Blood From Stone

His father is dying.He's stuck in the middle of a gang war.And he has to solve a case with no clues.Welcome to the world of Inspector John Carlyle. Work goes on the backburner for Inspector Carlyle as he tries to manage his father's final days. But when the drug dealer providing the old man's pain relief ends up dead, London's least conventional copper finds himself in the middle of a vicious East London turf war. Meantime, he is supposed to be dealing with the case of a young woman found badly beaten in an alleyway. With no idea who she is, and no clues as to her attacker, he has to get help from some unlikely sources.

Volatile times in a volatile city...Polish-born detective Dania Gorska, seconded to Dundee's Specialist Crime Division, is called to investigate three murders in which the bodies of the victims are posed in different ways; the first is dressed and staged as a scarecrow while the other two are displayed in an equally bizarre manner. She is unable to establish what links them but clues point to their having been members of a druidic cult - something which her investigative journalist brother Marek is pursuing for his paper.Although Dania's main focus is in solving the murders, she finds herself increasingly drawn to the case of two runaway teenage girls. But when she learns that they were members of the same druid group, she becomes convinced that their disappearance is linked to the murders. And her growing suspicion that the local laird of Backmuir is involved puts her in grave danger...Praise for Hania Allen: 'Nicely nasty in all the right places, this is an assured debut by Hania Allen... The story rattles along until bringing the curtain down with an unnerving twist' - Craig Robertson, author of Cold Grave, Random, and Witness the Dead'Captivating characters and an intriguing plot. A great new find for crime fans' - Lin Anderson, author of the Rhona MacLeod crime series 'Pitch-perfect, combined with a clever mystery, but more than that, it's a witty, tense crime novel written in a highly readable style' - Russel D McLean, author of the J McNee detective series

The lips had been darned closed with six long, black, stitches. Clumsily executed, they gave the face a crude deaths-head appearance, like a child's drawing scrawled upon a wall . . .1851, Angel Meadow Asylum. Dr Rutherford, principal physician to the insane, is found dead, his head bashed in, his ears cut off, his lips and eyes stitched closed. The police direct their attention towards Angel Meadow's inmates, but to Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain the crime is an act of calculated retribution, rather than of madness. To discover the truth Jem and Will must pursue the story through the darkest corners of the city - from the depths of a notorious rookery, to the sordid rooms of London's brothels, the gallows, the graveyard, the convict fleet and then back to the asylum. In a world where guilt and innocence, crime and atonement, madness and reason, are bounded by hypocrisy, ambition and betrayal, Jem and Will soon find themselves caught up in a web of dark secrets and hidden identities.'Following on from the events of acclaimed debut Beloved Poison, Dark Asylum vividly portrays the Gothic horror and questionable science of Victorian mental asylums in chilling detail. Meticulously researched and masterfully plotted, E.S. Thomson has written a complex, harrowing and highly enjoyable tale' - Daily Express'Here's a tale of Victorian London to freeze your blood on a cold winter's night' - Evening Telegraph

A gripping thriller that brings together the secrets of the past and the crimes of the present in a twist that will leave you gasping - perfect for fans Patricia Gibney's The Missing Ones and Rachel Abbott's The Sixth Window. A BRUTAL ACT OF VIOLENCEA body has been found dumped on the shores of Southend. Already under scrutiny following the murder of a corrupt cop, DS Frank Pearson and DC Cat Russell of the Essex Major Investigation Team are tasked with solving the case quickly, and quietly.A WOMAN TOO SCARED TO TALKWhen the victim's identity is revealed, the list of suspects begins to grow: a young woman knows more than she's letting on, but is she really involved? Or there's the estranged father, who's been trying to find the victim for months. One thing is clear: no one is telling the whole truth.A KILLER BACK FOR MORE?Then a shocking tragedy leads Pearson to a similar murder case from decades before. Is it a coincidence, or is history repeating itself? As Pearson and Russell search for the answer, they find themselves drawn into a terrifying cover-up going back fifty years...If you like Peter James, Patricia Gibney, Rachel Abbott, Robert Dugoni, LJ Ross, Angela Marsons or Ed James, then you will love this stylish and gripping crime debut. ****Praise for Mark Hardie:'Immensely impressive' The Times'The investigation into a copper's dramatic death in downbeat Southend scoops a cast of equally downbeat characters into its net, and tensions rise as their stories fold around each other. An accomplished debut' Sunday Times'Emotional, intelligent, sensual and with such a strong voice, Burned and Broken by Mark Hardie is a crime debut that deserves huge success' Harry Illingworth (Goldsboro Books)'I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book and I would recommend it to anybody. I can't wait to read more investigations led by DS Frank Pearson and DC Cat Russell' Amanda Oughton (Ginger Book Geek)'The story is easy to follow without being too simple, and the novel really manages to evoke a sense of atmosphere and reality within its pages. I didn't find myself becoming distracted whilst reading at all, and raced through it in hours. I will certainly be reading any future novels, particularly in this series which I wholeheartedly enjoyed' Laura Naz (Snazzy Books)

'One of the most stunning debuts I've ever read...Read it!' David Baldacci'Packed with sneaky moves and teasing possibilities that keep the reader guessing...The Dry is a breathless page-turner' Janet Maslin, New York TimesTHE SIMON MAYO RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB CHOICEAUSTRALIA INDIE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017AUSTRALIA INDIE DEBUT OF THE YEAR 2017WHO REALLY KILLED THE HADLER FAMILY?I just can't understand how someone like him could do something like that.Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn't rained in small country town Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty.Policeman Aaron Falk returns to the town of his youth for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke's death threatens to unearth. And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past and why he left home bubble to the surface as he questions the truth of his friend's crime.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER'That day, waiting had been almost unbearable. He wanted something more spectacular, something that couldn't be ignored. These deaths needed to make a mark . . .' Psychological profiler Tony Hill is trained to see patterns, to decode the mysteries of human behaviour, and when he comes across a series of suicides among women tormented by vicious online predators, he begins to wonder if there is more to these tragedies than meets the eye. Similar circumstances, different deaths. Could it be murder? But what kind of serial killer wants his crimes to stay hidden?Former DCI Carol Jordan has her own demons to confront, but with lives at stake, Tony and Carol begin the hunt for the most dangerous and terrifying kind of killer - someone who has nothing to fear and nothing to lose . . .