Whitstable Pearl Mysteries

Pearl Nolan always wanted to be a detective, but life - and a teenage pregnancy - got in the way of a police career, and instead she built up a successful seafood restaurant in her coastal hometown of Whitstable - famous for its native oysters. Now, at 39, and with son Charlie away at university, Pearl finds herself suffering from empty nest syndrome...until she discovers the drowned body of local oyster fisherman Vinnie Rowe, weighted down with an anchor chain, on the eve of Whitstable's annual oyster festival.

It's not the season of goodwill to all men.... The festive month is kicking off in style, and Pearl is rushed off her feet with her restaurant, The Whitstable Pearl. She's also busy planning her own family Christmas and providing mulled wine for a charity church fund-raiser when Christmas cards begin arriving all over town - filled with spiteful messages from an anonymous writer. Pearl's curiosity is piqued, but, having pledged not to take on a case at her detective agency before Christmas, she reluctantly agrees that Canterbury's DCI Mike McGuire should take over.

In the run-up to May Day, Pearl's detective agency finds itself taking on a curious case: someone has been stealing underwear from washing lines. The victims, all local women with nothing in common other than a taste for fine underwear, have clubbed together to enlist Pearl's services since the local police seem unable to help.

Pearl receives a surprise present from her mother, Dolly: an early summer break at a riverside manor house that has been recently transformed into an exclusive hotel - the newly named Villa Pellegrini. Pellegrini - the Italian word for pilgrims - reflects the fact that the building lies on the old Pilgrims Way into Canterbury, and Pearl is looking forward to the break, not least because DCI Mike McGuire has been neglecting her due to his work.

The Whitstable Pearl restaurant has been busy all summer while Pearl's detective agency has brought few interesting cases - until a prospective client calls.... Christina Scott confides that seven years ago she had the perfect life, with a seaside home, a confirmed pregnancy and Steven, a loving husband - until one morning she woke to find herself alone. Christina's husband had vanished, taking nothing with him but his car - which was later found abandoned at the beautifully mysterious Oare Marshes. Will Pearl help her solve the riddle of Steven's disappearance?

Discover the Whitstable Pearl mysteries: a combination of seafood, murder, and a multi-tasking heroine on the coast of Kent...Pearl's detective agency takes a back seat as she prepares to offer a warm welcome to a group of special visitors. A local Arts Festival is being held to honour a cultural exchange visit from representatives of Borken - Whitstable's Twin Town in Germany. Yet very soon, personality clashes surface among the participants; local politicians try to use the festival for their own ends while others jostle for improved billing on the festival programme..

A controversial new property development is planned in Whitstable which will encroach upon the green open space of the downs, to the dismay of Whitstable residents who view this as the thin end of the wedge with regard to local wildlife conservation. A campaign springs into life, spearheaded by a friend of Pearl's family, Martha Laker. A committed environmentalist, Martha is no stranger to controversy herself. She has also managed to divide opinion across town, with the locals viewing her as their fearless champion while establishment figures seeing only an interfering agitator.

It really is murder on the dance floor.... A new dance school opens in Whitstable run by celebrity tango champions – Tony and Tanya Ballard. Pearl Nolan knows herself to be an ace cook and a sharp private eye but has always left the dancing to her mother, Dolly, a former member of the town's infamous Fish Slappers dance troupe. But Pearl becomes intrigued by the Ballards when they visit The Whitstable Pearl restaurant, and she realises that dance classes could provide the perfect cover for her clandestine relationship with DCI Mike McGuire....

Pearl Nolan receives a wedding invitation from an old school friend she hasn't seen for years. Amy, a journalist, has chosen somewhere very special for her wedding ceremony—the 17th-century Kent country house of Mount Ephraim—and the invite includes a pre-nuptial stay for Pearl and other guests at this historic venue. Nestled in an 800-acre estate, and surrounded by beautiful gardens and a lake, Pearl sees this break as a chance to leave crime behind, along with her own detective agency and her restaurant, The Whitstable Pearl.

Pearl Nolan's coastal allotment has always been a quiet haven – somewhere for her to relax and cultivate special ingredients for her restaurant, The Whitstable Pearl. But a sudden clamour for allotments by the DFLs – Down From Londoners – causes tension in the local community when the council decides to accommodate them by dividing existing plots into smaller parcels. When anonymous complaints are submitted to the council about each of the local allotment holders, Pearl's services as private detective are called upon.