British Women Sleuths

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.

When homeless man Bobby Stover insists his friend’s suicide was really murder, DI Sheridan Holler is sceptical—until she uncovers a series of deaths, all of them in Liverpool, all ruled as suicides, that suddenly look like anything but. The killings span years, each one chillingly staged, the truth buried beneath an illusion of despair. This murderer is following a mysterious pattern—and there seems to be no end in sight.

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 ...

Full Beam (The Imogen and Hugh Croft Mysteries) A car is driving too fast along a twisting country road. At the end of a long, straight section, the notoriously lethal bend suddenly looms up out of nowhere. The silence is broken by a deafening screech of brakes. The passengers on board don’t stand a chance… When a nanny is killed and her two young wards badly injured in a road accident, the cause seems clear-cut. Sensing all is not quite as it appears, defence lawyer Penny Mills decides to employ the assistance of her old friend, Imogen Croft. Together, they soon discover the case ...

When a hand is found in Gallows Wood, PC Lucy Halliday and her specialist search dog Moss must find the rest of the body. What they uncover is a killer's dumping ground. Like every case since her husband's mysterious disappearance, Lucy wonders if this one will bring her closer to the truth. Nico was a journalist with a reputation for getting buried in his work; Lucy is certain that this time he delved too deep.

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 ...

“As engaging and entertaining a worldwide romp as the first two books…Ritter Ames has penned a marvelous story with Laurel Beacham continuing to show her cleverness and intuition portraying a strong character…I was thrilled!” – King’s River Life Magazine Abstract clues lead to new questions. New leads turn to “dead” ends. A heist plot ties to forgeries. Adversaries resurface twisting an already complicated case. And art recovery expert Laurel Beacham must not only outwit criminals, but keep her wits around Jack Hawkes’s cheeky ego. Before the criminals they were tracking ...

A cosy mystery perfect for fans of Sally Smith, Steve Higgs, LJ Ross, Robert Thorogood, and Richard Osman. Karen McLaren is enjoying her retirement at the Club Britannia complex on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Having established herself as a pillar of the community in the village of Castillo, she’s opened up a second-hand bookshop. As well as building her business, she has big plans for her life in the sun… …finding herself making inquiries about a strange accident isn’t one of them. Just because the death in question looks like a random occurrence doesn’t mean Karen believes it is. ...

“Ames, with her great writing and brilliant story, has created a masterpiece of her own in Marked Masters. She leaves her readers doing their own research between the pages. Like Laurel, Ritter keeps the story with its rightful owner—the reader.” – Crimespree Magazine Laurel Beacham made working solo a personal success story and is known for her nerve, instincts, and ability to do whatever necessary to return each priceless masterpiece safely intact. As the world’s leading art recovery expert, she’s thwarted more heists than the average law enforcement professional. Museums ...

(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...

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.

A cosy mystery perfect for fans of Sally Smith, Steve Higgs, LJ Ross, Robert Thorogood, and Richard Osman. Karen McLaren has organised what she believes will be the perfect Yuletide celebration: a murder mystery evening based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It’s being held at Club Britannia; attendees are attired in period costume, and traditional food is on the menu. Everything has been planned to perfection… …one of the guests dying, however, isn’t something that’s been scheduled. A fictional murder mystery transforming into a real murder investigation throws Castillo ...

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.

What horrific secret is an innocent rose bush hiding? When it's mysteriously uprooted in the middle of the night, Daisy embarks on a dangerous trail that grows darker and darker with each unexpected turn. Essentially-English, almost-certainly quirky, and definitely a little crazy, come and meet our Norfolk-based R.E.D. (Retired Extremely Daisy) heroine, and find out why she’s such a hit with readers of all ages. “One of the best cozy mysteries I’ve ever read!” “A real breath of fresh literary air!” Retirement to a sleepy East-Anglian village doesn't go quite as Daisy hoped, ...

The table is set for family dinner; roast chicken, wine for them and juice for their darling boy, a vase of fresh daisies from the garden for decoration. But the food is cold, and the flowers are wilting. You might think they were sleeping in the next room, if it wasn’t for the blood dripping crimson onto the carpet.

"Sleep Peacefully is a fantastic novel full of suspense and mystery, with many twists and turns that are sure to keep you guessing. I look forward to reading more from this talented author." - Fresh Fiction She thought her sister's death was nothing more than a tragic accident... She was wrong When Nat’s sister, Jess, dies in a terrible accident she is left devastated by the sudden loss of her younger sister. On the day of Jess’s funeral, Nat starts to experience a strange recurring dream. The dream shows realistic visions seen through Jess's eyes on the night she passed away. Now, ...

They were meant to be safe on Fleet Ward: psychiatric patients monitored, treated, cared for. But now one of their number is found murdered, and the accusations begin to fly. Was it one of his fellow patients? A member of staff? Or did someone come in from the outside? DC Alice Armitage is methodical, tireless, and she's quickly on the trail of the killer. The only problem is, Alice is a patient too.

Crime-scene photographers Sarah, Hugh, and Mick are summoned to the goriest crime scene they've ever encountered. A pub owner named Harry Warbrick has been found hanged. His murder becomes a sensation because he was England's top hangman. Sir Gerald, owner of the Daily World, announces that they‚ meaning Sarah and her friends‚ will investigate and solve Warbrick's murder before the police do. She and her friends discover a connection between Warbrick's murder and the most notorious criminal he ever executed: Amelia Carlisle.

How do you find the missing when there’s no trail to follow? DC Lucy Clayburn is having a tough time of it. Not only is her estranged father one of the North West’s toughest gangsters, but she is in the midst of one of the biggest police operations of her life.

If someone was in your house, you’d know...wouldn’t you? But the Hunter family are deaf and don’t hear a thing when a shocking crime takes place in the middle of the night. Instead, they wake up to their worst nightmare: the murder of their daughter. The police call Paige Northwood to the scene to interpret for the witnesses. They’re in shock, but Paige senses the Hunters are hiding something. One by one, people from Paige’s community start to fall under suspicion. But who would kill a little girl?