The gifted Venetian detective returns in his 31st case, this time investigating the Janus-faced nature of yet another Italian institution. What role can or should loyalty play in the life of a police inspector? It's a question Commissario Guido Brunetti must face when he is approached for a favour by Elisabetta Foscarini, a woman he knows only casually. However her mother was good to Brunetti's mother, so he feels obliged to at least look into the matter privately. Foscarini's son-in-law Enrico Fenzo has alarmed his wife by confessing their family might be in danger because of something he's involved with. Since Fenzo is an accountant, Brunetti logically suspects that the cause of danger is related to the finances of a client, yet his clients seem benign - an optician, a restaurateur, a charity established by his father-in-law. However when Foscarini's daughter's place of work is vandalized, Brunetti asks his own favours - that his colleagues assist his private investigation which soon turns official as they uncover the dark nature and the wobbly line between the criminal and non-criminal world. Written in an elegant, witty prose, Donna Leon uses the relatively small canvas of Venice for rips about Italian life, sexual styles and best of all the kind of ingrown business and political corruption that seems to lurk just below the surface. Endpapers have maps, 294pp with fairly large print.

Guido Brunetti is baffled by the apparent murder of a seemingly innocuous immigrant man, until a connection to his own youthful past resolves the story of the man's death, and a decades-old disappearance. On a cold November evening, Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague alerts him that a hand has been seen in one of Venice's canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. He is forced to use the city's far richer sources of information - gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim to discover that he had been living in a small house on the grounds of a palazzo owned by a university professor. There Brunetti discovers books revealing the victim's interest in Buddhism, the revolutionary Tamil Tigers, and the last crop of Italian political terrorists, active in the 1980s. As the investigation expands, the puzzle uses random information about real estate and land use, books and university friendships and then Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to discovery. A story of justice and vengeance and with charming classical allusions which makes you smile. With maps on endpapers, 262pp fairly large print.

From the Dordogne Mysteries series. The body of a French Muslim policeman is discovered in the woods near St Denis. The victim had contacted Bruno, the local town cop for help only hours before, but Bruno's sometime boss the Brigadier doesn't see this investigation as a priority. Meanwhile a Muslim youth named Sami arrives at a French army base in Afghanistan hoping to get home to St Denis. One of Bruno's old army comrades helps to smuggle Sami back to France, but the FBI and a media firestorm aren't far behind. Amidst pressure from his bosses, Bruno must find his own way to protect his town and its people. The setting in the Périgord is so atmospheric you won't want to leave in this novel (previously called 'Children of War'). Walker is brilliant at capturing the murderous charms of rural France in his undeniably delicious series of novels. 358pp, paperback.

Never underestimate Miss Marple. A movie star, a deadly cocktail, a murder. When glamorous Marina Gregg came to live in St Mary Mead, tongues were sure to wag. But with a local gossip's sudden death, has one tongue wagged a bit too much? As the police chase false leads and two more victims meet untimely ends, Miss Marple starts to ask her own questions. What secrets might link a peaceful English village and a star of the silver screen? The pieces finally drop into place with a satisfying click as Christie's ingenious plot and fiendish twists keep us hugely entertained in this cosy mystery. First published in 1962 and therefore with the somewhat now 'dated' vocabulary of the time, it is utterly charming. 280pp in compact glamorous hardback reprint.

It is 1947 and the Westleham Village Show. With the war finally over, everyone is looking forward to a pleasant day, but Martha Miller doesn't share the excitement. Since her husband Stan left for work one day and never returned, she has been treated as somewhat of an outsider and the village gossip is that Martha must be to blame. She hopes she can win her fellow villagers over with her delicious homemade plum gin, but as glasses are quaffed, disaster strikes. Chairwoman of the village show Alice Warren slumps to the ground, poisoned! As the fingers of suspicion again point Martha's way, she's determined to prove her innocence and find the real culprit. She's ably helped by the new vicar Luke Walker. But who would kill Alice and why? And will Luke and Martha discover who is behind the poisoning? An utterly charming 1940s mystery, the first in a new cosy crime series we have selected for our readers. 210pp, paperback.

A lone gunman takes the women and doctors at a controversial abortion clinic hostage. Nobody has ended up there by choice. As the tense negotiation for their release unfolds, hour by crucial hour, back in time through the day that brought the hostages and their captor to this moment, every certainty is questioned, every judgement thrown into sharp relief because matters of life and death look very different when you, or the ones you love, are staring down the barrel of a gun. The novel propels the reader through intertwining characters and uncovers motives in this unflinching exploration of what makes a life. Picoult's technicolour prose is full of nuggets like: 'Coal, with time and heat and pressure, will always become a diamond. But if you are freezing to death, which would you consider the gem?' 355pp, paperback.

Jenna Metcalf was with her mother the night she disappeared in tragic and mysterious circumstances, but she remembers nothing. Over 10 years have passed and still Jenna reads and rereads her mother's journals, hoping to find some clue hidden there in the meticulous recording of her scientific research with elephants. Desperate for answers, Jenna uses all her savings to recruit the aid of a private detective, and a psychic. Jenna knows her mother loved her and knows she would not leave her, and she will not rest until she finds out what happened that night to Alice after the car accident, as she retraces the events of that fateful night, but nothing can prepare her for the answers that await. An addictive novel full of twists and turns. If this author has passed you by until now, try her out. 480pp, paperback.

A body is found near a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, but the upstanding local residents couldn't possibly be involved, could they? Murder is the very last thing on Melissa Craig's mind when one of her neighbours pops in to complain loudly about a minor local robbery. She's far too busy thinking about her next book, but when the evening paper lands, there is a shocking headline. A young woman's body has been found in the nearby woods, and it seems the local robbery may offer a crucial clue. Suddenly the whole village is talking about the murder, but none of Melissa's neighbours have come forward to say they know who the victim is. Convinced that the police have got the wrong end of the stick, Melissa can't resist doing some more digging. When she finds a photograph of the dead girl at her former family home, she realises this is the clue she needs, if only she can find out who took the picture. Will Melissa be walking into a trap? Can she work out the truth before she puts herself in harm's way? 250pp, paperback.

23-year-old Katy Speed has always been fascinated by the house across the street. The woman who lives there, Gloria, is the most glamorous neighbour on the avenue, owning a fashionable dress shop in Bexhill-on-Sea. But who is the woman who arrives in the black car most Saturdays while Gloria is at work? Sometimes she brings women to the house, and other times the women come with children. Hilda, Katy's mother, disapproves of Gloria. She wonders where these mysterious visitors have come from, and what they want. Does Gloria have sinister reasons for secretly bringing strangers into the heart of the community? Then one night, the house burns down and in the wreckage the bodies of Gloria and her daughter are found. Katy is sure the unexplained strangers must be responsible, until her father is arrested and charged with murder. Surely the police have arrested the wrong person? Is the rest of the street safe? Can Katy find the truth before it's too late? 352pp, Penguin paperback.

Books 1 to 5 to collect in the Dordogne Mysteries series. Set comprises Death in the Dordogne, Dark Vineyard, Black Diamond, Crowded Grave and Devil's Cave. Buy all five paperbacks and save even more.