DANUTA REAH

Disturbing, atmospheric suspense novel from the author of Only Darkness, Silent Playgrounds and Night Angels: 'Dark, edgy and compelling' The Times Beyond the new city centre developments, the old Sheffield canal is overgrown, run-down and deserted. Signs of regeneration creep along its towpaths, including a small, innovative gallery housed in one of the warehouses. But between the renovations it's a dark and lonely place - the perfect site for an exhibition reworking Brueghel's The Triumph of Death. For Elisa Eliot, the curator, the chance to show well-known artist Daniel Flynn's work at the gallery is a coup. But when a young woman's body is found in the canal, Flynn's nightmare images begin to spill out into the real world. Still affected by the murder of her friend's daughter four years earlier, Eliza is drawn deep into the violence that seems to surround the gallery. Is this the work of a psychopath or is there a link between present horrors and the tragedy of four years before?

La última clase de Deborah Sykes ha terminado. Es una noche desapacible. Sola, espera en el andén de la estación la llegada del tren. El ruido de cristales rotos le sobresalta. una figura se aleja. A la mañana siguiente, los periodicos anuncian la muerte por estrangulamiento de una joven cerca de la estacion.

La última clase de Deborah Sykes ha terminado. La noche es desapacible; llueve con fuerza y las rachas de viento doblan los paraguas y las ramas de los árboles. Al acercarse a la estación fría y solitaria, oye ruido de cristales rotos. Se da cuenta que no esta sola. Al otro lado del anden adivina la figura de un hombre. No quiere dejarse dominar por el temor, pero no consigue alejar de su mente los terribles asesinatos que desde hace dias se producen en la zona. Justo en ese momento llega su tren y, subitamente, s esiente aliviada. Pero su tranquilidad durara poco...

El antiguo camino que unía el centro de la ciudad con el bosque es en la actualidad un inmenso campo de juegos para niños, un lugar agradable para pasear. Lucy desaparece con su niñera Emma cuando jugaba en el parque y Susana, vecina e intima amiga de la madre de Lucy, se teme lo peor. Nadie da credito a los asustados balbuceos de Lucy que habla de fantasmas y demonios ocultos, acechando entre la vegetacion. Nadie excepto Susana, que cree haber visto cerca del lugar del crimen a uno de los jovenes delincuentes con los que trabaja en el centro de asistencia social. Afortunadamente, la pequeña esta sana y salva, pero el cadaver de Emma aparece abandonado en las cercanias del bosque. Poco a poco Susana y todos los que la rodean parecen relacionados con la violencia, con el crimen. Incluso su propio pasado vuelve, amenazador. Los escenarios cotidianos, el parque, la universidad y la ciudad aparentemente no han cambiado, pero en esta historia poderosos espiritus diabolicos conspiran y transforman la atmosfera cotidiana en un devastador caos. Cuando se descubre el segundo cuerpo, el idilico parque local se ha convertido en escenario de un terrorifico cuento de hadas infantil, un lugar claustrofobico y de pesadilla. Susana, testigo potencial del primer asesinato, llama la atencion de Steve McCarthy, el taciturno investigador responsable del caso que se siente atraido por ella. Pero el tiempo tambien corre muy deprisa para el policia. Es necesario encontrar respuestas a los numerosos interrogantes de este misterio que combina drogas, mentiras, fantasmas del pasado y una inesperada sorpresa final.

Disturbing, atmospheric suspense novel from the author of Only Darkness, Silent Playgrounds and Night Angels: Dark, edgy and compelling The Times Beyond the new city centre developments, the old Sheffield canal is overgrown, run-down and deserted. Signs of regeneration creep along its towpaths, including a small, innovative gallery housed in one of the warehouses. But between the renovations its a dark and lonely place the perfect site for an exhibition reworking Brueghels The Triumph of Death. For Elisa Eliot, the curator, the chance to show well-known artist Daniel Flynns work at the gallery is a coup. But when a young womans body is found in the canal, Flynns nightmare images begin to spill out into the real world. Still affected by the murder of her friends daughter four years earlier, Eliza is drawn deep into the violence that seems to surround the gallery. Is this the work of a psychopath or is there a link between present horrors and the tragedy of four years before?

Dark, edgy and unbearably tense, this extraordinarily accomplished first novel is both a love story and a gripping psychological thriller of immense power. Debbie Sykes is a young college lecturer whose ordered life is about to be changed forever. One stormy winters night, waiting for the late train home, Debbie is acutely aware of being alone the woman who usually shares her evening vigil is not there. Vulnerability turns to fear, though, when she turns to see a sinister figure looming between her and the safety of the street. The next day, she hears that the missing woman has been found murdered by the man they call the Strangler, a brutal killer who dumps his victims on isolated stretches of railway track. The police renew their efforts to find the murderer before he strikes again, but how much time do they really have? When Debbies story is publicized by an unscrupulous journalist, it seems as though the jaws of an invisible trap are beginning to close around her strange things start to happen and the foundations of Debbies life subtly shift. Only Rob Neave, ex-policeman and college security officer, appears aware of the danger but he is distracted by his own tragic past. The clock is ticking, and it will be midnight far sooner than anyone thinks.

Disturbing, atmospheric suspense novel from the author of Only Darkness: Dark, edgy and compelling, this is a first novel from a writer to watch TheTimesSnake Pass, the Peak District: The car of Gemma Wishart, a young researcher in Russian languages, is discovered, abandoned, by a walker; the driver has vanished without trace. Over in Hull, the body of a woman is discovered battered to death in a hotel bathroom; the only clue to her identity is a card bearing the name of an escort agency notorious for its suspected trafficking in Eastern European prostitutes.For Detective Inspector Lynne Jordan, the missing academic and the murder victim have a tenuous connection. Jordan is in charge of a police operation to stamp out the illegal trade in human flesh and Wishart was helping her with transcripts of an interview with one such woman, who has subsequently turned up dead in the Humber Estuary. But its possible there is another, even darker, force at work, and when two more bodies turn up, Lynne is forced to conclude there may be a serial killer on the loose.

Another haunting psychological thriller from Carla Banks, as the trade in people trafficking impacts on three disparate lives with shocking consequences. Roisin Massey is a stranger in a strange land. An impulsive marriage has brought this young British lecturer to the forbidding city of Riyadh. Thankfully, she has the best guide possible: her new husband, Joe. Joe knows Saudi well hes worked there as a doctor for years. But Roisin discovers her husband is keeping secrets from her about his time in the Desert Kingdom. Such as the drug thefts from his hospital. The friend he saw beheaded. The woman who fell to her death Soon the ghosts from Joes past come back to haunt them both and murder follows in their wake

A dark psychological thriller that will hold the reader in its grip from beginning to end, Silent Playgrounds is the stunning follow-up to Danuta Reahs highly praised debut, Only Darkness. The path through the park runs from the centre of the city into the wilds of the countryside. At weekends the area is a playground for children and walkers, but during the week it is silent and deserted. When six-year-old Lucy gets lost there one day, her disappearance sparks a chain of events leading to the murder of a young woman. Lucy tries to warn the people she cares about of the danger: she knows that there are monsters lurking in the rambling park, and she knows that they are getting closer. What should be a straightforward investigation leads DI Steve McCarthy into a web of lies and evasions, where nothing is quite as it seems and everyone seems to be hiding something. With each step forward McCarthy faces new questions, and if he is to prevent an escalation in violence, he has to find some answers fast.