Archive for the ‘Crime & Horror’ Category

The Business by Martina Cole

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

The Business by Martina ColeImelda Dooley is scared. Really scared. She’s played hard and fast and now she’s been caught. She’s pregnant and now she’s on her own. Her father, not a man to mess with, will see that somebody pays for this. And it’s not going to be her. So Imelda Dooley tells a lie. A lie that literally causes murders. When Mary Dooley’s husband is killed in the night’s events, she knows she must graft to keep the family afloat. And graft she does, becoming a name in her own right. But she still has to watch her daughter’s life spiral into a vicious, hate-fuelled cycle of drugs and prostitution. Caught up in the carnage that is Imelda’s existence are Mary’s adored grandchildren, Jordanna and Kenny. Pretty little Jordanna isn’t yet three and she already knows far too much. All she can do is look after her baby brother, Kenny, and try not to draw unwanted attention to herself. Set in the East End of London from the tail-end of the seventies up until the present-day, The Business is a tale of drugs, prostitution and a young girl’s fight for survival — against all the odds.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables.

But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world.

As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family.

He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

The Bone Garden - Tess Gerritsen

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

 

When a human skull is dug up in a garden near Boston, Dr Maura Isles is called in to investigate. She discovers a skeleton of a young woman that has been burried for over a hundred years. But who was the young woman? And how did she die? A gruesome secret is about to be unearthed …

The Ice Man - Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

The Ice Man - Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer

Richard Kuklinski (the Ice Man) led a double life. He was a top Mafia hit man and a doting father for 30 years. He became one of the most notorious professional assassins in American history while hosting neighbourhood barbecues in suburban New Jersey. He was Sammy Gravano’s (the Bull) partner in the killing of Paul Castellano. John Gotti hired him to kill his neighbour and he was also intimately involved in the killing of Jimmy Hoffa. By his own estimate, he killed over 200 men. The “Ice Man” is a blood-chilling insight into the mind of one of the world’s most prolific contract killers.

Devil Bones - Kathy Reichs

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Devil Bones - Kathy ReichsDr Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist is called to the scene in an underground chamber in a seedy, dilapidated house in Charlotte, North Carolina. She fights her claustrophobia and the awful smell of rotting flesh as she descends the very precariously steep, makeshift wooden steps. A ritulistic display awaits her: slain chickens, a goat and a skull, ghostly pale with the lower jaw missing and the empty orbits staring back at her. Beads and antlers are suspended above two cauldrons.

The skull is confirmed as that of a young black female - but how did she die and when? Then, just as Tempe is working to determine the post-mortem interval, another body is uncovered - a headless torso carved with Satanic symbols. Citizen vigilantes blame Devil-worshippers and begin a witch-hunt, intent on revenge.

Tempe makes another chilling discovery and the more she learns, the more she seems to be putting herself in danger…

The Final Reckoning - Sam Bourne

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

The Final Reckoning - Sam BourneThe new high-concept religious conspiracy serial killer thriller from Sam Bourne, the number one bestselling author of The Righteous Men and The Last Testament.

Tom Byrne was an idealistic young lawyer in New York, but has fallen from grace since then. He has lost his home, his wife and his good character through his gambling addiction. So when the UN call him in to do their dirty work, he accepts the job without hesitation.

A suspected suicide bomber shot by UN security staff has turned out to be a harmless old man. Tom must placate the family and limit their claims for compensation. Tom meets Rebecca, the dead man’s alluring daughter in London. He learns that her father was not quite as innocent as he seemed. Pursued by those ready to kill to uncover the truth, Tom has to unlock a secret that has lain buried for more than 60 years - the last great secret of the Second World War.

The Ghost - Robert Harris

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

The Ghost - Robert Harris
Whilst Britain’s former prime minister struggles to finish his memoirs in a remote, ocean front house in America, his long term assistant drowns. A professional ghost writer is sent out to rescue the project and he soon discovers his new client has secrets in his past that are returning to haunt him. Robert Harris is once again at his gripping best with this controversial new thriller.

Infected - Scott Sigler

Monday, August 11th, 2008

Infected - Scott Sigler

 

Scott Sigler is the new voice in horror - his UK debut is a terrifying, menacing thriller about millions of alien parasites infecting the general population, driving the victims to murder and suicide…and waiting to hatch…

Gangs - Ross Kemp

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Gangs - Ross Kemp

 

Around the world millions of people are members of street gangs. TV hardman Ross Kemp gets close to the world’s most violent street gangs: he’s tough enough to earn their trust and so get them to confide their innermost secrets. It’s a wild ride - and not for the faint-hearted.