Showing results by narrator "Stanley Townsend" in All Categories

Following the discovery of the body of a well-loved parish priest at Ballyglass House - the Co Wexford family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family - Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called in from Dublin to investigate. Facing obstruction from all angles, Strafford is determined to identify the murderer. But, as the snow continues to fall over this ever expanding mystery, the people of Ballyglass are equally determined to keep their secrets.

1950s Dublin, in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered, an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play. The victim's sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery.

When Dublin pathologist Quirke glimpses a familiar face while on holiday with his wife, it's hard, at first, to tell whether his imagination is just running away with him. Could she really be who he thinks she is, and have a connection with a crime that nearly brought ruin to an Irish political dynasty? Unable to ignore his instincts, Quirke makes a call back home, and Detective St John Strafford is soon dispatched to Spain. But he's not the only one on route: as a terrifying hitman hunts down his prey, they are all set for a brutal showdown. 

Private Investigator Ed Loy is working on what looks like an open and shut case: the disappearance of dentist Shane Howard's daughter, Emily. Little does Loy realise that this seemingly simple case will involve delving into the world of blackmail, organised crime, and the very murky secrets of the Howard family.

Even the best private eye needs more than a name to find a missing person, but that's all that Father Vincent Tyrrell, the brother of prominent racehorse trainer F. X. Tyrrell, will offer Loy when he comes to him for help. A dwindling bank account convinces Loy to delve into the deadly underworld of horse racing, but fortune soon smiles on him: while working another case, he discovers a phone number linked to F. X. on a badly beaten body left at an illegal dump.

Ed Loy has made some changes. He has moved into a flat in Dublin’s city centre, leaving the family home behind. Maybe now he can break free from the ghosts of his past – the drinking, the dirty deals, the sleazy underworld. But when a 15-year-old murder case is reopened, Loy is hired by the victim’s daughter to investigate the suspects ignored by the first investigation: a rich property developer, an ex-IRA man and Loy’s least favourite sociopath, George Halligan.

In LA there’s a killer on the loose. He kills young and rootless girls and he always kills in threes. Back in Dublin, Ed Loy is reunited with Jack Donovan, a film director friend from LA. When the victims of the “Three-in-One Killer” are discovered in LA at locations Jack used for his movies, Loy begins to suspect Jack. He flies to LA, hoping that whatever he finds will point away from his old friend. And then, when he finally unearths the truth, it looks like it may be too late. In Dublin, the killer has broken his pattern.

Ed Loy hasn't been back to Dublin for 20 years. Now his mother is dead and he has returned home to bury her. He soon realises that the world waiting for him is very different from the one he left behind all those years ago. An old classmate, Linda Dawson, pleads with him to find her missing husband, Peter. She doesn't want the police involved.