Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Women Sleuths

In Mauritius, a retired Law Lord is brutally murdered, while in Manchester, the Labour Party conference is beginning. DC Iona Khan's first case in the Counter Terrorism Unit appears to be a trivial use of false identity, when a Sri Lankan student asks questions about Manchester's tunnel system. But when she learns the identity of the conference's guest speaker, Iona must enter the world beneath the city to prevent a catastrophe.

Eva is excited for a visit from her sister Alice, who lives in Suffolk with her husband and three children. But when Alice arrives alone, desiring a break from her family, Eva becomes concerned. Her dismay deepens as Alice starts spending time with a former beau, Keenan Ripley, who owns the nearby pear orchard. At the same time, Phoebe's sister Julia, now a widow and pregnant, is in a fretful state, and Phoebe struggles to be helpful to her.

Psychotherapist Frieda Klein's home is her refuge until she returns to find it has become a disturbingly bloody crime scene. Beneath the floorboards the police have found the body of a man she had hired to help protect her. When those closest to Frieda begin to be targeted, the picture becomes more skewed. Unless Frieda can find and stop whoever is threatening her friends and family, her love and loyalty could come at a truly fatal cost.

In a north London high street, a runaway vehicle crashes to a halt. The man in the driving seat was murdered a week earlier. On Hampstead Heath, a bonfire blazes: in the flames lies the next victim. As autumn leaves fall, a serial killer runs amok in the capital, playing games with the police. The death toll is rising fast, and the investigation is floundering. But this is no ordinary killer, and every new victim is intended as a message to just one woman. Because psychologist Frieda Klein is in hiding. And someone is coming to find her....

London, 1846. Ramshackle and crumbling, St Saviour's Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors the doctors bicker and fight. Ambition, jealousy and hatred seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything, but says nothing. And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of moldy rags.

“Ask anyone on Atbara Avenue how well they know their neighbors, and they'll answer ‘well'. After all, they see each other across the vast distance afforded by close proximity, and that is probably for the best...”. For the best, because Atbara Avenue is a street where, all too often, murder feels like the solution.

Abby enters the Maybridge Flower Show, never dreaming for one moment that she'll win the gold. Or an invitation to appear on telly, alongside gardening legend Daisy Dashwood! Some people say Daisy's a tiresome diva. But starry-eyed Abby can't wait for the cameras to start rolling. Until . . . Daisy staggers out on stage. Only to collapse at Abby's feet. Her demise might seem like a tragic accident—resulting from a cocktail of booze and hay-fever medicine. But Abby's not so sure.

Kate Martinelli has seen her share of peculiar things as a San Francisco cop but never anything quite like this: an ornate Victorian sitting room straight out of a Sherlock Holmes story - complete with violin, tobacco-filled Persian slipper, and gunshots in the wallpaper that spell out the initials of the late queen.

DI Geraldine Steel knows people go missing all the time; sometimes because they don't want to be found. So when her partner Ian asks her to look into the disappearance of his football-buddy's girlfriend, her first instinct is to reassure him there's no need for concern. Until she's called to a suspected murder, and all her instincts tell her she's right about the identity of the victim. The young woman has earth and leaf mould and fragments of twigs in her long fair hair, her nose, her mouth, under her finger nails, clinging to her clothes. It's as if she'd been completely encased in earth.

Good deeds build good character, and good character is what the Haverleigh School for Young Ladies is all about. Lady Phoebe - with the tireless assistance of Eva - has organised a luncheon at the school to benefit wounded veterans of the Great War, encouraging the students to participate in the cooking and the baking. But too many cooks do more than spoil the broth - they add up to a recipe for disaster when the school’s headmistress, Miss Finch, is poisoned.

When a young girl is found dead in the woods, all the evidence seems to point to the teacher she has just accused of molesting her. After all, with his career, and marriage, under threat, he appears to have the most to lose. But for DI Geraldine Steel things aren't adding up, even though her colleagues disagree, she is certain they have accused the wrong man.

Faced with an increasing body count, our feline detectives sharpen their claws and set out to catch a serial killer. Did Pomadora Moseley really murder her family on the rollercoaster at Butlins? Is Clara Toddlebury's Country Dance Class under threat? And why does Mr Whisker lock himself in his headmaster's study?

Day 1. A young woman's body is found in a shallow grave in the woods, buried in a white shroud. She's been dead for a week. Her teeth are smashed in, her lips stitched together. Her hands are missing. She's the fourth young woman found like this. With no witnesses, no clues and no leads to follow, the investigation is going nowhere. That's when Detective Alice Rossi is called in.

Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan thought it would be safe to let her boyfriend help out with her investigation. But now he’s behind bars and she’s been left caring for his eight-year-old son. Soon Kate finds herself drawn into the world of drug traffickers, child pornographers and violent gangland enforcers – bringing her face to face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.

When the celebrated crime writer Agatha Crispy engages Hettie and Tilly in the search for a stolen manuscript, our feline detective duo is plunged into a world of Dickensian thieves and murderers. Does the ghost of Jake the Nipper prowl the London Streets of Kitzrovia? Will Madame Two Paws’s exhibition wax or wane? And will the secrets in the crypt of the church of St Mavis and Cucumber finally be revealed? Join Hettie and Tilly as they attempt to unravel yet another darkly humorous case for The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency.

Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her 'missing' boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Their bond was unbreakable. The truth was unimaginable. When Beatrice receives a call to say that her sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home. But as she learns about Tess’s disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life. Everyone around her accepts they have lost Tess, but Beatrice refuses to give up, embarking on a dangerous journey to discover the shocking truth, whatever the cost...

Amory Ames is travelling to New York, excited to be a bridesmaid at her childhood friend Tabitha’s wedding, but with Prohibition in full swing, her husband, Milo, is less than enthused. When a member of the wedding party is found murdered on the front steps of the bride’s home, the happy plans take a darker twist.

A dead girl lies on a blood-soaked mattress, her limbs spread in a parody of ecstasy. The scene matches a series of murders which ended with the conviction of Derek Tyler. But Tyler's been locked up in a mental institution for two years, barely speaking a word. Criminal psychologist Dr Tony Hill thinks this is not a copycat murder but something much stranger. Hill heads towards a terrifying face-off with one of the most perverse killers he has ever encountered….

“A murder will occur tonight at Beecham House . . .” Who could resist such a compelling invitation? Of course, the murder in question purports to be a party game, and Phyllida looks forward to using some of the deductive skills she has acquired thanks to her employer, Mrs. Agatha, who is unable to attend in person. The hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Wokesley, are new to the area. Family friends have been enlisted to play the suspects, and Mr. Wokesley excels in his role of dead body. Unfortunately, when the game's solution is about to be unveiled, the participants discover that life has imitated art.