British Crime Mystery

Farmer Paddy Fenton faces financial ruin as a result of foot and mouth disease among his flock. Then he gets an offer that he can’t refuse: ready cash to rent one of his outbuildings. He doesn’t enquire too closely as to what is happening there until a police raid uncovers a sinister operation. Eric Ward agrees to represent Fenton and soon finds himself in a bitter turf war. The criminal network stretches far beyond the local Northumberland countryside.

Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, have just visited Buckingham Palace, where Alan was awarded the George Cross, when they and a friend, retired Chief Inspector Jonathan Quinn, stumble across the body of a young girl hidden in St James’s Park. Wondering what led to the unfortunate girl’s demise, Dorothy can’t help but get involved in the case when Jonathan calls the next day and admits he knew who the victim was …

Georgina Drake’s job photographing beautiful Hartington Hall takes a dramatic turn when she enters the ancient ice house to find the lady of the manor dead on the floor. The second wife of the irascible owner of the hall, Karen Berry had plenty of enemies. Her death could have been an accident, but when Georgina hears how Karen had argued with her husband, alienated her two step-daughters, and fired the long-standing housekeeper for theft, she’s not convinced.

Newly promoted Detective Inspector Andy Lepage is in charge of a murder investigation for the first time. It looks like a routine street crime, but how did it come about on the doorstep of one of Oxford’s ancient colleges? Who is the victim, and why was he out on the streets without a coat on a cold November night? Then an unexpected twist makes it a more personal affair, and Andy is forced to face difficult questions about his own identity.

To light the way ahead, he must burn his past...When Harvey Stone betrays his foster-father, John Cartwright, by failing to carry out one of his bloody requests, a series of events unfold, opening doors to the past that should have remained closed for eternity. A killer is awoken, and his sights are set on revenge. Racked with guilt, Harvey takes one last glance at the house where he and sister grew up before turning his back on the family that raised him, setting a course to find his sister’s killer.

To catch the spider, he must become the fly.... When a serial killer takes his next victim and evades arrest for the third time, a police leak is suspected. An internal investigation is launched, and Detective Inspector Mark Debruin is identified as the lead suspect. However, with his dying daughter awaiting a transplant in hospital, and a prison sentence hanging over him, Debruin can ill afford to waste time. He has just one chance to prove his innocence and to save his daughter - he must find the killer before it’s too late.

Penelope Parish has hit a streak of bad luck, including a severe case of writer's block that is threatening her sophomore book. Hoping a writer in residence position at The Open Book bookstore in Upper Chumley-on-Stoke, England, will shake the cobwebs loose, Pen, as she's affectionately known, packs her typewriter and heads across the pond. Unfortunately, life in Chumley is far from quiet, and when the chairwoman of the local Worthington Fest is found dead, fingers are pointed at Charlotte Davenport, an American romance novelist and the future duchess of Worthington.

Sir Jack Drummond, with his wife, Lady Anne, and their 10-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, were on holiday on the French Riviera when they stopped to make camp just off the road near a farm called La Grand' Terre in Provence. The family was found murdered the next morning. More than two years later, the barely literate, 75-year-old proprietor of La Grand' Terre, Gaston Dominici, was brought to trial, convicted, and condemned to death by guillotine.

The villagers are quite a handful, from the rogue that is Claude Jeremiah Greengrass and his wily dog, Alfred, to the mysterious spinster Adelaide Bowes. Even some of the newcomers seem to be a little odd. But thankfully for Constable Nick, they are mostly law-abiding characters. But when old conflicts between villages flare up, it’s Constable Nick who has to sort things out.

Not when missing sheep need locating, stray dogs need homing, and thieves need identifying! As Britain’s most popular copper continues his work around the village, he has to cope with an array of eccentric characters: a postman who can’t read, a helpful lady who steals from the elderly people in her care, and a delightful small-time villain called Tin Lid Talbot. Winning an aged tin of sardines in a local raffle and upsetting the villagers by getting first prize at the local whist drive, PC Nick Rhea must contend with the variety and humorous exploits of a Yorkshire village.

Spirited, beautiful, and thoroughly unconventional, Prudence Pinsent is a remarkable young woman. One fine morning she sets out for Suffolk to join her cousin Lord Wellende for a few days hunting. On the way Prudence encounters Captain Studde of the coastguard who is pursuing a quarry of his own. Studde is on the trail of a drug smuggling ring that connects Wellende Hall with the cloistered world of Cambridge.

Yorkshire's golden boy is dead. And everyone's glad. When a local business tycoon is murdered, the sleepy town of Skipton is stunned. However, not all is as it appears. Behind the multi-millions, the business awards, and the flashy life is a man hated by everyone. Daniel Ward soon has a line of suspects longer than a rush-hour traffic jam on the A629. Yet, every enquiry he makes only leads to more questions and suspects, all of whom have shocking, scandalous, and shameful secrets they're trying to keep. But which one is a murderer, too?

DC Zander Ellery isn't sure which he dislikes the most: New partners, rookie female officers, or cases he can't solve. Right now he has all three. DC Isabel York is fresh out of uniform and out of the proverbial frying pan into the fire, as her personal and professional lives clash with her first case - 10 stolen works of art. When a postcard arrives addressed to Isabel with a cryptic message on it, it's just the beginning. The mystery deepens as the first of the stolen paintings is found alongside a dead body.

In Pardonable Lies, the third novel of this bestselling series from Jacqueline Winspear, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death. A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton...

There's been a brutal murder in the Surrey countryside and it's DC Kate O'Connell's first case. Will it also be her last? Kate was driven to become a detective following the tragic murder of her aunt when she was a teenager. Memories of that unsolved case, and how she handled it, hang over her to this day. But Kate is keen to prove herself to her superiors and fights to break through the lies that surround this new victim’s life. Meanwhile, the chilling nature of the murder dredges up those disturbing memories, and Kate begins to wonder if there's a link between the two cases.

At the Central Criminal Court, an eager crowd awaits the trial of Victoria Lamartine, an active participant in the Resistance during the war. She is now employed at the Family Hotel in Soho, where Major Eric Thoseby has been found murdered. Thoseby is believed to have fathered Lamartine's child, and the prosecution insist that his death is revenge for his abandonment of Lamartine and her arrest by the Gestapo. A last-minute change in Lamartine's defence counsel grants solicitor Nap Rumbold just eight days to prove her innocence.

The woman in white—surreal artist Damaris Gethin—has invited a select group to the opening of her exhibit Artist in Crime, held in the eerie subterranean Hades Gallery. As costumed models reenact famously violent deaths, the artist herself portrays Marie Antoinette on the day of her execution, complete with a guillotine on the stage. It's not a prop; within ten minutes of Rachel's promise to solve Damaris's future murder, the artist slips her neck into the collar of the device and the very real blade sends her head rolling at the feet of her horrified audience.

In the seaside town of Temple Regis, seagulls are wheeling overhead and the holidays are getting close. And then the body of political candidate Odile Clifford is discovered on the balcony of the lighthouse. Fearless Riviera Express reporter Judy Dimont goes in search of the killer - but who is it? And where will they strike next?

Beth Haldane stands on a quiet street outside an ornate front door, glances down at her watch and taps her foot impatiently. Since her partner Detective Harry York moved into her little house in Dulwich Village, things are a bit too snug. Now Beth whiles away the hours waiting for house viewings and searching for the perfect new home. When a flustered young woman finally arrives and introduces herself as the estate agent, Beth is looking forward to the charming Edwardian property. But when she peeks into a built-in wardrobe, a lifeless body is a greeting she wasn’t expecting.

The Russian Mafia picked the wrong girl to abduct. Now Paddy is hunting on British soil, and they are his prey. The dark forces of the Russian Mafia have launched an assault on the underworld of British society, and the very people tasked with the protection of British Isles, are colluding with the Mafia's hostile intent.