The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn are agog with curiosity when the Gazette advertises "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m."
A childish practical joke? Or a spiteful hoax? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation,...Read more
Whatever can have happened to Lil?
Flaxborough butcher Arthur Spain is worried that his sister-in-law hasn’t been in touch lately, so he pays her a visit. But Lil’s not at home, and by her porch door are a dozen bottles of curdling milk… Alarmed, he calls in...Read more
The fourth Bill Slider mystery, in which the detective delves into the private life of the recently murdered Sir Stefan Radek. He finds no shortage of suspects - everyone seems glad that Radek is dead. Slider eventually tracks down the most unlikely multiple murderer.Read more
After five weeks of dry weather, the fields and roads of Lancashire are suddenly flooded by heavy Bank Holiday rain.
Roads are blocked, streams become impassable, and debris that has lain stagnant in the summer weeks is uprooted.
Among that debris - a body.
...Read more
When Darina Lisle is asked to write a cookery book sponsored by Finer Foods, a firm that imports exotic gourmet delicacies, she sees it as an exciting challenge. But Darina soon discovers that Finer Foods' profits are plummeting and the finances are in a shambles. To add to all of this, she...Read more
Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves wrote the Inspector Ramsay series featuring a talented, brilliant detective—now available for the first time in the US.
News of the murder came to Inspector Stephen Ramsay early on Monday isolated farmer Ernie Bowles was...Read more
After twelve years, the last person Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid expects to hear from is his ex-wife Victoria. But this is no social call. In her biographical research on troubled poet Lydia Brooke, Vic’s uncovered reasons to believe Lydia’s death five years ago was not...Read more
Just recovered from a grave illness, Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called to the bedside of an elderly priest. When Dalgliesh arrives, Father Baddeley is dead. Is it merely his own brush with mortality that causes Dalgliesh to sense the shadow of death about to fall once more?Read more
As the country bakes under the relentless summer sun, a young doctor is found brutally murdered at his home in a picturesque Cambridgeshire village. Is his death connected to his private life - or his professional one? Dr Joshua Ainsworth worked at an all-female detention centre, one still...Read more
In her fifth outing, pushy and endearing Agatha Raisin has wedding to Cotswold neighbor James Lacey interrupted by her first husband, not divorced, thought-dead, Jimmy Raisin. Matters go quickly from bad to worse. Jimmy is found murdered; Agatha and James are the prime suspects.Read more
"There's no easy way to say this, Kubu. Your father's dead. I'm afraid he's been murdered."
Faced with the violent death of his own father, Assistant Superintendent David 'Kubu' Bengu, the smartest detective in the Botswana police, is baffled. Who would kill such a frail old man...Read more
When bored young housewife Simone Hollingsworth misses bell-ringing practice-her latest effort to find something to do-no one is surprised. In fact, if old Mrs. Molfrey, her neighbor, didn't report it to Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby, Simone's disappearance might have gone unrecorded in...Read more
Framed in the doorway of Poirot’s bedroom stood an uninvited guest, coated from head to foot in dust. The man’s gaunt face stared for a moment, then he swayed and fell. Who was he? Was he suffering from shock or just exhaustion? Above all, what was the significance of the figure 4,...Read more
When one of the better known drug barons in Edinburgh, Chick Mathieson, is killed, lawyer Tam Buchanan finds himself wading through the dodgy dealings of the underworld. Freddie McAuslan, the young man arrested for Mathieson's murder, is an ex-client of Buchanan's father, and has recently...Read more
Denton is having more than its fair share of crime. A serial killer is murdering local prostitutes; a man demolishing his garden shed uncovers a long-buried skeleton; there is an armed robbery at a local minimart and a ram raid at a jewellers.
But Detective Inspector Jack Frost's...Read more
Thea Osborne and her faithful spaniel, Hepzie, have taken on a house-sitting assignment in the charming Cotswold village of Temple Guiting. But as always, an idyllic village can harbour a disquieting number of secrets and when a skeleton is discovered at the roots of an old beech tree, Thea...Read more
Elizabeth Nightingale found peace and tranquility on her nightly walks through the rich, dense forests surrounding Myfleet Manor. But the peace she treasured was shattered one night when she found death waiting in the woods. Chief Inspector Wexford and his colleague Inspector Burden find a...Read more
Everyone knew about the kind of films they showed at the Calliope Club -- once the Residents' Association and the local Women's Group had given them some free publicity. But when Peter Pascoe's dentist suggests that one film in particular is more than just good clean dirty fun, the...Read more
Every major foreign government organization has a file on British secret agent James Bond. Now, Russia's lethal SMERSH organization has targeted him for elimination. SMERSH has the perfect bait in the irresistible Tatiana Romanova, who lures 007 to Istanbul promising the top-secret Spektor...Read more
London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one.
Cover your arse.
Regent's Park's First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he's facing attack from all directions himself: from...Read more
When Scotland Yard's Perry Trethowan accompanied his sister Christobel to the Romantic Novelists' Association meeting in Bergen, Norway, he hardly expects that the main item on the agenda will be murderedRead more
Detective Inspector Bill Slider is summoned to the BBC television studios where a celebrated music critic has apparently committed suicide before appearing on television, but Slider determines that the critic had been murdered.Read more
A massive undercover operation turns personal for DI Faraday when his son is involved. Portsmouth's major drug dealer's time is up. For years Bazza Mackenzie has made millions selling cocaine and heroin into the streets of Portsmouth. He's laundered the money and on the surface at least is...Read more
Adopted at birth, Hanna Conti attempts to trace her family. She turns up a mother who, 20 years earlier, was convicted of murder. Convinced that her mother is innocent, Hannah hires PI Grace Smith to prove it. Grace uncovers the story of the very messy murder of Janet Hepburn, a teacher at...Read more
'Alex, if you had a son who told you that he liked his new flat because it was built on the site of 10 Rillington Place, what would you think?'
'Hillary, I wish you'd get to the point,' I said as gently as I could manage.
She was ruffled but not distracted. 'If a...Read more
Helen West, Crown Prosecutor in domestic violence court, is working up a good case of burnout because justice-by-the-book seldom seems to do the women she represents much good. Helen's love affair with Police Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey also seems to be losing its fire.
Then...Read more
Chief Inspector Douglas Quantrill, investigates the disappearance of Sandra Websdell, whose mother assumes that she has jilted her fiance and run off--but who, in fact, has been kidnappedRead more
In one of the loveliest bays on the Costa Brava, Ferdy, the charismatic yet mightily unpopular host of Bar Xerxes is found dead.
Out of the many foreigners who had settled in the bay, there were some who missed his light-hearted approach to life yet most were relieved....Read more
“I am in great danger … I know that murder is going to be the reward for my uncomplaining loyalty.”
This letter containing heartfelt and urgent pleas for help is received by three very eminent citizens of Flaxborough, including the Chief Constable...Read more
Who's got time to think about murder when there's a wedding to plan?
It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing...Read more