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

From the creator of Falco comes Falco: the new generation, featuring her unforgettable heroine Flavia Albia in her fourth novel. Life is sweet for Flavia Albia and her soon-to-be husband Faustus. But his new job as a building contractor runs into a problem: At the Garden of the Hesperides a barmaid went missing years before; now the workmen start unearthing her bones. Albia takes on the task of finding out what happened.

Decades earlier Appius Tranquillus Surus wrote his will: it freed his slaves and bequeathed his businesses to them. He left an orchard to the Prisci, a family he was friendly with, on the condition that his freedmen could still take its harvest. The convoluted arrangement has led to a feud between the two families, each of which has its own internal strife. Endless claims and counterclaims lead to violence and even death. Lawyers have given up in exasperation as the case limps on. The original will has disappeared, along with a falsified codicil - and might there be another one?

Maisie Cooper is done catching murderers, thank you very much. Having recently brought her brother's killers to justice, she's ready to go back to her glamorous life in Paris. But little does she know that the idyllic Sussex countryside is home to more than one criminal... When Maisie receives a letter asking for her help in the little village of Bunting from the lady of the manor, she is curious enough to accept. She is then shocked to discover that the very woman requesting her assistance is her estranged Aunt Phyllis, who believes that someone is out to kill her.

Against the backdrop of pre-WWII Berlin, British pianist Audrey James and her best friend Isle face the imminent threat of Nazi oppression. When Ilse's family disappears and Nazi officers confiscate their home, Audrey becomes their housekeeper and Ilse is forced into hiding in the attic-a prisoner in her own home. As borders close and rumours of death camps swirl, Audrey makes the life-changing decision to join the covert resistance and risk everything to protect her loved ones.

Josie is at rock bottom. Burned out, heartbroken and recovering from an abusive relationship, she lives a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean. Josie's hopes of a fresh start are horribly derailed when she stumbles across a dead woman's decaying, ant-infested body in the woods. The grim discovery sends her into a downward spiral, forcing her to face uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling the swarming black ants that seem to have burrowed into her mind . . . and her flesh.

Carolyn, Bronnie, Elise, and Kendall are bound together by one thing - their four daughters are best friends at the highly competitive Orla Flynn Academy for the Performing Arts. Last year the foursome exploded because of brutal bullying between the girls, but they've since forgiven each other. The mothers, however, haven't been able to move on. When new threats surface and 'accidents' begin to happen - just as a mysterious new girl enters the scene - the mothers take matters into their own hands.

After PC Jemima's Cotton's first murder investigation, she knows now to trust no one. She leaves the gifted lasagnes uneaten in her freezer and won't go near a cake sale. But when Perry Noble, head of the Little Cote darts club, is found dead on his doorstep, even PC Cotton can't believe she's found herself involved in yet another murder investigation in this sleepy village. As Jemima starts to investigate, she discovers Perry had his fair share of enemies...especially among the darts players themselves. So it's no surprise when the murder weapon is revealed to be a poisoned dart.

On her way home from an all-night surveillance job, V.I. Warshawski's dogs lead her on a mad chase that ends when they find a badly injured teen hiding in the rocks along Lake Michigan. The girl only regains consciousness long enough to utter one enigmatic word. V.I. helps bring her to a hospital, but not long after, she vanishes before anyone can discover her identity. As V.I. attempts to find her, the detective uncovers an ugly consortium of Chicago power brokers and mobsters who are prepared to kill the girl before VI can save her.

V.I. Warshawski's Chicago neighbourhood is prospering. As it's out with the old and in with the new, long-term residents like elderly Hattie Frizell find themselves viciously under threat.... But that's not all that's troubling V.I. When the body of her neighbour's friend is found washed up in the Sanitary Canal, her investigations lead her to uncover a world of corporate conspiracy and political corruption involving some of Chicago's most prestigious industrial players. And after several attempts on her life, it seems that this time, V.I. may have dug too deep....

Police Officer Jemima Cotton expected Little Cote to be a quieter pace of life. But, unlike London, everyone knows everyone, and beyond the cake sales and coffee mornings, tea parties and village fetes, the neighbours aren't all the best of friends. When Jemima is unpacking her mugs and teabags in her new home on Foxglove Close, she's called to attend her first murder investigation. She's excited, until she discovers it's only a few doors down from her. And she hasn't even met her new neighbours yet.

Keen journalist Vera Vixen is recovering from the Harvest Festival (and its bounty of local cheeses, cider and pies) when the calm is shattered by a scream from one of the small town's grandest houses. Dorothy Springfield, a rat with a reputation for eccentricity, claims her husband—who is standing right next to her—has been murdered. Has Dorothy finally lost her grip on reality? Or is the rat who claims to be Edward an imposter? Vera's fox nose scents a story. And it's not long before the discovery of a body, minus head, complicates things further.

The discovery of a destitute family in her office basement leads V.I. Warshawski to homeless charity Home Free. But the organisation's frosty reception gives V.I. cause for concern, especially when one of its board members is then found murdered, sprawled across her desk.... Taking on the case, V.I. uncovers a framework of domestic abuse and fraud which spreads across the whole of Chicago, as well as into the abandoned tunnels beneath the city streets - where more dark secrets have been buried....

Imogen Quy returns after a decade to solve another intriguing Cambridge mystery. Hoping to attract a generous endowment, St Agatha's College, Cambridge, invites fabulously wealthy Sir Julius Farran to dine. The evening is a disaster for everyone but Imogen Quy: Farran asks her to come and work for him. She declines, but when Farran dies, suddenly and shockingly, she has to look into it. His death left a large hole in his company accounts that could mean financial ruin for St Agatha's.

The year is 1845, and Emily, Charlotte and Anne Bronte are sat around the dining room table, laughing merrily as the rain of their Yorkshire summer falls outside. When their brother, Branwell, returns from The Bull Inn, he brings with him the most shocking revelation: that Elizabeth Chester, wife of Robert Chester and mistress of Chester Grange, has gone missing - but the bloody scene found in her bedroom suggests she may have been murdered.

Maisie Cooper hasn't seen her brother in years. So it's a surprise when he gets in touch out of the blue. But when she returns to the village they grew up in, she discovers that he's dead. And not just dead - murdered. As Maisie investigates, she starts to uncover a sinister mystery at the heart of the perfect little village. Why is everyone so reluctant to answer her questions? Is the murder connected to the recent Cathedral robbery? What was her brother going to tell her? And when another death rocks the community, can Maisie solve the case before the killer strikes again?

Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte's has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage. At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.

When a young woman named Sabrina disappears without a trace in Kansas, private investigator V.I. Warshawski knows she must act fast. But when she discovers Sabrina close to death in a drug house, the locals don't take kindly to her - and Sabrina's mother becomes suspicious. V.I. finds herself under the sharp gaze of the FBI - and the men running the county's opioid distribution. And when a dead body surfaces a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a battle between the locals - with roots that date all the way back to the American Civil War.

Summer is in full swing in the picturesque Sussex countryside, and Maisie Cooper is bound for the annual Bitling Fair. Maisie expects to enjoy homemade cakes, a glass of cider and a spot of Morris dancing. But what she doesn't bargain for is the tensions running high between the villagers of East Bitling and the disagreements being stirred up by the high and mighty Lady Catherine, from the big house on the hill.

After decades of dereliction and inner-city neglect, Barrack Street, Cork is finally being excavated. The work uncovers the skeletal remains of six men, scattered around the site, their hands and feet all bound, all clearly killed violently, but many decades, even centuries, ago. When a seventh body is found, Detective Garda Alice McCann knows immediately this one is different. It's female, for a start, and considerably more recent. Who was she? And who killed her?

When true-crime writer Rachel Vale and her daughter, Lucy, move into the abandoned Faraday House at the end of Lily Lane, they already know its tragic history . . . That's why they came. Rachel hopes that untangling the muddled case of the Faradays might help her solve another puzzle: her daughter. But the small Midwestern town of Granger remembers the Faradays, and the residents do not take well to strangers pulling apart their mysteries. They will do whatever it takes to protect their own.