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.
