Showing results by author "Hannah Howe" in All Categories

In May, during the sixteenth year of King John’s reign, the Sheriff of Nottingham arranged a tourney. All the nobles, artisans, yeomen and serfs from miles around attended. Being a woman, I was not allowed to participate in the tourney’s events – I could attend, but as a mere spectator. However, fate lent a helping hand in the shape of a handsome ally, a friend from my youth, Robin of Locksley. This is the story of the events that unfolded at the sheriff’s tourney.

Love hurts. For Derwena de Caro, songstress, female icon, and teenage dream, success brought drugs, alcohol, and a philandering boyfriend. It also brought wealth, fame, and a stalker, or so she claimed. And that's where I came in, to investigate the identity of the stalker, little realizing that the trail would lead to murder and a scandal that would make the newspaper headlines for months on end.

I never wanted to be a star. I just wanted to act in movies. I just wanted to get away from the impoverished streets of Brooklyn and live in relative comfort. Now, at the close of the 1920s, I was the biggest name in Hollywood. My movies were the highest grossing in the business. Investors depended on me, producers depended on me, my fellow actors depended on me, and maybe the strain of that dependence triggered my emotional collapse.

John Ball was a middle-aged businessman with problems, and those problems compelled him to run away from Nicola, his devoted wife of 20 years. The last thing John needed was to become embroiled in a murder inquiry, but with a gunman on the loose in the city parks, John's temporary home, the heat was on in more ways than one.

As Mimi examined her wireless, a figure emerged through the darkness. In his mid-30s, he possessed broad shoulders and a muscular frame while a proud nose and a neatly trimmed moustache dominated his handsome features.

A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Sasha Pryce, a teenage chess prodigy, presented me with a problem. She wanted me to track down Steve Chapin, her coaching assistant. Steve had mysteriously disappeared, leaving no clue as to his whereabouts. However, Sasha insisted that I should follow her strict instructions - her father, eminent pharmacologist Professor Christian Pryce, must not learn of my investigation. Meanwhile, Professor Pryce had hired a handsome bodyguard, Blake, to protect Sasha.

Eve’s War is a series of 12 novellas. Each book contains approximately 20,000 words and a complete story. Kindly note that the price throughout the series will be set at the minimum level and that Eve’s story arc will be concluded at the end of the series.

In Roots, Heini is home in Wales nursing her sick mother while Naomi is attending launch parties for her latest novel. The civil war in Spain seems a world away, until the fascists bomb and destroy Guernica, murdering hundreds of men, women, and children. Heini’s boyfriend, Deiniol Price, a coal miner, feels he must rally to the Spanish Republic’s cause and volunteer for the International Brigades while Naomi’s paramour, Count Nicolas Esteban, a pilot, dreams of glory, fighting for the fascists.

Hired by multimillionaire Jeremy Loudon, my task was simple - find his missing briefcase. Loudon claimed that his briefcase held 10,000 pounds, his winnings from a poker game. However, as the trail unravelled and led to Europe my suspicions deepened. What was in Loudon's briefcase, beyond the money? Why was he being so evasive? Why did he insist on no police involvement?

In her heyday, the critics regarded Dana Devlin as the most beautiful actress in movies. They also regarded her as shallow, lacking emotion. That was strange because Dana Devlin’s life had been a rollercoaster of emotions, with divorces and nervous breakdowns to the fore. And now she was making a comeback, in a gothic romance, Demon Seed. Everyone’s a critic, it seems, because someone didn’t like the sound of Demon Seed, and they voiced their disapproval through a series of death threats. However, the death threats were covered in hearts, flowers and angels.

As a teenager, Ros McCarthy offered Mark, her baby son, up for adoption. Now, as an adult and a successful author, she wanted to reconnect. With Faye at my side, our task was to locate Mark. Along the way we learned about Ty Gwyn, a children’s home, and the people who lived and worked there. However, as we probed, some people became nervous and issued threats. Then, unexpectedly, a murder. Was the murder and our investigation into Mark’s whereabouts connected, or merely coincidence? I suspected the former, then had my doubts as the maze became more complex.

As a child, I’d run away from home. As a teenager, I’d travelled the world, living on my wits. As a journalist, I’d witnessed atrocities inflicted in the name of fascism. As a member of the Resistance, I’d eyeballed fear and stared it down. For the past 30 years, I’d lived a full life. I could do this. However, even as I voiced my agreement I knew that my life in Marseille, my life with Michel, would never be the same.

The man in my office held a dark secret, a secret to kill for. That man was Tony Ryland, husband of local madam, Maria de Costa. Unfortunately for me, truth and justice, Tony Ryland was dead. What was Ryland doing in my office? Who had murdered him? What was the nature of his dark secret? The trail led to Ryland's wife, Maria de Costa, to her network of prostitutes and clients. Questions led to evasive answers, and more deaths. Someone was out to muddy the waters, to distort the truth, to bury the secret along with Tony Ryland.

Someone had posted a dead rat through Jana Jakubowska’s letterbox and scrawled obscene graffiti on her garden wall. Harmless pranks or something more sinister? Her boyfriend Tom Renwick hired me to find out. During my investigation, I met Jana’s charming four-year-old daughter Krystyna, her estranged former lover Matt Taylor, and a local hoodlum called Naz.

The war is over and Ann’s community is preparing for the VE Day celebrations. However, not everyone is in a celebratory mood. Ann’s husband, Emrys, has returned from France, a shadow of the man who left to serve his country. What happened in France? What thoughts are weighing heavily on Emrys’ mind? Meanwhile, Doris Michael hires Ann to find her brother, Glyn, a man she hasn’t seen for two years. What has happened to Glyn? And what crucial part did he play in determining the outcome of the war?

March 1945. After six bloody, tear-stained years, the war was nearly over. However, for the German prisoners of war incarcerated in Island Farm Camp 198, the end could not arrive soon enough, so they decided to escape. As the German prisoners fled to all points of the compass, one of their members, Kurt Schneider, was left with blood on his fingers and a gun in his hand.

With her husband, Emrys, still missing in action, Ann Morgan faces the prospect of spending her first wedding anniversary, and Christmas, alone. However, a phone call from Alistair Blythe, a young man she briefly walked out with before her marriage to Emrys, sets Ann on a trail that leads to murder, encounters with black market spivs, and threats to her life. With assistance from spymaster Charles Montagu and Detective Inspector Max Deveraux, Ann uncovers a major secret of the war. And, with the snow falling at Christmas, she receives a present she will never forget.

A young banker, by the name of Mr Charles Petrie, returned home after riding his horse to dine with his wife, Grace, and her companion, Mrs Quinn. During and after dinner he had nothing to excite him save the receipt of a letter which somewhat annoyed him, and that his wife consumed rather more wine than he considered to be good for her health. Immediately after retiring to his room, he was seized with symptoms of irritant poisoning, and despite every effort made on his behalf, he succumbed to its effects.

With her husband, Emrys, still missing in action, Ann Morgan receives a personal offer from debonair Detective Inspector Max Deveraux. Should she decline or accept his offer? Meanwhile, in her professional life, Ann is faced with a dilemma. After Trevoir Bowman's murder, should she take up the reins at his detective agency? While Ann ponders the personal and professional aspects of her life, a friend asks her to search for her missing daughter. Apparently, Adeline Hopkins, the daughter, endured a fractious relationship with her father.

With her husband away on a top secret mission, Ann Morgan prepares for another secretarial day at Trevor Bowman's detective agency. However, this day will be unlike any other. Over 24 hours, Ann will find her life turned upside-down as she discovers a murder, meets a handsome widower, Detective Inspector Max Deveraux, and confronts the murderer in a tale of temptation and duplicity.