British Police Procedural

Fifteen years ago, a serial killer was on a rampage murdering young women in Middlehampton. Then, suddenly, the killings stopped, and the murderer was never found… So when the body of another young woman is found bearing the twisted killer’s unique hallmark—the overpowering stench of lavender and an origami heart—DS Kat Ballantyne knows this can only mean one thing: the killer is back.

‘When you hide the truth from yourself, you keep the Devil’s secret...’ Sarah Kingsmoor has built a successful career as a family doctor in an idyllic market town. She lives in the cottage of her dreams, enjoys rewarding friendships, and leads the life she’s always wanted for herself. She’s convinced of this. One spring evening, Sarah stumbles upon a brutal mugging. Her intervention saves the victim’s life. And a series of events is set in motion which will jar Sarah loose from her comfortable existence, and change her forever. As she finds herself drawn increasingly closer to ...

DI Kate Young is on leave. She’s the force’s best detective, but her bosses know she’s under pressure, on medication and overcoming trauma. So after her bad judgement call leads to a narrowly averted public disaster, they’re sure all she needs is a rest. But when Staffordshire Police summon her back to work on a murder case, it’s a harder, more suspicious Kate Young who returns. With a new ruthlessness, she sets about tracking down a clinical, calculating serial killer who is torturing victims and leaving clues to taunt the police.

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.

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, ...

December 1940. With the Blitz devastating Britain’s cities, Lizzie Hayes and the women pilots of the Air Transport Authority are more crucial to the war effort than ever before. But when the relative peace of the village of Scotney is shattered by the disappearance of the Chief Inspector’s niece, it’s Lizzie’s training as a psychologist that draws her into another disturbing police case alongside DI Jonathan Kember.

London, 1878. One April morning, a small boat bearing a young woman’s corpse floats down the murky waters of the Thames. When the victim is identified as Rose Albert, daughter of a prominent judge, the Scotland Yard director gives the case to Michael Corravan, one of the only senior inspectors remaining after a corruption scandal the previous autumn left the division in ruins. Reluctantly, Corravan abandons his ongoing case, a search for the missing wife of a shipping magnate, handing it over to his young colleague, Mr. Stiles.

Chief Inspector, Lord Ralph McGinniss and Professor Claire Lane have conceded defeat and married. Then war is declared, and both are called on to help defend the Empire. Ralph to his Uncle’s regiment and Claire invited to Bletchley Park. A shift in the government’s plans for both results in the discovery of a German Spy embedded in an old murder case. They are running out of time. Will Ralph with Claire’s help unravel the mystery and prevent a National catastrophe? Or will Johannes Liebert be successful in a kidnap attempt which will change their lives forever?

Halloween, Whitby. DCI Jim Oldroyd’s daughter Louise is in town with friends for a goth festival. But their visit to an escape room ends in bloody murder when one of the group stabs his girlfriend and flees the scene. It’s a crime with three witnesses - but Louise refuses to take what she saw at face value. Oldroyd and DS Carter are called in to solve the case, assisted from the sidelines by Louise. But the closer they investigate, the more complex the web of deceit appears. This is no straightforward crime of passion.

An eye for an eye. A death for a death. Some people will do anything for revenge. And one detective will do anything to stop them. DI Fiona Williams returns from a short break to a station stretched by the antics of a gang of youths, staff absences and three murders in quick succession. With unconnected victims and widely different murder methods, the only link is they seem motiveless. Forced to work in small groups rather than as a team, frustrations and jealousies flare-up between the officers creating a minefield of tension and a headache for Fiona. As the most experienced officer, she ...

Detective Harry Grimm can’t catch a break. When his much-needed vacation is interrupted by a call reporting a decomposed corpse, he races home to examine the gruesome remains. Learning the young woman was tortured, he’s stunned when the peaceful countryside site explodes, destroying evidence and causing more death. Uncovering clues from the victim’s car, Grimm struggles to keep up with a cunning killer when he discovers yet another body.

Detective Peter Diamond, chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is taking a short holiday in the country. His former colleague Julie Hargreaves has invited Diamond and his partner, Paloma, to visit the idyllic village of Baskerville (no relation to the Sherlock Holmes story, so he's told). It turns out Julie's invitation was not without ulterior motives. The woman who owns the village's largest dairy farm has been convicted of manslaughter following a terrible accident in her grain silo.

Two fourteen-year-old girls go missing from an exclusive boarding school. Did they abscond, or have they been kidnapped? The girls’ parents - and indeed the parents of many other pupils – have considerable influence in very high places. Pressure is quickly brought to bear to get Scotland Yard involved. Concern for the girls’ safety is paramount. Detective Chief Inspector Adair and three of his officers are assigned to help the local police. Initially there is little to go on, but Adair soon determines that the children didn’t leave voluntarily. The first step – to ascertain how ...

A stand-alone murder mystery featuring DCI Peter Hatherall. A young mother brutally stabbed in a busy park in front of her son. A paperboy shot in an isolated farmhouse twenty-four years previously. DI Fiona Williams is baffled when her senior officer, DCI Peter Hatherall makes a connection between the two cases. As details of Hatherall's involvement in the old case emerge, her loyalty is tested to breaking point and she starts to question his decisions. When the murdered woman's son goes missing the time for hesitating is over.

The body of a missing boy is dredged from the seabed off the Sussex coast, missing vital organs. Soon after, two more bodies are found . . . A teenager in Brighton will die if she does not receive an urgent transplant. When the health system threatens to let her down her mother takes drastic action and goes to an online broker in black-market organs. The broker can provide what she wants, but it will come at a price. As Roy Grace investigates the recovered bodies, he unearths a gang of child traffickers operating from Eastern Europe.

When children Josh and Dilys find a body in the woods on the outskirts of their small Cotswold village, they are too terrified to report it. But when, as adults, Josh discovers that his sister has kept a memento - the victim's charm bracelet - he feels compelled to share the secret. When Josh unburdens himself to retired superintendent Alan Markby, his instincts tell him that this is linked to a missing person, a case long grown cold. The missing girl was last seen in the region currently under the jurisdiction of Superintendent Ian Carter and Inspector Jess Campbell.

A stand-alone mystery featuring DCI Peter Hatherall. It's hard to defend yourself when you have memory lapses, and everyone thinks you are crazy. Journalist, Megan Roach, is given a story by an old man in a nursing home that could make her famous. When her carefully constructed life starts to unravel, she is forced to confront her childhood demons and the possibility she could be a murderer. DCI Peter Hatherall uncovers a conspiracy that confronts his own beliefs and goes far deeper than Megan Roach imagined. But can he believe anything she says?

The summer in question started out with hot, fun-filled days and new friendships. We had just turned thirteen and had our whole lives ahead of us. But that was before her. Before we became known as the Hixton Five and our lives become defined by one night. It’s hard to believe twenty years have passed since she was locked away. But now she’s free and strange things have started to happen. When I close my eyes, the creeping anxiety and fear is overwhelming and all too real. Because the monster is back, and I know she has a score to settle with us.

Book 1 in the thrilling new crime series, by David J. Gatward, author of the DCI Harry Grimm crime series, and set in the hauntingly beautiful Somerset countryside.

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.