NEW BOOK MACMILLAN 1997

Carl Huberman.  Eminent Domain.  Pbk pan Aug 97 0 330 34718 7 £5.99
Kent Hollis is a killing machine who literally `loves' his victims to death. Yet Hollis is officially dead - which is why his sinister controller, Siemens, will go to any lengths to cover up his creature's murderous excesses. And Siemens is working through a mysterious hit-list of harmless victims linked by a series of incredible events that occurred twenty years ago.
All of which is bad news for innocent duo Cheryl Kenney and Stanley Fulbright. When they get in Hollis's way, they are pursued across country, their progress monitored by the all-powerful, all-seeing Siemens. Cheryl and Stanley don't seem to have a chance.
 Carl Huberman is a freelance writer living in Cheshire. 

Craig Hoden.  The Last Sanctuary.  pbk pan july 97 0 330 34934 1 £5.99
 Seven days and a lifetime ago, Joe Curos was hitch-hiking along a road in America's heartland when a young couple stopped to offer him a ride. Joe hesitated a moment. Then, in a single, life-altering act, he climbed in. Within hours, he was a man caught in a nightmare. And within days he was wanted for murder . . .
 'Argues Holden's claim to be among the best emerging US writers, with a tale of several hundred miles of bad road, a religious cult on the far side of Waco, and a man-on-the-run plot as tight as any B-movie, all done in stripped-down, top- of the-range prose, with a wicked eye for reversals of fortune'
   Guardian
'This tightly wound thriller . . . crowded with near misses and narrow escapes presents deftly realized characters . . . seeking real answers to real questions'
  New York Times 

Robin Cook.  Invasion  pbk Pan Nov 97 0 330 351881 £5.99
 
In the tradition of Independence Day, a terrifying glimpse into an unthinkable future.
To anyone glancing at the night sky, it seems like a brilliant shooting star . . . but moments later electronic equipment of every kind begins to spark and explode throughout the city. The following morning, Beau Stark is the first to pick up one of the strange black discs scattered far and wide. With the first sharp pain, like a bee-sting, he becomes gradually ‘infested’', his symptoms signifying the revival of an alien virus implanted millions of years ago in mankind's genetic code. His friends
become engaged in a desperate quest to save mankind . . . before the Gateway opens. 

Robert K. Tanenbaum.  Falsely Accused.  Pbk Signet Aug 97 0 330 35140 0 £5.99
 When New York's Chief Medical Examiner is fired for alleged incompetence, his lawyer, Butch Karp, finds himself fighting mighty City Hall. Meanwhile Karp's wife, Marlene Ciampi,
has opened a private detective agency which specializes in  protecting women from stalkers and abusers. Their new careers may seem miles apart, but questions soon arise that unite them. What is the terrible secret that two frightened children refuse to divulge? Why do the deaths of Guatemalan
 cab drivers in police custody remain uninvestigated? Who is  responsible for the brutal beating of Marlene's journalist friend Ariadne? No one is immune from suspicion as Karp and Ciampi swing into action on the trail of dirty secrets. 

Di Morrissey.  When the Singing Stops. Pbk Pan July 97 0 330 34920 1 £5.99
A young Australian woman leaves Sydney for a new world . . . Guyana, South America.
 Captivated by Guyana's wild unspoilt beauty Madison Wright joins the native Amerindians struggling to preserve their culture against corporate exploitation. But her new-found commitment plunges Madison into a mire of murder, drug smuggling and political corruption. And finally, an
 unexpected love that pics her heart against her beliefs.
Australia's most popular woman novelist, Di Morrissey is well-known as a TV presenter on the original Good Morning Auatralia. Her five previous novels are all bestsellers. 

  Bill James.  Top Banana.  Pbk Pan Sep 97 0 330 35008 0  £5.99
It was splashed across every newspaper in the county. A thirteen year old girl had been gunned down in the street, caught in the crossfire between two rival drug gangs with whom, it seems, she is inextricably linked. Chief Constable Lane and Iles lock horns. For Lane there is only one option - infiltrate the drug gangs and try to restore peace on his patch. Unfortunately ACC Desmond Iles sees things very differently: let the gangland police itself in return for a few `favours'.
As his superiors battle it out, DCS Harpur looks a little harder into Mandy's death, and discovers some disturbing truths....
Bill James is lives in South Wales. He is the author of a critical work on Anthony Powell as well as many thrillers and crime novels. Top Banana is the thirteenth in the well-known and highly acclaimed Harpur and Iles series, following most recently The Detective is Dead.  His new hardback, Panicking Ralph, is published in August by Macmillan. The fourth book in the series, Protection, was adapted for TV by the BBC in 1996 into a well-received two part drama starring Hwyel Bennett and Aneurin Hughes.
Cover photo Peter Sherrard  

James Thayer.  Five Past Midnight. Macmillan Oct 97 0333 66458 2  £16.99
A vividly suspenseful thriller with a potent combination of strong characters, nail-biting action and intriguing backdrops.......
As World War II grinds to an end, the ailing US President is informed that the Waffen SS is preparing a last stand in the Bavarian Alps, where Hitler might prolong the war for another two years and cost his own nation and the Allies millions more lives. So, a plan is hatched for an American agent, sprung from Colditz POW camp, to kill the Fuhrer in his Berlin bunker. Alone and unarmed he begins his dangerous journey to Berlin, where German intelligence have released their best investigator to track him down.  Their man has also come from a prison cell, where he had lain awaiting death for his connection with a failed plot to eliminate the Nazi leader.
These two men now embark on a lethal game of cat and mouse in the ruins of a doomed city: one an American who is skilled, deadly, but paradoxically humane; the other an embittered German - wily, solitary, and suspicious of his masters....
James Thayer is the author of The Stettin Secret, Pursuit, Ringer and White Star. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Praise for White Star included:
‘Tough stuff… It is highly original and absolutely riveting’  Irish Independent
‘Cracking thriller…. Thayer writes with economy, pace and attack’  The Guardian
‘Streamlined prose and a masterful control of detail…. One of the most taut and apocalyptic novels of the season’ Arena
Cover Photograph by Tony Hutchings 

  Margaret Murphy. Goodnight, My  Angel Pbk Pan Oct 0 330 34848 5 £5.99
The l996 First Blood Award Nominee
Kate Pearson is just beginning to come to terms with the unsolved murder of her daughter Melanie when a sinister message appears on her computer.
WHY DID YOU LET HIM HURT ME, MUMMY?'
As the messages escalate in number and menace, Kate realises that there is only one person who could be doing this to her - Melanie's murderer. He is clearly out to destroy her completely. But Kate's anger is unbreakable, and she turns the menace back on itself and uses it to unmask the killer of her child.
Margaret Murphy gained a degree in environmental biology in 1980, and since then has taught biology and science in schools in Lancashire and Liverpool. She is now head of a department which specialises in teaching children with dyslexia in a school on the Wirral, an area in which she also lives. Her second book, The Desire of the Moth, is published by Macmillan in October 97.
Cover photograph by Dominic Davis 

Margaret Murphy.  The Desire of the Moth.  Macmillan Oct 97 0 333 71166 1 £16.99
Shortlisted for the First Blood Award 1996 for Goodnight My Angel
Dorothy Hardy and Ann Lee have two things in common. Both are social workers with connections to the Calderbankchildren's home. And both have been abducted . . .
Could their disappearance have anything to do with the child abuse scandal centred around the home? Is some sort of vendetta being waged against Calderbank Borough Council staff
But there is another link between the two women - their former colleague Dr Christine Radcliffe, a sophisticated, self possessed consultant psychologist. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Jameson, in a race to find the women alive and well, cannot ignore this connection. Especially when their prime
suspect, Philip Greer, is Christine's foster brother.
And when Christine herself is clearly nursing a dark, violent  secret from her past . . .
 The Desire of the Moth is Margaret Murphy's second novel.Her first novel, Goodnight, My Angel, was published to much critical acclaim.
Jacket photograph by Stuart Colwill

Jill McGown.  The Murders of Mrs Austin & Mrs Beale  pbk Pan  Nov 97 0 330 31939 6 £5.99
,Jill McGown fourth novel in her critically acclaimed Lloyd & Hill series
'A cleverly twisting plot with a startling conclusion.' Times
 'Satisfying, tightly knit whodunit with exophthalmic final twist.' Guardian
 'Jill McCown is a crisp writer and a spellbinding storyteller.' Financial Times
Which one is the odd one out? A struggling artist married to the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservative party in Stansfield, an ex-call girl married to a wealthy and never convicted crook, or the telephone line which links them?
Answer: The telephone line. It is isn't dead
Detective Chief Inspector- Lloyd and newly promoted Detective Inspector Judy Hill no longer work together. But murder is no respecter of police divisions, and the live telephone linking the murdered women brings them together again. Which is just one complication, as far as Lloyd is concerned. Another is that Mrs Austin was a friend of Judy's, whose angry and blinkered reaction to her murder- is less than professional. On top of that, he is having to break in a new detective sergeant, and come to terms with the possibility of Judy's further promotion.
But the murders of Mrs Austin and Mrs Beale still have to be solved, and somewhere amongst the innumerable theories the truth is there to be found. Which is the ultimate complication. Because this time, Lloyd has to find it without Judy's help.
Besides, she's quite certain that she already knows ...
Jill McGown was born in Argyll in 1947, but has lived in Corby since she was ten. On being made redundant she took up writing full-time and in 1983 published her first novel, A Perfect Match. She is now the author of twelve novels.
Cover photograph John Slater 

Marilyn Todd. Virgin Territory A Roman Mystery  pbk Pan Nov 97 0 330 34477 3  £5.99
Praise for Marilyn Todd includes:
'The Roman detail is deft, the pace as fast as a champion gladiator, and the heroine, Claudia, an arrogant super-bitch who keeps us all on the edge where she loves to live. The Sunday Express
'A timeless heroine for today - you'll be hooked' Company Magazine
'I, Claudia was one of the best and most amusing historical detective narratives of the last year, and Virgin Territory is a fine follow-up.' Crime Time
It just wasn't fair. When you marry a man for his money, you expect him to leave you a shining pile of gold pieces. Not a crummy old wine business. So Claudia jumps at the chance to escape Rome and pay off her gambling debts to chaperone Sabina Collantinus back to her family in Sicily after 30 years as a Vestal Virgin. However, Claudia begins to suspect she is escorting an impostor....and a very mysterious one at that.
Marilyn Todd was born in Harrow, Middlesex, but now lives in West Sussex with her husband, one dog and two cats. For the last ten years she has run her own secretarial business from home. Virgin Territory follows Marilyn's first Roman mystery - I, Claudia.
Cover photograph by Paul Postle