When the young lawyer Daniel Pitt is called from his chambers in Lincoln's Inn to identify a body, he fears that the murder victim will be his friend Kitteredge. But it turns out to be senior lawyer Jonah Drake, who for some reason had borrowed Kitteredge's distinctive coat. Drake was savagely knifed in an alley in London's disreputable Mile End, and Pitt and Kitteredge need to know why. Moneylenders, brothels, opium dens? The reputation of the chambers is at stake, and the head Marcus fford Croft is visibly uneasy. Drake was a cultured man in comfortable circumstances, dealing exclusively in cases of embezzlement, but looking at his financial records Daniel has a feeling there is something wrong. Money is being moved too often with no apparent reason. His search takes him to two possible sources, Drake's client Peterson who was lucky to escape with his life when Drake defended him for murder, and also to the shady world of the shipping tycoon Erasmus Faber. The more Daniel delves, the worse it looks for Marcus, and to complicate matters Daniel is in love with Marcus's daughter. A gripping detective novel in the authentically realised setting of Victorian London. 293pp.

Featuring private investigator Aloysius Archer whose luck is about to run out. California 1949, and Archer is on his way to start a new job with a renowned Private Investigator in Bay Town. Feeling lucky, he stops off at a casino in Reno where he meets an aspiring actress Liberty Callahan. Together they head west on a journey filled with danger and surprises, because Archer isn't the only one with a secretive past. Arriving in a town rife with corruption, Archer is tasked with finding out who is doing everything they can to disrupt the appointment of a top official. Then two seemingly unconnected people are murdered at a burlesque club. In a tight-lipped community, he must dig deep to reveal the connection between the victims and all his skills to decipher the truth from the lies. And to prove she's a star in the making, will Liberty finally have her moment in the spotlight? The ex-jail-bird Archer is one of Baldacci's most attractive characters. 605pp, paperback.

Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are on the hunt for a murderer when Covid rears its ugly head. Can they find the killer despite lockdown? Ruth is in London clearing out her mother's belongings when she makes a surprising discovery - a photograph of her Norfolk cottage taken before Ruth lived there. Her mother always hated the cottage, so why does she have a picture of the place? The only clue is written on the back of the photo - Dawn, 1963. Ruth returns to Norfolk determined to solve the mystery, but then Covid hits and she and her daughter are locked down in their cottage attempting to continue with work and home-schooling. Happily the house next door is rented by a nice woman called Zoe who they become friendly with while standing on their doorsteps clapping for carers. Meanwhile Nelson is investigating a series of deaths of women that may or may not be suicide when he links the deaths to an archaeological discovery. He breaks curfew to visit the cottage where he finds Ruth chatting to her neighbour whom he remembers as a carer who was once tried for murdering her employer. Only then her name wasn't Zoe. It was Dawn. 'An intelligent and gripping recreation of those first weeks of lockdown in 2020.' 399pp, paperback.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, Thou Art the Man!, The Purloined Letter and The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall are these wonderful detective stories here in new reprinted paperback. Poe established not only the brilliant amateur sleuth and his highly dumb sidekick, but also witness interviews, the armchair detective, solving a real murder abandoned by police, hiding critical evidence in plain sight, false clues, and even the first supposed murder committed by an animal. Having invented and made the detective genre wildly popular, Poe moved on. He felt that people overestimated the worth of the stories, because Dupin, his detective, was so ingenious. It was the chain of logic that interested the writer and without him there would be no Holmes, no Poirot and no Famous Five. Enjoy an early Poe detective story Thou Art the Man! which seeks to uncover the murder of the wealthy Barnabus Shuttleworthy, and the tale of an adventure to reach the Moon in a revolutionary new balloon. 206 page new full price paperback.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton joined the Illustrated London News in 1905 under instruction to write a weekly column of interest about anything except politics and religion. Of course he ignored the advice and was an immediate hit and continued to write his weekly essay for the next 31 years. 'He writes beautifully, in fully formed sentences that are funny, companionable, empathetic and inclusive. His wit is as sharp as Oscar Wilde's.' His first published novel was The Napoleon of Notting Hill 1904 and success continued and a further 12 stories were published as The Wisdom of Father Brown in 1914. This second collection is reproduced here and contains all of the intrigue to be expected as Chesterton's beloved amateur sleuth continues to use his innate understanding of human nature to solve mystery after mystery. The character of Father Brown was loosely based on John O'Conner, a Catholic curate whom Chesterton met on a walking holiday in Yorkshire in 1903. Chesterton was struck by his apparent innocence in worldly matters, though he possessed a deep knowledge of the human condition through the confessional, the antithesis of Sherlock Holmes, another famous detective of that era. For Father Brown, criminals were not evil, they were simply good men gone wrong. This collection of classics features The Absence of Mr Glass, The Duel of Mr Hirsch, The Mistake of the Machine, The Head of Caesar, The Purple Wig, The Perishing of the Pendragons, The God of the Gongs and The Fairy Tale of Father Brown among the 12 short stories. New full price paperback, 220pp.

Sarah Pepper's body is missing after her boyfriend killed her in a drunken rage. He can only vaguely recall where he left her, although the police soon find the place, but someone else has got there first and the body has been taken. Meanwhile another police force is closing in on a killer whose latest victim was completely drained of blood. The man they arrest confesses to the killings but that doesn't close the case because Rebecca 's body isn't where it should be. Two missing bodies, but are the cases linked? The hunt leads to an underworld where life is only the first thing victims will lose. The story centres around Alex Connor who left his family and friends behind when a traumatic event changed his life, and his is a story of murder, abuse, suicide, greed, voyeurism and a tale with twists you won't see coming. The torment of Alex and policeman Paul Kearney add an emotional side to the disturbing tale. 328pp, paperback.

From the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, this is the one with Mma Ramotswe's summer holiday. She is taking a break, leaving important tasks in the capable hands of Mma Makutsi, her co-director. But Mma Ramotswe soon finds herself interfering in cases (secretly, or so she intends) and while 'on holiday' she delves into the past of a man whose reputation is brought into question. She is called upon to rescue a small boy and discovers Violet Sephotho's latest underhand business endeavour - the No.1 Ladies' Secretarial College. Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi hires a part time science teacher as an assistant and suspects that her authority is being undermined. Will Mma Ramotswe be caught out? She herself took on the challenge of identifying a lady with no name and no memory, uncovered Violet Sephotho's latest scheme as a restaurant critic, and gained a dubiously qualified assistant detective in the form of Charlie. Hugely enjoyable, 246pp, paperback.

A companion to The Seeker code 93131. London in 1656. Oliver Cromwell is now a king in all but name. Three conspirators, an alliance of Royalists and disillusioned Parliamentarians, plan to assassinate him, paving the way back to the throne for Charles Stuart once and for all. But the Lord Protector's most feared agent Captain Damian Seeker is preoccupied by the horrifying discovery in an illegal gambling den of the body of a man ravaged by what is unmistakeably a bear, creatures not seen in the capital since bear baiting was banned. With Royalist-turned-Commonwealth spy Thomas Faithly tracking the bear, Seeker investigates his victim. The hunt for the killer leads from Kent's coffee house on Cornhill to a German clockmaker in Clerkenwell, to the desolate Lambeth Marshes where no one should venture at night. As the motivation behind the murder becomes clearer, Seeker realises just what and who he is up against. The Royalists in exile have sent to London their greatest fighter, a man who will stop at nothing to ensure the Restoration. 410pp, paperback.

In the exclusive gated community of Withered Vale, people's lives appear as perfect as their beautifully manicured lawns. Money, success, privilege - the residents have it all and life is good. There's just one problem. Olive Collins' dead body has been rotting inside number four for the last three months. The police start to ask questions and the seemingly flawless façade of Withered Vale begins to crack because, when it comes to Olive's neighbours, it seems each of them has something to hide, something to lose and everything to gain from her death. Dark, funny, well plotted and sinister with 'more secrets and motives than you can shake a stick at.' Six neighbours, six secrets, six reasons to want Olive Collins dead, guilt lies close to home. 405pp, paperback.

It's June 2008 and 21 year old Adam Lattimer vanishes, presumed dead. The strain of his disappearance breaks his already fragile family. Ten years later with his mother dead and siblings scattered across the globe, Adam turns up unannounced at the family home. His siblings return reluctantly to Spanish Cove, but Adam's reappearance poses more questions than answers. The past is a tangled web of deceit and as tension builds, it's apparent somebody has planned murderous revenge for the events of ten years previously. A clever and chilling tale, full of twists from Irish Crime Fiction's current hot-ticket. 424pp, paperback.