Book picks similar to
A Deadly Lesson by Paul Gitsham
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The Complete Detective Stephen Greco Box Set (4 crime thrillers)
Helen H. Durrant - 2020
. . why have her eyes have been viciously poked out? Detective Stephen Greco has just started a new job at Oldston CID and now he faces a series of murders with seemingly no connection but the brutal disfigurement of the victims. Greco’s team is falling apart under the pressure and he doesn’t know who he can trust. Then they discover a link to a local drug dealer, but maybe it’s not all that it seems.BOOK 2: DARK HOUSESA young woman is found brutally murdered in an empty house Detective Stephen Greco and his team must piece together her life as quickly as possible. Within twenty-four hours there is another killing using the same method. The detectives realise that the victims are random but the locations are not. The killer is more concerned with finding the right house – an old empty place where he won’t be disturbed. When someone walks into the station and confesses, it looks like it’s all over, but Greco’s not convinced and soon he’ll be fighting to save the woman who’s most important to himBOOK 3: DARK TRADEA teenage boy is found murdered. He has been stabbed through the heart by a professional killer. Detective Stephen Greco and his new team discover that the boy is an illegal immigrant. A killer nicknamed “the Knifeman” then strikes again. The murder leads DCI Greco on a dark trail of people smuggling and exploitation.BOOK 4: DARK ANGELTwo young men break into an expensive house. They take money and jewellery — and a large amount of heroin. Within twenty-four hours they are found brutally murdered. The killings have all the hallmarks of a local drug baron. The two victims were also “angels” helping in a community project which seems to have been lowering the local crime rate. But not everything is as it seems. And just when it seems like Greco seems to have cracked the case, new information comes to light which threatens to change everything.THE DETECTIVESDCI Stephen Greco is a meticulous policeman with a touch of O.C.D. Easy to admire, but difficult to like. He has created a new team after a personal tragedy threatened to end his career, and is struggling to care for his daughter.DS Grace Harper is an ambitious young policewoman with excellent people skills. Like Greco, she is a single parent and struggles to balance work and childcare.THE SETTINGThe Northern city of Manchester is a place of great diversity, from high-end restaurants and clubs for the moneyed classes to grim housing estates riven by crime and drugs.
The Detective Markham Mysteries
Catherine Moloney - 2020
Two skeletons are discovered in the grounds of St Mary's Choir School. Detective Inspector Gilbert Markham is a rising talent of the Bromgrove police force. He is on the trail of the murderer when another life is brutally claimed. Who is the savage killer lurking in this innocent place?BOOK 2: CRIME IN THE SCHOOLWhen handsome teacher Ashley Dean is brutally murdered, gossip blames a deranged intruder. DI Markham’s instincts say otherwise. Could this be the work of a student? A member of staff? It seems unthinkable. But somebody in authority is holding out on them. How much more blood will be spilt before their secret is laid bare?BOOK 3: CRIME IN THE CONVENTSister Felicity is found strangled in the confessional box at St Cecilia’s convent. She is only the first victim. Someone has a lethal vendetta against this holy place. And only DI Gilbert Markham can stop them. To uncover the truth, he must delve deep into the sins of the past. Can he unravel the mystery before it’s too late?BOOK 4: CRIME IN THE HOSPITALDr Warr’s decayed corpse is found in the woods. There have always been whispers about the psychiatric hospital where he worked: staff brutality, deliberate misdiagnosis . . . DI Gilbert Markham and DS Noakes begin asking questions. They are met with a chilling silence. How many more victims will be claimed before the killer is found?BOOK 5: CRIME IN THE BALLETChoreographer George Baranov is found in the theatre’s basement with a knife in his back. He was known for his daring routines and his tangled love life. The pressure is on for Detective Markham to wrap up the case. Can he unmask the vicious killer waiting in the wings?BOOK 6: CRIME IN THE GALLERYCurator Helen Melville is found murdered in Bromgrove Art Gallery. She had discovered something troubling in the archives, but the secret died with her. Or did it? Detective Markham races to unravel the connection with a tragic cold case. Who will be next to have a brush with death?BOOK 7: CRIME IN THE HEATA body is found in the refrigerator at a doctor’s office in Bromgrove community centre. The victim is teacher Bex Shawcross and she wasn’t short of enemies, as Detective Markham soon discovers. Her crooked MP father and loose morals are the talk of the town. And no one seems afraid to speak ill of the dead. Then the killer strikes again. And again. Each victim works at the centre. Who will be next on the kill list?BOOK 8: CRIME AT HOMENothing ever happens in New College Close. Until one day a piercing scream shatters the calm. A retired teacher is found asphyxiated beneath a luxury mattress. The only clue: a badge from the school where the dead woman once taught. Detective Markham races to unravel the truth. But no one in the Close is what they seem.
The Complete Detective Sophie Allen Mystery Series
Michael Hambling - 2020
This is the COMPLETE DETECTIVE SOPHIE ALLEN SERIES.Book 1: DARK CRIMESA young woman’s body is discovered on a deserted footpath in a Dorset seaside town late on a cold November night. She has been stabbed through the heart. It seems like a simple case for DCI Sophie Allen and her team to solve. But not when the victim’s mother is found strangled the next morning.Book 2: DEADLY CRIMESA young man’s mutilated body is found on top of the Agglestone, a well-known local landmark on Studland Heath.Book 3: SECRET CRIMESTwo women go away for the weekend, but only one comes back alive. Was it just the music they were into? And who was the man the victim met at the festival?Book 4: BURIED CRIMESA devastating family secret unearthed. Sisters with a murderous rivalry.Book 5: TWISTED CRIMESRetired couple Sylvia and Ted Armitage attend the wrong funeral. It’s an honest mistake. But one month on, their bodies are found in their car, abandoned in the depths of a tranquil nature reserve.Book 6: EVIL CRIMESA young man’s body is spotted in the stormy Dorset sea. Did he lose his footing and fall in? Or is there a more sinister cause of death?Book 7: SHADOW CRIMESAn undercover detective disappears. A retired prison guard is found dead. Drugs and contraband phones are out of control in the local prisons. How are they getting in?Book 8: SILENT CRIMESDetective Sophie Allen’s daughter discovers the body of a reclusive tramp out in the woods. Sophie and her team try to piece together something about his life, but progress is slow. NO ONE IS QUITE WHAT THEY SEEM.
The Complete Detective Kate Hamblin Mystery Series
David Hodges - 2020
YOU GET *SEVEN* BREATH-TAKING CRIME THRILLERS, FROM THE PEN OF A FORMER POLICEMAN.IN THIS SEVEN-BOOK BOX SET:BOOK 1: MURDER ON THE LEVELSDetective Kate Hamblin is doing surveillance on the Somerset Levels, on the trail of a crazed arsonist. She leaves the van for a moment. Then it goes up in flames, killing her colleagues. Kate is accused of abandoning them. There’s nothing she won’t risk to clear her name. But can she nail the killer before he takes out the only witness?BOOK 2: REVENGE ON THE LEVELSTwo years ago Larry “Twister” Wadman vanished without a trace. Kate Hamblin is the sole survivor of his murderous rampage. Then a prostitute dressed as a policewoman is found brutally slain, and Kate realizes her old enemy is back. Can she catch him before he has his revenge?BOOK 3: FEAR ON THE LEVELSA teenage girl last seen leaving a party at the height of a local scarecrow festival is found strangled and stripped in her own barn. The crime is an exact copy of the murder of peasant girl, Martha Tinney. But Martha died 150 years ago at the hands of a spectral scarecrow named Strawfoot. Or so legend has it. Can Kate track down the flesh-and-blood copycat before he adds to his kill list?BOOK 4: KILLER ON THE LEVELSJournalist Ellie Landy is found drowned in the River Parrett. The only clue: a cryptic line about “Sandman” jotted in a paperback by her bed. Everyone assumes her death was an accident. And then the Sandman strikes again. Can Kate unmask the killer before he puts anyone else to sleep?BOOK 5: SECRETS ON THE LEVELSDetective Kate finds herself staring down the wrong end of a shotgun out on the lonely marshes. She’s hunting escaped con Lenny Stallard. He should be serving time for a botched burglary that ended in murder. Revenge appears to be the motive. But it’s all a bit too convenient for Kate. Can she uncover the truth before her own number is up?BOOK 6: DEATH ON THE LEVELSA man writes to the police station, threatening to kill his aunts. No one takes him seriously — until an elderly woman is found strangled in her home. “RIP Auntie” is written on the floor in red lipstick. As the body count rises, Kate realizes she is up against a deadly foe. Can she stay one step ahead? If not, whose aunt will be next on the kill list?BOOK 7: POISON ON THE LEVELSA young woman snatched from a festival. A poison pen letter writer driving people to take their own lives. Kate has her work cut out solving the two cases. Probing deeper, she finds herself caught up in a dark, complicated web of deceit, wagging tongues and false trails. Then she realizes she’s being watched. By a shady figure who knows her every move. Can she find the missing girl in time to save both their lives?
Devil's Kitchen
Stephen Puleston - 2016
But something doesn't feel right to DI Ian Drake and his gut instinct has never let him down before. Or murder on a mountain?Drake suspects at least one of the deaths could be suspicious, but who would kill such an ordinary couple and why? This might be Drake's first murder inquiry, but his years as a detective have taught him one thing - every murder has a motive, and every killer leaves a trace.
The Complete Merry & Neal Mysteries
Janice Frost - 2020
New police partners, DI Jim Neal and DS Ava Merry are called in to investigate this brutal crime. The last person to see Amy alive was Simon, the son of a family friend, but before he can be properly questioned he disappears.BOOK 2: DARK SECRETGray Mitchell’s body is found buried under fresh snowfall in the early hours of the morning outside Stromford Cathedral. DI Jim Neal and DS Ava Merry are called in to investigate. It seems that a number of people had motives to kill him, including his partner.BOOK 3: HER HUSBAND’S SECRETTwo children sneak out on a freezing winter night, hoping to see a ghost. But instead they witness something far more terrifying. A man dumping a body . . .BOOK 4: THEIR FATAL SECRETSAt the end of a drunken night out two students see something strange in the river: a young woman’s body. Hours later, a second woman washes up on the banks of the same river.BOOK 5: DIRTY SECRETSVal Marsh gets home to find her husband Russell shot through the head. Russell’s ‘angel investment’ company had made him many enemies. Business was bad, and his family and friends weren’t all on his side. But did any of them really want him dead?BOOK 6: MURDEROUS SECRETSDetective Ava Merry goes to a forties-themed dance at Northfields Farm on Valentine’s Day. But it soon becomes the scene of two brutal slayings. A young couple, Nick and Samantha are found stabbed multiple times.THE DETECTIVESDS Ava Merry is a young policewoman, recently promoted to detective sergeant. She is fitness fanatic with a taste for dangerous relationships. DI Jim Neal is single dad who juggles his devotion to his job with caring for his son.If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, Ruth Rendell, or Mark Billingham you will be gripped by this series.
The Langthorne Series box set
Charlie Gallagher - 2017
She happens to be the mayor’s niece. It’s the final straw for the local community. The police are desperate to get results and decide on a risky course of action involving undercover infiltration of the notorious Effingell Estate. Detective George Elms knows this hellish place extremely well, and his sharp investigative mind is put to work to solve the crime. The police are under immense media pressure and conveniently a local lowlife confesses to the attack. But George is not convinced. There are many layers of criminal and police motivation, and few people are what they seem. BOOK 2: PANIC BUTTON “A man is stood in front of me with a gun. He has a message for me and for us all. He says that he will come for us. He will come for all of us one by one. Until it is finished.” Someone is killing the officers of the Langthorne Police one by one. And in a sadistic twist he makes each victim push their radio panic button before they die, thus broadcasting their last moments to the entire force. And as the police face this ruthless adversary, Detective George Elms is in no fit state to help. What is the connection between ruthless former officer Ed Kavski and the wave of killings? And can their boss Helen Webb do anything to stop the carnage? BOOK 3: BLOOD MONEY What would you do to save your dying son? Imagine the doctors told you there was a cure, but only if you had the money. What would you do to get that money to save your son’s life? Tony Robson faces this choice when he’s told he needs £3000 per month to carry on the life-saving experimental treatment for his son’s rare disease. So Tony gets in touch with the criminal element in town. And they have a well-paying job for him . . . And that decision will blow up everything for the Langthorne Police. If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, Ian Rankin or Mark Billingham you will be gripped by this exciting new crime fiction writer.
THE INSPECTOR RAVENSCROFT MYSTERIES six captivating historical murder mysteries
Kerry Tombs - 2020
The Beatrice Stubbs Boxset Two: European Crime Mysteries
J.J. Marsh - 2017
“If you like Kate Atkinson, Alexander McCall Smith or Dorothy L Sayers, you’re going to love Beatrice Stubbs.” COLD PRESSED “Two things people fear the most? Change and death.” Santorini. Turquoise seas, ancient ruins and beautiful sunsets. And a woman thrown from a cliff. The violent death shocks fellow passengers of the Empress Louise, a grand cruise liner packed with British tourists. For newly promoted Inspector Nikos Stephanakis, the case poses linguistic and cultural problems. His request for assistance yields unexpected results. DI Beatrice Stubbs, called in as support, flies to Greece. What with tension at home, the timing couldn’t be better. She anticipates a few days in the sun and a swift resolution. Yet an earlier death at sea proves suspicious and when another elderly lady is killed in her cabin, terror spreads like contagion. Murder is aboard. And someone has Beatrice in his sights. From the Cyclades to the Dodecanese, Nikos and Beatrice pursue the killer and unearth a secret. Revenge is a dish best served cold. HUMAN RITES “Judgement is in the eye of the beholder.” Adrian Harvey, London wine merchant, has lost the Christmas spirit. Someone is stalking him, stealing his post and vandalising his shop. When the police question him after an anonymous tip-off, he’s more than anxious. He’s scared. And who is that nun? Long time neighbour and friend DI Beatrice Stubbs is dispatched to Germany to investigate a series of apparently related art thefts, so Adrian seizes the chance to flee the city. He follows her to Hamburg to do some Christmas shopping and visit his ex. Yet the stalker is still on his heels. While Beatrice is on the trail of a violent gang of mercenary thieves, Adrian runs from danger to the remote island of Sylt. But danger follows and Adrian has run too far. From the icy streets of Hamburg, to the canals of Amsterdam, and the snowswept beaches of Sylt, Beatrice and Adrian discover how a virtue taken to extremes can lead to deadly sin. BAD APPLES “Some people are just rotten to the core.” Acting DCI Beatrice Stubbs is representing Scotland Yard at a police conference in Portugal. Her task is to investigate a rumour – a ghostwritten exposé of European intelligence agencies – and discover who is behind such a book. Hardly a dangerous assignment, so she invites family and friends for a holiday. Days at the conference and evenings at the villa should be the perfect work-life balance. Until one of her colleagues is murdered. An eclectic alliance of international detectives forms to find the assassin. But are they really on the same side? Meanwhile, tensions rise at the holiday villa. A clash of egos sours the atmosphere and when a five-year-old child disappears, their idyll turns hellish. From Lisbon streets to the quays of Porto, Parisian cafés to the green mountains of Gerês, Beatrice realises trust can be a fatal mistake.
The Red Viper
Jack Probyn - 2018
And when a routine bank visit turns sour, Jake finds himself in the midst of an armed bank robbery.The criminals -- The Crimsons. Notorious. Infamous. And yet to pull the trigger on anyone. But that doesn't mean they won't.In this fight or flight situation, Jake must protect his girlfriend, Elizabeth -- and himself -- from harm at all costs. Will The Crimsons succeed, or will Jake stand in their way? Are they about to spend their first ever bullet in Jake’s skull?The Red Viper is the exciting introduction into the Jake Tanner series. Meet Jake today before everyone else does.
Air Raid
Eileen Enwright Hodgetts - 2019
A missing baby. A dead lawyer who knew too much. Can his replacement avoid the same dark fate? England, 1952. Lawyer Toby Whitby’s poor eyesight stole his chance to serve his country. When the lawyer’s boss is murdered, Toby inherits the case of a lifetime. But his opportunity to reunite an Earl’s daughter with her kidnapped child is anything but ordinary…After his search for the child reaches America, the people connected with the case start turning up dead. As the body count rises, Toby realizes there’s far more to his client’s story than she’s willing to share…Can Toby reunite a family or will his pursuit of the truth get him killed?Air Raid is an enthralling World War II mystery. If you like aristocratic scheming, dark family secrets, and postwar settings, then you’ll love Eileen Enwright Hodgetts’ captivating tale.
The Complete Detective Mike Croft Box Set
Jane A. Adams - 2020
She and her twelve-year-old cousin Suzie take a shortcut through the Greenway, an ancient pathway steeped in Norfolk legend. Somewhere along this path Suzie simply vanishes . . . Twenty years later: Cassie is still tormented by nightmares, parts of her memory completely erased. With her husband Fergus and friends Anna and Simon, she returns to Norfolk, determined to confront her fears and solve a mystery that won’t let her rest.BOOK 2: THE SECRETSThreatening phone calls, smashed windows, physical intimidation. Eric Pearson and his family have only just moved into a new home in a sleepy cul-de-sac, but they already have dangerous enemies. How could a respectable family become the focus of such hatred? Detective Inspector Mike Croft knows the Pearson family well. Eric Pearson claims to own a journal which gives evidence of a horrifying ring of abusers. If true, it would be a high stakes case for DI Croft, and expose awful secrets that the town has buried deep.BOOK 3: THEIR FINAL MOMENTSHe wants to capture their final moments on film so he can watch them again and again. DECEMBER: Detective Mike Croft is in pursuit of a serial attacker, whose victims are all young blonde women. But forensics on the victims, reveals an even more horrific scenario. Many miles away, in Wiltshire, a young woman dies in a burning car. In Norwich, an actress is found dead in her own home and a teenage boy runs away from a past he doesn’t know how to face.BOOK 4: THE LIARMartha Toolin is found stabbed to death on a Norfolk beach. She was a stranger to the area and had been seen arguing with a teenage boy. BUT SHE IS A LIAR. Detective Mike Croft is called into investigate and quickly finds out that the victim was not who she says she was. She is a con artist who exploited the vulnerable and elderly.
Deadly Duet: Two English Mysteries: Black & Blue and Blue Blooded (Lord & Lady Hetheridge Mysteries)
Emma Jameson - 2018
Lord Anthony Hetheridge, a legend at Scotland Yard, has just married Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield. The newlyweds couldn't be more different. Tony Hetheridge is sixty, blue-blooded, and the perfect English gentleman sleuth. Bold, blonde Kate is thirty-three, working class, and modern London to the bone. Falling in love with Kate turned Lord Hetheridge's life upside down, and he wouldn't have it any other way. In BLACK & BLUE, Tony, Kate, and DS Deepal "Paul" Bhar take on the death of a widely-hated art dealer. Was it counterfeits that brought him down, or drug smuggling, or his parade of scorned women? In BLUE BLOODED, Tony, and Kate, and Paul face perhaps their greatest challenge when the fiendish Sir Duncan Godington returns, bent on revenge.
Joy
Celina Grace - 2015
IT IS NOT A FULL LENGTH NOVEL.A Kate Redman Short Story for Christmas The last person Detective Sergeant Kate Redman wants to see while she's doing her Christmas shopping is habitual petty thief and homeless alcoholic Charlie Petworth. While she knows that Charlie steals small things in part to get a warm bed for the night, it's still annoying, particularly in the season of good will. Then a far more serious crime occurs and Kate realises that Charlie might well be involved. But why would he go from stealing a packet of flower seeds to stealing a little toddler? And is there more to this case than at first meets the eye?
The DI Kate Burrows Trilogy: The Ladykiller / Broken / Hard Girls
Martina Cole - 2017
Perfect for fans of Val McDermid, Karin Slaughter and Patricia Cornwell.'The Queen of Crime' - Woman & Home on Hard GirlsThe deadly DI Kate Burrows trilogy: the only time Martina's written from the Old Bill's perspective.Kate is the hard-but-fair copper whose investigations - and heart - become dangerously entwined with London's most infamous gangster, Patrick Kelly. But when there's a killer on the loose, Kate Burrows is the only woman for the job. THE LADYKILLER. BROKEN. HARD GIRLS.