NEW BOOK SEVERN HOUES 1997

Graham Masterton. Tooth and Claw. Severn House 97 07278 5188 8 £17.99
On the Native American reservation where she was brought up, they didn't even dare speak its name. Now it's come to claim her...
College teacher Jim Rook has a special talent: a near-death experience in childhood gave him the facility to see ghosts and spirits that nobody else can see.
Into his remedial English class at West Grove Community College comes Susan White Bird, the daughter of a Navajo Indian. Susan is beautiful and shy, but all her life she has been closely protected by her two older brothers, Sara and George. And when college senior Brad Dolman takes a fancy to Susan, there are frightening consequences. Brad’s body is found one morning in his automobile, his
face and body terribly mutilated - almost as if he has been attacked by a wild animal - and it is Susan’s brothers who are immediately arrested.
Only when two more students are attacked do the police realise that the brothers are innocent, and that there is something terrible lurking around the col1ege campus ... something that threatens to transform Susan into the most horrific creature know to Navajo myth. And there is only one man who
can save her, a man who can see the oncoming danger - Jim Rook. It is now left to Jim and his engaging class of slow-lane students to face a shattering confrontation between the cultures of new and ancient America.

C.F. Roe. A Classy Touch of Murder. Severn House 97 0 7278 5183 7 £16.99
A car death drives a medical sleuth to a chilling conclusion.
A red Porsche was an appropriately classy vehicle for a smash-up at a Scottish castle. The surprise was that the driver, Graeme Ferguson, had died from a .38 bullet neatly placed in his head.
Engaged to the Earl of Strathmore's eldest daughter, Graeme had more than his share of enemies - thanks to his lifestyle of recreational drugs, shady financial deals, and pretty women - perhaps including his fiancee's sister and lovely mother.
Now, with the investigation beginning at Strathalmond Castle itself, Inspector Detective Douglas Niven of the Perth police - working class and proud of it - felt both antagonistic and uncomfortable
in the baronial halls.
So he was delighted when Jean Montrose agreed to come along and offer her sharp insights into the psychology of murder. Neither sleuth expected the twists this case would take. For just like
the grand estate's baffling boxwood maze, the deviousness behind this murder would lead them to one dead end and one dead body after another before its chilling conclusion.

Thomas H Cook. Breakheart Hill. Severn House 97 0 7278 5195 0 £16.99
'This is the darkest story I have ever beard. And all my life I have laboured not to tell it.'
One moment of passionate betrayal and the brutal attack on a young woman ripples through the lives of everyone in a small town.
The place is Breakheart Hill. The girl was Kelli Troy. Only one man, Ben Wade, the town doctor, knows the whole story of what really happened all those years ago to that beautiful girl in the heat of a summer afternoon. But the violence which blackened that afternoon did not end on the hill's wooded slope. Perhaps it never ended for anyone in Choctaw...
'The writing and characterisations flawless'. Publishers Weekly
'A novel of stunning power...Excellent storytelling'. Booklist
'Cook...reaffirms his ability to create realistic characterisation and vivid narrative'. Library Journal
'A gifted novelist. Intelligent and compassionate'. New York Review of Books

Cynthia Manson. (ed) Murder By the Book. Severn House 97 0 7278 4949 2 £16.99
A stellar line-up of internationally famous mystery authors.
Ruth Rendell, Julian Symons, Dorothy L Sayers, Bill James, Lawrence Block, Michael Innes.
and many more...
Literary inspirations for murder range from Shakespeare to Jane Austen to Dickens and Dashiell Hammett, whether in the form of rare books, missing manuscripts, or in parody and pastiche.
This volume of bookishly entertaining tales includes a combination of classics and new works which take you into the worlds of publishing, book collectors, rare book dealers and last, but certainly
not least, the writers themselves.

John Farris. Dragonfly. Severn House 97 0 7278 5159 4 £17.99
Abby Abelyard is not only blindingly beautiful and fabulously wealthy, she is also the biggest selling romance writer in America today
The dedicated Dr Joe Bryce has spent the last three years in war-tom Africa. He has sins on his conscience that will not stand the light of day - and a frightening past he can never outrun. He may also be the handsomest man ever to grace the sands of Addy’s lavish beach estate.
Can it be that Joe Bryce’s sins are catching up with him?
Preying on every woman’s worst fears the critically acclaimed author of Sacrifice has once again crafted a novel of psychological terror, in the format of a roost intriguing suspense novel with an
absorbing central character who is a baffling mixture of the normal and super-normal.

Betty Rowlands. Inconsiderate Death. Severn House Aug 97 0 7278 5233 7 £16.99 See Review
Cold blooded killer . . . or victim of circumstance?
Lorraine Chant, wife of a wealthy businessman, is found strangled. But why, when both the Chants' safes had been discovered, was nothing stolen? Suddenly the sleepy Gloucestershire village of Marsdean finds itself host to a murder, with the victim herself all too closely involved with several key suspects. . .
What was Lorraine's relationship with Hugo Bayliss - a man of many faces, dubious background, and a penchant for attractive married women? How did Bayliss come to meet Sukey, police photographer and scene of crime officer, before the investigation became public? And was it just coincidence that Terry Holland, the Chants' handyman, reported his van stolen and abandoned the same day?
Then, in a cruel twist of fate, Sukey accepts an offer for some freelance photography, and unwittingly plays into the hands of Lorraine's murderer . . . on the wrong side of the law.

Alanna Knight. Angel Eyes Severn House Sept 97 0 7278 5261 2 £16.99
Set against the magnificent and awe-inspiring Red Rocks, reputedly the most psychic place on earth... Chay Bowmen, Navajo private investigator, sues Scots visitors Kate Fenwick and her schoolboy son Luke from a kidnapping attempt by the Magic Men a mysterious group of Atalos Indians.
Chay is hunting the savage killer of two young boys from his own tribe but, increasingly attracted to Kate, soon finds himself drawn further into their lives. Luke has strange powers and Chay acknowledges that coincidence cannot account for the sinister events that have followed the Fenwicks' arrival.
A pattern emerges involving the mysterious House of Anasazi Fire, a place of psychic power and the repetition of a century-old tragedy of death and forbidden love. To prevent Luke becoming the killer's next victim Chay must unlock the secret of Kate's past, a magnet that draws into its destructive web the few remaining fanatics of the Sacred Tribe of the Atalos, dedicated for their survival to the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy.
A tender and touching novel by leading writer Alanna Knight based on real historical incident. Other recent titles by this author include To Kill A Queen, Murder By Appointment, The Missing Duchess, Inspector Fare's Casebook and Evil That Men Do. Severn House previously published This Outward Angel and The Sweet Cheat Gone

Bartholomew Gill. Death of a Busker King Severn House Set 97 0 7278 5265 5 £16.99
'Pay em back in blood. Not all of them. Just one, but make it good:
It was the only real advice his father ever gave him, but it was more than sufficient. It was an education in itself. Now one of Ireland's foremost drugs barons, Des Bacon, the Toddler has always dealt viciously with anyone who dared cross him. Notorious, feared and reviled, his underworld empire brooks no opposition whether legal or physical - to its activities. As a youth, he took his father's advice to heart. Now, killing for revenge tastes sweeter every time ...
So, when Chief Inspector Peter McGarr is called to investigate an unusual death, implacable silence blankets the investigation, and he realises the travelling community will go to any lengths to protect their own.
Other recent titles from this acclaimed crime author include Death of an Irish Sea Wolf, Death of an Ardent Bibliophile and Death on a Cold, Wild River.

Brian Freemantle. The Kremlin Conspiracy Severn House Oct 97 0 7278 5249 3 £17.99
A lethal Cold War battle has begun and the West doesn't even know!
It is a vast and brilliant conspiracy. International monetary links crossed ideological boundaries between East and West long ago. Now, the Soviet Union has a finely tuned plan to default on more than $600 billion owed by itself and its satellites to a consortium of western banks. The unthinkable is close at hand: total collapse of the economic on which our civilisation is based.
From Washington to London to New York, the bankers are slowly becoming aware of the fact that something is very wrong. Thomas Pike, Jr. is first to put the pieces together, to see the pattern in the loans Moscow is making to the satellite and unaligned nations, and the money the Soviet Union is borrowing from the West.
Brian Freemantle's other titles published by Severn House include O'Farrell's Law, Betrayals, and most recently, Dirty White.

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Dangerous Love Severn House Oct 97 0 7278 5230 2 £16.99
Emma Ruskin suddenly abandons her teaching career to become a governess. Restless and disillusioned with life and love, she needs a complete change.
Emma finds just that at the country estate of rich industrialist Herbert Akroyd, with its lifestyle of aristocratic formality luxury and servants. The irascible Mr Akroyd and his haughty family all treat her with the utmost contempt particularly Gavin, the eldest son. But Emma recognises that he alone genuinely cares for ten-year-old Arabella, and their rapport both flatters and alarms her, since he is surely out of her league.
Then disaster strikes as both she and Arabella are violently snatched by kidnappers. Emma knows they'll be killed unless Gavin can get to them first ...
Other titles by Cynthia Harrod Eagles include Last Run, A Rainbow Summer, Even Chance, Play For Love, A Cornish Affair, and most recently from Severn House, Nobody's Fool.

Marina Oliver. Veiled Destiny Severn House Sept 97 0 7278 5246 9 £16.99
The twisting lanes of the Chiltern Hills are lonely at night. When Sophie Stone realises the car behind is deliberately following her, she is angry, then afraid: the ordinary drunken yob doesn't carry a machete.
Then, the handsome, enigmatic Luke Despard intervenes. Grateful to him, Sophie is convinced it was a purely random attack. Why should anyone want to kill her?
A sequence of threatening events follows, and Sophie begins to suspect they are deliberate, not accidents. She turns to Luke, outside the family. With him she'll be safe, hidden from whoever is persecuting her. And she almost dies. Now Sophie cannot trust anyone but herself. Alone she must face the dangers and thwart whoever wants her dead.
Marina Oliver is the well-known author of over forty novels, including Glowing Hours, Golden Road and most recently, The Cobweb Cage.

Ruth Rendell and Others Present Whydunit? (Perfectly Criminal 2) Severn House Sept 97 0 7278 5237 X £16.99
Following on from the first CWA anthology, Perfectly Criminal, whose story Herbert in Motion by Ian Rankin won the 1996 CWA Short Story Dagger, this thrilling collection focuses on the elusive 'why?' behind the crime from such distinguished names as:
LAWRENCE BLOCK - REGINALD HILL - EDWARD D HOCH - PETER LOVESEY - RUTH RENDELL - MARGARET YORKE
And many more...
To make the collection even more unique, each contributor will introduce their story to the reader letting you into the secret of 'why' they chose to write it.