Showing results for "Murder" in 20th Century

Recruited as a codebreaker of enemy ciphers, ex-debutante Osla Kendall spends her days translating Axis military messages and her nights reading mystery novels. When Osla gets her hands on Agatha Christie's most recent work, N or M?, a mysterious signal within its pages catches her eye, and she and her eccentric book club get in touch with the famous but reclusive writer. Osla's outreach is a welcome distraction for Agatha, who feels restless and underestimated toiling away in a London pharmacy.

‘A tour de force’ – S.A. Cosby ‘An instant classic’ – Alex Michaelides Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a murder case sets a duo of Black and white lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants. Jack...

Performed by the inimitable John Lee The opening of a letter leads to a desperate chase across Europe in A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer, one of the world's bestselling novelists. Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father's will, aware that the contents can only be meagre. The Colonel...

'An instant classic' – Daily Mail The ship was doomed before it ever left port. His fate was sealed before he ever stepped on board. From R. L. Graham, Death on the Lusitania is an immersive WW1 historical novel set aboard the ill-fated ocean liner. Welcome on board the Lusitania’s final...

US Army Lieutenant Billy Boyle, an ex-cop who serves as detective for General Ike, is sent to Caserta, Italy, to investigate the murders of two American officers stationed there. The MOs are completely different, and it seems like the officers had no connection to each other, but one frightening fact links the murders. Each body was discovered with a single playing card: the lieutenant’s with the ten of hearts; the captain’s, the jack of hearts. The message seems clear—if the murderer isn’t apprehended, the higher ranks will be next. 

Malta, 1880. A quarantine island. A killer among them. When British civil servant Laurence Buchanan is found floating in Quarantine Harbor, Malta, it is first thought to be an accident. But new evidence quickly reveals a much darker story and Detective Inspector McQueen, an Edinburgh policeman...

A stunning atmospheric novel in the great tradition of DEATH ON THE NILE and Patricia Highsmith - tells of a young girl's journey on a cruise liner from England to a new life on the brink of the Second World War. 'Thrilling, captivating. Simply stunning' Daily Express 5 ***** 'An exquisite tale...

THE INSTANTLY ICONIC NO.1 BESTSELLER: NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES BOOK 1 IN THE CANON CLEMENT MYSTERY SERIES 'Cosy crime with a cutting edge' Sunday Telegraph 'Whodunnit fans can give praise and rejoice' Ian Rankin Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, where he lives alongside his widowed mother...

Winter 1944: Months after the Liberation of France, ex-Boston cop Billy Boyle finds himself in a Paris reeling from the carnage it has endured but hopeful that an end to war is in sight. When Billy finds a rare piece of artwork after a tense shoot-out in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, he thinks it could be connected to the Syndicat du Renard, a shadowy network of Nazi sympathizers known to be smuggling stolen artwork out of France. Trailing the Syndicat, Billy discovers that someone with a high level of communications clearance may be using his position to aid the thieves.

*A Times Best Book of the Year* From the author of The Ashes of London, comes a new historical mystery set in the last days of WWII 'Ten out of ten' The Times ‘A grand piece of work – a triumph and one of Taylor’s best’ MICK HERRON 'A wonderfully unique novel from the master of...

May 1941. One of the senior choristers of St Paul's Cathedral choir, Dr Edwin Roberts, is found beaten to death in the crypt of the Cathedral. Coburg and Lampson are called in to investigate, and when they get there, Coburg is pleasantly surprised to be greeted there by Arthur Waterson, now sporting a dog collar, someone he was at Eton with many years before. Waterson believes that there may be a connection between the very precious books that are houses in the Crypt and Dr Roberts' work at Bletchley Park.

December 1940. New Year’s Eve draws closer, but crowds will not be gathering on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate. After a quiet Christmas, the area has suffered London’s most devastating air raid since the start of the Blitz and waves of incendiary bombs have burnt the heart of British book publishing to the ground. Detective Inspector John Jago finds a desolate woman sitting among the ruins of her family business and must break the news—her husband’s been found shot dead at their home in Soho.

December, 1940. Christmas is coming, but the season of goodwill is overshadowed by the death and destruction of the Blitz. In London's Covent Garden, where the glamour of theatreland rubs shoulders with the bustle of the capital's biggest fruit and vegetable market, the war has closed the theatres and ruined the market trade. When a daylight air raid hits the Prince Albert Theatre in Drury Lane, rescuers find a man dying in the wreckage. But it wasn't the bomb that's ending his life - he's been stabbed, and with his dying breath he whispers what sounds like a fragmented confession.

December 1940. With the Luftwaffe pounding the city nightly, Londoners seek refuge in underground stations. Aldwych has been taken out of service to provide shelter for the British Museum's priceless Elgin Marbles, as well as civilians escaping the bombing. When the body of a young man is discovered on the tracks, wearing evening dress but barefoot, Detective Chief Inspector Coburg and Sergeant Lampson are on the case. Before long, more bodies are discovered, and Coburg's wife Rosa becomes a target for the brutal killer.

March, 1941. World War Two is well underway and the Blitz is taking its toll on Central London with bombs raining down almost every night. Inspector Coburg and his trusted Sergeant Lampson are just recovering from the devastating bomb attack on the Café de Paris when they get a call asking them to go to the disused Lord's Underground station. Once there, they are taken to see the body of a man on the former platform. He's been beaten to death by blows on the back of his head, by what Dr Welbourne believes to have been a cricket bat.

December 1940. Down Street underground station, in the heart of London's Mayfair, is now a secret retreat for Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet from the relentless air raids overhead. In this supposedly secure location, the body of a woman is found, stabbed in the heart. The victim, fortune-teller Lady Za Za, did not see this one coming. Chief Inspector Coburg and Sergeant Lampson are called to investigate but whispers of treason and corruption succeed in muddying the waters of the case.

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! The war may be officially over, but journalist Billie Walker's search for a missing young immigrant man will plunge her right back into the danger and drama she thought she'd left behind in Europe in this thrilling tale of courage and secrets set in glamorous postwar...

London is under attack. But within the rubble, a greater danger lurks… The Luftwaffe has been bombing London continuously since September 1940. During a bombing raid, Madeline Fairfax is caught in her kitchen whilst cooking for her husband and children. She becomes trapped in the rear of her...

From bestselling author Jackie French comes a book about the secrets we carry, those that we unearth - and those that are too dangerous to tell. The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for...

Three sisters, one secret and a question that stretches across generations...a compulsively readable historical mystery from a bestselling Australian author How much of who we are is destiny and how much is chance? In 1934, the three Miss Allens - Ruby, Adeline and Clara - arrive in the seaside...