British Detective Mysteries

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 ...

Impeccably attired. Unapologetically arrogant. Undeniably brilliant. Detective Chief Inspector James Thaw, of the Tolland Valley Police in the north of England specializes in solving the seemingly unsolvable murders. Together with his faithful sidekick, Detective Sergeant Kevin Friday, they tackle some of the most baffling murders. This time they are looking into the death of Sir Robat Hughes, a nationally acclaimed scholar.

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

'I can't deny it, I just love these characters! ' - Goodreads reviewer Investment Trust boss Hugo Morgan has celebrated his fiftieth birthday by dumping his wife of twenty-two years and is now intent on marrying a younger model. Tasked with checking out the back story of the shiny new Mrs Morgan are ex-barrister turned private eye Maggie Bainbridge and her faithful assistant Jimmy Stewart. A SUSPICIOUS SUICIDE Beautiful and clever, twenty-three year old Chardonnay Clarke has died under the wheels of a tube train, leaving behind a heart-breaking message on her social media. But in DI Frank ...

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...

A body caught on the end of a mast, another skewered by a rhond hook, and a chain of evidence Tanner simply cannot accept. As a twisting gale howls its way over Barton Broad, DS Jenny Evans joins a handsome old friend to help rescue the crew of an overturned boat. But when they discover a body, snagged on the end of the mast, one murder soon follows another, leaving DI John Tanner facing a race against time, desperate to prove that the most obvious suspect isn’t who everyone seems to think it is.

In July 1949, an unpopular and deeply unpleasant man is stabbed to death in the courthouse of an English city. As the murder has been committed in a room to which the general public doesn’t have access, it seems probable that the culprit is someone involved with the business of the courts. Suspects include a number of lawyers, police officers, and magistrates. For various reasons, the local Chief Constable decides to ask Scotland Yard to investigate the murder. Chief Inspector Philip Bryce and Sergeant Alex Haig are assigned to the case. Theirs is a recent partnership, but the two men ...

England, 1941. When Jane Treen is summoned to her boss’s office at the end of a long day, she smooths down her tweed skirt and makes them both another strong pot of coffee. Brigadier Remmington-Blythe slides a folded copy of the evening newspaper towards her, with one small article circled in red ink. A body has been found on an English beach in the little seaside town where she grew up, and he wants her to investigate. Jane is used to managing secret agents and spies, but she is now part of The Secret Detective Agency, England’s answer to solving the most mysterious murders.

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.

'A jigsaw puzzle that had its threads more tightly woven than a spider’s web.' - Amazon reviewer When former Naval Commodore Roderick Macallan dies in tragic circumstances, his multi-million pound Scottish country estate is destined to pass to his next of kin. Only trouble is, his next of kin are his twin daughters, the beautiful social media stars Pixie and Posy, and each is claiming that they are the elder. Tasked with sorting out the unholy mess are barrister turned private-eye Maggie Bainbridge and her faithful ex-army assistant Jimmy Stewart. A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE Meanwhile DI ...

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 ...

The New York Times best-selling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty brilliantly reinvents the classic crime novel once again with this clever and inventive mystery starring a fictional version of the author himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes, investigating a case involving buried secrets, murder, and a trail of bloody clues.

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’?

As bogus corruption charges loom over her, DS Kat Ballantyne finds herself deskbound and stuck with cold cases. Her hated boss, DI Carver, has given her just one week to explain how £50,000 found its way into her bank account. If she can’t, she’ll be lucky to have a desk at all. Then a close friend calls her from a murder scene, claiming to have strangled a local gangster’s wife. Kat has no choice but to disobey orders and investigate. Despite overwhelming forensic evidence supporting her friend’s confession, something still doesn’t add up…

Leger has a plan to get Amber feeling like a true Glaswegian again. He wants to set up a detective school and recruit her as a teacher so she sees how valuable she is to the community. It also has the added benefit of passing on their skills to a new generation of cats, so when they're gone, Glasgow won't be left vulnerable. However, the students who turn up aren't kittens, but Leger's nearest and dearest friends. When Leger has to leave his first lesson halfway through to find a restless Amber, the others witness a crime being committed and assume Leger has set this up to test his students...

Not all the myths of monsters lurking in the dark are just stories. When Doctor Watson first took rooms with Sherlock Holmes at 221b Baker Street, he found himself embroiled in a world of crime and intrigue he could barely comprehend. One year on, Watson’s now confident about assisting the detective, no matter how macabre the case might be. So when a young coalman from the Yorkshire Moors appears at their door, begging for help to locate his beloved sister who disappeared two days before under mysterious circumstances, Holmes and Watson can barely contain their excitement. But that ...