JUST OUT: New books

A wealthy family has been murdered. The only survivor is a 19-year-old girl, sexually assaulted but left alive by the killer. An abundance of forensic evidence points to an escaped convict in retired judge James Stewart’s story. This should be an easy case for Detective Turnbull of the Bradford Murder Squad – why, then, does he find resistance wherever he turns? The officer finds that not every criminal is bound by the same measure of law. Something mysterious is happening within this investigation, but what?

Gazette sub-editor Ryan Southwell’s story revolves around Quincy M Kindlyside and the people who shape his life. There’s the chronically constipated, foul-mouthed grandfather who believes life is meaningless; the girl with the mellifluous voice whose ‘hello’ induces self-soiling; the two friends (one of whom is almost certainly the best human Quince has met – the other, not so much); and the ‘sort of’ pornstar girlfriend of one of those friends who Quince loves immediately and who, tragically, appears to love him back.

An elderly artist plunges 100 feet to her death at an overstretched London hospital and the police sense foul play. The hospital cleaner is arrested for her murder. He protests his innocence, but why had he given her the story of Aladdin to read, and why does he shake uncontrollably in times of stress? Judith Burton and Constance Lamb reunite to defend a man the media has already convicted. They uncover not only the cleaner’s secrets, but also those of the artist’s family, her lawyer and the hospital.

This book examines the style and language of judges expressing judicial opinion and considers the drive for rational justice. This new edition is founded upon independent research in the form of interviews conducted with judges at every level, from deputy district judges to justices of the Supreme Court, and the practical application of academic material more usually devoted to the structure and analysis of wider prose writing.