British Crime Mystery

In 1950, Philip Bryce is suddenly given two pieces of unexpected but welcome news - one domestic, the other work-related. He is also given a new case to tackle. It’s a change from the murder cases he spends a lot of time on, but it’s tricky. This is one involving ‘demands with menaces’ – the offence commonly known as blackmail. And the first three victims are very high-ranking people. Bryce investigates, with the newly-promoted Inspector Haig alongside him. But who is the blackmailer? From where does he or she acquire the information? And just how innocent are the ‘victims’?

Meet DCI Lesley Clarke. She’s a straight-talking city copper who doesn’t suffer fools gladly… and she’s been transferred to rural Dorset. After being injured in a bomb attack, Lesley is presented with a choice — early retirement, or a period of respite in a calmer location. But things don’t stay calm for long. Before she’s even started her new job, Lesley is dragged into investigating a murder at one of England’s most iconic landmarks, the imposing Corfe Castle.

DCI Jack Collier is slowly recovering from the pain and embarrassment of spending time locked up in Durham prison for a murder he did not commit whilst his team wait less than patiently for him to return to normal. But a call from pathologist Dr Gordon Crosby, inviting him and DS Oliver Cole to look into the suspicious death by poison of an elderly pensioner in the small village of New Hartley in Northumberland, sets the team on the hunt for a cold and calculating killer, brings matters crashing back to normality. The mystery of the death proves difficult to resolve and is further ...

Jo told him the phone call had been about a woman who wanted to have her husband declared dead. Smith thought for a moment and then said, 'Hmm. There must be a few million women in this country who feel like that. I take it her husband's been missing for a while and she's decided it's time to move on. In the absence of a body, which is always a nuisance, she wants Diver and Diver to confirm there's no proof he's alive. And I've told Jason a dozen times I'm not getting involved in anything matrimonial. I have enough trouble sorting out my own relationships.'

A man lies in an alley, beaten to death. Another man stumbles away, his memory of what happened erased by a blow to his head. Nearby, a walking stick has been flung aside, bloodied and broken. In the most personal case he has ever investigated, DCI Will Cooper is assigned to solve a crime in which his former partner and nemesis, Sean Notley, is the main suspect. Although he has sworn to remain impartial, Will is desperate to atone for the actions which caused the rift between them and led to Notley’s quitting the force. The only way to ease his guilt is to prove Notley innocent, despite ...

Judgement is in the eye of the beholder Adrian Harvey, London wine merchant, has lost the Christmas spirit. Someone is stalking him, stealing his post and vandalising his shop. When the police question him after an anonymous tip-off, he's more than anxious. He's scared. And who is that nun? Long time neighbour and friend DI Beatrice Stubbs is dispatched to Germany to investigate a series of apparently related art thefts, so Adrian seizes the chance to flee the city. He follows her to Hamburg to do some Christmas shopping and visit his ex. Yet the stalker is still on his heels. While ...

The most original crime novel in years - British ‘Golden Age’ sleuth meets American hard-boiled crime! It’s the summer of 1920: Kit Aston travels to San Francisco for his cousin’s marriage to the mysterious Dain Collins. When a private investigator tailing Dain Collins is killed, Kit Aston, his fiancée Mary and Aunt Agatha team up with Pinkerton detective, Dashiell Hammett, in a case involving murder, kidnap and the theft of a certain legendary bird from Malta. The latest Kit Aston mystery is a delightful reimagining of some of Dashiell Hammett’s greatest novels: the Maltese ...

FROM THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR He wants to send you to hell... and nothing can stop him... Detective Chief Inspector Jacob's life is once again turned upside down when the body of a woman is found in the grounds of Wiltshire's Malmesbury Abbey. The event is tragic enough, but made worse by the fact she was found wrapped in a shroud with an ancient coin in her mouth - exactly how the notorious serial killer 'the Ferryman' used to leave his victims. But the Ferryman, whose real name was Alistair Keeley, was killed in a lethal road traffic accident years ago in Austria. Is the ...

Bounder: n. Old-fashioned British slang a morally reprehensible person, unscrupulous, a cad. In this latest volume of Murder Tales, H. N. Lloyd turns his attention to those killers who used charm and good manners to ensnare their victims in intricate webs of lies, deceit, broken promises, bigamous marriages all eventually leading to some of the most bloody murders in the annals of crime. Murder Tales: The Bounders, examines ten chilling true tales of murder, including: George Joseph Smith: The infamous brides in the bath murderer, whose mesmeric charm led to his drowning three wives on ...

The tranquility of a luxury cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything . . . until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.” Yet under the searing heat of the Egyptian sun, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

Chapel of Shadows is a gripping, psychological thriller that follows the journey of Tom Shearer, a seasoned detective on the verge of retirement, as he uncovers a chilling conspiracy. When Shearer is relegated to investigating cold cases due to failing health, he stumbles across a disturbing pattern: a series of victims linked to the same psychiatrist, Dr. Malcolm Quarrie. As Shearer digs deeper, he discovers that these seemingly unrelated cases may not be accidents — they might be the work of a manipulative mastermind with a dark agenda. But Quarrie is no ordinary criminal. He’s a ...

Smoke hides many truths … and many sins … After a case of industrial espionage leads to a manic pursuit gone fatally wrong, private investigator Thomas Blume is forced to face the agonizing pain of his role in a seemingly innocent bystander’s death. But when the victim’s wife shows up the next day suggesting a mysterious deeper conspiracy with much more going on beneath the surface, Blume is drawn into a case involving dangerous organized criminals, a seedy London underworld, and gangsters with nothing to lose. Now, with police closing in and a mob boss hunting him, can Blume ...

When the body of a young woman is found by the coast in Land’s End, Cornwall, Detective Lauren Pengelly and her deputy Matt Price are first on the scene. Sophie Bethany Yates was well-known around the docks – a pretty girl from up the coast, always dreaming of something more. As locals jostle the barricades for a better look, whispers go round that Sophie’s boyfriend Samuel was more than capable of murder.

Relics. Risks. Revelations. Angus Darrow just wants to finish renovating his Exmouth flat. Charlotte Lockwood just wants something — anything — to distract her from the endless smell of paint. When the local museum reports missing artefacts, Charlotte takes the case. But what seems like a simple undercover job soon turns into something far more sinister. Meanwhile, Angus can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right with his neighbour... As Charlotte and Angus race to uncover the truth, it’s not just missing artefacts they need to worry about… it’s staying one step ...

When London’s finest jazz musicians, the Dizzy Heights, are booked to play the glitzy Midsummer Ball at a country house in Oxfordshire, they expect a weekend filled with flappers and toffs having a roaring good time. But the festivities at Bilverton House take a turn for the worse when the group are stranded by a summer storm. And when a member of the Bilverton family turns up dead in a locked room in an apparent suicide, Skins, Dunn and Ellie realize this is going to be a much tougher gig than they thought.

The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Hill's own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer's motives. It's also made him the perfect victim. A game has begun for the hunter and the hunted. But as Hill confronts his own hidden demons, he must also come face-to-face with an evil so profound he may not have the courage—or the power—to stop it.

A Young Body. A Sinister Mark. A Mystery That Won’t Stay Buried. When a young woman’s body washes ashore on North Cornwall’s Summerleaze Beach, DI Verity Zennor discovers a haunting link to two other unsolved murders. All bear a cryptic mark, but its sinister meaning—and the motive behind the killings—remains a mystery. As Zennor races to uncover the truth, another gruesome discovery shatters the investigation. On a remote farm, Susan Quant’s body is found exposed to the elements. Well-loved but burdened by a shadowy past, Quant’s death unearths a tangled web of betrayal, ...

A mysterious stranger carrying a swordstick walks the gaslit alleys and night houses of Victorian London.What is he seeking?London in 1853 - a mist-shrouded city where the grand houses of the wealthy lie a stone's throw from the vilest slums and rookeries of the poor.Who is this man so determined to fight for justice against all the wrongs of Victorian society? What are the origins of the mysterious William Quest?In a pursuit from the teeming streets of London to the lonely coast of Norfolk, Inspector Anders of Scotland Yard is determined to uncover the truth.To an explosive climax where ...

If there was one piece of advice Olive Crisp always followed, it was that “one should never attempt to solve a crime on an empty stomach..." 1970s. Cambridge, England. A SMALL-TIME ART HEIST: When two separate robberies take place at the Fitzwilliam Museum simultaneously, while Olive and Hugo are visiting the galleries, they set about investigating who could have committed the crimes. A COSY COMMUNITY: Meanwhile, Blythe faces a romantic dilemma when she's forced to decide between the two conflicting sides of her heart: being a bookshop owner or becoming a wife. And Olive has to confront ...

A mysterious suicide. A detective under pressure. A deadly investigation. DI Joe Hogarth planned to spend the weekend saving his superior, but when he's called to investigate Dina Corbett's death, everything changes. Locked alone inside her holiday park caravan, Dina died from a single gunshot wound to the head. A gun is found by her hand, but no suicide note is in sight. ★★★★★ “Fast paced - difficult to put down!” Suicide seems obvious, but nagging doubts lead Hogarth to suspect murder. With no evidence of foul play and every witness having a solid alibi, Hogarth can't let go...