Showing results by narrator "Jane McDowell" in All Categories

Forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties. She lives happily alone with her cats in a remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine is harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Ruth for help, believing the bones to be the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor taunts him with bizarre letters referencing ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible.

Pieta Martinelli's sister is getting married. Since she is a bridal designer it falls to her to make the wedding gown. But Pieta is distracted by a series of unanswered questions. Why is her father feuding with another Italian in the neighbourhood? Why is her mother so faded and sad? And could the man she's always held a torch for really be getting married to someone else? As Pieta stitches and beads her sister's wedding gown she uncovers the secrets that have made her family what it is and that stand between her and happiness.

It’s not every day that you’re summoned to the Italian countryside on business, so when archaeologist Angelo Morelli asks for Ruth Galloway’s help identifying bones found in the tiny hilltop town of Fontana Liri, she jumps at the chance to go, bringing her daughter along with her for a working vacation. Upon arriving, she begins to hear murmurs of Fontana Liri’s strong resistance movement during World War II and senses the townspeople are dancing around a deeply buried secret. But how could that be connected to the ancient remains she’s been studying?

Everything has changed for Ruth Galloway. She has a new job, home, and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried - but only if Ruth will do the digging. Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees.

Dr. Ruth Galloway returns to North Norfolk in her latest chilling adventure. DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters. They are anonymous yet somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of the Crossing Places and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they?

In this heart-pounding thriller, women are being found dead on train tracks across the country, forcing the FBI into a mad race against time to catch the serial killer. FBI Special Agent Riley Paige may have finally met her match: a sadistic killer, binding victims to the tracks to be killed by incoming trains. A killer smart enough to evade capture across many states - and charming enough to go unseen. She soon learns it will require all of her faculties to enter into his sick mind - a mind which she unsure she wants to enter.

In this dark psychological thriller, a wealthy husband turns up dead, and his abused wife is charged with the crime. She calls Riley for help - and yet it seems clear she is guilty. But when another wealthy, abusive husband turns up dead, the FBI is called in, and FBI special agent Riley Paige wonders: Is this all a coincidence? Or could this be the work of a serial killer? What ensues is a game of cat and mouse, as Riley Paige realizes she is up against a brilliant and unpredictable killer, one without a clear motive - and one determined to keep on killing until he is caught.

After lying dormant for 10 years, an elusive serial killer strikes again, leaving few clues, and the only way for FBI special agent Riley Paige to catch him in the present is to solve the riddles of the past. Women are turning up dead, and in this dark psychological thriller, Riley Paige realizes she is in a race against time.

There's nothing Ruth Galloway hates more than amateur archaeologists, but when a group of them stumble upon Bronze Age artifacts alongside a dead body, she finds herself thrust into their midst - and into the crosshairs of a string of murders circling ever closer.

Stella has life under control - and that's the way she likes it. For 25 years, she's been the trusted assistant to a legendary fashion designer, but after her boss dies suddenly, she's left with nothing to do apart from clear the studio. It seems as though the life she wanted has vanished. She is lost - until one day she finds a house swap website and sees a beautiful old villa in a Southern Italian village. Could she really exchange her poky London flat for that?

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. His eighth appearance takes him to an artists' colony (based on a real one) in Scotland during the 1920s. Lord Peter Wimsey could imagine the artist stepping back, the stagger, the fall down to where the pointed rocks grinned like teeth.

Kate Palmer has relocated to Cornwall for a quiet life. Moving into picturesque Lavender Cottage with her sister, Angie, the little village of Lower Tinworthy should be the perfect place for their fresh new start. But within weeks of their arrival, there’s a death in the close-knit community.... A woman is found dead in the village hall, with her own kitchen knife next to the body, covered in blood. Kate, a practice nurse at the local medical center, begins to piece together the clues.

A serial killer is striking seemingly at random, first killing a man in his fifties, then a woman in her fifties. The only thing that links them is the lone souvenir he took: a dining chair. What is the meaning? Are the murders random after all? FBI special agent Riley Paige must fend off her own demons and her own dysfunctional family life as she races against time to enter the mind of a diabolical killer who is sure to strike again.

When builders renovating a café in King's Lynn find a human skeleton behind a wall, they call for DCI Harry Nelson and Dr Ruth Galloway. Ruth is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with Nelson. However, she agrees to look at the case. Ruth sees at once that the bones are modern. They are identified as the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in the 1990s. Emily attended a course run by her Cambridge tutor. Suspicion falls on him and also on another course member - Ruth's friend Cathbad.

The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach in North Norfolk. At first Nelson thinks that the dead man might be an asylum seeker but he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison. Ruth is more interested in the treasure, a hoard of Bronze Age weapons. Nelson at first thinks that Taylor's death is accidental drowning, but a second death suggests murder.

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. The twelfth book featuring Lord Peter (the third novel to feature Harriet Vane) is set in an Oxford women's college. Harriet Vane has never dared to return to her old Oxford college. Now, despite her scandalous life, she has been summoned back.

Lilith is the mythological seductress that has been repressed since Biblical times. She is the representative of the essentially motherless form of the feminine self that arose as an embodiment of the neglected and rejected aspects of the great goddess. Written by a Jungian analyst, this material can help modern men and women come to terms with this aspect of the feminine within.

Raffaella Moretti, by far the most beautiful girl in the southern Italian town of Triento, is about to marry the only boy she has ever loved. It seems that nothing but happiness lies in store for her. Yet, just one year later, she is a widow, and has taken a job as housekeeper in the Villa Rosa, working for a young American. As Raffaella struggles to recapture her lost happiness she starts looking for ways to help those around her to do the same.

When the Mayor of a picturesque Italian town launches a new scheme to rejuvenate the community, his advertisement is read with interest and excitement by many. Zara is in her thirties and desperate to get on the property ladder. Tim and Lynda are retiring and need a project. Some are looking for a peaceful bolthole. Others hope to make a profit, start a business, escape a dull life or an unhappy relationship. And there is someone who just might be hiding their true motivation...

Kate Palmer thought spending the day at Tinworthy’s annual summer party would involve sea air, sunshine, and Cornish cream cake–how very wrong she was! After a showdown with her new nemesis Sienna Stone, Kate goes for a cliff-top walk to cool off. But she is horrified to spot Sienna’s body on the sandy beach below. Rumors swirl around the close-knit Cornish community, and all eyes are on Kate. Half the village witnessed her argument with Sienna. When Kate finds herself cast as a suspect and is accused of murder, can she solve the crime and clear her name?