A dark, powerful novel set in the Louisiana bayous, from the author of The Covenant.

Maxwell Carter - a fingerprint analyst at the criminal justice facility in Clarksburg, West Virginia - was supplementing his income by running a very simple scam whereby positive fingerprint matches in old crimes could be conveniently 'ignored' in return for a small retainer. But then he caught a shark in his net - one that did not take too kindly to blackmail. Maxwell's illicit career - and his life - were swiftly and brutally ended... When Johnny Harrison is called in to investigate Maxwell's grisly murder he quickly unearths a connection to an old child-murder in the bayous of Louisiana and the close-knit fishing community that work the Mississippi. Deciding to go undercover on one of the old trawlers, he digs into this alien world and starts to realise that he has stumbled on to something both sordid and enormously powerful, something that dates ba

'That summer, it was all about secrets... I already had one bullet inside me. I knew I didn't have room for another.' Alex McKnight rarely ventures out from his home these days, even to spend time at his friend Jackie's Glasgow Inn - he's had enough of getting his ass kicked. Even as he lets Jackie force him out one night for a poker game at a stranger's house, Alex is certain it's a bad idea. When the genial atmosphere rapidly deteriorates, he starts to think maybe he was right. And then three masked, armed robbers burst through the door, and things get a whole lot worse. Soon Alex's three closest friends are implicated in the robbery, and Alex finds himself the object of hostile attention from the victim, not to mention a maniacal chihuahua. As events spin out of control, it becomes clear that somebody is not telling the truth, and has put them all in terrible danger...

A gritty crime debut with a strong central character and an assured Bradford setting.
Rukhansa Mahmood has been found dead, her skull smashed in during a violent, murderous attack. For Detective Inspector Handford, it's a particularly sensitive case. The Bradford Asian community has protested about him in the past - so for diplomacy's sake, Detective Sergeant Ali, a Muslim Asian, is drafted in to partner him. Wary and suspicious of each other, the two men find it difficult to cooperate. It's made all the harder because Rukhansa Mahmood had a tangled past. A Seikh, Rukhansa's marriage to the Muslim Amajit Mahmood caused them to be cast off by both their families, regarded as traitors to their religions and cultures. Either family could have vowed vengeance... and perhaps they still seek it. But as Handford and Ali, himself fighting his prejudices, search further, they find that their victim had deceived and betrayed more than person. Had she been about to betray another?

Peter Janson is a retired operative, now a highly sought after and extremely selective security specialist. The spy game ended up costing him everything that was most important to him and it would take a lot to lure him back into it. Unfortunately, the one person to whom Janson's personal debt is so large that he could require anything of Janson is calling in his marker. Peter Novak, the legendary Hungarian immigrant and head of the Liberty Foundation - an immensely rich man who uses his wealth to rebuild and foster the growth of democratic ideals in the most ravaged and war-torn spots around the globe - has been kidnapped and faces execution at the hands of terrorist extremists. It is up to Janson to exfiltrate him before Novak is murdered. Janson puts together a top team immediately and manages the nearly impossible task of extricating Novak, but something goes horribly wrong - something that indicates that his operation has been compromised from the start - and only Janson himself survives. Now the major intelligence services think that Janson was responsible for Novak's death and are sending their finest operatives after him. If Janson is to survive, and to avenge Novak's murder, he must unravel the twisted truth that lies behind the legend that is and was Peter Novak. Because it appears that Novak is somehow, inexplicably, still alive and speaking publicly. And something serious is about to happen - something that threatens to change the course of history itself.

George Pelecanos returns with his second novel starring Derek Strange and Terry Quinn - grizzled PI and erratic ex-cop. Set in darkest, downtown Washington, Hell to Pay begins with Quinn and Strange dealing with the usual detritus of the world's most violent city - a bent cop and a missing teenage-girl-turned-hooker - but as Pelecanos draws the reader in, we start to see the real crime come into focus. Lorenze Wilder has made an enemy of one of the hardest street criminals around - Garfield Potter, street-name, 'Death' - and he will be made to pay. But when the reckoning comes, Lorenze is not the only victim and the jaded partners must become unlikely avenging angels for a soul they thought they had saved...

.