If the cold doesn't kill you, the truth will... and in East Germany, solving a murder can get you killed. During the worst winter in 100 years in East Germany in 1978, a woman's murder is officially labelled 'accidental death', Major Karin Müller of the People's Police is faced with a dilemma. To solve the crime she must disregard the official version of events, but defying the Stasi means putting her own life, and the lives of her young family, in danger. As the worst winter in living memory holds Germany in its freeze, Müller must untangle a web of state secrets and make a choice between truth and lies, justice and injustice, and ultimately life and death. Brimming with moral ambiguity, this is a stunningly authentic crime thriller with plenty of twists and turns and a great protagonist. 354pp, paperback.

How do you solve a murder when you can't ask any questions? East Germany 1975, and Karin Müller, sidelined from the murder squad in Berlin, jumps at the chance to be sent south to Halle-Neustadt where a pair of infant twins have gone missing. But soon she finds her problems have followed her there, to the new town, the pride of the Communist state, and Müller and her team are forbidden by the Stasi from publicising the disappearances lest they tarnish the town's flawless image. Amidst the eerie nameless streets, the Stasi insist she run the investigation without destroying the public's blissful ignorance of the danger lurking in the heart of their propaganda-filled community. Meanwhile amidst the tower blocks a child snatcher lurks, and the clock is ticking to rescue the twins alive. A masterful evocation of the claustrophobic atmosphere of communist era East Germany, the story blends action, suspense and excitement. 402pp, paperback.

Set consists of Secrets in The Cotswolds, Echoes in The Cotswolds, Betrayal in The Cotswolds and Trouble in The Cotswolds. Buy all four paperbacks and save even more.

A grand old house soaks up the golden summer sun, but inside the dining room something dreadful has happened. Melissa couldn't be happier that summer has arrived and she's delighted to have her mother back by her side. She is extending her beloved Hawthorn Cottage so her new family can live together. Meanwhile her mother Sylvia is back in good health and enjoying a brief stay at a stately retirement home. She loves getting to know the residents until first a dog and then his owner are both found dead in the dining room. Like mother like daughter, Sylvia decides to do a little investigating of her own, but when one of her friends falls ill in suspicious circumstances, Melissa realises her mother has rattled someone, but who? And what happens if the killer realises they have been rumbled? Will Melissa find the culprit before another life is taken? 266pp, paperback.

Cream teas, buttered crumpets and a very curious crime. Melissa Craig is settling in nicely to a new teaching position in the quaint little village of Upper Bembury, getting to know her way around, drinking tea with the eccentric staff, even sewing the first seeds of romance. But when she arrives one morning to find police outside her classroom, Melissa is shocked to hear that her beautiful colleague Angelica has been found dead in her home. As everyone in Angelica's life comes under suspicion, Melissa makes it her mission to go in search of the truth, not least because she's romantically entangled with none other than the police's prime suspect. The discovery of a vandalised portrait of the murdered girl might be just the clue that Melissa needs to clear her lover's name, but when a second body surfaces, she knows she needs to act quickly. 264pp, paperback.

Amateur sleuth Eve Mallow is looking forward to her 15 minutes of fame when Saxford St Peter is chosen as the location for a new drama series. She is thrilled to learn that TV stars are just as glamorous and tempestuous as she had always imagined. But then someone delivers a bouquet of poisonous flowers to the director, making Eve worry that some of the rivalries she has noticed are deadly serious. And when that director's body is found in the church where the funeral scene took place, it's clear that someone is out for the kill in real life. Eve and her devoted dachshund Gus have been on the ground from the start, interrogating the suspects one by one. Is it the devastating diva whose relationship with the director was far from professional, the cameraman who caught Rufus doing something he shouldn't, or the groupie groundskeeper who's in the background of every shot? Eve must catch the killer before she stars in their next murderous production. 285pp, paperback.

When the calm of Saxford St Peter is disrupted by a deadly fire at the Old Mill, amateur sleuth Eve Mallow finds herself investigating. Everyone is desperate to know more about Harry Tennant, the newcomer who owns the Old Mill. He has finally invited the villagers round for drinks, and Eve isn't the only one looking forward to having some questions answered, but two days before the party, Harry is found dead, the mill burnt down. Eve discovers that quiet, charming Harry was living a double life as the famous advice writer Pippa Longford. Eve wonders what revelations were contained in the letters he received, and whether one of them was worth killing for. Accompanied by her reliable dachshund sidekick Gus, Eve starts digging. There is an uncle desperate to inherit, two women who thought they were his one and only, not to mention everyone who shared their darkest secrets with him, but was one of those strangers much closer to home than Harry knew? 280pp, paperback.

Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel asks Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back and who, if anyone, has the right to judge someone else? Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens - until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. After years of cruel bullying from his classmates, Peter Houghton snaps one morning, and in 19 minutes, 10 residents of the town are dead. When the case goes to trial, the reeling town is determined to seek justice for the innocents Peter killed. Josie, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes, and as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families. As the trial unfolds, Peter's testimony casts light on the terrible role the residents have played in turning a sweet, loving boy into a killer. 565pp, paperback.

This book is a must-have for every aficionado of detective fiction. The main part is a gazetteer of 400 fictional detectives, from Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn to Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen, taking in familiar and less familiar figures new and old along the way. Marsh was one of the big four golden age inter-war women writers who were heavily influenced by the deliberations of the Detection Club, started by Dorothy L Sayers and adhering to the 10 commandments of crime writing set out by Ronald Knox. Chief of these was the fair play rule that all clues known to the characters should also be revealed to the reader. In fact, few golden age writers observed these rules, certainly not Agatha Christie and the other member of the big four which also included Margery Allingham. Postwar detectives, for instance Crispin's Gervase Fen, made fun of the rules. The tortured heterosexual private life seen in the novels of Sayers and those she influenced, including P D James and Elizabeth George, gives way in the later 20th century to the lesbian Lindsay Gordon by Val McDermid and Saz Martin by Stella Duffy. Sherlock Holmes was followed by a generation of brilliant and eccentric detectives, including Poirot and Mrs Bradley, but Christie's and Sayers's second-string detectives, Miss Marple and Montague Egg, initiated a tradition of quiet, slow-but-sure detection represented by Burley's Superintendent Wycliffe, James's Cordelia Gray, Tey's Alan Grant, Harvey's Frank Elder and Peters's Brother Cadfael. Monastic sleuths include Sister Fidelma, Abbess Helewise and Hildegard of Meaux. The opening chapters provide a brief history of the genre including locked rooms, golden age humour, class barriers, cosy mysteries, the procedural, and the scientific investigator. 240pp, illustrations on most pages in colour and black and white, timeline, TV and cinema detectives, list of sidekicks.

An instant New York Times bestseller which shows a le Carré flair, an author new to us which has caught our attention. This is an excellent book about Ulster in recent times set against the turmoil of civil conflict in Northern Ireland. Tessa is at work when the news of the latest IRA attack - a petrol station robbery - comes on the air. As the anchor requests the public's help in locating those responsible, Tessa's sister Marian appears on the screen, pulling a black mask over her face. Tessa knows this is impossible. They have attended peace vigils together and besides, Marian is away on holiday. But when the truth reveals itself, Tessa is forced to choose between her ideals and her family, and risk endangering the one person she loves more fiercely than her sister - her infant son. It is difficult to tell whether it is set now post Anglo-Irish Agreement and the standing down of the IRA. With super descriptions of places in the North East you will actually recognise like the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. 278pp, paperback.