British

Plot Summary

When a woman’s mutilated body is discovered in a remote countryside property, Detective Kay Hunter is faced with one of the most challenging investigations of her career.

There is nothing in the victim’s past to explain her brutal slaying, and no clues as to how her killer got away.

Then a second body is found in a run-down storage facility, the man’s remains covered in horrific injuries that bear the hallmarks of prolonged torture.

With two families demanding justice, Kay is under pressure from her superiors to deliver a swift result – but there is no evidence to connect the two victims.

When a third victim is found just a short distance from her own incident room, Kay realises that the killer has no intention of stopping – and they already have their next victim in their sights…

A Deadly Promise is the 13th book in the Detective Kay Hunter series by USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett, and perfect for readers who love fast-paced crime thrillers.

Plot Summary

May 1912. After the previous year’s deadly heatwave, it’s been an uneventful spring in Littleton Cotterell. Though for Lady Hardcastle and her fiercely loyal lady’s maid Flo, at least there are the provincial delights of the village’s inaugural art exhibition—and bicycle race—to look forward to. But at the exhibition opening, there’s a panicked shout of ‘Fire!’ In the confusion, the main attraction—an extremely expensive book—is stolen from under everyone’s nose, as is a valuable painting lent by Sir Hector Farley-Stroud. Then the race, which starts as a charming day out, ends in a shocking death. And to top it all off, the Farley-Strouds reveal they’re in debt and might lose their house. The sleuthing duo soon find themselves torn between a murder investigation, an art theft mystery, and trying to help their pals. All with a suspicious figure from Flo’s past, a supercilious insurance investigator, and a pair of rather bizarre treasure hunters on the loose…

Plot Summary

December 1953

Hugo Hawksworth is on the tail of rogue Cold War agents at a top-secret government facility, while back home at Selchester Castle they’re awaiting the arrival of the new Earl—an American, the long-lost son of the murdered Lord Selchester.

The town of Selchester, rich in scandal and gossip, is unsure what to make of the Earl or his teenage daughters, but they know that his sharp-tongued half-sister, Lady Sonia, furious at being deprived of her inheritance, won’t be a merry guest over Christmas.

The new Lord Selchester can cope with the strangeness of English country life, but he hadn’t expected stolen paintings—or a body in the hothouse.

What’s the link between Hugo’s investigations and the suspicious goings-on in the town and at the Castle? And will he and his allies get to the heart of the mystery before the murderer gets to them?

Plot Summary

A completely unputdownable and gripping cozy mystery

The English coast is like nowhere else on earth. The fresh sea breeze, gentle waves lapping the shore… and a body on the promenade?

Newly retired Sarah Vane is completely settled in Merstairs, enjoying the quirky, quaint feel of her new home. With some time on her hands, she decides to surprise her friend Daphne by cleaning her dusty, cluttered seafront shop. But when she arrives there early one morning, Sarah is shocked to find a dying woman on the doorstep, who utters one word before she takes her last ‘Wits…’

The victim is Abi Moffat – a much loved schoolteacher. Who could want her dead, and what could ‘wits’ possibly mean? Could the answer to Abi’s death be in Whitstable – the posher town along the coast? Or on a card from the luxurious Wittes Hotel found in her pocket? Or was it her scorned ex-boyfriend, Josh Whittsallwho sent Abi countless postcards and flowers after they broke up?

All roads seem to lead to dead ends, and as Sarah talks to the locals it becomes clear that Abi had many admirers but not a single enemy. But then, a member of the Merstairs craft club is found dead at the local fun fair. At first glance, the two victims seem to have nothing in common, until Sarah takes a closer look at the clues, and realises there is something shocking in the close-knit Merstairs community that links them…

Join amateur sleuth Sarah for another gripping murder mystery in the breezy seaside town of Merstairs!

Plot Summary

They’re hoping this visit is a return journey—but it might be a one-way ticket to murder.

July 1912. Lady Hardcastle and her tenacious lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, are enjoying a convivial gathering at the home of their dear friends, the Farley-Strouds. The only fly in the idyllic ointment seems to be the lack of musical entertainment for the forthcoming summer party—until, that is, Lady Hardcastle’s brother Harry calls with news of a murder.

Harry dispatches them to Bristol on behalf of the Secret Service Bureau, with instructions to prevent the local police from uncovering too much about the victim. It seems an intriguing mystery—all the more so when they find a connection between the killer and an impending visit from an Austrian trade delegation, set to feature a very important guest…

Summoned to London to help with some very important security arrangements, the intrepid duo will have to navigate sceptical bureaucrats, Cockney gangsters and shadowy men in distinctive hats in their attempts to foil an explosive—and internationally significant—threat.

Plot Summary

Julia Bird’s picturesque Cotswolds cottage has everything she could want. Rustic charm, cosy fireplaces and, it turns out, a dead body in the garden…

Recently divorced and reluctantly retired, Julia Bird has fled London to enjoy idyllic rural life in the Cotswolds. Determined to have the perfect English garden, her first job is to tear down the old shed, where she unearths much more than she’d bargained for… A body, apparently buried for decades. But who could it be, and who killed them? The police draw a blank, and even the gossip-fest that is the local bookclub can’t remember anyone going missing in the village.

Unable to get on with her garden until the mystery is resolved, Julia decides to conduct her own clandestine investigations. So, together with her wayward chocolate Labrador puppy Jake, Julia begins a whirlwind tour of the local residents. And everyone, it seems, has something to hide in this village. As she gets closer to the truth, Julia uncovers something even more shocking… Another body, this time of someone she actually knows.

Determined to unmask the killer and find out what connects the two dead bodies, Julia – newly nicknamed the Grim Reaper – ups the stakes and hones in on the most likely suspect. But if she hasn’t deduced correctly, then there is someone else in the village who has killed twice already. Will they be prepared to make it third time lucky to keep their secret safe?

This totally addictive page-turning cozy mystery is perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands.

Plot Summary

Claire Barclay is enthusiastic about her British Mystery Book Tour business. She enjoys taking her guests, usually from America, to the settings of mystery novels where bodies are long dead. Her neighbor's plea for help to deal with a recently murdered well-known author unsettles her. She leaves the body to the police and takes her guests to Cornwall, including a British tourist who far is too interested in the dead author.

Plot Summary

After hairdresser Daisy Thorne finds her missing scissors in a customer’s back, she becomes the prime suspect in a murder...

When Ooh La La regular Mel Haverstock left the hair salon that morning, no one expected it would be her final parting. But when Daisy closes shop Saturday night, she finds her client dead as the mullet cut. Homicide is back in style in the quiet village of Edgemead in Surrey, England. But who would want to harm a hair on poor Mel’s head?

Suspicions higher than a beehive pile on Daisy when it’s revealed that she and Mel had tangled back in high school, and DNA evidence seems to color her guilty. Handsome DCI Paul McGuinness gives the hairstylist new accessories—a lovely pair of silver handcuffs. To clear her name, Daisy must highlight the real backstabber, or she’ll end up shaving heads in the prison barbershop.

Plot Summary

Claire Barclay, responding to an invitation to tea, does not expect to find her hostess murdered and herself the chief suspect. It is all overwhelming---a new house, a new village, new friends and now murder. She will cope, she always copes, but it won’t be easy. 

Plot Summary

When retired doctor Sarah Vane moves to Merstairs, she has no idea that the quaint seaside town isn’t quite as friendly it seems, and something sinister is bubbling under the picturesque surface…

Recently widowed and looking for a fresh start away from city life, Sarah Vane moves into a lovely little cottage by the sea. The rustic charm is everything she hoped it would be, but her new home doesn’t quite have enough space for her things. Her old friend Daphne offers to store Sarah’s boxes in her messy beach hut, but while clearing it out, they are shocked to find a heavy trunk… containing a dead body.

They immediately recognise the poor man as pub landlord Gus Trubshaw. Sarah concludes that he was suffocated, but who could have wanted jolly Gus dead? Unimpressed by the police’s lack of interest, Sarah realises she will have to solve the case herself.

Soon, Sarah discovers that not everyone loved Gus as much as she’d thought. Could the killer be scoutmaster Bill, who was recently banned from the pub? Or perhaps it was antique store owner, Charles, who owned the beach hut before Daphne? Or was it brewery director Mr. Grimes, who was livid with Gus for squeezing him on the purchase price of his delicious ale? 

Just when the clues are starting to fall into place, the prime suspect is found strangled on the beach. And when Sarah discovers a deadly secret that links the two murders, she’s certain that a dangerous killer is roaming the streets of Merstairs. With the town in a panic, time is ticking for Sarah. Will she solve the mystery before it’s last orders for another victim?

Set off for the breezy English seaside and join Sarah on her adventures in quirky Merstairs, where nothing is quite as it seems! Fans of Agatha Christie, Betty Rowlands and Katie Gayle will be instantly hooked by this deliciously gripping cozy mystery. 

Plot Summary

Pearl Nolan's coastal allotment has always been a quiet haven – somewhere for her to relax and cultivate special ingredients for her restaurant, The Whitstable Pearl. But a sudden clamour for allotments by the DFLs – Down From Londoners – causes tension in the local community when the council decides to accommodate them by dividing existing plots into smaller parcels. The harmony that once existed between holders of land previously blighted only by slugs and caterpillars, soon transforms into a bitter turf war as a pushy DFL tries to take over by forming an Allotment Association – with herself as its chair.

When anonymous complaints are submitted to the council about each of the local allotment holders – apart from the DFLs – Pearl's services as private detective are called upon to discover the complainant but before she can do so, what began as a tiff among the turnips soon becomes a hunt for a killer when gardening tools are put to murderous use ... 

Plot Summary

The second in the delightful Dear Miss Hermione mystery series from Anastasia Hastings—when you represent the best-loved Agony Aunt in Britain, fielding questions from both irate housekeepers and heartbroken mothers is par for the course...

"Dear Miss Hermione—what is a mother to do?"

Sensible Violet Manville and her very ladylike half-sister Sephora are absolutely bored, thank you very much. Though neither of them would ever admit it aloud, they're missing the thrill of playing detective.

So when Violet receives a letter from "A Heartbroken Mother" sent to her alter-ego, the Agony Aunt known to the world only as Miss Hermione, her pulse can't help but quicken. The daughter in question has gotten caught up in a cult: the Hermetic Order of the Children of Aed. Rumors of human sacrifices, mystical doings, and a ghost in the ruined Alburn Abbey where the Children pray have gripped the public consciousness, helped along by a series of novels about the group, written by the mysterious Count Orlando, and clearly this girl has fallen prey.

Miss Hermione’s investigation soon collides with very real life when Violet discovers a surprising connection to the cult. With the dashing-but-frustrating Eli Marsh turning up and a member of the Children poisoned, Violet and Sephora—along with their ever-trusty housekeeper Bunty—may have more intrigue than they can manage.

Plot Summary

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, is the most dangerous city in the world. And when a mission to break the local cartel’s grip goes wrong, Isabella Rose, the Angel, finds herself on the wrong side of prison bars. Fearing the worst, Isabella plays her only remaining card…

British agent Vivian Bloom is determined to be the first to reach her, certain she will lead him to other operatives he’s under pressure to hunt down. But US agents are circling too. And with the shadowy Prometheus group pulling the strings, Isabella knows that she and her mentor, the Asset, are living on borrowed time…

The Assassin is the fourth part in a continuing story involving Isabella Rose that also includes Act The Angel, Act The Asset and Act The Agent.

Plot Summary

Please note this book was first published as Birthdays Can Be Murder under Faith Martin’s pen name, Joyce Cato, as the first book in the Jenny Starling series

Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective.

Jenny Starling is catering the 21st birthday party of upper-class twins Alicia and Justin.

She arrives at their parents' country house and is immediately met by the police. A young man has drowned in the pond. Was it an accident or murder?

But the birthday party goes ahead. Then, just after midnight, everyone gathers for a champagne toast...and one of the guests falls down dead. The police are baffled, and there is a whole party full of suspects.

When it comes to someone adding the extra ingredient of poison to her own precious recipes, Jenny isn't going to take it lying down. She has a reputation to protect.

Jenny Starling won't stop until the murderer is found.

Plot Summary

Life moves at a slower pace on the canals. But death always comes when you least expect it. The last thing DS Stephanie Johnson and DS Andy Carter expected during their much-needed canal holiday was a murder. When retired folk musician Annie Shipton is found stabbed through the neck at the helm of her barge, the couple can’t help investigating the seemingly impossible crime. Nobody else boarded Annie’s boat—so how was she killed from behind?

With the method a perplexing mystery, DCI Oldroyd is summoned from Harrogate, and it’s not long before the detectives have a long list of potential suspects with a motive to want Annie dead. There’s the young cyclist she argued with over access to the towpath, an ambitious and arrogant local developer she clashed with repeatedly, an estranged husband…and more than a few lingering issues with her former bandmates, most of whom live along the canal. When a second shocking murder sends shockwaves through the community, the locals start talking about a curse on the waterway. It seems the killer will go to any lengths to avoid detection.

But can Oldroyd hunt them down before someone else becomes the next target?

Plot Summary

Fresh, funny and heartfelt, The Expectant Detectives is a charming debut mystery about a group of soon-to-be moms-turned-detectives.

“A darkly witty debut. Archly funny and highly recommended!”—Deanna Raybourn

Can they solve the mother of all murders?

For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their first child. He can take up woodwork; maybe she’ll learn to make jam? But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local prenatal class, and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation.

With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice and her new-found pregnant friends set out to solve the mystery and clear their names, with the help of her troublesome dog, Helen. However, there are more secrets and tensions in the heart of Penton than first meet the eye. Between the discovery of a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier, and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen, Alice is soon in way over her head.

Plot Summary

Bookshop owner Gemma Doyle heads to London for a wedding, but when a body is found in connection with a rare book, Gemma sets out to sleuth the slaying, in bestselling author Vicki Delany’s 10th Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery.

Gemma Doyle and her friends have packed their bags and headed to London for her sister Pippa’s wedding. Waiting for her in the hotel lobby is none other than Gemma’s ex-husband, Paul Erikson. Paul has a rare book he wants her to see–calling it “the real deal”–so Gemma agrees to meet him at their old shop, Trafalgar Fine Books, the following day. But when Gemma arrives, accompanied by Grant, a rare book dealer, they find Paul dead in his office.

Paul had been down on his luck, but Gemma never expected this. Had he borrowed money from people he shouldn’t have? And where is the valuable book he was so anxious for Gemma to see? It’s nowhere to be found in the shop. Because of their previous relationship, Gemma feels she owes something to Paul and vows to find his killer.

As Gemma and her best friend Jayne Wilson follow Paul’s trail of friends, enemies, clients, and ex-lovers through London to Yorkshire, she realizes the puzzle of Paul’s last days is more twisted than she originally thought.  

This mystery is anything but elementary, and Gemma and Jayne have to use all their wit to get to the bottom of it before their time in London–or in life–is over. 

Plot Summary

Original Title: In the Midst of Life published 1-July-2004

For Inspector Michael Angel, the savage murder in an insane asylum twenty years ago marks the beginning of this gruesome trail of enquiries to find missing nurse Fiona Thomas.

In spite of obstruction from the chief constable, this quirky Yorkshire policeman reduces the suspects to one, by resorting to an unusual and original strategy.

A dead woman wearing one stocking inside out, an American class ring, a missing videotape of the lovely Lola, and two dead cats all play their part in this scramble to find the killer in this unusual and gripping mystery.

Plot Summary

As the Summer Solstice nears, who will be the next target? A dark thriller from the bestselling author of the DI Louise Blackwell series.

In a cave near Weston, potholers discover what they think are human remains. The bones are identified as belonging to Hugo Latchford, a boy who went missing a decade ago, and whose parents belonged to a quasi-religious cult masquerading as environmental activists. It’s not long before rumours that he was sacrificed in a midsummer ritual resurface.

Returning to duty from maternity leave, DI Louise Blackwell finds herself leading the investigation, soon discovering that Hugo’s parents are still alive and the cult very much still active.

As she begins to fathom the ghoulish depths of the group’s pagan beliefs, new mother Louise is profoundly disturbed by the case. And with the Summer Solstice fast approaching, she’s faced with the terrifying prospect that the group might be preparing for their next sacrifice…