Crime Chronicle

In this new installment of the bestselling Aunt Dimity series, a dreary Christmas leads to hidden treasure and new friendships It's almost Christmas in the small English village of Finch--and everyone is sick. Though many of the villagers regretfully decline their invitations to Emma Harris's annual Christmas bash, Lori Shepherd has no intention of missing it. When the winter weather takes a turn for the worse, it's agreed that none of the guests will leave until morning. There's general merriment as the Christmas party becomes a pajama party--until a car appears in the winding driveway and promptly slides off the slick pavement and into a ditch.

Matilda Tilly Trout--a lost and scatterbrained, middle-aged woman--is mercifully unhurt and invited to stay the night. While she catches her breath, Emma asks her other guests if they would like a tour of the Manor--including an odd room that puzzles her. Several guests put forth guesses as to its purpose, but it's Tilly who correctly identifies the room as a chapel. Placing a palm on one of the ornately-carved panels, Tilly finds a hidden compartment concealing a pile of glittering treasure--including an exquisitely decorated heart made of solid gold. Where did it come from, and why does it look so different from everything else in the chapel? Why didn't Emma even know about this hidden compartment in her own home until now--and how did Tilly?

With Aunt Dimity's otherworldly help and Tilly's bewildering store of knowledge, Lori and friends set out to unravel the mystery behind the heart of gold. And, against all odds--and Christmas finally comes to Finch!

A Minute to Midnight is the second gripping instalment in Special Agent Atlee Pine's search for the truth from one of the world's most favourite thriller writers, David Baldacci.

Without Mercy.

At six years old, Atlee's twin sister, Mercy, was taken from the family home while Atlee was left for dead. Since that fateful night, Atlee has dedicated her life and career to catching those who hurt others.

Word of a killer.

Atlee has never stopped searching for answers about her sister. A notorious serial killer, locked in a maximum-security prison, continues to haunt her. Does he really know what happened to Mercy?

Quest for justice.

When Atlee oversteps the mark on the arrest of a dangerous criminal, the FBI gives her a leave of absence - the perfect opportunity to return to where it all began.

Determined to finally uncover the truth, Atlee Pine's journey home turns into a rollercoaster ride of murder, long-buried secrets and lies . . . and a revelation so personal that everything she once believed is fast turning to dust.

'The locale is brought to life . . . the plot keeps you guessing' The Times 'A slow-burning, tense and brooding thriller' The Herald Scotland

Bologna: city of secrets, suspicion . . . and murder When the body of a radical protestor is found floating in one of Bologna's underground canals, it seems that most of the city is ready to blame the usual suspects: the police.

But when private investigator Daniel Leicester, son-in-law to the former chief of police, receives a call from the dead man's lover, he follows a trail that begins in the 1970s and leads all the way to the rotten heart of the present-day political establishment.

Beneath the beauty of the city, Bologna has a dark underside, and English detective Daniel must unravel a web of secrets, deceit and corruption - before he is caught in it himself.

A dark and atmospheric crime thriller set in the beautiful Italian city of Bologna, perfect for fans of Donna Leon, Michael Dibdin and Philip Gwynne Jones.

Written in reaction to what Bentley perceived as the sterility and artificiality of the detective fiction of his day, Trent's Last Case features Philip Trent, an all-too-human detective who not only falls in love with the chief suspect but reaches a brilliant conclusion that is totally wrong.

Trent's Last Case begins when millionaire American financier Sigsbee Manderson is murdered while on holiday in England. A London newspaper sends Trent to investigate, and he is soon matching wits with Scotland Yard's Inspector Murth as they probe ever deeper in search of a solution to a mystery filled with odd, mysterious twists and turns.

Called by Agatha Christie one of the best detective stories ever written, Trent's Last Case delights with its flesh-and-blood characters, its naturalness and easy humor, and its style, which, as Dorothy Sayers has noted, ranges from a vividly coloured rhetoric to a delicate and ironical literary fancy.

Twelve stories from the celebrated author of one of the most famous mystery classics ever written, Trent's Last Case.

Philip Trent is an artist, a journalist, and an urbane unraveller of highly problematical crimes. Here the unshakable sleuth appears in twelve tales of misadventure, where the crimes that he investigates range from fraud and embezzlement to criminal assault and murder, yet they all succumb to his adept methods even if the criminal sometimes escapes.

Trent Intervenes affirms Bentley's reputation as an author of the first rank and displays his ability to write equally well in the short story form.

The second novel from the celebrated author of one of the most famous mystery classics ever written, Trent's Last Case.

James Randolph is murdered early one evening and his body is found a few hours later. When the police arrive they discover that Randolph's safe has been ransacked and discarded wrapping paper litters his bedroom floor.

Perhaps by chance or perhaps by design, Trent seems to have been the last person, other than the murderer, to see Randolph alive. But this is only one aspect amongst many which connect Trent with the murder and stimulate his interest: his friend Inspector Bligh is the detective in charge of the investigation, and then a long-time friend readily and perplexingly confesses his guilt. As much as he respects the abilities of Inspector Bligh, Trent's personal knowledge has him doubting the confession and intent on finding the truth.

In The Sicilian Method, Andrea Camilleri's twenty-sixth novel in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series, Montalbano finds his answers to a murder in a theatrical play.

Mimi Augello is visiting his lover when the woman's husband unexpectedly returns to the apartment. Hurriedly, he climbs out the window and into the downstairs apartment, but from one danger to another. In the dark he sees a body lying on the bed.

Shortly afterwards another body is found and the victim is Carmelo Catalanotti, a director of bourgeois dramas with a harsh reputation for the acting method he developed for his actors: digging into their complexes to unleash their talent, a traumatic experience for all. Are the two deaths connected? Catalanotti scrupulously kept notes and comments on all the actors he worked with as well as strange notebooks full of figures, dates and names . . .

Inspector Montalbano finds all of Catalanotti's dossiers and plays, the notes on the characters and the notes on his final drama, Dangerous Turn. It is in the theatre where he feels the solution lies.

They share a house.

And all its secrets . . .

When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment, with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. They very quickly establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her complex landlady, Esther de Laurenti. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist - and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she's writing, the link between fiction and real life grows more urgent.

But is Esther guilty or merely another victim in a far more dangerous game of vengeance? Anette and Jeppe must dig more deeply into the two women's pasts to discover the secret that links them both.

'Dripping with authenticity. Packed full of characters you genuinely care about . . . I didn't read the last few chapters, I devoured them. An absolute triumph' M. W. CRAVEN

Three can keep a secret. If two of you are dead...

Two women are snatched off the streets of London in one weekend.

DI Charlie George and his team get to work. The lives of these young women - one of them a mother - are on the line, and the clock is ticking.

When they catch a lucky break from a CCTV camera, Charlie is sure they have their man. And that's when he gets his first surprise. Because nothing about this case is simple and not everyone is quite what they seem.

Charlie's job is to find the missing women and get to the truth.

But some people would rather the truth stays hidden - even when the bodies start to pile up...

Praise for Colin Falconer
'Once you read [a] Colin Falconer [book], you'll want to read everything he's ever written' Crystal Book Reviews
'Falconer's grasp of period and places is almost flawless ... He's my kind of writer' Peter Corris, The Australian
'You are in for a real roller-coaster ride of never ending intrigue' History and Women
'Falconer demonstrates exceptional characterization' Bookgeeks

When Mitch Rapp captures ISIS's top technology expert, he reveals that he was on his way to meet a man who claims to have the ability to bring down America's power grid. Rapp is determined to eliminate this shadowy figure, but the CIA's trap fails.

The Agency is still trying to determine what went wrong when ISIS operatives help this cyber terrorist do what he said he could-plunge the country into darkness. With no concept of how this unprecedented act was accomplished, the task of getting the power back on could take months. Perhaps even years.

Rapp and his team embark on a desperate search for the only people who know how to repair the damage-the ones responsible. But his operating environment is like nothing he's experienced before. Computers and communication networks are down, fuel can no longer be pumped from gas stations, water and sanitation systems are on the brink of collapse, and the supply of food is running out.

Can Rapp get the lights back on before America descends irretrievably into chaos?

This compulsive thriller proves once again that the Mitch Rapp series is the best of the best when it comes to the world of special ops (Booklist, starred review).

All the beloved, irascible Auntie Poldi wanted from her Sicilian retirement was time to enjoy sunshine, a free-flowing supply of wine, and a sultry romance with Chief Inspector Montana. But then her idyll is rudely disrupted by the last person she wants to see on her doorstep - John Owenya, detective inspector with the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs, who is also her estranged, lying cheat of a husband.

Not only is John's sudden reappearance putting a kink in Poldi's dreamy love affair with Vito Montana, but his presence also comes with a plea for help - and unwanted clashes with Mafia.

Where is John's half-brother? What is the ten-million-dollar 'it' that John's brother was last seen with that has both the Sicilian and Tanzanian mobs in a frenzy? With only a postcard that has a phone number and a name, 'Handsome Antonio', on the back, Auntie Poldi hops begrudgingly (albeit with a great deal of gumption and panache) back into the saddle (in this case, an immaculate red Maserati Cabrio from the 80s with cream leather upholstery). The faster she finds Handsome Antonio, the sooner she can get John Owenya out of her hair and love-life. But the people Poldi discovers along the way may very well knock her immaculate wig askew.

The ultimate gripping murder mystery for winter nights, from the bestselling author of The Stranger Diaries and the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries PS: thanks for the murders.

The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should absolutely not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka's account of Peggy Smith's death.

But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her...

And that Peggy Smith had been a 'murder consultant' who plotted deaths for authors, and knew more about murder than anyone has any right to...

And when clearing out Peggy's flat ends in Natalka being held at gunpoint by a masked figure...

Well then DS Harbinder Kaur thinks that maybe there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.

From the sleepy seaside town of Shoreham to the granite streets of Aberdeen, The Postscript Murders is a literary mystery for fans of Anthony Horowitz, Agatha Christie and anyone who's ever wondered just how authors think up such realistic crimes...

PS: Trust no one.

Jake Brigance, the protagonist of John Grisham's classic legal thriller, A TIME TO KILL, is back. This time he's at the epicenter of a sensational murder trial that bitterly divides the citizens of Clanton, Mississippi.

John Grisham's A TIME TO KILL is one of the most popular novels of our time. It established Jake as a classic American hero-a lawyer who sought truth and justice at all costs, even when his life and reputation were on the line.

Brigance returned in 2013's Sycamore Row, in which he once again found himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial.

Now, in A TIME FOR MERCY, Jake is the court-appointed lawyer for Drew Gamble, a young man accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance sees it another way. Once he learns the details of the case, he realizes he has to do everything he can to save Drew....who is sixteen. His commitment to the truth puts Jake's career and the safety of his family at risk.

Filled with all the courtroom machinations, small town intrigues, and plot twists that have become hallmarks of the master of the legal thriller, A TIME FOR MERCY emphatically confirms John Grisham's reputation as America's favourite storyteller.

There is a time to kill, a time for justice, and A TIME FOR MERCY.

The Dry was an Australian rural-noir crime fiction sensation. The Survivors is the new novel from the multi-award winning author. Shipping Australia-wide & international.

Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...

To the outside world, suave, charming and confident doctor Marcus Valentine has it all. A loving wife, three kids, a great job. But there's something missing, there always has been. . . . or rather, someone . . .

Driving to work one morning, his mind elsewhere and not on the road, he almost mows down a female jogger on a crossing. As she runs on, Marcus is transfixed. Infatuated. She is the spitting image of a girl he was crazy about in his teens. A girl he has never been able to get out of his mind.

Lynette had dumped him harshly. For years he has fantasized about seeing her again and rekindling their flame. Might that jogger possibly be her all these years later? Could this be the most incredible coincidence?

Despite all his attempts to resist, he is consumed by cravings for this woman. And when events take a tragically unexpected turn, his obsession threatens to destroy both their worlds. But still he won't stop. Can't stop.

A lone German bomber crosses the east coast of Britain on a moonless night in the long, hot summer of 1940. The pilot picks up the silver thread of a river and, following it to his target, drops his bomb over Cambridge's rail yards. The shell falls short of its mark and lands in a neighbourhood of terraced streets on the edge of the city's medieval centre.

DI Eden Brooke is first on the scene and discovers the body of an elderly woman, Nora Wylde, in a house on Elm Street, two fingers on her left hand severed, in what looks like a brutal attempt by looters to steal her rings.

When the next day Nora's teenage granddaughter Peggy, a munitions worker, is reported missing, Brooke realises there is more to the situation than meets the eye.

A gripping alternative history thriller set in the Second World War, from the internationally acclaimed and bestselling author of the Bernie Gunther novels.

Autumn 1943. Hitler knows he cannot win the war: now he must find a way to make peace. FDR and Stalin are willing to negotiate; only Churchill refuses to listen. The upcoming Allied Tehran conference will be where the next steps - whatever they are - will be decided.

Into this nest of double- and triple-dealing steps Willard Mayer, OSS agent and FDR's envoy to the conference. His job is to secure the peace that the USA and Hitler now crave. The stakes couldn't be higher.

Showcasing Philip Kerr's brilliant research and masterful plotting at its best, Hitler's Peace has never before been published in the UK and is a fitting coda to the career of one of the masters of the historical thriller.

Paris, Friday 14th June 1940.

The day the Nazis march into Paris. It made headlines around the globe.

Paris police detective Eddie Giral - a survivor of the last World War - watches helplessly on as his world changes forever.

But there is something he still has control over. Finding whoever is responsible for the murder of four refugees. The unwanted dead, who no one wants to claim.

To do so, he must tread carefully between the Occupation and the Resistance, between truth and lies, between the man he is and the man he was.

All the while becoming whoever he must be to survive in this new and terrible order descending on his home.

It is the breezy Scottish summer of 1936, Lady Dandy Gilver has been called, with trusted colleague Alec Osbourne, to solve the strange case of the Crammond Ferrywoman on the Firth of Forth.

A small island is home to a woman, Vesper Kemp, who has lost her mind, spending her days rambling in rags.

What is more troubling, is that Vesper claims to have murdered a young man. A concerned group of residents have good reason to believe she is innocent. But Dandy and Alec will have a dangerous journey ahead if they are to uncover the truth in the River Almond's murky waters.

At fifty-nine years old, Valdemar Roos is tired of life. Working a job he hates, with a wife he barely talks to and two step-daughters he doesn't get on with, he doesn't have a lot to look forward to. Then, one day, a winning lottery ticket gives him an opportunity to start afresh.

Without telling a soul, he quits his job and buys a hut in the remote Swedish countryside. Every day he travels down to this man-made oasis, returning each evening to his unsuspecting wife. Life couldn't be better, until a young woman arrives in paradise . . .

Anna Gambowska is a twenty-one-year-old recovering drug addict. On the run from the rehab centre she hated and an abusive relationship she can't go back to, all Anna's prayers are answered when she comes across a seemingly vacant hut in the Swedish woodland. But it's not long before Anna's ex discovers her location, and an incident occurs that will mar the lives of both Anna and Valdemar forever.

Inspector Barbarotti doesn't take much interest when a woman reports her husband as missing. That is, until a dead body is found near the missing man's newly-bought hut, and Mr Roos becomes the number one murder suspect . . .

'He's gone...' When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it's not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days.

Rebus fears the worst - and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect.

He wasn't the best father - the job always came first - but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective?

As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast - and a small town with big secrets - he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn't want to find...

The iconic storyteller is at the height of his powers in one of the must-read books of the year: A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES.

AN INCREDIBLE VICTORY BUT AT A TERRIBLE PRICE...

Against all the odds, Jack West Jr found the Three Secret Cities but at a heartbreaking cost.

His beloved daughter Lily, it appeared, was slaughtered by Sphinx in a cruel ancient ritual.

TO THE MOUNTAINS AND THE FALL!

With his rivals far ahead of him, Jack must now get to one of the five iron mountains - two of which have never been found - and perform a mysterious feat known only as 'The Fall'.

Although what is this object on the moon that is connected to it?

A NEW PLAYER ARRIVES

Amid all this, Jack will discover that a new player has entered the race, a general so feared by the four legendary kingdoms they had him locked away in their deepest dungeon.

Only now this general has escaped and he has a horrifying plan of his own...

Detective Jessica Niemi is called to investigate a murder case which is completely out of the ordinary. The wife of a famous writer, Roger Koponen, appears to have been killed in a bizarre ritual.

As more ritual murders occur in the coming days, its becomes obvious that Jessica is after a serial killer. But the murders are not random - they follow a pattern taken from Roger's bestselling trilogy.

Has a devoted fan lost their mind, or is this case more personal?

Set in 1927, the story takes all the classic elements of an interwar murder mystery and gives it a distinctive Australian flavour. A nameless friar turns up at Halfwell Station, at the same time that Ana, the adopted daughter of the station owners, discovers a body in the desert nearby when she goes for a midnight walk. But when she returns to look for it, the body is gone. Death Leaves the Station was written for fans of classic mystery and crime fiction.

The stunning debut from the new name to watch in espionage thrillers. For fans of Charlotte Philby, The Night Manager and Rory Clements, this is perfect Sunday night (or any night) drama.

LISBON, 1943. After escaping from Nazi-Occupied France, SOE agent Elisabeth de Mornay, codename Cecile, receives new orders: she must infiltrate high society in neutral Lisbon and find out who is leaking key information to the Germans about British troop movements. As Solange Verin, a French widow of independent means, she will be able to meet all the rich Europeans who have gathered in Lisbon to wait out the war. One of them is a traitor and she must find out who before more British servicemen die.

Complications arise when 'Solange' comes to the attention of German Abwehr officer, Major Eduard Graf. As they get to know each other, she struggles to keep her lies close to the truth.

But in a city that is filled with spies, how can she tell who is friend, or foe?

A Times Crime Novel of the Year In the second instalment of Lynne Truss's joyfully quirky crime series, our trio of detectives must investigate the murder of a hapless romantic; an aristocratic con man on the prowl; and a dodgy Brighton nightspot...

It is summer in Brighton and the Brighton Belles are on hand to answer any holidaymaker's queries, no matter how big or small. The quickest way to the station, how many pebbles are on the beach and what exactly has happened to that young man lying in the deckchair with blood dripping from him?

Constable Twitten has a hunch that the fiendish murder may be connected to a notorious Brighton nightspot and the family that run it, but Inspector Steine is - as ever - distracted by other issues, not least having his own waxwork model made and an unexpected arrival, while Sergeant Brunswick is just delighted to have spied an opportunity to finally be allowed to go undercover...

Our incomparable team of detectives are back for another outing in the new instalment of Lynne Truss's joyfully quirky crime series.

Murder by Milk Bottle, the third in the Constable Twitten series, publishes in July 2020 and is available for pre-order now.

** Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month ** The exhilarating new Inspector Adamsberg novel from France's multi-million-copy bestselling crime fiction star 'Adamsberg is one of my favourite detectives... I so enjoyed This Poison Will Remain' ANN CLEEVES 'Absorbing... Full of twists and spiced with Vargas's characteristic wit and style' PETER ROBINSON 'Vargas's books are...cunning, corkscrew murder mysteries' A.J. FINN After three elderly men are bitten by spiders, everyone assumes that their deaths are tragic accidents. But at police headquarters in Paris, Inspector Adamsberg begins to suspect that the case is far more complex than first appears. It isn't long before Adamsberg is investigating a series of rumours and allegations that take him to the south of France. Decades ago, at La Misericorde orphanage, shocking events took place involving the same species of spider- the recluse. For Adamsberg, these haunting crimes hold the key to proving that the three men were targeted by an ingenious serial killer. His team, however, is not convinced. He must put his reputation on the line to trace the murderer before the death toll rises...

Amateur sleuth Sloan Krause delves into the murderous political world in another delightful mystery from popular cozy writer Ellie Alexander, Beyond a Reasonable Stout.

Oktoberfest is over and now it's the dead season for beer maven and barstool sleuth Sloan Krause--literally.

In the Bavarian village of Leavenworth, Washington, the tourists are gone and the local villagers prepare for the upcoming winter light festival. Soon the German-inspired shops and restaurants will be aglow and visitors will return to the northern Cascades to drink warm mulled cider and peruse the holiday markets. Until then, Sloan Krause and her partner in crime Garrett Strong are experimenting with a new line of hoppy holiday craft beers at their brewery.

But the low-key vibes at Nitro are suddenly disrupted by a local political scandal: City Councilmember Kristopher Cooper is running for re-election on a platform of making Leavenworth dry--until, just before election night, Kristopher turns up dead. Now, with every beer-related businessperson in Leavenworth coming under suspicion, it's up to Sloan to find out who the guilty party really is...before someone else gets tapped for murder.

The Sloan Krause mystery series is:

The perfect brew. --Cleveland Plain Dealer Exciting...irresistible...absorbing. --Washington Book Review

New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews returns with another Meg Langslow mystery written firmly in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie's Christmas books (Toronto Globe and Mail)--Owl Be Home for Christmas.

It will take a large pair of eyes to solve this Christmas mystery. . .

It's a few days before the 25th and Meg's grandfather is hosting a scientific conference on owls at the Caerphilly Inn. Most of the family are there, helping out in one capacity or another, including Meg's grandmother, Cordelia--invited by Grandfather in a rare gesture of peace-making, to share her expertise on rehabilitating large birds, including owls. An unexpectedly severe snowstorm traps the conference-goers in the hotel and, lo and behold, one of the visiting ornithologists is murdered.

Even if Caerphilly is able to clear the roads in time, Chief Burke doesn't want the various suspects to scatter to half a dozen continents before he identifies the killer. . .

So there's a very real possibility that none of them will make it home for Christmas, that is, unless Meg can find a way to swoop down and make sure that justice is served.

Georgie is excited when Darcy announces out of the blue that they are flying to Kenya for their extended honeymoon. It is only after they arrive that she suspects he has actually been sent there on an assignment. She tries not to be angry, because she is, after all, in paradise!

They are picked up in Nairobi and taken to a lovely house in Happy Valley-the center of upper-class English life there. Darcy finally confides that there have been some spectacular robberies in London and Paris, and it is suspected that the thief was a member of the aristocracy and may have fled to Kenya.

Georgie is shocked at the completely decadent lifestyle that involves wild parties and rampant infidelity. One of the leading lights in the community, Lord Cheriton, makes a play for Georgie. She rebuffs him. Then he is found dead along a lonely stretch of road. At first it seems to be a lion attack. But why was he on that stretch of road, alone, late at night?

It seems the Happy Valley community wants to close the case, but as Georgie and Darcy investigate, almost everyone has a motive to want Lord Cheriton dead.

After Jane helps a friend with a sticky personal problem, word starts to spread around her bridge club-and then around all of West Cambridge, Massachusetts-that she's the go-to girl for situations that need discreet fixing. Soon she has her first paid assignment-the director of a 55-and-over condo community needs her to de-escalate hostilities among the residents. As Jane discovers after moving in for her undercover assignment, the mature set can be as immature as any high schoolers, and war is breaking out between cliques.

It seems she might make some progress-until one of the aging popular kids is bludgeoned to death with a golf club. And though the automatic sprinklers have washed away much of the evidence, Jane's on course to find out whodunit . . .

1895. Former Scotland Yard detective Daniel Wilson, famous for working the notorious Jack the Ripper case, and his archaeologist sidekick Abigail Fenton are summoned to investigate the murder of a young woman at the Manchester Museum. Though staff remember the woman as a recent and regular visitor, no one appears to know her and she has no possessions from which to identify her.

When the pair arrive, the case turns more deadly when the body of a second woman is discovered hidden in the depths of the museum. Seeking help from a local journalist, Daniel hopes to unravel this mystery, but the journey to the truth is fraught with obstacles and the mistakes of the past will not be forgotten ...

1862. A goods train is speeding through the Sapperton Tunnel when it hits a makeshift pen of sheep inexplicably set up near the exit. The animals are slaughtered by the impact whilst the train hits a pile of rocks and is derailed, seriously injuring the occupants. Inspector Colbeck is called in to investigate and discovers that the shepherd and his dog are missing. Stephen Ryle who owned the sheep is shocked by the occurrence which further affects him as he is a major shareholder in the Great Western Railway which has been thrown into chaos by the incident.

Does someone have an axe to grind against Ryle? Or is it the missing shepherd who had made some dangerous enemies? With family grievances, embarrassing secrets and village feuds, it is not going to be an easy case for the Railway Detective.

An impossible murder

A remarkable detective duo

A demon who may or may not exist

The extraordinary new novel from Stuart Turton, author of the Sunday Times bestseller, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, winner of the Costa Best First Novel Award.

'A glorious mash-up of William Golding and Arthur Conan Doyle' Val McDermid A superb historical mystery: inventive, twisty, addictive and utterly beguiling.... A TRIUMPH' Will Dean It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported from the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam, where he is facing trial and execution for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent, while also on board are Sara Wessel, a noble woman with a secret, and her husband, the governor general of Batavia.

But no sooner is their ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A strange symbol appears on the sail. A dead leper stalks the decks. Livestock are slaughtered in the night.

And then the passengers hear a terrible voice whispering to them in the darkness, promising them three unholy miracles. First: an impossible pursuit. Second: an impossible theft. Third: an impossible murder.

Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes?

With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent and Sara can solve a mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board...

Cryogenicist Dr Georgette Watson has mastered the art of bringing frozen hamsters back to life. Now what she really needs is a body to confirm her technique can save human lives. Meanwhile, in New York City, winter is closing in, and there's a killer on the loose, slaying strangers who seem to have nothing in common. Is it simple good fortune that Georgette, who freelances for the NYPD, suddenly finds herself in the company of the greatest detective of all time? And will Sherlock Holmes be able to save Dr Watson in a world that has changed drastically in 200 years, even if human nature has not?

In 1907, Perth woman Alice Mitchell was arrested for the murder of five-month-old Ethel Booth. During the inquest and subsequent trial, the state was horrified to learn that at least 37 infants had died in Mitchell's care in the previous six years. It became clear that she had been running a 'baby farm', making a profit out of caring for the children of single mothers and other 'unfortunate women'.

The case raised questions about how so many infants could die, in apparently squalid conditions, implicating Perth's first female health inspector, Harriet Lenihan, who visited regularly and Dr Edward Officer, a children's specialist, who had signed most of the death certificates.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONA BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEARA SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARAN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEARA SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR'A triumph on every level. One of the losses to literature is that Harper Lee never found a way to tell a gothic true-crime story she'd spent years researching. Casey Cep has excavated this mesmerizing story and tells it with grace and insight and a fierce fidelity to the truth.'DAVID GRANN, author of Killers of the Flower Moon_____________________________The stunning story of an Alabama serial killer and the true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively in the years after To Kill a MockingbirdReverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted - thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the Reverend.

As Alabama is consumed by these gripping events, it's not long until news of the case reaches Alabama's - and America's - most famous writer. Intrigued by the story, Harper Lee makes a journey back to her home state to witness the Reverend's killer face trial. Harper had the idea of writing her own In Cold Blood, the true-crime classic she had helped her friend Truman Capote research. Lee spent a year in town reporting on the Maxwell case and many more years trying to finish the book she called The Reverend.

Now Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South. At the same time, she offers a deeply moving portrait of one of the country's most beloved writers and her struggle with fame, success, and the mystery of artistic creativity.

This is the story Harper Lee wanted to write. This is the story of why she couldn't.

_____________________________'Fascinating ... Cep has spliced together a Southern-gothic tale of multiple murder and the unhappy story of Lee's literary career, to produce a tale that is engrossing in its detail and deeply poignant... Cep spends the first third of Furious Hours following the jaw-dropping trail of murders ... Engrossing ... Cep writes about all this with great skill, sensitivity and attention to detail.'SUNDAY TIMES'It's been a long time since I picked up a book so impossible to put down. Furious Hours made me forget dinner, ignore incoming calls, and stay up reading into the small hours. It's a work of literary and legal detection as gripping as a thriller. But it's also a meditation on motive and mystery, the curious workings of history, hope, and ambition, justice, and the darkest matters of life and death. Casey Cep's investigation into an infamous Southern murder trial and Harper Lee's quest to write about it is a beautiful, sobering, and sometimes chilling triumph.'HELEN MACDONALD, author of H is for Hawk'This story is just too good ... Furious Hours builds and builds until it collides with the writer who saw the power of Maxwell's story, but for some reason was unable to harness it. It lays bare the inner life of a woman who had a world-class gift for hiding ... this book makes a magical leap, and it goes from being a superbly written true-crime story to the sort of story that even Lee would have been proud to write.'MICHAEL LEWIS, author of Moneyball and The Big Short

It's a life story that reads like something out of a John Grisham or Elmore Leonard novel that it's remarkable it has remained untold for so long.

Careers in the cocaine-trafficking business are usually short. It's not only a dangerous profession, fraught with the possibility of capture and long jail sentences, but it can be deadly if the cartels get to you first.

Not for Luis Antonio Navia.

For 25 years the Cuban-American smuggled hundreds of tons of white powder for the biggest cartels in Colombia and Mexico, including Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel.

In a profession populated by thugs, Navia's dress sense and good manners earned him the nickname 'El Senador' (The Senator). He refused to carry a weapon.

What made him good at his job was amassing trusted contacts, losing very few shipments of coke, and keeping a low profile. He also maintained a normal family life with a Colombian wife and two young children.

But he was never far removed from the most brutal violence imaginable.

One friend got his head cut off. Another was hit over the head, put in a 55-gallon drum full of cement and dumped in a canal. Navia himself was kidnapped three times and went close to being fed alive to crocodiles.

Somehow through it all he managed to survive and spent two decades fooling the DEA and other law-enforcement agencies.

That was until he came under the radar of Robert Harley, a tenacious US Customs special agent in Key West, Florida, who was determined to bring him to justice.

What followed was an international game of cat-and-mouse that culminated in Navia's 2000 arrest in Venezuela in one of the biggest antinarcotics takedowns of all time, the 12-nation Operation Journey.

Spanning decades, continents and featuring a who's who of the drug trade, Pure Narco is a fast-paced adventure ride into the dark underworld of cocaine trafficking, written with the cooperation of a dozen law-enforcement agents from the world's top antinarcotics forces in the United States and Great Britain.

It also contains insider insights into how the global drug business operates and offers some cogent solutions to the never-ending 'war on drugs'.

Navia served his time in jail and is now free to tell his tale. His is the rare perspective of someone who has worked on both sides of that war- as a cocaine trafficker and US Government consultant.

This book is a redemption story. Luis Navia, the pure narco, has gone full circle.

The most captivating and intriguing 19th-century murders from around the world are re-examined in this disquieting volume, which takes readers on a perilous journey around the world's most benighted regions. In each area, murders are charted with increasing specificity: beginning with city- or region-wide overviews, drilling down to street-level diagrams and zooming-in to detailed floor plans. All the elements of each crime are meticulously replotted on archival maps, from the prior movements of both killer and victim to the eventual location of the body. The murders revisited range from the 'French Ripper' Joseph Vacher, who roamed the French countryside brutally murdering and mutilating over twenty shepherds and shepherdesses, to H.H. Holmes, who built a hotel in Chicago to entrap, murder and dispose of its many guests. Crime expert Dr Drew Gray illuminates the details of each case, recounting both the horrifying particulars of the crimes themselves and the ingenious detective work that led to the eventual capture of the murderers. He highlights the development of police methods and technology: from the introduction of the police whistle to the standardization of the mugshot and from the invention of fingerprinting to the use of radio telegraphy to capture criminals. Disturbing crime-scene photographs by pioneers of policework, such as Alphonse Bertillon, and contemporary illustrations from the sensationalist magazines of the day, including the Illustrated Police News and the Petit Journal, complete the macabre picture.