No more directives Johnny Foreigner

Nearly 65,000 Britons living in European countries including Spain, Portugal and Greece are receiving state-funded winter fuel payments designed to help them cope with cold weather, it emerged today.

The payments are worth between £125 and £400 each winter and if the 63,740 ex-patriates are receiving the average amount, a total of almost £14 million could be going abroad.

The taxpayer-funded benefit is paid to all British citizens aged 60 or more who are ordinarily resident in the UK, and former residents who move to the European Economic Area or Switzerland continue to be entitled if they qualified before leaving the country.

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, called for an end to payments to people living overseas.

Independent Newpaper

“Under European Union law, Britain cannot discriminate against people who live elsewhere in the EU.”

I am sure the French, Germans and most other EU countries have and will develop welfare payment systems that only apply locally.

For some reason our politicians and civil servants often manage to get in wrong. For example paying child benefits to non-resident children, being the only EU country that hadn’t any provision for scrapping fridges – when the EU disposal directive became effective or being the only EU country that physically smashes up de-commissioned fishing boats.

We have people at all the meeting, we have people negotiating these new initiatives, our politicians sign up to these agreements. Then either nothing gets done until too late or someone goes on a power trip and we have yet again another ‘over the top’ interpretation of the rules.

The hatred is of courser directed at the satanic Europe, rather then looking to closely at the UK’s own poor implementation.

And Gordon hid in the downstairs closet in number 11, whenever the E-word came up while he was Chancellor. In Blair and his reign we’ve lost power and respect in Europe.

And the nice Mr ‘call me Dave’ Cameron well he’s joined a group so far out of it that even the BNP won’t join them – so after the election we’re in for another 5 years of poor negotiations and bad laws from not playing our proper role in the EU.

The latest technology - MOD supplies

At the start of the Iraq war only one of the three army bases had enough toilet rolls, never mind other equipment.

In the Falklands War most troops spent hundreds on pounds of their own money on decent sleeping bags and other cold weather kit.

We are close to spending billions on upgrading Trident – a weapons system we cannot use without permission from the Americans. The main purpose of this system is two fold – the reward American defence contractors, (So the President will be nice to us.), and keep our place in the Security Council – ie to maintain our status against the French and allow the Prime Minister to go to international power lunches.

What we don’t seem to be able to do is to provide our troops with protective clothing, decent communications and even basics, such as boots that don’t melt in the heat.

We also do not have enough troops. To be highly effective the army needs shorter tours of duty to allow recovery and retraining.  It needs more troops in places like Afghanistan to consolidate gains against the Taliban.

We, I really mean they, also urgently need more helicopters.

Against pirates a number of small, but fast boats would seem more effective than large boats – though I accept that some air support would be useful.

Are we going to be in a major war? Russia is still militaristic – though here well equipped troops on the ground would seem to be the most effective in an invasion of Europe.

China and America. I think is possible, but Britain is about as far away from this conflict zone and we would be smart to stay out of it.

So let’s accept that we are a small country.

Less toys for the Admirals and Air Commodores.

More troops, more troop training, better equipment for the troops and let’s face it this will also reduce the unemployment rate and boost local economies.

The fundamental flaw with education policy after the election is that politicians will get in.

Talking to a couple of teachers, both now thinking of leaving, is which is worse a Labour win – with ‘a policy a day’ Balls or a Cameron government that is made of people, who have seen public schools, (that is the state run places), but have not been actually gone to them, except on official visits, and will obviously send their children to private schools.

The present set of fantastic initiatives, which are mainly designed to build the career of a minister, or as part of the government PR of we are doing a good job and such boo-hoo to the opposition.

The emphasis has been on buildings, computers, hardware and photo opportunities.

The emphasis should be on quality of staff, quality of teaching and a resultant number of qualified, confident students, with self awareness and aspirations.

One way to achieve this is not to have a Minister of Education and a Ministry of Education, but allow education to be organised on a local and regional basis. Then at least the voters can easily travel and complain to, or vote out the local politicians when they get it wrong.

To give an example. Cameron’s new scheme

Maths: In maths what is needed for the vast majority of children is someone who can understand the problems kids are having with maths. Someone with a first in maths or physics cannot possibly do this.

Ideal people should be numerate, able to control a class and probably had some life experience, working, bringing up children. Mature students, people changing careers will probably have more to offer than someone just out of university and teacher training.

Most will only need to be able to understand maths up to GCSE level.

The whizz-kids with firsts would only be needed for the higher level A level students.

Secondly:

Cameron’s scheme will only consider graduates from ‘good’ universities. It makes him elitist and the ‘playing fields of Eton’ is now fully justified. What he is really saying is all but a few universities are inferior.

Third:

Cameron has effectively stated that most of the current teachers are inferior.

One last point.

The best teacher I ever had was Mr Powell. He was an ex-sergeant, who had fought with Monty in Africa and was stationed in Palestine after. He had no degree and was trained up under a specialist scheme for ex-military.

Without hitting students or shouting he controlled classes. He knew how to motivate students.

He had us for the entire Friday afternoon. He made a deal with us. The first lesson he would teach us maths. The second lesson we would work through a set of maths exercises and when the entire class had finished those he would go through his war experiences, giving us details of the battles in north Africa, or have discussions, or play word games like hangman.

To make sure we all finished early most of the class would do our maths work at least a week ahead.

We would help the weaker kids and so the entire class by today’s standards was very numerate.

So invest in good teachers not elite teachers.

Only allow ministers to have one idea at the most a year.

Overview

Reporting someone missing to the Metropolitan, (London) police.

Article

Monday evening 5pm.  There’s a phone call from my daughter she’s on her way home.  She should be there in an hour so. She’ll phone me when she gets there.

This is good as I’m going over to see her, to pick up some of her stuff and her, to bring her to my house so that I can take her Bristol the next day.

Monday evening: 7.30pm.  No phone call.  So I ring her flat – answer phone.  Ring her mobile – just the answer message – no reply.

Leave it until 8:30pm.  I ring her flat – answer phone.  Ring her mobile – just the answer message – no reply.

Maybe she’s seen a friend and is talking.  Make myself a cup of tea.

9pm, 9:30pm, 10pm, 10.30pm.  Ring her flat – still the answer phone.  Ring her mobile – still the ‘leave a message’ message.

Now getting worried.  The move to Bristol is important to her.  She needs to be there to sign for her new apartment.

Paced around a little.  Realised that the progamme ‘Without a Trace‘, a series about an FBI team investigating missing persons was on the TV.

No it’s OK.  She’s seeing a friend.  But, there was an actual murder in the street where she lived.  Has she been in an accident.

Did the phones again.  Just the ‘leave a message’ messages.

10.45 Phone.  No reply.

Looked on the internet.  Found the Metropolitan Police’s guide to reporting a missing person.

I’m English so made myself another cup of tea.

She’s OK.  But is she.

11pm.  Nothing.  11.15. Nothing.

Looked up her address.  Then phoned the main police control room.

A very helpful, very sympathetic operator took my daughter’s details and my details.  She explained to me that the police could not start an official missing person’s report until they had checked the person’s apartment.

This would mean I would have to go her to flat and if she did not answer the door the police would break in to make sure she was not ill or had fallen and knocked herself out.

I said I was sure that she would have phoned me if she had arrived home.  I then asked how I would check if she had been in an accident, arrested or been a crime victim.

I was then questioned if I thought that there might be any reason that she might be arrested and did I think that she might be a victim

I was impressed by this as the operator was being very proactive if there were any other issues.  I said there was not.

The operator then repeated, sympathetically, that she could not make a formal missing person’s report until the police had investigated her apartment.  I said at this stage I didn’t want to as I’m convinced she would have been in contact if she’d arrived.

The operator then said she would make an incident report and pass that on to the local police, which was probably the best I could hope for at that time.

She then took a full description of more daughter.

She tried to comfort me saying that most people do turn up.

Sat down, made a cup of tea.

11.30pm.  Nothing.  11.40pm. Nothing.  11.50pm. Nothing.  Midnight. Nothing.

Should I get the police to break in.  There was no point.  She would have phoned.  Reluctantly I decided I couldn’t do anything else that night, but wait.

Couldn’t concentrate.  Just made another cup of tea and robotically watched a poor movie on the TV.

About 12.20 in the morning my daughter phoned.  She’d left her phone at a friend’s place, but did not know which one.  So she’d travelled to see her friends to try and find it.

I was relieved, but angry.

I phoned the police and got talking to a different operator.  Again I was impressed as I was thoroughly questioned that my daughter was alright and safe.

It then took me about two hours to settle myself down before I went to bed.

Conclusion

The calibre of the Metropolitan Police’s control room has vastly improved.  I was treated sympathetically, but the operators were on the alert for potential crimes and to protect potential victims.

In this way the police can pick up a hidden agenda behind a call, such as an abusive partner saying his girlfriend, wife, is missing, when she is really trying to escape.

Overview

This brilliantly shot film in black and white give a startling picture of a small, rural, claustrophobic in a deeply religious,Protestant community.  In some ways there is order with the count, the biggest landowner, though not liked, is  respected as he controls the lives of the rest of the village.

The story tells it story gradually showing the undercurrents of dissatisfaction and disturbing trends, which highlight the fragility of the community, the beginning of an end of an era, which would not, could not survive the trauma of coming the ‘Great War’.

Review

The first incident is a wire stretched across a gateway.  It brings the doctor’s horse down heavily and fractures the doctor’s collar bone.  This incident is disturbing as no one in such a small community seems to know who put it there.

Life goes on.  The scythes are cutting down the hay.  The cycle of the farming world goes on.  Then, just before the annual harvest feast, a woman dies, falling through rotten floor boards in the mill.  The tension builds and the workers are cowed, as the count makes his formal speech, thanking the workers.  The tension eases as the drink and food is given out until the son of the dead woman destroys one of the baron’s field of cabbages.

A farmer kills himself.  A window is opened to kill a baby?  We don’t know.  A girl dreams of a threat to a handicapped child and a couple of days later he disappears and is found tortured and tied to a tree.  Can it be the children?  They have an unhealthy interest in the troubles of the village.

The pastor is overbearing and the scenes in the church and his treatment of his children raise the forbidding atmosphere of the film. His forcing of two of his older children to wear, as a punishment, white ribbons to signify their purity.  However the closed society is being challenged.   The count’s wife is seeking, unthinkable,  a divorce.

But is this a sign of the coming Third Reich.  I think not.  It shows a period where things were beginning to change.  The appearance of a car, even the bicycle, lead to changing times.  Roles are beginning to be challenged though there is pressure to keep the old ways.

Summary

This film is good.  It examines the society in detail.  It suggests themes; changes and challenges that are happening in this rural location.   There are the violent incidents; there are the undercurrents.  A good film to see and to make you think.

This Romanian film is really an exorcism of the communist past. It really consists of four separate stories of the urban myths, or did the event really happen?, under the perfect society of Nicolae Ceau?escu’s regime, (the Romanians are good on irony).

The official visit

So we have the tale of the official visit, where a small, rural village prepares tries to set up a perfect reception for some of the communist leaders as they drive through, or will they stop off for some food, on their regional visit.

Why are there cows? You should have sheep. Where can you get hold of white pigeons within two hours? And should the carousel for the village’s annual fair be up or removed and will the fat, local policeman give them any petrol to run it?

Officials arrive to check everything is ready for the visit. They arrogantly disrupt the village and exploit the village’s hospitality as they demand entertainment, food and drink.

The final scene on the carousel is a very funny metaphor, not just for Romanian politics, but for politics in general.

The pig

Imagine you are living in a large tower block, in fact in Romania everybody did, well except for the communist hierarcy, who needed more space, and luxurious surrounding, to enable them to server the masses. So you’re living in this large, housing complex and it is illegal to trade in food, with years in jail.

And well let’s imagine, no you’ve actually got, an idiot cousin, who has agreed to supply a pig for you to eat, and to share with a doctor as a bribe. Well it’s late at night and cousin turns up with the pig, a big fat pig, a live pig, a live squealing pig, that you’re going to have to slaughter in your tiny little flat. And you have to do it without any of the neighbours knowing. Well it’s difficult as the film demonstrates.

The other sections

The three other sections show the problems of the man, corrupted by supplying eggs to a very attractive woman, who runs a restaurant; a young school girl, who is budding entrepreneur, within the used bottle racket and the problems of a newspaper picture editor to make Ceau?escu stand tall, in a world with no digital cameras or Photoshop, (pass the scissors and glue).

Conclusion

This is a really charming, slightly humorous, informative film.  It shows how the downtrodden people  of Romania survived during the terrible times of the autocratic regime.  The film is particularly good at the small detail, such as the fat kid at school giving food to a girl, so that he could go to her birthday party.

Seen yesterday

Indian/Australian author Aravind Adiga poses after winning the 2008 Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker prize ‘promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year’. The panel of judges have now whittled down the 132 submitted novels to the thirteen book, Man Booker long list.  The long list will in turn be reduced to six books over the next month and the winner of the £50,000 prize will be annouced on the 6th October, 2009.

The prize will be awarded to the author of the best, eligible full-length novel in the opinion of the judges. The Prize may not be divided or withheld.  To be eligible’ the book has to be a full-length novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth, or the Republic of Ireland, and published in the current year. The novel must be an original work in English (not a translation) and must not be self-published’.

The judges

In the chair is the well known radio broadcaster James Naughtie. He  is also a member of the advisory board of the Edinburgh International Festival, a patron of the Prince of Wales Foundation for Children and the Arts, a trustee of the Classical Opera Company, a trustee of the Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries and a patron of Southbank Sinfonia. In 2008 he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Stirling.

Lucasta Miller is best known as the author of The Bronte Myth and has worked for many years as a critic, most recently for The Guardian Review.

John Mullan is Professor of English at University College London. He is the author of Anonymity. A Secret History of English Literature (Faber) and How Novels Work (Oxford University Press). He has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature.

Sue Perkins is a comedian, presenter, broadcaster and scriptwriter. She regularly appears on radio and television programmes such as Newsnight Review, Have I Got News For You, Just a Minute and The News Quiz.

Michael Prodger has been a literary journalist for many years and is Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph. He also writes regularly on art for a number of publications, including The Sunday Telegraph, Standpoint and The Spectator.

The Long List

The Children’s Book

AS Byatt

Set at the turn of the 20th Century, it is a novel about children – and on the side of the children – who are lost, cheated, and finally destroyed by their elders.

Brooklyn

Colm Toibin

In the 1950s a young Irish woman emigrates to Brooklyn only to be summoned back to Ireland after receiving tragic news forcing her to make heartbreaking decisions between personal freedom and duty.

The Quickening Maze

Adam Foulds

Based on real events in Epping Forest on the edge of London around 1840, this book centres on the first incarceration of the great nature poet John Clare.

How to Paint a Dead Man

Sarah Hall

Covering half a century, Sarah Hall’s fourth novel is a fierce study of art and its place in our lives.

The Wilderness

Samantha Harvey

The story of Jake Jameson, a 65-year-old architect on the cusp of retirement whose memories are slowly being eroded by Alzheimer’s.

The Glass Room

Simon Mawer

Set in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s it follows a newly-wed couple – a Jew and a gentile – as their optimism fades when the storm clouds of the Second World War gather and the family must flee, accompanied by the husband’s lover and her child.

Summertime

JM Coetzee

Completing the majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir begun with Boyhood and Youth. Due to be published in September.

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel

Novel set in 16th-century England which focuses on the rise of Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son who rose to one of the highest offices before fatally offending Henry VIII.

Me Cheeta

James Lever

The story of Cheeta the Chimp, simian star of the big screen, on a behind-the-scenes romp through the golden years of Hollywood.

Not Untrue & Not Unkind

Ed O’Loughlin

A story about friendship, rivalry and betrayal among a group of journalists and photographers covering the wars in Africa.

Heliopolis

James Scudmore

A rag-to-riches tale about Ludo, a young man born in Sao Paulo who has developed an obsessive, adulterous love for his adoptive sister, whose husband is his only friend.

Love and Summer

William Trevor

Set in a small Irish town, it follows its inhabitants during one summer and explores the themes of suspicion, guilt, forbidden love and the possibility of starting over.

The Little Stranger

Sarah Waters

In a post-war summer in rural Warwickshire a doctor is called out to attend to a family living in a haunted mansion, struggling to keep pace with a changing society.

Links

Man Booker website

Guardian article

Mark Billingham crime writer

Mark Billingham is one of Britain’s well established writers. His DI, (Detective Inspector), Tom Thorne novels have been spectacularly successful in the UK and abroad.  He was the opening speaker on the Friday morning session of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate.  He was also the winner of Best Crime Novel 2009 prize, awarded in the opening ceremony the previous night.

Early career

He was introduced by the author and Guardian crime fiction critic Laura Wilson, who quickly gave us Mark’s background.  He was brought up in Birmingham, trained as an actor and appeared in a number of minor roles in episodes of TV showsDempsey & Makepeace, Juliet Bravo, Boon, and The Bill.^] Afte finding himself playing a variety of “bad guy roles such as a soccer hooligan, drug addict, a nasty copper, a racist copper, or a bent copper”

He then moved into standup progressing from 5-minute, unpaid “try-out” spots to 10-, 20- and 30-minute paid slots. Within a year he played The Comedy Store on several occasions, where he also appears regularly as a Master of Ceremonies.  This combined with a number of appearances on TV and radio, such as the only human face on the  Spitting Image, “the taller half” of top double act “The Tracy Brothers” and appearences on the radio version of The Mary Whitehouse Experience.

In 1988, he was seen on the children’s comedy series News at Twelve, in which the central character “broadcasts his own (imaginary) TV news bulletin every evening.  This led to his getting a part in Maid Marion and her Merry Men, which opened the door to his writing career.

Mark played the part of Gary, one of a pair of Sheriff of Nottingham’s  henceman.  With his colleague Graeme, played by David Lloyd, and were the “bestest mates”.  Mostly they were extremely affable, but in the tradition of clever villains with idiot sidekicks, not very clever most of the time. They are often very friendly with the Merry Men, who tend to return the sentiment, except when Gary and Graeme are doing what they’re paid for.  Graeme tended to enjoy things like torture and teasing the villagers more than Gary does, though Gary would challenge Graeme for the chance to do executions.

Although a children’s programme it was much appreciated by many adults, and has been likened to Blackadder, not only for its historical setting and the presence of Tony Robinson, but also for its comic style. It is far more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more (deliberate)anachronisms. Like many British children’s programmes, there is a lot of social commentary sneakily inserted, as well as witty asides about the Royal family, buses running on time, etc.  interestingly the show was brought by American TV and shown at an 11:30 evening slot.

Moving into writing

Mark was actually paid to this erm – work.  While on the set he got interested in writing and with the encouragement of Tony Robinson he developed his skills and contributed to the scripts.  He then moved into writing scripts for children’s television.  With David Lloyd he wrote and acted  in episodes of Harry’s Mad (based on the book by Dick King-Smith) and with Peter Cocks wrote and co-starred in Granada TV‘s Knight School.

He described, with a lot of humour, his writing career.  He reckons he owes a lot of his writing skills to his acting and particularly his standup experience.  His main protagonist:  London based Tom Thorne.  He talked for quite a time about the getting the character right.  It is cliche that a policeman investigating murder is flawed, but that is the reality of the job.

Structuring a book

The structure of a book is important and building tension as is bringing in unexpected twists. he gives a good example in the film Silence of the Lambs.

• Towards the end of the film we see the SWAT team has got the address of the serial killer.  They move into place around the house.
• Meanwhile Jody Foster, FBI agent, is going out to finish off a couple of loose ends, to tidy up the paperwork.
• The head of the SWAT team press the doorbell.
• We see the killer come from his basement up the stairs.
• We see the serial killer start to open the door.
• The SWAT team look tense.
• Then we realise that it is Jody at the right house and in serious danger.

This is a great example on film on how to throw the viewer.  Writers need to do something similar to keep the interest in their books.

Characterisation

Mark described his main character anvil shaped, as in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  Ton will retain the shape of the anvil after it has fallen on his head.  Thorne has the psychological equivalent.  A bad experieince will affect and develop the character over the series, which is a good reason once you’re hooked on the books to start at the beginning of the series with Sleepyhead and gradually progress with Thorn’s troubled life.

Research

Mark talked about research.  There are certain things a writer has to get right.  The characters in particular have to be believable.  He will make a lot of effort to understand say how Alzheimer affects the individual and the family and friends of the individual.

However, he, and I strongly agree, dislikes authors who write the great ‘see my research’ tracks of their books.  He quotes, and I also agree, though my wife will kill for saying so, that Kathy Reichs spends four pages describing the difference between cat hair and dog hair. (In the book I read there were at least four pages on blood splatter and why o’ why did a sensible heroine go by herself, without backup to a drug dealing, biker’s bar – calm down Paul.)

Mark does warn that research is probably the greatest excuse not to write.  He  feels that some detail are not so important, such as ‘checking whether you can take a left turn at a certain point’ or as mark ruefully admits that there is not a Starbucks in Brixton.  He does get complaints from readers, but as he points out – it is only a story.

He was asked how he research things he doesn’t know.  He says he just asks people.  He says he has a friend who is pregnant and he goes around and asks her how she’s getting on.  ’Sore nipples’, get out the notebook write it down.  ’Leakage’, get out the notebook and write it down.

Bad experience

Laura got Mark to talk about his most frightening experience.  He was staying in a hotel in Manchester with his writing companion Peter Cocks.  They decided to stay in one night and ordered beer and pizza.  There was a knock on the door and three men wearing balaclavas burst in, beat them up and got the cash cards and pin codes.  They were held over midnight so that the gang could  maximise the withdrawals over two days.   The crime was bizarre, the Manchester police had not come across a simialr incident.  It was clear that the crime was an inside job and Mark suspects that the attackers thought they were possibly closet gays.

He has used the fear in his second book Scaredy Cat illustrating that ‘the power of fear is a very powerful weapon, and if you are prepared to instill it, you have a very powerful weapon that is every bit as dangerous as a gun or a knife.

Help for others

Besides writing books Mark is very active with the crime writing community.  As I went around the Crime Festival I noted Mark organising people, encouraging, introducing and working quite hard behind the scenes to make sure the event was a success.  He was also very active in Creative Thursday, the event for what people like my self, who are now called, prepublished authors.

Mark’s writing career to date

The first book, Sleepyhead, published in 2001, was an immediate bestseller.

The second novel, Scaredy Cat was published in July 2002 and was followed by Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, Buried and Death Message. The newest novel, a standalone thriller called In The Dark is published in August 2008. Mark is at work on the next Tom Thorne novel called “Blood Line”

Links

Mark Billingham’s website

Wikipedia Mark Billingham

Mark Billingham’s novel ‘Death Message’ wins the Theakston Crime Novel of 2009 award.

He was presented with the special barrel of Old Peculier and the £3,000 prize, by Simon Theakston, at the opening of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, on Thursday 23rd July. The festival, the largest crime fiction festival in the world is held annually at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate in Yorkshire, north east England.

The jam packed four day crime writing event is a fantastic place to see and meet numerous crime writers from the up and coming to the well established writers, such as Val McDermid, Laura Lippman, Simon Kernick, Mark Billingham, Lee Child and a special treat for me this year is the visit by George Pelecanos, a great crime novel writer, as well as a screen writer for the TV series. ‘The Wire’.

The short list:

Death Message (Tom Thorne Novels) (Mark Billingham)

The first message sent to Tom Thorne’s mobile phone was just a picture – the blurred image of a man’s face, but Thorne had seen enough dead bodies in his time to know that the man was no longer alive. But who was he? Who sent the photograph? And why? While the technical experts attempt to trace the sender, Thorne searches the daily police bulletins for a reported death that matches the photograph. Then another picture arrives. Another dead man …It is the identities of the murdered men which give Thorne his first clue, a link to a dangerous killer he’d put away years before and who is still in prison. With a chilling talent for manipulation, this man has led another inmate to plot revenge on everyone he blames for his current incarceration, and for the murder of his family while he was inside. Newly released, this convict has no fear of the police, no feelings for those he is compelled to murder. Now Tom Thorne must face one of the toughest challenges of his career, knowing that there is no killer more dangerous than one who has nothing left to lose.

The Accident Man (Tom Cain)

Breathlessly paced and featuring one of the most intriguing heroes in recent fiction, The Accident Man surprises the reader at every turn. For a certain sum of money, Samuel Carver will arrange any death. But when a job below a bridge in Paris goes wrong and he is pursued by the very forces that hired him, Carver must execute his most daring feat yet.

Author Tom Cain is the pseudonym for an award-winning journalist with a 25-year history of investigative reporting.

Bad Luck and Trouble (Lee Child)

From a helicopter high above the California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night. On the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher is pulled out of his wandering life and plunged into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends . . . and the people he once trusted with his life.

Reacher is the ultimate loner–no phone, no ties, no address. But a woman from his old military unit has found him using a signal only the eight members of their elite team would know. Then she tells him a terrifying story about the brutal death of a man they both served with. Soon Reacher is reuniting with the survivors of his team, scrambling to unravel the sudden disappearance of two other comrades. But Reacher won’t give up–because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team, they’d better be ready for what comes right back at them.

Gone to Ground (John Harvey)

Will’s first thought when he saw the man’s face: it was like a glove that had been pulled inside out…Stephen Bryan, a gay academic, is found brutally murdered in his bathroom. Will Grayson and Helen Walker, police detectives investigating the case, at first assume that his death is the result of an ill-judged sexual encounter: rough trade gone wrong. But doubts are soon raised. Bryan’s laptop has gone missing – could the murder be connected to a biography he was writing on the life and mysterious death of fifties screen legend, Stella Leonard? Convinced there’s a link, Bryan’s sister Lesley sets out to prove that Bryan had uncovered a dangerous truth, and that – desperate to keep it hidden – Stella Leonard’s rich and influential family have silenced him. But soon both Lesley and Helen Walker find themselves victims of the violence that swirls around them, as gradually the investigation uncovers the secrets of a family corrupted by lust, wealth and power…
Ritual (Mo Hayder)

The Garden of Evil (David Hewson)

The sixth novel in Hewson’s riveting Italian crime series The picture possessed a frightful beauty, one which burned so brightly that, once witnessed, could never be unseen . . . Even the presence of two corpses, one clearly murdered, the other dead through strange and suspicious circumstances, did nothing to distract their attention from the canvas . . . In a hidden studio in an area of Rome where the Vatican liked to keep an eye on the city’s prostitutes, an art expert from the Louvre is found dead in front of one of the most beautiful paintings that Nic Costa has ever seen – an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece. But before long tragedy will strike Nic far closer to home. The main suspect’s identity is known, but he remains untouchable – protected in his grand palazzo by a fleet of lawyers and a sinister cult known as the Ekstasists. If Costa and his team can crack the reasons for the cult’s existence, he may well stand a chance of nailing the double-killer. But the mystery will take him right back to Caravaggio himself and the reasons he had to flee Rome all those centuries before . . .

A Cure for All Diseases (Reginald Hill)

The new psychological thriller featuring Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular detective duo and stars of the long-running BBC TV series, following on from the bestselling Death of Dalziel He may have been in a coma but it would take an act of God to put Superintendent ‘Fat’ Andy Dalziel down for good. In the meantime, He’ll settle for a few weeks’ bed-rest. Sandytown, a pleasant seaside resort devoted to healing, seems just the ticket. And when a fellow newcomer appears in the shapely form of psychologist Charlotte Heywood, Dalziel develops an unexpected passion for alternative therapy. But Sandytown’s warring landowners have grandiose plans for the resort. One of them has to go and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate – with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. And Pascoe soon finds dark forces at work in a place where holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all!

The Colour of Blood: An Ed Loy Novel (Declan Hughes)

Emily Howard is nineteen years old, slim and petite with a pale complexion and a red rose tattoo. She is also missing. She disappeared three days ago, and now her father has been sent photographs of her naked body. He is desperate to find her.

So he calls Ed Loy, a private investigator who knows the dark streets of Dublin better than most; a man who will find Emily Howard within twenty-four hours. But locating Emily turns out to be only the beginning. Within hours, Emily’s ex-boyfriend is found murdered, and Loy finds himself in a race against time to catch a killer – and to unearth the many dark secrets the Howard family have kept long buried.

Dead Man’s Footsteps (Peter James)

Abby stepped in the lift and the doors closed with a sound like a shovel smoothing gravel. She breathed in the smell of someone else’s perfum, and lemon-scented cleaning fluid. The lift jerked upwards a few inches. And now, too late to change her mind and get out, with the metal walls pressing in around her, they lunged sharply downwards. Abby was about to realize she had just made the worst mistake of her life …Amid the tragic unfolding mayhem of the morning of 9/11, failed Brighton businessman and ne’er-do-well Ronnie Wilson sees the chance of a lifetime, to shed his debts, disappear and reinvent himself in another country.Six years later, the discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman’s body in a storm drain in Brighton, leads Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on an enquiry spanning the globe, and into a desperate race against time to save the life of a woman being hunted down like an animal in the streets and alleys of Brighton. ‘One of the most fiendishly clever crime fiction plotters’ – “Daily Mail”.

Broken Skin (Stuart MacBride)

A new Logan McRae thriller from the bestselling author of Cold Granite and Dying Light, set in gritty Aberdeen. In the pale grey light of a chilly February, Aberdeen is not at its best! There’s a rapist prowling the city’s cold granite streets, leaving a string of tortured women behind. But while DS Logan McRae’s girlfriend is out acting as bait, he’s dealing with the blood-drenched body of an unidentified male, dumped outside Accident and Emergency. When a stash of explicit films turns up, all featuring the victim, it looks as if someone in the local bondage community has developed a taste for violent death, and Logan gets dragged into the twilight world of pornographers, sex-shops and S&M. To make matters worse, when they finally arrest the Granite City Rapist, Grampian Police are forced by the courts to let him go: Aberdeen Football Club’s star striker has an alibi for every attack. Could they really have got it so badly wrong? Logan thinks so, but the trick will be getting anyone to listen before the real rapist strikes again. Especially as his girlfriend, PC Jackie ‘Ball Breaker’ Watson, is convinced the footballer is guilty and she’s hell-bent on a conviction at any cost!

Beneath the Bleeding (Val McDermid)

The terrifying new psychological thriller featuring Tony Hill, criminal profiler and hero of TV’s Wire in the Blood. The race is on to uncover the identity of a murderer with nothing to lose — and everything to kill for. When Robbie Bishop, star midfielder for the Bradfield Vics, is poisoned by a rare and deadly toxin, profiler Dr Tony Hill and trusted colleague DCI Carol Jordan have their work cut out for them. Robbie was adored, so the public want answers — but the answers aren’t coming, and trails are running cold. Then a bomb explodes in the football stadium, causing massive casualties — and another man dies from poisoning. Is there a link between the cases? And what are the motives for these crimes? The clock is ticking for Tony and Carol — and the death toll keeps rising!

Exit Music (Ian Rankin)

It’s late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town – and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically. But the further they dig, the more Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack – especially after a particularly nasty second killing. Meanwhile, a brutal and premeditated assault on a local gangster sees Rebus in the frame. Has the Inspector taken a step too far in tying up those loose ends? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, inglorious career, will Rebus even make it that far?

Friend of the Devil (Peter Robinson)

When Karen Drew is found sitting in her wheelchair staring out to sea with her throat cut one chilly morning, DI Annie Cabbot, on loan to Eastern Area, gets lumbered with the case. Back in Eastvale, that same Sunday morning, 19-year-old Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled in the Maze, a tangle of narrow alleys behind Eastvale’s market square, after a drunken night on the town with a group of friends, and DCI Alan Banks is called in. Banks finds suspects galore, while Annie seems to hit a brick wall—until she reaches a breakthrough that spins her case in a shocking and surprising new direction, one that also involves Banks.

Then another incident occurs in the Maze which seems to link the two cases in a bizarre and mysterious way. As Banks and Annie dig into the past to uncover the deeper connections, they find themselves also dealing with the emotional baggage and personal demons of their own relationship. And it soon becomes clear that there are two killers in their midst, and that at any moment either one might strike again.

Savage Moon (Chris Simms)

The body of a woman with her throat ripped out is found on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. She is discovered in an area where numerous sightings of a mysterious big black cat have been made. When analysis shows the hairs caught under her nails are those of a panther, it’s assumed the animal has killed its first human victim. But then a man DI Jon Spicer is investigating as part of an entirely different case is murdered in exactly the same way. Only this time the body is found in a secluded car park – a popular gay rendezvous far closer to the city centre. Soon DI Spicer finds himself hunting a killer dubbed The Monster of the Moor, a creature whose stealth and savagery strike terror into the local population and way beyond it.