eye. Similar circumstances, different deaths. Could it be murder? But what kind of serial killer wants his crimes to stay hidden? Former DCI Carol Jordan has her own demons to confront, but with lives at stake, Tony and Carol begin the hunt for the most dangerous and terrifying kind of killer - someone who has nothing to fear and nothing to lose ...

A Masterpiece of Corruption is by L C Tyler and is due to be published in December 2015.  It is December 1657. John Grey has returned to the study of law in London. He receives a mysterious invitation which seems to have come from some of his mother's royalist friends - possibly members of the largely ineffectual secret organisation, the Sealed Knot. He is amused rather than otherwise that they would think him stupid enough to join them and thinks it may be entertaining to tell them so to their faces. On arriving at Sir Richard Willys's chambers at Gray's Inn, however, he finds that the invitation was never intended for him - to his horror, Grey is warmly greeted as a royalist conspirator sent over from Brussels to murder Oliver Cromwell. It soon becomes clear that the man he has been mistaken for is his own father, a long-time royalist exile. The question is how he can prevent the murder without betraying his father ...

Mma Ramotswe is not one to sit about. Her busy life gives her little time for relaxation (apart from the drinking of tea, of course, which is another matter altogether). Nonetheless, she is persuaded to take a holiday from the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. But Mma Ramotswe finds it impossible to resist the temptation to follow the cases taken on by her business partner, Mma Makutsi, and to interfere in them - at one remove. This leads her to delve into the past of a man whose reputation has been called into question. Meanwhile, Violet Sephotho, Mma Makutsi's arch enemy, has had the temerity to set up a new secretarial college - one that aims to rival that great institution, the Botswana Secretarial College. Will she get her comeuppance? It will be a close-run thing.  The Woman who Walked in Sunshine is by Alexander McCall Smith and is due to be published in September 2015.

A twenty-year-old murder A chain of unsolvable mysteries Can one detective solve this epic riddle? When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are inextricably linked to the crime; the dark, taciturn son of the victim and the unexpectedly captivating daughter of the main suspect. Over the next twenty years we follow their lives as Sasagaki pursues the case - which remains unsolved - to the point of obsession. Stark, intriguing and stylish, Journey Under the Midnight Sun is an epic mystery by the bestselling Japanese author Keigo Higashino and is due to be published in October 2015.

I close my eyes and feel my heart begin racing Someone is coming They're going to find me A mother and her teenage daughter are found brutally murdered in a remote farmhouse, one defiled by multiple stab wounds and the other left lying like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince. Reluctantly, clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin is drawn into the investigation when a former student, calling himself the 'Mindhunter', trading on Joe's name, has jeopardised the police inquiry by leaking details to the media and stirring up public anger. With no shortage of suspects and tempers beginning to fray, Joe discover links between these murders to a series of brutal attacks where the men and women are choked unconscious and the letter 'A' is carved into their foreheads. As the case becomes ever more complex, nothing is quite what it seems and soon Joe's fate, and that of those closest to him, become intertwined with a merciless, unpredictable killer ..  Close Your Eyes is by Michael Robotham and is due to be published in August 2015.

A brutal killer is on the streets of Rome. He leaves no trace. And shows no mercy. A series of gruesome murders leaves the police force in Rome reeling, with no real clues or hard evidence to follow. Assigned to the case is Sandra Vega, a brilliant forensic analyst, struggling to come to terms with the crimes and her own past. Sandra's shared history with Marcus, a member of the ancient Penitenzeri - a unique Italian team, linked to the Vatican, and trained in the detection of true evil, means that the two are brought together again in the pursuit of a malignant killer. Soon Marcus and Sandra notice the emergence of a disturbing pattern running alongside the latest killings - and every time they think they have grasped a fragment of the truth, they are led down yet another terrifying path. The Hunter of the Dark is the sensational new literary thriller from Donato Carrisi and is due to be published in November 2015.  The Hunter of the Dark captures the beautiful atmosphere of Rome and explores its dark and hidden secrets.

A nightmare discovery in the boot of a stolen BMW plunges car thief Danny Stapleton into the worst trouble of his life. What links his misfortune to the mysterious disappearance of an art teacher at a private school for girls in Chichester? Orders from above push Peter Diamond of Bath CID into investigating a police corruption case in the Chichester force, and he soon finds himself reluctantly dealing with spirited schoolgirls, eccentric artists and his formidable old colleague, Hen Mallin.  Dead Among the Dead Men is by Peter Lovesey and is due to be published in July 2015.

When Sadie Wise has a seemingly innocent conversation with a stranger on a train, she has no idea that will set off a chain of events involving murder, deception and danger.  Dangerous Promises is by Roberta Kray and is due to be published in November 2015.

In and out of prison for over 40 years, Seymour Eriksson is officially 'London's most unsuccessful criminal.' So why can't Carlyle keep him off the streets for more than five minutes - and how can he stop hack Bernie Gilmore naming and shaming him in his tabloid rag? Worried about his own personal profile, Carlyle is slow to notice several alarming cases involving missing schoolgirls. So can he get his act together and start solving crimes before Bernie brands him publicly as 'London's most unsuccessful cop'?  Nobody’s Hero is by James Craig and is due to be published in August 2015.

 

The Mountain Shadow is by Gregory David Roberts and is due to be published in October 2015.  A breath of Bombay hope, in the first glimpse of the sea, on Marine Drive, filled my heart, if not my head. I turned away from the red shadow. I stopped thinking of that pyramid of killers, and Sanjay's recklessness. I stopped thinking about my own part in the madness. And I rode, with my friends, into the end of everything. The end of the eighties was the beginning of everything. The Berlin wall fell on a ruined empire, and the Taliban took Afghanistan. Lin, on the run after escaping from prison in Australia, working as a passport forger for a Bombay mafia gang, finds himself standing on a tattered corner of a bloody carpet that would soon cover most of the world. But he can't leave the Island City: not without Karla. Two years after the events in Shantaram, Bombay is a different world, playing by different rules. Lin's search for love and faith leads him through secret and violent intrigues to the dangerous truth. A love story told with hope and humour, a personal struggle for redemption, and a philosophical quest for the wisdom of our common humanity, The Mountain Shadow is a sublime novel, and an all-consuming, epic thriller.

Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. His boundless sense of adventure and vivid imagination mean he has a tendency to concoct stories so extraordinary and so far-fetched that no one can possibly believe him. But when Laurent disappears, former Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. So begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. And what Gamache uncovers deep in the forest leads back to crimes of the past, betrayal and murder, with more sinister consequences than anyone could have possibly imagined ...  The Nature of the Beast is by Louise Penny and is due to be published in August 2015.

Fearing for his life, journalist Philip Mangan has gone into hiding from the Chinese agents who have identified him as British spy. His reputation and life are in tatters. But when he is caught in a terrorist attack in East Africa and a shadowy Chinese figure approaches him in the dead of night with information on the origins of the attack, Mangan is suddenly back in the eye of the storm. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away on a humid Hong Kong night, a key MI6 source is murdered minutes after meeting spy Trish Patterson. From Washington, D.C. to the hallowed halls of Oxford University and dusty African streets, a sinister power is stirring which will use Mangan and Patterson as its pawns - if they survive. Deeply steeped in tension and paranoia, Spy Games is by Adam Brookes and is due to be published in July 2015.

Devil’s Bridge is by Linda Fairstein and is due to be published in August 2015. The

Manhattan waterfront is one of New York City's most magnificent vistas, boasting both the majestic Statue of Liberty and the busy George Washington Bridge. But Detective Mike Chapman is about to become far too well acquainted with the dangerous side of the Hudson river and its islands when he takes on his most personal case yet: the disappearance of Alex Cooper. Coop is missing - but there are so many leads and terrifying complications: scores of enemies she has made after a decade of putting criminals behind bars; a recent security breach with dangerous repercussions; and a new intimacy in her relationship with Mike, causing the Police Commissioner himself to be wary of the methods Mike will use to get Coop back...if he can.

Heartbreaker is by Tania Carver and is due to be published in October 2015.  After years of abuse, Gemma Adderley has finally found the courage to leave her violent husband. She has taken one debilitating beating too many, endured one esteem-destroying insult too much. Taking her seven-year-old daughter Carly, she leaves the house, determined to salvage what she can of her life. She phones Safe Harbour, a women's refuge, and they tell her which street corner to wait on and what the car that will pick her up will look like. They tell her the word the driver will use so she knows it's safe to get in. And that's the last they hear from her. Gemma Adderley's daughter Carly is found wandering the city streets on her own the next day. Her mother's mutilated corpse turns up by the canal several weeks later. Her heart has been removed. Detective Inspector Phil Brennan takes on the case, bringing in his wife, psychologist Marina Esposito, to try and help unlock Carly's memories of what happened that day. The race is on to solve the case before the Heartbreaker strikes again...

The death of Lord Edward Crick has unleashed a torrent of gossip through the seedy taverns and elegant ballrooms of Oxfordshire. Few mourn the dissolute young man-except his sister, the beautiful Lady Lydia Farrell. When her husband comes under suspicion of murder, she seeks expert help from Dr. Thomas Silkstone, a young anatomist and pioneering forensic detective from Philadelphia. Thomas arrived in England to study under its foremost surgeon, the aging Dr. Carruthers, and finds his unconventional methods and dedication to the grisly study of anatomy only add to his outsider status. Against his better judgment he agrees to examine Sir Edward's decomposing corpse, examining his internal and external state, as well as the unusual behaviour of those still living in the Crick household. Thomas soon learns that it is not only the dead but also the living to whom he must apply the keen blade of his intellect. And the deeper the doctor's investigations go, the greater the risk that he will be consigned to the ranks of the corpses he studies.  The Anatomist’s Apprentice is the debut novel by Tessa Harris and is due to be published in July 2015.

How does a child become a criminal? How does a father lose a son?  The Father is inspired by the extraordinary true story of three brothers who held Sweden to ransom, committing ten audacious bank robberies over just two years. None had committed a crime before. All were under 24 years old. All of them would be changed forever. In this intoxicating, heart-breaking thriller, the fourth brother, who was not involved in the real robberies, tells of three boys who grew from innocent children to become public enemy number one - and of the man who made them that way.  Made In Sweden Part I: The Father is by Anton Svensson and is due to be published in August 2015.

A Death in the Dales is by Frances Brody and is due to be published in October 2015.  A murder most foul When the landlord of a Yorkshire tavern is killed in plain sight, Freda Simonson, the only witness to the crime, becomes plagued with guilt, believing the wrong man has been convicted. Following her death, it seems that the truth will never be uncovered in the peaceful village of Langcliffe ...A village of secrets But it just so happens that Freda's nephew is courting the renowned amateur sleuth Kate Shackleton, who decides to holiday in Langcliffe with her indomitable teenage niece, Harriet. When Harriet strikes up a friendship with a local girl whose young brother is missing, the search leads Kate to uncover another suspicious death, not to mention an illicit affair. The case of a lifetime As the present mysteries merge with the past's mistakes, Kate is thrust into the secrets that Freda left behind and realises that this courageous woman has entrusted her with solving a murder from beyond the grave. It soon becomes clear to her that nothing in Langcliffe is quite as it appears, and with a murderer on the loose and an ever-growing roster of suspects, this isn't the holiday Kate was expecting ...

Into the Dark is by Alison Gaylin and is due to be published in December 2015.  Can a stranger share your memories? That's the question that haunts PI Brenna Spector when she first sees footage of missing webcam performer Lula Belle. Naked but hidden in shadow, the 'performance artist' shares her deepest, darkest secrets with her unseen male audience ...secrets that, to Brenna, are chillingly familiar. Brenna has perfect memory, able to recall in astonishing detail every moment of every day of her adult life. But her childhood - those carefree years before the traumatic disappearance of her sister, Clea - is frustratingly vague. When Brenna listens to the stories Lula Belle tells her audience, stories only Brenna and Clea could know, those years come to life again in vivid detail. Convinced the missing internet performer has ties to her sister, Brenna takes the case - and in her quest for Lula Belle unravels a web of obsession, sex, guilt, and murder that could regain her family ...or cost her life.

Your face is a blur to him. But your body still bleeds. The Farren family has been a plague upon Philadelphia's most dangerous neighbourhood, the Devil's Pocket, for generations. There, row after row of tumbledown houses hide dark secrets - none darker than Billy, the youngest Farren. Afflicted by a syndrome that means he can't recognise faces, Billy must use photographs to identify his family - and his victims. And when your life has bled away, he takes a final, gruesome picture for his wall. But what is the meaning of the horrific ritual Billy enacts with every murder? And is there any connection to a childhood event Detective Kevin Byrne has buried so well it's hidden even from his former partner Jessica Balzano?  Shutter Man is by Richard Montanari and is due to be published in August 2015.

Murder-on-Sea is by Julie Wassmer and is due to be published in October 2015.It's not the season of good will to all men...The festive month is kicking off in style and Pearl is rushed off her feet with her restaurant, The Whitstable Pearl. She's also busy planning her own family Christmas and providing mulled wine for a charity church fundraiser when Christmas cards begin arriving all over town - filled with spiteful messages from an anonymous writer. Pearl's curiosity is piqued but having pledged not to take on a case at her detective agency before Christmas, she reluctantly agrees that Canterbury's DCI Mike McGuire should take over; poisoned pen cards are after all a matter for the police. And with only the church fundraiser now between Pearl and Christmas, she invites McGuire along as her guest. The event appears to be a great success; St Alfred's church hall is packed and Pearl happily finds herself standing close to McGuire beneath some mistletoe ...but then a guest suddenly collapses. Too much of Pearl's delicious mulled wine - or could it be something more sinister? The last thing Pearl expects for Christmas is murder but soon the bodies are piling up. Can Pearl possibly solve the mystery in time to make 25th December an unforgettable day - or will the murderer contrive to ensure her goose is well and truly cooked before then?

Also due to be published in November 2015 is A Painted Smile by Frances Fyfield which continues the series featuring Di Porteous.

Silenced is the second book in the Wheeler and Ross series by A J McCreanor and is due to be published in September 2015.  He buried his victim alive. And now he's escaped from prison and is on the run in the city. Fiona Henderson, the daughter of the victim who'd descended into a world of silence following her mother's murder, has gone missing. Her sister Annabelle scours the city in a desperate attempt to find her. And then the body of a homeless person if found among the rubbish in a deserted alleyway. As DIs Wheeler and Ross investigate, more suspicious deaths occur and a pattern emerges: the victims are all homeless. And so the police are pitched against a killer who is hellbent on a mission to rid the streets of the vulnerable and dispossessed. As Wheeler and Ross descend further into Glasgow's netherworld, their investigation reveals not only a flawed support system for the disaffected, but also a criminal class ruthlessly willing to exploit them. A city of double standards, where morality is bought and sold. But it's when the killer begins stalking DI Wheeler, that she and Ross realise that the threat is now personal.

How far would you go to protect the ones you love? Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father's temper. One night, a fight gets out of hand and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. As events spiral out of control they find themselves in a horrifying situation and are left with no choice but to change their names and create new lives. Eighteen years later, they are still trying to forget what happened to them. But when one of the sisters goes missing, followed closely by her niece, they are pulled back into the past. And this time there's nowhere left to run...  Those Girls is by Chevy Stevens and is due to be published in December 2015.

The Honourable Daisy Dalrymple-Fletcher is on a convalescent trip in the countryside, visiting old school friends. The three of them, all unmarried, have recently bought a house together. They are a part of the generation of 'superfluous women', brought up expecting marriage and a family, but left without any prospects after more than 700,000 British men were killed in the Great War. Daisy and her husband Alec - Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher, of Scotland Yard - are invited for Sunday lunch, where one of the women mentions a wine cellar below the house which remains resolutely locked. Alec picks the lock but when he eventually opens the door, what greets them is not a cache of wine, but the stench of a dead body. And with that, what was a pleasant Sunday lunch becomes a much darker affair. Now Daisy's three friends are the suspects in a murder and her husband Alec is a witness. So before the local detective, DI Underwood, can officially bring charges against her friends, Daisy is determined to use all her resources and skills to solve the mystery behind this perplexing locked-room crime. Superfluous Women is by Carola Dunn and is due to be published in July 2015.

Detective Sergeant Lucy Black is visiting her father, a patient in a secure unit in Gransha Hospital on the banks of the River Foyle. He's been hurt badly in an altercation with another patient, and Lucy is shocked to discover him chained to the bed for safety. But she barely has time to take it all in, before an orderly raises the alarm - a body has been spotted floating in the river below...The body of an elderly man in a grey suit is hauled ashore: he is cold dead. He has been dead for several days. In fact a closer examination reveals that he has already been embalmed. A full scale investigation is launched - could this really be the suicide they at first assumed, or is this some kind of sick joke? Troubled and exhausted, Lucy goes back to her father's shell of a house to get some sleep; but there'll be no rest for her tonight. She's barely in the front door when a neighbour knocks, in total distress - his wife's sister has turned up badly beaten. Can she help?  Preserve the Dead is by Brian McGilloway and is due to be published in August 2015.

Death at Whitewater Church is by Andrea Carter and is due to be published in September 2015.  When a skeleton is discovered, wrapped in a blanket, in the hidden crypt of a deconsecrated church, everyone is convinced the bones must be those of Conor Devitt, a local man who went missing on his wedding day six years previously. But the post mortem reveals otherwise. Solicitor Benedicta 'Ben' O'Keeffe is acting for the owners of the church, and although an unwelcome face from her past makes her reluctant to get involved initially, when Conor's brother dies in strange circumstances shortly after coming to see her, she finds herself drawn in to the mystery. Whose is the skeleton in the crypt and how did it get there? Is Conor Devitt still alive, and if so is there a link? What happened on the morning of his wedding to make him disappear? Negotiating between the official investigation, headed up by the handsome but surly Sergeant Tom Molloy, and obstructive locals with secrets of their own, Ben unravels layers of personal and political history to get to the truth of what happened six years before.

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Mike Bowditch has left the Maine Warden Service and is working as a fishing guide in the North Woods. But when his mentor Sgt. Kathy Frost is forced to kill a troubled war veteran in an apparent case of 'suicide by cop,' he begins having second thoughts about his decision. Now Kathy finds herself the target of a government inquiry and outrage from the dead soldier's platoon mates. Soon she finds herself in the sights of a sniper, as well. When the sergeant is shot outside her farmhouse, Mike joins the hunt to find the mysterious man responsible. To do so, the ex-warden must plunge into his friend's secret past - even as a beautiful woman from Mike's own past returns, throwing into jeopardy his tentative romance with wildlife biologist Stacey Stevens. As Kathy Frost lies on the brink of death and a dangerous shooter stalks the blueberry barrens of central Maine, Bowditch is forced to confront the choices he has made and determine, once and for all, the kind of man he truly is. The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron and is due to be published in July 2015.

Agatha Raisin: Dishing the Dirt is by M C Beaton and is due to be published in October 2015.  In Agatha's newest adventure she must prove her own innocence when a love rival turns up dead! When therapist Jil Davent moves into the village of Carsely, Agatha Raisin is not a fan. Not only is the therapist romancing her ex-husband James but she digs up details of Agatha's rather unsavoury origins; details she is happy to share with all in the village. Furthermore, Jill is counselling a woman, Gwen Simple, Agatha is convinced is a murderess - although she has no actual proof. Not one to keep her feelings to herself, Agatha tells anyone who cares to listen that Jill is a charlatan who is better off dead. So she can only sigh with relief when Jill takes offices in the nearby town of Mircester. But then Jill is found strangled to death in her offices two days later and Agatha is the prime suspect! So, together with the detectives in her agency, she must prove her innocence and find the real culprit - before the murderer ensures that it's Agatha who's left pushing up the daisies!

Set in Amsterdam, the novel introduces Lotte Meerman, a Cold Case detective still recovering from the emotional devastation of her previous investigation. A tip-off leads Lotte to an unresolved ten-year-old murder case in which her father was the lead detective. When she discovers irregularities surrounding the original investigation that make him a suspect, she decides to cover for him. She doesn't tell her boss about the family connection and jeopardises her career by hiding evidence. Now she has to find the real murderer before her acts are discovered, otherwise her father will go to jail and she will lose her job, the one thing in life she still takes pride in ...  A Cold Death in Amsterdam and is the debut novel by Anja de Jager and is due to be published in November 2015.

It's a new year in New York city, and two star-crossed lovers have just discovered an insatiable appetite...for murder. Lieutenant Eve Dallas has witnessed some grisly crimes in her career and she knows just how dark things can get on the streets. But when a much-loved musician is found dead, Eve soon realises that his murder is part of a horrifying killing spree, stretching right across the country. Now the killers have reached New York, and they've found themselves another victim. Eve knows she only has a couple of days to save a young girl's life, and to stop the killers before their sadistic games escalate. Eve's husband Roarke is ready to put his brains and his considerable resources behind the search. But even as the couple works closely together, time is running out...  Devoted in Death is by J D Robb and is due to be published in September 2015.