OVER 40 NEW STORIES FROM BRITAIN’S LEADING CRIME WRITERS Leading editor and reviewer Maxim Jakubowski has compiled another beguiling collection of the year’s best new short crime fiction from the UK. Ian Rankin’s perennially popular Edinburgh cop, Inspector Rebus, makes an unexpected comeback in a short, but intriguing story, ‘The Very Last Drop’, and the collection closes with another Rankin story, ‘Driven’. Making their first appearance in the series are many luminaries such as Kate Atkinson, Louise Welsh, Stephen Booth, Christopher Brookmyre, Colin Bateman, A. L. Kennedy, Sheila Quigley, Lin Anderson, Simon Kernick and David Hewson. Also represented are exciting up-and-coming...

Bred in the Bone is the stunning third novel in Brookmyre's series featuring private investigator Jasmine Sharp and Detective Superintendent Catherine McLeod. Set in the disturbing underworld of Glasgow - a place where countless old scores are still waiting to be settled, and where everyone knows everyone else - Bred in the Bone is a masterful mystery novel that will appeal to fans of Denise Mina, Val McDermid, and Ian Rankin. Private investigator Jasmine Sharp's father was murdered before she was born, and her mother went to self-sacrificing lengths in order to shield her from the world in which he moved. Since her mother's death, all she has been able to learn is his first name - and...

We could tell you about the bodies. We could tell you their names, where they were found, the state they were in. We could tell you about the suspects too, the evidence, the investigators; join a few dots, even throw you a motive. But what would be the point? You're going to make your own assumptions anyway. After all, you know these people, don't you? You went to school with them. We all did. Granted, that was twenty years ago, but how much does anybody really change? Exactly. So if you really knew them then, you'll already have all the answers. If you really knew them then...Put on your uniform and line up in an orderly fashion for the funniest and most accurate trip back to the classroom...

If society has the B-list celebrities it deserves, it now has a killer to match. Except that Simon Darcourt is a great deal more successful in his career choice than the average talent show contestant. He's also got the media taped - by the simple expedient of by-passing them completely and posting real-time coverage of his killings on the internet. He's got viewing figures to make the world's TV executives gasp in envy, and he's pulling the voyeuristic strings of every viewer by getting them to 'vote' to keep his captives alive. Angelique De Xavier, his previous nemesis, is drafted onto the police team trying to bring this one-man celebrity hate-fest to an end. But she can't do it alone,...

Jack Parlabane has a perfectly good hangover to be getting on with before he finds the corpse of Ponsonby - scion of a venerable Edinburgh medical clan. But his instincts as an investigative journalist (morally ambiguous or not), commit him to the case with an unusual tenacity.

A propulsive science fiction tale of murder and memory, all set on a futuristic space station. Hundreds of miles above Earth, the space station Ciudad de Cielo--The City in the Sky--is a beacon of hope for humanity's expansion into the stars. But not everyone aboard shares such noble ideals. Bootlegging, booze, and prostitution form a lucrative underground economy for rival gangs, which the authorities are happy to turn a blind eye to until a disassembled corpse is found dancing in the micro-gravity. In charge of the murder investigation is Nikki "Fix" Freeman, who is not thrilled to have Alice Blake, an uptight government goody-two-shoes, riding shotgun. As the bodies pile up, and...

'A celtic Gone Girl...guaranteed to keep you guessing' Ian Rankin *****WINNER Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year***** *****WINNER Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize for Crime Novel of the Year***** Twists abound in the brilliant new psychological thriller from master author Chris Brookmyre - perfect for readers of The Girl on the Train, I See You and Disclaimer. Did she do it? Did he deserve it? Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing. Then she meets Peter. He's...

The murder of a media moghul in his country mansion appears to be the result of him disturbing a gang of would-be thieves. The robbers are swiftly caught, but when they are unexpectedly moved to a different prison they escape. Back in Edinburgh, a young solicitor reveals to the press that one of the subjects had left a letter with her some time before the break-in which proves his innocence. Jack Parlabane, journo-extraordinaire, is intrigued, but when he approaches the lawyer he discovers someone else is trying to get near her - someone with evil intent, political connections of the highest order and a corrupt agenda. Fast-moving, blackly humorous and intriguingly credible.

Famous, beautiful, and talented, Heike Gunn has the world at her feet. Then one day she simply vanishes. Jack Parlabane has lost everything. A call from an old friend offers a chance for redemption--but only if he can find out what happened to Heike. From Berlin to Barcelona, from the streets of Milan to remote Scottish islands, Parlabane must find out what happened before it's too late, all while the walls are closing in...

Jack Parlabane is dead. Or is he? In an unlikely twist of the democratic process, he had been elected Rector of Glasgow's Kelvin University, taking over the post from the celebrity psychic Gabrielle Lafayette. Lafayette's tenure had one unexpected outcome - the establishment of a chair to investigate, using rigorous scientific controls, the causes of paranormal activity: mind-reading, levitating objects, speaking to the dead, all that sort of woo-woo. Due to his highly honed skills as a sceptic, Jack is invited to be an official observer to the whole exercise. Delighted to have the opportunity to puncture the unquestioning faith of the true believers - the unsinkable rubber ducks - Jack...