Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Crime Fiction

It is snowing, she's barefoot, but Galya runs. Tricked into coming to Belfast with the offer of a good job, all she wants now is to go home. Her only hope is a man who gave her a cross on a fine chain and a phone number, telling her to call if she escapes. Now she puts herself at his mercy, knowing she has nowhere else to turn.

Kristina is a successful therapist in central Oslo. She spends her days helping clients navigate their lives with a cool professionalism that has got her to the top. But when her client Leah, a successful novelist, arrives at her office clearly distressed, begging Kristina to come to her remote cabin in the woods, she feels the balance begin to slip.

Over the course of a decade together, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes have forged an indissoluble bond. But what of the other person Mary Russell has opened her heart to, Mrs Hudson? Blood on the floor, and the smell of gunshot in the air: both point directly at Clara Hudson. The key to Russell's sacrifice lies in Mrs Hudson's past, and to uncover the crime Holmes must put aside his anguish and push deep into his housekeeper's secrets.

International bestselling author Linda Fairstein returns with a breathless, explosive thriller exploring the dark side of New York City. When the body of a woman is found in one of the most prestigious hotels in Manhattan, Assistant DA Alex Cooper and Detective Mike Chapman find themselves hunting for an elusive killer whose signature is carving a symbol, bearing a striking resemblance to train tracks, into his victims' bodies.

When a frightened Russian woman seeks DCI Hanlon's help in finding her missing husband, Hanlon's not keen on the case. Until she hears a name she recognises only too well: Arkady Belanov, sadistic pimp and owner of an exclusive brothel in Oxford is involved. When her former partner and friend disappears, Hanlon is forced into an uneasy alliance with the London underworld to rescue him from the blood-stained hands of the Russian mafia.

From bestselling novelist Patrícia Melo comes a masterful thriller set in the far west of Brazil that is by turns poetic, inspiring, humorous and harrowing. To escape an overprotective family and an abusive partner, a young lawyer accepts an assignment in the Amazonian border town of Cruzeiro do Sul. There, she meets Carla, a local prosecutor, and Marcos, the son of an indigenous woman, and learns about an epidemic of violence against women that seems beyond comprehension.

Ruby Mills is ruthlessly ambitious, strikingly beautiful—and one of the Forty Thieves' most talented members. Harriet Littlemore writes the women's section in a local newspaper. She's from a 'good' London family and engaged to an up-and-coming Member of Parliament—but she wants a successful career of her own. After witnessing Ruby fleeing the scene of a robbery, Harriet develops a fascination with the elusive young thief that extends beyond journalistic interest.

In the straight world, when you 'see something' you 'say something' to the law. In the bent world, they call Joe. Still reeling from a particularly difficult operation, and having plummeted back into the drug and alcohol addiction that got him kicked out of the military as a result, Joe has just managed to detox at the clinic of a Chinese herbalist when the mob bosses phone: they need Joe to help them swindle a group of opioid dealers (of all things). But these are no typical drug-ferrying gangsters.

The Goldenacre—a masterpiece by the painter and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh—has been given to the people of Scotland. The beautiful canvas, the last work by the artistic genius, enthrals the art world, but behind it lies a dark and violent mystery. 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.

Rea Carlisle has inherited a house from an uncle she never knew. It doesn’t take her long to clear out the dead man’s possessions, but one room remains locked. When Rea finally forces it open she discovers inside a chair, a table and a leather-bound book. Inside its pages are locks of hair, fingernails: a catalogue of victims. Horrified, Rea turns to the only person she can think of: DI Jack Lennon.

Joss Grand once ruled the Brighton underworld with his sidekick Jacky Nye - until Jacky washed up by the West Pier in 1968. Though Grand's alibi seems cast-iron, Luke, a true crime writer, is sure there's more to the story, and he convinces the criminal-turned-philanthropist to be interviewed for a book about his life. Soon Luke realises that in stirring up secrets from the past, he may be in terrible danger.

Michael Ryan was the author of a runaway bestseller, Space Coast, but its publication coincided with his wife's murder in a bank raid. Now he's back to face the ghosts of his past. Michael met Claire when she was dragging Paul de Luca, detective novel writer and owner of a porn shop, out of the sea after he'd lost his feet in a shark attack. Claire was living with local hard man Tommy, a Gulf War vet, at the time and Tommy was not impressed with Michael's interest in his girl.

Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the navy and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D. L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are.

The independent kingdom of Scotland flourished until the beginning of the last century. Its great trading port of Challaid, in the northwest of the country, sent ships around the world, and its merchants and bankers grew rich on their empire in Central America.But Scotland is not what it was, and the docks of Challaid are almost silent. The huge infrastructure projects collapsed, like the dangerous railway tunnels under the city. And above ground the networks of power and corruption are all that survive of Challaid's glorious past.

Irving Levy is a man with few roots and, now that he is terminally ill, is anxious to find anyone to whom he can leave his considerable property. When he learns that there may be more to the disappearance of his younger sister, who disappeared when she was a baby, he engages the services of Hakim and Arnold to investigate. Unwittingly in mortal danger, the private detectives and Levy enter the world of Barking Park Fair and the secrets its brightly coloured attractions conceal. Secrets that lead them back to the chaotic world of postwar Europe, where few people were what they seemed.

Brooklyn, mid-2000s. After leaving behind the comforts of a prestigious law firm, a restless attorney attempts to make ends meet by picking up odd jobs from a colourful assortment of clients. When the mysterious Anna Reddick turns up at his apartment with ten thousand dollars in cash and asks him to track down her missing husband, he trusts it will be an easy case.

When Detective Inspector Robert Finlay is sent to a military barracks to investigate a connection to weapons discovered in the possession of London gangsters, he is given strict instructions not to get involved in a suicide enquiry into the recent death of a young, recruit soldier. The army partners Finlay with Floria McLaren, an ambitious military policewoman who doesn't believe the death was a suicide.

The headlines scream warnings about the 'Butcher of Berner Street!', and the journalist behind them - Leo Stanhope - is secretly thrilled to see the effect his words are having. Leo's previous work has largely been concentrated on more mundane issues, but when an anonymous letter summons him to a club in East London, only for the owner of the club to be found murdered shortly afterwards, Leo sees a story worth pursuing. Not to mention an opportunity to make a name for himself.

Sword of Shame is the second collaboration by five of the UK's finest historical mystery writers. Each brings their own characters to these interlinked tales, which tell the story of a cursed Norman sword. From its first arrival in Britain, with the Norman forces of William the Conqueror, violence and revenge are the cursed sword's constant companions.

When Anna Flores' adored older sister goes missing as a teenager, Anna copes by disappearing too and eventually building a life for herself abroad. Thirty years later, the death of her mother finally forces Anna to return home. Tasked with sorting through her mother's possessions, she begins to confront not just her mother's death but also the huge hole Gabriella's disappearance left in her life - and finds herself asking a question she's not allowed herself to ask for years: what really happened to her sister?