The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar

Coming out in a few weeks: The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar (Hodder & Stoughton £18.99). Thgis book has been eagerly anticipated, so not long to wait now.

“They’d never meant to be heroes. For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account … and the past has a habit of catching up to the present. Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism – a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields – to answer one last, impossible question: What makes a hero?"

The James Ellroy quote calls it a "phantasmagoric reconfiguring" of the 20th century.

Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams

Out next week: Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams (Hodder & Stoughton £18.99):

“My name’s Bobby Dollar, sometimes known as Doloriel, and of course, Hell isn’t a great place for someone like me — I’m an angel. They don’t like my kind down there, not even the slightly fallen variety. But they have my girlfriend, who happens to be a beautiful demon named Casimira, Countess of Cold Hands. Why does an angel have a demon girlfriend? Well, certainly not because it helps my career.

She’s being held hostage by one of the nastiest, most powerful demons in all of the netherworld — Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell. He already hates me, and he’d like nothing better than to get his hands on me and rip my immortal soul right out of my borrowed but oh-so-mortal body.”

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

For readers new to The Dark Tower, Stephen King’s The Wind Through the Keyhole is a stand-alone novel, and acts as an introduction to the series. It is a story within a story, which features both the younger and older gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the Dark Tower.

“This Russian Doll of a novel, a story within a story, within a story, visits Mid-World's last gunslinger, Roland Deschain, and his ka-tet as a ferocious storm halts their progress along the Path of the Beam. Roland tells a tale from his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt ridden year following his mother's death. Sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape shifter, a ‘skin man,’ Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, a brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast's most recent slaughter. Roland, himself only a teenager, calms the boy by reciting a story from the Magic Tales of the Eld that his mother used to read to him at bedtime.”

Out in paperback later this month (Hodder £7.99).

The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde

The Woman Who Died a Lot is the seventh Thursday Next novel by the popular Jasper Fforde (Hodder £7.99), due later this month.

“The BookWorld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple. Thursday is faced with an array of family problems - son Friday's lack of focus since his career in the Chronoguard was relegated to a might-have-been, daughter Tuesday's difficulty perfecting the Anti-Smote shield needed to thwart an angry Deity's promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth, and Jenny, who doesn't exist.

And that's not all. With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, the prediction that Friday's Destiny-Aware colleagues will die in mysterious circumstances, and a looming meteorite that could destroy all human life on earth, Thursday's retirement is going to be anything but easy.”

Nocturnal by Scott Sigler

I think that Hodder missed a trick (or treat). Scott Sigler’s Nocturnal is published on 22nd November (£7.99) and not in time for Hallowe’en.

“For centuries, their race has lived beneath the earth, emerging only at night, to feed quietly on the dregs of society and slip back into the shadows. But now their time has come – their time to rise up from their hiding places and take back what is theirs.

San Francisco homicide detective Bryan Klauser is supposed to be hunting a serial killer. But a serial killer couldn't be responsible for the seemingly impossible DNA evidence the crime-scene techs keep finding – or for the gory, strangely prophetic dreams Bryan keeps having. And what about the connections he keeps finding to a century-old cult – and his superiors' sudden reluctance to give him the answers he needs about cases that should be dead and buried?

Ultimately, Klauser's investigations will reveal a race of killers who've long lurked beneath San Francisco's streets – and are preparing to take back the city. Klauser is the only man who can stop them, because ... he might not be a man at all.”

The Return Man by V M Zito

The Return Man by V M Zito is due in November from Hodder (£7.99).

“Before the outbreak, Henry Marco was a doctor, doing his utmost to save lives. Now his job is to end them… The Outbreak tore the USA in two. The East remains a safe haven. The West has become a ravaged wilderness. They call it The Evacuated States… Civilisation’s gone. He’s stayed to bury the Dead.”

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

“Becca King and her mother are on the run from her stepfather who has used Becca's talent for hearing 'whispers' to make a large and illegal sum of money. Now their options for safety are running out. In the town of Langley on Whidbey Island, Becca finds refuge in the home of her mother's childhood friend, while her mother continues on to Canada in search of safety.

But on her first day in town Becca meets sixteen years old Derric Mathieson, a Ugandan orphan who was adopted as a ten-year-old by the town's Deputy Sheriff. Derric has a secret that no one on Whidbey Island knows. Derric and Becca form an un-severable bond. Becca is convinced that she's the only person who can truly help him, and just maybe Derric can convince Becca that life is too short to live on the run.”

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George is the first in a new series of novels aimed at a YA audience (Hodder & Stoughton £12.99), out soon.

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

The Dirty Streets of Heaven is Tad Williams new novel, the first in the Bobby Dollar series (Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99, out in September).

“Bobby Dollar is an angel – a real one. He knows a lot about sin, and not just in his professional capacity as an advocate for souls caught between Heaven and Hell. Bobby’s wrestling with a few deadly sins of his own: pride, anger, even lust. But his problems aren’t all his fault. Bobby can’t entirely trust his heavenly superiors, and he’s not too sure about any of his fellow earthbound angels either, especially the new kid that Heaven has dropped into their midst, a trainee angel who asks too many questions. And he sure as hell doesn’t trust the achingly gorgeous Countess of Cold Hands, a mysterious she-demon who seems to be the only one willing to tell him the truth.

When the souls of the recently departed start disappearing, catching both Heaven and Hell by surprise, things get bad very quickly for Bobby D. End-of-the-world bad. Beast of Revelations bad. Caught between the angry forces of Hell, the dangerous strategies of his own side, and a monstrous undead avenger that wants to rip his head off and suck out his soul, Bobby’s going to need all the friends he can get – in Heaven, on Earth, or anywhere else he can find them.”

11.22.63 by Stephen King

“What if you could go back in time and change the course of history? What if the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot – unless… 

Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, journeys back to 1958 – to a world of Elvis and JFK and a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald…”

Stephen King’s time travel / alternate-history novel, 11.22.63, is published in a paperback edition next month, available from Hodder (£7.99).

Juggernaut by Adam Baker

The CIA has to locate and retrieve a Russian satellite that’s crashed to Earth in the Iraqi desert. A team of mercenaries are sent to find it on what should be a quick in and out mission. “But all doesn’t go to plan and they find themselves marooned in an ancient citadel in the middle of some of the world’s most inhospitable landscape. And they are not the only occupants in the valley – and the team are soon trapped in a deadly battle.”

Juggernaut by Adam Baker is published by Hodder later this month (£6.99).

Nightmare by Stephen Leather

Nightmare by Stephen Leather (Hodder £6.99), the third book in the Jack Nightingale supernatural thriller series, is published in June.

“What goes around, comes around. Jack Nightingale learned that as a cop and discovered that it was just as true in the world of the supernatural. His life changed forever on the day he failed to stop a young girl throwing herself to her death. Ever since, he's been haunted by thoughts that he could have done more to save her. Now her cries for help are louder than ever. Is she trapped in eternal torment?”

The Wind Through the Keyhole: review

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King. Hodder & Stoughton £19.99

Reviewed by Mike Chinn

The Wind Through the Keyhole – the latest addition to King’s Dark Tower books – fits between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla and is essentially a story within a story within a story. The gunslinger Roland of Gilead and his band have to wait out a starkblast (think an almost instantaneous ice age that lasts a couple of days). To keep their minds off what’s happening beyond their shelter’s stone walls, Roland tells them a tale of his youth: when he and fellow gunslinger Jamie were dispatched to the mining town of Debaria to kill a shapeshifter that’s been slaughtering the locals. Just as they arrive, news comes that an entire ranch has been attacked; all but obliterated. The lone survivor, a boy named Bill Streeter, might be the key to identifying the killer. That night there’s a wind-storm, and to bolster young Bill’s spirits, Roland tells him the story which supplies the book’s title – effectively a fairytale told to Roland as a boy by his mother (and yes, there is a fairy in it; and a dragon – but I’m prepared to overlook that, just this once).

In his Foreword, King says that readers won’t need any previous knowledge of the Dark Tower sequence and Mid-World (no – not Middle Earth … not at all), but newcomers may find the eclectic mix of Western, Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction and – yes – meta-fiction a tad baffling (if not downright irritating) at times. There are references to a lion by the name of Aslan and an eagle called Garuda; an Arthur and a Maerlyn; whilst the fairy Tim Ross encounters in the title story is pretty clearly Disney’s Tinkerbell gone bad. And although the tale young Roland tells Bill is supposed to be a traditional fable of Mid-World (with widowed mother, evil stepfather, a sinister forest, quest, kindly wizard and a sort of fairy godmother), aspects of the Dark Tower still creep in (such as a villainous tax-collector who signs himself RF/MB; which won’t mean much to anyone not familiar with the author’s universe – but should bring a nod of recognition from regulars).

But don’t let that put you off. I’ve always been in favour of blurring the genre borders – and the Dark Tower series does that in spades. Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to someone unfamiliar with Roland Deschain’s grim quest, it’s still a great read: the 330+ pages fly past with barely a longeur to be found. If anyone can get away with writing a novel that throws in just about every literary genre and sub-genre, it’s King.

Nocturnal by Scott Sigler

Nocturnal by Scott Sigler is published in April by Hodder and Stoughton (£12.99). The tag line is “Think twice before you go out tonight.”

“Their race has lived beneath the earth for centuries. They emerge only at night, to feed on the dregs of humanity, before slipping back into the shadows. But now their time has come – time to rise up from their hiding place and take back what is theirs.” 

Nocturnal is about Bryan Klauser, a homicide detective in San Francisco, on the hunt for a serial killer. He discovers a centuries-old cult, strange DNA evidence, and obstructive superiors...

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

Volume 4.5 of Stephen King’s Dark Tower sequence is published in April by Hodder & Stoughton (£19.99).

In his introduction, King numbers it volume four-and-a-half due to it’s position in the Gunslinger’s saga. The Wind Through the Keyhole follows the adventures of Roland Deschain and his band of companions – the ka-tet – as they continue their search for the Dark Tower. The Wind Through the Keyhole is “a story within a story, within yet another. For as Roland is telling his companions the story about himself when he was young, the young Roland is telling another boy a story, too...”

This edition includes some lovely illustrations by Jae Lee. I wish more publishers would similarly embellish their publications.

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

Coming in April 2012: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King -- A Dark Tower Novel -- published by Hodder & Stoughton (£19.99).  It will also be available as an eBook and an audio-book, read by the author.

"Roland Deschain, Mid-World's last gunslinger and his small band of misfit warriors have crossed the desert following the Path of the Beam, searching for the Dark Tower. Now they have reached a run-down battered ferry. Old Bix, the ancient Ferryman, hasn't had customers for longer than he can remember...

The Wind Through the Keyhole is a story within a story within yet another. For as Roland is telling the story about himself when he was younger, the young Roland in his tale is telling another..."

The Return Man by V M Zito

The Return Man by V M Zito is scheduled for publication at the end of March (Hodder & Stoughton £11.99). This story apparently began as a serial on the author’s website – and is now optioned for the movies.

“Before the outbreak, Henry Marco was a doctor, doing his utmost to save lives. Now his job is to end them… The Outbreak tore the USA in two. The East remains a safe haven. The West has become a ravaged wilderness. They call it The Evacuated States… Civilisation’s gone. He’s stayed to bury the Dead.”