Showing results for "Vera" in Crime Fiction

Three very different women come together at an isolated cottage on the North Pennines to complete an environmental survey. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal. Rachael is the first to arrive at the cottage, but when she gets there she is shocked to discover an apparent suicide. But then another death occurs, and a fourth woman enters the picture – the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who must piece together the truth from these women’s tangled lives.

A body is found by an early morning dog walker on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who never showed up to work. DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate. Her only clue is the disappearance of fourteen-year-old resident Chloe. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.

Ten years ago fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel was murdered, her cold body discovered lying in a ditch. Her father’s girlfriend was found guilty of the crime. Now, evidence has emerged that proves her innocence and means that Abigail’s killer still roams free. Abigail’s best friend at the time of the murder has now returned to the East Yorkshire village of Elvet to raise her young family. Shocked by the new revelations, she begins to realize that she didn’t know her friend as well as she thought. Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope is tasked with uncovering the truth.

A hot summer on the Northumberland coast and Julie Armstrong arrives home from a night out to find her son strangled, laid out in a bath of water and covered with wild flowers. This stylized murder scene has captured Inspector Vera Stanhope’s attention. And then another body is discovered in a rock pool, the corpse again strewn with flowers. Vera must work quickly to find this killer who is making art out of death. As local residents are forced to share their deepest, darkest secrets, the killer watches, waits and plans to prepare another beautiful, watery grave.

When DI Vera Stanhope finds the body of a woman in the sauna room of her local gym, at first, she thinks it is a death from natural causes. But then Vera spots ligature marks around the victim’s throat and has another murder case on her hands. The victim is Jenny Lister, who was an experienced social worker, but her neighbours are quick to inform Vera about Jenny’s involvement in a notorious case. A young child tragically died and a member of Jenny’s team was subsequently fired and vilified by the media. Another body is found, and Vera finds herself in a race against time to stop the killer.

As the snow falls in Newcastle, Detective Joe Ashworth and his daughter, Jessie, travel home on the busy Metro. When the train stops unexpectedly due to bad weather, Jessie notices that one woman doesn’t leave, and when trying to wake her they find that the passenger has been fatally stabbed. With no witnesses DI Vera Stanhope looks into the victim’s past and discovers she lived for years on Harbour Street, in a run-down Northumberland fishing town.

DI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but her neighbours keep her well-supplied in homebrew and conversation. But when one of them goes missing, her path leads her to more than a missing friend...Vera tracks the young woman down to the Writer’s House, a country retreat for aspiring authors. Things get complicated when a body is discovered and Vera’s neighbour is found with a knife in her hand. Calling in the team, Vera knows that she should hand the case over. She’s too close to the main suspect. But the investigation is too tempting and she’s never been one to follow the rules.

Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island, forging a bond that has lasted a lifetime. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway at the first reunion. Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now.

When prison inmate and former police officer John Brace says he’s willing to give up information about the location of a dead body in return for protection for his family, Vera knows that she has to look into his claims. But opening up this cold case strikes much closer to home than Vera anticipates as her investigation takes her back in time to The Seagull, a once-decadent and now-derelict nightclub where her deceased father and his friends used to congregate.

William Benson knows what it's like to be accused of something you didn't do - the fear, the vulnerability and the nightmare of watching your life unravel. Now he speaks on behalf of those who have no voice, defending anyone who claims to be innocent. This time, it's Karmen Naylor, estranged daughter of a south London crime boss, fighting a murder charge and desperate to be believed. But Benson becomes trapped into a grudge match between two rival clans, endangering himself and those he loves.

Thorpeness, 1973. Wrongly exiled from London, Judge Neville Hanmer sought solace and a quiet life on the Suffolk coast. But then a face from the past unexpectedly resurfaces and he turns to The Anglian Detective Agency for help. Laurel, Frank, and the rest of the team are busier than ever trying to solve the mysterious theft of rare plants from Yoxford Hall Gardens. But when Judge Hanmer doesn't show for their meeting, they find themselves embroiled in yet another case.

Laurel Bowman has started a new life as a teacher on the isolated Suffolk coast while she tries to get over the murder of her sister. But it seems she cannot escape from death. When the headmaster's wife is murdered, the detective in charge, idiosyncratic DI Frank Diamond, soon has a list of suspects. He is no stranger to Laurel, but despite their troubled past, together they start to unravel the truth. Then the murderer strikes again and Laurel must fight, not just for justice, but for her life.

At Rooks Wood Farm, Rosalind Breen's twin sons grieve her death. Daniel shoulders the burdens of running the farm and caring for his brother, Caleb, who's shunned for his strange appearance. Meanwhile, Minsmere Bird Reserve is suffering a spate of vandalism and senior partners of the Anglican Detective Agency, Frank Diamond and Laurel Bowman, are enlisted to find the culprits. But shortly after taking the case, Laurel discovers the body of a young man dumped in one of the meres and the detectives are caught up in a murder enquiry.

1971. David was thirteen when he went missing two years ago. It's now up to Laurel Bowman and Frank Diamond, partners in the newly formed Anglian Detective Agency, to find him. But how do you solve a cold case with no leads? Could it have anything to do with the brutal deaths of three local residents? As their first big case unravels, they uncover a circle of temptations, destruction and deceit. But the closer they get to solving the case, the more exposed they are to danger. And now both Laurel and Frank's lives are at risk.

As the Whitworth family begin renovations on their new home, their plans are brought to an abrupt end when they discover a body buried in the back garden. DI Isabel Blood and her team are called to investigate, but as she approaches Ecclesdale Drive, a feeling of unease settles in her gut. The property cordoned off is number 23. The house she used to live in as a child....

On the hunt for two missing persons, Laurel Bowman and Frank Diamond find they have another complex and dangerous case on their hands as they go undercover at a holiday camp near Orford in Suffolk. Using illicit searches, they uncover incriminating evidence about several members of staff. Then two people are brutally murdered and their missing persons case takes an even darker turn.

Long before Desperate Housewives, there was Bedelia: pretty, ultra femme, and adoring as a kitten. A perfect housekeeper and lover, she wants nothing more than to please her insecure new husband, who can’t believe his luck. But is Bedelia too good to be true? A mysterious new neighbor turns out to be a detective on the trail of a kitten with claws of steel a picture-perfect wife with a string of dead husbands in her wake. Caspary builds this tale to a peak of psychological suspense as her characters are trapped together by a blizzard.

Aldeburgh, 1972. The local community is devastated by the accidental death of a local fisherman. Another tragedy to add to the recent murders of three young women. Soon, Laurel Bowman, Frank Diamond and the rest of the Anglian Detective Agency are pulled in to investigate another complex and dangerous case. But one of them is convinced that the fisherman's death is not an accident and they'll do anything to prove it. Even risk breaking up the agency.

It's spring 1971 and Vera Kelly and her girlfriend, Max, leave Brooklyn for an emergency visit to Max's estranged family in LA. Max's parents are divorcing—her father is already engaged to a much younger woman, under the sway of an occultist charlatan and her mother has left their estate with no indication of return. Max prepares for the trip with equal parts dread and anger. Upon arriving, Vera is shocked by the size and extravagance of the Comstock estate, while Max attempts to navigate her father and the occultist, who is charming but appears to be siphoning family money.

Una mattina estiva del 1920 la giovane Lucy perde il padre improvvisamente ritrovandosi sola e disperata, senza speranze. È uno sconosciuto a risvegliarla dal torpore che il lutto le ha causato: il legame con Everard Wemyss, quarantenne rimasto vedovo da poco, è immediato, e la condivisa sofferenza per la recente perdita dà origine a una confortante intimità. Ma il matrimonio con Wemyss sarà diverso da come Lucy aveva sognato: le mura di casa diverranno quelle di una tetra prigione dove i giorni sono scanditi da rituali irrazionali.