Showing results by publisher "Orion" in Mystery

Detective Matt Jackson has reached the end. His beloved wife, Polly, is the latest victim of 'NEON' - a serial killer who displays his victims in snaking neon lights - and he can't go on without her. Unable to take his life, Jackson hires a hitwoman to finish the job. But on the night of his own murder, he makes a breakthrough in the case, and at the last minute his hitwoman, Iris, is offered an irresistible alternative: help Jackson find and kill NEON in return for the detective's entire estate.

It was meant to be Caitlin's perfect summer, but betrayed by her best friend and her boyfriend, she finds herself hitchhiking home alone, heartbroken, and penniless. When a smiling family pulls up on the roadside to help her on her way, she's relieved at first - they seem friendly, normal. And when they offer her a warm bed in their cottage for the night, she's grateful - it's not safe for young women travelling alone in the dark, and she's in no rush to get home, where she knows a grave secret is due to blow her family apart.

Rome, 1659. Months after the plague has ravaged Rome, men are still dying in unnatural numbers, and rumour has it that their corpses do not decay as they should. The Papal authorities commission prosecutor Stefano Bracchi to investigate, telling him he will need considerable mettle to reach the truth. To the west of the Tiber, Girolama and her female friends are at work, helping other women with childbirths and foretelling their futures. Elsewhere in the city, a young wife, Anna, must find a way to escape her abusive husband. But in a city made by men for men, there are no easy paths out.

London, 1920. There's a killer on the streets of Camden Town, and no woman is safe. When a woman's body is dragged from the Regent's Canal on a freezing January night, eminent forensic pathologist and criminal sleuth Dr Bernard Spilsbury immediately detects foul play. And when a second woman washes up dead under similar circumstances, police realise they are looking for a dangerous predator. Is someone luring lonely spinsters to their deaths through a newspaper Lonely Hearts column? And can they be stopped before they strike again?

Tied to a derelict pier on Orkney, the bloated remains of a man bob in the waves, under the shadow of forbidding Sandisquoy House. The locals know him as William Spencer. But DCI Lukas Mahler identifies him as Alex Fleming - his former boss. Unable to step away from the case, Mahler tries to piece together why Fleming would retire to such a remote location. But the deeper he digs, the more disturbing the investigation becomes.

September 1920. A young bride is discovered dead at a country house on her wedding day. Has she fallen victim to the deadly Withington curse, which strikes down any woman who marries into the family? Forensic Pathologist Dr Bernard Spilsbury doesn't believe in such superstitions, and suspects a more earthly reason for Theodora Tupper's death. But as he and his trusty assistant Violet investigate, they soon discover that there are indeed ghosts at Withington Hall. And they, too, have a story to tell.

The last time the dream came, Sam was seven years old, and that was the night her parents were to die. Twenty-five years later, Sam's nightmares are starting to come true once more. Now a successful TV commercials producer, juggling her roles of career woman, wife and mother, she attempts to shut them out.

You know what it's like. A comment here, a closed door there, turning a blind eye to get ahead. My name is Sarah Lai. You won't have heard of me. A decade ago, I was on the cusp of being a big deal. But that was a long time ago. Now, instead of working in Hollywood, I teach students about it. And these are the two most important lessons you need to know about the film industry: 1) Those with the money have all the power. 2) Those with the power get whatever they want. Ignore these rules and the whole system will crumble. Stick to the rules and you'll succeed. But at what cost?

A tragic past. Thirty years ago, the body of a teenage boy was found in Gullspång's lake, and his best friend vanished from her home. Paul Bergman's death was ruled a suicide; Francesca was never found. An unsolved case. Drawn back to Gullspång, Detective Inspector Charlie Lager is haunted by the strange house she knew as a child, and by the missing girl who once lived there. Convinced that the original investigation was flawed, Charlie is determined to uncover what really happened all those decades ago.

Pete never wanted another child. Before baby Erin was born, they were happy. If Natalie hadn't got pregnant, he would never have done what he did. Natalie knows things have been difficult since the surprise arrival of Erin. Life with Pete and their two other children—Emily and Zadie—has been balancing on a knife-edge. Now their home is full of guests at a party Natalie didn't want to throw—and she's about to reach breaking point. But so is her family. Because everyone has a secret that they've been hiding and when Erin suddenly disappears everyone becomes a suspect.

George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking, unscrupulous journalist working for tyrannical Earl Janoth's media empire. And he's involved with the wrong woman - his boss' mistress, Pauline Delos. One day, as Stroud escorts Pauline home, he spies his boss returning from a trip. The next day, Pauline is found dead in her apartment. Janoth knows someone saw him enter Pauline's apartment on the night of the murder; he knows it must have been the man Pauline was seeing on the side; but he doesn't know his identity.

A priceless flower. A dangerous past. A terrible secret. On the eve of the Second World War, the last surviving specimen of a prized camellia plant lies secreted away on an English country estate. When amateur botanist Flora Lewis is employed to infiltrate the household and acquire the coveted bloom, she embarks on a perilous journey of discovery that leads her to a blossoming romance, and into terrible danger.

Adrianna, heir to the multimillion dollar Kensington nightclub empire, is planning her dream wedding - a lavish ceremony funded by exclusive sponsors, on the Kensington's private tropical island Elysium. There's only one flaw in her perfect plans. Elysium holds traumatic memories as the place where she was kidnapped and held hostage for three days on her 21st birthday - a case that was never solved...

Rome, 1938. As the world teeters on the brink of war, talented pianist Eva Valenti enters the house of widower Dante Cavallera to become his new wife. On the outside, the forces of Fascism are accelerating, but in her new home, Eva fears that something else is at work, whispering in the walls and leaving mysterious marks on Dante's young daughter. Soon she starts to wonder whether the house itself is trying to give up the secrets of its mysterious past - secrets that Dante seems so determined to keep hidden.

After 16 years apart, sisters Jessica and Emily are reunited. With the past now behind them, the warmth they once shared quickly returns, and before long Jess has moved into Emily's comfortable island home. Life couldn't be better. But when baby Daisy disappears while in Jess' care, the perfect life Emily has so carefully built starts to fall apart. Was Emily right to trust her sister after everything that happened before?

Popular playwright Philocles and his actors are hired to take his latest play to Corinth, to promote goodwill between the two cities. But on arrival, their guide and fixer Eumelos drops dead - a victim of poison.

Rookie police officer Rachel Hoffman has never seen a dead body before. It will not be her last. Her first murder case is a young woman - sent off to sleep with a mysterious note that quotes from an eight-hundred year old book: Dante's Divine Comedy. So begins an investigation that will haunt her for the rest of her life, and lead Rachel on a descent into obsession that upends everything she thought she knew about justice.

All Jay wants is to start again, to set himself up in a small, quiet town where no one knows him. Because here, no one will let him forget what they think he did the day his neighbour died in Flat 401. He just needs to keep doing what he's always done: treat people with kindness and respect, and try to stay out of trouble. But when a threatening note makes its way into the hostel he's forced to call home - Everyone is going to know what you really did - his hope for a fresh start begins to crumble.

Everyone in the village loves Joni Blackwood. She is beautiful and bold, and it's no surprise to anyone when on the annual village bonfire, she is crowned 'queen' of the festivities. After all, despite fierce competition from the charity-giving and churchgoing mothers in the village, she has won this honour five years in a row.

Jenny had never intended to return to the windy cliffside town of Innisard. But when her fiancé Richard suggests they marry in the Irish town she grew up in, the town where her parents were buried, she knows it's time to face the past so she can move on with her future. Faced with the prospect of her husband having a secret twin, Jenny feels the threads of her future begin to unravel, along with her wedding. How can she trust this man, for better or worse, when he's clearly hiding secrets? Why is his brother here in Innisard? And was the murderer intending to kill his twin, or Richard himself?