"Excellent . Clare matches well-drawn characters, in particular the charismatic lead, with a head-scratching puzzle and creepy atmospherics. Imogen Robertson fans will be pleased" - Publishers Weekly Starred Review In this gripping forensic mystery set in Stuart England, Gabriel Taverner uncovers a series of shocking secrets when he's summoned by his former naval captain to investigate strange goings-on aboard his ship. October, 1604. Former ship's surgeon turned country physician Gabriel Taverner is surprised to receive an urgent summons from his old naval captain. Now docked in Plymouth harbour, having recently returned from the Caribbean, Captain Colt believes his ship is haunted by an evil spirit, and has asked Gabriel to investigate. Dismissive of the crew's wild talk of mysterious blue-skinned ghosts, Gabriel is convinced there must be a rational explanation behind the mass hallucinations. But matters take a disturbing turn when he and the captain discover a body hidden behind one of the bulkheads. Calling on the help of his old friend, Coroner Theophilus Davey, piece by piece Gabriel uncovers a terrifying tale of treachery, dark magic, unimaginable cruelty - and cold-blooded murder.

October, 1940. Bombs are falling on Stratford when air-raid warden Sylvia Parks sees a house with a light shining like a beacon to the enemy aircraft overhead, violating the strict blackout regulations. With no answer at the door she manages to break in, only to discover the body of a young woman - and she's been strangled with a stocking. For Detective Inspector John Jago, the scene brings back memories of the gruesome Soho Strangler, who murdered four women in the mid-1930s but has never been caught. Is there a connection? As the investigation develops, it leads him into a web of family jealousies, violence, robbery and the underworld of political terrorism.

'To shoot a man on the spur of the moment in the presence of the king and his court, not to mention the cardinal and his household, that took a boldness ... Or utter despair.' - Hampton Court, 1522 Lawyer Hugh Mac Egan has arrived from Ireland to draw up the marriage contract between James Butler, son of his employer the Earl of Ormond, and Anne Boleyn - a dynastic alliance that will resolve an age-old inheritance dispute. But Anne, it seems, has other ideas. Her heart is set on Harry Percy, heir to the magnificent earldom of Northumberland, sparking rivalry between the two young men. When a member of Cardinal Wolsey's palace staff is found shot dead with an arrow, Percy is quick to give evidence that implicates Butler. And with Percy's testimony backed up by Butler's artful bride-to-be, things start to look bleak for the young Irishman. In Tudor England, the accused is guilty until proven innocent. Against the backdrop of the Lenten festivities, Mac Egan sets out to exonerate his patron's heir and find the real killer, uncovering as he does so the many factions and intrigues that lie beneath the surface at the cardinal's court.

A city, gripped in the fear of terrifying crimes, will be pushed to breaking point.London, 1914. A killer is at liberty in the dark alleys of the city. His victims have one thing in common: all the blood has been drained from their bodies. Who could do such a thing - and why would he want his victims' blood? As the killer's reign of terror continues, Detective Inspector Silas Quinn of Scotland Yard's Special Crimes department realises that, in order to catch his prey, he must learn to think like the killer himself. His search will take him through London's squalid back streets, seedy Soho haunts and louche aristocratic watering holes, all in pursuit of a truly twisted individual. First in an absolutely gripping historical mystery series, perfect for fans of Abir Mukherjee, S. G. MacLean and Rory Clements. Praise for R. N. Morris'Morris launches a new series with this superior whodunnit' Publishers Weekly 'A challenging, utterly fascinating read' Booklist 'Quinn's passion for justice makes for an engrossing and disquieting Sherlockian entry' Library Journal

Amazon reviewers love The Scarlet Code! 'A rollicking good tale' 'Thoroughly enjoyable, highly recommend' 'Exciting, swashbuckling adventure' 'Everything you could want from an adventure thriller: excitement, a fabulously endearing heroine and pirate to fall in love with, a cruel killer and... well-written historical detail. Superb.' 1789. The Bastille has fallen... As Parisians pick souvenirs from the rubble, a killer stalks the lawless streets. His victims are female aristocrats. His executions use the most terrible methods of the ancient regime. English spy Attica Morgan is laying low in Paris, helping nobles escape. When her next charge falls victim to the killer's twisted machinations, Attica realises she alone can unmask him. But now it seems his deadly sights are set on her. As the city prisons empty, and a mob mobilises to storm Versailles, finding a dangerous criminal is never going to be easy. Attica's only hope is to enlist her old ally, reformed pirate Jemmy Avery, to track the killer though his revolutionary haunts. But even with a pirate and her fast knife, it seems Attica might not manage to stay alive. 'A rip-roaring adventure' Tessa Harris on The Bastille Spy

1895. Former Scotland Yard detective Daniel Wilson, famous for working the notorious Jack the Ripper case, and his archaeologist sidekick Abigail Fenton are summoned to investigate the murder of a young woman at the Manchester Museum. Though staff remember the woman as a recent and regular visitor, no one appears to know her and she has no possessions from which to identify her. When the pair arrive, the case turns more deadly when the body of a second woman is discovered hidden in the depths of the museum. Seeking help from a local journalist, Daniel hopes to unravel this mystery, but the journey to the truth is fraught with obstacles and the mistakes of the past will not be forgotten ...

The circus is in town for St Kilda's first Flower Festival, which includes a parade. And who should be Queen of said Flowers but the Honourable Phryne Fisher? She has dresses to purchase, cinemas to visit, and agreeable cocktails to drink. However, one of her flower maidens is unstable and has vanished. So Phryne investigates, trudging through the underworld with the help of Bert, Cec, her little beretta, an old flame from Orkney, the owner of the most exclusive brothel in St Kilda, and several elephants. But when her own adopted daughter Ruth goes missing, Phryne is determined that nothing will stand in the way of her retrieving her lost child. Kerry Greenwood has written more than 40 novels, six nonfiction books, a number of plays, and is an award-winning children's writer. Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers' Association of Australia in 2003, she has written 16 books in this series with no sign yet of hanging up Miss Fisher's pearl-handled pistol.

1947. Miss Elinor White, known locally as 'the White lady', is living a quiet life in a grace and favour cottage, keeping herself to herself. Unbeknownst to her neighbours, she is the veteran of two world wars, a trained killer and an ex-spy. But this private and seemingly tranquil life conceals past trauma and Elinor finds herself drawn into the predicament of a local man entangled with one of the most dangerous crime families in London. A treacherous path lies ahead, but it may be one that ultimately leads Elinor to a future unshackled from her own painful history.

First published as Direct Hit Saturday 7th September, 1940. The sun is shining, and in the midst of the good weather Londoners could be mistaken for forgetting their country was at war - until the familiar wail of the air-raid sirens heralds an enemy attack. The Blitz has started, and normal life has abruptly ended - but crime has not. That night a man's body is discovered in an unmarked van in the back streets of West Ham. When Detective Inspector John Jago is called to the scene, he recognises the victim: local Justice of the Peace, Charles Villiers. The death looks suspicious, but then a German bomb obliterates all evidence. War or no war, murder is still murder, and it's Jago's job to find the truth.

'There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life.' In Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet a popular cultural phenomenon is born. We meet two of the most famous characters in modern literary history: the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, an army doctor home on sick leave, for the first time. Through Watson we learn a little about the eccentric figure who is his new room-mate at 221B Baker Street, before they encounter their first case: an American visitor to the city has been killed in an empty house off the Brixton Road, and the only clue the police have is the mysterious word 'Rache', scrawled in blood-red letters on the wall. As Holmes sets to work with his unique forensic methods, behind the murder a tangled skein of love, religion, and revenge gradually unwinds, taking us from the streets of London to the Utah Territory, and back again. As Nicholas Daly's Introduction describes, out of this gripping tale grew the Holmes and Watson stories that would make Conan Doyle the best-paid author of his time. His creations have become household words, inspiring not only countless adaptations and imitations, but a Sherlock Holmes museum, Sherlock Holmes-themed pubs, and a whole array of Holmesian merchandise, from cushions to jigsaw puzzles. Here, though, we meet Holmes and Watson before they became famous, and we can see how their extraordinary impact on our popular culture derives from the late-Victorian world from which they emerge.

London, 1896. Madame Tussauds opens to find one of its nightwatchmen decapitated and his colleague nowhere to be found. To the police, the case seems simple: one killed the other and fled, but workers at the museum aren't convinced and Scotland Yard enlists 'The Museum Detectives' Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton to aid the investigation. When the body of the missing nightwatchman is discovered encased within a wax figure, the case suddenly becomes more complex. With questions over the dead men's pasts and a series of bank raids plaguing the city, Wilson and Fenton face their most intricate and dangerous case yet.

Covent Garden, January 1708. Widow Trotter has big plans for her recently-inherited coffee house, not suspecting that within days her little kingdom will be caught up in a national drama involving scandal, conspiracy and murder... Queen Anne's new "Great Britain" is in crisis. The Queen is mired in a sexual scandal, spies are everywhere, and political disputes are bringing violence and division. The treasonous satirist "Bufo" is public enemy number one and the Ministry is determined to silence him. Drawn into a web of intrigue that reaches from the brothels of Drury Lane to the Court of St James's, Mary Trotter and her young friends Tom and Will race against time to unravel the political plots, solve two murders, and prevent another. The first in a projected series of "Chocolate House Mysteries", the novel presents the London of Queen Anne in all its brilliance and filth, its violence, elegance and wit. The book moves among a rich cast of characters, ranging from the life of the streets and the "nymphs" of Drury Lane to the conspiratorial world of Queen Anne's Court. At its heart is the Bay-Tree Chocolate House, Covent Garden, where Widow Trotter presides as she does over the novel itself, with good humour, fierce integrity, and resolute determination.

New York, 1908. Private detectives George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield plan to take a break from work upon the Cunard Line's fleet with the offer of employment upon the Minnesota, a freighter and passenger vessel, which is bound for the Far East. Although the pair are investigating the possibility of a smuggling operation on the route, at first all appears to be smooth sailing, but the voyage takes a dire turn when a fiery Catholic missionary is murdered and it proves to be the first in a series of crimes that plague the crossing. Previously published under the name Conrad Allen, the Ocean Liner series sets sail for a new generation of readers.

"A first-rate whodunnit set in the 1960s New York art world, a time and place Helen Harrison has recreated with a page-turning mix of history, gossip, and fun!"-Bob Colacello, author of Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up One artist. One student. One deadly mystery. When Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton's corpse is discovered behind the easels of Manhattan's famed art school, whispers in the art community say he had it coming. As Benton's list of enemies lengthens to include the school's instructors, Vietnam War protesters, and members of Andy Warhol's entourage, one art student is ultimately painted as the murderer. The only problem: the suspect has vanished. Why would an art student murder Benton? And if he were innocent, why would he run? When TJ Fitzgerald, son of Detective Juanita Diaz and Captain Brian Fitzgerald of the NYPD, discovers his classmate is the prime suspect, he uses his own investigative skills to try and clear his name. But as TJ and his girlfriend work to unravel the clues to the art mystery, he begins to wonder if the police got it wrong and one secret may be the key to it all... Helen Harrison's An Artful Corpse is a clever mystery sure to please art enthusiasts and armchair detectives alike.