Bettina Whitelaw is a grand dame of the English literary scene. Approaching eighty, with a beautiful flat in Holland Park and a comfortable income, her life is not dissimilar to that of her wealthy, elegant neighbours. But her background most certainly is. Brought up in Bundaroo, a small town in the Australian outback, Bettina's childhood was dominated by the relentlessly blazing sun, the long daily walk to school, and by the simmering animosities of smalltown life. Aged sixteen, Bettina managed to escape to begin her literary career in Europe. But now, more than sixty years later, her past is coming back to haunt her. As she embarks upon the painful process of writing her memoirs, images from her childhood begin to re-surface. And when her former housekeeper is the victim of a violent attack, Bettina begins to realise that she herself is in serious danger, a danger that has its roots in a small, dusty outback town.

After 22 years, Merlyn Docherty returns to his family home for his aunt's funeral. He had developed a special affection for Clarissa Cantelo who had adopted him and raised him. But when he reached the age of 16, his clairvoyant aunt predicted his life would be blighted by violent death and suggested that he should disappear for a time.

Robert Barnard was born in Essex. He was educated at Balliol College Oxford and after finishing his degree he taught English at universities in Australia and Norway, where he completed his doctorate on Dickens. He returned to England to become a full time writer and lives with his wife in Leeds, Yorkshire. The couple are currently collaborating on a Brontë Encyclopaedia. In his spare time he enjoys opera, crosswords and walking the dog. In 2003 Robert Barnard was the recipient of the prestigious CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger, an award in recognition of a lifetime’s achievement in crime writing

`Thoroughly sharp, modern, witty, and literate' Margaret Yorke
`The fresh and lively style of Judith Cutler's writing always appeals and I look forward to the next one' Bernard Knight
`You are in for a treat' Bella
'In Cutler... we are undoubtedly dealing with the creme de la creme' The Times
`As tough and gritty as they come' Northern Echo

Orphaned young and shunted through foster homes, Lina Townend now lives a happy, normal life in an idyllic Kent village with antique dealer Griff, who treats her as his own granddaughter as well as a business partner.
However, when she spots a frontispiece from a rare book, early childhood memories are triggered. Desperate to trace her real family Lina begins searching for the father she never knew, but she is not the only one interested in the frontispiece. When she and her beloved Griff find themselves victim to a series of violent incidents, it becomes clear that Lina is involved in something a lot more complicated, and dangerous, than some family research...

Judith Cutler began writing at an early age and, after studying English Literature, went on to teach first at a tough inner-city college and later at Birmingham University, where she taught creative writing. She is the author of two acclaimed crime series set in the Birmingham area, featuring Detective Kate Power and amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers.

As featured in ITV's popular series starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris.

Meet Laura Thyme and Rosemary Boxer, two women who come together in the midst of life-changing crises and help -each- other to embark on a new life.
When Laura Thyme discovers that her husband has left her, she travels straight to the house of her best friend, Sam Trent, for some much-needed sympathy, Meanwhile, Rosemary Boxer, who is having man-trouble of a different variety, is invited to visit Daniel Kellaway, an ex-student of hers, at his beautiful country house.
Winterbourne Manor is beautiful,, with breathtaking gardens. Daniel, who is confined to bed with chest pains, has to rely on Sam, his business partner, -to keep their highly successful garden centre business going. But when Sam- is killed in a car crash and Daniel himself falls from a balcony, the women's noses for trouble start twitching. Rosemary's horticultural knowledge combined with Laura's former police background, aid the pair in their search for the truth.

An original novel by the creator of ITV1's Top 10 drama, Rosemary and Thyme, this is a witty and intelligent mystery - with a definite love for all things horticultural.

Brian Eastman heads one of the UK's leading independent production companies, Carnival Films, and has been Executive Producer on a variety of TV programmes including `As If', 'Tracker' and `Blott on the Landscape'. He has also helped produce `Agatha Christie's Poirot' for ITV and co-created a variety of dramas such as `BUGS' for the BBC.

Charnley was once the proud home of the upper class Jardine family, renowned for throwing wonderful parties to the local gentry. However, the family’s seemingly secure world is ripped apart when a scandal catapults them into the headlines, the night in question remaining cloaked in mystery for the best part of forty years.
Four decades later, the house sold and the family split up, workmen discover two shoe-boxes stuffed full of old letters and photos hidden away by Harriet Jardine all those years ago. Memories long since buried resurface, as she finds herself reliving those painful last moments before her fortunes changed forever.
But Harriet discovers that the scandal of forty years ago was so much worse than anyone had ever suspected when a mummified and brutally murdered body is found hidden behind one of the chimneys in the great house, and the family are plunged into new controversy.
As the dark secrets of the Jardine family are gradually exposed, the reserved façade of the upper class family is stripped away in the dangerous search for the truth.

Marjorie Eccles was born in Yorkshire and has since spent some time on the Northumbrian coast; both locations have influenced her writing. Her well-known Gill Mayo series was set in the Black Country and her two latest books, Killing A Unicorn and Echoes of Silence, were set in her native Yorkshire. Altogether Marjorie has written mainly crime novels, but also some romantic fiction. Outside of writing, Marjorie’s enjoyment comes from reading, listening to music and gardening. She lives with her husband and has a son and grandson.

Liverpool has just been named as European City of Culture for 2008 and property sharks are descending in droves. Johnny Ace is back from Spain and running Ace Investigations when a tramp is found dead with one of Johnny's business cards in his pocket. The tramp turns out to be a wealthy land speculator and his girlfriend hires Johnny.

`A modern Yorkshire setting for a modern upbeat crime story that ventures into thriller territory. Hall's clean-cut style adds to the enjoyment' Yorkshire Post
`Hall's style is refreshingly clean and uncluttered, and her narrative achieves a powerful momentum as the layers of deception are stripped away. Her journalist protagonist is an intelligently realised character' Times Literary Supplement
`Hall's characters have the smack-in-the-face quality of real life, are well developed and, most importantly, co-exist with some very fine plotting indeed' Crime Time
`Psychologically acute, with graphic description, characters who are often as chilling as the place, and the tense, tortured love affair between Laura and Thackeray. Absorbing stuff.' The Good Book Guide

A head teacher is bludgeoned to death and a volatile black teenager is arrested: as far as DCI Michael Thackeray is concerned, that's it, case closed. Though absent at the time of the murder and subsequent arrest, Thackeray is convinced that it was an open-and-shut case; that justice has been done. But when his long-term girlfriend, Laura Ackroyd, begins digging into the case for a newspaper article she's working on, some disturbing facts come to light. .
It soon becomes clear that Peter Graves, the head teacher at the local school in Bradfield, was a widely disliked man - meaning that the list of possible suspects is far from slender. So why was Stevie Fletcher arrested so quickly, and with so little evidence? There were too many questions that were never asked and accusations of racism against the out-of-town officer who was in charge of the case only serve to fuel Thackeray's doubts. When protests turn ugly and tension rises on the estate where Stevie lived, a reluctant Thackeray, encouraged by Laura, decides to re-open the case.

Patricia Hall is the pen-name of journalist Maureen O'Connor. She was born and brought up in West Yorkshire, which is where she chose to set her acclaimed series of novels, including Dead Reckoning and Deep Freeze, which feature reporter Laura Ackroyd and DCI Michael Thackeray. She is married, with two grown-up sons, and now lives in Oxford.

.

.

When a friend goes missing at the same time as a Ruben's painting, Fizz and Buchanan smell a rat and set out to get some answers...
Barrister Tam Buchanan is enjoying a rare, tranquil evening on the golf course. Poised gloriously on the brink of making the shot of his life, his concentration is abruptly shattered by the rude arrival of his exasperating former colleague, Fizz Fitzpatrick. -
She needs his help. An old friend of hers, Irene Lloyd, has disappeared. Also missing is a Rubens painting Irene had been working on, worth £1.5 million... Fizz refuses to believe Irene is guilty of the theft, even if all the evidence points to the contrary. She and Buchanan investigate, and soon become enmeshed in a tangled web of intrigue. What exactly is going on at the stately but impoverished Abbeyfield House? Where had Irene's clandestine taxi journeys been taking her? And did her obsessive boyfriend have good reason for his jealousy?
Together, the legal odd couple set out to uncover the answers in a captivating page-turner, full of invention and wit, that will keep you intrigued and mystified until the final revelations...

A collection of the years best short stories from Britain's fines contemporary crime writers.
Contributors include:
lan Rankin -- Val McDermid
Martina Cole -- Edward Marston
Peter Robinson -- Anne Perry
Stella Duffy -- Mat Coward
Jerry Sykes - - Denise Mina
Liza Cody -- Stephen Gallagher
Martin Edwards -- Judith Cutler
Marion Arnott -- David Williams
Amy Myers -- John Harvey
Bill James -- Carol Anne Davis
Peter Turnbull -- Nicholas Royle
Robert Barnard -- Sally Spedding
and Peter Lovesey

Maxim Jakubowski worked for many years in publishing before opening the now- famous Murder One, the world's largest specialist bookstore. He is known in his own right as a novelist, as literary director of the Crime Scene Festival held every July at London's National Film Theatre and writes a monthly column on crime fiction for The Guardian. A winner of both the Karel and the Anthony awards, he is a regular broadcaster on radio and TV. He has edited over 40 anthologies in the fields of crime, SF and fantasy and erotica, many of which have been best sellers.

Tenth in the popular series featuring Apothecary John Rawlings and the ‘Blind Beak’, Sir John Fielding, with his famous Flying Runners.

An evening out at an illustrious party at Gunnersbury Hall, ends in tragedy when one of the most popular characters of the series comes to an untimely end. Suspicion falls upon John Rawlings when he is found crouched over the inert figure, and he is forced to go into hiding. John and his closest friends desperately try to delve through the layers of deception to uncover the truth, whilst struggling to come to terms with their own grief.

Can DI Charlie Priest solve two cases and save his love life?
Joe Crozier, a businessman with a decidedly shady past, ends up in a river, bound and gagged. Meanwhile Charlie Priest is called to another murder scene - only to find that the victim is an old school friend of his, mountaineer Tony Krabbe.

There comes a time in every teacher's life when he must face his Nemesis - the four-yearly Ofsted Inspection. The investigation begins at Leighford High and Sally Meninger, the dangerously attractive Chief Inspector, is gunning for Peter Maxwell, Head of Sixth Form. When Maxwell finds her in an intimate situation with her fellow Inspector, Alan Whiting, who is later found dead in the Inspection team's office. Maxwell thinks that Meninger's calm demeanour has more than a hint of the femme fatale. But when Leighford High's head teacher James Diamond becomes embroiled in the affair, it is up to the embattled Head of Sixth Form to prove his friend's innocence.

M. J. Trow is a full-time teacher-of histcsry who has been doubling as a crime writer for seventeen years. Originally from Rhondda in South Wales he claims to be the only Welshman who cannot sing or play rugby. He currently lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife and son. His interests include collecting militaria, film, the supernatural and true crime. The author of the Inspector Sholto Lestrade series and six non-fiction books, Maxwell's Inspection is the ninth novel featuring Peter `Mad Max' Maxwell.

When Peter `Mad Max' Maxwell took his kids from Leighford High on an archaeological dig, all should have been learning and fun. The professionals were very excited - was the grave they had found that of Alfred the Great? No, because the corpse was not Saxon and it wasn't a king, but an altogether more recent murder.
No sooner has the first body been found than another, a policeman on the case, is found dead at the wheel of his car. What knowledge did he possess that led to his death? And does his colleague, Maxwell's partner Jacquie Carpenter, unwittingly have the same information?
Maxwell locks horns with the great and not so good in a vicious world of skulduggery, academic back-biting and religious mania which can only end in murder.

M. J. Trow is a full-time teacher of history who has been doubling as a crime writer for seventeen years. Originally from Rhondda in South Wales he claims to be the only Welshman who cannot sing or play rugby. He currently lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife and son. His interests include collecting militaria, film, the supernatural and true crime. The author of the Inspector Sholto Lestrade series and six non-fiction books, Maxwell's Grave is the tenth novel featuring Peter `Mad Max' Maxwell.