Romanzo Criminale
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title. A massive Italian bestseller, this epic saga of crime and retribution set against decades of Roman turmoil, has already been the object of a major movie and inspired a successful TV series but it's taken over a decade for it to reach English-reading shores and not a day too soon! Based on the rise and fall of a genuine gang who pulled the strings of crime, corruption and political machinations in Rome for countless years, this weighty novel has a grand sweep with a colourful cast of characters on both sides of the law and crime divide and brings a whole world to life with brio on a canvas which reminds one of the GODFATHER saga, albeit with somewhat more realism involved. Storytelling on a grand scale which established De Catado as the foremost modern Italian crime writer overnight. A must if you are into translated crime. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
The Saint Zita Society
'Someone had told Dex that the Queen lived in Victoria. So did he, but she had a palace and he had one room in a street off Warwick Way. Still he liked the idea that she was his neighbour.' Dex works as a gardener for Dr Jefferson at his home on Hexam Place in Pimlico: an exclusive street of white-painted stucco Georgian houses inhabited by the rich, and serviced by the not so rich. The hired help, a motley assortment of au pairs, drivers and cleaners, decide to form the St Zita Society (Zita was the patron saint of domestic servants) as an excuse to meet at the local pub and air their grievances. When Dex is invited to attend one of these meetings, the others find that he is a strange man, seemingly ill at ease with human beings. These first impressions are compounded when they discover he has recently been released from a hospital for the criminally insane, where he was incarcerated for attempting to kill his own mother. Dex's most meaningful relationship seems to be with his mobile phone service provider, Peach, and he interprets the text notifications and messages he receives from the company as a reassuring sign that there is some kind of god who will protect him. And give him instructions about ridding the world of evil spirits...Accidental death and pathological madness cohabit above and below stairs in Hexam Place.
The Honey Guide
Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2014. One of our Books of the Year 2013. With sharply plotted storylines and interesting locations ex BBC journalist Richard Crompton’s debut novel, described as Alexander McCall Smith meets Ian Rankin, has some real appeal. It is the first in a powerful crime series featuring the engaging and unforgettable hero, Mollel, a former Maasai warrior turned police detective. Set against the backdrop of the turbulent 2007 elections in Kenya in a country where corruption, exploitation and ethnic rivalry are part of everyday life The Honey Guide brings Nairobi and its people vividly to life. It captures the spirit and energy of a city poised on the brink of change. Can Mollel every truly find justice for one poor girl who trusted the wrong people? This is an accomplished crime thriller, with a new character, Mollel, who will do for Nairobi what Ian Rankin’s Rebus did for Edinburgh.
The Book of Souls
Every year for ten years, a young woman's body was found in Edinburgh at Christmas time: naked, throat slit, body washed clean. Ten years, ten women. The final victim, Kirsty Summers, was Detective Constable Tony McLean's fiancee. A 'Piece of Passion' from the Publisher... 'If you are a fan of seriously good crime fiction, then you will love James Oswald’s Inspector McLean series. The first novel of the series, Natural Causes, introduces one of the most compelling detective lead characters in contemporary crime fiction, Tony McLean. McLean is defined by his ineffable humanity – his quiet and dogged determination to seek justice for the victims of the crimes he investigates. Oswald’s writing is reminiscent of Ian Rankin or Stuart McBride’s Scottish noir, but is also tinged with a slight trace of the supernatural – which adds an intriguing nuance to the stories. I guarantee that once you start this excellent series – you will race through James’s novels, and be left hungry for more.' - Alex Clarke, Editor, Penguin Books
Real Murders An Aurora Teagarden Novel
Aurora Teagarden: 1Real Murders is a crime club. A great opportunity for the people of Lawrenceton to get together, drink wine, eat chocolate and talk at length about grisly killings. It's a strange but harmless pastime. That is, until the murders begin...One night, librarian Aurora 'Roe' Teagarden finds a dead body. Killed in a manner eerily similar to a famous case they were about to discuss. And as more brutal copycat crimes follow, Roe must find the perpetrator. Quickly. Before she becomes the next suspect...or the next victim.
Safe as Houses
July 2013 Debut of the Month. An atmospheric page-turning thriller, from a bestselling Dutch author, that is cleverly written in the third person, present tense to get you really involved in the action. In an isolated house a mother and daughter are held captive by an escaped psychiatric prisoner - but why hasn't the woman who appeared briefly at the window brought help? Simmering with tension and lust for revenge, Safe as Houses is a terrifying story of every woman's worst fears.
Shakespeare's Landlord A Lily Bard Mystery
A Lily Bard Mystery: 1. Welcome to Shakespeare, Arkansas. Lily Bard came to the small town of Shakespeare to escape her dark and violent past. So when she spots a dead body being dumped in the town green, she's inclined to stay well away. But she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and despite her best efforts, she's dragged into the murder case. Lily doesn't care who did it, but when the police and local community start pointing fingers in her direction, she realises that if she doesn't unmask the killer, her new life will not simply crumble. It will end.
Sweet and Deadly and a Secret Rage
Two heroines. Two Southern towns. Two blistering crime novels. Well before Charlaine Harris rose to fame with her Sookie Stackhouse novels, made infamous by the True Blood TV series, she wrote some highly readable crime novels. This book features two of them, both set in small towns in Southern USA with lots of dark and deadly secrets. Click here to see Real Murders (the first in Aurora Teagarden series) and Shakespeare's Landlord (the first in the Lily Bard Series), also by this author.
The Cutting Season
Gripping, atmospheric and tragic. Top class literary crime fiction from the Orange Prize shortlisted author of Black Water Rising. Just after dawn, Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug up by the fence bordering the sugar cane fields. Assuming an animal has been out after dark, she asks the gardener to tidy it up. It is a dead body. Attica Locke once again provides an unblinking commentary on politics, race, the law, family and love.
The Beautiful Mystery
A MONASTERY Hidden deep in the wilderness are the cloisters of two dozen monks - men of prayer and music, famous the world over for their glorious voices. A MURDER But a brutal death throws the monastery doors open to the world. And through them walks the only man who can shine light upon the dark deeds within: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. A MYSTERY Who among the brothers has become an angel of death? As the peace of the monastery crumbles around him, Gamache finds clues in the divine, the human, and the cracks in between.
The Elephant Girl
A fast-moving romantic thriller set around an auction house and possible illegal trading. We think it’s another hit from small publisher Choc Lit. Twenty years after witnessing her mother’s murder, and living in India, Helen is still struggling to come to terms with the loss. Then she find out the woman convicted of the murder has been released from prison and she goes home to London to try to put some ghosts to rest.Following on from Henriette’s successful debut, Up Close, this is another gripping thriller. Choc Lit, the publisher of this novel, was the 2012 Publisher of the Year as voted for by the Festival of Romance.
Bloodline
Dick Francis’s younger son Felix carries on the tradition of racing thrillers began by his father. Mark Shilling, normally a racing commentator, turns amateur sleuth after the tragic death of his sister in what the police see as a suicide. Packed with all the hair-raising suspense and excitement readers know and love from Dick Francis, Bloodline cements Felix Francis' reputation as a master of thriller-writing.
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