British Police Mysteries

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #17 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." TWELVE CLOSE FRIENDS, ONE DEADLY ENEMY. A Ouija board spells out ‘MURDER’ and next morning wealthy widow Daisy Mills is found drowned at a Lakeland beauty spot. Was this a warning from beyond the grave, or an agent provocateur among the house party? Could the earlier death of successful businessman Simon Mills really be the accident it seemed? And was it by coincidence that the same clique of old school friends had met before each tragedy? Pitched into ...

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 ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #16 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."NOBODY SAW HER. NOBODY CAN FIND HER. When 37-year-old Lisa Jackson sets out for work one Friday morning she is in high spirits. Things are going well with her new boyfriend. But when she does not reach her desk, or answer her mobile phone, her colleagues and family raise the alarm. Suspicion immediately falls on co-worker Ray Piper. A married man, he and Lisa have recently ended an affair. But steely-eyed Piper denies any knowledge of Lisa’s disappearance.Yet...

Albert and Rex are going to the palace. It’s the day the Kings' birthday honour list recipients get their knighthoods, but like everywhere else they go, there is trouble to be found. With his three children and youngest granddaughter, Apple-Blossom, in tow, Albert is a little embarrassed by the lavishness of the affair. Yet all that is forgotten when he spots a man he knows. A man guilty of murder. A man who can only be at the palace for one thing. But Albert is about to be presented to the king, now is not the time to be chasing criminals. I guess that's why he's Rex's sidekick. Step ...

In July 1939, three men are shot dead within a few days of each other. The incidents are all in Lancashire but in different police force areas. When it is eventually realised that the cases are linked, the various constabularies agree to call in the expertise of Scotland Yard. Detective Chief Inspector Adair, who has been holidaying with his wife and daughter in the same county, is tasked with investigating the crimes. These do not appear to be random shootings. It seems that the gunman has a motive for killing each of the victims. But what could that be? And is the grudge against each one ...

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.

A vicious storm. A celebrity murder. And a killer at sea. The Sea Angel is a party boat. But the final cruise of the summer proves to be the last dance for film superstar Kasia Simon. DC Holly Towns snags an extra paid shift on board the Sea Angel, and can hardly believe her luck. A plainclothes gig providing security seems like a holiday. But the night turns deadly, when she finds a body on a lower deck, beautiful and glamorous except for the gunshot wound to the temple. With the rest of the CIU team called to a terrifying sniper incident, Holly is on her own to get the investigation ...

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 ...

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 – ...

Snowbound with a killer? A romantic weekend turns deadly when DC Holly Towns and Danny Cavallo check into the Elora Inn. Holly has just finished two weeks on shift and Danny is celebrating the launch of his private security firm. A getaway at the Elora Inn, a short drive east of Port Alma, sounds perfect. With a blizzard raging outside as they arrive, the inn is a cozy haven… until the body of Professor Clive Langston is found early on the first morning. Drifts of snow surround the inn. No one can enter. No one can escape. The killer is among them. The Internet is sketchy, backup is ...

NEW FOR 2023 – STAND-ALONE, #20 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." AN ATTEMPTED MURDER in the United States … a tragic road death in a Cumbrian forest … an old photograph stolen from an ancient coaching inn. Unrelated events – until a midnight drowning below Ouse Bridge exposes a connection. After two decades, has a killer returned to Cumbria to ply their trade? Does a suspect hide in plain sight among loose acquaintances? Who is truthful and who is lying? Skelgill must patiently circle … until finally he picks up ...

Fire in the sky, a catastrophic explosion nearby, and a massive investigation follow a devastating plane crash at Port Alma’s Sky Field airport. Detective Constable Holly Towns is working on the fringes of the high-profile case, trying to find out who turned an old gravel pit into a meth lab, but she keeps getting drawn closer to the crash site and its secrets. Meanwhile, people connected with the lab are being murdered and the CIU officers are worried that a shakeup in the local drug trade will lead to more violence. And there’s one more problem. Holly is being accused of using ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #13 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."MURDER ON THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS? When the exclusive London-to-Edinburgh sleeper plunges into a snowdrift deep in the Cumbrian fells, DI Skelgill awakes to discover one fellow passenger dead and another missing. Through a blinding blizzard Skelgill leads a daring evacuation – but even before they reach the sanctuary of an isolated coaching inn, a third traveller suffers a life-threatening mishap. As suspicion pervades the elite group of apparent strangers, ...

Victimology: tall, slim, blond hair, jeans. And a Harvest Festival t-shirt… Finding the body of a young woman in Haldane Hill Park rings alarm bells for Detective Constable Holly Towns. But can she even say the words ‘serial killer’ and be taken seriously? The media names him the Port Predator, and he’s not finished. Not even close. Another young woman is missing, and time is running out. Officers in the Criminal Investigations Unit are focused on a set of strong suspects, but Holly is drawn in another direction. The risks are high. She’ll be an outcast if she reveals her suspect,...

Alan Woolsham was at the top of his game. He was an acclaimed television star in England and had come to New York to film four special TV shows dealing with British antiques. The shows were to be taped at the Whitney Museum, and Alan hoped to open up a whole new viewing audience for his wildly successful show. But things didn’t go as planned. Murder does have a way of changing things. So much for stardom in the States. Marty and her husband, Jeff, were in New York City for what the hype promised to be a television and museum extravaganza about British antiques. Marty, an art and antique ...

Seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Perkins was found battered to death in her home in 2010. The murder weapon was suspected to be a fire poker and it seems she was quite popular with older gentlemen. Her grandson Robbie inherited everything, but he can't be placed at the scene of the crime. Who killed this harmless old woman and why? And what secrets was she hiding?

A fanatical group of vigilantes. One local police unit. One international task force. An ex-con with a grudge… Plus a child abduction. It all adds up to a nightmare. Police and a secret group of citizen investigators are locked in a battle for child safety, and Detective Constable Holly Towns finds herself trapped between the two. Holly is paired with a new detective from the Sex Crimes Unit. Detective Danny Cavallo is working with a cross-border task force on human trafficking. And reporter Missy McLaren swears that the underground vigilante crew has the answers. But Holly distrusts the ...

Nothing can shake a city to its core like the killing of a serving police officer. Especially when another murder swiftly follows. Was the death a tragic accident? Or was it payback? Was the officer in over his head with the local underworld? Or was his death a personal and permanent message? The investigation is entwined with an arson attack that destroys the landmark Calais Club, and DC Holly Towns and the rest of the Port Alma CIU team are divided. Holly runs the risk of alienating her only ally, not to mention her new boss. Her vision of the crime and its origins are different than ...

When reclusive artist Gabriel Quinn is gunned down outside a gallery on Oxford High Street, Detective Inspector Bridget Hart investigates the world of contemporary art, where paintings can change hands for millions in the auction room. Bridget is convinced that the last words spoken by the artist - a mysterious code of eight digits and a letter - are key to unraveling the mystery of his death.

Was it an accident or a simple crime of opportunity? Sherisse Collins is dead. The body of the elderly woman is found by a friend, lying at the foot of the stairs in her gracious Linden Square home. Although Sherisse was in her 80s, she was no recluse. Her friends insist that she was strong and healthy, and that she was murdered. The Collins mansion is filled with antiques, original artwork and many valuables, so a theft motive is the first thing considered by DC Holly Towns and the CIU officers. But the old house is hiding secrets of its own. When Holly is doing a detailed search of the ...