Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Modern Detectives

When notorious gangster "Fat Sam" Mahood is murdered, the chief suspect is arrested nearby. But he seems to have suffered a breakdown. Incarcerated in a mental institution, he's known only as the Man in the White Suit. The suspect remains an enigma until Nurse Brenda calls on Mystery Man, Belfast's finest mystery bookshop owner, to bring his powers of investigation to bear....

Robin Ballantyne is investigating the murder of a British man in Beijing. Is his death linked to a recent series of brutal attacks on women? In a city thick with paranoia and corruption, Robin struggles to separate rumour from reality.

Wyatt Dixon, rodeo cowboy and 'the most dangerous, depraved, twisted and unpredictable human I ever knew' is certainly not one of Billy Bob Holland's favourite people. Sentenced to 60 years in jail for murder, Dixon is out after only a year, due to the DA's failure to disclose a piece of information. He swears he's a changed man and needs Billy Bob's help, but how can Billy Bob believe the man who tortured his wife? And then there's Johnny American Horse, who has been caught carrying a gun. He says he needs it for protection; in a dream he saw two men coming for him.

When the body of pregnant 15-year-old Hope Lacey is discovered in a churchyard on Christmas morning, the community is shocked, but unsurprised. For Hope lived in The Home, the residence of three young girls, whose violent and disturbing pasts have seen them cloistered away. As a police investigation gets underway, the lives of Hope, Lara and Annie are examined, and the staff who work at the home are interviewed, leading to shocking and distressing revelations...and clear evidence that someone is seeking revenge.

Career campaigner Fraser Neal continually clashed with local businessmen, most recently over the council's selling publicly-owned social housing in the Docklands to private developers and displacing vulnerable residents. Until he's found dead in an alley behind Tennessee Fried Chicken's wheelie bins. Neal was also a police informant – or so he said. DS Max Lomax of Special Operations says he wasn't. No one believes him.

Robert Finlay seems to have finally left his SAS past behind him and is settled into his new career as a detective. But when the author of a book about secret operations goes missing, along with his agent and an explosive new manuscript, it’s clear that Finlay’s troubles are far from over. With his friend and former colleague, Kevin Jones, in trouble, and police complaints branch gunning for them both, Robert teams up with MI5 agent Toni Fellowes to find out who’s behind the growing conspiracy.

Texarkana, 1946. Disgraced New York reporter Charlie Yates has been sent to cover the story of a spate of brutal murders - young couples who've been slaughtered at a local date spot. Charlie finds himself drawn into the case by the beautiful and fiery Lizzie, sister to one of the victims. But Charlie has his own demons to fight, and he discovers that the people of Texarkana have secrets that they want kept hidden.

Joe Brody is just your average Dostoevsky-reading, Harvard-expelled strip club bouncer who has a highly classified military history and a best friend from Catholic school who happens to be head mafioso Gio Caprisi. FBI agent Donna Zamora, the best shot in her class at Quantico, is a single mother stuck at a desk manning the hotline. Their story lines intersect over a tip from a cokehead that leads to a crackdown on Gio's strip joint in Queens and Joe's arrest.

On her way home from the shops, Nina Borg is attacked. Dazed and half conscious, she hears her assailant ask for her forgiveness. Only later does she understand that this isn't for what he's just done but for what he plans to do to. For the first time, she's the primary target of a hit, and it slowly dawns on her that this case is connected to a surprising and dangerous friendship among three young men from Manila.

James Beck learned the value of loyalty the hard way. Imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, he developed a keen sense of right and wrong. So when his friend is beaten and killed on the streets of the Bronx, Beck is determined to provide him a measure of justice; a little dignity. But what starts as an investigation into a simple street killing soon turns into something more sinister and complex than Beck could have ever imagined.

After the body of a missing woman is discovered in a shallow grave, Detective Inspector Harry Powell steps in to lead the hunt for the killer. But when his investigation brings him face-to-face with an old case in his career, he begins to fear that a fatal mistake from his past may have left a dangerous criminal roaming free. While the Murder Squad are occupied by their new case, a new arrival sends ripples throughout the ranks. On the outside, Detective Constable Dane Hoopman appears to be like any other officer, but under the surface, does a dark secret lie in wait?

PI John Craine has come to Hale Island to get away from it all. But within hours he stumbles across the dead body of a young girl on the beach. When the police arrive the body has inexplicably disappeared. Or did Craine imagine it in the first place? Determined to get at the truth, Craine starts asking questions. But it seems that no one on the island is talking. And all too soon he finds himself tangled up in a deadly network of fear and violence…

Having left Texarkana for the safety of the West Coast, reporter Charlie Yates finds himself drawn back to the South, to Hot Springs, Arkansas, as an old acquaintance asks for his help investigating the mysterious deaths of three women. On arrival, he discovers that his contact has perished in a hotel fire and that nobody in the place seems to know anything about the murders. Can Charlie to do the right thing before it's too late?

Rome: McCabe and Chip, two American exchange students, are about to become embroiled with a violent street gang. Detroit: Sharon Vanelli's affair with Joey Palermo, a Mafia enforcer, is about to be discovered by her husband, Ray. Brilliantly plotted and shot through with wry humour, All He Saw Was the Girl takes place as these two narratives converge in the backstreets of Italy’s oldest city.

William Charles Croydon, a convicted murderer sentenced to death, amuses himself by exchanging correspondence with the misguided women who send him fan mail. But soon even that loses its attraction, and so he begins to write to the brother of his victim, Paul Danridge. At first, Danridge doesn’t reply, so he writes again, and again. After ignoring the letters initially, Dandridge finally can’t help himself and begins writing back.

A three-year-old murder case was coming together nicely. A killer Hoke once put in prison has moved in across the street. And Hoke's daughter has blue hair. But now Hoke has to pretend to be a bum. In a dusty corner of South Florida, Hoke enters a world of Haitian migrant workers, soup kitchens, and whores. In the searing heat he'll meet the man he's been sent to kill - the most vicious beast in the land....

A new Nissan plant is coming to the depressed Rust Belt town of Baxter, and Captain Delia Merola has been busy cleaning up the crime-addled city ever since the deal was announced. But when the 15-year-old daughter of the lead bidder on the construction project—a wealthy out-of-towner—suddenly disappears, and it becomes clear that a professional kidnapping ring may be responsible, Delia realizes that the factory's influx of cash could bring with it an entirely new sort of danger, never before considered in this working class milieu.

Harvard dropout and ex-Special Forces operative Joe Brody is climbing the ranks in the criminal underworld. After successfully executing multiple missions for the various crime syndicates that run New York City, he has come to earn the trust and respect of the city's most dangerous denizens. Which is why his newest task—retrieving a pet pigeon snatched from a rooftop coop in Brooklyn—has Joe puzzled ... until he learns that the bird is valued at close to a million dollars.

Set to the cranking beat and amphetamine buzz of Vancouver's early punk scene, Zero Avenue follows Frankie Del Rey, a talented and rising punk star who runs just enough dope on the side to pay the bills and keep her band, Middle Finger, together. The trouble is she's running it for Marty Sayles, a powerful drug dealer who controls the Eastside with a fist.

It's a steamy, sultry day in a Mediterranean summer. Wealthy lawyer Terrence, his wife Cathy, their daughter Lucy, and a doctor are relaxing on the yacht that is Terence's pride and joy. Suddenly, a storm whips up from nowhere.