Blunt's latest Canadian crime thriller starts when a woman walks into a bar. Her erratic behaviour leads to the discovery that not only does she not know who she is but she is unaware of the fact that she's recently been shot in the head. (BH)

The second of his set-in-Thailand police mysteries. This one is even more interesting than Bangkok 8. More shrewd observations on the clash of East and West. (PLB)

Michael "Mickey" Haller is a criminal defense lawyer. His own clients are drunk drivers, con artists, bikers and drug dealers, but when he takes on his new case, he discovers the truth of his father's adage that, "there is no client as scary as an innocent man." (BH)

Our protagonist is an aged Laotian coroner who channels an ancient spirit. He's a down to earth crusty pragmatist living in a world where the local socialist government tries to ban spirits because they don't quite fit in with the five year plan. When a badly mauled body turns up, he has to figure out if the cause is of or out of this world. (PLB)

Elton is best known as one of the writers for Black Adder. Here, he keeps his comedic impulse on low rather than the usual high and provides an intriguing plot of bizarre murders which all link back to internet dating and memories of school. (PLB)

This is Fossum's third book to be translated from Danish into English and so far every one has been a winner. These are nigh perfect mysteries. There are no throwaway or "typical" characters in her world; all are important, complicated and interesting. In this latest novel, a middle aged man travels to India to find a wife, finds love, only for her to be murdered on her arrival at the local airport. (PLB)

Miami detective, Jimmy Paz, thinks he has an airtight case when a disoriented suspect is discovered at the scene of a strange crime with their prints on the murder weapon but he soon discovers the crime and the criminal are even stranger than he thinks. (BH)

First time novelist, Roy Innes, has the great beginning of a new crime series with a clever mystery and a terrific cast of characters in this B.C. set story. (BH)

The setting of an isolated island off the Cornish coast provides dense atmosphere in P.D. James' latest Dalgleish novel. (BH)

Five women in a box lunch factory in Tokyo are pulled into the criminal underworld when one of them accidentally kills her husband. They help her dispose of the body. Like a good Hitchcock film, this book juxtaposes mundane everyday life with unusually horrific events. (PLB)

Alexander Lawson, formerly a detective on the Irish force, just 24 years old and now addicted to heroin is hired to go to America and find the killer of his high school love. As he juggles Lawson's precarious finances, his addiction, his ever present enemies and his quest to find answers in a new country, McKinty once again gives us reason to retain that old stereotype of the Irish being great writers. (PLB)

Michael Robotham's second foray into crime thrillers reverses the characters from his first novel, Suspect. This time, the policeman is the central character but he's lost his memory after being fished out of The Thames, and the psychiatrist from Suspect has to help him get it back. (BH)