Born In Death (Piatkus, £10) is Nora Roberts's 23rd thriller, written under the pen-name J. D. Robb. Set in 2059, it sees tough homicide lieutenant Eva Dallas tackling her most daunting enterprise yet. Hosting a childbirth class for her heavily pregnant friend Mavis seems as difficult as the crime scene she and her sexy, rich husband Roarke face when she is called to the murder of two, young, engaged accountants of a prestigious international firm, found in horrific circumstances.

Are any of the partners implicated? Could they be involved in fraud, money laundering, tax evasion or even baby snatching? And why has one of Mavis's pregnant friends disappeared? The characters leap into life from the first page of this tense, romantic mystery of greed and power, which moves from the US to Europe and back.

Jonathan and Kaye Kellerman, an award-winning team, have come up trumps with their second literary collaboration, a pair of contemporary thrillers appropriately named Capital Crimes (Headline, £17.99), shot through with the financial and sexual secrets in two cities. Murder at its most intriguing.

Set in Berkeley, My Sister's Keeper features homicide detective Barnes, lonely and single, and Iris, his Armani-clad, ''perfectly organised" partner. When Davida Grayson, legislator and lobbyist for stem-cell research, is found, slumped over her desk, her neck blown wide open, the detectives must untangle the motives of all the personal and political enemies strewn across her path. Barnes inclines towards the Sacramento detective who knew Davida at school, while Iris favours Davida's sexy, lesbian friend Minette as the killer.

In Music City Breakdown, Nashville - a city rich with the shattered dreams of musical celebrities - is host to the legendary rock singer Jack Jeffries, "prone to baby fat and tantrums", who has emerged from retirement to perform at a charity benefit. When he is found dead in a garbage-flecked lot, it is fitting that Baker and Lamar are on the case to unravel the dark past of the singer, for each detective is himself steeped in a musical past - Baker, a prodigy performer and Lamar a "good, solid bass player".