Showing titles in Amateur Sleuth

As teenager Blue van Meer tells her story we are hurled into a dizzying world of murder and butterflies, womanizing and wandering, American McCulture, The Western Canon, political radicalism and juvenile crushisms. Structured around a syllabus for a Great Works of Literature class, Blue's wickedly funny yet poignant tale reveals how the imagination finds meaning in the most bewildering times, the ways people of all ages strive for connection, and how the darkest of secrets can set us free.

Dr Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist, spends a lot of time looking at death. But now death has found her, with the news that her long-time friend Dan Golding has been killed in a house fire. Ruth's grief soon turns to suspicion of arson when she receives a desperate letter from Dan, sent the...

Elinor Carlisle and Roddy Welman are the model English couple, perfect companions set for a life of ease when they inherit Aunt Laura's considerable fortune. But a poison pen letter begins a chain of events which is to end in tragedy. Convinced that Mary Gerrard, a childhood playmate of...

September 1909, and Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, have been invited to Lord Riddlethorpe’s country estate for a week of motor racing and parties. They both agree that it sounds like a perfectly charming holiday. But when one of the drivers dies in a crash during the very first race, they discover that what seemed like an uncharacteristic error in judgement may have a more sinister explanation...

Brideshead, bon-bons, cucumber sandwiches - and now a murder. In the decadent world of Oxford University, c.1985, Pimms, punting and ball gowns are de rigeur. Ursula Flowerbutton, a studious country girl, arrives for her first term, anticipating nothing more sinister than days spent poring over history books - and, perhaps, an invitation to a ball. But when she discovers a body, Ursula is catapulted into a murder investigation.

A gruesome discovery at an old children's home lays bare terrible secret's from Norwich's past in the second gripping mystery for Dr Ruth Galloway. 'The setting is enticingly atmospheric . . . a really intelligent murder story' Independent Dr Ruth Galloway's forensic skills are called upon when...

Hours later, the man’s cold body lies in the city mortuary, alongside the woman he couldn’t save. And his sister, unconventional nurse Gemma Tate, tracks down troubled police inspector Sebastian Bell to unravel the truth. Sebastian has enough pressure to solve the murder of an aristocratic heiress without Gemma meddling in his case. But the cryptic sentences she brings him from her brother’s notebook could be a crucial lead. If only they knew what “milky way” meant.

Date with Justice, the ninth novel in Julia's Chapman's witty and engaging Dales Detective series, sees Delilah's brother under suspicion of murder. Can Delilah and Samson prove he's innocent? The Dales Detective Agency is on the brink of closure. Samson O’Brien has returned to his position as...

One of Granta's Best Young British Novelists Eric Sanderson wakes up in a place he doesn't recognise, unable to remember who he is. All he has left are journal entries recalling Clio, a perfect love now gone. So begins a thrilling adventure that will send Eric and his cynical cat Ian on a search...

The acidly funny first book starring the subversive sleuth in one of the most successful mystery series of all time. Fletch is an investigative reporter whose methods are a little unorthodox. Currently he's living on the beach. He's taking more than a little flak from his editor. She doesn't appreciate his style. Or the expense account items he's racking up. Or his definition of the word "deadline". Or the divorce lawyers who keep showing up at the office. So when multimillionaire Alan Stanwyk offers Fletch the job of a lifetime, which could be worth a fortune, he's intrigued.

A rainy July weekend in Westham means the beaches are empty and business is dead at Mac's Bikes, but couldn't be livelier inside the Rusty Anchor Pub. But come Monday morning, one patron is not so lively when the chef opens up and finds a body behind the bar. It's last call for Bruce Byrne, an elderly high school teacher who's been around so long it seems like he taught everybody.

With her Let It Bee honey boutique buzzing along nicely, life is as sweet as nectar for Wren Johnson - until she takes a morning walk along the Pacific beach with her Havana Brown cat, Everett, and stumbles upon the body of Agnes Snow, the cranky queen of the local craft fairs, stiff as driftwood. More unfortunate? Clutched in the victim's fist is a label from Wren's homemade beeswax-and-honey lip balm. Which makes Officer Jim Hampton focus his dreamy-blue Paul Newman eyes on Wren as suspect number-one.

Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of Kurland St. Mary to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister....

Georgie's best friend, Belinda, inherits a spooky old house in Cornwall and asks Georgie to go with her to inspect the property. When they arrive, they meet Rose, a woman Belinda knew as a child when she spent her summers with her grandmother in Cornwall. Belinda never liked Rose, who has always been bossy and a bit of a bully, but when Belinda's house proves to be uninhabitable, Rose invites them to stay with her. Rose is now married to Tony Summers, Belinda's childhood crush, and lives in the lovely house on the cliffs that he has inherited.

The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring. Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime.

Alchemist Zoe Faust is no stranger to magical mayhem, but when her boyfriend's new tea shop is vandalized and his special tea blends stolen, she plunges into a baffling mystery to save him. The clues lead Zoe and her gargoyle sidekick Dorian to an eerie mansion high in the Portland hills, filled with creeping carnivorous plants and enigmatic topiary monsters. When they stumble across a corpse in the conservatory that appears to have been killed by sinister shrubbery, an estranged member of the family is implicated in the murder.

A MESMERIZING BREAK-OUT CRIME THRILLER FULL OF BREATHTAKING TWISTS. Nic always hated clubbing. She only went out that night because she'd promised a friend. She wakes up, naked and bound in an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere. Dappled light comes in through a dirty window. Her body is...

Formally trained pastry chef Chloe Barnes is opening a cannabis bakery. When her beloved grandmother falls ill, Chloe returns to quaint Azalea Bay, to start over in the most satisfying way possible—concocting delicious edibles with her quirky Aunt Dawn. Combining French luxury and THC, Baked by Chloe will take pot brownies to another level...until a creepy past acquaintance rehashes old drama and shockingly turns up dead—landing Aunt Dawn as the number one murder suspect.

Brilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi must save a team of paranormal investigators, trapped in an abandoned house, as they are picked off one-by-one! Rumor has it that the mysterious Clock House—a remote mansion built by notorious architect Nakamura Seiji for a long-dead clock enthusiast—is...

The brand new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Perfect Home! Perfect for fans of Freida McFadden and Lisa Jewell 💥'Tense, unsettling, and brilliantly executed... One of my favourite reads of the year.' Keri Beevis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ She lives in my old...