Lola Dakota had to call in the police several times to restrain her abusive husband, but he always returned, so when they got wind of his plan to hire a hitman to kill her she agrees to play her part in the sting which would see both men arrested. It proves to be a great success, but several hours later and when her husband is under lock and key, Lola is truly dead -and by someone's hand. The police team on the original sting are in disarray, so Alex Cooper and Mike Chapman are swiftly in place to take over. Looking beyond her husband into her professional life, they discover a university department riddled with jeolousies, extra-marital affairs, swindled funds and the unexplained disappearance of a student known to be a drug user. The one thing which seems to link all the players with all the misdemeanours is the university's research site on an island off Manhattan where they were investigating the remains of the Victorian isolation hospitals and lunatic asylums and the morgue - the deadhouse. But why Lola's murder is connected to the place is not so easy to prove, nor the identity of her killer.

The first year of the 20th century when Nell, a student at Oxford, experiences her first kiss and investigates her first murder

This Nell Bray mystery takes us back to the first year of the 20th century when Nell, a student at Oxford, experiences her first kiss and investigates her first murder. She suspects that a member of her travelling party is guilty of killing their host.

In the last summer of Queen Victoria's reign it was not considered 'proper' for unmarried women to go travelling with members of the opposite sex. But Nell Bray can't understand why she and a mixed group of her student friends should not stay with an uncle of one of them, and they decide to risk the wrath of their colleges. Their intention is to discuss philosophy and literature and to walk the fells of the Lake District. However, when they arrive they find that Alan's uncle, the 'old man', having spoken out against the Boer War, has been ostracised by the village and is suspected of having murdered the local magistrate's son even though no body has been found. Her curiosity piqued by this tale, and by the old man's unconventional household, Nell determines to separate the facts from the myth. But first of all love gets in the way, and then the old man is discovered dead. At first it seems he chose a spectacular method of suicide to avoid scandal and ill health, but Nell then works out that he could not have killed himself in this way without help and she suspects that one of their party is a murderer .

Detective Inspector Peter Diamond is caught up in the most difficult investigation of his career - the murder of his wife. Found in one of Bath's parks, she has been shot. Mad with grief, Diamond finds himself under suspicion and decides that a little independent action is called for.