Crime of Privilege by Walter Walker
In March 1996 George Becket was a guest at a party in the Cape Cod home of Senator Gregory, patriarch of America's most loved and influential family. Outwardly everything looked wholesome and fun as the Senator did an impromptu song and dance act with his sister but in the library George was present when Jamie Gregory and Peter Gregory Martin raped a young woman who was too drunk to either assent or protest. It was only George's intervention which prevented the assault becoming more violent. But for the young woman, Kendrick Powell, the rape was devastating and before long she was dead. She too was the child of an influential and wealthy family. But the Gregory clan sticks together and no action was taken against Jamie or Peter and it was the senator's influence which secured George Becket a post in the Cape Cod DA's office. It might seem that the matter was closed - but the Powell family were determined that George would suffer for not having spoken out against the Gregory family. Full review...
Penitence by Bruce Crowther
Phil Davis is a detective in a small town in Texas and he's intrigued rather than professionally involved when he sees the body of an elderly road accident victim whose back is covered with scars which have obviously been inflicted over years if not decades. There's no suggestion that the death was anything other than accidental but Davis starts to wonder when he hears of other men with similar scars who have met an untimely - if seemingly innocent - death recently. And all his investigative instincts are alive when he encounters FBI agent Luis Valdez - seemingly one of the big beasts of the agency who's spending time looking into a murder with which he was incidentally involved as an adolescent some twenty five years earlier. To cap it all, someone was tried for the crime and has been in a mental institution since, so what is Valdez doing? Full review...
Chasing Heart: 1 (Ellen Martin Disasters) by Mark Lingane
Ellen Martin is a driving, ambitious US lawyer, so when her boss sends her to the Colombian town of Barrancabermeja (Barranca for short, mercifully) for a touch of charity work it would be career threatening to protest too strongly. Besides it only amounts to getting someone out of prison. Soon after arriving Ellen realises that there's more than one person who needs rescuing; she can add herself to the list. Luckily for her Barranca is also the home of her personal trainer's nephew and, luckier still, he has a housemate called Alex. Indeed during Ellen's stay Alex is going to be more than useful. Once Barranca really shows its true colours Alex is going to be indispensable. Full review...
The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
Nizam pushes a barrow up to a fortified US army base in Afghanistan. What is she doing there? How will the soldiers react? What do they believe: their experience, their training, their gut reaction or a young girl amputee in the middle of the desert who may be the last thing they ever see? Full review...
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
As The Shining Girls’ tagline says, this is a thriller that breaks all the boundaries. It’s a vicious murder plot that’s based on science fiction concepts, a science fiction novel which leaves its central concepts barely, sparely explained. I haven’t read anything like it before, and in a strong and crowded crime fiction field it stands out like a searchlight. But beware. If you’re sitting comfortably as you begin reading The Shining Girls, you won’t be for long. This book sets out to cut you up inside. Full review...
Traitor's Field by Robert Wilton
It's 1648 and the embers of Charles I's reign start to fade as Britain slowly turns the monotone colour of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. However, Royalist passion still exists and it's up to Sir Mortimer Shay, the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey, to gather the intelligence, maintain his spy network and fan the embers towards the Royalist victory for which he longs. He's a wily veteran so not easily stopped but among the confusion and brutality that tears Britain in half, former lawyer Cromwell's spymaster John Thurloe is the man charged with the task. Full review...
Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly
Lisa Kallisto is almost the typical Mum. She's got a husband and three children and she's permanently tired. Her full-time job at the local animal rescue centre frequently spills over into her home life and she's constantly chasing around trying to catch up with what she ought to have done. Husband Joe is a taxi driver and they can only just manage to afford the rent on their cottage in the picturesque lake district. It's normally pretty crime free but then a young girl - really only a child - is abducted and brutally raped. Then another girl of about the same age goes missing and Lisa was responsible for her safety. What do you say, what do you do in that situation? Lisa is about to find out. Full review...
A Delicate Truth by John le Carre
It's 2008 and Paul is recruited by, apparently, the government to assist in an undercover operation in Gibraltar. It's perfectly straightforward and its success will impede a cell of Al Qaeda. Paul performs, is thanked and taken home without complications. Fast forward to 2011 and Toby Bell is promoted to the role of private secretary for Paul's recruiter, MP Fergus Quinn. Whilst acquainting himself with Quinn's CV, Toby uncovers the story of the mission, discovering not only Quinn's involvement but hints that it may not have been as straightforward as all that. Quinn also appears to have been connected with an organisation that's not all it seems, unfortunately for a particular pillar of a Cornish community for whom life will never be the same again. Full review...
4 Bones Sleeping by Gerald Wixey
There's quite a contrast between the settings in 4 Bones Sleeping. To begin with there's the time. Just about everything that happens goes back to the end of the Second World War and just afterwards, when people were coming to terms with having won the war, but not quite knowing what to do with the peace. Then there's 1980 when we wondered if we'd won the war, but lost the peace. The places are very different too: the people involved in this story have their being in the seedier parts of London in the post-war years, but what are they all doing in a one-horse town in rural Oxfordshire? And where did the money come from which allowed Jack to own the local newspaper and make Harry the landlord of the pub? Full review...
Last Snow (Jack McClure Trilogy) by Eric Van Lustbader
Jack McClure, aide and friend to the US president, is back at work after the death of his daughter and the resolved kidnapping of President Carson's own daughter, Alli. However, Jack hasn't fully recovered; he's still in mourning and full of self-recrimination but the show must go on. When an American senator is killed in Capri Jack's on hand to investigate, starting a mission that will take him into the Ukraine and the seamier side of power on both sides of the Atlantic. Apparently not all the President's closest advisors can be trusted and that's not Jack's only complication. After Alli's traumatic experiences at the hands of Morgan Herr Jack is the only person she trusts, so she's coming along for the ride, through hell, high water and a few murders. Full review...
Maria & The Devil by Graham Thomas
The Devil has ridden out.
Maria's lover is Montana's most feared outlaw. He has left her alone in a secluded cabin deep in the wilderness. Maria is pregnant. Left in solitude, she develops a familiar routine that feels safe. But the isolation is pervasive and Maria's defences against it are crumbling. And while she waits for her lover to return, she is discovered by Rickman Chill, whose gang is tracking the Devil in a relentless quest for revenge. What will happen when Chill discovers Maria's identity? Will the Devil return in time? Full review...
The Coldest War (Milkweed Triptych) by Ian Tregillis
England 1963: The war is over, Hitler defeated and the Russians (Britain's ally) retain most of mainland Europe. The Briton in the street believes that it was Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain that saved the nation but ex-naval intelligence officer Raybould 'Pip' Marsh and his former friend Lord William Beauclerk know differently. The nation was saved by warlocks like Lord Will, the same warlocks that are now being murdered. However, fighting over, Pip and Will are both war-weary and want to be left alone but the Secret Intelligence Service has other ideas. For the Nazi experimental 'willpower' children are now adult and assembling in England, still equipped with the super powers of their childhood. This means Will and Pip have old scores to settle and greater evils waiting to be faced… Yes… those greater evils are back. Full review...
The Carrier by Sophie Hannah
Due to a delayed flight home, Gaby has to stay overnight in a German hotel with fellow passenger Lauren. During the night Lauren tells Gaby about a man charged with the murder of his paralysed wife. At this point two things strike Gaby: 1. Lauren believes him to be innocent. 2. He's Tim Breary, Gaby's former lover with whom she has unfinished business. Once home Gaby is determined to prove his innocence but that's easier said than done. Full review...
Burden of the Desert by Justin Huggler
Journalist Zoe Temple can't believe her luck when she's sent to Iraq to cover the birth of an emerging nation, not thinking that such luck can sometimes run out. Mahmoud earns his money driving journalists from story to story, sometimes only just escaping intact. However, the most dangerous thing he will ever do is fall in love. Rick Benes is one of the American soldiers on the news, his only ambition being to get his platoon home safely as Iraq's birth pangs are violent and unrelenting. And then there's Adel, a young Iraqi lad who never dreamt of violence; not until the day that Benes killed his family. Full review...
Blood Pool by J E Ryder
Samantha Shelley was surprised to become the owner of a boatyard when her husband died in a cliff fall. She had worked in the East Devon boatyard - run it in fact - for quite some time but it's the men of the Shelley 'blood pool' who have always inherited the land for the past two hundred years. She was aware of ill-feeling against her in the village, but her priority was to keep the business running as smoothly as possible for herself and for the staff she employed. There was some support in the village - an old friend, known to one and all as 'the Prof' - had always been there for her and willing to listen to her outpourings or just to chatter as she drank coffee. Then he disappeared in violent circumstances. Full review...
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
There’s a distressing moment in any long-term relationship where you realise that, in practice, happily ever after looks a lot like an eternity of small, snarling arguments about who forgot to buy food, who should take out the rubbish and who is responsible for that mouldering pile of clothes in the corner of the bedroom. Domestic bliss is often more like very polite guerrilla warfare between two people who love each other so much that they want to spend the rest of their lives fighting about it. You and your partner are absolutely in each other’s pockets – but no matter how close you are, there’s always one last barrier you can’t break down. You aren’t them, and they aren’t you, and so you can never truly know what’s really going on inside that well-known head. Full review...
The Rook (The Checquy Files) by Daniel O'Malley
A woman wakes up with amnesia surrounded by dead people wearing gloves. In her pocket she discovers a letter from Myfanwy Thomas, the previous inhabiter of her body. Myfanwy tells a strange story of working for 'the Checquy', a paranormal version of MI5 which has been permeated by a web of betrayal and danger. The problem is that Myfanwy never discovered the source before her body changed hands (so to speak). The amnesiac has a clear choice: to continue Myfanwy's investigation or to do a runner. It's her decision but Myfanwy's warning is less than encouraging:
- Remember they want you dead.
Something for her to bear in mind along with the fatal, unintended consequences of permitting cheap cheese into the UK. Full review...
The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst
The reluctant, recently widowed Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier is military attaché to the French embassy in the Warsaw of 1937. Decorated during World War I, Mercier would rather be a field officer than attend endless receptions, parties and debriefing sessions necessary for his unofficial role, handling citizens who are encouraged or coerced to work against the interests of other states. He watches whilst Poland is squeezed between the Nazis on one side and the increasing profile of Stalin and Russia on the other, convinced that war will not only be inevitable, but soon. However, no one will listen to him as he gathers evidence and protects those he can from the onslaught to follow. Full review...
The Orchid Field by Amy McLellan
In London petroleums expert Catherine Davenport ponders whether a change of employer is going to be to her advantage. An ill-advised fling with her boss is causing her embarrassment at work, particularly now that he has a new born child. An offer of a job that would take her out to Mexico to do a report on an off-shore oil field is too good an opportunity to miss. In Mexico Inspector Cortez is languishing in Port Luz in the back of beyond, sent in disgrace from his post in the city. He knows that he’s not - and never has been - corrupt but no one else believes him. In fact it’s seen as normal. Then a body appears on the beach and the local fishermen point out into the gulf and tell him that it came from there. When he looks more closely he realises that they mean the oil rigs. Full review...
Shadow on the Sun by R Julian Cox
There's always been a quandary for the ethically-minded scientist - what to do when your scientific discoveries can be used for less-than-ethical purposes. Robert Oppenheimer faced this problem when his work as a theoretical physicist resulted in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dr Jonathan Anderson faces a similar situation and - unbelievably - the consequences could be even more far reaching than the consequences of Oppenheimer's work. There's a conflict with his strong religious beliefs as well as with his professional ethics. Full review...
The Arthur Moreau Story by Guy Booth
You could be forgiven for thinking that Johnny Debrett is an unlikely hero, given his occupation as a seller of second hand books, but he has some illustrious connections, not least to Sir Frederick Appleby. Some say that he runs the country and Appleby's deputy, Peter Tyndale is married to Debrett's sister, Celia. Our tale began many years before with some two hundred mysterious and widely reported deaths on a French island which hadn't elicited a single cry of grief from a relative, but we join the story as Appleby asks Debrett to attend the funeral in France of a former business partner, Arthur Moreau. There are, apparently, some unresolved queries about Moreau and despite Debrett's estrangement from the deceased over recent years he's thought to be the person best able to obtain the answers. Full review...
The Burning Air by Erin Kelly
It's the Macbrides' annual Guy Fawkes' weekend trip to their Devon holiday home but much has changed since the last Bonfire Night. Their mother Lydia has died, their father Rowan copes only with alcoholic aid and the marriage of Sophie and Will has fireworks of its own. Some happiness exists though: Tara and partner Matt are deeply in love and Felix is bringing his first serious girlfriend to the gathering. Her name's Kerry and, by the end of the weekend, she'll have kidnapped Sophie's baby revealing darkest secrets that refuse to remain buried. Full review...
The Sentinel by Mark Oldfield
Plaza De Toros, Badajoz, 15th August 1936: a group of prisoners are marched across the sands of the bullring, lined up against the barrera and, mown down rifle-fire. The first group of many.
Cut to 2009. In the mountains known as the Sierra de Gredos in central Spain, there was mine. For some reason it was abruptly closed in 1953. On another newbie-assignment forensic investigator Dr Ana Maria Galindez is about to find out why. Full review...
The Soldier's Story by Bryan Forbes
Alex Seaton awaits his post-war demob from the British army in Germany while tracking down wrong-doers ranging from allied black-marketeers to Nazi war criminals. Although fraternisation with locals is still frowned on, Alex meets and befriends university lecturer Professor Grundwall after a chance meeting. United by their love of books, Alex becomes a regular visitor to the Professor's home. However books aren't the only attraction: Alex gradually falls in love with the Professor's daughter, Lisa. Their future together seems assured until Alex uncovers a secret that will rip to the core of Alex's loyalties and jeopardise more than just their love. Full review...
The Double Game by Dan Fesperman
American Bill Cage is a middle-aged PR man who worships at the shrine of spy novels. It's a love he's inherited from widowed diplomat father. (Bill's mother having died in an accident when he was very young.) He fondly remembers his childhood as he travelled from posting to posting with his dad and their vast spy fiction library. Full review...
Stranded by Emily Barr
After her marriage ends Esther finds herself dreaming of getting away, running away for a while, to an island paradise. She decides to make a trip to Malaysia, but a day trip out to a small, remote island finds her stranded there, along with several other people, when their guide does not return to pick them up. There is no way home without a boat. Will this group of stranded strangers manage to survive, or will suspicions and tensions get the better of them as they wait to be rescued? Full review...
The Babylon Gene by Alex Churton
Author of popular scientific philosophy, Dr Toby Ashe, is also a covert member of 'Oddballs', a multi-skilled section of British Intelligence. Their purpose is to profile and identify the rise of terrorists and their organisations before too much damage is done. Full review...
The Racketeer by John Grisham
Malcolm Bannister is forty-three years old and a lawyer. He's also in prison for a crime he didn't know he was committing and in which he had no criminal intent. Halfway through a ten-year stretch he's the only black man in the prison serving time for a white collar crime: that's what happens when you're just a bit naive and what looks like a genuine real estate deal turns out to be part of a massive money laundering operation. The prison he's in is relatively relaxed and he's the librarian, but he's lost his job, his wife's divorced him and he wonders if he'll ever see his young son again. Other than that, life's pretty much of a muchness. Full review...
They Call Me... Montey Greene by A R Yoba
He didn't believe in coincidences but he did believe in conspiracies.
Little does Montey Greene know how well this motto will serve him. Aside from a brief hold-up at customs, Montey is thoroughly enjoying his holiday in Milan. Recently separated from his wife, he's enjoying eyeing up all the lovely Italian women, meeting up with friends, and just generally pleasing himself. Full review...