Off the island of Crete an illicit diver finds a 30-year-old aircraft wreck on the seabed. From amongst the corpses still strapped inside he recovers a steel case containing four sealed flasks. The rogue diver manages to cut one of them open...but within twelve hours succumbs to a hideous death. Agency trouble-shooter Paul Richter is delegated to investigate the source of the mystery killer, but encounters far more questions than answers. Why has the CIA directed total destruction of the aircraft's remnants? Why is a hit team roaming the island to eliminate anyone with close knowledge of the missing flasks? Who is now picking off members of the hit team itself? And why are retired agents back in America getting professionally eliminated? As Richter gets ever closer to unravelling a decades-old secret, even he is unprepared for the sheer horror of the truth about to be disclosed.

A stunning, deeply compelling novel in the vein of Elizabeth George and. Barbara Vine

D. S. Duncan Kincaid is torn away from a bitter family custody battle when he is called to an arson scene at a vacant warehouse. Inside, an unidentifiable corpse is uncovered.
Meanwhile Kincaid's lover and former partner, D. I. Comma James, must investigate the disappearance of a hospital administrator - a beautiful, emotionally fragile young woman who has vanished without a trace.
Across the city, within an old, dark, rambling house, ten-year-old Harriet is being held hostage by a woman she knows only as She. Fearful of her rigidly controlling captor, Harriet tries to escape ...
As sinister truths unfurl and innocent lives hang in the balance, Duncan and Comma must tackle their most chilling investigation yet . . Deborah Crombie Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novels have been nominated for the Agatha Christie, Macavity and Edgar Awards. Deborah lives with her family in a small north Texas town.

An explosive tale of justice and revenge in the aftermath of a gruesome terrorist attack

Imagine the one you loved most has been ldlled by a dissident's bomb explosion.
Imagine that the politicians' promises turn to ashes; that the police investigation stalls. The bombers walk free - and they will strike again.
Then hopes of justice turn to thoughts of revenge - especially when the names of the terrorists were known to all - even to 'the dogs in the streets'. The relatives of the slain take the law into their own hands. They are driven by guilt.
Maddy because she sent her two small children and her husband out onto the streets to meet their deaths. Rob because he had brought a little boy who had saved his life to Britain - only for him to be wantonly murdered.
Maddy and Rob - and the others - owe retribution. And now they will be avenged.

Murray Davies is the author of four previous thrillers, The Drumbeat of Jimmy Sands, The Samson Option, The Devil's Handshake and Collaborator. He lives in Greenwich and Wiltshire.

The third in Hewson's stunning crime series set in Rome

For the first time in decades the Eternal City is paralysed by a blizzard. And a gruesome discovery is made in the Pantheon, one of Rome's most ancient and revered architectural monuments ... Covered by softly falling snow is the body of a woman - her back horribly mutilated. And before Nic Costa and Cianni Peroni of the Questura can begin a formal investigation, the US embassy has brought in its own people - FBI agents who want the case closed down as quickly and discreetly as possible.
But Costa is determined to find out why the enquiry is so sensitive - and as the FBI grudgingly admits that this corpse is not the first, the mutilations of the woman's body point to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man - and to a conspiracy so sinister, and buried so deep, that only two people know its true, crazed meaning ...

David Hewson is a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times. Following A Season for the Dead and The Villa of Mysteries, this is the third in his Italian crime series featuring Detective Nic Costa. The author lives in Kent.

Bestselling thriller writer Peter James is renowned for his brilliant plot twists and his ability to combine chilling suspense with powerfully original storytelling. Dead Simple – his first thriller in the classic crime genre – is no exception. His ingenious plot grabs you from its opening pages right up to its shocking climax.
Set in the shabby streets of Brighton, Dead Simple introduces Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a loner with a reputation for unorthodox methods, who will soon become as familiar to crime readers as Rebus, Banks and Morse.
It was meant to be a harmless stag night prank. But in a few hours the groom, Michael Harrison, has disappeared and four of his best friends are dead. With only three days to the wedding, Sussex Police Force is contacted by Michael’s beautiful, distraught fiancée to find the missing man.
But the one person who ought to know Michael’s whereabouts is saying nothing because he has a lot to gain – more than anyone realizes. For one man's disaster is another man's fortune – simple. Dead simple… As hope runs out for finding Michael alive, Detective Superintendent Grace – a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife – is called in to investigate. But everything about this case is far from straightforward and Grace soon finds himself on the trail of a sadistic and sophisticated killer…
With more twists than a Sussex country road, Dead Simple is not only Peter James’s best book yet, but the beginning of a major new detective series.

When an old woman storms into the Rijks Museum demanding the return of her painting, archivist Ruth Braams cannot quell her curiosity. Together with Myles, her gay confidant, Ruth delves into the history of the piece of looted Nazi art and discovers an enigmatic picture with a disturbing wartime provenance. It also appears that the elderly Lydia is not the only claimant and, against strict bureau regulations, Ruth endeavours to help strengthen her case. Days later, Ruth begins to receive sinister anonymous threats, warning her to stay away from Lydia and the painting. When the door of her home, a houseboat on the Bloemgracht canal, is covered in graffiti and her gas supply tampered with, Ruth is convinced these are deterrents from the rival claimant. Our irrepressible and emotionally troubled heroine refuses to take them at face value and continues to strike up a friendship with the lonely old lady. But as the threats escalate, Ruth realises that there must be far more to the painting's popularity, and she enters into a series of increasingly lethal adventures as she investigates the painting's secret symbolism...

A highly compelling and dramatic new novel from the bestselling author of Balance of Power

When the body of eleven-year-old Thuy Sen is found in San Francisco Bay, the police swiftly charge Rennell and Payton Price with her grisly murder. A twelve-person jury, helped along by an incompetent lawyer for the defence, is quick to find the brothers guilty - and to sentence them both to die for their crimes.
Twelve years later, Payton is days from his execution, and overworked pro bono lawyer Teresa Peralta Paget, her husband Chris and stepson Carlo, a recent Harvard law graduate, become convinced not only that Rennell didn't receive a fair trial, but that he's innocent. Racing against the clock and against insurmountable legal obstacles, Teresa, Chris and Carlo desperately try and stop the execution of an innocent man.

Richard North Patterson's previous novels include eight consecutive international best- sellers. A former trial lawyer in Washington and San Francisco, Richard North Patterson now lives with his wife and their family in San Francisco and on Martha's Vineyard.

1884 and in Khartoum, on the banks of the Nile, the Courtneys meet the Ballantynes in this new epic adventure

In the Sudan decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitate a fierce and bloody rebellion and Holy War headed by a charismatic new religious leader, the Madhi or `Expected One'. The British are forced to intervene to protect their national interests and to attempt to rescue the hundreds of British subjects stranded in the country
Along with hundreds of others, British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum. It is here that he meets Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, as well as the British Consul, David Benbrook, and his three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody backdrop of the siege of Khartoum, in which British General Charles George Gordon is killed and the British relief column retreats, these three powerful men fight to survive.

Wilbur Smith was born in Central Africa in 1933. He was educated at Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. He became a full-time writer in 1964 after the successful publication of When the Lion Feeds, and has since written nearly thirty novels.