“where a good crime C r i m e can be had by all” c h r o n i c l e Issue #242 MArch 2006 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH

Skeleton Man: A Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee novel Leaphorn comes out of retirement to help investigate what seems to be a trading post robbery. The simple kid nailed for the crime is related to a former colleague. Proving the kid’s innocence requires finding the remains of one of 172 people whose bodies were scattered over the Grand Canyon in an epic airline disaster 50 years ago. One of those passengers, a diamond dealer, had an attaché case containing a fortune in diamonds handcuffed to his wrist. Now his daughter is also seeking his body, and so is a most unpleasant fellow who is willing to kill to make sure she doesn’t succeed. These two tense tales collide deep in the canyon at the place where an old man died trying to build a cult-reviving reverence for the Hopi guardian of the Underworld. It is a race to the finish in a thunderous monsoon storm to see who will be brought to justice and who will finally unearth the Skeleton Man (Pb 19.95). Other titles in this excellent series starring two Navajo policemen include: Blessing Way, Coyote Waits (16.95), Dance Hall of the Dead (19.95), Dark Wind, The Fallen Man, Finding Moon, The Fly on the Wall, The Ghostway, Hunting Badger, Listening Woman, People of Darkness, Scared Clowns, The Sinister Pig, Skinwalkers, Talking God, A Thief of Time and The Wailing Wind (all 18.95 unless otherwise indicated). Another interesting title, which also includes a Jim Chee mini-mystery, is Talking Mysteries: A Conversation with Tony Hillerman (Tp 29.95). Hillerman discusses his craft, including his approach to plot, characterisation and setting, and the wrinkles and twists that make his brand of fiction unique. His wonderful series, which I can highly recommend, has earned him the Navajo people’s appreciation as ‘special friend to the Dineh’. - Peter 2 Modern Crime Paul ADAM M C BEATON Sleeper 384pp Pb 19.95 Death of a Bore Paul ADAM 256pp Pb 16.95 Enemy Within Rainaldi, a violin-maker, is 336pp Tp 29.95 discovered slumped over his workbench, Hamish Macbeth Mystery. Minor writer murdered with one of his own chisels, John Heppel has a problem - by all A respected modern historian and both the police and his friends are at accounts, he’s a consummate bore. When with a secure job at a red-brick a loss to discover a motive. Then it comes he’s found dead in his cottage, there are university, and a father of two in to light that he believed he was on the plenty of suspects. But surely boredom a happy marriage, Tom leads a contented track of an infamous Stradivari violin - couldn’t be cause for murder? Or so and fulfilled life. Then he is arrested and twin to one housed in the Asmolean thinks local bobby and sleuth Hamish charged with downloading child Museum and subject to 200 years of myth Macbeth, whose investigation of pornography. He is suspended from his and rumour. With nothing else to go on, Heppel’s soap opera script uncovers post and his wife cannot look him in the his two close friends pick up the search much more than melodrama. (American) eye. He knows he is from where he left off, plunging headlong innocent, but even Elizabeth BECKA into a world where great musical when he proves he Trace Evidence 356pp Tp 29.95 instruments change hands for millions, was 50 miles away Evelyn James, where forgery is an art form and where from his computer forensic pathologist murder is often a dealer’s chosen method when the images for the Cleveland of negotiation! (English) were downloaded, Medical Examiner, he knows he has to Deborah ATKINSON is called out to the find out who set Primitive Secrets river’s edge to take him up before 275pp Tp 32.95 a look at the body of anyone will truly Hawaiian Mystery. When Storm Kayama a girl, recently believe him. walks into her lucrative Honolulu law pulled from the (English) firm one morning, she is shocked and water. A Caucasian, grieved to find her adopted uncle at his the dark marbling desk, stiff and cold. Years before, Miles of decomposition KEY Hamasaki had fulfilled a promise to her has spread through her limbs like poison. academic father and brought her to be raised with After years in the job, Evelyn is used to his own family. As the questions such things - to the sight of victims banking surrounding Miles’s death grow and her washed up by poverty or grief - but this is adopted family closes ranks, Storm quite different, and much nastier. Her feet canine detectives suspects he has been murdered. have been encased in concrete, her body (American) wrapped in chains. Even worse, it seems clerical Lori AVOCATO the girl was alive when she went in - alive One Dead Under the Cuckoo’s and terrified, clawing at the dark water. cosy/malice domestic Nest 352pp Pb 16.95 And she isn’t alone - other girls have A Pauline Sokol Mystery. Sokol’s current recently met a similar fate. When the culinary/food undercover investigation into a sleazy daughter of a prominent family also psychiatric scam has hit a small snag: she disappears, she finds herself in a fbi has been forcibly committed to a mental desperate bid to put the pieces of the institution! She is certainly sane, but try puzzle together before she is called, once feline detectives telling that to the nuns who run the place. again, to the water’s edge. (American) Even her hunky, crime-solving sometime- Sallie BISSELL forensic cohort Jagger is unwilling to spring her, Legacy of Masks so she’s got nothing better to do than 432pp Pb 16.95 horse racing mystery keep digging. Then the strange death of a Ex-prosecutor Mary Crow didn’t expect a medical gender-confused ‘sister’ further hero’s welcome when she returned home complicates matters and she realises she’s to Pisgah County, North Carolina. But military in way over her head. (American) she never guessed her first case in her Colin BATEMAN own law firm would tear the town apart. native american Belfast Confidential (American) 416pp Tp 32.95 Alice BLANCHARD police procedural They say moving house is one of the most Life Sentences 384pp Tp 29.95 stressful things you can do. Well, as far as Daisy Hubbard, a genetic researcher in political/legal Dan Starkey is concerned, ‘they’ can stick a prestigious Boston lab, is driven to find it where the sun don’t shine because right a cure for a rare genetic disease that psychological now helping his wife with the unpacking claimed the life of her younger brother. is the least of his worries... No sooner has But her progress is halted when her private eye he moved into his new Belfast home, his mentally unstable sister, Anna, is best mate, Mouse, is murdered - leaving discovered missing from her California romantic suspense him to catch a killer, become editor of the home. Fearing the worst, Daisy drops obscenely successful scandal magazine, everything and flies across the country to sport Belfast Confidential, and compile the find Anna. Once there, she is informed by much-coveted Power List. (Irish) the LAPD that the known serial killer, spy Roy Gaines, has confessed to Anna’s murder, but he will only reveal where he suspense/thriller has hidden the body if he can lead Daisy AUTHOR’S NATIONALITY AT END OF BLURB to it himself. (American)

CRIME CHRONICLE www.abbeys.com.au 3 Bill BONANNO & Joe PISTONE Kirsty BROOKS Marc CERASINI The Good Guys 368pp Pb 18.95 Millionaire Float Operation Hell Gate: Twenty Four The authors provide an inside look at 320pp Pb 19.95 Declassified 336pp Pb 18.95 both a Mafia crime family and the FBI. Cassidy Blair returns Within 24 hours, a Both end up looking for a Russian in her third sexy PI nightmare will be literature professor who has disappeared adventure with unleashed that could from Columbia University. When the more confidence, cause the death of Mafia ‘soldiers’ and FBI agents cross more money in her untold millions and paths, well, all’s fair in love and war. bank account and devastate a great (American) more Officer Sam nation. It’s a plot Sam BOURNE Tasker in her life being carried out by The Righteous Men 440pp Tp 29.95 than ever before. So the unlikeliest of A pimp is found dead in a rough New when Cassidy lands allies. A powerful York neighbourhood. A far-right a job infiltrating one mole within the extremist is fatally shot at his remote log of the city’s most deepest reaches of US cabin outside Seattle. An 18-year-old dangerous nightclubs while wearing the Intelligence has secretly conscripted the computer hacker is murdered on his way skimpiest of outfits, the odds are Sam very criminals he has been charged with home from working at a call centre in isn’t going to be too thrilled. Meanwhile, investigating - former IRA terrorists, India. One thing unites these victims. All Cass has to survive a battle with her Latino and Asian gang members, Middle had, at some point in their largely wasted crazed parrot, a complete body wax and Eastern assassins and others - creating and grubby lives, performed an act of the disturbing reappearance of her high one of the most insidious terrorist exceptional goodness. Someone is school nemesis. Fortunately, she also has networks that law enforcement has yet to murdering good people. Why? For rookie a terrific set of friends, a sexy lingerie take down. One man stands between the journalist Will Monroe, in his first week collection and a brand new Mini that even destroyers and the death tide: Jack Bauer, on the crime beat for the New York Times, Wonder Woman would want to drive. So lone wolf operative for America’s brand- the story is a gift, the launch pad for a buckle up for another hilarious, racy new, elite Counter Terrorist Unit. But he’s glittering career. But then his wife Beth is adventure as Cassidy Blair solves crimes 3,000 miles from the CTU command kidnapped and the riddle becomes and protects the innocent. At least, that’s centre without backup in a strange city, personal. (American) her poorly formulated plan! (Australian) New York. He’s been artfully set up and Allison BRENNAN W J BURLEY is being hunted by the FBI for the murder The Prey 416pp Pb 16.95 Wycliffe’s Wild Goose Chase of two of its agents. And time’s almost First, she (1982) 176pp Pb 18.95 up… (American) imagined it. Then a Wycliffe’s home overlooks a peaceful, Peter CLEMENT killer made it real. West Country estuary, but even there he The Inquisitor 384pp Pb 16.95 Rowan Smith is living can’t get away from crime. While taking a A Medical Thriller. A new and in a borrowed Malibu Sunday morning walk along the shore, he vicious strain of Severe Acute Respiratory beach house while comes across a service revolver with one Syndrome (SARS) has hit America and is her bestselling novel chamber recently fired. In recent years, menacing the hospital like a wolf at the is made into a Wycliffe has often regretted the fact that door. Wrapped in spacesuit-like garb to Hollywood movie. A his rank cuts him off from the early stages search for every possible source of former FBI agent with of an investigation, but here he is, in at the infection, the hospital staff desperately a haunted past, she very start. The case takes him into the try to protect the lives of patients – and of thinks she has outrun world of art robberies and crooked each other. Yet despite St Paul’s best her demons, but fiction and reality collide dealers to a suicide that may be a murder efforts, people are dying. In this chilling when a dismembered body is found in and a hunt for a missing yacht. As the medical landscape, no one notices the Colorado: the real-life victim had the investigation escalates, Wycliffe begins to slight spike in the death rate in a same name, occupation and looks as a wonder exactly where the clues are palliative care ward. But when ER chief character in Rowan’s novel. By the time leading... (English) Dr Earl Garnet gets blamed for the the FBI, the LAPD and her own private Caroline CARVER unexpected death of a patient, he defies bodyguard gather around her, another Black Tide 256pp Pb 19.95 protocol and opens an independent person is killed – and again, the murder is When journalist investigation. (American) ripped from the pages of Rowan’s book! India Kane agrees to Harlan COBEN (American) accompany the The Innocent 400pp Pb 19.95 Greenpeace ship, Matt Hunter’s life has already been Sundancer, in its blown apart once. A fight, a friend in pursuit of a whaling trouble, and the dull crack of someone’s fleet, she has no idea skull on the concrete cost him four years what awaits her. in jail, and a small sliver of his soul. When Buffeted by high winds he got out, he set about rebuilding his life. and blinded by He carved himself a job as a lawyer and freezing fog, by the fell in love with a beautiful woman. The time they spot the huge tanker bearing break in the road seemed only to have down on them, it is simply too late. Eight made him a stronger person. But now crewmembers are lost. Ned, one of India’s someone is following him and he realises closest friends, is among them. It seems his new existence is under threat. the tanker is unregistered - a kind of (American) ghost ship, untraceable and unaccountable - but India is determined to bring the owner to justice. (English)

ABBEY S BOOKSHOP 131 YORK STREET, SYDNEY 2000 PH 9264 3111 FAX 9264 8993 4 Richard CONDON Philip DAVISON Robert FERRIGNO Winter Kills 288pp Pb 21.95 A Burnable Town 248pp Tp 36.95 The Wake up 384pp Pb 23.95 President Timothy Kegan has been Following an MI5 operation that saw “Strange the things our fates pivoted assassinated, shot dead in a motorcade. A him catastrophically betrayed, Harry on: a kid selling gum and candy, a hard presidential commission condemns a Fielding is to be rehabilitated. Starting charger in a hurry, and a beached spook lone psychopath as the killer and with a job as personal assistant to his with a bad attitude.” The beached spook America settles down to mourn its dead. controller, he sits brooding within the is Frank Thorpe, in limbo having recently But 14 years later, the confession of a corridors of power, until the chance to left an off-the-books American dying man rouses Tim’s half-brother, avenge his betrayal turns him against the intelligence unit after an operation went Nick, to reassess the story behind his MI5 machine. (Irish) down river. The ‘hard charger’ was a brother’s death. Soon he is drawn into a Sarah DIAMOND stranger whom Frank saw mow down a murky underworld of oil kings, mobsters The Spider’s House young kid selling sweets at the airport and starlets on the make, where nothing 448pp Pb 19.95 and keep going without so much as a is what it seems. And as paranoia takes When Anna’s husband tells her he’s been backward glance. Almost on a whim, hold, he must follow a trail that leads into offered a job in a different part of the Frank decides to use all his skills and the black heart of a very American country, she’s as happy to move as he is. resources to give that stranger a big dream... (American) But with few ideas for her new novel and wake-up call. But as he tries to mend Patricia CORNWELL little else to do, life in the country isn’t things, he finds someone from his own Trace 416pp Pb 19.95 quite what she imagined. But all that past is out to give him an even bigger Now freelancing from south Florida, changes when she discovers something wake-up! (American) Dr Kay Scarpetta returns to Richmond, unexpected: Rebecca Fisher, the Colin FORBES Virginia, the city that turned its back on notorious child murderess of the 1960s, The Main Chance 304pp Tp 29.95 her five years ago. Investigating the death was the previous owner of their cottage. Tweed, once ace detective, now of a young girl, she must follow the The more she learns about Rebecca, the Deputy Chief SIS, is persuaded by his old twisting leads to make the dead speak more determined Anna becomes to reveal friend, Commander Buchanan of and to reveal the sad truth that may be the truth that has remained unexplored Scotland Yard, to visit Mrs Bella Main, more than even she can bear. (American) for over 30 years. But someone else has formidable matriarch controlling the Robert CRAIS other ideas… (English) Main Chance, the most powerful private Bestsellers: LA Requiem / Demolition Sean DOOLITTLE bank in Europe. Bella tells Tweed and his Angel / Hostage 854pp Tp 29.95 Rain Dogs 352pp Pb 16.95 assistant, Paula Grey, that she has refused This is Crais at the height of his game It was one hell of an inheritance for an enormous offer from Calouste - three stunning novels in one great value former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman: a Gubenkian, the most ruthless and omnibus. (American) broken-down pickup truck, ramshackle villainous man in Europe. Within days of Deborah CROMBIE campground, a canoe livery, and one pot- their visit, Bella is murdered. Tweed and Now You May Weep smoking, barely working employee he Paula return to investigate the atrocious 400pp Pb 19.95 doesn’t need, doesn’t want and can’t act. (English) A welcoming community, a beautiful afford. But the truth is, after losing a child Antonia FRASER vista, a deadly past. When Detective and a marriage, Tom doesn’t really care. Three Great Novels: Quiet as a Nun / Inspector Gemma James is persuaded by And at least life is nice and quiet in the Tartan Tragedy / A Splash of Red her friend, Hazel, to take a trip to the middle of nowhere. Then a drug lab 490pp Tp 35.00 misty Scottish Highlands, she jumps at blows up near his property, putting him In Quiet as a the chance. But upon their arrival, it in contact with the woman he once loved, Nun, a murder becomes clear that Hazel has been as well as a small-town cop with a chip on takes place in a concealing a dangerous secret. At their his shoulder and a powerful local who secluded tower at remote B&B, they encounter Donald doesn’t want him poking his nose where Blessed Eleanor’s Brodie, the owner of a local distillery... it doesn’t belong. (American) Convent in Sussex. and Hazel’s former lover. Their Linda FAIRNSTEIN The victim turns out relationship had ended abruptly years Death Dance 416pp Tp 32.95 to be an old school before. Donald is convinced he can win Once again, Linda Fairstein uses friend of Britain’s Hazel back, but the lovers’ reunion yields her experience as Manhattan’s leading most popular TV shocking consequences. (English) DA to create a tantalising web of intrigue, reporter, Jemima Clive CUSSLER betrayal and murder. Teaming up with Shore, and the nuns Black Wind 544pp Pb 19.95 long-time friends and colleagues, Mike call on Jemima for help… In Tartan Dirk Pitt. In the waning days of Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex Tragedy, when Jemima takes a welcome WWII, the Japanese tried a last desperate Cooper investigates the disappearance of break from the stresses of TV reporting, measure, a different kind of kamikaze a world-famous dancer who has all she wants is the peace and isolation of mission, this one carried out by two vanished from the Metropolitan Opera her remote Scottish island. But she arrives submarines bound for the west coast of House. Drawn behind the scenes of New to find her friend Charles dead and a the US, their cargo a revolutionary new York’s theatrical community, the team is bitter and bloody feud raging in the strain of biological virus. Neither sub haunted by ghosts of the dramatic old community… In A Splash of Red, made it to the designated target. But that theatres - and from their own pasts. At London is in the grip of a summer heat doesn’t mean they were lost. Someone the same time, Alex and Mercer are wave. Jemima is looking forward to some knows about the subs - what they carried trying to collar a doctor who has been peaceful research time in the British and where they might be - and has an using his extensive knowledge of drugs Library, while she stays in her friend extraordinary plan that could reshape the to overpower women before assaulting Chloe’s flat. When Chloe suddenly world as we know it. (American) them. (American) disappears and a shocking murder is discovered, Jemima finds herself reluctantly involved... (English)

CRIME CHRONICLE www.abbeys.com.au 5 Stephen FREY Brian HAIG Donald HAMILTON The Chairman 320pp Pb 18.95 The President’s Assassin Night Walker 256pp Pb 16.95 A towering 416pp Pb 18.95 Hard Case Crime. When Navy legend among New With just three days Lieutenant David Young wakes up in a York private equity to prevent the hospital bed, his face is covered with partnerships, assassination of the bandages and nurses are calling him by a Everest Capital is President, Army stranger’s name. But his nightmare is aptly named. When lawyer Sean only just beginning. Because the man they its founder meets an Drummond races believe him to be was suspected of untimely death, 36- the clock in the treason and of driving his wife to murder. year-old superstar high-stakes Now David has to make his way through Christian Gillette countdown of his a shadowy world of suspicion and gets the top job. But career. His new deception, of dirty deals and brutal with the power and posting is to the crimes. He needs to stay one step ahead prestige come risks. Office of Special of his enemies - whose identity he doesn’t When he narrowly escapes a fiery Projects, a CIA cell even know – or his impersonation of a explosion that consumes his limo and that handles the most dangerous threats. dead man will become a lot more takes two innocent lives, Gillette instantly When the White House Chief of Staff is realistic... (American) understands how intense those risks are. found brutally murdered, there is a note Dashiell HAMMETT It comes as no surprise to him that he has beside him promising more victims, The Big Knockover (1925) enemies in the world of multibillion- including the President. Sean leaps into 480pp Pb 19.95 dollar deals. But now that he controls action, teaming up with a beautiful Crime Masterworks #44. Short, thick- Everest, he’s not going to let those colleague to try to stop the assassin. As bodied, mulishly stubborn and enemies keep him from taking the firm – the killer stalks the campaign trail, indifferent to physical pain, Hammett’s and himself – to even greater heights. apparently driven by a $500 million Continental Op was the prototype for Gillette has never hesitated to be bounty on the President’s head, all generations of tough-guy detectives. He aggressive, even ruthless, in his pursuit of arrows point to a member of the White is also the hero of most of the nine stories success. This time will be no exception. House security detail who has gone in this volume. The Op’s one enthusiasm (American) missing. (American) is doing his job and here the jobs entail David FULMER Patricia HALL taking on a gang of modern-day Jass 334pp Tp 29.95 The Sins of the Fathers freebooters, a vice-ridden hell’s acre in In the rowdy red-light district of 256pp Hb 49.95 the Arizona desert and the bank job to Storyville, four players of the new music A young boy running for his life through end all bank jobs, along with assorted they call ‘jass’ have turned up dead. the snow, his sister hovering between life grifters like Babe McCloor, Bluepoint When Creole detective Valentin St Cyr and death in intensive care: it seems that Vance, Alphabet Shorty McCoy and the begins to investigate, he discovers that another father has been driven to the Dis-and-Dat Kid. (American) every one of the victims once played in edge and turned on his family when DCI Richard HAWKE the same band, and the only one left alive Michael Thackeray reluctantly enters a Speak of the Devil has gone into hiding. As he digs deeper, family home turned blood-stained 336pp Tp 32.95 Valentin becomes convinced that a charnel house. But as he and his lover It’s a beautiful Thanksgiving morning in shadowy woman is the key to the Laura Ackroyd dig deeper, the tragedy New York City. A perfect day for a mystery. (American) becomes darker and much more parade and Fritz Malone just happens to Frances FYFIELD dangerous. (English) have drifted up Central Park West to take Safer than Houses 288pp Tp 29.95 Marion HALLIGAN a look at the floats. Across the crowd- Sarah Fortune inherited her flat from The Apricot Colonel filled street, he sees a gunman on a low one of her many lovers. Now a son has 264pp Pb 19.95 wall, taking aim with a shiny black appeared, claiming it is his, morally if not A beautiful Beretta. Seconds later, the air is filled with strictly legally, and he is using illegal man, and all bullets and blood. Fritz isn’t one to stand means to persuade Sarah to give it up: she can do is around and watch. A child of Hell’s abusive letters threatening her personal tinker with his Kitchen and the bastard son of a beloved harm. As it becomes more difficult to prose… For former police commissioner, he is all too ignore these missives, Sarah comes across Cassandra, an familiar with the city’s rougher side. As Henry, a timid, lonely man whose editor, books the gunman flees into the park, Fritz runs upstairs neighbour is using every trick in are easy. It’s after him. What he doesn’t know is that the racketeer landlord’s book to make real life that’s he is also running into one of the most him leave his home: litter in the shared the challenge: shocking and treacherous episodes of his hallway, continual noise, poison set out it doesn’t sit life. (American) for his cat. It seems that if they swap quietly and let George V HIGGINS accommodation for a while, they may be itself be fixed. The Easiest Thing in the World: able to deal with each other’s problems. Right now, The Unpublished Fiction of But these two strangers have unknown her life seems far too heavy on the George V Higgins 308pp Tp 35.00 connections in common: a well-meaning suspense, and the romance is distinctly This is a riveting collection: stories, film widow, a struggling therapist and a man unconvincing. But that was before the treatments and two never-before- who sets fire to other people’s property murders started, and before she published novellas. It’s the kind of stuff for a living. (English) suspected her own name was on the we’ve come to expect from Higgins: tales killer’s hit list. Murder, match-making of corruption and revenge, wrapped in and the dark arts of book editing - sizzling dialogue and a wicked sense of Halligan at her light-hearted best. humour. (American) (Australian)

ABBEY S BOOKSHOP 131 YORK STREET, SYDNEY 2000 PH 9264 3111 FAX 9264 8993 6 Jane HITCHCOCK Jayne Ann KRENTZ Ed McBAIN (ed) One Dangerous Lady All Night Long 398pp Tp 32.95 Transgressions: Ten Brand New 336pp Pb 24.95 Shy, studious Novellas 784pp Tp 35.00 Jo Slater, the wily heroine of Social Irene Stenson and As editor McBain admits in his Crimes (Pb 24.95), returns in a dazzling wild, privileged introduction, it was a bit of a challenge to new story of passion, money and murder. Pamela Webb had persuade nine other superstar authors Jo is in Barbados, preoccupied by the been the best of (and Ed makes 10) to each write an notion of a new romance with a dashing friends for one short original novella, with the awkward English lord, when Russell Cole, a very summer at high length of 10,000 to 40,000 words, for this wealthy art collector, disappears from his school. Their excellent anthology, but he’s come up yacht. Jo suspects his wife knows more friendship ended the with an impressive roster including than she is letting on, but she soon night Pamela Donald Westlake, Anne Perry, Walter discovers a figure from her past puts her dropped Irene off at Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates and Lawrence at great risk. A unique blend of wicked home - and Irene walked in to discover Block. (Various) social satire and page-turning mystery. her parents’ bodies on the kitchen floor. Ken McCLURE (American) The case was ruled a murder-suicide and The Eye of the Raven J A JANCE Irene fled the northern California town of 288pp Hb 49.95 The Day of the Dead Dunsley. But 17 years later, when Pamela Dr Steven Dunbar is slightly bemused 320pp Pb 19.95 sends a cryptic email asking for help, when the deathbed confession of a The butchered body of a local Papago girl Irene returns to her home town to find convicted psychopath lands on his desk. was found stuffed into a large cooler left her old friend has suddenly died, leaving Then it emerges that another man has on the side of Highway 86. For more than behind a lot of ugly, unanswered already been charged with the crime. A 30 years, the case has remained stone questions. (American) man whose medical research once sent cold. Brandon Walker, retired Sheriff of Patricia LEWIN shockwaves through the scientific Pima County, Arizona, becomes involved Out of Time 352pp Pb 16.95 community. (Scottish) via ‘The Last Chance’, an exclusive group Though Erin Baker has left the CIA, Val McDERMID of former cops and forensic experts who the people who once directed her career The Grave Tattoo 465pp Tp 29.95 delve into unsolved murders. A forgotten tap her to penetrate a medical aid group When torrential summer rains homicide in the Arizona desert is only the that may be hiding a sinister purpose. In uncover a bizarrely tattooed body on a beginning of a nightmare that is about to Cuba, the organisation’s head doctor is Lake District hillside, old wives’ tales ensnare this diligent ex-cop and his Emilio Diaz, Erin’s estranged father. Erin come swirling to the surface. For family… (American) has the skills and a perfect cover to centuries, Lakelanders have whispered Jesse KELLERMAN penetrate Castro’s shadow world. She that Fletcher Christian staged the Sunstroke 384pp Tp 29.95 also has another reason to take the massacre on Pitcairn so he could return Gloria Mendez is single, 36 and assignment: an ex-mentor, previously on home. And there he told his story to an secretly (and somewhat hopelessly) in the case, has vanished somewhere in old friend and schoolmate, William love with her oblivious boss, Carl Cuba. (American) Wordsworth, who turned it into a long Perreira. He is both single and solitary, Laura LIPPMAN narrative poem that remained hidden lest and far too old for her, but she has By a Spider’s Thread it expose Wordsworth to the gallows for worked for him, side by side, for 10 oddly 368pp Pb 19.95 harbouring a fugitive. Wordsworth companionable years. When he The winner of every major award for specialist Jane Gresham, herself a native disappears on his annual trip to Mexico - crime fiction, Lippman brings back her of the Lake District, feels compelled to the one aspect of his life to which Gloria complex and vulnerably human discover once and for all whether the has never been privy - her sudden and Baltimore PI, Tess Monaghan, in a tense, manuscript ever existed and whether it impulsive search for him reveals the expertly spun tale of a family torn still exists today. But as she pursues each wreckage of a hidden past. It seems Carl asunder by forces it can barely new lead, death follows hard on her was not who Gloria thought he was, nor comprehend. (American) heels. (English) was he anything she could have Ed McBAIN imagined. (American) Alice in Jeopardy 304pp Pb 19.95 Susan KELLY Since the tragic death of her husband A Disguise for Death in a boating accident eight months ago, 263pp Hb 49.95 Alice Glendenning has struggled to PARKING Liam Sullivan, the maintain a normal life for her two leader of an IRA cell children, Ashley and Jamie. To help make and recently released ends meet while she waits for the from prison, has insurance company to pay up, she takes a written a bestselling job as a real estate agent. The autobiography commissions have been nonexistent, but detailing his part in she does make a new friend, Charlie the 1981 Windsor Hobbs, when she is sent in to try to buy bombing. With his waterfront land for a developer. Spend $50 or more at Abbey’s Bookshop, Sullivan back on the Things have been tough for Alice, but Language Book Centre or Galaxy outside and old scars they quickly become a nightmare when Bookshop, present your QVB parking reopened by his Ashley and Jamie don’t come home on ticket and receive a $5 Parking Voucher. profiteering, it’s not surprising that the the school bus, and Alice gets a call from Current rates are: QVB situation soon turns violent, giving a woman who claims to have her Mon-Fri (before 5pm) $10/hr ($47 max) Superintendent Gregory Summers a children. (American) Sat (before 5pm) $ 7/hr ($20 max) mind-bending mystery to investigate. Sun (English) (& any day after 5pm) $12 flat

CRIME CHRONICLE www.abbeys.com.au 7 Richard MONTANARI Rob PALMER Stan POTTINGER The Rosary Girls No Time to Hide 370pp Pb 16.95 The Boss 400pp Pb 19.95 533pp Tp 32.95 Ben Tennant is a psychologist for the Spin Patterson is the legendary In the most brutal killing crusade that witness protection program. When the head of Gulf-Tex Oil. Self-made Philadelphia has seen in years, a series of CIA goes after one of his unofficial billionaire and charismatic leader, he is young Catholic women are found dead, clients, a beautiful con artist named riding high, on the brink of announcing a their bodies mutilated and their hands Patrice, he forms an alliance with this revolutionary new technology that will bolted together, each clutching a rosary. elusive and dangerous woman to expose raise the value of his company even Veteran cop Kevin Byrne and rookie a political conspiracy involving nuclear higher. Max McLennon is his heir partner Jessica Balzano set out to hunt weapons. Debut. (American) apparent and surrogate son, mentored by down the elusive killer, who leads them PARTNERS IN CRIME Spin after the death of his own father in deeper and deeper into the abyss of a Queen of Crime Anthology 2005 an oil rig accident years before. But then madman’s depravity. Suspects appear 156pp Pb 22.00 things start going wrong: Spin’s wife hits before them like bad dreams, before Here’s what a couple of leading authors him with a massive divorce settlement; vanishing just as quickly. While the body had to say about this collection of prize- Gulf-Tex turns out to have been count rises, Easter is fast approaching: the winning stories from the sinister bunch at overstating its oil reserves; and the day of resurrection and of the last rosary Partners in Crime, Sydney. “Queen of revolutionary technology hits a glitch. It to be counted... (American) crime? I’m the Queen of Crime!” - A looks as if Spin’s Midas touch is going to Margaret MURPHY Christie. “These guys play fast and kick in and save them all, but then Max The Dispossessed dirty.” - R Chandler. (Australian) suspects that Spin’s success has been 320pp Pb 19.95 James PATTERSON bought at a terrible cost. Max’s idol has Set in Liverpool, The Fifth Horseman 33pp Tp 32.95 feet of clay, but can he really also have a Murphy’s new novel Detective Lindsay Boxer and her murderer’s hands? (American) evokes the gritty friend, Yuki Castellano, are out shopping Douglas PRESTON & Lincoln CHILD reality of crime and with Yuki’s mother, Keiko, when Keiko Brimstone 640pp Pb 19.95 unfolds a searing collapses in the middle of a busy street. It Art critic story of murder, looks like she’s had a stroke so she is Jeremy Grove is mistrust, despair rushed to the San Francisco Medical found dead, his and revenge. Left to Centre. Over drinks that evening with her face frozen in a bleed to death in a friends in the Women’s Murder Club, mask of terror. His rubbish bin, the Lindsay learns of a huge malpractice suit body temperature teenaged prostitute against the medical centre. In the last few is grotesquely high; is just the first years, dozens of patients who were he is discovered in victim. DI Jeff Rickman’s investigation admitted to the emergency room seemed a room barricaded into the Afghan refugee’s sordid death to recover, but then died suspicious from the inside; the leads first to the heart of a community deaths. Is Yuki’s mother safe? (American) smell of brimstone who can’t - or won’t - talk to him. Then Arthur PHILLIPS is everywhere - and the investigation comes home to The Egyptologist 400pp Pb 29.95 the unmistakable Rickman’s private life and he is framed This darkly comic labyrinth of a story imprint of a claw is burned into the wall. for a crime he didn’t commit. A murderer opens on the desert plains of Egypt in As more bodies are discovered - their is trying to make things personal. 1922, then winds its way from the slums only connection the bizarre, identical (English) of Australia to the ballrooms of Boston by manner of death - the world begins to Warren MURPHY way of Oxford, the battlefields of the First wonder if the Devil has, in fact, come to Destroyer #142: Mindblower World War and a royal court in turmoil. collect his due. Teaming with Police 352pp Pb 16.95 Just as Howard Carter unveils the tomb Officer Vincent D’Agosta, Agent When a bunch of greedy professors stole of Tutankhamun, making the most Pendergast is determined to solve this his patent idea, engineering geek Harry dazzling find in the history of case that appears to defy everything Kilgore got mad. And he got even…with archaeology, Oxford-educated except supernatural logic. (American) his portable air cannon. (American) Egyptologist Ralph Trilipush is digging Douglas PRESTON & Lincoln CHILD Hilary NORMAN himself into trouble, having staked his Dance of Death 399pp Tp 29.95 Compulsion 320pp Pb 19.95 professional reputation - and his fiancée’s Agent Pendergast has become one of Frankie Barnes had a tormented life fortune - on a scrap of hieroglyphic crime fiction’s most endearing characters. until she found the perfect career to suit pornography. Meanwhile, a relentless His greatest enemy is one who has her obsession with hygiene. As a cleaner, Australian detective sets off on the case of stalked him all of his life, his cunning and she can scrub away to her heart’s content his career, spanning the globe in search of diabolical brother Diogenes. And at her clients’ homes, be paid and even a murderer. (American) Diogenes has thrown down the gauntlet. valued for her pains. But she suffers from Now several of the people closest to other compulsions too and the greatest of Pendergast are viciously murdered and them all is the Pendergast is framed for the deeds. On compulsion to have. the run from federal authorities with only Roz Bailey’s house the help of his old friend NYPD is exactly the kind Lieutenant Vincent D’ Agosta, of house Frankie Pendergast must stop his brother. But has always wanted. how can he stop a man who is his The kind of house intellectual equal - one who has had 20 she deserves. The years to plan the world’s most house she has to horrendous crime? (American) have, no matter what... (English)

ABBEY S BOOKSHOP 131 YORK STREET, SYDNEY 2000 PH 9264 3111 FAX 9264 8993 8 Karen ROBARDS Carol SMITH Jess WALTER Superstition 418pp Tp 32.95 Vanishing Point 416pp Tp 25.00 Citizen Vince 304pp Pb 22.00 Pawleys When Frankie, in It’s the fall of 1980, eight days before a Island, South her mid-40s, sees the presidential election that pits the Carolina. Sunny, unforgettable face of downtrodden Jimmy Carter against the idyllic and picture her long-lost love in suspiciously sunny Ronald Reagan (“Are perfect, until a a passing train, she you better off than you were four years tabloid news turns straight around ago?”). In a quiet house in Spokane, program airs a and goes after him. Washington, Vince Camden wakes up at splashy segment For she knows he is 1:59 am, pockets his weekly stash of about the dead; she was there stolen credit cards and drops in on an all- community’s only when it happened, night poker game with his low-life unsolved murder - attended the inquest friends on his way to his witness- the grisly stabbing and later served a protection job dusting crullers at Donut of teenager Tara Mitchell and the prison sentence for his manslaughter. Make You Hungry. This is the sum of subsequent disappearance of her two best Five women live quite separate lives, Vince’s new life: donuts, forged credit friends, both thought to be long dead. In except for one crucial fact: they have all cards, marijuana smuggled in jars of the years since the murders, several devoted their lives to the same volcanic ash and a neurotic hooker families have moved into the mansion duplicitous man. Cristina, the spoilt girlfriend who dreams of being a real where the crime occurred, each claiming Brazilian ex-model; Cassie, the dignified estate agent. But when a familiar face that the dead girls still haunt the house. lady of class; Jenny, who runs a shows up in town, Vince realises that no Beautiful redheaded reporter Nicole fashionable eatery while raising a child matter how far you think you’ve run Sullivan, sensing that this story could be on her own; Pippa, the much younger from your past, it’s always close behind her big break, arranges for her mother, a mistress, now pregnant with his twins. you. (American) renowned psychic, to contact the three From Antwerp to Paris, Venice, Rio and Guy WALTERS victims via a live séance on the show 24 Bath, their lives are widespread, but The Colditz Legacy Hours Investigates. But something goes when the circles begin to intersect, the 320pp Tp 32.95 terribly wrong during the segment and a only possible ending is murder. (English) In January 1944, six young woman is murdered in the exact Nick STONE British officers same manner as Tara Mitchell was Mr Clarinet 576pp Tp 29.95 tunnelled out of murdered 15 years earlier. (American) Pied Piper. Soul Stealer. Serial Colditz, the German David ROBBINS Killer. Who is Mr Clarinet? It was a job prison camp that Liberation Road 464pp Tp 29.95 that Miami private investigator Max was supposed to be With his acclaimed novels of WWII, Mingus found hard to refuse: $10 million escape-proof. Three Robbins awakened a generation to the to locate Charlie Carver, the billionaire’s were captured after drama, tragedy and heroism of some of son missing now for over three years. a few hours; the history’s greatest battles. Now he delivers Young Charlie disappeared on the island other three stayed a gripping and authentic story set against of Haiti where, over the decades, scores on the run. Captain one of our greatest wartime of children have vanished. In a country Ben Thomas and achievements: the Red Ball Express - dominated by voodoo, rumours abound Pilot Officer Robert Beauchamp made it 6,000 trucks and 23,000 men, mostly of black magic and a mythical figure to safety, while Lt George Irby was shot African-American, who forged a lifeline called Mr Clarinet, who has been as he tried to cross the border. In January of supplies in the Allied struggle to tempting children away from their 1994, Thomas and Beauchamp are back in liberate France. (American) families for years. But could the truth be Colditz, this time at a Veteran’s reunion. Kel ROBERTSON even more shocking than the legend? As they discuss the war and its aftermath, Dead Set 336pp Tp 29.95 (American) it becomes clear that Irby may not have Inspector James TWINING died. Thomas and Beauchamp start Chen #1. Brad The Black Sun 464pp Tp 29.95 tracking the movements of their comrade Chen – ex-football In London, an Auschwitz survivor is and discover that he was involved in star and master murdered in his hospital bed, his killers something far more sinister than merely detective – is in making off with a macabre trophy - his trying to escape. (English) the wars. After severed left arm. In Fort Mead, Maryland, Paul WATKINS surviving a hit a vicious gang breaks into the NSA The Ice Soldier 260pp Tp 29.95 and run attempt, museum and steals a WWII Enigma The eyes of the world are focused on he’s on crutches, machine, lynching the guard who attempts to scale Mount Everest. Two nursing a thirst for happens to cross their path. Meanwhile, young men - once members of the hard liquor and a in Prague, a frenzied and mindless anti- world’s climbing elite, but forced into raging pain-killer Semitic attack on a Synagogue culminates premature retirement after the failure of a addiction. And in the theft of a seemingly worthless secret military operation in the Alps seeing the bloodied corpse of the Hon painting by little known Czech artist, during WWII - have become outcasts of Tracey Dale, who was the Minister for Karel Bellak. A year has passed since mountaineering society. Until, that is, a Immigration, doesn’t make him feel any Tom Kirk, the world’s greatest art thief, peculiar and dangerous request is made better. (Australian) decided to put his criminal past behind of them, drawing them back to the him and embark on a new career on the mountains on an exploit that will prove right side of the law. Then three major treacherous in more ways than one as thefts occur and suddenly Tom is they confront the pitiless cruelty of nature confronted with a deadly mystery and a - and the ghosts of their former selves. sinister face from the past. (English) (English)

CRIME CHRONICLE www.abbeys.com.au 9 Qui XIAOLONG Death of a Red Heroine AGATHA CHRISTIE 464pp Pb 22.95 In this Anthony Award-winning debut, Hercule Poirot Mysteries. This excellent series is taken from the BBC Radio 4 full-cast Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police dramatisation, starring John Moffatt as the great Belgian detective. All are 2 CD sets 29.95. must battle the political climate of (English) Shanghai and seek the help of a former The ABC Murders Murder on the Links lover to solve the murder of a National Alice Ascher is When Poirot Model Worker who was a celebrity of murdered at arrives in France, utmost probity. Chen must risk his own Andover. Betty following an life and career to see that justice is done. Barnard is urgent appeal for (Chinese) strangled at help, he is too Joyce YARROW Bexhill-on-Sea. late. His client, a Ask the Dead 208pp Tp 29.95 Each time, an South American Jo Epstein can’t run from her ABC railway millionaire, has mistakes. But then again, who can? guide is found been stabbed to Certainly not the Harlem photographer by the dead bodies and, each time, Poirot death and his body flung into a freshly accused of manslaughter, the social is warned in advance by a letter from dug open grave on the golf course worker with the heart of gold, or Jo’s ex- someone signed ‘ABC’. But who is ABC? adjoining the property. Meanwhile, the friend, the anarchist. But that doesn’t stop And can Poirot find out in time to millionaire’s wife is found bound and her from trying to cut all ties to the prevent the death of C? gagged in her room. Poirot launches an detective business that almost made her an After the Funeral investigation and the baffling mystery accessory to murder in LA. Unfortunately, When Richard Abernethie, last master of begins to unfold. she’s good at what she does, and they Enderby Hall, dies suddenly in his sleep, The Mysterious Affair at Styles always find her - the folks with loved ones the family are eager to discover how his Set in 1916, we meet Captain Hastings as who are most certainly guilty, but in need riches have been divided. However, the he is invalided out of the Great War and of one last chance. But starting life over in reading of the will is rudely interrupted goes to convalesce at Styles Court, the New York City is pricey, and a desperate by his youngest sister Cora: “He was family home of his great friend, John mother’s plea is too difficult to resist, murdered, wasn’t he?”, she blurts out. Cavendish. By an extraordinary especially with the money on offer. Used to her inopportune remarks, the coincidence, billeted in the village is a Suddenly, Jo is drowning in a tangle of family ignore her. But the next day, when brilliant little retired detective with an money-laundering, Cora is found brutally killed, they start to egg-shaped head, who made a kidnapping and wonder... considerable impression on the Captain murder, haunted The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when he was in Belgium. Styles is not a by shadows from Mrs Farrars is found dead of an apparent happy household and, in the blistering the past and guilt overdose one year after the death of her summer heat, tensions mount. Even so, over unpaid debts. husband. The villagers of King’s Abbot the tragic murder is not expected. And then there’s are suspicious. The rumour is that she One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Ellie, the girl who poisoned her husband and was in love When Poirot’s dentist is found dead in died in Jo’s with Roger Ackroyd. But when Roger is his surgery, a chain of events is set off bathtub. Debut. found murdered the following day, there which culminates in another death, with (American) is little to go on. Luckily one of the newest Poirot assembling the evidence. residents who retired to this normally CRIME quiet village is none other than Monsieur AUDIO Hercule Poirot. Miss Marple Mysteries. These BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations star June Whitfield as the Ian CALDWELL & Dustin THOMASON sharp-witted spinster sleuth. All are 2 CD sets 29.95. (English) The Rule of Four 5 CDs 39.95 The Hypnerotomachia 4.50 from Paddington A Pocket Full of Rye Poliphili is one of the When Elspeth McGillicuddy is the only With only one most complex books witness to a brutal murder - for which bizarre clue to ever written. Coded in not even a body is in evidence - it takes the agonising seven languages, it is a all of Miss Marple’s remarkable death of a passionate love story, an ingenuity to discover the key to a secret wealthy intricate mathematical that lies buried within a decaying financier, Miss labyrinth and a tale of country house. Marple must Renaissance tragedy The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side unravel a that has baffled scholars After the death of her husband, Dolly mystery hidden since it was first published in 1499. 500 Bantry sold Gossington Hall to the former in a child’s nursery rhyme. It proves to be years later, Princeton student Tom film star Marina Gregg and her husband. one of the strangest cases of her life. Sullivan is haunted by the violent death When the glamorous couple decide to of his father, an academic who devoted throw a benefit for the local hospital, the his life to unlocking the book’s secret. grounds are thronged with curious With his roommate Paul, Tom discovers a visitors. For one of them, the day ends in long-lost diary that holds the key to the tragedy. It is up to Miss Marple to puzzle. Read by Josh Hamilton. discover who was really meant to take the poison that killed poor Heather Babcock.

ABBEY S BOOKSHOP 131 YORK STREET, SYDNEY 2000 PH 9264 3111 FAX 9264 8993 10 Michael CONNELLY Lindsey DAVIS Paul THOMAS The Poet 3 CDs 35.00 Silver Pigs 2 CDs 29.95 Empty Bed 7 CDs 44.95 The apparent suicide of Anton Lesser stars as Falco with Fritha What we find out can erase our his policeman brother Goodey as Helena Justina in this BBC certainties, like words wiped off a sets Denver crime Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. One fine blackboard. Do you believe in love? Do reporter Jack McEvoy day in AD 70, scruffy, working-class you trust your partner? Nick Souter did, on edge. His surprise at informer Marcus Didius Falco literally with good reason – he and Anne had the circumstances of his runs into a beautiful 16-year-old girl on something special. He didn’t make a habit brother’s death prompts the steps of the Forum. Sosia Camillina is of going through her pockets, but what’s him to look into a whole on the run from a couple of street toughs. a man supposed to do when he’s got a series of police suicides, After rescuing her, Falco wants to find rotten cold and a wife who helps herself putting him on the trail out why. It seems Sosia knows a to his handkerchiefs? You can’t blow of a cop-killer whose victims are selected dangerous secret about a stockpile of your nose on an adulterous love note, but all too carefully. Not only that, they all silver ingots, or ‘pigs’, and there are those it certainly took Nick’s mind off his leave suicide notes drawn from the who will stop at nothing to prevent her sniffles. Secrets and lies can turn doubt poems of writer Edgar Allan Poe. telling what she knows. (English) into obsession and a loving couple into Narrated by Buck Schirner. (American) Francis DURBRIDGE snarling adversaries. Secrets and lies can Peter CORRIS Paul Temple and the Jonathan kill. Anne’s shocking death leaves Nick Lugarno 5 CDs 34.95 Mystery 4 CDs 39.95 bereft – and the prime suspect. When it’s only 24 hours into a new case From 1938 to (Australian) and PI Cliff Hardy’s already been 1969, crime Barbara VINE heavied, you know the job is going to get novelist and The Minotour 3 CDs 24.95 his full attention. Cliff has been hired by detective Paul Kerstin Kvist high-flying consultant Martin Price to Temple, together didn’t quite find out who’s been supplying heroin to with his wife know what to Price’s teenage daughter, who in turn has Steve - a Fleet expect when got her beautiful young stepmother Street journalist - she took up a hooked. The leafy, well-heeled suburb of solved case after job with the Lugarno seems an unlikely hotbed of case in one of BBC Radio’s most popular Cosway family drug-dealing and corruption, but Cliff is serials. They inhabited a sophisticated at their odd, finding out the hard way that crime and world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, almost grand, violence come calling even at posh where the women were chic and the men home, Lydstep Old Hall, deep in the waterside addresses. Read by Peter wore cravats – a world where Sir Graham Essex countryside. The family turned out Hoskins, unabridged. (Australian) Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed to be even odder than the house... Paul’s help with his latest tricky case. This Narrated by Sian Thomas. (English) time, the case involves the Fergusons, EMMA DARCY who Paul and Steve meet while on the ELLIS PETERS way home from New York. They are Who Killed Camilla? 7 CDs 44.95 These tales of intrigue and treachery show flying to England to visit their son how the popular monk came to join the Hollywood’s Richard, a student at Oxford University. hottest property, Benedictine order. Read by Derek Jacobi. All But at the airport, there is shocking news: are 1 CD 35.00 (English) Camilla Page, has Richard has been murdered, found shot Brother Cadfael’s Penance just wrapped up dead in his room. The only clues are a November 1145: the bitter rift between the shoot of her postcard from Harrogate signed King Stephen and Empress Maud at last latest movie and ‘Jonathan’ and Richard’s missing gold has a chance for reconciliation. It is she’s chosen an signet ring. But who is Jonathan and what hoped that a council will resolve the exclusive Barrier Reef Island resort as is his connection to the dead man? It is up question of prisoners of war. Cadfael the setting for her surprise wedding to to Paul to find the answer.... Full cast has a special interest in attending, for he Australian cameraman, Jimmy Ryder – dramatisation. (English) a man hell-bent on riding the gravy is seeking his lost son. Ian RANKIN train that’s coming his way. Excellent Mystery Fleshmarket Close 5 CDs 45.00 The England of 1141 is a land torn by Who Killed Angelique? 9 CDs 24.95 An illegal civil strife. Seeking refuge in Winner of the 2002 Ned Kelly Award for immigrant is Shrewsbury are the badly-crippled Best First Novel. “I’ll give you all the found Brother Humilis and his mute dirt darling.” KC Gordon can’t wait to murdered in attendant, Fidelis. When a latent find out what is meant by the cryptic an Edinburgh tragedy becomes a present reality, it is comment made be her old school friend, housing only the detective Brother Cadfael who international model Angelique Lanci. scheme: is it a can distinguish between the innocent But before they meet, Angelique’s life is racist attack or and the guilty. cut short in a hail of bullets. Read by something else? Rebus is drawn into the Stephanie Daniel. case, but has other problems: his old A Rare Benedictine Who Killed Bianca? 7 CDs 24.95 police station has closed and his masters In the vividly evoked This is the trip of a lifetime and KC is would rather he retire than stick around. Shropshire going to use this holiday to recharge, As Rebus investigates, he must visit an background, Brother relax and meet new people. As the asylum seekers’ detention centre, deal Cadfael is at the passengers assemble on the platform, with the sleazy Edinburgh underworld height of his sleuthing waiting to board one of Australia’s most and maybe even fall in love... Narrated by and his understanding historic trains, The Ghan, KC’s curiosity James McPherson. (Scottish) of the frailties of begins to work overtime. (Australian) human nature.

CRIME CHRONICLE www.abbeys.com.au 11 Mark WINEGARDNER Michael JECKS Bella CSIDEI Godfather: The Lost Years A Friar’s Bloodfeud 404pp Hb 55.00 The Accidental Gangster 5 CDs 55.00 #20. Bailiff Simon Puttock’s servant, 287pp Tp 32.95 This takes place in the years 1955-65. Hugh, has been granted leave to look Frank Sinatra, Sir Peter Abeles, Jimmy the Michael Corleone set the stage to lose the after his wife, Constance, and to help Weasel Fratianno... big celebrities, big war: to make the Family legitimate, to raise their child; but soon after, she is business, big mobsters and big keep the Corleones supremely in power, attacked in their home, raped by a gang of politicians, from the famous to the to stay true to his father’s wishes, to give men. Then she watches as her son is infamous, the cast of characters almost not just his Family, but his family, a safe murdered and Hugh is struck down, defies the imagination. Looking back on and happy life. Narrated by Joe Grifasi. before she too is killed and the house set his tumultuous life, Bela Csidei, ‘the (American) afire. When Simon and Sir Baldwin accidental gangster’, recalls a story that Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, takes him from a childhood spent fishing HISTORICAL arrive at the grisly scene, the cottage is with explosives and a little freelance arms CRIME burned to the ground, the body of the dealing to holding a promissory note for child lying outside. Inside is a woman’s $250 million dollars. From his survival of torso, badly charred. There are no war-torn Europe to two contracts on his Paul DOHERTY remains of Hugh, but the fire raged so life, Bela emerges as a genuinely colourful The Cup of Ghosts 309pp Tp 32.95 fiercely that all believe he simply character and an optimistic, loveable Mathilde of perished. But nothing is so simple. Simon rogue. In spite of multi-million dollar Westminster #1. By vows revenge and there are dark forces business deals gone wrong, a drug bust, a 1322, Mathilde of lurking that will cause no end of mayhem stint as a diplomat and an espionage Westminster was and bloodshed… (English) agent for foreign governments, Bela has considered the finest lived to spin a great yarn. (Australian) physician in London. CRIME Michael FLEEMAN But in her years as Deadly Mistress: A True Story of lady-in-waiting to NON-FICTION Marriage, Betrayal and Murder Princess Isabella, who 304pp Pb 16.95 married the feckless Love gone bad. Murder gone wrong. Edward II, she was Ron CHEPESIUK West Coast doctor Kenneth Stahl would drawn into the murky politics of the Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the do anything to free himself from his wife English court, where sudden, mysterious Cali Cartel 326pp Pb 24.95 Carolyn. Then Adriana Vasco - Kenneth’s death was part of the tapestry of life. For 20 years, the Cali former receptionist and mistress of nine Many years later, when the glory is gone drug cartel, a vast years - obliged by introducing him to ex- and all that remains are bittersweet criminal conspiracy, con Dennis Earl Godley. The deal was set. memories, Mathilde looks back and pumped thousands of Godley would murder Carolyn for chronicles her turbulent life. She has a tons of cocaine into $30,000. On the day after her 44th keen eye for symptoms and causes - and the US, laundered birthday, the trusting victim was lured to not just the medical kind. With her sharp, billions of dollars in a lonely stretch of road. The deadly suspicious intellect ready to distinguish profits and was rendezvous took a shocking turn. Not between a fatality and an unnatural responsible for only was Carolyn gunned down, but death, Mathilde is confronted by a host of endemic political Kenneth was also killed. The hitman’s chilling murders, personal danger and corruption and an getaway driver was the other woman, the murky intrigue that lies at the heart of untold number of murders and Adriana Vasco. The sensational trial the English and French courts at the assassinations. It ultimately controlled unfolded a tangled web of lies, sex and beginning of the 14th century. (English) 70% of the world’s cocaine market, betrayal as Adriana and Dennis turned Paul DOHERTY flooding towns and cities with the against each other… (American) The Season of the Hyaena addictive white powder dubbed ‘the Francis GALTON 320pp Pb 19.95 champagne of drugs’. Through organised Finger Prints 256pp Tp 32.95 Akhenaten Mystery #2. Mahu, former violence, terrorist strategies, intimidation This classic study introduced a Chief of Police and Keeper of the Secrets and bribery, the cartel became a major classification system for fingerprints that of the Heart, is sitting down to record his threat to Colombia’s fragile stability. It remains the basis of modern systems. memories. He sees uneasy quiet reigning also brought an unprecedented degree of (English) in the Royal Circle at Thebes, after the strategy and planning to the drugs trade. Roger MAYNARD disappearance of the Pharaoh Akenhaten It would take more than two decades and Where’s Peter: and the abandonment of his new, sun- a global effort to bring it down. Unravelling the Falconio Mystery worshipping religion. Members of (American) 210pp Tp 27.95 different factions are barely held together Wensley CLARKSON It was a crime that tapped into our worst by loyalty to the six-year-old Emperor, Killing Charlie 272pp Pb 26.95 fears. Hiding in the dark in the lonely Tutankhamun. Then extraordinary news Clarkson charts the extraordinary rise expanse of the Australian outback, reaches the Council: Akenhaten has and spectacular fall of Charlie Wilson, the stalked by a potential killer, a young returned to Egypt. The words are greeted most powerful villain to emerge from woman crouched under a bush - battered, with dismay by all who hear them, for Britain’s crime of the 20th century: the bruised and terrified - with her boyfriend surely Akenhaten is dead? Mahu can Great Train Robbery. Wilson’s life story is missing, probably dead. Somehow certainly vouch that the woman claiming one of greed, corruption and an eventual managing to evade her attacker, Joanne to be the Emperor’s wife, Nefertiti, is a descent into a living hell as his rivals Lees might have felt that her ordeal was fraud. Whoever the man is who has decide to wipe him off the face of the nearly over. Instead, it had hardly begun. appeared in the Delta, he must be earth, with the tacit approval of Spanish, (Australian) investigated. (English) British and US drug enforcement agencies. (American)

ABBEY S BOOKSHOP 131 YORK STREET, SYDNEY 2000 PH 9264 3111 FAX 9264 8993 James MORTON Gangland: The Contract Killers 352pp Tp 32.95 In the latest addition to his Gangland series, Morton lifts the lid on the hidden world of the contract killer. Who are these people? Where can they be found? How do the best of them commit untraceable crimes? Is the female more deadly than the male? And how true is it that the FBI, the police and other organisations devoted to solving crime have aided, abetted and even instigated contracts to 131 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000 kill? (English) A division of Abbey’s Bookshops Pty Ltd David James SMITH ABN 86 000 650 975 Supper with the Crippens: A New Investigation 352pp Hb 55.00 TRADING HOURS It was at a time when Edwardian Britain seemed a golden place, basking in its Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri 8.30am - 7.00pm Thursday 8.30am - 9.00pm imperial glory. Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen set himself up in the then fashionable Saturday 8.30am - 6.00pm business of homeopathy. His wife, a music-hall variety performer called Belle Sunday 10.00am - 5.00pm Elmore, did her best with her limited stage talents. After supper on 31 January ORDERS 1910, their friends went home, then Crippen killed Belle with poison, Phone (02) 9264 3111 dismembered her body and buried some of her remains beneath the brick floor of 1800 4 BOOKS (outside Sydney) the coal cellar. Smith has investigated afresh this celebrated murder case and his 1800 4 26657 (outside Sydney) research has uncovered unexpected and startling information about ‘Chamber of Fax (02) 9264 8993 Horrors’ stalwart Dr Crippen, his wife and his lover. (English) email [email protected] Alan WHITICKER Online www.abbeys.com.au Searching for the Beaumont Children: Post Reply Paid 66944 Australia’s Most Famous Unsolved Mystery 256pp Tp 29.95 SYDNEY NSW 2000 On Australia Day 1966, the three Beaumont children left their home in the DELIVERY Adelaide suburb of Somerton Park for a morning at Glenelg Beach, then One item $5.00 disappeared without trace. Now 40 years on, the mystery and the horror are all Each additional item .50 Orders of 10 or more items Free that remain. (Australian) Per order Australia-wide 2006 EDGAR NOMINEES ABBEY’S CARD If you are a regular book buyer, ask for an BEST NOVEL Abbey’s Card so your purchases go towards The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Tp 32.95) earning you Reward Dollars, which can be used Red Leaves by Thomas H Cook (Tp 29.95 due June) to purchase any items from us and are issued Vanish by Tess Gerritsen (Tp 32.95) every 6 months as follows: Drama City by George Pelecanos (Tp 29.95) Purchases Over* Reward $ Citizen Vince by Jess Walter (Pb 22.00) $300 20 $400 25 $500 35 BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR $600 45 Die A Little by Megan Abbott (Hb 49.95 T/O) $700 55 Immoral by Brian Freeman (Pb 19.95 due April) $800 65 Run the Risk by Scott Frost (Pb 18.95) $900 75 Hide Your Eyes by Alison Gaylin (Pb 14.95) $1000 $10 for every $100 spent Officer Down by Theresa Schwegel (Hb 49.95 T/O) * during every 6 month period ended 30 June & 31 Dec GIFT VOUCHERS BEST FACT CRIME Abbey’s attractive Gift Vouchers are available in Rescue Artist: any denomination and have A True Story of Art, Thieves and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece no expiry date. Redeemable at Abbey’s Bookshop, by Edward Dolnick (Tp 29.95 due July) Language Book Centre or The Elements of Murder: The History of Poison by John Emsley (Hb 59.95) Galaxy Bookshop. Written in Blood by Diane Fanning (Pb 14.95) PARKING True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa by Michael Finkel (Hb 49.95) Spend $50 or more at Abbey’s Bookshop, Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans Language Book Centre or Galaxy Bookshop, by Jed Horne (Hb 54.00 T/O) present your QVB parking ticket and receive a $5 Parking Voucher. BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL SPECIALIST STORES Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: Up the stairs in Abbey’s for How to Knock 'em Dead with Style language learning materials by Hallie Ephron (Tp 29.95) and foreign fiction, children’s Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers Interviewed books and DVDs. by Stuart Kaminsky (Hb 54.95) Phone (02) 9267 1397 The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels 1800 802 432 (outside Sydney) edited by Leslie S Klinger (Hb 115.95) Fax (02) 9264 8993 email [email protected] Discovering the Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade: Online www.languagebooks.com.au The Evolution of Dashiell Hammett's Masterpiece Alongside Abbey’s at 143 edited by Richard Layman (Tp 43.00) York Street for Sydney’s most Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her extensive range of science by Melanie Rehak (Hb 54.00 T/O) fiction, fantasy and horror. T/O = to order only Phone (02) 9267 7222 Fax (02) 9261 3691 email [email protected] Crime Chronicle is compiled and edited Online www.galaxybooks.com.au by Peter Milne, Shelley Kay and Ann Leahy Prices are correct at time of publication but unfortunately are subject to change.