Award-winning Crime Fiction

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

She thinks more highly of snow and ice than she does of love. She lives in a world of numbers, science and memories—a dark, exotic stranger in a strange land. And now Smilla Jaspersen is convinced she has uncovered a shattering crime...It happened in the Copenhagen snow. A six-year-old boy, a Greenlander like Smilla, fell to his death from the top of his apartment building. While the boy's body is still warm, the police pronounce his death an accident. But Smilla knows her young neighbor didn't fall from the roof on his own. Soon she is following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow. For her dead neighbor, and for herself, she must embark on a harrowing journey of lies, revelation and violence that will take her back to the world of ice and snow from which she comes, where an explosive secret waits beneath the ice...

Former Inspector for the Moscow Militsiya, Arkady Renko, is summoned to Cuba to identify a liquefying corpse, dragged from the oily waters of Havana Bay. Renko finds himself in a decaying country, the final recess of Communism - a place where Russia is despised, exotic rituals take precedence and unexpected danger meets bewildering contradictions. After a harrowing experience that has left Renko on the verge of suicide, this new mystery leads him on a trail of deceit that reaches international proportions, and gives him a reason to relish his own life again.Endorsements'One of those writers that anyone who is serious about their craft views with respect bordering on awe' — Val McDermid'Makes tension rise through the page like a shark's fin' — Independent'The story drips with atmosphere and authenticity' — David Young, bestselling author of Stasi Child'One of those writers that anyone who is serious about their craft views with respect bordering on awe' — Val McDermid'Cleverly and intelligently told, The Girl from Venice is a truly riveting tale of love, mystery and rampant danger. I loved it' — Kate Furnivall, author of The Liberation'Smith not only constructs grittily realistic plots, he also has a gift for characterisation of which most thriller writers can only dream' — Mail on Sunday'Smith was among the first of a new generation of writers who made thrillers literary' — Guardian'Brilliantly worked, marvellously written . . . an imaginative triumph' — Sunday Times'Martin Cruz Smith's Renko novels are superb' — William Ryan, author of The Constant Soldier

Hurricane Katrina has transformed New Orleans into a violent wasteland. Criminals capitalise on the devastation as survivors wait for help that never comes.David Robicheaux — his city in ruins — is tasked with investigating the murder of a pair of looters: is it a simple case of 'stand-your-ground', or something altogether darker? The dead men's accomplice holds the key but he has disappeared to escape the people hunting him.As Robicheaux uncovers a brutal catalogue of greed, torture and murder, his own family is threatened, and the ravaged city provides the perfect stage for a final confrontation between good and evil.Endorsements'His most gripping thriller to date.' — Mirror'A beautifully written howl of rage.' — Time Out

It was a vicious, calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at Euston station, followed her home on the tube and strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time a second body, killed in the same way, is discovered at the back of King's Cross station. It is a grisly coincidence that eerily echoes the murder of two other women, stabbed to death months before on the same day... It is DI Tom Thorne who sees the link and comes to the horrifying conclusion. This is not a serial killer the police are up against. This is two of them. Finding the body used to be the worst part of the job. Not anymore. Now each time a body is found, Thorne must live with the knowledge that somewhere out there is a second victim waiting to be discovered. But whilst the methods might be the same, Thorne comes to realise that he is hunting two very different killers. One is ruthless and in control, while his partner in crime is submissive, compliant, terrified. Thorne must catch a man whose need to manipulate is as great as his need to kill; a man who will show him that the ability to inspire terror is the deadliest weapon of all...

A dead girl lies on a blood-soaked mattress, her limbs spread in a parody of ecstasy. The scene matches a series of murders which ended when irrefutable forensic evidence secured the conviction of one Derek Tyler. But Tyler has been locked up in a mental institution for two years, barely speaking a word—except to say that 'the Voice' told him to do it.Top criminal psychologist Dr Tony Hill is prepared to think the unthinkable—this is not a copycat murder but something much stranger. While DCI Carol Jordan and her team mount a desperate and dangerous undercover police operation to trap the murderer, Hill heads towards a terrifying face-off with one of the most perverse killers he has ever encountered…For some, there is nothing so sweet, so thrilling, as the torment of others ...

The Athenian Murders is a brilliant, very entertaining, and absolutely original literary mystery revolving around two intertwined riddles. In classical Athens, one of the pupils of Plato's Academy is found dead. His idealistic teacher suspects that this was not an accident and asks Herakles, known as the 'Decipherer of Enigmas', to investigate the death and, ultimately, the involvement of a dark, irrational, and subversive cult. A second plot unfolds in parallel through the footnotes of the manuscript's translator. As he proceeds with his work, he becomes increasingly convinced that the original author has hidden a second meaning that can be brought to light by interpreting certain repeated words and images. As the main plot and the translation advance, sinister coincidences multiply, and the translator becomes convinced the text is addressing him personally in an increasingly menacing way.The Athenian Murders is a highly compelling, entertaining, and intelligent game about the different ways we read reality, our refusal to accept things 'as they are,' and our tendency to find hidden meanings in everyday life.

The third Jackson Brodie novel.In a quiet corner of rural Devon, a six-year-old girl witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison.In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie, wise beyond her years, works as a nanny for a G.P. But her employer has disappeared with her baby, and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried.Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is a former acquaintance — Jackson Brodie — himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.Endorsements'An exhilarating read. Her wry humour, sharp eye for the quirks of human behaviour and subtle characterisation are a constant joy' — Daily MailWinner of Richard & Judy's Best Read

Midsummer approaches, and Wallander prepares for a holiday with the new woman in his life, hopeful that his wayward daughter and his ageing father will cope without him. But his summer is ruined when a girl commits suicide before his eyes, and a former minister of justice is butchered in the first of a series of apparently motiveless murders. Wallander's hunt for the girl's identity and his furious pursuit of a killer who scalps his victims will throw him and those he loves most into mortal danger.

Raven Black is the first book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series — filmed as the major BBC1 drama starring Douglas Henshall, Shetland.It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance...The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man — loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation, a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst.

Nick Breakspear thought he had opted for the easy life, but acting as nursemaid for the idle rich aboard the luxury yacht Wavebreaker in the Bahamas does have its downside.Especially when you come across a bullet-ridden boat not far from the infamous drug baron's hideaway island of Murder Cay. Most people would turn a blind eye.But Nick Breakspear isn't most people.Before long, Nick and the crew of Wavebreaker find themselves caught in the middle of a drug war between two equally matched and just as deadly forces.He thought he had it easy, until he fell into the middle of a murderous drug war . . . And neither side is taking prisoners . . .Endorsements'This one you'll have trouble putting down' — New York Times

Sam Packer of the British Secret Service knows a mission to Iraq is dangerous. But none more dangerous than this one. A whispered secret in a Baghdad hotel lobby leads to his kidnapping, torture and expected execution. His paymasters have given him up for dead. Only the intervention of his ex-lover, Chrissie, and a hostage swap get him released. But days later Chrissie is murdered. Perhaps she knew too much, knew of the secret that Sam had uncovered — that a biological terror weapon codenamed Fire Hawk had been smuggled from Iraq for use against an unknown target in the West. Personal motives of revenge clash with priorities of State Security as Sam follows the weapon's and his dead lover's murky past through the Middle East, Cyprus and Ukraine. At each step the mystery of the ultimate target deepens and the fanatics who control it become ever more elusive...

An activist attorney is killed in a cute little L.A. trolley called Angels Flight, far from Harry Bosch's Hollywood turf. But the case is so explosive — and the dead man's enemies inside the L.A.P.D. are so numerous — that it falls to Harry to solve it. Now the streets are superheating. Harry's year-old Vegas marriage is unraveling. And the hunt for a killer is leading Harry to another high-profile L.A. murder case, one where every cop had a motive. The question is: did any have the guts?