Tideline

Simon & Schuster Ltd 2012, Hardcover, 352 pages, £12.99

One winter’s afternoon, voice coach Sonia opens the door of her beautiful riverside home to fifteen-year-old Jez, the nephew of a family friend. He’s come to borrow some music. Sonia invites him in and soon decides that she isn’t going to let him leave.

As Sonia’s desire to keep Jez hidden and protected from the outside world becomes all the more overpowering, she is haunted by memories of an intense teenage relationship, which gradually reveal a terrifying truth. The River House, Sonia’s home since childhood, holds secrets within its walls. And outside, on the shores of the Thames, new ones are coming in on the tide…

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Memories define us.

So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love – all forgotten overnight.

And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.

Welcome to Christine’s life.

Shortlisted for the Galaxy prize and translated into more than 30 languages Before I Go To Sleep is an international bestseller.

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The Question:

To win, answer the following question…

• Question 1: What is the name of Christine’s husband?

Terms and conditions

1. Closing date for entries:  31st December 2011.
2. Open to residents of the United Kingdom only.
3. Entry to the competition is by completion of the above form only. Anyone submitting multiple entries will be disqualified.
4. The winners will be selected at random from those correct entries received before the closing date.
5. Only the winning entrants will be contacted by Bookdagger. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
6. The winner’s name(s) may be published on the Bookdagger website after the closing date of the competition.
7. The competition is not open to Bookdiva employees and their families, or to employees of Bookdagger publishers and their families.

AudioGO (formerly BBC Audiobooks) publish an extensive range of drama, comedy and factual programmes from BBC Radio, in addition to abridged and unabridged  recordings by best-selling authors read by the finest narrators. Most titles are available in both CD and download format. To browse through the complete collection visit www.audiogo.co.uk.

Death Comes to Pemberley

Faber and Faber 2011, Hardcover, 320 pages, £18.99

The year is 1803, and Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for six years. There are now two handsome and healthy sons in the Pemberley nursery, Elizabeth’s beloved sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live within seventeen miles, the ordered and secure life of Pemberley seems unassailable, and Elizabeth’s happiness in her marriage is complete.

But their peace is threatened and old sins and misunderstandings are rekindled on the eve of the annual autumn ball. The Darcys and their guests are preparing to retire for the night when a chaise appears, rocking down the path from Pemberley’s wild woodland, and as it pulls up, Lydia Wickham, an uninvited guest, tumbles out, screaming that her husband has been murdered.

In a pitch-perfect recreation of the world of Pride and Prejudice, P. D. James elegantly fuses her lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen with her talent for writing detective fiction. She weaves a compelling story, combining a sensitive insight into the happy but threatened marriage of the Darcys and the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted detective story.

Death Comes to Pemberley enshrines the qualities her readers have come to expect: psychological and emotional richness of characterisation, vivid evocation of place, and a credible and superbly structured plot, in a powerful and distinguished work of fiction.

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These fascinating insights are taken from programmes such as Woman’s Hour, Parkinson, Desert Island Discs, Front Row, Today, Start the Week, Late Night Line-Up, Kaleidoscope and many others, in which the subjects talk about aspects of their professional and private lives.

Many of these interviews have not been heard since their original transmission, and almost none of them have previously been made available for purchase. They represent a window into the past, a chance for us to hear the voices of those who contributed to the richness of our political and cultural heritage.

Produced by AudioGO, the BBC Archive Voices range is available to download from www.audiogo.co.uk and iTunes from 27th September – just search BBC Archive Voices to see the whole range. Eight titles will be released in October:  Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, Roald Dahl, Noel Coward, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Margaret Thatcher and Brian Clough; with new releases every month thereafter.

Alfred Hitchcock talks about a childhood experience being locked in a police cell; being typecast as a director of thrillers; his early films; the advent of ‘talkies’; planning Psycho; American audiences; cinema technique; horror films; the influence of real crimes; the difference between making films in America and Britain; the importance of lighting; his female leads; being a practical joker; critics; avoiding clichés; murder in film; film editing and music; The Birds; the star factor in actors, and making comedies.

Listen to a clip of Alfred Hitchcock from BBC Archive Voices.

Old Enemies

Simon & Schuster Ltd 2011, Paperback, 432 pages, £12.99

In the Swiss Alps a teenage girl is thrown from a helicopter and her boyfriend is brutally abducted to Trieste, a city filled with undercurrents of past hatreds. Ruari, son of Irish media owner J J Breslin, is in desperate danger, at the mercy of ruthless kidnappers making impossible demands. His terrified mother contacts the only person she knows can help her son: Harry Jones, her former lover, who she walked out on many years ago. Now memories of their passionate affair, the guilt, hurt, anger and humiliation, come flooding back. Time is running out for Ruari and Harry, torn between his loyalties, is quickly drawn into a political game played for high stakes. Far higher than he realizes…

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LUTHER

Simon & Schuster Ltd 2011, Hardcover, 368 pages, £14.99

DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. And yet there are rumours that DCI Luther is bad – not corrupt, not on the take, but tormented. Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn’t; things way beyond the limits of the law.

Luther: The Calling, the first in a new series of novels featuring DCI John Luther, takes us into Luther’s past and into his mind. It is the story of the case that tore his personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vengeance. All the way to murder…

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Snapshot

Simon & Schuster Ltd 2011, Paperback, 394 pages, £12.99

A series of high-profile shootings by a lone sniper leaves Glasgow terrorised and police photographer Tony Winter – a man with a tragic hidden past – mystified. Who is behind the executions of some of the most notorious drug lords in the city? As more shootings occur – including those of police officers – the authorities realise they have a vigilante on their hands. Meanwhile, Tony investigates a link between the victims and a schoolboy who has been badly beaten. Seemingly unconnected, they share a strange link. As Tony delves deeper, his quest for the truth and his search for the killer lead him down dark and dangerous paths.

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The Somme Stations (Jim Stringer Steam Detective 7)

Faber and Faber 2011, Hardcover, 304 pages, £12.99

A notice is pinned up in the railway police office on Platform Four at York station, announcing the formation of the North Eastern Railway Battalion. Detective Sergeant Jim Stringer recognises immediately – if not with any great enthusiasm – that he must do his patriotic duty, and join what would become known as The Railway Pals and to set sail for France.

So it is that, on July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Jim finds himself trapped in a too-shallow shell hole, smoking cigarette after cigarette under the bullets and the blazing sun. He calculates his chances of survival, and these are complicated by the fact that both friendships and enmities have been born among the supposed pals. Even before they departed for France, a member of Jim’s unit had been found dead, the body horribly battered.

During the stand-off that follows that first day, Jim and his comrades must operate by night the vitally important trains carrying munitions to the Front, through a ghostly landscape of shattered trees where high explosive and shrapnel shells rain down upon them. Close co-operation and trust are vital. Yet proof piles up of an enemy within, and as a ferocious military policeman pursues his investigation into the original killing, the finger of accusation begins to point towards Jim himself…

Andrew Martin: The Somme Stations by FaberBooks

Mercy

Penguin 2011, Paperback, 512 pages, £6.99

At first the prisoner scratches at the walls until her fingers bleed. But there is no escaping the room. With no way of measuring time, her days, weeks, months go unrecorded. She vows not to go mad. She will not give her captors the satisfaction. She will die first.

Copenhagen detective Carl Mørck has been taken off homicide to run a newly created department for unsolved crimes. His first case concerns Merete Lynggaard, who vanished five years ago. Everyone says she’s dead. Everyone says it’s a waste of time. He thinks they’re right.

The voice in the dark is distorted, harsh and without mercy. It says the prisoner’s torture will only end when she answers one simple question. It is one she has asked herself a million times:

WHY is this happening?

The Salati Case

Faber and Faber 2009, Paperback, 272 pages, £6.99

An old woman, Silvia Salati, has recently died. Fourteen years ago her second son went missing while waiting for a train to Rimini. In order for her Estate to be disposed of, Castagnetti is commissioned by a notary to change the son’s status from ‘missing’ to ‘presumed dead’. But Castagnetti isn’t the sort to content himself with presumption. He likes certainty, the kind of certainty that comes from seeing a skeleton.

Before long he’s reopening wounds from years ago and exposing family secrets to those who have tried to suppress them. The heirs want their inheritance, but Castagnetti wants to throw in justice too. And that means uncovering a plot as thick and chilling as the Padanian fog.

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