Four investigations and four sets of secrets someone would kill to keep. In Brussels, Peter May's reporter Neil Bannerman guards a child who saw a killer and cannot recall his face. In London, Jackson Lamb's misfit spies stumble into a wave of terror attacks, chiefly by making everything worse. In Edinburgh, bones with a bullet through the skull drag Karen Pirie back to the Balkan wars. And in a fading Pennsylvania town, Amos Decker, the FBI agent who forgets nothing, sees his holiday end with two bodies in a deserted house.

Peter May, The Man with No Face - Two murders in Brussels, and the only witness is a child who remembers everything about the killer except his face.

Mick Herron, London Rules - Terror attacks rock Britain, and Jackson Lamb's band of failed spies are perfectly placed to make things worse.

Val McDermid, The Skeleton Road - Bones hidden high on an Edinburgh rooftop lead Karen Pirie back to the horrors of the Balkan wars.

David Baldacci, The Fallen - Amos Decker's holiday in a fading Pennsylvania town ends abruptly when two bodies turn up in a deserted house.

Some people go looking for bargains and come home with a body. Roy Grace follows a car boot bargain that could be a lost masterpiece into an art world with very sharp elbows. Max Mephisto plays the Brighton Hippodrome as a quiet flowerseller is found dead in her lodgings. A rector's modest plan for a church lavatory ends in murder, and Ann Cleeves's Norfolk birdwatchers prove to be watching rather more than birds. Hide the secateurs - this is crime fiction with charm, cunning and a very sharp edge.

Peter James, Picture You Dead - A £20 car-boot portrait may hide a lost masterpiece, and Roy Grace discovers the art world plays dirty.

Elly Griffiths, The Vanishing Box - Max Mephisto tops the bill in Brighton as DI Edgar Stephens hunts the killer of a flower seller.

Richard Coles, Murder Before Evensong - Canon Daniel Clement's plan for a church lavatory divides his village, then a parishioner is found stabbed in the pews.

Ann Cleeves, A Bird in the Hand - A young birdwatcher lies dead in a Norfolk marsh, and George Palmer-Jones follows the twitchers to his killer.