British Detectives

Featured Book: A VIEW TO MURDER by Robert McNeill

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A mystery with a devilish sting

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Cases come in thick and fast for the veteran crime solver…

A student meets an untimely demise when she falls from Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park. Was she pushed?

Whilst DI Jack Knox is picking through the lies of the victim’s friends, he is called upon to help the narcotics division on the other side of the city.

A drug dealer is dead and the squad is setting up a deadly sting. But without Knox and the clout he has among the criminal fraternity, they’re unable to move against rival gangs.

But is all as it seems? Can Knox juggle the two inquiries and bring home the bacon?

The Armistice Killer by David Palin

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The plot of The Armistice Killer is as intriguing as the characters who stalk its pages all the way from Cornwall to Afghanistan. The bizarre and brutal murder of a military hero – retired RSM Tom Wright – sets in motion a complex investigation headed by the troubled Inspector Logan.
The detective’s prosopagnosia – facial recognition blindness – is almost the least of his problems as his overlapping inner demons and desires threaten his professional competence. But it’s not only faces that confuse Logan as he struggles to read the minds and motives of a compelling, dysfunctional cast of characters, where nobody is quite what they seem, including the murdered soldier himself. Yet Logan’s flashes of intuitive genius likewise constantly unsettle those who would remain faceless.
Can Logan and his deputy Pascoe keep on the trail of blood as it leads their investigation up more dark alleys – most of them blind, and some of them heading into their own disturbed pasts?
The Armistice Killer’s parade of clues, red herrings, lies and deceits will keep the reader guessing to the last page.

Targeted Age Group:: Adults

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I’m never sure whether ‘inspired’ is the correct word! Something sparks my imagination and the rest grows from there. I can often remember the very moment of inspiration, but it is just a seed and you cannot control right at the outset what will subsequently grow. In the case of ‘The Armistice Killer’ I have often felt there is something about the number 1111, which of course is also the date of the First World War Armistice – 11th November – and I had been seeing it with increasing frequency. However, the spark for my imagination, in the case of this novel, was looking out of my bedroom window one night and seeing a shape in the field across the road, standing beneath a tree. There are ponies in the field, but it looked too big to be one of them. To this day I don’t know what it was, but anyone reading my novel will recognise the moment.

Tempest in the Tea Room by Libi Astaire

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“For anyone who loves Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, or who enjoys cleverly plotted mysteries dressed in period costumes.” – Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

Lady Marblehead is not pleased. In fact, she’s furious. Not only is someone trying to poison her, but the impertinent scoundrel is after her jewels too.

All the clues seem to point to her new doctor, a young Jewish man recently arrived in London. But is he really the one responsible? Or is there some darker, more malevolent force at work?

In this first book in the Jewish Regency Mystery Series, it’s up to wealthy-widower-turned-sleuth Mr. Ezra Melamed to find the culprit — before the poisoner strikes again.

Targeted Age Group:: Adults

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I love mysteries – Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, et al. I'm also interested in Jewish history. So, when I first thought about creating a mystery series, I thought, "Why not combine the two?" And I love the fact that I'm writing about a Jewish community that most people know very little about – the Ashkenazic Jews who were living in England while Jane Austen was writing her novels and Napoleon was causing trouble on the Continent.

Featured Book: Visiting Lilly by Toni Allen

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Visiting Lilly – Book 1 – Jake Talbot Investigates mystery series

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Why should a man at a Surrey police station go ballistic because someone tries to visit Lilly, his elderly grandmother?

Detective Inspector Jake Talbot is intrigued, and this little puzzle might serve to distract him from sorrows of a Christmas past. Soon he is entangled with Frankie, an odd young man who claims to have met Lilly in her youth. Talbot dismisses the notion of time travel, but then discovers the Ministry of Defence has been monitoring Frankie since his friend disappeared ten years previously. Forced to work with the MOD, Talbot unearths family secrets and betrayals. The families act ruthlessly to prevent him from discovering the facts, colluding to ruin him.

If Frankie is innocent, Talbot won’t let him be victimised. An uneasy understanding grows between them as they follow the evidence, for only the truth will allow Frankie to visit Lilly.

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Featured Book: Good Investigations by Ben Westerham

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South London. The 1980s. David Good, a morally confused and womanising private investigator, is hired by a ridiculously beautiful blonde to help her fend off the attentions of a serial blackmailer. But he’s barely got to grips with the woman’s keen sense of self-interest when he stumbles on to something far more unpleasant.

As he digs deeper, he finds there is more than one woman out there in dire need of his help. For once, despite the obvious risk to his own carelessly maintained health, he finds he can’t stop himself going out on a limb in an effort to put an end to some particularly unpleasant behaviour. It’s quite possible that his trade-mark sense of humour won’t be enough to see him safely out the other side of this particular engagement. But time’s running out if he’s going to put an end to a great deal of suffering.

Join David Good as he seeks to simultaneously unravel both the crime and the woman.

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Featured Book: A Journal of Sin by Darryl Donaghue

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A village, isolated by a severe storm, and a young officer, alone and out of her depth. A troubled priest is brutally murdered, leaving behind a journal of the resident’s confessional secrets; secrets certain people would prefer he took to the grave.

As word spreads, the pressure rises as the eyes of the town watch her every move. With no forensic team, no support and a savage killer hiding in a turbulent town, is PC Sarah Gladstone up to the task?

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Bad Night by Nigel Cooper

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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

Based on a true story

A short story about a young man who thought his 15-mile journey across London late one night could not possibly get any worse – talk about Murphy’s Law on steroids. When he eventually does reach his house, things get worse; much worse.

What makes Bad Night even more interesting is the fact that it is based on a true story. This actually happened to a friend of mine several years ago. We’ve all heard somebody recount something bizarre, unusual or just plain outrageous, that happened to them, or somebody they know, and you probably thought to yourself, ‘you couldn’t make it up.’ Well, in this case I didn’t have to as it really happened. Naturally I’ve changed the names of the two characters in the story to protect their identity.

Targeted Age Group:: 13 to 48

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
It’s based on a true story of what happened to a friend