British Police Mysteries

When 14-year-old Zoe Johnson doesn't come home on a Monday night in early December, the alarm bells in Kings Lake Central police station do not ring straight away - after all, she's from the Dockmills, one of the toughest estates in the town. But for Detective Sergeant DC Smith, due to retire in just three weeks' time, there are some strange echoes of the case that has haunted him for the past 13 years. Maybe it's simply his over-developed sense of irony, or maybe, in his final days as a police officer, Smith must look once more into the eyes of a serial killer.

Thirty years ago, a group of five child detectives: Tommy, Luke, Tess, Jane and Daniel, along with their dog, Dexter, made the national press with their crime solving. Nicknamed the Magpies, their adventures were written up as novels by author Reginald Troughton and released to children around the world, including a ten-year-old Declan Walsh. But now, someone is targeting the Magpies, with Reginald brutally murdered while writing a last "lost" adventure.

The Hangman's third victim twists in the wind outside Inspector Hilary Casgrain’s new home. It's not the ‘Welcome To Elk Ridge’ message she was expecting. Hilary Casgrain just moved halfway across the country for a fresh start. She’s desperate to trade the shootings, corruption, and gangs of the city for small-town law enforcement. And she’s convinced that a steady diet of nothing more serious than drunken tourists and fender benders is just what she needs to get her life back on track. But a serial killer spoils Hilary’s dreams of a low-key career change. Her arrival in Elk ...

Change is afoot at Kings Lake Central police station. A most unexpected new detective inspector takes up his post this Monday morning, and the oldest detective in the place takes a momentous decision. Around them, other officers are considering their own situations, and even the building itself seems to be facing an uncertain future. But life and death go on, nevertheless, and by lunchtime someone will make a grim discovery on the Norfolk saltmarshes. A stranger seems to have suffered a slow and agonizing death out there.

Detective Joseph Easter's daughter discovers a cottage hidden in some trees on a large fenland farm. Someone has been living there. The farm owner's wife has been receiving sinister pagan artifacts, including a witch's knife. Are they some sort of warning or message? Joseph and his daughter search the cottage and find an old satchel. Inside are photos of a beautiful girl, Jennifer Cowley. She went missing 15 years ago. She'd been stalked by a young man, who was convicted of her murder, even though her body was never found.

When the body of a young woman is discovered in the cowshed of Cricket Farm, the tranquility of the British countryside is shattered. Inspector Jess Campbell is on the case, but with few leads, a grumbling partner, and the new superintendent Ian Carter piling on the pressure, she's beginning to wonder why she chose to be a detective in the first place.

One buried body. Many hidden secrets. When the body of an unknown teenage girl is discovered following a storm, the community of Birkbury closes ranks to protect their secrets. As a seasoned detective, DCI Peter Hatherall’s expectation of solving the historic case is low. No local girls were reported missing twenty years ago, and she was buried in a field easily accessible from a major road. Beneath the villagers’ good manners and polite smiles, he discovers deep-seated resentments and family feuds spanning decades, but little interest in what happened to the girl. With only two ...

When Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid takes Gemma, Kit, and Toby for a holiday visit to his family in Cheshire, Gemma is soon entranced with Nantwich's pretty buildings and the historic winding canal, and young Kit is instantly smitten with his cousin Lally. But their visit is marred by family tensions exacerbated by the unraveling of Duncan's sister Juliet's marriage. And tensions are brought to the breaking point on Christmas Eve with Juliet's discovery of a mummified infant's body interred in the wall of an old dairy barn.

“Watson, there is not a moment to lose. If you care to join the chase, pack your bag at once!” Likewise, enthusiasts of the greatest detective will not want to miss this opportunity to join Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in a whirlwind of exciting new adventures… A daring thief penetrates the defenses of the Tower of London in search of a secret treasure. A profligate young actor is accused of murdering his exemplary sibling. From the safe of a prominent London banker, a priceless heirloom is stolen. Upon a high cliff, a ghostly assassin commits an impossible murder. A kingpin of ...

Who is willing to fully face up to their past? A group of teenagers promise to never tell. Ten years later one of them feels compelled to reveal their closely guarded secret. DI Fiona Williams is pursuing an unusual house burglar who takes personal trinkets while leaving valuable items behind when she is asked to review a case ruled as suicide. She's reluctant to choose between the cases, but there's a second unexplained suicide and she's forced to make a harder decision between making an arrest and saving a colleague. As she digs deeper into the deaths, seemingly unrelated current events ...

“M.G. Cole is a brilliant new addition to the echelon of British crimewriters.” Peter James "Dark, grim, tense. A compelling new voice." PAUL FINCH, author of the Detective Mark Heckenburg novels. REVENGE IS ONLY HALF THE STORY An unreported missing person. A crime that lurks undetected. A temptation that corrupts the incorruptible. Only when a corpse is uncovered are these dark secrets revealed. But the dead can’t speak. They can’t accuse. And they certainly don’t pay their debts. It’s up to DCI David Garrick’s investigation team to connect the dots and unearth a most ...

It’s twice the pressure to solve a shocking murder, once Inspector Hilary Casgrain realizes a killer is circling and taking aim again. A catastrophic pileup on the treacherous winter highway through Arrow Pass draws Inspector Casgrain and her team into a web of violence that threatens the nearby community of Elk Ridge. From tourists at the posh ski resort to business owners on the picturesque main street there are desperate questions but no answers. Can the small-town police department that Hilary leads cope with the aftermath of the crash, complications from the winter storm, and what ...

A young provincial journalist receives a telephone call from a man who won’t give his name. Anticipating the scoop of his career, Marcus Cunningham arranges to meet the informant at Liverpool Street station. Subsequent events quickly draw in Scotland Yard detectives Chief Inspector Philip Bryce and his colleague Sergeant Alex Haig, as they conduct a complex murder investigation.

A man is found dead, tied to a chair in the middle of the road, a stag’s antlers on his head. The gruesome scene stuns the town, especially when the victim is identified: Jim Tiernan, who ran the White Hart pub. Tiernan’s pub is at the center of village life and he knew everyone’s secrets. Detective Nicola Bridge grew up in Fleetcombe and has now returned, for the good of her family, from a life away in Liverpool. DC Harry Ward is ten years younger and, despite his newcomer status, determined to earn Nicola’s trust.

A picture-perfect murder? A photographer is killed and abandoned in a macabre display on the banks of the Hay River. Constable Ezra McCann’s home is nearby and his celebrity family feel like they're targets. McCann is on the alert. He also has a strong suspicion that the new nanny is not who she seems, and that’s one more thing keeping him awake at night. Can Inspector Hilary Casgrain and the small Elk Ridge Police Department handle a crime with international overtones? Or is this really a homegrown killer stalking anyone who gets in his way? When a second body is discovered nearby, ...

THE LAST WOMAN TO BE TRANSPORTED FROM CUMBRIA BARELY OF AGE, eighteen-year-old Flora Mary Graham was found guilty by a jury of twelve good Kendal men and true of the murder in his prime of the Seventh Earl of Fellside, by striking him about the head and sending him to his death in Blind Beck, the town’s stream running in violent spate on the stormy night of Halloween, 1852. Apprehended at the scene bearing a babe in arms, the child swaddled and soaked, three gold sovereigns were found in Flora’s possession, half a year’s wages for a servant girl such as she. The motive ascribed was ...

STAND-ALONE, #18 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." A BLIND EYE TURNED, AN INJUSTICE DONE. High in lonely Swinesdale, notorious burglars Jake and Boris Baddun perish in a burnt-out stolen Mercedes. Known associate Dale Spooner leaves his biological signature and the predatory DI Alec Smart moves in for the kill. Spooner is convicted, and now languishes in jail. A rumour reaches Skelgill: Spooner is innocent and can prove it – a cast-iron alibi, a video on a hidden mobile phone. But Spooner will not talk. At stake is the safety of ...

A highly rated mystery/thriller series takes a bone-chilling jaunt to Scotland. Book 8 in the award-winning Port Stirling series Port Stirling, Oregon, police chief Matt Horning and his special agent wife, Fern, finally get their well-deserved vacation on a getaway to Shetland and the Scottish Highlands. But their heart-warming holiday turns deadly in a pulse-pounding game of cat and mouse when they reach Edinburgh. Did this shocking, brazen crime originate back home in Port Stirling? Is it the fallout of one – or several – previous cases resolved by Matt and Fern? Matt must rely on his...

SPIDER MOUTHDI FRED FAIRSERVICE has just returned from holiday when he’s confronted with several mysterious deaths; the mutilated dead body of a junkie, the apparent suicide of a housewife, and the murder of a cannibal, kicks off the strangest investigation of his dark and brutal career. But the strangest element of the case is the connection to the deaths of several old men and women who are found with spiders placed in their mouths.

1936. In Lincoln, two men are on trial on charges of manslaughter. The trial has hardly started when one of the jurors dies in the jury box in the courtroom. It is quickly found that she has been poisoned. Chief Inspector Acton, already present in the courthouse for other reasons, takes charge of the investigations. A suspect soon emerges – and anonymous letters point the detectives towards the same man. But is all as it seems? And even if the suspect is innocent of this murder, are his hands quite clean? DCI Acton and his colleagues filter out the red herrings, and arrive at a solution.