When a woman who everyone including the police believes is dead makes a phone call to a young sportsman about to hit the big time, it seems that more than just his career is on the line. Myron Bolitar investigates and is plunged into a baffling mystery of sex and blackmail. Trying to unravel the truth about a family's tragedy, a woman's secret, and a man's lies, he soon realises that image and talent might make you rich, but the truth can get you killed. A clever and gripping mystery, 378pp, paperback.

In the fourth Shetland novel, Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to Fair Isle to introduce his fiancée to his parents. With the autumn storms raging, the island is cut off from the rest of the world, and with the island on lockdown, a killer is on the loose. A woman's body is discovered at the renowned bird observatory, with feathers threaded through her hair. Perez has no support from the mainland and must investigate the old-fashioned way. He soon realises that this is no crime of passion, but a murder of cold and calculated intention. There is no way of getting off the island until the storms abate, so the killer is also trapped, just waiting for the opportunity to strike again. 352pp, paperback.

The darkest secrets are buried deepest and in the black days of a Shetland winter. Torrential rain triggers a landslide that crosses the main road and sweeps down to the sea. At the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait, Jimmy Perez watches the flood of peaty water and mud smash through a croft house in its path. Everyone thinks the croft is uninhabited, but in the wreckage he finds the body of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. He becomes obsessed with tracing her identity and what she is doing there. Then it emerges she was already dead when the landslide hit the house, and Perez finds himself with a murder investigation to solve. 384pp, paperback.

Our favourite detective makes a reappearance in this second Vera Stanhope novel. They thought she was a murderer, but now she's a victim. Ten years ago, 15 year old Abigail Mantel was murdered, her cold body discovered lying in a ditch. Her father's girlfriend was found guilty of the crime but now evidence has emerged that proves her innocence and means that Abigail's killer still roams free. Abigail's best friend at the time of the murder has now returned to the East Yorkshire village of Elvet to raise her young family. Shocked by the new revelations, she begins to realise that she didn't know her friend as well as she had thought. Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is tasked with uncovering the truth, and as her new enquiries stoke up past secrets the villagers will lie to protect, Vera must find out which lies will bring her to the killer. 397pp, paperback.

The eighth and final Shetland novel. On a small island, rumours can be deadly. A new English family has moved to Shetland, eager to give their autistic son a better life, but when the young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn of their home, rumours of her affair with the husband begin to spread like wild fire. With suspicion raining down on the family, DI Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate. For him it will mean returning to the islands of his on-off lover and boss Willow Reeves who will run the case. Perez is already facing the most disturbing investigation of his career when Willow drops a bombshell that will change his life forever. Is he ready for what is to come? 397pp, paperback.

Thea Osborne hopes to spend a quiet Christmas house sitting for the Shepherds in the picturesque Cotswold village of Stanton. But her arrival coincides with the funeral of local businessman Douglas Callendar, found electrocuted in his bath, and amateur sleuth Thea finds her curiosity piqued. When another villager is discovered brutally murdered the following afternoon, Thea is thrust into the middle of yet another police investigation. With the Callendar family linked to most of the village, Stanton is bursting with suspects. Jealousy, closures of footpaths and secret animal research are all possible motives for the murders, and Thea finds herself in a pickle when even the most trustworthy of the local residents are questionable. 318pp, paperback.

Autumn clouds are drawing in over the village of Askham, at the edge of the picturesque Lake District, and mourners including Simmy Henderson are heading to the funeral of Humphrey Craig. Taking a quiet moment later to visit the grave and admire the flowers with her florist's eye, Simmy meets two women - academic Lindsay Wilson and 90 year old matriarch Pauline Parsons. Just 24 hours later, Mrs Parsons is found dead on Askham Fell, and Simmy faces questioning at Penrith police station. An accusation has been made, but if Simmy is to avoid arrest for a murder she did not commit, she will have to uncover the killer herself. As with other titles in this series, the action is set in a real village. The pub, church and Askham Hall are actual places, but other properties have been changed or invented. Includes map. 318pp, paperback.

A handsome if slightly shabby stone house in Upper Oddington is home to Umberto Kingly as well as his three dogs and will be Thea Slocombe's latest house-sitting assignment. She expects the location will be one of her quietest, until the serene atmosphere is shattered by a fatal hit-and-run. The ensuing police investigation plunges Thea deep into the victim's complicated family dynamics, and the rift that had already torn it apart, but she cannot help wondering if the reverberations of scandal have led to a deliberate and murderous assault. 'As Tope tells it, every rural idyll is blighted by underlying menace...' - Daily Mail. 349pp, paperback.

A young woman is shot in cold blood, her lifeless body dumped outside the stadium at the height of the US Open. Once her tennis career had sky rocketed. Now the headlines were being made by another young player from the wrong side of the tracks. When Myron Bolitar investigates the killing he uncovers a connection between the two players and a six-year-old murder at an exclusive club. Suddenly he is in over his head, and with a dirty senator, a jealous mother, and the mob all drawn into the case, Myron finds himself playing the most dangerous game of all. 'Bolitar is a glorious character.' - Guardian. 357pp, paperback.

As spring returns to the Cotswolds, so too does Thea Slocombe to house-sitting. She has agreed to look after Lucy Sinclair's new home in Northleach while she is away, and Thea is glad of the change of scenery. Soon she meets several of the locals who seem to irritate Lucy so much, and she comes to the conclusion that Lucy is far from popular herself. When a man's body is found, Thea needs all her wits about her. At the heart of the mystery are secrets betrayed and revenge exacted, and Thea is once again caught up in the underhand dealings played out in the idyllic countryside. 314pp, paperback.