Dan is caught up in the seamier side of the horse-racing world in this, Colin Bateman's tenth novel.

Pickax's favorite columnist, James Qwilleran, is enjoying a brief holiday at the Nutcracker Inn in the nearby town of Black Creek - but his two Siamese, who prefer the spaciousness of their home, beg to differ. The blissful tranquility is soon interrupted by the discovery of a body floating down the creek - the body of a man who had been a guest at the inn. And a possible motive for his murder is suggested when several gold nuggets are found in his possession. Might he have been illegally prospecting for gold? If so, it seems he wasn't the only one in search of an easy fortune. And his competitor is far more determined to strike it rich...

Stumbling upon an execution, Chaucer' pilgrims witness a hanging that leaves the carpenter in dead faint. That evening he narrates the tale of a Gloucester hangman whose involvement in the punishment of three witches unleashes a vicious spate of revenge killings.

As the sun sets, Chaucer's pilgrims find themselves lost in a Kent forest rumoured to be haunted. Huddled around the fire, trying to ignore the cries of screeching owls and other more frightening sounds of the night, the Clerk of Oxford agrees to tell a ghostly tale of love and death.

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Janet Evanovich & Charlotte Hughes
Max Holt is a genius with more money than he knows what to do with and not enough common sense to keep out of trouble. And right now he's creating plenty of trouble for his cousin Nick. Nick has fallen for Billie, the woman of his dreams, and is desperate to fend Max off. But Max has other ideas.

Assistant Chief Constable Bob Skinner's legendary cool is shaken when he's faced with the brutally murdered bodies of his wife's parents. At the death scene in New York state, Skinner's out of his jurisdiction - but he's not going to let that stop him shaping the investigation. Soon it's clear that there's a killer hunting down a group of men with links that go back to the sixties, and that he's acting on instructions from highly placed sources. But just how high? Meantime back in Edinburgh Detective Superintendent Maggie Rose and her husband Mario, Divisional CID commander, are faced with a secret from that past that could bring their days in the police force crashing to a halt. And Skinner's not on hand to give out advice...

'It was the stunned, pale look of bad news' Immediately Lieutenant Peter Decker of the LA police thinks of his elderly parents. Rina, his wife, reassures him the family's fine, but the call was from Rabbi Jonathan Levine, Decker's recently discovered half brother. There has been a murder in Jonathan's family; his brother-in-law, a Hassidic Jew and former drug addict, was found naked in a seedy Manhattan hotel, a single gunshot wound to his head. And his niece, fifteen-year-old Shaynda, is missing... Called on to help his new-found relatives through this terrifying time of looking and waiting, Decker journeys to New York, his eight-year-old daughter Hannah in tow. In a desperate bid to track down the missing girl, Decker finds himself in an alien city and a maze of deceit and danger, on a twisted journey that takes him from the darkened slums of New Jersey and the deserted industrial streets of New York, to the hidden meeting places of Hassidic outcasts...

'Thanks to his Alex Delaware novels, Jonathan Kellerman is right up there with PatriciaCornwell and Ian Rankin...' The Mirror

Psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis are back in the new thriller by Jonathan Kellerman, Flesh and Blood. Lauren Teague's was a case that never entirely satisfied Alex Delaware. Ten years on, when she turns up without an appointment, he's not surprised by the course her life has taken, though he is by his own reactions to her. When Lauren's reported missing Alex Delaware is the first Milo Sturgis calls on to help unravel a case that, as it delves in and out of the seamier side of L.A. street- life and into the tightly woven community of a campus university has Alex Delaware calling into question his own motivation and putting his home life on the line.

Jacob Winter is a man of principle. Unequivocally devoted to his wife Laura and their son Max, Jacob does not drink, does not own a television--and as a fiercely uncommercial author, he simply does not believe in the necessity of a plot. But Jacob's principles are put to the test when he catches Laura in bed with a psychiatrist--with predictably violent results--and finds himself bailed out of jail by a mysterious woman from his past.
For a man who disdains extravagant storylines, getting caught up in the strange world of Alix Callahan, fiery lesbian ethnobotanist, and her bisexual partner, a sultry Americanised rainforest Indian called July, is a shock to the system. And when he ends up at Green Girls, their tropical florist's shop on the coast of Maine--complete with hallucinogenic herbs and a mini-jungle full of deadly poison-arrow frogs--Jacob finds himself tumbling headlong into a real-life plot he could never have imagined.

Micky Bellsong has no meaning or direction in her life. Then she meets 9-year-old disabled Leilani. Leilani's stepfather claims that aliens will heal her by her 10th birthday or take her to their world. Leilani's birthday is 9 months away. Micky is convinced that in 9 months the girl will be dead.

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Doctor Eric Kensing is living in fear that he is about to be indicted for the death of a patient. That patient was his boss, Tim Markham. But Kensing and Markham aren't just connected by work - Kensing's wife is one of Markham's many lovers. It's not looking good for Kensing, so he enlists the help of lawyer Dismas Hardy. Some say Kensing is not worth saving, although others say that Kensing is a special doctor, prepared to do anything to save a patient's life, even defying proper medical procedure. Despite all the damning evidence, Hardy becomes increasingly sure that Kensing is innocent. Against mounting pressure for an arrest, Hardy knows that the only way to save Kensing is to find the real murderer. And like Kensing, he seems to be working within a system that is set up to thwart him and any attempt at real justice...

A man's body is found by the Bosphorus. His identity card names him as Rifat Berisha, an Albanian. The family is impenetrable. When Inspector Ikmen, consults his cousin, he's left in little doubt that Berisha's death is likely to be the result of a fis, a blood feud beteen rival Albanian families.

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The mastermind of Roses are Red is back - and he's hot on Alex Cross's trail. Meanwhile, Alex is drawn in to his most bizarre investigation yet. Two San Francisco joggers are found dead - bitten and hung by their feet to drain the blood from their bodies. Further murders in California, and then on the East Coast as well, completely baffle Alex and the FBI. Is this the work of a cult, of role players, or even of modernday vampires? Desperate to stop the deaths, Alex teams up with Jamilla Hughes, a savvy woman detective from San Francisco, and the FBI's Kyle Craig. The result is two fantastic mysteries in one stop thriller that will have readers furiously turning the pages all over the world.

Jack Mullen's life is working out perfectly. A Harvard law student, he's loving his summer job in a Boston law firm, and the weekends spent at Martha's Vineyard. Until he arrives home, and his father greets him with the news that his brother, Peter, is dead. The police believe Peter committed suicide, but Jack senses a darker, dangerous truth, and is determined to bring a killer to justice... Jack Mullen's life is working out perfectly. A Harvard law student, he's loving his summer job in a Boston law firm, and the weekends spent at Martha's Vineyard. Until he arrives home, and his father greets him with the news that his brother, Peter, is dead. The police believe Peter committed suicide, but Jack senses a darker, dangerous truth, and is determined to bring a killer to justice...

John "Jett" Gavallan, a former fighter pilot and now the high-flying CEO of investment firm Black Jet Securities, is about to take Mercury Broadband, Russia's leading media company, public on the New York Stock Exchange. But rumours of fraud have suddenly surfaced about the company that could jeopardise the deal. And when his number-two man - fellow Desert Storm fighter pilot Grafton Byrnes - disappears in Moscow, Gavallan fears the worst. Plunging into a desperate search for his best friend, the renegade top gun finds himself trapped in a conspiracy that could shatter the delicate balance between nations and plunge the global economy into chaos. Hunted by the F.B.I. and a band of elite killers, Jett races from Palm Beach to Zurich to Moscow in his search for answers. But for this brave ex-commando haunted by visions of war, the truth comes at a terrible price. The First Billion is a knockout of a novel that will linger long after the final, shicking twist is revealed. .

Libertus finds himself in Londinium at the invitation of the Roman Governor when news arrives of the brutal murder of Caius Monnius, the chief corn-officer. Libertus is asked to investigate but his enquiries lead him in disparate directions. Who is the guilty one? The keeper of the granaries? The sinister Calyx and Glaucus, managers of the best chariotracing team? Or Fortunatus, the handsome charioteer whose relations with the dead man's wife were reputed to be less than honourable? Not until Libertus finds a second corpse does he begin to understand what lies behind the corruption surrounding the interests of Monnius and the chariots of Calyx.

Britain 43 AD: after a series of bloody battles, Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester) has fallen to the invading Roman army. The Emperor has returned to Rome, leaving the fearless Centurion Macro and his young Optio, Cato, to rest and regroup, along with the rest of the Second Legion. But trouble is not far ahead and as their noble leader General Plautius plans the next phase of their campaign, word arrives that the ship carrying his family to join him was wrecked in a storm off the south coast. His wife and children have fallen into the hands of a dark sect of Druids, who now demand the return of those of their brotherhood taken prisoner by the Romans. Unless their demands are met within one month, Plautius's family will be burned alive. Will Cato and Macro discover where the Druids are hiding their hostages? Can they find some way to rescue them before time runs out?

Writer Kate Ivory can't believe her luck when she's head-hunted by a successful and modern publishing house. At long last it looks as if her days as a down-the-list romance writer are well and truly over. But it seems her good fortune is to be short-lived. Her new young editor, Neil Orson, falls victim to fraud and has to fight to clear his name and regain his reputation. And when the criminal responsible is found dead, Neil is the obvious suspect. It's up to Kate to find out who the real murderer is - and not just for Neil's sake!

Bubbles is back - and she's in trouble.
Janice has disappeared on her wedding day, and Janice's uncle has just turned up dead. Bubbles wants the story, but the only way to get the facts is to go undercover in Pennsylvania, as an Amish woman. Bubbles loves hunting down the facts, but doing so with no hairdryer or make-up is a nightmare. Especially when sexy photographer Steve Stiletto might turn up at any moment...

As they are preparing to return to Ireland, Fidelma and Brother Eadulf receive a mysterious summons. Eadulf's childhood friend, Brother Botulf, has requested their presence at the nearby Aldred's Abbey at midnight on the old pagan feast of Yule. Fidelma and Eadulf battle against the harsh winter storms to arrive in time, only to find they are too late. Botulf is dead - killed by an unknown hand. As they struggle to comprehend this staggering news, it soon becomes clear that the murder of this young monk is not the only trouble facing the abbey. The abbey is haunted by the ghost of a young woman - a woman some say bears a startling likeness to the Abbot Cild's dead wife. But can Fidelma and Eadulf discover the truth before they themselves fall victim to the danger which pervades the abbey walls?

It is 1943. British SOE agent Captain John Lockhart is in Crete, fighting with the Resistance. Captured by the Germans, Lockhart faces a stark choice, between death and betrayal of his country. Concealing his true motives, Lockhart makes a bargain: in return for the life of his imprisoned wife, he will work with the Germans. When his mission is revealed, Lockhart is stunned. He is to lead a unit of the Waffen SS made up of British fascists and renegades culled from POW camps: the British Free Corps, Lockhart takes command, but he has an audacious plan to free his wife and other innocent victims of the war - whatever the personal cost.