NEW BOOKS FOR SPRING 1997

John Ashbrook (ed) ---The Crimetime Film Book --- The Year in Crime Films --- No Exit Press (187406184 X ) 288pp £7.99 pbk Out February 5th 
"They don't want any one to know how easy it is! It makes me mad - I'm not gonna keep the secret, I'm gonna blurt it out!" Robert Rodriquez 
Find out more about the trends in modern crime and action movies and the men behind them in this new and informative book.
Desperado · Dusk Till Dawn - Robert Rodriquez - Quentin Tarantino - Heat - Seven - Brian de Palma -Alfred Hitchcock - Shallow Grave - Fallen Angels - Wong Kar-Wai - Christophar Doyle - Wllliam Gibson - Curdled - The Usual Suspects - The Coens - Danny Boyle- Martin Scorsese - Michael Mann - Bad Boys - Casino - Fargo - Get Short - Leon - Last Man Standing - Lone Star - Trainspotting - Mulholland Falls - Murder In The - The Rock - Things To Do In Denver When You Are Dead - Billy Wilder.
From Hollywood to Hong Kong, from the violence of film noir and the paranoia of Alfred Hitchcock, to the amoral world of Seven, John Ashbrook and the CrimeTime team have covered the year in crime films and the directors that made them.
John Ashbrook is a broadcaster and critic.

Kevin Canty -- A Stranger in This World -- Penguin pbk. 30th Jan. £6.99 
'A stunning debut. Canty's short stories are as painful and unforgettable as the last moments of Five Easy Pieces ... a writer to watch out for' Time Out 
'His stories are perfect entities ... Each one is about being isolated in the vacuum of an overpowering emotion ... The quest that keeps the pages effortlessly turning is whether each character manages to break out of the deadlock' The Literary Review 
'Here is the realm of the perfect image, so simple and precise that it is almost possible to believe it always existed' The Times 
In this collection of dark short stories, Kevin Canty invites the reader into an uncharted world of risk-taking and knife-edge adventure. Love and danger, risk and betrayal; all are covered in this intense, exciting novel.
Two lovers are caught in an accident that spirals into murder; a young woman greets passers-by from her window and a neighbour steals into her house; a man abandons new-found security when his wife - with all her attendant junk - reappears. In this superb collection of stories, love and danger, risk and betrayal are the guides into uncharted territory.
Kevin Canty lives in the US. His stories have been published in Esquire and in Story magazine. He is currently working on a novel, the opening chapter of which won a Transatlantic Review Award from the Henfield Foundation.

Paul Duncan (ed) --- The Third Degree Crime Writers in Conversation --- No Exit Press (187408185 8) 256pp £7.99 pb Out Jan 29th  
CORNWELL Pro-Gun - ELLROY Anti-Gun
Find out the reasons behind their attitudes in this informative and controversial book.
Paul Duncan and the CrimeTime team have given the following writers the third degree: Patricia Cornwell, James Ellroy, Elizabeth George, Gwendoline Butler, Edward Bunker, Martina Cole, Walter Mosley, Derek Raymond, Michael Dibdin, Lawrence Block, Andrew Klavan, Elliott Leyton, James Sallis, Jakob Arjouni and Paul Buck. These entertaining, bizarre, ground-breaking interviews, backed up with informative articles and comprehensive bibliographies give a superb insight into crime writing today.
"Crime Time rules! Others drool' - James Ellroy
"The finest interview I've ever had" - James Sallis
"When are you going home, Paul?" - Ed Bunker
Paul Duncan is the editor of Crime Time, the UK's leading magazine about crime fiction in books and film.

Patricia Finney writing as P.F. Chisholm --- A Surfeit of Guns --- NEL pbk £5.99 --- Out 20th Feb See Review 
Sir Robert Carey's night patrol is a disaster. First there's the fugitive he has to hand over to the Scots; the unsettled border of 1592 is no place to argue with a large party of armed men. The situation isn't improved by Wee Colin Elliot's sheep stealers but worse is to follow, an exploding gun which takes the hand off one of his own men. Back in Carlisle, he discovers that this was not the only faulty gun. The armoury is full of them, in place of the high quality weapons that arrived from Newcastle only the week before. When these deathtraps are stolen in turn, Carey sets off in pursuit of the thieves and both shipments of arms. His search takes hirn and of men to Dumfries where King James VI of Scotland and his raucous court have assembled.
Carey finds James as dissolute as ever, his lost love Elizabeth still shackled to her odious, husband - and the seductive Signora Bonnetti more than willing to take her place . Signora Bonnetti's real interest is guns and Carey is gallant enough to help her, risking charges of treason in two kingdoms.
In Robert Carey, the dashing Deputy Warden of the West March, P.F.Chisholm has re-created one of history's most intriging adventurers as one of crime fiction's most engaging sleuths.
P.F. Chisholm is the alter ego of Patricia Finney who has been writing professionally since she was fifteen. Her first novel, A Shadow of Gulls, was published when she was eighteen and won the David Higham Award for best first novel of the year. Her second novel, The Crow Goddess, was written and published while she was at Wadham College, Oxford, studying Modern History and writing occasional freelance features in the national press. Since then she has accumulated a husband, three children, a cat, a dog and two killer hamsters. She has worked at a variety of jobs including editing a medical journal and writing a weekly TV preview column in the London Evening Standard. Her most recent novel under her own name was Firedrake's Eye, a highly praised historical thriller set in Elizabethan London. Ruth Rendell said of it 'A talent for writing espionage makes her the Le Carre of the sixteenth century...her work is as subtle, as complex and as beautifully crafted as his - and she has a poet's enviable gift as well.' A sequel called Unicorn's Blood will appear soon.
A Surfeit of Guns is the third novel to feature the Elizabethan detective Sir Robert Carey. The two previous novels, A Famine of Horses and A Season of Knives are both available as Coronet paperbacks. Patricia Finney is currently working on the fourth novel in the sequence.

Phillip M Margolin ---The Burning Man -- 6th Feb. Little Brown Pbk
'with a death case, you have to be perfect. If you make one small mistake, the state eats your client.' From THE BURNING MAN 
Peter Hale, an ambitious young attorney, working in his father's highly-respected law firm cares more about the cut of his suit than the welfare of his clients. When his father suffers a heart attack during the trial of a multi-million dollar case, his last advice to Peter is to move for a mistrial. In his zeal to prove his brilliance, Peter deliberately chooses to ignore his father's advice, and the result is a spectacular tall, with everything lost: the client's case, his job and the goodwill of his father.
Detemined to teach him a lesson, Peter's father sends him out west to work in an attorney's office run by an old friend, in Whitaker, a small Oregon town. Amos Ceary has a low opinion of his new city-smart recruit, and Peter, dispirited in exile, is desperate to make friends and prove himself a good lawyer.
An opportunity arises when he bumps into Steve Mancini, a law-school acquaintance famed in town for his sporting, legal and business prowess. When Mancini's brother-in- law Gary, a likeable but mentally sub-normal janitor is accused of murdering a young student, Peter is asked to take on the case. Peter knows he has Gary's trust, but can he trust his own ability to defend him wisely?
As the trial develops, it becomes clear that as the lawyer least qualified to handle a death case, he has been set up - to lose it. Can Peter Hale show his mettle at last and save his reputation with his father and Gary's life'?
PHILLIP M MARGOLIN specialises in criminal defence at the trial and appellate level, and has represented approximately thirty people charged with some form of homocide including several who faced the death penalty. He began writing novels in 1978, and his first book Heartstone (reissued by Warner Books in December 1997) was nominated for the Edgar Awards as the Best Original Paperback'. His second novel The Last Innocent Man (to be reissued by Warner Books in May 1997), was made into a feature film in 1987. Also available from Warner Books are Gone, But Not Forgotten and After Dark.  

Martin Edwards (ed) --- Perfectly Criminal --- Severn House Pub. £16.99 Dec 1996 See Reviews 1 & 2  
Discover the secrets of the perfect crime. Could you commit the perfect murder? If you find you need help, here are some tips from the masters of the art. From the suburbs of West London to the swimming pools of the South of France, and involving greed, lust and envy, you’ll find the perfect crime analysed and laid out. This sparkling collection of stories comes from the cream of the Crime Writers Association. Each story concerns itself with the perfect crime; usually this means murder, though sometimes a death is merely the prelude to the crime itself. In the masterful hands of the authors collected here, the crime is not always what it appears to be; and the perfect criminal is not always the person you think it is. These are stories designed to intrigue, enthral and surprise you; in many ways, they are perfect. The stories in Perfectly Criminal are collected and introduced by Martin Edwards. Each story is accompanied by a biography :of the writer and in addition there is a foreword by the Chairman of the CWA. Perfectly Criminal is the first in an annual series of crime anthologies published by Severn House in collaboration with the Crime Writers’ Association. Each will feature original stories that showcase the depth diversity of talent within the CWA. with contributions from:
CATHERINE AIRD. KATE CHARLES. MAT COWARD. LINDSEY DAVIS. EILEEN DEWHURST. MARTIN EDWARDS. GOSTA GILLBERG. LESLEY GRANT-ADAMSON. REGINALD HILL. H. R. F. KEATING. PETER LEWIS. PETER LOVESEY. JOHN MALCOLM. VAL MCDERMID. SUSAN MOODY. IAN RANKIN. ANDREW TAYLOR. TONY WILMOT. KEITH WRIGHT. 

Omens of Death --- Nicholas Rhea --- Constable Pub. 20th Jan £15.99 See Review 
When Detective Inspector Montague Pluke noticed the solitary crow, upon the roof of No. 15 Padgett Grove, he realised it was an omen of death. An added factor was that the day was not the most providential of weekdays. Wednesday, like Wednesday's child, was often full of woe.
That unwelcome combination of portents dominated Montague's morning walk to the office and produced a mood of impending doom, albeit with just a secret glimmer of excitement. This glimmer was based on the fact that, as the officer in charge of the CID in Crickledale Sub-Divisional Police Station, he had never solved a murder and never arrested a killer. In tact, there had never been a murder in Crickledale, a pretty limestone-built market town on the edge of the North York Moors.
It was Montague Pluke’s ambition, before he retired from the Force, to seek neglected or forgotten horse troughs, to detect a noteworthy murder. Fate seems to be on his side and, the very next day, the naked body of a young woman is found at the Druids' Circle. Then two more people die in suspicious circumstances and Montague Pluke is at last able to put all his police training, as well as his great knowledge of superstitions ancient and modern, to good work . . .
A witty and well-plotted tale of crime and detection from Nicholas Rhea, creator of the book, on which the ·Heartbeat' television series is based. OMENS OF DEATH is the first in a projected series to feature the superstitious and eccentric Montague Pluke.

Paullina Simons --- Red Leaves --- Flamingo £16.99 (0 00 225566 9) Out 20th Feb  See Review 
On a New England college campus, the naked body of a beautiful student is found frozen in a bank of snow, where it has been concealed for some days. Why had Kristina not been reported missing, and why had her friends not sought the lost girl?
The death is a mystery, but not as mysterious as the story of her life will prove to be. Kristina and her close friends - Jim, Conni, and Albert - were children of privilege who played, studied, and occasionally slept together. Despite their intimacies, however, they each kept secrets of their own - secrets that must be pieced together by the young police detective assigned to the case. Detective Spencer O’Malley nearly fell in love with Kristina when he met her by chance the day before her death. He comes to know her far better in death than in life, as day by day his investigation uncovers a series of dark truths, each more shocking than the last.
With her debut novel, Tully , Paullina Simons was acclaimed as one of the most exciting new tallness to emerge in years. Now Red Leaves, suspenseful, fascinating, claustrophobic and utterly compelling, fulfils all the promise of that first novel and puts Paullina Simons in the very front of contemporary writers.
Praise for Tully: 
"You’ll never look at life the same way again. Pick up this book and prepare to have your emotions wrung so completely you’ll be sobbing your heart out one minute and laughing through your tears the next. Tully could be any one of us - a young woman who is strong, full of hope and carrying a lot of childhood baggage. Her experiences of pain, despair and betrayal are offset by moments of dazzling joy, love and, above all, friendship. Read it and weep - literally" Company 

Reginald Hill --- Killing The Lawyers --- HarperCollins £15.99 (0 00 232607 8) Out 20th FebruarySee Reviews 1 & 2  
Joe Sixsmith, Luton's premier PI, is naturally on the side of the Law...Trouble is, the Law isn't always ready to return the compliment.
When Joe turns to the town's top law firm for help in a motor insurance dispute, he gets assaulted verbally by one partner (male) and physically by another (female), and, vowing vengeance, walks out. So it's hardly surprising when someone starts whacking the partners one by one that Joe is elected the man most likely.
At the same time he is trying to find out who is threatening all kinds of nastiness against top athlete Zak Oto if she wins her New Year's Day race to celebrate the opening of Luton's splendid new Pleasure Dome. Everybody looks suspicious, from her ex-con minder Starbright Jones, through her trainers, past and present, to her own family. And the only reassurance Joe has that he's getting warm is when someone starts trying to kill him!
This is the third novel to feature Joe Sixsmith and it confirms what the critical prophets have said from the start, that in the depth of his humanity, the honesty of his outlook, the bewilderment of his responses to much that the modern world confronts him with, and the strength of his resolve to give everything he undertakes his best shot, Joe is truly a hero for our times.
Of Born Guilty: 
"Crime fiction with a gentle touch and a good deal of humour from one of the modern masters of the police procedural" Susanna Yager, Sunday Times 
"The plot thickens splendidly, and a colourful medley of vividly drawn characters join the parade" James Melville, Ham & High 
"Hill is a writer without discernible weakness. He’s a sly observer and trenchant critic of British society and a deft hand at the literary quip and allusion." George Osgerby, Tribune 
Reginald Hill --- The Wood Beyond ---HarperCollins pbk £5.99 (0 00 647994 4) Out 3rd February See Reviews 1 & 2  
A ravaged wood pocketed with water-filled craters, men in uniform and a skeletal hand reaching out of the mud - this is not a World War One battlefield, but Wanwood House, a pharmaceutical research centre.
Away to the south, Peter Pascoe is attending his grandmother's funeral. A chapter in his life has closed, but scattering her ashes opens up pages in the past leading him too into war-ravaged woods in search of the great-grandfather who fought and died in the Passchendaele campaign.
Seeing the wood for the trees is a problem shared by Andy Dalziel and Edgar Wield. The latter in his investigations into the bones found at Wanwood, and the former in his deepening and dangerous involvement with animal rights activist Amanda Marvell, despite the double disincentive of her possible complicity in a murderous assault and her appalling taste in whiskey.
In The Wood Beyond we are walking on the wild side of the pastoral, through fields where nothing may safely graze and into woods where no bird dares sing.
Award-winning crime novelist Reginald Hill was hailed as "the crime novel's best hope" (The Times) with his first book, and twenty years on he "stakes a claim as our finest living crime writer" (Sunday Telegraph)
"Hill’s wit is the constant, ironic foil to his vision, and to call this a mere crime novel is to say Everest is a nice little hill" Frances Hegarty, Mail On Sunday 
"One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists.... He pays attention to the old-fashioned virtues: meticulous plotting, authentic characterisation and realistic dialogue" Marcel Berlins The Times 
Reginald Hill --- Deadheads --- HarperCollins pbk £5.99 (0 00 649991 0) Out 3rd February 
Life is a bed of roses for Patrick Aldermann when Great Aunt Florence collapses into her Madame Louis Laperrieres and he inherits Rosemont House with its splendid gardens.
But when his boss, `Dandy' Dick Elgood, suggests to Peter Pascoe that Aldermann is a murderer - then retracts the accusation - the inspector is left with a thorny problem.
By then Police Cadet Singh, Mid- Yorkshire’s first Asian copper, has dug up some very interesting information about Patrick's elegant wife, Daphne.
Superintendent Dalziel, meanwhile, is attempting to relive the days of Empire with Singh as his tea-wallah.
`Their (Dalziel and Pascoe's) double act...is one of the delights of English crime fiction' Marcel Berlins The Times 
`Here is an author at his formidable best' Frances Hegarty, Mail On Sunday 
A BBC TV/Portobello Pictures production in association with BBC Worldwide and the Arts and Entertainment Channel. Front cover picture from Deadheads starring Warren Clarke as Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel, Colin Buchanan as Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe and Susannah Corbett as Ellie Pascoe. Directed by Edward Bennett. Produced by Eric Abraham and Paddy Higson. Adapted for television by Alan Plater  
Reginald Hill --- A Killing Kindness --- HarperCollins pbk £5.99 (0 00 649989 9) Out 3rd February 
When Mary Dinwoodie is found choked in a ditch following a night out with her boyfriend, a mysterious caller phones the local paper with a quotation from Hamlet.
The career of the Yorkshire Choker is under way.
If Detective-Superintendent Dalziel is unimpressed by the literary phone calls, he's downright angry when Sergeant Wield calls in a clairvoyant.
Linguists, psychiatrists, mediums - it's all a load of bloody nonsense as far as he's concerned, designed to make fools of him and his department. And meanwhile the Choker strikes again - and again...
"One of the modern masters of the police procedural' Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph 
`Celebrated for putting a spin on the classic murder mystery' Peter Guttridge, Independent 
Reginald Hill --- Ruling Passion --- HarperCollins pbk £5.99 (0 00 649990 2) Out 3rd February 
Peter Pascoe is in shock. A weekend in the country with old friends turns into a nightmare when he finds three of them dead and the missing fourth a prime suspect in the eyes of the local police.
They want his co- operation Superintendent Andy Dalziel wants him back in Yorkshire where a string of unsolved burglaries looks like turning nasty.
Perhaps it's all too much for Pascoe. As events unfold, the two cases are getting jumbled in his mind...
`One of Britain's most consistently excellent crime novelists' Marcel Berlins The Times 
`These novels last, like a grand malt whisky... Here is an author at his formidable best' Frances Hegarty, Mail On Sunday  

Charlotte MacLeod --- Exit The Milkman --- HarperCollins £14.99 (0 00 232622 1 ) Out 3rd February  See Review 
Professor Jim Feldster will do anything for his cows and his students of dairy management, and anything to avoid an evening at home with his wife Mirelle. He's a member of just about every lodge in the county, and on this particular evening he bumps into Professor Shandy as he escapes to a gathering of the Scarlet Runners. But he never makes it to the meeting...
Meanwhile, a distraught Mirelle begins pounding on the Shandy’s' door at 2.37 a.m. accusing them of harbouring her wayward spouse, and before he knows it Shandy and his wife Helen are knee deep in another mystery.
Where is Professor Feldster? What dark secrets could possibly be lurking behind his blameless life of grain supplements and electric milking machines? But as Shandy discovers, the professor's life is far from simple, and, assuming he's not already dead, he's in terrible danger...
Charlotte MacLeod was born in New Brunswick, Canada, and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was an advertising executive for many years.
She has written more than thirty novels, many of which feature the popular Peter Shandy or the equally well loved Sarah Kelling. She is also the author of many short stories and has edited the Christmas Stalking anthology. Charlotte MacLeod now lives in Maine.
Praise for Charlotte MacLeod 
"A bizarre puzzle fuelled by bizarre characters in the comfy downhome ambience so well done by MacLeod. Her legion fans will love it." Kirkus Reviews (of Something in the Water)
"A warm and cheerful read" The Tablet 
"From the first flutter of owl feathers to the solution offered in the final pages, this murder most foul is a hoot" Publishers Weekly (of An Owl Too Many)