Showing titles in Historical

Love is in the air in wartime England—but so is murder. Crofter’s Green is abuzz with excitement. Seven young couples are preparing to say their vows at a Valentine's Day celebration—an event made even more thrilling by the expected arrival of a very important (and very secret) guest: the most famous woman in the world.

When a charming American actor arrives to direct a Christmas production of A Christmas Carol for evacuee children at a grand country manor, it seems like the perfect holiday treat. But on the very day Pearl Harbor is attacked, the actor is found murdered—and he's been carrying mysterious coded messages that suggest this "Christmas spirit" hides something far more dangerous.

July, 1941. When Evie Harris vanishes after visiting her late fiancé's parents, the Homefront Sleuths of Crofter's Green vow to find her. But their investigation takes a bizarre turn when Nigel's police superiors send him to nearby Clarion Castle. There, the first under-butler has just taken his final bow in the castle's wine cellar. Could there be a connection with Evie's disappearance? Or with a hush-hush VIP visit to the castle?

Set in a lovingly evoked Brooklyn just after the end of World War I, The Haunted Bookshop cleverly juxtaposes a pair of middle-aged bookshop owners and two young lovers with a nest of German saboteurs, complete with mysterious clues, red herrings, blushing romance, derring-do, a desperate race to the rescue, and an explosion. More important, the novel is an eloquent hymn to the bookseller’s trade and a fervent plea for the revivifying and redemptive power of literature.

A spy missing. A village full of secrets… and one very persistent Pomeranian. The peaceful village of Crofter’s Green buzzes with questions when a young commando trainee is found dead at the ruins of St. Swithin’s Abbey. The military calls it an accident—but is it? And what does it have to do with the legend of the Judas Monk, a tale of betrayal that has haunted the abbey for centuries? Harry Jenkins and the Homefront Sleuths must untangle a web of wartime deception before the truth is buried for good. As the investigation unfolds, each of the Sleuths has their own challenges to face.

When the celebrated biographer of the infamous pirate Blackheart takes a suite at the Mayfair Hotel to live out his final months, Goliath the porter is desperate to ask the one question that has haunted treasure hunters for decades: Where is the loot buried? Forbidden to disturb a guest, he instead visits the man writing the author’s own life story, only to discover him dead at his desk. Accused of the crime, Goliath turns to Cleo and Harry to clear his name.

When young Tyballis discovers her husband has been arrested for murder, she is delighted. As a young orphan coerced to marry her abusive neighbor, she was horribly used. Now is her chance to be rid of him for good and find the confidence she never had. When Tyballis joins forces with the motley network of Andrew’s informers and thieves, they are lured into the dark and dangerous world of medieval London’s political intrigue and back alley slums.

The Homefront Sleuths thought their biggest challenge would be planning Blake and Katherine's perfect autumn wedding. But when a mysterious government inspector turns up dead at the Harvest Festival, their cozy village celebration becomes the scene of something sinister. What starts as a puzzling murder quickly becomes a race against time. Missing microfilm, coded messages, and suspicious "diplomats" suggest this case is far more dangerous than anything the Sleuths have faced before. With potential Nazi spies lurking behind familiar faces, no one in Crofter's Green is above suspicion.

When the skeletal remains of a young woman and her baby are discovered entombed behind the kitchen wall of a historic Tudor house, Cassandra is overcome with grief. She feels certain she knows who the woman was, yet she can’t explain how—or how the two came to be sealed away. Drawn irresistibly to the house and the mystery of the “Bones of Blackfriars,” Cassandra begins searching for answers.

A string of vanished women. A noble daughter gone. A secret so vile, the powerful would kill to keep it buried. London. 1889. As spring settles over London, bodies of young women begin washing up along the Thames—women no one seems to miss, many of them former residents of charitable institutions. When a concerned mission worker reaches out to Lady Rosalynd, what begins as a simple act of compassion soon reveals something far darker. These women weren’t merely lost. They were deliberately erased.

When Nicole Rayburn travels to Lockwood Hall and begins to research Alys’s story for a new book, she discovers startling irregularities in Alys’s case. Nicole’s suspicions mount as every answer leads to more questions. What really happened to Alys? And what became of her son, who disappeared the day she was hanged? Could it be that Alys’s death was the result of a well-planned conspiracy, or is there another, less obvious answer? And who is trying to sabotage Nicole's efforts by stealing her work?

When the body of a young man is found stuffed into the tomb of a medieval knight, Parish Constable Daniel Haze is tasked with investigating his first solo murder case. Suspicion instantly falls on the only stranger to arrive in the village of Birch Hill just before the crime took place, but the American captain proves to be an unexpected asset. A former soldier and a skilled surgeon, Jason Redmond is not only willing to assist Haze with the investigation but will risk his own safety to apprehend the killer.

Italy, 1929. No sooner have master sleuth Lord Edgington and his grandson-apprentice begun their grand tour of Europe than a wealthy landowner turns up dead. On arriving at the palatial Castello di Montegufoni, the duo must uncover the owner’s secrets and pick from a host of dubious suspects to find out who did him in.

When the Earl of Granville is skewered with a pitchfork in his own stables, Inspector Haze and Lord Redmond must unearth decades-old family secrets in order to unravel the motive behind the murder. But just when they think they’re making headway, disturbing new revelations come to light and cast doubt on their findings.

When a guest at a séance dies under suspicious circumstances, Inspector Haze and Lord Redmond quickly realize his death was a cleverly plotted execution. The main suspects are the other guests - including Daniel’s wife Sarah. Delving into the life of the deceased reveals a growing list of possible suspects, while the motive remains elusive.

February 1913. Lady Hardcastle and her diminutive but brave lady’s maid, Flo, have been invited by their friend JB McIntyre to spend the weekend at his recently renovated Tudor fort on a remote island off the Devonshire coast. But the holiday quickly turns sinister when first a number of valuable jewels go missing—and then a fellow guest is murdered with a most unusual weapon.

Full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of the first five Falco novels by Lindsey Davis, starring Anton Lesser as Marcus Didius Falco. The Silver Pigs: One fine day, A.D. 70, Sosia Camillina quite literally runs into Marcus Didius Falco on the steps of the Forum. It seems Sosia is on the run from a...

Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman’s suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things—and people—aren’t always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It’s no easy job—especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force.

Suffolk, England, 1936. The Reverend Alwyn Jones has made several enemies since becoming Rector of Addenham Magna. But nobody expected he would be so unpopular as to be bludgeoned to death in his own vestry during a church fete. And nobody noticed the disappearance of an old painting from the church on the same day as the murder.

‘A triumph’ — Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal The Sunday Times Top Five Bestseller A BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club Pick A Guardian Best Crime and Thrillers of the Year Pick An epic and sweeping mystery set in Georgian high society, Laura Shepherd-Robinson's The...