Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Mystery

A young woman is brutally murdered on an island near Stockholm. Suspicion falls first on a family of Iraqi refugees. But then the victim's story begins to unfold. Lena Sundman was rude, dysfunctional, and young. Everything Dan Byrne disliked. Hiding out on the island after the sudden death of his wife, Dan finds himself drawn to the troubled girl, starting from the moment he rescues her from a gathering snowstorm.

John Venton's drunken fall from a cliff leaves his family with an embarrassing ghost. His twin children, Morwenna and Corwin, flee in separate directions as their mother, enraged by years of unhappy marriage, embraces merry widowhood. Only their grandfather finds solace in the crumbling house, endlessly painting their story onto a large canvas map. As the twins are drawn back to the house, they discover that their father's absence is part of the map's mysterious pull.

Would you break the law to see justice done? In Sheffield, a bankrupt businessman has murdered his family. It seems like an open-and-shut case: A desperate man resorting to desperate measures. In Middlesbrough, a woman named Angel is heading south. She is a woman alone. A prostitute. Now a murderer. And she has only one thing on her mind: Revenge. Two crimes, a hundred miles apart, but a terrible secret connects them.

When a young girl is discovered dead on an isolated Irish country road, it seems to be a simple hit and run. Then the cops see the tattoo on her back - a pair of beautifully wrought angel wings. Forensic investigator Reilly Steel is soon on the scene and she suspects that there is more to this case than a straightforward murder. Then the angel tattoo is traced to other children - both dead and alive - who are all similarly marked.…

PI John Craine is hired to investigate the brutal murder of a Somali youth. The police are treating the murder as a gang-related crime, but the victim’s aunt claims the police are trying to cover up her nephew's death. While investigating the case, Craine learns of the sudden death of his friend Leon Mercer. It appears to be a tragic accident, but Craine soon finds himself entangled in two deeply suspicious investigations.

A married airline pilot is found dead in his London flat, surrounded by shards of glass and the shattered remains of a champagne bottle. But who was the man seen with the pilot on the concourse of Heathrow airport? Private investigator Billy Rucker joins the case at the request of the pilot's brother, a well-known Tory MP. For Rucker it's the start of a long lonely trail through the city, clutching a grainy black and white photo and a gnawing suspicion in the pit of his stomach....

When Frankie sees the unforgettable face of her long-lost love in a passing train, she turns straight round and goes after him. For she, more than anyone, "knows" he is dead. She was there when it happened, attended the inquest, and later served a prison sentence for his manslaughter. Frankie, Cristina, Cassandra, Jenny, Pippa.... They are five women living quite separate lives - in Antwerp, Paris, Venice, Rio, Bath - except for one crucial fact. Each has devoted her life to the same duplicitous man.

Erin Paterson runs her grandfather's law firm in Glasgow, and is an uncompromisingly aggressive negotiator. But the success of her practice is not echoed in her personal life. Erin's father has had a stroke. She can't stand her mother. Her sister's a flake and their brother, Leland, committed suicide. She's not doing too well with her boyfriend either, whom she discovers in flagrante the day that an old school friend, Lucy Grant, is murdered.

It's a steamy, sultry day in a Mediterranean summer. Wealthy lawyer Terrence, his wife Cathy, their daughter Lucy, and a doctor are relaxing on the yacht that is Terence's pride and joy. Suddenly, a storm whips up from nowhere.

Habitual teenage delinquent Wayne Banstead is expelled from yet another school. He finds himself hauled off to Gafin School for Misdirected Boys, a "special school" for "special children".

Richie, a man fresh out on licence and, desperate for money to support his new family, agrees to pick up a converted air pistol for local drug dealer Goose. When Richie is beaten up and robbed, he's forced to retrieve the gun, as well as question his career choice.

PI John Craine has come to Hale Island to get away from it all. But within hours he stumbles across the dead body of a young girl on the beach. When the police arrive the body has inexplicably disappeared. Or did Craine imagine it in the first place? Determined to get at the truth, Craine starts asking questions. But it seems that no one on the island is talking. And all too soon he finds himself tangled up in a deadly network of fear and violence…

There's a very good reason to be afraid of the dark... Alone on Dartmoor without a car, Erin O'Leary has gone to ground, hiding from Russian assassins. Her new neighbours are a disparate bunch: Gerald and Sylvia, whose social pretensions exceed their altered means; Ned and Lisa, newlyweds who only know each other from work; and embittered Auriol, abandoned along with the dog. Crazy Betty, who lives in the woods, guards the land she considers her own.

The world of Cardiff's sex trade hits the headlines when a woman is butchered and left for dead. Pauline distributes condoms to the women of the red light district and is known locally as "the rubber woman". She and Megan, a forensic psychologist, make it their mission to stop more women from becoming victims. They don't know it yet, but one of them is already marked out for death.

Having coffee with a famous footballer would be the highlight of the year for many people. Not so for private eye Billy Rucker. Just hours after meeting Jack Draper - 'Super Jack' to his adoring fans - Billy is standing over the brutalised body of a girl. A girl who was Jack Draper's mistress. Jack had wanted Billy to catch the person who had been stalking him. But now all the evidence points to Super Jack being a cold-blooded killer.

Sixteen years ago PI John Craine's wife, Stacy, was brutally murdered. Since then he has buried himself in work by day, and whisky by night. But one phone call changes everything. The mother of a missing young woman asks for his help, and Craine finds himself at the centre of a sinister web of corruption that leads back into the murky waters of the past...

There is someone on the streets of London who will stop at nothing to make a point... As she walks home from work one night, Josephine Thomas is brutally attacked and left to bleed to death. Billy Rucker had known her, briefly, and he soon hears about the tragedy. At the request of Jo's distraught colleague, he agrees to look into the murder.

It's 1960s America, and Herbie Gneiss is forced to leave college to get a job. Mr. Gibbon, a patriotic veteran of three wars, works with Herbie at Kant-Brake toy factory. When Herbie is drafted, Mr. Gibbon feels that he, too, should do something for his country; and so he decides to rob the Mount Holly Trust Company....

Ex-policeman turned private investigator Billy Rucker has been asked to trace Lucy Bradley, a teenage runaway on the streets of London. But when he finds her, she has been strangled and stabbed and abandoned in a disused house. Despite this being a case for the Metropolitan Police, Billy is persuaded by Lucy's father to track down her killer. And he soon finds himself embroiled in an investigation which leaves him with only one way out...

Ivan Connor's publisher has just turned down his wonderful new novel. His agent is out of ideas, and the only person to turn up at his latest reading is his mum. He's also desperately jealous of the marketable Francesca Brady, a hugely successful author of fat romantic books for fat romantic people, whose expansive hair and bright red lipstick attack him from posters everywhere he goes. But Ivan has a brilliant idea. He's going to beat Francesca at her own game....