Sunday 11 January 2015

Books to look forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph

The Eye of Heaven is the outstanding new Fargo Adventure from Clive Cussler. Baffin Island, North-Western Canada: Husband-and-wife team Sami and Remi Fargo are on an environmental expedition to the Arctic, when to their astonishment they discover a Viking ship in the ice, perfectly preserved-and filled with pre-Columbian artefacts from Mexico. It's a combination history suggests shouldn't be possible. As the couple plunge into their research, tantalizing clues about a link between the Vikings and the legendary Toltec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl - and a fabled object known as the Eye of Heaven-begin to emerge. But so do many dangerous people...Soon the Fargos find themselves on the run through jungles, temples, and secret tombs, caught between treasure hunters, crime cartels, and those with a far more personal motivation for stopping them. At the end of the road will be the solution to a thousand-year-old mystery-or death.   The Eye of Heaven is due to be published in January 2015.

Raker understands missing people; he knows how they think.  But even Raker's long experience can't prepare him for the deceit and darkness that follows his sometime colleague, ex-copper Healy's decision to find the people that killed his daughter.  Cry is by Tim Weaver and is due to be published in May 2015.

'Are you ready to be reborn?'  The search for a missing journalist is called off as a body is found at the scene of a carefully staged murder.  In a sealed chamber, deep in the heart of Gilmerton Cove, a mysterious network of caves and passages sprawling beneath Edinburgh, the victim has undergone a macabre ritual of purification.  Inspector Tony McLean knew the dead man, and can't shake off the suspicion that there is far more to this case than meets the eye. The baffling lack of forensics at the crime scene seems impossible. But it is not the only thing about this case that McLean will find beyond belief.  Teamed with the most unlikely and unwelcome of allies, he must track down a killer driven by the darkest compulsions, who will answer only to a higher power...  'Are you ready for the mysteries to be revealed?'  Prayer for the Dead is by James Oswald and is due to be published in February 2015.

The Assassin is by Clive Cussler and is due to be published in March 2015. As Van Dorn private detective Isaac Bell strives to land a government contract to investigate John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly, the case takes a deadly turn. A sniper begins murdering opponents of Standard Oil, and soon the assassin - shooting with extraordinary accuracy at seemingly impossible long range - kills Bell's best witness, a brave and likable man. Then the shooter detonates a terrible explosion that sets the victim's independent refinery ablaze. Bell summons his best detectives to scour the site of the crime for evidence. Who is the assassin and for whom did he kill? But the murders-shootings, poisonings, staged accidents-have just begun as Bell tracks his phantom-like criminal adversary from the "oil fever" regions of Kansas and Texas to Washington, D.C., to the tycoons' enclave of New York, to Russia's war-torn Baku oil fields on the Caspian Sea, and back to America for a final, desperate confrontation. And this one will be the most explosive of all.

Who is Alice Salmon? Student. Journalist. Daughter. Lover of late nights, hater of deadlines. That girl who drowned last year. Gone doesn't mean forgotten. Everyone's life leaves a trace behind. But it's never the whole story. "I will stand up and ask myself who I am. I do that a lot. I'll look in the mirror. Reassure myself, scare myself, like myself, and hate myself. My name is Alice Salmon." When Alice Salmon died last year, the ripples from her tragic drowning could be felt in the news, on the Internet, and in the hearts of those closest to her. However, the man who knows her best isn't family or a friend. His name is Dr Jeremy Cooke, an academic fixated on piecing together Alice's existence. Cooke knows that faithfully recreating Alice, through her diaries, text messages, and online presence, has become all consuming. But he does not know how deep his search will take him into this shocking story of love, loss and obsession where everyone - including himself - has something to hide ... What She Left is by T. R. Richmond and is due to be published in April 2015.

Fear the Dark is by Chris Mooney and is due to be published in February 2015. A killer watches. A town waits. Fear grips a town in Colorado as a murderer targets entire families in their own homes. As police and the FBI struggle to contain the situation, they bring in forensic investigator and serial killer expert Darby McCormick. What she finds is a brutal and elusive predator who stays one step ahead of their investigation. As Darby navigates the blood-ties and broken promises that divide the locals, she knows that all the while the killer is watching, waiting and circling his next target: her. She must not only meet evil - and somehow survive - but also be prepared to face this small town's dark heart.

Only We Know is by Karen Perry and is due to be published in June 2015.  Sometimes the secrets we keep can kill . . . Kenya, 1982.  The relentless sun beats down on the Maasai Mara. Three children, Nick, Luke and Katie bored and hot go down to the river alone. But when their innocent game by the banks of the river goes horribly wrong, their lives are changed forever and they are eternally bound by a shocking and suffocating secret.  Dublin, 2013.  Their secret is buried, but not forgotten, and when Luke goes missing in violent circumstances it becomes clear that their childhood mistakes have come back to haunt them . . .

John Holliday, army ranger turned historian, is the Indiana Jones of conspiracy thrillers. Ex-army ranger turned historian John Holliday is in search for the truth behind the ancient and deadly Templar order. Putting their lives in danger, Holliday and his good friend Eddie once again travel the world on the trail of a deadly Templar plot. Secret of the Templars is by Christopher Paul and is due to be published in January 2015.

The Doll's House is the third book in the Detective Inspector Helen Grace series from M.J. Arlidge and is due to be published in February 2o15.  No Game. No Escape. A woman wakes up and opens her eyes. And she knows immediately that she's not in the bed she went to sleep in. It's just the beginning of her nightmare. Across town, a child discovers a woman's body buried beneath the beach. Then another victim is found . Yet neither friends nor family had even reported either woman missing. How could their killer be getting away with murder? For Detective Inspector Helen Grace it is chilling evidence that she searching for a monster who's not just twisted, but also clever and careful. And as Helen struggles to understand the motivation behind the crimes, she begins to realise that time might be running out for someone still alive...

Into the House is the second sophisticated and dark instalment in Jake Woodhouse's Amsterdam Quartet, featuring returning series character Inspector Jaap Rykel. It is due to be published in March 2015.A woman is pushed in front of a train by a man in police uniform. And a body is left on a rooftop, its hands scorched and head missing. Another day in Amsterdam: Western Europe's murder capital. The killer announces to the world that this is merely the beginning. The man tasked with stopping the body count is Inspector Jaap Rykel. But as Jaap searches the beheaded body for clues as to its identity, what he finds makes his blood run cold. Why on earth are there pictures of himself - and his home - saved on the victim's phone...? 

No Name Lane is by Howard Linskey and is due to be published in April 2015.  The hunt for a serial killer unearths an unsolved cold case from over sixty years ago. Young girls are being abducted and murdered in the North-East. Out of favour Detective Constable Ian Bradshaw struggles to find any leads - and fears that the only thing this investigation will unravel is himself. Journalist Tom Carney is suspended by his London tabloid and returns to his home village in County Durham. Helen Norton is the reporter who replaced Tom on the local newspaper. Together, they are drawn into a case that will change their lives forever. When a body is found, it's not the latest victim but a decades-old corpse. Secrets buried for years are waiting to be found, while in the present-day an unstoppable killer continues to evade justice...

This is a spellbinding concoction of crime, history and horror - Edinburgh, 1888. A violinist is murdered in his home. The dead virtuoso's maid swears she heard three musicians playing in the night. But with only one body in the locked practice room - and no way in or out - the case makes no sense. Fearing a national panic over another Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult. However, Frey's new boss, Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray, actually believes in such supernatural nonsense. McGray's tragic past has driven him to superstition, but even Frey must admit that this case seems beyond reason. And once someone loses all reason, who knows what they will lose next... The Strings of Murder is by Oscar de Muriel and is due to be published in February 2015.

Alongside Jack the Ripper there is another brutal serial killer roaming the streets of Victorian London Inspector Walter Day has been consigned to desk duty at Scotland Yard, but when the Harvest Man begins killing, carving people's faces off their skulls, Dr Kingsley and the inspectors of the Yard need Walter Day's unique ability to uncover the killer and find him before more are murdered.  Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith has lost his position at Scotland Yard, but when the mutilated bodies of prostitutes start materializing again in Whitechapel, he enlists the help of a criminal network to track down Jack the Ripper.  Day and Hammersmith are being played, and their lives will never be the same again.  The Harvest Man is by Alex Grecian and is due to be published in June 2015.

My Bloody Valentine is the second thrilling novel in the DCI Antonia Hawkins series by Alastair Gunn and is due to be published in January 2015. When the body of a young woman is found brutally slain on Valentine's Day the press reacts with barely disguised glee. For DCI Antonia Hawkins, still recovering from the terrible wounds inflicted by another killer, the pressure of another high profile murder investigation could barely be worse timed. But, battling her own physical limitations and under pressure from a new member of the team whose ambition to displace her is barely disguised, Hawkins must discover not just who killed the first victim, but why. Or watch helplessly as others die at the hands of a monster whose been labelled the Valentine Killer...

Over three years ago, a civil servant vanished after returning from a work trip to Africa. Missing, presumed dead, the man's family still want answers. It is one of the many unsolved crimes left for Department Q, Denmark's cold case unit headed up by Detective Carl Morck. But what Carl doesn't know is that the key to the investigation is in Copenhagen. Fifteen-year-old Marco Jameson is tough, smart and suspicious of police. Sleeping rough and hiding in the shadows is his way of life. But what is he running from - and what does he know worth killing him for?  Buried is by Jussi Adler-Olsen and is due to be published in February 2015.

 Inspector Conny Sjoberg and his police colleagues are perplexed by the brutal killing of a family in their Stockholm apartment. With no clues, the murder inquiry starts with working out how was it possible for the mother, who worked as a cleaner, to afford a multi-million dollar property? Despite a heavily reduced team, with experienced officers ill, injured or mysteriously missing, Sjoberg struggles to keep the investigation on the rails. But Conny has problems of his own - from a woman he cannot get out of his head, to a shocking revelation about his own past - all of which threaten to compromise the hunt for this heartless killer...The Last Lullaby is by Carin Gerhardsen and is due to be published in June 2015.


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