British Women Sleuths

The woman in white—surreal artist Damaris Gethin—has invited a select group to the opening of her exhibit Artist in Crime, held in the eerie subterranean Hades Gallery. As costumed models reenact famously violent deaths, the artist herself portrays Marie Antoinette on the day of her execution, complete with a guillotine on the stage. It's not a prop; within ten minutes of Rachel's promise to solve Damaris's future murder, the artist slips her neck into the collar of the device and the very real blade sends her head rolling at the feet of her horrified audience.

(This book was previously published with the subtitle 'The Strange Case of the Exploding Dolly-trolley') When tragedy comes to Daisy's doorstep, it's way too close for comfort. Those responsible have to be brought to justice... and quickly, before they strike again. It’s been two weeks since Daisy brought Finn’s aristocratic world crashing down, and village life reverted to as normal as it ever gets where she is concerned. But then one morning it all changes, in a very disturbing way. To begin with, Daisy believes someone from her past is to blame. Before she retired, she had a job very...

Spring is a magical time in England - bluebells massing along the woodland paths, primrose and wild thyme dotting the meadows. Antiques dealer Kate Hamilton is spending the month of May in the Suffolk village of Long Barston, enjoying precious time with Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. While attending the May Fair, the annual pageant based on a well-known Anglo-Saxon folktale, a body turns up in the middle of the festivities.

Revised - Revamped - Refreshed - 2025 A Riveting Psychological Thriller Geri and James are back—sharper, bolder, and caught in their most explosive mystery yet! Just when their neighbour, Lydia, finally seems to have found peace with the birth of her second son, disaster strikes once more. Determined to help their friend, Geri and James step in—but they soon realise Lydia’s troubles are only the beginning. While researching historic unsolved murders for James’s latest book, Geri stumbles upon a chilling revelation: one of the prime suspects from a decades-old case is now a resident ...

Amber’s about to face her biggest challenge yet! When movie star Reed Colcannon is murdered in the waiting room of the steam railway he owns, Amber is sent to try and track down who shot him. The railway, surrounded by spooky moorland and lit with vintage gas lamps, is cloaked in secrets, lies and mysteries galore and promises to challenge Amber in more ways than one! But the first mystery Amber has to get to the bottom of is who she will be working with on the investigation... As Amber tries her hardest to crack the case she soon realizes this could actually be the end of the line for ...

The options for the penniless daughter of a deceased earl are few indeed in Regency England. So, following the suspicious death of her father, the Earl of Morton, and the discovery that she and her much younger sister have been left without income or home, Lady Caroline takes a post as a lady's companion to the wealthy widow Frogerton. Just as Caroline is getting accustomed to her new position, her aunt, Lady Eleanor Greenwood, invites her and her employer to a house party in the countryside to celebrate her youngest daughter's birthday. But all is not well at the Greenwood estate.

New truths to uncover and a killer to catch. With a family crisis looming, Detective Inspector Fiona Williams is hoping to take a break when she is called to a suspicious death in an isolated barn conversion, home to a quiet middle-aged couple. Duncan returned home from the pub to discover his wife dead at the foot of their cellar steps. There are no signs of a forced entry or robbery, but the evidence says Pat’s death was no accident. His reaction is strange, but he has a solid alibi for the time of death. Fiona will have to dig deep into the victim’s past to uncover the shocking truth...

Three missing women running out of time. They were abducted years ago. Notorious serial killer Bill Raven admitted to killing them and was sentenced to life. The case was closed - at least DC Maggie Jamieson thought it was. But now one of them has been found, dismembered and dumped in a bin bag in town. Forensics reveal that she died just two days ago, when Raven was behind bars, so Maggie has a second killer to find. Because even if the other missing women are still alive, one thing’s for certain: they don’t have long left to live.

A wedding on picturesque Martha's Vineyard promises to be the affair of the season when Penny Arbuthnot asks her cousin, feisty 92-year-old poet Victoria Trumbull, if she can use her property for the reception. Victoria agrees - but she has no idea what's in store for the hapless couple. For one, Penny is seriously in debt and desperate to marry money. She thinks she's on the road to riches when she hooks Rocco Bufano, whose father is a multi-billionaire. But unbeknownst to Penny, Rocco's been disowned by dad.

Ten years ago fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel was murdered, her cold body discovered lying in a ditch. Her father’s girlfriend was found guilty of the crime. Now, evidence has emerged that proves her innocence and means that Abigail’s killer still roams free. Abigail’s best friend at the time of the murder has now returned to the East Yorkshire village of Elvet to raise her young family. Shocked by the new revelations, she begins to realize that she didn’t know her friend as well as she thought. Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is tasked with uncovering the truth.

In the seaside town of Temple Regis, seagulls are wheeling overhead and the holidays are getting close. And then the body of political candidate Odile Clifford is discovered on the balcony of the lighthouse. Fearless Riviera Express reporter Judy Dimont goes in search of the killer - but who is it? And where will they strike next?

When Dorothy Martin goes to France—alone because Alan is stuck back home in Sherebury with a broken ankle—she worries about her ability to get along in a language she barely speaks, and in a country she hasn’t seen for over fifty years. But by the time Alan joins her a week later, Dorothy has found herself embroiled in one mystery after another: a woman drowning in quicksand; a man suffering a near-fatal fall in the abbey at Mont Saint Michel; and a missing American archaeologist—all seemingly connected to a monk named Abelard who has been dead for almost nine hundred years.

An old lady is thrown out of a window by a pathological murderer Police Sergeant Elizabeth West wants to track him down but all Police Inspector Bigfoot is interested in is having a beer, eating pizza and playing games. Then Bigfoot is shot and West has to face the murderer unarmed and alone. 'The craziest detectives ever!' Revised and Rewritten 2021.

When Mother Dorothy's godmother dies of a heart attack and leaves all her money to the convent, Sister Joan is uneasy. While on visiting duty at the hospital, she makes some tacit enquiries. Things don't seem quite right. The nursing staff are always away from their posts at crucial times. The surly young doctor seems very out of sorts. Then a little girl goes missing. Sister Joan knows there's something truly sinister going on. She teams up with Detective Sergeant Mill, but can they get to the bottom of things before tragedy strikes?

Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, have just visited Buckingham Palace, where Alan was awarded the George Cross, when they and a friend, retired Chief Inspector Jonathan Quinn, stumble across the body of a young girl hidden in St James’s Park. Wondering what led to the unfortunate girl’s demise, Dorothy can’t help but get involved in the case when Jonathan calls the next day and admits he knew who the victim was …

When prison inmate and former police officer John Brace says he’s willing to give up information about the location of a dead body in return for protection for his family, Vera knows that she has to look into his claims. But opening up this cold case strikes much closer to home than Vera anticipates as her investigation takes her back in time to The Seagull, a once-decadent and now-derelict nightclub where her deceased father and his friends used to congregate.

Never underestimate the power of a good hat... or a sharp hatpin. 9-Book Series! Paris 1917. Sent by the War Office to follow the notorious Fredrick Fredricks, file clerk turned secret agent Fiona Figg is under strict orders not to get too close and not to wear any of her usual "get-ups." But what self-respecting British spy can resist a good disguise? Within hours of her arrival in Paris, Fiona is up to her fake eyebrows in missing maids, jewel thieves, double agents, and high treason. When Fiona is found dressed as a bellboy holding a bloody paperknife over the body of a dead countess, ...

When you’re a trainee sleuth things rarely go to plan... Which is why Amber Reed and on-again-off-again special agent ex-boyfriend Charlie find themselves in deepest and darkest Cornwall when they were expecting to be cracking the case on a television dance show. So, now it’s down to Plan B... Melrose Morgan is landscape garden designer to the stars and has TV shows and numerous books to his name. When he inherits the gorgeous Treganwy House and Country Estate in Cornwall he soon discovers someone wants him off the scene – and they’re not pulling any punches in their campaign to ...

A cosy mystery perfect for fans of Sally Smith, Steve Higgs, LJ Ross, Robert Thorogood, and Richard Osman. The celebrations for The National Day of Spain are the biggest event in the calendar for the Club Britannia complex on Spain’s Costa del Sol. As part of the organising committee, Karen McLaren has been overseeing the evening’s food, drink, music, and dancing. She has big plans… …finding herself making inquiries about a murdered partygoer isn’t one of them. Neither Karen nor the local police can understand how the death has happened. Though everything they see suggests it’s ...

Detective Sergeant Matthew Ryan wants to clear the name of his former boss, who stands accused of official corruption. But before he can do so, his boss disappears. Did he escape from police custody, or was he kidnapped? Or did something even worse happen to him?