NEW  BOOKS FOR SUMMER 1997

J Robert Janes  Gypsy   Constable   June 97   £15.99
The Ritz Hotel in Paris is rocked by an explosion on 17 January 1943. Millions of francs in diamonds destined for the Third Reich are missing. The international safe-cracker Gypsy has surfaced and is about to hold the city and its Occupier to ransom.
Jean-Louis St-Cyr and Hermann Kohler are joined by Herr Max of the Internationalen Kriminalpolizei in this their ninth investigation. But why, really, is Herr Max present when everyone thought the IKPK had ceased to exist? Sticks of dynamite which leak nitroglycerin are putty to the Gypsy, but is he involved with the Resistance? Just who is helping him, why did he drop out of sight for so long, and what has he next in mind? 

Dennis Casley   Death Under Par   Constable   June 97   £15.99 See Review
Back in his home town of Nairobi, Chief Inspector Odhiambo finds death stalking him once more. When the Vice-Captain of the Royal Ngong Golf Club is found buried in one of his own tees the case seems difficult enough, but politics in the form of his old adversaries complicate Odhiambo's enquiries and soon he is caught up in the chaos of an attempted coup d'etat.
To solve the murders, Odhiambo must face his final round with Price-Allen, the sinister ex-colonial who operates in the shadows of the security forces, and pit his integrity against the corruption that threatens to engulf him. 

June Thomson  The Secret Documents of Sherlock Holmes  Constable   May 97   £15.99
June Thomson's three earlier collections of Doyleana were hailed by the critics as `among the best pastiches ever written' (Birmigham Post).
This new collection contains seven more stories allegedly written by Dr John Watson which, for various reasons, have not been published before, including the theft of the Vatican cameos, the arrest of Huret the Boulevard assassin and the terrible death of Crosbv the banker, in which a repulsive red leech played a significant part. 

Bill Knox  Blood Proof   Constable   May 97   £15.99 See Review 
Colin Thane, now second in command of the elite Scottish Crime Squad, is sent north from the tough streets of Glasgow to the lonely Scottish Highlands and the heart of the malt whisky distilling industry. Three men die when arson burns down the whisky warehouse run by white-haired and stubborn Finn Rankin with the aid of his three talented daughters. A mystery surrounds Broch Malt Whisky, hidden amid lies, evasions and danger, and to learn the truth Thane has to head back to Glasgow and its criminals . . . 

Ray Harrison  Facets of Murder   Constable   May 97   £15.99
Theft, murder and abduction were the last things on Constable Morton’s mind when he took his fiancee Catherine Marsden to choose an engagement ring. But while they are in. the shop it is raided, its proprietor John Searle is killed, a valuable diamond is stolen and Catherine is abducted.
As Sergeant Bragg of the City' of London Police takes over the investigation it emerges that Searle was a dishonest philanderer, but who could have hate him enough to murder him And who is holding Catherine Marsden? Could the answer lie in the headquarters of Searle’s old regiment?
Fans of Sergeant Bragg and Constable Morton will relish Ray Harrison’s Latest Victorian Whodunit. 

 Robert Barnard  No Place of Safety    HarperCollins   June 97   14.99 See Review
'Robert Barnard is always original, never repeats himself and has a delectable wit.' Daily Telegraph
When two teenagers go missing from the same. school, Detective Constable Charlie Peace is puzzled, because none of their friends seem to know of any connection between them. The mvstery soon solves itself: they are not homeless street kids, but they are working at a hostel for them. Charlie knows the life and crimes of such people as these two are trying to help, but he decides that, for the moment, they are safe.
But will Charlie have cause to regret his decision? .After all, who is the man running the hostel ? What is his past and what is his motivation? And just how nasty is the local opposition to the project likely to become? As the pair continue their good work, the situation at the hostel becomes even more fraught with the appearance of an Asian girl fleeing an arranged marriage. And it isn’t long before a murderous attack seems about to put an end to the whole project.
A witty and perceptive net novel from Robert Barnard, an acknowledged master of the genre. 

Agatha Christie's "Mary Westmacott" Novels --- HarperCollins --- May 97 --- £4.99
Six Forgotten' novels, at last published under her own name. 
It was Agatha Christie’s sharp observations of people's ambitions, relationships and conflicts that added sparkle to her ingenious detective stories. Writing as Mary Westmacott she turned this under- stannding of human nature away from the crime genre and created bittersweet novels, love stories with a jagged edge, as compelling as the best of her work.
Absent in the Spring
Returning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedlv alone and stranded in an isolated rest house. This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself . . .
The Burden
Laura Franklin bitterly resented the arrival of her enchanting baby sister Shirley. Laura’s emotions changed dramaricaliy one night, when she vowed to protect her with all her strength and love. But the burden of a sister's love can be hard to live with . . .
A Daughters a Daughter
Ann Deyre falls in love with Richard Cauldfield and hopes for new happiness. Her only child, Sarah, cannot contemplate the idea of her mother marring again. Are mother and daughter destined to be enemies for life?
Giant’s Bread
Vernon Deyre is a brilliant musician, but there is a high price to he paid for his genius, especially by his family, and the two women in his life. Then, in order to write his great masterpiece, he has to make a crucial and costly decision . . .
The Rose and the Yew Tree
Beautiful and aristocratic Isabella Charteris had been groomed for a future of happiness. Then an ambitious war hero appears in her life. For Isabella, the price of love could mean abandoning her dreams forever.
Unfinished Portrait 
Recently bereaved, Celia is on the verge of suicide. Then one night she meets Larraby, a successful portrait painter. Can he help Celia come to terms with the past and take her new chance at happiness? 

David Williams   A Terminal Case   HarperCollins   June 97   £14.99
`Williams maintains suspense while keeping the masks of comedy and tragedy spinning like tops.' Sunday Times
The parishioners of Bryntaf are Far from shocked when the vicar of St Samson's announces he's divorcing his wife. Some are surprised, though, at his plans to remarry-an attractive young widow - and keep his job. But his intentions are thwarted when the widow, a hospital consultant, is brutally' murdered, her body mutilated with one of her own scalpels. There is no shortage of suspects: the vicar's wife, her student son, rhe consultant's jealous accountant, and at least one spinster of the parish who everyone agrees would die for the vicar, but would she kill for him? Only the wily` Chief Inspector Parry is sharp enough to detect the subtle motive which finally exposes the true culprit. In this fourth mystery featuring Merlin Parry and Sergeant Lloyd, David Williams further refines the balance of his engaging and elegantly written Welsh series 

Gregory McDonald Skylar in Yankeeland   HarperCollins   June 97   £14.99
Sex, laughs and suspense in the latest irresistible Skylar mystery from Gregory Mcdonald, creator of the Fletch novels.
Sklar Whitfield, twenty-year-old Southern hunk, can't help it if he oozes charm and testosterone. After all, he's been doing it all his life back home in Greendown County, but when he goes to Boston to study the trumpet, those Yankees just don’t know how to take him. They start dreaming and fantasising, and giving Skylar a whole lot of attention.
Skylar takes it all in his stride - until some valuable jewels disappear and the finger's pointing right at him. Then, when an upper-crust thirteen-year-old girl is fownd dead on a riverbank, it's Skvlar's turn to get serious. But can he act quickly enough to apprehend the killer, or will all that laid-back Southern cool be his undoing. . . 

Mike Phillips   The Dancing Face   HarperCollins   May 97   £15.99 See Review
An Inspector Alvarez novel. 
`At the end of an interminable British winter, a new whodunit featuring Mallorca cop Eurique Alvarez is as welcome as a week in the sun.' Financial Time
When Sheard awakes aboard the Aventura, feeling very ill, he finds himself at the feet of a young woman wearing a pair of lime-green pants and on the deck is another young woman -less clothed. Too sick to be intrigued he falls asleep, and it is several hours later that he, Kirsty and Cara discover that their companion, Levis, is missing.
Initially it seems that Lewis must have been so drunk that he fell overboard and drowned - a inclusion Inspector Alvarez would welcome since it would require no further action. Action. But it has to be admitted that there are one or two inconsistencies about the facts, and so, despite Superior Chief Salas's annoyance, the tireless .Alvarez pursues the investigation. It is a decision he will learn to regret, even while finding cause to be grateful he has taken it. 

Roderic Jeffries  A Maze of Murders   HarperCollins   May 97   £14.99
An Inspector Alvarez novel.
`At the end of an interminable British winter, a new whodunit featuring Mallorca cop Eurique Alvarez is as welcome as a week in the sun.' Financial Time
When Sheard awakes aboard the Aventura, feeling very ill, he finds himself at the feet of a young woman wearing a pair of lime-green pants and on the deck is another young woman -less clothed. Too sick to be intrigued he falls asleep, and it is several hours later that he, Kirsty and Cara discover that their companion, Levis, is missing.
Initially it seems that Lewis must have been so drunk that he fell overboard and drowned - a inclusion Inspector Alvarez would welcome since it would require no further action. Action. But it has to be admitted that there are one or two inconsistencies about the facts, and so, despite Superior Chief Salas's annoyance, the tireless .Alvarez pursues the investigation. It is a decision he will learn to regret, even while finding cause to be grateful he has taken it. 

Ben Macintyre  The Napoleon of Crime   HarperCollins   June 97   £18.00
The rumbustious story of the real Moriarty.
In the 1870’s the young Adam Worth left a life of professional bountv jumping to enter triumphantly into full scale crime, careering through America and Europe, like Butt Cassidy through South America, as ringleader of the largest criminal network in the world. He was famed, among other coups, for stealing Gainsborough's great portrait of Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire - and later for returning it. Yet for many years, whether living in Paris or London, hewas considered by many of the respected and exalted to be the perfect Victorian gentleman, the very essence of the society that he stole from so successfully. The model for Conan Doyle’s great adversary Moriarty Worth had his Holmes: William Pinkerton of Pinkerton's detective agency, America’s first and greatest. Their parallel lives - one living on the edge, vastly rich then plunged into penury, always one step ahead of the law; the other equally intelligent and daring but a dedicated upholder of the law- form the basis of this extraordinary book. Full of seed, glamorous, warped and wonderful characters, hair-raising adventures and daring intrigues, in its story telling and its ironic exposure of Victorian double standards, it would not disgrace Dickens. 

Kate Wilhelm   Malice Prepense   HarperCollins pbk   June 87   £5.99
Another outstanding contemporary courtroom thriller, by a multi- award-winning author.
Crack - attorney Barbara Holloway is back on the case, this time hired to defend a retarded 28-year-old, Teddy Wendover, accused of killing a prominent congressman. Teddy was injured in an accident on a school trip fifteen years earlier. Now someone has killed three people connected with that trip - killed them all with what looks like the rocks Teddy loves to collect. Barbara must push herself to the limits and call on all her resources to get to the bottom of this gripping case . . .
'A corker of a trial. As Wilhelm spins her riveting tale, she not only makes the legal system comprehensible and compelling but also makes her readers care about her characters.' Publishers Weekly
‘Wilhelm's courtroom drama is first-rate, providing maxi-mum suspense along the way.’ Seattle Times  

William Lacuna   Verities   HarperCollins   June 97   £16.99
The riveting follow-up to Lashner's bestselling first novel, Hostile Witness.
In Hostile Witness William Lashner created one of the great new- protagonists of thriller fiction, Philadelphia lawyer Victor Carl. Carl has never quite made it to the big time in thelegal world; he is unscrupulous, unrelenting and has a large chip on his shoulder. Lashner's debut novel was acclaimed for its gritty attention to detail and sharp insight into the seamy side of the Philadelphia legal scene. Now Victor Carl is back, and this time he just wants to get his money and get out alive. Hired to wrap up the affairs of a suicidal heiress, Jacqueline Shawl, Carl soon discovers it wasn't suicide at all, but murder. Thrown into a web of deceit and danger by his discovery, Carl races against time to untangle the truth, a journey that will carry him from Philadelphia to the jungles of Belize and back again. The solution to the murder, Carl realises, lies in unravelling the true story of Shawl’s family, the Reddmans, a story that grows more and more gothic as he moves back along the family tree, until in a shocking plot twist, .Victor finds the answer to Shawl's murder in a note written decades ago
The high-energy plot, intricate legal manoeuvrings and a wildly eccentric cast of characters make Verities a supremely entertaining thriller. 

Stuart Woods Choke   HarperCollins   June 97   £15.99
From the best-selling author of Neat and Imperfect Strangers comes another fascinating and gritty novel.
CHUCK CHANDLER arrives in Key West, Florida at the end of his tether. Since blowing his career as a top tour tennis professional he has tailed to keep a series of teaching jobs at plush clubs, usually because he has been unable to keep his hands off his female students. At his new job he yields to temptation once again, getting involved with the beautiful Clare Carras, who is married to an older man with no apparent past, and who turns out to be a great deal more than the tennis pro can handle. Suddenly, the easy-going Chuck is in over his head, suspected of murder and on the verge of losing not only his modest career and all his possessions, but his freedom, and maybe even his life, as well. Chuck must struggle to stay afloat in a shark-infested situation that stretches from the Florida Keys to Los Angeles and back, involving not only the treacherous Clare. But a furious mob boss as well who is determined to get back whatever belongs to him, and doesn’t care who he has to kill to do it.
Stuart Woods has created another exciting story with all the twists, shocks and compelling characters that have madehis novels international bestsellers.