CRIMEFILE:JEFFERY DEAVER'S The Broken Window(Hodder & Stoughton, £11.99) sees the return of the quadriplegic forensic detective, Lincoln Rhyme, a fact that will please his millions of fans, writes Vincent Banville.
The story starts with his efforts to catch the killer known as Richard Logan, a storyline that has been carried over a number of books. He is soon distracted from this, however, when his cousin, Arthur Rhyme is accused of murder and of stealing a valuable painting.
The plot revolves around identity theft and a thief who tracks down his victims and then spins a web of false evidence to pin the crime on a blameless stooge. It takes all of Rhyme's ingenuity and forensic skills to prove his cousin's innocence, and in the process he loses the killer Logan once again. The Broken Window is a gripping read, as is all of Deaver's work
IN HARLAN COBEN'S Hold Tight(Orion, £18.99) Mike and Tia Baye are upper middle-class people: he is a doctor and she is a lawyer. They have two children, 16-year-old Adam and 12-year-old Jill. On the surface everything appears normal, but dig a little and things get complicated. Adam has been distant lately and, after the suicide of his friend and classmate, Spencer Hill, his parents install a sophisticated spy programme on his computer.
Meanwhile, Spencer's mother finds a photograph that shows that her son was not alone when he died, and she believes it is Adam Baye who was with him. Then Adam disappears, and when his father searches for him he becomes embroiled with a sinister group of people.
There is also a serial killer at large in the neighbourhood and, as the story unfolds, Adam's disappearance and the killings become intertwined. Hold Tight is a fast-paced piece of writing that never lets up until a violent climax is reached. Harlan Coben has another bestseller on his hands.
SPEAKING OF BESTSELLERS, Patricia Cornwell must be the queen of them. Her new book, The Front(Little Brown, £11.99), does not feature Kay Scarpetta, but instead gives us DA Monique Lamont and Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano. We've already met them in Cornwell's writing when Garano saved his superior from being raped. Showing him no gratitude, then or now, bossy Monique gives him a new case to investigate: the 1962 rape and murder of blind British girl Janie Brolin.
Helped and hindered by a female police officer called Stump, Garano takes a journey into the archives, into the latest innovations in forensic technology and into an unlikely partnership with a senior officer from London's Scotland Yard. The story is nicely convoluted and there are many red herrings along the way before Garano stumbles into a solution to the case. Typical Cornwell.
MICHELE GIUTTARI'S A Death in Tuscany, translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis, (Abacus, £10.99), is a long, absorbing and entertaining read set in a most exotic location. His protagonist is Chief Supt Michele Ferrara, head of Florence's elite Squadra Mobile, and when the body of a young girl is found near the picturesque Tuscan hill town of Scandicci, he decides to take an interest in the investigation.
It is believed that the girl died of a drug overdose, but Ferrara, going on instinct, believes that she was murdered. When he delves deeper he unearths a sinister train of events that involves paedophilia and drug-running on a huge scale. It also turns out that many of Tuscany's socialites have something to hide in the matter, so Ferrara has to tread carefully.
A Death in Tuscany is not to be devoured in one sitting. Rather, it is one of those books one hates to finish. I look forward to meeting up with the fictional Michele Ferrara again in the future.
I WONDER WHAT Sue Grafton will do when she comes to the end of the English alphabet? Turn to the Greek one perhaps? In T Is for Trespass(Macmillan, £16.99), her series character, private detective Kinsey Millhone, becomes involved with the carer of her elderly neighbour, Gus. Suspecting that all is not well, she begins spying on Solana Rojas, and soon her suspicions are verified when she discovers that the woman is robbing the old man blind.
However, she finds Rojas an accomplished enemy, and gets more than she bargained for when going up against her. A game of cat and mouse is played out through the bulk of the book until a very bloody climax is reached. Grafton is a professional where grinding up the tension is concerned, and T Is for Trespass is way up to standard.
IN CAMILLA LACKBERG'S The Ice Princess,translated from the Swedish by Steven T Murray (HarperCollins, £17.99), writer Erica Falck returns to the small town of Fjallbacka after the funeral of her parents. It is here she grew up and where many of her friends live. Now one of them, the beautiful Alex, has been found with her wrists slashed in an ice-cold bath, and the rumour is that she has taken her own life.
Refusing to believe this of her friend, Erica, with the help of local detective Patrik Hedstrom, begins to investigate. She soon uncovers an event in the past which, reaching out like tentacles, has consequences in the present. What had started out as a childish prank has turned into something much more tragic, and now sinister forces are at play in the small town.
The Ice Princess has a brooding quality that is redolent of its barren Swedish landscapes. There is very little dialogue, and there are long passages of descriptive writing. I found it intriguing and not a little disturbing.
FINALLY WE HAVE Norwegian Karin Fossum's Black Seconds, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund (Harvill Secker, £11.99). I found this disturbing too, not least because it reminded me of a fairly recent case where a young boy went missing and it turned out that a neighbour had killed him. Here it is a young girl who goes to a local shop on her distinctive yellow bicycle and fails to return.
The series policeman is Insp Sejer, and he is very well drawn. In his quiet way he solves the crime and brings the perpetrator to justice. The pristine snowscapes of Norway are an unlikely background for the tragedy that unfolds.
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Vincent Banville is a writer and a critic