So the first publisher to cause the to read pile to wobble this year is Hodder and Stoughton whose imprints include Hodder, Hodder Fiction, Mulholland, Sceptre, Coronet. John Murray has imprints including Two Roads, Faith, JM Learning and Nicholas Brealey Publishing and is part of Hodder and Stoughton.

January is here and with it the publication of Dead Pretty by David Mark. The fifth story to feature DS McAvoy, Dead Pretty sees the Detective Sergeant looking into the murder of Ava Delaney and the disappearance of Hannah Kelly. He’s determined to see that justice is done. But others have their own idea of justice. (Mulholland)

The Words in my Hand by Guinevere Glasfurd is the re-imagined true story of Helan Jans, a Dutch maid in 17th Century Amsterdam and a mysterious lodger called Rene Descartes. Helena, desperate to write creates ink from beetroot and uses her body as paper. Interspersed with her story is that of Descartes and it is Helena who he seeks out. But in a world where reputation is everything, some things must remain secret. (Two Roads)

Blackout by Sarah Hepola is out this month. Sarah’s life was fuelled by alcohol. There was a price to pay – blackouts, blank spaces where four hours should be. Blackout tells of Sarah’s new adventure, the sober life she never wanted. (Two Roads)

Out in paperback this month is Ali Knight’s The Silent Ones. Darren was only eleven when his sister and her four friends vanished. A woman, Olivia Duvall, admitted to their murders but refused to say where they were buried. Years later Darren gets a job at the psychiatric hospital where Olivia is detained, determined to find out the truth. (Hodder fiction)

Non-fiction this time and Walking the Himalayas by Levison Wood. Recounting his trek walking the length of the Himalayas, along the silk route in Afghanistan and travelling through five countries Levison Wood details the bonds he made with local guides and inhabitants and reveals the history of the mountains. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Another non-fiction title that catches the eye is The Lovers by Rod Nordland. This tells the true story of Zakia and Mohammed, a couple from opposing ethnic sects who leave behind everything they know and risk their lives for their love for each other. A love story told against the backdrop of the practices Afghan women are subjected to. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Also out in January is The Punch by Noah Hawley, (Hodder and Stoughton), The Power by Jennifer L. Armentrout, (Hodder and Stoughton), Dragon Soul: Dragon Fall 3 by Kate MacAlister, (Hodder and Stoughton), The Night Charter by Sam Hawken, (Mulholland), Dinosaurs on another Planet by Danielle McLaughlin, (John Murray), Death is a Welcome Guest by Louise Walsh, (John Murray) and Deathlist: A Strikeback Novel by Chris Ryan. (Coronet)

February sees the publication of Sophie Hannah’s The Narrow Bed. The tenth instalment in the Culver Valley series sees the police investigating a series of murders carried out by a killer dubbed Billy Dead Mates. Billy is killing pairs of best friends, each victim receiving a small white book before they are murdered. The police have no idea what the book means until a woman comes forward. Kim was given a small white book containing four words a year ago. She has no friends so she doesn’t know why Billy has picked her. Or why she isn’t dead yet. (Hodder and Stoughton)

The debut novel from former TV presenter Janet Ellis, The Butcher’s Hook is published this month. It is 1763 and 19 year old Anne Jacob meets Fub, the butcher’s apprentice. However her parents have already chosen her a more suitable husband. Anne though is a determined young woman and has no fear in pursuing her own happiness. Even if that means she’ll get blood on her hands in the process. (Two Roads)

The fifth Inspector Bordelli novel, Death in the Tuscan Hills by Marco Vichi is published in February. Bordelli is still reeling from an investigation that went drastically wrong. Resigning from the force he leaves Florence for the Tuscan hills. But the case haunts him. And then he is offered the chance of retribution. (Hodder and Stoughton)

February also sees the publication of The Hollow Men by Rob McCarthy. Dr Harry Kent is a police surgeon, used to dealing with minor injuries and mental health assessments. But then Harry is called in to treat Solomon Idris, who has taken eight people hostage. The siege goes horribly wrong and then when Solomon’s life is threatened on the critical care ward, it becomes clear he knows something people are willing to kill to keep secret. Harry is determined to uncover the truth but comes to quickly realise someone is willing to break the doctors’ commandment of ‘do no harm’. (Mulholland)

Also out in February are The Devil’s Anvil by Matt Hilton, (Hodder and Stoughton), Star: Red Rising Trilogy 3 by Pierce Brown, (Hodder and Stoughton), The Reaction by Helena Coggan, (Hodder and Stoughton), the untitled new novel from Sarah Addison Allen,  (Hodder and Stoughton), Real Tigers by Mick Herron, (John Murray), The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney, (John Murray), The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri, (John Murray), The New Contingent by Anna Metcalfe, (John Murray), At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen, (Two Roads) and Honky Tonk Samurai by Joe R. Lansdale. (Mulholland)

March and the twelfth Lincoln Rhyme novel,  The Steel Kiss by Jeffery Deaver is published. As Ameila Sachs chases a killer through a department store an escalator gives way. Sachs helps those trapped in the machine, loosing the killer in the process. Was the elevator crash an accident or did the killer have a hand in it? Sachs and Rhyme investigate to find out the truth, before more people die. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry is published this month. Sylvian Threadgill is a solider who pulls out a terrible secret from the hollows. Odile and Belle are part of a Coney Island sideshow. Alphie is a young woman who wakes up in Blackwell’s Lunatic Asylum. One night these four people’s lives become entwined. (Two Roads)

The paperback edition of The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley is published in March. The winner of the Costa First Book award 2015 it best that I quote the blurb and let you investigate the mystery of the book yourself, as will I. “Two brothers. One mute, the other his lifelong protector. Year after year, their family visits the same sacred shrine on a desolate strip of coastline known as the Loney, in desperate hope of a cure. In the long hours of waiting, the boys are left alone. And they cannot resist the causeway revealed with every turn of the treacherous tide, the old house they glimpse at its end . . .Many years on, Hanny is a grown man no longer in need of his brother’s care. But then the child’s body is found. And the Loney always gives up its secrets, in the end.” (John Murray)

Tell Me Lies by Rebecca Muddiman is also published this month. Laura James’s ex-boyfriend has been found buried in her back garden. DI Gardner thinks it’s an open and shut case. But he doesn’t anticipate the interference of Laura’s father. Or of the secrets that those involved want to hide. (Mulholland)

The Hope Family Calendar by Mike Gayle is out in March. Since his wife Laura died, Tom Hope has been heart-broken. His mother-in-law Linda has been there to pick up the pieces and help raise his daughters. In an attempt to make Tom reconnect with his children Linda leaves for Australia. Will Tom fall back into grief or become the father his girls need? (Hodder and Stoughton)

The Secret Lore of London edited by John Matthews and with a foreword by Peter Ackroyd is a guide to the legends of London and in its collection of essays and writings it explores the secrets of the city. (Coronet)

Also out this month is The Vatican Princess by C.W. Gortner, (Hodder and Stoughton), Altar of Blood: Empire IX by Anthony Riches, (Hodder and Stoughton), The Empty Throne: Those Below by Daniel Polansky, (Hodder and Stoughton) and Dreamland by Robert L. Anderson. (Hodder and Stoughton)

April and we have a new novel from another best selling author. John Connolly’s A Time of Torment is the fourteenth Charlie Parker novel. Jerome Burnel was a hero. He prevented multiple killings and in doing so he was imprisoned and brutalised. Before he dies he tells Charlie Parker his story, of those who tormented him and a hidden entity. Parker travels to an isolated location to track down the men who rule by murder. And to find the being they serve. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is published this month. Black Springs, Hudson Valley seems picturesque. But it is haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman who has her eyes and mouth sown shut. She wanders through town and enters homes at will. The towns residents have almost forgotten she is there and forgotten the threat she poses. The legend is that if the stiches on her mouth and eyes are ever cut the whole town will die. The town elders have the town in lockdown. Frustrated at this, the town’s teenagers go viral about the haunting. And then the nightmare begins. (Hodder and Stoughton)

The Puppet Maker by Danielle Ramsey is the fifth DI Jack Brady novel. No one knew about the killer named the Puppet Maker until DI Brady found his victims. Each body was identical and each one altered. Now that the crimes are revealed Brady knows the killer will destroy the evidence, including his latest captive. Brady must uncover the identity of a killer hidden for 20 years. And whose victims were never missed. (Mulholland)

Also out this month is the fourth instalment in the new series from Lindsey Davis, Graveyard of the Hesperides, (Hodder and Stoughton), The 14th Colony by Steve Berry, (Hodder and Stoughton), The Edge of the Light by Elizabeth George, (Hodder and Stoughton), Long Dark Dusk: The Australia Trilogy 2 by J.P. Smythe,  (Hodder and Stoughton), The Weekend Wives by Christina Hopkinson, (Hodder and Stoughton), Life Before Him by Kay Langdale, (Hodder and Stoughton) and Revolver by Duane Swiercsynski. (Mulholland)

We come to May and Redemption Road by John Hart is released. Elizabeth Black is a hero who saved a young girl from a locked cellar and shot dead the kidnappers. But she has a secret and in the small town where the story is set, she’s not the only one. (Hodder and Stoughton)

John Grisham fans will be eager for May to arrive as the as yet untitled new novel featuring Theodore Boone is published. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Four Inspector McLevey novels by David Ashton are published in May, Shadow of the Serpent, Fall from Grace, A Trick of the Light and Nor Will He Sleep. (Two Roads)

Sockpuppet by Matthew Blakstad is also out in May. In today’s social media heavy society everything can be shared. But what happens when state secrets are leaked online? An online celebrity called sic_girl is doing just this and politician Bethany Leherer and programmer Danielle Farr are the ones who have to find out why. The trouble is sic_girl isn’t real, she is simply a program created to test code. So who is behind sic_girl and why? (Hodder and Stoughton)

The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan is also out this month. The Koh0-i-Noor diamond has been coveted by many over the centuries and now sits as part of the Crown Jewels. When the famous Crown goes on display in Mumbai security is tight. But on the day Inspector Chopra goes to view the jewel it is stolen right from under his nose. The hunt is on for the thieves and when an old friend of Chopra’s is accused he takes on the case. Accompanied by baby elephant Ganesha, he soon comes to realise that this more than just a case of greed. (Mulholland)

The final instalment in the Ibis trilogy, Flood of Fire by Amitav Gosh is also out this month. (John Murray)

Also out in May is Souls of Air by Mons Kallentoft, (Hodder and Stoughton), Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay, (Hodder and Stoughton), the as yet untitled novel by Jasmine Warga,  (Hodder and Stoughton), Second Lives: The Timebomb Trilogy Book 2 by Scott K. Andrews, (Hodder and Stoughton), A Dying Breed by Peter Hanington, (Two Roads) and SEAL Team Six Book 6: Hunt the Dragon by Don Mann with Ralph Pezzullo. (Mulholland)

So we get to June and the publication of The Empathy Problem by Gavin Extence. Gabriel is given months to live. He has a brain tumour. The thing is the tumour is having an extraordinary effect on Gabriel. It is making him less selfish, less mercenary and more likeable. But as he becomes nicer and more likeable he comes closer to death, and the reader becomes more desperate for him to survive. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Deadly Secrets by Britta Bolt is also out this month. As Amsterdam gets busier as it hosts the Earth 2050 conference Pieter Posthumus is thankful for a quiet time at work. Until his friend’s former colleague is left for dead and Pieter agrees to look into the case. Memories of his time as a student radical re-emerge. Amsterdam attracts people with fierce views. Is someone willing to take things further and kill? (Mulholland)

Roald Dahl, A Life in Letters by Donald Sturrock is published this month. On the 100th anniversary of his birth this book is a collection of correspondence written by the legendary author. They cover a range of topics from the delights of childhood to flying as a WWII fighter pilot, from meeting presidents and movie stars to how to make friends. (John Murray)

Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant tells the tale of Paul. Running out of money and chances he clings onto his new relationship as a way out of his problems. Alice is unlike his previous girlfriends – wealthy, lonely and driven. When she invites Paul to Greece with her Paul is determined to make it work. But Paul isn’t the only one with a plan and Paul begins to realise his dreams of a new life could become a nightmare. (Mulholland)

Also out this month is Corpus by Rory Clements. It is 1936 and Europe is unaware of the horrors of war that are to come. In Berlin a young woman saves a Jewish dissident. In London, two men share a vital message. An elderly couple are discovered murdered in Cambridge. Thomas Wilde, an expert on Elizabethan spy networks uncovers a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels in the Government. (Hodder and Stoughton)

In The Month of the Midnight Son by Cecilia Ekback is set in Sweden in 1855. There has been a massacre on a mountain. A murderer is in custody but refuses to talk. The Minister of Justice sends his son-in-law, Magnus to investigate, accompanied by his wife. There they will discover more about the murders and themselves. And realise self knowledge can come at a price. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Lucy Dillon’s All I Ever Wanted is also published in June. Nancy is four and talks constantly. That is until her parents split up. Then she stops talking. Eva is forty-four. When her husband dies she is left alone with his diaries, their dogs and with the thought she may have sacrificed more than she intended. A trust forms between Nancy and her aunt Eva, who realises too late she wants the love of a child. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Jasper Fforde fans will be pleased to hear that the Thursday Next creator’s first standalone novel is published this month. Early Riser is set in a world where all humans must enter a dreamless state to hibernate through the harsh winter, watched over by a group of Sleep Marshalls. Junior Sleep Marshall John Fugue is in a forgotten outpost. Then he hears of a viral dream that is spreading, causing paranoia and psychosis, and murder. When he awakes from his own Sleepstate he discovers all those who knew about the dream are gone. And that he can recall part of the dream, which shouldn’t be possible. (Hodder and Stoughton)

That Summer at Skylark Farm by Sarah Vaughan is published in June. In 1939 Will and Alice are evacuated to Cornwall. There they enjoy a childhood protected from the war. In 1943 something happens that has tragic consequences. 70 years later Alice is determined to make amends. 2014 and Lucy flees her childhood home, with her marriage and career in tatters. Can she rebuild herself and the family farm and help her grandmother, haunted by a secret, to finally find peace? (Hodder and Stoughton)

Motherland by Jo McMillan is set in 1978. Jess is the daughter of the only communist in town. When her mother is invited to East Germany teach, they find themselves heroes on the other side of the Iron Curtain. When Jess’ mother meets Peter it seems a new life is possible. But the Cold War has no time for love and trouble starts. (John Murray)

Also out this month is Agent of Rome: The Earthly Gods by Nick Brown, (Hodder and Stoughton), the untitled novel from Elin Hilderbrand, (Hodder and Stoughton), The Second Girl by David Swinson, (Mulholland), The Good Guy by Susan Beale, (John Murray), The Bed Moved by Rebecca Schiff, (John Murray) and We Were Kings by Thomas O’Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy. (Mulholland)

And a sneaky peek into the latter part of the year…

In July Marlow’s Landing by Toby Vieria is published. (John Murray)

Out in August is the as yet untitled new novel by Colleen Houck. (Hodder and Stoughton)

Also out this month is The Real Liddy James by Anne-Marie Casey. Liddy James is a top divorce attorney, a best selling author and mother. Suddenly her perfect life isn’t so perfect. As her world unravels Liddy takes her sons and runs away to Ireland for the summer. There she discovers just exactly who the real Liddy James is. (Hodder and Stoughton)

So there we have it, a whole host of bookish goodies to look forward to. I know what I’m looking forward to. What about you?