No Exit Press – serie

'Searingly topical.' THE TELEGRAPH'Shocking.' HEATA fresh and topical debut thriller where two detectives on a chilling murder case begin a love affair, only for one of them to become a prime suspect.Detective Erin Crane is investigating sixteen-year-old Sophie Madson's murder along with detective Tom Radley. They have a close professional bond built on mutual trust and a shared contempt for the head of the anti-corruption team, Walker.During the investigation, Tom discovers Erin’s biggest secret, but to her surprise, the revelation brings them closer together, and Tom and Erin embark on a love affair - despite all the risks.Then Erin discovers dashcam footage showing Sophie getting into Tom’s car barely an hour before she died. Tom becomes the prime suspect and everything Erin thought she could trust begins to crumble...Reader reviews'If I could rate it higher than five stars, I would do!''So many twists and turns that kept me guessing all the way through!'

Heart Attacks is California's last secret spot - the premier mysto surf haunt, the stuff of rumour and legend. The rumours say you must cross Indian land to get there. They tell of hostile locals and shark-infested waters where waves in excess of thirty feet break a mile from shore. For down-and-out photographer Jack Fletcher, the chance to shoot these waves in the company of surfing legend Drew Harmon offers the promise of new beginnings. But Drew is not alone in the northern reaches of the state. His young wife, Kendra, lives there with him. Obsessed with the unsolved murder of a local girl, Kendra has embarked upon a quest of her own, a search for truth - however dark that truth may prove to be.In this desolate wasteland the search for the perfect wave becomes a quest for survival, as events lead inevitably to their final, tragic climax.

From the LA Times Book Prize-winning author comes a suspenseful and mind-bending novel about Eldon Chance, a forensic neuropsychiatrist at the end of his rope - now a Hulu TV series starring Hugh Laurie and Gretchen Moi.Chance is a dark story about psychiatric mystery, sexual obsession, fractured identities, and terrifyingly realistic violence; a tale told amid the back streets of California's Bay Area, far from the cleansing breezes of the ocean.The antihero of this book, Dr. Eldon Chance, a neuropsychiatrist, is a man primed for spectacular ruin. Into Dr. Chance's blighted life walks Jaclyn Blackstone, the abused, attractive wife of an Oakland homicide detective, a violent and jealous man. Jaclyn appears to be suffering from a dissociative identity disorder. In time, Chance will fall into bed with her; or is it with her alter ego, the voracious and volatile Jackie Black? The not-so-good doctor, despite his professional training, isn't quite sure and soon finds himself up against her husband, Raymond, a formidable and dangerous adversary.Meanwhile, Chance also meets a young man named D, a self-styled, streetwise philosopher skilled in the art of the blade. It is around this trio of unique and dangerous individuals that long-guarded secrets begin to unravel, obsessions grow, and the doctor's carefully arranged life comes to the brink of implosion.Chance is a twisted, harrowing, and impossible-to-put-down head trip through the fun house of fate; it's not pretty, it's not sweet, but it is disturbing and unforgettable.

Judge Walden is back, to preside over five new cases at Bermondsey Crown Court.Retired resident judge Peter Murphy takes us back to the world of criminal trials in South London for another session with Charlie keeping the peace between his fellow judges - Marjorie, 'Legless' and Hubert - while fighting off the attacks of the Grey Smoothies, the civil servants who seem intent on reducing the court's dwindling resources to vanishing point in the name of 'business cases' and 'value for money'.Meet the rum and memorable characters who pop into Charlie's domain, including Lester Fogle from one of London's Disorganised Crime Families, Arthur Swivell the one-time Bermondsey singing legend and the very unbardlike Elias Shakespeare. And you will never feel the same about 'The Owl and the Pussycat' or the Entente Cordiale again.Fortunately, Charlie has Elsie and Jeanie's lattes and ham and cheese baps, and newspaper vendor George's witty banter, to sustain him in the mornings; and in the evenings, the Delights of the Raj, or La Bella Napoli, to enjoy with the Reverend Mrs Walden.

When a hysterical mother reports her baby's sudden disappearance, suspicion immediately falls on the absent husband. But Detective Geraldine Steel's gut instinct tells her this case is not as simple as her colleagues think...Complications in the mother's life begin to surface, including her relationship with her controlling father, a controversial political figure. As the police investigate, their urgent attempt to find the missing infant grows ever more perplexing.Steel is forced to suspect everyone associated with the family - and when a body is discovered, matters take a deadly turn.

Shortlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Gold Crown A gritty and lyrical American epic about a young woman who disguises herself as a boy and heads West.In the spring of 1885, seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family's homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbours, she cuts her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her gun-slinging fugitive brother Noah and bring him home.A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess's quest lands her in the employ of the territory's violent, capricious governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah - dead or alive. Wrestling with her brother's outlaw identity, and haunted by questions of her own, Jess must outmanoeuvre those who underestimate her, ultimately rising to become a hero in her own right.Told in Jess's wholly original and unforgettable voice, the story brims with page-turning Western action, but its approach is modern and nuanced, touching on powerful issues from gender and sexuality to family and identity.In the sweeping storytelling tradition of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, Whiskey When We're Dry transcends the straight-and-narrow Western to land among the classics.

England, 1943 Lost in fog, pilot Vee Katchatourian is forced to make an emergency landing where she meets enigmatic RAF airman Stefan Bergel, and then can't get him out of her mind.In occupied Poland, Ewa Hartman hosts German officers in her father's guest house, while secretly gathering intelligence for the Polish resistance. Mourning her lover, Stefan, who was captured by the Soviets at the start of the war, Ewa is shocked to see him on the street one day.Haunted by a terrible choice he made in captivity, Stefan asks Vee and Ewa to help him expose one of the darkest secrets of the war. But it is not clear where everyone's loyalties lie until they are tested.Based on WWII atrocity the Katyn Massacre, When We Fall is a moving story of three lives forever altered by one fatal choice.

When a sex worker dies in suspicious circumstances in York, Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel struggles to remain focused on the murder investigation. She is distracted by her worries about her colleague and life partner, Ian Peterson, who has disappeared. Geraldine becomes close to her colleague, Matthew. She is unaware that Ian is working under cover in London, helping to identify a criminal gang who have been targeting Geraldine. As a second victim is discovered in York, Ian's life is threatened by a psychopath. If he fails in his mission, both he and Geraldine may die...

** LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER ** Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren't getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can't handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer's increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife.The Killing Hills is a novel of betrayal - sexual, personal, within and between the clans that populate the hollers - and the way it so often shades into violence. Chris Offutt has delivered a dark, witty, and absolutely compelling novel of murder and honor, with an investigator-hero unlike any in fiction.

When two seemingly unconnected mysterious deaths occur on his watch, police chief Jesse Stone must pull out all the stops to unravel the truth and stop a killer from striking again.The small town of Paradise is devastated when a star high-school baseball player is found dead at the bottom of a bluff just a day after winning the team's biggest game. For Jesse, the loss is doubly difficult - the teen was the nephew of his colleague, Suitcase Simpson, and Jesse had been coaching the young shortstop. As he searches for answers about how the boy died and why, he is stonewalled at every turn, and it seems that someone is determined to keep him from digging further.Jesse suddenly must divide his attention between two cases after the shocking murder of former Paradise police chief, Charlie Farrell. Before his death, Farrell had been looking into a series of scam calls that preyed upon the elderly. But how do these 'ghost calls' connect to his murder? When threats - and gunshots - appear on Jesse's own doorstep, the race to find answers is on. Both old and new enemies come into play, and in the end, Jesse and his team must discover the common factor between the two deaths in order to prevent a third.

A hard-boiled crime novel set in the jazz world of Harlem between 1936 and 1961, Viper's Dream combines elements of the epic Godfather films and the detective novels of Chester Himes to tell the story of one of the most respected and feared Black gangsters in America.At the centre of Viper's Dream is a turbulent love story. And the climax bears an element of Greek tragedy. For the better part of 20 years, Clyde 'The Viper' Morton has been in love with Yolanda 'Yo-Yo' DeVray, a singer of immense talent but a woman consumed by demons. By turns ambitious and self-destructive, conniving and naive, Yo-Yo is a classic femme fatale. She is a bright star in a constellation of compelling characters including the chauffeur-turned-gangster Peewee Robinson, the Jewish kingpin Abraham 'Mr. O' Orlinsky, the heroin dealer West Indian Charlie, the corrupt cop Red Carney, the wife-beating singer Pretty Paul Baxter, the pimp Buttercup Jones and the brutal enforcer Randall Country Johnson.But Viper's Dream has a fast-paced vibe all its own, a story charged with suspense, intrigue and plot twists and spiced with violence and humour. It is also steeped in music. The Viper's story is intertwined with the history of jazz over a quarter century.

FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR CHRIS OFFUTT.'Excellent Kentucky noir — Offutt's third Mick Hardin novel is the best yet.' — KirkusAn explosive return to the mayhem of the Kentucky hills, Code of the Hills is a harrowing novel of family — of what we’re willing to do to protect and avenge the ones we love.Mick Hardin is back in the hills of Kentucky. He’d planned to touch down briefly before heading to France, marking the end to his twenty-year Army career.In Rocksalt, his sister Linda the sheriff is investigating the murder of Pete Lowe, a sought-after mechanic at the local racetrack. After another body is found, Linda and her deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver wonder if the two murders are related.Linda steps into harm’s way just as a third body turns up and Mick ends up being deputised again.The dark, gripping, and propulsive thriller of murder and secrets in Rocksalt, Kentucky where little is as it seems.'This is a marvellous series… These have become must-reads for me and I enjoy every minute of the reading experience' Deadly Pleasures'Beautifully descriptive... Offutt’s Mick Hardin novels are powerful books that feature characters with questionable ethics.' Library Journal'Righteous Kentucky noir... I gulped it down, relishing the burn' — Ian Rankin on Shifty’s Boys

'A must for fans of Claire Keegan and Colin Walsh' Cailean Steed'A complex psychological thriller... Beautifully written. Unflinching. Staggeringly good' Gill Perdue'Bold and claustrophobic... unpicks those darkest of family secrets with heartbreaking honesty' Anna BaileyJanuary 2023. Cara’s great-aunt Audrey has died, and her husband Tony needs her presence at the funeral. It will be a stretch for Cara, whose every day is an emotional challenge, a challenge which is getting harder as her daughter’s tenth birthday approaches. But with her family beside her, she’s prepared to try…June 2000. Ten-year-old Cara and her sister Charlotte are sent to live with their great aunt and uncle, part of a famous acting family, when their mother is hospitalised. The Wolfes see the world as a drama they are starring in, and while her sister seems instantly at home Cara feels very much the outsider. And for all the staginess of Chaplin House, there is real tragedy brewing…

A hilarious and satirical debut novel exploring religious hypocrisy in an Irish grade school.Combining the spirit of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim with a bawdy evisceration of hypocrisy in old-school Catholic education, The Brothers' Lot is a comic satire that tells the story of the Brothers of Godly Coercion School for Young Boys of Meager Means, a dilapidated Dickensian institution run by an assemblage of eccentric, insane, and often nasty celibate Brothers. The school is in decline and the Brothers hunger for a miracle to move their founder, the Venerable Saorseach O'Rahilly, along the path to Sainthood.When a possible miracle presents itself, the Brothers fervently seize on it with the help of the ethically pliant Diocesan Investigator, himself hungry for a miracle to boost his career. The school simultaneously comes under threat from strange outside forces. The harder the Brothers try to defend the school, the worse things seem to get. It takes an outsider, Finbar Sullivan, a young student newly arrived at the school, to see that the source of the threat may in fact lie inside the school itself. As the miracle unravels, the Brothers' efforts to preserve it unleash a disastrous chain of events.Tackling a serious subject from the oblique viewpoint of satire, The Brothers' Lot explores the culture that allowed abuses within church-run institutions in Ireland to go unchecked for decades. The novel inhabits a space where Angela's Ashes meets the work of Flann O'Brien and Mervyn Peake, while providing a look at a regrettable era that still haunts many countries across the globe.

The fourth in the detective series featuring DI Geraldine SteelWhen the bodies of two black girls are discovered in North London, the pressure is on to find a killer before the case divides the local community. But motive seems to go far beyond race in DI Geraldine Steel's first investigation in the nation's capital.Two teeth were extracted from each victim, and when this information is leaked to the press, there is a media frenzy over the unusual MO. As the police pursue their lead suspect, a third girl goes missing.With the death toll mounting, time is running out for Geraldine as she hunts for the elusive killer the media are calling 'The Dentist'.

No.5 in the Lew Griffin SeriesAs Lew Griffin leaves a New Orleans music club with an older white woman he has just met, someone fires a shot and Lew goes down. When he comes to, Griffin discovers that most of a year has gone by since that night. Who was the woman? Which of them was the target? Who was the sniper? Somewhere in the Crescent City - and in the white supremacist movement crawling through it - there's an answer to the questions left by that shot that echoed through the night. But to get to it, Griffin is going to have to work with the only people offering help, people he knows he should avoid.

In Cypress Grove, James Sallis introduced his compelling new protagonist - Turner. Susannah Yager of The Telegraph said: "Sallis's deceptively easy style disguises the skill with which he has produced a satisfyingly complete portrait of a man's life" - Now Turner is back in Cripple Creek, a novel as atmospheric and eventful as anything Sallis has written.A year or so has passed since the events of Cypress Grove. Ex-policeman, ex-con, former therapist, Turner has become Deputy Sheriff in the small town within driving distance of Memphis, Tennessee, to which he had migrated in hopes of escaping his past. His life is mending as he and Val Bjorn grow closer. And then a young man, arrested on a routine traffic stop with more than $200,000 in his trunk, is forcibly sprung from jail after Sheriff Don Lee is brutally assaulted. Throwing caution aside, Turner goes in pursuit to Memphis, unleashing ghosts he thought he had left behind, and endangering all that matters to him now.

Look in the mirror. You're nobody. You know pursuing the truth will get you killed. But you refuse to just fade away.You've been designated an enemy of the largest secret national security apparatus in America's history. All assassins' guns are aimed at you. And you run for your life, branded with the code name you made iconic: Condor.Last Days of the Condor is a breakneck, ticking-clock saga of America on the edge of a startling spy world revolution. Set in the savage streets and Kafkaesque corridors of Washington DC, Last Days of the Condor is shot through with sex and suspense, secret agent tradecraft and full-speed action.

When a police officer's daughter was found raped and murdered, Sailor Grant, the local nonce, was sent down. Sharman always had his doubts, but that part of his life is over.Now, Sailor is out of prison and keeps phoning Sharman to help him get justice, but Nick wants to be left alone. When Sailor is found dead and Sharman is half beaten to death by the local coppers, Nick realises that he must find the truth about the events from his past before those close to him are killed.

Bram Stoker's Dracula, still the most famous of all vampire stories, was first published in 1897. But the bloodsucking Count was not the only member of the undead to bare his fangs in the literature of the period. Late Victorian and Edwardian fiction is full of vampires and this anthology of scary stories introduces modern readers to fifteen of them. A travel writer in Sweden unleashes something awful from an ancient mausoleum. A psychic detective battles a vampire that has taken refuge in an Egyptian mummy. A nightmare becomes reality in the tower room of a gloomy country house. The Rivals of Dracula is a collection of classic tales to chill the blood and tingle the spine, including the following stories:Alice & Claude Askew - 'Aylmer Vance and the Vampire'EF Benson - 'The Room in the Tower'Mary Cholmondeley - 'Let Loose'Ulric Daubeny - 'The Sumach'Augustus Hare - 'The Vampire of Croglin Grange'Julian Hawthorne - 'Ken's Mystery'E and H Heron - 'The Story of Baelbrow'MR James - 'Count Magnus'Vernon Lee - 'Marsyas in Flanders'Richard Marsh - 'The Mask'Hume Nisbet - 'The Vampire Maid'Frank Norris - 'Grettir at Thorhall-stead'Phil Robinson - 'Medusa'HB Marriott Watson - 'The Stone Chamber'

Witnessing a dramatic death at London's Waterloo Station triggers a series of events that shatter Eva Scott's world. Dying words uttered on the station concourse awaken a history she had thought long buried. But the past is about to be resurrected, in all its brutal reality.Soon, Eva's life is out of her hands. A genetic key is keeping her alive; but foreshadowing her death. People she loved and lost materialise and then disappear, testing the limits of her sanity. Inextricably linked to her survival is the potential takedown of an economic power, on which hang the lives of many others.The only way out is through. But Eva's life is no longer her own. And it's killing her.

In the woods outside the town of Willnot, the remains of several people have been discovered, unnerving the community and unsettling Dr. Lamar Hale, the town's all-purpose general practitioner, surgeon and town conscience.At the same time, Bobby Lowndes - his military records missing, and followed by the FBI - mysteriously reappears in his hometown, at Hale's door. Over the ensuing months, the daily dramas Hale faces as he tends to his town and to his partner, Richard, collide with the inexplicable vagaries of life in Willnot. And when a gunshot aimed at Lowndes critically wounds Richard, Hale's word is truly upended.In his inimitable spare style, James Sallis conjures indelible characters and scenes that resonate long after they appear. 'You live with someone year after year, you think you've heard all the stories,' Lamar observes, 'but you never have.'

A hand gripped her upper arm so suddenly it made her yelp. Biting her lower lip, she spun round, lashing out in terror. As she yanked her arm out of his grasp, her elbow hit the side of his chest. Struggling to cling on to her, he lost his footing. She staggered back and reached out, leaning one hand on the cold wall of the tunnel. Before she had recovered her balance he fell, arms flailing, eyes glaring wildly as he disappeared over the edge of the platform onto the rails below. . .Two victims and a suspect whose alibi appears open to doubt... Geraldine Steel is thrown into a double murder investigation which threatens not only her career, but her life. When her previously unknown twin Helena turns up, her problems threaten to make Geraldine's life turn toxic in more ways than one.

The eleventh Geraldine Steel mysteryTHEY SAY SUICIDE. SHE SAYS MURDER.Mark Abbott is dead. His sister refuses to believe it was suicide, but only Detective Sergeant Geraldine Steel will listen.When other members of Mark's family disappear, Geraldine's suspicions are confirmed.Taking a risk, Geraldine finds herself confronted by an adversary deadlier than any she has faced before... Her boss Ian is close, but will he arrive in time to save her, or is this the end for Geraldine Steel?

WHEN THE TARGETS ARE RANDOM, YOU COULD BE NEXTWHEN THE TARGETS ARE RANDOM, YOU COULD BE NEXTA man is killed in apparently random attack, and suspicion falls on a gang of muggers. Only Detective Sergeant Geraldine Steel thinks this is the work of a more deliberate murderer.Two more victims are discovered, after further seemingly indiscriminate attacks. The muggers are tracked down, with tragic consequences, but does the killer still remain at large? When Geraldine finally manages to track down a witness, she finds her own life is in danger...

Loyalty can save a soul — or destroy one.Franco Fiorvante is a handsome lemon-grower who has toiled for years on the estate of boss Baron Zito. Franco dreams of owning his own lemon grove, but the rigid class system of Sicily thwarts his ambitions. Determined to secure a prosperous future, Franco will do anything to prove his loyalty to the Baron. But when Baron Zito asks him to arrange the kidnapping of a little boy, Franco crosses the point of no return, setting in motion the making of the world’s first Mafia family.Gaetano Catalano is an idealistic young lawyer, whose devotion for justice is a calling. Gaetano is a member of the Beati Paoli, a real-life secret society of aristocrats who investigate crime. Gaetano and the Beati Paoli set out to find the boy, but for Gaetano, the mission turns to obsession. He risks everything to right the wrong.The kidnapped boy, Dante, grows up without even knowing his last name. He doubts his own sanity until he meets Lucia, a girl with a tragic past of her own. They fall in love, and set out to find his true identity.

A master storyteller’s novel of crime, corruption, and antisemitism in early Manhattan, Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side — the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century — in a dark mirror.Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers.He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals.Charged with rooting out the Jewish 'Mr. Hyde', a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man.

'Simply put, Merle Nygate is one of the best spy novelists writing today.' I.S. Berry'Sophisticated and pulse-pounding writing' Express'Powerfully evoked... drawn with insight and sensitivity, bringing a strong sense of authenticity' Financial TimesIn the aftermath of Hamas's October 7th attack on Israel, Mossad's London station chief Eli Amiram is fighting battles on all fronts. When his ambitious rival plans an assassination on British soil - supposedly authorized by Trump supporters - Eli suspects a deeper conspiracy.Meanwhile, British intelligence asset Petra is hunting for redemption. Tasked with recruiting Wasim Al-Arikhi - whose sister she failed to save from becoming a suicide bomber - Petra's drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Can Wasim be trusted or has she become a target?As Eli and Petra's paths converge, they discover that in the shadow world of international espionage, the greatest threats often come from within. They must confront not just their enemies, but their own moral choices. A sophisticated spy thriller that weaves together tradecraft, betrayal and the human cost of intelligence work.

SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR: When Malcolm discovers his CIA colleagues butchered in the blood-spattered office he realises that only an oversight by the assassins has saved his life. He contacts CIA headquarters for help but when an attempted rendezvous goes badly wrong he realises that no-one can be trusted. Code-named Condor, Malcolm disappears into the streets of Washington, hoping to evade the killers long enough to unravel the conspiracy - but will that be enough to save his life?LAST DAYS OF THE CONDOR: Look in the mirror. You're nobody. You know pursuing the truth will get you killed. But you refuse to just fade away.You've been designated an enemy of the largest secret national security apparatus in America's history. All assassins' guns are aimed at you. And you run for your life, branded with the code name you made iconic: Condor.Last Days of the Condor is a breakneck, ticking-clock saga of America on the edge of a startling spy world revolution. Set in the savage streets and Kafkaesque corridors of Washington DC, Last Days of the Condor is shot through with sex and suspense, secret agent tradecraft and full-speed action.