Bruce Alexander --- Murder in Grub Street --- Little & Brown (0 316 87626 7) £15.99
Following Jeremy Proctor's adoption by the Bow Street magistrate, Sir John Fielding, he has been found an apprenticeship with a printer in Grub Street. But on the day he was due to begin, the entire household are found massacred, the only survivor being a young poet whose work had been published by the printer. On the face of it he seems guilty, but Fielding isn't so sure....... A brilliant Whodunnit, with an evocative and original setting.
Pieke Biermann --- Violetta --- Serpent's Tail Mask Noir Paperback Original (1 85242 289 0) £8.99 Out on 22nd February. See Review
This is the first English Translation of leading German crime writer Pieke Biermann's award-winning thriller Violetta, translated by Ines Rieder and Jill Hannum.
Bad enough to spend a summer holiday being ogled by over-weight men well past their sell by date, even worse to come back to one's desk and find out that Berlin's serial killers have not been on vacation. There's the Stamper who tracks down foreign women, strangles them and stamps T for Turk, C for Chilean, P for Pole on their forehead. Another murderer kills men, after sex, with a karate chop to the neck. And then there's the militant JoAnne Little Brigade, taking revenge on men for violence against women....
Homophobic perverts, fascists with a score to settle with history, fund raising prostitutes and a Wall about to come down. Welcome back Inspector Lietze!
Pieke Biermann has twice won the German Crime Writers' Prize - in 1991 for Violetta. This translation introduces to English language audiences a rising star of European crime writing.
Pieke Biermann has an apocalyptic imagination. Her voice - telling us of violence and despair as we hurtle to the end of the millennium - is unique among contemporary crime writers. Sara Paretsky
This is a fascinating, intense glimpse of Berlin at a moment when sex, art and politics collide. Lisa Cody
There is a humanism here that raises Violetta above almost all contemporary crime fiction, indeed above almost all contemporary fiction in any genre: it tells it as it is, but believes that the human spirit is still strong enough to make things better. Julian Rathbone
Pieke Biermann formerly worked as a prostitute and is now one of Germany's leading crime writers. She lives in Berlin.
Rankin Davis --- The Right to Silence --- Hodder (0 340 65783 9) £16.99 Out on 1st February. See Review
'How many people are currently awaiting trial on a rape charge?' Buchan asked.
'Hundreds, and rising every day. There are presently nine hundred and fifty-six of them claiming consent. We simply don't have the resources to cover them all if they're acquitted.'
'Your budget is stretched already, Molineux.'
'Exactly, sir. That's why we need our own target.'
Molineux hated referring to the civil servant as 'sir', but Buchan held the purse strings. He wasn't sure how he would respond to the establishment of a target; is was so close to the political bone, breach of civil rights being a hot issue these days, and Buchan was the one who would have to sell the idea to the Home Secretary.
'Live bait,' responded Buchan. 'Interesting and cheaper. Out of the nine hundred and fifty-six, are there any certs?'
'Even if I were a gambling man, I wouldn't bet on a jury's verdict.' The Commander looked around the room, knowing once this boat was pushed out he would either sink or swim with it. 'We must take the matter out of the jury's hands.'
Television journalist Beth Gamble will never forget the night she won her BAFTA award. A truly memorable occasion. It also happened to be the night she was brutally raped by a stranger with a terrible grudge.
When a man is arrested and charged with the crime, Beth consoles herself with the thought that at least her tormentor will get what he deserves.
But her faith in British justice is tragically misplaced.
For Beth cannot know that Scotland Yard's top brass have their own plans for her rapist's trial - and justice comes way down their list of priorities.
Up and down the country men have been shot dead and castrated by an unknown serial killer. The victims have one thing in common. They have all recently been acquitted of rape. Under intense pressure to find the murderer, Scotland Yard decide to use Beth and her rapist as bait. In a cynical manoeuvre to ensure the defendant's acquittal, they rig the trial by tampering with the evidencde and preventing key witnesses from testifying.
The police believe they have the situation under control. But they have seriously underestimated the cunning and intelligence of the killer. And so begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game whose repercussions will strike at the very heart of the Establishment.
The Right to Silence is a taut, deftly-plotted, gripping thriller from an outstanding new writer with unique insider's knowledge of the law and its detractors.
Rankin Davis is a Pseudonym for two Glasgow Barristers. Using an insider's knowledge of the law and its detractors The Right to Silence directs a fierce eye at the morals and motives of civilians taking the law into their own hands, the contentious political issue of civil rights and anticipates a potentially real scenario (currently under consideration) where MI5 and other security services may become involved in police operations to tackle major problems such as organised crime. Read the story behind the book.
Patrick Dillon --- Truth --- Michael Joseph (0 7181 3974 7) £15.99
Downbeat London Police procedural.
Janet Evanovich --- Two For The Dough --- Hamish Hamilton (0241 13482X) £12.50 See Review 
It takes balls to be a bounty hunter... and she doesn't care whose
Stone brilliant, the best crime fiction debut of the decade so far. More please, soon. GQ
New Jersey vice cop Joe Morelli made a habit of screwing up Stephanie Plum's life. When he left her hand-cuffed naked to the curtain rod of her shower, she swore it was the last time she'd have anything to do with him.
Except now Morelli is back, suggesting a partnership, as his case overlaps with Stephanie's (who is working once again as a fugitive apprehension agent - aka bounty hunter extrodinaire). Both of them are tracking Kenny Mancuse, a no-hope scumbag who skipped bail after being arrested for shooting his best friend.
The hunt leads to Stiva's mortuary, and Stephanie enlists the help of her feisty grandmother, getting more than she asked for when Grandma starts packing a .45 magnum and creating funeral chaos.
As Stephanie and Morelli close in on their man - and on each other - she begins to seriously reconsider her career choice, which involves spending a lot more time with dead people, not to mention Joe Morelli, than she'd accounted for in her life plan.
One For The Money marked the debut of crime fiction's cleverest and most original heroine in years. Furiously funny and unflaggingly suspenseful, elevates Stephanie Plum from auspicious debutante to pop legend.
Janet Evanovich, originally from South River, New Jersey now lives in New Hampshire.
Joseph Garber --- Vertical Run --- Simon & Schuster Pbk (0 684 81648 2) £9.99
Thriller
Elizabeth George --- In the Presence of the Enemy --- Bantam (0 593 03699 9) £15.99
J.M. Gregson --- Accident by Design HarperCollins (0 00 232578 0) £14.99 A novel in the best traditions of provincial murder Observer (of Watermarked)
Walter Fletcher lives at the end of one of the remote valleys in the Forest of Dean. He is an old man now, but still a vigorous one and determined to resist his family’s efforts to persuade him to move. His resistance, though, proves fatal, for within two days he is dead. At first his death is thought to be an accident, but his granddaughter has doubts, and to Superintendent Lambert’s and Sergeant Hook’s embarrassment, the girl’s suspicions of foul play are well founded. The ensuing police investigation isn’t an easy one, especially when it emerges that the killing is almost certainly the work of either the family of a close friend of the victim.
J.M. Gregson worked in various sectors of education for many years, but, although still giving the occasional lecture on literature, he now concentrates on writing full time.
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles --- Blood Lines --- Little & Brown (0 316 914207) £15.99
With his violinist lady-love busy entertaining at Gleynbourne, Detective Inspector Bill Slider almost welcomes a call out to BBC TV Centre where a celebrated music critic appears to have topped himself. Slider is sure that it is murder and he soon discovers that there are a host of suspects including one of his own sergeants.
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is the author of over forty novels. This is the fifth Slider whodunnit, a series the Daily Mail has described as real discoveries for detection fans demanding quality and heart as well as ingenuous plot.
Carl Hiassen --- Stormy Weather --- Macmillan (0 333 63774 7) £15.99
Domini Highsmith--- Master of the Keys --- Little Brown (0 316 87789 1) £16.99 and Guardian At The Gate --- Warner Pbk £5.99
Both out on 1st February 1996. See Review of the trilogy
A chronicle of love, betrayal and murder, Keeper At The Shrine is a gripping historical novel of full-bodied characters set in turbulent medieval times. Woman and Home
The story that began with Keeper At The Shrine and continued with Guardian At The Gate now concludes with Domini Highsmith's epic tale of medieval adventure, Master of the Keys. Inspired by the tomb of the Unknown Priest which can be found in the magnificent Beverley Minster, the books tell of the evil ambition and terrifying violence of the medieval church and the danger facing a small child with an astonishing destiny.
In the first book, set in 1180, a sudden and violent storm brings chaos to the small Yorkshire town of Beverley. A mysterious stranger appears, carrying a new-born baby boy, whom he gives to Father Simeon, one of the monks at the church. Simeon names the boy Peter. As news of the extraordinary event spreads, Simeon takes Peter into hiding from the dangers of his enemies so that Peter can be raised in safety.
Guardian of the Gate continues the story. As Beverly lies in ruins after a terrible fire, Simeon seeks financial help from a York Jew, Aaron, to keep his promise to rebuild the Minster. Aaron is saved from the 1189 massacre of Jews and hidden by Simeon as numerous factions seek the Minster's hidden treasure - whose whereabouts are known to the boy, Peter.
In Master of the Keys, set in January 1196, in the small Yorkshire town of Beverley is in the grip of one of the harshest winters of its history. The charred ruins of its Minster Church symbolise the moral decay of those corrupt priests who, during the previous drought-ridden summer, plunged the town into a perilous state of anarchy. The starving, disease-weakened people take comfort in the knowledge that Cyrus de Figham, the evil canon who incited the rioting, was left for dead in its wake.
In the vacuum created by Cyrus de Figham's absence the struggle for power and profit flares again as the privileged few seek dominance over the town - men like Wulfric de Morthlund, whose sins are too unnatural for confession; Geoffrey Plantagenet, the Archbishop of York determined to exert his irreverent authority over an unruly diocese; and Hector de Figham, the embittered brother come to reclaim his long-denied inheritance. The fate of Beverly lies once again in the hands of Simeon, the goodly priest who dreams of restoring the Minster to its former glory. Touched by the power of miracle twice in his life, his faith prevents him consummating his love for the beautiful Elvira. Despite the dangers, and in the face of his father's attempts to persuade him from his calling, Simeon remains dedicated to his own small church and to the town's spiritual protection. More than that, he is bound by Peter, the godson brought to him in a storm as a new-born baby ten years before, and who must fulfil his destiny as Keeper of the Holy Shrine of St John of Beverly.
But in a nearby monastery an unexpected danger is stirring, a shadow as insidious as the pestilence itself, reaching out for Beverley once again....
Yorkshire-born Domini Highsmith lives in the shadow of Beverly Minister. She began her career writing and broadcasting her comic dialect poetry and stories on local radio in Leeds and Bradford. She has also performed on stage and on national television and radio. She is the author of six thrillers (as Domini Wiles) and under her own name has written two semi-autobiographical novels, and the powerful historical novels Leonora, Lukan, Keeper at the Shrine and Guardian at the Gate.
Praise for Guardian at the Gate
A well told, gripping tale of turbulent times (chosen as novel of the month by Choice magazine) Highsmith keeps the suspense at fever pitch Hull Daily Mail