Head of Zeus
Books published by Head of Zeus
The Stitcher and the Mute
In the United Realms there are no elections, instead each year the leading group is chosen by picking which of them tells the most compelling story. As the election proceeds, Detective Cora Gorderheim becomes more embroiled in solving the crime and also resolving personal issues.
Reviewed on 16 January 2021 by John Barnbrook
One Dark, Two Light
Solicitor Sarah Kellerman discovers a police sergeant in a critical care ward, apparently unidentified. When her client is questioned about the officer’s injuries, Sarah has suspicions about the police accusations.
Reviewed on 19 December 2020 by Chris Roberts
Second Sister
Nga-yee is devastated when her younger sister Siu-man jumps from their Hong Kong tenement flat to her death. She finds someone who can help her satisfy her desire for revenge on the people who drove her to it.
Reviewed on 21 November 2020 by Chris Roberts
Death of a Mermaid
Frederica ‘Freddy’ Power returns to her childhood home after 22 years and must confront her past and face unpleasant truths about her family.
Reviewed on 31 October 2020 by John Cleal
The Nemesis Manifesto
As American democracy comes under threat and her fellow agents are systematically eliminated, lone wolf black ops field agent Evan Ryder must find out why.
Reviewed on 31 October 2020 by John Cleal
The Scorched Earth
A body, possibly connected to a killing for which a man is already in prison for his brother’s murder, is found in a churchyard. DCI Maarten Jansen, head of St Albans CID, sets out to solve the mystery – and so does the imprisoned man’s girlfriend.
Reviewed on 31 July 2020 by John Cleal
Forget My Name
She has no name, no memory, just a train ticket to a Wiltshire village and a need to go home.
Reviewed on 31 July 2020 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Hard Stuff
A terrorist is in town with some top-quality smack, for which he insists on payment in diamonds. Joe Brody intends to steal them – twice.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
Long Range
Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett and hawk wrangler Nate Romanowski become entangled when the wife of a judge is killed by a sniper.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by Chris Roberts
By Force Alone
A new and very different take on the Arthurian legend that combines detective novels and thrillers with poetry, science fiction, historical, children’s stories and autobiographical works.
Reviewed on 04 July 2020 by John Cleal
No Fixed Line
The crash of a light aircraft in a remote Alaskan town has significant implications for PI Kate Shugak and her friends.
Reviewed on 23 May 2020 by Chris Roberts
House on Fire
After the death of an old army buddy, intelligence agent Nick Heller investigates the family behind the pharmaceutical company whose opiate medication lead to his friend’s death.
Reviewed on 25 April 2020 by Chris Roberts
Galway Girl
Former cop-turned-PI Jack Taylor is pitted against a trio of young assassins who all have reasons to hate him and who are targeting Gardai as a means to destroy him.
Reviewed on 14 March 2020 by John Cleal
Widow's Welcome
In the United Realms there are no elections, and instead each year the leading group is chosen by picking which of them tells the most compelling story. This year, one of the storytellers is murdered and fear and suspicion grows.
Reviewed on 22 February 2020 by John Barnbrook
The Bitterroots
Private investigator Cassie Dewell is asked to check the evidence against a man accused of rape. She’s initially unsympathetic, but is surprised at what she uncovers.
Reviewed on 31 January 2020 by Chris Roberts
The Room of the Dead
Inspector Betty Church finds wartime life in her sleepy hometown of Sackwater hard to bear until a bombing raid and the discovery of a body on the beach put her on the trail of a killer.
Reviewed on 18 January 2020 by John Cleal
The Canary Keeper
A young woman finds a body on the banks of the Thames. When corrupt police try to frame her for involvement in the death, she retraces the dead man’s steps to the Orkneys to prove her innocence.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by John Cleal
Ghost Virus
The horrific vision of the woman who killed herself with acid will never leave DC Jerry Pardoe’s mind. But soon it will have to make space for worse images.
Reviewed on 30 November 2019 by Kati Barr-Taylor
A Killing State
Michael North is employed by an establishment figure as a spy and assassin. He is given the task of killing Honor Jones, an MP who has been asking questions about certain powerful people.
Reviewed on 09 November 2019 by Arnold Taylor
The Accusation
Eve must find out if her husband is lying, or she will lose her daughter.
Reviewed on 07 September 2019 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Friend
Jacob Seger, a new recruit to the Swedish diplomatic service in Beirut, meets Yassim at a party and falls under his spell. But is Yassim the photographer he claims to be, or is he mixed up in something far more sinister?
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Listeners
Newly appointed Detective Sergeant Carla Herron is called to a psychiatric hospital after a patient confesses to murdering of one of the psychotherapists. His confession is detailed, but impossible, as he was in a secure ward under 24-hour surveillance.
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by John Cleal
In the Galway Silence
Former cop-turned-PI Jack Taylor is pitted against a vigilante assassin who uses the name ‘Silence’ – and the clash quickly becomes personal.
Reviewed on 24 August 2019 by John Cleal
A Suspicion of Silver
Sir Robert Carey, swashbuckling Elizabethan courtier and cousin to the Queen, hunts a would-be assassin of Scottish King James on both sides of the border.
Reviewed on 10 August 2019 by John Cleal
The Death Chamber
In 1977, a 17-year-old girl was never seen again after leaving a village disco. Twenty years later, police searching for another missing teenager find her remains. Cleaning company boss and amateur detective Stella Darnell and her tube train driver partner Jack Harmon investigate.
Reviewed on 27 July 2019 by John Cleal
Wolf Pack
Joe Pickett is re-installed as game warden for Wyoming’s Twelve Sleep County, and takes action against a drone operator, which brings him into conflict with the FBI and a team of killers known as the Wolf Pack.
Reviewed on 29 June 2019 by Chris Roberts
Judgment
A rare departure from her normal correct behaviour renders Judge Juliana Brody vulnerable to blackmail. To defeat her adversary, she will need to be as ruthless as they are.
Reviewed on 27 April 2019 by Chris Roberts
The Psychology of Time Travel
When Odette finds a body, discovering the identity of the woman murdered in impossible circumstances becomes an obsession that will drive her into the clutches of the Conclave.
Reviewed on 30 March 2019 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Safe Houses
Helen Abell, a young woman new to the CIA, arrives in Berlin in 1979. She is disappointed when her Chief of Station, who dislikes her, assigns her to a routine job overseeing a number of safe houses. One evening she is in one of the houses when two sets of visitors arrive unannounced and she learns two very important secrets.
Reviewed on 09 March 2019 by Arnold Taylor
Death Notice
Chengdu police find it difficult to cope with a man calling himself Eumenides, who acts as self-appointed judge and executioner of those whose crimes have gone unpunished.
Reviewed on 09 March 2019 by Chris Roberts
Under the Ice
A girl’s body is found in a frozen lake. As the police investigation struggles, neighbours in a close-knit community turn against each other – and a young mother’s strange visions may hold the key.
Reviewed on 23 February 2019 by John Cleal
In the Blood
Solicitor Sarah Kellerman’s client is one she may regret taking on. The young woman is due to stand trial for the attempted murder of her baby.
Reviewed on 09 February 2019 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Bouncer
Joe Brody is a strip club bouncer with a Harvard education and a military career about which no records exist. Against her best instincts, FBI agent Donna Zamora finds him very attractive.
Reviewed on 12 January 2019 by Chris Roberts
Rex v. Edith Thompson
An exploration of the famous 1922 Ilford murder for which Edith Thompson and her lover Freddy Bywaters were hanged, along with the attitudes to women revealed in that judgement.
Reviewed on 08 December 2018 by Chris Roberts
Like Lions
Sheriff Clayton, the last surviving member of the Burroughs family which for decades ran drugs from Georgia’s Bull Mountain, comes under attack from a rival clan.
Reviewed on 24 November 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Boy at the Door
Cecilia Wilborg’s picture-perfect Scandinavian life is threatened when a small, lonely and vulnerable boy enters her world. She’s determined to protect her family and status in the wealthy Norwegian town, and takes extraordinary measures to keep her dark secrets hidden.
Reviewed on 24 November 2018 by Ewa Sherman
Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire
Partly disabled Met sergeant Betty Church avoids being invalided out when her godmother March Middleton arranges a transfer to the Suffolk force. She returns to the town where she grew up to find a police station in chaos and a murderer dubbed the Suffolk Vampire on the loose.
Reviewed on 27 October 2018 by John Cleal
Light It Up
When ex-marine Peter Ash helps an old army buddy by riding shotgun on a truck making legal cannabis deliveries, the job calls for all his military skills.
Reviewed on 13 October 2018 by Chris Roberts
Bluff
Young magician Natalie Webb is down on her luck and persuaded to use her skills in a bent poker game. However, things don’t go according to plan.
Reviewed on 18 August 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Disappeared
The new Wyoming Governor asks game warden Joe Pickett to investigate the disappearance of a British woman, which is creating a stir in the British tabloids.
Reviewed on 04 July 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Drifter
Ex-marine Peter Ash returns home to the US with problems from service in the Middle East, but none sufficient to prevent him helping out the family of a once close comrade.
Reviewed on 09 June 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Brother
Yasmine broke her promise to protect her little brother, but when she realises he is still alive, she is determined to make amends.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by John Cleal
Undertow
An Irish detective’s suicide leads PSNI Inspector Celcius Daly across the border into a labyrinth of lies, corruption and murderous violence.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by John Cleal
Day of the Dead
DCI Eve Clay is on the hunt for a serial killer – the killer that most of the country reveres.
Reviewed on 12 May 2018 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Trust Me
It’s not like 17-year-old Sam to skip school. Lizzie, his father’s partner, is determined to find out what is threatening the family unit she’s built up.
Reviewed on 28 April 2018 by Linda Wilson
Eighteen Below
It looked like suicide when the car drove into the water. But now the troubled Helsingborg crime squad know it is murder.
Reviewed on 28 April 2018 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Downside
When the theft of valuable metal ore ends in arrest for Finn and his gang, he smells a rat. A new heist offers opportunities, and the chance to find the man responsible.
Reviewed on 14 April 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Coven
Widowed Beatrice Scarlet loses her son to Red Indian raiders and returns to England to help at a home for ‘fallen girls’, but finds there are as many savages in 18th century London as in the wilds of colonial America.
Reviewed on 31 March 2018 by John Cleal
District VIII
Romany cop Balthazar Kovacs receives a text showing a dead man, one of the hundreds of refugees crowded into Budapest hoping for a new life in the West.
Reviewed on 17 March 2018 by Chris Roberts
In the Dark
Five years ago, tracking down a ruthless serial killer would have been all in a day’s work. But five years ago, Jenny Aaron wasn’t blind.
Reviewed on 17 March 2018 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Dead
Investigator Ana Maria Galindez seeks Leopoldo Guzman, who recently reappeared in Madrid after years of dirty work in a shadowy squad created by Franco – even now reluctant to surrender its powers.
Reviewed on 20 January 2018 by Chris Roberts
The Ninth Grave
Two countries, two predators, too many victims, and winter is closing in.
Reviewed on 25 November 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor
Paradise Valley
Cassie Dewell has spent years tracking a serial killer known as the Lizard King. An attempt at a trap goes spectacularly awry so Cassie must find another route to finally bring him down.
Reviewed on 11 November 2017 by Chris Roberts
The Room by the Lake
Caitlin leaves behind her life in London and heads for New York in search of a new start. Instead of a job in a coffee shop and a cheap apartment, she finds herself drawn to the simplicity of life in a cult.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor
The Dark Isle
Sam returns to the island of Hoy, scene of her childhood holidays, to uncover the facts surrounding the death of her undercover policeman father.
Reviewed on 16 September 2017 by John Cleal
Vicious Circle
Game Warden Joe Pickett’s history with the Cates clan has given rise to a vicious circle of hatred which pitches his family into a fight for their survival.
Reviewed on 02 September 2017 by Chris Roberts
Dark Dawn Over Steep House
After the daughter of a respected naval captain, is ‘outraged’ on the dirty and dangerous streets of Limehouse and her attacker vanishes, a chance encounter in a cafe brings a new victim to light, and sets March and Grice on the trail of a serial offender.
Reviewed on 02 September 2017 by John Cleal
Trespass
Inspector Celcius Daly investigates the abduction of a boy by a group of travellers suspected of smuggling and organised crime and uncovers a link to an unsolved ‘disappearance’ during the Troubles.
Reviewed on 08 July 2017 by John Cleal
The Salt Marsh
Sam Coyle’s father lived and died in the shadows of undercover policing among the criminals, spies and radicals of Cold War London. He left nothing to his daughter but tradecraft, paranoia and enemies.
Reviewed on 10 June 2017 by John Cleal
Road Kill
Club owner Ronnie goes on a road trip across the US with his friend Eli to search for an enemy, while UK employee Daisy tries to hold the club together.
Reviewed on 13 May 2017 by Chris Roberts
Find Me
A young man is convinced that his girlfriend didn’t commit suicide and that she is still alive and in danger.
Reviewed on 29 April 2017 by Jim Beaman
Living Death
Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire and her team are stretched to their limit. Illegal drugs in Cork are at an all-time high. A gang of dog-nappers are terrorising kennel owners. A girl leaves a nightclub – and disappears. Katie realises the three crimes may be connected.
Reviewed on 14 April 2017 by John Cleal
Guilty Minds
An on-line scandal sheet threatens to publish a story about a Supreme Court justice and a prostitute. PI Nick Heller has to show the judge has been framed before the story goes live.
Reviewed on 18 March 2017 by Chris Roberts
The House With No Rooms
A chilling case for detective’s daughter, Stella Darnell, as crimes of the past echo in the present.
Reviewed on 21 January 2017 by Jim Beaman
To Fight For
Former Para and bare knuckle fighter turned-assassin Joe seeks vengeance on those who killed the woman he loved.
Reviewed on 24 December 2016 by John Cleal
Dead Silent
DCI Eve Clay has to delve deep into her own past in an attempt to solve a macabre murder in a Liverpool suburb.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Linda Wilson
In the Name of Love
Young and beautiful but rude and dysfunctional Lena Sundman was brutally murdered on one of the Swedish islands. To start with a family of Iraqi refugees falls under suspicion, but nothing is as clear cut as the ordinary inhabitants and the wealthy weekenders would like to think.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Ewa Sherman
Paris Spring
Will Flemyng of the British Secret Service is on his way to the embassy in Paris when a young unknown man speaks to him quite out of the blue and sets in motion a series of events that threaten to lead to his ruin and exposure.
Reviewed on 10 December 2016 by Arnold Taylor
Off The Grid
Nate Romanowski’s attempt to stay off the grid is ended when two government agents pressure him into undertaking a special mission. Luckily his old friend Joe Pickett is around to give him a hand.
Reviewed on 12 November 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Secrets of Gaslight Lane
‘Personal’ detective Sidney Grice and his ward March Middleton struggle to unravel the mystery of two killings of members of the same family in the same house, but ten years apart.
Reviewed on 29 October 2016 by John Cleal
Buried
The mummified bodies of a family and their pets found beneath the floorboards of a cottage point to an execution during the Troubles.
Reviewed on 01 October 2016 by John Cleal
The Mulberry Bush
A young American meets an Argentinian woman in Buenos Aires and falls in love with her. However, he conceals the fact that he has one aim in life – to avenge his father, whose life had been ruined by the CIA.
Reviewed on 03 September 2016 by Arnold Taylor
Silence
Inspector Celcius Daly investigates the car crash death of a priest and is dragged back into deadly history of the Troubles – and the death of his mother.
Reviewed on 03 September 2016 by John Cleal
The Fixer
Rick Hoffman’s discovery of a fortune in cash concealed in his father’s old study leads him to an investigation of corruption and a rethink of his own life.
Reviewed on 23 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
The Exile
In 1954, Comandante Guzman of the Brigada Especial is assigned to eliminate a Basque patriot, but finds his brutal wartime activities in the area are well remembered.
Reviewed on 09 July 2016 by Chris Roberts
Scarlet Widow
Orphaned at 16, Beatrice Scarlet marries a Proestant preacher and emigrates to America. When animals are found slaughtered, with indications of satanism, she suspects a human rather than a supernatural hand.
Reviewed on 25 June 2016 by John Cleal
Blood Mist
A family is massacred in their home in Liverpool, and another the night after. DCI Eve Clay is caught in a race against time to save the lives of the family who comes next.
Reviewed on 28 May 2016 by Madeleine Marsh
Endangered
Game warden Joe Pickett takes the law into his own hands when his adopted daughter is beaten close to death and his main suspect has an unshakeable alibi.
Reviewed on 14 May 2016 by John Cleal
Victim Without A Face
The instant Detective Fabian Risk leaves Stockholm and moves with his family to his hometown of Helsingborg, he becomes involved in a string of horrendous murders of his schoolfriends.
Reviewed on 02 April 2016 by Ewa Sherman
Blood Sisters
When a number of elderly nuns are brutally murdered, DS Katie Maguire investigates the convent they served, and finds evidence of criminality on a prodigious scale lasting over decades.
Reviewed on 12 March 2016 by Chris Roberts
Death Descends on Saturn Villa
March Middleton is invited to meet her only living relative, a previously unknown uncle. She wakes the following morning to find her uncle dead and a bloody axe in her hand.
Reviewed on 12 March 2016 by John Cleal
The Valley
With a past that haunts him and a dead-end admin job, US Lieutenant Black is sick of the army. Then he is tasked with a minor investigation in a desolate northern Afghan valley – and is plunged into a whirlpool of lies, madness, drugs and killing.
Reviewed on 16 January 2016 by John Cleal
Shadows of War
As World War II opens, Britain’s response to German aggression is in debate, and a young Second Lieutenant is caught up in the struggle between those contending for resistance or accommodation.
Reviewed on 12 December 2015 by Chris Roberts
A Dancer in the Dust
When a friend is found dead in a New York back street, Ray Campbell feels obliged to return to the African state of Lubanda and to confront a past he would prefer to forget.
Reviewed on 07 November 2015 by Arnold Taylor
Bull Mountain
For generations, Bull Mountain in Georgia has been home to the Burroughs family and a base for their illegal activities, but law enforcement agencies are planning to close them down.
Reviewed on 24 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
The Traitor
The discovery of a banker on a popular Venice beach, his throat cut and tongue removed, kicks off an investigation with international ramifications.
Reviewed on 10 October 2015 by Chris Roberts
Shots Fired
Ten stories from the foothills of the Rockies, home to game warden Joe Pickett, and all featuring some sort of conflict.
Reviewed on 26 September 2015 by Chris Roberts
Hand of God
London City’s star striker collapses during a Champions League match in Greece – and manager Scott Manson finds himself investigating in a country that is starting to crumble.
Reviewed on 18 July 2015 by Sharon Wheeler
Orkney Twilight
Jim is a great storyteller, whose stories get wilder with each glass of whisky. Teenage daughter Sam tries to find out the truth about her undercover cop dad.
Reviewed on 27 February 2015 by John Cleal
Angel of Death
An abused woman seeks revenge on the ring of middle-class professionals who turned her into a drug-addled whore, while a disillusioned veteran detective tries to exploit her quest to bring down a vicious criminal gang.
Reviewed on 27 December 2014 by John Cleal
January Window
Scott Manson is coach at Premiership football team London City. But he finds himself investigating murder when the manager is found dead.
Reviewed on 29 November 2014 by Sharon Wheeler
The Mangle Street Murders
Noted ‘personal’ detective Sidney Grice begrudgingly accepts help from his ward March Middleton to solve a series of brutal knife murders which are terrifying the East End of Victorian London.
Reviewed on 06 September 2014 by John Cleal
The Abomination
A murdered woman in priest’s robes is washed up on the steps of a Venetian church. As Capitano Katerina Tapo investigates, she is drawn into a world of international conspiracy with shocking consequences.
Reviewed on 26 July 2014 by Sylvia Wilson
White Bones
The dismembered bones of 11 women whose skeletons bear the marks of a careful butcher are found on a Cork farm. A young American hitch-hiker goes missing, and Ireland’s first senior female detective, Superintendent Katie Maguire, must solve the ancient murders to find a link to a terrifying modern killer.
Reviewed on 28 June 2014 by John Cleal
