When the headless body of a child is pulled out of the Tyne, the police are unable to identify the corpse or discover a motive for the killing. There are rumours of black magic, ritual killings and a paedophile ring, but when Interpol intervenes, the hunt is on for a serial killer. Archaeologist Arnold Landon is drawn into the inquiry, whilst experiencing problems both with his boss Karen Stannard and with archaeologists working at an ancient chariot burial site. As the net closes in, Landon's own life is put in danger as a murderer begins to stalk him relentlessly...

When his beautiful young wife dies in childbirth, Captain Samuel Walton is grief-stricken, as he faces the task of bringing up his two daughters alone. Fifteen years later, Flora has inherited her mother's tempestuous temperament, while her elder sister Josie has her father's sensible nature. Josie worries that her sister may be led astray, but even she could not predict how a meeting between Flora and a seductive stranger would plunge the whole family into danger. Meanwhile, Josie is drawn to handsome American Jacob Goodwright, unaware that he hides a dark secret...

Pretty and bright, Cleopatra Kelly dreams of a life without the shadow of fear cast by her abusive step-father, Horace Womack. Her beloved brother, Ant, flees to London and a few weeks later, Cleo makes a daring escape and follows him. However, Cleo is only thirteen and is soon found by the police and sent to a reform school for girls. Undaunted, Cleo escapes again and gets a job at the seaside, where she starts to feel like a normal teenager and has fun with her friend Flo - but Horace Womack is not done with the Kelly family yet...

Her father tore the family apart. She's desperate to break the bonds of fate... For Lisa O'Donnell, the past is a dangerous place. Born into a world dominated by her father's notorious reputation, even her name marks her out. But Lisa is determined to make a new life for herself. Adopting a false identity, she takes a respectable job in the city. But Jason Carter, the man who seems to offer a way out of her past, has dark secrets to hide. Through him, she becomes drawn into the shady underworld of the East End - the world of her gangster father and his cronies. Before she knows it, she's back where she started: living in her father's shadow and trapped by his deadliest enemies...

The message was sent to Kriminalhaupkommissar Fabel by email: "Time is strange is it not? I write and you read and we share the same moment. Yet, as I write this, Herr Hauptkommissar, you sleep and my next victim still lives. As you read it, she is already dead." The first woman had her lungs ripped out. When the same gruesome ritualistic method was used again, it was clear that the same killer was responsible. But there is no precise evidence to link the two cases, except for the tantalising email. As Jan Fabel - half-Scottish, half-German - makes a desperate attempt to solve the case before more victims are discovered, he gradually uncovers layer upon layer of intrigue and conspiracy. How can he track a murderer who leaves no trail, whose victims seem purposefully random and whose motive reaches far beyond greed and lust, into the darkest recesses of the human soul?

For Oz Blackstone, his days as a Private Enquiry Agent could soon be over. An undercover stint posing as a TV wrestling master of ceremonies has convinced him that he may have hidden theatrical talent - and now he's got a taste for the spotlight. So, the chance of a bit part in a movie seems like an offer he can't refuse - even though his own life is fast developing a dramatic storyline of its own, with a frightening series of accidents befalling people close to him. When the female lead is kidnapped from the set in a bizarre echo of the movie's rollercoaster plot, fiction and reality come together in a terrifying climax. But has Oz got what it takes to save the day?

Old secrets, new friendships, and a journey to the heart of Ireland... Twenty-seven years since she adopted a baby girl in Ireland, Lena Molloy receives a call from the nun who set up the adoption. Sister Monica claims that she merely wants to tie up loose ends before she retires, but Lena is intrigued and worried by the call. With her best friend Alma, she travels to the west of Ireland on a secret mission to trace the birth parents of her daughter. At first the trail seems to have gone cold, but then a chance meeting sets Lena on a journey to an outcome she could not have foreseen in her wildest dreams...

An original and atmospheric thriller... When private investigator Alex Mavros is asked to trace a missing teenager, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, he doesn't see any link with the plague of violent killings afflicting Athens. As he follows the trail to the missing girl, Mavros encounters the terrifying enforcers known as the Father and Son. He discovers that the present day killings have their roots in the brutal military dictatorship; and that he has put himself and the woman he loves in mortal danger...

Seventeen-year-old Marina Lu lies dead in a shopping centre car park, her two-carat diamond engagement ring refracting another shattered Los Angeles dream. LA TIMES reporter Eve Diamond finds the murder raises many questions. Why was Marina marrying a much older man? Why is her father so reluctant to give information about his daughter? Why would someone steal her diary? Eve investigates the world of rich teens left in California while their wealthy parents live and work in Hong Kong, and the subculture of young Asian immigrants living in sexual slavery - but someone is prepared to kill to prevent Eve's scoop being published...

The Ellis Peters dagger for the best historical crime novel of 2004 has been awarded to the third in this series India 1922. When a tiger, turned man-eater, starts terrorising the northern villages of Ranipur, Governor Sir George Jardine dispatches Joe Sandilands, war hero and Scotland Yard detective, to join in a hunt for the beast as the guest of the maharajah. But Joe's suspicions are soon roused about the true nature of his trip. The maharajah is dying and his succession is unclear. The first heir to the throne has already died in a panther-wrestling incident and a second violent death occurs as Joe approaches the city. Misadventure? Or is a killer prowling the corridors of the palace of Ranipur? In the glittering court, surrounded by scheming characters, Joe must track down a clever murderer, finding his way through a maze of intrigue to corner the Palace Tiger.

It was an oddly assorted company of passengers that boarded the S.S. CHETWYND in Hong Kong and Singapore to take passage to Freemantle. The old vessel, operated by a line that had a poor reputation, was the kind of ship that could hardly attract the finest of officers or crew and was patronised only by the least demanding or affluent of passengers. In this company, living in such close quarters, there was inevitably a certain amount of friction. But human passions would prove insignificant by comparison when the indescribable fury of the storm hit.

Maura Murphy was born 'chronically ugly and cross as a briar' into a poor rural homestead in 1920s Ireland. She left school at 14 and worked in service until she married. In the 1950s the family left Ireland for Birmingham, in the hope of finding a better life. At 75 years old, recovering from cancer and having left a marriage of 50 years, Maura recorded her story: her early days running wild in Ireland, her destructive marriage to a hard-working, hard-drinking womanizer, the birth of her nine children and a life-or-death choice that would change her for ever.

'Cool polished story-telling with all the sexy sidelines in the best James Bond tradition, - Evening Standard Hand-picked for his talents by Mostyn, the suave, sadistic Second-in-Command of British Special Security. Boysie Oakes's job is to quietly murder potential Top Secret security risks - but is Boysie the right man for the job? Things begin to go wrong for Boysie when he takes Mostyn's secretary to the Cote D'Azur for a naughty weekend. What starts as a few days of seduction in the Mediterranean sun turns into a nightmare for Boysie as he becomes more and more embroiled in Operation Coronet.

It is 1945, and people are looking forward to being at peace - except for recently married Zelda Fluck. Peace means the return of her husband, and this is bad news, for she is frightened of him - and she has reason to be. Meanwhile, young Tony, Zelda's nephew, is going off the rails. His dad's missing, his mum's in a state, and he is running wild with the local gang of thugs - but Tony can sing. He has the voice of an angel, and Zelda thinks she may have found a solution to all their problems - but she has reckoned without the trouble in Paradise Gardens...

Everyone deserves an encore... Ever wonder what happened to that old flame? In the wilds of Norfolk, Dylan is mending his broken heart by rebuilding his house. Next door, Ellie gazes longingly at him over the fence, while her mother Fliss contemplates a school reunion. Should she risk an encounter with her first crush? Meanwhile Dylan's once-famous father Alex, arriving a little late in his son's life, is also recalling the perils of first love - but will Marie return Alex's renewed affection? Can an old rock star recapture the magic of his first hit?

First in the Linda Wallander series The leader of a religious cult in Guyana instigates a mass suicide. He succeeds in killing himself and his whole flock of worshippers, save one. One man escapes. Ystad police make an horrific discovery: a severed head, and hands locked together in a prayer. Other incidents, including attacks on domestic animals, have been taking place and Inspector Wallander fears that these might just be the prelude to further attacks on humans. Linda Wallander, preparing to join the Ystad police force, arrives at the station and becomes involved in the case. In the process she shows the hallmarks of her father - the flaring temper, the maverick approach - when confronting a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

A heart-rending tale of one family's journey through war Rose McAllister is waiting for her husband, Steve, to come home. He is a seaman, often drunk and violent. Rose does her best to cope and sees that her daughters, Daisy and Petal, suffer as little as possible. Sensing that war is on the horizon, Steve tries to reform, but on his last night home, he pawns the girls' new dolls to go on a drinking binge. When war is declared, Rose finds a good job but agrees the children must be evacuated. Daisy and Petal are happy at first, but circumstances change and they are put in the care of a woman who hates all scousers and taunts them with the destruction of their city. They run away, arriving home on the worst night of the May Blitz. When Rose arrives home she finds their house utterly destroyed and her neighbours reporting that the children were seen entering the house the previous evening...

For Oz Blackstone and Primavera Philips, the idea to forget their troubled past by returning to L'Escala, the idyllic Spanish village where they were once so happy, is not working out. When a body turns up in the swimming pool of their new villa, they are suddenly very much back in harness again, uncovering a nest of very nasty vipers beneath L'Escala's sunny exterior.

A taut, shocking story of vengeance, bloodshed and love Moscow, December 1991. Chaos reigns after the fall of Communism. Muscovites are used to queues and empty shelves, but now they have to cope with a dangerous power vacuum and a war between brutal Mafiya gangs for control of the city. So when a child's body is found beneath the ice of the Moscow River it attracts little attention to begin with. Then a second body is found. And a third. At the heart of the gathering storm is Red October, Russia's most famous vodka distillery. Alice Liddel, an American banker, has come to oversee its privatisation, but she has to contend with the charismatic, ruthless Lev - distillery director and Mafiya boss. Lev's arch-enemy has vowed revenge, and it seems that the bizarre child killings might be a part of this. The last thing Lev needs is a determined young woman in the heart of his criminal empire.

English adventurer Harvey Landon is alone in New York - wanted by the police and with only a few dollars in his pocket. Then Theodore Cranefield offers him a job that he can't afford to refuse. Soon he is driving south with a gunman named Gregg to a rendezvous in Florida with the so-called El Aguila, Ramon Arturo Alvarez, and the tough young Pete. The drama swiftly moves across the hurricane-swept Gulf of Mexico to a country shortly to be ravaged by a volcanic eruption, an earthquake and a revolution in which Landon finds himself unwillingly involved.

By the author of OUR KID "Dad, it's the happiest day of my life," Kate said. "I wish time would stand still and it could be today forever." It's June 1897, and it is Kate's eleventh birthday and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Kate's joy is short-lived, and tragedy strikes, threatening all her family holds dear. Before long they are evicted from their home in Ancoats, Manchester, and, with no wages coming in and a mother unable to cope, Kate has to grow up fast. Her deepest desire is to keep her brothers and sisters together. A journey of hope and heartache takes Kate from the hardships of the workhouse to the dubious comforts of a position in service; from the joys of marriage, to the sorrows and losses suffered during the Great War.

On the Northwest Frontier of India, 1910, the screams of a British officer are heard by a young Scottish subaltern. Ignoring the command to retreat to base, he sets out alone, dagger in hand, to rescue his fellow officer from the Pathan tribesmen. Twelve years later, the backwash of the tragedy threatens to engulf Detective Joe Sandilands. On a welcome break from his duties, he is spending a fortnight with his old army friend James Lindsay, commander of the British army's fort at Gor Khatri on the Afghan border. It is a delicate situation and the arrival of an ill-assorted group of visitors causes unrest. When one of the guests, a Pathan prince, is murdered in the night, Joe and James are given seven days in which to arrest and execute the killer. Otherwise the frontier is likely to erupt into war.