Showing results by publisher "Zaffre" in All Categories

Gordon and Sarah Rutherford are normal, happy people with successful fulfilling lives. A son they adore, a house on the beach, a safe, friendly and honest community in a picture-postcard town on the Ayrshire coast. Until one day Bonnie the lab comes in from the beach alone. Their son Rory has just gone - the only trace left is a single black Adidas slider.

The morning after a dinner party at Windsor Castle, 89-year-old Queen Elizabeth is shocked to discover that one of her guests has been found murdered in his room, with a rope around his neck. When the police begin to suspect her loyal servants, Her Majesty knows they are looking in the wrong place. For the queen has been living an extraordinary double life ever since her coronation. Away from the public eye, she has a brilliant knack for solving crimes.

When little orphan Annie finds herself liberated from the workhouse and taken to a smart home on Swan Lane, she thinks her fortunes might finally be turning around. While grateful to the Lilburn family, she soon realises they have problems of their own. Grieving the loss of their young daughter a number of years earlier, Maggie Lilburn adopted two children from the workhouse: a newborn baby, who she thought would be the answer to her family's woes, and Annie.

An anonymous letter arrives at the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary containing a challenge for the team of lexicographers working there. It's clear that's it's not the usual run-of-the-mill, eccentric enquiry. The letter hints at secrets, lies and a year. 2010. For Martha Thornhill, the new senior editor, that year can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant, beautiful older sister Charlie went missing.

Loveday Cardew prefers books to people. Into her refuge - the York book emporium where she works - come a poet, a lover, a friend, and three mysterious deliveries, each of which stirs unsettling memories. Everything is about to change for Loveday. Someone knows about her past and she can't hide any longer. She must decide who around her she can trust. Can she find the courage to right a heartbreaking wrong? And will she ever find the words to tell her own story?

When her boss, James Langton, is almost fatally injured while pursuing a ruthless gang, Detective Anna Travis must put her own career on hold as she nurses him through his intense frustration and desperation to bring his would-be murderer to justice. Then Anna is assigned to a different case, the vicious murder of a quiet, studious woman whose body was found by her daughter—an attack with no obvious motive or immediate suspect. Until the case becomes unexpectedly linked with that of her boss, and Anna finds herself under threat from those who almost destroyed his career and his life.

1885. Ruby Carter works hard in her parents' bakery. Whilst life isn't easy, she's happy enough - her gentle mother protects young Ruby from her cruel father and loves her unconditionally. So, when her mother falls ill, Ruby is heartbroken, and when from her deathbed her mother reveals that Ruby was adopted, the young girl is distraught. Stricken by grief and alone with the violent man she called her father, Ruby feels she has no choice but to flee.

Against all the odds, Dolly Rawlins and her gangland widows managed the impossible: a heist their husbands had failed to pull off - at the cost of their lives. But though they may be in the money, they're far from easy street. Shocked by her husband's betrayal, Dolly discovers Harry Rawlins isn't dead. He knows where the four women are and he wants them to pay. And he doesn't just mean getting his hands on the money. The women can't keep running. They have to get Harry out of their lives for good. But can they outwit a criminal mastermind who won't hesitate to kill?

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews who survived Auschwitz. When Lale, given the job of tattooing the prisoners, saw Gita waiting in line, it was love at first sight. In that moment he determined to keep them both alive.

Nuneaton, 1914: War is just around the corner and for Annie Lilburn and her adopted family, life will never be the same. Annie, after a difficult childhood, has never felt like she fits in, but since Levi Lilburn, the local rag and bone man, took her under his wing and she became a business woman in her own right, things have been on the up. Soon that is set to change when World War I is declared and the men of the town enlist. And as more and more casualties come in, Annie needs to step up and do her bit for the war effort.

Tall Oaks is an idyllic small town, until the disappearance of a young child throws the tight-knit community into crisis. Jess Monroe, the boy's distraught mother, is simultaneously leading the search and battling her own grief and self-destructive behaviour. Her neighbours watch on, their sympathy masking a string of dark secrets. This is a small town where nothing is as it seems, and everyone has something to hide. And as the investigation draws towards a climax, prepare for a devastating final twist.

Jack Warr is a young DC with the Metropolitan Police. Charming but aimless, Jack can't seem to find his place in the world - until he's drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down. In the aftermath of a fire at a derelict cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remnants of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes - the hidden legacy of Dolly Rawlins and her gang of Widows. Jack's assignment to the case coincides with an investigation into his own past.

Movie mogul Harry Nathan's lonely death in a Beverley Hills swimming pool is the beginning of a trail of lust and conspiracy leading to the darkest corners of the international art world. Private investigator Lorraine Page faces her toughest fight ever as she takes on the case for fading starlet Cindy Nathan, Harry's third wife. Lorraine believes the grieving widow's story. Unlike her ex-colleagues in the police department who have already charged Cindy with murder....

Queen Elizabeth II is having a royal nightmare. A referendum divides the nation, a tumultuous election grips the United States - and the body of a staff member is found dead beside Buckingham Palace swimming pool. Is it a tragic accident, as the police think? Or is something more sinister going on? As Her Majesty looks for answers, her trusted assistant, Rozie, is on the trail of a treasured painting that once hung outside the queen's bedroom.

Everyone loves Summer Ryan. A model student and musical prodigy, she's a ray of light in the struggling small town of Grace, Alabama - especially compared to her troubled sister, Raine. Then Summer vanishes. Raine throws herself into the investigation, aided by a most unlikely ally, but the closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous her search becomes. And perhaps there was always more to Summer than met the eye . . .

When detective constable Jane Tennison survives a deadly explosion, she finds herself in the middle of a media storm. Minutes before the blast, she caught sight of the bomber. Too traumatised to identify him, she is nevertheless a key witness. As work continues round the clock to unmask the terrorists, the Metropolitan police are determined nothing will disrupt their annual Good Friday dinner. Jane must convince her senior officers that her instincts are right before there's another bloodbath.

Barfield Prison is one of the toughest high-security prisons in England, housing the country's most dangerous criminals. And when an inmate is found dead in his cell, a riot breaks out, forcing the authorities to investigate a potential murder. Despite being Barfield's youngest ever female Governor, Helen Hewitt is seen as the best woman for the job. But with a prison full of corrupt and suspicious officers, restless inmates and a broken system, Helen has her work cut out - and no allies to help her....

At the heart of Dover's Market Square lies the Castle's Café. A bustling, homely place run by the formidable Nellie Castle and her six children. Since the scandalous birth of her beloved son 10 years before, Marianne, Nellie's eldest daughter, has preferred to stay in the kitchen, hidden away from the town gossips. Overcome with shame, Marianne has never revealed the name of Donny's father - not even to her own mother. But with World War II just around the corner, Marianne's past catches up with her. And suddenly the lives of the Castle family become a lot more complicated.

Wealthy racing yard owner Edward de Jersey has spent the last few years of his life reaping the rewards of his criminal mastermind past and spending his free time priming his star horse, Royal Flush, for a Derby win. Having successfully pulled off some of the most lucrative heists in history as 'The Colonel', at the height of his activity, he was one of the most prolific criminals of his time. But, when his financial advisor invests his fortune in an internet company that crashes quickly after, he is left with no choice but to return to his old ways.

After Q (aka Major Boothroyd) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6's OO agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a cryptic note. The police seem disinterested, but Q feels compelled to investigate and soon discovers that Napier's ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces . . .