Showing results by author "Joy Ellis" in All Categories

Detective Nikki Galena's friend and neighbor meets a tragic end, but there's more to his death than meets the eye. And someone terrible from DS Joseph Easter's past is back.

Deep in the muddy fields of the Lincolnshire Fens, a teenage girl is found wandering, delirious, claiming to have been drugged at a party. Metres away, the drowned body of another girl is found on an isolated beach. And all this on a small stretch of land where, nearly 10 years ago, the shocking disappearance of a young girl remains an open case.

It arrives in the morning. An old-fashioned airmail envelope addressed to Detective Nikki Galena. Inside, on a single sheet of blue airmail paper, are three words: You failed me. The second airmail envelope arrives at Nikki's home address. The same message. Only this time, it's followed by four names: Alexandra Cornfield, Ruth Baker, Bethany Lyons, Leanne Delaney. Four missing women. Four local women whose bodies were never found.

An old friend's sister disappears without a trace. There's no sign of foul play, but she'd been acting very peculiarly. Meanwhile, Liz's cousin, Christie, comes to stay. She takes an immediate - and uncharacteristic - dislike to the local bookshop owner, Gina. Why does everyone put up with her awful behavior? Christie is convinced that Gina is manipulating everyone around her. Is she onto something dangerous or just pushing her new friends away? No one believes her suspicions until another friend goes missing late at night on the misty Fen marshes.

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.

When everyone is sleeping, he comes into their houses. He takes one thing. A photo of their child. A sinister thief on a power trip or something even darker and more sinister? Detectives Jackman and Evans find themselves on the hunt for a highly unusual burglar who seemingly only steals photographs. But then, late one night, an elderly woman falls to her death after seeing someone in her home. Did she really fall, or was she murdered?

Flower shop owner Ellie McEwan is driving home late one frosty November night when a shadowy figure leaps into the road out of nowhere. Ellie swerves to avoid him — and slams head-on into the crash barrier. Days later, Ellie wakes up in hospital — and notices there’s something different. Everyone she looks at — the doctor, the nurse, her friend Carole — is surrounded by a coloured aura. Her near-death experience seems to have given her a new ability. And now Ellie must use her new-found gift to catch a killer.

DI Nikki Galena faces a personal challenge which will stretch her to the limit. She must fulfill her father's dying wish and discover who the mysterious Eve is. Meanwhile, a dead drug dealer is found on an abandoned airfield that the locals say is haunted. The trail of both mysteries will lead to the most shocking discovery of Nikki's career and put her whole team in mortal danger. Full of twists and turns, this is a crime thriller that will keep you riveted until the shocking ending.

A skeleton is found in a shallow grave in the churchyard. But this was not an official burial. The victim was murdered decades ago. At the same time, Detective Nikki Galena and her team are investigating the brutal slaying of local businesswoman Madeline Prospero. She was a member of an exclusive and secretive drinking club called The Briar Patch. But they've got no suspects and no one is telling them the truth. Meanwhile, the buried skeleton leads them on a trail to the village of Quintin Eaudyke. This is a troubled place. In the late 70s and 80s a reign of terror was unleashed.

Grace Repton, a beautiful older woman, walks into the police station to tell Detective Matt Ballard she has information that could stop a murder. Her fiance, the infamous serial killer Jeremy Reader, has told her that he has a disciple who is going to kill using Reader's horrific methods. Reader murdered five women and was finally brought to justice by Detective Ballard. Reader is safely imprisoned in a high security prison, and claiming to be a reformed man who wants to help the police.

It’s the night shift worker who finds them. Huddled in a hospital store cupboard is elderly Edith Higgins. Knifed to death. Sitting behind her is Staff Nurse Lily Frampton, a scalpel clasped in her blood-soaked hand. No one can understand why this kind-hearted, dedicated nurse would brutally murder a frail patient she’s spent months caring for. That same day, mild-mannered schoolteacher Rod Black is found surrounded by the battered bodies of his pupils. Why would a well-respected teacher beat five schoolboys to death?

Photography student Toby Unsworth has found the location for the perfect night-time shoot. A cobbled street in the old part of Fenfleet. Later, when he looks at the images on his laptop, he thinks he sees a woman's face in the window of an old, disused building. He asks his housemate Alex to come and take a look . . . Two days later, Toby and Alex are dead. Carbon monoxide poisoning. An unfortunate accident. But Alex's mother doesn't believe it. She hires Matt and Liz to find out the truth.

DI Nikki Galena's close friend Helen Brook is involved in a serious accident where she is trapped in a collapsed cellar. After her hard-won recovery, Helen is still getting flashbacks to a man she says was down there with her and who confessed to a murder. But no trace of this man can be found. Then Helen tells Nikki that someone is watching her. But is all this in her friend's imagination and part of her post-traumatic stress?

Holly Stewart moved into Solace House thinking it would be a fresh start for her and her family. She knew a tragic murder had taken place there, but she didn’t know the full ghastly history of the house. Now, her husband has lost his job, the children are bullied at school, and someone is prowling around the garden at night. Someone who wants them gone. Detective Jackman wants to help. Instead he’s been pulled into a 20-year-old cold case.

Revellers are flocking into Greenborough for the yearly Dark Greenborough Festival, a three-day event celebrating local folklore, superstition, and the darker side of life. What the public doesn't know is that there has been a warning sent to the police, saying that Greenborough will be a very dangerous place this year. The anonymous letter ends with the Latin phrase, Mors certa, hora incerta: Death is certain, the hour uncertain.

Crimebusting duo DI Jackman and DS Evans are back, solving another crime that will make your skin crawl. Police detective Carter McLean is the only survivor of a plane crash that kills his four best friends. He returns to work, but he is left full of guilt and terrible flashbacks. So for each of his four friends he decides to complete something that they left unfinished....

Als DI Jackmans Schwägerin Selbstmord begeht, muss er feststellen, dass er fast nichts über ihre Vergangenheit wusste. Die Detectives tauchen tief in das Privatleben der Verstorbenen ein. Was hat die scheinbar glückliche Frau zu einem so drastischen Schritt getrieben? Dann kommt eine weitere Frau unter ähnlichen Umständen zu Tode. Des Rätsels Lösung scheint in ihrer gemeinsamen Vergangenheit zu liegen, und in einer Schuld, die die Frauen auf sich geladen haben.

Der Polizist Carter McLean ist der einzige Überlebende eines Flugzeugabsturzes, bei dem seine vier besten Freunde starben. Geplagt von Schuldgefühlen, beschließt er, für jeden der Toten eine offene Rechnung zu begleichen: So verschwand eineinhalb Jahre vor dem tragischen Unfall die Frau eines der Vier spurlos. Alles, was von ihr blieb, war ein Zimmer voller Blut. Schon bald ist Carter besessen von dem Fall, und DI Jackman und DS Evans werden eingeschaltet. Doch bei den Ermittlungen finden die beiden immer mehr Hinweise, dass mehr als ein Beteiligter keine ganz reine Weste hat.

Tief in den schlammigen Feldern der Lincolnshire Fens wird eine orientierungslose Jugendliche aufgegriffen. Sie sucht ihre Freundin Emily. Doch niemand hat je von dieser Emily gehört, niemand vermisst sie. Nicht weit entfernt wurde stattdessen die Leiche einer weiteren jungen Frau angespült. Die Fälle ereignen sich auf demselben Stück Land, wo bereits viele Jahre zuvor ein kleines Mädchen spurlos verschwand.

Eine Frau wird am Rande der Lincolnshire Fens brutal erstochen. Kurze Zeit später gesteht ein Mann namens Daniel Kinder den Mord. Ihm liege das Töten im Blut, genau wie seiner leiblichen Mutter, einer skrupellosen Serienmörderin. Doch die ermittelnden Detectives Rowan Jackman und Marie Evans plagen bald Zweifel an seiner Schuld, denn Daniel hat immer wieder Erinnerungslücken. Aus Mangel an Beweisen sind Jackman und Evans gezwungen, ihn gehen zu lassen. Innerhalb weniger Tage verschwindet Daniel - und das einsame Moor wird zum Schauplatz weiterer Morde.