Shut Your Eyes Tight

It begins with a letter... The letter contains a request - think of a number, any number - and a sealed envelope. Inside the envelope is that number... When Dave Gurney, retired NYPD homicide detective, is contacted by an old college acquaintance about some startling letters he’s been receiving, it is at first little more than a diverting but sinister puzzle. Until the acquaintance is brutally killed.Suddenly Gurney finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation that makes no sense.

Van Shaw was raised to be a thief, but at the age of 18 he abruptly abandoned the illicit life and joined the US Army, leaving behind Seattle and his grandfather who taught him the trade. But after 10 years of estrangement, Van's grandfather has suddenly asked him to come home. He does so only to find his grandfather shot in the head and bleeding out on the kitchen floor....

In the wake of several unexpected deaths at the hospital, Dr Claire Woodforde suspects there is a killer amongst the staff. As Detective Chief Inspector Beverley Wharton and her new sergeant, Tom Bayes, begin to investigate, they too start to wonder if the deaths were natural or whether someone helped them along. But as they start to make headway, something much more sinister comes to light. 

Daniel Brasher left a high-paying job as a money manager to work at a job he loves, leading counselling sessions with recently paroled ex-cons. Now he's ready to move on and start a private practice. But before he leaves, he finds an envelope in his mailbox - one intended for someone else. Inside is an unsigned note that says: "admit what you've done or you will bleed for it. you have 'til november 15 at midnite." The deadline has already passed and the person to whom the envelope was addressed was brutally murdered. Is Daniel next?

Tormented and racked with guilt over the brutal slaying of his wife and daughter, Charlie Parker, ex-cop with the NYPD, agrees to track down a missing girl. It is a search that will lead him into an abyss of evil. At the same time, he is warned by an old black woman in Louisiana that "The Travelling Man" is about to strike again. Multiple strands converge with a horrific confrontation in which hunter and hunted are intimately connected by guilt.

Paul Davis forgets things - he gets confused, he has sudden panic attacks. But he wasn't always like this. Eight months ago, Paul found two dead bodies in the back of a coworker's car. He was attacked, left for dead, and has been slowly recovering ever since. His wife tries her best but fears the worst.... Therapy helps during the days, but at night he hears things - impossible things - that no one else can. That nobody else believes. Either he's losing his mind - or someone wants him to think he is. Just because he's paranoid doesn't mean it's not happening....

Scott Fenney is a hotshot corporate lawyer at a big Dallas firm. At 33, in the prime of his life, he rakes in $750,000 a year, drives a Ferrari, and comes home every night to a mansion in Dallas' most exclusive neighbourhood. He also comes home to one of Dallas' most beautiful women, with whom he has a much-loved daughter, Boo. For Fenney, life could not be better. But when a senator's son is killed in a hit-and-run, Fenney is asked by a state judge to put his air-conditioned lifestyle on hold.

Criminal defence lawyers must make their peace with one harsh fact of life: most of their clients are guilty. Yet when William Tucker, a celebrated and self-centered star college football player, is suddenly arrested and charged with the brutal rape and murder of a college coed two years before, his broken-down, drunken estranged father, Frank, can't believe he's guilty. What father could? But Frank is also an ex-criminal defence lawyer.

When Cal Weaver stops at a red light on a rainy night while driving home, he ignores the bedraggled-looking teenaged girl trying to hitch a lift. Even when she starts tapping on his window. But when she says, 'hey, aren't you Scott's dad?' and he realizes she's one of his son's classmates, he can't really ignore her. OK, so giving a ride to a teenage girl might not be the smartest move, but how much harm could it do? Over the next 24 hours Cal is about to find out.

John Bookman - Book to his friends - is a tenured professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He's 35, handsome, and unmarried. He teaches Constitutional Law, reduces senators to blithering fools on talk shows, and is often mentioned as a future Supreme Court nominee. But Book is also famous for something more unusual. He likes to take on lost causes and win. Consequently, when he arrives at the law school each Monday morning, hundreds of letters await him, letters from desperate Americans around the country seeking his help. Every now and then, one letter captures his attention and Book feels compelled to act.

Hollywood actor Robert Soloman stands accused of stabbing his wife and her lover, but he is pleading that he had nothing to do with it. This is the trial of the century, and the defence want Eddie Flynn on their team. The biggest case Eddie has ever tried before, he decides to take it on despite the overwhelming evidence that Robert is guilty. As the trial starts, Eddie becomes sure of Robert's innocence, but there's something else he is even more sure of - that there is something sinister going on in the jury box.

1957, Munich. Bernie Gunther's latest move sees him working for an insurance company. Sent to Athens to investigate a claim from a fellow German for a ship that has sunk, Bernie takes an instant dislike to the claimant. When he discovers the ship in question once belonged to a Greek Jew deported to Auschwitz, he’s convinced the sinking was no accident. Then the claimant is found dead. Bernie is strong-armed into helping the Greek police with their investigation. Who is behind the murder, and why?

From the 11th storey of a Los Angeles high-rise, Nate looks out on the city - the traffic, the trees, and the beach beyond. He breathes deeply. And then he moves one foot off the ledge and into thin air. But before he can jump, gunshots ring out from within the building. A robbery is in progress. And Nate, with nothing to lose but the life he was about to give up, decides to intervene. What happens next plunges Nate into mortal danger…and reunites him with the family he hasn't known for years - a family he will do anything to protect.

The Bonners are the most powerful couple in Texas. Bode Bonner is the Republican Governor and his wife, Lindsay, is always by his side. From the outside everything looks rosy. But the Bonners are not happy. Bode is bored - he longs for more excitement in his life. Lindsay is at the end of her tether. She's had enough of Bode's womanising and of playing the dutiful wife. She is desperate to break free of her bland, wealthy lifestyle. Then Lindsay makes an impulsive decision....

Do you need my help? It was always the first question he asked. They called him when they had nowhere else to turn. Raised and trained as part of a top-secret programme, he was sent to the worst places in the world to do things his government denied any knowledge of. Then he broke with the programme and disappeared. But now someone's on his tail. Someone who knows he was once known simply as Orphan X.