Tudor Mystery

Roger Mortimer was once the king’s most able commander, but now he is his most hated enemy. Escaping from the tower, Mortimer made his way to France and has hired an assassin to murder the king - but others have the same idea. As the body of a local craftsman and that of a king’s messenger who was carrying a dangerous secret are found in the city’s streets, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend, Bailiff Simon Puttock, are asked by the bishop to find out who is responsible. But when murderers can use magic, no one is safe....

When the mutilated body of midwife and healer Agatha Kyteler is discovered in a hedge one frozen wintry morning, it seems at first that a lack of clues will render the crime impossible to solve. Then a frightened local youth inexplicably flees his village, and a hue and cry is raised in his wake. Sir Baldwin Furnshill, once a Knight Templar, has doubts about the boy's guilt. He enlists his friend Simon Puttock, bailiff of Lydford Castle, in the hunt for a murderer.

March 1557. Jack Blackjack is back in London and enjoying a sedentary life. After his treacherous voyage back to his beloved city the previous year, he desires nothing more than women, wine, beer and more women. But his new parish of St Helen's has different ideas for him. A week after first laying eyes on the tempting Miss Rachel Nailor, she turns up dead on the church vestry floor...and someone is trying to frame him for her murder! Rachel was a woman with many secrets. But was she murdered in a fit of lustful rage, or was it part of a wider political play?

In the winter of 1483, Francis Lovell is Richard III’s Lord Chamberlain and confidant, but the threat of Henry Tudor’s rebels has the king entrusting to Francis and his wife, Anne, his most crucial mission: protecting the young Richard of York, his brother’s surviving son and a threat to Henry’s claims to the throne.

Battle and burial are built into the history of Lansdown Hill, so it is no great shock when part of a skeleton is unearthed there. But Peter Diamond, Bath's Head of CID, can't ignore the fresh corpse found close to the folly known as Beckford's Tower. The hill becomes the setting for one of the most puzzling cases he has investigated, involving golf, horseracing, Civil War re-enactment and the Cyrillic alphabet.

When Robert Catesby, the charismatic son of a Catholic gentleman, marries heiress Catherine Leigh and inherits the rich Oxfordshire manor house at Aston from his grandmother, it seems that the future happiness of the couple must be assured. However, Robert’s deep involvement in plots to overthrow the Protestant queen Elizabeth I and his increasingly dangerous behavior threaten the lives of his wife and their young son.

1325: in the gilded cage that is the Palace of Westminster, Isabella, Queen of England, is troubled by court intrigue. Her jealous husband, Edward II, has removed all her privileges, her regal status and even her children. When Isabella is dispatched to France to negotiate peace with the French King, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill travels with her to ensure her safety. But it seems that no one can be trusted, not least the queen’s own retinue.

In the small hours of a Sunday morning in the city of Bath a policeman on beat duty is shot dead by an unseen gunman - the third killing of an officer in Somerset in a matter of weeks. The emergency services are summoned. Ambitious to arrest the Somerset Sniper, the duty inspector, Ken Lockton, seals the crime scene, which is confined by the river on one side and a massive retaining wall on the other. He discovers the murder weapon in a garden - and is himself attacked and left for dead.Enter Peter Diamond, Bath's burly CID chief.

Tudor England. The word treason is on everyone's lips. Arbella Stuart, niece to Mary, Queen of Scots, and presumed successor to Elizabeth I, has spent her youth behind the towering windows of Hardwick Hall. As presumed successor to the throne, her isolation should mean protection - but those close to the crown are never safe. Aemilia Lanyer, writer and poet, enjoys an independence denied to Arbella. Their paths should never cross. But when Arbella enlists Aemilia's help in a bid for freedom, she risks more than her own future.

Privatdetektiv Philip Maloney ermittelt mit Charme, Schalk und unverkennbarer Raubeinigkeit. Seine Fälle werden ihm von seinen Klienten zugetragen und beginnen harmlos, doch stösst Maloney im Laufe der Ermittlungen meistens auf eine Leiche. Widerwillig muss er mit der Polizei zusammenarbeiten. Der zuständige Beamte ist nicht der Hellste und löst lieber Kreuzworträtsel als Kriminalfälle. Am Ende klärt immer Maloney den Fall.

Privatdetektiv Philip Maloney ermittelt mit Charme, Schalk und unverkennbarer Raubeinigkeit. Seine Fälle werden ihm von seinen Klienten zugetragen und beginnen harmlos, doch stösst Maloney im Laufe der Ermittlungen meistens auf eine Leiche. Widerwillig muss er mit der Polizei zusammenarbeiten. Der zuständige Beamte ist nicht der Hellste und löst lieber Kreuzworträtsel als Kriminalfälle. Am Ende klärt immer Maloney den Fall.

Die Hochstaplerin: Maloneys Klient befürchtet, dass er sich in eine Hochstaplerin verliebt hat. Nachdem sie ihn erfolgreich umgarnt hatte, bat sie ihn mehrmals um kleinere Geldbeträge, bis plötzlich von einem Investment in Dubai die Rede ist, für das sie noch 50’000 Dollar benötigt. Die neue Tankstelle: Maloneys Klientin möchte mit einem neuartigen Entspannungssessel die Welt erobern, doch ihr Handwerker und der Sessel sind plötzlich unauffindbar. Maloney erfährt, dass der Lieferwagen des Handwerkers ebenfalls verschwunden ist.

Die Bombendrohung: Maloneys neue Klientin ist Direktorin eines Einkaufszentrums. Innert kurzer Zeit sind mehrere Bombendrohungen eingegangen. Beim ersten Mal wurden die Leute aus dem Gebäude evakuiert. Danach hat man keinen Alarm mehr ausgelöst. Maloney spricht mit einem Tatverdächtigen, der im Zentrum wegen Diebstahls ein Hausverbot hat. Diesen Mann trifft er auch vor einem Bürogebäude an, das wegen eines Bombenalarms ebenfalls geräumt werden musste. Das Jubiläumsgeschenk: Eine Frau kommt zu Maloney und behauptet, ein Jubiläumsgeschenk für ihn zu haben.

Der Sinn des Lebens: Herr Spessa schaut sich während der Fussball-WM gemeinsam mit Freunden Spiele an. Seine Frau fand das bis anhin nicht toll, doch diesmal ist sie regelrecht begeistert. Herr Spessa befürchtet deshalb, dass seine Frau einen Liebhaber hat. Falsche Polizisten: Der Vater von Maloneys Klient wird beinahe das Opfer von Trickbetrügern. Ein falscher Polizist fragte nach Bargeld in der Wohnung und erklärte dem alten Mann, dass das Geld nicht sicher sei. Maloney soll den falschen Polizisten ausfindig machen.

Elizabeth of York, her life already tainted by dishonour and tragedy, now queen to the first Tudor king, Henry the VII. Joan Vaux, servant of the court, straining against marriage and motherhood and privy to the deepest and darkest secrets of her queen. Like the ravens, Joan must use her eyes and her senses, as conspiracy whispers through the dark corridors of the Tower.

Lord Evan Corbyn is responsible for all of the agents of the Crown. It is a job that he takes most seriously, and it occupies nearly every moment of his waking life. When one of his agents is murdered, he is determined to bring the killer to justice. Lady Jane Radcliff tires of her brothers' secrets and is determined to root out the truth. However, it is proving to be a much more difficult task than she had imagined. Thankfully, she is rescued by the dashing Lord Evan, a man whom she has always held in high regard.

1324: a disastrous autumn looms large. As the leaves begin to fall there are those who wish to bring the kingdom down as well. In Dartmouth, a man is found lying dead in the road. Dismissing his death as a drunken accident, the locals turn their attentions to more worrying matters - piracy. Rumours abound that spies are being sent to the great traitor Roger Mortimer. If this is true, civil war in England is inevitable. The kingdom’s most powerful and ruthless men demand that Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock uncover the truth, and quickly.

1325: Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Simon Puttock are sent to France to guard the King’s son. The King’s son must pay homage to the French King if he is to enable the English to keep hold of vital territory, but they are unaware that King Edward’s wife, Isabella, has grown so disaffected that she has begun to plot her revenge.

1325: King Edward II’s reign seems cursed. Although he has rejected his wife, Queen Isabella, he still relies on her. Even now, she is in France to negotiate peace with her brother, King Charles IV of France - but he fears for the outcome. Meanwhile, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock return from France with an urgent instruction for the King. It is to be their last mission.

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the queen’s lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man’s body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the throne, the king demands to be avenged. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, an experienced investigator of murders, is appointed to track down the killer, aided by his friend, Simon Puttock. In an age of corruption, when the king’s friends can use torture, blackmail and murder to promote their ends, a rural knight and bailiff must fight to stay alive.