Books to Look Forward to from Allison & Busby

 January 2021

Hard-hitting talk show host Augustus Seeza has become a household name in Ghana, though plagued by rumours of lavish overspending, alcoholism, and womanising. He's dating the imposing, beautiful Lady Araba, who leads a self-made fashion empire. Araba's religious family believes Augustus is after her money and intervenes to break them up. A few days later, just before a major runway show, Araba is found murdered in her bed. Her driver is arrested after a hasty investigation, but Araba's favourite aunt, Dele, has always thought Augustus Seeza was the real killer. Almost a year later, Dele approaches Emma Djan, who has finally started to settle in as the only female PI at her agency. To solve Lady Araba's murder, Emma must not only go on an undercover mission that dredges up trauma from her past but navigate a long list of suspects with solid alibis. Emma quickly discovers that they are willing to lie for each other - and that one may still be willing to kill. Sleep Well My Lady is by Kwei Quartey.

Detective Jake Porter's life was ripped apart by the hit-and-run driver that killed his wife. The life he has been building up piece by piece is rocked by the discovery of new evidence that might finally lead him to her murderer. At the same time, he has a volatile case to juggle. Ross Henderson was a Vlogger with over ten million followers rallying against the growing tide of the far-right. As his audience tuned in to listen to Henderson tear apart more anti-immigrant vitriol, they watched in horror as he was brutally murdered during a live broadcast. Struggling to prevent full-blown riots and following the trail to his wife's killer will take its toll upon Porter, and there's no guarantee he will come out the other side intact. End of The Line is by Robert Scragg.

Murder at the Ritz Hotel is by Jim Elridge. August 1940. On the streets of London, locals watch with growing concern as German fighter planes plague the city's skyline. But inside the famous Ritz Hotel, the cream of society continues to enjoy all the glamour and comfort that money can buy during wartime - until an anonymous man is discovered with his throat slashed open. Detective Chief Inspector Coburg is called in to investigate, no stranger himself to the haunts of the upper echelons of society, ably assisted by his trusty colleague, Sergeant Lampson. Yet they soon face a number of obstacles. With the crime committed in rooms in use by an exiled king and his retinue, there are those who fear diplomatic repercussions and would rather the case be forgotten. With mounting pressure from various Intelligence agencies, rival political factions and gang warfare brewing either side of the Thames, Coburg and Lampson must untangle a web of deception if they are to solve the case - and survive.

February 2021

Never Ask The Dead is by Gary Donnelly. When only the dead have the answers, who can tell you the truth? Retired PSNI cop Tom 'Tucker' Rodgers has a cracked ballpoint pen, one second class stamp and no time left. The best he can do is try to get a message to DI Owen Sheen, the only man he knows he can trust. Sheen and DC Aoife McCusker are struggling with political agendas fed to them from the Chief Constable and now the single note from the missing Tucker is preying on Sheen's mind. A list of four dates, decades old, and a cryptic message. Tucker says that they killed his friend, and now they're coming for him. Sheen and Aoife's search places them on the path of the most highly placed IRA double agent of the Troubles as well as another man with an old score to settle.

1898, Glasgow. A man is found stabbed to death in a tenement block and the police are struggling to grasp any leads. Juan Cameron, photographer-cum-sleuth, is drafted in with his trusted camera in the hope he can bring to light what the eye may overlook. Yet Juan has problems of his own. Following the tragic death of his father in Cuba some months before, the man's legacy is threatened by a plagiarism suit from a mysterious senora, and Juan's hoped-for happiness with his fiancee, Jane, might be over before it's even begun - even more so when a visiting professor is murdered and Jane is witnessed fleeing the scene. Juan finds himself torn between finding the killer and finding his fiancee - but are they one and the same? The truth is in the frames. The Art of The Assassin is by Kevin Sullivan.

March 2021

Blood is Thicker Than Water is by Sarah Hawkswood. August 1144. Osbern de Lench is known far and wide as a hard master, whose temper is perpetually frayed. After riding to survey his land and the incoming harvest from the top of the nearby hill, his horse returns to the hall riderless and the lifeless body of the lord is found soon after. Was it the work of thieves, or something closer to home? With an heir who is cast in the same hot-tempered mould, sworn enemies for neighbours, and something amiss in the relationship between Osbern and his wife, undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, the wily Serjeant Catchpoll and apprentice Walkelin have suspects aplenty.

The Consequences of Fear is by Jacqueline Winspear. It is September 1941 and young Freddie Hackett is a message runner - he collects messages from a government office and delivers them to various destinations around London. On this particular day, he sets off with his message, along a route of bombed out houses and heaps of rubble, and comes across two men violently arguing. He rushes into the doorway of a bombed house and tries not to be seen - but from his vantage point he witnesses a murder. After the killer goes on his way, Freddie finally comes out of hiding, but he has an envelope to deliver and all messages from that office are urgent. He arrives at the house and he could swear the man who answers the door is the very man he has just seen kill another. But is he? Freddie flees, and reports what he has seen to the police but they brush him aside. It is then he remembers delivering a letter to Maisie Dobbs, a private investigator in Fitzroy Square - perhaps she will believe him and help solve the mystery?

In the depths of the blackout, the silence of London's Royal Albert Dock is broken only by the lap of inky water against the quay and the occasional scurrying of rats' feet. A patrolling policeman is passing the newly arrived freighter SS Magnolia when something catches his eye. A man is sprawled awkwardly across a nearby barge - with an exotic-looking dagger in his back. DI Jago of West Ham CID discovers the victim was a dock worker by day and a Home Guard volunteer by night - and there are things even his wife, bombed out of their flimsy home in Silvertown, doesn't know about his past. Who wanted to kill him? As Jago investigates, he uncovers a widening circle of secrets ranging across family tensions, the last war, and a far-flung corner of the British Empire. And then there's the mysterious spate of thefts from the dock to contend with. The Dockland Murder is by Mike Hollow.

Into The Dark is by Stuart Johnstone. The brutal murder of a ten-year-old girl sends shockwaves across Scotland, but with no solid leads the investigation is scaled back. Don Colyear is tasked with tying up a loose end: a 999 call that exactly matches the details of the girl's murder. But the call was made two months before her death. When the same caller reports a new killing, the clock is ticking for Colyear.

Spring has brought many new beginnings into the world of Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown. Not only has her baby arrived, but she and her fiance Christopher have moved to the historic village of Hartsop - and their forthcoming nuptials are only a short month away. But when a former acquaintance of Christopher's reminds him of an undertaking made a decade previously but failed to fulfil, their lives soon take a sinister - and deadly - turn. Yet even with a young baby to consider Simmy cannot ignore her instinct to investigate, especially when the murder has a personal link to her soon-to-be husband. Ably assisted by her would-be detective friend Ben, can Simmy puzzle out this reckoning from the past and protect her family in time for the wedding bells to chime? The Ullswater Undertaking is by Rebecca Tope.

April 2021

When Robert Pomeroy, a young undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, finds a letter slipped under his door in the early hours of a rainy day, he flies into a panic. Hastily readying himself and dashing off a few lines for the porter to summon his friend Nicholas Thorpe, he hurries to the railway station. But he doesn't reach his destination alive. Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming are called upon to investigate this tragedy on the railway. It soon becomes apparent that Cambridge's hopes of success in the forthcoming Boat Race rested on Pomeroy's shoulders. With academic disputes, romantic interests and a sporting rivalry with Oxford in play, the Railway Detective will have his work cut out to disentangle the threads of Pomeroy's life in order to answer the truth of his death. Tragedy on The Branch Line is by Edward Marston.

Skelton's Guide to Suitcase Murders is by David Stafford. A woman's dismembered corpse is discovered in a quarry, and police quickly link the victim back to their chief suspect: her husband, Doctor Ibraham Aziz. His wife had been planning to leave him, so his guilt isn't in doubt as far as local law enforcement is concerned. Barrister Arthur Skelton is asked to represent the accused, and though all believe the case to be hopeless, Skelton soon suspects there may be more to the victim's death. Aided by his loyal clerk Edgar and his roaming cousins, Alan and Norah, Skelton soon finds himself embroiled in an investigation not only concerning this world but the one beyond. Can he convince a jury of Aziz's innocence before the judge dons his black cap?

Ethelred Tressider and his agent Elsie Thirkettle have been invited to lecture on a creative writing course at Fell Hall, a remote location in the heart of ragged countryside that even sheep are keen to shun. While Ethelred's success as a writer is distinctly average, Elsie sees this as an opportunity to scout for new, hopefully more lucrative, talent. But heavy snow falls overnight, trapping those early arrivals inside, and tensions are quick to emerge between the assembled group. When one of their number goes missing, Ethelred leads a search party and makes a gruesome discovery. With no phone signal and no hope of summoning the police, can Ethelred and Elsie identify the killer among them before one of them is next? Farewell My Herrings is by L C Tyler.

May 2021

Murder at World's End is by Alanna Knight. When Tam Eildor arrives unexpectedly on a remote Scottish island in the year of 1587 after his time machine develops a fault, he quickly finds himself embroiled in the lives of the colourful locals who are trying to escape the tyranny of the greedy Earl Robert Stewart. The power-hungry earl has imprisoned the beautiful Princess Marie and plans to force her into a distasteful marriage to tie himself closer to the throne, furthering his own ambitions. Aided by a motley crew including a stowaway, a pirate, a lost time lord and the earl's own son, Tam attempts a daring rescue of the princess. Together they will travel the oceans in search of Spanish gold, lost loves and new futures.

June 2021

one of its nightwatchmen decapitated and his colleague nowhere to be found. To the police, the case seems simple: one killed the other and fled, but workers at the museum aren’t convinced. Although forbidden contact by his superior officer, Scotland Yard detective John Feather secretly enlists ‘Museum Detectives’ Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton to aid the police investigation. When the body of the missing nightwatchman is discovered encased within a wax figure, the case suddenly becomes more complex. With questions over rival museums, the dead men’s pasts and a series of bank raids plaguing the city, Wilson and Fenton face their most intriguing and dangerous case yet. Murder at Madame Tussauds is by Jim Eldridge.

The Dartmouth Murders is by Stephanie Austin. When Juno Browne purchases a wardrobe to stock in her fledgling antiques store, she doesn’t expect to find a dead body inside. And when the man she bought it from, rascally farmer Fred Crick, is found battered to death in his blazing cottage, the hunt for a double murderer is on. Despite the police struggling to connect the two deaths, this time Juno is resolved to ignore her impulse to investigate. Until, that is, a stranger arrives who bears an uncanny resemblance to the dead man in the wardrobe. Determined to discover how his identical twin brother died and impressed by Juno’s reputation in the local press as Ashburton’s amateur sleuth, Henry tries to drag her into his quest to solve the mystery, with disastrous results. 

Books to Look Forward to From Allison & Busby

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January 2019

During a communion service at a village church, the teenage son of a vicar brutally attacks his father with an axe. The horrified congregation watch the son escape and during a frantic police search rumours arise that the boy was involved in devil worship. Professor Matt Hunter, an atheist ex-minister and expert on religion, is brought in to advise, yet he quickly suspects the church attack may have a far more complex cause. Meanwhile, a ten-year-old boy called Ever grows up in a small Christian cult. The group believe they are the only true humans left and that the world is filled with demons called Hollows, but they're working on a bizarre ritual that will bring peace and paradise to the world. Soon, the worlds of Matt and Ever will collide in one awful, terrifying night where Matt is thrown into the frightening and murderous world of religious mania.  Severed is by Peter Laws.

Murder at the British Museum is by Jim Eldridge. 1894. A well-respected academic is found dead in a gentlemen's convenience cubicle at the British Museum, the stall locked from the inside. Professor Lance Pickering had been due to give a talk promoting the museum's new `Age of King Arthur' exhibition when he was stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Having forged a strong reputation working alongside the inimitable Inspector Abberline on the Jack the Ripper case, Daniel Wilson is called in to solve the mystery of the locked cubicle murder, and he brings his expertise and archaeologist Abigail Fenton with him. But it isn't long before the museum becomes the site of another fatality and the pair face mounting pressure to deliver results. With enquiries compounded by persistent journalists, local vandals and a fanatical society, Wilson and Fenton face a race against time to salvage the reputation of the museum and catch a murderer desperate for revenge.

February 2019

Cambridge, 1940. It is the first winter of the war, and snow is falling. When an evacuee drowns in the river, his body swept away, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke sets out to investigate what seems to be a deliberate attack. The following night, a local electronics factory is attacked, and an Irish republican slogan is left at the scene. The IRA are campaigning to win freedom for Ulster, but why has Cambridge been chosen as a target? And when Brooke learns that the drowned boy was part of the close-knit local Irish Catholic community, he begins to question whether there may be a connection between the boy's death and the attack at the factory. As more riddles come to light, can Brooke solve the mystery before a second attack claims a famous victim?  The Mathematical Bridge is by Jim Kelly.

March 2019

The Lost Shrine is by Nicola Ford.  Clare Hills, archaeologist and sometime sleuth, is struggling to finance her recently established university research institute along with her long-time friend, Dr David Barbrook. When Professor Margaret Bockford finds the Hart Unit commercial work with a housing developer on a site in the Cotswolds, the pair are hardly in a position to refuse. There is just one slight catch: the previous site director, Beth Kinsella, was found hanged in a copse on-site, surrounded by mutilated wildlife. Despite initial misgivings, Clare leads a team to continue work on the dig, but with rumours about Beth's mental state and her claims that the site was historically significant refusing to be laid to rest, and lingering disquiet between local residents and the developers, progress is impeded at every turn. When one of the workers finds something unsettling, Clare suspects there may be more to Beth's claims than first thought. But can she uncover the truth before it is hidden forever?

The American Agent is by Jacqueline Winspear.  When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs, seeking her help. Accompanied by an agent from the US Department of Justice-Mark Scott, the American who helped Maisie escape Hitler's Munich in 1938-he asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon's death. As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the citizens of London, raining death and destruction from the skies, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect the young evacuee she has grown to love. Entangled in an investigation linked to the power of wartime propaganda and American political intrigue being played out in Britain, Maisie will face losing her dearest friend-and the possibility that she might be falling in love again.

Nothing Else Remains is by Robert Scragg.  When Max Brennan's estranged father and then his own girlfriend go missing in quick succession, he turns to his old friend Detective Jake Porter for help. As Max is then attacked in his own home, Porter and his partner Nick Styles waste no time in investigating. But when their main suspect turns up dead, alongside a list of other targets, it seems the case is much bigger than it first appeared. With events spiraling, can Porter and Styles catch the killer before another victim is claimed?

The Grasmere Grudge is by Rebecca Tope.  Returning from a much-needed holiday, Persimmon `Simmy' Brown discovers that life in the Lake District is, as ever, far from relaxing. Before she can enjoy the idea of being the future Mrs Chris Henderson, her fiance discovers the body of his friend, antique dealer Jonathan Woolley, brutally strangled in a house in Grasmere. Enlisting the help of her friends and amateur detectives Ben and Bonnie, the investigation appears to ask more questions than it answers as historical grudges against the dead man are revealed. It seems that many people had a reason for wanting him dead. But with Chris's increasingly evasive and odd behaviour, Simmy begins to wonder if he is more involved in the murder than he is saying. How can she put her trust in a man with something to hide?

April 2019

York, 1907. Newly retired Inspector Faro is delighted at the prospect of staying in the Dower House, situated on a Roman villa once home to Emperor Severus. But he arrives to find his wife Imogen distraught and desperately searching for her missing Irish cousin, who seems to have vanished without a trace... The Dower House Mystery is by Alanna Knight.

Inheritance Tracks is by Catherine Aird.  Four strangers arrive at the solicitors' office of Puckle, Puckle, and Nunnery. They have never met, and have no idea why they have been invited. But they - along with a missing man - are descendants of the late Algernon George Culver Mayton, the inventor of "Mayton's Marvellous Mixture" and each entitled to a portion of the Mayton Fortune. But before they can split the money, the missing man must be found. They begin their search, but then Detective Sloan receives a call that one of the legatees had died following an attack of food poisoning. Now detectives Sloan and Crosby must determine whether the deceased merely ingested a noxious substance by accident, or if the legatees are being picked off one-by-one. And when matters of money and family rivalry are involved, there is almost certainly foul play afoot.

June 2019

It is the autumn of 1917, and at the luxurious Lotus Hotel in Chelsea, a maid is disrupted from her morning rounds by a horrifying discovery: instead of the dignified older lady who has been occupying a room, she find the dead body of a much younger woman. Harvey Marmion and Joe Keedy are dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate, and learn that she seems to have been poisoned. But who is this woman? And what has happened to the previous occupant of the room? With a high profile client to impress, Marmion and Keedy must solve the mystery as quickly as possible, before the reputation of the hotel is damaged beyond repair.  The Unseen Hand is by Edward Marston.

Books to Look Forward to from Allison & Busby

January 2018

Traitor is by David Hingley.  February 1665. With winter passing, Mercia Blakewood is at last headed back to England from America, hoping to leave behind the shadow that death and heartache have cast. She expects a welcome from the King considering her earlier, mostly successful, mission at his behalf, but the reception is not exactly warm. Mercia faces more manipulation and must accept a clandestine and uncomfortable role at the heart of the royal court posing as a mistress to find a spy and traitor.

For Rose McQuinn the invitation to holiday at a luxury hotel on the isle of Bute is an unexpected delight until she discovers the real reason is to investigate a twenty year old non-proven murder case. With close links to a strange local family of ancient origin whose modern castle holds many dark secrets, Rose's involvement in this challenge unleashes a web of intrigue and sinister happenings as she realises too late when a drowned man is a murder victim and someone decides she is close enough to the truth not to leave the island alive.  Murder Lies Waiting is by Alanna Knight.

February 2018

1939, Cambridge: The opening weeks of the Second World War, and the first blackout - The Great Darkness - covers southern England, enveloping the city. Detective Inspector Eden

Brooke, a wounded hero of the Great War, takes his nightly dip in the cool waters of the Cam. Daylight reveals a corpse on the riverside, the body torn apart by some unspeakable force. Brooke investigates, calling on the expertise and inspiration of a faithful group of fellow `nighthawks' across the city, all condemned, like the detective, to a life lived away from the light. Within hours The Great Darkness has claimed a second victim. War, it seems, has many victims, but what links these crimes of the night?  The Great Darkness is by Jim Kelly.

Race to the Kill is by Helen Cadbury.  It is the middle of a long night shift in Doncaster for PC Sean Denton and his partner PC Gavin Wentworth when they are approached by a dishevelled-looking woman desperate that they follow her. She leads them to the old Chasebridge High School where they find the dead body of a Syrian refugee. With a sexual assault court case and a missing girl also vying for his attention, Denton and the murder investigation are drawn towards the neighbouring greyhound stadium where all is not as it seems. With the worlds of immigration, drugs and sexual abuse pressing in on all sides, Denton is walking ever closer to serious danger.

March 2018

Spring 1940. With Britons facing what has become known as the Bore War - nothing much

seems to have happened yet - Maisie Dobbs is asked to investigate the disappearance of a local lad, a young apprentice craftsman working on a "hush-hush" government contract. As Maisie's inquiry reveals a possible link to the London underworld, so the country is bracing for a possible enemy invasion amid news of the British expeditionary force stranded along the French coast. And another mother is worried about a missing son - but this time the boy in question is one beloved by Maisie.  To Die But Once is by Jacqueline Winspear.

April 2018

Simmy Brown has a lot on her mind. Not just keeping her florist business afloat, her father's failing health, the challenge of developing a long-term relationship with Christopher, but also the approach of Mother's Day, a busy and painful day for her. But in taking an order for a retirement party in Staveley, she is pulled into her most challenging investigation. When a daughter starts accusing her own mother of murder, Simmy, Ben and Bonnie find themselves taking different sides of the investigation. With her relationships under strain, Simmy is tired on all fronts. However, she has to learn to leave her own concerns behind to discover just who the killer is.  The Staveley Suspect is by Rebecca Tope.

What falls between the Cracks is by Robert Scragg.  When a severed hand is found in an abandoned flat, Detective Jake Porter and his partner Nick Styles are able to DNA match the limb to the owner, Natasha Barclay, who has not been seen in decades. But why has no one been looking for her? It seems that Natasha's family are the people who can least be trusted. Delving into the details behind her disappearance and discovering links to another investigation, a tragic family history begins to take on a darker twist. Hampered by a widespread fear of a local heavy, as well as internal politics and possible corruption within the force, Porter and Styles are digging for answers, but will what they find ever see the light of day?

June 2018

1817. Upon receiving a letter from an old family friend, Catherine Van Emden returns from Holland to find her father dead. She refuses to believe the middle-aged man died of natural causes, and the suspicious circumstances of his life during the past few months compel her to ask Peter and Paul Skillen for help. Why would a successful engineer suddenly begin begging for alms on the streets? Had he refused to ask for help, or was he prevented from doing so? When his body is revealed missing from the casket, the twins embark on a chase of funerary agents, barmaids and body snatchers, trying to solve the mystery of George Parry's alleged death before their Bow Street rivals.  Fugitive from the Grave is by Edward Marston.

Following the revelations of Mrs Hudson's past and a commission of murder in the spring of 1925, Mary Russell receives word that one of her university friends-a devout feminist-has been committed to Bedlam mental hospital. Russell herself is feeling less than balanced, and the last thing she wants is to deal with the mad. However, she agrees to look into it-when her friend escapes. The pursuit leads her across Europe to Venice and finally to the Poveglia Island, a lunatic asylum built on the bones of centuries of plague victims. Russell takes a deep breath, and follows-only to find that the lunatics may be in charge of the asylum, and nothing is quite as it seems.  Island of the Mad is by Laurie R King.

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Books to look forward to from Allison & Busby

By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained - by Thea's passionate embrace of women's suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea's brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. Yet when Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia's responsibility. Each must find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil. As Tom marches to the front lines, and Kezia battles to keep her ordered life from unravelling, they hide their despair in letters and cards filled with stories woven to bring comfort. But will well-intended lies and self-deception be of use when they come face to face with the enemy.  The Care and Management of Lies is by Jacqueline Winspear and was published in July 2014.

Crooked Herring is by L C Tyler and is due to be published in September 2014.  Ethelred Tressider, mid-list crime writer, is surprised when fellow author Henry Holiday unexpectedly turns up on his doorstep. He's even more surprised when Henry confesses that he may have committed murder while drunk on New Year's Eve. Though he has little recollection of the night, Henry fears he may have killed drinking companion and fellow crime writer Crispin Vynall, and asks Ethelred to discreetly make enquiries in order to discover the truth. As Ethelred and his trusty agent Elsie begin to investigate, they discover that Henry has been set up, and now all that remains is for them to find out why and, more importantly ...whodunnit?

The Coniston Case is the third book in the Lake District series by Rebecca Tope and was published in July 2014.  Valentine's Day is fast approaching and Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown's flower shop near Lake Windermere is doing good business. But when Simmy receives a string of anonymous delivery orders, each one causing their recipient great distress, she begins to suspect that the messages they contain mask a sinister intent. When one of the recipients disappears, it would seem that her worst fears have been confirmed. As if that isn't enough, Simmy's friend Kathy turns up, on the trail of her wayward daughter Joanna, who she fears has grown unhealthily close to one of her university tutors. When Kathy attempts to reason with her daughter she finds that Joanna's older lover may be even more menacing than she had imagined. With both Kathy and Joanna in peril, Simmy and her friends find themselves caught up in a web of deception, blackmail and murder. It seems that Simmy Brown faces her most puzzling, and perhaps her most dangerous, case yet.

Eva Jackson is Rosemary's cousin ( 'umpteen times removed' ) and she has moved back to her childhood home in Taviscombe after the untimely death of her beloved husband Alan. As is the way of the village, Eva has been pounced upon by the local charities, and it is during a coffee morning that she mentions to Sheila Malory that she fears Alan might have died an unnatural death ...Sheila is intrigued and sets out to find out more. But when Eva's body is discovered after a supposed insulin overdose, Sheila wonders if the killer might still be at large in the charming Devon countryside ...  Death is a Word is by Hazel Holt and is due to be published in September 2014.

Twenty-two brand new short stories which are guaranteed to delight fans and win the author many more. The indefatigable detective Inspector Sloan reappears in many of these stories with his sidekick Crosby. But there are also new characters to be met, such as the mysterious Malcolm Venables of the Secret Service. Full of delicious twists and turns, Last Writes will be a collection to curl up with and savour.  Last Writes is by Catherine Aird and was published in July 2014.

Amory Ames is a wealthy young woman who regrets her marriage to her notoriously charming playboy husband, Milo.  Looking for a change, she accepts a request for help from her former fiance, Gil Trent, to stay at the Brightwell Hotel in Devon and help circumvent his sister’s marriage toa disreputable ladies’ man Rupert Howe. When the groom-to-be is murdered and Gill arrested for the crime, Amory is embroiled in the investigation not knowing that will test not only her friendship with Gil, but will upset the status quo with her husband and she must catch the killer before  she becomes a victim herself.  Murder at the Brightwell is by Ashley Weaver and is due to be published in October 2014.

Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Tangled Web is by Michael Bond and was published in July 2014.  When Monsieur Pamplemousse is summoned into the head office of Le Guide by the director, Henri Leclercq, he is unaware of the chaos that is about to erupt. Accompanied by his faithful bloodhound, Pommes Frites, Pamplemousse attempts to solve Leclercq's plaintive conundrums - all of which relate back to his mobster uncle-in-law. The crime-solving duo gallivant around Paris and become tangled up in seemingly arbitrary problems; a letter about a juicy steak horrifyingly turned into a brisket; a dead restaurant owner; a giant truffle delivered by post and the imminent arrival of the vivacious Caterina, the mobster's niece.With all these obstacles at hand, Pamplemousse attempts to unravel each dilemma but it quickly proves impossible as they overlap and tangle at every turn. As he battles with this confounding case, it becomes apparent that these events are much more sinister and inextricably linked than first thought ...

In June 1916, a young woman is found murdered in a cinema. Harvery Marmion and Joe Keedy set out to find the killer who so elusively fled in the dark. Before long, two more victims, of striking similarity but differing backgrounds, are found dead around the city.  Meanwhile, miles from home, Marmion s son Paul prepares for life on the front line as he marches towards the Battle of the Somme. Suffering a vicious blow in No Man s Land, Paul is left blinded for the rest of his life. Marmion must come to terms with the permanent darkness of his son s life, while continuing to search for the brutal killer who only strikes in the dark."  Deeds of Darkness is the fourth book in the Home Front Detective series by Edward Marston and is due to be published in October 2014.

The Balmoral Incident is by Alanna Knight and is due to be published in October 2014.  Rose McQuinn is invited to stay with her friend Olive who has a small cottage on the Balmoral Estate. As Rose travels on the train with her trusty dog Vane and her niece Mabel, she wonders what exciting adventures await them at the Royal household. Little does she realise that within just 48 hours of their arrival, death will have visited the great castle ...can Rose find out what happened and prevent any more bloodshed?