Showing results by author "Lynda La Plante" in All Categories

Rookie detective Anna Travis has been assigned to her first murder case - a series of killings that has shocked even the most hardened on the force. Over the past eight years there have been six victims - all women from similar backgrounds, all killed in an identical way. Then a seventh body is found, but this one doesn't fit the pattern.

Can Jane Tennison uncover a serial killer? The fourth in the Sunday Times best-selling Jane Tennison thrillers, Murder Mile is set in 1979 at the height of the 'Winter of Discontent' when economic chaos has led to widespread strikes across Britain. Jane Tennison, now a Detective Sergeant, has been posted to Peckham CID, one of London's toughest areas. As the rubbish on the streets begins to pile up, so does the murder count: two bodies in as many days. There are no suspects, and the manner of death is different in each case.

Jane Tennison, a young, inexperienced WPC, learns the hard way never to take anyone - or anything - at face value, whether in her dealings with her police colleagues or when confronted by seemingly innocent suspects. Hidden Killers sees Jane acting as a decoy prostitute, with the hope of capturing a suspect wanted for numerous sexual assaults. The attacker is drawn in and put under arrest. Commended for bravery in the case, Jane is given CID status and moves from Hackney to Bow Street Station as detective.

Jack Warr is a young DC with the Metropolitan Police. Charming but aimless, Jack can't seem to find his place in the world - until he's drawn into an investigation that turns his life upside down. In the aftermath of a fire at a derelict cottage, a badly charred body is discovered, along with the burnt remnants of millions of stolen, untraceable bank notes - the hidden legacy of Dolly Rawlins and her gang of Widows. Jack's assignment to the case coincides with an investigation into his own past.

Detective Anna Travis is taking charge of an investigation for the very first time under the watchful eye of her boss. But with only an ominous pool of blood at the crime scene, and no sign of the victim, she cannot be sure whether this is a missing person case or something more. As Anna leads a desperate hunt for a man who has seemingly disappeared without a trace, she becomes obsessed with apparently irrelevant details and her boss fears that she is losing control. With no body and increasing pressure to make an arrest, Anna must catch a break in the case before she breaks down.

Every legend has a beginning.... During 1974 and 1975, the IRA subjected London to a terrifying bombing campaign. In one day alone, they planted seven bombs at locations across central London. Some were defused - some were not. Jane Tennison is now a fully fledged detective. On the way to court one morning, Jane passes through Covent Garden Underground station and is caught up in a bomb blast that leaves several people dead and many horribly injured.

Violent burglars have been terrorising residents across the English countryside. But when a mutilated body is discovered in a Cotswolds house, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary group of opportunist thieves. As Detective Jack Warr investigates, he discovers locals with dark secrets, unearths hidden crimes - and hits countless dead ends. With few leads and the violent attacks escalating, he will have to act as audaciously as the criminals if he hopes to stop them.

It is every mother's nightmare. Her child is missing, found murdered. Her lover is the prime suspect. It is every police officer's dread. A child murder. A circumstantial case. It is every solicitor's dream. Twelve men and women will decide the verdict. But only you can decide if justice is done for the victim.

A family under constant scrutiny from both the police and the press as a fifteen-year-old goes missing after a sleepover with a friend; a marriage at breaking point; a father who has seemingly lied about his alibi; and a detective feeling the pressure to deliver an arrest, are thrust together to make for yet another incredibly intricate and dark thriller from Lynda La Plante.

Detective Anna Travis is called out to a motorway service station on the M1, where the body of a young girl has been found in a nearby ditch. With no apparent family, friends or connections, this victim is the latest in a string of women who have gone missing in the vicinity, with no one stepping forward to claim them. As the investigation appears to stall, Anna receives an unexpected letter from a man she helped put away. He asks her to visit him in prison immediately, claiming to know who the killer is.

Eight years ago, James McCready was convicted of killing his partner, Gary Meadows. But McCready has always claimed that the stabbing was a tragic accident and, when fresh evidence comes to light, he wins his appeal for a retrial. Detective Inspector Pat North is assigned to the reinvestigation. But when North discovers that her partner, Detective Superintendent Mike Walker, led the original police inquiry, their fledgling relationship is put to the test - particularly when she starts to suspect that he is covering something up.

Detective Anna Travis is investigating the brutal murder of a young woman whose body was discovered in the Thames, brutalised and severed in half, a red flower in her hair. With the case bearing an eerie resemblance to the famous unsolved murder case of Elizabeth Short—known as the Black Dahlia—media interest intensifies, and fears of a copycat take hold. But with almost no clues, the case is slowly going cold. That is until the killer reaches out to the press.

When an eccentric widow claims she is being stalked by her former lodger, Detective Jack Warr is the only person who believes her wild claims. Days later, she is found brutally murdered in her home. When the investigation uncovers an international drugs operation on the widow's property, the case grows even more complex. And as the hunt for the widow's lodger hits dead end after dead end, it seems that the prime suspect has vanished without a trace.

Detective Anna Travis is tasked with reviewing an open-and-shut case when a young man, awaiting trial for robbery, casts doubt on the ruling. A nightclub owner was found dead from a single bullet wound to the head, with the gun held in his hand. It was determined to be suicide, but the young man claims it was murder. Once she wraps up the investigation, Anna's boss promises her a place at the FBI Academy, but the arrival of a senior agent soon ruffles feathers in the team.

Jack finds solace in renewing a dangerous relationship with the artist Adam Bolder. They meet in Portobello market, in a shop selling frames. As he settles back into the old regime at the station, a new female DCI is a force to be reckoned with. One weekend visiting Portobella market again, going to purchase some photo frames for pictures of his new son, the street is cordoned off by police crime scene officers. Ambulances and patrol cars blocking all traffic. A body has been found in the framer's shop.

When her boss, James Langton, is almost fatally injured while pursuing a ruthless gang, Detective Anna Travis must put her own career on hold as she nurses him through his intense frustration and desperation to bring his would-be murderer to justice. Then Anna is assigned to a different case, the vicious murder of a quiet, studious woman whose body was found by her daughter—an attack with no obvious motive or immediate suspect. Until the case becomes unexpectedly linked with that of her boss, and Anna finds herself under threat from those who almost destroyed his career and his life.

When a body is found in one of London's poorest districts, the coroner's report identifies the victim as young, black and female, but impossibly anonymous. One thing is clear to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison about this victim - that news of her murder will tear apart a city already cracking with racial tensions, hurling Scotland Yard and Tennison herself into a maelstrom of shocking accusations and sudden, wrenching violence.

When a prostitute is found murdered in her bedsit, the Metropolitan police set to work finding the perpetrator of this brutal attack. DNA samples lead them straight to known-criminal George Marlow. The police think they've found their man, but things are not quite what they seem....

Against all the odds, Dolly Rawlins and her gangland widows managed the impossible: a heist their husbands had failed to pull off - at the cost of their lives. But though they may be in the money, they're far from easy street. Shocked by her husband's betrayal, Dolly discovers Harry Rawlins isn't dead. He knows where the four women are and he wants them to pay. And he doesn't just mean getting his hands on the money. The women can't keep running. They have to get Harry out of their lives for good. But can they outwit a criminal mastermind who won't hesitate to kill?

When an ex-police officer from the murder squad is found shot dead in a dank squat, Detective Anna Travis is pulled into the case he was working on—the hunt for Alexander Fitzpatrick, a drug-trafficker with a vast fortune, and one of the most wanted men in the Western world. But there have been no sightings of Fitzpatrick for over a decade. As the body count rises, and with no sign of Fitzpatrick, the investigation takes a horrifying turn. Anna and her team learn that Fitzpatrick, wherever he is, may have access to one of the most lethal drugs in existence.