Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Crime Fiction

Late on midsummer's night there is a splash in the river Thames. A body is found on an island, asphyxiated and laced with strange markings. For DCI Craig Gillard it's a baffling case. The victim's identity is elusive, clues are scarce and every witness has something to hide. Meanwhile one of Britain's deadliest serial killers is finally up for parole after a deal to reveal the location of two missing bodies. The felon has his own plans to get even with witnesses, accusers and the officer who caught him 30 years before. And who was that? A young trainee by the name of Gillard.

An eighty-year-old man is found murdered in his home. His age and standing in the community makes finding his killer difficult–why would anyone harm an elderly man? What threat could he possibly be to anyone? With no apparent motive, DS George Cross canvases the community for potential suspects but the man was known as generous, charitable, community-minded. Each interview about who the man is muddies the picture further. So Cross decides to look for who he was–revealing a past that is far less honourable than his present . . .

In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz investigated a corrupt judge who was taking millions in bribes from a crime syndicate. She put the criminals away, but only after being attacked and nearly killed. Three years later, and approaching 40, she is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change. Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby's father was murdered 20 years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold.

The Last Don is Mario Puzo at his finest - a masterful saga of the last great American crime family, the Clericuzios, and their powerful reach into Hollywood and Las Vegas. Domenico Clericuzio is a wise and ruthless man who, in his old age, is determined to create a life free from criminal activities for his grandchildren. But as he strives to establish his heirs in legitimate society, secrets from his family's past spark a vicious and bloody war between cousins.

Washington Poe has a story to tell. And he needs you to listen. You'll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder. He'll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the gifted analyst Tilly Bradshaw struggled to break it. He'll tell you how the man's murder was connected to a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier when a young girl massacred her entire family. And finally, he'll tell you about the mercy chair.

Two sisters on trial for murder. They accuse each other.

Twenty years ago: One rainy night, Olivia Rutherford is driving three friends home when a figure in the road causes her to swerve and crash. Regaining consciousness, she finds herself alone in the car—her friends have vanished. They are never seen again. Now: Journalist Jenna Halliday visits the close-knit community of Stafferbury to persuade Olivia to talk and solve the mystery of the girls' disappearance. But Olivia won't speak. What happened? Is Olivia hiding something? Why are the people of Stafferbury so frightened?

I’m sure if I hadn’t spilled beer all over him and gave a subtle suggestion of where he could shove his best friend’s package, perhaps we would have started out on a better note. How was I supposed to know that the dude was the captain of Bradford Private’s precious football team? I had just witnessed my boyfriend three inches deep inside some random girl. Surely you can't blame a girl for word vomit after such a traumatic experience.

Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has just inherited one of the most notorious cases of her career. Two years ago, a former beauty queen's body washed up on the shore of Wallops Island, Virginia. She was last seen on a boat with her fiancé, who has since been held in jail while awaiting trial. Scarpetta must act as the expert witness for the case—an investigation previously botched by another forensic pathologist. After a gruelling cross-examination by the prosecutor, Scarpetta leaves the court only to discover that the sister of the judge on her case has been found dead.

Jack Widow is in New York City for his birthday. He’s living the good life without a care in the world. Not until his hotel phone rings at midnight. A woman with a seductive Russian accent speaks, making a desperate plea for her life. She needs help. She claims she’s being held captive by a group of dangerous men. And they’re going to kill her.

Marc Seidman's idyllic world is brutally ripped apart when he is gunned down in his home. Twelve days later he wakes up in hospital to learn that his wife is dead and his baby daughter Tara is missing. A ransom demand is made and agreed to. But something goes terribly wrong. The kidnappers escape, and Marc remembers the ransom note's ominous warning: there will be no second chance. An agonising eighteen months pass with no word. And then, as Marc has just about given up all hope of seeing his daughter again, a package arrives with a note attached: want a second chance?

When Chief Inspector Gamache arrives in picturesque Three Pines, he steps into a village in chaos. A man has been found bludgeoned to death, and there is no sign of a weapon, a motive or even the dead man's name. As Gamache and his colleagues start to dig under the skin of this peaceful haven for clues, they uncover a trail of stolen treasure, mysterious codes and a shameful history that begins to shed light on the victim's identity - and points to a terrifying killer...

When a woman’s body is discovered submerged in a crab pot in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself with a tough case to untangle. Before they can identify the killer, Tracy and her colleagues on the Seattle PD’s Violent Crimes Section must figure out who the victim is. Her autopsy, however, reveals she may have gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. So who was she running from?

Pete Banning was Clanton's favourite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbour and a faithful member of the Methodist Church. Then one cool October morning in 1946, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends and to the people of Clanton - was 'I have nothing to say'.

As the daughter of a London crime boss, PC Philomena McCarthy walks a thin blue line keeping the two sides of her complicated life apart. On patrol one night she discovers a child in pyjamas, wandering alone. Taking Daisy home, Phil uncovers the aftermath of a deadly home invasion, as three miles away a prominent jeweller is found strapped to an explosive in his ransacked store.

Walter Dabney is a family man. A loving husband and the father of four grown daughters, he’s built a life many would be proud of. But then the unthinkable happens. Standing outside the FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, Dabney shoots school teacher Anne Berkshire in cold blood before turning the gun on himself. One of the many witnesses is Amos Decker; a man who forgets nothing and sees what most miss. Baffled by what appears to be a seemingly senseless and random killing, Decker is thrust into the investigation to determine what drove this family man to pull the trigger.

When Kurt Wallander first appeared in Faceless Killers back in 1990, he was a senior police officer, just turned 40, with his life in a mess. His wife had left him, his father barely acknowledged him; he ate badly and drank alone at night. The Pyramid chronicles the events that led him to such a place. We see him in the early years, doing hours on the beat whilst trying to solve a murder off-duty; witness the beginnings of his fragile relationship with Mona, the woman he has his heart set on marrying.

The impeccably dressed Miss Kate Cocks might look more like a schoolmistress than a policewoman, but don't let that fool you. She's a household name, wrangling wayward husbands, seeing through deceptive clairvoyants, and rescuing young women (whether they like it or not) with the help of a five-foot cane and her sassy junior constable, Ethel Bromley. When shop assistant Dora Black is found dead on a city beach, Miss Cocks and Ethel are ordered to stay out of the investigation and leave it to the men. But when Dora's workmate goes missing soon after, the women suspect something sinister.

After her parents’ death in a car crash two years ago, Eve is back in the tumbledown family house on Magnetic Island, surrounded by nosy neighbours, an over-friendly possum and a cast of eccentric locals. All Eve has left is her sister Tilly–not that she’s seen much of her lately, between Tilly’s history of disastrous relationships and her tendency to drink too much. And when Eve is introduced to her new boyfriend Matt, a skydiving instructor and dead ringer for a young Richard Gere, she senses trouble.

Following a suicide bombing in central London, series SAS hero Danny Black is recruited to be part of an assassination squad, directed by a joint MI5/MI6/CIA committee and tasked with hunting down and killing the terrorist cells believed to be planning further atrocities.