Death in Disguise
Emma Davies - 2022
Missing canapes? No problem. Burnt brownies? A piece of cake… But a dead body? Now that’s a recipe for disaster.Francesca is nervous about catering her first ever murder mystery party, but it’s clear from the clink of champagne flutes and piles of empty plates that the evening is a roaring success. The guests look spectacular in their disguises, whispering and giggling as they try to identify who killed beautiful young Becky. But days later the game takes a sinister turn when Becky is found poisoned, and all the signs point to the culprit being a party guest.From the woman having an affair to the guest hiding her true identity, everyone had a secret – and it turns out that Becky knew them all. As Fran finds herself centre-stage in a real-life murder mystery, the finger of suspicion points at each guest in turn. And Fran starts to wonder, were any of these secrets dangerous enough to kill for?Then the body of a second guest is found, and it becomes clear a deranged killer is going off-script. It seems anyone who was involved in the game that night is in their sights, even Fran. Can she unmask the murderer before the final curtain falls?A page-turning cozy mystery packed with twists. If you love Clare Chase, M.C. Beaton and The Thursday Murder Club you’ll absolutely adore this unputdownable whodunnit.
The Flower Arranger at All Saints
Lis Howell - 2006
It’s the sort of place where everyone knows each other’s business. And a new vicar wants to shake things up in the community.Then Phyllis the church flower arranger is found dead before the big Easter service.WHO WOULD KILL A SEEMINGLY SWEET OLD LADY?With fingers pointing and tensions rising, the village is in turmoil.Chaotic mum-of-two, Suzy Spencer, has just arrived in Tarnfield. She needs a fresh start after her husband betrayed her. Now she finds herself entangled in the mystery along with quiet widower, Robert Clark.The killer is set to strike again with another floral flourish. Despite their differences, can Suzy and Robert stop the murderer before anyone else suffers?A new series of cozy mysteries full of red herrings and twists and turns.Perfect for fans of Jeanne M. Dams, Frances Evesham, Margaret Mayhew, Betty Rowlands and M.C. Beaton.
The Runaway Train
M.W. Griffith - 2014
When another child vanishes into the creeping fog around a bus station, Kathryn and her partner, Selena Marrenger, embark on a mission to find the truth behind the disappearances. What they uncover is a hidden secret far more sinister than they could have imagined.As suspects begin to pile up, Selena is forced to leave the case for the FBI. Alone, and desperate for answers, can Kathryn find who's responsible before it's too late?
Murder Among Friends
Janice Frost - 2020
After her husband dies she leaves her job as a teacher to volunteer as a special constable with the police.On her very first shift Jane is called to the scene of a murder. A young man has dragged himself to the top of Greestone Stairs to die. Following her instincts, Jane finds herself becoming very involved in the case . . .For Detective Steph Warwick, specials have no place in a murder investigation — and this upstart rookie is meddling where she doesn’t belong.The victim ran a group at the university teaching men how to pick up women. Jane and Steph must venture into a dark and dangerous world of online misogyny.Steph knows about abusive men. But can she work with Jane to put this killer behind bars?MURDER AMONG FRIENDS is the tantalizing first instalment in the new Warwick and Bell series.
Dead Pretty
Candy Denman - 2013
As a part-time police doctor, she has seen more than most. And it was hardly unusual for her to be called in to a reported drugs overdose. Her work as a forensic physician in Hastings has led her to see a fair few of those.But the corpse of the young woman that she is now examining isn’t surrounded by the typical drug paraphernalia; the room lacks the squalor she might expect to see. What the corpse does have, is a faint mark around the neck. It might easily have gone unnoticed, but once she’s seen it, Dr Callie Hughes can’t get the idea out of her head that she is looking at the victim of a strangling.Hughes returns to her other job as a local GP, but after she discovers on the grapevine that the victim was in fact murdered, her curiosity gets the better of her. Unfortunately, the local police do not take kindly to her interest. And she can’t help but think that the victim being a prostitute has something to do with their lack of concern.Soon Hughes will be called to another victim killed in similar circumstances. Her medical knowledge will give her unique insight into the killer, but convincing the police of her input’s value will be a challenge. And her naturally inquisitive character may well lead her into danger.Can Hughes hunt down a killer terrorising local women, or will her curiosity make her a victim?
Playing At Murder
Gillian Larkin - 2017
Now that she’s retired, she makes that dream a reality and sets herself up as an investigator. With reluctant help from her sister-in-law, Sable, Connie takes on her first client. What starts out as a simple case of tracking down a missing person soon turns into an intriguing case of deception, phone hacking and murder.
Bruno's Challenge & Other Dordogne Tales
Martin Walker - 2021
When a Senegalese man’s coffee sells superbly at the market, some café owners become incensed by the new competition and take matters into their own hands. As a Swiss tourist and a St. Denis native fall in love over the fruit-and-veggie stall, one of their family members takes drastic steps to break them up. A fledgling tour bus business is sabotaged, leading Bruno to take a closer look at a town love triangle. Called in to investigate a case of stolen oysters, our beloved policeman reunites with an old flame to catch the shellfish thieves. In story after story, Bruno settles town disputes, mediates family quarrels, and tracks down lawbreakers in his adored village of St. Denis and its environs. Featured meals in the collection include a fatty Christmas goose, a savory nettle soup with crème fraîche, and a fluffy quiche Lorraine.
A Murder of No Consequence
James García Woods - 2013
For Inspector Paco Ruiz the death of a young woman in Retiro Park has a significance that even he does not fully understand. Battling against official hostility, and attempts on his own life, Ruiz finds himself being pulled deeper and deeper into a dark web of lies and treachery. As well as providing a thrilling and intriguing mystery, A Murder of No Consequence paints a vivid picture of a society – and a way of life – on the verge of collapse. James Garcia Woods was educated at the universities of Wales, Manchester and Oxford. Before becoming a full-time writer, he taught in England, Iran and Spain. He has lived with his wife in Madrid since 1979.
When Murder Comes Home
Shana Frost
Who is responsible?
Aileen Mackinnon ditched spreadsheets and a steady salary for the adventurous shores of Loch Fuar in the Scottish Highlands.
Now she's an amateur innkeeper to ten guests. But when one is murdered in his bed and an heirloom goes missing, can Aileen save the inn?
DI Callan Cameron won't have her nosing about, but with another body he has little choice in the matter.
Tension sizzles as Aileen and Callan step into a world of murders, fibs and heists. They might not always see eye to eye, but can they agree whodunnit?JD Robb meets Agatha Christie in this pageturning murder mystery with a dash of romance.Grab your copy now!Best enjoyed in order: 1. When Murder Comes Home2. When Eyes Don’t Lie3. When Birds Fall Silent
The Man with the Dark Beard
Annie Haynes - 1928
“Everybody liked John!”“I’m afraid it is evident that someone did not.”The note left beside Dr. John Basted's corpse simply read: ‘It was the man with the dark beard.’Dr. Basted hadn't approved of his daughter Hilary's fiance. So when Hilary's father is found shot dead inside his own office, the door-key turned from the inside, the fiance Basil Wilton becomes a chief suspect for Scotland Yard. Yet how could the crime have been engineered?Now an important lacquered box is missing; a former colleague of Basted's has suddenly shaved his beard; and the doctor’s ex-secretary has come mysteriously into money. Before Inspector Stoddart of the Yard can form conclusions, another murder takes place, again credited to the “Man with The Dark Beard”...The Man With the Dark Beard is the first of Annie Haynes’ Inspector Stoddart mysteries, originally published in 1928. It is a sparkling lost classic from the early golden age of crime fiction.“Miss Haynes, I think, improves steadily – this is the best detective story she has yet written.” Time and Tide.
Hell's Half Acre (Coffin Cove Mysteries #2)
Jackie Elliott - 2021
But she got shot during a murder investigation.Her boss at the Coffin Cove Gazette keeps telling her to take it easy. But she’s back on the booze and won’t get help. Instead, she’s going to do what she does best and follow her next lead.Now Ricky, the former mayor’s son, has disappeared. The police don’t seem to care. Ricky runs the town’s new cannabis shop.Then two dead bodies are discovered in an abandoned chapel.Has Ricky finally turned up?Discover a web of murder and mystery laced with humour and a thread of romance in this fast-paced whodunnit set on the gorgeous coast of Western Canada.
Crime in the Choir
Catherine Moloney - 2018
This was not a centuries-old Christian burial. They are wearing modern-day clothes and there is evidence of foul play. Consecrated land has been sadistically violated. 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? DI Markham and his team are met with intense hostility when they step up their operation. Is this just local panic? Or are they about to stumble into a web of corruption which runs deeper than they could have ever anticipated? DI MARKHAM FACES A RACE AGAINST TIME TO SAVE HIS GIRLFRIEND FROM BEING THE NEXT VICTIM.
The Kensington Kidnap
Katie Gayle - 2020
She can barely afford cat food, and just because Most has three legs doesn’t mean he eats any less. So she absolutely can’t afford to mess up her latest temp job. But when she walks through the door of the private investigation firm, her new boss mistakes her for a missing persons expert. He then charges her with finding Matty Price – the teenage son of two A-list celebrities – who has mysteriously disappeared from his home in Kensington.It ought to be a disaster, but Pip reckons it’s actually an opportunity. She’s always been curious (nosy, her mother calls it) and has an uncanny knack for being at the wrong place at the right time (she doesn’t want to know what her mother thinks of that). After years of trying to find something she’s good at, has Pip managed to walk straight into the job she was born to do?She owes it to herself and poor missing Matty to find out.But searching for Matty takes Pip into the strange, intimidating world of the rich and famous. And it soon becomes clear that some of these people’s love for themselves doesn’t extend to their fellow humans.As Pip investigates further, she realises the question isn’t whether Matty ran away – it’s whether she will find him alive and make it home safely herself...An absolutely brilliant, light-hearted cozy mystery for fans of M.C. Beaton, T E Kinsey, Lauren Elliott and Joanne Fluke, featuring an irresistible new heroine.
The Lady Vanished
Gretta Mulrooney - 2015
He’s survived a stabbing and his fiancée running off with another man. Florence Davenport hires Swift to find her missing stepmother. There are no leads and no suspects, but if the body is found, Florence will inherit half of a very valuable house. As Swift delves deeper into the family’s affairs, he discovers dark family secrets that threaten to blow apart everyone’s lives. Will Swift get to the truth before those with much to hide stop him? Find out in this clever, absorbing mystery with many twists and turns, featuring men and women with real dilemmas and conflicts. You will not want to put this book down till the surprising and dramatic conclusion. If you like Robert Galbraith, Angela Marsons, Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, or Mark Billingham you will be gripped by this exciting new crime fiction writer. THE LADY VANISHED is the first in a new series of detective thrillers featuring Tyrone Swift. Swift is unlucky in love but pretty good at getting to the truth. He loves rowing on the river Thames and his ex-fiancée has just come back on the scene.
The Gathering Murders
Keith Moray - 2006
But with the tiny Scottish Hebridean island population suddenly doubling, the local police force is stretched to breaking point. And this year they have to deal with more than just drunken fights and rowdy behaviour…Ranald Buchanan, the local poet, is found dead, with his head brutally caved in, and Inspector Torquil McKinnon is brought into investigate. Did Ranald trip and fall, as suggested? Or is something more sinister happening?Before Torquil can find out more, another victim is found. The island is on lockdown. There is a serial killer in their midst. And this time the victim is someone very close to him.Now finding justice is personal. Torquil is out for revenge.Can he solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? Or will more bodies fall victim to The Gathering Murders?