New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Macmillan 1998 April-June

File Updated: 01/04/00

New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From Macmillan APRIL-JUNE 1998

Jo Bannister Broken Lines Published May 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 72512 3
A routine stop at a petrol station finds Sergeant Cal Donovan caught up in an armed robbery, a high-speed chase and a remarkable act of heroism, as he risks his own life to save that of armed robber, nineteen-year-old Mikey Dickens.
Mikey comes from a well-known criminal family, and with the help of his father Roly, a godfather figure on the local estate, it looks as if he'll get away with the robbery.
Donovan, supported by Superintendent Frank Shapiro and DI Liz Graham, is determined to prove Mikey's guilt.
But has he met his match ... ?

Jo Bannister was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, and grew up in Birmingham, Nottingham and Banger, Northern Ireland. After leaving school at sixteen, she joined the County Down Spectator as office junior, leaving as editor in 1988 to pursue her career as an author. She has won several awards for her writing, including recognition from the Royal Society of Arts and the British Press Awards. The Hireling's Tale is the sixth novel in the series, following Burning Desires, Sin of the Heart, A Bleeding of Innocents and No Birds Sing. Her Castlemere novels are tough and very realistic - in the tradition of Lynda La Plante's Prime Suspect and she has created three very strong, tough and charismatic leading characters in Frank Shapiro, Lit Graham and Cal Donovan that possess a realism that is rare in crime novels of today.

Pauline Bell Blood Ties Published June 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 72806 8

In the middle of a terrifying air raid in 1942, a young midwife, going about her duties in spite of the chaos, makes a desperate decision, with unimaginable repercussions.

Half a century later, in the same small Yorkshire town, four women are preparing for a wedding. All of them are students, three of them living with Josephine Merry in her elegant house. But then Briony, who is one of the bridesmaids, fails to turn up at the church. As Sergeant Benny Mitchell begins to look for her, a second young person, a tearaway known to the police, also disappears.
But then Mitchell is summoned to a macabre murder scene. The sins of the past, it seems, have now become sins of the present ...

Critical acclaim for Pauline Bell
Sleeping Partners
'Pauline Bell imbues her work with a liveliness and sense of purpose' Yorkshire Post
Downhill to Death
'Armchair criminologists will enjoy pitting themselves against Pauline Bell's Detective Inspector Browne' Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The Way of a Serpent
'A well constructed tale expertly told ... a satisfying series of accumulated surprises' Scotsman
No Pleasure in Death
'Choral compulsion - or is it mania? - engagingly analysed as red herrings are neatly floated between high notes and low. A must on the Messiah circuit' Guardian
Feast Into Mourning
'In the tradition of the classic English thriller ... Like Agatha Christie, only with better in-depth characterization' Sunday Press, Dublin

Born in 1938, Pauline Bell has always been based in Yorkshire. Married, with three grownup children, she has spent most of her working life as a teacher. Her hobbies include singing, amateur productions, walking in the Dales and reading other people's detective fiction. Blood Ties is her seventh crime novel in the Benny Mitchell series.

Jonathan Gash The Rich and the Profane Published April 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 71306 0 Artwork by: Jacket photograph: Colin Thomas
See Review by Frances Hickey
It could only happen to Lovejoy one minute a beautiful young girl is asking him how to steal a cheap Edwardian necklace; the next he's jetting off to the Channel Isles, posing as a showbiz impresario, organizing 'The Gamble of the Century' - and avenging a murder…
Prior George Metivier and his sister Marie need Lovejoy's help. The ancient Albansham Priory is in deep financial trouble, owing to George's heavy gambling debts, and they would like Lovejoy to suss out the Priory's valuable antiques.
For research purposes, of course, Lovejoy and his friend Gesso the cat burglar break into the Priory at dead of night. Gesso is caught, but Lovejoy for once is lucky (he thinks) and escapes with a rare Roderick O'Conor painting.
But despite frantic attempts to conceal it, by morning the canvas has vanished from Lovejoy's derelict workshop. Only hours later Gesso, too, disappears, the Priory suddenly closes, and Prior George and his flock are gone.
Worse still, at the now eerily quiet Albansham Priory, Lovejoy finds evidence that Gesso has been murdered …
The Lovejoy novels were adapted into the hugely successful BBCI series starring Ian McShane. Jonathan Gash is also the author of Different Women Dancing (Pan), the first in his series of thrillers featuring Dr Glare Burtonall.

Daniel Hecht Skull Session Published May 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 71432 6 Artwork by: Jackey photograph: Brian David Stevens
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
See Review by Andrew Taylor - author of the highly acclaimed Roth & Lydmouth Series
Paul Skoglund hasn't seen his difficult, eccentric aunt in years. But her house has been systematically smashed to pieces, and she refuses to have anyone outside the family take on the repairs. Paul senses the skeletons she's trying to hide, but takes the job anyway.
He's in no position to turn down work. Despite his brilliance, Paul hasn't held a steady job for years, partly because of Tourette's syndrome, a bizarre neurological disorder that forces his body into wild swings and to blurt out words that are hilariously, sometimes tragically, inappropriate.
As he delves into the ruins of the house, he begins to wonder at the almost superhuman but methodical nature of the house's destruction. Who could have hated his aunt enough to cause such chaos? When the battered bodies of several missing teenagers show up along the railroad tracks and in the woods, he begins to trace the web of violence outward from the sinister house. The clues seem to hide in the strange workings of the human brain, and only Paul's lifetime struggle with his own illness gives him the ability to enter the hypercharged world of the bloody marauder. In order to save himself and his family, Paul has to embrace the dark aspects of his own nature - learning that the reverse of creativity is always destruction, and sometimes the two are inseparable. Daniel Hecht is a successful musician whose records have sold worldwide.

Bill James Lovely Mover Published June 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 72607 3 Artwork by: Jaket photograph: Peter Sherrard
See Review by Lynda Ross

'Vine unbuttoned the holster but did not bring the gun out yet. With the silencer on it was too big for the holster or his pocket, and he did not want to hold it while he waited. That would seem too damn threatening. He found it strange to be lurking here, waiting to finish someone, in what remained of a building that had been for years to do with law and order ... At a little before 3 a.m. he saw Eleri coming, that very jaunty, businesslike walk ... He touched the open flap of the holster, then, as she passed reached out and grabbed Eleri around the chin and mouth so she could not shout. He dragged her into the doorway. It was easy. He had known it would be, she was so light ... 'I'm so f***ing disappointed in you, Eleri, ' he said, his mouth against her ear.'

Keith Vine cannot ignore the threat of invasion by rival drug syndicates, particularly as rumours are reaching him that an elegantly dressed spy from London nicknamed Lovely Mover - is in the area. So he kills his best dealer, Eleri ap Vaughan, as a warning to others that he is in charge.
Unbeknownst to Vine, however, his new 'partner' DCS Harpur is playing a very dangerous undercover game - and now finds himself in the precarious position of both covering up a murder while at the same time investigating it. Only one person knows what Harpur is up to - his amoral superior ACC Desmond lies.
But is lies really someone he can trust ... ?

Bill James is a writer whose precise ear for authentic dialogue and inventive plotting of a dramatic story are unmatched in modern suspense fiction.

'The game, praise be, goes on.' Literary Review

'Bill James has long been one of British crime writing's hidden jewels.' Time Out
There is a terrifying credibility about this series that makes so many of its rivals' seem trivial by comparison.' Manchester Evening News

Bill James lives in his native South Wales. He is married with four children and is the author of a critical work on Anthony Powell as well as many thrillers and crime novels. Lovely Mover is the fifteenth novel in Bill James's highly acclaimed Harpur & Iles series, following most recently Top Banana and Panicking Ralph. The fourth in the series, Protection, was adapted by BBCI into a two-part drama series entitled Harpur & Iles, starring Hywel Bennett and Aneurin Hughes.

Alanna Knight The Coffin Lane Murders Published May 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 68912 7
An Inspector Faro mystery
The frantic arrival of PC Dean at Inspector Faro's door one winter morning brings news of the first - but by no means last - killing in Coffin Lane. A serial killer has begun his terrible work in Victorian Edinburgh …

Margaret Lawrence Blood Red Roses Published April 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 69468 6 Artwork by: Cover photograph: Paul Aston
The second novel in Margaret Lawrence’s critically acclaimed Hearts and Bones Trilogy.
It is 1786, and summer has come to Rufford, New England. As the hay ripens and roses perfume the air, the horrors of the long hard winter - and the recent war against the English seem to be fading.
But midwife Hannah Trevor is still fighting her own personal war. As a young widow, she is regarded by the courts as unable to support her daughter Jennet. At any moment the eight-year-old may be taken from her and Hannah will be forced to consider a loveless marriage to protect her child. Yet her heart still burns for the man she cannot have - Daniel Josselyn, Jennet's real father.
Then, during a Midsummer's Eve haying party, a body is discovered in the rose-filled arbour, leading in turn to a horrific scene deep in the woods. But it is the victims' identities that shake Hannah to her core.
Now she must draw on every ounce of her intelligence to unravel the truth from the lies - for it is Hannah who is accused of murder …
Margaret Lawrence's first novel, Hearts and Bones, which also features Hannah Trevor, was published to much critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Macavity Award, an Agatha Award, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Crime Novel of 1996.

Priscilla Masters Night Visit Published June 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 73072 0 Artwork by: Jacket Photo: Bruce Coleman/Tony Stone
See Review by John Boyles

Using her experience as a GP-attached nurse, Priscilla Masters has created an authentic setting for her new chilling suspense novel. Night Visit introduces the new character Dr Harriet Lament, a local doctor who vows to solve the puzzle behind the disappearance of a little girl they called Melanie Toadstool.
The year does not begin well for Dr Harriet Lament, for at a New Year's Eve party her husband meets another woman and by February her marriage is over. As Harriet worries about the affect the split will have on her young daughter she finds herself becoming obsessed by the mysterious disappearance of six-year old Melanie Carnforth over a decade before. Haunted by the image of the little girl in a red dress in the woods, she vows to find the child's body, and her killer.

'It is always a joy to discover a new crime writer with a sure touch and the capacity to shock. More, please, Peter Lovesey

Priscilla Masters lives on the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands with her husband, a GP in the Potteries, and two sons. Priscilla Masters is also the author of a police series featuring DI Joanna Piercy: Winding Up the Serpent, Catch the Fallen Sparrow, A Wreath for My Sister and And None Shall Sleep. She works part-time as a GP-attached nurse in Leek. She has also written a children's book, Mr Bateman 's Garden, set in her local National Trust property, Biddulph Grange.

Chris Niles Run Time Published April 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 68128 2 Artwork by: Jacket photograph: Paul Postle
London radio reporter Sam Ridley (first encountered in Spike It) has hardly been in Sydney long enough to slap on the sunblock, and already his holiday's out of control.
He's got a hangover wilder than a kangaroo on a trampoline. He's cut off from the son he's travelled halfway around the world to see. He's woken up to find his new female friend murdered in the next room. And now he's on the run, in a town that thinks he killed her.
Sam knows he's being framed. What he doesn't know is who set him up. Or why.

Lynda Plante Cold Heart Published April 1998 by Macmillan at Ł16.99 ISBN: 0 333 62205 7
A single gunshot in Beverly Hills blasts a mogul's tainted world of poisonous emotion, betrayal and killing into the public spotlight ... Harry Nathan's death is the beginning, not the end, of a trail of lust and conspiracy leading to the darkest corners of the international art world.
When the desperate call comes through from Cindy Nathan, the dead man's wife, private investigator Lorraine Page faces her toughest fight ever. She needs Cindy Nathan's money. Cindy was Harry Nathan's third wife. Yet, as Lorraine begins to find out, he'd never really been able to let the first two go.
A sordid trail of video evidence implicates other leading Hollywood figures in the case, while Lorraine finds her own investigations hampered by the intervention of new police chief Jake Burton, a man who appears to know everything bad about her, but still seems determined to know more …
For Lorraine, the turning point comes with the lonely, violent death of Cindy Nathan, a demise initially earmarked as suicide. In the black emptiness that follows, Lorraine must decide whether to risk everything in one last desperate search for the truth. To face up to her own bitter memories of the past in order to recover a tragic young woman's self-respect.
To allow her own tortured soul some peace …
Lynda La Plante is an award-winning writer for film and television and the author of five international bestsellers: The Legacy, Bella Mafia, Entwined, Cold Shoulder and Cold Blood.

Minette Walters The Sculptress Published June 1998 by Macmillan at Ł17.99 ISBN: 0 333 73368 1
See Review by Phyllis Davies