John Baker's books depress Northern tourist boards but bring cheer to crime and mystery readers. As one of Britain's leading contemporary crime novelists, with a highly-acclaimed series featuring detective Sam Turner, Baker has previously written about the underbelly of York. Verging away from the public image of the city as a rich tourist destination boasting high-culture and well kept buildings, he has concentrated on those parts of the cities where crime and violence are rife and where poverty presides.
Now in The Chinese Girl, his first non-series novel, John Baker moves away from York to concentrate on the city of Hull. In a different but equally brilliant tack, he presents the vicious low-life of Hull's docks and the criminal opportunities they provide. As with all of Baker's novels, The Chinese Girl tackles a range of social issues, including drug dealing, gang-warfare, mental illness, racism and an ex-con's attempt to rebuild his life.

'Neatly plotted and engagingly and wittily written.' Daily Mail
'One of Britain's most talented contemporary crime writers.' The Times
'Brings heart, invention and wit to the business of adapting the tough-guy novel to the realities of contemporary Britain .... He has a fine eye for urban sleaze and an ear for the turn of contemporary speech.' Independent On Sunday
'A tough, gritty read in the new modem manner of the British thriller. If you're into black comedy with a touch of surrealism, then Death Minus Zero will have you chuckling through the length of its two hundred odd pages.' The Irish Times
'Dry and clever, this first novel boasts a fine assortment of peripheral players, with just the right blend of amoral behaviour and a sense of justice.' San Francisco Examiner And Chronicle
'Exceedingly cunning, laid-back plot. Genial, fast and funny.' Literary Review
'Great characters, idiosyncratic plot - a definite original.' Time Out
'Absorbing and well written with an exciting finale.' Evening Standard
'Steeped in the hard-boiled genre of Chandler and Elroy. Brilliant.' Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Set in York, Baker's debut novel is engagingly credible, off the wall, romantic without being sentimental, with a sharp sense of humour. A great cast of characters I look forward to encountering again.' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'Baker is said to be one of the most highly acclaimed new crime writers on the scene, and I can understand that acclaim.' Yorkshire Evening Press

John Baker's novels have garnered much critical acclaim and with a TV series now under development, his writing career is certain to flourish.
Born in 1942, John Baker -was brought- up in a working-class family in a council estate in Hull. In his own words 'Destiny took me away from the physical reality, but there are dark shadows imprinted on my soul that'll never go away. I have two younger sisters who still live close to my parental home. But I now live in the middle class hell of York. '
He has moved several times and has lived in a commune on the North Yorkshire Moors, in a bam in the South of France and with his Norwegian wife in Oslo. His career has been equally varied - he has had several different jobs, including social worker, shipbroker, truck driver, milkman and more recently in computing. He now lives in York with his wife and five children.

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America's most acclaimed crime writer returns to Louisiana with his finest creation; detective Dave Robicheaux....
James Lee Burke's mysteries combine brilliant storytelling with vivid descriptions of human and natural landscapes. His preoccupation with contentious issues, such as racial violence, class warefare and the history of the South, provide his novels with a knotty emotional and social terrain reminiscent of great novelists such as Chandler and Leonard. In all his novels, he depicts the squalid underbelly of American society and evokes a fallen world in which the gap between blacks and whites, the haves and have-nots grows ever wider.
Dave Robicheaux, the protagonist of ten previous Burke novels, is the laconic Cajun detective, who in the words of his creator, 'is always on the side of those who have no voice or power'. A Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic, Robicheaux is a deeply flawed but fundamentally ethical character; an errant knight who confronts the violence and perversion of Louisiana society in a quest for justice.
In Purple Cane Road, Robicheaux embarks upon a painful journey into his mother's murky past. Having spent his life confronting the biblical proverb that the sins of the father are passed onto the son, he asks himself for the first time what has his mother's legacy left him? As he gradually uncovers the truth about her life, he also begins to finally confront his own problems and achieve something resembling redemption. But along the way, he fmds that his own destiny is tied inextricably to others.

Set in the unforgiving landscape of the Australian outback, an outstanding debut thriller from the winner of the Crime Writers' Association New Writers' Award. This novel's brilliant first chapter was serialised in The Sunday Times.

When journalist India Kane travels from Sydney to the outback town of Cooinda for a reunion with her friend Lauren, she has no idea of the town's appalling history. There, forty years earlier, an entire Aboriginal family was massacred and locals renamed the town Blood Junction.
And when India arrives in Cooinda, she's arrested for murder . . .

A brilliant and powerful break-out thriller from one of America's most acclaimed young crime writers. This is a name to watch...

David Beck has just received an email. He hasn't opened it. He should, it's from his dead wife:
It's been eight years since Beck's childhood sweetheart and wife of seven months was brutally murdered on their anniversary. Eight years on he hasn't got over it and he hasn't forgiven himself. This email refers to places and events only she could have known about. This email opens out onto alive webcam in a street somewhere in America, his wife steps into view and smiles at him. Could she still be alive?
The chain of events that follow begin to spiral out of Beck's control as he tries to discover if she is truly alive and what really happened on that summer night eight years ago. Soon he is a wanted man, as the FBI try to pin Elizabeth's murder on him, and everyone he turns to ends up dead.

Film rights were snapped up in just 4 days by Canal/Universal Studios for $1 million.

Praise For Previous Novels
"Grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go. "Fear" is very, very good." Washington Times
"A terrific novel... Coben's professionalism is clear from every paragraph in the book." Boston Globe
"Raymond Chandler meets Bridget Jones ...a constant and increasing delight... reminds us that vulnerability and strength come in all sizes." Chicago Tribune
"With its pretzel of a plot and page-turning pace, DARKEST FEAR is a winner." Orlando Sentinel
"The darkness of the plot and the seriousness of the theme - the responsibilities of parenthood - give this installment added impact. Thought-provoking issues and mind-numbing terror made more real by their human context." Booklist
°A good mystery - and Darkest Fear is a good one - is like an onion, peel away one layer and one, with a sting, awaits... [Coben] displays a moral reach, a soft touch ...The best to date... Coben sets up the book's plot with an imaginative touch and keeps it turning over with genuine surprises to the very end." Toronto Star

Revenge and murder become entwined in this riveting new novel by the New York Times bestselling author. Fans of Tami Hoag and Mary Higgins Clarke will love this rollercoaster of a ride...

Political speechwriter Becca Matlock is at the top of her professional game, working on the re-election campaign of New York's popular governor. Then she receives the first phone call: "Stop sleeping with the governor or I'll kill him." Even though Becca isn't sleeping with the governor the menacing calls persist. The police deny that she's being stalked, even after the stalker murders an innocent person to prove his point. Then the governor is shot. Becca flees for the safety of coastal Maine, choosing to hide not only from the stalker but also from the authorities. For sanctuary she goes to Riptide, the home of her college friend, but soon finds herself at even greater risk.
With four back-to-back bestselling suspense thrillers to her credit Catherine Coulter has earned an ever-growing following in the U.S. thanks to her original plots, vivid characters and satisfyingly unpredictable denouements. Now she delivers a novel which can only enhance her reputation.

A slick thriller featuring the spirited and sexy Georgina Powers
Computer journalist Georgina Powers is investigating a phone phreaking seam in the East End of London, Her contact and toy boy, Abdul Malik a top-rank phone phreaker, is found dead at the bottom of a skip. His neck's broken and there's lipstick smeared on his University of Santa Cruz Banana Slug T-shirt. Her hacker friend, Chronic, a local drugs dealer does a runner and when the police arrive. she's in the frame.
Not only do the police want to nail her; but a Bengali protection gang want to know what happened to their Abdul aka Little Stevie Wonder; the boy who played with phones. Georgina calls on an old friend, East End villain and ex-boxer Tony Levi, to help her out and finds herself in the midst of a gang war in cyberspace and a turf war in real life.

Journalist Georgina Powers is convinced her cousin was murdered, despite it looking like suicide. She is determined to uncover the truth and starts her investigation by hacking into the computer system of her cousin's former employers. Which is where things begin to get nasty.

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The Beach Road is a terrific debut novel in the bestselling vein of Minette Walters and Ruth Rendell.

To the casual eye, teenagers Jane and Beverley are opposites. Wealthy, beautiful and clever, Beverley seems to have everything while disturbed and lonely Jane has just seen her mother die in appalling circumstances, and has come to live with her grandparents in the same small town as Beverley - Underlyme in Dorset, by the sea. But Beverley's life isn't so perfect after all. When something terrible happens to her on holiday, she comes home to find there's nobody to turn to - except Jane. Initially, Beverley finds solace in Jane's total adoration. But gradually it dawns on her that there is something different, something dark about Jane. Little does she realise just how different, just how dark...
Drawing from her own experiences Sarah Diamond brilliantly explores the fa5ade of the perfect family, the consequences of neglect and abuse, the cruelty of school bullies and the despair of the bullied. She describes the world of teenage anxieties, insecurities and fickleness with such conviction that you cannot help but be captivated to its final, terrifying climax.

Praise for The Beach Road:
`Beautifully plotted and written. . .I much admire Diamond's debut. Fans of Rendell, Walters, Martin or Fyfield won't want to miss either the novel or its portrait of modern Britain from an unusual perspective' The Poisoned Pen
`A chilling first novel' Daily Express

An unspeakable act has ripped apart the peaceful town of Bakersville, Oregon and the usually friendly, calm residents are in uproar, demanding that justice be done. But although a boy has confessed to the horrific crime, evidence shows he may not be guilty. Officer Rainie Conner, leading her first homicide investigations, is caught up in the controversy. It's hitting too close to home, bringing back memories of her own as and her worst nightmares. But she has to find the real killer...
With the help of FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, Rainie comes closer to a deadly truth that she can imagine. Because out there in the shadows a man watches her and plots his next move. He knows her secrets. He kills for sport. He's already brought death to Bakersville and forever shattered the community. But what he has really come for is Rainie - and he won't leave until he has destroyed her.

Another fantastic, gripping thriller from the New York Times bestselling mistress of the genre.

The frightening new novel from the author of The Other Daughter.