British Crime Mystery

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 AUTHOR OF RATCATCHER AND OMEGA DOG ***** "Masterful nonstop actioner... superb, intelligent and filled with energy." - O. Barnack, Amazon reviewer ***** "...Knocks the ball right over the deepest part of the left field fence... an old-fashioned page turner filled with chills, thrills and suspense..." - William Wallace, Goodreads reviewer ***** "What a fantastic read!" - Leevora, Amazon reviewer ***** "Awesome book... This is one book you don't want to miss out on!" - Adam Stairs, Amazon reviewer ***** "Excellent spy novel... If you love Tom Clancy and Ludlum, I think you'll really ...

Guy Fawkes Night, fireworks light up the sky—but something far more sinister unfolds below. A neighbour vanishes into a backyard shed and never comes out alive. Three children are seen acting strangely on the harbour. By morning, a body is found on the shore: Harry Mansfield, a known troublemaker with a long list of enemies. Detective Nick Lewis is called in to investigate. But every step into Harry’s past leads to more shadows—seedy bars, shady alibis, and people with secrets they’d kill to keep. Then, a key witness turns up dead. Now, what began as a routine investigation becomes ...

He’s already murdered eight women. Now, he’s coming for me. We find her on a grey November day on Dartmoor, England. I’m excavating a Bronze-Age cairn, expecting to find a burial urn and maybe some bronze tools if I’m really lucky. And then I see her fingers poking through the soil as if she’s trying to claw her way out of her grave. I’m an osteoarchaeologist, used to dealing with bones, and I know immediately she’s been in the ground for months rather than thousands of years. Then I find a message in the grave that’s clearly meant for me. It turns out the girl is the eighth...

Bubble, bubble, toil, and murder... When a woman is found dead near her village in Norfolk, the verdict is suicide. Not everyone agrees. Detective James Simpson is ordered to investigate and he brings Agatha Aston, Betty Simpson and Talleyrand the hound, with him. They stumble across a tale of murder that stretches back two centuries. Part occult story, part murder mystery - this creepy tale is steeped in witchcraft and strange rural festivals where everything is not as it seems. The second Agatha Aston murder mystery is full of laughs, twists and things that go bump in the night. Golden ...

DC Scott Cullen of Lothian and Borders CID has only been in the job three months. Young, eager to please and desperate to do good. So a missing persons should be an easy case to solve. Right? Fresh from a messy divorce, Caroline Adamson’s future is finally looking up. Her son seems happy and she’s dating again. Trouble is, Cullen can’t find Caroline or the man she met on Schoolbook, the latest social network taking Edinburgh by storm.

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’?

All has been quiet in Liverpool, suspiciously quiet… So, when a frantic 999 call comes into Hale Street Police Station reporting a missing woman, it seems like there’s work to do. Except for DI Sheridan Holler there are questions. Why did Caroline Crow take her purse, suitcase and even tell friends she was going away? There’s no reason to suspect foul play…until a severed, burned hand is delivered to another address.

A body is discovered deep in a cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales. Leading the investigation into the mysterious death are experienced DCI Jim Oldroyd and his partner DS Carter, a newcomer from London. The deceased is Dave Atkins, well known throughout the village but not well liked. While there is no shortage of suspects, the details of the crime leave Oldroyd and Carter stumped.

When Theodore Terhune’s wealthy client Arthur Harrison is found stabbed and his library ransacked, the police suspect the murderer was looking for a book. Harrison collected rare early printed books called incunabula, but as the provenance of such titles is well documented in the book world it would make little sense to steal one. Terhune is hired by the estate to sell off Harrison’s library, but another armed break-in and a very strange book auction suggest the killer is still searching for something. Soon Terhune himself becomes a target, but what exactly does the murderer want? And ...

A Charming English village mystery. When a neighbour is accused of attempting to kill her ex-husband, Simon Morris jumps at the chance to practice his sleuthing skills and prove her innocence. His amateur investigations draw him into the murky world of village politics and on-line predators as he uncovers a collective effort to drive Richard Fielding and his new family out of Clenchers Mill. And behind the smokescreen of unpleasant bullying, there is one person who is determined to see Richard dead. Without some quick thinking and the help of his dogs, Simon's first case may prove to be the...

There will be no escape this Christmas... They’re out there again. My heart pounds as I look out of the kitchen window. For weeks now, they’ve been harassing us, vandalising our property and intimidating our children. It’s been relentless. The police don’t take them seriously because they’re teenagers. But they don’t know what it’s like to live like this. Those girls are running rings around us, and it’s got to the point where they're there every time we leave the house, mocking us. Following wherever we go. We’ve had as much as we can take. So in the middle of the night, ...

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 ...

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.

An unexpected jackpot win, a handsome new villager, and an angry landlord... When Allie Day wins three-quarters of a million pounds in a mysterious jackpot, she attempts to help out her friend Bree, owner of her favorite Cotswolds cafe. "Winters will have you giggling into your book!" But instead of making things better, Allie's attempts to help lead her into hot water - and straight to a dead body! Before she knows it, Allie is accused of murder, and written up in the local papers as a killer – and worse, she seems to be in the real killer’s crosshairs! When the killer tries to strike ...

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 ...

Meet disgraced ex-DI Ellie Reckless, a self-proclaimed "cop for criminals", and the person the underworld calls when they can't call the police. For months now, she's built up a series of favors, all so she can set them off like dominos—proving that Nicky Simpson, YouTube sensation and wannabe gangster, was the man who destroyed her life—and killed the man she loved. And in return, Nicky has watched her carefully, waiting to see whether she's too much of a threat to keep alive. But when Nicky's life is threatened, he's forced to turn to Ellie and her team for help.

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 ...

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.

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...