Galaxy ® British Book Awards

Reacher spent thirteen years in the army, all of them in the military police, some of them running a special investigations unit. Although he hasn't seen his colleagues from the unit for years, their loyalty to each other remains unchanged. When Reacher receives a cryptic message via an ATM machine, he knows it must be an emergency. One of the team is dead, and Jack has been tasked to put together the old unit to investigate. But most of the old unit is missing. Child's writing is suspenseful and tightly plotted, and Reacher, in his eleventh outing, is a rare kind of action hero.
Bantam, paperback, £6.99

The latest in the bestselling series featuring fiction's original pathologist, Dr Kay Scarpetta. The socalled 'book of the dead' is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. When Scarpetta opens a private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, South Carolina, she and her colleagues offer expert crime scene examinations and autopsies to communities lacking access to competent investigators. But then a run of violent deaths begins. A woman is ritualistically murdered in her beach home; a young boy's abused body is found dumped in a marsh, while a sixteen-yearold tennis star is found naked and mutilated. As she faces up to this terrifying string of violence, Scarpetta's own life comes under threat. Cornwell has won a shelf-full of awards for her writing, while Dr Kay Scarpetta won the 1999 Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author.
Little, Brown, paperback, £7.99

The New York Times called this "the definitive crime novel about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans". Burke's latest Detective Dave Robicheaux novel begins with the shooting of two would-be looters in New Orleans during the hurricane, and follows a motley group of characters - from street thugs to a big-time mob boss, from a junkie priest to a sadistic psychopath - as their stories converge on a cache of stolen diamonds, while the storm turns the Big Easy into a lawless wasteland of apocalyptic proportions. The resulting anarchy removes all modern standards by which humans should judge and be judged, leading to almost Biblical visions of good and evil in stark opposition to each other. Burke's prose is fuelled by pain, rage and a deep sense of loss, making this his most personal novel yet.
Orion, hardback, £12.99

It's summer in the Lake District and heavy rain over the fells has uncovered a bizarrely tattooed body. Speculation abounds that it could be the 200-year-old corpse of Fletcher Christian, mutinous First Mate on the Bounty- had he secretly returned to England after all? Scholar Jane Gresham develops a theory that the poet William Wordsworth sheltered his friend and turned his tale into an epic poem, long hidden. But as she follows each lead, death is hard on her heels. It isn't just the truth that is waiting to be discovered, but a bounty worth millions, with the centuries-old mystery putting lives at risk. From the creator of ITV's Wire in the Blood, this is McDermid's ninth novel; a compelling page-turner that will broaden her appeal.
Harper, paperback, £6.99

Rankin fans were crestfallen at the news that Exit Music was the final outing for his complicated yet popular creation, the Edinburgh-based Detective Inspector John Rebus, two decades after his first appearance in Knots & Crosses. Here, Rebus finds himself involved in one last murder case before retirement. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a bungled mugging but, by coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, keen to bring business to Scotland. It isn't long before Rebus and his colleague, DS Siobhan Clarke, make a connection between the two - but at what cost to themselves? Exit Music not only marks the bittersweet conclusion to Rebus's time in the force, but is also a searing commentary on money, power and murder in a country up for sale to the highest bidder.
Orion, paperback, £10.99