Shadow, by Karin Alvtegen

Gerda Persson has lain dead for three days. Her life seems to have been quite ordinary. Until the freezer in her home is opened. It is full of books, neatly stacked and wrapped in clingfilm, a thick layer of ice covering them – all by the same prize-winning author, all with handwritten dedications to Gerda.

What story do these books have to tell? And what is their connection to a young boy found abandoned in an amusement park? Shadow is an utterly compelling novel of dark family secrets, murder and betrayal, which will keep you gripped until its final thrilling revelations.

The Vulture, by Gil Scott-Heron

First published in 1970 and digging the rhythms of the street, where the biggest deal life has to offer is getting high, The Vulture is a hip and fast-moving thriller.

It relates the strange story of the murder of a teenage boy called John Lee – telling it in the words of four men who knew him when he was just another kid working after school, hanging out, waiting for something to happen. Just who did kill John Lee and why?

Captured, by Neil Cross

Even though he is still young, Kenny has just weeks to live. Before he dies, he wants to find his childhood best friend Callie Barton and thank her for the kindness she showed him when they were at school together.

But when Kenny begins his search, he discovers that Callie Barton has gone missing. Although cleared of any involvement, her husband Jonathan seems to be hiding something.

Kenny has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. And knowing that time is running out on him, he’s prepared to do whatever it takes…

The Red Dahlia, by Lynda La Plante

Detective Anna Travis is working on a horrific, brutal murder case that has created a media frenzy. The victim, Louise Pennel, a 24-year-old, single, ‘fun-loving’ girl, was last seen in a London night club wearing a sequinned mini-dress and a red rose in her hair.

In an eerie mirror image of the famous LA murder case of Elizabeth Short in the l940s known as the Black Dahlia, her body was found dumped by the River Thames… severed in half and brutalised beyond recognition.

Anna Travis must summon all the strength and guile she became so well known for in Above Suspicion to hunt down this sadistic killer.

Just Take My Heart, by Mary Higgins Clark

When Natalie Raines, famous Broadway star, is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound, her former husband, Gregg Aldrich, whom she was in the process of divorcing, is the chief suspect. What no one knows is that, only days before she was murdered, Natalie accidentally came face to face with the man who killed her former roommate, Jamie Evans.

Two years later, career criminal Jimmy Easton, comes forward to claim that Aldrich hired him to kill his wife, but he turned the job down. Based on Easton’s testimony, Gregg is charged with the murder of his wife. Handling the case is Emily Wallace, an attractive thirty-two-year-old widowed assistant prosecutor. As Aldrich’s trial is making headlines, Emily’s boss, Ted Wesley, warns her that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant. And, during the trial, Emily experiences sentiments which defy all reason and continue after Gregg Aldrich’s fate is decided by the jury.

In the meantime, she does not realize that her own life is now at risk.

The Secret Speech, by Tom Rob Smith

Soviet Union, 1956: Stalin is dead. With his passing, a violent regime is beginning to fracture – leaving behind a society where the police are the criminals, and the criminals are innocent. The catalyst comes when a secret manifesto composed by Stalin’s successor Khrushchev is distributed to the entire nation. Its message: Stalin was a tyrant and a murderer. Its promise: The Soviet Union will transform. But there are forces at work that are unable to forgive or forget Stalin’s tyranny so easily, that demand revenge of the most appalling nature.

Meanwhile, former MGB officer Leo Demidov is facing his own turmoil. The two young girls he and his wife Raisa adopted have yet to forgive him for his involvement in the murder of their parents. They are not alone. Now that the truth is out, Leo, Raisa and their family are in grave danger from someone with a grudge against Leo. Someone transformed beyond recognition into the perfect model of vengeance.

From the streets of Moscow in the throes of political upheaval, to the wintry Siberian gulags and to Budapest, where a revolution will destroy as many innocent lives as the regime it is attempting to end, The Secret Speech is another stunning thriller from the author of the Booker- longlisted Child 44.

The Reluctant Hero, by Michael Dobbs

When Harry Jones discovers that former friend Zac Kravitz’s life is in danger, a debt of honour sends him on a perilous rescue mission to Ta’argistan, a mountainous and landlocked former Soviet republic bordering Russia, China and Afghanistan. Muscling his way onto a delegation of MPs who happen to be paying the state a visit, Harry finds an unlikely ally in the stubbornly independent Martha and together they devise a plan to break Zac out of the ancient high-walled prison in the capital, Ashkek. But when, in the depths of winter, the attempt backfires and Harry finds himself taking Zac’s place, he realises that he has been lured, unawares, into a terrifying web of international conspiracy.

Venom, by Joan Brady

Recently released from prison, David Marion doesn’t expect to find a hitman at his door. Their meeting is lethal – for the hitman. Warned that a powerful secret organisation is after him, David disappears until the moment comes for him to strike back.

Physicist Helen Freyl owns a colony of bees with unique venom. When her lover dies, she accepts a job offer from a giant pharmaceutical company who are close to finding a cure for radiation poisoning. But when the mysteriously sudden death of a colleague is followed by another, Helen begins to doubt her employers’ motives and realises that her own life is in danger, too.

Venom brings David and Helen together as they fight for their lives against a backdrop of industrial espionage, corporate greed and human tragedy.

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1. Boof (The Book Whisperer) Says:
   March 5th, 2010 at 2:30 pm

   Loving the sound of these! Shadow is going straight on my TBR soon list – a murder mystery that includes books! What’s not to love?

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