DP54Cover - Deadly Pleasures

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Deadly Pleasures
appears to have changed, for Bryant is convinced that he
saw the public house as it looked over a century before.
The elderly detective has already lost the funeral urn of an
old friend. Could it be that he’s losing his mind as well?It
becomes clear that a number of other women have lost
their lives in London pubs. A silent, secret killer is at work,
striking in full view...and yet nobody has a clue how or why,
or where he’ll attack next. The likeliest suspect seems to
be a mental patient with a reason for killing. But knowing
who the killer is and catching him are two very different
propositions. As they send their new team out on the hunt
for a madman, the octogenarian detectives of the Peculiar
Crimes Unit prepare themselves for the pub crawl of a
lifetime, and come face to face with their own mortality...
14.99
**FRENCH, Tana, THE LIKENESS (Hodder &
Stoughton, August). Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying
to deal with the events of In the Woods.
She is out of the Murder Squad and has
started a relationship with fellow detective
Sam O’Neill but is too badly shaken
to commit to Sam or to her career. Then
Sam is allocated a new case, that of a
young woman stabbed to death just outside
Dublin. He calls Cassie to the murder
scene and she finds the victim is
strangely familiar. In fact, she is Cassies
double. Not only that, but her ID says she
is Lexie Madison the identity Cassie used,
years ago, as an undercover detective.
With no leads, no suspects and no clues,
Cassie’s old undercover boss spots the
opportunity of a lifetime: to send Cassie
undercover in the dead girl’s place. She
could pick up information the police
would never hear and tempt the killer to
finish the job. So Cassie moves into
Whitethorn House, poses as a post-grad
student, and prepares to enter Lexie’s
world. 12.99
**HILL, Reginald, THE ROAR OF THE BUT-
TERFLIES (HarperCollins, June). The return of Joe
Sixsmith in a beautifully packaged, witty new crime novel.
A sweltering summer spells bad news for the private
detective business. Thieves and philanderers take the
month off and the only swingers in town are the ones to be
found on the 19th hole of the Royal Hoo Golf Course. The
civilized reputation of the ‘Hoo’ is in trouble, however.
Shocking allegations of cheating have been directed at one
of its leading members, Chris Porphyry. When Chris turns
to Joe Sixsmith, PI, he’s more than willing to help -- well,
he hasn’t got any other clients -- only Joe hadn’t counted
on being French-kissed then dangled out of a window on
the same day. Before long, though, Joe’s on the trail of a
conspiracy that starts with missing balls, and ends with
murder! 10.00
**JECKS, Michael, THE PROPHECY OF
DEATH (Headline, June). 1325: There is turmoil in
England. But could the Prophecy of St Thomas’s Holy Oil
save King Edward? It is believed that the king who is
anointed with it will be a lion among men: he will conquer
France, unite Christendom and throw the heathens from
the Holy Land.King Edward II has rejected his wife, Queen
Isabella, confiscated her income, exiled her servants and
taken away her children. Yet even now she is in France to
negotiate peace with her brother, King Charles IV. Meanwhile,
Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace
and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock return from France
with an urgent instruction for the King. Before long
Baldwin and Simon find themselves at the centre of a
deadly court intrigue involving the most powerful and
ruthless men in the country, who will stop at nothing, not
least murder, to achieve their ambitions... 19.99
**KERNICK, Simon, DEADLINE (Bantam Press,
July). It’s evening, you’re back late from work - and the
house is in darkness. You step inside,
and the phone rings. You answer it - and
your world turns upside down. Your
fourteen-year-old daughter’s been
taken, and her kidnappers demand half
a million pounds in cash. They give you
48 hours to raise the money, and warn
you that if you call the police, she’ll die.
Trying desperately to remain calm, you
realise that your husband - the man you
married only two years previously - is
also missing. But he can’t be involved in
your daughter’s abduction. Or can he?
As your nightmare begins, you can be
certain of only two things: that you will
do anything to get your daughter back
alive. And that time is running out.
17.99
**NABB, Magdalen, VITA
NUOVA (William Heinemann, August).
The author’s posthumous novel. When
Marshal Guarnaccia is called upon to
investigate the murder of a young woman, he is convinced
that there’s more to her family than meets the eye, and
wonders if the girl’s father, Paoletti, might have had
something to do with her death...Enlisting the help of a
local journalist, Marshal Guarnaccia’s investigations draw
him into the seedy underworld of Florence - lap dancing,
prostitution and the illegal, human trafficking of Eastern
European women who are sold into the sex trade. But can
he save these women before it’s too late and what do they
have to do with the killing of Daniela Paoletti? Distracted
by the plight of these women and the murder investigation,
Guarnaccia forgets about his own personal problems but
it’s not long before he has choices to make - should he seek
help and risk exposing himself and possibly losing his job,
or should he go it alone? 14.99
**NADEL, Barbara, ASHES TO ASHES (Headline,
July). As London suffers at the hands of the German
Luftwaffe during the height of the Blitz, undertaker Francis
Hancock suddenly finds himself caught up in the middle of