Canongate Books

For DI Colin Anderson, there's no such simple thing as right and wrong.

As his seemingly clear-cut conviction of paedophile Skelpie Fairbairn is declared unsafe, Anderson finds himself under investigation. Pressure on the DI mounts as an elusive criminal mastermind known as the Puppeteer seems to be the link in a series of alarming events: a gangster torched alive; a teenage boy tortured then dropped off a bridge; and the suicide of a cop working on a decades-old, unsolved child kidnapping.

When a young girl dies in Anderson's arms after being left to drown, he is at his wits' end. With Fairbairn as his only lead, is he prepared to dance with the devil to solve her murder?

Cumbria, 1967. Grieving the loss of her son, Cordelia Hemlock is in a village graveyard when lightning strikes a tumbledown tomb—and gives her a glimpse of a new corpse that doesn't belong among the crumbling bones. But when the body vanishes, the authorities refuse to believe some hysterical outsider. Cordelia persuades Felicity Goose, the only other person to have seen the corpse, to join her investigation. But the villagers don't take kindly to their interference. There are those who believe the village's secrets should remain buried . . . whatever the cost.

Megan Melvick has returned home after a three-year absence to visit her dying sister, Melissa, for the last time. As she approaches the grand Scottish country estate where she grew up, the memories come flooding back. Just what did happen on the night of Melissa's wedding five years before? Where has Megan and Melissa's mother disappeared to? And why does Melissa whisper that solitary word before she finally slips away: Sorry.

In order to overcome her demons, Megan must confront her painful recollections of that terrible night, the night of Melissa's wedding. The night somebody died. But can she really trust her memories? And who is so determined that she should forget?

'Gripping' Guardian
'Pacy and stylish' Jeremy Vine

'It was never meant to be like this. Sabotage, yes. Propaganda, yes. All of that and more - but not this. Not murder.'

South Africa has become a powder keg. Its precious land is being sold off to the highest bidders while the country's corrupt elite pocket the profits. As the dreams and hopes of its people are threatened, frustration turns to violence. With the shocking murder of one of the country's bright young hopes, the fuse is well and truly lit.

Conflict mediator Lindi and her childhood friend Kagiso find themselves in the heart of the chaos, fighting to save themselves and their country as events are set in motion that no one - least of all they - can control.

At her husband’s funeral, Heather Mallet is publicly accused of murder. But did Heather really kill her husband, as many Fethering residents now believe?

To get to the heart of the matter, Carole’s neighbor Jude joins the new community choir. There she discovers that amidst the clashing egos and petty resentments lurk some decidedly false notes. At least one chorister would appear to be hiding a deadly secret—and it’s up to Carole and Jude to unearth the truth.

When a young woman's body is discovered on a popular jogging trail in Birmingham, Detective Inspector Bernard Watts and his team are plunged into a disturbing murder investigation. Not only has the woman been violently stabbed - her head is missing.

When a close examination of the crime scene results in a shocking discovery linking the present murder to a past crime, criminologist Will Traynor is brought in to assist the police. Aware of Traynor's troubled past, Watts is sceptical that he will bring anything useful to the investigation.

He's about to be proved very wrong . . .

Inside a beautiful Victorian family home in Glasgow, a mother and her young son are found brutally murdered. DI Costello is furious and knows exactly who did it: George Haggerty, the husband and father. The only problem is that Haggerty has a cast-iron alibi – the police themselves caught him speeding at the time of the murders. But Costello can’t let it go. Determined to expose Haggerty as a ruthless killer, she’s gone solo.

DCI Colin Anderson has no time to ponder his partner of twenty years going rogue, as his own cases are piling up. But Costello’s absence becomes increasingly worrying. Has she completely disappeared following the tracks of a dangerous man?

London, 1554. Light-fingered Jack Blackjack wakes in a tavern’s yard with a sore head, his knife smeared with blood and a dead stranger lying beside him. Jack may have robbed the man but he’s certain that he didn’t kill him.

Unfortunately, the man’s purse contains something much more valuable than money and, as the prime suspect for the murder, everyone is on Jack’s tail. He needs to get out of the city, and fast, but a rebel army is marching on London: the bridge is blocked and every gate manned. Trapped in the city, Jack must avoid being caught long enough to find the real murderer.

Four washed-up spooks. Two dead civilians. One remote and deadly outpost.

Harry Tate is a loyal MI5 officer and a servant of the State. But when two civilians are shot dead during a drugs intercept gone wrong, he is forced to take an immediate posting to the Red Station.

What he doesn’t know is that this remote Balkan outpost is a punishment and he won’t be going home. With an assassination team coming for him and invading Russian forces heading straight for the Red Station, Harry does whatever he can to save himself. But with few allies and enemies everywhere, Harry’s chances of survival shrink with each passing day . . .

Strange things happen in the picture-postcard English village of Lindsay Carfax. When a young man falls into a quarry, it takes nine days to find the body. When rowdy hippies descend on the village, they’re given nine days to leave. When an outspoken schoolmaster is kidnapped for nine days, he stays eerily quiet after his release.

Now Albert Campion has come to town – and he means to investigate all this strangeness. But whoever is behind the unusual goings-on quickly makes it very clear that his nosing around is not welcome. Undeterred by threats, Campion is determined to expose the criminal masterminds hiding in this sleepy village.

Ireland, 1923. The country has been torn apart by the War of Independence and is now in the throes of sectarian violence and severe flooding. But Mother Aquinas knows that not all floods cleanse the deeds of humanity . . .

When a body washes up at her convent chapel dressed in evening finery, she immediately suspects foul play. The overstretched police force may be ready to dismiss the case as accidental drowning, but strangulation marks on the girl’s throat tell a grimmer story. Mother Aquinas wants justice for the girl – and won’t let a murderer slip away unpunished under the cover of war.

DI David Vogel is first on the scene when Melanie Cooke’s bruised and strangled body is discovered in Bristol’s red-light district. The evidence points to Melanie’s father being the killer, but Vogel is on edge: the quick arrest is too easy, too straightforward.

When two more murders are reported, Vogel’s team broaden the search: new evidence suggests that there are three different, disturbed criminals. Any one of them could have killed Melanie, but which did? Vogel’s team inch towards the answer, never suspecting that the killer is watching them, too, waiting for his moment to strike.

What’s wrong, killer got your tongue?

It’s DC Sean Blake’s first week on the job, but already he faces a series of brutal and bizarre killings: women are being strangled in their homes, each with a mobile phone forced down their throat. There are never any signs of a struggle or forced entry. The Greater Manchester Police have no leads.

Blake can’t afford to waste any time—even as he picks apart the disturbing motive behind the murders, the case takes a turn for the personal. Can he stop the killer before another woman is silenced forever?

'Parry's Victorian Edinburgh comes vividly alive - and it's a world of pain' Val McDermid
'A rip-roaring tale of murder' Ian Rankin

SHORTLISTED FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2020

Edinburgh, 1849. Hordes of patients are dying all across the city, with doctors finding their remedies powerless. And a whispering campaign seeks to paint Dr James Simpson, pioneer of medical chloroform, as a murderer.

Determined to clear Simpson's name, his protégé Will Raven and former housemaid Sarah Fisher must plunge into Edinburgh's deadliest streets and find out who or what is behind the deaths. Soon they discover that the cause of the deaths has evaded detection purely because it is so unthinkable.

'An ending that will leave readers breathless' Booklist
'A master at complex plots' Globe and Mail

After a police operation ends in catastrophe, DCI Eve West is suspended. She faces expulsion from the force, until John Duran - a violent criminal Eve incarcerated herself and who is still serving his sentence - offers to help clear her name. But nothing comes for free.

Duran wants Eve to help free a fellow prisoner, who he claims has been wrongly convicted of murder. But as her investigation grows darker, Eve finds that more than just her job is at stake, and Duran is a dangerous man to trust . . .

“You can’t upset anyone looking into old bones.”

DCI Bill Slider’s out of favour in the force—for accusing a senior Met officer of covering up an underage sex ring. As punishment, he’s given a cold case to keep him busy: some old bones to rake through, found buried in a back garden, from a murder that happened two decades ago, and with most of the principal players already dead.

Surely Bill Slider can’t unearth anything new or shocking with these tired old bones?

Special Agent Captain Rake Ozenna watches as a fleet of Russian military helicopters heads straight for his home, a remote Alaskan island with a population of just eighty.

What he doesn’t know yet is why.

Soon, however, he learns that Russia is playing a dangerous political game: in a daring act of provocation, it reclaims the American island as its own. Caught in the crosshairs of sabre-rattling big powers, Rake is determined to save his people and his island, even if it costs him his life.

Devon, 1607. Gabriel Taverner, former ship’s surgeon turned country physician, is called to examine a rotting body found impaled on a blade. Identifying the corpse seems a hopeless task and the death is declared a suicide.

But Gabriel is not satisfied and re-examines the body—making the first of a series of shocking discoveries that will lead him deep into the dark underbelly of the lucrative silk trade. As he investigates, Gabriel realises that not only was the death a murder—but even worse, he had a personal connection with the corpse.

London, 1471. The War of the Roses rages on . . .

Edward of York has claimed the English throne and his Yorkist supporters gleefully slaughter their adversaries; there’s no mercy for anyone who supported the Lancastrian cause.

Margaret Beaufort—mother of Henry Tudor, the only hope for the House of Lancaster—knows her enemies are closing in. Desperate for help, she turns to Christopher Urswicke for protection. But when ruthless scheming and pitiless killings are the only routes to survival, Urswicke will have to choose where his loyalties truly lie.