A couple of books to anticipate

There are a couple of upcoming books I thought I would draw attention to. Firstly, Michael Harvey who is one of my personal favourites with his Michael Kelly series even though I was slightly disappointed with his last book We All Fall Down.

Coming in May we have The Innocence Game (Kindle, Amazon UK), a standalone novel that promises something different: a leap forward into a dark world where the lines between innocence and guilt disappear altogether.

They’re young, brilliant, beautiful . . . and naïve enough to believe they can make a difference. For three graduate students, the exclusive innocence seminar at the nation’s most esteemed journalism school is supposed to teach them how to free the falsely accused from prison. Little do they know the most important lesson they’ll learn is how to stay alive.

The first day of class for Ian Joyce and Sarah Gold starts like any other, until a fellow student, Jake Havens, pulls a wrinkled envelope from his backpack. Inside is a bloodstained scrap of shirt from a boy murdered fourteen years ago and an anonymous note taking credit for the killing. The only problem is the alleged murderer is already dead.

Suddenly, the class has a new assignment: find the real killer. As the case unfolds, the bodies and questions begin to pile up.

Why are innocent men being framed?

Who’s been getting away with murder?

Drawn into a web of deceit and corruption, the students realize they, too, are being hunted. Ian, Sarah, and Jake are smart . . . but are they smart enough to stay alive?

From Northwestern’s idyllic campus, to the grittiest corners of Chicago, to the frigid depths of Lake Michigan, The Innocence Game is irresistible, harrowing suspense from a writer at the top of his form.

And having mentioned brilliant people that provides us with the perfect segue to the latest from Marcus Sakey (he of The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes and a couple more personal favourites in the form of At the City’s Edge and The Blade Itself) which is due in July, Brilliance (Kindle, Amazon UK) crosses over into vaguely sci-fi territory in a book published by Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint.

In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind.