Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Women Sleuths

After PC Jemima's Cotton's first murder investigation, she knows now to trust no one. She leaves the gifted lasagnes uneaten in her freezer and won't go near a cake sale. But when Perry Noble, head of the Little Cote darts club, is found dead on his doorstep, even PC Cotton can't believe she's found herself involved in yet another murder investigation in this sleepy village. As Jemima starts to investigate, she discovers Perry had his fair share of enemies...especially among the darts players themselves. So it's no surprise when the murder weapon is revealed to be a poisoned dart.

It's Christmas 1856 and Haworth is in the grip of a freezing winter. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë are rather losing interest in detecting until they hear of a shocking discovery: the bones of a child have been found interred within the walls of a local house, Top Withens Hall, home to the scandalous and brutish Bradshaw family.

Against the backdrop of pre-WWII Berlin, British pianist Audrey James and her best friend Isle face the imminent threat of Nazi oppression. When Ilse's family disappears and Nazi officers confiscate their home, Audrey becomes their housekeeper and Ilse is forced into hiding in the attic-a prisoner in her own home. As borders close and rumours of death camps swirl, Audrey makes the life-changing decision to join the covert resistance and risk everything to protect her loved ones.

Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte's has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage. At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.

Emily Proudman has been offered the chance of a lifetime - leave her messy London life, move to a beautiful estate in France and help her boss' wife take care of their daughter. It seems like the perfect opportunity to start again. But once there, Emily soon starts to suspect that her charismatic new employers aren't telling her the whole truth.

Connie lost her words at the age of five, the day she witnessed her mother and father's untimely death. Since then she has been all but mute, only being able to choke out a few select words. Now, years on, Connie's husband is on his deathbed, and all she can do is quietly sit by his side. But there are so many dreadful secrets locked up in Connie's silent prison. And time is running out to set them free....

It's late August in Shady Hollow, and intrepid reporter Vera Vixen agrees to chaperone the school's annual field trip to Summers End, an ancient tomb built by an early woodland culture. Naturally, her good friend Lenore Lee comes along to help her. But when the group enters the tomb one morning, they find a corpse that is distinctly more. . . modern than expected. Digging deeper, Vera and Lenore discover that the deceased was involved in the recent excavation at the site, and very unpopular with their colleagues-including Lenore's sister, Ligeia.

It's a brutal winter in Des Moines, Iowa, and the city is gripped by fear. A serial attacker known as the Sin Eater is stalking women and has just struck again. It's a tough time and a tough place for Riley Fisher, a former small-town sergeant, to be reporting for duty as an FBI agent on her first assignment. Teamed with a man she's not sure she can trust and struggling to prove herself - while fighting the pull of her old life and family dramas - Riley is tasked with investigating a vicious death threat against the newly elected female state governor.

Carolyn, Bronnie, Elise, and Kendall are bound together by one thing - their four daughters are best friends at the highly competitive Orla Flynn Academy for the Performing Arts. Last year the foursome exploded because of brutal bullying between the girls, but they've since forgiven each other. The mothers, however, haven't been able to move on. When new threats surface and 'accidents' begin to happen - just as a mysterious new girl enters the scene - the mothers take matters into their own hands.

For aspirational parents living in the beautiful coastal town of Pacific Pines, their hopes and dreams are pinned on the outcome of the Gala Day that St Ignatius Boys' School hosts every year. To be accepted into the prestigious institution, the boys must battle it out in rigorous rounds of both physical and mental testing - but it seems that some parents will stop at nothing to ensure their sons succeed. But after one boy is struck down in a hit and run, the scandals, secrets and lies that entangle three mothers threaten to unravel their seemingly perfect lives.

Keen journalist Vera Vixen is recovering from the Harvest Festival (and its bounty of local cheeses, cider and pies) when the calm is shattered by a scream from one of the small town's grandest houses. Dorothy Springfield, a rat with a reputation for eccentricity, claims her husband—who is standing right next to her—has been murdered. Has Dorothy finally lost her grip on reality? Or is the rat who claims to be Edward an imposter? Vera's fox nose scents a story. And it's not long before the discovery of a body, minus head, complicates things further.

A woman's body is found in a river just outside of Lisbon. Inspectors Isabel Reis and Aleksandr Voronov identify the murder victim as Marta Nunes—a youth centre worker who, like Isabel, classifies as Gifted. Born with special abilities, the Gifted are often looked at with a certain level of suspicion. In the search for her killer, Reis digs into Marta's past. She soon discovers that she is connected to a number of missing women. All young, all telepathic Gifted, all vanished off the face of the earth.

It is Autumn in Linköping and the heavens have opened, but not even these biblical rains can wash away the blood of crimes, past and present. Then the brutally-stabbed body of self-made Internet billionaire Jerry Petersson is discovered floating face down in the moat surrounding his home, the imposing Skogså Castle. Malin Fors, the brilliant but flawed star of the Linköping police force, is already struggling to keep her life together following the recent murder attempt on her teenage daughter, Tove.

Argyll, 1998. Stories run deep in the MacArthur family, passed from generation to generation. Tales not just of selkies and changelings, but of the lives and deaths of the family themselves. Anna MacArthur has heard how her beautiful grandmother Netta boarded a ship for Canada after the war, leaving behind her young son Donnie, and was never seen again. Now, fifty years after her disappearance, Anna accidentally pulls a loose thread in the story of Netta's fate, causing the tale of her vanishing to unravel completely.

The fourth novel in the internationally bestselling Malin Fors series, a Swedish crime-writing phenomenon, perfect for fans of the television series The Killing and The Bridge.The Swedish town of Linköping is bathed in Spring sunshine. The trees are blossoming and families are having breakfast at outdoor tables in the main square.Then a deafening explosion rips through the air.

When a family enjoying a walk in the woods outside Linköping, Sweden, discover the badly mutilated body of a young girl, Inspector Malin Fors is put in charge of the case. Malin immediately draws parallels between this case and one that has long haunted her- that of Maria Murvall. Several years ago, Maria was found in the very same forest, having been raped and brutally beaten. Since then she has lived in complete silence in a secure psychiatric clinic.

When Jenny's old therapist is murdered and she is implicated, she realises that someone else out there might know her deepest, darkest secret. Seven patients. One dark secret. Jennifer Nielsen has her life on track. Until she gets news that her former Psychiatrist, Phillip Walton, has been brutally murdered and that she is implicated. Philip knew her darkest secrets. And circumstances of his murder suggest that someone else out there knows them, too.

Nuala knows nothing of her husband James' past. He made her swear that she would never contact his family and never, ever visit the place he was from. But now James is dead, and Nuala is alone. Grieving and desperate, she decides to ignore his warning. Nuala is about to find out that some secrets are better left buried - and that uncovering the truth about the man she married will have terrible consequences....

Maggie is a husband watcher. A snooper, a marriage doctor, a destroyer of dreams, a killer of happy ever afters. She runs her own private detective agency specialising in catching those who cheat. Helene is a husband catcher. A beautiful wife, a doting stepmother, a perfect homemaker and a dazzling presence at parties. She has landed herself with one of the most eligible bachelors in town - handsome property developer Gabe Moreau. Alice is just a teenager. A perfect daughter to Gabe, a kind stepchild to Helene, a tragic girl to a dead mother.

Josie is at rock bottom. Burned out, heartbroken and recovering from an abusive relationship, she lives a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean. Josie's hopes of a fresh start are horribly derailed when she stumbles across a dead woman's decaying, ant-infested body in the woods. The grim discovery sends her into a downward spiral, forcing her to face uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling the swarming black ants that seem to have burrowed into her mind . . . and her flesh.