New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Headline 1998 Jan-March

File Updated: 04/07/00

New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Headline JAN-MARCH 1998

Judith Cook Death of a Lady's Maid Pbk published January 1998 by Headline at Ł5.99 ISBN: 0 7472 5608 X Artwork by: Cover illustration: Bill Gregory
A harsh winter followed by the coldest, wettest spring in living memory brings ominous signs that plague might again stalk the streets of Elizabethan London. But for the wherryman who hauls the body of a young girl out of the River Thames early one morning in June 1591, the unseasonable weather is no longer his main concern. The dead girl is taken to the renowned medical practitioner and horoscope caster Dr Simon Forman at his home on the Bankside, and to his surprise, Forman recognises her immediately. Four months earlier, with expectations of great wealth, Eliza had visited him demanding to have her horoscope cast. Now, as Forman examines her lifeless body, he discovers she was three months pregnant and her death was no suicide... In her pocket lies a beautiful gold pendant engraved with a coat of arms and, aided by his burly, grumbling manservant John Bradedge, Forman traces the pendant to the family home of Sir Wolford Barnes in Bishopsgate. There he discovers that Eliza was a lady's maid to Sir Wolford's beautiful and seductive daughter, Olivia, and Forman is convinced that the solution to her murder lies in her relationship with Olivia. Gradually he unravels the complexities of the case - but not before his own life is put at risk...
Death of a Lady's Maid is the first entry in the Casebook of Dr Simon Forman. In this vibrant and colourful mystery, Judith Cook brings Elizabethan London vividly to life in all its sinister splendour.

P.C. Doherty The Rose Demon Pbk published January 1998 by Headline at Ł5.99 ISBN: 0 7472 5441 9 Artwork by: Cover illustration: Barbara Lofthouse.
See Review by Phyllis Davies
An epic, spine-chilling story of terror, mystery and black magic set in the Middle Ages from a master storyteller. 'In Paradise, in the glades of Eden, Eve was tempted twice: first by Lucifer, then by Rosifer who offered her a rose plucked from Heaven.
Matthias Fitzobert the illegitimate son of the parish priest of the village of Sutton Courteny in Gloucestershire. Despite the recent spate of murders to the village, each day he braves the dark woods that lead to the ruins of Tenebral to visit his friend, a mysterious hermit who shows him many strange and beautiful things and who tells him about Rosifer, the fallen angel who was God’s gardener, who laid out Paradise for Adam and Eve. Though enthralled, the boy is always puzzled by his lessons with the hermit - never more so than the night the villagers hunt the hermit down and, and burn him, believing him to be responsible for the many deaths. The hermit's words to Matthias will haunt the boy for the rest of his life.
The Rose Demon explores the nature of Matthias's unique relationship with the spirit he loves yet hates, strives to placate but ultimately flees from. And his story is played out against the vivid panorama of medieval life; the fall and sack of Constantinople, the last throes of the turbulent Wars of the Roses, the terror of witchcraft, the loneliness of the Scottish marches, the battlefields of Spain and finally the lush jungles of the Caribbean where the Rose Demon and Matthias meet for a final, dramatic confrontation.

P.C. Doherty The Soul Slayer Published January 1998 by Headline at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 7472 2079 4 Artwork by: Jacket illustration: Barbara Lofthouse
Soul Slayer: from medieval lore and legend, if a magician can take out the heart of his victim before death, and the victim does not die in a state of grace, the warlock can call upon that soul to do his bidding.

Eighteen year old Rebecca Lennox, the daughter of a former priest, is neglected and feared by the villagers of Dunmow in Essex. They regard her as cursed, by both her hare lip and her gift of second sight. Rebecca finds solace in the statue of St Michael the Archangel, to whom she prays devotedly within the sanctity of her old parish church. But when a young Catholic priest arrives in the village it seems that she has finally found a mortal confidant. Michael is not repelled by her infirmity and his charm and gentleness remind her of her beloved statue.
Then in the late summer changes come to Dunmow. A new parson is appointed - more interested in the black arts than the teachings of religion. For Henry Frogmore holy orders are merely a convenient cover for his nefarious activities, but in Rebecca and Michael he finds powerful opponents. And in the ensuing struggle the price for each of them is all too heavy.

Acclaim for Paul Doherty's medieval novels:
'A supercharged shriek in the experience' Darlington North Echo
'Medieval London comes vividly to life' Publishers Weekly
'Wholly excellent' Prima
'Historically informative, excellently plotted and, as ever, superbly entertaining' CADS

Sarah Lovett A Desperate Silence Published January 1998 by Headline at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 7472 1151 5

A silent child, an unspeakable terror…
When forensic psychologist Sylvia Strange gets a midnight call to assess a mute ten-year-old, found alone at the scene of a horrendous car crash, her professional reactions are swamped by her instinct to protect the traumatised girl. Especially when it becomes clear that there was something else in the car, something that someone wants back very badly.…

'A hunting insight into the nature of evil with page-turning suspense. Sunday Telegraph

Sarah Lovett lives in Santa Fe.

Edward Stewart The Solution Published January 1998 by Headline at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 7472 1761 0
A fast-paced suspense thriller of power and corruption from: 'A deft storyteller with a scandalous imagination' New York Times.

Page Revised:
03 Mar 2003.

Author Profiles, New Book Digests and Weekly Lists Generated by the
TWUK Crime & Mystery Fiction Database