Friday 16 December 2016

Books to Look Forward to from Head of Zeus

January 2017

The Ninth Grave is by Stefan Ahnhem. It is one of the worst winters Stockholm has ever seen. So when the Swedish Attorney General fails to arrive for a parliamentary debate, the media assume he got delayed by a blizzard. But then the wife of a Danish TV star is found murdered in her home – and suddenly it seems that the cases are connected. The Stockholm and Copenhagen police will do anything to avoid working together. But as the investigation starts to spiral out of control, the Danes and Swedes must end their feud and help each other… before more people die.

The Life and Death of Sherlock Holmes is by Mattias Boström. Everybody knows about Sherlock Holmes, the unique literary character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But what made this fictional character, dreamed up by a small-town English doctor back in the 1880s, such a great success? This is the fascinating tale of the man and people who created the Holmes legend, charting the unexpected fortune of the actors, writers and readers who have recreated and renewed the idea of this most-famous of all detectives: from the gentleman amateur of the 1890s to the odd genius of Sherlock today.

February 2017

Five years ago, Rosa walked to the end of the pier in the dead of night. She looked into the swirling water, and jumped. She was a brilliant young Cambridge student who had just lost her father. Her death was tragic, but not unexpected. Was that what really happened? The coroner says it was. But Rosa's boyfriend Jar can't let go. He sees Rosa everywhere - a face on the train; a figure on the cliff. He is obsessed with proving that she is still alive. And then he gets an email. Find me, Jar. Find me, before they do...Is Rosa really dead? And, if she is, who is playing games with the ones she left behind?  Find Me is by J S Monroe.
 
Dead Girl Dancing is by Graham Masterton. In the middle of Cork, in the middle of the day, a fire blazes in a local dance studio. Thirteen women, all promising stars of Irish folk, die in the flames. Their young lives cut short by a tragic accident. But where others see tragedy, DCI Katie Maguire sees murder. This is not the first fire to sweep through Cork. And in one previous case, the victims were dead before the fire was started. As Katie Maguire investigates the strange, obsessive world of competitive Irish folk dancing, she must face her most chilling killer yet...

March 2017

Vicious Circle is by C J Box.  The plane circled in the dark. Down below, Joe Pickett could just make out a figure in the snow and timber, and then three other figures closing in. There was nothing he could do about it. Joe knew that he might be their next target. The Cates clan's history with the Picketts is about to come full circle. Viciously. Game warden Joe Pickett struck a fierce blow against them when the life of his daughter April was endangered. But it wasn't a killing blow, and he'd always wondered if there'd be a day of reckoning.

April 2017

January, 1987. In the depths of winter, only joggers and dog walkers brave the Thames towpath after dark. Until a young woman, Helen Honeysett, set off for a run from her riverside cottage and never came home. Her body has never been found. Twenty-nine years later, Helen's husband is still searching for answers. He's asked Stella, the detective's daughter, and Jack, a tube driver, to find out what happened all those years ago. But the five households on that desolate stretch of towpath refuse to give up their secrets. And as winter tightens its grip once more, Stella and Jack find themselves hunting for a killer whose trail has long gone cold...  The Dog Walker is by Lesley Thomson.

Beyond the Ice Limit is by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  Gideon Crew faces his most dangerous assignment yet. Five years ago, a mission to recover a gigantic meteorite - the largest ever discovered - ended in disaster. The tragedy revealed that the meteorite was, in fact, a complex organism from the deep reaches of space. Now, the alien organism has implanted itself in the sea bed - and it is growing. If it is not destroyed, the planet is doomed. But as Gideon and his colleagues soon discover, the 'meteorite' has a mind of its own - and it has no intention of going quietly...

May 2017

Day of the Dead is by Mark Roberts.  Vindici is a hero to many. He is also the nation's most dangerous criminal...The man who calls himself Vindici broke out of prison last year. Now he's filmed himself torturing and killing paedophiles in Liverpool's affluent suburbs. Half the city are celebrating: now the streets are safer for their children. But for DCI Eve Clay and her team at the Merseyside Police, it's a nightmare. Their job is to solve the crimes and lock up the killer - hard enough without being despised by the public they are trying to protect. And now, just when they think they've cracked the case, they receive a photo of Vindici, at a Day of The Dead parade in Mexico. So if Vindici is 5,000 miles away, who are they hunting in Liverpool? DCI Eve Clay must draw on all her cunning to unmask a killer who is somehow always one step ahead...

June 2017

Aurore connects Billy Angel, an RAF wireless operator selected for a covert mission to occupied France, with Helene Lafosse, a French woman keeping unusual company in her small family chateau in the depths of the Touraine. Helene has begun an affair with senior Abwehr Intelligence officer and in return he has turned a blind eye to the succession of Jews, refugees, resistance fighters and downed Allied airmen to whom she offers shelter. MI6 want to exploit their relationship and plant a false lead about the D-Day landings. It falls to Billy Angel to find his way to the Chateau de Neune where he must win Helene's confidence and share the tiny piece of the intelligence jigsaw that will only make sense to her German lover. Aurore is by Graham Hurley.

London, 1884: 125 Gower Street, the residence of Sidney Grice, London's foremost personal detective, and his ward March Middleton, is at peace. Midnight discussions between the great man and his charge have led to a harmony unseen in these hallowed halls since the great frog disaster of 1878. But harmony cannot last for long. A knock on the door brings mystery and murder once more to their home. A mystery that involves a Prussian Count, two damsels in distress, a Chinaman from Wales, a gangster looking for love and the shadowy ruin of a once-loved family home, Steep House... Dark Dawn Over Steep House by M R C Kasasian.

The Dark Isle is by Clare Carson.  Sam grew up in the shadow of the secret state. Her father was an undercover agent, full of tall stories about tradecraft and traitors. Then he died, killed in the line of duty. Now Sam has travelled to Hoy, in Orkney, to piece together the puzzle of his past. What she finds is a tiny island of dramatic skies, swooping birds, rugged sea stacks and just four hundred people. An island remote enough to shelter someone who doesn't want to be found. An island small enough to keep a secret...

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