British Mysteries

"Matt Drabble is a name that will one day be as widely recognized as Stephen King & Dean Koontz" - READERS FAVORITE Lucy Sheppard hadn't been back to the small town of Woodforge Valley in a long time, but it still didn't seem long enough since she'd set foot inside the black hole of terror that had once been her childhood home. The family run care home had closed its doors some time ago and her mother had spent her final months fading away inside the manor house walls. The large building and sprawling grounds have seen better days, a once proud beacon on the local map now lies in tatters as...

What promises to be a tranquil evening in the early years of Holmes and Watson’s time at Baker Street is interrupted via a letter sent by a curator at the British Museum, who rather imperiously demands Holmes appear before him that night in the museum’s archives, and lend aid to what he describes as a threat to his honour, and perhaps his very life. Plunging out into the intemperate night, Watson joins Holmes as he enters into the vast after-hours reaches of the world’s largest museum, and there, in the darkness, meets a man whose secret past stands in contrast to the circumstances of...

Morris dancing, maypoles and…murder As the picturesque village of Upper Outwell buzzes with anticipation for its May Day festivities—complete with Morris dancers, flower garlands, and enough Victoria sponge cakes to require emergency reinforcement of the trestle tables—a shadow falls over the celebrations. A man is discovered dead in the vicarage library, his identity as enigmatic as the circumstances of his murder. Who was he? Why was he killed? Kit and Mary Aston, a sharp-witted husband-and-wife duo with an uncanny talent for uncovering trouble, investigate. Alongside them is ...

In 1950, a death occurs under the uniquely-banded cliffs in Hunstanton. It is soon realised that this is a case of murder, but the Norfolk police inspector runs into difficulties, and Scotland Yard DCI Philip Bryce finds himself back in the county for the second time in a matter of months. A local amateur detective with a considerable knowledge of murder cases (both real and fictional) is determined to help the police, and comes up with various suggestions. However, initially neither he nor the police seem to be able to pin all the usual key elements – means, motive, and opportunity – ...

Commander Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard has just published a new book of poems and has taken a brief respite from publicity on the remote Larksoken headland on the Norfolk coast. A psychotic strangler of young women is at large in Norfolk, and getting nearer to Larksoken with every killing. And when Dalgliesh discovers the murdered body of the Acting Administrative Officer on the beach, he finds himself caught up in one of the most baffling murder cases of his career.

Fran Williams never intended to be a travel writer but circumstances made her life take a surprising turn. Now, needing to put the past behind her and desperate for a fresh new start, she finds herself assigned to attend the Mayward Literature Festival as part of a group of journalists. It’s not long before things take a turn for the worse and Fran, teaming up with tourist board guide Harry, finds herself in the middle of yet another mystery! Can Fran and Harry track down the missing celebrity author? Where is she? Why did she vanish? Will they manage to find her in time and uncover the ...

When Daniel Cosgrove is stabbed at the Greenward Isle Flower Farm it seems there are suspects aplenty. With the island locals sticking together and not helping matters, the atrocious weather hindering things further and a missing murder weapon in the mix, the investigation is not going to plan at all. As Abi and Jake uncover numerous untruths and a whole lot of mysteries on the tiny Greenward Isle, the case seems to be getting more complicated and the chances of successfully cracking the investigation less likely with every passing minute! Join Abi and Jake on another exciting sleuthing ...

A detective on the edge. A hit-and-run. A dangerous truth. DI Joe Hogarth's private troubles have exploded out of control. When reformed villain Benny Spencer becomes the victim of a hit-and-run, a new case opens—one that threatens to be the end of DI Hogarth in more ways than one. ★★★★★ “Fast paced - difficult to put down!” As Hogarth grapples with his secret crisis, he's forced to investigate the hit-and-run. Stretched to his limits, Hogarth's bad choices and mistakes could cost him his job—or his life. ★★★★★ “Gripping… He writes so vividly that it's almost...

When Mr. Rushworth, the former husband of Edmund's sister Maria, is discovered dead in his home, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market. In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her new husband in favor of the notorious rake Henry Crawford, and when he wouldn't marry her, was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace. Now Maria is back, accompanied by a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce—and who he wrote into his will just before his death.

A crucified priest. A detective haunted by the past. A day of reckoning. When a priest is found crucified, following the desecration of local churches, hysterical media coverage focuses on terrorism, and a satanic cult operating out in the wilds of North Staffordshire. Panic grips the city. DCI Tyler and DS Mills are under pressure as the toxic atmosphere deepens. One line of enquiry, involving historic allegations against the murdered priest, is close to home for Tyler and threatens to tip him over the edge. But Mills has a hunch that could lead the investigation in a different direction, ...

Abi attends a murder mystery play and dinner at a local hotel with friends and family but the evening soon takes on a real sinister turn when one of the actors is found sprawled on the floor backstage. With a blizzard raging outside, it could take a while for the emergency services to battle through the weather to reach the hotel, so Abi dives into investigating what happened, why and who caused things to take such a deadly turn. As the snow falls and the story unfolds, Abi is soon unravelling a true mystery. With a bunch of convincing actors to question, will she be able to decipher who is...

"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 MYSTERIOUS MURDER AT MIDNIGHT: When a student falls from the turrets of King’s College, Cambridge and the police rule his death as accidental, Olive consults her tarot cards - which confirm her suspicions of murder - and decides to take the investigation into her own hands. A COSY COMMUNITY: Fortunately, the college porter is a loyal customer of Olive’s cafe, The Biscuit Tin, and when she plies him with his ...

In the heart of the Staffordshire Peak District, a sinister secret lurks beneath the tranquil surface… When nineteen-year-old Tilley McCleave disappears without a trace, the historic market town of Leek is in shock. Detective Jessica Ryan is assigned the case, but things take a chilling turn when she discovers a horrifying connection to five women who were abducted. Four remain lost, their fates unknown, while one survivor’s harrowing tale is etched into her traumatised soul. Haunted by her ordeal, lone escapee Heidi Dawson has spent years confined to a psychiatric hospital. Could her ...

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 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.

With her personal life in disarray, Julia Lanchester feels she has no option but to quit her job on her father's hit BBC Two nature show, A Bird in the Hand. Accepting a tourist management position in Smeaton-under-Lyme, a quaint village in the English countryside, Julia throws herself into her new life, delighting sightseers (and a local member of the gentry) with tales of ancient Romans and pillaging Vikings. But the past is front and center when her father Rupert tracks her down in a moment of desperation.

A DETECTIVE/MURDER MYSTERY LIKE NO OTHER… Following the murder of a sexy, blonde bombshell (and, soon after, the bloody, gruesome, shocking murder of yet another sexy broad), ex-Inspector Cullot is called in to team up with his old side-kick, Detective Sergeant Watkins, to investigate the baffling crime. Together they set about solving the mysterious deaths at Bounderdales, the opulent mansion of the oil magnate, Henry Barble. A small group of the rich, decadent, sophisticated and ultra-sexy are staying at the mansion. What secrets are each of them harbouring? Who are the guilty parties? ...

Two years ago, Miff Ferguson chose to opt out of the rat race. Since then he's been living rough and happily so. Until now. For as the first signs of winter approach, everything in his life is uprooted. While looking for shelter, Miff stumbles across the corpse of a young woman in a dilapidated warehouse. Quickly realizing he is not alone, and has been spotted, Miff becomes embroiled in a game of cat-and-mouse with a killer that forces him to abandon his life and take refuge with his aunt and uncle in the village of Weston St. Ambrose.

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.

He escaped the city of nightmares once. And now he must return. William Twist is on the brink of collapse. But even with his detective agency failing, he’s wary when Beth Hilary, an attractive and wealthy widow walks into his office. Yet Twist is in no position to refuse when she makes him a generous offer to look into the suspicious suicide of her son, a philosophy student at Twist's old university. Following the case back to a city holding dark and disturbing secrets he’s spent twenty years trying to escape, he soon regrets his decision. But people are depending on him, and Twist is ...