An Enemy in the Village

Martin Walker

WHEN a woman’s body is found in her car at a remote beauty spot in France’s idyllic Dordogne region, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of suicide but the resulting disputes over her will soon start to raise the suspicions of the local chief of police.

And to make matters even more complicated for Lieutenant Bruno Courrèges, his interference in the local deputy mayor’s marriage dispute opens up a host of personal and professional dilemmas which will test his considerable sleuthing talents to the limit.

Welcome back to the ‘magical corner of the world’ inhabited by the incomparable Bruno in the remarkable eighteenth book of Martin Walker’s enchanting, French-flavoured series which stars an astute, epicurean detective with a taste for food, vin rouge… and crime.

Lovers of clever mysteries, social, international and political history, stunning scenery, excellent cuisine, and the very best of French wines, have enjoyed sharing the past seventeen years with the smart, likeable and fair-minded Bruno in Walker’s exceptionally entertaining and eternally popular novels. A prize-winning historian and journalist who spends much of his time in the Périgord region – the lush, gastronomic heartland of France – Walker (pictured below) has mastered the fine art of harnessing intriguing murder mysteries with paeans to his adopted country’s rich history, landscape, food and culture to dish up stories with an addictive brand of Gallic charm.

And at the heart of these witty, wonderful novels is the laidback Bruno, a bon viveur with a brain as discerning as his palate… a man who can crack crime in the fictional settlement of St Denis whilst cracking open a bottle of his favourite wine.

In this new mystery, we find France’s favourite country policeman on his way to work one autumn morning when he comes across an abandoned car parked at a beauty spot on the ridge overlooking the beautiful Vézère valley. Inside is a dead woman alongside an empty pill container, a water bottle and a folder with three farewell notes inside, including one to her husband Dominic d’Estringen.

It doesn’t take long to ascertain that she is 42-year-old Monique Duhamel, joint partner in a highly lucrative ‘super-concierge’ letting business, and that her apparent suicide may have resulted from depression caused by a miscarriage just a week ago. There are circumstances surrounding the death that raise Bruno’s suspicions, particularly around her will, but the case becomes less of a priority when our seasoned police chief makes the mistake of interfering in a local marital dispute. The deputy mayor of St Denis has been playing away and finds himself evicted from the family home by his angry wife.

Adding to that, there has been a flood of harassment complaints against a young and arrogant police cadet with high ranking connections, and old controversies about deer culls take on new life with a second campaign beginning and stating that Bruno is less of a village copper and more of a ‘secret policeman’ whose main job is working for French intelligence.

Some of the ammunition for this attack, Bruno learns, comes from deputy mayor Xavier who sees this as a way to topple both Bruno and the mayor, and succeed to the mayor’s job himself. Suddenly Bruno’s shiny reputation is looking a little tarnished as he battles to save his name and answer the questions still surrounding Monique’s suicide.

Walker’s richly descriptive and captivating series shows no sign of flagging as we meet up again with Bruno and his warm and sociable milieu, which includes some interesting new characters, and follow an intriguing case which takes the wily detective into some dark corners of the famously idyllic Périgord.

But this being Bruno, he also has time to indulge in some more pleasurable things, like introducing his beloved basset hound Balzac to a charming young female hound called George Sand, meeting friends, organising youth rugby games, listening to music, and enjoying a sumptuous Périgordian meal washed down by a 2019 curvée Ortus from Château Bélingard.

And it is this eclectic mix which has turned Walker’s amiable detective into the culinary crime king of rural France as these must-read, atmospheric and wonderfully multi-layered whodunits magically morph into wish-you-were-here feasts accompanied by plentiful side-helpings of crime, history and intrigue. Murder mystery with a quintessentially French dressing…
(Quercus, hardback, £22)

CHILDREN'S BOOKS: Dragon magic, learning witchcraft and sweet delights

Return to a magical land of dragons where love and bravery are weapons against evil, join a trainee witch tasked with finding a brand new spell, dive into a deliciously dangerous and mouth-watering mystery, and tuck into tasty pizzas and lots of laughter in a new super selection

Age 8 plus
Impossible Creatures: The Poisoned King
Katherine Rundell

TRAVEL back to a land of dragons where magic is only ever a heartbeat away, adventures are out of this world, and friendship, love and bravery are the armour with which to fight evil! Readers who left their hearts in the Archipelago after the delights of outstanding author Katherine Rundell’s epic and bestselling Impossible Creatures will be itching to get their hands on her magnificent second book, The Poisoned King. With artwork by Tomislav Tomić, and packed full of fantastical thrills and spills, this new chapter for our hero, Christopher Forrester, sweeps us back to the dangerous and dazzling land known as the Glimouria Archipelago, a cluster of magical islands where all the creatures of myth still live and breed and thrive in their thousands.

In his new adventure, Christopher – who has discovered a Way-Between his world and the Archipelago – is unexpectedly woken by a miniature dragon chewing on his face. Far from being frightened, his heart leaps for joy because for months he has dreamed of returning to the Archipelago’s secret islands. Called there to help save the dragons, which are mysteriously dying out, Christopher does not yet know that his return will involve a rescue mission on the back of a sphinx and a daring plan to enter a dragon’s lair. Nor could he have imagined that it would involve Princess Anya Phoebe Cornelia Argen of the Island of Dousha who arrives with a flock of birds at her side, a newly-hatched chick in her pocket… and a ravenous thirst for revenge and hunger for justice. With an audacious and daredevil princess – who has her own personal reasons for solving the dark mystery – joining Christopher for another all-action adventure, and a glossary of magical, mythical creatures at the back of the book, youngsters will be lapping up every word of this beautifully imagined, inspirational and emotion-packed classic.
(Bloomsbury Children’s Books, hardback, £14.99)

Age 9 plus
Stonewitch
Skye McKenna and Tomislav Tomić

IF you’re looking for adventures with a truly magical atmosphere, step back into the wonderful world of Hedgewitch, where the land of Faerie lies just beyond our own! Stonewitch is the fourth book in the enchanting Hedgewitch series, the debut creation of Skye McKenna who grew up surrounded by red dust in a mining town in the Australian outback but then travelled to England and fell in love with the British countryside. Illustrated by Tomislav Tomić, the series is already being hailed as a modern classic. Now living in Scotland, McKenna was inspired by her love of magic and adventure to write these captivating adventures which star a family of witches who protect Britain from the denizens of Faerie, creatures who are all too real and far more frightening than the story books suggest.

To complete the next step in her training in the practical skills of witchcraft, Cassie Morgan must invent a brand-new spell. However, she is struggling for inspiration… so she jumps at the chance to attend the Covenmoot. Every five years, covens from all over Britain and Ireland meet to take part in a series of challenging games in the hopes of winning the Covenmoot Cauldron. Cassie and her friends travel to Glen Carlin, a remote valley in the Scottish Highlands, to take part. But menacing forces haunt the moors and rumours of the ancient Stonewitch swirl through the camp. Cassie and her coven must work together to prove themselves in the Covenmoot, while long-hidden secrets come to light and the wicked Erl King’s power grows. Witches aren’t born, they’re made... McKenna is a born storyteller, building an enchanting, magical world that is as alluring as it is viscerally and thrillingly real… a place where the characters spring to glorious life, where the natural world takes centre stage, and where readers long to return to time and time again!
(Welbeck Children’s Books, hardback, £14.99)

Age 9 plus
The Wanderdays: The Midnight Sweet Factory
Clare Povey

DIVE into a deliciously dangerous and mouth-watering mystery in the second thrilling eco-adventure from master storyteller Clare Povey… and meet two superstar siblings. Author of the fabulous French-flavoured Bastien Bonlivre series, Povey’s ambitions to be a marine biologist never materialised but her love of the natural world shines through as we meet up again with the daring Wanderdays as they embark on an edge-of-your-seat , sugar-fuelled quest. When Flo and Joseph Wanderday unwrap a Midnight Treats gobstopper, they’re expecting to find a sugary sweet... not a mysterious message that kickstarts the adventure of a lifetime. ‘HELP! Trapped in Midnight Forest. Come before it is too late.’ With adventure in their hearts and sugar in their stomachs, the Wanderdays must find the Midnight Forest, journey through its sweet-themed tricks and trials, and face their greatest threat yet… sweet factory workers who aren’t in control of their own minds! Packed to the treetops with non-stop action, brilliant baddies, two breathtakingly audacious children and important reminders about the dangers of deforestation, the wonderful wanderings of the Wanderdays are guaranteed to have young readers turning the pages and already booking in for the next thrilling outing!
(Usborne Publishing, paperback, £7.99)

Age 9 plus
Witchlight
Dominique Valente and Eleonora Asparuhova

RETURN to a magical world of witches, royalty and curses in this spellbinding sequel to Witchspark, Dominique Valente’s thrilling fantasy series starring a girl born with only one hand, and an amazing house with a character all of its own. Valente – author of the bewitching Starfell series – uses her own experiences of living with one hand, including the challenges and frustrations, and her own special brand of magic to treat readers to quirky adventures brimming with witchery and wonder. Here we meet up again with Eglantine Bury who was born with just one hand and is a pupil at Miss Hegotty’s Secret Society of Witches which has a lot of work to do. The Department of Isle-Spark Regulation is up to no good. For Princess Victoria, a secret witch at the palace, this means possibly losing her magic powers forever. And for Eglantine, her magical home, Huswyvern, can’t stop sneezing, causing total chaos with each ‘achoo!’ And as if that wasn’t enough to worry about, Eglantine’s house isn’t the only magical being falling mysteriously ill. With dragons and gargoyles getting sicker and sicker, the witches will have to use time-travel, disguise spells and genie wishes to uncover the truth... before it’s too late. In this new spellbinding adventure, illustrated by Eleonora Asparuhova, youngsters are swept back to Eglantine’s captivating world which features a very unusual teacher and a talking dragon-butler, and a story that is filled with warmth, humour, wondrous adventures, offbeat fantasy, and characters to love. High-flying magic!
(Usborne Publishing, paperback, £8.99)

Age 9 plus
Pizza Pete and the Peculiar Professor
Carrie Sellon and Sarah Horne

TUCK into more laughter, tasty pizzas and words of wisdom as author Carrie Sellon and illustrator Sarah Horne return with the final laugh-out-loud adventure of their trilogy starring the irrepressible Pizza Pete! After finding a mysterious briefcase full of magic potions under the floorboards in the attic, Pete and his dad experimented with them to create some crazy, crowd-pleasing pizza toppings to help save the family business. Now the magical pizzas are selling like hot cakes… until something goes wrong with the Shrink potion and Anna stays shrunk. Eek! Pete and his friends must track down the elusive creator of the magical potions, Professor Tregoning, to get help. But there’s a lot to juggle, including a road trip, a talking dog, a large dollop of out-of-control magic and a ruthless villain with her own terrible plans for the potions. Team Useless must pull off their biggest mission yet, or Anna will have to stay tiny… forever! Pete is a true hero for young readers, a boy who helps the battle to save his family’s pizza business whilst struggling with his own anxiety issues. And it’s the author’s distinctive brand of slapstick humour – perfectly complemented by Horne’s extravagant, fun-filled illustrations – which provide the ideal wrapping for a story that gently, and sensitively, tackles serious issues around mental health and anxiety. Don’t miss the last epic slice of the pizza action fun!
(Guppy Books, paperback, £7.99)

Age 8 plus
Ultimate Football Heroes 2026
Matt Oldfield, Emily Stead, Seth Burkett
and John Murray

LOOK back at an amazing year in football with Ultimate Football Heroes 2026, a bumper special edition of the ever-popular Ultimate Football Heroes series. These brilliant books feature biographies and life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys to stardom, as well as lots of fascinating football facts. And now you can relive the goals, games and glories of the 2024-25 season, including intense Premier League face-offs for the top-five finish, shocking moments as the Lionesses rise to glory in the Euros, and all the action from the biggest and best players from around the globe. Peek inside for Liverpool’s dash for the Premier League title, Salah’s unstoppable run of goals, the earth-shattering ‘El Clasico’ match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Saka’s push to bring his team to the next Champion’s League and Hannah Hampton’s world-shattering penalty saves. And meet the top players from the latest season, including Bukayo Saka, Ousmane Dembélé, Alessia Russo, Lamine Yamal, Désiré Doué and Mohammed Salah. This brilliant yearbook – with its sparkling, gold-foiled cover – is stacked with the biggest football hero stories from across the world, plus stats and quizzes to test your knowledge… it's the ultimate yearbook for fans of the beautiful game and bang on goal for all aspiring young players!
(Dino Books, paperback, £8.99)

Age 7 plus
Betty Steady and the Fidgety Wizard
Nicky Smith-Dale and Sarah Horne

BETTY Steady, the Guardian of Wobbly Rock, is back and the fun factor is off the scale! As the daughter of two knights, Betty is blessed with unmatched strength and speed but due to a horrid shrinking spell by a wicked Toad Witch she’s now really, really tiny. Fortunately she is still the shining star (well, most of the time!) of a funny illustrated fiction series from the top team of author Nicky Smith-Dale and talented illustrator Sarah Horne. And in her third adventure, Betty and her Wobbly Rock pals must leap into action when the twin princesses, Pam and Pamm, fall under a dreadful spell. They have swooned into a coma, thanks to a bunch of poisonous daffodils inadvertently given to them by Betty’s swashbuckling, moustachioed 11-year-old cousin, Freddy Steady. Now the gang must go in search of wicked weasels on the island of Little Dollop to find the cure. But naughty sorcerer Hearty Stu has plans of his own for the princesses. And our noble stallion Simon Anderson has plans for Freddy Steady’s SUPER annoying green unicorn Salad whom he doesn’t like even a tiny little bit… no sir nuh-uh. With madcap humour at every turn of the page, a cast of the weirdest characters this side of Wobbly Rock, and a lead player who is just a teensy bit too big for her boots, this rollicking romp is joyful, big-hearted and serves up extra dollops of youthful exuberance for readers new to chapter books.
(Farshore, paperback, £6.99)

Age 5 plus
Isadora Moon and the Pop Stars
Harriet Muncaster

THE shining star that is half-vampire, half-fairy Isadora Moon shows no sign of losing her sparkle in this gorgeous silver-coated new adventure from the ever-inventive author and illustrator Harriet Muncaster. Full to its sparkly covers with crazy capers and enchanting pink and black illustrations, this magical series of first chapter books is perfect for early readers who like their glitter with a bit of bite and this special hardback, gift edition comes with silver-sprayed edges, extra activities, and things to make and do. Isadora is special because she is different. Her mum is a fairy and her dad is a vampire and she is a bit of both. Here we find Isadora excited because she has been invited to go to a pop concert with her friend, Araminta. She has never seen a band like Glitterbat before. The music is gothic and vampire-y and electric and she can’t wait to show the dance moves to her friends at school. But will they understand, or will they think her vampire music is a bit strange? Isadora and her out-of-this-world family are perfectly created for little girls who are getting bored with run-of-the-mill fairies and princesses, and are eager to get their teeth into something new and exciting. Clever, imaginative, funny, positively fizzing with fairies and vampires, and with themes of heritage, difference and fitting in, Isadora’s adventures always leave youngsters hungry for more!
(Oxford University Press, hardback, £9.99)

Age 5 plus
My Magic Hamster: Hide and Squeak
Leah Mohammed and Jess Rose

WHAT little mischief-maker could resist a very naughty magic hamster? Children’s author Leah Mohammed has always loved stories with magic at their heart, and there’s lots of heart and magic to enjoy in the second book of a sparkling series which includes two stories in each book and stars a mischievous hamster called Frank. Sana has always wanted a hamster but when she buys Frank, she gets a bit more than she'd bargained for. Because Frank is a special hamster… a magic hamster. In fact, he’s a very naughty magic hamster who keeps getting Sana into all kinds of trouble! As you can guess, life is never boring when Frank is around, especially when he discovers he has new time-freezing and shrinking powers. But can Sana keep the super-tiny Frank safe from the neighbour’s cats? Frank’s fun-filled adventures full of magic, mayhem and mischief are given extra vibrancy by Jess Rose’s illustrations and look set to run and run!
(Welbeck Children’s Books, paperback, £7.99)

Age 5 plus
Gordon: In the City
Alex Latimer

GORDON the goose is back and he’s still honkingly funny! Gordon: In the City is the fourth highly illustrated yarn in a hilarious debut chapter book series from bestselling author and illustrator Alex Latimer. Gordon is the meanest goose on earth. Well… he used to be, but now he’s trying to change his ways and be a good goose. The trouble is, it’s really tricky to be kind and patient and good, especially when you’ve always been mean. Now Gordon has been invited to a fancy award ceremony in the big city. He’s been asked to present this year’s award for The Meanest Goose on Earth, a prize he has won the previous eight years in a row! But now that he’s a good(ish) goose he’s nervous to be in the presence of such mean geese and one in particular… Mother Goose! That’s right, this year Gordon’s mum is up for the award, and she’s got something really mean planned… Perfect for emerging readers, these funny tales of redemption and about finding the courage to change your ways are packed with laugh-out-loud, edgy humour and brought to life by Latimer’s characterful black and red illustrations on every page. It would be simply mean not to fall in love with Gordon!
(Oxford University Press, paperback, £6.99)

Age 5 plus
Marv and the Funfair Fright
Alex Falase-Koya and Paula Bowles

SUIT up, step up! Superhero Marv is back and this time he’s up against a sinister supervillain and pack of pesky pandas! It’s ‘fair’ game for fast-paced fun and frolics in the ninth book of an exciting and action-packed series from award-winning writer Alex Falase-Koya and star illustrator Paula Bowles. When perfectly ordinary boy Marvin wears his super-suit – powered by kindness and imagination – he becomes MARV, a superhero with infinite abilities. In his new adventure, Marvin is excited but nervous about riding the Head Spinner rollercoaster at the funfair. But he suddenly has much more to worry about when the Conjuror, a supervillain from Marv's past, causes chaos by bringing a zombie and some giant toy pandas to life. Marv and his sidekick Pixel will have to use every trick in the book to put a stop to the panda-monium and defeat the cunning Conjuror. Kindness, resilience and courage are all celebrated in these thrill-filled Marv adventures which are brought to vibrant life by Bowles’ eye-caching two-tone illustrations. Don’t be coconut shy and miss out on all the mayhem!
(Oxford University Press, paperback, £6.99)

Age 5 plus
The Moonlight Mystery Agency: The Puzzling Paw Prints
Vashti Hardy and Agnes Saccani

JOIN a little girl and her detective cat on their mission to uncover the identity of a mysterious creature in the second book of a marvellously magical series from Blue Peter award-winning author Vashti Hardy and illustrator Agnes Saccani. The Moonlight Mystery Agency series is part of publisher Barrington Stoke’s super-readable Little Gems series which comes with a host of clever design and finishing techniques, like dyslexia-friendly fonts, to create easy-to-read, first chapter books in a format ideal for little hands. Hana and her cat Ace are helping the animals of Moonlight to track down the strange creature with great big paws and a terrible growl which is roaming their land. No one knows what it can be so they’ve called in the detective duo from the Moonlight Mystery Agency. Can Hana and Ace puzzle out what’s going on, and will solving the mystery help Hana find the answer to some worries of her own and discover something magic along the way? Wordsmith Hardy conjures up her world-building magic while Saccani’s illustrations bring the adorable characters and their fun-filled adventures to colourful life. Add on an intriguing puzzle inside the front cover and you have the perfect early reading package.
(Barrington Stoke, paperback, £6.99)

Age 3 plus
Family
Patricia Hegarty and Britta Teckentrup

‘On the savannah, whatever the weather, The animals must stick together. A herd of elephants cross the trail, Steadily walking, trunk to tail.’ 

EXPLORE what family means to all kinds of creatures – from diving dolphins to marvellous manatees – in a stunning peep-through picture book from children’s author Patricia Hegarty and award-winning illustrator Britta Teckentrup. Little ones will love turning the pages of this gorgeously produced book as they discover the incredible habits of animals and their families. Die-cuts let young readers peep through the pages, revealing different horizons all across the world, and offering a celebration of families, love, and the wonders of nature. Teckentrup's colourful and expressive artwork brings to life the amazing ways in which animals protect and support each other while Hegarty’s lyrical rhyming text creates a calming tone, making this an ideal book to help lull your child into sleep at bedtime or nap time. A visual and verbal trip into the delights of animal families!
(Little Tiger Press, paperback, £7.99) 

Venetian Vespers

John Banville

VENICE… a city that has inspired both artists and writers, a place of intense light and the deepest darkness, a meandering network of winding alleyways and opaque canals where imaginations are set alight and reality and fantasy have a habit of merging.

It’s also the larger-than-life setting for an enthralling and utterly transporting new novel from John Banville, one of Ireland’s most gifted authors who won the Man Booker Prize in 2005 and – far from resting on his laurels now that he is closing in on his eightieth birthday – is still treating readers to his extraordinary writing skills.

With a gift for words that raises novel-writing to dizzy heights of literary excellence, Wexford-born Banville (pictured below) is producing some of his best work yet, not least the award-winning Strafford and Quirke crime series which is based in Dublin in the Fifties and mired in dirty politics, religious tensions and the debates and concerns of the post-war period in Ireland. And now he has turned his talents to Venetian Vespers, a haunting and atmospheric fin de siècle noir which harnesses all the chilling tropes of a decaying and decadent city and brings them to glorious life with the tale of a hapless and hopelessly inept English hack caught up in a web of mystery, malice and supernatural skulduggery while honeymooning in wintertime Venice.

And what a mesmerising mixed bag of genres Banville dishes up for us as our self-styled ‘man of letters’ – whose lofty ambitions  to be a ‘lord of language’ have so far taken him no further than Grub Street – grapples with an unwilling bride, unsettling dreams, and a pair of roguish siblings whose arrival turns his life upside down.

In the winter of 1899 as the new century approaches, struggling English writer Evelyn Dolman – who harbours a grandiose dream of one day being ‘placed among the immortals’ – marries Laura Rensselaer, the younger daughter of a renowned and immensely wealthy American oil tycoon. Evelyn anticipates that he and Laura will inherit a substantial fortune, leading to a comfortable and settled life for himself.

But his hopes are dashed when a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before his death in a riding accident and only weeks after their wedding, leads to her being disinherited. The now unhappy newlyweds continue with their plans to travel to Venice to celebrate the New Year at the Palazzo Dioscuri, ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo.

Laura – his ‘vivid’ and ‘inscrutable’ wife who is ‘indifferent’ to both him and his advances – sees the overarching stillness of the palazzo as ‘the very essence of hushed romance’ but to Evelyn, every sound from those ‘rank alleyways’ and ‘turbid expanses of intermittently and evilly glinting, oily waters was a secret call, sly, suggestive, resonant with mockery and menace.’

When a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences begin to accumulate, Evelyn’s already frayed nerves start to disintegrate. Leaving his wife alone one evening, he ventures out and makes the acquaintance of the ingratiating and ‘satanic’ Freddie FitzHerbert and his sister Cesca Ransome, a woman regarded by Evelyn as ‘of the purest, most fetching loveliness.’ It’s a meeting that precipitates a disastrous event back at the palazzo after which his wife mysteriously disappears. Evelyn speculates that it might be the mist that is blanketing the floating city… or could he be losing his mind?

Banville’s classy mystery plays out slowly and tantalisingly against a turn-of-the-century Venice rendered dark, wet, gloomy, and full of the doom-laden shadows that have littered the novels of writers like Daphne du Maurier, Henry James, Thomas Mann and Jeanette Winterson.

In our narrator Evelyn, for whom ‘everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder,’ we have the classic artless narcissist… an easily manipulated, complacent and self-aggrandising dupe who proves to be ripe prey for ruthless schemers who are well-armed and more than ready to take advantage of his arrogance, lack of insight, and inadequacy.

Set during the city’s famous carnival season – noted for its mysterious masks, secrets and symbols –Venetian Vespers itself turns out to be very much an intricate and entertaining puzzle packed with unanswered questions, literary extravagances, caustic humour, and the enthralling slippery slope between reality and the paranormal. Very much a tale of people in a certain time and a certain place, Banville harnesses the gothic vibes of Venice to create characters that spring from the page, many of them with their complexities and devilish ambiguities veiled in mystery, while Evelyn’s thought processes are fully exposed, laid bare for readers to explore and dissect.

Richly descriptive, overflowing with Banville’s masterful and elegant storytelling, and with an enigma at its heart that spreads its tentacles from first page to last, this edgy and endlessly fascinating winter’s tale is a slice of word wizardry that no discerning reader should miss.
(Faber & Faber, hardback, £16.99)

Crucified

Lynda La Plante

STILL haunted by a harrowing case involving a sadistic serial killer who butchered and decapitated young girls, London Met Detective Sergeant Jack Warr is fast reaching breaking point.

With his home life at high pressure point after the birth of a new baby, his doctor wife Maggie on maternity leave, and the family finances struggling to cope with house renovations, the last thing Jack needs is another grisly murder.

Liverpool-born screenwriter and author Lynda La Plante (pictured below), one of the nation’s favourite police procedural writers, is back to dazzle and delight readers with the fifth book in her latest coruscating crime-cracking series which has its seeds planted in Widows, the runaway hit story starring a group of robbers’ widows who attempt a daring heist after the demise of their crooked husbands.

Harnessing the same gripping cocktail of crooks, cops and cunning plot twists, the DS Jack Warr novels have fast forwarded over 25 years to discover not just what happened to those nefarious gangsters’ molls but to meet intriguing new star Jack, a thirty-something detective finding his feet in the Met after a move from rural Devon, and discovering links to the past that, even in his wildest dreams, he could never have imagined. In Crucified, we find Jack struggling to cope with life at a time when he should be resting on his laurels. He’s just put brutal, unrepentant murderer Rodney Middleton behind bars and he’s ready to enjoy some time at home with his GP wife Maggie, young daughter Hannah, their new (as yet unnamed) baby boy and Jack’s adoptive mum Penny who lives with them.

Instead, Middleton’s gruesome legacy has left Jack with violent nightmares in which he punches, shouts and kicks out, terrifying Maggie. The torment he feels over the killer’s refusal to reveal the whereabouts of his other victims, plus a series of other events and dark secrets, make him feel like there is ‘a hurricane raging inside his head.’

Refusing the Met-offered counselling service, Jack instead finds solace in renewing a dangerous friendship with charismatic art forger Adam Border. But when a man is found horrifically murdered and nailed to a giant cross in a framer’s shop, Jack cannot help becoming fascinated by the elaborately staged killing and senses a connection to the case even though it is not in his jurisdiction.

Could Adam be the victim, or even the murderer, and is Jack’s involvement that of a detective or witness? Finding the truth will unveil a shocking portrait of a corrupt art world... but it could also expose the secrets Jack is so desperately trying to keep hidden.

Jack, who still struggles to walk a straight line between the right and wrong sides of the law, has now firmly embedded himself in readers’ hearts. With a new baby in the house, and domestic duties competing with hidden allegiances, our maverick detective is increasingly being forced to re-evaluate just where his priorities lie. Still emotionally drained from his dealings with the sadistic Middleton, and the resultant night terrors, Jack seems to have problems and secrets in all corners of his life... not least the crisis in their finances which he has so far refused to reveal to his wife and his long-suffering mother.

Packed with suspense, authentic police and forensic detail, La Plante’s dark, satirical humour and a brilliantly imagined cast of characters, including the restless, unpredictable Jack Warr, Crucified is another masterclass in crime writing.
(Zaffre, paperback, £9.99)