Sunday 15 June 2014

Books to look forward to from Transworld Publishers

The Corners of the Globe: The Wide World is the second book in the James Maxted series by Robert Goddard and is due to be published in July 2014. Spring, 1919. James 'Max' Maxted, former Great War flying ace, returns to the trail of murder and treachery he set out on in The Ways of the World. He left Paris after avenging the murder of his father, Sir Henry Maxted, convinced the only man who knows about the mysterious events leading up to Sir Henry's death is elusive German spymaster, Fritz Lemmer. To find out more, he enlists in Lemmer's network under false colours and is despatched to the Orkney Isles, where the German High Seas Fleet has been interned in Scapa Flow. His mission: to recover a document secreted aboard one of the German battleships. But the information it contains is so explosive Max is forced to break cover and embark on a desperate and dangerous race south, pursued by men happy to kill him to recover the document. The breathless chase will take Max from the far north of Scotland to London and on to Paris, where the world's governments are still bartering over the spoils in the aftermath of the Great War. The stakes could not be higher. It is life and death for all concerned.

From Leif G W Persson- a new critically acclaimed novel cantered around the unsolved
murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. It's August 2007, and Lars Martin Johansson, chief of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Sweden has opened the files on the unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. With his retirement quickly closing in, Johansson forms a new group comprised of a few trustworthy detectives who doggedly wade through mountains of paperwork and pursue new leads in a case that has all but gone cold despite the open wound the assassination has left on the consciousness of Swedish society. Yet the closer the group gets to the truth, the more Johansson compromises the greater good for personal gain, becoming a pawn for the private vendetta of a shady political spin doctor.  Falling Freely, as If in a Dream is due to be published in October 2014.

A bomb goes off in down town San Francisco. Twelve people are dead. But this is no ordinary target. This target exists on the fault line where sex and money meet. Daniel Madsen is one of a new breed of federal agents armed with a badge, a gun and the Bureau's latest piece of technology. He's a fast operator and his instructions are simple: find the bomber - and before he strikes again. In order to understand what is at stake, Madsen must plunge into a sleazy, unsettling world where reality and fantasy are indistinguishable, exploitation is business as usual, and the dead hand of corruption reaches all the way to the top. There's too much money involved for this investigation to stay private... Skinjob is by Bruce McCabe and is due to be published in June 2014.

Personal is by Lee Child and is due to be published in August 2014.  Jack Reacher walks
alone. Once a go-to hard man in the US military police, now he's a drifter of no fixed abode. But the army tracks him down. Because someone has taken a long-range shot at the French president. Only one man could have done it. And Reacher is the one man who can find him. This new heart stopping, nail biting book in Lee Child's number-one bestselling series takes Reacher across the Atlantic to Paris - and then to London. The stakes have never been higher - because this time, it's personal.

Camp Bastion: SAS trooper Tom Buckingham finds himself in deep trouble for taking down a renegade Afghan soldier. Instead of being proclaimed a hero, he's made a scapegoat for the incident and drummed out of the regiment. On his return to Britain, disillusioned and embittered, Tom's unique services are quickly snapped up by charismatic entrepreneur, Vernon Rolt, a powerful billionaire with political ambitions, very few scruples and a questionable agenda. With riot on the country's streets, a government in disarray and a visit from the American president imminent, there has never been a better time to make a play for power. But, as Tom will soon discover, in the affairs of state, hidden forces are always at work and he is quickly drawn back into the covert world of intelligence and Special Forces which he knows so well. He will have to decide where his loyalties lie and who his real friends are, if he is to intervene in a spiralling sequence of events which involve terrorism, insurgency and, ultimately, assassination...  Fortress is by Andy McNab and was published in May 2014.

Jacob Underwood is not like other people. He has Cotard's Syndrome. He believes he is dead. Which makes his job as a hired assassin neutralising 'problems' for DBG, a massive multinational corporation, very simple. He carries out the task - and feels nothing. Now DBG has such a problem. A key employee, Emily Buchanan, has disappeared, taking with her a fortune and priceless information which could destroy the company. Jacob must track her down. In previous assignments, he had worked with cold logical precision, but this time he has to confront a threat that he first must understand before it destroys him.  Sparks is by John Twelve Hawks and is due to be published in October 2014.

'
I don't like killing, but I'm good at it. Murder isn't so bad from a distance, just shapes popping up in my scope. Close-up work though - a garrotte around a target's neck or a knife in their heart - it's not for me. Too much empathy, that's my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different...' The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world. It is fourteen years since Churchill died and the Second World War ended. In occupied Europe, Britain fights a cold war against a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany. In Berlin the Gestapo is on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter, and the head of the SS is plotting to dispose of an ailing Adolf Hitler and restart the war against Britain and her empire. Meanwhile, in a secret bunker hidden deep beneath the German countryside, scientists are experimenting with a force far beyond their understanding. Into this arena steps a nameless British assassin, on the run from a sinister cabal within his own government, and planning a private war against the Nazis. And now the fate of the world rests on a single kill in the morning…. A Kill in the Morning is by Graeme Shimmin and is due to be published in June 2014.

Happiness is Easy is by Edney Silvestre and is due to be published in July 2014.  Olavo
Bettencourt is an important man, a man of spin. With Brazil adjusting to the new idea of democracy, his PR firm holds the balance of power in its hands. Which has also made Olavo very rich, if not very popular. Loathed by his trophy wife and mired in a web of political corruption that spreads from Sao Paolo to Switzerland, Israel and New York, Olavo is an obvious target for extortion. And what better leverage can there be but the kidnapping of his only son. Except that the child on his way home from school in Olavo's armour-plated car, intent on his colouring book as the gang closes in...He's not Olavo's son.

When a young trooper is shot in the head at the Regiment's renowned Killing House, Nick Stone is perfectly qualified to investigate the mysterious circumstances more deeply. He has just returned from Moscow - still trying to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend and baby son are safer there without him - so combines an unrivalled understanding of the Special Forces landscape with a detachment that should allow him to remain in cover. But less than forty-eight hours later, a second death catapults him back into the firing line - into the telescopic sights of an unknown assassin bent on protecting a secret that could strike at the heart of the establishment that Stone has, in his maverick fashion, spent most of his life fighting to protect. And now the clock is ticking, Stone hurtles from the solitude of a remote Welsh confessional to Glencoe - whose shadows still whisper of murder and betrayal - and on to Southern Spain, in an increasingly desperate quest to uncover the truth about a chain of events that began in the darkness of an Afghan hillside, and left a young man haunted by the never-ending screams of a friend the Taliban skinned alive.  For Valour is by Andy McNab and is due to be published in October 2014.

Vanishing Games is by Roger Hobbs and is due to be published in March 2015. A ship carrying a fortune in emeralds is high jacked on the China seas in a brilliant plan masterminded by Ghostwoman Angela.  The plan falls apart when it turns out, unbeknownst to her, that the ship was carrying a second cargo, far more valuable than the gems.  In serious trouble, Angela calls on her former pupil, the Ghostman sometimes known as Jack.  Together, these two experts need to find a way to disappear with both treasures. Hunting them down is an army of gem smugglers, and, to complicate matters further, an exceptionally dangerous mercenary named Laurence – whose mysterious employer will go any length to see his secret cargo returned.

Winter, 1141. The villagers on the Cambridgeshire Fens are caught in the middle of the ongoing war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda when a group of horsemen come thundering through their land and snatch one of the children, Em.  Mercenary Gwil has lost his horse and crossbow in the attack. Finding shelter in a ruined church for the night, he stumbles across Em. Clutched in her hand is a rolled-up scroll. Traumatised by her ordeal, Em refuses to speak, so Gwin names her Penda.  Trying to find the rest of his mercenaries, Gwil and Penda arrive at Kenniford Castle in Oxfordshire. Sixteen-year-old Maud is being forced into marriage to the vulgar John of Tewing - a necessity for Maud to retain her castle and to put the vital crossing over the Thames into the hands of King Stephen’s supporters. The situation is precarious; with Matilda desperate to regain her position as monarch, Maud must prepare her castle for several sieges. When news of Gwil and Penda's arrival spreads – and their archery skills observed in the garden – the pair are invited to stay.  More disappearances, rapes and murders of young girls continue as Gwil continues his search for the monk who abducted the young girl. But Penda’s past remains a threat, and there is little Gwil can do to prevent it from catching up with her. For the scroll contains something vital – the cost of which none of those close to Penda could ever have imagined…  Winter Siege was started by the late Ariana Franklin and finished by her daughter Samantha Norman.  It is due to be published in October 2014.

Ruthless is by Cath Staincliffe and is due to be published in October 2014.A blaze at an abandoned chapel on the impoverished Walton Estate turns out to be more than just arson when the body of a man who has been shot twice is discovered in the ashes. For the Manchester Metropolitan police team it's the start of a gruelling and complex case that exposes the fractures and fault lines of a community living on the edge. DC Rachel Bailey, recently married, is trying to come to terms with her new status and deal with the fallout from her chaotic family. She throws herself into work but her compulsion to find answers and see justice done leads her into the deepest jeopardy. DC Janet Scott's world is shaken to its foundations when death comes far too close for comfort and she finds one of her daughters on the wrong side of a police investigation. DCI Gill Murray's ex Dave, a Chief Superintendent, crashes back into her life, out of control and bringing chaos in his wake. Gill attempts to get Dave to face the truth of his situation, and to stay the hell away from her, but things are about to get a whole lot worse. And then a second building goes up in flames...

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