'This is a stunning read that plunges you into another world. Backman writes with incredible sensitivity and insight. Every one of the characters is real and multi-faceted, having you breathlessly turning the pages, following their fears and hopes, fretting for their futures. This is storytelling at its best: Emotional, vivid, wise and utterly brilliant' Hazel Prior 'It's often said that winners write history, but there are no winners here' This is a small story about big questions. It's a story about family, community, life. It starts with a storm - and a death. But how does it end? Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there's something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life's big questions: What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to protect them? As the locals of Beartown struggle to overcome the past, great change is on the horizon. Someone is coming home after a long time away. Someone will be laid to rest. Someone will fall in love, someone will try to fix their marriage, and someone will do anything to save their children. Someone will submit to hate, someone will fight, and someone will grab a gun and walk towards the ice rink. So what are the residents of Beartown willing to sacrifice for their home? Everything. Praise for the Beartown books: 'I utterly believed in the residents of Beartown, and felt ripped apart by the events in the book' Jojo Moyes 'Surrounded by impenetrable forests, Beartown recreates the stifling atmosphere of a dying community. A mature, compassionate novel' Sunday Times 'Backman can tickle the funny bone and tug on the heart strings when he needs to, and is a clever enough storyteller to not overindulge in either' Independent 'As popular Swedish exports go, Backman is up there with ABBA and Stieg Larsson' The New York Times Book Review 'Backman is a masterful writer' Kirkus Review

Life and death played out over 48 hours. A father desperate to be with his young son escapes from a secure psychiatric hospital, knowing he has just one chance for the two of them to start a new life together. His goal is to snatch the three-year-old - a diabetic who needs insulin to stay alive - and run away to France ... but first he must find the boy, evade his foster family and stay well clear of the police, already in pursuit. A real page-turner cut through with dark humour, Sweet William zeroes in on a potent mix: mental illness, a foster family under pressure, and an aggrieved father separated from his precious child. The result is an incisive and deeply affecting literary thriller.

Lemmer se Eerste Algemene Wet: Moenie betrokke raak nie. Hy pas dit veral toe in sy werk as vryskut-lyfwag by Body Armour, waar hy laag af is op die pryslys, want hy’s die een met die kriminele rekord, die gebrekkige sosiale vaardighede en die baie kort humeur. Wanneer die mooi, ryk Emma le Roux hom huur en begin vertel van onwaarskynlike bedreigings en ’n broer wat sy vas glo ná twintig jaar soos ’n Lasarus uit die dood uit opgestaan het, stof hy ook ’n ander ou Wet af: Moenie klein vroue vertrou nie. Maar wat, welvarende mense lieg en as dit ál gevaar is wat hy moet hanteer, dan vat hy die geld, baie dankie. Daarom vlieg hy op 26 Desember saam met haar Laeveld toe – en só begin ’n koorsagtige tog deur ’n wêreld van gierigheid en korrupsie, ekologiese stryde en sameswerings . . . en moord. In ’n lokval skiet hulle boonop vir Emma. Lemmer het nog nooit as ’n lyfwag gefaal nie, en om sy vyande te identifiseer gaan lewensgevaarlik wees, want hul ontmaskering gaan internasionale implikasies hê. Maar Lemmer is siek en sat daarvoor om onsigbaar te wees. Iemand moet betaal – en hy gaan nie rus voor dié rekening nie vereffen is nie.

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?

In the second volume of the Leonaur's complete Philo Vance Murder Cases we join the famous New York detective at the family mansion where the Greene family is definitely not playing 'Happy Families'. In fact the numbers of the Greene family soon begin to be reduced in the most extreme way. Not surprisingly this, the third Vance story is called the 'Greene Murder Case' and more Greenes will die before the case is solved. The fourth story-'The Bishop Murder Case'-draws its inspiration from children's nursery rhymes. First to die is Christopher Robbin, who just like the Cock Robin is found pierced with an arrow. New York District Attorney Markham knows there is just one man qualified to solve a case this complex, but more characters are doomed to die-including one with allusions to 'Mother Goose'-before Philo Vance can solve the case.

Sangomas and cops don’t mix. Usually. But this is Joburg, a metropolis that is equal parts flash and shadow, and where not everything can be easily explained.

Ian Jack, a disillusioned former police officer, teams up with Reshma Patel, a colleague from his old life, to investigate a routine housebreaking gone bad. But when they uncover links to a possible animal poaching and trafficking syndicate, things go from complicated to dangerous to downright evil.

Set against the richly textured backdrop of a livewire African city, this fast-paced thriller offers a disturbing contemporary take on justice and morality. To be read with the lights on.

International bestseller Jeffrey Archer returns THE UNPUTDOWNABLE NEW THRILLER FROM THE MASTER STORYTELLER 'Only someone like Jeffrey Archer . . . could have written a compelling story like this. Every page bristles with suspense and the ending comes at you with the force of a tank round' DAVID BALDACCI London, 1988. Royal fever sweeps the nation as Britain falls in love with the 'people's princess'. Which means for Scotland Yard, the focus is on the elite Royalty Protection Command, and its commanding officer. Entrusted with protecting the most famous family on earth, they quite simply have to be the best. A weak link could spell disaster. Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick and his Scotland Yard squad are sent in to investigate the team. Maverick ex-undercover operative Ross Hogan is charged with a very sensitive - and unique - responsibility. But it soon becomes clear the problems in Royalty Protection are just the beginning. A renegade organization has the security of the country - and the Crown - in its sights. The only question is which target is next in line... Over My Dead Body hit #4 in the Sunday Times bestselling charts on 4th June 2022.

The murder of Alaska Sanders was quickly solved. Within days, two suspects were identified. One died, the other pleaded guilty. Case closed.

But, eleven years later, the death of another woman in a fast-food parking lot changes everything. Marcus Goldman, celebrity author and amateur investigator, picks up a thread that will unravel not only an open and shut case, but the very fabric of his best friend's life.

Sergeant Perry Gahalowood, who led the original investigation, is hell-bent on setting the record straight. Teaming up with Marcus, he seeks redemption in most the intricate and testing case of his career.

In this sequel to the phenomenal worldwide bestseller The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, Joël Dicker delivers the last word in slow-burn police procedurals. Clue by clue, witness by witness, question by question, his characters solve an unguessable puzzle that could only have been set by the master of the plot twist.

Faced with his most disturbing case yet, Detective Roy Grace tracks a serial killer in the television tie-in edition of You Are Dead, by award-winning crime writer Peter James.

Now a major TV drama on Britbox, Grace stars John Simm as the titular character.

A series of young women - all beautiful, all with long brown hair - have been stalked and abducted. Each victim is found with a brand on their body, a marking that reads 'U R Dead.' And some of their remains are from thirty years ago.

When Logan Somerville is taken while on the phone to her fiancé, Grace must find a lead, connect the cases and track down the killer before they can strike again.

Although the Roy Grace novels can be read in any order, You Are Dead is the eleventh thrilling title in the bestselling series.

Perfect for fans of C.J. Sansom. A short story featuring Giordano Bruno: heretic, philosopher and spy, from Parris's Sunday Times bestselling series. Even the dead have a story to tell... Naples, 1566. During a sweltering summer, eighteen-year-old Giordano Bruno takes his final vows at San Domenico Maggiore and is admitted to the Dominican Order - despite doubts over his tendency to ask difficult questions. Assisting in the infirmary, Bruno witnesses an illicit autopsy performed on the body of a young woman. Her corpse reveals a dark secret, and Bruno suspects that hers may not have been an accidental death. His investigation leads him to a powerful figure who wants to keep the truth buried - and Bruno is forced to make a choice between his future in the Order, and justice for an innocent victim and her grieving family... Please note that this story, along with two other Giordano Bruno novellas, will be published as a 3-in-1 collection called The Dead of Winter, coming out in Hardback, ebook and audio in November 2020. Praise for S. J. Parris: 'It has everything - intrigue, mystery and excellent history' Kate Mosse 'Impossible to resist' Daily Telegraph Fascinating ... The period is incredibly vivid and the story utterly gripping' Conn Iggulden 'A brilliantly unusual glimpse at the intrigues surrounding Queen Elizabeth I' Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The Ashes of London 'Parris writes with confident ease of Tudor London' The Times 'Full of surprises' TLS

The Complete Philo Vance series-two 'Murder Cases' in each Leonaur volume
S. S. Van Dine was reckoned to be the favourite crime fiction writer of two United States Presidents. Certainly, novels about his famous character, the erudite Philo Vance, topped the best seller lists for months and broke all records in their day for sales of detective fiction. In the first story of this first Leonaur volume, 'The Benson Murder Case', we are introduced to the dilettante hero of this riveting detective series. Another 'man about town' has been slain and the man we know as Vance feels he is uniquely qualified to assist the NYPD to seek out the identity of the murderer. To the satisfaction of his many fans he has embarked on a remarkable and entertaining career in the solution of bizarre crimes. In the second story 'The Canary Murder Case', a sexy night-club singer known as the 'Canary' is found murdered in her apartment. She had a number of men in her life, ranging from high society figures to mobsters from the criminal underbelly of New York in the roaring twenties. All have an alibi, but it could be that one of them is a killer. Philo Vance 'Murder Cases' were phenomenally popular in America and many were translated to the movie screen. Leonaur have gathered together all of these classic crime novels into one collection to bring them together for existing fans and new enthusiasts to enjoy anew.

An explosive new thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Never Never!

Iris Walsh saw her twin sister, Piper, get kidnapped – so why does no one believe her? Iris narrowly escaped her pretty, popular twin sister’s fate as a teen – vanished long before the cops agreed to investigate. With no evidence to go on but a few fractured memories, the case quickly went cold.

Now an adult, Iris wants one thing – proof. And if the police still won’t help, she’ll just have to find it her own way; by interning at the isolated Shoal Island Hospital for the criminally insane, where secrets lurk in the shadows and are kept under lock and key.

But Iris soon realizes that something even more sinister is simmering beneath the surface of the Shoal, and that the patients aren’t the only ones being observed…

After the hottest English summer in years, the wet autumn that follows brings little relief for Chief Superintendent Charmian Daniels, whose recent successes have earned her not just a promotion but also deep resentment from some of her colleagues. Now she must find the killer of Nella Fisher, a young woman whose unlikely connections extend to two friends of Charmian's, women Nella tried to bribe with information about a man intending to do them harm. The case is loaded with problems for Charmian, from her links to two possible suspects to her growing sense that police corruption may be involved. A lingering scent of cigar smoke, threatening letters, and a brush with death confirm Charmian's fear that she is the killer's real target, but can she unmask her enemy before it's too late? A complex, riveting mystery from one of the genre's most acclaimed writers.

'a tour de force work of art' - The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the 2022 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award It's Saturday evening, 9 March 1566, and Mary, Queen of Scots, is six months pregnant. She's hosting a supper party, secure in her private chambers. She doesn't know that her Palace is surrounded - that, right now, an army of men is creeping upstairs to her chamber. They're coming to murder David Rizzio, her friend and secretary, the handsome Italian man who is smiling across the table at her. Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, wants it done in front of her and he wants her to watch it done ... Denise Mina brilliantly portrays the sexual dynamics and politics of power - between men and women, monarch and subjects, master and servants. The period is masterfully researched yet lightly drawn, the characterisation quick, subtle and utterly convincing. This breathtakingly tense work is a tale of sex, secrets and lies, one that explores the lengths that men - and women - will go to in the search for love and power.

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 stunning new thriller from international No.1 bestseller Karin Slaughter, author of Pieces of Her, now a major Netflix series A girl with a secret... Longbill Beach, 1982. Emily Vaughn gets ready for prom night, the highlight of any high school experience. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the evening, she will be dead. A murder that remains a mystery... Forty years later, Emily's murder remains unsolved. Her friends closed ranks, her family retreated inwards, the community moved on. But all that's about to change. One final chance to uncover a killer... Andrea Oliver arrives in town with a simple assignment: to protect a judge receiving death threats. But her assignment is a cover. Because, in reality, Andrea is here to find justice for Emily - and to uncover the truth before the killer decides to silence her too... A Sunday Times No.1 bestseller for w/c 20/05/2018, 23/06/2019, 28/06/2020, and 04/07/2021 'This thriller delivers. It's twisty, touching and intense. I find it totally absorbing' Adele Parks, author of One Last Secret 'This first-class detective thriller is a dark, sophisticated gem of a read' Janice Hallett, author of The Appeal 'An effortlessly accomplished thriller' The Times

Red Ink is a gripping thriller, originally released in 2013. Set in present-day Johannesburg, it has a distinctly local flavour and brings the city to life through all its contrasts and contradictions.

When public relations consultant and ex-journalist Lucy Khambule – young, beautiful and ambitious – receives an unexpected call from Napoleon Dingiswayo – a convicted serial killer, nicknamed The Butcher by the media – her life takes a dramatic turn. Dingiswayo wants Lucy to tell his story. Intrigued by Dingiswayo’s approach, Lucy decides to take this opportunity to fulfil her life-long dream of writing a book, but it comes at a cost she could never have imagined.

After their initial contact, Dingiswayo becomes an all-too-obliging subject and Lucy soon discovers that her choice of topic is not for the faint-hearted. Soon after meeting him in Pretoria’s notorious C-Max Prison, Lucy’s world is turned upside down by a series of violent and disturbing events.

Dingiswayo is behind bars, but Lucy begins to suspect that the brutal attacks may have something to do with him. Who is this frightening man, and what motivates him? As Lucy learns that there is more to Dingiswayo’s story than the police have uncovered, she is forced to decide what price she is willing to pay to pursue her dream.

Red Ink is a gripping thriller. Set in Johannesburg, it has a distinctly local flavour and brings the city to life through all its contrasts and contradictions.

Am I a murderer? You tell me . . .

You probably already know about me. Lucy Chase, the woman who doesn’t remember murdering her best friend.

You all think I did it. That’s OK, I get it. Being found wandering the streets covered in her blood wasn't a great look.

Believe me, I’m as frustrated as you are. I’d love to know if I’m a murderer – it’s the sort of thing you really should know about yourself, isn’t it?

And now, thanks to true-crime podcast Listen for the Lie, I finally have the chance to find out.
But will I be able to live with myself if it turns out it was me?

And if it wasn’t, will digging into the secrets of the night I forgot make me the next target of whoever did?