A Pain in the Neck forms part of the Case Files series of short crime stories from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.
Ever since Sophia Saunders was murdered, her husband, Peter, and daughter, Lauren, have been trying to rebuild their lives. Desperate to fill the emotional void, Peter becomes involved with a woman from his grief support group. But as his relationship with Alice progresses, Lauren becomes unsettled. Why can’t she find any trace of Alice online? Who is she, really, and what does she want?
Lauren is right to be suspicious. But the deeper her investigation of Alice goes, the greater the danger grows . . .
Detective Sergeant Washington Poe can count on one hand the number of friends he has. And he'd still have his thumb left. There's the guilelessly innocent civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw of course. Insanely brilliant, she's a bit of a social hand grenade. He's known his beleaguered boss, Detective Inspector Stephanie Flynn for years as he has his nearest neighbour, full-time shepherd/part-time dog sitter, Victoria.
And then there's Estelle Doyle. Dark and dangerous and sexy as hell. It's true the caustic pathologist has never walked down the sunny side of the street, but has she gone too far this time? Shot twice in the head, her father's murder appears to be an open and shut case. Estelle has firearms discharge residue on her hands, and, in a house surrounded by fresh snow, hers are the only footprints. Since her arrest she's only said three words: 'Tell Washington Poe.'
Meanwhile, a poisoner called the Botanist is sending the nation's most reviled people poems and pressed flowers. Twisted and ingenious, he seems to be able to walk through walls and, despite the advance notice given to his victims, and regardless of the security measures taken, he is able to kill with impunity.
Poe hates locked room mysteries and now he has two to solve. To unravel them he's going to have to draw on every resource he has: Tilly Bradshaw, an organised crime boss, even an alcoholic ex-journalist. Because if he doesn't, the bodies are going to keep piling up . . .
The secrets are stifling.
She just needs to escape . . .
Nine guests arrive at a remote villa in the south of France.
They know each other well. Or think they do.
But at least one of them has plenty to hide - and nowhere to run.
Under the relentless sun, loyalties will be tested, secrets revealed, and tensions pushed to the point of no return.
When Jaq’s mother dies, she is handed a poisoned chalice. Amid conspiracies and corruption, Jaq travels from Portugal to Brazil to get to the bottom of her family mystery. But she is not the only one with an interest in her unusual inheritance. Racing against the clock as threats to her life increase on all sides, Jaq must use her scientific know-how to save what matters most.
Everyone can see she is struggling.
And they don’t know the half of it. Alison has a terrible secret she has never shared with anyone – not even her husband, Dan. She knows if he ever discovers what she did, her family will be destroyed forever.
But someone seems to know, because Alison gets a sinister message. And then bad things start to happen – her website is hacked, her business is sabotaged, there’s a fire in her home… then more threatening messages.
Alison is in no doubt that someone means to destroy her by exposing her to the world. But who? And why?
Can she discover the truth before it’s too late? Or is the terror that fuels her sleepless nights about to become all too real?
Clarice readily agrees to accompany Emily to Colin's funeral. On arriving at the stunning Victorian Gothic manor house, with Bellatrix, the majestic stone Siamese cat reposing at its entrance, Clarice soon becomes drawn into the fractious world of the Compton-Smythe family: Colin's argumentative father Ralph and his equally combative partner Tessa, their daughter, Dawn, being stalked by an ex-lover and, most unsettling of all, Ernestine, Ralph's emotionally unpredictable sister. And then there's Johnson, Ralph's menacing manservant.
Clarice discovers the nearer she gets to the truth, the greater she is in danger as somebody is intent that the mystery of the missing wife should never be resolved.
When the body of a young woman is discovered in a local playground in the center of Black Rock Falls, Sheriff Jenna Alton and her deputy David Kane rush to the scene. Jenna recoils with horror when she sees the body, dressed in a thin nightgown, her face covered by a terrifying Halloween mask.
When the body is examined, red puncture marks are uncovered along her spine. Jenna makes a connection with a cold case where the killer tortured young women for years and was never caught. If the murderer has started killing again, Jenna knows it’s only a matter of time before another body is found.
Days later, when another victim lays slumped against the fence of a local landfill site, with the same puncture wounds and macabre mask, Jenna’s fears are confirmed. A serial killer is back in town and they’re picking off women one by one.
Then, as a third body is found, Jenna finally gets the breakthrough she needs. Dirt found underneath the women’s fingernails leads to a dangerous cave network in the mountains outside town. And once Jenna ventures into the dark, winding underground tunnels, will she find the person responsible for the deaths and take them down, or has she just walked into the killer’s trap?
Self-made millionaire, Isaac Fernandez witnesses Farah’s shocking dismissal and senses immediately that she has uncovered something dangerous – perhaps even deadly. And his fears are confirmed when Farah is almost killed.
And as more threats come Farah’s way, it’s clear someone is out to silence her for good. Unless Farah and Isaac can uncover the truth and put a stop to the deadly chase – before it’s too late.
LONDON 2027
Terrorists deploy London Black, a highly sophisticated nerve gas, at Waterloo Station. For ten percent of the population - the ‘Vulnerables’ - exposure means near-certain death. Only a lucky few survive.
LONDON 2029
Copy-cat strikes plague the city, its Vulnerable inhabitants kept safe by regular Boost injections. As the anniversary of the first attacks draws near, DI Lucy Stone, a guilt-ridden Vulnerable herself, is called to investigate a gruesome murder of a scientist. Her investigation soon unearths the possibility that he was working on an antidote – one that Lucy desperately needs, as her Boosts become less and less effective.
But is the antidote real? And can Lucy solve the case before her Boosts stop working?
The ghosts of the past will not be silenced.
Glasgow, 1983, and a beat constable walks away from a bar where he knows a crime is about to be committed. It is a decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
In the present, an old fisherman is found dead by Kinloch's shoreline and a stranger with a deadly mission moves into town.
As past and present collide, D.C.I. Jim Daley must confront old friends, new foes and ghosts who will not be silenced.
Thomas Tallis, an art expert with a trouble past, is trying to uncover the truth about the painting's complex history, while dogged newspaper reporter Shona Sandison is investigating a series of shocking murders in Edinburgh.
Both investigators soon become engulfed in the machinations of money, crime and identity in a literary thriller set amid the seen and unseen forces at work in modern Scotland.
Ludlow, England, 1502
When Thomas Berrington finds the bones of a human hand in his room at Ludlow Castle, he knows he must confront whoever left them. But when Thomas tracks the man down, his throat has been cut, and Thomas believes the killer is an old adversary.
In hot pursuit of his suspect, Thomas comes under attack, barely escaping with his life. When paid mercenaries storm Thomas’s house, threatening his family, he redoubles his efforts. Finally confronting the perpetrator, he makes a mistake that might prove fatal. Can he succeed, or will this be the end for Thomas Berrington?
Scotland's hottest summer on record is already too much for DCI Duncan Bone. As if the water shortage wasn’t enough, a body turning up at the bottom of Kilwinnoch’s dried-up reservoir sends Bone to boiling point. With three suspects on the loose and time running out, the Rural Crime Unit needs to find the smoking gun and nail the killer before another victim dies.
Set among the dramatic hills and glens of Scotland's Campsie Fells, What Hides Beneathis a pulse-pounding crime thriller that will keep you guessing right up to the nail-biting, heart-stopping climax.
The curious death of an estate agent is being investigated by detective David Vaynor who, before joining the police, studied the famous 18th century poet William Wordsworth. As Vaynor is discovering, the dark paganism that changed Wordsworth's life still lingers on the banks of the River Wye today - and there are some killings even the police can't approach...
Enter Merrily Watkins, parish priest, single mum, and diocesan exorcist for Hereford. Called away from her local hauntings, Merrily finds herself confronting the riverside ghosts who, as Wordsworth puts it, 'promote ill purposes and flatter foul desires'. In the ancient heart of the Wye Valley, a buried grudge is about to come to light.
HE'S GOT EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL.
You don't know Craig Malton. Hopefully you never will - until you need his help, help that the police can't give you. As well as running a respectable security firm for Manchester's elite clubs and bars, Malton moves in dangerous circles amongst the city's most cutthroat criminals. Nothing happens in his beloved city without his say so.
SHE'S GOING TO TURN IT ALL UPSIDE DOWN.
Keisha Bistacchi has never forgiven Malton for walking out on her all those years ago, and has been keeping a close eye ever since. When her husband is brutally kidnapped, she begs Malton to find him. But Keisha is no damsel in distress, she's as tough as the best of them, and with a violent gang war on the horizon, she'll do whatever it takes to get out alive.
WHO WILL BE THE ONE CALLING THE SHOTS?
An action-packed, knuckle-whitening first book in an explosive new gangland series - perfect for fans of Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers.
Two very different victims, two very different deaths. But as Hazel investigates the cases, she finds that both Maggie and Peter are concealing their own crimes. Maggie's drunk driving caused the death of a ten-year-old boy a year ago, while Peter has retreated from the world to hide his harmful past.
As Hazel tries to find the link between the two victims before another murder takes place, information comes to light that throws the case wide open. It seems that someone will spill blood to take their revenge - and soon, Hazel is in the sights of a psychopath with nothing to lose.
Williams, Stephen - The Skin Code
Detective Mary Hume is on the trail of a vicious serial killer. A killer who leaves a baffling code carved into the skin of his victims.
The first victim, a young man, lies spreadeagled in his stylish Soho flat. Carved deep into his hairless chest — while he was still alive — are the numbers 1-4-3.
The second victim is a vicar — murdered and mutilated in his own church, his body posed kneeling in the front pew. Etched into his torso are more cryptic numbers.
Detective Inspector Mary Hume knows that to crack the case, she must crack the code. And to do that, she needs the help of maverick ex-police officer Raine, who can reach places — and people — that Mary can’t.
Now the killer has their next victim in sight . . .
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