Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Crime Thrillers

When an armed man massacres several people in central London, Claudine witnesses the whole thing. To her horror, one of the victims is her brother, Jethro. Riven by grief, Claudine retreats to the house in the Fens where she and Jethro grew up. When the police contact her, she is left reeling when they tell her Jethro orchestrated the attack. Why would a gentle, if troubled, middle-aged man cause such bloodshed – and why would he include himself in the list of victims? Claudine finds herself down a rabbit hole of mystery, caught up in Jethro's research on a medieval cult.

The public think Ava's a monster. Ava thinks she's blameless. In prison, they called her Butcher Bird—but Ava's not in prison any more. Released after 25 years to a new identity and a new home, Ava finally has the quiet life she's always wanted. But someone knows who she is. The lies she's told are about to unravel.

Southern Brooklyn, July 1996. Fire hydrants are open and spraying water on the sizzling blacktop. Punk kids have to make their own fun. Bobby Santovasco and his pal Zeke like to throw rocks at cars getting off the Belt Parkway. They think it's dumb and harmless until it's too late to think otherwise. Then there's Jack Cornacchia, a widower who lives with his high school age daughter Amelia and reads meters for Con Ed but also has a secret life as a vigilante, righting neighbourhood wrongs through acts of violence.

February 14, 1993: Sheffield United supporters remember it as the day their team won a famous victory against Manchester United. The date is lodged in Anna Young's brain for a different reason. That was the day her sister, Jessica, was abducted. Fast forward 20 years. The case has long since gone cold. But Anna made a promise to look after her little sister. And it's a promise she intends to keep no matter how long it takes....

Would you break the law to see justice done? In Sheffield, a bankrupt businessman has murdered his family. It seems like an open-and-shut case: A desperate man resorting to desperate measures. In Middlesbrough, a woman named Angel is heading south. She is a woman alone. A prostitute. Now a murderer. And she has only one thing on her mind: Revenge. Two crimes, a hundred miles apart, but a terrible secret connects them.

When Frankie sees the unforgettable face of her long-lost love in a passing train, she turns straight round and goes after him. For she, more than anyone, "knows" he is dead. She was there when it happened, attended the inquest, and later served a prison sentence for his manslaughter. Frankie, Cristina, Cassandra, Jenny, Pippa.... They are five women living quite separate lives - in Antwerp, Paris, Venice, Rio, Bath - except for one crucial fact. Each has devoted her life to the same duplicitous man.

PI John Craine has come to Hale Island to get away from it all. But within hours he stumbles across the dead body of a young girl on the beach. When the police arrive the body has inexplicably disappeared. Or did Craine imagine it in the first place? Determined to get at the truth, Craine starts asking questions. But it seems that no one on the island is talking. And all too soon he finds himself tangled up in a deadly network of fear and violence…

Sixteen years ago PI John Craine's wife, Stacy, was brutally murdered. Since then he has buried himself in work by day, and whisky by night. But one phone call changes everything. The mother of a missing young woman asks for his help, and Craine finds himself at the centre of a sinister web of corruption that leads back into the murky waters of the past...

Ex-cop Bierce has been in prison for over 20 years, following his conviction for the murders of his wife and son. He has no memory of the tragedy and has never been able to say with certainty that he didn't do it - except he cannot imagine why on earth he would have killed his beloved family.

An astonishing and evocative debut from a new voice in crime fiction. Holly Blain wants to cover real news. The entertainment beat - pop stars and teen trends - was not why she moved to Tokyo. When she meets Inspector Tetsu Tanaka, head of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police’s Gaikoku-jin unit, it might just be her big break. Tanaka isn’t so sure. Always one to do things by the book, he’s hesitant about bringing this headstrong reporter into his carefully controlled investigation. But young women keep disappearing, and Tanaka is given no choice.

The death of his wife has left Michael Keats bereft; the subsequent discovery of her adultery devastates him. Michael resolves to discover the identity of her lover. That journey leads him to northern Italy where he becomes embroiled in a story of passion and treachery amongst the Partisans and villagers during the darkest days of World War II. As Michael gets closer to the truth he realizes that some secrets should never be told.

What if you knew the truth but couldn’t remember? Over a decade ago, Heidi was the victim of a brutal attack that left her hospitalised, her younger sister missing and her best friend dead. But Heidi doesn’t remember any of that. She’s lived her life since then with little memory of her friends and family and no recollection of the crime. Now, it’s all starting to come back. As Heidi begins retracing the events that lead to the assault, she is forced to confront the pain and guilt she’s long kept buried. But Heidi isn’t the only one digging up the past.

A journalist is caught up in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a random killer when his father and girlfriend are killed. After investigating he uncovers a further 10 people with nothing in common - except they all appear on The Sweetman Curve, a graph invented by a corrupt university professor which can predict medical life expectancy within a three-year bracket.

Daniel had the perfect life: a beautiful girlfriend, a great job, a lovely home. But twenty years ago he witnessed something he never should have seen. And now he’s plagued by memories of that night. The frightened scream. The splash of something heavy hitting the water. His friend being murdered by his father. It returns again and again and it’s driving him slowly mad. Now he’s lost his girlfriend, his job and his flat. To get his life back on track, he needs to find out what really happened that night.

Having thwarted murderous poachers in The Elephant Conspiracy, the Veteran, Thandi, and Mkhize are back battling to save lion prides from being killed for their claws, teeth and bones. As the demand for lion parts soars, impoverished local communities are being incentivized to poach, and the fight against this illegal plunder becomes ever more vicious.

The future of law enforcement has arrived, courtesy of private health contractor Janus Justice. Their ground-breaking ‘Offender Treatment Programme' has been hailed as the most effective way of tackling crime yet. As offenders move through the four-tiered system, their needs are dealt with, each tier more drastic in its methods. But Grace Gunnarsson, one of Janus' most highly regarded rehabilitation psychiatrists, has uncovered a terrible flaw in the system, one that is allowing people to get away with murder.

Charles Davids is a probationary firefighter working his first week out of the academy. For Charles, quietly battling his lack of confidence is a daily challenge as his new officers coach him on life as a New York City firefighter. The men love to tease and prank the new guy, but when it comes to drilling and training, they’re clear that the job is no joke. As is said in the fire service: "let no man’s ghost return to say my training let me down."

Lorraine has a big new challenge: building a team from a collection of staff picked to close down an abandoned asylum and replace it with a new high security unit in isolated Yorkshire. Lorraine has her work cut out for her when it appears that the group includes a secret saboteur. Then, a local teenager is found dead, locked in the isolation room in the derelict asylum building. With a discovery that forces her to face true isolation, trapped in the asylum's tunnels while the demolition team start work above, Lorraine becomes a fresh target for the killer.

As mid-winter temperatures grip the cathedral city of Ely, a man is found frozen to death in his high-rise flat. The police may think that Declan McIlroy killed himself, but journalist Philip Dryden is not convinced, and he begins digging for the truth. All too soon, there's another frozen corpse to consider–that of Declan's best friend. And suddenly a routine suicide gives way to a chilling trail of cruelty and betrayal stretching back thirty years, towards a mystery from Dryden's own childhood.

Alison has an excellent relationship with her eighteen-year-old daughter. Lola is a hardworking, straight-A student, bound for university. They tell each other everything. Or so she thought. Lola has a secret: she's been sneaking off to meet her much older boyfriend, Brendan. He's everything she ever dreamed of—enigmatic, cool and absolutely irresistible. That's what Alison thought too, when she first met Brendan years ago, at university. Before he ruined her life.