Sophie Hannah

Pushed to breaking point, Cara Burrows flees her home and family and heads for a five-star spa resort. All she wants is space and time to think, far from everyone she knows. Instead she gets a shock in the middle of the night when she is given the key to a room that's already occupied - apparently by a father and daughter, who are equally shocked to be woken by a stranger. Back at reception, Cara gets an apology and the key to a new room, and she imagines the drama is over....

Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him - a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy.... 

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together a selection of rare tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922. At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public’s imagination and saw the emergence of some of the world’s cleverest and most popular storytellers.

In 1917, as a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks, and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous - the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls. As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive was in fact killing them.

After Chloe and her daughter, Freya, are rescued from disaster by a man, Chloe decides she must find him again to thank him. But instead of meeting her knight in shining armour, she comes across Nadine Caspian, who warns her to stay away from him. The man is dangerous, Nadine claims, and a compulsive liar. Alarmed, Chloe knows that the sensible choice would be to walk away. But she is too curious. What could Nadine have meant?

Bill Vokes has played Santa at the children's Christmas show for years. But with the show just hours away, he vanishes with no explanation. The whole village is baffled. Did something bad happen to loveable Bill, upstanding citizen, churchgoer, life and soul of the party and the holiday season? Jack and Sarah are on the case - and soon discover there are secrets about this Santa that no one could have imagined.

Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a widowed doctor in the small provincial town of Hollingford, lost her mother when she was a child. Her father remarries wanting to give Molly the woman's presence he feels she lacks. To Molly, any stepmother would have been a shock, but the new Mrs. Gibson is a self-absorbed, petty widow, and Molly's unhappiness is compounded by the realisation that her father has come to regret his second marriage.

An Adam Dalgliesh mystery. Cover Her Face is P. D. James' debut novel, the first Adam Dalgliesh mystery, and a thrilling work of crime fiction set in the English countryside, from the best-selling author of Death Comes to Pemberley and Children of Men. From P. D. James, one of the masters of British crime fiction, comes the debut novel that introduced Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh.

DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she's seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She's gotten tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. Too tough. And now she's been given one final warning: make it work with her new sergeant, DS Joseph Easter, or she's out.

When billionaire philanthropist Sir Hugo Fletcher is discovered murdered in his London home, tied naked to a bed, the scandal is only a shadow of the darkness lurking off-camera. Laura Fletcher returns from an Italian vacation to find her home under siege by paparazzi. Is she shocked? Yes. But is she distraught? Not exactly. Chief Inspector Tom Douglas reveals his suspicions that Hugo’s killer is female. The deeper Douglas digs, the more sordid details he uncovers.

When the East Wind blows Mary Poppins into the home of the Banks children, their lives go topsy-turvy and are changed forever. More than 80 years since we first met Mary Poppins, this original, classic story is still charming listeners and transporting new fans into the mysterious world of everyone’s favourite magical nanny.

Inside the spectacular Grand Ballroom of the exclusive Buckingham Hotel the rich and powerful, politicians, film stars, even royalty rub shoulders with Raymond de Guise and his troupe of talented dancers from all around the world, who must enchant them, captivate them and sweep away their cares. Accustomed to waltzing with the highest of society, Raymond knows a secret from his past could threaten all he holds dear.

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.

Tommy and Tuppence embark on a daring business scheme: Young Adventurers Ltd. Their advertisement says they are "willing to do anything, go anywhere". But their first assignment, for the sinister Mr Whittington, plunges them into more danger than they ever imagined.

Northumberland, 1809: A beautiful young heiress disappears from her locked bedchamber at Linn Hagh. The local constables are baffled and the townsfolk cry "witchcraft". The heiress' uncle summons help from Detective Lavender and his assistant, Constable Woods, who face one of their most challenging cases.