Amateur Detective

In the quaint streets of South-West London, four female pensioners are about to embark on the heist of a lifetime. United by forty years of friendship, and desperate to raise funds for Beth’s healthcare, the Crones set about a daring plan to steal a priceless brooch from Hawling House. But this is no ordinary theft. It's a mission to right a decades-old wrong – the ‘death’ of their friend Ronnie at the hand of the mansion's enigmatic owner, Edgar Hawling.

Lucy McGuffin makes the best muffins in Whispering Bay, but her secret talent as a human lie detector hasn't always been as sweet. When she stumbles upon a dead body and her priest brother becomes a suspect, Lucy must use her skills to clear his name.

Texas genealogist Lucy Lancaster deals with murders in both the past and present in this captivating first mystery in the Ancestry Detective series.

Murder is a dish best served ice cold... In the idyllic, small town of Dewstow, Margery and Clementine are eagerly awaiting retirement from their work on the front-line serving meals to the students at Summerview secondary school. Their peaceful life is shattered when their kitchen manager is found dead in the school’s walk-in freezer. The police are adamant that it’s an open-and-shut case of accidental death. But Margery and Clementine are convinced that something more sinister is afoot and take it upon themselves to investigate.

A brand new cozy mystery to escape with this Halloween. Perfect for fans of RIchard Osman and Rev Richard Coles. It’s (almost) Halloween in Penstowan, and strange things are afoot… When a developer buys the abandoned convent and cottage hospital of St Ann’s on the edge of town, locals are...

Resourceful Bingo Riggs and his partner, Handsome Kusak, are in the sucker-bait business, snapping candid pics of tourists off Central Park. Their fly-by-night enterprise can be irresistible to souvenir lovers, but with one camera in a pawnshop and their developing room in the bathtub of a two-room dump near Hell’s Kitchen, their venture is wretchedly underexposed - until they stumble upon an insurance fraud scheme between the allegedly dead eccentric Mr. S. S. Pigeon and his business partner and beneficiary.

When world-famous, highly reclusive author J. W. Quicksilver chooses a local book club for his first public appearance, the residents of Whispering Bay have trouble containing their excitement. That is until he's found murdered. But things are not always what they seem. It turns out that the dead man wasn't J. W. Quicksilver after all, but a shifty conman who'd been running a publishing scam leaving a mile-long trail of victims. When the real J. W. Quicksilver becomes the prime suspect in the murder, he turns to Lucy for help.

Lucy McGuffin has three problems: She's a human lie detector, a "gift" she tries hard to keep hidden. Her rescue dog Paco is a ghost-whisperer. And someone's just been found murdered in her kitchen. The murder weapon? One of Lucy's famous apple walnut cream cheese muffins. The victim? Tara Bell, the producer for a reality TV cooking competition that Lucy is determined to win. Lucy and Tara had a very public disagreement the day before the murder. When it's discovered that Lucy's cafe was about to be disqualified from the show, all fingers point to Lucy as the prime suspect.

From the internationally bestselling creator of Claude and Mr Penguin comes a brand-new tongue-in-cheek murder mystery series, stylishly illustrated in black and white, and perfect for fans of Robin Stevens, Enola Holmes and Knives Out. When the tyrannical family patriarch Sir Ignatious Gristle...

WATERSTONES BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2023 PICK The Kamogawa Food Detectives, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just...

Retired actress Guinevere 'Gwinny' Tuffel is finding life hard after inheriting her late father's run-down house and discovering she's broke. But Gwinny is delighted to be at Hayburn Stead for her best friend Tina's wedding to a handsome Italian business magnate. However, before they get the chance to declare 'till death do us part', the husband-to-be is found dead in the library and Tina is accused of his murder. Convinced of her friend's innocence, Gwinny must uncover the real killer from a pool of larger-than-life suspects.

Adapted from the major television series created by Mark Gatiss - new season coming soon! London, 1946. Much of the capital, and indeed the country, remains beset by rationing and bomb damage. But for some there are other, more immediate concerns: crimes of a serious and sometimes deadly nature...

The first in a new mystery series that reimagines Sherlock Holmes’s mother and her lady’s-maid-turned-investigative-partner. ‘Some problems simply merit solving, Mrs Hudson’ Heartbroken, widowed, and penniless, Katherine Hudson never intended to become a lady’s maid; especially not to...

A Bad Day to Hide a Body, a new HQ book, full description to follow when available...

Ellison Russell wanted a decorator, not a corpse. Too bad she finds Mrs. White in the study killed with a revolver. Things go from bad to worse when she finds Mr. White in the dining room killed with a candlestick. With so many bodies, is it any wonder Detective Anarchy Jones' new partner considers Ellison a suspect? With the country club gossips talking a minute, an unexpected cocktail party, a visit from Aunt Sis, and a romantic decision, Ellison hardly has time to think about murder. Unfortunately, the killer has plenty of time to think about her.

The Amateur Spy—Dan Fesperman’s most galvanizing thriller yet—takes us to a flashpoint of global intrigue, recasting the spy novel for the post–9/11 world: Anyone might be watching; everyone is suspect. Burned out by years of humanitarian-aid work, Freeman and Mila Lockhart have...

When Cookie Berelli, a dress designer for full-figured women, discovers her private investigator dead in her salon, she calls on a few friends to get her out of trouble. This cozy mystery with a dog includes a cute little dachshund she named Sigmund Freud because he's such a good listener. She has a bunch of crackpot ideas for how to catch the murderer, and Sigmund, the trustworthy dog he is, follows right along, sometimes even discovering a clue or two himself.

Frolicking with dogs is Melanie Travis's idea of heaven. So when she's invited to be a "puppy wrangler" at a benefit for a local dog rescue, the last thing she expects is to be chasing after a tricky killer.

A random accident leads Grit Norris to an unlikely friendship with a retired banker and his search for treasure hidden in historical letters. Inspired by his love of detective stories, Grit and his two best friends embark on a journey of intrigue and a danger. An unlikely friend provides encouragement, but the questions accumulate.

CRIME ALERT BULLETIN When surly cop Spencer is killed on a cyber crime case, he finds himself stuck outside the gates of heaven. He can only redeem himself through the J.R.P. (The Jerk Redemption program.) His task is to return in the body of his K-9 Partner and help Justin, a troubled teenage boy and his dysfunctional family. But, when he learns that the cyber crime gang is framing the family, Spencer must, with the help of the teenage boy, take down the gang once and for all.