The stakes have never been so high. When his old friend and former colleague is shot dead at his home, Detective Superintendent William Lorimer is devastated, and his problems are only just beginning. It's not long before two more deaths are reported, both victims ex-policemen and this is now a targeted campaign against their own. With no other leads on the killer, Lorimer's team are panicking. Who will be next? Lorimer knows he must keep his cool if he is to solve the case, but time is running out before the next attack, and he's struggling to ignore one horrifying question - will he get to the killer before the killer gets to him? 'With a convincing Glaswegian atmosphere and superior writing.' - The Times. 372pp, paperback.

Dr John H. Watson writes in September 1917: 'Holmes and I sat in companiable silence for some time after we finished our excellent meal at Simpson's in the Strand. The Beef Wellington, named in honour of our greatest ever military man, was sublime.' On 22nd May 1859, Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, to Charles, a chronically addicted alcoholic, and Mary who was fond of books and a wonderful storyteller. He was later to tell a firm friend Bram Stoker that he produced and illustrated his first book of adventures at the age of six. March 1886 was significant as this is when he began writing 'A Study In Scarlet' which introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes and John Watson courtesy of Beeton's Christmas Annual. We may have been introduced to the magic of the greatest of English detectives by reading the books or seeing the hundreds of films and TV shows. Now this unique book offers a detailed itinerary or actually 'walking' Sherlock Holmes beginning of course at Baker Street. The series of walks takes in the well-known as well as the more obscure locations of London, plus a gallery of unforgettable characters, and each walk details location and the story in which it features. Associated literary and historical information, social interest and events in Conan Doyle's life are added. A chapter then explores Holmes' adventures in the rest of the UK and 45 black and white original photographs accompany the text. We walk along Northumberland Avenue, up the Strand, Fleet Street and on to St Paul's, Oxford and Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and into the Haymarket, Holborn and Covent Garden, Westminster and Victoria, Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall and Mayfair and the City and the East End. There is a timeline of stories and notable actors who have played Holmes over the years. 141pp, many maps.

Daily Telegraph Book of the Year, this atmospheric thriller introduces a Scandi-noir Tuva Moodyson Mystery. Eyes missing, two bodies lie deep in the forest near a remote Swedish town. Tuva Moodyson, a deaf reporter on a small-time local paper, is looking for the story that could make her career. Can she outwit the killer before she becomes the final victim? She would like to think so, but first she must face her demons and venture far into the deep dark woods if she wants to stand any chance of getting the hell out of small-time Gavrik. Five villagers, 600 square kilometres of Swedish forest. One reporter. Two bodies... A novel loaded with atmosphere, the tension is unrelenting right from the highly tense opening when Tuva comes face to face (or truck to face) with a charging stag; there is an ominous feeling of dread seeping from every page. Written by a British graduate who lives in Sweden who must have seen the troll sculptures he includes in his book. Stickered, 339pp, paperback.

The charity fair at Seagrave Hall is a key date in the Saxford St Peter calendar and a chance for the villagers to nose around the house and grounds and cross paths with the rich and famous. New resident Eve Mallow is particularly excited by this year's special guest, the explorer Verity Nye, engaged to the heir to the Hall. Eve loves Verity's determination and she can't wait to meet her, but when they talk, Verity hints that she has something troubling on her mind. So after the festival mood is tragically interrupted by Verity's fall from a third-floor window, Eve can't be sure that it's an appalling accident especially when one small boy claims he saw someone behind her. Soon Eve finds herself tasked with writing Verity's obituary. As she dusts off her notebook and begins her interviews alongside her trusted dachshund sidekick Gus, she realises she has a fine array of suspects before her. Could it be a corrupt charity manager, the distraught fiancé, or jealous cousin Cora? And can Eve find out before her questions cause the killer to turn on her? 279pp, paperback.

We are invited to raise a glass and turn the page of another novel in the series with the enchanting backdrop of France's pastoral heartland with a cast of local characters as vibrant as their surroundings for every literary gourmand. Mystery, food and wine in the French province of the Dordogne, it is Spring in St Denis. The village choir is preparing for its Easter concert, the wild flowers are blooming, and among the lazy whorls of the river, a dead woman is found floating in a boat. It?s another case for Bruno, the town?s cherished Chief of Police. With the discovery of sinister markings and black candles near the body, it seems to him that the occult might be involved. As questions mount regarding a troubled real estate proposal in the region, a suspicious, violent death made to look accidental, and the sudden reappearance of a politically controversial elderly countess, Bruno and his colleagues and friends are drawn ever closer to a climactic showdown in the Gouffre de Colombac, the place locals call the Devil's Cave. 392pp, paperback.

Set in London 1960 and the lives of teenage twins Maisy and Duncan change for ever the night their mother is taken into an asylum. Sent to live in the New Forest with their cold-hearted grandmother, Mrs Mitcham, the children feel unloved and abandoned. At least they have each other, but one day Duncan doesn't come home from exploring in the forest and no one, least of all his grandmother, seems to care about his disappearance. The police who have found the bodies of other missing boys offer little hope of finding Duncan alive. Yet Maisy refuses to give up. Although she doesn't know the woods well, she knows someone who does, the strange old woman who lives at their heart. Does Maisy dare enlist the help of the woman in the wood? The Sunday Times bestselling author provides a narrative that gallops along in a glorious and heartwarming story of a girl who at just 15 was determined to find the truth. 398pp, Penguin paperback.

Coronation Day, 1953 and in a sleepy Somerset village, young shopkeeper Molly Heywood makes a terrible discovery - her friend Cassie has been murdered, and her six-year-old daughter Petal is missing. Weeks pass but the police make no progress, so Molly, against the advice of a childhood friend and village policeman George, takes matters into her own hands. Clutching a letter sent from Cassie to London, she leaves in search of Petal. In the Blitz-scarred East End, Mollies meets and befriends strangers from Cassie's past, but the big city is a dangerous place for a country girl, especially one on the trail of a murderer. Sacrificing home, happiness and a chance at love to find Petal, is Mollie now risking her life? An epic romantic drama set in post-war London. 423pp, Penguin paperback.

Sub-titled 'Stories from the Golden Age of the Female Detective', we learn that Sherlock Holmes had plenty of rivals in the pages of late Victorian and Edwardian fiction. Some of the most memorable of these were women, and this exciting and unusual anthology gathers together 15 stories featuring female detectives all written by women. They include Dora Bell, Sarah Fairbanks, Mrs Florence Cusack, Loveday Brooke, Hagar the Gypsy, Molly Delamere, Violet Strange, Dorcas Dene and Lady Molly of Scotland Yard by Baroness Orczy among them. Often neglected tales, now restored into 320 page paperback.

A very quirky and playful black comedy which begins with two apparently harmless women residing in cottages one building apart in the idyllic English village of Little Camborne. Miss Finch and Miss Swallow are cousins who have put their pasts behind them and settled into conventional country life. But when a mysterious foreigner Theodore Cadmus from a Mediterranean island nobody has heard of moves into the middle cottage, the safe monotony of their lives is shattered. Soon, long-hidden secrets and long-held grudges threaten to surface, drawing all into a vortex of subterfuge, theft, violence, mayhem and murder. The book has been criticised for unexplained characters coming in, strange birds on islands which are sometimes green then purple, and some rather curious amethysts. Leave behind Midsomer Murders and move into the realm of the truly weird. A quick read, 186pp. Paperback.

A beautiful house nestles in an orchard, where a blackbird sings at dawn each morning from a branch laden with rosy fruit - but underneath the trees a body lies too still to be asleep. Melissa Craig is struggling with her new novel, so when the invitation arrives to visit a nearby country house for some writing time, she decides a bit of peace and quiet is just the ticket. The house is everything she could have hoped for, even if the staff do seem rather unsettled. She has barely unpacked when the owner of the house persuades Melissa to investigate some threatening notes he has received, but before she can do any digging, he is found murdered in his own orchard. Melissa realises that the dead man was universally disliked - controlling, tight with money, nasty and he has certainly made some enemies - but who could have hated him enough to resort to murder? His seemingly timid wife, the secretary with whom he previously had an affair, or perhaps the gardener with an old secret was the murderer? With the police looking for an outsider, Melissa is sure the murderer is close at hand. But can she prove it before they strike again? 170pp, paperback.