DEATH ON HEELS

After summer rains uncover a corpse bearing tattoos like those of eighteenth-century seafarers, many residents of the English Lake District can’t help but wonder whether it’s the body of one of the town’s most legendary fugitives. Scholar and native Lakelander Jane Gresham feels compelled to finally discover the truth about the myths and buried secrets rooted in her hometown. What she never expected was to find herself at the heart of a 200-year-old mystery that still has the power to put lives on the line. And with each new lead she pursues, death follows hard on her heels.

AUTHOR: VAL MCDERMID

TITLE: THE GRAVE TATOO

GENRE: Mystery, Suspense

Recommendation: http://www.valmmcdermid.com/books/the-grave-tatoo

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grave-tatoo-val-mcdermid

THE UGLY TRUTH

April Latimer has vanished. A junior doctor at a local hospital, she is something of a scandal in the conservative and highly patriarchal society of 1950s Dublin. Though her family is one of the most respected in the city, she is known for being independent-minded; her taste in men, for instance, is decidedly unconventional.

Now April has disappeared, and her friend Phoebe Griffin suspects the worst. Frantic, Phoebe seeks out Quirke, her brilliant but erratic father, and asks him for help. Sober again after intensive treatment for alcoholism, Quirke enlists his old sparring partner, Detective Inspector Hackett, in the search for the missing young woman. In their separate ways the two men follow April’s trail through some of the darker byways of the city to uncover crucial information on her whereabouts. And as Quirke becomes deeply involved in April’s murky story, he encounters complicated and ugly truths about family savagery, Catholic ruthlessness, and race hatred.

AUTHOR: BENJAMIN BLACK

TITLE: ELEGY FOR APRIL

GENRE: Mystery, 

SECOND DEATH OCCURS

It’s a fine day for a sail, and Victor Delahaye, one of Ireland’s most successful businessmen, takes his boat far out to sea. With him is his partner’s son who becomes the sole witness when Delahaye produces a pistol, points it at his own chest, and fires.

This mysterious death immediately engages the attention of Detective Inspector Hackett, who in turn calls upon the services of his sometime partner Quirke, consultant pathologist at the Hospital of the Holy Family. The stakes are high: Delahaye’s prominence in business circles means that Hackett and Quirke must proceed very carefully. Among others, they interview Mona Delahaye, the dead man’s young and very beautiful wife; James and Jonas Delahaye, his identical twin sons; and Jack Clancy, his ambitious, womanizing partner. But then a second death occurs, this one even more shocking than the first, and quickly it becomes apparent that a terrible secret threatens to destroy the lives and reputations of several members of Dublin’s elite. Why did Victor Delahaye kill himself, and who is intent upon wreaking vengeance on so many of those who knew him?

AUTHOR: BENJAMIN BLACK

TITLE: VENGEANCE

GENRE: Mystery, Crime, Suspense

Recommendation: http://www.amazon.com

                               www.gooreads.com

THE UNBORN CHILD

When her newly married husband, Greg, a high profile paediatric heart surgeon, is offered the job of a lifetime in Boston, Tess reluctantly agrees to move to the US for a couple of years. But once Tess and Joe, her son from a previous relationship, arrive in Boston they don’t find settling there very easy, Strange things seem to be happening at the house they have moved into, and the neighbours are acting weirdly towards Tess and Joe. Above all, Tess has found out that she is pregnant, after having agreed with Greg that they wouldn’t want any more children and the unborn baby triggers different feelings with all three family members. The only one striving in the new surroundings seems to be Greg, and Tess is beginning to wonder why. Tess is sure that someone is watching her. Then she makes a jaw-dropping discovery.

AUTHOR: LUCY ATKINS

TITLE: THE OTHER CHILD

GENRE: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Recommendation: http://www.goodreads.com

THE OFFICER AND THE WITNESS

Gaby Ruiz, a Latina prosecutor, assigned the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit. Laura, a 17-year-old prostitute, and the key witness in a sex abuse trial, is missing. She was later found in a motel room, brutally attacked and left for dead in a drug and gang-ridden community. The list of suspects isn’t pretty and sex crimes prosecutor Gaby Ruiz is determined to find out who tried to kill her witness. Did an assailant connected with Gaby’s trial ransack Laura’s room and assault her? Did Laura’s boyfriend tried to kill her because she wanted to leave the Lincoln Gang’s prostitution ring  or did law enforcement try to kill Laura to protect one of their own?  After a police officer turns up dead during the investigation, Gaby finds herself at odds with the brass; so she takes it upon herself to find out what happened to the witness and officer.

AUTHOR: DEBRA ARES

TITLE: THE MAMACITA MURDERS

GENRE: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller Mystery

THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN

A mysterious stranger has turned up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and Charlie is shocked to realize he could be Michael Garland’s identical twin. But she suspects the resemblance is only skin deep and that behind the handsome face may lurk the perverse mind of a killer. While using all her keen profiling gifts, Charlie risks her life to discover the shocking secret that will clear Michael’s name. Then a breakout at Wallens Ridge State Prison forces Charlie to contend with a sudden swarm of psychopaths bent on spilling blood. No one has a better chance of tracking down the deadly fugitives than Charlie unless the rampaging killers manage to find her first and make this case her last. But Michael will move heaven and hell and even make a devil’s bargain for the chance to save Charlie’s life, and feel her touch once more if only for the final time.

AUTHOR: KAREN ROBARDS

TITLE: THE LAST TIME I SAW HER

GENRE: Mystery, Crime, Thriller

DEADLY EFFICIENCY

Iraklis showed no mercy. Now they’re back and ready to take their final revenge In the 1970s, Iraklis was a Greek terrorist group targeting capitalist politicians in a spate of gruesome ritualistic slaughters. Now two high-profile businessmen have been dispatched with deadly efficiency. Athens’ wealthy elite fear Iraklis is back and this time there may be no stopping them. Grace was just a child when she witnessed her diplomat father’s murder and has returned to Athens determined to find his killer. Hiring detective Alex Mavros, she finds a man searching for answers of his own. The disappearance of his brother still haunts Mavros and the pursuit of a ruthless assassin could reveal more than he bargained for. 

AUTHOR: PAUL JOHNSTON

TITLE: THE LAST RED DEATH

GENRE: Thriller, Fiction, Suspense

Recommendation: http://www.paul-johnston.co.uk/books.htm

http://www.amazon.co.uk >…. > Mystery

THE PREACHER’S MURDER

Outside the local women’s health clinic, the Reverend Jimmy Aldridge waving his protest sign is a familiar sight. But that changes early one morning when someone shoots the beloved Reverend Jimmy dead. Sheriff Shelby Mitchell knows the preacher’s murder will shock the good people of Jackson and the pressure to find the killer is immediate and intense, which is why Shelby calls in detective Darla Cavannah.
 
When police detective Darla moved from Philadelphia to Jackson with her husband hometown football hero Hugh “the Glue” Cavannah she never imagined the culture shock that awaited. Then after Hugh dies in a car crash, Darla enters a self-imposed exile in her Mississippi home, taking a leave of absence from the sheriff’s department. Now she’s called back to duty or coerced, more like it, with Shelby slathering on his good-ole-boy charm nice and thick, like on a helping of barbecue.
Reluctantly partnered with a mulish Elvis impersonator, Darla keeps a cool head even as the community demands an arrest. The court of public opinion has already convicted the clinic’s doctor, Stephen Nicoletti, but Darla is just as sure he’s not guilty even as she fights her growing attraction to him. From the genteel suburbs to a raunchy strip club, Darla follows a trail of dirty money and nasty secrets until the day of judgment comes, and she faces down an ungodly assassin.

AUTHOR: GARY GUSICK

TITLE: THE LAST CLINIC

GENRE: Mystery & Suspense

Recommendation: http://www.penguinrandonhouse.com/books

TAKING THE FALL

Believing he’s the target of a frame-up, geeky loner James Drinker hires defense attorney Jason Kolarich to take his case. Two women he knows have recently been murdered, seemingly by the same killer, and Drinker thinks he’ll be the police’s main suspect. Something about Drinker seems off from the start, but Kolarich doesn’t give it too much thought. Until another murder occurs. And then another. As he begins to probe his client’s life and story more closely, it quickly becomes clear that nothing about James Drinker is what it seems and the target of the frame-up isn’t Drinker, but Kolarich. Faced with a murder charge and unable to prove his own innocence without breaking his sworn attorney-client privilege, Jason Kolarich must hunt for the truth about James Drinker, the series of brutal killings, and why he’s been set up to take the fall. The answers will be beyond anything he could have imagined.

AUTHOR: DAVID ELLIS

TITLE: THE LAST ALIBI

GENRE: Mystery, Crime

Recommendation: http://www.barnesandnoble.com

http://www.alibris.com

MYSTERY BEHIND THE KILLING

Through the dark wood where the dead trees give no shelter Nanna Birk Larsen runs. There is a bright monocular eye that follows, like a hunter after a wounded deer. It moves in a slow approaching zigzag, marching through the Pineseskoven wasteland, through the Pentecost Forest. The chill water, the fear, his presence not so far away. There is one torchlight on her now, the single blazing eye. And it is here.

Sarah Lund is looking forward to her last day as a detective with the Copenhagen Police department before moving to Sweden. But everything changes when nineteen-year-old student, Nanna Birk Larsen, is found raped and brutally murdered in the woods outside the city. Lund’s plans to relocate are put on hold as she leads the investigation along with fellow detective Jan Meyer. While Nanna’s family struggles to cope with their loss, local politician, Troels Hartmann, is in the middle of an election campaign to become the new mayor of Copenhagen. When links between City Hall and the murder suddenly come to light , the case takes an entirely different turn. Over the course of twenty days, suspect upon suspect emerges as violence, political intrigue cast their shadows over the hunt for the killer.

AUTHOR: DAVID HEWSON

TITLE: THE KILLING

GENRE: Mystery, Suspense, Crime

Recommendation: http://www.goodreads.com

http://www.amazon.com