Variety theatre, fine art, professional basketball and competitive birdwatching: the worlds here seem remote from violence, but none of them are. In 1950s Brighton, a showgirl vanishes from the Hippodrome, and DI Edgar Stephens uncovers darker connections beneath the glamour, with Max Mephisto at his side. Roy Grace discovers that a portrait bought for its frame conceals an 18th-century masterpiece and a killer. Tom French's birdwatching community harbours grudges that prove fatal. And what Myron Bolitar takes on as a favour ends in blood.

Elly Griffiths, The Vanishing Box - When a showgirl vanishes from the Brighton Hippodrome, magician Max Mephisto and Detective Inspector Stephens uncover unsettling links to earlier murders in the shadowy world of 1950s variety theatre.

Peter James, Picture You Dead - A painting bought for its frame may be a lost masterpiece worth millions, but the wrong buyer has already found Harry and Freya Kipling. Roy Grace is also reopening a forgotten murder linked to the art world.

Harlan Coben, Fade Away - Myron Bolitar's old sporting rival disappears, leaving blood and a body behind. What begins as a favour draws Myron into a case that could cost him everything.

Ann Cleeves, A Bird in the Hand - When celebrated birder Tom French is found dead on the Norfolk coast, George Palmer-Jones discovers fierce rivalries and long-held grudges beneath the polite world of birdwatching.

Cold cases, war crimes and political killings: the crimes in these novels have long histories, and the investigators pursuing them are doing something close to archaeology. Karen Pirie traces an Edinburgh skeleton back to the Balkan Wars. Bosch juggles a 1989 DNA impossibility and a politically charged death at the Chateau Marmont, with just three years left on the LAPD. Lorimer's Zimbabwe holiday is overtaken by a Glasgow murder. And Bannerman, in Brussels in 1979, stumbles into a double killing the powerful would prefer buried.

Michael Connelly, The Drop - Approaching retirement from the LAPD, Harry Bosch is drawn into two disturbing cases: a decades-old DNA match and the suspicious death of a councilman's son. His pursuit uncovers a hidden serial killer alongside a deep-rooted police conspiracy.

Alex Gray, Out of Darkness - DSI William Lorimer's holiday in Zimbabwe takes a dangerous turn when enemies from his friend Daniel Kohi's past resurface. Back in Scotland, a murder investigation closes in on Daniel's own front door.

Val McDermid, Skeleton Road - A skeleton found on an Edinburgh rooftop leads a war crimes investigator, a cold case detective and a forensic anthropologist into secrets stretching from the Balkans to Scotland.

Peter May, The Man With No Face - In Brussels in 1979, a Scottish journalist investigating political corruption finds himself standing over two murdered men. The only witness is a traumatised child whose drawings show everything except the killer's face.