On the radar — The world’s favourite sleuth, Sherlock Holmes is back in a mystery where he’ll take on a character created by another literary heavyweight. This time he’s up against Dr Moreau. But these great characters haven’t been handled by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or HG Wells here. Instead Guy Adams takes to the keyboard. It’ll be interesting to see how detective fiction blends with science fiction. That’s just the beginning in a week when our books news also takes in archaeology in Iraq, Nazis in Cambodia and hi-tech theft in Santa Monica.
Fans of the British detective will be delighted to hear that a new mystery is set to be released in paperback on 24 August, penned by British fantasy writer, Guy Adams. A series of deaths that seem to have been caused by wild animals pit Holmes and Watson against Doctor Moreau. The scientist is experimenting with vivisection and genetic engineering, and is determined to prove the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin. His latest experiment involves creating an army of beast men. Then, he believes, the world will surely take notice of him as his creations take control of the government. Wow.
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The 13th Tablet by Alex Mitchell
Iraq, 2004. American archaeologist Mina Osman is fighting to preserve the antiquities that have been plundered from the country’s museums and historic sites. When she stumbles across an ancient cuneiform tablet, she cannot fail to notice its great significance. Written in a cryptic language and with secrets that need to be unlocked, Mina finds herself on a quest that will take her across the world and in extreme danger from an enemy who want the tablet and its secrets for their own purposes.
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Cambodia 2001, and German detective Maier has travelled to Phnom Penh searching for the heir to a wealthy Hamburg coffee empire, but as soon as he arrives he finds himself being drawn back to one of the darkest periods in the country’s history. The jungle holds even bigger dangers in the form of a Nazi war criminal who has used one of its ruined temples as his hiding place. Maier is soon caught in his web and offered a job he’d rather refuse. Author the White Spider’s horrific biography or die.
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Rip-Off by Mar Preston
A series of high-tech burglaries having been causing the Santa Monica police a real headache, but when the body of a deadbeat burglar is found in a playboy’s condo, Detective Dave Mason finds himself with something of a nightmare on his hands. The trail leads him into the middle of Hollywood’s Russian mafia and the dark world of embezzlement. Things get decidedly dicey. He’s almost killed in an explosion, warned off by Homeland Security and the FBI, and then two key informants are murdered. With fingers pointed at him, Mason’s making more enemies than friends solving this crime means restoring his own reputation and that of his department, but at what cost?
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