A MADMAN WITH POWER

Doug Weaver is a defense attorney who always believes the best of his clients,and Jacob Cohen,on trial for murder,is no exception.Jacob may be homeless and mentally ill,but Doug can’t imagine that this meek and intensely religious man could have killed and dismembered a woman.Yet Bernard Cashman,a forensic expert at the Oregon State Crime Lab,finds evidence that indisputably connects Cohen with the crime.Frustrated and confused,Doug consults Amanda Jaffe,star of Margolin’s spine-tingler Wild Justice.Amanda and her father,Frank,are working on a case that seems completely unrelated gangster Art Prochaska is accused of murdering an informer.When Amanda starts looking too closely at the seemingly air-tight evidence in these two apparently unconnected cases,people start to die and she discovers that someone  has developed a personal philosophy that allows him to manufacture evidence to ensure the successful prosecution of those he feels are guilty,especially if crucial evidence is missing.After a fellow employee approaches him about discrepancies in his work,he adds murder to his list of methods that ensure his continuing crusade.A madman with the power to alter the truth is on the loose.

AUTHOR: PHILLIP MARGOLIN 

TITLE: PROOF POSITIVE

GEBRE: Thriller

THE ANIMAL TESTING FACILITY

Tens of thousands of monkeys and apes suffer in animal testing labs.If just one of them could speak,what might it say and whose interests would it threaten? Researcher Liane Vinson thinks she can handle her promotion to the primate lab at Pentalon,the world’s biggest and most secretive animal testing facility.Going along to get along,she’ll ignore both the vitriol of animal rights protestors outside the front gates and the cold calculus that her bosses use to distance themselves from their subjects behind closed doors.

But when Liane discovers that one of her favorite apes,a young bonobo called Bea,has shockingly developed the ability to speak,all her doubts awaken doubts about right and wrong,about following the rules,and about sacrificing individuals to the supposedly greater good.She’d spare the unique being the knife if she could,but only Axel Flickinger,Pentagon’s cold-hearted CEO,holds the power of life and death within the closely monitored laboratory.If there’s any chance of rescuing Bea,Liane will need to involve her neighbor,Mickey Ferrone,a rough-hewn veterinarian with his own grievances.Soon,at risk of life and limb,Liana and Mickey must challenge forces almost beyond their comprehension: a malevolent corporation,a venal federal government,and animal rights movement that’s lost its way and all of our assumptions about man’s primacy in nature.

AUTHOR: J. E. FISHMAN

TITLE: PRIMACY 

GENRE: Fiction,Medical Thriller

DIVINE MISSION OF MURDER

A diabolical serial killer steeped in Ireland’s Catholic history.Struggling to find his feet back in Ireland after a lengthy posting with Europol in Spain,drugs specialist Mike Mulcahy is plunged into unfamiliar territory when the daughter of a politician suffers a horrific sex attack.Dragged into the case against his will,Mulcahy becomes convinced there is more to it than a random frenzied sexual assault,especially when he discovers that the weapon used by the attacker to torture the victim was a crucifix.But know-it-all colleagues and politically motivated bosses,eager for a quick,uncontroversial result,ignore his belief that the attack had religious rather than sexual motivations.Sidelined and overruled,Mulcahy sets about his own investigation,but frustrations abound at every turn until reporter Siobhan Fallon turns up asking awkward questions.As more young women are attacked and assault turns to murder,Mulcahy and Fallon are drawn into an uneasy alliance,and each step they take hurtles them ever closer to the monstrous killer known only as The Priest.

AUTHOR:GERARD O’DONOVAN

TITLE: THE PRIEST 

GENRE:Mystery,Thriller

THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN

Has Jefferson Winter finally met his match? Six years ago a young married couple were found brutally stabbed to death in their home in Upstate New York.Local police arrested a suspect who later committed suicide.But what if the police got it wrong? Ex-FBI profiler Jefferson Winter is drawn into a deadly cat and mouse game with a mysterious female psychopath as she sets him a challenge: find out what really happened six years ago.The clock is ticking and,as Winter is about to find out,the endgame is everything…

AUTHOR: JAMES CAROL

TITLE: PREY 

GENRE:Mystery,Crime,Thriller

DESPERATE VIOLENCE

The body of Caroline Hartley is found one evening before Christmas by her lover,Veronica Shildon.It is a cosy scene log fire,sheepskin rug,Vivaldi on the stereo,Christmas lights and tree but Caroline is naked and covered in blood.Detective Constable Susan Gay is the first detective at the scene.She has recently been promoted to C.I.D.and the case soon takes on overwhelming professional and personal importance for her.DC Gay and Chief Inspector Alan Banks soon find plenty of suspects as they begin to delve into Caroline’s past and the women’s present life: Veronica’s ex-husband,who is a well-known composer;a feminist poet; the cast and crew of a play Caroline was rehearing; and Caroline’s eccentric,reclusive brother,Gary Hartley.

AUTHOR: PETER ROBINSON

TITLE: PAST REASON HATED 

GENRE: Mystery,Thriller

DEATH DILEVERED TO YOUR DOOR

A sunny evening,a tranquil garden and an old man brutally gunned down on his doorstep.In the pretty and peaceful market town of Kirkluce a proposed superstore development has divided the population in an increasingly bitter war.The low-level aggression of bored youth that is generally tolerated has become sinister.The bloodied corpse of a sheep abandoned in the streets is more than just unpleasant vandalism and teenage bikers,terrorising a woman to breaking point,are impossible to control.When a second victim is killed in what seems a random shooting,the fear in the town becomes tangible.DI Fleming will not accept that the crimes are motiveless,but she struggles to make sense of the two murders,when nothing makes sense any more and no one will believe anything.Not even the truth.

AUTHOR: ALINE TEMPLETON

TITLE: LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER 

GENRE: Cultural,Mystery

HE’S BACK ON THE STREETS

Thirty-three years ago two little girls disappeared from a notorious run-down neighbourhood in south London.One was found dead within a few days,the body of the other was never discovered.Today, another girl vanishes from the same part of town,and the man convicted of murder three decades ago is back on the streets.

Hard-nosed investigative journalist Angela Tate reported on the old case and is back to cover the new story,determined to persuade the mother of the missing girl,Trisha Collins,to reveal a secret she’s been keeping about the original killing.But Trisha is terrified and refuses to talk.With time running out to find little Casey Collins alive and no new leads,the spotlight turns on Trisha,the police and the press questioning her lifestyle and fitness as a mother.Desperate to prove her innocence and fearful the true culprit will escape justice,Trisha begs Tate for help.But Tate soon discovers she’s up against a ruthless adversary who’s watching her every move.As the facts become more elusive the harder she searches,Tate is forced put her own life on the line to solve the 30-year-old crime and uncover the truth about Casey.

AUTHOR: EVA HUDSON 

TITLE: THE DEADLY SILENCE

GENRE:Mystery

A MURDEROUS CONVICT ON THE LOOSE

A raging storm,the end of a torrid affair,a tower ‘jumper’ and in the middle of it all,Henry Christie…

It’s difficult to have any sympathy for a prisoner like Louis Trent no matter how much the other inmates abuse him.For Trent is a child-molester,one of the nastiest kind.Just how nasty,the authorities and his tormentors are about to find out…Not much is going right for DC Danielle Furness.Chasing eleven year-old runaway Claire Lilton along a wave battered Blackpool seafront is only the beginning.Tonight Danny must end the affair with her married lover,which is bound to make life difficult at work.Serves her right for sleeping with the boss.But Danny’s personal problems pale into insignificance when Louis Trent explodes out of jail.Now Trent is heading for his old haunt,Blackpool,with murder on his mind for the young girls he preys on,like Claire,and for the woman who put him in prison in the first place: DC Danny Furness…

AUTHOR: NICK OLDHAM 

TITLE: ONE DEAD WITNESS 

GENRE:Suspense,Detective,Mystery

MONSTERS AND HUMANS

You can call them demons but the truth is they are something mysterious.The young sociopath John Cleaver killed three of them,trying to protect his family,but he has no idea what horrors he’s stirred up.Elijah Sexton was a god of the ancient world,but now he drives a hearse in a Midwest town, keeping his head down,avoiding the world as much as he can,drinking dead memories while his own mind drifts slowly toward oblivion.But when the memories he drains reveal the presence of another fallen god,Elijah is slowly drawn back into a war between humans and monsters a war that threatens the woman he doesn’t dare to love.

AUTHOR: DAN WELLS

TITLE: NEXT OF KIN 

GENRE: Horror,Fiction

THE ONE WHO STAYED WITH THE BODY

Newly promoted DI Matt Pryor is disappointed when his first case seems to be a simple death from natural causes that is,until the post-mortem shows something quite unexpected.The elderly man who died on a Cardiff train was murdered poisoned by one of the other passengers.But who?

There’s a photograph in the dead man’s pocket a photograph that matches one owned by young professional Ellie Bevan.Is it just a coincidence that Ellie’s the one who stayed with the body until the police arrived or did she have a more sinister reason for sticking around?Matt’s boss DCI Martin Phelps is delving into a tricky case of his own.The new superintendent is determined to clear up any old cases with a whiff of police corruption about them and Phelps is sent to investigate the decade-old murder of a young Somali man.He soon discovers that the police reports are filled with errors.Sloppy detective work or a cover-up? Both Pryor and Phelps soon find themselves surprisingly drawn towards investigating a respected humanitarian charity.Feted by important people,the organisation isn’t quite what it seems and a wrong move could spell disaster …

AUTHOR: WONNY LEA 

TITLE: NEVER DEAD

GENRE:Mystery,Suspense,Thriller