The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

"There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine."

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer", Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

On January 24, 1925, 'The Saturday Evening Post' began its serialization of the book that would make Earl Derr Biggers famous: The House Without a Key, the first of the Charlie Chan series. Chan, the first Chinese detective in literature, was modeled after Chang Apana, a real-life police detective in Honolulu. Earl Derr Biggers ultimately wrote six Charlie Chan mystery novels: The House Without A Key, The Chinese Parrot, Behind That Curtain, The Black Camel, Charlie Chan Carries On, and Keeper of the Keys. Each of these books is wonderfully told, and through the later films, radio shows, comics, and television series, Charlie Chan became an enduring popular figure.

Six friends gather at a country house for a birthday weekend. They decide to play a game.

All six names go in a hat. Choose two, and imagine one murdering the other.

Write it down. Type it up. Read it out.

Points are given for making the murders sound convincing.

Of course, when given such a task, it’s only natural to use what you know.

Secrets. Grudges. Affairs.

But once you’ve put it in a story, that secret is out.

So with each fictional murder, someone gets a motive for a real one.

Which leads to the most important question:

When a real murder comes, will you be able to spot it in time?

Sarah Fourie kry halfvier op ’n koue wintersoggend ’n oproep van Mosela Mosholi, ’n ou vriendin uit haar tronkdae. Sarah moet nóú kom, Kaapstad toe. Datameester Mosi se rekenaars voorspel ’n vierde moord op ’n toeris binne die volgende paar dae en Sarah met haar kuberkrakerkennis moet kom help.

Sarah kan nie nee sê nie. Sy ken Mosi al jare lank, en haar skuld is groot. Sy sleep haarself uit die bed, gryp ’n oornagsak, en bel vir Jaap. Want Jaap Reyneke moet saam – sy jare as polisieman is al raad wat sy het indien ’n moordenaar in die moederstad skuil.

Dit is ’n onvoorspelbare, donker Kaapstad wat op Jaap en Sarah wag. ’n Stad waarin misdadigers die toutjies trek, waar hommeltuie bokant jou stilweg tred hou van goeie én minder goeie dade, en toeriste salig onbewus is van dit wat in Clifton en Kampsbaai broei.

Nog ’n verbluffende roman deur die meester-krimiskrywer Irma Venter.

Eilean Eadar is a barren, windswept rock best known for the unsolved mystery of the three lighthouse keepers who vanished back in 1919. But when a young man is found dead at the base of that same lighthouse, two detective inspectors are sent from Glasgow to investigate.

Georgina “George” Lennox is happy to be back from leave after a devastating accident. That is, until she meets the hostile islanders and their enigmatic priest, who seem determined to thwart their investigation. George’s partner, Richie, just wants to close the case and head home to his family. But he hasn’t heard the wolves howling or seen the dark figures at their window at night. He’s too busy watching George as if waiting for her to break.

With the dark secrets of the island swirling around them, George and Richie must decide who to trust and what to believe as they spin closer to the terrible truth. Laced with Scottish legend yet sharp and modern in voice, The Wolf Tree announces a spellbinding new voice in crime and mystery fiction.

The third and final thrilling book in the bestselling, award-winning A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.

Pip Fitz-Amobi is haunted by the way her last investigation ended. Soon she’ll be leaving for Cambridge University but then another case finds her . . . and this time it’s all about Pip.

Pip is used to online death threats, but there’s one that catches her eye, someone who keeps asking: who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? And it’s not just online. Pip has a stalker who knows where she lives. The police refuse to act and then Pip finds connections between her stalker and a local serial killer. The killer has been in prison for six years, but Pip suspects that the wrong man is behind bars.

As the deadly game plays out, Pip realises that everything in Little Kilton is finally coming full circle. If Pip doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears.

""She had been in school uniform the first and last time Judy had seen her alive, and she had wondered what it would be like to be her mother. Now, she thanked God she wasn't."" Detective Inspector Judy Hill had seen the girl that evening, talking and laughing with friends on the bus home. Now she lay dead in the glaring arc-light of a scene-of-crime investigation; beaten, strangled, and possibly raped. Oakland School is Stansfield come sunder a no less glaring spotlight as Judy and Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd begin their investigation into the murder of Natalia Ouspensky, aged fifteen, on a piece of open parkland in the centre of town. It is an enquiry which will uncover the secrets of staff and pupil alike, not least Natalia herself; and enquiry which will produce suspects and motives but to no witnesses; an enquiry which will deeply affect the lives of the innocent, but might well fail to convict the guilty. An enquiry, it seems, which is not going to yield a single shred of evidence . . .

Chicago. 1992. A hospital patient wakes to find two strangers by his bed.

They show him a list of names and ask a simple but impossible question. Minutes later he falls to his death from his twelfth-floor window - a fall which generates some unexpected attention.

That attention comes from the Secretary of Defense, who calls for an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher, recently demoted from Major, is assigned as the Army's representative. If he gets a result, great. If not, he's a convenient fall guy.

Reacher may be an exceptional military investigator, but office politics aren't what gets him up in the morning. As he races to identify a cold-blooded killer and uncover a secret that stretches back 23 years, he must navigate around his new partners.

Will Reacher bring the bad guys to justice the official way . . . or his way?

Daylight is the gripping follow up to Long Road to Mercy and A Minute to Midnight featuring Special Agent Atlee Pine, from one of the world's most favourite thriller writers, David Baldacci. The hunt Ever since Mercy was abducted aged six, Atlee has been relentless in her search for her. Finally, she gets her most promising breakthrough yet - the identity of her sister's kidnapper. The capture As Atlee and her assistant, Carol Blum, race to track down the suspect, they run into Pine's old friend and fellow agent, John Puller, who is investigating the suspect's family for another crime. The kill Working together, Pine and Puller must pull back the layers of deceit, lies and cover-ups that strike at the very heart of global democracy. And the truth about what happened to Mercy will finally be revealed. That truth will shock Atlee Pine to her very core. Continue the gripping series with Mercy.

Masterful #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag is back with a riveting, emotionally powerful new thriller!

Small-town labels are hard to shake. Hometown hero. Fallen angel. Can anyone ever escape their past?

A murder victim dumped at the dead end of a lonely country road, face and hands obliterated by a shotgun blast, is not the way sheriff's detective Nick Fourcade wants to start his week. His only lead takes him to the family of a hometown hero suddenly gone missing. Marc Mercier left his home for a weekend hunting trip and hasn't been seen since.

Meanwhile, sheriff's detective Annie Broussard begins her first day back on the job after suffering a brutal attack by taking on the case of B'Lynn Fontenot, a mother desperate to find her grown son, a recovering drug addict. Robbie Fontenot has been missing for eight days, but the local police have no interest in the case, telling B'Lynn that an adult has the right to disappear, and a missing addict is no big surprise. But B'Lynn swears her son was turning his life around. Sympathetic to a mother's anguish, Annie agrees to help B'Lynn, knowing she's about to start a turf war with the city police.

As Annie searches for Robbie Fontenot and Nick investigates the disappearance of Marc Mercier, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems in the lives of either man. And it's still not clear whether either-or neither-of them might be the unidentified murder victim. Old jealousies and fresh deceits, family loyalties gone wrong, and love turned sour all lay a twisting trail that leads deep into the Louisiana swamp, endangering all who cross the path of a bad liar.

NO GREATER FRIEND

Evan Smoak is the guy you want on your side. A former government black ops assassin, he'll be there for you in your darkest hour - and he'll rain hell and thunder on those who caused your pain.

NO WORSE ENEMY

A lone wolf operator, Evan can't afford to lose any of the few people he likes and trusts. But when Tommy Stojack, Evan's loyal, long-time gunsmith and armourer, betrays him, it's war.

Because a good assassin keeps his friends close, but his weapons closer . . .

Thea Fox is just twelve years old when her parents are brutally slain. With Thea's help the police are able to put their murderer - a psychotic serial killer called Ray Riggs - behind bars for life. Changed forever, Thea slowly learns to come to terms with the events of that terrible night and builds a new life in a small country town where she can breathe in the smells of pine, fresh bread and her grandmother's homemade candles.

But the connection that helped Thea put her parents' killer behind bars will come to haunt her. Though her Grandmother calls it a gift, to Thea it feels more like a curse because Ray feels the connection too and though Thea may try to move on, Ray isn't willing to let her go quite so easily...

Three women, connected by one of the most brutal mass slayings in US history.

Lucy is sick of turning the other cheek. Ten years ago, an anti-Mormon mob drove her family and friends from their homes in Illinois. But now, the tables have turned. Rumor has it, some of those same men are traveling through Utah on their way to California. And this time, Lucy won’t run.

Katrina knew the trek west would be difficult. But she had no idea she’d be walking straight into hell. The young mother of four is prepared to do whatever it takes to protect her family from the violence closing in, but the battle to survive will be more harrowing than anything she can imagine.

Sally has just been “gifted” to a man she barely knows—as his fourth wife. Trapped and lonely, she tries to make the best of her new life. But when her husband insists on joining a group of religious zealots’ plans for revenge, she’s forced to reconsider her loyalties. Even if it means putting her own life on the line.

A boy is found with his throat ripped out,
the blood drained from his body. It’s not the first
such killing, and the town knows who to blame:
the vampyr colony in the mountains.

But out-of-state detective Barbara Atkins think the evidence
doesn’t stack up. People are lying.
And Deadhart has a history of dark secrets.

The snow keeps falling, but so do the victims.
Time is running out for Barbara.
Is she hunting a cold-blooded murderer,
or a bloodthirsty monster?

And which does she fear most?

The Cat Who Cracked a Cold Case by L T Shearer is a charming cosy crime read for fans of Richard Osman and S. J. Bennett.

The life of Lulu Lewis, a retired police detective, took an unforgettable turn when Conrad first introduced himself to her. Unforgettable because:

a) Conrad is a special cat.
b) Special because he told her so.

Yes, that’s right, he can talk.

(For obvious reasons, this ability remains a closely guarded secret while they live together on her canal boat, The Lark.)

Visiting an old friend in Manchester, the pair stumble across a chilling news report about a trail of bodies found across the city that echo a string of cold case murders from Lulu’s past in London.

Joining forces with the local police, the pair must use every ounce of their intuition in order to find a connection between the seemingly random killings – and track down a ruthless murderer . . .

Daniel weier om te glo wat almal sê: dat hy ’n skelm is, nes sy pa . . . Wanneer hy egter ’n meisie in ’n rolstoel op Simonstad se kaai raaksien en besluit om haar pêrelhangertjie te steel, beland hy onverwags op ’n skip wat hom wegvoer na Skulpiesbaai en die rykman Robert Stanford se plaas. Hy maak kennis met Malgas, ’n visser wat in die kliphuis bokant die melkhoutbos woon, en Gertjie, die diensmeisie wat die venynige juffrou Caitlin in haar rolstoel versorg. Maar wie is die vreemde ou vrou wat saam met die strandjutwolf langs die see verskyn? En waarom tree Caitlin so boosaardig op, terwyl sy vrees dat die Seevrou haar gaan kom haal? Hou dit dalk verband met die wrak van die slaweskip wat daar op die rotse geloop het? ’n Spannende historiese jeugroman wat tegelykertyd fantasie­, avontuur­ en spookverhaal is.