Police Detective Mysteries

A man falls to his death in Western Scotland. From a distance another man watches. He approaches the body, tucks a book into the dead man's pocket, and leaves. When the Scottish police show visiting detective chief inspector Domenic Jejeune the book, he recognises it as a call for help. Back in Saltmarsh the brutal murder of a researcher has everyone looking at the man's controversial studies as a motive.

'This novel stands successfully on its own, its characters fleshed out and in full possession of their idiosyncrasies — all magnificently conveyed by narrator Steve Worsley...He captures perfectly the novel’s dark wit and the region’s pugnacity, bringing a sense of festivity to the police...

When Detective Katie Scott is approached by a smartly dressed woman with desperation in her eyes, Katie’s senses go into high alert. Moments later, questions still buzzing through her mind, Katie finds the woman dead in the carpark, blood pooling around her, and just enough life left to utter the words: find my daughter. Katie doesn’t waste a second gathering her team and pulling the casefile for Anna Braxton, a teen with sparkling blue-eyes and an even brighter future, who left to meet her best friend in the mall, then disappeared.

He's a detective, a dancer, he has no respect whatsoever for authority ­- and he's the best hope Blackpool has for keeping criminals off the streets. Meet Detective Declan Miller. A double murder in a seaside hotel sees grieving Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Just why were two completely unconnected men taken out? With a distinctly loose relationship with reality and a new partner to deal with, can eccentric, offbeat Miller find answers where more traditional police have found only an impossible puzzle?

A remote island on lockdown. A killer on the loose. There is no escape for Inspector Jimmy Perez in Blue Lightning, the fourth Shetland mystery from Ann Cleeves. Now a major BBC One drama, Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall. Shetland detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming...

In the Pacific Northwest, police officer Lindsay Jackman is investigating the murder of a young journalist found at the bottom of a ravine. Lindsay soon learns that the victim was writing an exposé. Her subject: a charismatic wellness guru who’s pulled millions into her euphoric orbit.

Since the dark events that scarred her childhood, Kier Templer escaped her hometown and her twin to live her life on the road. The siblings have never lost contact until, on a trip to a Portuguese national park, Kier vanishes without a trace. Detective Elin Warner arrives in the same park ready to immerse herself in its vast wilderness–only to hear about Kier’s disappearance, and discover a disturbing map she left behind. The few strangers at an isolated campsite close ranks against Elin’s questions, and the park’s wild beauty starts to turn sinister.

By the 16th of July, the Master of Lonsdale was concerned but not yet worried. Dr Browne-Smith had passed through the porter's lodge at approximately 8:15 a.m. on the morning of Friday, 11th July. And nobody had heard from him since. Plenty of time to disappear, thought Morse. And plenty of time, too, for someone to commit murder....

Liverpool is in the midst of an emergency. Several people have been poisoned. But DI Tara Grogan is not on the case. Instead, she has an in-tray full of mundane tasks and jealously watches from the sidelines as the high-profile investigation unfolds. One such task is looking into the suicide of a company executive. Probing a little deeper, Grogan begins to smell a rat. All is not well at Harbinson Fine Foods, and with the city on high alert and its people on edge, the detective begins to suspect a connection to the main investigation.

There seems to be no connection between the crimes, but Detective Caelan Small senses something isn’t right. Plunged into a new investigation, lives are on the line. And in the web of gangs, brothels and nerve-shattering undercover work, Caelan must get to the truth–or be killed trying.

For Meg Jennings and her K-9 companion, Hawk, exploring the ruins of a deserted building is an exciting way to sharpen their skills without the life-or-death stakes they face as part of the FBI's Human Scent Evidence Team. But deep in the echoing rooms of an abandoned asylum, Hawk finds the body of an elderly woman. The victim couldn't have made her way into the derelict building on her own. Before 48 hours pass, Meg learns of three more cases of elders found dead in neglected urban structures. There's not enough evidence to link the deaths - yet. But Meg scents a pattern.

Meet Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on his unforgettable first major case by award winning crime author Peter James, read by Daniel Weyman. It was meant to be a harmless stag-night prank. But a few hours later, the groom has disappeared and his friends are dead. With only three days to the...

A body lies beside Kettlewell Creek, the waters rushing and churning next to her broken form. When Detective Josie Quinn arrives at the scene, she finds few clues and a victim with no enemies. Nineteen-year-old Sharon Eddy was cherished by her beloved grandmother, who raised her, and her death shocks the Denton community where she worked at the local animal hospital.

Detective Harriet Blue is a very good cop...gone very bad. In the space of a week, she has committed theft and fraud, resisted arrest, assaulted a police officer, and is considered a dangerous fugitive from the law. It's all because of one man: Regan Banks. He viciously killed the only person in the world who matters to Harriet - and he plans to kill her next. As she recklessly speeds toward the dark side - and finally crosses it - Harriet won't stop until Regan pays for the many lives he has taken.

The best mysteries have one thing in common: a memorable perpetrator. For every Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade in noble pursuit, there's a Count Dracula, a Lester Leith, or a Jimmy Valentine. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations - and who often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect. Now, for the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the iconic traitors, thieves, con men, sociopaths, and killers who have crept through the mystery canon over the past 150 years, captivating and horrifying readers in equal measure.

In The Blue Last, Richard Jury finally faces the last thing in the world he wants to deal with - the war that killed his mother, his father, his childhood. Mickey Haggerty, a DCI with the London City police, has asked for Jury's help. Two skeletons have been unearthed in the City during the excavation of London's last bombsite, where once a pub stood called the The Blue Last. Mickey believes that a child who survived the bombing has been posing for over 50 years as a child who didn't.

Jack Stratton's a good guy on the ugly side of life. Eight years ago a bomb blew his world apart and he's been picking up the pieces ever since. Guilt has driven a wedge between him and the family he loves. When Jack hears the news that his foster-sister Michelle is missing, it cuts straight to his core. The police think she just took off, but Jack knows Michelle would never leave her loved ones behind - like he did. Forced to confront the demons from his past, Jack must take action, find Michelle and bring her home...or die trying.

William Fawkes, a controversial detective known as The Wolf, has just been reinstated to his post after he was suspended for assaulting a vindicated suspect. Still under psychological evaluation, Fawkes returns to the force eager for a big case. When his former partner and friend, detective Emily Baxter, calls him to a crime scene, he's sure this is it: the body is made of the dismembered parts of six victims, sewn together like a puppet - a corpse that becomes known as "The Ragdoll".

Acapulco’s first female police detective finds herself entangled in the deadly web of a voodoo-like cult. In the remote Coyuca Lagoon, where Hollywood's iconic Rambo was filmed, Emilia and her partner stumble upon a grisly crime scene—a man sacrificed on an altar to Santa Muerte, Mexico's forbidden saint of death. Drug cartels are often associated with the worship of Santa Muerte and it’s clear that the killer meant to send a savage message. But who was supposed to get it? The answer comes in the form of gory gang murders displayed on city billboards.

A knock on the door late in the evening can only mean trouble for Detective Josie Quinn, but fear chokes her at the news that one of her own team is missing. No one has seen Denton PD’s Press Liaison Amber for days and, as she follows the message scrawled on the frosted windscreen of Amber’s car to a nearby dam, Josie hears a piercing scream that tells her she’s too late. But the body they pull from the freezing water is not Amber....