Crime Fiction in Translation (International) Dagger Speculation (2022)

The CWA Dagger longlists are being announced at the weekend so I thought I'd better put up the list of eligibles for the Crime Fiction in Translation (International) Dagger. 

So here are 81 translated crime novels published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021, that I know about. Please let me know if I've missed any.

In the list below I've also included the country of birth and gender of the author(s) plus the translator's name (where known) and the publisher. 

Stats: The breakdown by gender is 51 Male and 30 Female. Authors are from 25 countries. The most represented country is Sweden (15) followed by Germany (8) and France (8), Iceland (7) and Norway (7). Over 64 translators (including pairs of translators) brought you these titles, with at least 11 individuals having translated more than one. (I've put "tbc" when I cannot find the name of the translator.) 

Maria Adolfsson - Fatal Isles (Sweden, F) (tr. Agnes Broomé, Zaffre)

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir - Girls Who Lie (Iceland, F) (tr. Victoria Cribb, Orenda Books)

Guillermo Arriaga - The Untameable (Mexico, M) (tr. Frank Wynne & Jessie Mendez Sayer, MacLehose Press)

Sarah Blau - The Others (Israel, F) (tr. Daniella Zamir, Pushkin Vertigo)

Ivana Bodrozic - We Trade Our Night for Someone Else's Day (Croatia, F) (tr. Ellen Elias-Bursac, Seven Stories Press UK)

Oliver Bottini - Night Hunters (Germany, M) (tr. Jamie Bulloch, MacLehose Press)

Simone Buchholz - Hotel Cartagena (Germany, F) (tr. Rachel Ward, Orenda Books) 

Michel Bussi - The Other Mother (apa The Double Mother) (France, M) (tr. Sam Taylor, W&N)

Andrea Camilleri - The Cook of the Halcyon (Italy, M) (tr. Stephen Sartarelli, Mantle) 

Andrea Camilleri - Riccardino (Italy, M) (tr. Stephen Sartarelli, Mantle) 

Gianrico Carofiglio - The Measure of Time (Italy, M) (tr. Howard Curtis, Bitter Lemon Press)

Kjell Ola Dahl - The Assistant (Norway, M) (tr. Don Bartlett, Orenda Books)

Maurizio De Giovanni - Bread For the Bastards of Pizzofalcone (Italy, M) (tr.  Antony Shugaar World Noir)

Anders de la Motte - End of Summer (Sweden, M) (tr. Neil Smith, Zaffre) 

Anders de la Motte - Rites of Spring (Sweden, M) (tr. Marlaine Delargy, Zaffre)

Joël Dicker - The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer Switzerland M 3 2021 Howard Curtis MacLehose Press

Katrine Engberg - The Butterfly House (Denmark, F) (tr. Tara Chace, Hodder & Stoughton) 

Eric Faye - The Ghost of Frédéric Chopin (France, M) (tr. Sam Taylor, Pushkin Press)

Sebastian Fitzek - Amok (Germany, M) (tr. Jamie Lee Searle,  Head of Zeus)

Sebastian Fitzek - Passenger 23 (Germany, M) (tr.  Jamie Bulloch, Head of Zeus)

Sebastian Fitzek - Seat 7a (Germany, M) (tr. Steve Anderson, Head of Zeus) 

Sebastian Fitzek - The Soul Breaker (Germany, M) (tr. John Brownjohn, Head of Zeus)

Helene Flood - The Therapist (Norway, F) (tr.  Alison McCullough, MacLehose Press)

Marcello Fois - Valse Triste (Italy, M) (tr. Richard Dixon, MacLehose Press)

Santiago Gamboa - The Night Will Be Long (Colombia, M) (tr.  Andrea Rosenberg, Europa Editions)

Mario Giordano - Auntie Poldi and the Lost Madonna (Germany, M) (tr. John Brownjohn, John Murray)

Camilla Grebe - The Hideout (Sweden, F) (tr. Sarah Clyne, Sundberg Zaffre)

Oskar Gudmundsson - The Commandments (Iceland, M) (tr. Quentin Bates, Corylus Books Ltd)

Romy Hausmann - Sleepless (Germany, F) (tr. Jamie Bulloch, Quercus)

Keigo Higashino - Silent Parade (Japan, M) (tr. Giles Murray, Little, Brown)

Anne Holt - A Memory for Murder (Norway, F) (tr. Anne Bruce, Corvus) 

Jorn Lier Horst - A Question of Guilt (Norway, M) (tr.  Anne Bruce, Michael Joseph) 

Jorn Lier Horst  & Thomas Enger - Smoke Screen (Norway,  M & M) (tr. Megan Turney, Orenda Books)

Bogdan Hrib - Resilience (Romania, M) (tr. Marina Sofia, Corylus Books Ltd)

Arnaldur Indridason  - The Darkness Knows (Iceland, M) (tr. Victoria Cribb, Harvill Secker) 

Kotaro Isaka - Bullet Train (Japan, M) (tr. Sam Malissa, Harvill Secker)

Stina Jackson - The Last Snow (Sweden, F) (tr. Susan Beard, Corvus)

Victor Jestin - Heatwave (France, M) (tr. Sam Taylor, Scribner UK)

Ragnar Jonasson - The Girl Who Died (Iceland, M) (tr. Victoria Cribb, Michael Joseph)

Camilla Lackberg - Silver Tears (Sweden,  F) (tr. Ian Giles, HarperCollins) 

Camilla Lackberg - Truth or Dare (ebook only) (Sweden,  F) (tr. Ian Giles, HarperCollins) 

Sergei Lebedev - Untraceable (Russia, M) (tr. Antonina W. Bouis, Apollo/Head of Zeus)

Herve Le Corre - In the Shadow of the Fire (France, M) (tr. Tina Kover, Europa Editions) 

Ruth Lillegraven - Everything Is Mine (Norway, F) (tr. Diane Oatley, AmazonCrossing) 

Mariette Lindstein - Shadow of Fog Island (Sweden, F) (tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles, HQ)

Walter Lucius - A Sea of Flames (Holland, M) (tr. tbc, Penguin)

Guillermo Martinez - The Oxford Brotherhood (Argentina, M) (tr. Alberto Manguel, Little, Brown)

Elmer Mendoza - Kiss the Detective (Mexico, M) (tr. Mark Fried, MacLehose Press)

Louise Mey - The Second Woman (France, F) (tr. Louise Rogers Lalaurie, Pushkin Vertigo)

Johanna Mo - The Night Singer (Sweden, F) (tr. Alice Menzies, Headline) 

Peter Mohlin &  Peter Nystrom (Sweden, M & M) (tr. Ian Giles, The Overlook Press)

Guillaume Musso - The Secret Life of Writers (France, M) (tr. Vineet Lal, W&N)

Sacha Naspini - Oxygen (Italy, M) (tr. Clarissa Botsford, Europa Editions)

Hakan Nesser - The Lonely Ones (Sweden, M) (tr. Sarah Death, Mantle) 

Olivier Norek  - Turf Wars (France, M) (tr. Nick Caistor, MacLehose Press)

Sofi Oksanen - Dog Park (Finland, F) (tr. Owen F Witesman, Atlantic Books)

Sergio Olguin - The Foreign Girls (Argentina, M) (tr. Miranda France, Bitter Lemon Press)

Leonardo Padura -The Transparency of Time (Cuba, M) (tr. Anna Kushner, Bitter Lemon Press)

Sólveig Pálsdóttir - Silenced (Iceland, F) (tr. Quentin Bates, Corylus Books Ltd)

Claudia Pineiro - Elena Knows (Argentina, F) (tr.  Frances Riddle, Charco Press)

John Kåre Raake - The Ice (Norway, M) (tr. Adam King, Pushkin Vertigo)

Dolores Redondo - The North Face of the Heart (Spain, F) (tr. Michael Meigs, AmazonCrossing)

Mercedes Rosende - Crocodile Tears (Uruguay, F) (tr. Tim Gutteridge, Bitter Lemon Press)

Anders Roslund - Knock Knock (Sweden, M) (tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Harvill Secker)

Jean-Christophe Rufin - The Hanged Man of Conakry (France, M) (tr. Alison Anderson, Europa Editions)

Hansjorg Schneider - The Basel Killings (Switzerland, M) (tr.  Mike Mitchell, Bitter Lemon Press)

Samira Sedira - People Like Them (Algeria, F) (tr. Lara Vergnaud, Raven Books)

Max Seeck - The Ice Coven (Finland, M) (tr. Kristian London, Welbeck)

Lilja Sigurdardottir - Cold as Hell (Iceland, F) (tr. Quentin Bates, Orenda Books)

Yrsa Sigurdardottir - The Doll Iceland, F) (tr. Victoria Cribb, Hodder & Stoughton)

Gustaf Skördeman - Geiger (Sweden, M) (tr. Ian Giles, Zaffre)

Viveca Sten - In Bad Company (Sweden, F) (tr. Marlaine Delargy,  AmazonCrossing)

Maryla Szymiczkowa -  Karolina, or the Torn Curtain (Poland, M) (tr.  Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Point Blank)

Antti Tuomainen - The Rabbit Factor (Finland, M) (tr. David Hackston, Orenda Books)

Christian Unge - Hell and High Water (Sweden, M) (tr. George Goulding & Sarah De Senarclens,  MacLehose Press)

Yana Vagner - To the Lake (Russia, F) (tr. Maria Wiltshire, Swift Press)

Hilde Vandermeeren - The Scorpion's Head (Belgium, F) (tr. Laura Watkinson, Pushkin Press)

Toshihiko Yahagi - The Wrong Goodbye (Japan, M) (tr. Alfred Birnbaum, MacLehose Press)

Yulia Yakovleva - Punishment of a Hunter (Russia, F) (tr. Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, Pushkin Vertigo)

Kwon Yeo-Sun - Lemon (South Korea, F) (tr. Janet Hong, Apollo/Head of Zeus)

Seishi Yokomizo - The Village of Eight Graves (Japan, M) (tr. Bryan Karetnyk, Pushkin Vertigo)

Crime Fiction set on The Titanic

I mentioned in my last cover theme post that I would post about a few books set on The Titanic. Here are the ones I have on my database, please feel free to add any suggestions in the comments.

So most recently we've had:

Araminta Hall's Hidden Depths

Passenger...

Lily is pregnant, travelling onboard the Titanic to her beloved family in the United States, hoping she can get there before her mind and body give up.

For a long time now she's known her husband is not the man he's pretending to be and she's not safe.

So, when she meets widower Lawrence she knows he's her last chance for help.

Or Prisoner...

But Lawrence knows he hasn't got time to save Lily.

Lawrence is the only person on board the unsinkable ship who knows he will not disembark in New York.

And the danger is much worse than either of them could imagine.

Can Lily and Lawrence help each other to safety before it's too late?

And back in 2012, to commemorate the 100th Anniversary, we had:

Dan James's Unsinkable and Alex Scarrow's The Candle Man:

A DOOMED VOYAGE

April 14th 1912. The maiden voyage of the world's most luxurious passenger liner, Titanic.

A DARK PAST

Each passenger has their own reason to make the crossing, but for former Special Branch police officer Arthur Beck it is the only way he can escape the demons of his past.

Also on board is Martha Heaton, a female journalist sent to cover the great ship's journey and prove herself as a serious reporter.

A FEARFUL ENCOUNTER

As the huge ship nears the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Beck and Martha are closing in on a murderous criminal. But, with time running out, they must stop him - before it's too late...

Jack the Ripper's London...an eerily quiet dining room on the Titanic...and a series of murders that covers two decades.

1912. Locked in an eerily quiet dining room on the Titanic, a mysterious man tells a young girl his life story as the ship begins to sink. It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888...

In the small hours of the night in a darkened Whitechapel alley, young Mary Kelly stumbles upon a man who has been seriously injured and is almost unconscious in the gutter. Mary - down on her luck and desperate to survive - steals his bag and runs off into the night.

Two days later, an American gentleman wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He has suffered a serious head injury, and with no one to help him remember who he is he starts to wonder how he will ever find his way home.

One terrible truth links these two lost souls in the dark world of Victorian London - a truth that could ruin the name of the most influential man in the land...

Back in 1912, as the Titanic begins its final shuddering descent to the bottom of the frozen, black Atlantic, one man is about to reveal the truth behind a series of murders that have hung like a dark fog over London for more than two decades...the identity of Jack the Ripper. 

There's also a Titanic themed US Cozy which came out in 2018:

Maya Corrigan's S'more Murders

Managing a fitness club cafe and collaborating on a cookbook with her gradfather are Val Deniston's usual specialties, but she's about to set sail into nearby Chesapeake Bay--straight into a murder case . . .

Since catering themed events is a good way to make extra cash, Val agrees to board the Titanic--or at least cater a re-creation of the doomed journey on a yacht. The owner of the yacht, who collects memorabilia related to the disaster, wants Val to serve the last meal the Titanic passengers ate . . . while his guests play a murder-mystery game. But it is the final feast for one passenger who disappears from the ship. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Now Val has to reel in a killer before s'more murders go down . . .

Update Week 16

Another Petrona Award entry arrived last week which just leaves 3 more to arrive. They have been ordered but there are delays at the moment.

Do take a look at the books published in April and let me know what you're looking forward to.

I finished the latest E C R Lorac from the British Library Crime Classic releases, Post After Post-Mortem. Though it was an enjoyable read, I wasn't wrong-footed after all in my predictions. I also found it rather sad. More often than not in the books I read, the murder victim is unpleasant, a wrong-un but this story involves the death of a much loved and young close family member who had done nothing wrong.

I also read the graphic novels, Heartstopper volumes 3 and 4 and the related novella, This Winter, all by Alice Oseman.

Back when I was reading The Christie Affair, I reserved from the library Jared Cade's Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days. I managed to get the revised, 2011 edition. As it's been reserved by somebody else, I'm now trying to speed-read it! 

Anybody read it?

Here's the blurb from amazon:

In December 1926 Agatha Christie became front-page news when she vanished in bizarre circumstances from her home in Berkshire, England. The crime writer was found eleven days later in a hotel in Harrogate,Yorkshire, claiming to be the victim of amnesia. Up till now none of her biographers has come up with conclusive evidence as to what Agatha Christie did in the first twenty-four hours after she disappeared or whether her memory loss was genuine. Although the notoriety made Agatha Christie famous, she never recovered from the intense press scrutiny, and the private anguish that surrounded the episode ensured that she made no reference to it in her memoirs. Illustrated with many hitherto unpublished photographs, Jared Cade's riveting book on which a BBC television documentary has been based provides all the answers, including startling accounts by the novelist's surviving relatives, that reveal for the first time why she staged the disappearance with the help of a co-conspiritor and how it all went terribly wrong . . .

TV-wise, we are still watching Snow Angels which feels very true to life. I heard earlier today that series 3 of The Nordic Murders will be on 'Walter Presents' next month which is good news. 

I recently caught up with series 2 of Departure which is a snappy six episodes featuring a (British)  accident investigator. We've had an air crash and a train crash and I believe it's a boat's turn next. I watched it via Sky but series one is available on Channel 5.

And finally I listened to the short series Death by Conspiracy about a Shrewsbury man, a Covid-denier who died of Covid, which is available via the BBC and other podcast providers.

Published 11-17 April 2022

I've expanded on my monthly listing. These are the 31 books published between 11 and 17 April 2022. Blurbs and covers taken from Amazon. 

Blok, Rachael - The Fall #4 DCI Jansen, St Albans

The bigger the sin, the further the fall...

With Easter approaching, the verger of St Albans Cathedral was supposed to be readying the church. Instead he discovers a man lying dead, fallen from the famous 150-foot-high tower. Did he jump, or was he pushed?

For DCI Maarten Jansen, it's a simple case of suspected suicide. Until a stranger, Willow, who witnessed the jump, prompts a deeper investigation into a long-buried past, involving a psychiatric hospital, a pregnant woman, and fifty years of silence. As Willow's own family history entwines with the case, Jansen starts to wonder how everything is connected.

The Fall is a haunting literary thriller about loss, trauma, silence, and how our past shapes who we are.

Burnside, Heather - Sapphire #5 Working Girls

TWO SISTERS ALONE.

Sophie and Kelsey have always had each other. When their mum is diagnosed with cancer and their dad fails to step up, they're forced to move into the care system. But Sophie knows they'll be okay as long as she's there to protect her sister.

ONE FINAL CHANCE.

But when Kelsey is found a foster family and Sophie can't join her, Sophie's left in an unsafe situation in the home, forced to do things against her will. Finding her own foster family feels like a relief, but it's short lived when her trust in her new foster parents is betrayed.

NO GOING BACK.

With nowhere to turn, Sophie finds herself homeless. But when she finds her new street family, Sophie joins the working girls and her new identity as Sapphire is complete. It's a hard life working the streets, especially when those around her look to take advantage, but can the dream of one day finding Kelsey keep her going?

Charlton, Karen - Smoke & Cracked Mirrors #1 York Ladies' Detective Agency

York, England: 1940

'An unsuitable job for a woman...'

When her husband goes 'missing in action', Jemma James returns to the city of her birth to set up a private detective agency with her best friend, Roberta 'Bobbie' Baker, with whom she shares a passionate love of Golden Age crime fiction.

These two enterprising young women soon find themselves embroiled in a series of mysterious cases, shadowing blackmailers and bigamists, and investigating the perplexing history of a wealthy young woman who seems determined to wipe out her past. And it's not long before they stumble across an unsolved murder.

But the dead don't stay dead for long in historic York.

As the 'phoney war' draws to a close, and the sky above the soaring twin towers of the twelfth century Minster darkens with menace, Jemma learns that even she is not above suspicion in wartime Britain.

Clark-Platts, Alice - The Cove

IT'S THE PERFECT ESCAPE... UNTIL THERE IS NO ESCAPE

Welcome to Turtle Cove.

A luxury resort surrounded by pristine sea and the dense beauty of the jungle, it is the perfect escape from the stresses of life and work. For couples Lou and Adam, Eliza and Noah, a few days spent relaxing on the beach, while their kids are happily distracted, is exactly what they need.

But appearances can be deceiving.

There's a strange tension brewing at the resort, with relations between the hotel and the locals threatening to spill over into violence. This is nothing though compared to the strained atmosphere between the two families. They haven't been friends for long and they are starting to realise they don't really know each other at all.

Except for one of them. One of them knows another very well.

And they have a score to settle.

Comley, M A - To Make Them Pay (pb 3/22, ebook, 4/22) #3 DI Sam Cobbs

A Lake District thriller.

A twisted mind can be deadly…

When Brian Coltman is murdered after a night out with a friend, DI Sam Cobbs and her team need to find the motive behind the gruesome crime.

Intrigue and false starts threaten the investigation until a second body is found.

With her husband on the missing list, does Sam have what it takes to find the killer before they choose another victim, with one intention… to make them pay.

Craven, M W - The Cutting Season (Quick Reads Novella) #1 Washington Poe

Poe's just hanging around on a Saturday afternoon...

Dangling from a hook in a meat packing plant isn't how Detective Sergeant Washington Poe wants to spend his weekend. He's been punched and kicked and threatened, and when a contract killer arrives it seems things are about to go from bad to worse. He goes by the name of the Pale Man and he and his straight-edged razor have been feared all over London for twenty years.

But Poe knows two things the Pale Man doesn't. Although it might seem like a hopeless situation, Poe has planned to be here all along. More importantly, a nerdy, computer whizz-kid called Tilly Bradshaw is watching his back. And now things are about to get interesting . . .

_______________
This is a short story, not a full-length novel.

Cummins, Fiona - Into the Dark

THE PLACE: Seawings, a beautiful Art Deco home overlooking the sweep of the bay in Midtown-on-Sea.

THE CRIME: The gilded Holden family - Piper and Gray and their two teenage children, Riva and Artie - has vanished from the house without a trace.

THE DETECTIVE: DS Saul Anguish, brilliant but with a dark past, treads the narrow line between light and shade.

One late autumn morning, Piper’s best friend arrives at Seawings to discover an eerie scene – the kettle is still warm, all the family’s phones are charging on the worktop, the cars are in the garage. But the house is deserted.

In fifteen-year-old Riva Holden’s bedroom, scrawled across the mirror in blood, are three words:

Make
Them
Stop.

What happens next?

Cutts, Lisa - Murder at the Gardens #3 Harry Powell & Belinda Penshurst

A lovely day out takes a dark turn when a complaining customer is found dead... Luckily amateur sleuth Belinda Penshurst is on the scene - and ready to investigate!

Belinda Penshurst has always loved Brabourne Gardens. A keen animal lover, she enjoys walking its winding paths and listening to the excited squeals of schoolchildren encountering the kind of wildlife you don't normally find in England. So when one of the visitors is found strangled, she's determined to learn whodunnit - and why.

The victim, Simon Carter, had a reputation for making trouble... But surely that's not a good enough reason to want him dead. Together with retired detective Harry Powell, Belinda investigates the goings-on behind the scenes, and learns that some of the staff are more savage than the animals.

Is it Estelle Samuels, the anti-social owner, who clearly has something to hide? Or the security guard who takes his job too seriously? Most worrying of all, Belinda's ex Ivan was there when the body was found, and she's determined to clear his name. As suspicions swirl, one thing's for sure: if Belinda keeps following the killer's tracks, she might find herself in their sights...

Can she sniff out a murderer, before she becomes prey?

Dean, Will - First Born

Molly lives a quiet, contained life in London. Naturally risk averse, she gains comfort from security and structure. Every day the same.

Her identical twin Katie is her exact opposite: gregarious and spontaneous. They used to be inseparable, until Katie moved to New York a year ago. Molly still speaks to her daily without fail.

But when Molly learns that Katie has died suddenly in New York, she is thrown into unfamiliar territory. Katie is part of her DNA. As terrifying as it is, she must go there and find out what happened. As she tracks her twin's last movements, cracks begin to emerge. Nothing is what it seems. And a web of deceit is closing around her.

Dranfield, Wendy - Gone to Her Grave (pb 8/4, ebook 13/4) #4 Detective Madison Harper

In the golden morning light, a beautiful young woman lies diagonally across the bed, dressed for a night out, her long lashes pressed against her cheeks as if she’s sleeping. But the crimson that creeps across the sheets tells the story of an innocent woman who has drawn her last breath…

Detective Madison Harper is pulled away from Thanksgiving preparations when a local care worker, Terri Summers, is found dead in her home on the outskirts of Lost Creek, Colorado. Terri’s inconsolable mother can’t understand who would hurt such a kind soul who had dedicated her life to helping others. But analysis of the blood spatter at the scene indicates Terri knew her attacker, that she looked them right in the eye before her life was taken.

The awkward way Terri’s body is positioned catches Madison’s attention. Carefully moving her, she finds a bracelet—possibly a child’s—with a single red bead clenched in the woman’s fist, as if she was hiding it. It’s the lead Madison so desperately needs, but the sudden death of one of her own team sends the investigation into a tailspin.

With her coworkers crumbling around her, Madison must work day and night to trace the bracelet and crack the case. But when she’s dragged back into the disappearance of a woman and child from years ago, and finds a link to someone in her own family, can Madison stop this twisted killer before another precious life is taken? And at what cost?

Gibbons, Seán - City of Death (ebook only) #4 Ben Miller, Taxi Driver, Galway

Ben Miller is hunting down a murderer in this Galway thriller! Perfect for fans of David Pearson, Ken Bruen, Caimh McDonnell and John Carson.

Miller finds himself once again caught up in gang warfare…

Galway, Ireland, 2010

When taxi driver and part-time private investigator Ben Miller finds his friend Meili brutally murdered, he and her friend Qiang go in search of her killer.

Miller soon enlists the help of his friend, Gárda Aaron Dempsey and they find themselves caught up in a war between rival Chinese triads, seeking to wrest control of the city’s illegal gambling activities from Superintendent Folan and his allies.

They all become involved in a hunt for a diary in which Meili has been keeping details of the activities of the clients’ who pay her for sex, possession of which will give whoever finds it the tools they need to protect themselves at the expense of their rivals.

Matters are complicated by the presence of three men claiming to be either Meili’s current or ex-husband.

When one of them is involved in trafficking Meili’s daughter from China into the sex-industry in Ireland, rescuing her becomes the priority…

Hawkins, Paula - Blind Spot (Quick Reads Novella)

Since they were kids, Edie, Jake and Ryan have been the closest of friends. It's been the three of them against the world. Edie thought the bonds between them were unbreakable. So when Jake is brutally murdered and Ryan accused of the crime, her world is shattered.

Edie is alone for the first time in years, living in the remote house that she and Jake shared. She is grief-stricken and afraid - with good reason. Because someone is watching. Someone has been waiting for this moment. Now that Edie is alone, the past she tried so hard to leave behind is about to catch up with her...

Holland, Sam - The Echo Man

The murders have begun…
Across England, a string of murders is taking place. Each different in method, but each horrifying and brutal.

But the killer is just getting started…
Jess Ambrose is plunged into the investigation when her house is set ablaze. With her husband dead and the police pointing at her, she runs. Her only hope is disgraced detective Nate Griffin, who is convinced Jess is innocent.

And he’s going to shock the world…
Soon, Jess and Griffin discover the unthinkable; this murderer is copying the world’s most notorious serial killers. And now, imitation isn’t enough. The killer dubbed The Echo Man is ready to create his own masterpiece, and it will be more terrifying than anything that has come before…

Isaka, Kotaro - Three Assassins tr. Sam Malissa 

Suzuki is just an ordinary man until his wife is murdered. When he discovers the criminal gang responsible he leaves behind his life as a maths teacher and joins them, looking for a chance to take his revenge. What he doesn't realise is that he's about to get drawn into a web of unusual professional assassins, each with their own agenda.

The Whale convinces his victims to take their own lives using just his words.
The Cicada is a talkative and deadly knife expert.
The elusive Pusher dispatches his targets in deadly traffic accidents.

Suzuki must take each of them on, in order to try to find justice and keep his innocence in a world of killers.

Kitson, Bill - Burial Grounds (ebook only) #14 Detective Mike Nash, Yorkshire

Detective Mike Nash thought that moving back to Yorkshire from London would give him a quieter life. Little did he know . . .

A hit-and-run. A naked body in the cemetery. A local woman reported missing.

A pregnant woman is knocked down by a couple in a car. They don’t stop. Nearby, a man films the whole thing. He stands there smiling.

Months later, Detective Mike Nash is called out to the local cemetery. A naked body has been found — a body which definitely shouldn’t be there — placed face down on a grave.

The post-mortem reveals that the victim was restrained with manacles, and then drowned, his body kept upside-down for several days after death.

The dead man was Andrew Derrick. Quiet, well-mannered, he kept himself to himself. Who would want to kill him?

Then a second body, a drug dealer, turns up in the cemetery, killed in the same macabre way.

What connects them? DI Nash pieces the clues together . . . and finds himself on the trail of a ruthless killer with a deadly agenda.

Legat, Anna - Cause of Death #3 Shires Mysteries

All is not well in the village. The local meadows have been the pride of Bishops Well for hundreds of years, but now they are facing the sharp blades of developers. The landowner is a rich and reclusive author who is happy to see them destroyed, but the villagers - including Sam Dee and Maggie Kaye - are fighting back.

Until, that is, someone decides to silence one of their number permanently.

As Maggie and Sam soon discover, there is more than a quick buck to be made in the developers' plans. There are age-old secrets and personal vendettas that could have deadly repercussions in Bishops Well today.

With Sam's legal expertise and Maggie's... well, Maggie-ness, they delve into the past, determined to unearth the truth. And, as sparks begin to fly, could there finally be something more between this sleuthing duo?

Malone, Michael J - Quicksand of Memory

Scarred by their pasts, Jenna and Luke fall in love, brimming with hope for a rosy future. But someone has been watching, with chilling plans for revenge … An emotive, twisty, disturbing new psychological thriller by the critically acclaimed author of A Suitable Lie and In the Absence of Miracles.

Mangos, Louise - The Beaten Track

She thinks she is safe now that she's home from her travels... but her nightmare has only just begun.

 After her stalker takes his life and she's jilted by a holiday lover, Sandrine comes home from her round-the-world backpacking trip perturbed, penniless and pregnant. She meets handsome Scott who offers her love, security and all she and her new baby could ever wish for.

But their dream is about to turn into a nightmare...

Mark, David - Anatomy of a Heretic

London, 1628. Nicolaes de Pelgrom, assassin and devoted servant of George Villiers, will do whatever his master asks of him – even if that means enduring the perilous voyage to the Indies to exact a grieving widow's revenge.

Making that same journey is Jeronimus Cornelisz, a conniving apothecary determined to escape the backstreets of Amsterdam and become rich beyond imagination. Hired by a criminal mastermind to escort precious cargo to the Indies, he will kill anyone who stands in his way.

When these assassins clash, so too do their missions. One cannot succeed without killing the other. In this deadly game, who will triumph and who will die? And are they even the only players?

McLean, Rachel - The Fossil Beach Murders #6 DCI Lesley Clarke, Dorset

The Susannah Ramsay and Sadie Dawes cases are solved and DCI Lesley Clarke's team is back together.

But there are tensions. Is Dennis hiding more than just mental health problems? Did Superintendent Carpenter cover up the details of DCI Mackie's death? And does Lesley's girlfriend Elsa know more about Mackie than she's letting on?

Just as Lesley feels she is getting closer to answers, she's forced to work on the other side of Dorset after a body is uncovered by a landslide at Lyme Regis's beach. Who is the body and is there a connection to DCI Mackie, Arthur Kelvin, and Elsa's law firm?

The Fossil Beach Murders will provide Lesley with her toughest challenges yet, both professional and personal.

McPherson, Catriona - In Place of Fear

Helen leaned close enough to fog the mirror with her breath and whispered, 'You, my girl, are a qualified medical almoner and at eight o'clock tomorrow morning you will be on the front line of the National Health Service of Scotland.' Her eyes looked huge and scared. 'So take a shake to yourself!''

Edinburgh, 1948. Helen Crowther leaves a crowded tenement home for her very own office in a doctor's surgery. Upstart, ungrateful, out of your depth - the words of disapproval come at her from everywhere but she's determined to take her chance and play her part.

She's barely begun when she stumbles over a murder and learns that, in this most respectable of cities, no one will fight for justice at the risk of scandal. As Helen resolves to find a killer, she's propelled into a darker world than she knew existed, hardscrabble as her own can be. Disapproval is the least of her worries now.

Meyer, Deon - The Dark Flood #7 Benny Griessel tr. K L Seegers 

One last chance. Almost fired for insubordination, detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido find themselves demoted, exiled from the elite Hawks unit and dispatched to the leafy streets of Stellenbosch. Working a missing persons report on student Callie de Bruin is not the level of work they are used to, but it's all they get. And soon, it takes a dangerous, deeply disturbing turn.

One last chance. Stellenbosch is beautiful, but its economy has been ruined by one man. Jasper Boonstra and his gigantic corporate fraud have crashed the local property market, just when estate agent Sandra Steenberg desperately needs a big sale. Bringing up twins and supporting her academic husband, she is facing disaster. Then she gets a call. From Jasper Boonstra, fraudster, sexual predator and owner of a superb property worth millions, even now.

For Sandra, the stakes are high and about to get way higher.

For Benny Griessel, clinging to sobriety and the relationship that saved his life, the truth about Callie can only lead to more trouble.

Taut with intrigue, murder and suspense, exploding with action and excitement, The Dark Flood is a masterpiece from the author of Trackers and The Last Hunt.

Munro, T Orr - Breakneck Point #1 CSI Ally Dymond, Devon

CSI Ally Dymond’s commitment to justice has cost her a place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she’s stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast.

Then the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe, and Ally’s expert skills are suddenly back in demand.

But when the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective’s theory, nobody wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison.

Time is running out to catch a killer no one is looking for – no one except Ally. What she doesn’t know is that he’s watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike.

Perry, Anne - A Truth To Lie For #4 Elena Standish, Photographer, 1930s

The fourth novel in Anne Perry's breathtakingly tense and exciting spy thriller series, featuring young British photographer and secret agent Elena Standish, who will need every ounce of her strength and ingenuity to survive what lies ahead...

It is the summer of 1934 when MI6 receives intelligence that two German scientists have made a breakthrough in germ warfare. British agent Elena Standish must return to Berlin to prevent unimaginable horror and, with the help of her trusted friend, Jacob Ritter, embark upon a mission fraught with fear and uncertainty.

Meanwhile, her grandfather's old adversary Johann Paulus has risen to power as an adviser to Hitler. By his side is his loyal supporter Hans Beckendorff, who is married to Elena's childhood friend. But when Hans witnesses the bloodshed and atrocities of the Night of the Long Knives, he is torn between ambition and the realisation that he must protect his family from harm.

Riches, Anthony - Target Zero #2 Michael Bale

Former close protection officer Mickey Bale has a dangerous skillset. One that many men – good and bad – want to make use of.

That's why a powerful Russian oligarch wants to hire Mickey to protect him. And with his wife gone and his track record with the Met in tatters, Mickey doesn't feel he has a choice.

But when a terrorist attack kills a police firearms team, MI5 suspect that Mickey's new client and the Russian GRU are involved. The bomb was a Sunburn missile warhead, military-grade and able to vaporise everything in its blast radius. And there are more warheads out there.

Blackmailed by MI5 into spying on the client he's been hired to protect, Mickey is pushed to his limits by this new double-agent status. If he doesn't locate the other warheads, thousands of civilians will die – and time is running out...

Thomas, Will - Fierce Poison # 13 Barker and Llewelyn, Victorian London

London, 1893, there is poisoner loose in the city, with deaths piling up, and private enquiry agents Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn are apparently his next target in Fierce Poison by Will Thomas.

Private Enquiry agent Cyrus Barker has just about seen it all--he's been attacked by assassins, his office has been bombed, and evil-doers have even nearly killed his dog. But never before has a potential client dropped dead in his office. When Roland Fitzhugh, Member of Parliament arrives to consult Barker and his partner Thomas Llewelyn, he falls to the floor, dead, upon entering. As they soon learn, he's been poisoned with a cyanide laced raspberry tart, and the adulterated tarts also take out an entire family in the East End. Labelled the Mad Pie Man by the press, Barker and Llewelyn are hired by former Prime Minister William Gladstone to find out who has targeted the House of Commons's newest member.

But before they can even begin, they find themselves the latest target of this mad poisoner--with Barker's butler poisoned with digitalis and dozens of diabolic traps discovered at their home. On the run from their unseen adversary, Barker and Llewelyn must uncover the threads that connect these seemingly random acts and stop the killer before they and their closest friends and family become the latest casualties.

Turner, A K - Life Sentence #2 Cassie Raven, Mortuary Technician

Mortuary technician Cassie Raven believes the last thoughts of the dead linger like static in the air...

Cassie has always had a strange affinity with death, ever since her parents were killed in a car crash when she was four. At least that's what she grew up believing...

But that was a lie. Cassie's father is alive. He was convicted of murdering her mother and spent years behind bars. Now he's out - and he's looking for her.

He swears he didn't do it. And Cassie wants to believe him.

To find the truth, she must turn detective. As she seeks answers, help is to be found in inexplicable places - for the dead are ready to talk.

Tyce, Harriet - It Ends At Midnight

It's New Year's Eve and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh's best postcodes. It's a moment for old friends to set the past to rights - and move on.

The night sky is alive with fireworks and the champagne is flowing. But the celebration fails to materialise.

Because someone at this party is going to die tonight.

Midnight approaches and the countdown begins - but it seems one of the guests doesn't want a resolution.

They want revenge.

Van Rensburg, Laure - Nobody But Us

Steven Harding is a handsome, well-respected professor.
Ellie Masterson is a wide-eyed young college student.

Together, they are driving south from New York, for their first holiday: three days in an isolated cabin, far from the city.

Ahead of them, the promise of long, dark nights - and the chance to explore one another's bodies, away from disapproving eyes.

It should be a perfect, romantic trip for two.

EXCEPT THAT HE'S NOT WHO HE SAYS HE IS.

BUT THEN AGAIN, NEITHER IS SHE . . .

Wheatle, Alex - Witness (Quick Reads Novella)

To tell the truth? Or protect his family?

Cornell is having a bad time. Kicked out of secondary school for a fight he didn't start, he finds himself in a Pupil Referral Unit. Here he makes friends with one of the Sinclair family. You don't mess with the Sinclairs, and when Ryan Sinclair demands Cornell comes with him to teach another student some respect, Ryan witnesses something that will change his life.

Torn between protecting his family and himself, Cornell has one hell of a decision to make.

This is published as part of the Quick Reads series, which aims to share the joy of reading with adults who are improving their literacy. It is Alex Wheatle at his best: a thrilling, pacy story that is full of moral complexity and insight into gang violence.

Whitelaw, Jonathan - The Bingo Hall Detectives

Eyes down to find a killer who’s playing to win…

An irresistible slice of murder and mystery – there’s a killer on the loose in the Lake District, and the members of the Penrith Bingo Club have decided they’re the ones to catch the culprit…

Jason Brazel is an out of work journalist who lives in Penrith with his family and mother-in-law, Amita. She knows everyone and everything that’s going on in this corner of the Lakes.

So when it’s discovered that Madeline Forbisher, one of Amita’s fellow regulars at the bingo club has died, found by the postman outside her crumbling country home close to Ullswater Lake, she senses immediately this is no accident. The trouble is, no one else seems to take her suspicions seriously.

That is, until she enlists the help of her friends at the Penrith Bingo Club. Dismissed by many as eccentric, over the hill or out of touch, it turns out that it’s unlucky for some that these amateur sleuths are on the case…