Wednesday 28 October 2015

Books to look forward to from Penguin and MIchael Joseph

Captain Dominika Egorova of the Russian Intelligence Service has returned from the West to Moscow. She despises the men she serves, the oligarchs, and crooks, and thugs of Putin's Russia. What no one knows is that Dominika is working for the CIA as Washington's most sensitive penetration of the Kremlin. As she expertly dodges exposure, Dominika deals with a murderously psychotic boss; faces assassination attempt and counter-intelligence ambushes, and must rescue a compromised agent and somehow spirit him out of Russia from under the noses of her pursuers. Complicating it all is Dominika's relationship with her CIA handler, Nate Nash. And when a mole in Moscow finds her name on a classified list of sources, it is a virtual death sentence.  Palace of Treason is by Jason Matthews and is due to be published in January 2016

 Cal McGill is the sea detective: an oceanographer and one-of-a-kind investigator who uses his knowledge of the waves to find where objects came from, or track where they've gone. For five years Priest's Island has guarded the mystery of Max Wheeler's disappearance. In this isolated township on the edge of the Atlantic, there are no secrets - except what really happened to fourteen-year-old Max. Now Cal McGill has taken up the quest. A grieving father, a community riven by tragedy - and resentful of the suspicion - all make a powder keg of secrets and vengeance ready to explode.  The Malice of Waves is by Mark Douglas-Home and is due to be published in April 2016.

Forensic investigator Darby McCormick queues to enter Boston Police Headquarters on a freezing winter morning. Lured back to her home town to help solve a cold case, Darby won't get far inside the station - and this will be no ordinary homecoming...Because someone suddenly takes a woman hostage and a stand-off ensues. The man has explosives strapped to himself and other bombs hidden around the city, rigged to explode - every three hours - until he gets what he wants. Working desperately against the clock, Darby realizes she is trapped between a kidnapper who would kill to expose the truth and people who would let others die to hide their lies.  Every Three Hours is by Chris Mooney and is due to be published in March 2016.

McLean must investigate the seedy goings on of an exclusive and secretive society, catering for the rich and powerful of the city. Somehow it is linked to a particularly gruesome cold case from twenty years ago, McLean's first case with the force.  The Damage Done is by James Oswald and is due to be published in February 2016.

A series of uniquely brutal murders targets victims from totally different walks of life.  In a society divided according to Zodiac signs, those differences are cast at birth and binding for life.  All eyes are on Detective Jerome Burton and astrological profiler Lindi Childs – divided in their beliefs over whether the answer is written in stars but united in their conviction that there is an ingenious serial killer executing a grand plan.  Together, they will unravel a dark tale of betrayal, lost love, broken promises and a devastating truth with the power to tear their world apart.  Zodiac is by Sam Wilson and is due to be published in June 2016.

Orphan X is by Gregg Hurwitz and is due to be published in April 2016. “Do you need my help?” It was always the first question he asked. They called him when they had nowhere else to turn. As a boy he was chosen, then taken from the orphanage he called home. Raised and trained as part of a top secret programme he was sent to the worst places in the world to do the things his government denied any knowledge of. Then he broke with the programme, using everything he'd learned to disappear. He wanted to help the desperate and deserving. But now someone's on his tail. Someone who has issues with his past. Someone who knows he was once known simply as Orphan X.

A hit-and-run on a woodland road near Amsterdam involving an Afghan boy is connected to a powerful international crime syndicate.  Journalist Farah Hafez, together with her colleague Paul Chapelle, gets caught up in an investigation that takes them all the way to Moscow and has great political and personal ramifications than they bargained for.  After this perilous journey, their lives will never be the same. Butterfly on the Storm is the first instalment of The Heartland Trilogy by Walter Lucius and is due to be published in July 2016.

Little Boy Blue is by M J Arlidge and is due to be published in March 2016.  Helen's most
personal case yet as she investigates the shocking and unexpected murder of a close friend found cocooned in plastic. It looks like it was a tragic accident - a sex game gone wrong. The investigation soon threatens to expose Helen's private life and she has to make some tough personal choices along the way, as she hunts a twisted and elusive killer, who is swiftly racking up more murders. As Helen closes in on her prey, a shocking truth is revealed - these murders are part of a calculated attempt to bring Helen down.

Many changes have happened to the Murder Squad.  Rash actions have cost Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith his job, and in response he has set up his own private detective agency.  Inspector Walter Day has been missing for a year and no one knows where he is though there is a strong suspicion that Saucy Jack has him.  Hammersmith has made finding day his primary case, and he has company – a pair of bounty hunters, a man and a woman.  It is only gradually that he has come to realise that they are not what they seem.  Lost and Gone Forever is by Alex Grecian and is due to be published in June 2016.

Christmas Eve 1985 -The shaved, exsanguinated body of a young man is found in Red Square; frozen solid - like marble to the touch - missing the little finger from his right hand.  A week later, Alex Marston, the fifteen year old daughter of the British Ambassador disappears. Army Intelligence Officer, Tom Fox, posted to Moscow following the death of his own daughter, is asked to help find her. It's a shot at redemption.  But as Fox's investigation drags him deeper towards the dark heart of a Soviet establishment determined to protect its own so his fears grow, with those of the girl's father, for her safety. A flayed cat, hung by its hind legs from the ceiling of Fox's flat is just a warning.  And if Fox can't find Alex soon, it looks as if she could become a sadistic killer's next human victim . . .  Moskva is by Jack Grimwood and is due to be published in May 2016.

When Zoo agrees to take part in the latest reality television show, In the Dark, she knows that her skills of endurance will be tested to the limit.  Beating twelve competitors in a series of survival tasks deep in the forest will be her ultimate challenge before motherhood.  But as the contestants are overtaken by hunger, injury and psychological breakdown, the mind games and hazards to which they are subjected seem increasingly extreme and dark beyond measure.  This isn’t what Zoo signed up for.  Is she in a game with no end?  Discovering the truth is just the beginning. The Last One is by Alexandra Oliva and is due to be published in July 2016.

A Fever of the Blood is by Oscar de Muriel and is due to be published in February 2016. 
New Year's Day, 1889. In Edinburgh's lunatic asylum, a patient escapes as a nurse lays dying. Leading the manhunt are legendary local Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and Londoner-in-exile Inspector Ian Frey. Before the murder, the suspect was heard in whispered conversation with a fellow patient - a girl who had been mute for years. What made her suddenly break her silence? And why won't she talk again? Could the rumours about black magic be more than superstition? McGray and Frey track a devious sychopath far beyond their jurisdiction, through the worst blizzard in living memory, into the shadow of Pendle Hill - home of the Lancashire witches - where unimaginable danger awaits..

An 'innocent' killer. A politician's missing daughter. An unidentifiable corpse. What connects these crimes? An unidentifiable murder victim may be the missing piece of the puzzle for a massive expose that journalist Helen Norton is writing about the links between politics, business and crime in the north-east. Her former colleague Tom Carney receives a letter from a convicted murderer who insists he is innocent. Tom decides to meet the man face-to-face. Meanwhile, Detective Ian Bradshaw searches for a politician's missing daughter - who it seems has run away to the bright lights and seedy streets of London's Soho. As the three cases become intertwined, Helen, Tom and Bradshaw realize too late what they've uncovered.  Behind Dead Eyes is by Howard Linskey and is due to be published in March 2016.

Among Thieves is by John Clarkson and is due to be published in May 2016. Unfairly imprisoned by the State of New York, ex-con James Beck is a man with a keen sense of right and wrong. But when a friend's niece turns to him for help, he soon discovers that the men at whose hands she's suffered are more dangerous than he could possibly have imagined. In order to prevail, he and his gang of friends will have to outwit, out-flank and out-fight a formidable array of opponents the like of which they've never before encountered. Or die trying.


Monday 26 October 2015

Books to look forward to from Orion Publishing

Far From True is by Linwood Barclay and is due to be published in April 2016.  After the screen of a run-down drive-in movie theater collapses and kills four people, the daughter of one of the victims asks private investigator Cal Weaver to look into a recent break-in at her father's house. Cal discovers a hidden basement room where it's clear that salacious activities have taken place - as well as evidence of missing DVDs. But his investigation soon becomes more complicated when he realises the DVDs may contain something even more shocking. Meanwhile, Detective Barry Duckworth is still trying to solve two murders - one of which is three years old - he believes are connected, since each featured a similar distinctive wound. As the lies begin to unravel, Cal is headed straight into the heart of a dark secret as his search uncovers more startling truths about Promise Falls. And when yet another murder happens, Cal and Barry are both driven to pursue their investigations, no matter where they lead. Evil deeds long thought buried are about to haunt the residents of this town - as the sins of the past and present collide with terrifying results.

A Hero in France is by Alan Furst and is due to be published in June 2016. Spring 1941. Britain is losing the war. But the fighters of the French Resistance are determined not to give up. These courageous men and women - young and old, aristocrats and nightclub owners, teachers and military heroes - run an escape line for British airmen down to Spain. In Rouen and Orleans, in secret hotels, and on the streets, they prise open Europe's sealed doors to lead British fighters to freedom...Thrilling, seductive and heart-poundingly tense, A Hero in France is a story of courage against the odds, set during one of the most intriguing periods of recent history.

The calm of Giverny has been disrupted - and not only by the tourists. A murderer is on the loose, and has claimed the life of Jerome Morval, a man whose passion for art was matched only by his passion for women. At the heart of the mystery are three women: a painting prodigy, the seductive village schoolteacher and an old widow who lives in a tower. But what do they have to do with the discovery of Jerome Morval's corpse? And what is the connection to the mysterious Monet painting of black waterlilies?  Black Waterlilies is by Michel Bussi and is due to be published in June 2016.

From its opening scene in revolutionary Mexico to the Battle of the Marne in 1918, and on to the bordellos and saloons of San Antonio during the reign of the Hole in the Wall Gang, House of the Rising Sun is an epic tale of love, loss, betrayal, vengeance, and retribution that follows Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland on his journey to reunite with his estranged son, Ishmael, a captain in the United States Army. After a violent encounter that leaves four Mexican soldiers dead, Hackberry escapes the country in possession of a stolen artifact, earning the ire of a bloodthirsty Austrian arms dealer who then places Hack's son Ishmael squarely in the cross hairs of a plot to recapture his prize, believed to be the mythic cup of Christ. Along the way, we meet three extraordinary women: Ruby Dansen, the Danish immigrant who is Ishmael's mother and Hackberry's one true love; Beatrice DeMolay, a brothel madam descended from the crusader knight who brought the shroud of Turin back from the Holy Land; and Maggie Bassett, one-time lover of the Sundance Kid, whose wiles rival those of Lady Macbeth. In her own way, each woman will aid Hackberry in his quest to reconcile with Ishmael, to vanquish their enemies, and to return the Grail to its rightful place.  House of the Rising Sun is by James Lee Burke and is due to be published in January 2016.

Frankie James is a young man with a lot on his shoulders. His mother disappeared when he was fifteen; his father’s in jail for armed robbery; and he owes rent on his inherited SoHo snooker club to one of London’s toughest gangsters. Things, you’d think, can only get better. Actually, they’re about to get a whole lot worse.  Frankie always swore to his mum he’d keep his younger, wilder brother out of trouble.  However when Jack turns up at the club early in the morning, covered in someone  else’s blood, with no memory of the night before, it seems there’s no way Frankie can  make good on his promise. With Jack banged up, awaiting trial for the vicious murder of a bride-to-be – a murder that’s sparked an even more vicious gang war between London’s two foremost crime families – Frankie knows a conviction could quickly turn  into a death sentence if he doesn’t discover who framed Jack and why?  In the underworld of 1980s Soho, is he tough enough and smart enough to come out on top?  Framed is by Ronnie O’Sullivan and is due to be published in June 2016.

Detectives Kovac and Liska return in the latest psychological suspense novel from author
Tami Hoag. It was a shocking crime. A middle-aged couple - hacked to death in their own home - with a samurai sword. Normal people. Who were they? And why were they targeted? It was a shocking crime. But it wasn't the first. Twenty years ago a policeman was murdered in his own back garden and the killer was never caught. One woman might link these mysteries. But she is being watched. Can Detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac find her before it is too late? Suspense fiction doesn't get smarter than this. The Bitter Season is due to be published in March 2016.

The Promise is by Robert Crais and is due to be published in January 2016.  Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are joined by Suspect heroes Scott James and his K-9 partner, Maggie. Loyalty, commitment, the fight against injustice - these are the things that have always driven Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If they make a promise, they keep it. Even if it could get them killed. When Elvis Cole is hired to locate a woman who may have disappeared with a stranger she met online, it seems like an ordinary case - until Elvis learns the missing woman worked for a defence contractor and was being blackmailed to
supply explosives components for a person or persons unknown. Meanwhile, in another part of the city, LAPD officer Scott James and his patrol dog, Maggie, enter an abandoned building to locate an armed and dangerous thief, only to discover far more than they expected. The fugitive is dead, the building is filled with explosives, and Scott and Maggie are assaulted by a hidden man who escapes in the chaos, all as a bloodied Joe Pike watches from the shadows. Soon, Scott and Maggie find themselves targeted by that man and, as their case intertwines with Elvis and Joe's, join forces to follow the trail of the missing woman as well. From inner-city drug traffickers to a shadowy group of Afghan war veterans with ties to a terrorist cell, the people they encounter on that trail add up to ever-increasing odds, and soon the four of them are fighting to find the woman not only before she is killed ...but before the same fate happens to one of them.

Eminent scientist Dr Ralph Padley is dying - and he knows it's time to finally tell the truth. Padley has a dark secret, which, if it got out, would have deadly consequences. But there are powerful men who will stop at nothing to silence him. FBI Special Agent Reilly has an agenda of his own. For months he has sought the man who kidnapped and brainwashed his five-year-old son. But that man is a ghost - a highly protected CIA official with no name and no identity, and who may have links to Reilly's own father. Watched, manipulated, and framed for crimes he didn't commit, Reilly becomes a fugitive, making it next to impossible for him to uncover the truth about his past while protecting the family he loves. He's left with no choice but to risk everything to unearth secrets that would shake the country to its core - if he's ever allowed to get that far.  The End Game is by Raymond Khoury and is due to be published in March 2016.

It's been five years since Carter Blake parted ways with top-secret government operation Winterlong. They brokered a deal at the time: he'd keep quiet about what they were doing, and in return he'd be left alone. But news that one of Blake's old allies, a man who agreed the same deal, is dead means only one thing - something has changed and Winterlong is coming for him. Emma Faraday, newly appointed head of the secret unit, is determined to tie up loose ends. And Blake is a very loose end. He's been evading them for years, but finally they've picked up his trace. Blake may be the best there is at tracking down people who don't want to be found, but Winterlong taught him everything he knows. If there's anyone who can find him - and kill him - it's them. It's time for Carter Blake to up his game.   Winterlong is by Mason Cross and is due to be published in May 2016.

Everything seems to be going right for brilliant young jockey Duncan Claymore. A career on the up, a beautiful wife, and all the trappings of wealth. But Duncan is haunted by the death of one of his arch-rivals. He may not have pulled the trigger, but he still has blood on his hands. As Duncan struggles to keep his focus on the job, Michelle O'Brien - a friend and talented fellow jockey - is killed and Duncan knows this was far from a tragic accident. He's never liked William Osborne, but now he will stop at nothing to avenge Michelle's death. With Duncan's seemingly perfect world starting to come apart at the seams, can he balance his desire for victory on the field with his desire to see justice served?  Narrowing the Field is by A P McCoy and is due to be published in January 2016. 

In Becky Masterman’s currently untitled novel Brigid Quinn faces a different kind of challenge.  Marcus Creighton is on Death Row, convicted of murdering his wife and three children, and with time running out for a reprieve.  But did he do it? Or is the truth even darker and more shocking? Her currently  untitled novel is due to be published in April 2016.

Burning Angels is by Bear Grylls and is due to be published in June 2016.  Having uncovered a terrifying secret dating back to the dark days of Nazi Germany, ex-SAS soldier Will Jaeger must face his toughest challenge yet as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of the past and discover what really happened to his long-lost wife and son

The Turning Tide is by Brooke Magnanti and is due to be published in February 2016.  Erykah Macdonald has a nice life - the kind of life you're meant to want. But on her twentieth wedding anniversary, she's about to cross a line. Several hundred miles away in the shallow waters of a Hebridean island, a body is found. It's been in the water long enough to make identification tricky but it's clear this is no accidental death. Erykah knows she's about to make a choice you can't reverse - but she's lived with secrets most of her life - she thinks she's ready. The trouble is, there are far worse secrets than her own about to emerge. From the gurney of a morgue in the Highlands, to the media circus of the national press, and from the seemingly calm suburbs of London to the powerplays in Westminster, a net is tightening. And those that find themselves caught in are willing to kill to get out with reputations intact. Erykah must work out what she's capable of if she's going to keep her head above water - she must leave behind her comfortable life and start breaking rules. She knows she should be scared...but sometimes, stepping over the line is the first step to freedom..

The Plea is by Steve Cavanagh and is due to be published in March 2016.  For years, respected New York law firm Harland & Sinton has been running a fraud of gargantuan proportions. The FBI are on to them, but they need witnesses to secure their case. When a major client of the firm, David Child, is arrested for murder, the FBI ask con-artist-turned-lawyer Eddie Flynn to secure Child as his client and force him to testify against the firm in exchange for a lesser sentence. Eddie's not a man to be forced into representing a guilty client, but the FBI have incriminating files on Eddie's wife, Christine, and if Eddie won't play ball, she'll pay the price. Eddie agrees, but when he meets David Child he knows this is going to be harder than it sounds. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Eddie is convinced that Child didn't kill his girlfriend and he refuses to send an innocent man to prison. With the FBI putting pressure on him to secure the plea and the formidable Gerry Sinton breathing down his neck, Eddie must find a way to prove Child's innocence while keeping his wife out of danger - not just from the FBI, but from the firm itself. But it's not long before Eddie realises he's part of a dangerous game, with each player willing to kill to get what they want.

Saul Black’s currently untitled novel is due to be published in April 2016.  Troubled San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart is planning a rare weekend away from the job when she gets the call. A body has been found. A woman, brutally murdered. And the cryptic note left by the body is addressed to Valerie.  The victim is unknown to her, but as Valerie analyses the scene, the clues begin to point in a deeply disturbing direction: to a maximum security prison where a woman called Katherine Glass is awaiting execution for a series of gruesome killings. And Valerie was the cop who put her there.  The last thing Valerie wants to do is re-enter Katherine's twisted world, but when a second body is discovered, with another puzzling clue, she realises she has no choice. Katherine Glass holds the key to the killings, and Valerie needs to find out what she knows before the murders come even closer to home.  Even if it means playing a deadly game where once again, the psychopathic killer holds all the cards.

The Hanging Tree was the Tyburn gallows which stood where Marble Arch stands today. Oxford Street was the last trip of the condemned. Somethings don't change. The place has a bloody and haunted legacy and now blood has returned to the empty Mayfair mansions of the world's super-rich. And blood mixed with magic is a job for Peter Grant. Peter Grant is back as are Nightingale et al at the Folly and the various river gods, ghosts and spirits who attach themselves to England's last wizard and the Met's reluctant investigator of all things supernatural.  The Hanging Tree is by Ben Aaronovitch and is due to be published in June 2016.

Having fled to New York following his involvement in a terrible crime, Irish-born Danny McCabe throws in his lot with Nicolas and Lucia Mariani, Italian siblings who have come to America to make their fortune. In New York the trio get by, earning money from fighting and - on Nicolas Mariani's part - increasingly illicit activity. Lucia has ambitions of becoming an actress and, following a fight that goes horribly wrong, the three of them head to Los Angeles, the city of dreams. Beneath the glitzy facade of 1940s Hollywood lies a world of corruption and organised crime, and it isn't long before Nicholas become entangled in it. As Lucia and McCabe's feelings for each other grow, McCabe is desperate to bury the dark secret of his past, while Lucia is torn between her loyalty to her brother and her loyalty to the man she loves. R J Ellory’s new novel Kings of American is due to be published in May 2015 and will span the Gold Age of Hollywood, from the 1930s to the 1960s, and will include appearances from Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner, Micky Cohen and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I was dead for 13 minutes. I don't remember how I ended up in the icy water but I do know this - it wasn't an accident and I wasn't suicidal. They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you're a teenage girl, it's hard to tell them apart. My friends love me, I'm sure of it. But that doesn't mean they didn't try to kill me. Does it?  13 Minutes is by Sarah Pinborough and is due to be published in February 2016.

Haunted by fears of recurring mental breakdown, obsessed with discovering her parentage and curiously comfortable with corpses, she makes an unusual and intuitive detective. Faced with a bizarre series of crimes that link the kidnapping of an oligarch’s daughter with the medieval practices of a remote monastery, Fiona Griffiths is plunged into a conspiracy that feeds into her darkest fears.  This currently untitled book by Harry Bingham is due to be published in June 2016.

Saturday 24 October 2015

Cartel wins the T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award



Congratulations to Don Winslow for winning the T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award for The Cartel.

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA) recognizes excellence in books that reflect Southern California culture or lifestyle, with authors/illustrators living within the SCIBA region.

The mystery award is named after T. Jefferson Parker, a life-long resident of Southern California and Edgar Award-winning author.

The Cartel was one of three finalists.
The other finalists were:
Marry, Kiss, Kill by Anne Flett-Giordano
The Replacements by David Putnam


Friday 23 October 2015

Books to look forward to from Headline Publishers

On a buzzing Istanbul street, in the fashionable district of Beyoglu, a young man drops dead. Umit Kavas's death was natural but the contents of his stomach betray a shocking truth: his last meal was human flesh. Under desperate pressure from their superiors, Inspector Cetin Ikmen and his colleague Mehmet Suleyman begin the most obscure investigation of their careers. How did Umit Kavas- apparently a good, liberal man - come to partake in the greatest taboo of all? Did he act alone? And who was the victim who met such a gruesome end? Soon they find themselves embroiled in a dark web of seemingly unconnected worlds: of Turkey's old secular elite; of a community of squatters; and a new gastronomy scene breaking every boundary. But where does the truth lie?  On the Bone is by Barbara Nadel and is due to be published in January 2016.

William Monk faces an old enemy determined to take revenge for an act committed many years - before he lost his memory. Anne Perry's outstanding new historical mystery takes us on a thrilling ride into Monk's past, as adversaries he cannot remember threaten everything he holds dear.  Revenge in a Cold River is by Anne Perry and is due to be published in April 2016.

Quintin Jardine's twenty-sixth Bob Skinner mystery sees the Edinburgh sleuth plunged into a gruelling new case in which no score will go unsettled. Enjoying life as a private citizen after a thirty-year police career, Bob Skinner is on the way to answer a friend's plea for help when a freak accident gives him an unwelcome glimpse of the dark side. As his former colleagues investigate the mystery of a dead child in the boot of a stolen car, the ex-Chief Constable undertakes an unusual challenge of his own, tracing a missing multi-million pound yacht that has vanished from its moorings. The two events seem unconnected, yet as the casualty count rises, is there a link that no one has seen? The whodunnit is clear. The mystery is: why.  Private Investigations is due to be published in May 2016.

A Savage Hunter is by Claire  McGowan and is due to be published in March 2016.  Victim: Female. Twenty-two years of age. Reason for investigation: Missing person. ID: Alice Morgan. Student. Last seen at a remote religious shrine in Ballyterrin. Alice Morgan's disappearance raises immediate questions for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire. Alice, the daughter of a life peer in the Home Office, has vanished along with a holy relic - the bones of a saint - and the only trace is the bloodstains on the altar. With no body to confirm death, the pressure in this high-profile case is all-consuming, and Paula knows that she will have to put her own life, including her imminent marriage, on hold, if they are to find the truth. A connection to a decades-old murder immediately indicates that all may not be as it seems; as the summer heat rises and tempers fray, can Alice be found or will they learn that those that are hungry for vengeance may be the most savage of all?

David Churchill's The Leopards of Normandy trilogy continues with Duke, as William of Normandy inherits his father's title and assumes command of his lands. William the Bastard, boy Duke of Normandy, is alone in a world filled with enemies. His father, Robert, is dead and the men chosen to protect William are falling prey, one by one, to a conspiracy controlled and manipulated by a man who has spent a lifetime being mocked and ridiculed, but now burns with the need to be feared and obeyed. In England, two women, equally matched in their beauty, strength and limitless ambition, seek power through their sons. They wield no swords and command no armies but their struggle for the Crown is as bitter as any war. And between them stands Godwin, Earl of Wessex, seeking to build a dynasty that will outlast them all. One day, William will join the struggle for dominion over England. But for now he must fight just to survive, to reach manhood and then to impose his will on those who would oppose him. Including the young woman he wants for his wife.  The Leopards of Normandy: Duke is due to be published in April 2016.

Find Her is by Lisa Gardner and is due to be published in February 2016.I escaped. My
name is Flora Dane and I was kidnapped from a beach on spring break. I spent 472 days with my captor before I was found. I survived. And I've spent the last five years trying to reacquaint myself with the rhythms of my life. But everything is different. My relationships are fractured. I've had to learn how to protect myself, how to live in this dangerous new world. I'm reckless. I know that there are other predators out there and I'll do anything to stop them. Now I've killed a man, who I suspect may be involved in another girl's disappearance. Detective D.D. Warren doesn't trust me. She doesn't know whether I am a victim or a vigilante. Sometimes neither do I. But all she needs to know is that I can help. And that I'll put myself in danger again if I need to. Because the only thing that's important is to Find Her.

Her Husband’s Lover is by Julia Crouch and is due to be published in June 2016.  After the horrors of the past, Louisa Williams is desperate to make a clean start.  Her husband Sam is dead.  Her children, too, are gone, victims of the car accident in which he died.  Sam said that they would never get away from him.  That she would hound Lisa until she died if she tried to leave.  Louisa never thought that he would want to harm their children though.  But then she never thought that he would betray her with a girl like Sophie.  And now Sophie is determined to take all Louisa has left.  She wants to destroy her reputation and to take what she thinks is owed her – the life she would have had if Sam lived.  Her husband’s lover wants to take her life.  The only question is will Louisa let her?

Reader, I murdered him. A darkly brilliant Gothic retelling of Jane Eyre from the Edgar-nominated author of the Timothy Wilde series.  Like the heroine of the novel she adores, Jane Steele suffers cruelly at the hands of her aunt and schoolmaster. And like Jane Eyre, they call her wicked - but in her case, she fears the accusation is true. When she flees, she leaves behind the corpses of her tormentors. A fugitive navigating London's underbelly, Jane rights wrongs on behalf of the have-nots whilst avoiding the noose. Until an advertisement catches her eye. Her aunt has died and the new master at Highgate House, Mr Thornfield, seeks a governess. Anxious to know if she is Highgate's true heir, Jane takes the position and is soon caught up in the household's strange spell. When she falls in love with the mysterious Charles Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: can she possess him - body, soul and secrets - and what if he discovers her murderous past?  Jane Steele is by Lyndsay Faye and is due to be published in March 2016.

Also due to be published in February 2016 is Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman.

Tastes Like Fear is by Sarah Hilary and is due to be published in April 2016.  You'll never be out of Harm's way. The young girl who causes the fatal car crash disappears from the scene. A runaway who doesn't want to be found, she only wants to go home. To the one man who understands her. Gives her shelter. Just as he gives shelter to the other lost girls who live in his house. He's the head of her new family. He's Harm. DI Marnie Rome has faced many dangerous criminals but she has never come up against a man like Harm. She thinks that she knows families, their secrets and their fault lines. But as she begins investigating the girl's disappearance nothing can prepare her for what she's about to face. Because when Harm's family is threatened, everything tastes like fear...

Death Do Us Part is by Steven Dunne and is due to be published in May 2016.  Even death cannot part these couples...D I Damen Brook is on a rare period of leave and determined to make the most of it by re-connecting with his daughter Terri. But with her heavy drinking proving a challenge, Brook takes the opportunity to visit a local murder scene when his help is requested. An elderly couple have each been executed with a single shot to the heart and the method echoes that of a middle-aged gay couple killed the previous month. With the same killer suspected and the officer currently in charge nearing retirement, Brook knows that he has little choice but to cut short his leave when forced by his superiors to take the lead on the case. Brook believes that he can catch this ruthless killer, but already distracted by Terri's problems, is he about to make a fatal mistake and lead the killer right to his own door?

Psychologist Mailin Bjerke is due to appear on the notorious TV show Taboo, tackling its most sensational subject yet. But she never arrives at the studio.  As the police struggle to find any sign of Mailin, her sister Liss, living on the edge in Amsterdam, takes matters into her own hands. Flying home to Olso, she discovers a complex backdrop of friends and enemies, where no one can be relied upon to tell the truth. Her battle is made harder by the fractured memories of a childhood where Mailin was always her protector, and by the secrets she must keep hidden.  And she has no idea that Mailin's disappearance is somehow connected to a chance meeting more than a decade before...  Death by Water is by Torkil Damhaug and is due to be published in May 2016.

Also due to be published in June 2016 is The Dead Women of Deptford by Anne Granger.