James Patterson's latest hero, New York cop Michael Bennett, is back after tackling a terrorist siege in Step on a Crack.

Run For Your Life gives Bennett more domestic tribulations as the single father's 10 children come down with a virulent sickness bug.

More importantly there's his hunt for a psycho who's on a relentless and apparently random killing spree across the city. This master of disguise is angry with the modern world and has a list of potential victims -- including Michael.

Swift chapters and swiftly-drawn characters dominate this action-packed novel -- but it shows Patterson on top form.

Cold in Hand -- John Harvey.

There are lots of police procedural novels around but few of them are as readable, never mind rich, as Harvey's Charlie Resnick series.

The prose appears simple but you're soon gripped -- and ultimately satisfied -- by the up-to-the-minute tales of violent crime in Nottingham.

Resnick's long awaited return sees him living with fellow cop Lynn Kellogg and investigating the shooting of a girl during a gang fight.

Lynn receives threats from the girl's father and a separate case, involving the murder of a prostitute, brings conflict with a national crime squad.

There's topicality, humanity and velocity from the off -- then a shocking development makes this one of the best crime novels of recent years.

All the Colours of Darkness -- Peter Robinson.

At his best Robinson is one of our top writers of crime novels -- up there with Ian Rankin and John Harvey -- at his worst he's never less than very readable.

This latest paperback is by no means one of the best, but should still draw readers in with no-frills prose that gradually builds story, character and tension.

Series hero DCI Banks investigates the grisly deaths of two gay men and his suspicion falls on members of a local theatre group rehearsing for Othello.

Banks is warned off the case but doggedly continues his investigations, falling foul of the security services and threatening the safety of his loved ones.

David Knights