MARTIN EDWARDS: THE SERPENT POOL (Allison and Busby HB)

The Lake District's cold case specialist, DCI Hannah Scarlett, is determined to uncover the truth behind Bethany Friend's apparent suicide in the Serpent Pool. Why would Bethany, so afraid of water, drown herself? Hannah fears that her partner, bookseller Marc Amos, is keeping dark secrets. Does he hold the key to Bethany's past - and why was his best customer burnt to death in an Ullswater boathouse? Hannah still carries a torch for Daniel Kind, who is researching Thomas De Quincey and the history of murder. Once Daniel and Hannah suspect connections between Bethany's drowning and a current sequence of killings, death comes dangerously close to home. Excellently written detective story, just the right amount of tension, characters that hold your interest, and a plot that will keep you guessing to the end. First rate.

SIMON HALL: THE TV DETECTIVE (Accent Press PB)

The TV Detective finds television reporter Dan Groves newly assigned to the crime beat, and in a state of angst about it. He needs a crash-course in police work; the solution is to shadow Detective Chief Inspector Adam Breen on a high-profile murder inquiry, which doesn't go down well with some members of the police force. The victim is a notorious local businessman, Edward Bray, a man with so many enemies that one of the problems the inquiry faces is having a surplus of suspects. Bray is killed at a prearranged meeting, in a lay-by on a dark and storm-lashed night, by a blast through the heart from a shotgun. Adam investigates and uncovers a tantalising question, which seems to be at the heart of the case: why was the killing planned for a different day, but put off apparently because the weather was sunny? Tensions abound between Dan and the police, and he comes close to being thrown off the case - until the detectives come to realise he might actually be helpful, in using the power of television to tempt the murderer into a trap. For his fourth TV Detective novel, Simon Hall gives us a prequel, taking us back to a time when Dan is the environmental correspondent, thrown into crime reporting on a whim, and has to make a decent fist of it to avoid problems further down the line in his career. The story isn't so puzzling as the three others, and has Dan finding his feet with CID, learning the ropes at the hands of DCI Adam Breen. This is more about finding out who Dan and Adam really are, giving us background into their comparatively staid but minorly troubled personal lives. I may have missed it, but I couldn't find or work out for myself the anser to the only real puzzle in the book, the riddle of the numbers. I reread the last few pages over and over but I didn't get it. Sorry, Simon. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, though.

MARTIN STRATFORD: DOUBLE JEOPARDY (RObert Hale HB)

Detective Sergeant Julie Cooper has been working undercover to crack a major drugs ring. With the drugs baron jailed, Julie thinks she can relax until she becomes the victim of a drive-by shooting that leaves her seriously injured and her aunt dead. Fuelled by grief, anger and guilt, Julie hires private detective Alec Tanner to help her track down the killers. Set in the fictitious English city of Havenchester, "Double Jeopardy" follows Julie and Tanner as they investigate a number of potential suspects, including a vicious gangland boss who is plotting to avenge himself on his cheating girlfriend. As their personal lives become increasingly entangled, Julie and Tanner find themselves in a race against time to uncover the truth and prevent more murders, including their own... Stratford's debut novel, and impressive it is, too, with some cracking characters and a great plot. I did start to have suspicions about... no, bettet not let on, that would spoil the surprise... terrific fun. It reminded me of the halcyon days of British detective fiction, the 1950s (in my opinion) when everyone wanted to be the next Agatha Christie. This is very, very good and I look forward to reading Martin's next book.

BILL SHEEHY: THE ARGENTINE KIDNAPPING (Robert Hale HB)

Bernie's life is on a downward spiral since he lost his job as a journalist; his fiction writing won't pay the rent and his wife has had enough of him. But life takes a real turn for the worse when he is accused of planning to hold-up a big money poker game and organising an armoured car robbery. Suddenly, Bernie's life seems unrecognisable. Then he is approached by Mr Gussling, a businessman just returned from Argentina, whose wife Claire has been kidnapped. Gussling asks Bernie to make the ransom payoff on his behalf and, desperate for money, Bernie accepts. All he wants to do is trade the ransom money for the kidnap victim and get back to his old life...or does he? And this one reminds me of James Bond, in a way. Sheehy manages to convey the atmosphere of a cosmopolitan thriller prefectly well, and the whole thing is a joy to read.

SARA PARETSKY: HARDBALL (Hodder and Stoughton HB)

When V.I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who's been missing for four decades, a search that she thought would be futile turns lethal. Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history rise up to force her back with a vengeance – a nun who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. dies without revealing crucial evidence, and on the city's South Side, people spit when she shows up. The elderly sisters who hired her are also keeping important information to themselves. Then V.I. finds that her family is keeping secrets of their own. A young cousin whom she's never met arrives from Kansas City to work on a political campaign, but disappears under mysterious circumstances. Afraid to learn that her adored father might have been a bent cop, deception and corruption following her at every step, V.I. finds all her certainties under threat, but takes the investigation all the way to its frightening end. A forty-year-old mystery would seem like a daunting task, but Ms Warshawski's persistence and bravado pay off. I loved the introduction of her kooky niece, and the reminiscences of how it used to be, with Martin Luther King in the background, make for a powerful sub-plot. Excellent.

M J TROW: MAXWELL'S CHAIN (Alllison and Busby PB)

School can be murder - Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell is a very busy man; resisting Ofsted imperatives and marking GCSE coursework on time, as well as cramming as much History as possible into the reluctant heads of Nine Eff Gee. And at home, baby Nolan claims a lot of attention, as does Nolan's rather surprising friend and protector, the black and white mouse-tormentor Metternich the cat. Despite this, Max still finds time for some amateur sleuthing when the terminally nervous school photographer asks for his help after accidentally photographing a murder on the beach. Their discovery of a body buried in the sand dunes sets in motion a chain of events that only the redoubtable Mad Max can break, but one thing is certain: life in Leighford will never be the same again. This is a paperback reprint of last year's Maxwell title, and it's most welcome. Maxwell is an inspired creation, and although this is not the latest in the series (the new hardback is unavailable for review due to marketing cutbacks, I'm afraid, so we will have to wait for it to appear in paperback) it will probably be the one most people gravitate to in a time of recession. It's brilliant.

RICHARD JAY PARKER: STOP ME (Allison and Busby PB)

Forward this email to ten friends. Each of those friends must forward it to ten friends. Maybe one of those friends of friends of friends will be one of my friends. If this email ends up in my inbox within a week, I won't slit the bitch's throat. Can you afford not to send this onto ten friends? Vacation Killer Leo Sharpe's life is shattered when his wife Laura suddenly disappears. His desperate need to find her turns to obsession when he becomes convinced she's the latest victim of The Vacation Killer who has claimed eleven lives already - is Laura going to be the twelfth? The MO is the same every time - a woman disappears and within hours inboxes around the world receive a threatening email. A few days later, grim evidence of the victim's death is delivered to the police. But in Laura's case, nothing is sent. Has the killer spared her life? Why? And for how long? For Leo, the clock is ticking - he needs to do everything in his power to stop the killer before it's too late. Another A&B paperback reprint from a hardback of last year, and again it's well worth pursuing. It's a "race against time" kind of caper, handled brilliantly by the author, and you shouldn't miss it.