A ROGER SHERINGHAM MYSTERY. In a typical English country house, a murder is committed. The wealthy Victor Stanworth, who'd been playing host to a party of friends, is found dead in the library. At first it appears to be suicide, for the room was undoubtedly locked. But could there be more to the case? As one of the guests at Layton Court, gentleman sleuth Roger Sheringham begins to investigate. Many come under suspicion, but how could anyone have killed the man and gotten out of the room, leaving it all locked behind?

Dodgers is a dark, unforgettable coming-of-age journey that recalls the very best of Richard Price, Denis Johnson, and J.D. Salinger. It is the story of a young LA gang member named East, who is sent by his uncle along with some other teenage boys--including East's hothead younger brother--to kill a key witness hiding out in Wisconsin. The journey takes East out of a city he's never left and into an America that is entirely alien to him, ultimately forcing him to grapple with his place in the world and decide what kind of man he wants to become. Written in stark and unforgettable prose and featuring an array of surprising and memorable characters rendered with empathy and wit, Dodgers heralds the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.From the Hardcover edition.

George H. Doran Company , New York

Port Mortuary, the title of Patricia Cornwell's 18th Scarpetta novel, is literally a port for the dead. In this fast-paced story, a treacherous path from Scarpetta's past merges with the high tech highway she now finds herself on. We travel back to the beginning of her professional career, when she enlisted in the Air Force to pay off her medical school debt and found herself ensnared in a gruesome case of what seemed to be vicious, racially motivated hate crimes against two Americans in South Africa. Now, more than twenty years and many career successes later, her secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base, where she has been immersed in a training fellowship to master the art of CT-assisted virtual autopsy--a procedure the White House has mandated that she introduce in the private sector. As the chief of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts, a joint venture of the state and federal governments and MIT, Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could shut down her new facility and ruin her personally and professionally. A young man drops dead, apparently from a cardiac arrhythmia, eerily close to Scarpetta's new Cambridge home. But when his body is examined the next morning, there are stunning indications that he may have been alive when he was zipped inside a pouch and locked insider the Center's cooler. Various 3-D radiology scans reveal more shocking details about internal injuries unlike any Scarpetta has ever seen. These suggest the possibility of a conspiracy to cause mass casualties. She realizes that she is fighting a cunning and cruel enemy that is invisible as she races against time to discover who and why before more people die. In Port Mortuary, Patricia Cornwell brings Scarpetta together with Marino, Benton, and Lucy in an intimate way that is reminiscent of the early novels, and we welcome a voice we haven't heard in years. The point of view is Scarpetta's, and this is her story.

For almost a century, New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has presided over the dead. Over the years, the OCME has endured everything-political upheavals, ghastly murders, bloody gang wars, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and non-stop battles for power and influence-and remains the final authority in cases of sudden, unexplained, or violent death. Founded in 1918, the OCME has evolved over decades of technological triumphs and all-too human failure to its modern-day incarnation as the foremost forensics lab in the world, investigating an average caseload of over 15,000 suspicious deaths a year. This is the behind-the-scenes chronicle of public service and private vendettas, of blood in the streets and back-room bloodbaths, and of the criminal cases that made history and headlines. **From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. In its ninety years, the OCME of New York City has investigated over one million deaths and earned recognition as "the finest facility of its kind in North America, and as good as any in the world." Evans (The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes) makes a fascinating story of its operation, complete with clues to be discovered, internal intrigue, cut-throat politics and lots of local color. He writes with vibrant detail about eccentric criminals such as Abraham Becker and his friend Reuben Norkin who, in 1922, accused each other of murdering Becker's wife-a deed for which both were brought to justice-and a surgeon who killed the patients of his rivals-and who nonetheless was acquitted. Highpoints include the epic battle between Elliot Gross and Michael Baden for the post of Chief Medical Examiner and the thousand-suspect murder of a violinist backstage at Lincoln Center. The book ends with a tribute to the bravery and tireless efforts of the OCME staff who identified victims from 9/11. Evans keeps things clicking while sticking to the facts; true crime buffs will not want to miss it. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Tapping into the popular interest in murder cases solved by forensic pathology, Evans tours the history of New York City’s pros in the detection of suspicious deaths. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has had only seven leaders since its creation in 1918, and their tenures structure Evans’ readable narrative. The first was Charles Norris, whom Evans credits with putting the OCME on professionalized, incorruptible feet. Amid his delivery of pithy portraits of Norris and his successors, emphasizing their manner of coping with NYC’s maw of media and politics, Evans delves into a representative sensational case that occurred on their watch. Whether by intent or by chance, most of Evans’ selections involve a classic framework of murder, a woman done in by a predatory man. Rendering these grim stories with verve, Evans shows how a forensic detail cleared the case if not always persuading a jury to convict. Culminating with the OCME’s ultimate crisis in responding to the mass murder of 9/11, Evans again taps a loyal readership amassed by titles such as The Father of Forensics (2006). --Gilbert Taylor

In the Swinging Sixties, a battle for the soul of the city is fought between cops and criminals, the corrupt and the corrupted.November 1968. Judy Garland is performing drunk at the Palladium and the city of London is about to catch fire—literally. Summonded to a gas explosion, Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen unearths a shocking discovery beneath the rubble: Mind-bending paintings by Bridget Riley and Peter Blake...and the garrotted body of Jacob Pugh, a playboy god in the art world. With Detective Helen Tozer, Breen must infiltrate the artistic demimonde of a volatile and increasingly murderous city.Seen through the eyes of an irresistible pair of detectives, the real London comes in view in The Kings of London: a gritty metropolis thrives in the shadows beyond the spotlights, and all manner of vice is committed in the name of liberation.

At 46, Aaron Newman was enjoying the good things in life – a good marriage, a good job – and he was in good shape himself. Then he saw the murder. A petty vicious killing that was to plunge him into an insane jungle of raw violence and fear, threatening and defiling the things he cared about.