Historical Police Fiction

November 1940. Darkness descends, and another anxious night begins for those tasked with guarding the industrial heartland of London from enemy attack. As a policeman patrols the Royal Albert Dock, something catches his eye - a man is sprawled awkwardly across a nearby barge, a dagger lodged in his back. Detective Inspector John Jago of West Ham CID discovers the victim was a dock worker by day and a Home Guard volunteer by night - and there are things even his wife doesn't know about his past.

On a stormy night in March 1941, Maisie Rose Hawkins leaves her drunk husband, Stan, out in the rain - and he disappears. Detective Sergeant Bob Robbins and young PC Laurie Oliver are called out to investigate and discover that Stan’s small fishing boat is gone, the rope sawn through. As Bob searches for answers, it becomes apparent that in this small Cornish village where everyone knows everything about everybody, nobody quite knows the truth.

Berlin kriminell zur Zeit des Ersten Weltkrieges Berlin 1916. Eine Frau ist ermordet worden, und ihre Leiche wurde in einem Reisekorb von Berlin nach Stettin geschickt. Der blutjunge Reporter Max Kaminski, kriegsuntauglich, ermittelt zusammen mit dem Kommissar Ernst Gennat in der Ackerstraße in Berlin-Mitte.

Atlanta 1956: In der pulsierenden Südstaatenhauptstadt verschärfen sich die Rassenkonflikte, als die Bürgerrechtsbewegung mit dem jungen Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. einen neuen Wortführer bekommt. In dieser ohnehin schon angespannten Lage wird Arthur Bishop, der Herausgeber der führenden schwarzen Tageszeitung ermordet. Sofort gerät der Journalist und ehemalige Cop Tommy Smith ins Fadenkreuz der rassistischen Polizisten. Um sich zu entlasten, muss Smith mehr über die Geschichte erfahren, an der Bishop gearbeitet hat.

It is 1905, and Chicago is an open town. The most accessible part of town is the Levee District. It is an area of the city that's hard to tell the crooks from the cops. There are brothels, madams, opium dens, gambling joints and plenty of alcohol, but it all comes at a price in the Levee, and the two Ward Aldermen get their share of every vice's dollar. With the hanging of serial killer, Simon Kluge, police Detective Patrick Moses is suddenly without a case. Before Moses can relax, he is approached by an aging retail mogul who asks him to investigate the mysterious shooting of his son.

A sadistic practical joker is haunting the popular music halls of London, interfering with the actors and interrupting their acts by orchestrating humiliating disasters that take place in view of the audience. A trapeze artist misses her timing when the trapeze ropes are shortened. Mustard has been applied to a sword swallower's blade. A singer's costume has been rigged. The girl in a magician's box is trapped. Then the mischief escalates to murder. Or was murder intended all along?

Emily Moon lives with her mother in an inn on a clifftop in the darkest reaches of Cornwall. After her father mysteriously disappears, her mother finds solace at the bottom of a bottle, and the only way to keep afloat is to turn a blind eye to the smugglers who send signals from the clifftops. But Emily knows that the smugglers killed her father to ensure his silence, and she will not let his murder go unpunished....

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.

Der Zweite Weltkrieg ist seit ein paar Stunden beendet, als Inspektor Druwe zum Marinestützpunkt in Flensburg gerufen wird. Er soll helfen, eine neue Polizeieinheit aufzubauen. Dann erhält er eine seltsame Nachricht - von Werner Grell, einem untergetauchten Geheimdienstagenten. Grell berichtet von brisantem Material, das er vom einstigen Geheimdienschef Canaris über ehemaligen Nazi-Größen, aber auch Wirtschaftsfüher besitzt. Zögernd vertraut Druwe sich britischen Militärs an. Dort zeigt man sich hochinteressiert.

The detectives in Josie's squad don’t fit the spit and polish image of the Adam 12 LAPD. They’re grubby, unshaven, disrespectful to authority, and generally do police work in an effective, if not by-the-book way. She’s comfortable balancing on the edge of legality to make a good arrest until one night an informant tells her that a cop has stepped over the line and is selling rock cocaine. In Josie’s mind, there’s nothing worse than dirty cops. She learns the hard way that they can be vicious, clever, and determined to do anything - including murder - to avoid capture.

The residents of tiny Butcherville, Oklahoma, love their God-given freedoms so much, they refuse to hire their own police force. When they need a cop, they just call Emmett Hardy, police chief of Burr, the closest neighboring town. Whether it’s to break up a fight, dissuade an angry good ol’ boy from hunting rabbits with an M-16, or eject an unruly patron from Butcherville’s combination strip joint and bookstore, Emmett’s always glad to oblige...that is, until a local business owner’s lust for money and power results in a deadly shootout and multiple kidnappings.

At the public execution of the anarchist assassin Laurent Moreau, the outgoing Chief Inspector warns his protégé, the newly promoted Lefebvre: “I’ve heard that some of Moreau’s cronies have sworn revenge. You don’t want to get killed your first week as chief.” Meanwhile, Lefebvre is charged with investigating the disappearance of the Baron de Livet, a brash millionaire with connections to Russian spies and a history of gambling, womanizing, and fighting in duels. The case is more complicated than it seems, of course....

1948 kehrt Hans-Joachim Stein in seine von Spaltung und Blockade gebeutelte Heimatstadt Berlin zurück: Als Kommissar will er helfen, Recht und Ordnung wiederherzustellen. Doch in der neu gegründeten Mordinspektion West schlagen ihm Vorbehalte und Misstrauen entgegen. Der brutale Mord an einem bekannten Schieberkönig wird schließlich zum ersten Fall für den jungen Kommissar. Kurz darauf geschieht ein weiterer Mord mit ähnlicher Handschrift - den Steins Vorgesetzter mit allen Mitteln zu vertuschen sucht.

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.

William Arrowood, Victorian London’s less salubrious private detective, is paid a visit by Captain Moon, the owner of a pleasure steamer moored on the Thames. He complains that someone has been damaging his boat, putting his business in jeopardy. Arrowood and his trusty sidekick Barnett suspect professional jealousy, but when a string of skulls is retrieved from the river, it seems like even fouler play is afoot. It’s up to Arrowood and Barnett to solve the case before any more corpses end up in the watery depths.

Paris: July 1890. Inspector Achille Lefebvre and his wife Adele are enjoying their stay at a seaside resort - until a body found hanging from a bridge in a public park demands the Inspector's attention. Is it suicide or murder? A twisted trail of evidence draws Inspector Lefebvre into a shadowy underworld of international intrigue, espionage, and terrorism.

Stoke Newington, 1863: Little Margaret Lovejoy is found brutally murdered in the outhouse at her family’s estate. A few days later, a man is cut down in a similar manner on the doorstep of courtesan and professional detective Heloise Chancey’s prestigious address. At the same time, Heloise’s maid, Amah Li Leen, must confront events from her past that appear to have erupted into the present day. Once again Heloise is caught up in a maelstrom of murder and deceit that threatens to reach into the very heart of her existence.

Berlin, Spätsommer 1935. In der Familie Rath geht jeder seiner Wege. Pflegesohn Fritz marschiert mit der HJ zum Nürnberger Reichsparteitag, Charly schlägt sich als Anwaltsgehilfin und Privatdetektivin durch, während sich Gereon Rath, mittlerweile zum Oberkommissar befördert, mit den Todesfällen befassen muss, die sonst niemand haben will. Ein tödlicher Verkehrsunfall weckt seinen Jagdinstinkt, obwohl seine Vorgesetzten ihm den Fall entziehen und ihn in eine andere Abteilung versetzen. Es geht um Hermann Göring, der erpresst werden soll, um geheime Akten, Morphium und schmutzige Politik.

Il commissario Maki Markaris ha due grandi passioni: il mare e la caccia al polpo, che conserva nel congelatore dei reperti organici del commissariato di Chania, sull'isola di Creta. Markaris però ama anche il raki, l'acquavite ottomana al profumo di anice, e le dee. Proprio come Afroditi, la giovane archeologa rimasta orfana di un padre che custodiva il segreto più straordinario di quell'isola celebre fin dai tempi più antichi per la leggenda del Minotauro.

When a young woman's body is discovered in the summer of 1910 in Vienna, the inspector's wife is certain the figs found in her stomach during the autopsy are the clue to the identity of the murderer - for there are no fresh figs in Vienna at this time of year.