Monday, September 12, 2022

Published 6-12 September 2022

I've expanded on my monthly listing. Here are 16 books published between 6 and 12 September 2022.
Blurbs and covers taken from Amazon. 

Anthology - Sherlock Holmes: A Detective's Life (ed. Martin Rosenstock)

The famous detective returns in a thrilling anthology of 12 Sherlock short stories spanning Holmes’s entire career, penned by Peter Swanson, Cara Black, James Lovegrove and more.

A brand-new collection of twelve Sherlock Holmes short stories which spans Holmes's entire career, from the early days in Baker Street to retirement on the South Downs.

Penned by masters of the genre, these Sherlock stories feature a woman haunted by the ghost of a rival actress, Moriarty's son looking for revenge, Oscar Wilde's lost manuscript, a woman framing her husband for murder, Mycroft's encounter with Moriarty and Colonel Moran, and many more!



Adolfsson, Maria - Cruel Tides (ebook Sep, pb Jan) #3 Doggerland trilogy tbc ???

A secluded island. A missing woman. An impossible choice.


Detective Inspector Karen Eiken Hornby is not the only person to have returned to her native island nation, Doggerland, after years abroad. Following a ten-year hiatus, Luna has chosen to secretly record her comeback album where she was born and raised. Spirits are high among her team at the wrap party, though Karen is less than impressed with the simpering singer. The next morning, Luna is nowhere to be found.

Nothing goes unnoticed in the tight-knit community - certainly not the arrival, or disappearance, of a world-famous singer. So, while the rest of the force is frantically searching for a suspect whose brutal attacks on women are increasing in intensity and frequency, a reluctant Karen is tasked with discreetly looking into Luna's whereabouts.

As time ebbs away so does the possibility of finding Luna alive, while Karen faces seemingly impossible choices, ones that could spell life or death, both for herself and others.


Allen, Jo - Death on the Crags (ebook only) #9 DCI Jude Satterthwaite, Lake District

Everybody loves Thomas Davies. Don’t they?

When policeman Thomas Davies falls from a crag on a visit to the Lake District in full view of his partner, Mia, it looks for all the world like a terrible but unfortunate accident — until a second witness comes forward with a different story.

Alerted to the incident, DCI Jude Satterthwaite is inclined to take it seriously — not least because of Mia’s reluctance to speak to the police about the incident. As Jude and his colleagues, including his on-off partner DS Ashleigh O’Halloran, tackle the case, they’re astonished by how many people seem to have a reason to want all-round good guy Thomas out of the way.

With the arrival of one of Thomas’s colleagues to assist the local force, the investigation intensifies. As the team unpick the complicated lives of those who claim to care for Thomas but have good reasons to want him dead, they find themselves digging deeper and deeper into a web of blackmail and cruelty … and investigating a second death.


Belsham, Alison & Higgins, Nick - Death in Helmand #2 MacKenzie and Khan

One man murdered, another missing. A race against time…

Helmand, 2004: Afghanistan’s most lawless province, where nearly 90 per cent of the world’s opium is grown. Pink and lilac poppies flutter innocently in the breeze in fields that stretch for miles and miles along the Helmand River south of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Gangsters and warlords battle for supremacy in the lucrative trade, territories well-known, and fiercely contested.

Well Diggers, an Anglo-Dutch NGO helping the farming community, comes under attack. One man is dead and another man is missing – suspected kidnapped, so head of security Ginger Jameson calls in his old friend Alasdair ‘Mac’ MacKenzie to help.

But when the expected ransom demand fails to materialise, rumours blossom, creating a web of deceit and a multitude of false leads. Embarking on a rescue mission into the no-go reaches of southern Helmand might look like a major scoop to Mac’s girlfriend, investigative reporter Baz Khan, but it puts the whole team in danger. And if they don’t find him soon, they won’t find him at all…

From Helmand’s shimmering poppy fields to the blistering Desert of Death and the opium bazaars of Bahram Char, where nothing is as cheap as a man’s life, this is the gripping sequel to Death in Kabul.


Benn, James R - From the Shadows #17 Billy Boyle, WW2

Following their mission in the Soviet Union, Billy, Kaz, and Big Mike are sent to southern France for what should be a simple assignment: to serve as security for Royal Navy Commander Gordon Stewart, head of the Special Operations Executive's Section F in Algiers. Stewart's mission is to work with Resistance leaders in liberated areas to gather information that will help track down Vichy officials and other traitors who escaped with the retreating Germans. Stewart has received multiple death threats, and there has already been one attempt on his life in Algiers. Over the course of his investigation, Billy learns that Stewart has many enemies in both the SOE and the Resistance, linked to a fatal Resistance uprising. Diana Seaton, Billy's wartime lover, crosses paths with him as she and legendary SOE agent Christine Granville embark on a humanitarian mission on behalf of those killed while helping the SOE. The race to find an important witness leads Billy to the legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit made up of Nisei soldiers that went on to become the most highly decorated unit in the history of the US Army. With sacrifice and betrayal afoot, Billy doesn't know who he can trust, or how close to death this case may bring him.


Cowley, Katherine - The Lady's Guide to Death and Deception #3 Mary Bennet, Spy

What is a spy willing to do when both her heart and her country are at risk?


Life changes once again for British spy Miss Mary Bennet when Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from the Isle of Elba. Mary quickly departs England for Brussels, the city where the Allied forces prepare for war against the French. But shortly after her arrival, one of the Duke of Wellington’s best officers is murdered, an event which threatens to break the delicate alliance between the Allies.

Investigating the murder forces Mary into precarious levels of espionage, role-playing, and deception with her new partner, Mr. Withrow—the nephew and heir of her prominent sponsor, and the spy with whom she’s often at odds. Together, they court danger and discovery as they play dual roles gathering intelligence for the British. But soon Mary realizes that her growing feelings towards Mr. Withrow put her heart in as much danger as her life. And then there’s another murder.

Mary will need to unmask the murderer before more people are killed, but can she do so and remain hidden in the background?

Day, Shirley - Reap What You Sow 

Sophie regrets leaving her much-loved ex-boyfriend over Christmas, but she can’t pass up the opportunity of a lifetime: writing a personal history for the enigmatic billionaire Tim Henderson.


A pioneer in the early days of fertility treatment, Henderson now lives a reclusive life on his private Greek island. Sophie soon discovers that the ancient labyrinth on Henderson’s property has a dark history, steeped in myth and legend. Even more worrying is the island’s equally sinister present. Can Sophie find a way out of Henderson’s delusional trap before her future is destroyed?



Dranfield, Wendy - Catch Her Death #5 Detective Madison Harper

“Mommy, wake-up,” he cries, pulling at her beautiful blonde hair. She’s silent, and her skin is deathly white. Tears roll down his cheeks as he realizes something is very wrong…

As snow falls on the small town of Lost Creek, Colorado, a three-year-old boy is found playing quietly in his car seat, his mother, cold as ice, slumped against the steering wheel in front. Tearing herself away from reconnecting with her special agent father who abandoned her for his career, Detective Madison Harper is haunted by the fear in the boy’s sky-blue eyes, and vows to find justice for this innocent child, left motherless just days before Christmas.

Madison works around the clock on her only clue: a perfect circle of clean glass found on the car’s rear window. But she’s stopped in her tracks the moment another mother is found dead outside a church during Midnight Mass, her young boy left sucking his thumb on the frozen ground beside her. It can’t be a coincidence.

The need to spare the children might hint to the suspect being a woman, but the deeper Madison digs, the closer she gets to a serial killer her own father spent a lifetime chasing. Has the killer followed her father here? Could Madison, single mother to a son herself, be next?

As a blizzard closes in, wreaking havoc on the investigation, Madison hits the same dead ends her father did all those years ago. But when her closest friend goes missing, Madison must dive into the mind of this twisted soul and risk it all to stop another heart-shattering tragedy. But will she make it in time?


Gayle, Katie - Murder in the Library #2 Julia Bird, Cotswolds

Julia Bird’s picturesque Cotswolds life is everything she’d dreamed of. Until, that is, she discovers a dead body in the library…


Julia Bird had imagined the quiet of rural life would be soothing after years in the city, but she finds she can’t just sit still.Determined to throw herself into village activities, she joins the library just in time to attend a talk by celebrated local author Vincent Andrews.

Charming, devilishly handsome and talented, Vincent teases the crowd with a reading from his forthcoming novel. Set in a village bearing strange similarities to Berrywick, with characters the audience start to recognise, Vincent hints of dark secrets to be revealed, to gasps of outrage from the room. The meeting ends in uproar, and, just hours later, Vincent’s dead body is discovered behind the bookshelves …

As one of the last people to see him alive, Julia feels morally bound to help the police investigate. With her trusty Labrador, Jake, at her side, she decides to do her own sleuthing on the sly and quickly discovers that Vincent’s personal life is messy, his finances are in disarray and his book sales are declining. But most of all, remembering her neighbours’ faces at the book reading, Julia wonders if one of them could have lost the plot enough to kill…

As Julia interrogates the suspects, she walks straight into another scene of murder and mayhem, and realises Vincent’s manuscript is now missing. There’s someone out there who’s deadly serious about keeping their secrets unpublished… Will Julia be able to stop them, before anyone else gets hurt?


Greenwood, Ross - The Santa Killer #6 DI Barton

The Santa Killer is coming to town…

One night less than two weeks before Christmas, a single mother is violently assaulted. It’s a brutal crime at the time of year when there should be goodwill to all. When DI Barton begins his investigation, he’s surprised to find the victim is a woman with nothing to hide and no reason for anyone to hurt her. 

A few days later, the mother of the woman attacked rings the police station. Her granddaughter has drawn a shocking picture. It seems she was looking out of the window when her mother was attacked. And when her grandmother asks the young girl who the person with the weapon is, she whispers two words. 

Bad Santa.

The rumours start spreading, and none of the city’s women feel safe - which one of them will be next?

He’s got a list. It’s quite precise. It won’t matter even if you’re nice. 


Harrison, Cora - Murder in the Cathedral #9 Reverend Mother Aquinas, Cork, 1920s

The Reverend Mother's investigative skills are called into action again when one of her young pupils is found murdered at St Fin Barre's Cathedral.


1920s. Cork, Ireland. The Reverend Mother's Christmas Day festivities are shattered when the protestant bishop of Cork arrives at the convent with terrible news: one of the Reverend Mother's pupils, the troublesome seven-year-old Edna O'Sullivan, has been found murdered in St Fin Barre's Cathedral. Furthermore, the cathedral's archdeacon, Dr Hearn, is also dead after succumbing to a suspected heart attack in the middle of a service.

When it is revealed that both Edna and the archdeacon were poisoned, the Reverend Mother is drawn into another puzzling mystery. Was the boy used as part of an elaborate plot to murder the archdeacon? And if so, why was he willing to risk his life to do so? As she investigates, the Reverend Mother makes a series of disturbing and intriguing discoveries. Can she uncover the truth behind these heinous crimes?


Heald, Ruth - The Nanny

I clutched baby Chloe’s blanket, tears streaming down my face as I remembered the night she disappeared. Looking up at the apartment block I once called home, I knew I’d never be welcome here again. One mistake had ruined everything.


When I accepted a job working as a nanny for 
David and Julie and their young children, I couldn’t believe my luck. I bonded with baby Chloe instantly and would have done anything for her. She had David's thick, dark hair and smiling eyes. I fell in love with her and was excited about the future.

But when a terrible mistake led to Chloe disappearing, I was instantly blamed. With no evidence, I was let go and I returned home to try and rebuild my life.

Twenty years later and I am still haunted by what happened. I have a family of my own now and I’ve worked hard to be the best wife and mother I can be, but I’ve never forgotten the child who stole my heart.

Then a young woman arrives on my doorstep and the past secret that I have kept from my family comes hurtling into my present.

I try to tell myself that I am overreacting. But the woman in front of me looks so much like David. Who is she and why is she here? And if I welcome her in, will she want to be a part of my life, or destroy it?


Hood, D K - Her Bleeding Heart #16 Detectives Kane and Alton

Rain soaks her clothes as she runs from the large, isolated family home and hides behind the beaten-up pickup truck parked out front. Miles from safety, her heart thuds as footsteps draw closer. He’s found her…

The rain has been falling for weeks when Black Rock Falls Sheriff, Jenna Alton, receives a panicked phone call from a local forest ranger. The lifeless body of a woman has washed up on the banks of a swollen river.

Rushing to the scene, Jenna and her deputy, David Kane, find the young girl laying face up in the dirt, her long brown hair spilling out around her, her perfect pale skin showing no signs of struggle. Leaning in for a closer look, she finds a jack of hearts playing card tucked into the girl’s underwear. This was no accident—someone killed this innocent soul, and left a twisted calling card…

Days later, another young woman is found slumped in the back of car at a local truck stop on the outskirts of town, angry red marks around her neck. Jenna’s head spins when she finds a second playing card in her clothing. Is this killer escalating? And does he have a next victim already in his sights?

As a landslide shuts the town off from the outside world, Jenna and her team battle raging storms in their search for answers. Jenna is convinced the playing cards link these victims to a twisted serial killer the FBI have been hunting for over a decade. If she’s right, she’s chasing America’s most dangerous and elusive killer. Can she catch him before Black Rock Falls loses another innocent young life?


Nickson, Chris - A Dark Steel Death #10 Detective Inspector Tom Harper, Leeds Police, 1890s

Tom Harper must catch a traitor intent on disrupting the war effort and bringing terror to the streets of Leeds in this page-turning mystery.


Leeds. December, 1916. Deputy Chief Constable Tom Harper is called out in the middle of the night when a huge explosion rips through a munitions factory supplying war materials, leaving death and destruction in its wake. A month later, matches and paper to start a fire are found in an army clothing depot. It's a chilling discovery: there's a saboteur running loose on the streets of Leeds.

As so many give their lives in the trenches, Harper and his men are working harder than ever - and their investigation takes a dark twist with two shootings, at the local steelworks and a hospital. With his back against the wall and the war effort at stake, Harper can't afford to fail. But can he catch the traitor intent on bringing terror to Leeds?


Oldham, Nick - Demolition #28 DCI Christie

Secrets, lies, murder . . . and planning permission. 
Henry Christie is pulled into two chilling murder investigations and uncovers dark secrets dating back to the Second World War in this unflinching thriller.

Henry Christie is focused on running his pub, the Tawny Owl, where he learns of the Kendleton protest group's fury with James Twain, a local property developer, and the keen desire of some residents to solve a murder that stretches back to the Second World War.

When James is viciously killed in his barn, and another body is found in similar disturbing circumstances nearby, Henry is drawn into the investigations and the villagers' dark wartime secrets. Pulled out of retirement once more to lead a double murder inquiry for Lancashire police, can he uncover the truth behind chilling events both past and present?


Raybourn, Deanna - Killers of a Certain Age

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.


Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death.

To get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman - and a killer - of a certain age.

Thursday, September 08, 2022

Award News: Petrona Award Entries 2022

I am pleased to announce that 31 of the 34 titles that were eligible for the 2022 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year have been entered by the publishers.

The winner of the Award will be announced online later this year.

The rules for eligibility are:
  • The submission must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year ie 1 January – 31 December 2021.
  • The author of the submission must either be born in Scandinavia* or the submission must be set in Scandinavia*.
  • The submission must have been published in its original language after 1999.
(E-books that meet the above criteria may be considered at the judges’ discretion (does not include self-published titles))
*in this instance taken to be Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

More details about the award and the history behind it can be found on the Petrona Award website. The winner of the 2021 Award was To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi, translated from the Swedish by Deborah Bragan-Turner and published by MacLehose Press.

The award is sponsored by David Hicks.

Entries 

[16 titles are by Female authors and 15 by Male. There are 22 translators (13 Female (18 titles), 8 Male (12 titles) and 1 Female/Male collaboration (1 title)) and 5 countries are represented (13 Sweden, 7 Iceland, 7 Norway, 3 Finland and 1 Denmark).]

Maria Adolfsson - Fatal Isles tr. Agnes Broomé  (F, Sweden) Zaffre
Eva Björg Ægisdóttir - Girls Who Lie tr. Victoria Cribb (F, Iceland) Orenda Books

Kjell Ola Dahl - The Assistant tr. Don Bartlett (M, Norway) Orenda Books
Anders de la Motte - Rites of Spring tr. Marlaine Delargy (M, Sweden) Zaffre
Anders de la Motte - End of Summer tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Zaffre

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

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

Camilla Grebe - The Hideout tr. Sarah Clyne Sundberg (F, Sweden) Zaffre
Oskar Gudmundsson - The Commandments tr. Quentin Bates (M, Iceland) Corylus Books Ltd

Anne Holt - A Memory for Murder tr. Anne Bruce (F, Norway) Corvus
Jorn Lier Horst - A Question of Guilt tr. Anne Bruce (M, Norway) Michael Joseph
Horst & Enger - Smoke Screen tr. Megan Turney (M/M, Norway) Orenda Books

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

Stina Jackson - The Last Snow tr. Susan Beard (F, Sweden) Corvus
Ragnar Jonasson - The Girl Who Died tr. Victoria Cribb (M, Iceland) Michael Joseph

Camilla Lackberg - Silver Tears tr. Ian Giles (F, Sweden) HarperCollins
Camilla Lackberg - Truth or Dare (ebook only) tr. Ian Giles (F, Sweden) HarperCollins
Ruth Lillegraven - Everything Is Mine tr. Diane Oatley (F, Norway) AmazonCrossing
 
Johanna Mo - The Night Singer tr. Alice Menzies (F, Sweden) Headline
 
Hakan Nesser - The Lonely Ones tr. Sarah Death (M, Sweden) Mantle

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

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

John KÃ¥re Raake - The Ice tr. Adam King (M, Norway) Pushkin Vertigo
Anders Roslund - Knock Knock tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel (M, Sweden) Harvill Secker

Max Seeck - The Ice Coven tr. Kristian London (M, Finland) Welbeck
Lilja Sigurdardottir - Cold as Hell tr. Quentin Bates (F, Iceland) Orenda Books
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - The Doll tr. Victoria Cribb (F, Iceland) Hodder & Stoughton
Gustaf Skördeman - Geiger tr. Ian Giles (M, Sweden) Zaffre
Viveca Sten - In Bad Company tr. Marlaine Delargy (F, Sweden) AmazonCrossing

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

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


Not Submitted

Anna Ihren - The Man on the Beach (ebook only) tr. Michael Gallagher (F, Sweden) SAGA Egmont 
Mariette Lindstein - Shadow of Fog Island tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (F, Sweden) HQ
Peter Mohlin & Peter Nyström - The Bucket List tr. Ian Giles (M, Sweden) The Overlook Press

Wednesday, September 07, 2022

Awards News: McIlvanney Prize 2022 - Shortlist Announced

From the press release from Bloody Scotland, the shortlist for the McIlvanney Prize 2022 has just been announced:
 

FINALISTS REVEALED FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2022


Sponsored by The Glencairn Glass

Winners to be presented on Thursday 15 September 2022

In Bloody Scotland’s 10th Anniversary year, the judges are delighted to reveal the finalists for The McIlvanney Prize 2022:

Liam McIlvanney – The Heretic (HarperCollins)
Alan Parks – May God Forgive (Canongate)
Ambrose Parry – A Corruption of Blood (Canongate)
Louise Welsh – The Second Cut (Canongate)

A hat trick for Canongate and indeed for Scottish independent publishing!  The McIlvanney Prize judges are Ayo Onatade, winner of the CWA Red Herring Award and freelance crime fiction critic, Ewan Wilson, crime fiction buyer from Waterstones Glasgow and Jacky Collins, otherwise known as the podcaster, Dr Noir and programmer of Newcastle Noir. They were unanimous in their praise for all four finalists:

Liam McIlvanney - The Heretic (HarperCollins)
The masterful rendering of a richly layered plot makes you want to read this novel again as soon as you've finished it. It's a warts and all tale with memorable characters and a great setting.

Alan Parks - May God Forgive (Canongate)
This expertly handled and morally ambiguous novel paints a dark and mesmerising portrait of 1970s Glasgow. The skillfully written and complex plot builds to a thrilling and highly unconventional denouement.

Ambrose Parry - A Corruption of Blood (Canongate)
A real slow burner of a novel which is a marvellous tale of murder and deception in Victorian Edinburgh. It handles some difficult subject matter with sensitivity and care and has a real feeling of authenticity.

Louise Welsh - The Second Cut (Canongate)
The raw, tight prose of this novel delivers an edgy glimpse into the underbelly of 21st century Glasgow. The novel features the welcome return of Rilke from Louise's classic debut The Cutting room in a witty and sometimes sordid tale of a rank outsider.

The winner will be revealed in Stirling on Thursday 15 September.  All of the shortlisted authors will be invited to a VIP reception at the Church of the Holy Rude at 7pm and to lead the torchlit procession from Stirling Castle to The Albert Halls where the winner of both the McIlvanney and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prizes will be revealed at approximately 8.30pm. They will then be interviewed on stage by BBC Radio Scotland’s Janice Forsyth.

Monday, September 05, 2022

Published 1-5 September 2022

I've expanded on my monthly listing. Here are 19 books published between 1 and 5 September 2022.

Blurbs and covers taken from Amazon.

Amphlett, Rachel  - A Grave Mistake

A walk in the woods takes a dark turn for Ben...


A Grave Mistake forms part of the Case Files series of short crime stories from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.












Baylis, Edie - Vendetta #3 Allegiance

Who can you trust?


Once bitter enemies, Samantha Reynold and Seb Stoker's powerful alliance enables their firms and casinos to go from strength to strength. With the families no longer in opposition, it seems that Sam and Seb are untouchable…

But not everyone is happy with the new power couple of the club world.

Unbeknownst to everyone, someone new wants to see Sam’s perfect life ruined. And they will stop at nothing to seek their revenge – even if it means destroying everything - and everyone - in their path.

With tensions high, Sam and Seb must put their trust in each other completely. But can they trust those closest to them? Or do they have a vendetta of their own?


Bugler, Sheila - You Were Always Mine # 4 Dee Doran, ex Journalist

Years ago, she went to prison for killing her husband. Now, her daughter is dead too.

Cassie McNamara was found guilty of the murder of her husband, Paul Cavellini, but she has always protested her innocence. Upon her release, she is ready to start over and hires local journalist, Dee Doran, to prove she was wrongfully convicted.

Cassie and Paul's young daughter, Grace, was adopted by Paul's family. When eighteen-year-old Grace goes missing and her body is found, all eyes turn to Cassie as the prime suspect in her daughter's death. Then, Cassie, just like Grace, disappears.

Cassie maintains her innocence but she's terrified and has no choice but to run. Left behind to investigate, Dee must work the truth behind Grace and Paul's deaths, and what Cassie is running from - or who.


Cleeves, Ann - The Rising Tide #10 Inspector Vera Stanhope, East Yorkshire

Vera Stanhope, star of ITV’s 
Vera, returns in the tenth novel in number one bestseller Ann Cleeves’ acclaimed series.

Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island, forging a bond that has lasted a lifetime. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship, and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway at the first reunion.

Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now . . .

But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible . . .

Cox, Helen - Murder in a Mill Town #7 Kitt Hartley, Yorkshire

When a violent murder shatters the otherwise peaceful idyll of Andaby near Hebden Bridge, 
DS Charlotte Banks can't help but suspect that her brother Ewan - recently released from prison and now living in Calderdale - is behind it. Ewan claims he's innocent, and even has an alibi to prove it, but DS Banks isn't convinced. So much so that she turns to the only people who can help her in an investigation this personal: Kitt Hartley and Grace Edwards, of Hartley and Edwards Investigations.

On the hunt for the killer, Kitt and Grace discover the victim was choked to death on her old school sash. From this lead, Kitt, Grace and DS Banks are drawn down a dark trail littered with decade-old grudges, schoolyard secrets, broken hearts and bullies, and struggle to get closer to the truth. When a second victim goes missing however, the clock starts ticking.

Can Kitt recover the missing woman before it's too late? And how do you catch a killer hiding in plain sight?


Edwards, Martin -  Blackstone Fell #3 Rachel Savernake & Jacob Flint, 1930s

Rachel Savernake investigates bizarre crimes and a baffling locked-room puzzle in this Gothic mystery from the winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger.

Yorkshire, 1606. A man vanishes from a locked gatehouse in a remote village. 300 years later, it happens again.

Autumn 1930. Journalist Nell Fagan knows there's only one person who can get to the bottom of this mystery: Rachael Savernake. But someone wants Nell dead, and soon, while investigating a series of recent deaths at Blackstone Sanatorium, she's missing entirely.

Looking for answers, Rachel travels to lonely Blackstone Fell, with its eerie moor, deadly waters and sinister tower. With help from Jacob Flint – who's determined to expose a fraudulent medium at a séance – Rachel will risk her life to bring an end to the disappearances...

A dazzling mystery peopled by clerics and medics and embellished with science and superstition, Blackstone Fell explores the shadowy borderlands between spiritual and scientific; between sanity and madness; and between virtue and deadly sin.


Fields, Helen - The Last Girl to Die

In search of a new life, seventeen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.

Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before.

The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the closer danger creeps – and the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?



Freud, Emily - What She Left Behind

Lauren can't wait to leave London for a fresh start in the countryside with her new partner Paul and his two young children.


She never thought she'd be so lucky. A dream glass house in the woods, a ready-made family, a second chance. But as dark rumours swirl about their new home, Lauren begins to question their happily-ever-after. When they met, she was at her most vulnerable. She would trust Paul with her life. But should she?






Harris, Robert - Act of Oblivion

'From what is it they flee?'
He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, 'They killed the King.'

1660. Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel William Goffe, cross the Atlantic. They are on the run and wanted for the murder of Charles I. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, they have been found guilty in absentia of high treason.

In London, Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, is tasked with tracking down the fugitives. He'll stop at nothing until the two men are brought to justice. A reward hangs over their heads - for their capture, dead or alive.

Act of Oblivion is an epic journey across continents, and a chase like no other. It is the thrilling new novel by Robert Harris.


Hattersley, M I - What Did You Do? 

She thought she could leave her past behind. She was dead wrong…


She can pretend everything is fine..

After a less than idyllic childhood in Bradford, Nadia Morgan has created a dream life for herself in a secluded part of Cornwall. She has everything she ever wanted: a nice house, wonderful children, an amazing husband. Even running two businesses only adds to her feelings of accomplishment.

But that pretence is about to break…

First, the family cat goes missing, and then Nadia’s favourite horse falls ill. Her husband tells her not to worry. That everything will be fine. But then she receives a worrying phone call that changes everything.

Because someone knows her secret…

Something happened twenty years ago that Nadia has been trying to forget about ever since. But some things are too horrible to be forgotten.

Johnson, Alan - One of Our Ministers is Missing

A government minister in the Foreign Office has vanished into thin air.


On holiday in Crete, Lord Bellingham had been solo trekking in the White Mountains when he mysteriously disappeared. After a vast search and rescue operation, the local police have no leads, save for a mobile phone discarded on a cliff edge.

Assistant Commissioner Louise Mangan of the Met Police is sent to assist in the investigation but soon discovers that there are more layers to this case than the local police realise.

Lady Bellingham is less than forthcoming, the family nanny is hiding something, and a scandal is brewing back in London that could destroy the minister's reputation for good.

Under pressure from the powers that be, can Louise find the missing minister, or will she discover something much more sinister at play?

Kelly, Erin - The Skeleton Key

THIS REUNION WILL TEAR A FAMILY APART ...


Summer, 2021.
 Nell has come home at her family's insistence to celebrate an anniversary. Fifty years ago, her father wrote The Golden Bones. Part picture book, part treasure hunt, Sir Frank Churcher created a fairy story about Elinore, a murdered woman whose skeleton was scattered all over England. Clues and puzzles in the pages of The Golden Bones led readers to seven sites where jewels were buried - gold and precious stones, each a different part of a skeleton. One by one, the tiny golden bones were dug up until only Elinore's pelvis remained hidden.

The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous degree. People sold their homes to travel to England and search for Elinore. Marriages broke down as the quest consumed people. A man died. The book made Frank a rich man. Stalked by fans who could not tell fantasy from reality, his daughter, Nell, became a recluse.

But now the Churchers must be reunited. The book is being reissued along with a new treasure hunt and a documentary crew are charting everything that follows. Nell is appalled, and terrified. During the filming, Frank finally reveals the whereabouts of the missing golden bone. And then all hell breaks loose.

Lee, J M - Broken Summer tr. An Seon Jae

Lee Hanjo is an artist at the peak of his fame, envied and celebrated. Then, on his forty-third birthday, he awakens to find that his devoted wife has disappeared, leaving behind a soon-to-be-published novel she’d secretly written about the sordid past and questionable morality of an artist with a trajectory similar to Hanjo’s. It’s clear to him that his life is about to shatter and the demons from his past will come out. But why did his wife do it? Why now?

The book forces Hanjo to reflect on a summer from his youth when a deadly lie irreversibly and tragically determined the fates of two families.

From master storyteller J. M. Lee, one of Korea’s most renowned authors, comes an unforgettable novel of hidden truths, denials, and their inevitable repercussions. Everyone still left standing from that terrible summer so long ago must finally reckon with the deceptions that started it all and, twist after shocking twist, reap both the suffering and the vindication that comes with revenge.


Nesser, Hakan - The Axe Woman #5 Inspector Barbarotti tr. Sarah Death 

Sweden 2012. 
When Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti returns to work after a terrible personal tragedy his boss asks him to investigate a cold case, hoping to ease him back gently into his police duties.

Five years previously a shy electrician, Arnold Morinder, disappeared from the face of the earth, the only clue his blue moped abandoned in a nearby swamp. At the time his partner, Ellen Bjarnebo, claimed that Arnold had probably travelled to Norway never to return. But Ellen is one of Sweden’s most notorious killers, having served eleven years in prison after killing her abusive first husband and dismembering his body with an axe. And when Barbarotti seeks to interview Ellen in relation to Arnold’s disappearance she is nowhere to be found . . .

But without a body and no chance of interviewing his prime suspect Barbarotti must use all the ingenuity at his disposal to make headway in the case. Still struggling with his personal demons, Barbarotti seeks solace from God, and the support of his colleague, Eva Backman. And as he finally begins to track down his suspect and the cold case begins to thaw, Barbarotti realizes that nothing about Ellen Bjarnebo can be taken for granted . . .

The Axe Woman is the fifth and final Inspector Barbarotti novel from bestselling author HÃ¥kan Nesser.


North, Lauren - All the Wicked Games

IF YOUR BEST FRIEND WAS IN DANGER, YOU'D TRY TO SAVE HER...WOULDN'T YOU?


Are you ready to play?

Best friends Cleo and Rachel spend their evenings pretending to be people they're not, inventing elaborate stories to escape the monotony of their real lives. It's all harmless fun - until they play the game on the wrong person...

It's your move now.

Five years later, Cleo is still struggling to come to terms with the night that destroyed her friendship with Rachel and almost cost them their lives. And then she receives a text: 
Rachel is missing. Have you seen her?

There's only one person to blame.

Wracked with guilt for failing Rachel the last time they were in danger, Cleo races to find her friend. But could the past be repeating itself? Only this time, they're caught up in a far darker game.

The rules don't matter when the goal is revenge.

Sherwood, Kim - Double or Nothing #1 Double O Trilogy (world of James Bond)

James Bond is missing. 007 has been captured, perhaps even killed, by a sinister private military company. His whereabouts are unknown.

Meet the new generation of spies…

Johanna Harwood, 003. Joseph Dryden, 004. Sid Bashir, 009. Together, they represent the very best and brightest of MI6. Skilled, determined and with a licence to kill, they will do anything to protect their country.

The fate of the world rests in their hands…

Tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise claims he can reverse the climate crisis and save the planet. But can he really? The new spies must uncover the truth, because the future of humanity hangs in the balance.

Time is running out.

The start of a brand new trilogy following MI6’s agents with a licence to kill, that blows the world of James Bond wide open!


Smith, Alexander McCall, A Song of Comfortable Chairs #23 Mma Ramotswe, PI, Botswana

Grace Makutsi's husband, Phuti, is in a bind. An international firm is attempting to undercut his prices in the office furniture market. Phuti has always been concerned with quality and comfort, but this new firm seems interested only in profits. To make matters worse, they have a slick new advertising campaign that seems hard to beat. Nonetheless with Mma Ramotswe's help, Phuti comes up with a campaign that may just do the trick.


Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is approached by an old friend who has a troubled son. Grace and Phuti agree to lend a hand, but the boy proves difficult to reach, and the situation is more than they can handle on their own. It will require not only all of their patience and dedication, but also the help of Mma Ramotswe and the formidable Mma Potokwani in order to help the child.

Faced with more than her fair share of domestic problems, Mma Makutsi deals with it all with her usual grace. That, along with the kindness, generosity, and good sense that the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is known for, assure us that in the end, all these matters will be set right.


Stratmann, Linda - Sherlock Holmes and the Ebony Idol (ebook only) #3 Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

An original Sherlock Holmes mystery from his early casebook!
 Perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Horowitz and classic crime fiction.

Sherlock Holmes dons his boxing gloves to catch a killer…

London, 1876

When a pugilist dies at a local boxing demonstration attended by medical student 
Mr Stamford and his acquaintance Sherlock Holmes, a post-mortem reveals the death is due to natural causes.

But when the corpse of another boxer is discovered clutching a small wooden carving – the ebony idol – Holmes begins to suspect that sinister forces are at work.

His suspicions seem confirmed when the companions hear about a previous death in the ring.

Tasked by the man’s widow to bring his killer to justice, Holmes and Stamford are swiftly drawn into their most curious case to date.

Are the deaths connected? Is there a murderer at work?

Holmes must employ all his powers of deduction if he is to discover the truth of the mystery.


Tyler, L C - The Summer Birdcage #8 John Grey, lawyer, 1657

Duke's Company actress Kitty Burgess has a stunning future before her - until she vanishes after the opening performance of Aminta Grey's new play, 
The Summer Birdcage. One of her fellow actors swears he saw her being bundled into a black coach driven by six black horses outside the theatre. Then no more is heard of her - until the body of a young woman is found dead beside the road in Hertfordshire. It appears to be Kitty, so Aminta and her husband Sir John Grey, travel to Bishop's Stortford to identify her. The girl has been so badly beaten it is impossible to tell who she is, but there are three clues - the dress she is wearing, a ring and a copy of the script of Aminta's play, left (perhaps a little too conveniently) in the victim's hands.

Back in London Aminta catches sight of a young woman who looks exactly like Kitty but before she can do anything, the woman runs off and is lost in the crowd. Meanwhile, rumours abound at court that Kitty was about to become the king's new mistress and all fingers are being pointed at Lady Castlemaine for having arranged for her rival to be spirited away and killed. And now John Grey finds that is no longer just his wife who is determined to prove Kitty Burgess is alive. It would seem her disappearance - and possible reappearance - is part of some much wider conspiracy, and that Kitty may be about to play the most dangerous, and possibly deadly, role of her life. A role from which there may be no escape ...