THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE by Tom Bouman

THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE Tom Bouman (www.tomboumanbooks.com) Faber & Faber (www.faber.co.uk) £8.99 When a headless body, half-eaten by bears, is found in the woods outside the small town of Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, local policeman Henry Farrell finds himself partnered with biologist and bear expert Dr Mary Weaver, hunting the bear before its new-found taste […]

INFLUENCES: What Inspired WIDOW’S WELCOME by D.K. Fields

WIDOW’S WELCOME D.K. Fields (dkfields.blogspot.com) Head of Zeus (headofzeus.com) £8.99 What inspired Widow’s Welcome? In short: “Mi dispiace, il mio italiano non va bene”. This became a mantra for us when travelling in Italy – “I’m sorry, my Italian is not good”. Whether Kath was trying to order peach ice cream but kept saying ‘fish’, […]

An Excerpt from BORN SLIPPY by Tom Lutz

BORN SLIPPY Tom Lutz (www.tomlutzwriter.com) Repeater Books (repeaterbooks.com) £10.99 He left the bank and got in a cab. The cabbie turned and looked at him, waiting for an address. Frank pointed to the Bank of China bankbook; the driver looked confused, but then nodded and took him to a branch. Frank went in, waited briefly […]

THE BURNING MEN by Will Shindler

THE BURNING MEN Will Shindler Hodder & Stoughon (hodder.co.uk) £16.99 When an ex-fireman is doused in accelerant and set alight at his wedding, Detective Inspector Alex Finn finds himself leading the investigation despite the fact that he shouldn’t even be working. The deceased paid for the lavish party out of his own pocket, and when […]

WATCHING FROM THE DARK by Gytha Lodge

WATCHING FROM THE DARK Gytha Lodge Michael Joseph (www.penguin.co.uk) £12.99 While Skyping his girlfriend late one evening, Aidan Poole watches as someone enters her apartment and apparently kills her while she is in the bath. He sends an email to the police providing them with as many details as he can. But he can’t provide […]

ALL THE RAGE by Cara Hunter

ALL THE RAGE Cara Hunter Penguin Books (penguin.co.uk) £7.99 Teenager Faith Appleford is abducted from a bus stop on the busy Oxford road during the morning rush hour, bundled into a van and taken to a shed on an allotment. Before her abductor can finish what he started, he is frightened off by the sound […]

PAYBACK by R.C. Bridgestock

PAYBACK R.C. Bridgestock (www.rcbridgestock.com) The Dome Press (www.thedomepress.com) £8.99 Charley Mann returns to her Yorkshire hometown of Huddersfield, following a 4-year secondment to London, to take on the role of head of CID in the station where she spent her formative years in the police force. With barely a chance to meet old friends, and […]

THE GOD GAME by Danny Tobey

THE GOD GAME Danny Tobey (www.facebook.com/dannytobeybooks) Gollancz (www.gollancz.co.uk) £16.99 Charlie and his friends are high-school misfits. Nerds and losers, the group of five friends call themselves the Vindicators, and spend most of their free time in the school’s Tech Lab, coding and building robots. Charlie, once a star student, has let his work suffer following […]

THE LAST HUNT by Deon Meyer

THE LAST HUNT Deon Meyer (www.deonmeyer.com) Translated by K.L. Seegers Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £19.99 Ex-cop Johnson Johnson’s body is found in the wilderness, beside a railway line days after he disappears from the world’s most luxurious train. Captains Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido, stars of South African police’s elite Hawks unit are assigned what […]

I WILL MISS YOU TOMORROW by Heine Bakkeid

I WILL MISS YOU TOMORROW Heine Bakkeid (heinebakkeid.com) Translated by Anne Bruce Raven Books (www.bloomsbury.com) £12.99 Fresh out of prison, ex-policeman and Internal Affairs investigator Thorkild Aske is hired to investigate the disappearance of a young man on the remote northern coast of Norway. Rasmus Moritzen, known by residents of the area around Tromsø as […]