Mud, Muck and Dead Things

When Meredith Mitchell's old friend, Toby Smythe, turns up on leave, she is delighted to see him. But Toby has a problem - or rather his relative, Alison Jenner, has - and he wants to enlist the help of Meredith's fiancé, Detective Superintendent Alan Markby.

It sends a shiver down Detective Superintendent Alan Markby's spine when he hears that a rambler has stumbled across human bones in Stovey Woods in the heart of the Cotswolds. Twenty-two years earlier, as a fresh-faced young inspector, he had a rare failure, in the hunt for a brutal serial rapist preying on local women. After the third rape, the attacker went to ground, never to be heard of again.

When Meredith Mitchell agreed to stay with her actress cousin, Eve, in the run up to Eve's daughter's wedding, she anticipated a degree of drama. But she can hardly have expected it to include murder, blackmail, and unrequited love. Or to involve a certain Chief Inspector Markby, a middle aged divorcee.

When Meredith Mitchell bumps into her old school friend Rachel Hunter at the Chelsea Flower Show, she is shocked to discover that she was the first wife of her companion, Chief Inspector Alan Markby. But the meeting is not the only surprise; before the afternoon is out, Markby has a death on his hands.

Where Old Bones Lie is set on an isolated archaeological dig in the Cotswolds. When a body is found near the site, the suspects, witnesses, and clues all conflict, and the disappearance of a group of New Age travellers just seems to add to the mystery. Superintendent Markby and Meredith Mitchell must untangle the mess, and in doing so find themselves in a dangerous and uncompromising situation.

The first in a new crime series from M. B. Shaw, pen name of best-selling author Tilly Bagshawe. Murder at the Mill introduces listeners to portrait painter and amateur sleuth Iris Grey, who sees the truths of others while struggling to find her own way. Grey arrives at The Mill in Hampshire, commissioned to paint a portrait of Dominic Wetherby, a celebrated author. She quickly finds herself drawn into a world of village gossip, romantic intrigue, buried secrets and murder.

Very little disturbs the ordered calm of Fethering, a pleasingly self-contained retirement town on England's southern coast. Which is precisely why Carole Seddon, who has outlived both her husband and her career at the Home Office, has chosen to reside there. So the last thing Carole expects to encounter in Fethering is a new neighbour with but one name and an obviously colourful past.  

When hordes of people descend on the picturesque village of Nasely for the annual celebration of its most famous resident, murder mystery writer Agnes Crabbe, events take a dark turn as the festival opens with a shocking death. Each year the residents are outnumbered by crowds dressed as Crabbe’s lady detective, Millicent Cutter. The weekend is never a mild-mannered affair as fan club rivalries bubble below the surface, but tensions reach new heights when a second Crabbe devotee is found murdered. Though the police are quick to arrive on the scene, the facts are tricky to ascertain as the witnesses, suspects and victim are all dressed as Miss Cutter.

After rising to prominence for his role investigating the case of Jack the Ripper, former Detective Inspector Daniel Wilson is now retired. Known for his intelligence, investigative skills, and most of all his discretion, he's often consulted when a case must be solved quickly and quietly. So when a body is found in the Egyptian collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Wilson is called in.  

Alfie McAlister has retreated from London to the peace and quiet of the country to recover from a personal tragedy. But an accidental death - which may have been no accident - reveals that the heart of England is far from the tranquil backwater he imagined. After arriving in Bunburry, he is co-opted as an amateur detective by Liz and Marge, two elderly ladies who were best friends with Alfie's late Aunt Augusta. And it is not long before their investigations take an even more dramatic turn.