Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Amateur Sleuths

Sam is catapulted back to those teenage years spent with her best friends, teasing out each other's secrets by announcing things they had never, ever done. Pushing each other's boundaries, growing closer and growing up. If only they had stopped there. But they added their own rules. They went from sharing secrets to sharing firsts. First kisses, first drinks, first fake IDs. And that was before it all went spiralling out of control. Before that day in the woods ended it all.

Lottie has saved all year for her family vacation by the sea with her husband and young son. But as soon as they arrive at their rental, it is clear they have made a huge mistake coming here. Next door, Olivia looks like just another wealthy out-of-towner buying up local property, only to leave it empty for ten months of the year. But Olivia has a secret plan for her second home. When one of the houses goes up in flames, and a body is pulled from the ashes, the secrets both Lottie and Olivia have been keeping threaten to destroy their families.

Connie lost her words at the age of five, the day she witnessed her mother and father's untimely death. Since then she has been all but mute, only being able to choke out a few select words. Now, years on, Connie's husband is on his deathbed, and all she can do is quietly sit by his side. But there are so many dreadful secrets locked up in Connie's silent prison. And time is running out to set them free....

After an acclaimed career in ceramics making things and breaking things, it is now Jay herself who has cracked. Recovering from a breakdown, she and her husband, Simon, move to the desolate edges of the Yorkshire moors, where they find and fall in love with the Two Houses: a crumbling Victorian property whose central rooms were supposedly so haunted that a previous owner had them cut out from the building entirely.

Maggie is a husband watcher. A snooper, a marriage doctor, a destroyer of dreams, a killer of happy ever afters. She runs her own private detective agency specialising in catching those who cheat. Helene is a husband catcher. A beautiful wife, a doting stepmother, a perfect homemaker and a dazzling presence at parties. She has landed herself with one of the most eligible bachelors in town - handsome property developer Gabe Moreau. Alice is just a teenager. A perfect daughter to Gabe, a kind stepchild to Helene, a tragic girl to a dead mother.

When Jenny's old therapist is murdered and she is implicated, she realises that someone else out there might know her deepest, darkest secret. Seven patients. One dark secret. Jennifer Nielsen has her life on track. Until she gets news that her former Psychiatrist, Phillip Walton, has been brutally murdered and that she is implicated. Philip knew her darkest secrets. And circumstances of his murder suggest that someone else out there knows them, too.

1912. Released from the Secret Service, Wiggins sets out for New York and his lost lover, Bela. But after an altercation on board, he finds himself among the low-life of Britain's poorest city, Dublin. Wiggins falls in with gangster Patrick O'Connell and is soon driving the boss' girlfriend around town. Molly wants O'Connell to support her Irish nationalist cause and then they go to find them in America. Finally, Wiggins can solve the mystery of Bela - and meet his old mentor, Sherlock Holmes, in a story of escalating intrigue, danger and violence.

It's the 1930s, and a mysterious illness is spreading over Scotland. But the noble and ancient family of Inverkillen, residents of Loch Down Abbey, are much more concerned with dwindling toilet roll supplies and who will look after the children now that Nanny has regretfully (and most inconveniently) departed this life. Then Lord Inverkillen, earl and head of the family, is found dead in mysterious circumstances. The inspector declares it an accident but Mrs MacBain, the head housekeeper, isn't so convinced.

Nuala knows nothing of her husband James' past. He made her swear that she would never contact his family and never, ever visit the place he was from. But now James is dead, and Nuala is alone. Grieving and desperate, she decides to ignore his warning. Nuala is about to find out that some secrets are better left buried - and that uncovering the truth about the man she married will have terrible consequences....

After Cathy's boyfriend surprisingly ends things she is distraught. She also needs to move out of their flat and find a new place to live. When a friend tips her off about a room to rent it seems like her luck has suddenly changed. The house is on one of the city's most sought-after streets and the live-in landlord, whose son has just left home, is charming and kind. Best of all, it's affordable. Cathy's invited to make herself at home. But there is one rule: she can never go into the garden. Everything else seems so perfect she doesn't think twice.

Loch Down Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball. Including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen clan, the Abbey's former residents. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour. Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey's library - as dead as a doornail.