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.

A grand old house soaks up the golden summer sun, but inside the dining room something dreadful has happened. Melissa couldn't be happier that summer has arrived and she's delighted to have her mother back by her side. She is extending her beloved Hawthorn Cottage so her new family can live together. Meanwhile her mother Sylvia is back in good health and enjoying a brief stay at a stately retirement home. She loves getting to know the residents until first a dog and then his owner are both found dead in the dining room. Like mother like daughter, Sylvia decides to do a little investigating of her own, but when one of her friends falls ill in suspicious circumstances, Melissa realises her mother has rattled someone, but who? And what happens if the killer realises they have been rumbled? Will Melissa find the culprit before another life is taken? 266pp, paperback.

Amateur sleuth Eve Mallow is looking forward to her 15 minutes of fame when Saxford St Peter is chosen as the location for a new drama series. She is thrilled to learn that TV stars are just as glamorous and tempestuous as she had always imagined. But then someone delivers a bouquet of poisonous flowers to the director, making Eve worry that some of the rivalries she has noticed are deadly serious. And when that director's body is found in the church where the funeral scene took place, it's clear that someone is out for the kill in real life. Eve and her devoted dachshund Gus have been on the ground from the start, interrogating the suspects one by one. Is it the devastating diva whose relationship with the director was far from professional, the cameraman who caught Rufus doing something he shouldn't, or the groupie groundskeeper who's in the background of every shot? Eve must catch the killer before she stars in their next murderous production. 285pp, paperback.

When the calm of Saxford St Peter is disrupted by a deadly fire at the Old Mill, amateur sleuth Eve Mallow finds herself investigating. Everyone is desperate to know more about Harry Tennant, the newcomer who owns the Old Mill. He has finally invited the villagers round for drinks, and Eve isn't the only one looking forward to having some questions answered, but two days before the party, Harry is found dead, the mill burnt down. Eve discovers that quiet, charming Harry was living a double life as the famous advice writer Pippa Longford. Eve wonders what revelations were contained in the letters he received, and whether one of them was worth killing for. Accompanied by her reliable dachshund sidekick Gus, Eve starts digging. There is an uncle desperate to inherit, two women who thought they were his one and only, not to mention everyone who shared their darkest secrets with him, but was one of those strangers much closer to home than Harry knew? 280pp, paperback.

Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel asks Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back and who, if anyone, has the right to judge someone else? Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens - until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. After years of cruel bullying from his classmates, Peter Houghton snaps one morning, and in 19 minutes, 10 residents of the town are dead. When the case goes to trial, the reeling town is determined to seek justice for the innocents Peter killed. Josie, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes, and as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families. As the trial unfolds, Peter's testimony casts light on the terrible role the residents have played in turning a sweet, loving boy into a killer. 565pp, 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.