Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Crime Fiction

The second novel in the Inspector Bordelli series set in 1960s Florence - the detective must race to unmask a particularly brutal killer. April 1964, but spring hasn't quite sprung. The bad weather seems suited to nothing but bad news. And bad news is coming to the police station. First, Bordelli's friend Casimiro, who insists he's discovered the body of a man in a field above Fiesole. Bordelli races to the scene but doesn't find any sign of a corpse.

During a routine stake-out of a major client's former home, V.I. stumbles upon something she didn't expect to find: a body. The police immediately dismiss the victim as a drunken intruder, but V.I. sees things differently. Hired by the dead man's family to investigate, V.I. is lead back to the blacklists of the McCarthy era as well as into the murky operations of modern American government. Stopping at nothing in her quest for justice, V.I. soon discovers the perilous cost of bringing dark secrets to light....

The discovery of a destitute family in her office basement leads V.I. Warshawski to homeless charity Home Free. But the organisation's frosty reception gives V.I. cause for concern, especially when one of its board members is then found murdered, sprawled across her desk.... Taking on the case, V.I. uncovers a framework of domestic abuse and fraud which spreads across the whole of Chicago, as well as into the abandoned tunnels beneath the city streets - where more dark secrets have been buried....

Christie Doyle is living the dream: she has a beautiful mansion on the South Downs with an infinity pool and stables, and her husband, Kenny, spoils her rotten. It's her birthday and she is the centre of the most amazing party. And then the bombshell drops. Kenny confesses to an affair and asks for a divorce. Worse is to come when the 'other woman' - Lara, nineteen years old and pregnant with Kenny's child - is found dead. Suspicion falls on Christie and the Doyles' life is ripped apart as the police hunt for evidence.

Marguerite Gray is a lifestyle icon known for her garden parties, high-end business ventures, and being the muse behind the famous Serge Kuhnert painting, Marguerite by the Lake. Her presence is overpowering, her taste, legendary. For the last few years, Phoenix has been the gardener on the famed Rosecliff grounds, home of the Gray family: Marguerite and her husband Geoffrey. Phoenix came from humble beginnings, and now she works hard to craft the landscape that underpins Marguerite's brand.

A local woman is found in a children's playground, tied up and burned to death. Her clothes are neatly folded and laid at the base of a nearby tree. Her body, charred and still smoking, is on display for all to see. One town over, another victim is discovered in the scorched remains of a brutal fire, her clothes having been laid out just beyond the reach of the vicious flames.

Crime fiction packed with Italian flavour, Death in August is the first Inspector Bordelli mystery set in 1960s' Florence - perfect for fans of Andrea Camilleri or Donna Leon.

Florence, summer 1963. Inspector Bordelli is one of the few policemen left in the deserted city. He spends his days on routine work and his nights tormented by the heat and mosquitoes. Suddenly one night, a telephone call gives him a new sense of purpose: the suspected death of a wealthy Signora.

From the best-selling and prize-winning author of The Last Child and Iron House comes this long-awaited new thriller that will appeal to all fans of Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane. Elizabeth Black is a hero. She is a cop who single-handedly rescued a young girl from a locked cellar and shot two brutal kidnappers dead. But she's also a cop with a secret.

During a remote meeting, an official watches from Lisbon as his colleague, Inácio Machado, a Portuguese diplomat based in London's Portuguese embassy, dies of what looks to be a heart attack. When no one comes into the room to Inácio's aid, he tries frantically to contact the embassy to get immediate help. He tries and tries again, but no one picks up the phone and he's forced to call the British emergency services. When local police arrive, they walk into a disturbing scene. Everyone inside the building is dead, all seemingly from the same cause.

Spring, 1967. The trail of tragedy and destruction that followed the previous winter's flood seems to have died down; Florence is beginning to recover. But Inspector Bordelli does not feel the same sense of relief - he has not had a moment's peace since his investigation of a young boy's murder went disastrously wrong. Unsettled and embittered, Bordelli resigns from the force and leaves the city. He could not continue to work as a policeman while the perpetrators of such a terrible crime were still at large.

We arrived at a villa on the Amalfi Coast, ready to enjoy a sun-soaked weekend with our oldest friends - and one new face. By the end of the weekend, my husband is found dead. But how can I mourn him, when on the day of his funeral I discover he was having an affair? The only suspects are the women we went on holiday with. My oldest, closest friends. Do I really want to dig into my husband's secret? Do I really want to know who betrayed me?

Beloved author Mary Stewart's long-lost novella, now available again for the first time in 40 years. In 1879 a wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her family, who live on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, distraught. In 1968, 23-year-old Perdita West, secretary to the famous author Cora Gresham, visits Lanzarote, the strangest and wildest of the Canary Isles, on a research trip. They meet Cora's estranged son, Mike, and fall in love with the unusual, beautiful little island.

Kayleigh Towne is a beautiful and successful singer-songwriter, and Edwin Sharp is her biggest fan. When she replies to one of his fan letters with "XO", Edwin is convinced she loves him, and that her latest hit song, "Your Shadow", was written for him. Nothing Kayleigh or her lawyers can say persuades him otherwise. Then the singer gets an anonymous phone call; it's the first verse of "Your Shadow" playing. Soon after, one of the crew is murdered. Kathryn Dance knows stalking crimes are not one-off occurrences....

Rose is a dedicated wife and mother to her husband Grant and her son James. Having recently moved to a grand mansion in Florida, Rose is keen for James to fit in with his new life and hires a tutor. Isabel is young, smart and beautiful, and not only gets along with James, but she gets results. But when Isabel starts to get too close for comfort, Rose can't help but think that Isabel is looking for more than just tutoring. Can Rose uncover who exactly she has let into her house, or will this lesson be deadly?

Queen of psychological crime Sophie Hannah returns with a chilling new Culver Valley crime novel. A killer that the police are calling "Billy Dead Mates" is murdering pairs of best friends one by one. Before they die, each victim is given a small white book.... For months detectives have failed to catch Billy or work out what the white books mean. And then a woman, scared by what she's seen on the news, comes forward. Stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck has one of Billy's peculiar little books.

When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn't expect that anything much will change. She doesn't expect it to help with her chronic insomnia. And she doesn't expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: 'Kind, cruel, kind of cruel'. These are words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where….

Nicole had the perfect life, with her handsome surgeon husband Mark, their two young daughters and a beautiful big house. But everything changed when Mark suddenly left his job at the hospital six months ago. He's distant. Keeping secrets. And they are out of money. Then Nicole gets a strange message: There is a million euros in your bank account. All you need to do is drive a car. Yes, or no?

Things change quickly in the world of espionage and clandestine operations. Jude Lyon of MI6 remembers the captured terrorist bomb-maker. He watched him being flown off to Syria, back when Syria was 'friendly'. No one expected him to survive interrogation there. Yet the man is alive, and someone has broken him out of jail.

After decades of dereliction and inner-city neglect, Barrack Street, Cork is finally being excavated. The work uncovers the skeletal remains of six men, scattered around the site, their hands and feet all bound, all clearly killed violently, but many decades, even centuries, ago. When a seventh body is found, Detective Garda Alice McCann knows immediately this one is different. It's female, for a start, and considerably more recent. Who was she? And who killed her?

The Darke family and their associates are under attack. Ruby's burlesque club has been razed to the ground. Her son Kit's closest associate, Rob Hinton, is dead. And when Ruby's lover, gangland boss Thomas Knox, is blown to pieces by a car bomb, everyone suspects a rival gang. But is that the truth? As Kit and Ruby trawl the mean streets of London in search of answers, Daisy, Rob's young widow, cannot control her grief and soon she is attending illegal raves, picking up strangers and attending seances, while Rob's younger brother Daniel is handed the unenviable task of keeping her safe.