Crime Chronicle

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett confronts drug cartel killers hunting on his turf in the nineteenth installment of the US crime series.

THE HUNT IS ON.

The good news is that Joe Pickett has his job back. The bad news is that Wyoming's Twelve Sleep County game warden is only days away from the most dangerous predators he's ever faced.

Joe's working with Katelyn Hamm, his counterpart in adjacent Shell County, to trace a drone operator whose aerial acrobatics have been stampeding elk and deer to their deaths. Their investigation will put them both on a collision course not only with the FBI, but also with the Wolf Pack, a remorseless quartet of killers.

Coming up from the south, the Wolf Pack have been tracking their prey across the USA. Behind them, a trail of dead - ahead, their target. They will let nothing will get in their way - especially two game wardens.

'Terrific plots, muscular writing, unlikely heroes and wild terrain' DAILY MAIL . 'An exemplary writer of crime novels' FINANCIAL TIMES .

In an off-limits computer lab near Chicago, a mole infiltrates and steals a sophisticated piece of government security software. The implications are devastating - but it's only half the prize.

In Indonesia, an American engineer is seduced into spilling secrets about a cutting edge Artificial Intelligence chip. The information seems harmless, but will wreak havoc the wrong hands.

In the White House, discontent with the President is rising - but could it amount to treason?

As the network of theft and deception grows ever more tangled, a sinister plot is taking shape. President Jack Ryan finds himself in his darkest straits yet, with US communications compromised and a Russian leader who has gone dangerously over the edge . . .

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16 tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922. At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public's imagination and saw the emergence of some of the world's cleverest and most popular storytellers. This anthology brings together 16 forgotten tales that have either been published only once before - perhaps in a newspaper or rare magazine - or have never before appeared in print. From a previously unpublished 1917 script featuring Ernest Bramah's blind detective Max Carrados, to early 1950s crime stories written for London's Evening Standard by Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne, it spans five decades of writing by masters of the Golden Age. Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her 'Grand Tour' of the British Empire. With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C. Bailey, J.J. Connington, John Rhode and Nicholas Blake, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science - when murder was a complex business.

New York Times bestselling author Robin Cook takes on the ripped-from-the-headlines topic of using genealogical DNA database tracking to catch a killer in Genesis, an unforgettable medical thriller.

When the body of twenty-nine-year-old social worker Gloria Montoya, seven weeks pregnant with her first child, shows up on Chief New York City Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery's autopsy table, she's baffled to find no apparent causes of death. With no clues to go on, Laurie enlists the help of Dr Tricia Albanese, a forensic pathology resident with a background in genetic science, to help her trace the identity of the unborn baby's father using DNA from the mother and child. But when Tricia is found dead in her apartment in a manner strikingly similar to Gloria's death, Laurie realizes she might have two linked homicides on her hands ... and now it's up to her, with the help of her husband, ME Jack Stapleton, to continue the tracking work Tricia had begun before a killer can strike again.

Every marriage has secrets. Everyone has flaws. Your wife isn't perfect - you know that - but then again nor are you.

But now a serial killer is on the loose in your small town, preying on young women. Fear is driving your well-behaved young daughter off the rails, and you find yourself in bed late at night, looking at the woman who lies asleep beside you.

Because you thought you knew the worst about her. The truth is you know nothing at all.

Imagine seeing your loving husband on a dating app. Now imagine that's the best thing that happens to you all week ...

When Charlie sees a man who is the spitting image of her husband Oliver on a dating app, her heart stops. Her first desperate instinct is to tell herself she must be mistaken - after all, she only caught a glimpse from a distance as her friends laughingly swiped through the men on offer. But no matter how much she tries to push her fears aside, she can't let it go. Because she took that photo. On their honeymoon.

Suddenly other signs of betrayal start to add up and so Charlie does the only thing she can think of to defend her position - she signs up to the app to catch Oliver in the act.

But Charlie soon discovers that infidelity is the least of her problems. Nothing is as it seems and nobody is who she thinks they are ...

The eagerly awaited addictive new thriller from the bestselling author of The Sunday Girl.

Praise for The Strangers We Know: 'I raced through this book and loved the sharp, sassy suspense story of a marriage on the edge.' Sara Foster, bestselling author of The Hidden Hours and You Don't Know Me Praise for The Sunday Girl: 'The Girls Club of psychological thrillers has a worthy new member' Herald Sun

New York Times bestselling author Linda Fairstein returns with a timely, captivating thriller about the deep - and often deadly - reverberations of past sins.

Assistant DA Alex Cooper is taking on the case of a young woman who testified years earlier at a landmark Federal trial . . . and now reveals that she was sexually assaulted by a prominent law enforcement official during that time.

As the case grows more complex, Alex, along with NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, finds herself in uncharted territory within Manhattan's Rockefeller University, a research institute born of tragedy that has evolved into a premier scientific facility, hospital, and cornerstone of higher learning.

But when dark secrets of the century-old institution intersect with life-threatening events, the experience may just help determine whether Alex will keep her job, or throw her hat in the ring to become the next district attorney of New York County . . . if she can survive that long.

PRAISE FOR LINDA FAIRSTEIN 'Her stories never fail to thrill' KARIN SLAUGHTER 'Fairstein makes the legal issues more exciting than any high-speed chases' NEW YORK TIMES 'Linda Fairstein is truly the queen of intelligent suspense' LEE CHILD 'An authentic and authoritative voice' THE TIMES

Christmas is a season of overindulgence. For most of us, that means an extra mince pie, a second helping of turkey, or perhaps a third glass of mulled wine. But for some among us, the festive season is a time to settle old scores, dispatch new enemies and indulge...in murder.

Here, ten masters of the genre serve up mystery and mayhem aplenty. From a dowager's missing diamonds to a Christmas party gone horribly wrong, these classic crime stories will delight, puzzle and satisfy long after the last strands of tinsel have been packed away.

From Mark Greaney, the New York Times bestselling author of GUNMETAL GRAY and a co-author of Tom Clancy's JACK RYAN novels, comes a high-stakes thriller featuring the world's most dangerous assassin: the Gray Man.

Court Gentry's flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley.

When they land in an isolated airbase in the UK, they are attacked by a hostile force and the prisoner is kidnapped. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.

NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE . . .

A gripping and deliciously twisty new psychological thriller from Jo Jakeman.

The morning after a terrible storm, a woman turns up in a remote Cornish village. She calls herself Charlie, but it's a name she's only had for a few days. She keeps herself to herself, reluctant to integrate with the locals. Because Charlie has a secret.

Charlie was in prison for providing a false alibi for a murderer. But Lee Fisher wasn't a murderer to her; he was the man she loved. Convinced of his innocence, Charlie said she was with him the night a young woman was killed. This sacrifice cost her everything.

And now she has a chance to start again. But someone is watching her, waiting for her, wondering if she's really paid the price for what she did.

Praise for Jo Jakeman- 'Revenge is a dish served with lashings of relish in this vivid, blackly comic suspense novel' Louise Candlish on Sticks and Stones

The island of Elli aey sits off the Icelandic coast. Accessible only by boat its isolation makes it the perfect place to vanish.

During a long, hot summer four friends visit the island. Only three will return.

They each share a past, and a dark secret that could harm them all. As the days pass, tensions rise and loyalties are shed, one of them will commit murder.

Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsd ttir is sent to investigate and soon finds echoes with the case of a young woman found murdered ten years previously in the nearby West Fjords. Is there a patient killer stalking these barren outposts?

As Hulda navigates a sinister game constructed of smoke and mirrors, she is convinced that no one is telling the truth, including those closest to her. But who will crack first?

Haunting, suspenseful and as chilling as the Icelandic winter The Island follows one woman's journey to find the truth hidden in the darkest shadows, and shine a light on her own dark past.

'Gripping and authentic . . . A thoroughly satisfying piece of entertainment that extends a tentacle into some serious moral reflection' NEW YORK TIMES A heart-pounding and intelligent espionage novel about a Nazi war criminal who was supposed to be dead, the rogue CIA agent on his trail, and the beautiful woman connected to them both.

Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, Max Weill has never forgotten the atrocities he saw as a prisoner at Auschwitz-nor the face of Dr Otto Schramm, a camp doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max's family to the gas chambers. As the war came to a close, Schramm was one of the many high-ranking former-Nazi officers who managed to escape Germany for new lives in South America. There, leaders like Argentina's Juan Peron gave them safe harbour and new identities.

With his life nearing its end, Max asks his nephew Aaron Wiley-an American CIA desk analyst-to complete the task Max never could: to track down Otto in Argentina, capture him and bring him back to Germany to stand trial.

Unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron will ultimately have to discover not only Otto, but the boundaries of his own personal morality, how far he is prepared to go to render justice.

Praise for The Accomplice 'Joseph Kanon is on adventurous form in his ninth novel' The Times 'Kanon ratchets up both the sense of mystery and element of excitement . . . Keeps his reader hooked and tearing through the pages . . . Herald 'The Accomplice is a top-notch historical thriller that combines style, excitement and intelligent story-telling to stunning effect' NB Magazine 'Kanon clearly occupies the territory once so clearly staked out by Graham Greene . . . packed with atmosphere and well-developed plot' New Statesman Praise for Joseph Kanon 'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape and it's a joy to see him reassert his title with such emphatic authority' Lee Child 'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense - not to mention substance - as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow 'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carre and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times 'Clever, devious and morally complex' Sunday Times 'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst 'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best...of spy thriller writers...

Kanon writes beautifully, superbly...he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times 'The critical stock of Joseph Kanon is high, and Defectors will add further lustre to his reputation...

There are pleasing echoes here of the entertainments of Graham Greene' Guardian

Simon Kernick is an absolute master of the adrenaline-fuelled ride - PETER JAMES The new high-octane thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author Simon Kernick

Alastair Sheridan has it all. Wealth, good looks, a beautiful wife and children and, in the chaotic world of British politics, a real chance of becoming Prime Minister.

But Alastair also has a secret. He's a serial killer with a taste for young women.

Only a handful of people know what kind of monster he is, and disgraced detective Ray Mason is one of them.

Awaiting trial for murder, Ray is unexpectedly broken free by armed men and given an offer- assassinate Alastair Sheridan and begin a new life abroad with a new identity. The men claim to be from MI6. They say that Sheridan is a threat to national security and needs to be neutralised. Ray knows they are not who they say they are, and that their real motives are far darker. The only person Ray trusts is ex-cop and former lover Tina Boyd who's keen to settle her own scores with Sheridan.

With enemies on every side, only one thing is certain.

No one wants them to get out alive.

Simon Kernick is one of the most reliable purveyors of the edge-of-your-seat thriller... a more powerful adrenaline rush than an EpiPen - JAKE KERRIDGE, SUNDAY EXPRESS An emotionally punchy domestic noir blended with the pace and action of a high-octane thriller, WE CAN SEE YOU will keep you breathlessly on the edge of your seat, wondering which character you can trust, if any at all, until the final brilliant twist! A #WTFthatending indeed! - SARAH PINBOROUGH, author of BEHIND HER EYES and CROSS HER HEART A pacy thriller, with a body count that rises along with the tension levels - SUNDAY MIRROR Simon Kernick manages to ring fresh changes (and revelations) at every point... He remains one of the most consistently suspenseful and ingenious writers in the field - FINANCIAL TIMES Thriller-meister Simon Kernick's standalone books are always worth picking up - and his latest is no exception - SUNDAY SPORT

THE ONLY BOOK YOU NEED TO READ THIS YEAR: THE NEXT GIRL...

You thought he'd come to save you. You were wrong.

'Absolutely the best thriller I've read this year!' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars 'Just wow!... FANTASTIC... I just had to keep reading' Bonnie's Book Talk, 5 stars 'I couldn't put it down' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars How can someone vanish without a single trace?

Deborah Jenkins pulls her coat around her for the short walk home in the pouring rain. But she never makes it home that night. And she is never seen again...

Four years later, an abandoned baby girl is found wrapped in dirty rags on a doorstep. An anonymous phone call urges the police to run a DNA test on the baby. But nobody is prepared for the results.

The newborn belongs to Deborah. She's still alive...

THE MOST GRIPPING THRILLER EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT - if you like Lisa Gardner, Robert Bryndza or Clare Mackintosh, you will absolutely love this. A completely unputdownable page-turner with an ending that will blow your mind.

Lionel Essrog, a.k.a. the Human Freakshow, is a victim of Tourette's syndrome (an uncontrollable urge to shout out nonsense, touch every surface in reach, rearrange objects). Local tough guy Frank Minna hires the adolescent Lionel and three other orphans from St Vincent's Home for Boys and grooms them to become the Minna Men, a fly-by-night detective-agency-cum-limoservice. Then one terrible day Frank is murdered, and Lionel must become a real detective.

With crackling dialogue, a dazzling evocation of place, and a plot which mimics Tourette's itself in its freshness and capacity to shock, Motherless Brooklyn is a bravura performance: funny, tense, touching, and extravagant.

Riley Wolfe is a master thief, expert at disguise, and not averse to violence when it's needed.

It's no accident, though, that Riley targets the wealthiest 0.1 percent and is willing to kill them when they're in his way: he despises the degenerate and immoral rich and loves stealing their undeserved and unearned valuables.

In this series launch, Riley aims for an extraordinary target in a heist that will make history. Riley will try to steal the Crown Jewels of Iran. Yes, these jewels are worth billions, but the true attraction for grabbing them comes down to one simple fact: it can't be done. Stealing these jewels is absolutely impossible. The collection is guarded by space-age electronics and two teams of heavily armed mercenaries. No one could even think of getting past the airtight security and hope to get away alive, let alone with even a single diamond from the Imperial Collection.

No one but Riley Wolfe. He's always liked a challenge. But this challenge may be more than even he can handle. Aside from the impenetrable security, Riley is also pursued by a brilliant and relentless cop who is barely a step behind him.

With the aid of his sometime ally, a beautiful woman who is a master art forger, Riley Wolfe goes for the prize that will either make him a legend-or, more likely, leave him dead.

DCI Jack Hawksworth is back, working on a high-profile case breaking in London. A calculating serial killer is on the loose, committing the most gruesome of murders as he 'trophies' the faces of his victims. With each new atrocity, the public and police force are getting more desperate for results.

Hawk pulls together a strong and experienced taskforce, who soon find themselves caught up in a murky world of illegal immigrants and human organ trading. As he struggles to find any sort of link between the victims, Jack identifies something unique about the most recent corpse, and things suddenly get very personal.

From the seedy underbelly of London's back streets and New Scotland Yard to the dangerous frontiers of modern medicine, this is a gripping crime thriller from a powerhouse Australian author.

Amy Kellogg is not having a pleasant vacation in Mexico. She's been arguing nonstop with her friend and traveling companion, Wilma, and she wants nothing more than to go home to California. But their holiday takes a nightmarish turn when Wilma is found dead on the street below their room - an apparent suicide. Rupert Kellogg has just returned from seeing his wife Amy through the difficulties surrounding the apparent suicide of her friend in Mexico. But Rupert is returning alone - which worries Amy's brother. Amy was traumatized by the suicide, Rupert explains, and has taken a holiday in New York City to settle her nerves. But as gone girl Amy's absence drags on for weeks and then months, the sense of unease among her family changes to suspicion and eventual allegations.

Tokyo. 2020.

As Japan prepares to host the Olympic Games an English exchange student is found bludgeoned to death in a love hotel. She lies in an empty room with only a dead spider for morbid company. Could this be a calling card from her killer?

The world's eyes are on Tokyo's Homicide department who are so desperate that the Commissioner picks up the phone and calls his old protege, Kosuke Iwata. A brilliant detective whose haunted personal life has forced him into exile thousands of miles away.

Iwata wants no part in an investigation that means stepping back into a past he had no intention of revisiting. Until he is is given an offer he can't refuse.

Black Suit City is a novel of lies, power and secrets. As Iwata attempts to uncover a city's darkest secrets he encounters old ghosts and new whispering from its hidden corners.

From the bestselling author of THE DISAPPEARED and UNWANTED comes the newest thriller by the Queen of Scandi Crime A man, wearing his daughter's wedding ring, is found in front of his fireplace, a bullet hole in his chest. A funeral director searches desperately for his brother - a man who doesn't seem to be missed. A woman struggles to protect her children and her life as her husband turns ever more dangerous.

Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht believe that these three cases are totally unrelated... until they uncover a connection between these three people that changes everything. Soon Bergman and Recht are pulled into an escalating series of events where old sins return to haunt all involved. And someone is leaving them taunting messages... but who, and why?

Kristina Ohlsson has already sold nearly a million copies worldwide. Now discover for yourself what makes her one of the world's favourite crime writers.

Praise for KRISTINA OHLSSON, the QUEEN OF SCANDI CRIME 'Kristina Ohlsson has managed to achieve what many before her have only attempted: to take the Swedish crime novel to a new and unexpected level' Arne Dahl 'The writing is tense, dense and very atmospheric. The stories sharp and impossible to let go. Kristina Ohlsson is a true queen of Scandinavian crime.' Mons Kallentoft 'Kristina Ohlsson is a rising star of Scandinavian crime fiction' Sunday Times 'Superbly crafted, and with a set of police detectives who are all too human, it seeps into your subconscious, as only truly good thrillers can do' Daily Mail 'Expect Ohlsson to join Nesbo on most readers' can't-miss lists' Booklist (starred review)

FBI Special Agent Pendergast must confront a strange, otherworldly circumstance - a new partnership. After an overhaul of leadership at the FBI's New York field office, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is forced to accept an unthinkable condition of continued employment: the unorthodox lone wolf must now work with a partner. Pendergast and his new cohort, Special Agent Coldmoon, are dispatched to Florida to investigate a rash of ritualistic murders . A killer is carving out the hearts of his victims , and depositing the stolen organs alongside the headstones of existing graves. Accompanying each heart is a cryptic letter, signed by a 'Mr Brokenhearts' . There is one more intriguing aspect to Mr Brokenhearts' macabre modus operandi: the chosen graves all belong to women who have committed suicide. As he searches for the connection between the old suicides and the new murders, Pendergast realizes the brutal new crimes may be just the tip of the iceberg: that he faces a conspiracy of death reaching back decades. 'Fast-moving, sophisticated and bursting with surprises ... There's nothing else like them' WASHINGTON POST . 'One of thrillerdom's most exciting and intriguing series leads, and it remains among the most reliable in the genre' BOOKLIST .

No. 1 bestselling action author Matthew Reilly continues his explosive Jack West series with The Three Secret Cities.

A SHADOW WORLD When Jack West Jr won the Great Games, he threw the four legendary kingdoms into turmoil.

BEHIND THE REAL WORLD Now these dark forces are coming after Jack...in ruthless fashion.

CRASHING INTO OUR WORLD With the end of all things rapidly approaching, Jack must find three incredible lost cities of legend.

It's an impossible task by any reckoning, but Jack must do it while he is being hunted...

'One of the best action-thrillers published in the past few years' Washington Post 'An ending that will perhaps make you rethink everything you took for granted about his books' Sunday Age

November 1983: Three hundred feet beneath the Atlantic, submarine Lieutenant Bill Guth and his fellow officers suddenly receive the order they've long-dreaded - to launch their nuclear missiles in a retaliatory strike against the USSR. But in the unexpected chaos that follows, one person on board lies dead...

Norfolk, 2019: Bill Guth's annual family gathering is interrupted when a historian turns up unannounced to ask about the near-apocalyptic incident back in 1983. Bill refuses to answer. But that night, the historian is brutally murdered.

Bill and his family are thrown under suspicion. What happened all those years ago? Just how much is Bill to blame for events in the past, and indeed the present? As the layers of history reveal themselves, it becomes clear there is a killer at work who will stop at nothing to keep the secrets of 1983 where they belong...

1952. Soviet troops control British streets.

After the disastrous failure of D-Day, Britain is occupied by Nazi Germany, and only rescued by Russian soldiers arriving from the east and Americans from the west. The two superpowers divide the nation between them, a wall running through London like a scar.

On the Soviet side of the wall, Jane Cawson calls into her husband's medical practice, hoping to surprise him. Instead she detects the perfume worn by his former wife, Lorelei, star of propaganda films for the new Marxist regime. Jane rushes to confront them, but soon finds herself caught up in the glamorous actress's death.

Nick is arrested for murder. Desperate to clear his name, Jane must risk the attention of the brutal secret police as she follows a trail of corruption right to the highest levels of the state.

And she might find she never really knew her husband at all.

A kind but seemingly paranoid old lady turns to Inspector Maigret for help. Against the judgement of his subordinates, he decides to pay a visit to her Parisian apartment to investigate, but is he already too late?

Harmony Resort promises hope for struggling marriages. Run by celebrity power couple Drs. Miles and Grace Markell, the 'last resort' offers a chance for partners to repair their relationships in a luxurious setting on the gorgeous Mayan Riviera.

Johanna and Ben have a marriage that looks perfect on the surface, but in reality they don't know each other at all. Shell and Colin fight constantly: after all, Colin is a workaholic and Shell always comes second to his job as an executive at a powerful mining company. But what has really torn them apart is too devastating to talk about. When both couples begin Harmony's intensive program, it becomes clear that Harmony is not all it seems - and neither are Miles and Grace themselves. What are they hiding, and what price will these couples pay for finding out?

As a deadly tropical storm descends on the coast, trapping the hosts and the guests on the resort, secrets are revealed, loyalties are tested and not one single person - or their marriage - will remain unchanged by what follows.

From a No. 1 bestselling author comes a tale of one boy's fight for survival in Nazi Europe A secret mission... 1939. As Europe teeters on the brink of war, Alfred Kendall is tasked with carrying out a minor mission for the British Intelligence Service. Travelling to Prague, he takes his troubled young son, Hugh, as cover.

A terrible choice... When Hitler invades Czechoslovakia, Alfred is given an ultimatum by the Czech Resistance. They will arrange for him to return to England, but only if he leaves his son Hugh behind as collateral.

A young boy stranded in Nazi terrain... Hugh is soon taken under the wing of a Nazi colonel - Helmuth Scholl. But even though Scholl treats Hugh well, his son, Heinz, is suspicious of this foreigner. And as the war across the continent intensifies, they are set on a path that will ultimately lead towards destruction...

Why would a dead man need an alibi?

Bug and Roche work for the National Detective Agency. They solve mysteries for a living using well established, step-by-step procedures - and plenty of wisecracks, insults and bad office coffee.

When they're sent to check out a suspicious car crash involving an already dead driver, they smell something fishy. They quickly work out the crash was part a much larger crime - a multimillion-dollar-bank heist. But unravelling the connections isn't easy - especially when more people start dying - and the coffee isn't getting any better.

Witty and wise, with a nod to the golden age of pulp fiction, Alibi for a Dead Man is an ingenious novel by a talented newcomer.

It's the middle of summer. On Cornish sea-fronts, happy children grip melting ice-creams. In the south of France, sunlight filters through leaves as families picnic in the shade. And in the fashionable resorts of the Mediterranean, the beautiful people sun themselves on picture-postcard beaches.

And in those long, hot summer nights...murder walks abroad. Away from familiar surroundings, and as the temperature rises, old grudges come to the surface, new hatreds reach boiling point - and clever minds start to make dangerous plans. These ten classic mysteries, from some of the finest crime writers, prove that no matter where you travel to - there's no rest for the wicked.

After a lifetime of bad decisions troubled PI Caleb Zelic is finally making good ones. He's in therapy, reconnecting with the Deaf community, and reconciling with his beloved wife.

But he can't escape his past.

A violent confrontation forces Caleb back into contact with his double-crossing partner, Frankie. When her niece is kidnapped, Frankie and Caleb must work together to save the child's life. But their efforts will risk everything, including their own lives.

Some say that casting crusty attorney Allan Sharp as Scrooge in the Kindred Players production of A Christmas Carol is just playing to type. He's not the most beloved man in town. In fact, you'd have a dickens of a time finding someone who liked him. Still, it's a shock when the Ghost of Christmas Past stabs him during the first rehearsal. Suzanne, co-owner of the Cackleberry Club cafe, Kindred's favorite combination diner, craft store, and bookshop, chases the murderer out of the building but loses him in the alley.

As the days pass, the list of suspects grows longer. Is it the disgruntled law partner? The former secretary, whom Sharpe sexually harrassed? Or is it fellow owner of the Cackleberry Club Toni's almost ex-husband, Junior? The women of the Cackleberry Club are determined to find the killer before he can add another victim to his Christmas list.

America's favorite dog comes to pet-friendly Wagtail for some rest and relaxation, but Holly quickly discovers that this perfect pup is a total scamp who takes every opportunity to run off and misbehave. During an outdoor treasure-hunting game, the star dog and Trixie, Holly's beloved Jack Russell terrier, stumble across a dead body.

Holly has more than murder to worry about, though, when a man shows up after reading an article featuring Trixie in a magazine and claims that he is the dog's rightful owner. Holly will need to prove that she is her pup's only parent and catch a killer to restore peace to her pet-loving happy place.

December twenty-fifth is right around the corner, and Charlie is making his list and checking it twice. He is doing his best to show some peace and goodwill toward his nosy neighbor Gerry Arbitron, a real estate agent who seems to have designs on his house (and maybe on him, as well), while preparing for a very important role, indeed--his first Christmas as a grandfather.

The last thing Charlie expects is to gain several new additions to his family. Charlie finds a box on his doorstep with five kittens inside and a note begging him to keep them safe. With Diesel's help, Charlie welcomes the tiny felines into the Harris household just as Gerry decides it is time to throw a lavish holiday party.

Determined to make her mark on Athena, Gerry instead winds up dead at her very own party. Though attempts to dig into her past come up empty, Charlie and his girlfriend, Helen Louise, witness two heated exchanges involving Gerry before her death- one with a leading citizen and another with the wife of a good friend. Will one of these ladies wind up on the sheriff's naughty list? Charlie and Diesel have to wrap up the case before the special season is ruined by a sinister scrooge.

Cat lovers are thrilled to welcome an expert groomer to the picturesque town of Chadwick. But scratch below the surface, and unmasking a killer becomes a game of cat and mouse . . .

When the fur starts flying, Cassie McGlone, owner of Cassie's Comfy Cats, handles her feistiest four-legged clients with a caring touch and nerves of steel.

While these qualities certainly help keep her business purring, they also come in handy when she makes a house call to her best client, millionaire George DeLeuw, and discovers his murdered body next to his newly orphaned Persian, Harpo. A cat whisperer like Cassie might be able to coax out some important clues from Harpo, but she needs to tread lightly and remember she gets one life, not nine. . . .

Fans of felines will appreciate Cassie's demonstrated attachment to the master species, which Watkins successfully integrates throughout her debut, a deft blend of mystery and cat love.

-Kirkus Reviews A promising start to a new cozy series. And the information the author provides about cats is fascinating. -Suspense Magazine

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in 1887's A Study in Scarlet, a true icon of literature was born. Since then, their humble address at 221B Baker Street has become almost as famous as the great detective himself, with the incredible popularity of Sherlock Holmes's adventures never wavering over the last 130 years.

Bound in a rich, collector's cover, this deluxe and expansive edition, produced in association with The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street, is the definitive collection for fans of the great detective. It contains all of Conan Doyle's stories - four novels and a colossal 56 short stories - complete and unabridged, encompassing the entirety of the legendary author's Sherlock Holmes work.

Dense fog masks foul play in the streets of London, as Ann Granger brings us her seventh Victorian mystery featuring Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross and his wife Lizzie.

It is March 1870. London is in the grip of fog and ice. But Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross has more than the weather to worry about when the body of a young woman is found in a dustbin at the back of a Piccadilly restaurant.

Ben must establish who the victim is before he can find out how and why she came to be there. His enquiries lead him first to a bootmaker in Salisbury and then to a landowner in Yorkshire. Meanwhile, Ben's wife, Lizzie, aided by their eagle-eyed maid, Bessie, is investigating the mystery of a girl who is apparently being kept a prisoner in her own home.

As Ben pursues an increasingly complex case, Lizzie reveals a vital piece of evidence that brings him one step closer to solving the crime...

Praise for Ann Granger's crime novels:

'Characterisation, as ever with Granger, is sharp and astringent' The Times 'Her usual impeccable plotting is fully in place' Good Book Guide 'A clever and lively book' Margaret Yorke 'This engrossing story looks like the start of a highly enjoyable series' Scotsman

Halloween, 1861. A special train with two carriages steams across the Lake District at night on its way to a place notorious for its record of supernatural incidents. Most of those on board have been fortified by alcohol so the mood is boisterous. Without warning the lamp goes out in the last compartment of the second carriage, plunging it into darkness. When the train reaches the end of the line, the passengers pour out on to the station platform. There are almost sixty of them in all, laughing and jostling, but the prevailing excitement is shattered by a cry for help - someone is missing. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are called in to investigate this peculiar occurrence. With some believing the missing man is the victim of a ghost said to haunt the site and no discernible trace of the man anywhere to be seen, this will prove to be a puzzling case indeed for the Railway Detective.

Since the Great War, the Renshaw family fortune has suffered. Now Julia Renshaw is under pressure to marry for money-and has settled for Gilbert Townsend, a viscount and wealthy industrialist. He is decades older than Julia, and it's clear to her sister, Phoebe-and to Eva, who has been like a surrogate mother-that this is no love match. Nevertheless, the wedding takes place-and in a hurry.

At the reception aboard the groom's yacht, there appears to be tension between Gil and several guests. The bride is also less than pleased to discover her honeymoon will be more crowded than expected-with Gil's pretty secretary, among others, coming along. Worse, that very night, Julia is injured during a hot-tempered outburst on her new husband's part . . .

The next morning, Gil's body is found in the water-and Phoebe and Eva must discover who pushed him over-before the Renshaws' social standing is irreparably stained by Julia's arrest for his murder . . .

Maxwell, who always puts an interesting spin on her country-house mysteries set between the great wars, delivers once again in this tale of love, hate, revenge, and country houses in peril. -Kirkus Reviews

This is the true story of Australia's worst convicted female serial killer, Kathleen Folbigg. Kathleen's children, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura Folbigg, died one by one over a 10-year period in similar circumstances - suddenly, unexpectedly and while sleeping. Each time, it was Kathleen who raised the alarm to her husband, Craig.

When the Folbiggs' marriage fell apart after the death of their fourth child, Craig was devastated. He discovered Kathleen's diary in her bedside drawer, filled with ramblings about losing control with the children and her 'terrible thoughts'. The diary was the crucial evidence detectives had been searching for and in 2003 Kathleen Folbigg was jailed for forty years.

After her conviction she and her supporters fought hard, protesting her innocence. At her trial she'd allowed her diaries to speak for her. They did, damningly. But what if she were able to explain her entries? Medical and legal experts brought pressure on the NSW attorney-general to order a judicial inquiry into her conviction. Finally, in 2019, Folbigg had the chance to speak for herself.

This updated book takes us from the discovery of each of her children's bodies, through Folbigg's own tragic past, to her long-awaited explanation of what happened to Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura. The outcome is a searing look into the mind of Australia's worst female serial killer

On the scorching February day in 2009 that became known as Black Saturday, a man lit two fires in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. In the Valley, where the rates of crime were the highest in the state, more than thirty people were known to police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man they didn't know.

The Arsonist takes readers on the hunt for this man, and inside the strange puzzle of his mind. It is also the story of fire in this country, and of a community that owed its existence to that very element. The command of fire has defined and sustained us as a species - understanding its abuse will define our future.

A powerful real-life thriller written with Hooper's trademark lyric detail and nuance, The Arsonist is a reminder that in an age of fire, all of us are gatekeepers.