Crime, thrillers and mystery

Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

The Dying Game
Asa Avdic
(UK: Windmill Books, @WindmillBooks, 2017; USA: Penguin Books USA, @penguinusa, 2017)

On the remote island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees, and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment is to stage her own death and then observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure?

But as soon as Anna steps on to the island she realises something isn’t quite right. And then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins .…

Recommended by:
Penguin Books USA: at BookExpo America

The Penguin Publishing Group is one of the leading trade book publishers in the USA, comprised of imprints with a long and rich history dating back to the 19th century. Penguin Books was originally founded in the UK in 1935 by Allen Lane, who envisioned a collection of quality, attractive books affordable enough to be ‘bought as easily and casually as a packet of cigarettes.’ A US office opened in 1939, called Penguin Books Ltd. In 1996, the group merged with Putnam Berkley to become Penguin Putnam, Inc., Penguin Group (USA) in 2003, and Penguin Publishing Group in 2014. Today, Penguin Publishing Group is the largest division of Penguin Random House, Inc. The imprints making up Penguin Publishing Group include: Avery, Berkley, Blue Rider Press, Dutton, Penguin Books, Penguin Classics, The Penguin Press, Plume, Portfolio, GP Putnam’s Sons, Riverhead, Sentinel, TarcherPerigee and Viking Books.

Far From True
(Promise Falls: book 2)
Linwood Barclay
(UK: Orion Publishing, @orionbooks, 2016; USA: Berkley Publishing, @BerkleyPub, 2016)

A freak accident has killed Lucy Brighton’s father. And when she goes to his house, she’s convinced that someone has broken in. She asks private investigator Cal Weaver to look into it – but isn’t prepared for what he’ll find.

Cal discovers a secret ‘playroom’ in the basement, complete with video equipment, and it looks as though there’s a missing recording.

How does the stolen DVD connect to the other disturbing events that are happening in the town? As Cal investigates further, and more people start dying in mysterious circumstances, it’s clear that someone is targeting Promise Falls. But who – and how far will they go?

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

Alyson describes herself as a constant reader, book hoarder and charity-shop grifter (for books, natch). She is not wrong. She is also an influencer and crime fiction superfan whose ‘life is a permanent TBR pile’.

The Twenty-Three
(Promise Falls: book 3)
Linwood Barclay
(UK: Orion Publishing, @orionbooks, 2016; USA: Berkley Publishing, @BerkleyPub, 2016)

The day begins like any other Saturday – a shower, coffee, breakfast. But suddenly, all hell breaks loose in the town of Promise Falls. People are dying in the street – the hospital and emergency services are overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Is it mass food poisoning, a virus, or something more sinister? Has someone, rather than something, caused this?

Detective Barry Duckworth is already investigating two murders and an explosion at the town’s drive-in. He starts to wonder if these crimes and the new attacks are connected to the mysterious incidents in Promise Falls involving the number twenty-three.

But who is sending these deadly messages, and how can they be stopped?

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

Consent (UK) | Read Me (USA)
Leo Benedictus
(UK: Faber & Faber, @FaberBooks, 2018; USA: Grand Central Publishing, @GrandCentralPub, 2018)

This book is an experiment.
We’re experimenting together.
You are part of the experiment, if you’ll agree to it.

Normally I don’t let my subjects choose to be subjects. If you know you’re being watched, you cease to be you.

But I want you to read this. I wrote it for you.

This magnetic book pulls you in its wake even as you resist its force. Sometimes you don’t want to know what’s next …

Recommended by:
Faber & Faber: at The Book Marketing Society

Founded in 1929 in London, Faber & Faber is one of the world’s great publishing houses. The company’s list of authors includes thirteen Nobel Laureates and six Booker Prize-winners. Faber is proud to publish the foremost voices in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama, with writers including: TS Eliot, Ted Hughes, Harold Pinter, Sylvia Plath, William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Deep Blue Trouble
(Lori Anderson: book 2)
Steph Broadribb
(UK: Orenda Books, @OrendaBooks, 2018)

Single-mother Florida bounty hunter Lori Anderson’s got an ocean of trouble on her hands. Her daughter Dakota is safe, but her cancer is threatening a comeback, and Lori needs JT – Dakota’s daddy and the man who taught Lori everything – alive and kicking. Problem is, he’s behind bars, and heading for death row.

Desperate to save him, Lori does a deal, taking on off-the-books job from shady FBI agent Alex Monroe: bring back on-the-run felon, Gibson ‘The Fish’ Fletcher, and JT walks free. Following Fletcher from Florida to California, Lori teams up with local bounty hunter Dez McGregor and his team. But Dez works very differently to Lori, and the tension between them threatens to put the whole job in danger.

With Monroe pressuring Lori for results, the clock ticking on JT’s life, and nothing about the Fletcher case adding up, Lori’s hitting walls at every turn. But this is one job she’s got to get right, or she’ll lose everything .…

Recommended by:
Karen Sullivan, Founder and Publisher, Orenda Books

Founded in 2014, Orenda Books is a London-based publishing house that publishes literary and crime fiction by debut and existing authors, including Ragnar Jónasson, Thomas Enger, Michael Grothaus, Gunnar Staalesen and Kati Hiekkapelto. Karen called her company Orenda Books after the title of the Joseph Boyden novel The Orenda (Amazon: UK | USA). She says: ‘The word itself – which loosely translates as “the mystical power that drives human accomplishment” – is a nod to my Canadian heritage and is a First Nations word whose provenance is a tribe that settled in a part of Ontario where I’ve spent every summer of my life.’

A Whispered Name
(Father Anselm: book 3)
William Brodrick
(UK: Abacus Books, @AbacusBooks, 2009; USA: The Overlook Press, @overlookpress, 2017)

When Father Anselm meets Kate Seymour in the cemetery at Larkwood, he is dismayed to hear her allegation. Herbert Moore had been one of the founding fathers of the Priory, revered by all who met him, a man who’d shaped Anselm’s own vocation. The idea that someone could look on his grave and speak of a lie is inconceivable. But Anselm soon learns that Herbert did indeed have secrets in his past that he kept hidden all his life.

In 1917, during the terrible slaughter of the Passchendaele campaign, a soldier faced a court martial for desertion. Herbert, charged with a responsibility that would change the course of his life, sat upon the panel that judged him.

In coming to understand the court martial, Anselm discovers its true significance: a secret victory that transformed the young Captain Moore and shone a light upon the horror of war.

Recommended by:
The Overlook Press: at BookExpo America

Founded in 1971 by the celebrated late publisher Peter Mayer, The Overlook Press has established a reputation for both quality and eclecticism, publishing fiction and non-fiction with verve and success across many categories.

Cold Earth
(Shetland; book 7)
Ann Cleeves
(UK: Pan Macmillan, @panmacmillan, 2017; USA: Minotaur Books, @MinotaurBooks, 2018)

In the dark days of a Shetland winter, torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main Lerwick-Sumburgh road and sweeps down to the sea.

At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of mud and peaty water smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. In his mind, she shares his Mediterranean ancestry and soon he becomes obsessed with tracing her identity.

Then it emerges that she was already dead before the landslide hit the house. Perez knows he must find out who she was, and how she died.

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

The President is Missing
Bill Clinton and James Patterson
(UK: Century, @PenguinRHUK, 2018; USA: Little, Brown and Company & Knopf, @littlebrown & @AAKnopf, 2018)

The President Is Missing confronts a threat so huge that it jeopardises not just Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street, but all of America. Uncertainty and fear grip the nation. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the Cabinet. Even the President himself becomes a suspect, and then he disappears from public view ….

Recommended by:
Eleanor Hudson, Campaigns Executive, Penguin General

Eleanor was part of the publishing team that commissioned a mega build for Penguin Random House – an exact replica of the Oval Office in The White House – for the launch of this novel at the London Book Fair 2018. She worked at the expo alongside b2 Exhibitions Specialists (specifically Jeremy Boyce), who built the installation, and the media branding agency, MKTG (personnel: Ryan Kwok, Ali Breton and Georgina Raye), who realised the publishers’ vision for the stand.

A Divided Spy
(Thomas Kell: book 3)
Charles Cumming
(UK: HarperCollins, @HarperCollinsUK, 2017; USA: St. Martin’s Press, @StMartinsPress, 2018)

A NEW COLD WAR IS LOOMING … Former MI6 officer Thomas Kell thought he was done with spying. Until the Russian agent he blames for the death of his girlfriend is spotted at a Red Sea resort – in dangerous company.

ONE SPY WANTS REVENGE … Taking the law into his own hands, Kell embarks on a mission to recruit his rival. Only to find himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse in which it becomes increasingly difficult to know who is playing whom.

THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL … As the mission reaches boiling point, rumours of a terrorist attack suggest a massacre on Britain soil is imminent. Kell is faced with an impossible choice. Loyalty to MI6 – or to his own conscience?

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

The Cuban Affair
Nelson DeMille
(UK: Sphere, @LittleBrownUK, 2017; USA: Simon & Schuster, @SimonSchuster, 2018)

Daniel ‘Mac’ MacCormick has a good life. Aged thirty-five and a decorated US Army veteran, he whiles away his life in stunning Key West, Florida, running a forty-two-foot charter fishing boat The Maine. A ladies’ man and rule-breaker, Mac has it all – apart from the money to hold on to his beloved boat.

Then Mac is approached by a hotshot Miami lawyer called Carlos with an apparently irresistable offer: a fee of $2 million to run the boat into Havana and smuggle out $60 million from a stash hidden from the Castro government – cash once owned by the family of a beautiful Cuban-American woman named Sara Ortega.

With the political ‘Cuban Thaw’ underway, it’s only a matter of time before someone finds the stash. But Mac knows if he accepts this job, he’ll walk away rich…or not at all.

Recommended by:
Simon & Schuster: at BookExpo America

Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924 by Richard L Simon and M Lincoln Schuster. Since 2006, the publishing house has been part of CBS Corporation. Simon & Schuster is a major force in today’s consumer publishing industry, dedicated to bringing an extensive cross-section of first-class information and entertainment in all printed, digital and audio formats to a worldwide audience of readers.

Long Way Home
(DI Zigic and DS Ferreira: book 1)
Eva Dolan
(UK: Vintage Books, @vintagebooks, 2014)

A man is burnt alive in a shed. No witnesses, no fingerprints – only a positive ID of the victim as an immigrant with a long list of enemies.

Detectives Zigic and Ferreira are called in from the Hate Crimes Unit to track the killer, and are met with silence in a Fenland community ruled by slum racketeers, people-trafficking gangs and fear.

Tensions rise. The clock is ticking. But nobody wants to talk.

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

Some Choose Darkness
Charlie Donlea
(USA: Kensington Publishers, @KensingtonBooks, 2019)

The truth is easy to miss, even when it’s right in front of us. As a forensic reconstructionist, Rory Moore sheds light on cold-case homicides by piecing together crime scene details others fail to see. Cleaning out her late father’s law office a week after his burial, she receives a call that plunges her into a decades-old case come to life once more.

In the summer of 1979, five Chicago women went missing. The predator, nicknamed ‘The Thief’, left no bodies and no clues behind – until police received a package from a mysterious woman named Angela Mitchell, whose unorthodox investigation skills appear to have led to his identity. But before they could question her, Angela disappeared. Forty years later, The Thief is about to be paroled for Angela’s murder – the only crime the DA could pin on him. But the cryptic file Rory finds in her father’s law office suggests there is more to the case, and Angela Mitchell, than what was fed to the public, the details of which have been buried for four decades.

Rory’s talents are tested as she begins reconstructing Angela’s last days. Making one startling discovery after another, Rory becomes helplessly entangled in the enigma of Angela Mitchell and what happened to her. Drawing connections between the past and present, Rory uncovers dark truths about the reclusive victim, her father, and the man called The Thief that send her down a twisting trail where things may not be as they appear. As she continues to dig, even Rory can’t be prepared for the full, terrifying truth that is emerging …

Recommended by:
Jacqueline Dinas, Rights and Licensing Director, Kensington Publishing

Jackie sells and negotiates rights for Kensington’s full range of content. She is directly responsible for relationships with 20 agents and sales in 30+ territories and maintains, builds and discovers new client relationships. Jackie represents Kensington Publishing at the Frankfurt and London Book Fairs. She manages and compiles all sales data and analysis for management. Founded in 1974, Kensington Publishing Corp. is located in New York City and is known as ‘America’s Independent Publisher.’ As the foremost independent commercial publishing house in the USA – providing hardcover, trade paperback, mass market and digital releases – Kensington publishes the books that America wants to read.

Murder for Christmas
(Mordecai Tremaine: book 2)
Francis Duncan
(UK: Vintage Books, @vintagebooks, 2015; USA: Sourcebooks Landmark, @sbkslandmark, 2017)

Mordecai Tremaine, former tobacconist and perennial lover of romance novels, has been invited to spend Christmas in the sleepy village of Sherbroome at the country retreat of one Benedict Grame.

Arriving on Christmas Eve, he finds that the revelries are in full flow – but so too are tensions amongst the assortment of guests.

Midnight strikes and the party-goers discover that it’s not just presents nestling under the tree…there’s a dead body too. A dead body that bears a striking resemblance to Father Christmas.

With the snow falling and the suspicions flying, it’s up to Mordecai to sniff out the culprit – and prevent someone else from getting murder for Christmas

Recommended by:
Sanne Vliegenthart, Freelance Digital Producer | Consultancy: Booksandquills; YouTube channel: Booksandquills

Sanne runs Booksandquills – a freelance consultancy to manage her skills as a digital producer, public speaker and YouTuber vlogger – having worked as an Audience Manager at Penguin Random House UK. She offers many different ways to work collaboratively on digital projects via her Booksandquills social channels. Sanne specialises in young adult and twenty-something audiences, sustainable lifestyle, books, culture and travel. She excels at creating authentic influencer campaigns, engaging digital content and host events that connect with audiences: here are the freelances services she offers to clients.

Lie with Me
Sabine Durrant
(UK: Mulholland Books, @MulhollandUK, 2016)

A few little lies never hurt anyone. Right? Wrong …. Paul has a plan. He has a vision of a better future, and he’s going to make it happen. If it means hiding or exaggerating a few things here and there, no harm done. But when he charms his way on to a family holiday …. And finds himself trapped among tensions and emotions he doesn’t understand …. By the time he starts to realise that however painful the truth is, it’s the lies that cause the real damage …. Well, by then, it might just be too late.

Recommended by:
Dan Calladine, Head of Media Futures, Carat Global Management | Founder, London Pop-ups
Dan says: ‘A great holiday read – an unusual thriller told from the viewpoint of a very modern rotter.’

Dan Calladine is a media industry maven who tracks online and offline media trends and the effectiveness of media strategy for Carat, a media agency within the Dentsu Aegis Network. He is an expert commentator on media, having been interviewed by BBC Radio 4, the Financial Times, Campaign and The Guardian, among other channels and publications. Dan is an expert on social media, including and social media tracking: he is a keen user, being active on YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest. Dan also heads and runs London Pop-ups, a online listings hub for pop-up events in the capital city.

Remember, Remember
(Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James: book 3)
Anna Elliott and Charles Veley
(UK: Wilton Press: CreateSpace, @CreateSpace, 2017)

A lovely young American actress has a major problem. It’s a cold morning in 1897 when she awakens outside the British Museum, lying face down on the concrete pavement. She has no memory: she does not even know who she is, although she has a vague recollection of the name Sherlock Holmes. She thinks she may have just killed someone, and she knows someone wants to kill her.

As she searches for clues to her true identity, she will learn that she is not the only target. Unless she can defeat her evil adversaries, the people most dear to her will die.

Recommended by:
Wilton Press (CreateSpace): at BookExpo America

Accomplished authors in their own right, father-daughter duo Charles Veley and Anna Elliott teamed up to self-publish a whole new take to the Sherlock Holmes stories. Shaking up the narrative is the introduction of Lucy James, a headstrong, independent American actress – who also turns out to be Holmes’ daughter. Together with the stabilising presence of the ever-faithful Watson, they become partner sleuths, navigating their way through the worst crimes, facing down arch-enemies, and unravelling mysteries.

Goldfinger
(James Bond: book 7)
Ian Fleming
(UK: Vintage Books, @vintagebooks, 2012; USA: Thomas & Mercer, @AmazonPub, 2012)

Auric Goldfinger is the richest man in England—though his wealth can’t be found in banks. He’s been hoarding vast stockpiles of his namesake metal, and it’s attracted the suspicion of 007’s superiors at MI6. Sent to investigate, Bond uncovers an ingenious gold-smuggling scheme, as well as Goldfinger’s most daring caper yet: Operation Grand Slam, a gold heist so audacious it could bring down the world economy and put the fate of the West in the hands of SMERSH. To stop Goldfinger, Bond will have to survive a showdown with the sinister millionaire’s henchman, Oddjob, a tenacious karate master who can kill with one well-aimed toss of his razor-rimmed bowler hat.

Recommended by:
David Stark, Founder, Editor and Publisher, SongLink and Cuesheet

David is a music-business professional with over 35 years experience in publishing, comprising creative networking between artists, writers, producers, managers, labels, and film/tv composers. He is also accomplished at journalism, editing publications, photography, occasional songwriting and studio production, playing drums, organising showcases, judging song contests worldwide, acting as researcher for industry awards and events. David also works as a 60s/70s music consultant for radio, television and the press. His areas of speciality are: song placement via SongLink International; and film, television and other media music placement via Cuesheet.

The Hunting Party
Lucy Foley
(UK: HarperCollins, @HarperCollinsUK, 2019; USA: William Morrow, @WmMorrowBooks, 2019)

All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands – the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on 30 December, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now one of them is dead … and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?

Recommended by:
HarperCollins: at The Book Marketing Society

With a heritage stretching back 200 years, HarperCollins is one of the world’s foremost book publishers, with a catalogue ranging from cutting-edge contemporary fiction to award-winning apps and everything in-between. William Collins & Sons was founded in Glasgow in 1819, first publishing Bibles, atlases and dictionaries, but later growing to release works from some of history’s great authors, such as CS Lewis, Agatha Christie and JRR Tolkien.

The Town of Jasper
James Gianetti
(USA: Elevation Book Publishing, @ElevationBkPub, 2017)

Deadly foes and unexpected allies. A thrilling race against the clock. Jack Sutherland, a disgraced detective battling his own addictions, must trudge through the quarantined town of Jasper. After ‘The Incident’ leaving half of Jasper’s population unconscious, Richard Morrisey rose to power. Morrisey, a grieving man desperate for justice, keeps the town afloat by forging a tentative alliance with the mysterious and violent Filmore Whites. Meanwhile, a deadlier enemy lurks, known only as ‘The Redeemers’. This cult has its own dark ideas for Jasper’s salvation. Together, Sutherland and Morrisey battle impossible odds to save what little is left of Jasper.

Recommended by:
Elevation Book Publishing: at BookExpo America

Elevation Book Publishing is a traditional publishing company, started to fill a void amongst writers, looking for honest people who understand their struggle. The company supports all aspects of the publishing process, utilising technology and employing professional, effective techniques to produce dynamic entertaining products. Their mission is to elevate talented writers and market books through multiple sales and distribution channels. They focus on creating partnerships with authors, editors, graphic artists, and others to accelerate time to market.

Past Caring
Robert Goddard
(UK: Corgi, @TransworldBooks, 2010; USA: Delta: Random House, @randomhouse, 2008)

1910: Distinguished MP Edwin Strafford resigns at the pinnacle of his career, removing himself from the public eye. The woman he loves, and for whom he was willing to sacrifice everything, suddenly and coldly rejects him. All the reasons for his fall from grace are shrouded in darkness.

Seventy years later, historian Martin Radford is down on his luck when a mysterious benefactor offers him the opportunity of a lifetime: to uncover what exactly happened to Edwin Strafford. But this apparent good fortune swiftly turns into a nightmare. Radford’s investigations trigger a violent series of events, which throw him straight into the path of those who believed they had escaped punishment for crimes long past but never paid for ….

Recommended by:
Suzanne Collier, Founder and Director, bookcareers.com

Suzanne founded bookcareers.com in 1999: a career development organisation for job seekers needing careers advice about the book trade. Suzanne is fully qualified in Career Guidance and Development (NVQ Level 6), a member of the Career Development Institute and is listed on their register of careers practitioners. In 2011 Suzanne was awarded the Pandora Award by Women in Publishing, for a significant and sustained contribution to the publishing industry. Suzanne actively supports the work of The Migraine Trust, the Encephalitis Society and The Book Trade Charity (BTBS).

The Blood Card
(Stephens and Mephisto Mystery: book 3)
Elly Griffiths
(UK: Quercus Books, @QuercusBooks, 2017; USA: Mariner Books, @HMHBooks, 2018)

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation is looming, but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright’s possession, and a playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the suggestion of magic are for Stephens and Mephisto to be summoned to the case.

Edgar’s ongoing investigation into the death of Brighton fortune-teller Madame Zabini is put on hold. Max is busy rehearsing for a spectacular Coronation Day variety show – and his television debut – so it’s Edgar who is sent to New York, a land of plenty worlds away from still-rationed England. He’s on the trail of a small-town mesmerist who may provide the key, but someone silences him first. It’s Edgar’s colleague, DS Emma Holmes, who finds the clue, buried in the files of the Zabini case, that leads them to an anarchist group intent on providing an explosive finale to Coronation Day.

Now it’s up to Edgar, Max and Emma to foil the plot, and find out who it is who’s been dealing the cards.

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder
Sarah J Harris
(UK: HarperCollins, @HarperCollins, 2018; USA: Touchstone, @TouchstoneBooks, 2018)

Synaesthesia paints the sounds of his world in a kaleidoscope of colours that no one else can see. But on Friday, he discovered a new colour – the colour of murder.

He’s sure something has happened to his neighbour, Bee Larkham, but no-one else seems to be taking it as seriously as they should be. The knife and the screams are all mixed up in his head and he’s scared that he can’t quite remember anything clearly … But where is Bee? Why hasn’t she come home yet? Jasper must uncover the truth about that night – including his own role in what happened ….

Recommended by:
Ben Hurd, Trade Marketing Director, HarperCollins Publishers: at The Book Marketing Society

Slow Horses
(Slough House: book 1)
Mick Herron
(UK: John Murray, @johnmurrays, 2017; USA: Soho Crime, @soho_press, 2014)

You don’t stop being a spook just because you’re no longer in the game … Banished to Slough House from the ranks of achievers at Regent’s Park for various crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal, Jackson Lamb’s misfit crew of highly trained joes don’t run ops, they push paper … But not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a ‘slow horse’.

A boy is kidnapped and held hostage. His beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the net … And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren’t going to just sit quiet and watch …

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

Dead Lions
(Slough House: book 2)
Mick Herron
(UK: John Murray, @johnmurrays, 2017; USA: Soho Crime, @soho_press, 2014)

Dickie Bow is not an obvious target for assassination … But once a spook, always a spook. And Dickie was a talented streetwalker back in the day, before he turned up dead on a bus. A shadow. Good at following people, bringing home their secrets.

Dickie was in Berlin with Jackson Lamb. Now Lamb’s got his phone, and on it the last secret Dickie ever told, and reason to believe an old-time Moscow-style op is being run in the Service’s back-yard.

In the Intelligence Service purgatory that is Slough House, Jackson Lamb’s crew of back-office no-hopers is about to go live …

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

The Quantum Spy
David Ignatius
(UK: WW Norton & Company, @wwnortonuk, 2017; USA: WW Norton & Company, @wwnorton, 2017)

A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb; whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. The winner of the race to build the world’s first quantum machine will attain global dominance for generations to come. The question is, who will cross the finish line first: the USA or China?

In this gripping cyber thriller, the USA’s top-secret quantum research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, inciting a mole hunt of history-altering proportions. CIA officer Harris Chang leads the charge, pursuing his target from the towering cityscape of Singapore to the lush hills of the Pacific Northwest, the mountains of Mexico, and beyond. The investigation is obsessive, destructive, and – above all – uncertain. Do the leaks expose real secrets, or are they false trails meant to deceive the Chinese? The answer forces Chang to question everything he thought he knew about loyalty, morality, and the primacy of truth.

Recommended by:
WW Norton & Company: BookExpo America

With an annual list of 400 titles, WW Norton is a global company, its seagull logo appearing on books throughout the world. Though the Norton of today is international in scope, there is much about the company that would remain recognisable to its 1923 founders: the editorial quality of the books, the rigorously anti-corporate style and – above all – the shared sense of purpose that flourishes when all employees have a stake in the success of their firm.

Dead Simple
(Roy Grace: book 1)
Peter James
(UK: Pan Macmillan, @panmacmillan, 2014

It was meant to be a harmless stag-night prank. A few hours later Michael Harrison has disappeared and his friends are dead.

With only three days to the wedding, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace – a man haunted by the shadow of his own missing wife – is contacted by Michael’s beautiful, distraught fiancée, Ashley Harper.

Grace discovers that the one man who ought to know Michael Harrison’s whereabouts is saying nothing. But then he has a lot more to gain than anyone realizes, For one man’s disaster is another man’s fortune …

Recommended by:
Suzanne Collier, Founder and Director, bookcareers.com

Nightblind
(Dark Iceland: book 2)
Ragnar Jónasson
(UK: Orenda Books, @OrendaBooks,, 2016; USA: Minotaur Books, @MinotaurBooks, 2018)

Ari Thor Arason is a local policeman who has an uneasy relationship with the villagers in an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland―where no one locks their doors.

The peace of this close-knit community is shattered by a murder. One of Ari’s colleagues is gunned down at point-blank range in the dead of night in a deserted house. With a killer on the loose and the dark Arctic waters closing in, it falls to Ari Thor to piece together a puzzle that involves a new mayor and a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik. It becomes all too clear that tragic events from the past are weaving a sinister spell that may threaten them all.

Recommended by:
Luke Conboye: via Twitter (@Someronrebel)

Self-described on Twitter as ‘a Cork man exiled in Finland’, Luke is a soccer fan, supporting Cork City FC (via its supporters’ trust, FORAS) and Arsenal FC.

A Conspiracy of Paper
David Liss
(UK: Abacus Books, @AbacusBooks, 2001; USA: Ballantine Books, @randomhouse, 2001)

Benjamin Weaver is an outsider in 18th-century London: a Jew among Christians; a ruffian among aristocrats; a retired pugilist who, hired by London’s gentry, travels through the criminal underworld in pursuit of debtors and thieves.

In A Conspiracy of Paper, Weaver must investigate a crime of the most personal sort, involving the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stockdealer. To find the answers, Weaver contends with a garrulous prostitute who knows too much about his past, estranged relatives who remind him of his alienation from the Jewish faith, and a group of powerful men in the world of finance who have disguised their business dealings with an intricate web of deception and violence.

Relying on brains and brawn, Weaver uncovers the beginnings of a strange new economic order based on stock speculation – a way of life that poses great risk for investors, but real danger for Weaver and his family.

Recommended by:
Paul Atherton, Managing Director, Simple (TV) Productions Ltd (film/television)

Paul is a British television producer and director, who was the first person to screen a film on the Coca-Cola billboard at Piccadilly Circus. His latest projects include: working with the Museum of Homelessness on an installation project to tackle stereotypes about homeless people (September 2018); and delivering a Video Diary Workshop at the Museum of London as part of CityRead London, a campaign to encourage reading and library use in the capital by highlighting one book for Londoners to read in one month (May 2019).

The Innocent Wife
Amy Lloyd
(UK: Century, @PenguinRHUK, 2017; USA: Hanover Square Press, @Hanover_Square, 2018)

You’re in love with a man on Death Row in Florida, convicted of a brutal murder twenty years ago. You’re convinced he didn’t do it – and you’re determined to prove it. Now you’re married to him, and he’s a free man, his conviction overturned. You’re overjoyed. After all, he’s innocent …. Isn’t he?

Recommended by:
Celeste Ward-Best, Head of Marketing, Century: at The Book Marketing Society meeting

Century was founded in 1982 by Gail Rebuck with four colleagues, and is one of the most successful and well-regarded commercial imprints in the UK (as part of the Cornerstone cluster of imprints within Penguin Random House. On the fiction side, the imprint publishes some of the most successful brand authors in the UK; it also publishes a wide range of bestselling non-fiction, including celebrities, musicians and real-life stories from household names. Century also publishes acclaimed true crime and sporting classics, many of which go on to inspire films and TV series.

Killings the Shadows
Val McDermid
(UK: HarperCollins, @HarperCollinsUK, 2012; USA: Minotaur Books, @MinotaurBooks, 2002)

A murderer is at large, hunting with a bloodlust that shatters all the conventional wisdom on how serial killers operate.

Professor Fiona Cameron is a psychologist who uses computer technology to track serial offenders. She vowed never to work for the Met again after they went against her advice and screwed up an investigation as a result. But when her lover, thriller writer Kit Martin, tells her a fellow crime novelist has been murdered, Fiona can’t help taking an interest.

With the killer striking again, Fiona is caught in a race against time, not only to save a life, but to bring herself redemption, both personal and professional.

Recommended by:
Suzanne Collier, Founder and Director, bookcareers.com

A Rising Man
(Sam Wyndham: book 1)
Abir Mukherjee
(UK: Vintage, @vintagebooks, 2017; USA: Pegasus Books, @Pegasus_Books, 2018)

India, 1919. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta’s police force.

He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim was a senior official, and a note in his mouth warns the British to leave India – or else.

With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and Sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them ….

Recommended by:
Nikki East, Director, artEAST Creative Communications | Co-Founder, Hull Noir

Nikki specialises in the book trade (often with first-time authors) by making the complex world of brand identity, digital online presence and promotions simple to understand. She listens and acts on what authors need and offers honest opinions and advice on how she can help. She crafts projects with bespoke requirements on time and within budget, offering a range of services. Nikki co-founded and co-produced the inaugural Hull Noir in November 2017, as part of the city’s UK City of Culture festivities; Hull played host to the prestigious Iceland Noir on their bi-annual travels from the festival’s home city of Reykjavik. Hull Noir celebrated the best of British and international crime fiction, with guests including Martina Cole, Mark Billingham and John Connolly.

Baby Doll
Hollie Overton
(UK: Arrow, @arrowpublishing, 2016; USA: Redhook, @redhookbooks, 2017)

You’ve been held captive in one room …. You’ve been mentally and physically abused every day since you were sixteen years old …. Then, one night, you realise your captor has left the door to your cell unlocked …. For the first time in eight years you’re free …. This is what happens next.

Recommended by:
David Wardrop, Independent Civic and Social Organisation Professional | Chairman, United Nations Association (Westminster branch); Director, We the Peoples Film Festival; Editor, HammarskjoldInquiry.info; Mentor, World G18 Somalia

As the only UK charity devoted to building support for an effective UN, the United Nations Association UK believes the starting point for realising this vision is stimulating action in the UK. Their mission is to make the case for an effective UN to British policy-makers and the public. David chairs the Westminster branch and is a member of the UNA Policy Committee.

David also serves as Director of the We the Peoples Film Festival, held every November in London. Formed in 2006, the film festival strives to increase awareness and support in the UK and global film industry for the development work of the UN, its agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations. They believe that raising awareness for development, security & peace and human rights encourages future generations to make a positive difference to people’s lives in the UK and across the world.

In the mid 1990s, as head of the UK’s Friends of UNESCO campaign, David was an early and vociferous advocate for the UK book trade to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day commercially. The legacy of this effort is World Book Day in the UK.

David is also the Director of Strategies for Peace, a group of retired military officers working in the fields of conflict prevention and conflict resolution, Chairman of the International Friends of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the library located on the site of the ancient world’s most famous library, and Secretary of the Hammersmith & Fulham Local Agenda 21 Forum.

The Travelers
Chris Pavone
(UK: Faber & Faber, @FaberBooks, 2016; USA: Broadway Books, @CrownPublishing, 2018)

Meet Will Rhodes: travel writer, recently married, barely solvent, his idealism rapidly giving way to disillusionment and the worry that he’s living the wrong life. Then one night in Argentina a beautiful woman makes him an offer he can’t refuse.

Soon Will’s bad choices – and dark secrets – take him across Europe, from a Bordeaux chateau to a midnight raid in Paris, from a Dublin dive-bar to a mega-yacht in the Mediterranean and an isolated cabin perched on the cliffs of Iceland.

As Will is drawn further into a tangled web of international intrigue, it becomes clear that the network of deception ensnaring him is part of an immense and deadly conspiracy with terrifying global implications – and that the people closest to him may pose the greatest threat of all.

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

The Last Cut
(DS Harri Jacobs: book 1)
Danielle Ramsay
(UK: Mulholland Books, @MulhollandUK, 2017)

DS Harri Jacobs transferred to Newcastle from London’s Metropolitan Police force in the hope of leaving her past behind: the moment where her stalker turned violent. He left her alive, saying that one day he would be back. And she ran …. But a year later, she realises he has followed her from home. He’ll prove his devotion. With blood ….

Recommended by:
Nikki East, Director, artEAST Creative Communications | Co-Founder, Hull Noir
Nikki says: ‘This book has a brilliant and unique protagonist.’

Bonfire
Krysten Ritter
(UK: Windmill Books, @WindmillBooks, 2018; USA: Three Rivers Press, @CrownPublishing, 2018)

It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small-town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town’s most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’s biggest scandal from more than a decade ago, involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends – just before Kaycee disappeared for good.

Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as she tries desperately to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface and she begins to doubt her own observations. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret – a ritual called ‘The Game’ – it will threaten reputations, and lives, in the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her.

Recommended by:
Three Rivers Press: at BookExpo America

Edge of Darkness
(Cincinnati: book 4)
Karen Rose
(UK: Headline, @headlinepg, 2018; USA: Berkley Publishing, @BerkleyPub, 2018)

Homicide detective Adam Kimble is no stranger to battling demons. But Meredith Fallon is a different kind of weakness: one that could actually be good for him, if only he would let himself depend on her. Meredith has loved Adam for a year, and seeing how hard he’s worked to deal with his PTSD makes her feelings only stronger, but she respects his needs. Her work keeps her busy anyway: she counsels sexually abused women like Mallory Martin to help them reintegrate into the world.

But someone doesn’t want Meredith helping women like Mallory, and Meredith finds herself the target of a very determined killer. Adam would risk anything for Meredith, but they’ll soon find out the killer is just a little too close to home…

Recommended by:
Kirstie Long, Senior Compliance Manager: Oversight, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
Kirstie says: ‘The queen of suspense with a dash of romance. She brings her characters together in an intricate plot based in reality’

Kirstie ran The B Word blog. She explains how the blog started: ‘I am a lover of books. That’s me really; a reader and someone passionate about keeping writers writing and looking for new talent.

How did I start? I met someone in a book signing queue and entered the reviewing world of crime fiction, writing for ShotsMag and CrimeSquad over a period of years. In that time I have met many of my favourite writers and been lucky enough to not only interview them but share drinks and meals. I’ve also put new writers in touch with agents and helped book deals happen, plus proof read, edited and helped books take shape.

My favourite genres are crime and the more erotic side of romance and/or paranormal romance – which gives me a lot of scope and crossover. Not everyone reads more than one genre and many sites focus on one too which is a lot easier since there are so so many books – I wanted a site where I could talk about everything I enjoy and The B Word took shape.’

Mistletoe and Murder
(UK: Murder Most Unladylike Mystery; USA: Wells & Wong Mystery: book 5)
Robin Stevens
(UK: Puffin, @PuffinBooks, 2016; USA: Simon & Schuster Young Books, @simonschuster, 2018)

It’s Christmas, the snow is falling in Cambridge where the detective duo Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are spending the festive period … But Hazel’s hopes of relaxing amongst the beautiful spires, cosy libraries and inviting tea-rooms are dashed by the danger lurking in the dark stairwells of Maudlin College.

Two days before Christmas, there is a terrible accident … At least, it appears to be an accident – until the Detective Society look a little closer, and realise a murder has taken place.

Faced with several irritating grown-ups and fierce competition from a rival agency, they must use all their cunning and courage to find the killer (in time for Christmas Day, of course).

Recommended by:
Sanne Vliegenthart, Freelance Digital Producer | Consultancy: Booksandquills; YouTube channel: Booksandquills

Then She Was Gone
(DI Murphy and DS Rossi: book 5)
Luca Veste
(UK: Simon & Schuster UK, @simonschusterUK, 2016)

Tim Johnson took his baby daughter out for a walk and she never made it home. Johnson claims he was assaulted and the girl was snatched. The police see a different crime, with Johnson their only suspect.

A year later, Sam Bryne is on course to be elected as one of the youngest MPs in Westminster. He’s tipped for the very top … until he vanishes.

Detectives Murphy and Rossi are tasked with discovering what has happened to the popular politician – and in doing so, they unearth a trail that stretches into the past, and crimes that someone is hell-bent on avenging.

Recommended by:
Alyson Shipley, Wife, Mum

Hydra
(Six Stories: book 2)
Matt Wesolowski
(UK: Orenda Books, @OrendaBooks, 2017)

One cold November night in 2014, in a small town in the northwest of England, 21-year-old Arla Macleod bludgeoned her mother, stepfather and younger sister to death with a hammer, in an unprovoked attack known as the Macleod Massacre. Now incarcerated at a medium-security mental-health institution, Arla will speak to no one but Scott King, an investigative journalist, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation.

King finds himself immersed in an increasingly complex case, interviewing five key witnesses and Arla herself, as he questions whether Arla’s responsibility for the massacre was as diminished as her legal team made out.

As he unpicks the stories, he finds himself thrust into a world of deadly forbidden ‘games’, online trolls, and the mysterious black-eyed kids, whose presence seems to extend far beyond the delusions of a murderess …

Recommended by:
Susan Heads, Blogger, The Book Trail | Freelance writer, translator, digital marketer

The inspiration for the blog (now website) was a literary character by the name of Phileas Fogg, protagonist of Jules Verne‘s novel Around the World in 80 Days (Amazon: UK | USA): one of the first books read to Susan as a child. The book that made her want to travel, speak French like Passepartout and ‘go anywhere’, just like those two! As well as travelling, what about being able to read your way around the world? Take a book, visit the locations in it and see where it takes you. A trail of sorts like the one in the novel.

Susan has discovered many things through books – places and languages – and she reads foreign language books to discover the country or the city she is in at the time. Even better is to discover a location via a book written of a far away place she has still yet to go. Seeing a place through the eyes of a character or indeed the author is a rare treat indeed. Like a personal guide, a novel can be a guide book with a difference! Susan hopes the blog inspires readers and travellers alike to travel literary style and place their favourite book on the map.

Child Taken
Darren Young
(UK: RedDoor Publishing, @RedDoorBooks, 2017)

One hot summer’s day, two-year-old Jessica Preston disappears from the beach. The police are convinced she drowned, but Sandra Preston won’t give up hope that her daughter is still alive. How can she?

Twenty years later, another child goes missing, and Sandra is approached by a young journalist who raises questions about what really happened to Jessica Preston all those years ago. But when the journalist discovers someone with an explosive secret, it threatens not only to reveal what’s been covered up for so long, but puts both their lives in danger.

Recommended by:
Clare Christian, Publisher, RedDoor Publishing

Clare is a highly experienced publisher and past winner of the UK Young Publisher of the Year award. She worked for number of the larger publishing houses including Hodder, Orion, John Wiley and Pearson before co-founding The Friday Project in 2005 where she published a number of brilliant books including In Search of Adam by Caroline Smailes (Amazon: UK | USA), Blood, Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds (Amazon: UK | USA) and Confessions of a GP by Dr Benjamin Daniels (Amazon: UK | USA). TFP was sold to HarperCollins in 2008 and Clare stayed on until 2009 before leaving to offer publishing consultancy services under the banner of The Book Guru. She launched RedDoor in 2014.

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Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

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