NEW  BOOKS FOR SUMMER 1997

Sax Rohmer.  The Fu Manchu Omnibus.  pbk  Allison & Busby  June 97  £9.99 `These long-awaited reprints make my heart sing.  They should find generations of new readers, so that the evil doctor can take his rightful place beside Sherlock Holmes.'
Christopher Fowler Time Out Since 1913, Sax Rohmer's tales of the sinister Dr Fu Manchu and his arch enemy Nayland Smith have delighted readers and cinema-goers  alike. For nearly a quarter of a century they have been out of print but Allison & Busby are reissuing them all in omnibus editions. The Daughter of Fu Manchu; Sir Lionel Barton, the great Orientalist, is dead. Or is he? Why does Fu Manchu come out of retirement to confront his daughter and will he really side with his arch enemy Nayland Smith against her?
The Mask of Fu Manchu:  Dr Van Berg has been stabbed to the heart from behind whilst defending a green box. Why? What is the connection between his murder and Fu Manchu's wedding gift to Shah Greville's bride?
Fu Manchu's Bride: What has a lone girl sitting on a beach at Ste Claire de la Roche have to do with Fu Manchu an Dr Petrie, amiable assistant to Sir Nayland Smith? Is there a connection with the epidemic of sleeping sickness which is sweeping the Riviera? 

Karen Kijewski.  Kat Scratch Fever.  Headline June 97  £17.99 See Review The Christmas season doesn't look too festive for PI Kat Colorado when prominent Sacramento lawyer James Randolph commits suicide while under her surveillance. Moved by his death and by his young widow's inconsolable grief, Kat determines to find the key to his suicide. But Randolph - the victim of a vicious blackmailer - is just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg. And when a sleazy journalist, J.O. Edwards, gets hold of the story, Kat finds a number of very scared
people coming forward. By chasing leads, turning on the charm and twisting a few arms, Kat identifies a web of deceit of frightening proportions. And as she gets closer to her quarry, the blackmailer turns up the heat, resorting to violence that threatens At, her friends, her family and
everything she holds dear... 

Kate Sedley.   Wicked Winter.  pbk  Headline  June 97  £5.99 Despite the chills of winter, Roger the chapman relishes the freedom of his calling. Journeying west, he finds himself following in the footsteps of an itinerant preacher, Brother Simeon, whose sermons are the talk of the countryside. Roger, who's met the friar before and finds his zeal wearying, is less than enthused when they meet beneath the roof of Cederwell Manor where. Simeon has come to pray with Lady Cederwell, and Roger to sell her his wares. But Lady Cederwell is in no state to receive either man. For scarcely have they arrived when she is found dead, the circumstances of her demise strangely fulfilling the prophecy of a babbling hermit Roger had met on the road. Suddenly the friar and the chapman are united in theirs aim, to discover the truth behind the death at Cederwell Manor... 

Anne Perry.  The Silent Cry.  Headline  June 97  £16.99  'Her Victorian England pulsates with life and is peopled with wonderfully memorable characters'
   Faye Kelerman
It's the dead of night in a notorious area of Victorian London's East End known as St.Giles. The streets are narrow, dirty and dangerous, and sewage runs down the middle, The doorways are full of drunken and sleeping beggars - some of whom may even be dead from cold, hunger and illness. The police are avoided and the inhabitants live on the fringes of the law, having too much to hide ever to speak out against their own. So when a local factory girl stumbles over the bloody bodies of two City gentleman, the most she's willing to do is scream for help. When Detective John Evan finally arrives at the scene, he is confronted by a most difficult investigation. With too many obstacles impeding his progress, Evan finally enlists the aid of his old friend, William Monk, who must unravel one of his most complex and shocking cases yet... Anne Perry lives in Portmahomack, Scotland, and is the author of the Victorian mystery series featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. 

Michael Jecks.  The Crediton Killings.  Headline  June 97  £17.99 See Review Peter Clifford, priest of the bustling town of Crediton in Devonshire, is an anxious man. Already nervous about the impending visit of the Bishop of Exeter, he is disturbed to see that a company of violent mercenaries has taken up temporary residence at the inn. Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford, and Baldwin Furnshill, keeper of the King’s Peace, are invited to Peter’s house to help welcome the bishop, though both have their own reasons to want to avoid this. They welcome the diversion offered by a sudden commotion outside but when they find there's been a robbery among the mercenaries, they are less grateful for the interruption. Then a young girl is discovered murdered, hidden in a chest - and this is only the first of the Crediton killings... Michael Jecks gave up a career in the computer industry to concentrate on writing and the study of medieval history. He divides his time between his cottage in Surrey and a house in Devon. 

Ed McBain.   Nocturne.  Hodder  June/Nov97  £16.99/£5.99 See Review
It’s midnight in Isola, and the cops on the night shift at the 87th precinct brace themselves for another week of terrifying violence.  But two separate crimes, utterly unlike each other, are already under way.
Svetlana Helder’s long, tragic life is over.  Concert pianist, refugee, mother, she’d ended up being just another old lady living alone.  Now she’s been shot, her cat’s been shot and the homicide detectives think she interupted a burglar.  Carella and Hawkes disagree. Elsewhere in the city, Yolande Marie Marx’s short life is nearly over.  Known on the street as Marie St Claire, she’s been a hooker and a crack addict for long enough to know not to party with more than just  one client, but she needs the money.  The three preppies called Richard - eighteen years old, smart as hell and drunk as skunks - are unfortunately a lot more dangerous than they look. The murderers are out there in the city, but not in the most obvious places.  Carella and the other officers of the 87th won’t make their arrests until they have followed the weapons, the witnesses, and the dead ends through some surprising parts of the sleeping city. This is McBain at his most compelling.  Unfolding his story entirely at night, intertwining two tales in which almost everyone involved is rotten, he weaves a virtuoso tapestry of murder, mayhem and retribution. Ed Mcbain is one of the most illustrious names in crime fiction and a holder of the Mystery Writers of America’s coveted Grand Master Award.  He has written more than eighty works of fiction, including the heralded 87th precinct series and the acclaimed  Matthew Hope series.  His real name is Evan Hunter and he lives in New York. 

Michael Clynes.  The Relic Murders.  pbk Headline  June 97  £5.99 In the autumn of 1523, Roger Shallot, self-proclaimed physician, rogue, charlatan the secret emissary of King Henry VIII, has nothing to do. His master, Benjamin Daunbey, has been sent to Italy on a diplomatic mission, leaving him in charge of his manor outside Ipswich. Shallot, forbidden both to practice the art of medicine and to approach the beautiful Miranda, takes to reading. Discovering the potential wealth which can be accrued by the finding and selling of true relics, he goes in search of his own. Almost immediately he is in trouble - and in prison.
Rescued by the return of his master and the influence of Cardinal Wolsey,  Shallot finds himself at court, where he is ordered by King and Cardinal to break the law - to steal back for the crown the Orb of Charlemagne, now under close guard at the priory at Clerkenwell. Benjamin and Roger have no choice but to agree to the task…
Before long they are drawn, not only into the shadowy underworld of Tudor London and the illegal trade of relics, but also into murder and blackmail, as they race against time to find the Orb of Charemagne and save their own necks. 

John Sandford.  The Night Crew.  Headline  July 97  £16.99 "A gutsy heroine on the trail of a notably demented weirdo in a host of after-hours venues - a winning and suspense-filled combination from the ultraprofessional Sandford'
  Kirkus Reviews Anne Batory runs the night crew, a close-tit group of video freelancers who scout the city of Los Angeles every night from 10pm to 6am looking for news. It can be a very exciting life, until two deaths hit too close to home. One night, when Anne’s crew is filming a suicide jumper who falls five stories to his death, Jason, her fill-in cameraman is strangely affected. The next morning, Jason is found murdered on the beach. At first the police think that these deaths are unrelated, however too many coincidences and clues keep linking the deaths and leading back to Anna, revealing the dark truth of an obsessed madman. Through a series of twists and turns, Anna's world becomes cold and dangerous, putting everyone around her in jeopardy, stirring up ghosts from her past , and winding the tension tight. John Sandford has written harrowing stories before. but nothing to top the extraordinary suspense and tension of The Night Crew. It is an intense ride. and it is Sandford's most chilling novel yet. John Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning John Camp. Camp was born in 1944 and was raised in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He received his B.A in American Studies from the University of Iowa, and he got his first training as a journalist and reporter when he was in Korea for 15 months for his base paper. In 1986 he won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for a series on the farm crisis on the Midwest of America. Camp has written eight books in the bestselling `Prey' series under the name John Sandford, Rules of  Prey, Shadow, Prey, Eyes of Prey, Silent Prey, Winter Prey, Night Prey, Mind Prey. and Sudden Prey. 

Richard Greensted.  Parting Shot.  Headline  July 97  £16.99 Guy Mercer had it all - a highly successful career in the City; a charming wife, Caroline: two adorable sons; and beautiful homes in London and the Cotswolds. With  his family, he lived life to the full. But all that changes when Guy stays in London one weekend and Caroline takes the boys to the country. On her return the police are waiting for her with the earth shattering news that Guy has been murdered. When the police enquiries lead nowhere re, Caroline takes it upon herself to unravel the terrifying mystery of her husband's murder. Richard Greensted works us a management consultant  in  the financial services industry.  He  has  written three business  hooks  as  well  as  two  other psychological suspense novels, Coming To Terms and Lost Cause. He lives in Surrey. 

Laurie R. King.  A Monstrous Regiment of Women.  Collins Crime  Aug 97  £15.99 See Review A terrifying and moving study of innocence in peril from the award-winning author of The Beekeeper's Apprentice: 'Beguiling variation on Sherlock Holmes sequels . . . civilized. ingenious and engrossing.'  Literary Review  In A Monstrous Regiment of Women, the riveting sequel to The Beekeeoer’s Apprentice, Marv Russell (able apprentice detective to the great but ageing Sherlock Holmes ) is becoming a skilled  sleuth in her own right.  After a tedious visit from relatives, mary is looking for respite in London when she comes across a friend from Oxford. The young woman introduces Mary to her currant enthusiasm, the strange and enigmatic. Margery Childe, leader of  `The New Temple of God'. It appears to be a charismatic sect involved in the post-World War One  suffrage movement, with a feminist slant on Christianity. Intrigued and curious, Mary begins to wonder if the New Temple is a
front for something more sinister.
  When a series of murders claims several of the movement’s wealthy young female volunteers and principal contributors, Mary, with Holmes in the background, starts to investigate, but events spiral out of control as the situation becomes ever more desperate, and Mary’s search plunges her into the worst danger she has yet faced. . .
 A Monstrous Regiment of Women is  a fascinating and beautifully observed novel from the award-winning Laurie King. 

Priscilla Masters.   Winding Up The Serpent  pbk  Allison & Busby  July 97  £5.99
It was the dog who first knew something was wrong. When the alarm clock clicked on at 6.55 he opened one brown eye and waited. But nothing happened. The time on the clock radio added
another minute and the wet tongue ran twice over the cold face before Ben realised this morning was different.  His mistress would not wake. By eleven o'clock Evelyn Shiers had finished at the
market. Strange, she thought as she caught sight of the red car still standing in her neighbour's drive. Was she on holiday? Why was the dog whining? And at the doctor's surgery the two receptionists were in a quandary, too. Where was Sister Marilyn Smith?
Later that afternoon Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy and Detective Sergeant Mike Korpanski break into Marilyn Smith's house. It is in the third bedroom that they find the missing nurse, lying spreadeagled across the bed. She is provocatively dressed and elaborately made up. She is also quite dead.
Despite a lack of evidence at post mortem, Detective Inspector Piercy remains convinced that Marilyn was murdered. A newcomer in an isolated Moorlands town, Joanna Piercy must battle against the prejudice of colleagues and the closed ranks of a small community in her determination to find a killer. Or is she wrong? Perhaps her colleagues are right and her recent promotion has made her over-zealous. Is it possible that Marilyn Smith's death was not murder after all? 'It is always a joy to discover a new crime writer with a sure touch and the capacity to shock.  
' More, please and soon.' Peter Lovesey
'An excellent start.' Yorkshire Post
'It's Masters' first novel and a cracking start to her career in literary crime.' Herald Express
'Priscilla Masters is set to become a master of the art of suspense. This book will have readers glued right up to the last page - and hungry for more.'  Staffordshire Alive 

P.C. Doherty.   The Rose Demon.  Headline  Aug 97  £16.99 See Review The Rose Demon is the new novel from P.C. Doherty, an epic, spine-chilling story of terror, mystery and black magic set in the Middle Ages from a master storyteller. Matthias Fitzobert  the illegitimate son of the parish priest of the village of Sutton Courteny in Gloucestershire. Despite the recent spate of murders to the village, each day he braves the dark woods that lead to the ruins of' Tenebral to visit his friend, a mysterious hermit who shows him many strange and beautiful things and who tells him about Rosifer, the fallen angel who was God’s gardener, who laid out Paradise for Adam and Eve. Though enthralled, the boy is always puzzled by his lessons with the hermit - never more so than the night the villagers hunt the hermit do and, and burn him, believing him to be responsible for the many deaths. The hermit's words to Matthias will haunt the boy for the rest of his life. The Rose Demon explores the nature of Matthias's unique relationship with the spirit he loves yet hates, strives to placate but ultimately flees from. And his story is played out against the vivid panorama of medieval life; the fall and sack of Constantinople. the last throes of the turbulent Wars of the Roses, the terror of witchcraft, the loneliness of the Scottish marches., the battlefields of Spain and finally the lush jungles of the Caribbean where the Rose Demon and Matthias meet for a final,
dramatic confrontation. P.C. Doherty' was born in Middlesborough. He studied history at Liverpool and Oxford universities and obtained a doctorate at Oxford for his thesis on Edward II and Queen Isabella. He is now headmaster of a school in North-East London and lives with his wife and family near Epping Forest. 

Agatha Christie.  Miss Marple Omnibuses.   HarperCollins  pbk  July 97  £8.99 each
Between 1930 and 1976, Agatha Christie's favourite sleuth featured in a total of 12 novels and 20 short stories.
Now, for the first time, all the Miss Marple adventures have been gathered together in this series of four paperback omnibuses.
Miss Marple Omnibus 1
In Volume 1, Miss Marple is invited to solve the mystery of The Body in the library, a sudden outbreak of hate-mail and a `suicide' in The Moving Finger, the newspaper advertisment for a forthcoming murder in A Murder Is Announced and a case of a killing without a corpse in 4.50 From Paddington. Miss Marple Omnibus 2
In Volume 2, an exotic holiday becomes something of A Caribbean Mystery when another traveller dies, real events are foreshadowed by a nursey rhyme in A Pocket  Full of Rye, and Miss Marple reflects on two Murderous cases in The Mirror Crack’d from  Side to Side and They Do it With Mirrors. Miss Marple Omnibus 3
In Volume 3, Miss Marple receives a letter from a deceased friend urging her to investigate an unspecified  Nemesis, she is pitted against ghostly goings-on in  Sleeping Murder,  encounters skulduggery At Bertram’s Hotel and is intrigued by the most unlikely of prime suspect in The Murder at the Vicarage.
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories.  HarperCollins  pbk  July 97  £6.99 
In the first complete volume of her short stories, Miss Marple  investigates  unsolved crimes from The Thirteen Problems, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and Miss Marple’s Final Cases....  20 ingenious tales in all, every one guaranteed to keep you guessing until the turn of the final page. 

John Penn.   Sterner Stuff. HarperCollins  July 97  £14.99
`The procedural novels of John Penn continue to anatomize the internal operations of the police force without glamorising them.' British Book News Who would want to kill a harmless priest in the quiet Cotswold market town of Colombury·? Surprisingly, it transpires that there is a wide choice of suspects, including, amongst others, a brigadier who has quarrelled with the priest, a vagrant whom he had befriended, and the thief who stole a historic chalice from the church.
  Though it is believed that a nurse from the nearby hospital was in the church at the time of the murder, she seems unwilling to help the police with their inquiries. With the discovery of a second body, fear stalks the community Could there be yet a third murder  As usual, John Penn provides a fascinating plot with many twists and surprises in which police procedure and character are inextricably mixed, with unexpected and bizarre results. 

Martyn Waites.  Mary’s Prayer.  Piatkus  July 97  £5.99/ £16.99 See Review
Martyn Waites was born and brought up in a working class environment in Newcastle.  From backstage at Newcastle Playhouse and teaching drama to local teenage ex-offenders, he trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and went on to play, both policemen and villains in Inspector Morse, Spender, the Bill and Harry. As a theatre actor he appeared as a lead in Catherine Cookson's plays and had a go at stand up comedy. He has also written plays and short stories. Mary's Prayer is his first novel.
Martyn says:
"My mother told me that a local drug dealer had been murdered in the small town outside Newcastle where she lives. He was given a huge send off; glass coffin, massive wreaths, the lot. Gangsters lined the street and the place was at a standstill. To hear people talk, the town had lost one of the pillars of the community.  That one incident made me realise that the place I grew up in and look back on with innocent memories is in fact as corrupt as everywhere else. You can never go home again, That idea intrigued me. There was my hook, and the novel started. I then needed a central character from Newcastle but not living there, who would have to return home.  Thus the character of Stephen Larkin was born. .I wanted him to be disenfranchised from society but I wanted a credible reason. I also wanted him to have the same surname as a poet.  It couldn't be one of the Romantic ones, it had to be someone more contemporary - dour and downbeat even.  That’s why I latched on to Phillip Larkin; a pretty repulsive specimen of humanity by all accounts, but a brilliant poet. Newcastle in my book is a real city but it's entirely my version of it. I wanted to take the American hardboiled thriller form and adapt it for Britain. Although I have never been arrested or charged with anything, I can claim to have been picked up and questioned a few times, I know what the inside of a police cell looks like. The second Larkin novel Little Triggers is well under way and the third, Candleland is in the planning stages. I want to develop the characters and also to explore complex social issues, but not in a way that’s worthy but dull. I don't want the reader to forget that it's a crime novel."