Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Private Investigators

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn't be surprised when an author's manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime. Karen can't ignore the plot's chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but there's a problem: the author died before he finished it.

Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the fictional Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. Nothing ever happens to Richard, and really that’s the way he likes it. One day, however, one of his older guests disappears, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wallpaper. Another guest, the exotic Valérie, persuades a reluctant Richard to join her in investigating the disappearance. Richard remains a dazed passenger in the case until things become really serious and someone murders Ava Gardner, one of his beloved hen...and you don’t mess with a fellow’s hens!

The gun was fired close to Charles Childress’ head, and his were the only fingerprints on it, forcing the police to conclude that the author committed suicide. But his friends know this is impossible, because Childress loved himself far too much. He had just begun attracting fame, writing new mysteries starring the iconic Sergeant Barnstable, and he had bright hopes for the future. His publisher hires corpulent genius Nero Wolfe to determine who cut Childress’ career short, and the detective finds no dearth of suspects.

Thirty years ago, a child was found in the New Jersey backwoods. He had been living a feral existence, with no memory of how he got there or even who he is. Everyone just calls him Wilde. Now a former soldier and security expert, he lives off the grid, shunned by the community - until they need him. A child has gone missing. With her family suspecting she’s just playing a disappearing game, nobody seems concerned except for criminal attorney Hester Crimstein. She contacts Wilde, asking him to use his unique skills to find the girl.

When Italy’s greatest opera singer, Rodolfo Argento, is killed in a terrible car accident, the police initially rule his death a tragic accident or suicide. But his elderly mother, Violetta, believes this to be poppycock! Her son was a brilliant driver and had too much to live for. She suspects foul play and turns to Private Investigator, Dan Armstrong to discover the truth. So Dan and Oscar travel to Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, to find out what really happened. There Dan discovers Rodolfo’s private life could have come straight out of a Shakespeare play.

Life as a private investigator in the suburbs of Florence isn’t always as glamourous as Dan Armstrong imagined it to be, until he is asked to investigate a recent spate of violent attacks on a Hollywood movie set in Florence. The star of the show, movie-star royalty Selena Gardner, fears her life is in imminent danger. As Dan investigates, he discovers secrets and scandals are rife within the cast and crew. But with no actual murder, Dan believes these attacks could simply be warnings to someone…until the first body is found.

Sami Kierce, a young American backpacker, wakes up. He is covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of a woman. Anna. Dead. He doesn’t know what happened to her. He begins to scream. Kierce, now a disgraced detective, is teaching night classes when he recognises a familiar face in the crowd. Anna. It’s unmistakably her. As soon as she sees Kierce, she runs.

When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it's not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days. Rebus fears the worst - and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. He wasn't the best father - the job always came first - but now his daughter needs him more than ever. As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast - and a small town with big secrets - he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn't want to find....

Private investigator Dan Armstrong is no stranger to working with criminals, but when he’s approached for help by Bianca Moretti, he’s on high alert. Bianca is intelligent and beautiful, and Dan likes her, but he also once sent her to prison…Bianca explains that a guest has been found dead at her father’s luxurious and private retreat on the beautiful Italian Riviera. The police are sure the death is accidental, but Bianca is convinced the man’s been murdered. Dan’s sure he can get to the bottom of things…as long as Bianca is telling him the whole truth.

Reacher had no idea where he was. No idea how he had got there. But someone must have brought him. And shackled him. And whoever had done those things was going to rue the day. That was for damn sure.

When Daryl Brackstone approaches private investigators Sebastian Clifford and Lucinda "Birdie" Bird about her mother's decades-old murder, she's hoping to finally uncover the truth. Her father died in prison for the crime, but Daryl has never believed in his guilt. As Seb and Birdie dig deeper, they discover Helen Brackstone wasn't just a suburban housewife—she was part of a secretive activist group investigating high-level corruption.

Detective Evan Bolton is gutted by his latest investigation. His friend and mentor, retired detective Rod McLeod, has been murdered, his body left in the trunk of a junkyard car. When McLeod’s daughter and grandson abruptly vanish, Evan knows it’s not a coincidence. Search and rescue canine specialist Rowan Wolff agrees as she and her dog, Thor, track the missing family.

Private investigator Charlotte Davidson was born with three things: looks; a healthy respect for the male anatomy; and the rather odd job title of grim reaper. Since the age of five, she has been helping the departed solve the mysteries of their deaths so they can cross. Thus, when three lawyers from the same law firm are murdered, they come to her to find their killer.

The complete BBC Radio adaptations of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency featuring Botswana's only female private detective agency, run by the irrepressible Precious Ramotswe. Based on the hugely popular novels and brought to life with music and full casts, these evocative productions return us to Botswana, where Precious has more mysteries to solve.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days - as he has done before - and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home. But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were published it would ruin lives - so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

My name is Justine Stone. I left home twelve years ago, never to return. Now my ex-boyfriend, Jake, has been accused of a double murder in the town where we grew up. It's my job as a barrister to make the case against him. But to face the courts, I need to know the truth. The real truth about what happened when we were young - not just the story I'll spin the jury. To reach the heart of it, I must face up to the part my own family played.

Matt is intrigued when his partner Liz brings home an old carpet bag she found dumped in the local library. It contains a pile of mysterious handwritten notes. Liz is convinced the bag belongs to Old Molly, a local woman who lives on the streets. The following day, a body is discovered in a marshy lagoon. It's Old Molly. Suffocated with an expensive men's handkerchief. Molly clearly knew something that got her killed. Liz believes she was trying to tell them something important. She calls on her nephew David to help decipher the carpet bag notes.

Ever since disgraced associate Orrie Cather’s suicide, armchair detective Nero Wolfe has relished retirement in his Manhattan brownstone on West 35th Street. Two years after Cather’s death, only a visit from Maria Radovich - and the urging of Wolfe’s prize assistant, Archie Goodwin - could draw the eccentric and reclusive genius back into business. Maria’s uncle, New York Symphony Orchestra conductor Milan Stevens, formerly known as Milos Stefanovic, spent his youth alongside Wolfe as a fellow freedom fighter in the mountains of Montenegro.

Substance D - otherwise known as Death - is the most dangerous drug ever to find its way on to the black market. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, leading first to disorentation and then to complete and irreversible brain damage. Bob Arctor, undercover narcotics agent, is trying to find a lead to the source of supply, but to pass as an addict he must become a user, and soon, without knowing what is happening to him, he is as dependent as any of the addicts he is monitoring.

Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny are attending the re-opening of Tyrone’s Castle, an ancient Cornish inn originally built by smugglers. Over dinner that night, the guests entertain one another with ghost stories inspired by local legends and superstitions. But it would appear that the curse of Tyrone’s Castle has struck for real when one of their number disappears into thin air. And then another....