Mike Ashley (ed) --- Historical Crime: Classical Whodunnits --- Robinson Pbk (1 85487 463 2) £5.99 Out October 21st
A feast of historical detective stories set in the golden ages of Greece and Rome from the Trojan Wars to the fall of the Roman Empire.
22 writers take up their pens to give an enthralling picture of classical crime. The best loved sleuths including Gordianus the finder, Sister Fidelma, Decius Metellus rub shoulders with eminent contemporary sleuths such as Socrates and Brutus, whilst other great names such as Augustus and Archimedes and even the spoilt and beautiful goddess of love, Aphrodite herself - also become enmeshed in terrible and ingenious crimes. Includes contribtions from; Lindsey Davis, Keith Heller, Anthony Price, Peter Tremayne, Amy Myers and many more
John Baker --- Death Minus Zero --- Gollancz (0575 06381 5) £15.99 Out October 3rd
"Neatly plotted, engagingly and wittily written; Sam's next case is something to look forward to" Tim Binyon Daily Mail
And here it is. Poet in the Gutter, one of the best-received of recent crime debuts, introduced Sam Turner, twice-married Bob Dylan fan with a drink problem, and his unlikely sidekicks - a retired English teacher, a teenage street kid and an unemployed snooker player.
When Norman bursts out of Dartmoor, he heads for York, because that's where Selina lives. She doesn't know he's coming after her, but she will. Oh yes. And the unexpected presence in York of his favourite lust object, prison psychiatrist Jennie Cosgrove is a bonus indeed.......
The new Sam Turner adventure is as impressively gripping as the first. John Baker is, in the words of Bill Pardoe of the Birmingham Post "a real discovery".
Colin Bateman --- Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men --- HarperCollins Pbk (0 00 64912 1) £5.99 Out October 7th
Smooth operator Geordie McClean has suceeded in setting up a gigantic payday (for all concerned) by arranging a St. Patrick's day fight in New York between his hopeless Irish heaveyweight champ Fat Boy McMaster and Mike Tyson. Belfast journalist Dan Starkey is hired to write the book of the whole affair.
Dan is trying to persuade his wife Patricia to give their marriage another go, but he has not succeeded before boarding the plane with McMaster and his deeply suspect entourage. If he thought he was leaving the sectarian conflict of his homeland behind him, Starkey is quite mistaken and McClean's outfit soon falls prey to all the old emnities, while developing an uncanny power to outrage plenty of other interest gropups at the same time.
Kidnap, romance and mayhem ensue......and all before a punch is thrown in the ring!
About Colin Bateman:
"Richly paranoid and very funny" Sunday Times
"If Roddy Doyle was as good as people say, he would probably write novels like this" Arena.
Janie Bolitho --- Sequence of Shame--- Constable (0 09 476500 6) £14.99
When Bruce Selby, the middle-aged son of a matriarchal family is reported missing, the police make only tentative enquiries. Bruce is not considered to be vulnerable and has no criminal record.
Meanwhile officers are following up a spate of arson attacks on property, and seemingly random acts of vandalism directed at an elderly lady who lives alone are also causing concern.
When a body is discovered DCI Ian Roper hopes that it can be tied neatly to the disappearance of Bruce Selby. But things aren't that simple.
An ingenious plot provides a satisfying denouement in htis popular writer's sixth whodunit.
Mark Bryant (ed.)--- Sins of the Fathers (An Antholgy of Clerical Crime) --- Gollancz (0575 06384 X) £15.99
Here is a collection of the very finest tales of crime, mystery and detection involving every one of the Seven Deadly Sins, not to mention crimes even more heinous, committed by or against the clergy. Murder, suicide, exorcism, lust, hidden treasure, ghosts - all are vividly portrayed by writers as diverse as Le Fanu, Chesterton, Chekhov, E.F.Benson, Saki and Agatha Christie.
Joe Canzius (Mike Phillips)--- Fast Road to Nowhere --- Vista Pbk (0575 60104 3)) £5.99
After a year in the Scrubs, Byron knows he's hard, because nobody you meet in there just takes your word for it. But Big Fergus hasn't heard - he's taken over Byron's flat, his woman, and his kid. But Byron has another family - the mixed-race kids he grew up with, all in one foster home. What a team they'll make for a little project Byron has in mind......
Agatha Christie --- The ABC Murders --- HarperCollins Pbk (0 00 649872 8) £4.99 Out October 7th
There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. And as a macabre calling card he leaves behind each victim's corpse the ABC Railway Guide open at the name of the town where the murder has taken place.
Having begun with Andover, Bexhill and then Churston, there seems little chance of the murderer being caught - until he makes the crucial and vain mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to frustrate his plans.....
This special commemorative edition of the ABC Murders marks 60 years since its first publication in 1936.
Agatha Christie --- Cards on the Table --- HarperCollins Pbk (0 00 649873 6) £4.99 Out October 7th
Five People in one room; four of them are absorbed in a game of bridge; the fifth sits quietly by the fire with a thin steel dagger in his heart.
Any one of the four suspects, given the right circumstances, might have committed the crime. As Hercule Poirot is already aware, each of them has previously carried out a successful murder with some expertise, making this gruesome case almost impossible to solve.....
This special commemorative edition marks 60 years since it's first publication in 1936. Widely acknowledged as one of the most ingenious of Agatha Christie's novels, she herself wrote, "I may say, as an additional argument in favour of this story, that it is one of Hercule Poirot's favourite cases."
Patricia Cornwell --- Cause of Death --- Little Brown (0 316 87886 3) £16.99 Out October 7th See Review
It is New Year's eve and Kay Scarpetta is staying alone in a weathered cottage owned by her deputy who is on compassionate leave in London. Suddenly the phone rings, breaking the silence.
A body has been found in the murky waters of the Inactive Naval Shipyard. In spite of the Navy's reluctance to allow her in the area, Dr. Scarpetta knows she must examine the corpse as it was found, suspended among the cables, thirty feet below the surface.
The deceased is Ted Eddings, a dedicated investigative reporter and a favourite visitor at the Medical Examiner's office. While most people assume that he drowned looking for Civil War remains, Kay Scarpetta knows that it was murder, by cyanide poisoning - but proving it would not be so easy.
The discovery of a book at Eddings's home brings police captain Pete Marino onto the scene. It is an evil "bible", the property of a fascist, quasi religious group called the New Zionists.
Critical Acclaim for Patricia Cornwell:
"The pathologist of human evil" Observer
"Vividly compulsive, this warrants a new award; winner of the golden scalpel." Mail on Sunday
James Ellroy --- Clandestine --- Arrow Pbk (0 09 922622 7) £5.99 Out 31st November.
1951 - Patrolman Frederick Underhill of the LAPD is an ambitious rookie with a dream to become the most celebrated detective of his time. He is also sexually promiscuous. His two drives are brought together by the slaying of Maggie Cadwaller, a lonely woman whom Underhill slept with shortly before her death.
Using his inside knowledge, Underhill discovers a likely suspect, and uses information to buy himself on to the case which is being handled by LA's most fearsome and most unscrupulous pursuer of murder: Lieutenant Dudley Smith.........
James Ellroy --- My Dark Places --- Century (0 7126 7588 4) £16.99 Out 31st October.
On the night of 21 June 1958, Geneva Hilliker Ellroy left her home in El Monte, California. She was found strangled the next day.
Jean's murderer was never found, but her death had an enduring affect on her son who spent his teen and early adult years as a wino, petty burglar and derelict. Only later, through his obsession with crime fiction, an obsession triggered by his mother's murder, did Ellroy begin to delve into his past. Shortly after the publication of his ground-breaking novel White Jazz, Ellroy determined to return to Los Angeles and, with the help of veteran detective Bill Stoner, attempt to solve the thirty-eight-year-old crime.
The result is one of the few classics of crime non-fiction and autobiography to appear in the last decades, a hypnotic trip to America's underbelly and one man's tortured soul.
Peter Haining (ed) --- The Orion Book of Murder --- Orion (0 75280 464 2) £16.99 Out October 21st
Crime.......Detection.......Punishment.....
Crime: con-man, kidnapper, strangler, blackmailer, stalker and serial killer.
Detection: PC Nick Rowan, DI Charlie Resnick, Chief Inspectors Wexford and Morse.
Punishement: Sam Spade, Lew Archer, Slim Callaghan, Jemima Shore, and V.I. Warshawski.
The Orion Book of Murder brings together three phases of murder - the lawbreakers, famous police detectives and the private eyes. With stories from leading writers such as Ruth Rendell, Sue Grafton, James Ellroy, Agatha Christie and Lynda La Plante, this is surely a unique collection of the world's greatest crime stories
Peter Haining is an internationally - known anthlogist and writer on crime fiction whose books have been published in over a dozen languages. He is a 1992 Edgar nominee by the Mystery Writers of America for his recent Centenary study of Agatha Christie's work Murder in Four Acts.
Joseph Hansen --- Fadeout --- No Exit Press Pbk (1 874061 0) £4.99 Out October 6th
Originally published in 1970, Fadeout is the first of Joseph Hansen's legendary novels featuring gay sleuth Dave Brandsetter.
Judging by the wreckage of Fox Olson's white convertible, it looked as if the singer had missed a narrow wooden and plunged to his death. Then where was the body?
Olson's wife, daughter and son-in-law insisted it would be found. But insurance claims investigator Dave Brandsetter had his doubts. He thought Olson had chosen to disappear......
"Unusual in two respects. One is that the insurance investigator, though thoroughly masculine, is thoroughly and contentedly homosexual. The other is that Mr. Hansen is an excellent craftsman, a compelling writer." New Yorker
"The most exciting and effective writer of the classic private - eye novel working today." L.A.Times