NEW  BOOKS FOR SPRING 1997

Dexter Dias --- Final Solution --- Hodder --- Feb 97 --- £16.99
Dan Becket is a brilliant barrister haunted by a tragic past. Simon Montford is a millionaire industrialist, former cabinet minister and darling of the establishment. In Court No.16 at the Old Bailey their fates are joined in the most sensational trial in fifty years: the first war crimes prosecution since Nuremberg.
The questions raised in this mesmerising new thriller from the best-selling author of False Witness will linger in the mind long after the final verdict.
Final Solution is the third legal thriller by Dexter Dias, a London-based barrister in his early thirties who specialises in criminal defence.

Raymond Benson --- Zero Minus Ten --- Hodder --- April 97 --- £16.99
A new era of high adventure, intrigue and danger begins for James Bond with Raymond Benson's eagerly-awaited 007 thriller. This time his formidable adversaries include a corrupt Chinese general and a power-crazed tycoon.

Shaun Clark --- Underworld --- Hodder --- March 97 --- £16.99
The high-tension, violent and controversial story of the SAS's secret war against organised crime by the best-selling author of the Soldier: SAS series and of the epic SAS novel The Exit Club.

Pierre Quellette --- The Third Pandemic --- Hodder --- Jan 97 --- £16.99
The nightmarishly gripping novel of a rampaging new plague that is predicted to kill sixty per cent of the global population. A terrifyingly plausible work from the author of the highly acclaimed The Deus Machine.

Brad Meltzer --- The Tenth Justice --- Hodder --- March 97 --- £16.99
Fresh from law school, Ben Addison is the brightest clerk for one of the Supreme Court's most respected Justices. But when he inadvertently leaks information about a pending Court decision, Ben finds himself, and his three housemates, embroiled in a test of ingenuity and sheer will that threatens to destroy their careers - and cost them their lives.
With a perfect ear for dialogue and a sure-handed flair for storytelling, this wickedly clever new voice spins a tale so compelling that it will assure Brad Meltzer’s place at the forefront of suspense fiction.
The most dynamic, original talent to take on the legal thriller since John Grisham is twenty-six, and has just graduated from Columbia Law School.

Philip Reed --- Bird Dog --- Hodder --- March 97 --- £16.99
Guaranteed to appeal to all fans of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen.Ex-used car salesman and author of ‘How to Buy a Cream Puff, Harold Dodge familiar with all the tics and tricks of car dealers. He's now settled in a regular office job where the only big deal is finding a way to impress his beautiful co-worker Marianna. So, when she approaches him with a proposition - to help retrieve her car from a low-life dealer, not unlike the ‘bird dog' Harold used to be - he finds it hard to resist the temptation.
But when they discover that the car is no longer in the lot, what should have been straight forward exchange begins to get out of hand. Unwilling to settler for any other car from the dealership, Marianna decides to unwind the deal herself - without informing Harold. And in the process, she unwittingly gets hold of a document which incriminates some of the most notorious criminals on the block.
As the dirty dealings, mistaken identities and misunderstandings begin to snowball Harold finds himself embroiled in a far more dangerous caper than he ever could have bargained for.
Bird bog, is a sharply observed, humorous and affectionate look at the absurd criminal underbelly of LA. Bird Dog is a brilliantly inventive and entertaining debut novel from a talent guaranteed to join the ranks of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen.
About the Author
Born in the Midwest, Philip Reed spent his childhood in New York, Massachusetts and Oxford, England. He began his writing career as a night police reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and later for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. In 1982 he continued west to Los Angeles, where he directed his first play, True Blues. His plays have been staged in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York. He has also written several non-fiction books, including the recently released Free Throw. He now lives in Long beach, California, with his wife, Vivian Blackwell, a poet, and their two sons. Bird Dog is his first novel.

David Hunt --- The Magician’s Tale --- Hodder --- April 97 --- £16.99
Photographer Kay Farrow sees in black and white - literally. She's expecting great things from her studies of Tim Lovsey, a young hustler. But when Tim turns up dead, Kay is sure this isn't just a routine street killing. Moving with her camera among the sexual outlaws, who populate San Francisco's gay bars and SM clubs, Kay pieces together Tim's bizarre life and mysterious death - and confronts her own demons in a shattering climax.
A mesmerising psychosexual thriller, introducing a heroine to rival Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta.

Fiona Buckley --- The Robsart Mystery --- Orion --- Feb 97 --- £16.99Who killed Amy Robsart? She was the unwanted wife of Queen Elizabeth's favourite, Robert Dudley. This marvellous whodunit by Fiona Buckle introduces Ursula Blanchard, a young widow who is sent by the queen's spymaster, first to protect Amy Robsart, and then to investigate her death. It will be the first in a sequence of thrillers featuring Ursula Blanchard, and Fiona Buckley is already working on her second mystery, The Doublet Affair.

James Lee Burke --- Cimarron Rose --- Orion --- April 97 --- £16.99
A powerful and wonderfully evocative novel of the West - a brilliant new departure for America's finest crime writer. When Texan lawyer Billy Bob Holland takes up the defence of local boy Lucas Smothers, a timid teenager accused of rape and murder, he is forced to confront the legacies of crimes old and new. Then local tensions amongst the inhabitants of the town of Deaf Smith begin to show themselves and Billy Bob realises that it is only through dealing with the past that he can make a future for himself and Lucas Smothers.

Bruce Sterling --- The Murder Network --- Orion --- April 97 --- £16.99 The Internet, cyberspace and the information superhighway; it's the future and it's the future of crime. Whatever opponunity the forward march of technology gives there is an equal advance for those who would use it against us. Computer crime Internet terrorism, robotic investigators, murder in virtual reality, the possibilities are endless. And so are the terrors.
Introduced by Bruce Sterling and with a list of star contributors including Stephen King, Philip K. Dick, Greg Bear and William Gibson, The Murder Network spills blood in the information revolution.

Jakob Arjouni ---  One Man, One Murder --- No Exit Press --- 13th March 97 --- £4.99 See Review
A distressed artist comes to p.i. Kayankaya for help. His girlfriend has been kidnapped, a Thai girl. Kayankaya's raised eyebrow brings protestations of love. He confronts obstructive racist officials and corrupt cops in his trawl through the immigration offices and brothels of Frankfurt. It seems that young women fugitives and asylum seekers are disappearing into the Frankfurt night.
Praise for Jakob Arjouni:
`Jakob Arjouni writes the best urban thrillers since Raymond Chandler. In `One Man, One Murder’ he has finally succeeded in creating in the person of the Turkish Private Investigator, Kemal Kayankaya, an utterly unforgettable figure, a figure who has not existed in German literature since Oskar Matzerath.' Tempo, Hamburg
'Happy Birthday, Turk!' is the greatest German crime novel since World War II.' Süddeutsche Zeitung 

Charles Maclean ---  The Silence --- Penguin --- Feb 97 --- £5.99 
One sweltering August week, the uneasy calm of Tom and Karen Welford's charmed life is disturbed by a rash of incidents that reveal the dark side of their marriage and draw them into a web of guilt, erotic obsession and fear.
A beautiful woman with a shadowy past, Karen has been leading a double life she knows is threatened by imminent exposure. With the clock ticking, she leaves her husband and disappears, taking with her their only child, a withdrawn, traumatised four-year-old, who hasn't spoken for six months, but who has witnessed enough for Karen to live in simultaneous gratitude for and terror of his silence.
When a Brooklyn loanshark with ties to organised crime entraps both Karen and Tom in his carefully orchestrated plans, they find themselves in a situation whose nightmarish complexity they can scarcely comprehend, let alone influence or predict.
The Silence combines a taut, brilliantly constructed narrative that builds urgently to an edge-of-your-seat climax that exercises the intelligence as well as chills the blood.
Charles Maclean, born in 1946, is the author of several works of non-fiction including The Wolf Children. His last suspense novel, The Watcher, received outstanding critical acclaim. He lived for 10 years in New York before returning to his native Scotland where he farms and runs the famous Creggans Inn.

David Ramus ---  Thief Of Light --- Penguin --- 24th April 97 --- £5.99 
An extremely fast-paced and gripping thriller set in the American Fine Art world. Thief of Light is about a young art dealer's immersion in the twilight existence of heroin abuse, forgery, fraud and ultimately confrontation with a Japanese Mafia who will stop at nothing to get the Monet masterpiece they so desperately want. the author is currently serving 33 months in prison in Alabama for art fraud. 

Sharon Penman ---  The Queen’s Man --- Penguin --- 24th April 97 --- £5.99 
A murder mystery set in 1193 in Winchester. Henry II’s son Richard was known to have departed from the Holy Land three months previously but has not yet arrived in England. Rumours abound that he is dead, drowned at sea and Richard’s brother, John Lackland, is only too willing to believe the rumours for he is consumed by ambition and untroubled by scruples. Robin de Vere is sent t uncover the mystery and finds no lack of suspects. 

Elliot Leyton ---  Men Of Blood --- Penguin --- 24th April 97 --- £7.99 
Despite the public perception that violent crime, including murder, is on the increase and the British obsession with murder, its rate in this country is low and always has been. This book examines this peculiar obsession, drawing on court records, police interrogations, press and psychiatric reports connected to particular cases to put into context the form of social relationship between killer and victim. 

Tony Aspler ---  Death on the Douro --- Headline --- April 97 --- £16.99 See Review
  ‘A must for all wine connoisseurs while; at the same time, providing education as well as entertainment For those who are not.' The Herald Glasgow
Death on the Douro is Tony Aspler’s third Ezra Brant mystery - an intoxicating blend of wine and crime.
Wine writer Ezra Brant's invitation to visit his old friend Matthew Sykes in Portugal's Douro Valley, where his family have owned a quinta - a port farm - for generations, promises a happy reunion and an opportunity to research his forthcoming book on port. He is also looking forward to taking part in a unique celebration as the quinta marks its 200th anniversary.
However, a dark shadow is threatening to cast a pall over the celebrations - a series of accidents that Sykes is convinced add up to more than merely bad luck...
Tony Aspler is Canada's most widely read wine writer and has been active in international tasting circles since 1964.

Mary Clayton ---  The Prodigal’s Return --- Headline --- Jan 97/pbkJuly £16.99/£5.99 There’s nothing particularly unusual about the fact that ex-inspector John Reynolds is summoned unexpectedly to the scene of an accident. What is unusual, however, is that it's his ex-wife, Audrey, who has called him - for the first time in seven years... The Prodigal's Returns is Mary Clayton’s third Cornish whodunnit featuring ex- Inspector John Reynolds: The dramatic opening is kept up by, the fast pace of the exciting thriller. One can see...this-is whodunnit...following in the footsteps of Wycliffe'
                         Western Evening, Herald Mary Clayton was born and brought .up in Cornwall, and read History at Oxford University. After university she went to America as a Fulbright English-Speaking Union. Fellow to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she taught in the History Department. She has lived in England, Denmark and Italy, and now divides her time between America and Europe.

D.M.Greenwood ---  Heavenly Vices --- Headline --- Feb 97 --- £16.99 
Deacon Theodora Braithwaite is drawn into the aftermath of the death of the warden of a Theological College. 

Lilian Jackson Braun ---  The Cat Who Tailed a Thief --- Headline --- April 97 --- £16.99 See Review 
The brand new nineteenth ‘Cat Who’ mystery - eagerly awaited by a growing army of fans!
A spate of petty thefts threatens the holiday spirit in Pickax. First it's just a pair of sunglasses and gloves that disappear - but then the entire charity collection of the Indian Village Bridge Club is found missing. .And unfortunately the worst is yet to come...
Ironically, the small items begin to disappear when banker Willard Carmichael moves to Pickax. Willard has come accompanied by his flashy young wife, Danielle, and plans to restore a few Victorian houses. But when he is found murdered in an apparent mugging, his wife’s cousin appears a bit too eager to pick up where Willard had to tragicly leave off.
After a local resident is accused of stealing the bridge club money, Qwilleran has a moustache-twitching feeling that some surreptitious investigating is needed. Aided by Koko and Yum Yum's feline intuition, Qwill must bring the right people to justice before the small town of Pickax is destroyed by a Big-time crime wave.
Qwilleran - a prize-winning reporter with a nose for crime. Koko - a Siamese cat with extraordinary talents and a flair for mystery. Yum Yum - a loveable Siamese adored by her two male companions. The most unlikely, most unusual, most delightful team in detective fiction!

Peter Tremayne ---  The Spiders Web ---hb/pbk Headline --- April/Set 97 --- £16.99/£5.99 See Review
The fifth Celtic mystery featuring Sister Fidelma. Advocate of the ancient Irish law courts.
The background detail is marvellous.' London Evening Standard'
'Peter Tremayne creates a seventh century nun who solves murder mysteries in settings of ecclesiastical grandeur, power-hunting and  intrigue... Entertaining, well-paced, interest sustaining and vivid.'  Anderstown News (Belfast)
THE SPIDER'S WEB is the fifth Sister Fidelma mystery, a series set in Ireland in the 7th Century.
Sister Fidelma is not only a religieuse. She is a dalaigh, or advocate of the Brehon courts of ancient Ireland, qualified to the level of anruth, one degree below the highest qualification the ecclesiastical and bardic schools of Ireland can bestow. All her actions and judgements are made according to Brehon Laws.
Sister Fidelma's roots are in Cashel, and she is the daughter of one of The MacCarthy Mor's ancestors. The current MacCarthy Mor, Prince of Desmond, is a Fidelma fan.
Peter Tremayne is a fiction writing pseudonym of a well known published authority on Irish history and the ancient Celts who utilises his knowledge to good effect in this series. He is the son of Cork journalist and started his career with the Cork Examiner later to become deputy editor of an Irish weekly newspaper.

Elizabeth McGregor ---  Out of Reach --- Headline --- Jan 97 --- £16.99 See Review  + Review 2
Set in the leafy lanes of Dorset, a novel of psychological menace from the author of Little White Lies. 

David Martin ---  Cul-De-Sac --- Headline --- March 97 --- £16.99 See Review
In this terrifying thriller of violence and betrayal, David Martin has created a nerve-shredding masterpiece of suspense. Fourteen years ago Teddy Camel promised Annie Milton he’d do anything for her, even rescue her from hell. To save her now, he must reveal the secrets and lies buried within the walls of Cul-De-Sac... and confront a sadistic monster who is obsessed with vengeance.

John Lescroart ---  Guilt --- Headline --- April 97 --- £16.99 
The mesmerising new thriller from the New York Times bestseller brilliantly penetrates the psychology of an urbane, cultured family man who is also a killer. John Lescroart has written his most compelling novel yet.
Praise for John Lescroart:
‘A brilliant courtroom drama’ Washington Post
‘A heart-pounding page-turner’ Playboy