British Thrillers

An entertaining history of British thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed, in which award-winning crime writer Mike Ripley reveals that, though Britain may have lost an empire, her thrillers helped save the world. With a foreword by Lee Child.

Ever wondered what goes on inside the head of a stone-cold killer? This dark and disturbingly twisted trilogy will thrust you deep into the minds of some of the most evil criminal psychopaths you would never wish to encounter. Includes Remorseless, Mutilated, Gaslighting.

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.

The Cornish village of St. Petroc is the sort of place where people come to hide. Tom Killgannon is one such person. But when a seventeen-year-old runaway named Lila breaks into Tom’s house, she takes more than just his money. His wallet holds everything about his new identity. He also knows that Lila is in danger from the travelers’ commune she has been living at. Something sinister has been going on there, and Lila knows more than she realizes. But to find her, he risks not only giving away his location to the gangs he’s in hiding from but also becoming a target for whoever is hunting Lila.

Movie star Mary Marvell consults with Hercule Poirot after receiving threatening letters that warn her to return her diamond, the famous "Western Star", to its rightful owner. But who does own the diamond, and is it even the genuine article?

A man is found dead, tied to a chair in the middle of the road, a stag’s antlers on his head. The gruesome scene stuns the town, especially when the victim is identified: Jim Tiernan, who ran the White Hart pub. Tierney’s pub is at the center of village life and he knew everyone’s secrets. Detective Nicola Bridge grew up in Fleetcombe and has now returned, for the good of her family, from a life away in Liverpool. DC Harry Ward is ten years younger and, despite his newcomer status, determined to earn Nicola’s trust.

Gabby Lane is a Senior Field Agent in British Intelligence. When she is sent on an undercover operation to kill Europe's largest arms dealer and find a British spy who has disappeared, she discovers that the two men are connected and are part of the criminal gang who are stealing western weapons.

A group of old friends gather in a peaceful suburban street for a dinner party. They are expecting a fun evening of wine, food and pleasant company. But then they start to play the game… It’s about trust and dark secrets – it tests marriage to its limits – and none of them can begin to imagine its consequences. Because the next day, two guests are dead and the others are trapped in a nightmare.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the wife of parliamentary candidate Tom Perry is brutally murdered in an apparent burglary gone wrong. With the by-election campaign about to start in earnest, and the festive season in full swing, torrential rain brings with it flood warnings on the Somerset Levels. Suspended on full pay and transferred to the cold case unit, Detective Inspector Nick Dixon is languishing on the sidelines as the investigation into Elizabeth Perry’s murder unravels and the floodwaters rise.

When an armed man massacres several people in central London, Claudine witnesses the whole thing. To her horror, one of the victims is her brother, Jethro. Riven by grief, Claudine retreats to the house in the Fens where she and Jethro grew up. When the police contact her, she is left reeling when they tell her Jethro orchestrated the attack. Why would a gentle, if troubled, middle-aged man cause such bloodshed – and why would he include himself in the list of victims? Claudine finds herself down a rabbit hole of mystery, caught up in Jethro's research on a medieval cult.

When a bloody corpse is discovered in a North London park, Detective Inspector Daniel Graves is the man tasked with finding the killer. However, with no clues and no suspects, the case seems like a dead end. Then another body turns up—and this time, it looks like it could be Graves’s fault. Has his investigation caused the murderer to strike again? As the case gets ever more complicated, a report comes in of another suspicious death—but this is nothing like any other Graves has dealt with. All involved are convinced that something supernatural is to blame: a demon.

When one of the notorious Johnson brothers is murdered and a bag of money goes missing, a deadly game of cat and mouse is set in motion. Detective Allie Shenton and her team are called in to catch the killer, but the suspects are double-crossing each other and Allie has little time to untangle the web of lies. As she delves deeper into the case, things take a personal turn when Allie realises she is being stalked by the very same person who attacked her sister seventeen years ago and left her for dead.

A man's body is found on a canal towpath. In his pocket, a magnetic letter in the shape of an E. Days later, a second victim is murdered, this time with the letter V tucked into her clothing. When the letter E is located near to a third victim, DI Allie Shenton and her colleagues are sent into full alert. Is their killer spelling a word, a name or are the letters an anagram? One thing's for certain as the body count rises—the eerie, childlike clues point to a pattern that doesn't look like stopping.

While attending a crime scene on the outskirts of Maidstone, DI Kay Hunter makes a shocking discovery. The victim has been brutally cut to pieces, his identity unknown. When more body parts start turning up in the Kentish countryside, Kay realizes the disturbing truth–a serial killer is at large and must be stopped at all costs. With no motive for the murders and a killer who has gone undetected until now, Kay and her team of detectives must work fast to calm a terrified local population and a scornful media. When a third victim is found, her investigation grows even more complicated.

Inspired by the author’s own experience, The Vicar introduces Terry Nolan, an MI5 operative who, when he discovers his cover is blown and millions of lives are at stake, will do whatever it takes to stop enemy forces. Terry Nolan, an off-the-books MI5 operative known as the Vicar, has been officially dead for the past thirty years. But when Nolan is attacked in Boston, it becomes clear his cover is blown. Even worse, his Parishioners—the network of spies who work under the Vicar—have all been compromised.

È un giovedì come tanti, uno di quelli in cui tutto sembra svolgersi all’insegna della normalità. Tranne che, per il Club dei delitti del giovedì...

DI Kate Young has known for years that her boss, Superintendent John Dickson, is a violent and evil man. But when she finally confronts him and accidentally shoots and kills him, she’s forced to cover her tracks before anyone can pin his death on her. With revelations about his corruption soon to become public knowledge, Kate sets up a trail of evidence to make it seem that Dickson has conveniently vanished… But Kate knows the corruption doesn’t end with Dickson.

D.I. Graves is back on the case to face his toughest challenge yet: a case with no motive and no suspect, nothing at all that could explain why someone would kill innocent people and then take parts from the bodies. Then the next victims are discovered: another pair of bodies, new body parts taken, and again in their own home. Someone is breaking into houses across the city at night, leaving horror in their wake. It seems to Graves that this could be two serial killers, working together. But how are they choosing their victims? Is any house in London a target? Is anyone safe?

Nigella Parker has a deep-rooted fear of fire and a talent for solving arson cases. When a charred figure is found beside Sir Christopher Wren’s Monument to the Great Fire of London, Nigella is dragged into a case pitting her against a murderous artist creating sculptures using burnt flesh. Nigella partners with Colm O’Leary of Scotland Yard to track the arsonist. The pair are more than colleagues. But their past isn’t the only buried history as they race to connect the dots between an antique nail and a long-forgotten architect dwarfed by the life's work of Sir Christopher Wren.

Still grieving the death of his long-time partner, Chase reunites with his dear friend and fellow Anglophile Billie Mondreau for a seacoast holiday of historic sightseeing. Assigned a pair of guides from the tour company Wanderers, Chase and Billie join seven other like-minded Americans looking forward to an English getaway. All except for Ronald Gretz. The wealthy entrepreneur behind the international Golden Sunset nursing-home chain doesn’t like anything about walking, touring, or England.