Showing results for "Gardens" in Crime Fiction

Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden. In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees...and a collection of precious “butterflies” - young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

Sammy Dee is a mid-level Long Island mafioso in witness protection. Didier Onyekachukwu was the corrupt minister of finance of the former Upper Volta. Both men find themselves in middle age, living in the Southern California version of genteel poverty in a down-market condo complex called Paradise Gardens. Enter Marcy Gray, a "mature" actress barely getting by on a meager SAG pension.

The day of the garden party should’ve been a celebration of love for Raphael and his fiancée, as they toast their engagement with their families. But for someone, it’s an opportunity to unveil the lies that have bound the family together over the years. With their nearest and dearest gathered at the family manor, as the first glass is raised, the secrets that bind them begin to crack. And what should have been the happiest day of their lives, might just end as a day they’d rather forget…

Keke’s head is still spinning—and not just because of the hit she took securing a bombshell confession for her last story. On top of her full-time job with the Metro Journal, Keke now has an online column devoted to exposing unsolved murders of young people of color. She’s also freelancing as an investigative journalist in Indian Springs, where she maintains her rekindled relationship with her former employer and mentor, Honey Pot club owner Josephine “HoneyMama” Thibodeaux.

FBI-Agent Tiberius Granger hat schon so manches abscheuliche Verbrechen erlebt. Es gibt auch eine beunruhigende Verbindung zu seiner eigenen Vergangenheit, seiner früheren Liebe Bexley Hemmingway, die zeitgleich das Verschwinden ihrer Schwester bemerkt. Schon bald scheint es, als ob der Killer den FBI-Agenten verhöhnt und jeden, der ihm nahe steht, in noch größere Gefahr bringt.

By January 1666, the plague has almost disappeared from London, leaving its surviving population diminished and in poverty. The resentment against those who had fled to the country turns to outrage as the court and its followers return, their licentiousness undiminished. The death of a well-connected physician, the mysterious sinking of a man-of-war in the Thames and the disappearance of a popular courtier are causing concern to Thomas Chaloner's employer.

Growing, growing, gone… Penrith, in the heart of the Lake District, is not the kind of place you can easily vanish. Certainly not when the members of the Penrith Bingo Club are trying to track you down. But even stalwart sleuth, Amita Khatri, and her son in law, Jason, are foxed this time when...

In a hidden studio in Rome, an art expert is found dead in front of one of the most beautiful paintings Nic Costa has ever seen - an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece. But before long, tragedy will strike Nic far closer to home. The main suspect's identity is known, but he remains untouchable, protected by a fleet of lawyers and a sinister cult known as the Ekstasists. If Costa can crack the reasons for the cult's existence, he may well stand a chance of nailing his wife's killer. But the mystery will take him right back to Caravaggio himself and the reasons he had to flee Rome.

San Francisco, September 1921: Silent-screen comedy star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle is throwing a wild party in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel-girls, jazz, bootleg hooch...and a dead actress named Virginia Rappe. The D.A. says it was Arbuckle who killed her—crushed her under his weight—and brings him up on manslaughter charges. William Randolph Hearst's newspapers stir up the public and demand a guilty verdict.

For Detective Chief Inspector Ryan, the stakes have never been higher. Most of the world thinks he’s dead, killed by an assasin's rifle in his own home. But another man took the bullet intended for him, and now Ryan’s living on borrowed time. As long as he stays ‘dead’, in the sanctuary of his parents’ home in Devon, there’s a chance to find the people behind the deadly killing network. It’s only a matter of time before his secret’s uncovered, and nowhere will be safe.

Years earlier, teenage girls began to vanish off the streets of Seattle. Now they're turning up dead, their mutilated bodies left in prominent locations around the city. Skye Cree suspects there are more. But connecting the sordid crimes will take dedication and skill on the part of her entire team, especially when the killer begins to morph into someone else. Will the hunter be able to stop a psychotic and cruel killer in time to save other victims from the same disturbing fate?

Dimman ligger tät över London. Dr Watson och Sherlock Holmes kan knappt se huset på andra sidan gatan från lägenheten på Baker Street. Det är en lugn tid i staden, ingenting av intresse tycks hända och de båda herrarna är uttråkade. Tills Sherlocks bror Mycroft hör av sig. "Måste tala med dig angående Cardogan Wests, kommer med ens" lyder telegrammet. Det visar sig att den unga mannen West har fallit av ett tåg och avlidit tidigare under morgonen, till synes en olycka.

Even though its famous opera house has shuttered its doors for the war, Covent Garden remains one of the most exciting, bustling areas of London. It’s where Hannah Merrill and Aunt Violet have their bookshop and, in spite of the recent spate of burglaries in the area, it’s generally thought to be a good neighbourhood. So Hannah is surprised when she sees a fellow shopkeeper – a jeweller named Jacob Cornelis – having a heated argument with a stranger. Especially when the next day Cornelis is found dead in his shop, apparently the victim of another burglary.

Advised to take a day off, Holmes and Watson take a trip to the Royal Parks of Kew Gardens. But life has something else in store for them. Inside the alm house a bizarly placed body was found. The local security manager asks Holmes and Watson for their help.

The town is gripped by a big freeze, and blizzard after blizzard has engulfed the feline community, leaving shops and businesses snowbound. Hettie Bagshot and her sidekick, Tilly Jenkins, have found sanctuary by their fireside but soon they are bucketed into a terrifying nightmare, called to investigate the disappearance of the town's kittens as - one by one - they are taken in the snow. Who are the strange cats living in Wither-Fork Woods?

Da Lila Emerson, forfatter og professionel huspasser, ved et tilfælde bliver vidne til et mord, tager hendes liv en mørk drejning. Politiet siger, at hans bror er morder, men Ashton Archer ved, at Oliver aldrig kunne finde på at slå nogen ihjel. Han overtaler Lila, forbrydelsens eneste øjenvidne, til at hjælpe ham med at opklare, hvad der virkelig skete. Ash er kunstmaler og ved med det samme, at Lila skal være hans næste motiv, og jo mere han lærer hende at kende, jo mere overbevist bliver han om, at hun skal være meget mere end det.

England 1922. Da en grusom forbrydelse finder sted i den idylliske landsby Slaughterford, sender det rystelser gennem det lille samfund, som forandrer byen og menneskene i den for altid. Hos den velhavende Hadleigh-familie på Manor Farm arbejder den 15-årige landsbypige Pudding Cartwright i hestestalden.