British Cozy

Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, have just visited Buckingham Palace, where Alan was awarded the George Cross, when they and a friend, retired Chief Inspector Jonathan Quinn, stumble across the body of a young girl hidden in St James’s Park. Wondering what led to the unfortunate girl’s demise, Dorothy can’t help but get involved in the case when Jonathan calls the next day and admits he knew who the victim was …

Constable Nick patrols his rural Yorkshire beat on foot or on his trusty Francis Barnett motorcycle. But as beautiful as the villages are, they conceal real human drama. Nick is on hand to help out when Aidensfield decides to enter the Best Kept Village competition and finds itself the victim of a dirty tricks campaign by its rivals. Then there is the mystery of the spontaneously combusting hen-house, and Nick has to cope with the consequences when the vicar tries a novel way of keeping the churchyard tidy.

Fresh from solving a spate of murder mysteries, Diana Bakewell and Zaf Williams are separated when Zaf goes on a course to gain his qualification as a tour guide. The course is at London's iconic St Paul's Cathedral, which Zaf is expected to get to know so he can be tested on his tour guide abilities. Meanwhile, Diana is forced from her wonderful London home by her unscrupulous landlord. But all this has to be put aside when a resident at a local hostel is found dead, apparently poisoned.

When Octavia Garamond passed away, she left explicit instructions in her will: The police must be present at her funeral, and the coroner should be exceptionally thorough when examining her body. Amelia Kennerly is perplexed to find herself the sole executor of her great-aunt's will, as she barely knew her. Further questions arise when the local parson is anything but happy to conduct Octavia's service. Then someone breaks into Octavia's home and tears the house apart. It seems the old lady's words may have been eerily prescient: "Hell is empty, and all the devils are here."

Spirited, beautiful, and thoroughly unconventional, Prudence Pinsent is a remarkable young woman. One fine morning she sets out for Suffolk to join her cousin Lord Wellende for a few days hunting. On the way Prudence encounters Captain Studde of the coastguard who is pursuing a quarry of his own. Studde is on the trail of a drug smuggling ring that connects Wellende Hall with the cloistered world of Cambridge.

Murder isn't a walk in the park...War widow fashionista, Ginger Gold, makes a gruesome discovery while walking her Boston terrier, Boss, through Kensington Gardens. A woman of ill-repute is dead. When Chief Inspector Basil Reed becomes a suspect, the blustery and often times pigheaded Superintendent Morris pulls him off the case. Ginger’s not about to be pushed around by the superintendent despite his warnings.

England, 1925. When a strange young woman is found murdered on the grounds of Unsworth Castle, the duke and his family are astounded at first, but quickly become enraged when the police begin asking all sorts of impertinent questions. And when suspicions dare to fall on one of their own, it is up to Mr. Quayle, Lord Unsworth's exceedingly efficient secretary, to find the true culprit and save the House of Unsworth from scandal and ruin.

Since her move to the country, Melissa Craig has become firmly established in village life. So, when one of the older residents fails to show up for a drinks party, Melissa goes to check on her. What she finds chills her to the bone: Her dear neighbor has been murdered, and the killer has painted a hideous smile onto her face. Melissa soon realizes that the death in her village bears the same trademark as a series of recent murders in the Cotswolds.

When Sukey Reynolds receives news of a death at the elegant Mariners Hotel, she is intrigued. Who could possibly have wanted to hurt Dr. Whistler, a shy and retiring archaeology professor? The dusty documents he was carrying couldn’t possibly be of value, could they? You would never expect this sophisticated establishment to be home to murder. What secrets are hiding inside the charming Mariners Hotel?

“We have a secret the Devil and I.” These are the chilling words on the back of an old photograph that Sister Joan uncovers while cleaning out the attic storerooms. What she discovers among the dusty antiques leads to her most dangerous case yet. Joan has the strangest feeling that she's being followed. But the person she thinks she saw died over a year ago . . . Or did he? Then a young secretary turns up dead. She's been strangled. Another body is found and Sister Joan must get to the bottom of things before the murderer strikes again.

Dorothy Martin’s husband, Alan Nesbitt, is heavily involved in the complex and lengthy process of choosing a new bishop for Sherebury Cathedral. The very day that the short list is announced publicly, one of the candidates is found murdered in his own church. With a long list of possible suspects, including Alan himself, Dorothy and Alan start to delve into the history of the victim, hoping to find some clue to a motive for murder. Then a second candidate is found dead, and the case becomes very complicated indeed. Who is murdering England’s clergymen and why …?

It's not always a question of "whodunit?" Sometimes there's more mystery in the why or how. And although we usually know the unhealthy fates of both victim and perpetrator, what of those clever few who plan and carry out the perfect crime? The ones who aren't brought down even though they're found out? And what about those who do the finding out who witness a murder or who identify the murderer but keep the information to themselves? These are some of the mysteries that we follow through those six stories.

Writer-in-residence Penelope Parish will need to use every trick in her quaint British bookshop to unravel a murderous plot that threatens to ruin a ducal wedding. The wedding of the duke and duchess of Upper Chumley - on Stoke has all the makings of a fairy tale, complete with a glowing bride and horse-drawn carriage. But it wouldn't be much of a story without a villain, and as American Gothic novelist Penelope Parish is coming to learn, happy-ever-afters are as fraught in this charming British town as they are in her books.

In this delightful collection of tales of daffodil duty and sheep worrying, his duties are as varied and humorous as ever. Young Nick joins Albert Potter for a drink and discovers his homemade moorland wines are a headache in every sense of the word. When a farmer fits an ejector seat to his tractor, Constable Nick is forced to cope with the rumors of Roman soldiers racing their chariots across the moors.

Caught between boorish Detective Chief Inspector Richard Fitzwilliam and a killer wedding party, Lady Beatrice must solve the murder to save the big day.

Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party. Which means elevenses (sloe gin fizzes), gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine-looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede. But as gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor's lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death.

When Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired police detective Alan Nesbitt, decide to visit the beautiful island of Alderney in the English Channel, they hope for a pleasant, peaceful holiday. It’s not to be. Taking a walk on their very first day, they discover a body, apparently the victim of an unfortunate accident, on a precipitous hill path.

It's a rainy, uneventful evening in the Oddfellows' Arms until a man bursts into the pub, clearly unstable, and ranting about a body in Fennings' Mill. The police investigate and stumble upon a body-the face smeared with theatrical make-up and a false mustache pasted neatly over the lip. Once the national news descends, Inspector Faddiman calls in Inspector Littlejohn to help him uncover the dark, hidden secrets in this quiet, provincial town. Soon it becomes clear that a lot of people can't, and won't tell the truth.

This Christmas time, things are not all fine. For there's trouble at Devlin's Department Store, and it all seems to centre on the first floor. Where strangely, one can hear a cuckoo chime...T'is the season to be jolly. And Old Tom must crack the case, before he can hang up his holly.

When decades-old human bones are discovered beneath the old glasshouse behind Foxglove & Hemlock, the local florist, DS Harriet March and DI Ben Taylor find themselves digging into Raven's Edge's murky past. As a frosty wind whips down the cobblestoned lanes of the village, the two detectives feel an ominous chill that has nothing to do with the weather… The discovery coincides with the arrival of enigmatic novelist Iris Evergreen at Raven's Hollow, a gothic monstrosity of a mansion that's been sitting empty for years.