A skinny lad is found dead, his body carelessly stuffed into a wheelie bin. Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called to investigate. Who was the boy, and where did he come from? Was he discarded as rubbish or left as a warning to someone? As the local press seize upon an illegal immigrant angle, and the national media on the story of yet another knife crime, the police are called to investigate a less newsworthy death - a middle-aged addict found dead on another estate. Banks finds the threads of each case seem to weave into one another, and to the dark side of organised crime in Eastvale. Does another thread link to his friend Zelda who is facing her own dark side? Banks' meditations on the past make him a figure readers feel they know intimately. 377pp, paperback.

A young woman is found strangled hours before her wedding. DI Wesley Peterson discovers that Kirsten Harbourn was being pursued by an obsessive stalker and had dark secrets her fiancé knew nothing about. But Kirsten's wasn't the only wedding planned to take place that day in South Devon. A couple made their wedding vows at Morbary Registry Office, and a few days later the groom is found dead in a seaside hotel. As Wesley examines the links between the cases, the skeleton of a young bride is discovered in a field once owned by the family of an Elizabethan playwright. Ralph Strong's play 'The Fair Wife of Padua' is soon to be performed for the first time in over 400 years. Is the bloodthirsty drama a confession to the historic murder, and can it reveal anything about the recent killings Wesley must solve? 'A powerful story of loss, malice and deception.' - Ann Cleeves. 297pp, paperback.

It's Christmas and a serial killer is leaving displayed body parts all over Cumbria. A strange message is left at each scene: #BSC6. Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency's Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were some of the victims anaesthetised while others died in appalling agony? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren't even aware of? And why did the victims all take the same two weeks off work three years earlier? When a disgraced FBI agent gets in touch things take an even darker turn because she doesn't think Poe is dealing with a serial killer at all - she thinks he's dealing with someone far, far worse, a man who calls himself the Curator. And nothing will ever be the same again. A jaw-droppingly shocking and intense tightly woven mystery which was the winner of the CWA Best Crime Novel of 2019 award. 'Unlike most procedurals, M. W. Craven grabs the reader by the scruff of the neck and drags them bodily over the grit and grimness of this expertly-crafted tale.' 387pp, paperback.

Mike Hammer accompanies a conservative politician to Moscow on a fact-finding mission. While there he is arrested by the KGB on a bogus charge, and imprisoned, but he quickly escapes, creating an international incident by getting into a firefight with Russian agents. On his stateside return, the government is none too happy with Mr. Hammer. Russia is insisting upon his return to stand charges, and various government agencies are following him. A question dogs our hero - why him? Why does Russia want him back, and why (as evidence increasingly indicates) was he singled out to accompany the senator to Russia in the first place? And why does every beautiful woman he encounters seem to have a seductively hidden agenda? 'Collins displays his mastery of Spillane's distinctive two-fisted prose.' - Publishers Weekly. A companion to 93639. 246pp.

From the clever witty and popular Lawless series, this is first-rate Victorian crime fiction. It is 1863, and as a reluctant Inspector of Vice, Campbell Lawless undertakes a reckoning of London's houses of ill repute, a shadowy netherworld of frayed glamour and double standards, mesmerising and unspeakable by turns. From the erotic booksellers of Holywell Street to the alleys of Haymarket, he discovers backstreet cast-offs and casualties of the society bordellos, and becomes fascinated by a musician who has established a foundation for fallen women. But his inquiries draw the attention of powerful men who can be merciless in defending their reputations. Lawless must unlock the heart of a clandestine network before he too is silenced. With cast of characters in addition to the doxies, dollymops, fourpennies, zuches, jawbreakers, lushy betts, dirty salls, pineapple jacks, pimps, socialites, lords, dukes and parliamentarians. 360pp, paperback.

Butchery outside a London brothel leaves Westfield's Men in disarray. While England is brought low by rumours of Queen Elizabeth's declining health, celebrated theatre company Lord Westfield's Men suffer their own bitter blows. A vicious feud between players causes chaos; a rival company launches a new production and a mysterious beauty reduces their leading actor to a lovelorn wreck. And a brutal murder leaves the group of actors reeling. With matters so fraught, even a performing horse becomes a threat. Stage manager Nicholas Bracewell, accustomed to damage control, is the only man with the wit to keep the company afloat. He begins to discern the connections between the company's misfortunes and the larger shadow falling over England. Steeped in authentic detail and language. 318pp in paperback.

A gripping mystery of codebreaking by the author of The Da Vinci Code. National Security Agency Fort Meade, Maryland. When the most powerful intelligence organisation on earth's invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, it calls for its head cryptographer Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What Susan uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power. The NSA is being held hostage, not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it would cripple US intelligence. In Seville, Spain, the creator of that code Ensei Tankado is found dead, and with him has died the secret to his impregnable code-writing formula that threatens to obliterate the post-Cold War balance of power forever. From the underground hallways of power to the skyscrapers of Tokyo and the towering cathedrals of Spain, a desperate race unfolds. Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, and betrayal on all sides, Susan Fletcher finds herself fighting not only for her country but for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves. Told at a cracking pace, 510pp, paperback.

As the stage is set for a local village play in a beautiful countryside manor, Melissa Craig plays the role of detective once again when one of the cast is mysteriously murdered. She has been delighted to be asked to help put on a play at her favourite local Cotswolds hotel and there's nothing she loves better than getting to know the cast who are just as colourful behind the scenes as they are on stage. Rehearsals are going smoothly until the perpetually grumpy supporting actor is found spread-eagled at the bottom of a steep flight of stairs leading to a cellar. Why on earth was he trying to get down to the hotel's private cellar, and why does the hotel manager seem so angry about it? When the hotel floor plans deliver some unexpected revelations, Melissa is convinced that she's dealing with a murder. But when all of your suspects are actors, how can you tell the good liars from the bad and can Melissa find the killer before the final curtain falls? 250pp, paperback.

Melissa has just finished writing her latest mystery novel and is enjoying the arrival of spring when she receives shocking news. Her estranged father has been found dead in the family home, and her mother Sylvia is under suspicion of murder. Melissa hasn't seen her parents for nearly 30 years, but on hearing the dreadful news she rushes to her mother's side. With no-one else to turn to, Sylvia begs Melissa to investigate the case. Was it a disgruntled employee, the controlling family lawyer, or perhaps the woman with whom her father was having an affair? When another body is found, Melissa realises she's dealing with a ruthless killer. As the police close in, trying to pin both deaths on her mother, Melissa must act fast. Can she find a way to unmask the true killer before she loses her mother for a second time, and possibly forever? 234pp, paperback.

When the young lawyer Daniel Pitt is called from his chambers in Lincoln's Inn to identify a body, he fears that the murder victim will be his friend Kitteredge. But it turns out to be senior lawyer Jonah Drake, who for some reason had borrowed Kitteredge's distinctive coat. Drake was savagely knifed in an alley in London's disreputable Mile End, and Pitt and Kitteredge need to know why. Moneylenders, brothels, opium dens? The reputation of the chambers is at stake, and the head Marcus fford Croft is visibly uneasy. Drake was a cultured man in comfortable circumstances, dealing exclusively in cases of embezzlement, but looking at his financial records Daniel has a feeling there is something wrong. Money is being moved too often with no apparent reason. His search takes him to two possible sources, Drake's client Peterson who was lucky to escape with his life when Drake defended him for murder, and also to the shady world of the shipping tycoon Erasmus Faber. The more Daniel delves, the worse it looks for Marcus, and to complicate matters Daniel is in love with Marcus's daughter. A gripping detective novel in the authentically realised setting of Victorian London. 293pp.