Showing titles in Police Procedurals

When Amy Whyte and Penny Brogan leave a nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning and don’t arrive home, their families are beside themselves with worry. Conor Dowling has just been released from prison, a man full of hatred for Amy, the girl who put him behind bars in the first place. The case is given to Detective Lottie Parker when the girls’ blood-soaked bodies are found, days later, in a derelict squat. Chillingly, both girls are clutching silver coins in their hands - what message is this killer leaving behind? All the signs point to Conor, but his alibi is watertight.

WINNER OF THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2023 'The most joyously exciting novel I've read in years . . . [The] sense of fun and adventure . . . allied to a remarkable lightness of touch over nightmarish subject matter, makes for the kind of novel that inspired me to write...

As Eve pieces together clues that suggest identity theft, gang connections, and a deeply personal act of revenge, she hopes to track down whoever committed the unholy act of murdering a priest. Until a second murder, in front of an even larger crowd of worshippers, knocks the whole investigation sideways.

For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…. Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.

When the remains of two bodies are found in an open grave along a desolate highway in Stillwater, Minnesota, Special Agent Nikki Hunt knows exactly who they are. The bright blue jacket lying on the frozen earth belongs to Kellan Rhodes, the missing boy she’s desperately been trying to find for the last two days. The other body is his mother Dana, who had been Nikki’s lead suspect.

Detective Lauren Pengelly has only been part of the Penzance police force for less than two years, but that’s enough time to know that the sleepy Cornish town doesn’t see many murders. So, when the bones of a woman with a hole in her skull are discovered behind a derelict cottage, she immediately assumes the worst. Rallying her team, Lauren is flooded with a strange sense of relief when the bones turn out to be almost twenty years old, not a recent victim. But it quickly turns to dread when she receives her second heart-stopping call of the day–a little girl, Isla, has been kidnapped.

FBI special agent Zoe Spencer uses skeletal remains to recreate the faces of murder victims through sculpture. Though highly scientific, the process is also sensitive and intimate; she becomes attached to the individuals she identifies, desperate to find justice for each. As Zoe examines old remains, she sees a teenage girl looking back at her - the victim in a cold case from over a decade ago.

A torso in a suitcase looks like an impossible case, but Sean Duffy isn’t easily deterred, especially when his floundering love life leaves him in need of a distraction. So with detective constables McCrabban and McBride, he goes to work identifying the victim. The torso turns out to be all that’s left of an American tourist who once served in the U.S. military. What was he doing in Northern Ireland in the midst of the 1982 Troubles?

The beautiful young woman is perfectly still, curled up in the trunk of the car, her long dark hair hiding her face. Her cotton blouse has ridden up a little, revealing two small dots an inch apart on her back. Just like the others. Guilt has kept FBI Agent Tori Hunter away from her home in Manchester Bay, Minnesota for 20 years, ever since her twin sister disappeared on the Fourth of July, when the girls should have been together. But when she receives an anonymous newspaper clipping about another missing girl, Genevieve, Tori is dragged back to the past.

One dark winter’s morning, bride-to-be Cara Dunne is found hanging in her home, dressed in her wedding dress, with a lock of hair removed. Detective Lottie Parker is first on the scene. Looking at Cara’s bruised and battered body, she wonders who could have hated her enough to kill her at the happiest time of her life. The case takes a darker turn that afternoon with another shocking discovery - the broken body of a second young woman, pushed from the roof of the hospital where she worked. Fiona Heffernan was also due to be married....

When young widow Éilis Lawlor disappears in the middle of the night, with her two little children asleep in their beds, it is a chilling case for Detective Lottie Parker. Since her husband’s tragic death, Éilis is all her children have, and when Lottie sees Éilis’ house keys and phone still lying on the kitchen counter, she is terrified for the vulnerable mother’s safety. Then Éilis’ broken body is found by a nearby lake, wrapped in an unfamiliar yellow dress, her mouth sealed with duct tape–and Lottie’s worst fears are confirmed. Someone wanted this beautiful widow dead.

When the dismembered body of a notorious banker washes up on the beach at Luss, DCI John Lomond finds a sinister message carved into the dead man's forehead. And the same message has just been found on a tortured businessman in Gullane on the east coast. With a twisted vigilante on the loose, and a brewing scandal threatening to pull his Major Investigations Team apart, they and Lomond must join forces with a team from Edinburgh – led by Lomond's ex.

In 1979, a florist's lifeless body surfaced in the serene waters of Dyes Inlet, an enchanting estuary connected to the vast Puget Sound. Although the murder was never solved, a sinister heart carved into the victim's back made the case unforgettable. Forty-four years later, history repeats itself as not one, but two more victims are discovered within 48 hours, each bearing the exact same chilling carving in their flesh. The county's darkest mystery is about to be ripped wide open.

Opening night at New York's New Globe Theater turns from stage scene to crime scene when the leading man is stabbed to death center stage. Now Eve Dallas has a high profile, celebrity homicide on her hands. Not only is she lead detective, she's also a witness - and when the press discovers that her husband owns the theater, there's more media spotlight than either can handle.

Summer 1933. Fresh from the discovery that she has family living nearby, Kitty Underhay has packed her carpet bag, commandeered a chambermaid and set off on a visit to stately Enderley Hall. She’s looking forward to getting to know her relatives, as well as the assembled group of house guests. But when elderly Nanny Thoms is found dead at the bottom of the stairs after papers of national importance are stolen, Kitty quickly learns that Muffy the dog’s muddy paws on her hemline are the least of her problems.

When the body of a church warden is discovered, DI Tom Janssen and his team must investigate the circumstances that led to his death. Whilst navigating the fallout from the conclusion of their previous case, the Norfolk CID team is under intense scrutiny with another police force investigating their recent conduct. Some people would like nothing more than to see the team fail. With no clear motive for murder or a reason to take his own life, the team have little to go on.

The young woman standing on Lottie's step was a stranger. She was clutching the hand of a young boy. "Help me," she said to Lottie. "Please help me." One Monday morning, the body of a young pregnant woman is found. The same day, a mother and her son visit the house of Detective Lottie Parker, begging for help to find a lost friend.

When DCI Lesley Clarke suffers an injury and is told to relocate from Birmingham to rural Dorset, she's expecting some peace and quiet. But before she even starts her new job, she witnesses a murder at the iconic Corfe Castle. Lesley must get to know her new team, learn a new patch, and solve the mystery. What's more, team are mourning the loss of her predecessor, DCI Tim Mackie, who allegedly committed suicide. But was Mackie's death suspicious? And did it involve someone in her team?

Her shoes pinched as she shivered in the cold night air. She just wanted to get home. A taxi slowed to a halt next to her, and as she buckled her seat belt, she noticed the child’s seat next to her and felt safe. But when she saw his eyes in the mirror, a shiver of terror shook her to her core... When a young woman’s body is found on a patch of wet grass in the early hours of the morning, Detective Lottie Parker mourns the young life so brutally snatched away.

When 14-year-old Zoe Johnson doesn't come home on a Monday night in early December, the alarm bells in Kings Lake Central police station do not ring straight away - after all, she's from the Dockmills, one of the toughest estates in the town. But for Detective Sergeant DC Smith, due to retire in just three weeks' time, there are some strange echoes of the case that has haunted him for the past 13 years. Maybe it's simply his over-developed sense of irony, or maybe, in his final days as a police officer, Smith must look once more into the eyes of a serial killer.