Showing results for "Flower" in International Mystery & Crime

Roses are beautiful but beware the thorns… When eight strangers turn up at a beautiful hotel in the Cotswolds in England for a weekend of flower arranging, they’re thinking of making their own arrangements for dinner parties, gifts and even weddings. But even as the rose’s blooms hide its sharp thorns, so the relaxing weekend hides dark forces. Jealousy, fear, and hatred lurk beneath the surface. Peony Bellefleur, who owns Bewitching Blooms in the picture-postcard pretty village of Willow Waters is teaching the flower arranging classes.

In a quiet village surrounded by ancient woods and the imposing Italian Alps, a man is found naked with his eyes gouged out. It is the first in a string of gruesome murders. Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a detective with a background in criminal profiling, is called to investigate. Battaglia is in her mid-60s, her rank and expertise hard-won from decades of battling for respect in the male-dominated Italian police force. Soon she finds that buried deep in these mountains are whispers of a dark and dangerous history, possibly tied to a group of eight-year-old children.

Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. Then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and unsettling letters from a woman named Anna Kiel. Wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young lawyer three years earlier, Anna hasn't been seen by anyone since she left the crime scene covered in blood.

From his serene parish in Lincoln, Rhode Island, Father Richard Merrill had led a seemingly quiet life as a man of the cloth, shepherding his flock toward the solace of a higher power. Now, the core of his beliefs and his being is propelled into the darkest chaos. What's more, it's all for the sake of his very own flesh and blood, two sons who were long ago given up for adoption. Their mother, Francoise Dupont, a former gallery director at the Louvre, has since married an Arab prince. And herein lies the trouble.

DI Milly Jenson spent the best part of a year haunted by a case that saw her demoted - one that resulted in the deaths of three colleagues, the kidnap victim, and the suspect. So when a spate of similar kidnappings occur in Perth, Scotland, Milly isn't thrilled when she's sent to work with the local PD. DCI Craig Fraser doesn't want some English plod interfering with his case, especially one with a reputation for incompetence. But it seems the lovely detective inspector knows the killer and may be their only hope.