British Detectives Thrillers

Susan Elia MacNeal introduced the remarkable Maggie Hope in her acclaimed debut, Mr. Churchill's Secretary. Now Maggie returns to protect Britain's beloved royals against an international plot - one that could change the course of history. As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5.

When new victims of the still-at-large serial killer known as the Red Reaper start to appear in London, DCI Declan Walsh and his team are placed back on the case—but everything isn't what it seems. For a start, the deaths are different, and the calling card is new. It could be a copycat, apart from one thing... They know what Declan did to the real Red Reaper a year earlier. Something only Declan and the closest members of his team keep secret. Is this the real Reaper, back to gain revenge on Declan and his family—or is this a protégé, staking his own claim to the serial killer name?

Amid the tragic mayhem of the morning of 9/11, failed Brighton businessman and ne'er-do-well Ronnie Wilson sees the chance of a lifeline: to shed his debts, disappear and reinvent himself in another country. Six years later the discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman's body in a storm drain in Brighton leads Roy Grace on an enquiry spanning the globe, and into a desperate race against time to save the life of a woman being hunted down like an animal in the streets and alleys of Brighton.

When Detective Inspector Bridget Hart returns to her old Oxford college for a reunion dinner, she's hoping for a fun weekend catching up with old friends. But the reunion takes a macabre turn when body parts are served up at the college feast, and one of her friends is found murdered. With Bridget's arch rival Inspector Baxter leading the murder inquiry, and herself a potential suspect, Bridget is forbidden from taking part in the investigation. But that doesn't stop her from carrying out her own private inquiries. Bridget soon realizes that the murderer is someone known to her.

The Metropole Hotel, Brighton. After a heady New Year's Eve ball, a woman is attacked as she returns to her room. A week later, another woman is assaulted. Both victims' shoes are taken by the offender . . . Roy Grace soon realizes that these new cases bear remarkable similarities to an unsolved series of crimes in the city back in 1997. Dubbed 'Shoe Man', the perpetrator was believed to have attacked five women before murdering his sixth victim and vanishing. Could this be a copycat, or has Shoe Man resurfaced?

When Lady Abigail, the wife of the wealthy Baron of Cambridge, is found dead in her bed, Detective Inspector Henry Smith is called in to investigate. With a multitude of suspects, including the gruff and unfriendly Baron himself, Henry must use all his investigative skills to uncover the truth behind Lady Abigail's mysterious death. As he delves deeper into the case, secrets are uncovered and tensions rise, leading to a dramatic conclusion that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.

Harry Richards, a local solicitor, is found in his car, throat slit. DI Clare Mackay is on the case. She soon learns that Harry was not the upstanding man he seemed to be. Finding the killer should be easy. Then the wife of one of Harry's colleagues is discovered dead in her car, and Clare realises there is something more sinister at play… Can she find out who's behind the murders before they turn their attention to her?

Hercule Poirot investigates a string of murders that appear to be disconnected on the surface, but Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective sees only tiny detail that link them all together. For some obscure reason that Poirot is determined to uncover, the number four keeps popping up with every killing. Poirot soon learns that there is in fact an international crime gang dubbed “The Big Four,” and he sets off after them. With Hastings once again at his side, Monsieur Poirot travels all over Europe to find them, but the pair always seem to be a step behind this shadowy syndicate.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER, KILL TOGETHER A smuggling operation, orchestrated by paramilitary groups representing both religious factions, takes a fatal turn when a local farmer loses his life, and journalist Jock McDevitt is left injured from a gunshot. This incident hits close to home for Ian Wilson, the leader of the Belfast Murder Squad, intensifying his determination to apprehend the perpetrators. As the Belfast Murder Squad delves into the investigation, they uncover a web of criminal conspiracies that transcend old rivalries, uniting former foes from opposite sides of the sectarian divide. ...

Hayley was destined to be something she never wanted. Stuck in a relationship that undermines her very sense of self, she runs. Hiding however, comes at a price. A price she pays daily. Getting close to people isn't easy, and maintaining friendships is impossible when you have secrets to keep. But just as Hayley's life begins to take shape, her past comes back to haunt her. Can she remain in the shadows when its the very place the darkness resides? Jesse is a newly promoted Detective Inspector with a lot to prove. With two cases causing him headaches, he decides to do a little undercover ...

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.

The past has a way of catching up to you... Following the explosive events of End Game, American private investigator Thomas Blume is battling to come to terms with a changed British city he helped to create. But when a young woman is brutally murdered, he finds himself dragged into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a serial killer targeting victims that are all too familiar. Taken across the dark, treacherous streets of modern London, Blume searches through a decades-old conspiracy, digging up secrets that make him question if even the police can be trusted. But with time running out ...

A COLD CASE. A MISSING PERSON. A MURDER WITH NO MOTIVE. AND ONE DEADLY CONNECTION. When private detective Maggie Bainbridge is hired to track down missing software developer Paul Davie, the case seems straightforward - the man had been having a passionate affair with a colleague, and it looks like he's simply run off with his mistress. But ten years earlier, Davie's brother Jaz had drowned in Loch Fyne in tragic circumstances, and now another body has been found in the same loch, this one wrapped in polythene sheeting. The cases can't possibly be connected, can they? But as Maggie delves ...

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 ...

DS Whitney Walker wants a promotion, but it’s hard when she’s trying to balance motherhood with a career. When a newborn baby is kidnapped from the local hospital, she draws on her skills as a mother to help. Despite being ordered not to, and when the leads are going nowhere, Walker enlists the help of a local journalist who’s convinced it’s the work of an international baby smuggling ring. Walker’s plan backfires and she fears they’re running out of time.

Spiritualism has captured the public’s imagination. Séances are all the rage, and Detective Ian Hamilton’s otherwise sensible aunt Lillian is not immune to their allure. But for Ian, indulging her superstitions has its limits. When members of Lillian’s circle of séance friends begin turning up dead, Ian doesn’t need a medium to tell him these aren’t freak accidents.

From the moment John Black stepped foot in his hometown, he knew darkness would follow. The Northern England landscape held bittersweet memories for John - memories of childhood innocence and a lost love. But as he attends a family funeral, those memories are shattered by the discovery of a body in the dunes of Cross Hill, a place where John used to play as a child. And it's a body of a woman he once knew. Haunted by his past and driven by a set of mysterious coordinates left for him at a local pub, John races against time to confront the killer. But as the body count grows and the police ...

When Harry Falcon, a wealthy boatyard owner and decorated World War Two veteran, is found drowned in his bath, DI John Tanner and DC Jenny Evans start by questioning his two sons, each with a motive for wanting him dead. But when the elder son is found with his head smashed in under a toppled yacht, and the younger son has been talking to a local property developer, one who’d spent months trying to buy the yard from his father, the investigation soon leads them towards a dark and dangerous secret, one which nobody can quite believe.

When a young woman’s body is found butchered in Brighton, Roy Grace cannot help but think of his own missing wife and her unsolved fate. Elsewhere in the city, when Tom Bryce finds a disc left on a train, he simply tries to do the right thing – return it to its owner. But this attempted act of kindness makes him the sole witness to that same vicious murder. Learning that Tom has made a statement to Grace’s team, the killers have to act. But when they plan the murder of the Bryce family, it’s not just revenge – it’s entertainment.

World War II rages on across Europe, but Maggie Hope has finally found a moment of rest on the pastoral coast of western Scotland. Home from an undercover mission in Berlin, she settles down to teach at her old spy training camp, and to heal from scars on both her body and heart. Yet instead of enjoying the quieter pace of life, Maggie is quickly drawn into another web of danger and intrigue.