THE Ospreys were one of the biggest rock bands in the world when their lead singer, Isaac Naylor, committed suicide off the coast of Devon while on police bail following the death of a young fan. But no body was ever found and now, eight years later, in The Death Of Me by Michelle Davies (Orion, £8.99), London music journalist Natalie has reason to believe he’s still alive, and still writing songs.

She has a pressing need for the financial relief which such a scoop would bring her, which is why she’s determined to continue with her investigation even when anonymous attempts to dissuade her turn to terrifying violence.

Gripping from start to finish, this novel also benefits from an interesting setting in the music business and in the dying profession of freelance journalism.

As Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay (HQ, £20) opens, it’s six years since Connecticut building contractor Andrew lost his wife, Brie — lost in the sense that she vanished overnight, while he was away.

Most people assumed Andrew was responsible, and the police detective in charge of the case has never lost hope of one day finding the evidence that will allow her to charge him. They both get a shock when reports come in of Brie being seen around their old home town. Can she really be alive? And if so, where’s she been?

If you’ve ever read an American thriller before, you’ll identify the villain the moment they step onto the page. But that doesn’t really matter; the joy of a Barclay story is witnessing a master plotter at work, as he pulls rugs repeatedly from under his characters, and his readers.

Her Last Request by Mari Hannah (Orion, £7.99) is the latest in the police procedural series featuring impetuous Northumberland Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels.

A woman is murdered in an out-of-season caravan park, and hidden at the scene is a letter, apparently written by her, addressed to the person who she anticipates will one day be investigating her death. Its most urgent message is “Find Aaron.” Whoever Aaron is he’s obviously in danger and Kate must somehow track him down before he becomes another victim. Hannah’s fans will know to expect lots of action, and a writer who never sugarcoats the emotional cost of crime.

A tragic accident on a school trip, in All For You by Louise Jensen (HQ, £8.99), has left Connor and his two best friends isolated, picked on and afraid. He’s almost drowning in guilt, and keeping things from his parents, whose attention is concentrated on his desperately ill brother.

What Connor doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one: his and his friends’ parents have their own secrets, and theirs might be even more terrible than his. And all that is before one of the boys goes missing.

During the last few chapters there seems to be a twist on every page, in a tour de force of tension.