A belated Happy New Year. Sorry folks, a very tight deadline prevented me getting that message out to you any sooner.
Not everyone loves the New Year of course. They feel it's another year gone, but me? ... hell, I'm in the 'another year dawns' camp. And that of course means a whole new year of books to write and books to read.
As always at this time of year, it's the latter point I'm hammering today, this whole blogpost dedicated to some of the awesome looking dark fiction heading our way in the first half of 2025.
Yes, sadly, given the dearth of info relating to titles forthcoming between July and December this year, we can only focus in this particular blogpost on January to June. But don't worry yourself. There are still some interesting looking titles en route.
It's the same story as always. I split the stuff that's caught my attention into three sections: Crime, Thriller and Horror, and have selected ten for each one.
Now, a quick WARNING. I obviously haven’t read all of these books yet, so I'm not posting reviews here. As usual, I’m going to let the publishers do the honours by reprinting the blurb from the back of each book. So, please take note of that. These titles are NOT Finch’s recommendations. I’m simply expressing excitement about in a bunch of cool-looking inbound book titles and letting you know what's out there in reference to them.
It goes without saying that there are many more titles than these due for publication between and including January and June. We haven't got the time to mention all of them. Today’s batch are those that most caught my eye while scouring the 'forthcoming' columns, reprinted here in order of publication. That said, if there are any embarrassingly obvious absentees from this list, feel free to mention them in the Comments section.
CRIME
(Mar 4 in eb and Audible)
Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It’s July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after 25 apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to “Shortbread Land”. Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It’s an easy gig, if he can keep his head down.
But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protégé is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hit man and why?
This is Duffy’s most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning “peace process” may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5, and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.
2. HER SISTER'S KILLER by Mari Hannah
Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It’s July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after 25 apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to “Shortbread Land”. Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It’s an easy gig, if he can keep his head down.
But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protégé is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hit man and why?
This is Duffy’s most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning “peace process” may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5, and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.
(Mar 6 in eb, pb and Audible)
What brings people together often throws them apart, especially when it involves family. Newly promoted Inspector Frankie Oliver has been consumed by rooting out her sister’s killer and bringing them to justice. But when new evidence comes to light, and her former boss DCI David Stone embarks on an investigation into the tragic unsolved murder without her knowledge, the ties that bind them begin to fray.
What brings people together often throws them apart, especially when it involves family. Newly promoted Inspector Frankie Oliver has been consumed by rooting out her sister’s killer and bringing them to justice. But when new evidence comes to light, and her former boss DCI David Stone embarks on an investigation into the tragic unsolved murder without her knowledge, the ties that bind them begin to fray.
After decades without answers, who knows where the trail might lead? And will knowing the answers be the very thing that breaks Frankie irreparably?
(Mar 27 in eb, hb and Audible)
The Martini Club isn’t open to everyone ...
Maggie Bird’s ‘book group’ is an unusual one – a group of retired spies living an anonymous life in the seaside town of Purity. And this summer they plan little more than ‘reading’ (whilst sipping martinis), and some gentle birdwatching.
But trouble is just around the corner as the summer guests arrive.
For acting Police Chief, Jo Thibodeau, summer brings its own problems – packed streets, bar brawls, petty theft. And now, a missing teenager down by the lake.
When their good friend becomes a prime suspect in the girl’s disappearance, Maggie and her Martini Club must put down their binoculars and roll up their sleeves. Leaving Jo to deal with not only a powerful family desperate for answers, but a meddlesome group of retirees.
The Martini Club isn’t open to everyone ...
Maggie Bird’s ‘book group’ is an unusual one – a group of retired spies living an anonymous life in the seaside town of Purity. And this summer they plan little more than ‘reading’ (whilst sipping martinis), and some gentle birdwatching.
But trouble is just around the corner as the summer guests arrive.
For acting Police Chief, Jo Thibodeau, summer brings its own problems – packed streets, bar brawls, petty theft. And now, a missing teenager down by the lake.
When their good friend becomes a prime suspect in the girl’s disappearance, Maggie and her Martini Club must put down their binoculars and roll up their sleeves. Leaving Jo to deal with not only a powerful family desperate for answers, but a meddlesome group of retirees.
Can Jo and the Martini Club find a way to work together, as they uncover one of the deadliest scandals their small town has ever seen?
(Mar 27 in eb, hb and Audible)
A tragic death ...
A tragic death ...
When the body of Leanne Wilson is found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, it is classified as a tragic accident. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise.
A rising body count ...
Then DS Max Craigie discovers that five other women in the last year have died by falling off mountains, and something feels very wrong. They were all experienced climbers and alone when they died. This can only mean one thing: there’s a killer on the loose.
A killer in the shadows ...
The more Max investigates, the more he believes that they are dealing with something much bigger than a lone serial killer. With five victims and conflicting clues, how do you catch someone committing the perfect crime?
(Apr 10 in pb)
Roy Grace is about to find out just how dangerous a dead man can be ...
Arriving late for a funeral, James Taylor spots a familiar face in the church – his old schoolfriend Rufus Rorke.
Except it couldn’t be him, could it? Because two years ago Taylor attended Rufus’s funeral. He even delivered the eulogy.
On the other side of Brighton, at Police HQ, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has been alerted to a number of suspicious deaths that he can’t get out of his mind. But how are they linked? And could they possibly be connected to Rufus Rorke?
6. DEATH ON WOLF FELL by Nick Oldham
Jess knows Mags from their school days, but their lives now couldn’t be more different. A fire at a local mill puts Jess on the tail of Mags’ OCG; is this her opportunity to catch the Ribble Valley’s most wanted criminal? The battle lines have been drawn, but when Jess is called to an incident at Wolf Fell Hall, a series of terrifying events follow ...
7. COLD JUSTICE by Leigh Russell
Roy Grace is about to find out just how dangerous a dead man can be ...
Arriving late for a funeral, James Taylor spots a familiar face in the church – his old schoolfriend Rufus Rorke.
Except it couldn’t be him, could it? Because two years ago Taylor attended Rufus’s funeral. He even delivered the eulogy.
On the other side of Brighton, at Police HQ, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has been alerted to a number of suspicious deaths that he can’t get out of his mind. But how are they linked? And could they possibly be connected to Rufus Rorke?
(May 6 in eb and hb)
Former Metropolitan Police firearms officer Sergeant Jessica Raker is on a mission to bring down a brutal organized crime group operating in the idyllic Ribble Valley.
Leader Mags Horsefield is determined to make one of the members pay for getting caught by the police, using her contacts to make sure he’s released from prison early ... into her waiting clutches.
Former Metropolitan Police firearms officer Sergeant Jessica Raker is on a mission to bring down a brutal organized crime group operating in the idyllic Ribble Valley.
Leader Mags Horsefield is determined to make one of the members pay for getting caught by the police, using her contacts to make sure he’s released from prison early ... into her waiting clutches.
Jess knows Mags from their school days, but their lives now couldn’t be more different. A fire at a local mill puts Jess on the tail of Mags’ OCG; is this her opportunity to catch the Ribble Valley’s most wanted criminal? The battle lines have been drawn, but when Jess is called to an incident at Wolf Fell Hall, a series of terrifying events follow ...
(May 8 in eb and pb)
The stakes have never been higher for Geraldine Steel.
When Alice Lewis is found murdered, the case becomes personal for DI Steel, as Alice was the niece of her childminder, Lisa. Despite Lisa’s earlier pleas for help, Geraldine hadn’t acted in time to save Alice.
The stakes have never been higher for Geraldine Steel.
When Alice Lewis is found murdered, the case becomes personal for DI Steel, as Alice was the niece of her childminder, Lisa. Despite Lisa’s earlier pleas for help, Geraldine hadn’t acted in time to save Alice.
Now, driven by guilt and a thirst for justice, Geraldine dives headfirst into the case. But the deeper she digs, the more layers of secrets and lies she uncovers about Alice’s life, forcing her to question everything she thought she knew. With an elusive killer watching her every move, Geraldine finds herself caught in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
(May 8 in pb)
When a routine autopsy on what looked like a straightforward hit-and-run leads the LA Chief Medical Examiner, Dr Carolyn Hove, to discover some puzzling inconsistencies, she calls in Detective Robert Hunter of the LAPD Ultra Violent Crimes Unit. Not only did Dr Hove discover that the death wasn’t caused by a hit-and-run, but she also found indications that the victim had been severely tortured prior to death.
What no one realises is that what Dr Hove has stumbled upon is just the tip of the iceberg and it will lead Hunter and his partner, Carlos Garcia, on the trail of a twisted and clever killer who hides in plain sight. A serial killer no one even knew existed – a killer who has always operated under the radar, expertly disguising every gruesome murder as an accidental death.
But with no leads as to why the victim was targeted, the investigation comes to a standstill, until another body is discovered with an alternative cause of death.
What becomes clear is that this serial killer isn’t going to stop – unless Hunter and Garcia can get to him.
But how do you investigate a murder when you have no victims? How do you catch a killer who leaves behind no crime scene? How do you stop a ghost who no one can prove even exists?
9. SHATTER CREEK by Rod Reynolds
When a routine autopsy on what looked like a straightforward hit-and-run leads the LA Chief Medical Examiner, Dr Carolyn Hove, to discover some puzzling inconsistencies, she calls in Detective Robert Hunter of the LAPD Ultra Violent Crimes Unit. Not only did Dr Hove discover that the death wasn’t caused by a hit-and-run, but she also found indications that the victim had been severely tortured prior to death.
What no one realises is that what Dr Hove has stumbled upon is just the tip of the iceberg and it will lead Hunter and his partner, Carlos Garcia, on the trail of a twisted and clever killer who hides in plain sight. A serial killer no one even knew existed – a killer who has always operated under the radar, expertly disguising every gruesome murder as an accidental death.
But with no leads as to why the victim was targeted, the investigation comes to a standstill, until another body is discovered with an alternative cause of death.
What becomes clear is that this serial killer isn’t going to stop – unless Hunter and Garcia can get to him.
But how do you investigate a murder when you have no victims? How do you catch a killer who leaves behind no crime scene? How do you stop a ghost who no one can prove even exists?
(May 22 in eb and pb)
Fresh from the scandal at Hampstead County PD, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray works a complex double-homicide that points to a killer on a murderous rampage and a shattering series of discoveries that could end her career … The shocking sequel to the addictive, twisty, bestselling Black Reed Bay…
Hampstead County Police Department is embroiled in scandal after corruption at the top of the force was exposed. Cleared of involvement and returned to active duty, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray nonetheless finds herself at a crossroads when it becomes clear not everyone believes she’s innocent.
Partnered with rookie Billy Drocker, Casey works a shocking daytime double-homicide in downtown Rockport with the two victims seemingly unknown to one another. And when a third victim is gunned down on her doorstep shortly after, it appears an abusive ex-boyfriend holds the key to the killings.
With powerful figures demanding answers, Casey and Billy search for the suspect, fearing he’s on a murderous rampage. But when a key witness goes missing, and new evidence just won’t fit, the case begins to unravel. With her career in jeopardy, Casey makes a shattering discovery that threatens to expose the true darkness at the heart of the murders… with a killer still on the loose…
10. WHAT THE NIGHT BRINGS by Mark Billingham
Fresh from the scandal at Hampstead County PD, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray works a complex double-homicide that points to a killer on a murderous rampage and a shattering series of discoveries that could end her career … The shocking sequel to the addictive, twisty, bestselling Black Reed Bay…
Hampstead County Police Department is embroiled in scandal after corruption at the top of the force was exposed. Cleared of involvement and returned to active duty, Detective Sergeant Casey Wray nonetheless finds herself at a crossroads when it becomes clear not everyone believes she’s innocent.
Partnered with rookie Billy Drocker, Casey works a shocking daytime double-homicide in downtown Rockport with the two victims seemingly unknown to one another. And when a third victim is gunned down on her doorstep shortly after, it appears an abusive ex-boyfriend holds the key to the killings.
With powerful figures demanding answers, Casey and Billy search for the suspect, fearing he’s on a murderous rampage. But when a key witness goes missing, and new evidence just won’t fit, the case begins to unravel. With her career in jeopardy, Casey makes a shattering discovery that threatens to expose the true darkness at the heart of the murders… with a killer still on the loose…
(Jun 19 in eb, hb and Audible)
‘Three dead coppers, Tom, maybe four by lunchtime ...’
‘Three dead coppers, Tom, maybe four by lunchtime ...’
The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful.
As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal.
To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.
THRILLER
(Today in eb, hb and Audible)
A string of murders and the person who links them all is ... your daughter.
Alison Lennon receives the worst news a parent can expect - her son, Ben, has been killed, in what looks at first like a random attack on a dark street in the middle of the night. Only, she knows that he isn’t the first victim.
A string of murders and the person who links them all is ... your daughter.
Alison Lennon receives the worst news a parent can expect - her son, Ben, has been killed, in what looks at first like a random attack on a dark street in the middle of the night. Only, she knows that he isn’t the first victim.
Mia Johnstone has just turned 18. Ready for the next phase of her life, she should be looking forward to university, studying, partying. Instead, she’s thinking about how her boyfriend Ben is the third person close to her to have died.
(Today in eb, hb, pb and Audible)
Nobody ever knew what happened to the Brindleys. One summer they were there - flashy, loud and beautiful - and then they were gone. A mother, father and two children, vanished into the East Anglian night.
Some said the family never made it home from the party; their speeding car thrown off the tracks and the four of them silently buried in the marshes. Others said they had simply moved on. For 30 years, the case remained as cold as the freezing waterways of the Norfolk broads.
Until Cam Killick found the car.
An ex-marine and ex-SBS officer, Cam Killick’s PTSD has made the return to civilian life a living nightmare. The only place he can find peace is underwater, where the world is muffled to white noise. As a cold case diver it is his job to scour the waterways of the country for the lost, the submerged, the drowned, laying their stories to rest alongside them.
Nobody ever knew what happened to the Brindleys. One summer they were there - flashy, loud and beautiful - and then they were gone. A mother, father and two children, vanished into the East Anglian night.
Some said the family never made it home from the party; their speeding car thrown off the tracks and the four of them silently buried in the marshes. Others said they had simply moved on. For 30 years, the case remained as cold as the freezing waterways of the Norfolk broads.
Until Cam Killick found the car.
An ex-marine and ex-SBS officer, Cam Killick’s PTSD has made the return to civilian life a living nightmare. The only place he can find peace is underwater, where the world is muffled to white noise. As a cold case diver it is his job to scour the waterways of the country for the lost, the submerged, the drowned, laying their stories to rest alongside them.
Except when Cam throws open the doors to the Brindley car, all four bodies are missing. And Cam will soon learn that some secrets, once submerged, are better off staying that way.
(Jan 28 in hb)
Mercury Carter is a deliveryman and he takes his job very seriously. When a parcel is under his care, he will stop at nothing to deliver it directly to its intended recipient. Not even, as in the current case, when he finds a crew of violent men at the indicated address, who threaten his life and take the woman who lives there hostage. That’s because Carter has special skills from his former life as a federal agent with the postal inspection service, skills that make him particularly useful for delivering items in circumstances as dangerous as these.
After Carter dispatches the goons sent to kill him, he enters a home besieged by criminals - but the leader of the gang escapes with attorney Rachel Stanfield before the mailman can complete his assignment. With Rachel’s husband Glenn in tow, Carter takes off in pursuit of the kidnapper and his quarry, hunting them across Indiana, up to Chicago, and into small-town Illinois. Along the way, he slowly picks off members of the crew and uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy and a powerful crime syndicate, all in service of his main objective: to hand the package over to Rachel.
Carter has never missed a delivery and isn’t about to start now.
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(Jan 28 in eb, pb and Audible)
Ethan Dove’s family has moved to a new home in a safe community, and it’s exactly the fresh start they need. Not only is his marriage to Emma hanging by a thread, but his son, Dylan, and 12-year-old daughter, Rose, deserve to have a happy childhood.
After Rose is bullied by the boys across the road, Ethan is relieved when the woman who lives next door steps in. Fiona Smith has come into their lives at just the right moment, and when she offers to look after Rose during the school holidays, Ethan and Emma can’t believe their luck.
Which is exactly what Fiona wants. Because, far from being the perfect neighbour, Fiona is the last person you should trust with your child. With a vicious plot for revenge, Fiona is happy to train Rose to be her accomplice, especially when she begins to suspect that Rose might not be as innocent as she appears …
5. THE RETURN OF FRANKIE WHITTLE by Caroline England
Ethan Dove’s family has moved to a new home in a safe community, and it’s exactly the fresh start they need. Not only is his marriage to Emma hanging by a thread, but his son, Dylan, and 12-year-old daughter, Rose, deserve to have a happy childhood.
After Rose is bullied by the boys across the road, Ethan is relieved when the woman who lives next door steps in. Fiona Smith has come into their lives at just the right moment, and when she offers to look after Rose during the school holidays, Ethan and Emma can’t believe their luck.
Which is exactly what Fiona wants. Because, far from being the perfect neighbour, Fiona is the last person you should trust with your child. With a vicious plot for revenge, Fiona is happy to train Rose to be her accomplice, especially when she begins to suspect that Rose might not be as innocent as she appears …
(Feb 8 in pb)
Frankie Whittle has it all: a career in the City, a gorgeous husband and a baby on the way.
Frankie Whittle has it all: a career in the City, a gorgeous husband and a baby on the way.
It’s the perfect life, but it's built on sand. In one terrifying night, everything she has worked so hard for unravels. She needs a fresh start. When she discovers that the very place she was born has been converted into a beautiful gated community, it feels like serendipity. After all she’s been through, has she found her dream home?
They say you should never go back, that the past is a foreign country, filled with devastating secrets.
How far will those around her go to keep their secrets safe?
(Feb 13 in eb, hb and Audible)
Some murders can’t be solved in just one lifetime ...
Some murders can’t be solved in just one lifetime ...
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen - or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.
The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman ...
Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day.
Could the two cases be connected?
by Alex Shaw
(Feb 27 in eb, hb, pb and Audible)
Killing for a living is easy ... living for a reason is much harder
Meet Ruslan Akulov.
In the shadowy world of assassins for hire, he is known as ‘Wolf Six’.
A Ukrainian raised in Moscow, conscripted into Russia’s most covert Special Forces unit ‘The Werewolves’, Akulov is full of loathing for the country that built and then broke him. The only rules he follows now are his own.
Unable to shake the guilt of his past, Akulov has made it his business to seek out those who prey upon the innocent. The name Wolf Six is legendary - whispered by those who know it with fear. But when Akulov accidentally thwarts the armed robbery of a Chicago Bank, he pits himself against both the Russian Bratva and the CIA, setting into motion a spiralling sequence of events which will bring his past back to haunt him, and potentially turn his future to ashes…
His mission of retribution takes him from Chicago to Kyiv, to Havana and back into the US, where Akulov must stop at nothing if he is to remain alive. No simple mission, even for the world’s deadliest assassin.
8. MARK HECKENBURG 9
Killing for a living is easy ... living for a reason is much harder
Meet Ruslan Akulov.
In the shadowy world of assassins for hire, he is known as ‘Wolf Six’.
A Ukrainian raised in Moscow, conscripted into Russia’s most covert Special Forces unit ‘The Werewolves’, Akulov is full of loathing for the country that built and then broke him. The only rules he follows now are his own.
Unable to shake the guilt of his past, Akulov has made it his business to seek out those who prey upon the innocent. The name Wolf Six is legendary - whispered by those who know it with fear. But when Akulov accidentally thwarts the armed robbery of a Chicago Bank, he pits himself against both the Russian Bratva and the CIA, setting into motion a spiralling sequence of events which will bring his past back to haunt him, and potentially turn his future to ashes…
His mission of retribution takes him from Chicago to Kyiv, to Havana and back into the US, where Akulov must stop at nothing if he is to remain alive. No simple mission, even for the world’s deadliest assassin.
by Paul Finch
(March in eb and pb)
Welcome to the Funhouse. Where random and unwilling participants play the game of death.
The north of England is rocked by two horrifying but bewildering crimes: a £600,000 drugs heist, the couriers and the buyers all slain. And the abduction of an entire stag party, a bunch of strapping young men lured away by two pretty girls, and never seen again.
While northern police forces struggle to cope, go-it-alone Detective Sergeant Mark Heckenburg, still under suspension, is given a stark choice. Infiltrate the Crew, Manchester’s overarching crime syndicate as an undercover asset, or lose his job permanently.
Welcome to the Funhouse. Where random and unwilling participants play the game of death.
The north of England is rocked by two horrifying but bewildering crimes: a £600,000 drugs heist, the couriers and the buyers all slain. And the abduction of an entire stag party, a bunch of strapping young men lured away by two pretty girls, and never seen again.
While northern police forces struggle to cope, go-it-alone Detective Sergeant Mark Heckenburg, still under suspension, is given a stark choice. Infiltrate the Crew, Manchester’s overarching crime syndicate as an undercover asset, or lose his job permanently.
With the assistance of out-of-favour Manchester cop, Lucy Clayburn, Heck undertakes the onerous task, soon discovering evidence linking the two heinous crimes together. But he has a more immediate problem. The Crew’s ruthless Chairman of the Board, Frank McCracken, is increasingly suspicious and determined to test his loyalty to the max.
Meanwhile, another bunch of guileless young men have gone missing, and are now awaiting their fate in the architectural nightmare that is the Funhouse ...
(May 8 in eb)
Wyatt Riggins, the boyfriend of rising Maine artist Zetta Nadeau, has gone missing, leaving behind a cell phone containing a single-word message: RUN.
Private investigator Charlie Parker is hired to find out why Riggins has fled, and from whom.
Parker discovers that Riggins, an ex-soldier, has been involved in the abduction of four children from Mexico: three girls and a boy, all belonging to the cartel boss Blas Urrea - except Urrea’s family is safe and well in Mexico, which means the abductees cannot be his children. Yet whoever they are, Urrea wants them back, and has dispatched his agents to secure them, even if it means butchering everyone who stands in their way.
Wyatt Riggins, the boyfriend of rising Maine artist Zetta Nadeau, has gone missing, leaving behind a cell phone containing a single-word message: RUN.
Private investigator Charlie Parker is hired to find out why Riggins has fled, and from whom.
Parker discovers that Riggins, an ex-soldier, has been involved in the abduction of four children from Mexico: three girls and a boy, all belonging to the cartel boss Blas Urrea - except Urrea’s family is safe and well in Mexico, which means the abductees cannot be his children. Yet whoever they are, Urrea wants them back, and has dispatched his agents to secure them, even if it means butchering everyone who stands in their way.
One of those agents is Eugene Seeley, a clever, ruthless solver of other men’s problems. The other is an unknown woman.
Every child has a mother. Now Charlie Parker will face one unlike any other, and learn the terrifying truth about the Children of Eve.
(May 8 in eb, hb and Audible)
You never forget the day you meet a serial killer.
Dan was just a teenager when he had a chance encounter with the elusive killer known only as “the man made of smoke”. Nobody could blame him for being too scared to intervene, for being too scared to save the latest victim, for letting the killer vanish again.
Nobody except Dan himself.
Years later, Dan has a successful career as a criminal psychiatrist, unpicking the very darkest of human behaviour. Because, despite what he saw that day, Dan knows there's no such thing as a monster.
But now his father, John, has gone missing. And, when Dan returns to the small island where he grew up, he finds out that not long before his disappearance, John had stumbled across a body.
As Dan begins to dig, he finds unsettling links, stretching all the way back to the man made of smoke.
Which means this might just be a chance to not only save his dad, but to finally find redemption.
But what if he's been wrong about that day for all these years.
What if he was right to be scared?
You never forget the day you meet a serial killer.
Dan was just a teenager when he had a chance encounter with the elusive killer known only as “the man made of smoke”. Nobody could blame him for being too scared to intervene, for being too scared to save the latest victim, for letting the killer vanish again.
Nobody except Dan himself.
Years later, Dan has a successful career as a criminal psychiatrist, unpicking the very darkest of human behaviour. Because, despite what he saw that day, Dan knows there's no such thing as a monster.
But now his father, John, has gone missing. And, when Dan returns to the small island where he grew up, he finds out that not long before his disappearance, John had stumbled across a body.
As Dan begins to dig, he finds unsettling links, stretching all the way back to the man made of smoke.
Which means this might just be a chance to not only save his dad, but to finally find redemption.
But what if he's been wrong about that day for all these years.
What if he was right to be scared?
by Matt Hilton
(Out Now in eb, hb and pb, Feb 1 in Audible)
This eerie tale sees a group of men haunted by one traumatic event from their childhood. They thought they’d moved on ... but someone - or something - won't let them!
This eerie tale sees a group of men haunted by one traumatic event from their childhood. They thought they’d moved on ... but someone - or something - won't let them!
1988: 13-year-old Andy Miller and his friends – Carl, Brian, Johnny and Gavin – become witnesses to the vicious attack of their classmate, Poppy, and the brutal murder of her sister at a flooded railway line they call the Frog Ponds. They lead the police to a suspect, a vulnerable older boy whose differences single him out. But when he commits suicide, his guilt is never proven. And the crime goes unpunished, until ...
Now: Carl’s body is found beside the same body of water – and the lives of the four remaining friends start to unravel. Is the hag-like woman terrorizing their every waking moment really a grown-up Poppy hellbent on revenge? Or something else ... something steeped in childhood nightmares? Something determined to reveal the truth and punish the wicked.
(Out Now in eb, pb and Audible)
Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the ‘Great Reckoning’ is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.
Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the ‘Great Reckoning’ is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.
Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.
But Noah isn't the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart - literally - as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn - but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?
(Today in eb, hb, pb and Audible)
‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
15-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely 14, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid ... and it’s usually paid in blood.
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4. SCUTTLER’S COVE by David Barnett
‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
15-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely 14, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid ... and it’s usually paid in blood.
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(Feb 13 in eb and pb)
The sea never forgets. The sea never forgives …
Scuttler’s Cove is a working village, nestling in dramatic coastal scenery in Cornwall, where life has gone on uninterrupted for centuries … until this seaside idyll was discovered by the rich.
Now the quaint harbour-front cottages have been snapped up by second-homers and rental companies, and the locals can barely afford to live in their own town.
It is a very different place for Merrin Moon, who left for university at the age of 18 and never looked back. Now in her thirties, she returns to the Cove for the first time since, after the death of her mother.
She soon discovers that there are forces at play in the village that she could never have imagined. Is someone trying to drive out the second homers? And has their arrival started a chain of events none of them will be able to stop?
For something old and terrible is awakening beneath the town’s hallowed ground. And with it comes a horror that the residents have fought for generations to keep a secret.
5. THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones
Scuttler’s Cove is a working village, nestling in dramatic coastal scenery in Cornwall, where life has gone on uninterrupted for centuries … until this seaside idyll was discovered by the rich.
Now the quaint harbour-front cottages have been snapped up by second-homers and rental companies, and the locals can barely afford to live in their own town.
It is a very different place for Merrin Moon, who left for university at the age of 18 and never looked back. Now in her thirties, she returns to the Cove for the first time since, after the death of her mother.
She soon discovers that there are forces at play in the village that she could never have imagined. Is someone trying to drive out the second homers? And has their arrival started a chain of events none of them will be able to stop?
For something old and terrible is awakening beneath the town’s hallowed ground. And with it comes a horror that the residents have fought for generations to keep a secret.
(Mar 18 in eb, hb and Audible)
Etsy Beaucarne is an academic who needs to get published. So when a journal, written in 1912 by Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and her grandfather, is discovered within a wall during renovations, she sees her chance. She can uncover the lost secrets of her family, and get tenure.
As she researches, she comes to learn about her grandfather and a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who came to Arthur to share the story of his extraordinary life. She discovers that the journals detail a slow massacre, a chain of events charting the history of Montana state as it formed. A cycle of violence that leads all the way back to 217 Blackfeet murdered in the snow.
A blood-soaked and unflinching saga of the violence of colonial America, a revenge story like no other, and the chilling reinvention of vampire lore.
Etsy Beaucarne is an academic who needs to get published. So when a journal, written in 1912 by Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and her grandfather, is discovered within a wall during renovations, she sees her chance. She can uncover the lost secrets of her family, and get tenure.
As she researches, she comes to learn about her grandfather and a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who came to Arthur to share the story of his extraordinary life. She discovers that the journals detail a slow massacre, a chain of events charting the history of Montana state as it formed. A cycle of violence that leads all the way back to 217 Blackfeet murdered in the snow.
A blood-soaked and unflinching saga of the violence of colonial America, a revenge story like no other, and the chilling reinvention of vampire lore.
(Apr 8 in Audible)
Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago ...
Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago ...
The cryo program, created by trillionaire tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram ‘hosts’, ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld’s three adult children, are glitchy. The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there’s a constant scraping, slithering, and rattling echoing in the vents.
It’s not long before Halley realizes she may have gotten herself trapped in an even more dangerous situation than the one she was running from....
by Ronald Malfi
(Apr 15 in eb and hb)
What do you see ...?
When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in the desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the detective assigned to the case can’t deny the similarities between this murder and one that occurred a year prior. Media outlets are quick to surmise this is the work of a budding serial killer, but Detective Bill Renney is struggling with an altogether different scenario: a secret that keeps him tethered to the husband of the first victim.
What do you see ...?
When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in the desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the detective assigned to the case can’t deny the similarities between this murder and one that occurred a year prior. Media outlets are quick to surmise this is the work of a budding serial killer, but Detective Bill Renney is struggling with an altogether different scenario: a secret that keeps him tethered to the husband of the first victim.
What do you hear...?
Maureen Park, newly engaged to Hollywood producer Greg Dawson, finds her engagement party crashed by the arrival of Landon, Greg’s son. A darkly unsettling young man, Landon invades Maureen’s new existence, and the longer he stays, the more convinced she becomes that he may have something to do with the recent murder in the high desert.
What do you feel...?
Toby Kampen, the self-proclaimed Human Fly, begins an obsession over a woman who is unlike anyone he has ever met. A woman with rattlesnake teeth and a penchant for biting. A woman who has trapped him in her spell. A woman who may or may not be completely human.
(Apr 29 in eb, hb and Audible)
Five high school friends, bonded by an oath to protect each other no matter what.
On a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere.
One friend walks up – but never comes back down.
Now, 20 years later, the staircase has reappeared, and the friends return to find the lost boy – and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods…
9. GOING HOME IN THE DARK by Dean Koontz
Five high school friends, bonded by an oath to protect each other no matter what.
On a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere.
One friend walks up – but never comes back down.
Now, 20 years later, the staircase has reappeared, and the friends return to find the lost boy – and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods…
(May 20 in eb and Audible)
As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams - and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke …didn’t they?
After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.
For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it’s a chance to have the “four amigos,” as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.
10. SMALL TOWN HORROR by Ronald Malfi
As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams - and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke …didn’t they?
After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.
For Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems. For Maple Grove, it’s a chance to have the “four amigos,” as they once called themselves, back in its grasp.
(Jun 4 in pb)
Maybe this is a ghost story…
Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home.
Coming home means returning to his late father’s house, which has seen better days. It means lying to his wife. But it also means reuniting with his friends: Eric, now the town’s deputy sheriff; Dale, a real-estate mogul living in the shadow of a failed career; his childhood sweetheart Tig who never could escape town; and poor Meach, whose ravings about a curse upon the group have driven him to drugs and alcohol.
Maybe this is a ghost story…
Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home.
Coming home means returning to his late father’s house, which has seen better days. It means lying to his wife. But it also means reuniting with his friends: Eric, now the town’s deputy sheriff; Dale, a real-estate mogul living in the shadow of a failed career; his childhood sweetheart Tig who never could escape town; and poor Meach, whose ravings about a curse upon the group have driven him to drugs and alcohol.
Together, the five friends will have to confront the memories - and the horror - of a night, years ago, that changed everything for them.
Because Andrew and his friends have a secret. A thing they have kept to themselves for 20 years. Something no one else should know. But the past is not dead, and Kingsport is a town with secrets of its own.
One dark secret...
One small-town horror...
