Detective Genre

When young Edwin Drood disappears, suspicion centers on John Jasper, a drug-addicted choirmaster who hungers after Drood's fiancé. So does Neville Landless, a Ceylonese who has previously quarreled violently with the missing man. The mystery if further enhanced because it was left unfinished at the author's death. Thus the book has challenged the imagination of generations of readers.

Charlie Resnick is the last person to see the attractive young woman who vanishes after a Christmas office party, but he can’t even remember the color of the car in which she left. Days later, a tape-recorded ransom note arrives at police headquarters, and Resnick—along with his faulty memory—is the key to outsmarting the abductor.

In picturesque Tarnfield in the North of England, feuds and rivalries between villagers typically lie dormant. But the arrival of a new local vicar shakes the community up, bringing together an unlikely alliance between Suzy Spencer, a working mother, part-time television producer and full-time mess, and Robert Clark, a conservative, 'Mr Perfect' widower from the parish. But they are too late to save an unfortunate flower arranger!

May 1959. From one side of St. Brigid's Island, the mountains of Connemara can be glimpsed on the distant mainland; from the other, the Atlantic stretches as far as the eye can see. This remote settlement, without electricity or even a harbor, has scarcely altered since its namesake saint set up a convent of stone huts centuries ago. Those who live there, including sisters Rose and Emer, are hardy and resourceful, dependent on the sea and each other for survival.

In the early 1600s, Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous Blood Countess, ruled Čachtice Castle in the hinterlands of Slovakia. During bizarre nightly rites, she tortured and killed the young women she had taken on as servants. A devil, a demon, the terror of Royal Hungary — she bathed in their blood to preserve her own youth. 400 years later, echoes of the Countess’s legendary brutality reach Aspen, Colorado.

When DIY enthusiast Jacobia Jake Tiptree and her friend, Ellie White, agree to refurbish Eastport's most disreputable old dwelling, Harlequin House, pulling up the floorboards reveals something far more sinister than dry rot. A hidden trapdoor unearths the skeleton of a notorious 1920s flapper with a fresh corpse sitting neatly beside her. With a good old-fashioned Maine murder on their hands, Jake and Ellie are hot on the trail of the murderer - but this time more than their reputations may be on the line.

It is the crowning day of twenty-five-year-old Bess Tudor's life as she returns from exile to become England's queen. But even as her magnificent procession wends its way to Westminster Palace, a shot rings out, muffled by the jostling crowd. Within moments of becoming England's ruler, Elizabeth learns of the brutal murder of a highborn lady of the court, the sister of one of her dearest friends.

It is May 1560. As sinister storm clouds gather overhead, 26-year-old Queen Elizabeth dispatches William Cecil, her most trusted adviser, to Scotland for crucial negotiations. Handsome, ambitious Lord Robert Dudley is at her side. But their leisurely midsummer idyll is cut short when the courts master lutenist plunges to his death from a parapet beneath the queen's window. The loyal retainers of Elizabeth's privy council do not accept the official verdict of accidental death. Their fears are borne out when another tragedy rocks the realm, and points the way to a conspiracy to bring down Elizabeth and seize the throne.

After serving as a nurse in the Crimea, British-born Celia Davies left her privileged family for an impulsive marriage to a handsome Irishman. Patrick brought her to San Francisco's bustling shores but then disappeared and is now presumed dead. Determined to carry on, Celia partners with her half-Chinese cousin, Barbara, and her opinionated housekeeper, Addie, to open a free medical clinic for women who have nowhere else to turn.

Former homicide detective, Sam Casey, finds it hard to stay away from crime scenes, especially those where victims have died violently, and where the killers are still unknown. Centuries-old skeletal remains of Native Americans along with artifacts are discovered during the construction of a downtown office building. Sam has a difficult time deciphering her visions of two moons and the sound of gravel crunching until she realizes the two moons are headlights.

There is a new broom at Scotland Yard: Nimrod Frost. His first “little job” for Lestrade is to investigate the reported appearance of a lion in Cornwall. This is hardly a task for an Inspector. Yet even as Lestrade questions a witness, a man is reported dead - horrifically mauled. Having solved that case to his own satisfaction, Lestrade returns to London and to more suspicious deaths - all old men who should have died quietly in their sleep. Is there a connection? Lestrade's superiors discount his speculations....

1920. The Great War has been over for two years, and it has left a very different world from the Edwardian certainties of 1914. Following the death of his wife and baby and his experiences on the Western Front, Laurence Bartram has become something of a recluse.

Three years ago, a child's death sent one innocent man to prison and blew open a vortex of corruption at the heart of Manhattan's lucrative construction industry. Joe Cole was that innocent man. A former Buildings Department inspector, the ex-con now lives a broken life, cut off from his wife and daughter, and from the city he loves.

In the summer of 1992, a year after riots exploded between black and Jewish neighbors in Crown Heights, a black family is brutally murdered in their Brooklyn home. A teenager is quickly convicted, and the justice system moves on. Twenty-two years later, journalist Rebekah Roberts gets a letter: "I didn't do it."

After many months of grief over her brother's illness and death, journalist Zara Ellison is finally ready to begin a new chapter of her life and make a commitment to her boyfriend, Senior Constable Jack Higgins. But when she's assigned to investigate the Barker arrest, Jack begins to believe that Zara is working against him.

Red Dirt Country features the thrilling return of Detective Dave Burrows, now a member of the stock squad in Western Australia. Recovering from an undercover case in outback Queensland, Dave Burrows finally returns to Perth, to join his pregnant wife, Melinda, and their small daughter, Bec. Things have been off-kilter between Mel and Dave for some time and nothing he says or does seems to make it right.

When 25-year-old journalist Zara Ellison receives her mother's ominous text message, 'Call me when you can', Zara knows it's not good news. Two weeks later, Zara has left her much-loved city life to relocate to Barker, the sleepy country town in which she grew up. For Zara, family comes first. But she needs to work too, and the town's police force is a rural journalist's best source of information. Meeting Detective Dave Burrows and Dave's second-in-charge, Senior Constable Jack Higgins, is a priority.

Nine people arrive one night on Chelsea Bridge. They’ve never met. But at the same time, they run and leap to their deaths. Each of them received a letter in the post that morning, a pre-written suicide note, and a page containing only four words: Nothing important happened today. That is how they knew they had been chosen to become a part of the People of Choice: a mysterious suicide cult whose members have no knowledge of one another.

With nothing else to lose, Detective Dave Burrows volunteers for the most dangerous mission of his life. When Dave joined the force he couldn’t have foreseen the toll it would take on family life. Dave’s wife, Melinda, is unhappy about being left alone so much to raise their 18-month-old daughter, Bec. His interfering father-in-law isn’t helping. He never thought he was good enough for his daughter and is not shy about telling Dave what he's doing wrong. When things come to a head at home, Dave's policing mate, Spencer, comes up with a plan.

Nine years ago, 30-year-old Chelsea Taylor left the small country town of Barker to rise to the top as a concert pianist. Yet here she was, back again with her four-year-old daughter, Aria, readying herself to face her father, Tom. The father who'd shouted down the phone nine years ago never to come home again....