Horrors and terrors lurk on lonely islands

After a headline like that, it probably won’t surprise you good people to know that today I’m going to be talking about THE ISLAND again. And why not?, I ask you. It’s my first title with Thomas & Mercer, it’s a freestanding crime thriller, it’s set on - yes, you guessed it - an island, and it’s published on September 1

I won’t pretend that I haven’t always been a fan of the ‘location thriller’, as it’s refereed to these days, and I’ve particularly been a fan of those where the location is an island, in other words an isolated spot somewhere in the real world, but where unless you’ve got the means, it can be really difficult to get away again. When danger threatens on a isolated island, you’ve got a real problem.

Of course, I’m far from the first thriller writer to pick up on this, so that will be the big gist of today’s blogpost: dark and scary fiction set on islands. In fact, I’m going to pick ten thriller novels and ten horror novels that make the best possible use of their island locations. So, that should be a bit of fun.

Before then, a quick reminder about a few other titles that I’ve got coming out this year.

Other stuff

First of all, as you’ll have seen from the image at the top of today’s column, my eighth Heck novel, ROGUE, is at last getting the Audible treatment. I’m delighted to announce that it will be out on August 21 and will be narrated by the ever popular Paul Thornley, who did such a sterling job with all the other Heck Audibles. I cannot stress how much fan-mail I’ve had begging and pleading that it would be Paul who took on the acting job for ROGUE. The truth is, and has always been, that I have no control over who gets that gig. It’s always fun to hear the audition tapes and be asked my opinion, but I doubt my word counts for much. But I will say that on this occasion I did request Paul, and it looks as though WF Howes Ltd (the Audible publisher) have come through for me.

I’m hoping they’ll be able to recruit Paul again for NO QUARTER (Heck #9), but it’s a bit early to talk about that one yet.

Another publication due later this year (October 9), THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT, will see me flip back into my historical author persona, PW Finch. It commences the two-volume story of Thurstan Wildblood, a knight in the personal guard of Richard the Lionheart, who, during the chaos and bloodshed of the Third Crusade, encounters a mysterious, demonic bishop and is promised invincibility on the battlefield in return for his soul. From this point on, or so it seems, Thurstan cannot be defeated, but increasingly he fears that Hell awaits him.

When he is put in charge of Melinda of Jerusalem, a young female captive with the power to heal wounds simply by prayer, and ordered to return her to England, it’s a task he initially resists, though in due course, he starts to believe that it might save him from damnation. However, the road home is fraught with danger, because also in pursuit of Melinda are the elite and zealous blades of the Assassin sect, the battle-hardened longswords of the Knights Templar, and most dangerous of all, the Order of Siegfried, a mercenary band loyal to the German Emperor, who will literally stop at nothing to achieve their scheming master’s aims.

Thurstan Wildblood thinks he knows evil, thinks he’s seen it all. But in fact, he hasn’t seen anything yet.

Okay, that’s THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT. It’s published on October 9, and is the first in the Thurstan Wildblood series, the second one out next year. More details on that when I get it.

Now, back to those...

ISLANDS IN THE SCREAM

Island settings have always worked in thriller fiction. And as the concept of the ‘location thriller’ is now a real thing, I reckon we’ll see a lot more of them in the near future.

For what it’s worth, here’s a quick thumbnail of my own forthcoming novel, THE ISLAND (published on Sept 1). A bunch of disgraced ex-cops join a support group, and are whisked away for a timely break on a glorious, mostly uninhabited island in the Scillies. It isn’t long after they’ve arrived, however, when the first body shows up, and they start to wonder what the real reason for this gathering is.

Sorry ... that’s it. No further spoilers when we are this close to home.

Of course, as I’ve already said, remote islands settings are nothing new.

Agatha Christie’s seminal island chiller, And Then There Were None (1939), set on Burgh Island, just off the Devonshire coast, is still the best-selling crime novel in history. Peter Benchley’s Jaws (1974), set on fictional Amity Island just off New England, emptied seaside bathing areas across the Northern Hemisphere for several years afterwards, especially when the blockbuster movie version came out. In Jurassic Park (1990), Michael Crichton warned about the dangers of genetic meddling when it saw the fictional Isla Nublar near Costa Rica transformed into a dinosaur safari park. But perhaps the Big Daddy of all island-set horror novels is William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954), which saw a bunch of English schoolboys marooned in the Tropical Pacific and gradually revert to a savage hunter-killer existence. It is regarded as a true classic in dark literature.

We obviously won’t mention any of these examples in the following checklist. For one thing, they’re already very well known. However, here are a few others in order of publication (the blurbs accompanying them provided by the publishers).

As I said: ten island-bound thrillers, and ten island-bound horrors.

You never know... you might encounter some new titles here, and could just be able to acquire them before you set off on your summer holiday - to that island paradise that looked so deceptively charming in the brochure.

THRILLERS SET ON ISLANDS

1. EVIL UNDER THE SUN by Agatha Christie (1941)

‘It is peaceful. The sun shines. The sea is blue. But you forget, there is evil everywhere under the sun.’

It was not unusual to find the beautiful bronzed body of the sun-loving Arlena Stuart stretched out on a beach, face down. Only, on this occasion, there was no sun… she had been strangled.

Ever since Arlena’s arrival at the swish resort on the island off the Devon coast, Hercule Poirot had detected sexual tension in the seaside air. But could this apparent ‘crime of passion’ have been something more evil and premeditated altogether?

2. SHUTTER ISLAND by Dennis Lehane (2003)

US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island in Boston Harbour, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderer named Rachel Solando.

As a killer hurricane bears down on the island, the investigation deepens and the questions mount. How has a barefoot woman escaped from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? And what really goes on in Ward C?

The closer Teddy gets to the truth, the more elusive it becomes. And the more he begins to believe that he may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive him insane...

3. PIG ISLAND 

by Mo Hayder (2006)

SEE EVIL

Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. But what he sees when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island forces him to question everything he thought he knew.

HEAR EVIL
Why have the islanders been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader? And why will no one discuss the strange creature seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island?

READ EVIL
In PIG ISLAND, Mo Hayder dares you to face your fears head on and to look at what lurks beneath the surface of everyday normality. Because ordinary people are perfectly capable of doing unspeakable things to each other...

4. DEVIL SHARKS 

by Chris Jameson (2018)

A pleasure cruise in paradise leads a group of friends to a shark-infested Hell...

When Alex Simmons is invited to a college reunion in the Hawaiian islands aboard the private yacht of his old pal Harry Curtis, he is not sure what to expect. The two men had a falling-out years ago over the suicide of one of their friends. Could this be Harry’s way of making amends? Or is something more sinister in store? The crew sets sail and arrives at Orchid Atoll, the site of a deserted former Coast Guard station. But they are far from alone...

Out here, three hundred miles from civilization, Alex and his friends are about to encounter two very different brands of evil - one human, the other with fins - unlike anything they could have possibly imagined. They have entered a place where there’s no law, no mercy... and no way out.

5. A HOUSE OF GHOSTS by WC Ryan (2018)

Winter 1917. As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England, everyone is seeking answers to the darkness that has seeped into their lives.

At Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the Devon coast, Lord Highmount has arranged a spiritualist gathering to contact his two sons who were lost in the conflict. But as his guests begin to arrive, it gradually becomes clear that each has something they would rather keep hidden. Then, when a storm descends on the island, the guests will find themselves trapped. Soon one of their number will die.

For Blackwater Abbey is haunted in more ways than one...

6. THE GUEST LIST 

by Lucy Foley (2020)

On an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year – the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater.

Old friends.
Past grudges.

Happy families.
Hidden jealousies.

Thirteen guests.
One body.

The wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead. And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped.

All have a secret. All have a motive.
One guest won’t leave this wedding alive...

7. THE BLACKHOUSE by Peter May (2020)

A brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith.

A MURDER

Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past.

A SECRET

Something lurks within the close-knit island community. Something sinister.

A TRAP

As Fin investigates, old skeletons begin to surface, and soon he, the hunter, becomes the hunted.

8. LOOK BOTH WAYS by Linwood Barclay (2022)

They think as one. They act as one. They kill as one.

The residents of Garrett Island off the coast of Massachusetts are part of a ground-breaking experiment. For a month, their cars will be replaced by self-driving vehicles – voice-controlled, comfortable and safe.

Single mum Sandra is prepping for the huge media event, and she’s ready for a driverless future. Widowed after her husband fell asleep at the wheel, she’s relieved that her kids may never need to drive themselves.

But as the day gets underway, disaster strikes. A journalist vanishes, possibly murdered. And before long, it’s clear something is very wrong. The cars are no longer taking orders from their passengers. They’re starting to organise. They’re starting to hunt. And they’ve got the residents of Garrett Island in their sights.

9. THE ISLAND by Adrian McKinty (2022)

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE CAPABLE OF UNTIL THEY COME FOR YOUR FAMILY.

After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram. But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers. Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.

Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.

10. YULE ISLAND 

by Johana Gustawsson (2024)

Don’t

Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she’s asked to appraise the antiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found.

Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently avoiding her, she sees virtually no one in the house. Do they have something to hide?

Trust

As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants.

When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate, and memories of his failure to solve the first case come rushing back. Could this young woman's tragic death somehow hold the key?

Anyone

Battling her own demons, Emma joins forces with Karl to embark upon a chilling investigation, plunging them into horrifying secrets from the past – Viking rites and tainted love – and Scandinavia's deepest, darkest winter…

HORRORS SET ON ISLANDS

1. THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU 

by HG Wells (1896)

Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo - a menagerie of savage animals. 

Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. Here, he meets Montgomery's master, the sinister Dr. Moreau - a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. 

It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments - with truly horrific results.

2. WEB by John Wyndham (1979)

A millionaire English lord dreams of founding a Utopian community on a remote Pacific island. Among the 40-odd men and women selected for the project are a pestologist named Camilla and the narrator. 

Within hours of the group’s arrival on the sunny isle, their radio has been destroyed. 

Within days, several members of the group are dead. 

Dream turns to nightmare as they discover the island is overrun by a spider species programmed to resist and dominate any invader.

3. THE WOMAN IN BLACK by Susan Hill (1983)

Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House.

The house stands at the end of a causeway off the Northumbrian coast. Quite often it’s cut off by the tide, becoming a desolate island, but at all times it is wreathed in fog and mystery. 

But it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose.

4. NEVERLAND 

by Douglas Clegg (1991)

What calls to the children from within the dark shadows of the shack called Neverland?

What lurks within the shack? What kinds of dangerous — and deadly — games do the children play there?

For years, the Jackson family vacationed at their matriarch’s old Victorian house on Gull Island, a place of superstition and legend off the southern coast of the US. One particular summer, young Beau follows his cousin Sumter into a shack hidden among the brambles and windswept trees near bluffs overlooking the sea.

And within Neverland, the mysteries and terror grow...

5. DUMA KEY 

by Stephen King (2008)

When Edgar Freemantle moves to the remote island of Duma Key, off Florida’s coast, to escape his past, he doesn’t expect to find much there.

But Duma has been waiting for him, and something in the view from his window urges him to discover a talent he never knew he had.

Edgar Freemantle begins to paint. And as he paints, the island’s secrets begin to stir. Secrets of children lost in the undertow, of a ghost ship riding the distant horizon - and a family’s buried past reaching long hands into the present.

6. CASTAWAYS 

by Brian Keene (2011)

They came to the deserted South Pacific island to compete on a popular reality television show. Each one hoped to be the last to leave. Now they're just hoping to stay alive, because the island isn’t deserted after all. 

Contestants are disappearing, but they aren’t being eliminated by the game. They’re being taken by the monstrous, half-human creatures that live deep in the jungle. The men will be slaughtered. The women will be kept alive as captives. 

Night is falling, the creatures are coming, and rescue is so far away...

7. THE TROOP 

by Nick Cutter (2014)

He felt something touch his hand. Which is when he looked down.

For the scouts of Troop 52, three days of camping, hiking and survival lessons on Canada’s Falstaff Island is as close as they’ll get to a proper holiday.

Which was when he saw it.

But when an emaciated figure stumbles into their camp asking for food, the trip takes a horrifying turn. The man is not just hungry, he’s sick. Sick in a way they have never seen before.

Which was when he screamed.

Cut off from the mainland, the troop face a terror far worse than anything they could have made up around a campfire. To survive they will have to fight their fears, the elements... and eventually each other.

8. THE FORGOTTEN ISLAND by David Sodergren (2018)

When Ana Logan agrees to go on holiday to Thailand with her estranged sister Rachel, she hopes it will be a way for them to reconnect after years of drifting apart.

But now, stranded on a seemingly deserted island paradise with no radio and no food, reconciliation becomes a desperate fight for survival.

For when night falls on The Forgotten Island, the dark secrets of the jungle reveal themselves.

Something is watching them from the trees.
Something ancient.
Something evil.

9. ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDEN 

by Hunter Shea (2020)

Sometimes, the dead are best left in peace.

Jessica Backman has been called to help a strange family living on a haunted island in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina. Ormsby Island was the site of a brutal massacre two decades ago, and now the mysterious Harper family needs someone to exorcise the ghosts that still call it home. 

The phantoms of over one hundred children cannot rest. But something far more insidious is living on the island. 

When the living and the dead guard their true intentions, how can Jessica discover just what sort of evil lurks on Ormsby Island? And why is Jessica the only one who can plumb its dark depths?

10. THE WHISTLING by Rebecca Netley (2021)

When Elspeth arrives on a remote Scottish island to become nanny to a young child, she hopes to bond with her. Until she learns that, for reasons no one will explain, Mary has not spoken for months.

And the girl’s silence is not the only mystery.

Hypnotic lullabies drift down empty corridors.
Strange dolls appear in abandoned rooms.
And as the nights draw in, darker questions arise . . .

What happened to Mary's late twin, William? Why did their previous nanny disappear so suddenly?

And is the whistling Elspeth hears at night just the storm outside?

Or is somebody coming for her.... ?

A dark fiction deluge is heading your way

So, bewilderingly, it’s almost Midsummer. I don’t know where the time goes, and as I get older, it seems to go faster and faster. But anyway, all that aside, we’re again halfway through a year - a pretty tumultuous year from my POV - but things go on, and now we must look towards the second half of 2025, where, as always, some amazing looking dark fiction will hit the bookshelves.

As always when we reach this six-monthly point, I’m going to pick out thirty titles that I especially like the look of for July through to December. 

TEN CRIME, TEN THRILLER and TEN HORROR.

As usual, I need to advise you that I haven’t read all of these books yet, so I can’t and won’t be posting reviews here. Instead, I’ll let the publishers do the talking by reprinting the blurb from the back of each book. So, and I’ll say it again, these are NOT Finch recommendations. I’m simply drawing your attention to a group of forthcoming titles that I’m quite keen to get my hands on.

Obviously there’ll be many more titles than these hitting the shops between now and Christmas. There simply isn’t enough room to detail all of them, or even a significant portion of them. But here’s a taster, reprinted here in order of publication. Of course, if there are any shockingly obvious absentees from this list, feel free to post about them in the Comments.

Let’s go ...

CRIME

1  A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE by JD Kirk (Jul 24 in eb)

DCI Jack Logan is back!

When washed-up 80s rock legend Johnny Freestone is found dead in a cave off Scotland’s North Coast 500 tourist route, it looks like a tragic accident – another celebrity lost to a reckless lifestyle.

But Police Scotland detective – and secret Freestone fan – Jack Logan isn’t convinced that the star’s death was an accident. As Logan delves into Johnny’s final days, he uncovers a trail of bitter rivalries, broken promises, and a comeback tour that wasn’t quite what it seemed.

With the Highlands’ rugged backdrop as the stage, Logan must unravel a web of secrets and lies that entangles everyone from music studios to old flames, and find out who wanted the self-styled ‘voice of a generation’ silenced for good.

Somewhere between a rock and a hard place, the truth waits to be unearthed...


2 DEADLY REMAINS by Kate Ellis (Aug 7 in eb, hb and Aud)

When a body is discovered in a picturesque South Devon village, DI Wesley Peterson is called in to investigate. The victim, Barry Brown, is a celebrity ghostwriter and the theft of his laptop suggests that the motive for murder may lie in his work.

While Wesley investigates Barry’s famous clients, Wesley’s teenage son Michael joins family friend, Dr Neil Watson, on an intriguing excavation of a crashed World War Two plane on Dartmoor. The plane was used to ferry secret agents into Europe during the war and, when three skeletons are discovered nearby, it seems the wreckage might hold more secrets than they could ever have imagined.

Wesley’s case leads him to the same area and he discovers a sinister history surrounding the moor and the nearby village of Moor Barton.

With four unexplained deaths, can Wesley solve the mystery before anyone else is put in danger?


3 LITTLE CHILDREN by Angela Marsons (Aug 12 in pb)

Two missing boys. No clues. And time running out to save them…

Twelve-year-old Lewis Stevens disappeared from a seafront arcade. Eleven-year-old Noah Reid vanished from the pier stretching out over the beach.

Detective Kim Stone doesn’t play well with others… but as the investigation into the missing children stalls, she is sent halfway across the country to join the hunt. When she knocks on the door of Lewis’s house, she’s expecting to meet a desperate, hopeful mother, and to promise she’ll do everything in her power to bring Lewis home.

Instead she finds a woman who won’t meet her eyes, who insists her son ran away. What is she hiding, and why is she so frightened? Faced with a hostile local team, few clues, and a refusal to believe the kidnappings are linked, Kim must draw on all her determination and skill to solve the case.

And when another boy turns up dead back home, his body bruised and broken, Kim learns that the killers she’s hunting are worse than she could have ever imagined. She and the team must track them down before more children are taken. But the closer they get, the greater the danger – and they cannot trust a single soul…


4 THE FINAL VOW by MW Craven (Aug 14 in eb, hb and Aud)

An invisible killer with a 100% success rate. No one is safe. Not even those closest to Washington Poe.

A shooting at Gretna Green. A bride is murdered on her wedding day, seconds after she slips on her new ring. It’s brutal and bloody but she isn’t the first victim and she won’t be the last. With the body count now at 17, people are terrified, not knowing where the sniper will strike next.

With the nation in a state of panic, the police are at a loss and turn to Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw - the only team who just might be able to track down a serial killer following no discernible pattern and with the whole country as his personal hunting ground. Can Poe and Tilly stop an unstoppable assassin, who never misses his mark and never makes a mistake? Or will he find them before they find him...


5 THE HOUSE AT DEVIL'S NECK by Tom Mead 

(Aug 14 in eb, hb and Aud)

This gripping locked-room mystery sees Joseph Spector investigate his most sinister case yet: murderous machinations at a haunted manor house.

A former First World War field hospital, the spooky old mansion at Devil’s Neck attracts spirit-seekers from far and wide

Illusionist-turned-sleuth Joseph Spector knows the house of old. With stories spreading of a phantom soldier making mischief, he joins a party of visitors in search of the truth.

But the house, located on a lonely causeway, is quickly cut off by floods. The stranded visitors are soon being killed off one by one.

With old ally Inspector Flint working on a complex case that has links to Spector’s investigation, the two men must connect the dots before Devil’s Neck claims Spector himself as its next victim.


6 WOLF HOUR by Jo Nesbo (Aug 14 in eb, hb and Aud)

This killer has a story.

When a small-time crook is shot down in the streets of Minneapolis, all signs point to a lone wolf, a sniper who has vanished into thin air.

To tell it, he needs to get caught.

When the shooter strikes again, it’s maverick detective Bob Oz they call in to crack the case. They don’t think this victim will be the last.

And this wolf wants the world to know...

As the body count rises, Oz suspects something even more sinister is at play. And the closer he gets to the truth, the more disturbed he becomes. Because this serial killer reminds him of someone dangerous: himself.

He’s only just getting started.


7 WATCHING YOU by Helen Fields 

(Aug 28 in eb, pb and Aud)

A face in the crowd. A killer in the shadows…

On the dark streets of Edinburgh, a killer is waiting.

When a body is found, it is only the beginning. Soon there will be seven more.

In the city’s hospital, renowned surgeon Beth Waterfall is grieving.

Her beloved only daughter fell prey to a vicious stalker a year previously – and now he’s coming for her too.

Edinburgh’s police are desperate.

After one body comes another, and then another. The brutal deaths are all seemingly unconnected, yet DS Lively and forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine know they are dealing with a serial killer – they just need to prove it.

But time is running out, and Beth Waterfall already looks set to be the next victim…


8 THE NEW MISS MARPLE NOVEL by Lucy Foley 

(Sep 10 in eb, hb and Aud)

Fifty years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published, Christie devotee and thriller author, Lucy Foley, reimagines the most famous fictional female detective of all time in a brand new mystery…

9 THE HAWK IS DEAD by Peter James 

(Oct 21 in eb, hb and Aud)

Roy Grace never dreamed a murder investigation would take him deep into Buckingham Palace . . .

Her Majesty, Queen Camilla, is aboard the Royal Train heading to a charity event in Sussex when disaster strikes – the train is derailed.

A tragic accident or a planned attack?

When, minutes later, a trusted aide is shot dead by a sniper, the police have their answer.

Despite all the evidence, Roy Grace is not convinced the Queen was the intended target. But he finds himself alone in his suspicions.

Fighting against the scepticism of his colleagues and the Palace itself, Grace pursues his own investigation. But when there is a second murder, the stakes rise even higher, and Grace is at risk of being embroiled in a very public catastrophe – and in mortal danger.

Failure at this level is not an option. But time is running out before a killer in the Palace will strike again . . .


10 DEATH AT NEIST POINT by JM Dalgliesh (Nov 30 in eb)

Sticks and stones may break your bones… but your name is going to kill you…When the body of a missing teenager is discovered at Neist Point close to the famous lighthouse, battered and bruised, DI Duncan McAdam and his small team must determine how he died.

The Skye Ball, an annual event steeped in tradition where the next generation of the great and the good meet to celebrate their coming of age and present themselves to one another, has always been something of a spectacle for the islanders. The two-day affair culminates in a glitzy dinner followed by a night of Scottish Country Dancing where the young female attendees have a strict plan of who they will be introduced to, who they will dance with and to which song. The band plays almost until dawn when the gathered teenagers throw caution to the wind and leap together into Portree Harbour, a fitting end to mark their journey from adolescence into adulthood.

This year, a dozen teenagers go into the water... only one fails to resurface.

The rescue teams scour the bay in vain, searching for the missing boy; the last surviving heir to a Highland land baron dying from a terminal illness. With those who have vested interests in both the boy’s survival - and indeed his untimely death - circling the scene, laying down markers of their own, how will Duncan determine whether the disappearance is a tragic accident or something much more sinister?


THRILLER

1 INTO THE FIRE by MJ Arlidge (Jul 3 in eb, hb and Aud)

Nowhere to hide. No one to turn to. Nothing to lose.

Helen Grace is sure she made the right decision quitting her job as a detective. Until the day she looks out of her window to see a desperate young woman being pursued by two vicious thugs.

Still a force to be reckoned with, Helen races into the night, swiftly downing the young woman’s attackers. For a moment, it feels like Helen doesn’t need her badge to do good, but as she leads her charge to safety, she’s struck from behind, regaining consciousness just in time to see the terrified woman being driven off in a white van.

Helen’s determined to find the woman and save her, but begging her former colleagues for help gets her nowhere. It’s clear that this time Helen is on her own.

Racing against the clock, Helen soon discovers a whole group of vulnerable women who desperately need her help. But fighting crime as a maverick is a dangerous game. One that could cost Helen her life, and the life of those she holds most dear...


2 HOTEL UKRAINE by Martin Cruz Smith 

(Jul 17 in eb, hb and Aud)

When Arkady Renko is charged with investigating the murder of Alexei Kazasky, the Deputy Minister of Defence, he knows he has to tread carefully. Alexei Kazasky is a high-profile politician and has a complicated relationship with Putin. This investigation clearly has Kremlin approval, but, as with everything in Russia, things are not always what they seem.

Already preoccupied with his developing Parkinson’s, Arkady finds he has more to worry about. The war in Ukraine is gaining momentum, and his adopted son Zhenya has become involved with the Black Army, a Russo-Ukrainian group of hacktivists. Moreover, as Arkady digs deeper into Kazasky’s murder, he realizes that the man’s death may have been more politically motivated than he first assumed.

Now it seems that the people behind the killing have him firmly in their crosshairs – but this time Arkady’s life is not the only one on the line.


3 TWO KINDS OF STRANGER by Steve Cavanagh 

(Jul 31 in eb, hb and Aud)

SHE HELPED A PERFECT A STRANGER. SHE DIDN’T KNOW HE WAS THE PERFECT KILLER...

Ellie Parker had everything.

Perfect husband. Perfect apartment. Perfect friends and the perfect job.
As an internet celebrity - famed for her random acts of kindness - everyone knew it.
So when a betrayal causes her to lose it all, millions of people are watching.

But even at her lowest, Ellie will always help someone in need.
Which makes her the perfect target for a sadistic game.
Because as she soon learns, you can never trust a stranger - and a seemingly random encounter plunges her into a nightmare worse than she ever imagined.

The only person she can turn to is conman turned trial lawyer Eddie Flynn, who must take on a case where nothing is what it seems. With the most cruelly ingenious mind manipulating events from the shadows, everyone is in danger - including Eddie and his family.


4 KILL CODE by Alex Shaw (Aug 9 in eb, hb and Aud)

Taking a life isn't hard, when you've already given your own.

Ruslan Akulov, the legendary Ukrainian assassin known as Wolf Six, wakes to find the plane he’s on plummeting, and with no real memory of how he got there…

Surviving the crash, only to be detained by a small-town sheriff and accused of two murders, that for once he didn’t commit, Akulov must piece together the fragments of his concussed memory to understand how his last mission in Canada as a black asset for the CIA went so catastrophically wrong.

Yet far darker forces are hunting him. A growing number of relentless adversaries including Triads baying for his blood, and the mysterious organisation known only as the ‘Syndicate’, determined to keep the truth buried.

With danger closing in, Akulov is alone on a sea of deceit and betrayal, and when Martin Basson, Akulov’s former colleague turned nemesis, enters the fray, Wolf Six is forced to fight his darkest fears, and the trained French assassin hell bent on destroying him.


5 THE ISLAND by Paul Finch - (Sep 1 in eb, pb and Aud)

A dream holiday. You’d die to be there.

You are offered the getaway of a lifetime on a remote island with a group of strangers. Things have been difficult recently, so you jump at the chance to swim under the summer sun, explore the peaceful woodlands and return to an elegant hotel for a glorious dinner.

As the boat pulls into the harbour, you’re surrounded by crystal-clear water and soon you are alone. Just the peace and quiet you were promised. No phone signal, no internet… no way to call for help. But nothing will go wrong in paradise, right?

As a huge summer storm rolls towards the island, everyone is starting to realise the secrets they’ve been hiding for years seem to have followed them here. And you are no different.

Then one of your group disappears. His body washes up in the picture-postcard harbour, and it’s clearly no accident. Can you get out alive?


6 CLOWN TOWN by Mick Herron - (Sep 11 in eb, hb and Aud)

Spies lie. They betray. It’s what they do.

Slow horse River Cartwright is waiting to be passed fit for work. With time to kill, and with his grandfather - a legendary former spy - long dead, River investigates the secrets of the old man’s library, and a mysteriously missing book.

Regent’s Park’s First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn’t appreciate threats. So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner turns blackmail into opportunity.

Over at Slough House, the repository for failed spies, Catherine Standish just wants everyone to play nice. But as far as Jackson Lamb is concerned, the slow horses should all be at their desks.

Because when Taverner starts plotting mischief people get hurt, and Lamb has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions and fool around, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault.

But they're his clowns. And if they don’t all come home, there’ll be a reckoning.

7 BIRDS, STRANGERS AND PSYCHOS edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Sep 23 in eb and hb)

A thrilling anthology that brings together the biggest names in mystery and crime fiction to pay homage to Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary filmmaker whose name is synonymous with suspense. Acclaimed editor Maxim Jakubowski curates 24 original short stories, each inspired by the mood, tension, and style that defined Hitchcock’s ground-breaking work. This anthology invites both emerging and established voices to reimagine the chilling atmospheres, twisted plots, and unforgettable characters of Hitchcock’s films, from Psycho and Vertigo to North by Northwest and The Birds.

Each author takes on the challenge of evoking the quintessentially Hitchcockian elements that have captivated audiences for decades: ordinary lives interrupted by peril, psychological duels, and unexpected encounters that spiral into nightmares. The volume showcases an extraordinary blend of talent, including Lee Child, Denise Mina, Sophie Hannah, Vaseem Khan, MW Craven, Jeff Noon and S. A. Cosby and many more!

Just as Hitchcock adapted stories from literary giants like Daphne du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith, and Roald Dahl, Birds, Strangers and Psychos unites today’s literary stars to craft new suspenseful tales that are destined to thrill, haunt, and unsettle. This volume is not just a collection of stories – it’s an invitation to rediscover the artistry of suspense.

8 REVENGE OF ODESSA by Frederick Forsyth and Tony Kent (Oct 21 in eb, hb and Aud)

The Nazis may have lost the battle. But the war is just beginning...

Summer, 2025. A US senator is burned to death in his Washington townhouse. Masked gunmen massacre supporters during a football match in Berlin. And an old man is murdered while he sleeps in the dementia ward of a German hospital. Three apparently unconnected events, three steps on the countdown to apocalypse.

When journalist and podcaster Georg Miller starts joining the dots between them, he finds himself the target of professional killers. His investigation soon reveals that his would-be assassins are from an organisation known as the Odessa, a menacing and powerful Nazi group intent on regaining power.

The Odessa has spread its poison from a covert compound in the Bavarian countryside all the way to the halls of the American Capitol. And now, as their campaign to destabilise the Western political system accelerates, Georg must stop the next attack, before it changes the course of history…

9 THE FINAL SCORE by Don Winslow (Oct 23 in eb and hb)

America’s King of Crime Fiction – is back and he’s better than ever in this intense, deeply felt, gripping collection of six all-new, never-before-published short novels.

In six all-new short novels written with the trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal), this repeat New York Times bestselling author serves up a collection of tales sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers.

The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible—it can’t be done. That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer, and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all bullshit and laughs until someone else has to pick up the cheque. An otherwise honest patrolman has to make an excruciating choice between his loyalty to the job and his love for a ne’er-do-well cousin in “The North Wing.” The entitled, substance-addicted movie star that surfer/PI Boone Daniels and his crew are hired to babysit in “The Lunch Break” is a problem. She also has a problem—someone wants her dead. Finally, the one terrible, momentary mistake that a devoted family man makes sends him to prison and on a “Collision” course between the man he wants to be and the killer he’s forced to become to survive.


10 THE CHRISTMAS MAGPIE by Mark Edwards 

(Nov 13 in eb, hb and Aud)

It’s Noel and Dani’s first Christmas in their new home and they want everything to be perfect - lavish presents, a beautiful tree and outdoor decorations to join in with the festivities in this welcoming community.

But they quickly wonder if this street is as perfect as it appears.

First, there are the unwelcome presents left anonymously on their doorstep.

Then they are sure someone is watching them...

And why are the neighbours all obsessed with a notorious killer who is housed at the nearby women’s prison?

After tragedy strikes at a Christmas party, Noel and Dani try to find out who is targeting them – but, in this case, it might be safer not to know . . .

HORROR

1 BASILISK by Matt Wixey (Jul 1 in eb and pb)

Alex Webster is an ethical hacker who, like most hackers, prefers questions to answers. So when she and a colleague, Jay Morton, stumble across a mysterious game created by a shadowy figure known as The Helmsman, they are instantly hooked.

As they solve increasingly bizarre puzzles and uncover The Helmsman’s deranged manifesto, they are pursued by a sinister group known only as XXX XXXXXXX XXXXXX, who will do anything to stop them uncovering the Basilisk, a cognitive weapon which makes anyone who understands it lose their mind.

When Jay disappears, as they hone in on the truth of the Basilisk, Alex is left trying to piece together what’s happened to her friend, escape the awful smiling glitch people stalking her every move, and solve The Helmsman’s final puzzle.


2 THE BABY SITTER LIVES by Stephen Graham Jones 

(Jul 15 in eb, pb and Aud)

When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms won’t help if she chokes on test day. But tomorrow is also Halloween, and the twins are eager to show off their costumes.

Charlotte’s last babysitting gig almost ended in tragedy when her young charge sleepwalked unnoticed into the middle of the street, only to be found unharmed by Charlotte’s mother. Charlotte vows to be extra careful this time. But the house is filled with mysterious noises and secrets that only the twins understand, echoes of horrors that Charlotte gradually realizes took place in the house eleven years ago. Soon Charlotte has to admit that every babysitter’s worse nightmare has come true: they’re not alone in the house.


3 SECRET LIVES OF THE DEAD by Tim Lebbon 

(Aug 26 in eb and pb)

When Jodi, BB and Matt decide to burgle a derelict country home as a thrilling dare, they become embroiled in a twisted legacy of supernatural terror. There are rumours of a bizarre curse hanging over the hoard of antiques and jewellery within the house. And unbeknownst to the others, one member of the trio has darker motives for breaking into the property.

Lem is a brutal man obsessed with a gruesome family legend. He is determined to right the wrongs of the past and lift the curse placed on his bloodline. By completing the work of his father and bringing a bizarre selection of scattered relics back together, he hopes to be free of the malign influence that has hounded every generation of his family for two centuries.

Across a single day, a deadly pursuit will culminate on the desolate, storm-swept Crow Island, and those involved are given cause to wonder… can believing in a curse deeply enough bring its own bad luck?


4 NIGHT & DAY: DREADFUL DARK edited by Ellen Datlow 

(Sep 2 in pb)

A horror anthology edited by the genre’s greatest, Ellen Datlow, with one side featuring stories about what haunts the night while the other side showcases the terrors that can exist in the light of day in this new addition to the Saga Doubles series.

This anthology contains stories from some of the most evocative and bestselling writers of horror and speculative fiction.

Night--Dreadful Dark: Tales of Nighttime Horror

Trash Night by Clay McLeod Chapman
We Take Off Our Skin in the Dark by Eric LaRocca
The Door of Sleep by Stephen Graham Jones
At Night, My Dad by Dan Chaon
The Night House by Gemma Files
The Night-Mirrors by Pat Cadigan
Fear of the Dark by Benjamin Percy
The Picknicker by Josh Malerman
Secret Night by Nathan Ballingrud

Day--Merciless Sun: Tales of Daylight

The Bright Day by Priya Sharma
Faire by Rachel Harrison
Trick of the Light by Brian Evenson
One Day by Jeffrey Ford
The Wanting by A.T. Greenblatt
Hold Us in the Light by A.C. Wise
Dismaying Creatures by Robert Shearman
Bitter Skin by Kaaron Warren
Cold Iron by Sophie White


5 ACQUIRED TASTE by Clay McLeod Chapman 

(Sep 9 in eb and hb)

A startling, witty and downright terrifying collection of 25 short stories from the ‘21st century’s Richard Matheson’ (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.) Perfect for fans of Paul Tremblay, Rachel Harrison and Eric LaRocca.

They’re feeding on you too.

A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terrifying addiction; a man removes something horrifying from his fireplace, and becomes desperate to return it; and a right-wing news channel has its hooks in people in more ways than one.

From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemic to small-town Chesapeake USA, Clay McLeod Chapman takes universal fears of parenthood, addiction and political divisions and makes them uniquely his own.

Packed full of humanity, humour and above all, relentless creeping dread, Acquired Taste is a timely descent into the mind of one of modern horror’s finest authors.

6 THE NIGHT BIRDS by Christopher Golden 

(Sep 16 in eb and pb)

Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak years ago, they never expected to see each other again.

Now, as part of his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book lives aboard the Christabel, a 19th century freighter half-sunken off the shore of Galveston. Over many years, a massive forest of mangrove trees has grown up through the deck of the ship, creating a startlingly beautiful enigma Book calls the Floating Forest. As a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, he intends to sleep on board as usual.

But when he arrives at the dock, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And she’s not alone. With her are a mysterious woman and her infant child, asking Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they're on the run. Only it isn’t the police who are after them, it’s a coven of witches the woman, Mae, has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom the coven had hideous plans… or so Mae claims.

It’s lunacy and Book wants nothing to do with it. But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can’t refuse. Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, there are shadowed figures looming back in Galveston, waiting out the storm. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline for their prey.


7 THE EXECUTIONER BOX by Matt Hilton 

(Oct 7 in eb and hb)

Ben Taylor failed to heed the warning: do not open! The question is, what did he unleash?

Inside a crate of assorted junk, Ben Taylor finds a small, mysterious wooden box. It’s etched with words in a language he doesn't understand. But the written note attached to it is clear: Do. Not. Open.

Yet he cannot resist the urge to lift the lid...

Ben never expected something so evil, dark and powerful would be lurking inside. Soon, strange and terrible things begin to happen: his employee gets attacked by an obscure figure, his wife hurts herself badly during work, people start to act abnormally around him and death follows him like the plague...

Clearly Ben’s curiosity has unleashed something sinister on the world, and on himself. But what - or who - will he have to sacrifice to get it back in the box?

8 FEVER DREAM edited by Mark Morris 

(Oct 14 in eb, hb and pb)

Fever Dreams is the sixth volume in the non-themed horror series of original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. 

This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in horror, and 4 selected from the hundreds of stories sent to Flame Tree during a short open submissions window. 

A delicious feast of the familiar and the new, the established and the emerging.


9 THE WITCHING HOUR by Bridget Collins et al  

(Oct 16 in eb, hb and Aud)

There is something peculiar about the hour after midnight.

It is the time when darkness reigns.

And strange things roam the earth.

In this dazzling collection of original haunted tales, thirteen bestselling and much-loved authors bring the old superstition of the witching hour to new and vivid life.

Transporting you from the smog of London to the freezing mists of Svalbard, from an Irish town riddled with rumour to a sinister English boarding school, these thirteen stories will serve as your spinetingling companion to the long hours of winter.

Featuring new and original stories from:

Michelle Paver
Stacey Halls
Bridget Collins
Imogen Hermes Gowar
Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Andrew Michael Hurley
Jess Kidd
Natasha Pulley
Elizabeth Macneal
Susan Stokes-Chapman
Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Stuart Turton
Catriona Ward


10 TERROR TALES OF CHAOS edited by Paul Finch 

(Oct 30 in eb and pb)

Sorry that there isn’t much I can tell you about this at the moment. Suffice to say that it will be the 16th volume in the acclaimed TERROR TALES series, and the 7th from Telos Publishing. On this occasion, it must already be clear that we won’t be visiting some specific corner of Britain or Europe, though as ever, the remit will be strongly influenced by legend and folklore. 

On this occasion, in celebration of World Fantasy 2025, where the anthology will officially be launched, I threw it wide open, requesting that each one of my starry line-up of authors focus on a different ‘child of chaos’, i.e. some famous (or even not so famous) monster of mythology. The stories are all now in and I’m currently working on the final edits, and put it this way, we'll be including some folk horror masterclasses. Keep watching this space for further details, including cover art, blurb, full table of contents etc.