Crime Fiction Authors, Murder Mystery Books, Thriller Novel Reviews & True Crime at Tangled Web

Crime Fiction Authors, Murder Mystery Books, Thriller Novel Reviews & True Crime at Tangled Web - Publisher Bantam 10 Jan-March

File Updated: 29/06/2011

New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Bantam Jan-March 10

Belinda Bauer Blacklands Published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł14.99 and Ł7.99 ISBN: 0593062949 and 0552158844 Tweet

See Review by Cath Staincliffe author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder
See Review by Martin Edwards - author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries

Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer. A game that will have more terrifying consequences than Steven could ever imagine…

Belinda Bauer lives in Wales. Blacklands is her first novel and she is now working on her second.

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Simon Beckett Whispers of the Dead Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł6.99 ISBN: 0553817515 Tweet

Skin is a work of art, a nest of capillaries, glands and nerves that both regulates and protects. It is our sensory interface with the outside world, the barrier at which our individuality - our self - ends. And even in death, something of that individuality remains...Still suffering effects of a near fatal attack, David Hunter has returned to the Body Farm in Tennessee, the world-famous facility where he learned his trade as a forensic anthropologist, desperate to prove that he's still up to the task. But while there a grisly discovery is made in a holiday cabin in the hills - a body, bound and tortured, and decomposed beyond recognition. Fingerprints found at the scene seem to identify the killer, but it soon becomes clear that nothing about this case is quite as it seems.Despite misgivings, Hunter is intrigued and agrees to help an old friend and colleague on the investigation. There are those who resent his presence, however, and Hunter begins to wonder if his entire trip hasn't been a mistake. But then a second body is found and suddenly his involvement is no longer a matter of choice. The trail left by the killer begins to point to an impossible conclusion and Hunter finds that nothing he's experienced before has prepared him for where it will lead...

Simon Beckett is a freelance journalist. He writes for national newspapers and colour supplements and is the author of the acclaimed No.1 international bestseller, The Chemistry of Death and its sequel, Written in Bone. He is married and lives in Sheffield. For more information, visit www.simonbeckett.com

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Lee Child Gone Tomorrow Pbk published February 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824694 Tweet

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-
timers. Riding the subway in New York at two o'clock in the morning, Reacher knows the twelve giveaway signs to look out for. Watching one of his fellow-passengers, he becomes sharply aware: one by one, she ticks off every bulletpoint on his list. So begins the new heartstopping new thriller starring today's most admired action hero, the gallant and enigmatic loner Jack Reacher.

Lee Child is British, but after he was made redundant from his job in television, he moved with his family from Cumbria to the United States to start a new career as a writer of American thrillers. He now divides his time between France and New York. All his novels feature the maverick Jack Reacher, and all have been international bestsellers.

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Lee Child 61 Hours Published March 2010 by Bantam at Ł18.99 ISBN: 0593057066 Tweet

Winter in South Dakota. Blowing snow, icy roads, a tired driver. A bus skids and crashes and is stranded in a gathering storm. There's a small town twenty miles away, where a vulnerable witness is guarded around the clock. There's a strange stone building five miles further on, all alone on the prairie. There's a ruthless man who controls everything from the warmth of Mexico. Jack Reacher hitched a ride in the back of the bus. A life without baggage has many advantages. And crucial disadvantages too, when it means facing the arctic cold without a coat. But he's equipped for the rest of his task. He doesn't want to put the world to rights. He just doesn't like people who put it to wrongs.

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Ariana Franklin Relics of the Dead (Mistress of the Art of Death 3) Pbk published March 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 055382032X Tweet

See Review by Bernard Knight ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series

The monks of Glastonbury have discovered two strange skeletons buried in their graveyard - one is tall, the other small and delicate. Are these the remains of King Arthur and Guinevere? King Henry II, on hearing of the discovery, demands evidence that the legendary Arthur is dead in order to stop his belligerent Welsh subjects believing that their Once and Future King will return to lead them against him. And it is his Mistress of the Art of Death, Adelia Aguilar, who he calls upon to examine the bones. But someone doesn't want the skeletons identified - and is prepared to kill in order to prevent it.

Ariana Franklin was born in Devon and, like her father, became a journalist. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Mistress of the Art of Death and The Death Maze. Relics of the Dead is her third historical thriller featuring Adelia Aguilar.

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Tess Gerritsen Life Support Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 055382452X Tweet

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen weaves utter medical authenticity into a novel of gripping suspense, as a young doctor probes too quickly into the sudden disappearance of a critically ill patient.

"No hospital could have been prepared for the man" - Dr. Toby Harper admits one quiet night to the Springer Hospital. Delirious and in critical condition from a possible viral infection of the brain, he barely responds to treatment. And then he disappears without trace. Under fire from the hospital administration for literally losing a patient, and fearful that she's missed a life-threatening diagnosis, Toby knows she must find the patient. Her hunt is intensified when a second delirious patient dies in the hospital's care. But even more chilling is the discovery that the infection can only be spread through direct tissue exchange. As this disturbing news threatens to surface, Toby follows a trail that winds from a sixteen-year-old prostitute who is being stalked to a curiously secretive home for the elderly. And then, as unexpected tragedy hits close to home, Toby discovers the unthinkable: a terrifying and deadly epidemic is about to be unleashed...

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as a medic to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. Harvest, Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, The Surgeon, The Apprentice and The Sinner have been New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers. Her most recent novel is Body Double.
She lives with her husband and two sons in Maine.

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Tess Gerritsen Harvest Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824511 Tweet

Dr Abby DiMatteo - a second-year surgical student in Boston Bayside's elite cardiac team - is about to make an anguished, crucial decision that will jeopardize her career. A car-crash victim's healthy heart is ready to be harvested, having been cross-matched to a private patient, forty-six year-old Nina Voss. Instead Abby and her fellow medic, Vivian Chao, hatch a bold plan to make sure the transplant goes to a dying seventeen-year-old boy who is also a perfect match. The repercussions are powerful and swift. Dr Chao resigns; and Abby is shaken but unrepentant - until she meets the frail, tormented Nina. Then a new heart for Nina Voss suddenly appears, the transplant is completed - and Abby makes a terrible discovery: Nina's heart has not come through the right channels. Defying Bayside Hospital's demands for silence, Abby, with Vivian Chao's help, plunges into an investigation that reveals an intricate and murderous chain of deceptions. Every move Abby makes spawns a vicious backlash. And, in a ship anchored in the stagnant waters of Boston Harbour, a final grisly discovery lies waiting ...

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen was a physician and brings to her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency rooms and autopsy procedures.

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Tess Gerritsen The Surgeon Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824554 Tweet

Deja Dead meets ER: a high voltage serial-killer-thriller in the vein of Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell.

Today they will find her body. I know how it will happen. I can picture, quite vividly, the sequence of events that will lead to the discovery... In Boston, there's a killer on the loose. A killer who targets lone women, who breaks into their apartments and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on his victims before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician - a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them. But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investigation, they make a startling discovery. Closely linked to these killings is Catherine Cordell, a beautiful medic with a mysterious past. Two years ago she was subjected to a horrifying rape and attempted murder but shot her attacker dead. Now she is being targeted by this new killer who seems to know all about her past, her work at the Pilgrim Medical Center, and where she lives. The man she believes she killed seems to be stalking her once again, and this time he knows exactly where to find her...

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as a medic to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. Harvest, Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, The Surgeon, The Apprentice and The Sinner have been New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers. Her most recent novel is Body Double.
She lives with her husband and two sons in Maine.

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Tess Gerritsen The Apprentice Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 055382449X Tweet

The chilling follow-up to The Surgeon, in which homicide detective Jane Rizzoli races to discover the identity of a horribly twisted serial killer who preys on couples.

He may be behind bars, but Warren Hoyt still haunts a helpless city, bequeathing his evil legacy to a student all too diligent - and all too deadly. A year has passed since the capture of the Surgeon, serial killer Warren Hoyt, yet the memory of his brutal crimes continues to haunt Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. Now she faces a new killer, a hunter who preys on well-to-do couples. For Rizzoli the death scenes have a horrifying air of familiarity, especially when she realizes that this new killer is copying one obscure element from Warren Hoyt's crimes. A new complication arises as a federal investigator from Washington joins the case. Again and again, Rizzoli clashes with Special Agent Gabriel Dean, who shows up at every crime scene. He knows something about this killer, something so politically explosive that he cannot reveal it to her. Then Warren Hoyt makes a brilliant and bloody escape from custody. Suddenly there is not one hunter on the loose, but two. And they are united, a pair of blood brothers who share grotesque appetites and a combined genius. They have joined forces to stalk the most challenging prey of all, the very woman who now hunts them . . .

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as a medic to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. Harvest, Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, The Surgeon, The Apprentice and The Sinner have been New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers. Her most recent novel is Body Double.
She lives with her husband and two sons in Maine.

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Tess Gerritsen The Sinner Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824546 Tweet

See Review by Cath Staincliffe author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder

Not even the icy temperatures of a typical New England winter can match the bone-chilling scene of carnage discovered in the early morning hours at the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light. Within the sanctuary walls of the cloistered convent, now stained with blood, lie two nuns - one dead, one critically injured; victims of an unspeakably savage attacker.
The brutal crime appears to be without motive, and the elderly nuns in residence can offer little help in the police investigation. But medical examiner Maura Isles' autopsy of the dead woman, twenty-year-old Sister Camille, yields a shocking surprise. The disturbing case takes a stunning new turn when another woman is found murdered in an abandoned building, her features obliterated.
Together, Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli uncover an ancient horror that connects these terrible slaughters. As long-buried secrets come to light, Maura Isles finds herself drawn inexorably towards the heart of an investigation that strikes closer and closer to home, and towards the dawning revelation - too shattering to consider - of the killer's identity.

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as a medic to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. Harvest, Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, The Surgeon and most recently The Apprentice have all been New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers. She lives with her husband and two sons in Maine.

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Tess Gerritsen Body Double Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824503 Tweet

Dr Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in downtown Boston, she has seen more than her share of corpses – many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own. But there can be no denying the evidence: the dead woman before her and her close friend and colleague Detective Jane Rizzoli is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical details. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. When a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious double is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets. Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But even more frighteningly, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the violence, and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother she never knew … In her brilliant and terrifying new novel, Tess Gerritsen – bestselling author of The Surgeon and The Sinner – taps into the deep well of murder and obsession, and builds an almost tangible atmosphere of tension and suspense before arranging for an explosive release that is as horrifying as it is unexpected. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen a physician and brings to ther novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency and autopsy rooms.

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Tess Gerritsen The Mephisto Club Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824538 Tweet

Christmas Eve in Boston is no holy night for medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles. In a rundown house a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leaves veteran cops in shock. The last person called from the dead girl's phone is Dr. Joyce O'Donnell, a celebrity psychiatrist who's made her name defending serial murderers. But there are other clues that make the police wonder if this slaying was part of a Satanic ritual. Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image word in Latin that, translated, says: "I have sinned." Then a second woman is found butchered on Beacon Hill, just outside the grand residence of Anthony Sansone, a reclusive historian. He is the leader of the Mephisto Club, an old and secret society dedicated to the study of evil, and to confronting it in its purest form. On the door to Sansone's house have been scrawled yet more ancient symbols. Are they clues? Or threats? When the same symbols appear on Maura Isles' door, Maura and Jane must call on the Mephisto Club for assistance. Because this is a form of evil Boston PD has never encountered before. And the only way they can defeat it is by turning to the people who understand the devil himself.

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen was a physician and brings to her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency rooms and autopsy procedures.

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Tess Gerritsen Vanish Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824562 Tweet

The nameless and beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue. An apparent suicide, she lies on a gurney in the cold room, awaiting the dissecting scalpel of medical examiner Maura Isles. But when Maura unzips the body bag and looks down at the body, she gets the fright of her life. The corpse opens its eyes. Now very much alive, the "dead" woman is rushed to the hospital where her next action shocks everyone. With cool precision, she murders a security guard and seizes hostages. One of those hostages is a very pregnant patient - Jane Rizzoli. Who is this mysterious hostage-taker, and what does she want? As tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, to track down the nameless woman's identity. When Federal agents suddenly appear on the scene, Maura and Gabriel realize they are dealing with a case that goes far deeper than just an ordinary hostage crisis. Only Jane, trapped with the armed madwoman, holds the key to the mystery. And only she can solve it - if she survives the night.

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Tess Gerritsen The Bone Garden Pbk published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553818368 Tweet

A gruesome secret is about to be unearthed…
When a human skull is dug up in a garden near Boston, Dr Maura Isles is called in to investigate. She quickly discovers that the skeleton – that of a young woman – has been buried for over a hundred years.
But who was the young woman? And how did she die?
It is the 1830s, and an impoverished medical student, Norris Marshall, is forced to procure corpses in order to further his studies in human anatomy.
It’s a gruesome livelihood that will bring him into contact with a terrifying serial killer who slips from ballrooms to graveyards and into autopsy suites.
And who is far, far closer than Norris could ever imagine… --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen was a physician and brings to her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency rooms and autopsy suites.

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Robert Goddard Long Time Coming Published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł14.99 ISBN: 0593060253 Tweet

Eldritch Swan is a dead man. Or at least that is what his nephew Stephen has always been told. Until one day Eldritch walks back into his life after 36 years in an Irish prison. He won't reveal any of the details of his incarceration, insisting only that he is innocent of any crime. His return should be of interest to no-one. But the visit of a solicitor with a mysterious request will take Eldritch and his sceptical nephew from sleepy seaside Paignton to London, where an exhibition of Picasso paintings from the prestigious Brownlow collection proves to be the starting point on a journey that will transport them back to the Second World War and the mystery behind Eldritch's imprisonment. In 1940, he was personal assistant to a wealthy diamond dealer in Antwerp, whose collection of modern art was the envy of many. The subsequent disappearance of those paintings began a trail of murder and intrigue which was to have a catastrophic effect on Eldritch's life. But untangling the web of murky secrets, family ties and old betrayals that conceals the truth will prove to be a dangerous pursuit for Eldritch and Stephen. Before long, a mysterious enemy is doing everything possible to stop the truth emerging - at whatever cost…

Robert Goddard was born in Hampshire and read History at Cambridge. His first novel, Past Caring, was an instant bestseller. Since then his books have captivated readers worldwide with their edge-of-the-seat pace and their labyrinthine plotting. His first Harry Barnett novel, Into the Blue, was winner of the first WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award and was dramatized for TV, starring John Thaw.

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Mo Hayder The Devil of Nanking Pbk published February 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824856 Tweet

Tokyo, 1990 Grey Hutchins is in pursuit of an obsession. She is searching for a piece of film taken during the infamous Nanking massacre of 1937. Some say it never existed. Grey is certain that it does, and that it lies hidden - somewhere in Tokyo. Alone in an alien city, Grey becomes a hostess in an exclusive club catering for Japanese businessmen - and gangsters. One gangster dominates - an old man in a wheelchair surrounded by a terrifying entourage - who is rumoured to rely on a powerful elixir for his continued health. It is an elixir that others want - at any price...With its focus on 1990's Tokyo and Nanking in 1937, "The Devil of Nanking" is a literary thriller of the highest order. With its heady atmosphere of overt violence, lurking fear and sexual tension, this is a novel that takes hold of the reader and does not let go until its explosive final pages.

After leaving school at fifteen, Mo Hayder worked as a barmaid, security guard, film-maker, hostess in a Tokyo club, educational administrator and teacher of English as a foreign language in Asia. She also has an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University.

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Mo Hayder Pig Island Pbk published February 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824864 Tweet

Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. A born sceptic, he believes everything has a rational explanation. But when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island, everything he thought he knew is overturned.
Questions mount: why has the community been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader, Pastor Malachi Dove? And perhaps most important, why will no one discuss the strange apparition seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island?
Their confrontation, and its violent and bloody aftermath, is so catastrophic that it forces Oaksey to question the nature of evil, and whether he might not be responsible for the terrible crime about to unfold.
In her compulsive and haunting new novel, Mo Hayder dares her readers to face their fears head on and to look at what lurks beneath the surface of everyday normality. "Pig Island" is about the unspeakable things people can do to each other. Brace yourself for a terrifying read.

Mo Hayder has written some of the most terrifying crime thrillers you will ever read. Her first novel, Birdman, was hailed as a 'first-class shocker' by the Guardian and her follow-up, The Treatment was voted by the Times one of 'the top ten most scary thrillers ever written' Mo's books are 100% authentic, drawing on her long research association with several UK police forces and on her personal encounters with criminals and prostitutes. She left school at 15 and has worked as a barmaid, security guard, English teacher, and even a hostess in a Tokyo club. She has an MA in film making from the American University in Washington DC and an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University. She now lives in England's West Country and is a full-time writer.

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Mo Hayder Gone Published February 2010 by Bantam at Ł14.99 ISBN: 0593063813 Tweet

See Review by Cath Staincliffe author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder

November in the West Country, and evening is closing in as DI Jack Caffery arrives to interview the victim of a stolen car. But this is no ordinary theft. The man who's stolen the car was wearing a Santa Claus mask. And, on the back seat, packing away the shopping, was an eleven year-old girl. And she's still missing. Sergeant Flea Marley has heard about the car-jacker, and is waiting for Caffery when he leaves the police station later that night. He's done it before, she tells Caffery. Twice. Same guy. Same mask. Only previously he's let the girls go. Now he hasn't. A day later the car is found. Inside, there's a letter. 'It's started', the letter states, 'and it ain't going to stop just sudden now, is it? And Caffery knows that soon the jacker will choose another random car, and another driver, the only important thing being the child in the back seat. It'll be a girl. A girl he's going to steal away. Caffery's a good and instinctive cop; the best in the business, some say. But this time something's badly wrong. This time the jacker seems to be ahead of him - every step of the way ...

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Simon Kernick The Last 10 Seconds Published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł14.99 ISBN: 0593062868 Tweet

When ex-police officer John Cone is found lying wounded in a room full of dead bodies, he has a terrifying story to tell. Three days earlier he was hired by a mysterious client to snatch a suspected serial killer, Andrew Kent (aka the Penthouse Predator) from custody while he's being transferred between prisons. But having seized Kent, things immediately go badly wrong. People start dying, Kent goes missing, and Cone begins to realize that the case against Kent may not be so cut and dried as he was led to believe. Someone else who shares that suspicion is newly promoted, DI Tina Boyd. She was one of the Murder Squad team who'd arrested and charged Kent several months earlier. A few hours before he was snatched, Kent had called Tina claiming he had highly important information about a murder, but refusing to divulge what it was on the phone. And now he's gone, and Tina has to find him. And find him fast, because it's clear some very high-powered people want to silence him. The question both Tina and John Cone are asking themselves as they race towards a terrifying confrontation, is why…

Simon Kernick is one of Britain's most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, the story of a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. However, Simon's big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which was selected by Richard and Judy for their Recommended Summer Reads promotion, and then rapidly went on to become the bestselling thriller of 2007. Simon's research is what makes his thrillers so authentic. He talks both on and off the record to members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, so he gets to hear first hand what actually happens in the dark and murky underbelly of UK crime.

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Giles Kristian Raven: Sons of Thunder (Raven 2) Published February 2010 by Bantam at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0593061640 Tweet

Never betray a Fellowship and expect to get away with your life...Raven and his Wolf pack of Norsemen have been double crossed. The traitor Ealdred seeks to sell a holy book to the Emperor Charlemagne which will ensure riches beyond his wildest dreams. Greed drives him forward, but a band of fearsome warriors is in pursuit across the sea to Charlemagne's Frankish empire - with the bloodiest of revenge on their minds. Slaughter is certain as the Fellowship trap Ealdred and his men at the mouth of the river Sicauna in Frankia. Sigurd the Lucky challenges Ealdred's bodyguard Mauger in an ancient duel called the holmgang, and only one will walk away with his life...

Giles Kristian is half Norwegian but was born in Leicestershire. He divides his time between London, New York and Norway. Raven: Sons of Thunder is the second book in a planned Viking trilogy. Visit his website at: www.gileskristian.com

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Dennis Lehane Shutter Island Tie-in Pbk published February 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553824481 Tweet

Summer, 1954. US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down upon them.
But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumours of Ashecliffe's radical approach to psychiatry? As the investigation deepens, the questions mount.
How has a barefoot woman escaped an island from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? Why is there no record of a patient committed just one year before? What really goes on in Ward C? Why is an empty lighthouse surrounded by an electrified fence and armed guards?
The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive them insane...

Dennis Lehane was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He is the award-winning author of eight novels: A Drink Before the War; Darkness,Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island, The Given Day and a short story collection, Coronado. He lives in the Boston area.

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M C Scott Rome: The Emperor's Spy Published January 2010 by Bantam at Ł12.99 ISBN: 0593055721 Tweet

'Stop this fire, whatever it takes. I, your Emperor, order it'. The Emperor: Nero, Emperor of Rome and all her provinces, feared by his subjects for his temper and cruelty, is in possession of an ancient document predicting that Rome will burn. The Spy: Sebastos Pantera, assassin and spy for the Roman Legions, is ordered to stop the impending cataclysm. He knows that if he does not, his life - and those of thousands of others - are in terrible danger. The Chariot Boy: Math, a young charioteer, is a pawn drawn into the deadly game between the Emperor and the Spy, where death stalks the drivers - on the track and off it. From the author of the bestselling "Boudica" series, "The Emperor's Spy" begins a compelling new series of novels featuring Sebastos Pantera. Rich characterisation and spine tingling adventure combine in a vividly realised novel set amid the bloodshed and the chaos, the heroism and murderous betrayal of ancient Rome.

M.C. Scott began writing while still a horse vet in Newmarket with the result that horses feature prominently in her novels. In The Emperor's Spy, they have evolved from the home-bred battle mounts of the tribal warriors in her bestselling Boudica quartet of novels to the four-in-hand chariot racers favoured by the Emperor Nero. The research took her back to the Ist Century AD, a time when life was simpler, more majestic and far more thrilling than now. She lives with her partner in Shropshire and is working on the next book in her 'Rome' series featuring the assassin and spy, Sebastos Pantera.

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R.A. Scotti The Lost Mona Lisa Pbk published March 2010 by Bantam at Ł7.99 ISBN: 0553818309 Tweet

In the late afternoon of Sunday, 20 August 1911, three men strolled into the Louvre in Paris. Disguising themselves as museum staff, they hid until nightfall. Sixteen hours later the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, had vanished. It took twenty-four hours for anyone to notice.
When the alarm was finally sounded, police rushed to the scene. The doors were locked, staff and visitors were detained, but the painting was long gone. France sealed her borders. And when the museum reopened a week after the theft, Parisians queued up in record numbers to view the blank space where the famous painting had once hung. A worldwide hunt ranged from Paris to New York, from Argentina to Italy, but the Mona Lisa was nowhere to be found.
Two years later, Florentine art dealer Alfredo Geri received a letter signed ‘Leonardo’. The Mona Lisa was for sale. A meeting was arranged and ‘Leonardo’ was persuaded to let Geri take the painting away for authentication. The moment Geri left, he called the police. One of the thieves had been found. But what of the other two men from the Louvre heist?

R. A. Scotti is the author of Basilica, on the building of St Peter's in Rome and Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938, and four novels.

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