British Thrillers

Salisbury 1226. When a child of village outcasts disappears from Salisbury, the odious new sheriff doesn’t seem to care. Ela Longespée is determined to help the girl’s desperate parents and her investigation leads her into the thick of a human-trafficking ring in London. There, she vows to find the lost child, arrest the perpetrators, and convince the king to make her high sheriff of Wiltshire.

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.

In Liverpool, a woman inexplicably leaps to her death. The following morning, two bodies are found on nearby Crosby Beach: a woman tied to a statue, and a man buried up to his neck and left to drown. When a nine-month-old murder case is reopened, DI Sheridan Holler is shocked to uncover family connections between the victim, Daniel Parks, and the three unexplained deaths. With Daniel’s body still missing and the number-one suspect cleared of the crime, Holler’s cold case suddenly becomes a major murder investigation.

When a mutilated body washes up on Sennen Beach, DS Liam Kilshaw is plunged into a case as dark and unforgiving as the Cornish winter. With the victim’s face so severely disfigured that identification is impossible, whispers of a local superstition begin to surface—the killing bears a chilling resemblance to the legend of Bucca Dhu, a vengeful sea demon said to demand human sacrifice.

When a long-serving Master at one of England's most prestigious public schools drowns in Bassenthwaite Lake, Detective Inspector Skelgill is summoned to investigate his apparent suicide. It soon becomes clear that senior members of staff are not all that they seem. As the school closes ranks, Skelgill realizes he is pitted against a sinister power struggle for control of its highly lucrative operation.

Driving back through Wales in a fierce winter storm, forensic anthropologist David Hunter is forced to seek shelter at a remote village in Eryri mountains. But a one-night stop-over becomes something very different after a gruesome discovery in depths of the local forest. With communications down and the only road washed out by the storm, Hunter is unsure who - if anyone - he can trust. And as long buried secrets begin to emerge, he knows that, whatever dark past the isolated community might be hiding, there's no one he can call on for help. This time he's on his own.

An entertaining history of British thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed, in which award-winning crime writer Mike Ripley reveals that, though Britain may have lost an empire, her thrillers helped save the world. With a foreword by Lee Child.

"They thought they’d seen the back of the vicious gang. They were wrong.

When a distinctive and valuable jewel-encrusted eye patch appears in a Christie’s auction in London, it isn’t long before the original owner’s family is made aware.

The auction starts a chain of events that lead to the reappearance of the dreaded Qupi gang, only this time led by the matriarch.

She wastes no time in arriving in the East London, causing mayhem as she leaves no stone unturned in the search for her missing husband.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford wait anxiously for a letter from Russia that may contain information of international importance hidden beneath the stamp. The letter is anticipated by more than just the Beresfords, and they must fight to keep the information from getting into the wrong hands.

Alnwick, Northumberland, 1813: Lady Percy's worries about spending her first holiday season as a new countess grow worse upon their arrival at Alnwick Castle. When the old duke calls her by the wrong name, she is left with unsettling questions: Who was this mysterious woman in the duke's past, and why does his fading mind cling to her memory so fiercely? Meanwhile, Lord Percy confronts a crisis outside the castle walls. Children are disappearing from neighboring villages, vanishing without a trace into the Northumberland wilds.

Meet disgraced ex-DI Ellie Reckless, a self-proclaimed "cop for criminals", and the person the underworld calls when they can't call the police. For months now, she's built up a series of favors, all so she can set them off like dominos—proving that Nicky Simpson, YouTube sensation and wannabe gangster, was the man who destroyed her life—and killed the man she loved. And in return, Nicky has watched her carefully, waiting to see whether she's too much of a threat to keep alive. But when Nicky's life is threatened, he's forced to turn to Ellie and her team for help.

1956: In a quiet English village, the smoldering ruins of Rosemont Abbey have set the residents’ tongues wagging, and everyone is quick to accuse troublemaker Paul Everly of the crime of arson. Paul has vanished without a trace, leaving only his plucky twin sister, Louisa, certain of his innocence. Fueling her conviction is an inexplicable connection—she felt her twin’s death an hour before the abbey went up in flames.

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.

When the broken body of a seventy-one-year-old woman is found beneath the Humber Bridge, a sign around her neck with the words ‘Pure Evil’ spray-painted in red, Detective Hollie Turner can’t help but wonder–who would want this frail elderly woman dead? As she starts to delve into the victim’s personal life, Hollie discovers that the woman, Sister Brennan, ran a local mother and baby home at the Church of St Mary and the Angels. The unit may have shut down years ago, but the pain and anguish of those who were forced to give up their babies remains.

All has been quiet in Liverpool, suspiciously quiet… So, when a frantic 999 call comes into Hale Street Police Station reporting a missing woman, it seems like there’s work to do. Except for DI Sheridan Holler there are questions. Why did Caroline Crow take her purse, suitcase and even tell friends she was going away? There’s no reason to suspect foul play…until a severed, burned hand is delivered to another address.

In the dead of night, four teenagers taking a shortcut through an archaeological dig site find a body in a trench. It doesn’t take long for them to be more scared than they’ve ever been in their lives. These are no ancient remains: the woman was killed just hours earlier . . .

Marty Wingate presents Book 7 in the Potting Shed Mysteries series.

It's the end of the summer season in the harbour town of Estepona. The holiday makers are heading home, leaving the British expats to reclaim their little corner of paradise. Among them is art restorer Astrid Swift's estranged father. She's sailed into town to reunite with him but has instead been tasked with catching an internet troll who's been threatening his wife online. Soon Astrid is entwined in the lives of these expats, from the boozy local heckler to the socially awkward beachcomber. And then she discovers a body in the bunker of the golf course.

Billie-Rose's bloodstained body is found in the kitchen of her ground-floor flat. She's been strangled to death, there's a deep laceration to her upper thigh, and a wooden chess-piece grasped tightly in her hand. Daubed on the wall in Billie-Rose's own blood is a strange symbol: a bishop's mitre. All Detective Jack MacIntosh can think is: He's back. Four years earlier, four young women were also strangled to death in their own homes, the same deep wound to the thigh, the same weird symbol scrawled on the wall. The work of the killer they call the Bishop. Is he back to kill again?