Benoît (Bruno) Courrèges, devoted friend, cuisinier extraordinaire and the town's only municipal policeman, rushes to the scene when a research station for genetically modified crops is burned down outside St Denis. He immediately suspects a group of fervent environmentalists who live nearby, but the fire is only the first in a string of mysteries. Then a bevy of winemakers descends on the village competing for its land and spurring resentment among the villagers. Romances blossom, hearts are broken and some of the sensual pleasures of the town - a dinner of a truffle omelette and grilled bécasses, a community grape-crushing - provide an opportunity for both warm friendship and bitter hostilities to form. A Californian wine producer wants to set up a business in the valley and despite the money and jobs this would bring, many fear it will destroy the town. When a violent death follows the crop burning, it looks as though someone is prepared to do anything to stop the scheme. Then there is another suspicious death and Bruno will have to draw on all his local knowledge to find his way to the truth. 309pp, paperback.

Bruno, the St Denis Chief of Police, is on the trail of the Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic, the most beautiful car of all time with its sleek trailing shape. Only four of them were ever built and one is unaccounted for, lost in France during the Second World War. When two young racing drivers come to the Périgord to hunt down clues to the missing car's whereabouts, Bruno is intrigued despite himself. When a local researcher turns up dead and French intelligence starts investigating the use of classic car sales to fund terrorism, Bruno finds himself once more caught up in a case that reaches far beyond St Denis and its people. Plenty to love in this intriguing mystery. 325pp, paperback.

Life in southwest France isn't as peaceful as you might imagine. Bruno, the local cop in the pretty market town of St Denis, knows this all too well. A summit in a local château is threatened by Basque separatists, animal rights campaigners are causing havoc, and now there's a dead body too. A local archaeological team has unearthed a skeleton and it's a lot more recent than they had hoped, boasting a Swatch on its wrist and a bullet-hole in its skull. The truth about the mysterious body appears to be linked to one of the visitors of St Denis and Bruno must think fast to find the connection between these events, especially if the answer lies closer to home than he thought. Throw in the complications Bruno must face with some farms involved in the production of foie gras and not to mention the arrival of a new 'green' magistrate, the discovery at the archaeological dig is just the beginning of the intrigues this time on Bruno's patch. 373pp, paperback.

When Bruno, Chief of Police in the small French town of St Denis, is invited to the 90th birthday celebration of a powerful local patriarch and former war hero, he meets a family hiding many secrets. Next morning, one of the party guests is found dead. When the family tries to cover it up, Bruno knows he must prevent the victim from becoming just another skeleton in their closet. Keeping his community and himself out of danger while discovering the dark truth will involve all of his cunning and skill. 'With lashings of gastro porn.' - Guardian. 342pp, paperback.

A CWA prize winning novel (2015) set in Cromwell's London and the first in the Damian Seeker series. London 1654 and Oliver Cromwell is at the height of his power and has declared himself Lord Protector, yet he has many enemies at home and abroad. London is a teeming warren of spies and merchants, priests and soldiers, exiles and assassins. One of the web's most fearsome spiders is Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector. No one knows where he comes from, who his family is, or even his real name. All that is known of him for certain is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell and that nothing can be hidden from him for long. In the city, coffee houses are springing up, fashionable places where men may meet to plot and gossip. When a popular captain and hero of Cromwell's all-powerful army is murdered, and Elias Ellingworth, an outspoken critic of Cromwell's regime is found standing over the bleeding body clutching a knife, his guilt seems to be without question. Yet Seeker is not convinced and he knows better than any man where to search for the real killer to bring him to justice. We are drawn into the Interregnum while the country was still divided between Royalists and Parliamentarians. 421pp, paperback.

Suspended from his job with the LAPD, Harry Bosch must face the darkest parts of his past to track down his mother's killer, even if it costs him his life. Harry attacked his commanding officer and is suspended indefinitely pending a psychiatric evaluation. At first he resists the LAPD shrink, but finally recognises that something is troubling him and has for a long time. In 1961, when Harry was 12, his mother, a prostitute, was brutally murdered, and no one has ever been accused of the crime. With the spare time which a suspension brings, Harry opens up the 30 year old case file and is irresistibly drawn into the past he has always avoided. It's clear there has been a cover up and someone powerful was able to divert justice. As Harry relentlessly follows broken pieces of the case, the stirred interest causes new murders and pushes Harry to the edge of his job - and his life. Popular quotes from the book by readers include: 'Loneliness had been the trash can fire he huddled around for most of his life.' 'There is a basic rule of nature. No living thing sacrifices itself or hurts itself needlessly.' Connelly has been hailed as America's greatest living crime writer. 442pp, paperback.

The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature has created a masterpiece of evocation, conjuring up its imaginary island with superb immediacy and a magnificent panorama of the last days of the Ottoman Empire. A tale of spies, conspiracy and murder, full of vivid characters, Pamuk cleverly combines true facts with imagined scenes and has patiently plotted the course of a nationalistic revolution in Turkey. An historical murder mystery set in 1901 amid an epidemic of bubonic plague, it is a wry meditation on nationalism and identity, history and myth, science and superstition. Night draws in. With the stealth of a spy vessel, the royal ship Aziziye approaches the famous vistas of Mingheria, 'an emerald built on pink stone', the 29th state of the ailing Ottoman Empire. The ship carries Princess Pakize, the daughter of a deposed sultan, her doctor husband, and the Royal Chemist, Bonkowski Pasha. Each of them holds a separate mission. Not all of them will survive the weeks ahead, because Mingheria is on the cusp of catastrophe. There are rumours of plague, rumours some in power will try to suppress. But plague is not the only killer. Soon the eyes of the world will turn to this ancient island where the future of a fragile empire is at stake. 683 magnificent pages in large softback 12.9 x 19.8cm.

A captivating historical crime thriller from the true master of the genre and perfect for fans of Ellis Peters, this is one of the popular Brother Athelstan mysteries. The only way to win this murderer's deadly game is to play along. It is 1380. Brutal and sudden death is not uncommon in the foul alleys of London. First the corpse of a clerk is pulled from the Thames. Then a money-lender is found dead in his strongroom, a crossbow bolt firmly embedded in his chest - a real mystery because the windowless chamber was locked and barred from the inside. Sir John Cranston comes to survey the scene. When other clerks are murdered, each with a riddle pinned on the corpse, he enlists the help of Brother Athelstan and together they must pit their wits against a deadly adversary hell-bent on murder and mayhem. 288pp, paperback.

With titles like The Chocolate War, The Birthday Lunch, Oystercatcher, A Market Tale and Fifty Million Bubbles, you may be sure that champagne and gastronomy will feature as well as cosy crime in Dangerous Vacation. A bumper collection of delightful stories featuring Bruno, Chief of Police, France's favourite cop, all the stories are set in the beautiful Dordogne valley and the ravishing Périgord region of southwest France with its lush hillsides and spreading vineyards, delicious local wines and world-renowned cuisine. Bruno strides through the tales staying calm, settling local disputes, and keeping safe his beloved town of St Denis. On only one occasion does he panic when his friend Ivan, proprietor and chef of the town's popular eatery, suddenly collapses on the eve of a large anniversary dinner and asks Bruno to take over the restaurant. Can he save the day? 272pp in large format softback with fairly large print.

A Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month which has been highly rated by Elly Griffiths. London 1855 and in the grey mist of the early dawn, a body is dumped on the Thames shore by a boatman in a metal canoe. Talk soon spreads of the killer and his striking accomplice, a young widow in mourning dress. Birdie Quinn's sleeplessness led her to the river that morning. She has always been wilful, haughty, different, but is she a murderess? To clear her name she must retrace the dead man's footsteps to Orkney and the far north, a dangerous journey for a woman alone, but one she must make to save her life. This gripping, richly layered thriller has a mesmerising setting and fantastic characters and gives superb insight into a ruthless trade. The story is full of gaslit menace. 398pp, paperback.