I Predict a Riot

Colin Bateman is a fantastically original writer. His plots are endlessly inventive and duck and dive with razor-edged wit and pitch-black humour. Bateman's back with a fast-paced, unforgettable story of murder, intrigue and reincarnation on the streets of Belfast.

Die-hard copper Superintendent James 'Marsh' Mallow, of the Belfast CID, is nearing the end of his career, but he's not handing in his badge until he's nailed notorious politician and racketeer Pink Harrison. Problem is, take Pink Harrison down, and trouble of the full-scale More... rioting kind is likely to flare up.

Walter has a rubbish job but so has Margaret, a security guard at Primark, and when they meet through a dating agency, neither is who they seem. Margaret's married for a start and Walter's encounter with her husband Billy leaves him black and blue. Billy's a dodgy accountant for Pink Harrison, who is about to come unstuck.

Meanwhile Redmond O'Boyle, professional terrorist and occasional birdwatcher, is languishing in a Colombian jail and his only way out is to kill himself and trust in reincarnation.

Coconut Creme Brullee

• 600ml milk
• 75g creamed coconut
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 150ml double cream
• 150g caster sugar
• 45ml water
• pinch of cream of tartar

Warm the milk and grated coconut cream.

Whisk the eggs and egg yolks together. Gradually whisk in warm milk, cream and 25g of the sugar.

Strain the mixture into a 1.1 litre ovenproof dish and stand in a roasting tin, pouring enough warm water to come halfway up the side of the dish.

Bake for 45-50 mins or until just set, then leave to cool and chill for several hours until firm.

Put remaining sugar in saucepan with the water and cream of tartar. Slowly dissolve sugar and then boil until a rich golden caramel has formed.

Pour over creme brullee and allow to cool. Serve with mango and pineapple

What Was Lost

What was Lost won the 2007 Costa First Novel prize and was long listed for the Man Booker and Orange prizes.

One day in 1984, 10-year-old Kate Meaney went missing, although she had been fading, in a sense, long before.

Her mother left, her father died and her grandmother only moved in with her on the condition that she would be no more demanding than a flatmate. Increasingly invisible to the adults around her, Kate sets up a detective agency with the help of her toy monkey and searches for crimes to solve in the new Green Oaks Shopping Centre.

Green Oaks is both the landscape and the villain in the book, a monolith of greed and anonymous consumption. Behind its mirrored doors is a warren of sinister service corridors and bricked-up dead ends, a purgatory for tens of thousands of staff. Year after year it sprawls further, swallowing Birmingham's waste ground.

Jump forward 20 years where we meet Lisa, a duty manager at Your Music and Kurt a security guard on the night shift. One night, Kurt sees a little girl on one of the CCTV monitors, a girl clutching a toy monkey. He is unable to find her though and later crossing paths with Lisa, she agrees to help him find her. Through their developing relationship, information long suppressed comes to the fore and helps solve the mystery of Kate Meaney.

Lisa has her own reasons for wanting to see the missing person recovered: her brother was the prime suspect in Kate's disappearance, and has vanished himself.

Catherine O'Flynn's poignant first novel explores bereavement and loneliness, what it is to be invisible and what it takes to be found. Her prose is taut, and the story intricately plotted and compelling