Constable After Darke Gekoski Rick

James Darke is dreading the first family Christmas without his wife Suzy. Engulfed by grief, his grudging preparations are interrupted by a persistent knock at the door. Questions about the circumstances of his wife's death force him to confront the outside world and what really happened to her • Isolated, angry and diminished, James soon faces a crisis both legal and psychological. It will test his resolve and threaten his freedom • Darke Matter is a brilliant, mordant examination of the nature and obligations of love. Both immensely sad and extremely funny, the story wrestles with one of the great moral issues of our time • The surprising sequel to Darke

When a three-year old girl is reported missing, DCI Andy Gilchrist is assigned the case. But Gilchrist soon suspects that the child's mother - Andrea Davis - may be responsible for her daughter's disappearance, or worse, her murder • The case becomes politically sensitive when Gilchrist learns that Andrea is the daughter of Dougal Davis, a former MSP who was forced to resign from Scottish Parliament after being accused of physically abusing his third wife. Now a powerful businessman, Davis demands Gilchrist's removal from the case when his investigation seems to be stalling. But then the case turns on its head when Gilchrist learns that a paedophile, recently released from prison, now lives in the same area as the missing child. The paedophile is interrogated but hours later his body is found on the beach with evidence of blunt force trauma to the head, and Gilchrist launches a murder investigation

Having been shot in the shoulder in the line of duty, Dutch police detective Lotte Meerman returns to work after four months of painful recovery - yet not all her colleagues are happy to see her • But department politics take a backseat when Lotte is called to investigate a worker's fall from the roof on a building site in the centre of Amsterdam. Frank Stapel's tragic accident becomes suspicious when Tessa, his widow, discovers human bones in her husband's left-luggage locker at Amsterdam Central. To Lotte, this changes the course of her investigation from fatal accident to potential murder • When forensics discover the skeleton dates back to the Second World War, the rest of the team are convinced that Lotte is wasting everybody's time by insisting this somehow ties in with the Frank's death, but then it is discovered that some of the bones are less than a decade old

Founded in 1147, Moscow was for much of it's early history in thrall to other nations - to the Khans, the Tartars and the Poles. The city was devastated by fire time and again, but with each rebuilding, it grew ever more magnificent. For every church that was destroyed, it seemed that two more were built • In this evocative and fascinating anthology, Moscow's turbulent growth is recorded through the voices of visitors and residents: Peter the Great's bloody reprisals after the revolt of the streltsy in 1698; a visit to the city's brothels by medical students in the 1890s; Kutuzov abandoning Moscow to Napoleon in 1812, and Napoleon's ignominious retreat from the burning city; Pushkin railing against the mindlessness of 1830 society; the flowering of literary greatness in the ninenteenth century and of the Moscow Art Theatre in the twentieth; and the dazzling profusion of jewels in the Treasury of the Kremlin

The cobbled lanes and back streets of St Andrews have become home to a vicious serial killer • Striking during heavy rain and choosing only victims who abuse women, 'The Stabber' has police baffled. After the sixth man is found murdered, having been stabbed to death through his left eye, DCI Andy Gilchrist is at his wit's end. Struggling against his self-serving and autocratic boss, Gilchrist is left furious when he is taken off the case at a crucial point. Driven by his fear of failure, and desperate to redeem his career and his reputation, Gilchrist vows to catch The Stabber alone • Digging deeper into the world of a psychopath, Gilchrist fears he is up against a serial killer on the verge of mental collapse. Can Gilchrist unravel the warped mind of the murderer and stop him before the next victim is slain? With reckless resolve, Gilchrist risks it all in a heart-stopping race to catch The Stabber, knowing that any mistake could be his last

Revenge is a dish best served warm • High-flying public relations supremo Agatha Raisin has decided to take early retirement. She's off to make a new life in a picture-perfect Cotswold village. To make friends, she enters the local quiche-making competition - and to make quite sure of first prize she secretly pays a visit to a London deli • Alas, the competition judge succumbs after tasting her perfect quiche, and Agatha is revealed as a cheat and potential poisoner. Definitely not the best start. So Agatha must turn amateur sleuth - she's absolutely got to track down the real killer!

Notorious serial killer Brenda Nevins has cajoled, seduced, blackmailed, and left a trail of bodies all across Washington State. Now, after a daring prison escape, she is free to carry out her ultimate act of revenge. The targets: forensic pathologist Birdy Waterman and sheriff's detective Kendall Stark. The pawn: a television psychic hungry for fame, ratings, and blood. There's only one way to stop a killer as brutal, brilliant, and twisted as this: beat her at her own game

It is 1953, a heat wave is sweeping across America and the Grossmans - Ben, Addie and their two children - are moving their lives from the political heart of Washington DC to suburban Long Island. With their future uncertain, life in Long Island starts to cause problems for Ben and Addie. Both begin to wonder if they were meant for more, whether their lives might look different than they planned, and whether their marriage - their family - is worth fighting for. A Long Island Story is a portrait of a couple in crisis, of a unique and fascinating period in US history and of a seemingly perfect family fighting their demons behind closed doors

The Thing Is • A novel, a confession, a poem, an autofiction, a commonplace book, a prose poem • By turns serious and playful, profound and trivial, sad and joyful, The Thing Is is a shape-shifting narrative: one that starts out as written by an alien, seeing the earth and its inhabitants from the outside. This perspective then becomes that of an everychild, who vaguely remembers having once been an alien, and evolves into the biography of everybody who has ever lived • The narrative moves deftly from an ingenious theory about the origins of the universe and the emergence of life, to a riff on the poetic power of doorways (and other thresholds); or from stories about things hidden from view or buried by time, to what it feels like to be alive at this particular moment in history

Roma is the story of the ancient city of Rome, from its mythic beginnings as a campsite along a trade route to its emergence as the centre of the most extensive, powerful empire in the ancient world • Beginning with the prehistory days when Roma was a way station among seven hills for traders and merchants and the founding of the city itself by Romulus and Remus, critically acclaimed historical novelist Steven Saylor tells the epic saga of a city and its people, its rise to prominence among the city-states of the area, and, ultimately, dominance over the entire ancient Western world • From the tragedy of Coriolanus, to the Punic Wars and the invasion by Hannibal, the triumph and murder of Julius Caesar, and the rise and decline of the Roman Republic and the beginnings of Imperial Rome, Saylor's breathtaking novel brings to vivid life the most famous city of the ancient world

'If all you know is cricket, then cricket will break you . . .' • It is the final Test match of The Ashes. A nation expects, and the rest of the cricketing world is watching • Fast-paced, humorous and candid, The Test follows the battles on and off the field as stand-in England captain, James McCall, tries to get his exhausted team across the finish line. Along the way, his story becomes one of fatherhood, friendship and trusting yourself when no one else will • Nathan Leamon's love letter to Test cricket is that rare thing: a novel that captures the feel and flavour of professional sport from the inside - the good, the bad and the simply surreal • Not since J. L. Carr's classic A Season in Sinji has there been a novel that quite captures the spirit of the game

Amsterdam-based Lotte Meerman is a cold case detective recovering from the emotional devastation of her previous investigation. She is angry and mentally scarred - but being a police officer is the only thing she wants to do • A tip-off leads Lotte to an unresolved ten-year-old murder case in which her father was the lead detective. ANd when she discovers irregularities surrounding the original investigation that make him a suspect, she decides to cover for him • Now she has to find the real murderer before she's discovered, otherwise her father will be arrested and she will lose her job, the one thing in life that is keeping her focused and sane