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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > Historical mysteries
A quiet coastal village in post-World War II America is shaken when
the secrets of the past and present collide in a riveting novel by
the bestselling author of Under a Gilded Moon. Five years after the
war, Amie Stilwell, a photo interpreter for an Allied unit in
England, returns to her hometown in Maine. Jobless and discouraged
but stubbornly resourceful, she's starting over in the same coastal
village where her life once went so wrong. Waiting for her is
Shibby Travis, the surrogate mother with whom Amie never lost
touch. But the unexpected also awaits... A silent, abandoned boy is
found with a note from a stranger pleading that he be watched over.
Amie and Shibby take him in, but the mysteries multiply when a
Boston socialite is found dead in a nearby barn and an old friend,
believed to be a casualty of war, suddenly reappears. Trained to
see what others cannot, to scan for clues, and to expose enemies,
Amie uses her skills to protect a child, solve a crime, and find
the motive behind a veteran's masquerade. But through the hazy
filter of a town's secrets, Amie must also confront her own painful
past.
From the author of the international bestsellers The Light Over
London and The Whispers of War comes "a compelling read, filled
with lovable characters and an alluring twist of fates" (Ellen
Keith, author of The Dutch Wife) about five women living across
three different times whose lives are all connected by one very
special garden. Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her
career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just
been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of
the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero
Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens' past, she
begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden. 1907: A
talented artist with a growing reputation for her work, Venetia
Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer to
industrialists, solicitors, and bankers looking to show off their
wealth with sumptuous country houses. When she is hired to design
the gardens of Highbury House, she is determined to make them a
triumph, but the gardens--and the people she meets--promise to
change her life forever. 1944: When land girl Beth Pedley arrives
at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury, all she
wants is to find a place she can call home. Cook Stella Adderton,
on the other hand, is desperate to leave Highbury House to pursue
her own dreams. And widow Diana Symonds, the mistress of the grand
house, is anxiously trying to cling to her pre-war life now that
her home has been requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent
hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens Highbury
House's treasured gardens, these three very different women are
drawn together by a secret that will last for decades. "Gorgeously
written and rooted in meticulous period detail, this novel is
vibrant as it is stirring. Fans of historical fiction will fall in
love with The Last Garden in England" (Roxanne Veletzos, author of
The Girl They Left Behind).
Private detectives Grand & Batchelor's latest case draws them
into the arcane world of high art and high society in this
compelling Victorian mystery. London. May, 1878. Private enquiry
agents Matthew Grand and James Batchelor have been hired by the
artist James Whistler to dig into the past of outspoken critic John
Ruskin, with whom he has an ongoing feud. Not particularly
optimistic of success, the two detectives are sidetracked from the
investigation by the murder of a prostitute in nearby Cremorne
Gardens. Her body posed on a park bench, a book on birth control
sitting on her lap, Clara Jenkins is not the first young woman to
have met a similarly grisly fate - and she won't be the last. Could
there be a connection between the Cremorne killer and their art
world case? With the investigation heading nowhere fast, Grand
comes up with a decidedly unorthodox plan to ensnare the killer.
But even the best-laid plans have a nasty habit of going
catastrophically awry ...
The new Sherlock Holmes novel from the New York Times bestselling
author of The Age of Odin. It is 1890, and in the days before
Christmas Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson are visited at Baker
Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe - eldest daughter of a
grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty - is greatly
distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic
Christmas spirit. Her late mother told her terrifying tales of the
sinister Black Thurrick, and Eve is sure that she has seen the
creature from her bedroom window. What is more, she has begun to
receive mysterious parcels of birch twigs, the Black Thurrick's
calling card... Eve stands to inherit a fortune if she is sound in
mind, but it seems that something - or someone - is threatening her
sanity. Holmes and Watson travel to the Allerthorpe family seat at
Fellscar Keep to investigate, but soon discover that there is more
to the case than at first appeared. There is another spirit
haunting the family, and when a member of the household is found
dead, the companions realise that no one is beyond suspicion.
*LAURA PURCELL'S THRILLING NEW NOVEL THE WHISPERING MUSE IS
AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOW* Winner of the Historical Crime Book of
the Year 2021 Award at the 2022 Fingerprint Crime Awards 'Dripping
with atmosphere with a corkscrew plot, Laura Purcell just gets
better and better' STACEY HALLS 'It truly kept me guessing to the
very last page' SONIA VELTON Wicked deeds require the cover of
darkness... A struggling silhouette artist in Victorian Bath seeks
out a renowned child spirit medium in order to speak to the dead -
and to try and identify their killers - in this beguiling new tale
from Laura Purcell. Silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep
her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness
herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her
orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her
clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then
another, and another... Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes
approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her
older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can
make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed
them. But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may
have opened the door to something that they can never put back...
What secrets lie hidden in the darkness?
November 1907. George Dillman and Genevieve Masefield sail from
Liverpool to New York on the maiden voyage of the luxurious
Mauretania. Employed by the Cunard Line again as private
detectives, they pose as passengers on what proves to be a very
eventful crossing. Dillman is instrumental in rescuing a crew
member from being washed overboard in severe weather, but he is
unable to save one of the first-class passengers from the same
fate. At first, it looks like a case of death by misadventure, but
is the presence of a record shipment of gold bullion on board just
too great a coincidence? Dillman and Genevieve must fathom the
motive for murder before it is too late. At the time of her launch,
the Mauretania was the largest moving structure ever built. She
would later serve as a WWI hospital and troop ship. After returning
to civilian service, Mauretania was retired and scrapped in the
mid-1930s. Previously published under the name Conrad Allen, the
Ocean Liner series is relaunched for a new generation of readers.
December 1917. An important visitor arrives at a field hospital not
far from the front, who makes sharp deductions about the way the
ward is run based on small details that he sees. Sherlock Holmes is
apparently only present for a tour, but asks searching questions
about a young officer who apparently died in the hospital, but
whose records have mysteriously vanished. As Holmes digs deeper,
details emerge pertaining to a cover-up that stretches from the
trenches to the top of the War Office, and conspiracy on both the
British and enemy fronts.
The brand new mystery in the bestselling DI Wesley Peterson crime
series! 'A beguiling author who interweaves past and present' The
Times __________________ On a summer evening, Robert and Greta
Gerdner are shot dead at their home in the Devon countryside. DI
Wesley Peterson suspects the execution-style murders might be
linked to Robert's past police career - until Robert's name is
found on a list of people who've been sent tickets anonymously for
a tour of Darkhole Grange, a former asylum on Dartmoor. Wesley
discovers that other names on the list have also died in mysterious
circumstances and, as he is drawn into the chilling history of the
asylum, he becomes convinced that it holds the key to the case.
When his friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, finds the skeleton of a
woman buried in a sealed chamber dating back to the fifteenth
century at his nearby dig, Wesley wonders whether there might be a
connection between the ancient cell and the tragic events at
Darkhole Grange. With the clock ticking, Wesley must solve the
puzzle, before the next person on the list meets a terrible end . .
. Whether you've read the whole series, or are discovering Kate
Ellis's DI Wesley Peterson novels for the first time, this is the
perfect page-turner if you love reading Ann Cleeves and Elly
Griffiths. PRAISE FOR KATE ELLIS: 'Clever plotting hides a powerful
story of loss, malice and deception' Ann Cleeves 'Haunting'
Independent 'The chilling plot will keep you spooked and thrilled
to the end' Closer 'Unputdownable' Bookseller 'A fine storyteller,
weaving the past and present in a way that makes you want to read
on' Peterborough Evening Telegraph
"Talton shines in weaving together the mystery elements of the
plots with historical events from the Prohibition period.
Fast-paced, gritty, and exciting, this one will have fans of both
Depression-era and southwestern-set crime fiction begging for
more!" -Booklist, Starred Review A fresh take on classic noir, City
of Dark Corners reveals the seedy underbelly of the budding city of
Phoenix in the 1930s and the lengths one man will go to uphold
justice no matter the cost. Phoenix, 1933: A young city with big
dreams and dark corners Great War veteran and rising star Gene
Hammons lost his job as a homicide detective when he tried to prove
that a woman was wrongly convicted of murder to protect a
well-connected man. Now a private investigator, Hammons makes his
living looking for missing persons-a plentiful caseload during the
Great Depression, when people seem to disappear all the time. But
his routine is disrupted when his brother-another homicide
detective, still on the force-enlists his help looking into the
death of a young woman whose dismembered body is found beside the
railroad tracks. The sheriff rules it an accident, but the carnage
is too neat, and the staging of the body parts too ritual. Hammons
suspects it's the work of a "lust murderer"-similar to the serial
strangler whose killing spree he had ended a few years earlier. But
who was the poor girl, dressed demurely in pink? And why was his
business card tucked into her small purse? As Hammons searches for
the victim's identity, he discovers that the dead girl had some
secrets of her own, and that the case is connected to some of
Phoenix's most powerful citizens-on both sides of the law. Perfect
for fans of David Baldacci and historical mysteries, City of Dark
Corners puts readers at the heart of the fear and uncertainty of
the Great Depression and the lawlessness of America during
prohibition. Additional praise for City of Dark Corners: "This
gritty stand-alone deals with Phoenix's rough-and-tumble past and
its questionable police force in the 1930s. Talton excels at
creating the ambiance of historic Phoenix. [Suggested] for fans of
realistic historical mysteries or Phoenix Noir." -Library Journal,
Starred Review "References to movie actors and other celebrities of
the day, as well as speakeasies and bootleggers, lend atmosphere to
this well-crafted tale involving desperate people who could easily
disappear." -Publishers Weekly
Late October 1909, and the season of ghouls and things that go bump
in the night has descended on the village of Littleton Cotterell.
Lady Hardcastle and her trusted lady's maid, Florence, find
themselves hosting a colourful cast of actors whose spooky moving
picture, The Witch's Downfall, is being shown to mark Halloween.
But things take a macabre turn when the first night's screening
ends with a mysterious murder, and the second night with
another...One by one the actors turn up dead in ways that eerily
echo their film. With the police left scratching their heads, Lady
Hardcastle calls upon her amateur sleuthing skills to launch an
investigation, with Flo's able assistance. Surrounded by suspects
both human and supernatural, Lady Hardcastle must use a little
trickery of her own to unmask the murderer.
In bestselling author Steve Berry's stunning novel, former Justice
Department agent Cotton Malone encounters information from a secret
World War II dossier that, if proven true, would not only rewrite
history - it could change the political landscape of Europe
forever. Two candidates are vying to become Chancellor of Germany.
One is a patriot who has served for many years, the other a
usurper, stoking the flames of nationalistic hate. Both harbour
secrets, but only one knows the truth about the other. Everything
turns on the events of one fateful day - April 30, 1945 - and what
happened deep beneath Berlin in the Fuhrerbunker. Did Adolf Hitler
and Eva Braun die there? Did Martin Bormann, Hitler's close
confidant, manage to escape? And possibly even more important,
where did billions in Nazi wealth disappear to in the waning days
of the war? The answers to these questions will determine who
becomes the next Chancellor. Racing from Chile to South Africa, and
finally the secret vaults of Switzerland, former Justice Department
agent Cotton Malone must uncover the truth about the fates of
Hitler, Braun, and Bormann - revelations that could not only
transform Europe, but finally expose a mystery known as the
Kaiser's Web.
Dolly Merishaw is a midwife and an abortionist in Victorian
Toronto, and although she keeps quiet about her clients, her
contempt and greed leaves them resentful and angry. It comes as no
surprise to Detective William Murdoch when she is murdered, but
when a young boy is found dead in Dolly's squalid kitchen a week
later, Murdoch isn't sure if he's hunting one murderer - or two.
Sherlock Holmes is the most famous of all fictional detectives but,
across the Atlantic, he had plenty of rivals. Between 1890 and
1920, American writers created dozens and dozens of crime-solvers.
In this thrilling, unusual anthology, editor Nick Rennison gathers
together 15 often neglected tales to highlight American crime
fiction's early years. The detectives that feature include
Professor Augustus SFX Van Dusen, 'The Thinking Machine', even more
cerebral than Holmes; Craig Kennedy, the so-called 'scientific
detective'; Uncle Abner, a shrewd backwoodsman in pre-Civil War
Virginia; Violet Strange, New York debutante turned criminologist;
and Nick Carter, the original pulp private eye.
Praise for Punishment of A Hunter: 'The most successful
retro-detective since Akunin' Literratura 'Gritty and gripping'
Will Ryan 'It will pull you in and leave you breathless' Chris
Lloyd 'Yulia Yokovleva's thrilling debut was a bestseller in her
native Russia. It's not difficult to see why' The Times, Best New
Crime Fiction ________________ On the eve of Stalin's deadly great
purge, a rider and his horse mysteriously collapse in the middle of
a race in Leningrad. Weary detective Zaitsev, still reeling from
his last brush with the Party, is dispatched to the soviet state
cavalry school near Ukraine to investigate. There he witnesses the
horror of the man-made Holodomor Famine as he struggles to
penetrate the murky, secretive world of the school. Why has this
murder attracted so much attention from Soviet officials? Zaitsev
needs to answer this question and solve the case before the
increasingly paranoid authorities turn their attention to him...
The second in the classic Phryne Fisher series from Kerry
Greenwood, featuring the irresistible heroine Phryne. Whether shes
foiling kidnappers, seducing beautiful young men or simply deciding
what to wear for dinner, Phryne handles everything with her
inimitable panache and flair.
Danger, excitement and love--this is how the glamorous Phryne
Fisher is determined to live her life in her second enticing
adventure.
Walking the wings of a Tiger Moth plane in full flight ought to be
enough excitement for most people, but not Phryne Fisher, amateur
detective, woman of mystery, as delectable as the finest chocolate
and as sharp as razor blades.
In this, the second Phryne Fisher mystery, the 1920s' most talented
and glamorous detective flies even higher, handling a murder, a
kidnapping and the usual array of beautiful young men with style
and consummate ease--and all before it's time to adjourn to the
Queenscliff Hotel for breakfast. Whether she's flying planes,
clearing a friend of homicide charges or saving a child from
kidnapping, she handles everything with the same dash and elan with
which she drives her red Hispano-Suiza.
Journalist Joe Talbert investigates the murder of the father he
never knew, and must reckon with his own family's past, in this
brilliant sequel to the national bestseller The Life We Bury
(Publishers Weekly) Joe Talbert, Jr. has never once met his
namesake. Now out of college, a cub reporter for the Associated
Press in Minneapolis, he stumbles across a story describing the
murder of a man named Joseph Talbert in a small town in southern
Minnesota. Full of curiosity about whether this man might be his
father, Joe is shocked to find that none of the town's residents
have much to say about the dead man-other than that his death was
long overdue. Joe discovers that the dead man was a loathsome
lowlife who cheated his neighbors, threatened his daughter, and
squandered his wife's inheritance after she, too, passed away -- an
inheritance that may now be Joe's. Mired in uncertainty and plagued
by his own devastated relationship with his mother, who is seeking
to get back into her son's life, Joe must put together the missing
pieces of his family history -- before his quest for discovery
threatens to put him in a grave of his own.
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW 'Banville writes dangerous and
clear-running prose and has a grim gift of seeing people's souls.'
DON DELILLO 'Crime writing of the finest quality, elegant,
distinctive and utterly absorbing.' Daily Mail 'John Banville is
one of the best novelists in English.' Guardian '[The Strafford and
Quirke series] promises to elevate the crime novel to new artistic
heights.' Financial Times The Sunday Times bestselling author of
Snow and April in Spain returns with Strafford and Quirke's most
troubling case yet. 1950s Dublin, in a lock-up garage in the city,
the body of a young woman is discovered, an apparent suicide. But
pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon
suspect foul play. The victim's sister, a newspaper reporter from
London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to
uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy
German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may
have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an
ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men
increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to
the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of
a hidden puzzle?
'Has a charm, and mystery, all of its own' THE TIMES 'Frances Brody
has made it to the top rank of crime writers' DAILY MAIL The first
historical mystery in a new classic crime series from bestselling
author Frances Brody. This is the perfect locked room page-turner
for fans of Agatha Christie and Jacqueline Winspear. ___________
1969. A job in the Prison Service is not for everyone. The training
is hard, the cells are bleak and a thick skin is needed. But for
Nell Lewis, helping prisoners is something she cares about deeply,
and when she's promoted into a new post as governor of HMP
Brackerley in Yorkshire, she's tasked with transforming the
renowned run-down facility into a modern, open prison for women.
Just as Nell is settling into her new role, events take a dark turn
when a man's body is discovered in the prison grounds. The mystery
deepens still when one of their female inmates goes missing,
ensuing a search across the country. Can Nell resolve the sinister
happenings at HMP Brackerley, before anyone else is put in danger?
___________ What readers are saying about Frances Brody: 'Witty,
acerbic and very, very perceptive' Ann Cleeves 'A splendid heroine'
Ann Granger 'An engagingly forthright and indefatigable
investigator' Irish Times 'Frances Brody matches a heroine of free
and independent spirit with a vivid evocation of time and place . .
. a novel to cherish' Barry Turner, Daily Mail 'The series is right
up there with Miss Marple' Sunday Sport 'Delightful' People's
Friend 'Kate Shackleton joins Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs in
a subgroup of young, female amateur detectives who survived and
were matured by their wartime experiences' Literary Review 'Brody's
excellent mystery splendidly captures the conflicts and attitudes
of the time with well-developed characters' RT Book Reviews 'In
Yorkshire we are proud to have such a first-rate crime novelist in
our county' Yorkshire Gazette & Herald
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