Deliverance: A Justice Belstrang Mystery (Justice Belstrang Mysteries Book 3)


John Pilkington - 2021
    To take his mind off his troubles Belstrang goes - and discovers things are not so simple.Sir Richard is not dying, but desperate. His brother John has been killed in an explosion at the family’s iron foundry, down in the remote Forest of Dean. They cast cannons for the Royal Armouries: a privileged and lucrative business. But Sir Richard does not believe John’s death was an accident.Meanwhile, Mountford's cold-hearted son Francis treats him as an invalid. He fears things are being kept from him - and implores Belstrang to investigate.The mystery deepens when a forester who was seen talking to Belstrang is murdered.Only after a violent confrontation on the bleak salt-marshes does the truth begin to unfold - and its implications reach far beyond England’s shores.This time Belstrang must follow the trail to a very bitter end, which could be the making of him - or cause his undoing.

Hell Hath No Fury 7: Around the World


Les Macdonald - 2017
    This time we have 35 true crime stories taking place in 27 countries from around the world. The book starts out in Argentina with one of the first cases to be decided by fingerprint evidence back in 1892. We have two stories from down under. Tracey Wigginton was known as the Lesbian Vampire Killer. A Terrifying Cycle of Abuse features a disturbing story of child abuse and murder. We might not think of ice cream in quite the same way after reading the chapter from Austria. There are two from Belgium including the Parachute Murder - the title might be a bit of a spoiler. The story from Brazil is another disturbing chapter on child abuse. There are two from Canada including the Meat Cleaver Murder. Others include Denmark with an Angel of Death story and one in Denmark...did ISIS recruit a 15 year old girl? Other countries represented are Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and the book ends with one from England and two from the United States.

The Zhukov Briefing


Antony Trew - 2016
    The Russian Delta Two class ballistic missile submarine is the deadliest warship afloat, capable of destroying sixteen of the world’s largest cities. Captained by Comrade Yenev, The Zhukov – a recently launched prototype – is on a top-secret test run skirting Norwegian waters. But in a disastrous accident its cover is blown when an internal explosion cripples the submarine, forcing it to run ashore on Norwegian soil. Despite the Soviet’s attempts at damage limitation, intelligence services from around the world rush to the spot, all desperate to learn the secrets of its new, advanced technologies. Among the reconnaissance planes and warships, a number of dubious individuals start to appear. The crew of a British yacht, two American ‘ornithologists’, French cod fishermen and Cantonese ‘tourists’ holidaying in Norway, are just some of the suspicious character. Not only do these espionage professionals have to contend with each other, but also with the captain of the Soviet submarine – a dedicated, ruthless man who will kill to safeguard his country’s biggest secret… Praise for Antony Trew‘Mr Trew writes about the sea with splendid authority.’ Northern Despatch ‘Modern-day espionage at its most sophisticated … taut adventure.’ Publishers Weekly Antony Trew has spent many years at sea. During the 1939-45 war he served with the Mediterranean Fleet in the 22nd Anti-Submarine Group, and in the Western Approaches where he commanded the destroyer Walker, principally on Russian convoys. He was awarded the DSC. He retired recently as Director-General of the Automobile Association in South Africa and now lives in England. His highly successful career as a novelist began with the best-selling Two Hours to Darkness in 1963. Since then he has written many novels, mainly about the sea: Death of a Supertanker, The Moonraker Mutiny, Two Hours to Darkness, The White Schooner, The Antonov Project and The Zhukov Briefing.

The Giants Look Down


Sonja Price - 2016
    It is the late 1960s and the family enjoy an idyllic life in the Vale of Kashmir, despite the area being riddled with conflict and poverty. But after a devastating earthquake wipes out her entire family, Jaya is taken into the care of relatives in Delhi, who attempt to marry her off and keep secret from her the possibility that Tahir, her younger brother, has survived the earthquake. After escaping from the arranged marriage Jaya is put through medical training in Scotland, as she had always dreamed, and where she develops feelings for her foster family’s eldest son, Alastair, who is engaged to someone else. In the meantime, Tahir has been abducted by a band of Kashmiri freedom fighters, who have made him one of their own. Jaya finally returns to her troubled homeland to find him and come to terms with the loss of her family. Alastair, who arrives in Kashmir to announce his love for Jaya, is kidnapped by the freedom fighters, forcing her to risk everything to get him back.

Thomas Berrington Books 1-3


David Penny - 2017
     THE RED HILL A killer who can’t be stopped. A request that can’t be refused. In 1482 the Englishman Thomas Berrington is living in the last remnants of Moorish Spain. A physician, he is an unwilling friend to the most powerful man in the kingdom. Bodies are discovered, each showing the marks of a savage attack, and Thomas is asked to investigate. When one of the Sultan’s wives is brutally murdered, what begins as a reluctant task turns into a fight for survival. Together with the eunuch Jorge, Thomas attempts to hunt down the killer before they become his next victims. Except nothing is as it seems—friends turn into enemies and enemies into friends. Thomas’s investigation lays bare the secrets of the Red Hill and the people who inhabit it. His discoveries culminate in a battle not only for his own life, but for the lives of those he loves. BREAKER OF BONES March 1483, and surgeon Thomas Berrington makes a reluctant journey to Qurtuba at the request of his master. He expects only to operate on a Spanish prince and return home to Moorish al-Andalus. But fate has something else in store for him and his companion, the eunuch Jorge. A warped killer has been murdering young women to create twisted creatures from their bodies. When Thomas is tasked by Queen Isabel to hunt down the culprit he is propelled into an unfamiliar world of religious mania where it is impossible to tell the innocent from the guilty. Meanwhile Jorge is on a quest of his own—to track down the family he abandoned twenty years before. When Jorge’s new found niece is taken as the Bonebreaker’s next victim, the pair are faced with their most dangerous challenge yet. Can Thomas and Jorge expose the killer before yet another life has to pay the price for one man’s madness? THE SIN EATER Moorish Spain, 1484, and no-one is innocent. Thomas Berrington, emigre Englishman who has made the doomed city of Garnatah his home, is once again attempting to solve a series of mysterious deaths. Accompanied by his companion, the palace eunuch Jorge, Thomas struggles to discover the truth while those in power seek to distract him. As his investigation continues, his personal life splinters into chaos and he finds the Spanish once more demanding his presence. As Thomas and Jorge draw closer to their quarry, the killer’s attention turns on them and those they love. Will the pair be able to unmask the sin eater before the lives of those close to them become forfeit?

Murder on Christmas Eve (A Dodo Dorchester Mystery Book 6)


Ann Sutton - 2021
    

Britain's Most Notorious Hangmen


Stephen Wade - 2009
    Britain has always been a land of gallows, and every town had its hanging post and local 'turn off man.' First these men were criminals doing the work to save their own necks, and then later they were specialists in the trade of judicial killing. From the late Victorian period, the public hangman became a professional, and in the twentieth century the mechanics of hanging were streamlined as the executioners became adept at their craft. Britain's Most Notorious Hangmen tells the stories of the men who worked with their deadly skills at Tyburn tree or at the scaffolds in the prison yards across the country. Most were steeled to do the work by drink, and many suffered deeply from their despised profession. Here the reader will find the tale of the real Jack Ketch, the cases of neck-stretchers from the drunks like Curry and Askern, to the local workers of the ropes, Throttler Smith and the celebrated Billington and Pierrepoint dynasty. Along with some of the stories of famous killers such as William Palmer and James Bloomfield Rush, here are the bunglings, failures and desperate lives of the notorious hangmen, some who could entertain the vast crowds enjoying the show, and others who always faced the task as a terrible ordeal.

The Anchoress of Chesterfield (Chesterfield 04)


Chris Nickson - 2020
    

Charles Fort and the Beast of Loch Ness (Charles Fort Historical Mysteries #2)


T.E. Scott - 2016
    Together they must investigate a strange murder at Boleskine House on the banks of Loch Ness. But what dark creature lurks at the heart of the Loch? And what do the murders have to do with Boleskine’s most infamous resident, Aleister Crowley? Second in the Charles Fort Historical Mysteries series by TE Scott, for fans of Golden Age style detectives and historical mysteries.

Murder Is A Family Affair


Donalie Beltran - 2013
    More than one.Some stories just have to be told and so it is with the Tuxhorn family. Murder Is A Family Affair follows August Tuxhorn to America in the mid 1850s where Charles was born in Illinois. The boy grew up with a beautiful face and a stone heart. Evil set in motion by his grandfather and then his father, Charles carries on the family’s violent temper and disregard for human life. Did he inherit these traits shared by others? More important, did he pass them on? Follow their lives and watch the carnage they leave behind. The lives lost or destroyed in their wake.Has the evil in this family been buried with them?Or is it just the beginning?

Trio


Cath Staincliffe - 2002
    The women meet up in a home for unmarried mothers to await the births of their babies. "Trio" follows the lives of the mothers and daughters over the ensuing years.

Weaponsmith


Mike Crawshaw - 2013
    Seven years of the worst war in history – so far – have turned the region into a wasteland where only the sword rules, and only the rats and the bankers grow fat. Roger Hawken, seventeen-year-old Englishman, black sheep of a family of minor landed gentry, leaves his Wiltshire home to take service with a free company of mercenary soldiers based in the Netherlands. Roger’s indiscretions have resulted in his being apprenticed as blacksmith in place of a more gentlemanly occupation, and as a smith he joins the company. Pitchforked into the bloody conflict of the siege of Breda, he finds there is more to his job than shoeing horses and forging short-swords, and starts to make his name as a fighting soldier…

Deep Blood


Phillip Thompson - 2013
    He doesn't care for the mundane parts of his job, he drinks too much, is separated from his wife, and has a former stripper girlfriend who regularly violates the drug laws of the county. Even when the son of a close friend is murdered, he has a hard time concentrating. But when his incorrigible father is arrested again for DUI, he learns of a secret of his father's past that threatens his own future and must confront it in a Southern tale of justice, redemption and family secrets.

A Bad Place To Be


John Hansen - 2015
    Their dream of owning a ranch in Idaho's Salmon River country kept them going during those tough times in the Army. The dream, however, is derailed when Seth is murdered in the Bear Creek gold fields. In his quest to obtain justice for his friend, Josh is plunged into a quagmire of corruption and wickedness. And then, to complicate matters even more, enter Sarah, an outcast prostitute looking for a ticket to respectability. Is she friend, lover or just someone looking for a free ride out of Bear Creek? Josh has to decide - assuming he lives that long. However, staying alive might be difficult, given the character of the sheriff and his cronies. Few people trust them to uphold the law, yet no one dares to challenge them. The simplest solution to this entire mess would be to walk away, but Josh's conscience won't allow that. Only time will tell if he is to take his stubborn loyalty to the grave.

A Family Secret


Libby Ashworth - 2021
    Meanwhile, her older sister Peggy works as an apprentice at the Girls' School, hoping for a more prosperous future as a schoolteacher.Jennet and Titus Eastwood have always made decisions for their daughters' futures. But as the sisters near adulthood they are determined to make their own choices. And with temptation in the way, will the girls find love - or infatuation - leads them astray?Then an unexpected but familiar face arrives in town, and the family's future is threatened. For Bessie and Jennet, a difficult choice must be made - love or family . . .