There are summers that could end it.
Meet Rachel.
An unassuming young woman from a quiet London suburb.
Picture the scene:
A summer job at the beautiful Villa Medici in the Tuscan hills.
A group of glamorous teenagers, used to a life of privilege.
Lavish parties, heady sun-soaked days, backstabbing and bedhopping.
Until someone goes too far.
And nothing will ever be the same.
Detective Chief Inspector Harry McNeil had found himself back in CID after a leave of absence saw his team disbanded. Now he's been temporarily assigned to an existing Major Investigation team, working alongside his old friend, Detective Inspector Frank Miller, after Miller's DCI dies suddenly.
A body is found in the city centre, torn to pieces. It's reminiscent of a cold case from years ago and the victim is quickly identified, bringing the old murder enquiry back front and centre.
There's new management in the Edinburgh police division, and old friends have been replaced by new enemies. Not everybody wants to see Harry McNeil succeed.
But that's not going to stop him and Frank Miller from tackling the cold case head on, with help from a couple of Glasgow detectives.
But nothing is what it seems. Starting with the death of Miller's DCI.
Harry and the team find out that some cold cases were meant to be left alone, and that sometimes the past should be left dead and buried...
Her brother Josh is thousands of miles away, and he and Grace have never been close – he was always their parents’ favourite.
Her best friend Coco walked away from her years ago, their friendship irreparably fractured by the choices they’ve made.
And her husband Marcus seems like a different man lately. Grace can’t shake the feeling that he’s hiding something.
But when her seven-year-old daughter makes a troubling accusation, Grace must choose between protecting her child and protecting her secret… before she loses everything.
Three thousand kilometres away in a labour colony above the Arctic Circle, threatened by the Thieves who rule the camp, former militia lieutenant Revol Rossel is close to death. As helicopter blades whip the snow into hallucinatory flurries, Rossel watches the arrival of a saviour he hates: Major Nikitin, the man who once cut off the former virtuoso violinist's fingers.
Along with skilled aviator Tanya 'Vassya' Vasilievna, the two men must hunt Koshchei down. On the trail, they uncover more riddles, including one centred on the ruins of Hitler's bunker, the Fuhrer's own copy of a Renaissance manual for tyrants, and secret code hidden within that leads to a weapon of unimaginable power. A weapon coveted by the scheming plotters of Stalin's Kremlin.
What Rossel and Nikitin do not know is that the mystery and the murderer are inextricably linked. And to save themselves they must not only catch Koshchei but also uncover the identity of another ghost – a ghost hiding among the remnants of Hitler's once all-powerful Third Reich.
December 1940. With the Blitz devastating Britain’s cities, Lizzie Hayes and the women pilots of the Air Transport Authority are more crucial to the war effort than ever before. But when the relative peace of the village of Scotney is shattered by the disappearance of the Chief Inspector’s niece, it’s Lizzie’s training as a psychologist that draws her into another disturbing police case alongside DI Jonathan Kember.
Events threaten to overtake the pair when a local shepherdess is found murdered – and there’s something strange missing at the scene of the crime. As more bodies turn up, each bearing the same hallmark, Kember realises the campaign of terror will only escalate unless they can use Lizzie’s training to get into the killer’s mind.
With Kember’s superiors set against Lizzie’s involvement, he risks his reputation and his career – but it’s Lizzie who risks everything by putting her own life on the line in a desperate effort to unmask the murderer. With war raging around them, can they halt the killer before it’s too late?
Soon Astrid has discovered the shocking truth about her employer: rather than being the genteel organisation it seems on the surface, the Trust is a hotbed of politics and intrigue. As Astrid's new friend Kath from the village says: 'It's like the mafia, but with scones.'
As the suspicious deaths mount up, Astrid must use every gadget in her restorer's toolkit to solve the mystery, salvage her reputation – and maybe even save her life.
Detective Inspector Grace Archer and her caustic DS, Harry Quinn, lead the investigation. But when more bodies turn up in a similar fashion, they find themselves in a race against time to find the sadistic killer.
The hunt leads them to Ladywell Playtower in Southeast London, the home to a religious commune lead by the enigmatic Aaron Cronin. Archer and Quinn suspect Cronin's involvement but his alibis are watertight, and the truth seemingly buried. If Archer is to find the killer, she must first battle her way through religious fanatics, London gangsters - and her own demons . . .
Lena Aldridge is wondering if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho and her married lover has just left her. She has nothing to look forward to until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York.
After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. Until death follows her onto the ship and she realises that her greatest performance has already begun.
Because someone is making manoeuvres behind the scenes, and there’s only one thing on their mind…
MURDER
An isolated country house.
A family with secrets.
A deadly spider on the loose.
DS Kate is expecting a routine case when she’s called out to a reported theft at remote Moat House in the marshy wilds of the Somerset Levels. The evidence points to a random break-in by a passing vagrant — but when she questions the wealthy homeowner, Professor Dunbar, and his warring family, Kate realizes there’s more to this burglary than meets the eye.
Professor Dunbar is a world-famous arachnologist. His extensive collection of live tropical spiders includes the world’s deadliest specimen, a Brazilian wandering spider, whose bite is almost instantly fatal. A spider he’s named Martha.
When a family member is found dying in agony in the professor’s laboratory — and it’s discovered that Martha has escaped from her supposedly secure tank — it would appear to be a tragic accident. But Kate is not so sure.
Everyone at Moat House has secrets to hide. Is someone prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden?
Kate sets out to uncover the shocking truth while a deadly spider stalks the shadows. Can she survive long enough to unmask a ruthless killer . . . and avoid the spider’s lethal bite?
In a deadly Icelandic snowstorm, four friends seek shelter in an abandoned hunting lodge. Miles from help, and knowing they will die out in the cold, they break in, hoping to wait out the storm until morning.
But nothing can prepare them for what's inside . . .
With no other option, they are forced to spend a long and terrifying night in the cabin: watching as intently and silently as they themselves are being watched.
As the night darkens, old secrets spill into the light, and tensions rise between the four friends. Soon it's clear that what they've discovered in the cabin is far from the only mystery lurking there.
Nor the only thing to be afraid of . . .
Who were her birth parents?
How did her mother die?
What happened to her missing father?
Jayne Sinclair, genealogical investigator, has just a few days to discover the truth before she goes for a well-earned break in Australia.
Can she discover the truth hidden in the chaos of the war?
The hunt is on for Alice Schäfer. Part-time Post Office worker, bit-part player in the low-budget vampire feature shooting nearby, and promiscuous lover with a reputation around town. Add in the curious case of the Lodge of St Augustine, and Hutton has to cast a very wide net.
Someone, however, does not want Hutton involved. Low-level threats quickly escalate, and the terrorising of Hutton has begun. And as winter weather closes in, and the villagers are trapped in a suffocating snowstorm, it’s not just Hutton who will be haunted. Blood flows, screams disappear in the night, and at last a killer will show her hand…
You are invited to the wedding of the season…
It’s the stuff of fairytales. A celebrity wedding in a grand manor house in the beautiful English countryside.
But then one guest goes missing.
And another almost dies.
Someone at this wedding will do anything to stop their dark secrets from being exposed.
You might not live to tell the tale…
She's striking, with flame-red hair and a pale complexion. She's also covered in blood.
Detective Jonah Sheens quickly discovers that Keely and her sister, Nina, disappeared from a children's home a week ago. Now, Keely is here - but Nina's still missing.
Keely knows where her sister is - but before she tells, she wants Jonah's full attention . . .
Is she killer, witness, or victim?
And will Jonah find out what Keely's hiding, in time to save Nina?
By the next morning, a task force specialising in mass graves from WWII is already in place. But something doesn't feel right: one of the femurs shows signs of an operation that couldn't have taken place before the seventies.
Suspecting a cover-up, Arcadipane launches his own investigation, enlisting his old mentor, Corso Bramard, long retired, and Isa, a young officer still haunted by the unexplained death of her father.
These mismatched allies - one at last at peace, one jaded to the point of breakdown and one under a permanent disciplinary cloud - will unveil a cruel political conspiracy that someone wants covered up for the second time.
It's been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer to catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast.
Now isn't the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn't have much choice. When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man. No one's ever figured out why Benedict did it, but now, after sixteen years, he's back on the streets again - battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy 'They' are out to get him, and begging Lucy for help.
It sounds like paranoia, but what if he's right? What if he really is caught up in something bigger and darker than Lucy's ever dealt with before? What if the Bloodsmith isn't the only monster out there? And what's going to happen when Lucy goes after them?
Kate Palmer thought spending the day at Tinworthy's annual summer party would involve sea air, sunshine and Cornish cream cake - how very wrong she was! After a showdown with her new nemesis Sienna Stone, Kate goes for a cliff-top walk to cool off. But she is horrified to spot Sienna's body on the sandy beach below.
Rumours swirl around the close-knit Cornish community and all eyes are on Kate. Half the village witnessed her argument with Sienna. When Kate finds herself cast as a suspect and is accused of murder, can she solve the crime and clear her name?
Kate knows that plenty of people disliked Sienna but would any of them go so far as to kill her and frame Kate? Could it be Sienna's long-suffering husband Irving? Her jealous younger sister Sally? Or Timmy Thomson, the local loner who was infatuated with her?
Just as Kate thinks she's getting closer to an answer, Timmy is found dead in his own home. Does his untimely demise mean the other suspects, including Kate, are next on the killer's list...?
With time running out, Kate needs to find out the truth. Can she solve the case and save herself? Or have her days of sleuthing come to an end?
When three youths are charged the city goes wild. A crowd gathers outside the courthouse but as the police drive the young men to prison, the van is rammed by a truck, and the men are grabbed and bundled into a car. The next day, the body of one of them is dumped in the city centre. A note has been sent to the newspaper: one down, two to go.
Detective Harry McCoy has twenty-four hours to find the kidnapped boys before they all turn up dead, and it is going to mean taking down some of Glasgow's most powerful people to do it . . .
But she is a doctor, and he is her patient.
She gives him the drugs he needs – but in doing so, risks everything.
And when a secret is exposed, they’re both in the firing line.
Not all patients are telling the truth.
They said, 'It's okay, Hannah. You know you can trust me.'
They lied.
When eight-year-old Hannah Perry goes missing in the small Suffolk village of St Just, the community is rocked. Heading up the investigation is Acting DS Rob Minshull, but he's out of his depth in a case that seems to mirror the disappearance of a young boy, seven years ago. That search ended in unimaginable tragedy...and Minshull is praying that history won't be repeated.
But with an investigation full of dead ends, and a kidnapper taunting the police with sinister deliveries of Hannah's belongings and cryptic notes, the young girl's life hangs perilously in danger.
Until Dr Cora Lael enters the picture. A psychologist with a unique ability, Cora's rare gift allows her to sense emotions attached to discarded objects. When she is shown the first of Hannah's belongings, she hears the child's piercing scream.
With few leads on the case, could Cora prove Hannah's only hope? And as time runs out, can they find Hannah before history repeats itself...?
A twisty, original and utterly gripping detective thriller that fans of James Oswald and LJ Ross will love. Don't miss the crime thriller debut from the bestselling women's fiction author, Miranda Dickinson.
