British Procedurals

Catherine Aird

Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan prays he will find a nun’s murderer in this crime novel by CWA Diamond Dagger winner Catherine Aird The day begins like any other for Sister Mary St. Gertrude. When her alarm sounds at 5 a.m., Sister Mary begins rousting her convent sisters from their beds, starting with the Reverend Mother. Down the Order she goes with a knock and a warm blessing. But when the young nun reaches Sister Anne’s door, there is no answer. She assumes that Sister Anne got up early, and continues on her way. But later, when a fellow nun leaves a bloody thumbprint on the sheet music for a hymn, and Sister Anne is nowhere to be found, it becomes apparent that something is very wrong. Then Sister Anne’s body is found at the bottom of a steep set of stairs, her veil askew and her head crushed. Religious Body introduces the sophisticated Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan along with his eager and trustworthy sidekick, Detective Constable Crosby, and the acerbic Superintendent Leeyes in a mystery of holy proportions that will have readers guessing until the last page.

Jean-Luc Bannalec

An international bestseller, this captivating whodunit introduces Commissaire Dupin-a clever but cantankerous traditional police inspector in an idyllic French seaside village

M.C. Beaton

When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joins the local fishing class she wastes no time in ruffling the feathers - or should that be fins? - of those around her. Among the victims of her sharp tongue is Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth, yet not even Hamish thinks someone would seriously want to silence Lady Jane's shrill voice permanently - until her strangled body is fished out of the river. Now with the help of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, Hamish must steer a course through the choppy waters of the tattler's life to find a murderer. But with a school of suspects who aren't willing to talk, and the dead woman telling no tales, Hamish may well be in over his head for he knows that secrets are dangerous, knowledge is power, and killers when cornered usually do strike again.

Stephen Booth

Dark, intense and utterly compelling, Black Dog was an extraordinary first novel from a writer who has rapidly become the most promising crime author to emerge in the genre in years.

Gwendoline Butler

Detective John Coffin must find out who killed the man belonging to the severed human head found in an urn on the church steps. Reprint. PW. AB.

Alex Caan

Ruby Day is a young vlogger, a rising star of YouTube, and a wholesome role-model to millions of teenage girls. And she is missing. Detective Inspector Kate Riley, the head of a new high-powered team of detectives, and Detective Superintendent Zain Harris, the newest member of the team and a poster boy for multiracial policing, are brought in for what they expect to be a routine runaway. Then a video of a wild-eyed Ruby running through the woods and begging for her life is posted online. Amid mounting hysteria and heightened media coverage calling for Ruby’s safe return, Riley and Harris must decode the dark secrets of this seemingly squeaky-clean internet darling. Their hunt leads them to a smug ex-boyfriend who hungers for online fame of his own, a culture of online cyber bullying by anonymous thugs, and a corporation of ruthless advertisers who exploit online celebrities for their network of eager consumers. It becomes increasingly clear that the case is more complicated and nightmarish than Riley and Harris could have imagined. And the videos keep coming . . . This debut novel is a slick, contemporary police procedural that explores the dichotomy of public life and one lived online. For fans of Megan Abbot and Kimberly McCreight, Cut to the Bone provides a harrowing glimpse into the friendships, ambitions, and secrets of the internet generation.

Maureen Carter

Birmingham DI Sarah Quinn contends with a relentless TV reporter in this “crisply written” series debut from the author of the Bev Morriss novels (Library Journal). When a baby is snatched from outside a Birmingham newsagent’s, ‘Ice Queen’ Detective Inspector Sarah Quinn is on the case. Unfortunately for her, so is the insufferably persistent TV reporter Caroline King. Quinn’s cool investigative methods contrast with those of the fiery King, who’ll stop at nothing in pursuit of a good story. But as the investigation stonewalls, it soon becomes clear that the two enemies will have to work together if the police are to have any chance of success . . . Former BBC reporter and author of the acclaimed Bev Morriss series, Maureen Carter draws on her deep knowledge of journalism and crime investigation in this gritty police procedural with “an electric pace” to deliver a tale of crime and justice that “won’t soon leave you” (Library Journal).

Agatha Christie

Little did Anthony Cade suspect that a simple errand on behalf of a friend would make him the centrepiece of a murderous international conspiracy. Someone would stop at nothing to prevent the monarchy being restored in faraway Herzoslovakia.

Anne Cleeland

Can London’s most elusive killer elude the keen minds of Scotland Yard’s most unlikely pair of detectives? An Irish redhead of humble beginnings and modest means, Kathleen Doyle is the antithesis of Chief Inspector Michael Sinclair, Lord Acton, the brilliant but enigmatic lord with a knack for solving London’s most high profile homicides. When a horse trainer is found dead at a racetrack, the duo’s investigation does little to deter the killer, who continues to strike, leaving them with more questions than answers. Jeopardizing the case are their colleagues at CID headquarters, whose nosing into the nature of Doyle and Acton’s after hours relationship threatens to lay bare the most classified information of all. As the murders pile up, Doyle and Acton uncover something far more sinisiter than they could have imagined. Now that they know too much, their partnership could be very brief indeed… “It’s been a long time since I encountered two characters this charming and engaging. I look forward to more of their adventures.” —David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author “[T]his entertaining pair will linger in readers’ imaginations, making them want more.” —Booklist

Ann Cleeves

A remote community, touched by evil - would you know who to trust?Raven Black is the first book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series - which is now the major BBC1 drama starring Douglas Henshall, SHETLAND.It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance . . .The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man - loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst.Also available in the Shetland series are White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning and Dead Water. Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series (ITV television drama VERA) contains five titles, of which The Glass Room is the most recent.

Deborah Crombie

A week's holiday in a luxurious Yorkshire time-share is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But the discovery of a body floating in the whirlpool bath ends Kincaid's vacation before it's begun. One of his new acquaintances at Followdale House is dead; another is a killer. Despite a distinct lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised dramatically when a second murder occurs, and Kincaid and James find themselves in a determined hunt for a fiendish felon who enjoys homicide a bit too much.

Mat Coward

Constable Frank Mitchell is forced to work with manic-depressive Inspector Don Packham when an old man is found pitchforked to death, sending the dynamic duo digging for clues in a garden full of suspects. Reprint.

Колин Декстер

В небольшом городке Вудсток, что находится в нескольких милях от Оксфорда, происходит жестокое убийство молодой девушки. Инспектор Морс из главного управления полиции Оксфорда и его помощник сержант Льюис занимаются расследованием этого дела. В ходе следствия им приходится беседовать с людьми самых разных социальных слоёв – от университетской профессуры до водителей грузовиков, медсестёр, машинисток и людей с нездоровой психикой; они сталкиваются с ложью, увёртками, замалчиванием фактов. В конце концов дело раскрыто, убийца найден и арестован, но окончание следствия не приносит радости инспектору Морсу: виновником преступления оказывается близкий человек.Для широкого круга изучающих английский язык.

Martin Edwards

You can never bury the past... Oxford historian and TV personality Daniel Kind and his new lover, Miranda, both want to escape to a new life. On impulse they buy Tarn Cottage in Brackdale, an idyllic valley in the Lake District But though they hope to live the dream, the past has a way of catching up. When DCI Hannah Scarlett launches a cold case review into an old crime, Brackdale’s skeletons start to rattle. Daniel and Hannah soon find themselves risking their lives as they search for a ruthless killer who is prepared to murder again to hide a shocking secret.

Kate Ellis

DS Wesley Peterson, newly arrived in the West Country town of Tradmouth, has his hands full when a child goes missing and a young woman is brutally murdered on a lonely cliff path. Then his old friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, unearths the skeletons of a strangled woman and a new born baby in the cellar of an ancient merchant's house nearby. As the investigation continues, Wesley begins to suspect that these deaths, centuries apart, may be linked by age-old motives of jealousy, a sexual obsession and desperate longing. And the pressure is on if he is going to prevent a further tragedy... Kate Ellis's wonderfully addictive series of West Country set crime novels feature Wesley Peterson, one of Devon's first black detectives.

Christopher Fowler

Edgy, suspenseful, and darkly comic, here is the first novel in a riveting mystery series starring two cranky but brilliant old detectives whose lifelong friendship was forged solving crimes for the London Police Department's Peculiar Crimes Unit. In Full Dark House, Christopher Fowler tells the story of both their first and last case—and how along the way the unlikely pair of crime fighters changed the face of detection. A present-day bombing rips through London and claims the life of eighty-year-old detective Arthur Bryant. For his partner John May, it means the end of a partnership that lasted over half-a-century and an eerie echo back to the Blitz of World War II when they first met. Desperately searching for clues to the killer's identity, May finds his old friend's notes of their very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned...with a killing vengeance. It begins when a dancer in a risque new production of Orpheus in Hell is found without her feet. Suddenly, the young detectives are plunged in a bizarre gothic mystery that will push them to their limits—and beyond. For in a city shaken by war, a faceless killer is stalking London's theaters, creating his own kind of sinister drama. And it will take Arthur Bryant's unorthodox techniques and John May's dogged police work to catch a criminal whose ability to escape detection seems almost supernatural--a murderer who even decades later seems to have claimed the life of one of them...and is ready to claim the other. Filled with startling twists, unforgettable characters, and a mystery that will keep you guessing, Full Dark House is a witty, heartbreaking, and all-too-human thriller about the hunt for an inhuman killer. From the Hardcover edition.

Elizabeth George

To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders. Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry." Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley—and in their own lives as well. From the Paperback edition.

Caroline Graham

Badger's Drift is an ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster with a nice line in homemade cookies. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up an unseemly fuss, loud enough to attract the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. And when Barnaby and his eager-beaver deputy start poking around, they uncover a swamp of ugly scandals and long-suppressed resentments seething below the picture-postcard prettiness. In the grand tradition of the quietly intelligent copper, Barnaby has both an irresistibly dry sense of humor and a keen insight into what makes people tick.

Martha Grimes

Long Piddleton had always been wary of newcomers. But the quiet town was stunned when the first stranger was found dead, upended in a butt of ale in the cellar of the Men with a Load of Mischief. Then the second body appeared, swinging in place of the mechanical man above the door of the Jack and Hammer. Suddenly Long Piddleton had good reason to be wary of everyone! Its cozy pubs and inns with their polished pewter and blazing hearths had become scenes of the most bizarre crimes. Who were the victims? And who was the murderer? A stranger? A maniac? Or the disarmingly friendly man next door?

Sophie Hannah, Christie, Agatha

Hercule Poirot's quiet supper in a London coffee house is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified, but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done. Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at the fashionable Bloxham Hotel have been murdered, a cufflink placed in each one's mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim.

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

John Harvey

A serial killer terrorizes the young women of Nottingham Shirley Peters was murdered in her own home. A directionless young woman with a fondness for cheap red wine and a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, her death is just another in the files of the Nottingham detective’s bureau. The police round up her ex-lover without much fuss, and are preparing to try him when another body surfaces. The method, the target, and the extreme violence are all a match for the killing of Shirley Peters. Nottingham is facing a serial killer. Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick is the first to see the connection. Both victims placed ads in a citywide Lonely Hearts column, and the rumpled detective suspects that their killer found them by preying on their isolation. He has little time to find the killer before more women die and Nottingham erupts into panic.

Mo Hayder

Greenwich, south-east London Detective Inspector Jack Caffery - young, driven, unshockable - is called to one of the most gruesome crime scenes he has ever seen. Five young women have been ritualistically murdered and dumped on wasteland near the Dome. Subsequent post-mortems reveal a singular, horrific signature linking the victims. Soon Caffery realises that he is on the trail of that most dangerous offender: a serial killer. Beset by animosity within the police force, haunted by the memory of a very personal death long ago, Caffery employs every weapon forensic science can offer to hunt him down. Because he knows that it is only a matter of time before this sadistic killer strikes again ...

Peter Helton

After being transferred from Southampton to Bristol, DI Liam McLusky must contend with an ex-partner keeping tabs on him as he investigates a string of bombings caused by explosive devices left in everyday objects. By the author of the PI Detective Honeycut series.

James Henry

Non-conformist detective Jack Frost searches for a twelve-year-old girl who went missing from a department store changing room, a case that is complicated by the recent disappearance of Frost's mentor.

Reginald Hill

The first book in the “outstanding” British police procedural series—the basis for the long-running BBC series featuring the Yorkshire detective duo (The New York Times). Reginald Hill “raised the classical British mystery to new heights” when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review). Their chafing differences in education, manners, technique, and temperament made them “the most remarkable duo in the annals of crime fiction” (Toronto Star). Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as ebooks. Mary Connon froze out her husband, Sam, long ago. She likes the attention of other men—like the fellow members of Sam’s rugby club. Naturally, when she’s found dead in her sitting room with a hole in her head, Sam is a suspect. If only he hadn’t suffered a dizzying scrum injury that’s left everything a blur. He isn’t sure that he didn’t kill her. But Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, Peter Pascoe, are looking outside the unhappy home. Because it seems everyone within spitting distance of the suburban femme fatale—from prying neighbors to spurned lovers to jealous wives—wanted Mary dead. As the field of play expands, so do the motives . . . A Clubbable Woman is the 1st book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Susan Hill

As the story begins, a lonely woman vanishes while out on her morning run. Then a 22-year-old girl never returns from a walk. An old man disappears too. When fresh-faced policewoman Freya Graffham is assigned to the case, she runs the risk of getting too invested--too involved--in the action. Alongside the enigmatic detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrallier, she must unravel the mystery before events turn too gruesome. Written with intelligence, compassion, and a knowing eye--in the tradition of the fabulous mysteries of Ruth Rendell and P.D. James--The Various Haunts of Men is an enthralling journey into the heart of a wonderfully developed town, and into the very mind of a killer.

Jane Isaac

DI Will Jackman Series - Amazon Top 5 Bestseller'Carefully executed police procedural, that hits all the targets.' --Angela Clarke, author of Follow Me'I thought I'd never read a book that came close to the realities of crime and policing. Then I read this.' --Ian Patrick Writer and former DS with the Metropolitan Police'A smart, intelligent and tightly woven police procedural with real depth of human emotion at its heart.' --Rebecca Bradley, author of Shallow WatersTHE SECOND DI WILL JACKMAN CRIME THRILLERThe floor felt hard beneath her face. Nancy opened her eyes. Blinked several times. A pain seared through her head. She could feel fluid. No. She was lying in fluid.When a body is discovered in a burnt-out barn in the Warwickshire countryside, DI Will Jackman is called to investigate.Nancy Faraday wakes up on the kitchen floor. The house has been broken into and her boyfriend is missing. As the case unravels, DI Jackman realises that nothing is quite as it appears and everyone, it seems, has a secret.Can he discover the truth behind the body in the fire, and track down the killer before Nancy becomes the next victim?A gripping thriller perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, S.J. Watson, B A Paris and Sophie Hannah

Graham Ison

A fast-moving, intricate and compelling contemporary mystery, starting with the brutal murder of a prostitute in London's West End, and uncovering a politician with feet of clay, a bent ex-policeman and a baggage handling scam at Heathrow airport. Brock and Poole might seem mismatched in age and temperament, but their verbal sparring hides a genuine mutual respect.

Ed James

The body of a young woman is found on the streets of East London, in the shadow of the City's gleaming towers. No ID on her, just hard-earned cash. But there is no doubting the ferocity of the attack. DI Simon Fenchurch takes charge but, as his team tries to identify her and piece together her murder, they're faced with cruel indifference at every turn--nobody cares about yet another dead prostitute. To Fenchurch, however, she could just as easily be Chloe, his daughter still missing after ten years, whose memory still haunts his days and nights, his burning obsession having killed his marriage. When a second body is discovered, Fenchurch must peel back the grimy layers shrouding the London sex trade, confronting his own traumatic past while racing to undo a scheme larger, more complex and more evil than anything he could possibly have imagined.

Diane Janes

“Janes deftly, suddenly transforms her audience’s understanding of her protagonists several times without making delayed disclosures feel like literary trickery, keeping tension high to the very end” Publishers Weekly Starred Review Wealthy heiress Jude Thackeray lost her trust in men following her terrible ordeal at the hands of a ruthless kidnapper. Now she’s met Mark Medlicott, she is finally learning to love again. But is Mark who – and what – he seems? No one was ever arrested following the kidnap; there were no credible suspects even. Detective Sergeant Peter Betts and his colleague, DS Hannah McMahon, are determined to crack the case. However, the deeper they dig, the more anomalies they uncover, and it becomes increasingly clear there was more to the attempted kidnap than met the eye. Soon the pair find themselves in a desperate race against time in order to prevent a further catastrophe.

Erin Kelly, Chris Chibnall

In the sleepy British seaside town of Broadchurch, Detective Ellie Miller has just returned from vacation, only to learn that she's been passed over for a promotion at work in favor of outsider Alec Hardy. He, escaping the spectacular failure of his last case, is having trouble finding his way into this tight-knit community wary of new faces. But professional rivalry aside, both detectives are about to receive some terrible news: 11-year-old Danny Latimer has been found murdered on the beach. For Ellie it's a personal blow; Danny was her older son's best friend. She can't believe anyone in Broadchurch would ever have harmed him. But Alec considers everyone, even Danny's parents, suspect in his death. It's a living nightmare for everyone involved...even before the press arrive and start stirring up the secrets every town member keeps hidden behind closed doors. An intimate portrait of a town and the ordinary grievances that have slowly simmered for years before boiling over in an unthinkable crime, this remarkable adaptation of the hit television show Broadchurch tells the story of a shattered family, a reeling town, and the two imperfect detectives trying to bring them answers.

Lynda La Plante

The first instalment in the bestselling Anna Travis series from the BAFTA-winning writer Lynda La Plante Young Anna Travis has been assigned to her first murder case - a series of killings that has shocked even the most hardened of detectives. They started eight years ago - now the body count is up to six. The method of killing is identical, the backgrounds of the girls identical - all drug-users and prostitutes. Then a seventh body is found. The modus operandi is the same - but the victim is a young student with the 'face of an angel'. The profile of the murderer has changed dramatically. Determined to earn the respect of her male colleagues, Anna stumbles on a vital piece of information which links one man to the killings, a much-loved actor on the brink of international stardom. His arrest would create a media frenzy. But if he were found innocent, his wouldn't be the only career over - Anna's hard fought for reputation would be destroyed once and for all …

Peter Lovesey

Introduction by Louise Penny A woman's body has been found floating in a large reservoir just south of Bristol. In order to solve the mystery of the "Lady in the Lake," Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond must locate two missing letters attributed to Jane Austen and defy his superiors on the force to save a woman unjustly accused of murder. This is the first of the Peter Diamond series; it won the 1992 Anthony Boucher Award for Best Mystery Novel. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Stuart MacBride

Stuart MacBride’s Number One bestselling crime series opens with this award-winning debut. DS Logan McRae and the police in Aberdeen hunt a child killer who stalks the frozen streets.

Clare Mackintosh

When Zoe Walker sees her photo in the classifieds section of a London newspaper, she is determined to find out why it's there. There's no explanation: just a grainy image, a website address and a phone number. She takes it home to her family, who are convinced it's just someone who looks like Zoe. But the next day the advert shows a photo of a different woman, and another the day after that. Is it a mistake? A coincidence? Or is someone keeping track of every move they make ...

Ngaio Marsh

In a mystery originally published in 1934, Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives at Sir Hubert Handesley's country house party only to discover a real corpse has appeared during the guests' parlor game of "Murder." Reprint.

Rob Mccarthy

Dr Harry Kent likes to keep busy: juggling hospital duties with his work as a police surgeon for the Metropolitan Police - anything to ward off the memories of his time as an Army medic. Usually the police work means minor injuries and mental health assessments. But Solomon Idris's case is different. Solomon Idris has taken eight people hostage in a chicken takeaway, and is demanding to see a lawyer and a BBC reporter. Harry is sent in to treat the clearly ill teenager...before the siege goes horribly wrong. When Solomon's life is put in danger again from the safety of a critical care ward, it becomes clear he knows something people will kill to protect. Determined to uncover the secret that drove the boy to such desperate action, Harry soon realises that someone in the medical world, someone he may even know, has broken the doctors' commandment 'do no harm' many times over...

Val McDermid

Winter 1963: two children have disappeared in Manchester; the murderous careers of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady have begun. On a freezing day in December, another child goes missing: 13-year-old Alison Carter vanishes from the isolated Derbyshire hamlet of Scardale. For the young George Bennett it is the beginning of his most difficult and harrowing case: a murder with no body, an investigation with more dead ends and closed faces than he'd have found in the inner city; an outcome that reverberates down the years. Decades later he tells his story to journalist Catherine Heathcote, but just when her book is poised for publication, Bennett tries to pull the plug. He has new information that he will not divulge, and that threatens the very foundation of his existence. Catherine is forced to reinvestigate the past, with results that turn the world upside down. A taut psychological thriller that explores, exposes and explodes the border between reality and illusion in a multilayered narrative that turns expectations on their head and reminds us that what we know is what we do not know...

Jill McGown

A young woman is found murdered in a small English town, while the main suspect has spent the night drinking, and denies any involvement. It looks like an easily solved case for Detective Inspector Lloyd and Sergeant Judy Hill, but it soon proves more complex than they originally thought.

David Mark

The New York Times hails David Mark's work as "in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain." DARK WINTER is the first book in the internationally acclaimed Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy series. A series of suspicious deaths have rocked Hull, a port city in England as old and mysterious as its bordering sea. They have captured the attention of Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy. He notices a pattern missed by his fellow officers, who would rather get a quick arrest than bother themselves with finding the true killer. Torn between his police duties and his aching desire to spend more time with his pregnant wife and young son, McAvoy is an unlikely hero: a physically imposing man far more comfortable exploring computer databases than throwing around his muscle. Compelled by his keen sense of justice, he decides to strike out alone—but in the depths of the dark winter, it’s difficult to forget what happened the last time he found himself on the wrong side of a killer’s blade… David Mark’s latest Detective Sergeant McAvoy novel, CRUEL MERCY, is on-sale February 2017.

Tony Parsons

Meet London police detective Max Wolfe. Insomniac. Dog lover. Coffee addict. Boxer. Single parent. And every murderer's worst nightmare. Someone has been violently killing members of London society. The killer is strong enough and smart enough to kill with a single knife stroke, and bold enough to kill in public. The victims span all levels of London society, and appear to have absolutely nothing in common. As Max begins following the killer's bloody trail, it takes him from the bright lights and backstreets of London all the way to the corner offices in the corridors of power. But when Max realizes that the victims may have all crossed paths decades ago at their exclusive private school, the case changes. Suddenly, the murders look less random and more personal, and Max finds the killer's reach getting closer to everything—and everyone—he loves. Award-winning journalist and international bestselling author Tony Parsons brings his talent for rich characterization and propulsive storytelling to The Murder Man, his stunning crime fiction debut.

Louise Penny

Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter. Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces---and this series---with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny.

Anne Perry

In the debut of the New York Times–bestselling Victorian crime series, Inspector Thomas Pitt seeks an elusive strangler among upper-class British society. Panic and fear strike the Ellison household when one of their own falls prey to the Cater Street murderer. While Mrs. Ellison and her three daughters are out, their maid becomes the third victim of a killer who strangles young women with cheese wire, leaving their swollen-faced bodies on the dark streets of this genteel neighborhood. Inspector Pitt, assigned to the case, must break through the walls of upper-class society to get at the truth. His in-depth investigation gradually peels away the proper veneer of the elite world, exposing secrets and desires until suspicion becomes more frightening than truth. Outspoken Charlotte Ellison, struggling to remain within the confining boundaries of Victorian manners, has no trouble expressing herself to the irritating policeman. As their relationship shifts from antagonistic sparring to a romantic connection, the socially mismatched pair must solve the mystery before the hangman strikes again. Rich with authentic period details and blending suspenseful mystery with a budding romance between Inspector Pitt and Charlotte Ellison, The Cater Street Hangman launched the long-running series by Edgar Award–winning author Anne Perry, with recent titles including The Angel Court Affair and Treachery at Lancaster Gate. Also the creator of the William Monk Novels, Perry has become one of the great names in detective fiction. As the Philadelphia Inquirer says, “Pitt’s compassion and Charlotte’s cleverness make them compatible sleuths, as well as extremely congenial characters. . . . Perry has the gift of making [the Victorian era] seem immediate and very much alive.”

Ian Rankin

The very first Rebus novel from the No.1 bestselling author. 'And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you...?' 'That sort of thing' is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away south by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer. And then the messages begin to arrive: knotted string and matchstick crosses - taunting Rebus with pieces of a puzzle only he can solve.

Ruth Rendell

When Margaret Parsons disappears, Inspector Burden tries to reassure her frantic husband that she will be back by morning. Privately, though, he is certain Margaret has run off with another man. But then the missing woman's body is found, strangled and abandoned in a nearby wood. And when Mr. Parsons lets the police into his home, a startling discovery leads everyone to question just who Margaret Parsons really was . . .

Peter Robinson

‘The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are the best series on the market. Try one and tell me I'm wrong’ Stephen King Gallows View is the first novel in Peter Robinson's bestselling Inspector Banks series. NEW TOWN. NEW CASES. NEW DANGER. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has recently relocated with his family to the Yorkshire Dales from stressful London but soon finds that life in the countryside is not quite as idyllic as he had imagined. Three cases come to the fore: a voyeur is terrorizing the women of Eastvale. Two thugs are breaking into homes, and an old woman is dead, possibly murdered. As the tension mounts, Banks must also deal with his attraction to a young psychologist Jenny Fuller, and when both Jenny and Banks's wife are drawn deeper into events Banks realizes that his cases are weaving closer and closer together . . . Gallows View is followed by A Dedicated Man in the Inspector Banks series.

Sally Spencer

The first in a new series featuring Charlie Woodend's protege, DCI Monika Paniatowski - It will be no easy task to fill DCI Charlie Woodend's shoes, the newly-promoted Monika Paniatowski tells herself, but, given a little time, she thinks she can grow into them. Yet, with the discovery of a severed hand, time is the one thing she does not have. When her colleagues prove untrustworthy, the urge to call Woodend for help becomes almost irresistible . . .

Susannah Stacey

Superintendent Bone's investigation into the death of Nanny Gray brings to light a number of well-motivated suspects and, most strangely, a neighbor's psychic visions of the murder

Josephine Tey

The captivating debut of Inspector Grant, one of fiction’s greatest detectives. As a crowd gathers excitedly to wait for a highly anticipated theatre performance, something transpires to put a damper on their evening—murder. A man in the queue is found dead, stabbed with a stiletto, and only Scotland Yard’s Inspector Grant can solve the mystery. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.

Charles Todd

“Todd has written a first novel that speaks out, urgently and compassionately, for a long-dead generation….A meticulously wrought puzzle.” —New York Times Book Review “An intricately plotted mystery. With this remarkable debut, Charles Todd breaks new ground in the historical crime novel.” —Peter Lovesey, author of The Circle “You’re going to love Todd.” —Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly The first novel to feature war-damaged Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge, A Test of Wills is the book that brought author Charles Todd into the spotlight. This Edgar® and Anthony Award-nominated, New York Times Notable mystery brilliantly evokes post-World War I Great Britain and introduces readers to one of crime fiction’s most compelling series protagonists. Here the shell-shocked Rutledge struggles to retain his fragile grip on sanity while investigating the death of a popular army colonel, murdered, it appears, by a decorated war hero with ties to the Royal Family. A phenomenal writer, a twisting puzzle, a character-rich re-creation of an extraordinary time and place…it all adds up to one exceptional read that will delight fans of Elizabeth George, Martha Grimes, Jacqueline Winspear, Ruth Rendell, and other masters of the British procedural.

Dan Waddell

As dawn breaks over London, the body of a young man is discovered in a windswept Notting Hill churchyard. The killer has left Detective Chief Inspector Grant Foster and his team a grisly, cryptic clue... However it’s not until the clue is handed to Nigel Barnes, a specialist in compiling family trees, that the full message becomes spine-chillingly clear. For it leads Barnes back more than one hundred years - to the victim of a demented Victorian serial killer... When a second body is discovered Foster needs Barnes’s skills more than ever. Because the murderer’s clues appear to run along the tangled bloodlines that lie between 1879 and now. And if Barnes is right about his blood-history, the killing spree has only just begun... From the author of the bestselling Who Do You Think You Are? comes a haunting crime novel of blood-stained family histories and gruesome secrets. . .

Wilkie Collins

Rachel Verinder mysteriously opposes an investigation of the theft of a sacred Hindu diamond which she inherited from her uncle