Rennie Airth River of Darkness Published March 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 0333747925 Artwork by: Cover photo: Andy Whale, background image: Hulton Picture Library

See Review by Margaret Murphy - author of Desire of the Moth & mistress of the psychological suspence novel

See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill

Rennie Airth was born in South Africa and worked for a number of years as a foreign correspondent for Reuters. He has published two previous novels, Snatch and Once a Spy.
For some years he had thought of writing something connected to the First World War, but it was not until he went through family papers and discovered a scrapbook of mementoes devoted to an uncle who was killed in the war, that the idea of the story that was to become River of Darkness came into his mind. The shadow of the First World War forms a grim background to this novel of extraordinary resonance and power, which also offers fascinating insights into the developments within forensic evidence and psychological profiling that began in the 1920s.
Rennie Airth is currently at work on the sequel to River of Darkness, set in the 1930s as Britain again heads for war.

Jo Bannister The Hireling's Tale Published March 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 0333749561 Artwork by: Jacket photo: Tom Main & Martin Barraud/Tony Stone

Jo Bannister was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, and grew up in Birmingham, Nottingham and Banger, Northern Ireland. After leaving school at sixteen, she joined the County Down Spectator as office junior, leaving as editor in 1988 to pursue her career as an author. She has won several awards for her writing, including recognition from the Royal Society of Arts and the British Press Awards. The Hireling's Tale is the sixth novel in the series, following Burning Desires, Sin of the Heart, A Bleeding of Innocents and No Birds Sing. Her Castlemere novels are tough and very realistic - in the tradition of Lynda La Plante's Prime Suspect and she has created three very strong, tough and charismatic leading characters in Frank Shapiro, Lit Graham and Cal Donovan that possess a realism that is rare in crime novels of today.

Gerald Hammond A Shocking Affair Published February 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 0333732790

Hazel Holt Fatal Legacy Published February 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 0333747941 Artwork by: Jacket photograph: Joe Partridge

Hazel Holt is a graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge. Her long association with Barbara Pym led to her becoming Pym's literary executor and her biography of Barbara Pym, A Lot to Ask, met with wide critical acclaim. A former television reviewer and feature writer for Stage and Television Today, she now lives in Somerset with her husband and her cat. Her son is the writer Tom Holt.
Fatal Legacy is the latest addition to Hazel Holt's popular Sheila Malory series, following most recently The Only Good Lawyer, Death of a Dean and Dead and Buried. Following the success of the series, Penelope Keith has optioned the Sheila Malory novels for television adaptation.

H.R.F. Keating Bribery, Corruption Also Published January 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 33374568X

Margaret Lawrence The Burning Bride Published January 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 0333746457

Margaret Lawrence lives with her family in the Mid West, USA - in the house her grandfather built in the 1880s. She has written for film and theatre and recently completed a screenplay based upon the first novel in the series Hearts and Bones.

Priscilla Masters Scaring Crows Published February 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 0333745620 Artwork by: Jacket photograph: Joe Partridge

See Review by John Boyles

Priscilla Masters lives on the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands with her husband, a GP in the Potteries, and two sons. She works part-time as a GP-attached nurse in Leek. She has also written a medical mystery novel, entitled Night Visit. Scaring Crows the fifth novel in the DI Joanna Piercy series, following: Winding Up the Serpent, Catch the Fallen Sparrow, A Wreath for My Sister and And None Shall Sleep. Priscilla Masters has created a very strong leading female character in DI Joanna Piercy, battling it out in a man's world but retaining her sensitivity and compassion.

Elizabeth McGregor Second Sight Published February 1999 by Macmillan at £17.99 ISBN: 0333745248

Thomas Perry The Face-Changers Published February 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: O333711157

After ten years of acting as a 'guide' who helps people in trouble to disappear, Jane Whitefield promised her husband Carey that she would never undertake such dangerous work gain. But when his former mentor, a famous plastic surgeon, shows up wounded and wanted for murder, she is persuaded to perform her disappearing magic one final time.
Then, while trying to rescue Dr Richard Dahlman, Jane discovers that a deadly group called the Face-Changers has been using her name, reputation and techniques to ruin human lives rather than protect them. So, besides setting up an elaborate smokescreen to conceal the doctor from a nationwide manhunt, Jane must fight her way through to the core of a ruthless swindle that threatens to destroy her.

Wilbur Smith Monsoon Published March 1999 by Macmillan at £16.99 ISBN: 0333637712

After the successful publication of When the Lion Feeds in 1964, Wilbur Smith became a full-time writer and has since written twenty-six novels meticulously researched on his numerous worldwide expeditions. His books are now translated into twenty-six languages and have sold over eighty million copies.