When local antique jeweler Nigel Fontenoy's body is found at his cousin's building site, DCI Gil Mayo and DI Abigail Moon think they have a simple case on their hands. Both detectives suspect that this murder was a family matter and that they needn't search far down the family tree. After all, Fo...
Gil Mayo has two problems on his hands: adjusting to the demands of his new appointment as Detective Superintendent and at the same time leading the investigation into the murder of one of his town's most distinguished citizens. As he and his assistant, Abigail Moon, plunge into the inquiry, they...
Preoccupied with their own problems, the residents of Ellington Close, in the English country town of Lavenstock, do not welcome being questioned by the police in the matter of two apparently unrelated deaths. The reasons for this are revealed when Superintendent Gil Mayo and his team move in and...
A new novel in the popular DS Gil Mayo series.When the murdered body of a woman is found floating in flooded uplands near an isolated farm and nearby cottage, it poses problems of identification, prompting the press to dub her the 'Mystery Woman.'Who is she? As time goes by, Detective Superintend...
The Reverend Cecil Willard was not one of those born to be loved. A scholarly and austere man, former headmaster of the local boys' school, his stern moral principles and die-hard opinions never endeared him either to those close to him or to his neighbors in the village of Castle Wyvering where ...
When the half-dressed body of Angie Robinson is found strangled in the lay-by on a lonely moorland road, it seems that her murder is the result of a random attack, for Angie has led a blameless life, with no interests other than her untiring support for the local women's hospital. DCI Gil Mayo is...
4 ½ starsThis book was an unexpected pleasure. It had been sitting on my shelf for the past 2 months, completely neglected, because I was reading “feel-good” books that revolved around the Christmas holidays. I actually had forgotten all about it, and almost did not get around to reading it bef...
Following the huge success of The Shape of Sand, shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger award, comes this dramatic story of love, war, and intrigue. It is the year 1910 and the bloodstained body of an unknown woman is found on the grounds of Sir Henry Chetwynd's Shropshire estate. A reluctan...
A slight young man whose eyes were a blaze of blue beneath unruly dark hair, with mobile features and engaging manners, Paddy came with her recommendation. He had pretensions to journalism and was, he said, writing a series of articles on gardens, and eager, with Anthony’s permission, to write ab...
They had taken a picnic down to the lake: the three older girls and young Amy, who had pestered until she was allowed to go with them. Grev had been there, too, home from Paris, where he was studying musical composition at the Conservatoire; William, of course, and Rupert, who was working in Lond...
He could otherwise see no reason for the police to be here. ‘Before we come to that, will you ask the rest of your family to join us, sir? They’ll want to hear what I have to say.’ For a moment it looked as though he were about to demand further explanation, this youthful heir to the Beaumont tra...
Since there was more than a grain of truth in this, Joe was flummoxed for moment. He was experiencing what it would be like to be a full-blown detective – basically not all that different from uniformed duties, in that it could be plodding, repetitive work that didn’t yield spectacular results, e...
After all, although Susan was not entirely reconciled to it, the move had gone as she had planned, and the rooms were by now comfortably furnished. She was pleased with the way it looked, the way the black piano now gleamed with polish and formed the focal point of one end of her sitting room, wh...
The same eternal prospect had dominated her view for forty years, the grey huddle of urban sprawl spreading up the sides of the hills from the valley bottom, the timeless sweep of the hills which Freya had once thought would drive her so mad with boredom she didn’t see how she could stand the sig...
Jonathan rushed off to his rehearsal in London and the other two walked in the direction of Membery, although the usual mandatory Sunday lunch of Alyssa’s overcooked roast beef and two veg, where everybody met, had been abandoned today by tacit consent. Jilly touched Fran’s arm. ‘How about walkin...
The knob crashed into the side of the freezer with a loud metallic clang, and a shower of dead frond from the out-of-reach, moribund fern on top fell down like rain. Clare automatically turned round with a reprimand on her lips, momentarily forgetting that Richie was already there in the kitchen,...