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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > Historical mysteries
"...Part Shirley Jackson's stories of inner demons, part Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland... part Astrid Lindgren's faith in children's
resilience and part ghost story."
"Enter a mysterious world in the hands of capable women. Getting drawn
into this story is easy; getting out again is trickier." -BookPage
1901. After the death of Queen Victoria, England heaves with the
uncanny. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker
realms.
Helena Walton-Cisneros, known for her ability to find the lost and the
displaced, is hired by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a
twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters
who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens.
But the Fens are an age-old land, where folk tales and dark magic still
linger. The locals speak of devilmen and catatonic children are found
on the Broads. Here, Helena finds what she was sent for, as the Fenland
always gives up its secrets, in the end...
'Exquisite' - Will Dean, author of Dark Pines 'This is a book that
will stay with you' - Ann Cleeves, bestselling author of the Vera
series 'Compelling, twisty and wonderfully suspenseful' - Claire
Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground In a lonely cottage on a
deserted stretch of shore, a moment of tragedy between lovers
becomes a horrific murder. And two women who should never have met
are connected for ever . . . Six years after the end of the Great
War, a nation is still in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers,
sons and sweethearts were lost in Europe; millions more came back
wounded and permanently damaged. Beatrice Cade is an orphan,
unmarried and childless - and given the dearth of men, likely to
remain that way. London is full of women like her: not wives, not
widows, not mothers. There is no name for these invisible women,
and no place for their grief. Determined to carve out a richer and
more fulfilling way to live as a single woman, Bea takes a room in
a Bloomsbury ladies' club and a job in the City. Then a fleeting
encounter changes everything. Bea's emerging independence is
destroyed when she falls in love for the first time. Kate Ryan is
an ordinary wife and mother who has managed to build an enviable
life with her handsome husband and her daughter. To anyone looking
in from the outside, they seem like a normal, happy family - until
two policemen knock on her door one morning and threaten to destroy
the facade Kate has created. From the author of Little Deaths,
longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, comes the
sensational Other Women. Mesmerising, haunting and utterly
remarkable, this is a devastating story of fantasy, obsession
inspired by a murder that took place almost a hundred years ago.
'A lively, well-written, entertaining whodunit' THE TIMES Lose
yourself in the sumptuous first novel in a new series of Golden Age
mysteries set amid the lives of the glamorous Mitford sisters. It's
1919, and Louisa Cannon dreams of escaping her life of poverty in
London, and most of all her oppressive and dangerous uncle.
Louisa's salvation is a position within the Mitford household at
Asthall Manor, in the Oxfordshire countryside. There she will
become nurserymaid, chaperone and confidante to the Mitford
sisters, especially sixteen-year-old Nancy - an acerbic, bright
young woman in love with stories. But when a nurse - Florence
Nightingale Shore, goddaughter of her famous namesake - is killed
on a train in broad daylight, Nancy and amateur sleuth Louisa find
that in postwar England, everyone has something to hide . . .
Written by Jessica Fellowes, author of the number one-bestselling
Downton Abbey books, The Mitford Murders is the perfect new
obsession for fans of Daisy Goodwin, Anthony Horowitz and Agatha
Christie - and is based on a real unsolved crime. 'An extraordinary
meld of fact and fiction' GRAHAM NORTON 'True and glorious
indulgence. A dazzling example of a Golden Age mystery' DAISY
GOODWIN 'Exactly the sort of book you might enjoy with the fire
blazing, the snow falling. The solution is neat and the writing
always enjoyable' ANTHONY HOROWITZ 'Oh how delicious! This terrific
start to what promises to be a must-read series is exactly what we
all need in these gloomy times. Inventive, glittering, clever,
ingenious. I devoured The Mitford Murders... so will you. Give it
to absolutely everyone for Christmas, then pre-order the next one'
SUSAN HILL 'All the blissful escapism of a Sunday-night period
drama in a book' THE POOL 'Keeps the reader guessing to the very
end. An accomplished crime debut and huge fun to read' EVENING
STANDARD 'This story is drenched in detail and feels both authentic
and fun. Curl up in your favourite reading spot and enjoy' HEAT
'The plan is that each book will focus on a different Mitford
sister. On the strength of this initial entry, success is assured'
FINANCIAL TIMES 'Elegant, whipsmart and brilliantly twisty-turny,
this Downton-style mystery had me hooked from the first page' VIV
GROSKOP 'Full of period pleasure' WOMAN & HOME 'An audacious
and glorious foray into the Golden Age of mystery fiction.
Breathtaking' ALEX GRAY 'A real murder, a real family and a brand
new crime fiction heroine are woven together to make a fascinating,
and highly enjoyable, read. I loved it' JULIAN FELLOWES 'Jessica
Fellowes' deliciously immersive, effortlessly easy novel has a
strong feel for period and a rollicking plot' METRO 'What a
captivating crime novel and heroine Jessica has created in The
Mitford Murders. The instant reassurance of being in the hands of a
true storyteller with a feel for period detail makes this a real
treat' AMANDA CRAIG 'This is a chocolate souffle of a novel: as the
enthralling mystery heats up, so the addictive deliciousness of the
story rises. The sort of book you never want to end' JULIET
NICOLSON
Who is that mournful man in the painting? The Afterlives of Doctor
Gachet tells the story of Paul Ferdinand Gachet, the subject of one
of Vincent van Gogh's most famous portraits: one that shows what
the artist called 'the heartbroken expression of our times'. But
what caused such heartbreak? This thrilling historical novel
follows Doctor Gachet from asylums to art galleries, from the
bloody siege of Paris to life with Van Gogh in Auvers, and from the
bunkers of Nazi Germany to a reclusive billionaire in Tokyo, to
uncover the secrets behind that grief-stricken smile.
Hugh Corbett returns in the twenty-first gripping mystery in Paul
Doherty's ever-popular series. If you love the historical mysteries
of C. J. Sansom, E. M. Powell and Bernard Cornwell you will love
this. Secrets simmer in the lonely wasteland of Dartmoor. Spring,
1312. At Malmaison Manor, Lord Simon is concealing a dark secret -
one he arrogantly assumes will never catch up with him. But someone
knows about the crime he committed and they've found a way to make
him pay. And he's not alone. When he is found mysteriously slain,
other deaths soon follow. Meanwhile, ships on the Devonshire coast
are being deliberately wrecked, their crews slaughtered, their
cargoes plundered. Sir Hugh Corbett and Lord Simon are bound by the
Secret Chancery and their search for one precious ruby - the
Lacrima Christi. So, when Corbett learns of Lord Simon's death, he
is once more dragged into a tangled web of lies and intrigue and
it's not long before secrets of his own start to surface. As the
Hymn to Murder reaches its crescendo, can Corbett confront his past
and live to see another day? Praise for Paul Doherty's dark and
suspenseful novels: 'His fascination for history comes off the
page' Daily Express 'An opulent banquet to satisfy the most
murderous appetite' Northern Echo 'Deliciously suspenseful,
gorgeously written and atmospheric' Historical Novels Review 'Paul
Doherty has a lively sense of history . . . evocative and lyrical
descriptions' New Statesmen
When two bodies are discovered in the grounds of York Minster
shortly before the enthronement of the new archbishop, Owen Archer
is summoned to investigate. December, 1374. With the great and the
good about to descend on York for the enthronement of Alexander
Neville as the new archbishop, the city authorities are in a state
of high alert. When two bodies are discovered in the grounds of
York Minster, and a flaxen-haired youth with the voice of an angel
is found locked in the chapter house, Owen Archer, captain of the
city bailiffs, is summoned to investigate. Tension deepens when an
enigmatic figure from Owen's past arrives in the city. Why has he
returned from France after all these years - and what is his
connection with the bodies in the minster yard and the fair singer?
Before Owen can make headway in the investigation, a third body is
fished out of the river - and the captain finds himself with three
mysterious deaths to solve before the all-powerful Neville family
arrives in York.
The seventh book in the Sergeant Cribb series by Peter Lovesey
London, 1889: After Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat became a Victorian bestseller, rowing on the Thames was the great craze of 1889. When an elementary school teacher in training takes a midnight swim in the Thames and witnesses a body being dumped, Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackerey are called to investigate.
The duo uncover strange parallels with the enormously popular Victorian novel, but nobody will take them seriously. Following their instincts, they stick doggedly to the trail, which leads upstream to Oxford.
A secret diary. A forbidden love. A centuries old mystery to solve.
When a rare sixteenth-century manuscript lands on her desk courtesy of William, a struggling painter, shy book restorer Rose makes a startling discovery: it is a palimpsest. Beneath the text is a different document, one that's been written over. What they discover is the secret diary of William's ancestor, Giovanni Lomazzo, a Venetian painter who has just been commissioned by Venice's most powerful admiral to paint a portrait of his favourite courtesan... it is a diary of forbidden love, dangerous political plots, and secrets that could destroy everyone involved.
Together, Rose and William work to solve the mystery of what happened to the secret lovers. As feelings develop between Rose and William, their own experience begins to mirror the affair that they're uncovering, and each set of lovers is forced to confront the reality of their romance.
A richly detailed and sweeping page-turner, Margaux's sumptuous portrait of late Renaissance Italy will have you falling headlong into history, slipping in and out of the shadows along the canals of Venice.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
An earlier, shorter version of The Quest was published in paperback
in 1975. In 2013, I rewrote The Quest and doubled its length,
making it, I hope, a far better story than the original, without
deviating from the elements that made the story so powerful and
compelling when I first wrote it. In other words, what made The
Quest worth rewriting remains, and whatever is changed is for the
better.
I was happy and excited to have this opportunity to rewrite and
republish what I consider my first "big" novel, and I hope you
enjoy it as much as I did when I first wrote it.
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
A sweeping adventure that's equal parts thriller and love story,
Nelson DeMille's newest novel takes the reader from the war torn
jungles of Ethiopia to the magical city of Rome.
While the Ethiopian Civil War rages, a Catholic priest languishes
in prison. Forty years have passed since he last saw daylight. His
crime? Claiming to know the true location of Christ's cup from the
Last Supper. Then the miraculous happens - a mortar strikes the
prison and he is free
Old, frail, and injured, he escapes to the jungle, where he
encounters two Western journalists and a beautiful freelance
photographer taking refuge from the carnage. As they tend to his
wounds, he relates his incredible story.
Motivated by the sensational tale and their desire to find the
location of the holiest of relics, the trio agrees to search for
the Grail.
Thus begins an impossible quest that will pit them against
murderous tribes, deadly assassins, fanatical monks, and the
passions of their own hearts.
THE QUEST is suspenseful, romantic, and filled with heart-pounding
action. Nelson DeMille is at the top of his game as he masterfully
interprets one of history's greatest mysteries.
New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry brings us the second
exciting instalment in her new thriller series, set in a time of
increasing fear and violence across Europe in the 1930s and
featuring British photographer and secret agent Elena Standish. It
is the autumn of 1933 and, fresh from her exploits in Berlin, young
British photographer Elena Standish is chosen for a secret
assignment in Trieste to establish contact with an MI6 agent whose
handler has gone missing, presumed dead. Elena's mission is to
bring back the agent along with top secret information that could
save the lives of thousands of people. But the agent is none other
than Aiden Strother, the lover who broke Elena's heart six years
ago when he betrayed his country. With the revelation from MI6 that
Aiden is, in fact, a loyal double agent, Elena knows she must put
her sense of duty before her personal pride. But with political
tension growing across Europe, the unstoppable rise of Hitler, and
an alarming discovery within the very heart of British
Intelligence, Elena and her family fear that her life is, once
again, in grave danger...
Even as war rages, there are deep secrets lurking in the heart of
Buckingham Palace... Windsor, 1942. War rages through Great
Britain. Anna Duckworth, former lover of Prince George, Duke of
Kent, is found dead after an enemy bomb blast at her country home.
When courtier Guy Harford is called to dispose of incriminating
love letters between Anna and the Duke, it becomes clear that
there's more to the story than anyone is prepared to reveal. As the
court begins to whisper of a lone gunshot heard in the house that
day, another gruesome death befalls the royal circle. With the
bodies stacking up, Guy rejoins his old accomplices, East End
burglar Rodie Carr and undercover agent Rupert Hardacre, to unmask
the dangerous secrets lurking beneath the glittering Crown. But
with tensions rippling from London to Tangier as the Allied Forces
prepare to invade North Africa, and Guy's reputation in the Palace
hanging in the balance, can he solve the mystery before more heads
roll?
Scotland Yard's Ian Rutledge seeks a killer who has eluded Scotland
Yard for years in this next installment of the acclaimed New York
Times bestselling series. An astonishing tip from a grateful
ex-convict seems implausible--but Inspector Ian Rutledge is
intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard. Alan
Barrington, who has evaded capture for ten years, is the suspect in
an appalling murder during Black Ascot, the famous 1910 royal horse
race meet honoring the late King Edward VII. His disappearance
began a manhunt that consumed Britain for a decade. Now it appears
that Barrington has returned to England, giving the Yard a last
chance to retrieve its reputation and see justice done. Rutledge is
put in charge of a quiet search under cover of a routine review of
a cold case. Meticulously retracing the original inquiry, Rutledge
begins to know Alan Barrington well, delving into relationships and
secrets that hadn't surfaced in 1910. But is he too close to
finding his man? His sanity is suddenly brought into question by a
shocking turn of events. His sister Frances, Melinda Crawford, and
Dr. Fleming stand by him, but there is no greater shame than shell
shock. Questioning himself, he realizes that he cannot look back.
The only way to save his career--much less his sanity--is to find
Alan Barrington and bring him to justice. But is this elusive
murderer still in England?
When a prominent citizen is murdered, former Captain of the Guard
Owen Archer is persuaded out of retirement to investigate in this
gripping medieval mystery. 1374. When a member of one of York's
most prominent families is found dead in the woods, his throat torn
out, rumours spread like wildfire that wolves are running loose
throughout the city. Persuaded to investigate by the victim's
father, Owen Archer is convinced that a human killer is
responsible. But before he can gather sufficient evidence to prove
his case, a second body is discovered, stabbed to death. Is there a
connection? What secrets are contained within the victim's
household? And what does apprentice healer Alisoun know that she's
not telling? Teaming up with Geoffrey Chaucer, who is in York on a
secret mission on behalf of Prince Edward, Owen's enquiries will
draw him headlong into a deadly conspiracy.
March, 1919. DI Hardcastle must find Lily, the missing daughter of
Austen Musgrave MP. Hardcastle, aided by DS Marriott, discovers
that Lily provides risque entertainment for ex-officers. When she
returns home of her own accord, Hardcastle assumes the case is
closed. But Lily goes missing again and this time, finding her
might not be so easy.
World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford goes to dangerous
lengths to investigate a wounded soldier's background-and uncover
his true loyalties-in this thrilling and atmospheric entry in the
bestselling "vivid period mystery series" (New York Times Book
Review). At the foot of a tree shattered by shelling and gunfire,
stretcher-bearers find an exhausted officer, shivering with cold
and a loss of blood from several wounds. The soldier is brought to
battlefield nurse Bess Crawford's aid station, where she stabilizes
him and treats his injuries before he is sent to a rear hospital.
The odd thing is, the officer isn't British-he's French. But in a
moment of anger and stress, he shouts at Bess in German. When Bess
reports the incident to Matron, her superior offers a ready
explanation. The soldier is from Alsace-Lorraine, a province in the
west where the tenuous border between France and Germany has
continually shifted through history, most recently in the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870, won by the Germans. But is the wounded
man Alsatian? And if he is, on which side of the war do his
sympathies really lie? Of course, Matron could be right, but Bess
remains uneasy-and unconvinced. If he was a French soldier, what
was he doing so far from his own lines ...and so close to where the
Germans are putting up a fierce, last-ditch fight? When the French
officer disappears in Paris, it's up to Bess-a soldier's daughter
as well as a nurse-to find out why, even at the risk of her own
life.
DCI Paniatowski's team suspect a murder is the result of ritual
killing, carried out by a secret society. But DCI Dixon treats it
as a mere domestic murder. So Meadows, Crane and Beresford risk
their careers to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, Monika knows killer
and that he is stalking her daughter. Yet she is in a coma, so what
can she do about it?
Henry Christie foils the kidnap attempt on his fiancee's daughter
and realises his family are the targets of a killer. But who and
why? Henry also witnesses a murder and unwittingly steps into the
conspiracy. Pursued by assassins, Henry must defend himself against
a killer who will stop at nothing to take back what he believes is
rightfully his.
A thrilling puzzle from the ancient world with real historical
characters and based on a case in Cicero's Orations - Roman Blood
is a perfect blend of mystery and history by a brilliant
storyteller. On an unseasonably warm spring morning in 80BC,
Gordianus the Finder is summoned to the house of Cicero, a young
advocate and orator preparing his first important case. His client
is Umbrian landowner, Sextus Roscius, accused of the unforgivable:
the murder of his own father. Gordianus agrees to investigate the
crime - in a society fire with deceit, betrayl and conspiracy,
where neither citizen nor slave can be trusted to speak the truth.
But even Gordianus is not prepared for the spectacularly dangerous
fireworks that attend the resolution of this ugly, delicate case...
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