New fiction for August

Here are twenty meticulously plotted, intimate portraits of humanity at its best and worst, featuring assassins, CIA agents, gangsters, and more. A drug-dealing hit man unburdens his fears to a stranger. An overlooked rookie cop is assigned to the department's file room. A ruthless killer only kills bad guys. A methodical bodyguard quits his job when he's outsmarted. A military mission is planned to perfection. Each story is entirely distinct. And with their economical prose and unexpected twists, each could only have been written by the creator of Jack Reacher.

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley - aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless - is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents - and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.

Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night's end, a murderer will be revealed. In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom, his only case the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another and soon Jackson has uncovered a string of unsolved cases, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

A body is found by an early morning dog walker on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who never showed up to work. DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate. Her only clue is the disappearance of fourteen-year-old resident Chloe. Vera can't bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can't dismiss the possibility. Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie are soon embroiled in the case, but when a second body is found near the Three Dark Wives standing stones in the wilds of the Northumbrian countryside, folklore and fact begin to collide. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, but it seems that the dark secrets in their community may be far more dangerous than she could ever have believed.

When retired Maths teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches Grace searches for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

After a throw-away comment lands him in a difficult situation, Dr Neil Anderson's principles are put to the test. He ultimately leaves his job, his partner, and Edinburgh far behind for the seclusion and remote beauty of the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. There love once again blossoms, and Neil's life is forever changed.

Once a hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis, The Akureyri Sanatorium now sits haunted by the ghosts of its past. But a single wing remains open and houses six employees: the caretaker, two doctors, two nurses and a young research assistant. When one of the nurses, Yrsa, is found brutally murdered, a series of terrifying events are set in motion. With only six suspects, how has the trail run dry? Two decades later, the mystery remains unsolved. That is, until young criminologist Helgi Reykdal takes on the case. Can he finally put the terrifying secrets of the Sanitorium's past to rest?

Venice. 1704. In this city of glittering splendour, desperation and destitution are never far away. At the Ospedale della Pietà, abandoned orphan girls are posted every day through a tiny gap in the wall. Anna Maria is just one of the three hundred girls growing up within the Pietà's walls - but she already knows she is different. Obsessive and gifted, she is on a mission to become Venice's greatest violinist and composer, and in her remarkable world of colour and sound, it seems like nothing will stop her. But the odds are stacked against an orphan girl - so when the maestro selects her as his star pupil, Anna Maria knows she must do everything in her power to please this difficult, brilliant man. But as Anna Maria's star rises, threatening to eclipse that of her mentor, the dream she has so single-mindedly pursued is thrown into peril.

When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it puzzles the team of lexicographers working there. It soon becomes clear that this is not the usual eccentric enquiry. The letter hints at secrets, lies, and a particular year. For Martha Thornhill, the new Senior Editor, the date can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant, beautiful older sister Charlie went missing. After a decade spent living abroad, Martha has returned to her father, her home, and the city whose institutions have defined her family. But the ghosts she had thought to be at rest seem to have been waiting for her to return. When more letters arrive and the team pull apart the clues within them, the questions become more insistent and troubling.

Gertie has always had her head in the clouds, wondering what her life might be like if she could only pluck up the courage to leave the remote Scottish island where she was born. It's the only place she knows, but you can't do anything there without everyone knowing - the glue of this close-knit community is the Knitting Circle, a group of strong, capable and frankly nosy women who work hard, gossip, knit and support each other through thick and thin. At the centre of this sisterhood is Gertie's mum Jean and her grandmother Elspeth, and the three generations of women live together, surrounded by wool, in one small cottage. When the chance comes to make changes - a new job working with old schoolfriend Morag on the local airline, new friends and even a possible new romance - a world of possibilities opens up before Gertie.