by Jo Bannister (1990)
The idyllic peace of a remote Scottish anchorage is shattered by an explosion aboard a luxury cruiser, which kills the woman on board and brings to an abrupt end the restful holiday which Clio Marsh prescribed for her detective husband, Harry. Was the wreck of the *Skara Sun* an accident? Was Alison MacAllister murdered by the penniless young man sailing with her? Or by the rich older one to whom she was married? The local police investigate. Harry Marsh investigates. No-one who knows Clio would expect her to mind her own business. The savage beauty of the wild west coast forms a backdrop to, and ultimately plays its own role in the developing drama as Clio discovers that even deadly Corryvreckan can be a friend in the face of human treachery.
David Peace
The nightmare continues during the winter of 1980 when the Ripper murders his thirteenth victim and the whole of Yorkshire is terrorised. Assistant Chief Constable Hunter struggles to solve the hellish crimes and bring an end to the horror, but is drawn ever deeper into a world of bent coppers and sleaze. After his house is burned down, his wife is threatened and his colleagues turn against him, Hunter's quest becomes personal as he has nothing left to lose.
A.J. Cross
The New Year brings a gruesome new discovery for forensic psychologist Dr Kate Hanson and Birmingham's Unsolved Crimes Unit. A mummified body is found beneath the floorboards of a deserted lake house in Woodgate Country Park. The dead man was art student Nathan Troy, who disappeared twenty years ago, but evidence at the scene suggests the killer has been keeping an eye on his long-dead victim.
Margaret Murphy
When Megan Ward goes missing, suspicion falls on the stalker seen outside her house. The police would love it to be so simple, but the closer they look the more mysterious Megan herself becomes. They find no photos, no passport, no family or friends from an earlier life, only the corrupted computer files in Megan's strangely impersonal room. Meanwhile Patrick Doran, owner of Safe Hands Security, is living his own nightmare. A hacker has breached his computer network, where he thought he had safely buried his past. Then Megan's landlady is murdered - and the shadowy Megan re-emerges. The woman who doesn't exist becomes very real, very elusive and very dangerous.
Ruth Rendell
Chief Inspector Wexford visits China and while an old woman with bound feet haunts him, a man is tragically drowned. Back in England he investigates the murder of one of his fellow tourists and finds himself locked in a mystery that leads back to the East. From the author of "Going Wrong".