Every so often, we have a week where all the authors whose new novels are included here in our news column are brand new to us. That could be because their books are debuts, but often they’re indie authors coming through. Either way, we’re proud to introduce them to you because it’s the indie presses that give writers the chance to test out their skills and find audiences when the road is blocked via the bigger publishers.

This week, those authors include Avina St Graves, Brianna Labuskes, Michael Steward, Tina Henry, SJ Galbraith and S John Davies – and I have to say their books look pretty varied. Have you tried any of these authors in the past? Let us know in the comments below.

Pink Ink by Avina St Graves

Billed as dark romance, Avina St Graves’s Pink Ink – out on 4 August for Kindle, 13 August in print – has more than a touch of the goth about it. A perceptive film student spots links between a rash of murders and decides to use the serial killer as the focus for her college project. She hones in on one murder in particular, unwittingly alerting the perpetrator in the process. Because the killer is none other than her college professor, Maddox Shaw – the man she is sleeping with. Yikes! But that’s not all, because Shaw has upset some important people who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets safe…
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Clean Slate by Brianna Labuskes

We’re off to Atlanta for Clean Slate by Brianna Labuskes, published on 4 August. It’s where crime scene cleaner Olive Hunt skilfully erases other people’s messes. It’s a job she’s been doing for 10 years, using work to forget about her childhood traumas – and in that time Olive has seen it all. Until two back-to-back suicides occur in a seedy motel. The deaths are unconnected but Olive spots a strange item at both scenes, and when a third body is found, she realises that a clever serial killer is using her to destroy all the evidence. Then a bouquet of blood red roses arrives with a note: “Thank you”. The message is clear – the murderer has her card marked, and Olive has no choice but to follow where he leads.
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Kingsland by Michael Steward

It’s 1992 when a young Olympic hopeful vanishes from a night club in Hackney, London. After an initial flurry on interest the trail went cold and Dante Robinson’s name disappeared from the headlines. But what happened to the promising athlete, and why did everyone stop looking for him? Nearly 30 years on, private investigator Ed Vaughan is hired to find out what happened to Dante – and his enquiries lead him down a shadowy and dangerous path into the capital’s dark criminal underbelly. As the investigation drags up names from his own past, Vaughan is about to learn how far people will go to keep the truth hidden. Kingsland by Michael Steward is out now.
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Killer Smile by Tina Henry

A young Irish woman turns vigilante in Tina Henry’s Killer Smile, out now. Ciara was just 13 when a hit and run driver killed her parents in Galway City. Four years later he’s out of jail and on Ciara’s radar. Angry at the way the justice system treated her, she becomes a skilled stalker, but what starts out as revenge spirals into obsession and soon she’s crossing a line from which there’s no going back. She’s done wrong – but will an innocent looking 17 year old ever come under suspicion? If Ciara is to stay a step ahead of the Garda, she needs to keep her wits about her.
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The Wythenshawe Dandy by SJ Galbraith

Set on both sides of the Pennines, in Sheffield and Manchester, SJ Galbraith’s The Wythenshawe Dandy arrives on 3 August. It’s a debut featuring DI Cassie May, whose love life lies in tatters after the body of a young woman is found laid out neatly on the duvet in her new boyfriend’s flat. James Flynn is soon accused of murder but Cassie is prepared to risk her career to prove his innocence. The odd thing is, James seems more bothered about the long-buried secrets she might unearth than the fact that he has a murder charge hanging over him.
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Twisting Fates by S John Davies

Glasgow is the setting for debut novel Twisting Fates by S John Davies, publishing on 1 August. It’s something of a locked room mystery – Professor Robert Arnold is found dead in his laboratory, bludgeoned and hidden inside a freezer. Why he was there after dark, alone, in a sealed room he had no business entering? The Specialist Crime Squad soon have their perpetrator – a troubled man with a grievance and a penchant for writing poison pen letters – but newly arrived DS Don Maciver isn’t so sure. He hasn’t even got his feet under the desk yet – but how far is Mciver prepared to go to fight for the truth?
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Click here to read about last week’s new releases.