When successful biographer Rona Parish is asked to write the life story of a recently deceased best-selling author, she is intrigued - to say the least. After all, Theo Harvey led a very colourful life and died in mysterious circumstances. But Rona’s husband Max is wary, and with good reason.... As Rona begins to delve into Theo Harvey’s life and death, and to interview his friends and family - some more willing than others - she realises that she has taken on a poisoned chalice.

When there is a violent murder at a historic Home Counties golf club, Superintendent John Lambert himself discovers the crime. For the first time in a long career, he finds himself conducting a murder inquiry among people he knows well. The victim is the chairman of the golf club and a prominent local businessman, and it is soon clear that the members of the Club Committee are the chief suspects. They are all prominent members of the local community, and Lambert is saddled with a Chief Constable who is uncomfortably aware of the fact.

Laura Hardy is recovering from a traumatic car crash. The incident proved fatal for her mother, and whilst Laura's life was spared, she is left injured, weak and grieving for her loss. Her brother, Edward, resolves that accommodating Laura at his family home, Four Winds, will provide the respite she so desperately needs. But as soon as she steps foot over the threshold, she is assailed by feelings of choking and terror, engulfed by a sense of despair.

The young man with the shock of white-blond hair lay spread-eagled on the floor, surrounded by fallen books. His hand reached out to the scattered pages, as though he was trying to tell her something. But who is he? How did he come to be killed in Flora’s ordinary little bookshop? Flora finds out he was staying at the Priory Hotel, and when the gardener suddenly dies in its beautiful grounds only a few days later, she is certain that something untoward is happening in her quiet village by the sea. 

The murder of any journalist is bound to whip the media into a frenzy. So when ex-BBC correspondent Ed Stonax is found dead, the last thing Detective Inspector Bill Slider needs to complicate his life is the reappearance of an old enemy issuing death threats. Trevor Bates, aka The Needle, is on the loose and trying to kill him. Along with that and a high-profile murder to solve, he must try to find a spare moment to marry Joanna before their baby is born.