British Women Sleuths

Although Perry, the earl of the house, and his sister, Poppy, are surprisingly accommodating to their jetlagged guests, Lucy feels uneasy after a fallen portrait sparks talk of a deadly family omen. But real trouble begins when a body, bludgeoned by the chapel's gold-plated reliquary, is found in a hidden, sealed off room. Considering the weapon and the clandestine location, Lucy wouldn't be shocked if the murder was an inside job.

Crime-scene photographers Sarah, Hugh, and Mick are summoned to the goriest crime scene they've ever encountered. A pub owner named Harry Warbrick has been found hanged. His murder becomes a sensation because he was England's top hangman. Sir Gerald, owner of the Daily World, announces that they‚ meaning Sarah and her friends‚ will investigate and solve Warbrick's murder before the police do. She and her friends discover a connection between Warbrick's murder and the most notorious criminal he ever executed: Amelia Carlisle.

A young woman is found dead in the village church. Shot through the heart with a crossbow. She thought she was safe there, but they found her in the end. DI Jemima Huxley thought Leighton Meadow was a safe place to raise her adopted ten-year-old son. But this is a village with many hidden secrets. And this case is hitting really close to home. The victim turns out to be a Czech student who went missing on a night out in Prague. How did she end up dead in a Welsh church?

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 is getting ready for a quiet Christmas with her son and their beloved grumpy cat when fellow single mother Nina begs her for help. Something fishy is going on with Mr. Potter, the solicitor she works for.... Business is slow, with the accounts empty. So why does his wife have such an impressive collection of designer dresses? Unable to resist a puzzle, Beth agrees to cover Nina’s job as a receptionist to get a closer look. But just as she finds a mysterious key hidden away in the office, Mrs. Potter arrives in floods of tears with terrible news for her husband.

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.

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.

Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, go on a trip to Orkney in Scotland to visit an old friend and see some intriguing Stone Age excavations. They realize there’s considerable dissension between the archaeologists and the principal donor for the newest dig, a wealthy and abrasive American. When a more recent corpse is found at the dig, various suspects are named, but there’s not enough evidence to bring a case against anyone.

A skeleton buried on a lonely Northumberland hill? Nothing wrong with that. Garrigill was once an ancient burial ground. Archaeologist Rena Williams is here to excavate the site. She is an old friend of Arnold’s. And with his help, her team have uncovered more than a few old bones already. But never like this. The bludgeoned skull, the modern dental work…nothing about this death feels accidental. Or even all that old. Who was the dead man, and what did he know that was worth killing for?

When Evelyn Eldritch’s landlord Randolph is poisoned at his own James Bond-themed party, she needs to find the killer fast. Who killed him? The nephew and heir? The best friend? Or the faithful secretary? Evelyn wants to prove to Detective Inspector Taylor that she’s more than just a bumbling baker with a missing witness—that cat-turned-waitress spell is proving hard to explain! But how many clues did Evelyn miss while wrangling her diva cat? It’s clear Randolph drank a poisoned cocktail, but was the cyanide really meant for him?

Writer-in-residence Penelope Parish will need to use every trick in her quaint British bookshop to unravel a murderous plot that threatens to ruin a ducal wedding. The wedding of the duke and duchess of Upper Chumley - on Stoke has all the makings of a fairy tale, complete with a glowing bride and horse-drawn carriage. But it wouldn't be much of a story without a villain, and as American Gothic novelist Penelope Parish is coming to learn, happy-ever-afters are as fraught in this charming British town as they are in her books.

Spring is a magical time in England - bluebells massing along the woodland paths, primrose and wild thyme dotting the meadows. Antiques dealer Kate Hamilton is spending the month of May in the Suffolk village of Long Barston, enjoying precious time with Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. While attending the May Fair, the annual pageant based on a well-known Anglo-Saxon folktale, a body turns up in the middle of the festivities.

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 Tode has finally died at the age of 93. Lady Tode wants to leave the country to spend her remaining years in Capri. Unfortunately, her three tiresome children are either unwilling, or unable (too mad, too lefty or too happy in Australia), to take on management of their large and important home, so the mantle passes to a distant relative and his glamorous wife. Not long after the new owners take over, Lady Tode is found dead in the mausoleum. Accident? Or is there more going on behind the scenes of Tode Hall than an outsider would ever guess?

A wedding on picturesque Martha's Vineyard promises to be the affair of the season when Penny Arbuthnot asks her cousin, feisty 92-year-old poet Victoria Trumbull, if she can use her property for the reception. Victoria agrees - but she has no idea what's in store for the hapless couple. For one, Penny is seriously in debt and desperate to marry money. She thinks she's on the road to riches when she hooks Rocco Bufano, whose father is a multi-billionaire. But unbeknownst to Penny, Rocco's been disowned by dad.

It was just an ordinary Wednesday lunchtime when Detective Martha Munro's life changed forever. Her sergeant is speaking, but she barely hears what he's telling her. Your mother has been shot dead. Your four-year-old daughter has been taken. There are no leads. Who would want to hurt her family? Martha realizes it's time to ask herself some hard questions about her late father. He led the anti-corruption squad at Scotland Yard. It's rumored he kept a list of everyone who worked for him, from coppers to criminals. And just being on the list was a sure-fire way to lower your life expectancy.

The call comes early in the morning. David and Helen Tremaine have discovered a body buried in the grounds of their large Victorian manor house, Llys Faen Hall, just north of Cardiff. DI Jemima Huxley and her partner, DS Dan Broadbent, race to the scene to discover that a second body has been unearthed in a shallow woodland grave. And the forensic team working the site believe this is just the start. Jemima knows this is the biggest case of her career. But it couldn't have come at a worse time.

Susan Grey’s fiftieth birthday party promised to be a talked-about event—an over-the-top extravagant gathering of a hundred guests at her sprawling Georgian home. But it would be talked about for all the wrong reasons… From an escalated argument to the disappearance of an expensive piece of jewelry, the party was quickly spiraling out of control. But the worst was yet to come—Susan suffered a horrific fall down the grand staircase. Was it an accident, or was she pushed? For DI Grace Roth, relegated to desk duty, this could be a high-profile case and a chance to redeem herself.

When Dorothy Martin goes to France—alone because Alan is stuck back home in Sherebury with a broken ankle—she worries about her ability to get along in a language she barely speaks, and in a country she hasn’t seen for over fifty years. But by the time Alan joins her a week later, Dorothy has found herself embroiled in one mystery after another: a woman drowning in quicksand; a man suffering a near-fatal fall in the abbey at Mont Saint Michel; and a missing American archaeologist—all seemingly connected to a monk named Abelard who has been dead for almost nine hundred years.

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 …