The Barry Award 2012
The Keeper of Lost Causes By Jussi Adler-Olsen Plume - 2012 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category The Keeper of Lost Causes
By Jussi Adler-Olsen Plume
Jussi Adler-Olsen, author of The Absent One, is Denmark's premier crime writer. His books routinely top the bestseller lists in northern Europe, and he's won just about every Nordic crime-writing award, including the prestigious Glass Key Award-also won by Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, and Jo Nesbo. Now, Dutton is thrilled to introduce him to America. The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Adler- Olsen's Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl MØrck, who used to be a good homicide detective-one of Copenhagen's best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't so lucky, and Carl, who didn't draw his weapon, blames himself.

So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects. But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl's been selected to run Department Q, a new special investigations division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen's coldest cases to keep him company, Carl's been put out to pasture. So he's as surprised as anyone when a case actually captures his interest. A missing politician vanished without a trace five years earlier. The world assumes she's dead. His colleagues snicker about the time he's wasting. But Carl may have the last laugh, and redeem himself in the process. Because she isn't dead . . . yet.

Plume – July 31, 2012 – 416 pages - ISBN-10: 0452297907

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The Accident By Linwood Barclay -2012 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category The Accident
By Linwood Barclay
Glen Garber, a contractor, has seen his business shaken by the housing crisis, and now his wife, Sheila, is taking a business course at night to increase her chances of landing a good-paying job. But she should have been home by now. With their eight-year-old daughter sleeping soundly, Glen soon finds his worst fears confirmed: Sheila and two others have been killed in a car accident. Grieving and in denial, Glen resolves to investigate the accident himself—and begins to uncover layers of lawlessness beneath the placid surface of their Connecticut suburb, secret after dangerous secret behind the closed doors. Propelled into a vortex of corruption and illegal activity, pursued by mysterious killers, and confronted by threats from neighbors he thought he knew, Glen must take his own desperate measures and go to terrifying new places in himself to avenge his wife and protect his child.

Bantam – August 9, 2011 – 400 pages - ISBN-10: 0553807188

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The Accident By Linwood Barclay -2012 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category Hurt Machine
By Reed Farrel Coleman
At a pre-wedding party for his daughter Sarah, Moe Prager is approached by his ex-wife and former PI partner Carmella Melendez. It seems Carmella's estranged sister Alta has been murdered, but no one in New York City seems to care. Why? Alta, a FDNY EMT, and her partner had months earlier refused to give assistance to a dying man at a fancy downtown eatery.

Moe decides to help Carmella as a means to distract himself from his own life-and-death struggle. Making headway on the case is no mean feat as no one, including Alta's partner Maya Watson, wants to cooperate. Moe chips away until he discovers a cancer roiling just below the surface, a cancer whose symptoms include bureaucratic greed, sexual harassment, and blackmail. But is any of it connected to Alta's brutal murder?

Tyrus Books – December 18, 2011 – 320 pages - ISBN-10: 1440531994

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Iron House By John Hart- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category Iron House
By John Hart
Two families. Two brothers. One explosive secret. John Hart has written four New York Times bestsellers and won an unprecedented two back-to-back Edgar Awards. The New York Times labeled his work “Grisham-style intrigue and Turow-style brooding.” Now he delivers a gut-wrenching, heart-stopping thriller no reader will soon forget. There was nothing but time at the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, time for two orphans to learn that life is neither painless nor won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is both feared and fiercely protective. When an older boy is brutally killed, Michael makes the ultimate sacrifice to protect his brother: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.

For two decades, Michael thrives on the streets of New York, eventually clawing his way to a world of wealth, fear and respect. But the life he’s fought to build unravels when he meets a woman who knows nothing of his past or sins. He wants a fresh start with Elena, the chance to build a family of his own. But a life in organized crime is not so easily abandoned. With a price on his head and everyone he loves at risk, Michael spirits Elena back to North Carolina, to the brother he’d lost and a thicket of intrigue more dense than he could possibly imagine. In a tour de force narrative of violence, hope and redemption, the brothers must return to the Iron House of their childhood, to the place that almost broke them, the place it all began.

Thomas Dunne Books – July 12, 2011 – 432 pages - ? ISBN-10: 0312380348

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Hell is Empty By Craig Johnson - 2012 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category Hell is Empty
By Craig Johnson
Walt faces an icy hell in this New York Times bestseller from the author of The Cold Dish and As the Crow Flies, the seventh novel in the Walt Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit A&E original drama series

Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love this seventh novel from Craig Johnson, the New York Times bestselling author of The Cold Dish and As the Crow Flies. Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits.

Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian rumored to be one of the country's most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years ago and burying him deep within the Bighorn Mountains. Walt is asked to transport Shade through a blizzard to the site, but what begins as a typical criminal transport turns personal when the veteran lawman learns that he knows the dead boy's family. Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante's Inferno, Walt braves the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death to ensure that justice—both civil and spiritual—is served.

The Walt Longmire mystery series is the basis for Longmire, the hit original drama series from A&E.

Viking Adult – June 2, 2011 – 320 pages - ISBN-10: 0670022772
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The Troubled Man By Henning Mankell- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category The Troubled Man
By Henning Mankell
The much-anticipated return of Henning Mankell’s brilliant, brooding detective Kurt Wallander.

Håkan von Enke, a retired naval officer, disappears during a walk in a forest near Stockholm. Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation, but he is personally affected—von Enke is his daughter’s father-in-law—and Wallander is soon interfering in matters that are not his responsibility. He is confounded by the information he uncovers, which hints at elaborate Cold War espionage.

Wallander is also haunted by his own past and desperate to live up to the hope that a new granddaughter represents, and will soon come face-to-face with his most intractable adversary—himself.

Suspenseful, darkly atmospheric, psychologically gripping, The Troubled Man is certain to be celebrated by readers and critics alike.

Knopf – March 29, 2011 – 384 pages - ISBN-10: 0307593495

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Learning to Swim By Sara J. Henry -2012 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category Learning to Swim
By Sara J. Henry
“If I’d blinked, I would have missed it. But I didn’t, and I saw something fall from the rear deck of the opposite ferry: a small, wide-eyed human face, in one tiny frozen moment, as it plummeted toward the water.”

When she witnesses a small child tumbling from a ferry into Lake Champlain, Troy Chance dives in without thinking. Harrowing moments later, she bobs to the surface, pulling a terrified little boy with her. As the ferry disappears into the distance, she begins a bone-chilling swim nearly a mile to shore with a tiny passenger on her back.

Surprisingly, he speaks only French. He’ll acknowledge that his name is Paul; otherwise, he’s resolutely mute. Troy assumes that Paul’s frantic parents will be in touch with the police or the press. But what follows is a shocking and deafening silence. And Troy, a freelance writer, finds herself as fiercely determined to protect Paul as she is to find out what happened to him. What she uncovers will take her into a world of wealth and privilege and heedless self-indulgence—a world in which the murder of a child is not unthinkable. She’ll need skill and courage to survive and protect her charge and herself.

Sara J. Henry’s powerful and compelling Learning to Swim will move and disturb readers right up to its shattering conclusion.

Random – February 22, 2011 – 304 pages - ISBN-10: 0307718387

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The Devotion of Suspect X By Keigo Higashino-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category The Devotion of Suspect X
By Keigo Higashino
Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko’s next door neighbor, middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help, disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step.

When the body turns up and is identified, Detective Kusanagi draws the case and Yasuko comes under suspicion. Kusanagi is unable to find any obvious holes in Yasuko’s manufactured alibi and yet is still sure that there’s something wrong. Kusanagi brings in Dr. Manabu Yukawa, a physicist and college friend who frequently consults with the police. Yukawa, known to the police by the nickname Professor Galileo, went to college with Ishigami. After meeting up with him again, Yukawa is convinced that Ishigami had something to do with the murder. What ensues is a high level battle of wits, as Ishigami tries to protect Yasuko by outmaneuvering and outthinking Yukawa, who faces his most clever and determined opponent yet.

Minotaur Books - February 1, 2011 - 304 pages - ISBN-10: 0312375069

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he Boy in the Suitcase By Lene Kaaberbol and Agnette Friis- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category The Boy in the Suitcase
By Lene Kaaberbol and Agnette Friis
Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive. Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down.

Soho Crime - November 8, 2011 - ISBN: 156947981x - 304 Pages

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Turn of Mind By Alice LaPlante - 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category Turn of Mind
By Alice LaPlante
Turn of Mind, a literary thriller about a retired orthopedic surgeon suffering from dementia and accused of killing her best friend, made a triumphant debut in hardcover, hitting best-seller lists including The New York Times, and crossing from the book review pages into health and lifestyle sections of newspapers and radio stations across the country.

When the book opens, Dr. Jennifer White’s best friend, Amanda, who lived down the block, has been killed and four of her fingers have been surgically removed. Dr. White is the prime suspect and she herself doesn’t know whether she did it. Told in White’s own voice, fractured and eloquent, a picture emerges of the surprisingly intimate, complex alliance between these life-long friends—two proud, forceful women who were at times each other’s most formidable adversaries. As the investigation into the murder deepens and White’s relationships with her live-in caretaker and two grown children intensify, a chilling question lingers: is White’s shattered memory preventing her from revealing the truth or helping her to hide it?

A startling portrait of a disintegrating mind clinging to bits of reality through anger, frustration, shame, and unspeakable loss, Turn of Mind is a remarkable debut that examines the deception and frailty of memory and how it defines our very existence.

Atlantic Monthly Press – July 5, 2011 – 320 pages - ISBN-10: 0802119778

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The Informationist By Taylor Stevens  -2012 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category The Informationist
By Taylor Stevens
Vanessa “Michael” Munroe deals in information—expensive information—working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back. Until now.

A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It’s not her usual line of work, but she can’t resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget.

Gripping, ingenious, and impeccably paced, The Informationist marks the arrival or a thrilling new talent. Crown - March 8, 2011- 320 pages - ISBN-10: 0307717097

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Before I Go to Sleep By S.J. Watson -2012 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category Before I Go to Sleep
By S.J. Watson
As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I’m still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me. . . ." 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 be telling you only half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

Harper – June 14, 2011 – 368 pages - ISBN-10: 0062060554

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Now You See Me By S.J. Bolton- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Now You See Me
By S.J. Bolton
Late one night after interviewing a witness, Lacey Flint, a young detective constable, stumbles onto a woman brutally stabbed just moments before. Within twenty-four hours, a reporter receives an anonymous letter pointing out alarming similarities between the murder and Jack the Ripper’s first murder—a letter that calls out Lacey by name. If it’s real, and they have a killer bent on re-creating London’s bloody past, history shows they have just five days until the next attempt.

No one believes the connections are anything more than a sadistic killer’s game, not even Lacey, whom the killer seems to be taunting specifically. But as the case unfolds, the details start reminding Lacey of a part of her own past she’d rather keep hidden. And the only way to do that is to catch the killer herself.

Fast paced and riveting, S. J. Bolton’s modern gothic novel Now You See Me is nothing less than a masterpiece of suspense fiction.

Minotaur Books – June 7, 2011 – 400 pages - ISBN-10: 0312600526

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Hell’s Bells By John Connolly-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Hell’s Bells
By John Connolly
Samuel Johnson - with a little help from his dachshund Boswell and a very unlucky demon named Nurd - has sent the demons back to Hell. But the diabolical Mrs Abernathy is not one to take defeat lying down.

When she reopens the portal and sucks Samuel and Boswell down into the underworld, she brings an ice-cream van full of dwarfs as well. And two policemen. Can this eccentric gang defeat the forces of Evil? And is there life after Hell for Nurd?

Hodder & Stoughton – May 2011 – 272 pages - ISBN-10: 1444724940

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Bad Signs By R. J. Ellory -2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Bad Signs
By R. J. Ellory
A dark and dramatic tale of two brothers on the run from the law... Orphaned by an act of senseless violence that took their mother from them, half-brothers Clarence Luckman and Elliott Danziger have been raised in state institutions, unaware of any world outside. But their lives take a sudden turn when they are seized as hostages by a convicted killer en route to death row.

Earl Sheridan is a psychopath of the worst kind, but he has the potential to change the boys' lives for ever. As the trio set off on a frenetic escape from the law through California and Texas, the two brothers must come to terms with the ever-growing tide of violence that follows in their wake - something that forces them to make a choice about their lives, and their relationship to one another.

Set in the 1960s, BAD SIGNS is a tale of the darkness within all of us, the inherent hope for salvation, and the ultimate consequences of evil. It returns to the haunting ground covered in the award-winning, international bestseller, A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS. A dark and dramatic tale of two brothers on the run from the law...

Orphaned by an act of senseless violence that took their mother from them, half-brothers Clarence Luckman and Elliott Danziger have been raised in state institutions, unaware of any world outside. But their lives take a sudden turn when they are seized as hostages by a convicted killer en route to death row.

Earl Sheridan is a psychopath of the worst kind, but he has the potential to change the boys' lives for ever. As the trio set off on a frenetic escape from the law through California and Texas, the two brothers must come to terms with the ever-growing tide of violence that follows in their wake - something that forces them to make a choice about their lives, and their relationship to one another.

Set in the 1960s, BAD SIGNS is a tale of the darkness within all of us, the inherent hope for salvation, and the ultimate consequences of evil. It returns to the haunting ground covered in the award-winning, international bestseller, A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS.

Orion – November 13, 2012 – 464 pages -ISBN-10: 1409104761

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The House at Sea’s End By Elly Griffiths - 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category The House at Sea’s End
By Elly Griffiths
There is already a neat trench in the narrow gap between the tall cliffs. Nelson looks at it with pleasure . . . Then he looks closer. The trench appears to be full of bones.

Elly Griffiths’s Ruth Galloway novels have been praised as “highly atmospheric” (New York Times Book Review) and “remarkable” (Richmond Times-Dispatch). Now the beloved forensic archeologist returns, called in to investigate when human bones surface on a remote Norfolk beach.

Just back from maternity leave, Ruth is finding it difficult to juggle motherhood and work. The presence of DCI Harry Nelson—the married father of her daughter, Kate—does not help. The bones, skeletons of six men with their arms bound, turn out to be about seventy years old, which leads Nelson and Ruth to the war years, a desperate time on this stretch of coastland. Home Guard veteran Archie Whitcliffe reveals the existence of a secret the old soldiers have vowed to protect with their lives. But then Archie is killed and a German journalist arrives, asking questions about Operation Lucifer, a plan to stop a German invasion, and a possible British war crime. What was Operation Lucifer? And who is prepared to kill to keep its secret?

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – January 10, 2012 – 384 pages - ISBN-10: 0547506147
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Outrage By Arnaldur Indridason -2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Outrage
By Arnaldur Indridason
Arnaldur Indridason has proven himself to be a master of the mystery genre with his critically acclaimed Inspector Erlunder series, which has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. Now, in Outrage, this superlative crime writer author has written his best book to date, with exceptional prose, heart pounding suspense, and a mystery that is not solved until the last page.

Haunted by personal demons, Detective Erlunder decides to take a short leave of absence, putting a female detective, Elínborg, in charge while he is gone. When a troubling case lands on Elínborg’s desk, she’s quickly thrust into a violent and volatile situation with extremely high stakes. Soon, her investigation uncovers a twisted tale of double lives that may be connected to the unsolved disappearance of a young girl. The clock is ticking to solve the case before a serial rapist strikes again.

Reviewers everywhere rave about Indridason’s smart and fast-paced thrillers, which exemplify the very best in international crime fiction. Perfect for the many devoted fans of this series as well as for the reader who’s never visited Iceland through Indridason’s books, Outrage will lead you down a trail of hidden violence, psychological brutality, and wrongs that may never fully be righted.

Minotaur Books – September 18, 2012 – 288 pages - ISBN-10: 0312659113

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Dead Man’s Grip By Peter James-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Dead Man’s Grip
By Peter James
American mobsters face off against England's greatest detective, Roy Grace, in Peter James' #1 international bestseller Dead Man's Grip Carly Chase is still traumatized ten days after being in a fatal traffic accident that kills a teenage American student from Brighton University. Then she receives news that turns her entire world into a living nightmare. The drivers of the other two vehicles involved have been found tortured and murdered. Now Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Sussex Police force issues a stark and urgent warning to Carly: She could be next.

The student had deadly connections. Connections that stretch across the Atlantic to America and an organized crime group. Someone has sworn revenge and won’t rest until the final person involved in that fateful accident is dead. The police advise Carly her only option is to go into hiding and change her identity. The terrified woman disagrees. She knows these people have ways of hunting you down anywhere. If the police are unable to stop them, she has to find a way to do it herself. But already the killer is one step ahead of her, watching, waiting, and ready.

Minotaur Books – November 22, 2011 – 416 pages - ISBN-10: 0312642830

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The Silenced By Brett Battles -2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Originaly The Silenced
By Brett Battles
Professional 'cleaner' Jonathan Quinn has a new client and a strange job: find and remove the remains of a body hidden twenty years ago inside the walls of a London building, before the building is demolished.

But Quinn and his team are being watched. Suddenly caught in the crossfire between two dangerous rivals, Quinn must unravel the identity of the body and why it still poses so great a threat even in death. Because a plot stretching from the former Soviet Union to Hong Kong, from Paris to London, from Los Angeles to Maine is rapidly falling apart. And Quinn hasn't just been hired to tie up loose ends - he is one.

Preface Publishing – July 1, 2011 – 360 pages - ISBN-10: 1848092881

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The Hangman’s Daughter By Oliver Pötzsch- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original The Hangman’s Daughter
By Oliver Pötzsch
Magdalena, the clever and headstrong daughter of Bavarian hangman Jakob Kuisl, lives with her father outside the village walls and is destined to be married off to another hangman’s son—except that the town physician’s son is hopelessly in love with her. And her father’s wisdom and empathy are as unusual as his despised profession. It is 1659, the Thirty Years’ War has finally ended, and there hasn’t been a witchcraft mania in decades. But now, a drowning and gruesomely injured boy, tattooed with the mark of a witch, is pulled from a river and the villagers suspect the local midwife, Martha Stechlin.

Jakob Kuisl is charged with extracting a confession from her and torturing her until he gets one. Convinced she is innocent, he, Magdalena, and her would-be suitor to race against the clock to find the true killer. Approaching Walpurgisnacht, when witches are believed to dance in the forest and mate with the devil, another tattooed orphan is found dead and the town becomes frenzied. More than one person has spotted what looks like the devil—a man with a hand made only of bones. The hangman, his daughter, and the doctor’s son face a terrifying and very real enemy. Taking us back in history to a place where autopsies were blasphemous, coffee was an exotic drink, dried toads were the recommended remedy for the plague, and the devil was as real as anything, The Hangman’s Daughter brings to cinematic life the sights, sounds, and smells of seventeenth-century Bavaria, telling the engrossing story of a compassionate hangman who will live on in readers’ imaginations long after they’ve put down the novel.

Mariner Books – August 2, 2011 – 448 pages - ISBN-10: 054774501X

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Double Death on the Black Isle  By A. D. Scott - 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original A Double Death on the Black Isle
By A. D. Scott
Two Women, Two Murders . . .

A stunning and suspenseful story of families, betrayal, and a community divided.

Nothing is ever quite at peace on Scotland’s Black Isle—the Traveling people are forever at odds with the locals, the fishermen have nothing in common with the farmers, and the villages have no connection with the town. But when two deaths occur on the same day, involving the same families from the same estate—the Black Isle seems as forbidding as its name.

Joanne Ross, typist at the Highland Gazette, is torn whether to take on the plum task of reporting on these murders—after all, the woman at the center of both crimes is one of her closest friends. Joanne knows the story could be her big break, and for a woman in the mid-1950s—a single mother, no less—good work is hard to come by.

But the investigation by the staff on the Gazette reveals secrets that will forever change this quiet, remote part of the Highlands. The ancient feudal order is crumbling, loyalties are tested, friendships torn apart, and the sublime beauty of the landscape will never seem peaceful again.

Atria Books – September 27, 2011 – 384 pages - ISBN-10: 1439154945

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Death of the Mantis By Stanley, Michael- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Death of the Mantis
By Michael Stanley
In the southern Kalahari area of Botswana—an arid landscape of legends that speak of lost cities, hidden wealth, and ancient gods—a fractious ranger named Monzo is found dying from a severe head wound in a dry ravine. Three Bushmen surround the doomed man, but are they his killers or there to help? Detective David “Kubu” Bengu is on the case, an investigation that his old school friend Khumanego claims is motivated by racist antagonism on the part of the local police. But when a second bizarre murder, and then a third, seem to point also to the nomadic tribe, the intrepid Kubu must journey into the depths of the Kalahari to uncover the truth. What he discovers there will test all his powers of detection . . . and his ability to remain alive. In the southern Kalahari area of Botswana—an arid landscape of legends that speak of lost cities, hidden wealth, and ancient gods—a fractious ranger named Monzo is found dying from a severe head wound in a dry ravine. Three Bushmen surround the doomed man, but are they his killers or there to help? Detective David “Kubu” Bengu is on the case, an investigation that his old school friend Khumanego claims is motivated by racist antagonism on the part of the local police. But when a second bizarre murder, and then a third, seem to point also to the nomadic tribe, the intrepid Kubu must journey into the depths of the Kalahari to uncover the truth. What he discovers there will test all his powers of detection . . . and his ability to remain alive.

Harper Perennial – September 6, 2011 – 448 pages - ISBN-10: 0062000373

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Fun and Games By Duane Swierczynski-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Fun and Games
By Duane Swierczynski
The first of three explosive pulp thrillers arriving back-to-back from cult crime fiction sensation and Marvel Comics scribe Duane Swierczynski.


Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop still reeling from the revenge killing of his former partner's entire family, fears one thing above all else: that he'll suffer the same fate.

Languishing in self-imposed exile, Hardie has become a glorified house sitter. His latest gig comes replete with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men who specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, it's the real deal. Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world: The Accident People.

It's nothing personal-the girl just happens to be the next name on their list. For Hardie, though, it's intensely personal. He's not about to let more innocent people die. Not on his watch.

Mulholland Books – June 20, 2011 – 304 pages - ISBN-10: 0316133280

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Two for Sorrow By Nicola Upson-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Two for Sorrow
By Nicola Upson
They were the most horrific crimes of a new century: the murders of newborn innocents for which two British women were hanged at Holloway Prison in1903. Decades later, mystery writer Josephine Tey has decided to write a novel based on Amelia Sach and Annie Walters, the notorious “Finchley baby farmers,” unaware that her research will entangle her in the desperate hunt for a modern-day killer.

A young seamstress—an ex-convict determined to reform—has been found brutally slain in the studio of Tey’s friends, the Motley sisters, amid preparations for a star-studded charity gala. Despite initial appearances, Inspector Archie Penrose is not convinced this murder is the result of a long-standing domestic feud—and a horrific accident involving a second young woman soon after supports his convictions. Now he and his friend Josephine must unmask a sadistic killer before more blood flows—as the repercussions of unthinkable crimes of the past reach out to destroy those left behind long after justice has been served.

Harper Perennial – August 9, 2011 – 496 pages - ISBN-10: 0061451584

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Carver By Tom Cain- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category Carver
By Tom Cain
The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 sent shockwaves around the financial world. Never before had such a large and prestigious organisation been allowed to fail, and to fail so quickly. It began a domino effect, hitting banks and economies around the world. Theories abound as to the cause of the collapse - the sub-prime bubble, bad management, even good old fashioned greed. But what if it was none of the above. What if Lehman Brothers had been brought to its knees by the deliberate and wilful act of one man bent on a course of financial terrorism? Moreover, what if it was only a dry run for a bigger and even bolder attack on the financial capital of the world, the City of London?

Samuel Carver is about to find himself on the biggest mission of his life.

Random House – August 1, 2011 – 400 pages - ISBN-10: 0593067665

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Coup D’Etat By Ben Coes- 2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category Coup D’Etat
By Ben Coes
When a fragile peace breaks down between Pakistan and India, the United States is forced to intervene. When a rapidly escalating war threatens to engulf the entire region, the president must find a way to shut it down immediately—or else face total destruction for the world at large. With the clock ticking and Pakistan in the hands of a religious radical willing to do anything and risk everything to achieve his deadly plan, there is only one man with the skills and experience to infiltrate the live war theater and successfully execute a nearly impossible, unbelievably daring plan. His name: Dewey Andreas. His mission: to remove the Pakistani president from power. Now all the White House has to do is find him…before time runs out.

St. Martin’s Paperbacks – April 24, 2011 – 624 pages - ISBN-10: 0312580770
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Spycatcher By Matthew Dunn  -2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category Spycatcher
By Matthew Dunn
Will Cochrane is the CIA's and MI6's most prized asset ... and their deadliest weapon. Since childhood, the only world he has ever known is a clandestine realm of elaborate lies and unholy alliances—where trust is rare, betrayal comes cheap, and a violent death is often the penalty for being outplayed by an opponent. Cochrane has never been outplayed ... so far.

Now his controllers have a new game: neutralize one of the world's most wanted terrorists, believed to be a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Cochrane's unpredictability makes him the one agent capable of catching his adversary off guard, and he believes he has the perfect plan. But on a breakneck race through the capitals of Europe and into America's northeast, the spycatcher will discover that his prey knows the game all too well ... and his agenda is more terrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Harper – January 31, 2012 – 544 pages - ISBN-10: 0062037862

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Ballistic By Mark Greaney-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category Ballistic
By Mark Greaney
Ex-CIA assassin Court Gentry thought he could find refuge living in the Amazon rain forest. But his bloody past finds him when a vengeful Russian crime lord forces him to go on the run once again. Court makes his way to one of the only men in the world he can trust-and arrives too late. His friend is dead and buried.

Years before, Eddie Gamboa had saved Court's life. Now, Eddie has been murdered by the notorious Mexican drug cartel he fought to take down. And Court soon finds himself drawn into a war he never wanted. But in this war, there are no sides- only survivors...

Berkley Trade – October 4, 2011 – 480 pages - ISBN-10: 0425244083

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House Divided By Mike Lawson-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Categor House Divided
By Mike Lawson
With his series featuring Joe DeMarco, fixer for Speaker of the House John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, Mike Lawson has won a reputation as one of America’s best political thriller writers. In House Divided, with his powerful boss out of commission, DeMarco finds himself all on his own, used as a sacrificial pawn in a lethal game between a master spy and a four-star army general. When the National Security Agency was caught wiretapping U.S. citizens without warrants, a political scandal erupted and the secret program came to a screeching halt. But the senior man at the NSA who spearheaded the most sophisticated eavesdropping operation in history wasn’t about to sit by while spineless politicians sleepwalked his country into another 9/11. Instead, he moved the program into the shadows.

But being in the shadows can cause complications. When the NSA illegally records a rogue military group murdering two American civilians, they can’t exactly walk over to the Pentagon and demand to know what’s going on. That doesn’t mean the NSA’s hands are tied, however. As the largest intelligence service in the country, both in money and manpower, they have plenty of options— mostly illegitimate.

DeMarco learns all too well just what the NSA is capable of. They bug him, threaten him, and use him to draw out their opponent. But DeMarco doesn’t like being used. A strong addition to this celebrated series, House Divided continues Mike Lawson’s impressive run of inspired, compelling thrillers.

Atlantic Monthly Press – July 5, 2011 – 384 pages - ISBN-10: 0802119786

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he Informant By Thomas Perry-2012 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category The Informant
By Thomas Perry
In Thomas Perry’s Edgar-winning debut The Butcher’s Boy, a professional killer betrayed by the Mafia leaves countless mobsters dead and then disappears. Justice Department official Elizabeth Waring is the only one who believes he ever existed. Many years later, the Butcher’s Boy finds his peaceful life threatened when a Mafia hit team finally catches up with him. He knows they won’t stop coming and decides to take the fight to their door.

Soon Waring, now high up in the Organized Crime Division of the Justice Department, receives a surprise latenight visit from the Butcher’s Boy. Knowing she keeps track of the Mafia, he asks her whom his attackers worked for, offering information that will help her crack an unsolved murder in return. So begins a new assault on organized crime and an uneasy alliance between opposite sides of the law. As the Butcher’s Boy works his way ever closer to his quarry in an effort to protect his new way of life, Waring is in a race against time, either to convince him to become a protected informant—or to take him out of commission for good.

Mariner Books – May 1, 2012 – 336 pages - ISBN-10: 0547737432

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