British Thrillers

British private investigator, Thomas Kincaid, thinks he's seen it all...until a gorgeous, soaking-wet American shows up and demands he help her find a stolen family heirloom. Having had his heart crushed once before by a beautiful woman, Kincaid has no intention of tempting fate a second time. But Joanna Thorncroft isn't about to take no for an answer. Joanna has to find her mother's ring and discover the secrets it contains. Secrets that have brought her all the way across the Atlantic and onto the doorstep of a sinfully handsome detective.

Still grieving the death of his long-time partner, Chase reunites with his dear friend and fellow Anglophile Billie Mondreau for a seacoast holiday of historic sightseeing. Assigned a pair of guides from the tour company Wanderers, Chase and Billie join seven other like-minded Americans looking forward to an English getaway. All except for Ronald Gretz. The wealthy entrepreneur behind the international Golden Sunset nursing-home chain doesn’t like anything about walking, touring, or England.

If Alison Girling, former principal of England's Holm Coultram College, died in an avalanche in Austria, why has her skeleton been unearthed on campus? While no love is lost between conservative detective Andrew Dalziel and the entirety of Liberal Arts, his attention to the grim discovery must be paid. But when he and Peter Pascoe scour the ivory tower for answers, they discover that the shady faculty and creepy student body have more to bury than just one corpse. Try two-and counting.

Tim Mason’s gripping new novel finds Inspector Charles Field hunting a ruthless serial killer who is terrorizing Florence Nightingale and her nurses in Crimea in 1855. But when the main suspect turns up dead, Field determines the case is closed. Or is it? Twelve years later in London, amidst the turmoil surrounding the expansion of voting rights, Field discovers a woman’s body, mouth covered by the killer’s signature embroidered rose. Did Field suspect the wrong man before, or is he dealing with a copycat?

In peaceful Dulwich Village, a group of elderly residents meet every week for Bridge Club. Green cloths are laid over square tables, the deck is carefully dealt, and every beady eye is on the lookout for cheating. Amateur sleuth Beth Haldane has never understood the rules, but she’s drawn into the drama when her mother’s bridge partner Alfie Poole is found dead. He was last seen heading out for a breath of fresh air after a particularly tricky hand. Beth knows poor Alfie was a sweet old man, but when she learns he was poisoned it’s clear someone wanted him gone.

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.

Single mom and school historian Beth Haldane has promised her new beau, Detective Harry York, that her sleuthing days are behind her. But when she stumbles over the body of local artist Mark Smeaton while ambling in the park, it’s clear a dangerous killer is on the loose in peaceful Dulwich Village. Shocked, Beth can’t resist delving into the mystery. Snooping around the nearby cozy cafes, Beth listens carefully to gossip and soon learns Mark's graffiti-style art was famously controversial. There are plenty who might want him gone.

CASE FILE #18–June 2008. Katherine Alford was found dead in her car at a local beauty spot. The devoted mother had received an urgent phone call late in the evening, and asked a neighbor to babysit for ten minutes. She never returned. Gus Freeman and his team uncover failings in the initial police investigation, but every eyewitness they re-interview can’t offer fresh clues, they only add to the mystery. Who did Katherine dash out of the house to meet?

Kendal Guthrie could start an argument in an empty room, but who killed him, and why? The Crime Review Team was formed in Wiltshire, England, to investigate old cold cases. Headed by Gus Freeman, the team has successfully solved several cases, using old witness statements plus fresh clues. Kendal Guthrie argued with five people in a remote country pub on the night he died. How could the killer have reached Guthrie’s farm ahead of him that night? It seemed impossible. Gus Freeman believes that distance, time, and locations are the key to solving the mystery.

“We have a secret the Devil and I.” These are the chilling words on the back of an old photograph that Sister Joan uncovers while cleaning out the attic storerooms. What she discovers among the dusty antiques leads to her most dangerous case yet. Joan has the strangest feeling that she's being followed. But the person she thinks she saw died over a year ago . . . Or did he? Then a young secretary turns up dead. She's been strangled. Another body is found and Sister Joan must get to the bottom of things before the murderer strikes again.

A man has been mutilated and left to drown on the incoming tide, handcuffed in his van. With the murder bearing a striking resemblance to a string of sadistic killings carried out with surgical precision in 1990s gangland Manchester, it can mean only one thing: the killer is back. Transferred to the Major Investigation Team, DI Nick Dixon is assigned a new partner and sent to Manchester. Meanwhile, the gruesome murders in Somerset continue.

Nine-year-old Samuel lives alone in a once-great estate in Surrey with the family’s housekeeper, Ruth. His father is dead, and his mother has been abroad for months, purportedly tending to her late husband’s faltering business. She left one night while Samuel was sleeping. Beyond her sporadic postcards, Samuel hears nothing from his mother. Samuel’s life is otherwise regulated by Ruth, who runs the house with an iron fist. As rumors in town begin to swirl, Samuel wonders whether something more sinister is afoot. Perhaps his mother did not leave but was murdered - by Ruth.

Meet Steven Stelfox. London, 1997: New Labour is sweeping into power, and Britpop is at its zenith. A&R man Stelfox is slashing and burning his way through the music industry, fuelled by greed and inhuman quantities of cocaine, searching for the next hit record amid a relentless orgy of self-gratification. But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox must take the notion of cutthroat business practices to murderous new levels in a desperate attempt to salvage his career.

Trevor receives word that his old friend and mentor had been found dead at the bottom of a cliff, suspiciously described as ‘suicide’ in a police report. He knows instinctively that something is not right. Along with daughter DC Kendra March and her ex-police partner Andy Pike, Trevor sets off for the east coast of England, to a small town known for its friendly population and their welcoming hospitality. What they find when they arrive is not so welcoming. A town in the grip of fear from unrelenting violence.

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.

London's most refined canines and their humans are gearing up for the Pets and Wellness Society's annual dog show - and Betty Wentworth, favorite aunt to Scarlett's fiance Harrison and proud owner of corgi front-runner Freddy, knows that this could be their year with the right edge. Never one to turn away a corgi in need, Scarlett convinces her milliner cousin, Vivian, to design matching hats for dream team Betty and Freddy as they compete for Best in Show. It's a tail wagging good time until the dog-food sponsor of the event is found dead and Betty is the prime suspect.

Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.

What happened while they were sleeping? A school for the deaf takes an overnight trip to the snowy woods. Five teenagers go to sleep, but only four wake up. Leon is missing, and a teacher’s body is found in the forest. Sign-Language Interpreter Paige Northwood is brought in to help with interrogations. Everyone at the school has a motive for murder - but they all have an alibi. As Paige becomes increasingly involved, she suspects there’s something sinister going on.

London, 1849 When a boy is found drowned in the River Thames at Hungerford Stairs, novelist Charles Dickens and Superintendent Jones of Bow Street are mystified to discover that the child is not the missing youngster for whom they have been searching. As Dickens and Jones delve deeper into London's poverty-stricken backstreets, they stumble across two more bodies. A serial killer is on the loose. And Charles is terrified that someone close to him may be one of the victims.

Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party. Which means elevenses (sloe gin fizzes), gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine-looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede. But as gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor's lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death.