Catherine O'Flynn - What was lost

Stirring and beautifully crafted, this debut novel recounts how the repercussions of a girl's disappearance can last for decades. In 1984, Kate Meaney is a 10-year-old loner who solves imaginary mysteries and guesses the dark secrets of the shoppers she observes at the Green Oaks mall. Kate's unlikely circle includes her always-present stuffed monkey; 22-year-old Adrian, who works at the candy shop next door; and Kate's classmate, Teresa Stanton, who hides her intelligence behind disruptive behavior. Kate's grandmother has plans for Kate: send her to boarding school. But Kate doesn't want to go. Fast forward to 2003, where it's revealed through Lisa, Adrian's sister, that Kate disappeared nearly 20 years ago, and Adrian, blamed in her disappearance, also vanished. Lisa works at a record store in Green Oaks and is drawn to Kurt, a security guard whose surveillance-camera sightings of a little girl clutching a stuffed monkey hint that he might have ties to Kate's disappearance. Teresa, meanwhile, now a detective, has her own reasons for being haunted by Kate's disappearance. Gripping to the end, the book is both a chilling mystery and a poignant examination of the effects of loss and loneliness.

Douglas Adams - The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

On 12 October 1979 the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor (and Earth) was made available to humanity – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

It’s an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced that he’s an alien. At this moment, they’re hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the big, friendly words: DON’T PANIC.
The weekend has only just begun...

Phil Rickman - Wine of Angels

Welcome to Ledwardine, rural paradise? Merrily Watkins, the new parish priest, certainly thought so – but before she has even moved in she will witness an ugly death. Beyond the cosy, timber-framed houses and cobbled streets, Ledwardine is a village steeped in secrecy. A village of old families and long memories. A village where the past casts a dark shadow. A village, as Merrily is about to discover, where murder is an age-old tradition...

Fred Vargas - Der vierzehnte Stein

Welcher Kommissar hat ihn nicht, den „Feind aus alten Tagen“? -- Als der Pariser Kommissar Adamsberg durch Zufall auf einen Mordfall an einem jungen Mädchen stößt, der sich in der Nähe von Straßburg zugetragen hat, erinnert ihn dies an das Tatmuster eines Serienmörders, der nie gefasst und schon seit etwa 15 Jahren für tot gehalten wurde. Es ist Adamsbergs „Dämon“ aus seiner Zeit als junger Polizist, der einstmals so einflussreiche und mächtige Richter Fulgence. Dieser „Richter Gnadenlos“ hatte nicht nur einen dunklen Hintergrund, sondern war vor vielen Jahren auch verantwortlich dafür, dass Raphael, der Bruder Adamsbergs, eines Mordes beschuldigt wurde, diese Anklage nie verwand und danach spurlos verschwand.