Showing titles in Traditional Detectives

Inspector Hemingway has his work cut out for him when a seemingly civilized card game ends in a double murder. The two crimes appear identical, but were they carried out by the same hand? When Timothy Harte's young fiancé - a put-upon secretary and suspected gold digger - becomes the inspector's prime suspect, Harte is determined to prove her innocence.

A dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd. A...

Business is booming at Lily’s ice cream shop, but when a shipwreck is discovered off the coast of St Mary’s, she can’t resist the call of adventure. Rumoured to hold long-lost treasure, the wreck draws excitement — and danger — to the islands. A diving trip to explore the site ends in disaster when someone’s air hose is deliberately cut. Shaken but determined, Lily dives headfirst into the investigation. But she’s not the only one with something to prove.

The Cleaves family gather in a small country churchyard for their son's funeral. But they don't recognize the dead man in the coffin. Detective Inspector Ravenscroft is alarmed by the behavior of the Upton Undertakers. What are they hiding? And who killed this man? Then another member of the Cleaves family is found dead. Ravenscroft begins to suspect something grisly is afoot—could someone be involved in body snatching?

Marcus Didius Falco discovers that rank brings problems, the most gruesome of which is a corpse buried under the tiles of his new bath house. The contractors have fled to Britain where, as the Fates have it, Falco is ordered. A local chief and ally of the Romans is having a Palace built by the Emperor Vespasian. However, the project is running late, and fatal accidents keep happening. Falco, troubleshooting for the Emperor, is without an ally and now next on the list for assassination.

Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories is a brilliant collection of short stories, personally chosen by Andrea Camilleri. It follows Inspector Montalbano from his very first case in Vigàta, in which he stumbles upon a young girl lurking outside a courthouse with a pistol in her handbag. When...

The two Miss Pilgrims, Columba and Janette, think it's unwise to leave their fine ancestral home, Pilgrim's Rest. When their brother suffers a fatal fall only days after talking about selling it, and his son barely escapes two near-fatal accidents, they suspect it's deadly to leave. Surely Miss Silver can determine why the house hates to be empty.

Round the Fire was the title of a series of 12 mystery and suspense short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, published monthly in The Strand Magazine between June 1898 and May 1899. The series was popular with contemporary readers, and while some of the individual stories, such as "The Brown Hand", have been regularly anthologised for many years and are well-known, there are some overlooked gems here, too.

At nearly 18, easy-going Benedict Juliard has no stronger ambition than to ride in steeplechases as an amateur jockey. His father, George, driven towards a life of public service and politics, asks his son to enter into a pact that neither of them will commit any act that could destroy the father's growing reputation and career.

When Jude agrees to lend her vintage chaise longue for the local Amateur Dramatic Society’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple, little does she realise she’ll end up in a starring role. It’s an ambitious play, culminating in a dramatic execution scene: a scene that’s played for real when one of the leading actors is found hanging from the specially constructed stage gallows during rehearsals. A tragic accident - or something more sinister?

The new Hercule Poirot mystery by Sophie Hannah, follow-up to the bestselling Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night. New Year's Eve, 1932. Hercule Poirot and his good friend Inspector Edward Catchpool arrive on the Greek island of Lamperos for a little holiday…or is it? Catchpool suspects Poirot has...

Read by Samuel West, known for his roles in Van Helsing and Notting Hill. Last Bus to Woodstock is the novel that began Colin Dexter's phenomenally successful Inspector Morse series. 'Do you think I'm wasting your time, Lewis?' Lewis was nobody's fool and was a man of some honesty and integrity...

1940. Britain is at war. Rector’s daughter Wilhelmina Harkness longs to do her duty for her country, but when her strict mother forbids her to enlist, their bitter argument has devasting consequences. Unable to stay in the village she loves, Wilhelmina—reinventing herself as Billie—spends everything she has on a one-way ticket up north. Hull is a distant, dangerous city, but Billie is determined to leave her painful memories behind and start afresh, whatever the cost.

A stolen bag. A hidden past. A truth too dangerous to share. Lily Larkin’s life on the Isles of Scilly is finally settling into a comfortable rhythm – especially now that her relationship with PC Flynn Grainger is beginning to blossom. But a spate of burglaries soon shatters the calm. And when Lily’s own flat is broken into, things take a chilling turn. The only thing missing? A backpack containing a stash of cash and two passports... both bearing her face, but different identities.

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners. Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective...

When a badly decomposed body is discovered during an archaeological dig on the Sedgemoor battlefield, Avon and Somerset police are notified immediately. The remains are recent, and Detective Chief Inspector Peter Lewis knows exactly who they have found. A single stab wound from a curved blade implicates convicted serial killer Daniel Parker, who Lewis arrested fifteen years ago.

Amy Leatheran had never felt the lure of the mysterious East, but when she travels to an ancient site deep in the Iraqi desert to nurse the wife of a celebrated archaeologist, events prove stranger than she could ever have imagined. Her patient's bizarre visions and nervous terror seem unfounded, but as the oppressive tension in the air thickens, events come to a terrible climax in murder.

'Makes most of her competitors seem like wannabes' THE TIMES There is more to solving a crime than following the clues. Welcome to Chief Inspector Gamache's world of facts and feelings. One cold November day, a mysterious figure appears on the village green in Three Pines, causing unease, alarm...

Elinor Carlisle and Roddy Welman are the model English couple, perfect companions set for a life of ease when they inherit Aunt Laura's considerable fortune. But a poison pen letter begins a chain of events which is to end in tragedy. Convinced that Mary Gerrard, a childhood playmate of...

This audiobook is narrated by TV's Alexander Armstrong. Q is out of MI6 . . . . . . and in over his head After Major Boothroyd (aka Q) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6's Double O agents, he is adrift, unsure of his place in a world...