Showing results by narrator "Judith Boyd" in All Categories

When old Monty Bickerstaffe finds a dead body in his drawing room it comes as a nasty surprise. Monty lives alone in a crumbling Cotswold manor house and the last thing he wants is the police sniffing around his property. But Inspector Jess Campbell is determined to solve the mystery, with the help of Superintendent Ian Carter, she must dig deep into Monty’s family history to reveal the shocking truth...

The two elderly sisters of the Oakley family live in poverty in an ancient mansion, and have decided to sell up to live comfortably from the profits. However, things become more complicated when a young Polish man appears claiming rights to half the fortune. When he dies in circumstances...

The fourth Campbell and Carter mystery from one of the nation's best-loved crime writers. In the Cotswold village of Weston Saint Ambrose, Inspector Jess Campbell and Superintendent Ian Carter take on their fourth murder mystery. It is the wettest winter on record, and as Christmas approaches, the rivers burst their banks.

When Sally Caswell persuaded her scientist husband Liam to move from London to the quiet of rural Oxfordshire it was in the hope of a more peaceful existence. But so far the move has led to nothing but discord. Liam's sabbatical book project is not going well so, frustrated and isolated, he...

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...

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 fiance, Detective Superintendent Alan Markby...

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...

Meredith and Markby are almost ready to leave on a long planned canal barge trip, but Meredith is having reservations. Then the twelve year old corpse of a missing teenage girl is dug up in the local graveyard. The vacation is off, (to Meredith's relief) but the investigation is on...

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...

When war is declared, Frances and Ralph, both pacifists, turn their house into a sanctuary for friends more materially involved. Invasion seems imminent as one by one the countries of Europe fall to the Nazis. People are even told to immobilise their car engines at night in case the Germans parachute into Britain. Yet although war looms persistently over the Partridges, only a few power cuts affect them, leaving them feeling oddly isolated from it.

In the thrilling conclusion to the Oracle trilogy, Seth and his companions return from the desert to find a new reign of terror upon the Two Lands. General Argelin has pronounced himself King and declared war upon the Rain Queen and the God. Hired mercenaries repress the populous and prepare for battle with the forces of the Emperor. Returning the dead Speaker to the world of the living has become Argelin's one obsession and brings him under the malign influence of the sign of the Scarab.

In a land without rain, the people turn to the Archon, the god-on-Earth, to end their suffering and, for their sake, the old man must make a terrible sacrifice. Suddenly Mirany, a young priestess, finds herself thrust unwillingly into a desperate struggle to find the child who will be the new Archon. And the only help that she can find are Oblek, a drunken musician and Seth, a conniving scribe. If she fails, General Argelin and the high priestess Hermia will install a false candidate of their own and so gain absolute power. Nominated for the Whitbread Children's Book Award.

Vicky is nine months pregnant and in prison. As the days slip by, she wrestles with the terrible knowledge that her baby will be taken away. Meanwhile her lawyer and his wife have moved to the country with their two children. Their arrival in the village sends ripples through a community that is to reevaluate the nature of family life, love, separation and death....

On a snowy December morning, a young woman is found outside Patches nightclub in Leek. Half dead from the cold, she says she has been raped. As Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy - fresh from a disciplinary action - investigates, she learns that Kayleigh Harrison has made unsubstantiated allegations before against her stepfather. But there are possible links to a similar rape case six months previously. Is there a real case to investigate or not? Kayleigh holds the key, but how much of her story can be trusted?

London, 1921. Julia Longfield lives on the fringes of the East End, in prosperous Victoria Park. With her brother and two younger sisters, she has known a happy childhood, and looks forward to the announcement of her engagement to Chester Morrison, son of a business acquaintance of her father. Any doubts Julia may have are overruled by her family's assurances that this will be an excellent match. But their fortunes are altered forever when Mr Longfield dies, leaving them in poverty.

In separate locations in Staffordshire, three separate tableaux are being played out. DI Joanna Piercy is writing to her lover to try and explain recent events; her sidekick Mike Korpanski is filling in insurance forms after his wife has had a prang in the car; and an unknown person is penning...

Sam Hunter only intended to help his brother fulfil his dream of having children, but now, through an IVF mix-up, a complete stranger is pregnant with his child! To make matters worse, she's utterly gorgeous... For warm-hearted widow Emelia Eastwood, this child was meant to be the final legacy of her husband. The hospital's discovery turns her world upside down.

"Things are going wrong". Alexos is now The Archon, the god-on-Earth, but Mirany, the young priestess, realises that nothing has changed. General Argelin still controls the army and Hermia still controls the temple, and their scheming and treachery threaten to ignite a war with the Emperor himself. And now, in the second book of The Oracle Trilogy, Alexos is determined to undertake a terrifying quest across the desert to the Mountains of the Moon to find the long lost Well of Songs.

For recently engaged DI Joanna Piercy, a murder is the last thing she wants to deal with. Especially one with as dark a back story as that relating to calculating landowner and farmer Jakob Grimshaw; a man who managed to make enemies of all his neighbours and what little family he still had. One thing is certain; Joanna has a tough job ahead of her.

A poignant imagining of Thomas Hardy’s relationship with his last muse. A celebrated author, in the winter of his life, awaits a visit from a beautiful young actress – the leading lady in a staging of his most famous tragedy. But his wife is troubled. An anxious and sickly woman, she watches the growing intimacy between her husband and the young woman, and becomes tormented by the idea that they will betray her.