Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in Crime Fiction

The year is 1832, and great change and reform are sweeping England, but 23-year-old Joshua Weyland is languishing in Key West, USA. He was third mate on the schooner Jessica, which ran aground in suspicious circumstances, and the skipper has been arrested on charges of deliberately wrecking his ship. Josh is eager to get back to England to marry his fiancée, so he ships as second mate on a brig bound for Bristol. But when the ship founders off the coast of Cornwall, it's clear it's been deliberately wrecked.

1817. Dawn breaks on a summer's day in Chalk Farm, London, and the scene is set for a duel between a lady's two ardent admirers. Paul Skillen has been teaching Mark Bowerman how to shoot properly and, although he is not sanguine of his chances, stands as his second. Although the duel is broken up, the passions behind the duel seem to spill out into the full light of day when one of the two duellists is found dead, shot between the eyes.

A body neatly wrapped in brown paper is found by the gardener, Mr Turtle, on his garden rubbish heap. The police are again summoned to the convent, and we meet again the now Deputy Commissioner Pearson, along with many of the characters so charmingly and empathetically described in the first audiobook.

After the death of leading haematologist Professor Anstruther, antiquarian book dealer Anthony Sparrow is tasked with clearing out his mansion of its books and papers. He soon begins to question the real circumstances of the old man's death: was he in fact murdered, and if so, who was responsible? The answer might be found in the personal diaries and letters which Sparrow unearths. But as he closes in on the answer, the perspective suddenly shifts and everything which he was sure about dissolves into darkness and shadows.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget finds it impossible to refuse when she receives a desperate phone call from an old acquaintance, obstetrician Charles Tissot. One of his patients, Heather Krimble, alleges that Tissot seduced her at a party and that he is the father of her unborn child. His career on the line, Charles begs Claire to expose Heather's fragile mental state and discredit her wild claims....

Max Tobin brings his all-male dance company to Steeple Martin, with his new ballet, Pendle, based on the infamous Pendle Witch Trials, due to be performed at the Oast Theatre. There have been unpleasant incidents during rehearsals in London, and Max asks Libby Sarjeant and her friend Fran Wolfe to look into them. To everyone’s surprise, the incidents continue at the Oast, and their seriousness escalates until, inevitably, someone is murdered. While the police look into the murder, Libby and Fran wonder why someone seemed so set against the ballet. 

A novelist ambles down the lanes of a cosy country village, replete with Tudor houses and quaint cottages. In her writer's mind she pictures the sordid truth beyond the veneer, a seemingly laughable proposition - until the coming of the letters. Anonymous letters from a poisoned pen, sowing discord and defaming everybody from the Rector to the 'queen of the village' Miss Decima Asprey. Naturally, where there is venom in the air and dark secrets are threatening to come to light, the shadow of death is not far behind.

Nurse Florence Shaw is worried about her patient and friend, elderly widow Nora Selleck. When she encounters Nora in the market town of Stone seeming confused, Florence decides to pay her a visit in more familiar surroundings. But at Nora's house she meets Ben Evans, a mysterious young stranger who has befriended Nora. Who is Ben, and why is he encouraging Nora to miss her surgery appointments? Florence doesn't trust Ben. She's sure he doesn't have Nora's best interests at heart and is a threat to her vulnerable patient.

Mrs Gladden uses similar methods to her male counterparts - she enters scenes of crime incognito, tracking down killers while trying to conceal her own tracks and her identity from others. She does much physical detective work, examining scenes of crime, looking for clues and employing all manner of skill, subterfuge, observation and charm to achieve her ends. Characteristic of the casebooks of the time, Forrester's book features various cases narrated by Mrs Gladden, including murder, fraud and the sale of a baby.

Julie Bryson and rookie detective, Andy Green, once again aid Scottish detective Bob Burns. When Andy becomes the unwitting recipient of a drop of £100,000 in used notes, the trio become enmeshed in a web of murder, intrigue and Caledonian skulduggery, as the action shifts to Sicily, New York and a remote Hebridean island. The arrival of a Sicilian blacksmith as the island’s new laird leads to some hilarious misunderstandings as the line between the good and bad guys becomes increasingly blurred. After many a Highland shenanigan, the mystery is finally solved...or is it?

The droll Scots detective, Bob Burns, is once more aided by forensic scientist and ladyfriend, Dr Julie Bryson, and abetted by overly-keen Andy Green. Working undercover on a cruise liner bound for the Canary Islands, Bob and his two sidekicks have plenty to cope with. The discovery of a severed finger in a passenger’s quiche lorraine sparks an investigation full of greed, guile, deceit and double-dealing. Does the finger belong to an alleged man-overboard victim? Was the man-overboard victim pushed, or did he commit suicide? Is it all just a cleverly engineered insurance scam?