British Detective

Christmas at a snowed in country house. You know what happens next… Not necessarily. Agatha Aston is invited to spend the weekend before Christmas with some old friends. Accompanied by her Machiavellian Basset hound, Talleyrand, Agatha encounters murder, ghosts and romance at a country house where nothing is as it seems. While Agatha has her hands full solving a murder, Talleyrand has his own problems in the shape of Bismarck, the hosts’ unfriendly German Shepherd. Expect fireworks. Containing a short ghost story within a story, The Christmas Murder Mystery is a twisty box of delights, ...

The brutal murder of septuagenarian John Templeman shocks the little cottage community of Pocock's Fields. Rumours of illicit affairs, army desertion and violent confrontations spread as the community waits to see who will be sent to trial. An extraordinary power struggle develops between the Coroner, leading the Inquest, and the Police Magistrate, leading the Inquiry. As the case reaches a crisis point, just how far will the authorities be willing to go to bring the perpetrator to justice?

DS Oliver Cole’s next case sees him delving into the world of paranormal and psychic phenomena when he is asked to investigate the murder of a celebrity from the1980’s. He and his friend and colleague, DC Debbie Swan, are called in to see DCI Jack Collier, and informed that the body of Julian Forrester has been found by his cleaning lady; he’d been tied to the chair in the study of his expensive mansion, both his wrists cut. Oliver is also told he will be the lead on this case as Jack has a small medical problem to deal with and will not be available. Short-handed due to the recent ...

The spine tingling, heart in your mouth second book of the Rita Gupta Series! Her hair spreads like a halo around her head. Her dead eyes stare into the distance, frozen in shock... When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in an abondoned warehouse, Inspector Rita Gupta is called in to investigate. As she delves into the girls troubled life she discovers a secretive online life where innocent youths are forming dangerous liaisons... As the secrets tumble out, Rita discovers a chilling connection to her own past, and to her mother's murder. The dots link up, but when a man the dead girl...

The Phantom is back... It's 1920 and a series of daring diamond robberies take place in London's fashionable West End by a thief who leaves a calling card. Kit Aston investigates, and this time he's brought his aunt... What seems a straightforward case spirals out of control as London gangland's 'Elephant Boys' become involved. Can Kit, his fiancee Mary, Aunt Agatha and a film-making chauffeur called Alfred succeed where Scotland Yard have failed? 'The Phantom' is a fast-paced whodunnit, sparkling with romance and humour. The Kit Aston mysteries mix real life historical characters and ...

A peaceful spring afternoon turns into DC Holly Towns’ worst nightmare, once the sun goes down. A blast of gunfire tears through the glass walls of a turret that rises from one end of Quinn’s Landing. It spins Holly’s world upside down and sends the Criminal Investigations Unit on a single-minded pursuit of the shooter. Holly and former detective, Danny Cavallo, are meeting with Geraldine Quinn at the elegant lakeside home that has been in her family for generations. The older woman claims she’s become nervous on her own and wants Cavallo to install a high-tech security system, with...

A Brutal Murder. Broken Glass. A Hidden Ledger… and Deceit in all directions… ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A fantastic read gripping from start to finish - unable to put it down!" When local artist Seamus Garth is found murdered in his seafront boathouse with paintings strewn around his body, DI Hogarth senses a sinister misdirection. Seamus was a man on the edge, a thorn in the authorities' side, but someone was watching his every move. Why did poor Seamus have to die like this? As Hogarth investigates the crime scene, he soon discovers signs of a dark conspiracy. What secrets did Seamus uncover ...

A cozy murder mystery from the heart of Europe, set in an old grand hotel. Instead of cramming for her degree at the detective academy, Penny Küfer, aspiring sleuth, finds herself in a "lost place", a former grand hotel in the foothills of the Alps. Recently a particularly devious murderer seems to have checked in, plus there is a strange rumor about a secret hiding place full of diamonds... Each book in the 'Penny Küfer Investigates' series features a complete, standalone mystery—enjoy them in any order.

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #7 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."ONE WEEK AFTER THE DEATH of his 93-year-old twin brother, the reclusive Declan Thomas O’More is found murdered in his study at the ancestral family estate, rambling and isolated Crummock Hall. Suspicion immediately falls upon his five great nieces and nephews, who between them stand to inherit the considerable proceeds of their grandfather’s will - along with a valuable library of antiquarian books, a collection that is Declan’s lifetime work. And yet each...

A stand-alone mystery featuring DCI Peter Hatherall. Malicious pranks or a deadly obsession? Everyone knew the significance of the noose left hanging in the tree outside James Palmer's home. A young man hung himself from the tree two years earlier. Someone is determined this time the guilty ones will pay. DCI Hatherall must unmask a master of disguise before everyone connected to the suicide is slaughtered.

Late at night on a deserted Chester ring road, a man is run down and killed. But is it an accident, suicide, or murder? First thing next day Inspector Walter Darriteau is on the case. The dead man was a lay preacher up for promotion. Surely that couldn’t be relevant, but they are zealous and jealous in that game. Or could it be something more sinister? Why didn’t the driver stop? And the wife doesn’t seem too upset about it. Her main concern is the insurance policy that should pay off their mortgage. Where was she when it happened? “The Murder Diaries – Seven Times Over” is the ...

Set in 1946 England, Murder at Rutherford Hall is a gripping tale that will have you turning pages till the end to figure out ‘whodunit’! The charming characters simply pull you into a setting of elaborate richness woven with humour and portraits of a bygone era where homes were large and beautiful, people dressed for dinners and life moved with a certain grace for the privileged. Against this enchanting backdrop, love and betrayal, life and death, laughter and grief, wealth and poverty come together to provide an immensely entertaining read. Star Reviews for ‘Murder at Rutherford ...

Detective Constable Oliver Cole has his period of annual leave interrupted when he finds out that Lancashire Police have requested that he travels to Lancashire to assist them with a difficult case. An actor had been murdered at The Midland Hotel in Morecambe in particularly mysterious circumstances having drank a glass of champagne laced with cyanide. The officer in charge, DCI Dominic Wilson, had previously received a warning that someone was about to die and that it would be the first of seven deaths, but the warning had been dismissed by him as a crank. The discovery of a second clue in...

Albert and Rex are going to the palace. It’s the day the Kings' birthday honour list recipients get their knighthoods, but like everywhere else they go, there is trouble to be found. With his three children and youngest granddaughter, Apple-Blossom, in tow, Albert is a little embarrassed by the lavishness of the affair. Yet all that is forgotten when he spots a man he knows. A man guilty of murder. A man who can only be at the palace for one thing. But Albert is about to be presented to the king, now is not the time to be chasing criminals. I guess that's why he's Rex's sidekick. Step ...

Two more cases for Philip Bryce 1. In the City of London, a well-respected barrister is murdered in his chambers.The City Police ask for the help of Scotland Yard, and Detective Chief Superintendent Bryce investigates. 2. The Board of a large pharmaceutical company is meeting. One of the directors dies suddenly. The cause is clearly cyanide poisoning. But was it self-administered, or could it be murder? The local police inspector believes it was a case of suicide, but when he is taken seriously ill and admitted to hospital, and his sergeant almost simultaneously has a mental breakdown, ...

DCI Alex Rogan is barely holding himself together. Haunted by the loss of his wife, he throws himself into the murder of a young woman—the victim he's dubbed the Jigsaw Girl. But as he digs deeper, the case becomes a maze of secrets, lies, and brutal truths no one wants exposed. Then her sister vanishes. Now the clock is ticking, and Rogan must hold his nerve as he hunts a killer who’s always one step ahead. With his job, reputation, and sanity hanging by a thread, he knows one thing for certain: If he doesn’t solve the puzzle in time, another girl will die. Jigsaw Girl is the ...

Detective Constable Oliver Cole has returned home after helping Lancashire Police solve a series of murders in Morecambe to find that his reputation as a puzzle solver is growing. Under pressure from Superintendent Fox, Oliver agrees to stage a week-long puzzle solving course for final year Hendon College graduates, showing them how he looks at the types of clues he’s had to deal with and setting some puzzle solving problems for the class. But minutes before the first session is held, the body of a young woman is fished out of the River Tyne. Torn between the responsibility of running the...

Cynically exploiting the Christmas Eve suicide of her husband Alasdair, beautiful Eilish Macbeth has turned tragedy into triumph by writing a million-selling book for children who have suffered the heartbreaking loss of a parent. But then a witness emerges who claims that Alasdair Macbeth was murdered, plunging private investigator Maggie Bainbridge into a case that is as perplexing as any she ever has worked on. Can Maggie and her little team battle their way through a mountain of lies and deceit to get to the truth?

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #14 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."‘A KILLER IN OUR MIDST?’ cried a newspaper headline to commemorate the disappearance of Mary Wilson. It is two decades since Britain’s first mass DNA sweep failed to incriminate a single local male. Mary was listed merely as a missing person. Now archaeologists have unearthed human remains in Cummacatta Wood. The forensics match – age, sex, fragments of clothing... and dental records. But the murder hunt has only just begun when an outsider, a convicted...

When the body of an old man is found lying in the ruins of St Benet’s Abbey, his throat cut, a knife resting in his open hand, DI John Tanner and DC Jenny Evans are given no choice but to accept a ruling of death by misadventure. But when the body goes missing from its tomb, after a priest is found nailed to a cross, and another impaled on a stake, everything begins to point back to the murder of a teenage girl, thrown from the top of a church tower, some 43 years before.