Historical Police Fiction

"La mia è una storia antica, scritta nelle ossa. Sono antiche le ceneri di cui sono figlia, ceneri da cui, troppe volte, sono rinata. E a tratti è un sollievo sapere che prima o poi la mia mente mi tradirà, che i ricordi sembreranno illusioni, racconti appartenenti a qualcun altro e non a me. È quasi un sollievo sapere che è giunto il momento di darmi una risposta, e darla soprattutto a chi ne ha più bisogno. Perché i miei giorni da commissario stanno per terminare. Eppure, nessun sollievo mi è concesso."

July 1940. As the Battle of Britain begins, the women of the Air Transport Auxiliary carry out the dangerous task of ferrying warplanes to RAF airbases. But for the ATA detachment sent to the base at Scotney, it’s not only in the skies that they’re a target—it seems a killer is stalking them on the ground. On the day pilot Lizzie Hayes arrives in the quiet village, one of her new comrades is found murdered. One of the few women in Britain with a psychology PhD, Lizzie thinks she can use her skills to help identify the killer, but DI Jonathan Kember isn’t convinced.

It is May 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama. As Martin Luther King, Jr.’s civil rights demonstrations begin to fill the streets, prejudices awaken and tempers flare. Amid the violence and confusion, a deaf black girl is found raped and murdered. Veteran homicide detective Ben Wellman pursues the murderer through the throngs of protesters, the pool halls of the black district of Bearmatch, the white mansions of Mountain Brook, and, finally, even in his own department. As he did in Sacrificial Ground, Cook has created a novel of uncommon force and resonance.

London, East End, 1888: Ein unheimlicher Killer verübt im Stadtteil Whitechapel eine bis dahin beispiellose Mordserie, der ausschließlich Prostituierte zum Opfer fallen. Er nennt sich selbst "Jack the Ripper". Scotland Yards Chief Inspector Donald Swanson und sein Team werden auf den Fall angesetzt. Doch alle Versuche, Licht ins Dunkel zu bringen, scheitern. Sogar Oscar Wilde und Lewis Carroll geraten in den Dunstkreis der Ermittlungen.

Lotingen. Tre anni dopo gli omicidi di Könisberg, Hanno Stiffeniis e la moglie Helena conducono una vita di ristrettezze dopo la sconfitta dell'esercito a Jena contro le truppe napoleoniche. Quando vengono ritrovati i cadaveri mutilati di tre bambini, figli di un ufficiale ussaro, appare evidente che Stiffeniis dovrà indagare spalla a spalla con il nemico.

Neujahr 1889. In Edinburghs berüchtigter Irrenanstalt ermordet ein gefährlicher Psychopath eine Krankenschwester. Kurz bevor ihm die Flucht gelingt, unterhält er sich mit einer jungen Patientin, die seit Jahren kein Wort gesprochen hat. Wieso hat sie ihr Schweigen gebrochen? Sind die Gerüchte von schwarzer Magie wahr, die in den Fluren der Anstalt kursieren? Inspector McGray geht der Fall sehr nahe, denn die junge Frau ist seine Schwester. Zusammen mit seinem Partner Ian Frey verfolgt er den Mörder durch das ganze Königreich - bis zum Pendle Hill, Sitz der gefürchteten Hexen von Lancashire.

Jasper Lightner is a decorated Crimean War hero and the most admired inspector in London's Metropolitan Police. Along with a chest full of medals, he's got a head injury that's left large chunks of his memory missing. But Jasper's biggest problem is his father, the Duke of Kersey, who is enraged by a series of front-page newspaper stories extolling Jasper's exploits. Jasper is sent packing to New York City on a yearlong assignment to train detectives and discovers a police department hovering on the brink of armed conflict.

As tensions simmer in Shanghai, children go missing... Shanghai 1932: Inspector Danilov hasn't recovered from the death of his child... but across a Shanghai riven with communal tensions, children are going missing. Missing, and then murdered. Who is responsible? Why have the children's bodies been exhibited for all to see? Just as Danilov thinks the stakes couldn't be higher, there is a new dimension, Japan, a rising power flexing its muscles. In fractious Shanghai, an explosion is long overdue. With the clock ticking can Danilov and his assistant Strachan solve the case?

Su nombre es William Monk; su profesión, detective de la policía. Eso, al menos, es lo que le dicen cuando despierta en un hospital londinense, ya que él no recuerda nada. Al parecer, el carruaje en que viajaba volcó y como consecuencia de este accidente el cochero murió y él quedó malherido. Tras pasar tres semanas inconsciente y otras tantas de convalecencia.

Jens Druwe, der glaubte, als Polizeiinspektor nach 1945 ein neues Leben beginnen zu können, wird als Kriegsverbrecher inhaftiert und verurteilt. Man wirft ihm vor, bei Säuberungsaktionen im Osten dabei gewesen zu sein. Auch seine Freundin Eva, die von ihm schwanger ist, kann ihn nicht retten. Doch da eröffnet sich eine neue Chance. Im Auftrag des britischen Geheimdiensts soll Druwe verdeckt im Zuchthaus arbeiten, um untergetauchte Nazis aufzuspüren. Es geht vor allem darum, einen Mann zu finden, der für Tausende von Tötungen im Osten verantwortlich ist.

Salò, marzo 1938. L'apparente calma del lago di Garda è messa a soqquadro dalla frenetica preparazione della Mille Miglia, la mitica corsa automobilistica che collega Brescia e Roma, diventata una vetrina decisiva per il regime fascista. Il commissario Italo Sartori ha appena litigato con la sua amante, la ricca, audace vedova Anna Arquati, che vive sull'altra sponda del golfo di Salò: la donna vuole partecipare alla Mille Miglia con la sua auto, ma il commissario Sartori, abruzzese di nascita trapiantato sul Garda come il sommo vate D'Annunzio, non è d'accordo.

The year is 1976. Veteran New Haven homicide detective Frank Suchy has finally learned to cope with the demons in his life and the daily pressure of "the job" - being exposed to every manner of death that could possibly befall someone - all the while celebrating his third year of sobriety. But when his best friend's child is brutally murdered in broad daylight outside a downtown shopping mall, his world begins to deteriorate, bringing back the nightmares that he thought were locked away long ago.

A woman's body is discovered in Angel Meadow, site of one of the most the notorious slums in Victorian England. She has been shot. Caton's investigation uncovers a link to the Troubles in Northern Ireland thirty years ago. The Establishment wants to let sleeping dogs lie. Caton, accompanied by DS Joanne Stuart, finds strange allies from both sides of the divide. And when a second murder occurs nothing is going to stop them from uncovering the truth.

Kommissar Oppenheimers vierter Fall: ein packender Krimi über eine Mordserie im zerbombten Berlin von Glauser-Preisträger Harald Gilbers. Berlin 1946. Nach Kriegsende nutzt Kommissar Oppenheimer seinen kriminalistischen Spürsinn, um Vermisste ausfindig zu machen. Routinemäßig besucht er dazu die Berliner Flüchtlingslager. Als der verunstaltete Leichnam eines vertriebenen "Volksdeutschen" aufgefunden wird, bekommt Oppenheimer von dem sowjetischen Oberst Aksakow den Befehl, sich mit der Sache zu beschäftigen. Weitere brutale Morde lassen nicht lange auf sich warten.

Summer 1989: Gunther Fahnstiel, once a tough cop who wasn't averse to taking a little side money from a certain madam, has just escaped the dementia ward of his Wichita nursing home. He's not exactly sure where he wants to go, but wherever it is, it has to do with the bag full of cash belonging to the man he accidentally backed over with his RV in 1979. During his search, Gunther begins to relive the violent fallout of that madam's sex lottery 40 years ago. As Gunther's memories unravel, his past and present will collide in a devastating reckoning.

London, 1878. One April morning, a small boat bearing a young woman’s corpse floats down the murky waters of the Thames. When the victim is identified as Rose Albert, daughter of a prominent judge, the Scotland Yard director gives the case to Michael Corravan, one of the only senior inspectors remaining after a corruption scandal the previous autumn left the division in ruins. Reluctantly, Corravan abandons his ongoing case, a search for the missing wife of a shipping magnate, handing it over to his young colleague, Mr. Stiles.

Dresden, 18. Juni 1953, ein Tag nach dem blutig niedergeschlagenen Arbeiteraufstand in der DDR: Max Heller wird zu einem Todesfall in einem Betrieb für Wärmeisolierungen gerufen. Dem dortigen Betriebsleiter wurden brutal die Atemwege mit Isolierwolle verstopft. Unter Mordverdacht gerät eine ehemalige Angestellte, die von sich selbst behauptet, eine frühere KZ-Aufseherin und jetzt Spionin für den Westen zu sein. Doch Heller glaubt ihr nicht. Zumal alle Angestellten des kleinen Betriebes hartnäckig die Aussage verweigern.

A chilling locked-room mystery! Impossible for the murderer to escape, yet, he did. Powerful officials conspire against Chief Bucky's attempt to solve the case, including the KKK, whose members particularly resent Bucky's friend, Charlotte, a Harvard-educated "Negro" lawyer. When they drag her off to a hanging - her hanging - Bucky reaches the end of his rope.

When the murder of a woman is reported to the Shanghai police while Inspector Chen is on vacation, Sergeant Yu is forced to take charge of the investigation. The victim, Yin Lige, a novelist known for her banned book, has been found dead in her tiny, humble room off the stairwell of a converted multi-family house. It seems that only a neighbor could have committed the crime, for the building is kept locked at night. But there is no apparent motive. Sergeant Yu tries to unravel the reclusive woman's past and begins to realize it may have larger political implications.

London, 1888. Though the beautiful Miriam Cromer has confessed to the murder of her husband’s assistant, she is still confident of her acquittal. But then, she is sentenced to hang. She blames her husband, but he has an alibi. Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray must discover what really happened at Park Lodge on 12th March, 1888, and quickly.