Showing results by publisher "BBC Audio" in Crime Fiction

Forced to run for his life after killing two suspects, assaulting the Chief Constable and inadvertently causing the death of Lieutenant Roach, McLevy has fled Leith for San Francisco. Somewhat rashly, and against her better judgement, Jean Brash has decided to accompany him. Arriving in America, it seems they’ve jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. San Francisco is as cold and foggy as Leith, and home to just as many criminals. With the Gold Rush at its height, the city is a madhouse, its inhabitants driven by greed. 

Veteran scriptwriter Vincent McInerney draws on his lifelong knowledge of Liverpool and his background in the Merchant Marine in these engaging thrillers, in which the gruff, indomitable John Crust and his sidekick Minty probe the circumstances surrounding a missing husband, a stolen sculpture and a hidden treasure.

When their friend Keith Brandon is charged with murdering a policeman, Gemma, Liam and Andy decide to bunk off school and go to the trial. Keith had a knife, a motive and has confessed to the crime, but they're sure he didn't do it - so when he's found guilty, they can't believe it. Determined to prove Keith's innocence, they take their story to the local media, but no-one will take them seriously. Then Gemma comes up with an unorthodox way of appealing for new evidence: setting up their own pirate radio station.

With the House of Commons in recess, it's a chance for all hard-working politicians to take a holiday. So when Conservative MP Vincent Mellors and Labour MP Arnold Sellers discover that they're staying at the same golf hotel in Lytham St Annes, they agree to put affairs of state on the back burner. But they're soon handed a political hot potato in the shape of Sir Bertram Oliphant's parliamentary memoirs. Full of red-hot revelations, the manuscript is diplomatic dynamite - and someone will go to any lengths to get their hands on it.

What sort of mother would allow her child to perform online for paedophiles? And how could the family's social worker let it happen? Told in two parts, This Repulsive Woman and Every Child Matters is a real-time drama that follows the stories of the two women at the centre of a fictional high profile court case and national scandal.

Ann Cleeves is well known for her 'Vera', 'Shetland', and 'Two Rivers' crime series, all of which have been adapted into hit TV shows. She was presented with the CWA Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 2017, and was appointed an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours List for services to reading and libraries. This collection includes full-cast dramatisations of the first two 'Shetland' novels featuring Detective Jimmy Perez, as well as three short stories and a discussion with the bestselling author.

Ex-copper-turned-private-investigator Billy Rucker scours the seamy underbelly of London, hunting for runaways - and murderers. Tough, worldly wise and street-savvy, he can go where the police can't: and once he's on the trail, he won't stop until he finds the truth. David Morrissey stars as Billy Rucker in these two gritty urban noir thrillers.

Christopher Marlowe turns government spy in these four comedy crime dramas. Murder and intrigue are all in a day's work for Kit Marlowe, England's leading playwright and undercover agent in Her Majesty's Secret Service. Amid the squalor and splendour of Elizabethan London, he probes a series of baffling mysteries, aided by his trusty underworld accomplice Bartholomew Ratsbane.

Counterfeiters, spies, murderers...and Isaac Newton must use his brilliant mind to defeat them all in this pair of full-cast historical crime dramas. In Master of the Mint, a new figure of justice is walking the streets of 17th-century London—Isaac Newton, scientific genius. After thirty years as a Cambridge academic, Newton takes up a new post at the Royal Mint in the Tower of London. In Nemesis, Isaac Newton must contend not only with opponents to his currency plans, but also with a French secret agent who is aiding the theft of England's entire supply of silver.

Inspired by the real-life memoirs of Edinburgh's first detective, James McLevy, here are more fantastic fictional adventures featuring the tenacious Victorian crime-solver. Once again, McLevy and his faithful sidekick Constable Mulholland patrol the dark wynds and back alleys of 1840s Leith tracking down evildoers—aided by a surprising ally: the beautiful and resourceful brothel-keeper Jean Brash.

After shooting a teenage boy in an undercover operation, DS Sue Manson is taken off the front line and transferred to a desk job in Missing Persons. But no sooner has she arrived than she's in the thick of the action once more, tasked with tracking down a trio of twisted criminals.

Life is good for Charles Paris. He's moved back in with his estranged wife, and has landed a plum stage role as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. But it can't last. First his attempts to woo Frances fall flat, then the play's director is taken ill with gastric trouble. His replacement, Romanian wunderkind Alex Radelescu, is determined to take the play in a radical new direction—with or without Charles.

Meet The Honourable Richard Rollison—a.k.a the Toff. A debonair aristocrat and ace amateur sleuth, he's the scourge of London's criminal underworld: sometimes working alone, sometimes hand-in-glove with the police. But wherever he goes, he leaves his distinctive calling card: a jaunty caricature featuring a top hat, a monocle, a bow tie and a cigar. In these two gripping thrillers, he finds himself involved in rural intrigue and a wedding-day mystery.

Michael Feydeau, alias TV's much-loved Inspector Niblett, and crime expert David Pershore (the best-selling author of A Nice Sit Down with Some Horrific Murders) go on a thrilling journey through the gruesome history of crime, digging deep into the vaults of villainy to exhume dastardly cases of theft, intrigue, deception, fraud, murder, murder and a touch more murder.

1839, and Bow Street Runner Pip Shepherd is out of a job. The Runners have been disbanded, merged with Sir Robert Peel's new Metropolitan Police - and there's no way Pip's signing up with them. But when he befriends 'Peeler' Thomas Tedman, and hears about an upcoming detective division, he has second thoughts, and soon the duo are investigating their first cases together.

1951. With the Festival of Britain in full swing, the country is looking forward to a brighter, more prosperous future. But young Brian Oldman cannot forget the past. Traumatised by a murder he witnessed when he was just six, he holds a terrible secret, but there is a more devastating secret he has yet to discover. Falling under the spell of his mother, Cath, he is drawn into London's criminal underworld, where territory battles are raging between the old guard and the new.

1991. Britain and the US are waging war in Iraq, the Soviet Union is breaking up - and Brian Oldman is banged up in Parkhurst, his 30-year sentence restarted. Set on proving his innocence, he studies law from his cell in a bid to win justice at last. But will he ever be released from prison? Joseph Olinska, meanwhile, seems unstoppable. Now ennobled and on the board of Lehman Brothers, he plans to extend his business interests into Russia - with a little help from Boris Yeltsin and his cronies. 

Acclaimed as 'the most thoroughly European of British crime writers' (Guardian), Nicolas Freeling was well known for his novels featuring Dutch sleuth Van der Valk and French policeman Henri Castang. Included in this collection are six stories showcasing both detectives, as well as a bonus programme exploring Van der Valk and his creator.

Alison Steadman and Sue Johnston star as world-weary hack Dee T. Mitchell in these two mystery thrillers set in South Wales. These two gripping crime dramas follow the dogged, imaginative and impressive investigations of Dee T. Mitchell, a reporter on a local Swansea newspaper, as she attempts to uncover the murders of two individuals and in the process exposes deep secrets and cover-ups across the Gower peninsula and beyond.

Norman Birkett KC (1883-1962) was a real-life Rumpole - a distinguished and highly skilled lawyer who had numerous successes in the courtroom during his long career. This collection covers some of his most famous cases of the inter-war years, including the dramatic trial of Buck Ruxton; the notorious Dennistoun affair; and the peculiar events surrounding the mysterious cyclist Ronald Light.