International Police Procedurals

Pools of blood, scenes of carnage, signs of agonising death - who deals with the aftermath of violence once the bodies have been taken away? Judith Kepler has seen it all. She is a crime-scene specialist. She turns crime scenes back into habitable spaces. She is a cleaner. It is at the home of a woman who has been brutally murdered that she is suddenly confronted with her own past. The murder victim knew Judith's secret: as a child Judith was sent to an orphanage under mysterious circumstances - parentage unknown.

For the first time in decades Rome is paralysed by a blizzard. And a gruesome discovery is made in the Pantheon, one of the city's most ancient and revered architectural treasures. Covered by softly falling snow is the body of a young woman, her back horribly mutilated. But before Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni of the Questura can begin a formal investigation, the US Embassy has brought in its own people, FBI Agents who want the case closed down as quickly and discreetly as possible.

When a corrupt detective is murdered, alarm bells start ringing for DI Zoe Finch and her team. Was the victim connected to organised crime boss Trevor Hamm? Was he in league with Zoe's former colleague Ian Osman? And why is CID boss David Randle trying to curtail the investigation? With her mentor off sick and a new boss breathing down her neck, Zoe must investigate without drawing attention to herself. Can she prove what she knows about Detective Superintendent Randle? Will she escape suspicion herself? And can she protect the people she cares about from the threat of retribution?

As a police team is called in to investigate a woman's suicide at the Holmsheiði prison outside Reykjavik, to detective Guðgeir Fransson it looks like a tragic but straightforward case. It's only afterwards that the pieces begin to fall into place and he takes a deeper interest in Kristin Kjarr's troubled background, and why she had found herself in prison.

The Soviet Union is dead, and Russian society has been fractured into a thousand pieces. Through those cracks seeps the first serial killer in the country's history, whose exploits send Moscow into a frenzy. As his colleagues hunt for the pipe-wielding maniac who's killed 40 women so far, Police Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov must depart for Havana to avoid an international incident.

La primera nevada cae en noviembre este año en Oslo. La mañana siguiente, al despertarse, un niño no encuentra a su madre en casa. Se le hace raro encontrar su bufanda favorita colgando del cuello de un muñeco de nieve que alguien ha hecho en el jardín. El detective Harry Hole empieza a sospechar que hay un psicópata suelto, desde hace demasiado tiempo, cuando descubre que un alarmante número de madres y esposas han desaparecido en circunstancias similares, tras caer la primera nieve.

Felix Olliphant was found stabbed to death at a New Year's Eve costume party for the turn of the millennium. Seemingly liked by everyone, motives for his murder are hard to find. There was one suspect, but no evidence. Hillary struggles to solve this baffling case. And she has to contend with a new colleague, Jake Barnes. Young and rich, he says he wants to give something back to the community, but Hillary has her doubts. Will Hillary finally be defeated by this cold case and will she lose her boss and love interest to a new job?

Less than a week before Christmas, Columbus Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner receive a call from dispatch. The body of a young woman has been found floating in the Olentangy River, her teeth forcibly removed, her fingerprints obliterated, any chance at a positive identification residing only within the string of inexplicable tattoos inked across the bottom of her feet.

Dans le civil, c'est "Magalie Bouvet". Quadra, divorcée, un lardon. Au boulot, c'est "Madame la flic". Commandant au sein de la police judiciaire parisienne, au 36, et chef d'un groupe antiterroriste. Enfin, plus tout à fait. Ça, c'était avant. Avant que je m'en fasse virer pour une connerie, une mauvaise rencontre. Je ne regrette pas, pas vraiment, car ma reconversion forcée a ses avantages, dont celui de me faire voir du pays. Et puis l'action est toujours là. Je suis juste débarrassée des lourdeurs administratives de mes anciennes fonctions.

When Inspector Montalbano falls under the charms of beautiful gallery owner Marian, his longtime relationship with Livia comes under threat. Meanwhile, he is also troubled by a strange dream as three crimes demand his attention: the robbery and assault of a wealthy merchant's young wife, stolen works of art, and a search for arms traffickers that leads him deep into the countryside, where the investigation takes a tragic turn.

In February 1986, the Halland police receive a call from a man who claims to have attacked his first victim. I’m going to do it again, he says before the line cuts off. By the time police officer Sven Jörgensson reaches the crime scene, the woman is taking her last breath. For Sven, this will prove a decisive moment. On the same night, Sweden plunges into a state of shock after the murder of the prime minister. Could there possibly be a connection?

DCI Kett is back, heading Norfolk Constabulary’s brand-new Extreme Crime Task Force. And it’s just in time. The body of a woman bound in thorns has been discovered in Norwich’s historic Cow Tower. In her mouth is a severed finger wrapped in a scrap of red cloth, and the first few lines of a fairy tale. “Once upon a time, a young maiden waited to be saved from a hideous monster.” The finger belongs to another missing woman, and if Kett, Porter and Savage want to find her alive they must follow a chain of blood-drenched riddles, each victim leading to the next.

Freshly trained detective Johannes "Hannes" Niehaus is brand new to the Criminal Investigation Department. And his partner, unconventional veteran detective Fritz Janssen, isn't the least bit thrilled to train a rookie. When a woman's body washes up on the nearby shores of the Baltic Sea, Hannes gets his first taste of real crime - and a chance to prove himself. Quickly the investigation pulls him and Fritz into a whirlpool of dangerous, decades-old cover-ups.

One quiet snow-covered Sunday morning in Bruges, a prominent business executive is found dead in the streets, apparently due to an alcoholic hemorrhage, but for Inspector Van In, there is something about the autopsy that does not add up. When he questions the businessman's friend, a Dutchman, he too is found dead the next morning, burned to death in a house fire.

Under the dark cover of night, a figure climbs over the wall of the Botanical Garden with a bag and a metal detector. It's a dicey location in the populous city center, but they're on the hunt - and while most of what they find will be worthless, it takes only one big reward to justify the risk. Only this time, the nighthawker unearths a body....

In the middle of a summer heat wave, as Naples prepares for one of its most important holy days, a renowned surgeon falls to his death from the window of his office. For Commissario Ricciardi and Brigadier Maione, it is the beginning of an investigation that will bring them into contact with the most torrid, conflicting, and enduring of human passions.

A woman's body is found in a river just outside of Lisbon. Inspectors Isabel Reis and Aleksandr Voronov identify the murder victim as Marta Nunes—a youth centre worker who, like Isabel, classifies as Gifted. Born with special abilities, the Gifted are often looked at with a certain level of suspicion. In the search for her killer, Reis digs into Marta's past. She soon discovers that she is connected to a number of missing women. All young, all telepathic Gifted, all vanished off the face of the earth.

Chief Detective David Wolf is called to a crime scene next to the Chautauqua River, where a woman resident of Rocky Points has been murdered. The killer has left a well-known signature not seen for years - a severed ear. For Wolf, the gruesome display is a surprise, but so is the FBI beating the local department to the scene. Three days earlier a truck is unearthed from south of Durango, Colorado. Within it is DNA evidence linking to killings in southwest Colorado that have stumped the FBI for years.

Porfiry Rostnikov was one of the top detectives in Moscow - until he crossed the KGB. On the orders of the secret service, this bulldog cop is busted down to the minor crimes unit, where his talents are utterly wasted. When a drunk climbs the statue of Nikolai Gogol in Arbat Square and threatens to kill himself, Rostnikov tries to talk the man down. But with a perfect somersault, acrobat Valerian Duznetzov leaps from the statue - the final jump of a storied career.

With packs of stray wild canines roaming Moscow, it was inevitable that enterprising criminals would find a way to get rich. As dogfighting became big business, the Mafia got involved, and venues upgraded from alleys and garages to private arenas with padded seats. Police Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov has assigned Sasha Tkach and Elena Timofeyeva to go undercover and bust up a dogfighting ring. But the only ones more vicious than the dogs are the ones who profit from them.