. . with his bruised characters, raw-edged dialogue, and extraordinary night vision."-"The New York Times Book Review" "London's dark heart has seldom been exposed with such surgical precision. Brutal, mesmerizing stuff."-Ian Rankin"A huge talent."-"TimeOut London""One of the brightest stars in the British crime writing firmament."-John ConnollyA research scientist has gone missing. An ace newspaper reporter has disappeared; so has a minidisc, along with its incriminating evidence. And a teenage hustler is on the run. In his pursuer, the Hammer, a skin-headed professional killer with a blue sapphire tooth and a taste for death metal, "the principle of evil" has indeed been "made flesh."From its staggering opening to an electrifying finish, its prose pumping adrenaline all the way, Martyn Waites' new novel wrests former investigative journalist Joe Donovan out of his reclusion in Newcastle. His heart broken by the disappearance of his six-year-old son two years earlier-a case that remains unsolved-he now finds his destiny entwined with that of the streetwise but vulnerable and frightened teenager Jamal. For on the minidisc, lifted by an unwitting Jamal, lies a crucial, increasingly perilous link to Donovan's past.Unsettling and unpredictable, this taut, compelling page-turner of a novel delivers point-blank every unexpected narrative hit, twist, and turn as it leads Donovan finally to the terror of the mercy seat.Martyn Waites is emerging as one of the leading writers of British noir fiction. "The Mercy Seat" is his first American release. He lives in Newcastle.

    Ever since Stieg Larsson shone a light on Swedish crime writing with his Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, readers around the world have devoured fiction by Scandinavian masters of suspense. A Darker Shade of Sweden includes an assortment of outstanding crime fiction—never before published in English and in some cases brand-new to this volume—from Larsson and a wide range of other talents including Henning Mankell, the creator of Kurt Wallander; Åsa Larsson; Eva Gabrielsson; Inger Frimansson; Åke Edwardson; Sara Stridsberg; Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö; and more. Also included is an introduction by Edgar nominee John-Henri Holmberg, exploring the history of these stellar authors and their contributions to crime writing. “Gripping. . . . These unsettlingly dark tales reaffirm the dominance of Swedish writers with original crime fiction.” —The Sun (UK)

    Michael Sander, a private investigator and security consultant, is hired to find out who the victims are and why Caspersen was involved. Meanwhile, police investigator Lene Jenesen is investigating the death of a decorated war veteran found hanged on his wedding night. Having recently come into money, the man appears to have been driven to suicide, but the question is, why?As the two cases begin to intertwine, Lene and Michael uncover a chilling secret: the existence of a hunting club formed by Denmark’s elite businessmen, where the targets are humans who are carefully selected and made to run for their lives. As their investigations take them into the darkest depths of humanity, uncovering crimes that reach further than they ever imagined, Lene and Michael must team up to overcome an opponent who outstrips them in resources and lethal danger—before they become the ones who are hunted.

    The killer, dubbed Hitchcock, appears to have filmed the butchery, as evidenced by traces of a tripod stand in the victims' blood.The trail naturally leads into the seamy world of snuff films, but the big break comes from a burglar who noticed some blood-stained clothing in an apartment he broke into.

    A young Dutchman, walking aimlessly in central Oslo covered in blood, is taken into custody but refuses to talk. When he is informed that the woman who discovered the body, Karen Borg, is a lawyer, he demands her as his defender, although her specialty is civil, not criminal, law. A couple of days later, Hansa Larsen, a lawyer of the shadiest kind, is found shot to death. Soon police officers Håkon Sand and Hanne Wilhelmsen establish a link between the two killings. They also find a coded message hidden in the murdered lawyer’s apartment. Their maverick colleague in the drugs squad, Billy T., reports that a recent rumor in the drug underworld involves drug-dealing lawyers. Now the reason why the young Dutchman insisted on having Karen Borg as a defender slowly dawns on them: since she was the one to find and report the body, she is the only Oslo lawyer that cannot be implicated in the crime. As the officers investigate, they uncover a massive network of corruption leading to the highest levels of government. As their lives are threatened, Hanne and her colleagues must find the killer and, in the process, bring the lies and deception out into the open.

    The battle lines of society - and the police force - are being redrawn on a daily basis.With the certainties of his life already sorely tested, a brutal murder will shake his beliefs to their very core once more. The manner of the death and its staged circumstances pose many questions to which there are no obvious answers.To track the murderer, Hobbes must cross boundaries into a subculture hidden beneath the everyday world he thought he knew. His investigation takes him into a twisted reality, which is both seductive and devastating, and asks him the one question he has been dreading: How far will he go in pursuit of the truth?

    A man’s body washes up on the beach. No-one seems to care.Patrick Cornwall is a highly acclaimed investigative journalist. His latest project: to uncover the plight of migrants trying to start new lives in Europe, and expose the corruption that runs to the highest levels of society.Patrick’s wife, Ally, is used to Patrick being out of contact. But she’s just discovered she’s pregnant, and she must track him down. Unable to reach him and starting to worry, she flies across the ocean to get answers.Still unable to find him, Ally delves into the secrets Patrick was determined to expose and is drawn into an ever-deadlier web. Because in the dark underbelly of Europe, where lives are cheap, the perpetrators will stop at nothing to keep their sins hidden, and their victims forgotten…

    But she’s not planning a party or buying presents or updating his baby book. She’s dreading it. Because in her world, third birthdays are the days on which the unthinkable happens… she loses her child.For the last twelve years Maggie has been imprisoned in a basement. Abducted aged fifteen, she gave birth to two sons before Max, and on their third birthdays her captor came and took them from her.She cannot let it happen again. But she has no idea how to stop it. And the clock is ticking…

    It chronicles their experiences in parallel over the course of six years, unfolding the independent challenges they face while struggling to survive worlds apart from each other. This book club pick inspires readers to see that love, friendship, and faith can survive in spite of the most terrible circumstances.Dani and Keely imagined that life was more magical than others believed. If they had to be summed up, their one plus one would equal three. Together, they became something greater. It was twin sisters against the world. But the world had different plans. The man followed them to their secret tree house that unusually warm day in September. He only came for one, there and gone in the blink of an eye. Satan’s Garden takes you on the six-year journey of two sisters who learn what it means to survive. It’s a story of resiliency, hope, and above all, a bond that cannot be taken away. It teaches us how quickly life can change and yet how much of it we can change ourselves.

    But when a brutal attack on his team leaves Marc as the only survivor - and with the shocking knowledge that there are traitors inside MI6 - he's forced into the front line.However the evidence seems to point towards Marc as the perpetrator of the attack. Accused of betraying his country, he must race against time to clear his name. With nowhere to turn to for help and no one left to trust, Marc is forced to rely on the elusive Rubicon group and their operative Lucy Keyes. Ex US Army, Lucy also knows what it's like to be an outsider, and she's got the skills that Marc is sorely lacking.A terrorist attack is coming, one bigger and more deadly than has ever been seen before. With the eyes of the security establishment elsewhere, only Lucy and Marc can stop the attack before it's too late.

    The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken.As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios—kidnapping, murder—seem less plausible. The trail has gone cold. Yet for a desperate Jenny, the search has barely begun. More than a year after her daughter’s disappearance, she’s still digging for answers—and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she’s trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi. Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from the girl she thought she’d raised.

    It means entering the world of America's wealthiest men and women and finding out just how the rich and famous live - and die.....

    The kind we've all told - to a former acquaintance we can't quite place but still, for some reason, feel the need to impress. The story of our life, embellished for the benefit of the happily married lawyer with the kids and the lovely home.And the next thing you know, you're having dinner at their house, and accepting an invitation to join them on holiday - swept up in their perfect life, the kind you always dreamed of...Which turns out to be less than perfect. But by the time you're trapped and sweating in the relentless Greek sun, burning to escape the tension all around you - by the time you start to realise that, however painful the truth might be, it's the lies that cause the real damage...... well, by then, it could just be too late. Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Crime Novel of the Year

    A confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively readable stories.An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.