Showing results by author "Judith Cutler" in All Categories

Newly appointed as land agent to the youthful Lord Croft, Matthew Rowsley finds plenty to keep him busy as he attends to his lordship's neglected country estate. But he's distracted from his tasks by the disappearance of a young housemaid. Has Maggie really eloped with a young man, as her mother attests - or is the truth rather more sinister? What's been going on behind the scenes at the grand country estate...and where has his lordship disappeared to?

When a colleague becomes seriously ill, Chief Superintendent Frances Harman delays her retirement to oversee an investigation into a recent spate of "happy slappings". Initially, she takes a back seat, but it is not long before she is close to the action again.

England, 1810. Young Parson Tobias Campion is excited to be starting at the small parish of Moreton St Jude's. But his first night in the village brings excitement of the wrong kind when he has to intervene in the attempted rape of housemaid Lizzie Woodman. Even in the normal course of events, village life is far from quiet, and soon Tobias has to deal with suspicious deaths.

Tobias Campion, rector of Moreton St Jude, is delighted to welcome the widowed Lady Chase as his parishioner. Although charming and generous-spirited, she harbours a secret sorrow: her son, Hugo, is missing, presumed dead. Her late husband's nephew, Sir Marcus Bramhall, making a prolonged, unwelcome visit to Moreton Hall, speaks darkly of bringing a court case to declare him the heir.

A fork of lightning and a crash of thunder herald the completion of a heinous crime. In woodland belonging to the eccentric Lord Wychbold, a body has been crucified on a tree. On Easter Day, the Reverend Tobias Campion returns from morning service at St Luke's and discovers the corpse, already beginning to putrefy. A crown of thorns frames his face, bludgeoned beyond recognition, and a loincloth preserves what is left of his modesty.

A head teacher's work is never done, especially if, like Jane Cowan, you're a victim of your own success. Her responsibilities are compounded by an influx of children, most of whom do not speak English, following their families supplying cheap labour. Jane can't turn a blind eye to the conditions in which many of these families are living, even more so when some children simply disappear. When everything points to the shadowy dealings of people smugglers in the area, she has her work cut out.

Jane Cowan's abusive ex-husband has always tracked her down whichever town she lives in, whichever job she takes, whichever name she uses. However, now he is in prison for a long stretch, she feels brave enough to accept a promotion: she is to be head teacher of the Wrayford Primary School in Gloucestershire. While facing everyday battles from a lack of resources to teachers who are set in their ways, Jane encounters a persistent intruder on the school grounds.

When a local lad that vicar's wife Jodie Welsh employed to help in her garden disappears, along with Jodie's expensive camera, nearly everyone assumes the worst. But Burble's disappearance marks the start of a series of increasingly disturbing incidents - until the body shows up, and Jodie must use all her skills to unmask a ruthless killer.

While Jane waits for renovations to be completed on her new permanent home, she remains in temporary accommodation under the watchful eye of her landlord, Brian Dawes, chair of the governors at Wrayford School. Her work life is dominated by preparations for the all important school play, but behind the scenes the threat of major cuts to the school's budget puts a strain on morale. Alongside these concerns are her landlord's deteriorating health and the odd behaviour of her neighbours - both mysteries she could do without.

Sophie Rivers has left behind the stresses of teaching at an inner-city college in Birmingham for a while and has just started seeing the delectable Mike Lowden, one of the country’s most exciting cricketers. When he suddenly becomes the prime suspect in the particularly nasty murder of a rival cricketer, Sophie’s got too much to lose to remain merely a spectator. The more deeply she becomes involved, the more sinister the circumstances appear. Does she have to nail a bent policeman as well as find the real murderer?

Sophie Rivers can't wait to settle into married life now that Mike is back from touring Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the England cricket team. So when she's offered a temporary job at his home ground, archiving a collection of memorabilia that has been left to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, she jumps at the chance, envisaging companionable journeys into work and cosy lunches in the Tom Dollery bar. But the reality is a far cry from her romantic dream.

With her husband away on an England cricket tour of Pakistan, and the deadline for her MEd dissertation looming, Sophie Rivers is in no mood for distractions. Unfortunately, as a member of the university choir, she is finding it impossible to avoid them. It soon becomes apparent that the music faculty has more than its fair share of nutty professors and insecure students - and for some reason Sophie seems to have been appointed their unofficial guidance counselor.

Actress Vena Burford is 'resting' between jobs. But needs must, and with few voice-over jobs in the pipeline, Vena takes on a few jobs for friends and family around the idyllic Stratford-Upon-Avon. But interior design leads her to violent threats and showing prospective buyers around houses ushers in a drug-smuggling ring. Vena comes to know all too well that the countryside is far from quiet.

Sophie Rivers thinks she’s fallen on her feet when a temporary research post takes her to George Muntz College, just yards from her Birmingham home. Her new employer offers pleasant, even lavish, facilities and state-of-the-art equipment. Perhaps, though, all is not as comfortable as it seems, as Melina, a computer technician, may have been about to explain. For once Sophie doesn’t have time to listen. But when Melina is found dead, it’s soon clear that other people are keen to hear what Sophie herself has to say .

Sophie Rivers has left the turmoil of her inner-city college to take an MEd course at the University of the West Midlands. But she's getting nowhere with the group of South-East Asian students she's supposed to be helping. She confides in the excellent lecturer Carla Pentowski, but there's something strange about Carla's past - or lack of it. When some of her students start behaving oddly, Sophie talks to her old friend, Superintendent Chris Groom.

When a middle-aged woman enters Lina Townend's antiques shop wanting to sell a white Beswick china horse which she claims is a cherished heirloom, Lina's instincts tell her to avoid the sale. Suddenly, wherever she goes, Lina sees the supposedly rare white horses. Something strange is afoot. As she looks further into the matter, it turns out the horses are merely the tip of the iceberg. But Lina's investigations are attracting unwelcome attention.

For lecturer Sophie Rivers a writing course on the outskirts of Birmingham is a bit of a busman’s holiday. Still, creative inspiration might strike. But then, knowing Sophie’s luck, so might a murderer… She can hardly believe it when a fellow student is found dead in her room. And when a course tutor goes missing, it’s clear that one of the students might be interested in death as a reality rather than a literary concept. But who is responsible? Sophie can’t control her investigative instincts.

It's a busy weekend for Lina: she wins a dance competition, annoys a valuable client and has to play gooseberry when Griff, her business partner, meets an old flame. Killing time, she drives across Dartmoor only to find two men robbing a medieval church. Outraged, she manages to stop them - only to discover that it's not just in Devon that they are working. Safely back in Kent, she makes some new friends.

Newly retired, ex-chief superintendent Fran Harman and her partner, Mark, have volunteered to assist West Mercia police in reinvestigating an unsolved crime. Twenty years ago a car was found abandoned on an isolated forest road running, its hazard lights still flashing, the passenger door open. In the back were two child seats. One was empty; in the other lay a desperately ill baby. Neither the baby's mother nor the elder child were ever seen again.

Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman is preparing for her forthcoming wedding to Assistant Chief Constable Mark Turner, but renovations at the rectory they plan to move into are disrupted by the discovery of a skeleton buried in the vegetable patch. As investigations into its identity progress, it's also clear that Mark's two grown-up children are less than ecstatic at the prospect of their father's forthcoming nuptials. In fact, at least one of them seems to be behaving very strangely indeed.…