Blood SympathyReginald Hill stands head and shoulders above any other writer of homebred crime fiction The Observer

Dido loads baby Ben and his toys into the van and drives down to rural Somerset to spend a couple of restful weeks with a cousin

birds and landscapes he has never seen

it is political gunpowder - and he has no option but to investigate

' CHRIS EVANS

festive apparel

This is the story of three women

hard apprenticeship to the foul-tempered scholar

And yet the Kings are no fools-they've ruled the Shangazi for four hundred years for good reason

A world where the only difference between a hero and a killer lies in the ability to justify dark deeds

and the 1950s saw her experiment increasingly with formats influenced by more modern thrillers

But beware - for there is skulduggery afoot

What do they have in common