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April 24, 2017
In Bannister’s thoughtful fourth mystery featuring former government security analyst Gabriel Ash and Constable Hazel Best (after 2015’s Desperate Measures), Middle East native Rachid Iqbal, armed with a weaponized spray can, turns up in the English town of Wittering during the opening of the new Museum of the Crusades. Best is there to protect historian Oliver Ford, a TV personality who’s speaking at the event. When Iqbal approaches Ford, Best recognizes the danger and pushes Ford out of harm’s way. Ford later charms Best, and soon she’s in his thrall. Her faithful friend, Gerald Ash, and Saturday, the 17-year-old boy who boards at Best’s home, find Ford’s odd behavior suspect. Are their suspicions founded? Meanwhile, is Iqbal a terrorist, or was his attack more personal? This book can be enjoyed on its own, but those new to the series may wish to check out earlier entries to learn more about the principals, such as how the platonic friendship between Best and Ash evolved and what created the empathy and kindness that allowed Best to take in Saturday. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory & Company (U.K.).

April 1, 2017
Constable Hazel Best's fourth case brings her face to face with a determined terrorist before plunging her into even deeper waters.Rachid Iqbal has traveled all the way from Turkey to the village of Wittering so he can celebrate the opening of a new museum commemorating Britain's role in the Crusades with a homemade flamethrower. Luckily for everyone but him, Hazel, just back from four months' leave after her last mind-bending adventure (Desperate Measures, 2015, etc.), has been assigned to babysit Oliver Ford, a celebrity TV historian who's on hand for the festivities. Diving between Iqbal and Ford, she takes the brunt of the blast herself, losing half the hair on her head in the process. More predictable writers would save this incident for the denouement; Bannister uses it as a meet-cute to begin Ford's unlikely courtship of Hazel. He takes her to lunch, buys her a necklace, goes over her head to press her to accept the gift after she turns it down, then spirits her off to Morocco and Istanbul and who knows where else. Back home, Gabriel Ash, Hazel's friend, a former intelligence analyst, frets that this fairy-tale romance just isn't believable, and soon he's gathered evidence from Saul "Saturday" Desmond, the teen petty thief Hazel took into her house, that makes him resolve to go after Hazel himself. That turns out not to be necessary--Gabriel actually runs into Ford and Hazel at Heathrow Airport on their way home--but more trouble is clearly brewing, and it's only a matter of time before it boils over the top. Bannister's most notable achievement here is to keep smoothly shifting gears from one set of suspense conventions to another without ever letting you forget the cleareyed heroine's premonition that "somehow, trouble seemed to come looking for her."

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June 1, 2017
A famous television personality, Oliver Ford, has come to the town of Norbold, England, to film a documentary about a new museum honoring Britain's role in the Crusades. A young Arab man turns up at the museum and, brandishing a homemade flame thrower, nearly kills Ford, whose life is saved by Detective Constable Hazel Best, who shoves him out of the way (and gets a nasty burn as a result). Questions abound: Is the young man a jihadist, out for revenge against Britain for the Crusades? Was the museum the target, or was it Ford himself? And will Hazel's developing personal relationship with Ford put her own life in jeopardy? This is the fourth in the Hazel Best and Gabriel Ash seriescostar Ash is a former government investigator whose own skills come in pretty handy hereand it's a cracking-good read. Whether you're a fan of the series or a newcomer, you'll be hooked from the get-go (and, since the book operates nicely as a stand-alone, familiarity with the previous books isn't a requirement).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)