New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Macmillan 1998 July-Sept

File Updated: 01/04/00

New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Macmillan JULY-SEPT 1998

Jane Adams Fade to Grey Published September 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0333721543 Artwork by: Cover photograph: Richard Ivey
With her first three extremely well received novels, Jane Adams has built herself a reputation as one of the most fresh and original talents in the modern crime fiction market. This reputation is now set to be taken even further by Fade to Grey, her fourth novel, and the third in her DI Mike Croft series.
In Norwich a Serial rapist is targeting young, slight, blonde women. At first it seems to DI Mike Croft that each attack is identical, but as they continue and as the forensic reports start to come in, Mike has to face the almost unbelievable - the fact that there is not just one attacker out there. When two hundred miles away in Wiltshire a car is found burning with the body of a young woman inside it, a young, slight, blonde woman, there is no reason for the investigating team to suspect a connection with the Norwich rapes. But, as it soon emerges, there is a connection. She is Theo Howard, a former actress now living a quiet life in Norfolk. But not for much longer....
Cleverly switching the action from place to place, Jane Adams takes her time and gradually unfolds a multi-faceted drama with real story-telling skill.

'Jane Adams' first two novels of psychological suspense promised a major talent in the making. With Bird, she amply fulfils that promise with assurance and style. Convincing, unnerving and profoundly disturbing.' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
'Adams's story is described with a low key discretion and deliberate lack of sensationalism that make it all the more haunting...grippingly edgy.' Sunday Times.
Jane Adams lives in Leicester. Her first three books The Greenway, Cast the First Stone and Bird are all available in Pan paperback. The Greenway was shortlisted for both the CWA John Creasey award and the Author's Club Best First Novel Award.

Catherine Aird Stiff News Published August 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 73652 4 Artwork by: Jacket Photo: Simon Marsden, Sand by The Hutchison Library

Gertrude Fowell led a very full and exciting life - perhaps too full in someone's eyes. Because now she has been murdered ...
No one was too surprised when octogenarian Gertrude Powell was found dead at Almstone Manor, a retirement home for former members of the Fearnshire Regiment. She had, after all, been very ill. But on the morning of the funeral, her son Lionel receives a disturbing letter - from his mother. In it, Gertrude states that someone is trying to kill her ...
For every fact Detective Inspector Sloan learns about Gertrude, there seems to be a mystery too. Why, for instance, would she never reveal the name of her second husband? And just what is the Pragmatic Solution she was so fearful of in her letter?

'Catherine Aird is as clever a detective writer as Margery Allingham.' TLS
Her delicious concoctions are never less than elegant and mischievously sharp; she manipulates her bizarre plots and people with confidence.' The Times
Catherine Aird is the author of some seventeen crime novels. She was awarded an honorary MA from the University of Kent and was made an MBE for her services to the Girl Guide Association. Although she has lived in East Kent for many years, she was brought up in Huddersfield. Formerly chairman of the CWA, she was awarded the CWA/Hertfordshire Libraries Golden Handcuffs Award for her outstanding contribution to detective fiction. Stiff News is the latest addition to Catherine Aird's popular Inspector Sloan novels, following most recently After Effects and A Going Concern.

Andrea Badenoch Mortal Published August 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 37100 X Artwork by: Cover image: Michael Smallcombe
See Review by Andrew Taylor - author of the highly acclaimed Roth & Lydmouth Series

Imogen Webb is determined to track down the killer of her friend Camilla. But as she slowly peels back the layers of Camilla's life she must ask her self one question: how well did she know her best friend?
Beautiful model Camilla Harding was charismatic, confident and strong. But, one cold December night, she became the latest victim of a killer terrorizing London.
Her best friend Imogen Webb is devastated by the loss of the woman around whom her life revolved. And she is haunted, too, by Camilla's words to her only minutes before the murder: 'Someone's threatening me. Someone I know.
Imogen vows to uncover the real killer. And there is no shortage of suspects. But perhaps most shocking of all is the picture of Camilla that begins to emerge. A picture of a woman who may have been the architect of her own death...

'First rate first novel. ... There is a talented writer on show here.' Daily Telegraph
'An excellent, gripping read.' The Big Issue
Terrific thriller ... suspenseful.' She

Andrea Badenoch lives in Newcastle with her partner and three children. She is the editor of a bi-monthly periodical, Writing Women and this is her first novel. This is a psychological suspense novel that will appeal to fans of Barbara Vine and Minette Waiters. The success of Mortal in hardback has been staggering, German rights recent sold at auction for 100,000 DM (40,000) - a staggering sum for a debut crime novel. Publishes simultaneously with Andrea's new hardback novel, Driven.

Jay Bonansinga Head Case Published September 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0333661222 Artwork by: Cover image: Peter Sherrard
From the highly acclaimed author of The Killer's Game, a psychological thriller, which takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride into the darkest corners of the human psyche.
In a hospital a man wakes up, seriously injured and suffering total amnesia. They named him John Doe.
Some while later a visitor arrives: a cop claiming to be his brother-who then tries to kill him.
He manages to escape, but finds himself plunged into a hideous waking nightmare in a world that seems to be conspiring against him. His sole helper, Jessie Bales, begins finding clues to his identity, but rather than comforting him, her discoveries are downright terrifying ... a fleapit hotel room littered with grotesque snuff photographs, a secret police file, the diary of a psychotic madman- and a trail of mutilated corpses.
Is John responsible for this carnage? Is it a frame-up? Or is it something strange and completely unexpected!

Jay R Bonansinga studied creative writing at Michigan State University and film directing at Columbia College, Chicago. Since then he has directed numerous short films and music videos. His most recent novel, The Killer's Game.

John Burns Snap Published July 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 72131 4 Artwork by: Jacket photograph: Tony Hutchings
John Burns' writing is fresh and sharp, with action and dialogue that leaps right off the page. Max Chard is a dedicated reporter with a razor-sharp wit, an eye for a really good story and (almost) all the lack of morals of a true tabloid journalist.... What a combination.
When missing millionaire's au pair Joni Poelma's body turns up in a picturesque snow covered park in Dulwich, Max - true to form - finds it impossible to resist the pursuit of the inside story.
He offers Joni's employer, the gorgeous Gabriella, two grand for the low-down, but instead somehow ends up taking her stepson, a would be journalist, under his wing. Typical.
However, much to Max's surprise the stepson proves rather useful, and before he knows it Max is getting the bigger picture on Joni. The much bigger picture. Just the job.

'Burns triumph is the creation of the hard-bitten anti-hero Max Chard. Daily Express

John Burns is an award-winning Fleet Street journalist and author. He worked for the Daily Express for many years as their crime reporter, and is now a freelance journalist. He lives with his wife and sons in London. Hack, the first in the Max Chard series, is now published simultaneously with the hardback of Snap, the second.

Robin Cook Toxin Published July 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 73034 8
Newly divorced surgeon Dr Kim Regis is determined to remain a good father to his only son. On a special night out, he takes Selden to his favourite fast-food restaurant for a feast of burgers and fries. But the good time turns to tragedy when the young boy becomes gravely ill and dies within hours as a result of poisoning by E. coli bacteria. Was Selden's death a result of shoddy food-handling? Or was it a case of product tampering by a rival chain or a disgruntled employee? Kim is determined to solve the mystery, but encounters walls of silence and threats of physical violence. Gradually he uncovers a deadly trail of complicity and guilt that stretches from the slaughterhouse floor to the corporate boardroom - in a race against time before others die.

Colin Dexter Fourth Inspector Morse Omnibus Published September 1998 by Macmillan at Ł17.99 and Ł7.99 ISBN: 0 333 73 780 6 and 0330370561
Way Through the Woods - Daughter of Cain - Death is Now My Neighbour.

Janet Evanovich Four to Score Published September 1998 by Macmillan at Ł14.99 ISBN: 0333740246 Artwork by: Jacket photograph: Colin Thomas
See Review by Phyllis Davies
It's been a while since Stephanie Plum jumped the fast train out of a New Jersey pantie store to collar runaways for her cousin Vinnie, bail-bond merchant. But the problem with being a bounty hunter is it's all on-the-job training. And Stephanie is still learning all the ways you can get yourself killed.
Take the case of Marine Norwicki ...
Marine was up on a charge for stealing her boyfriend's car. Vinnie had posted the bail and Marine had dutifully failed to turn up at court. It looked like a simple disappearance until Marine's boyfriend begins receiving coded notes that hint at buried treasure.
In fact the notes are so indecipherable that Stephanie has to call on the help of Sally Sweet, giant drag queen and code-breaker extraordinaire. And Steph's knight errant, cop Joe Morelli, is also proving useful - although he can't decide what he wants most: Marine's bounty or Stephanie's body.
Meanwhile a friend loses a finger, a mother is scalped, an apartment is firebombed and a store clerk is murdered. And out in the street, the crazy treasure hunt game goes on ...

Janet Evanovich now lives in New Hampshire but, like Stephanie Plum, grew up in New Jersey.
She has won a major crime fiction award for each of her Stephanie Plum novels so far: One for the Money was presented with the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Award and the Dilys Award, Two for the Dough won the CWA Last Laugh Award and Three to Get Deadly was awarded the CWA Silver Dagger for 1997.

Ken Follett The Hammer of Eden Published September 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 033371153X

Colin Forbes Cover Story Published July 1998 by Macmillan at Ł17.99 ISBN: 0 333 66426 4

Sue Grafton N is for Noose Published August 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 66982 7 Artwork by: Cover photo: Getty Images/The Image Bank
See Review by Margaret Murphy - author of Desire of the Moth & mistress of the psychological suspence novel
The 14th Kinsey Millhone Mystery novel.
'N' takes Kinsey to an isolated mountain community of Nota Lake in eastern California, where everyone is related and no one talks to strangers. She should have turned right around and gone home...
Only six weeks have passed since Nota County Sheriffs detective Tom Newquist died of a heart attack. His widow is sure he was keeping secrets from her - and she wants Kinsey to find out what he was up to in the final weeks of his life. But no-one is prepared to talk. The town, to the last threatening redneck, closes ranks.
All Kinsey can uncover is that Newquist appeared to lead an exemplary life, so what could he possibly have to conceal? She's on the point of giving up- and later wishes she had. For her next interview is with a masked attacker in her motel room, serving up serious physical damage as a warning. And then there's a chilling new clue: a childish drawing of a thick length of rope-fashioned into a hangman' s noose...

Who is the real Sue Grafton? Many of her readers think she is simply a version of her character and alter ego Kinsey Millhone. Sue has said that Kinsey is herself, only younger, smarter and thinner. She has been married to Steve Humphrey for more than twenty years and has three children and two grandchildren. Sue loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine - not quite the nature-hating, fast-food loving Millhone!
Sue Grafton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1940, her father was the mystery writer C.W. Grafton, whose own work gave his daughter the initial inspiration to write herself. She began her career as a TV script writer before Kinsey Millhone and the series took off. She is now an international bestseller with a readership in millions and is published in 28 countries and 26 languages - including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Sue Grafton lives in Santa Barbara, where she writes full time.