In Qwill's opinion, 'A town without a bookstore is like a chicken with one leg,' and since the late Eddington Smith's bookstore burned down, the town of Pickax has been somewhat off balance. To the rescue comes the Klingenschoen Foundation, manager of Qwill's estate, which considers a new bookstore a worthy investment. Delighted by their good fortune, the people of Moose County prepare to celebrate the gala groundbreaking of the new store on the site of the old. But no one is prepared for the discovery of the body of a man shot execution-style in a wooded area on the very same day. Now Qwill and his clever cats have their work cut out for them...

Lilian Jackson Braun composed her first poem at the age of two. She began writing her Cat Who... detective series when one of her own Siamese cats mysteriously fell to its death from her apartment block. Since then over twenty Cat Who... novels have been published, all featuring the very talented Koko and Yum Yum, Siamese cats with a bent for detection. She and her husband, Earl, live in the mountains of North Carolina.

Forbes Abbot village, for all its old-fashioned charm, is not quite the close-knit community it appears to be. And on occasion the little differences and squabbles can become downright violent. But no-one - not even the local medium - could possibly have predicted murder. Except, of course, for Chief Inspector Barnaby. And the case of the ghost in the killing machine is one to test even the most experienced of detectives.

Meredith Mitchell is delighted when an old friend from her consular days, Toby Smythe, turns up on leave from consular postings. Alison Jenner, one ofToby's relatives has been receiving anonymous hate mail in which reference is made to a time twenty-five years ago when Alison stood trial for the murder of her aunt and was acquitted. Who is the writer and how do they know about Alison's past?
Meredith's fiance, Detective Superintendent Markby, is at first reluctant to become involved. But then the enquiries into a poison pen campaign turns into a murder investigation.

When the Maude Idris docks at the Port ofLondon, laden with ebony and ivory, Clement Louvain leaves four armed seamen on board to guard the precious cargo. By the moming the ivory is gone and one of the seamen murdered. Hindered by his ignorance of the river and its customs but tempted by the huge fee that Louvain is offering, V/William Monk begins to investigate.
Meanwhile Hester Monk's work at the refuge for sick prostitutes is encountering financial difficulties. Then a man arrives offering a substantial sum for care of one particular woman. He is Clement Louvain, her husband's client....

Glevum, 187AD - Roman Britain is under the leadership of two interim governors, Marcus and Praxus. They are throwing a sumptuous banquet to celebrate their new power, but all mosaic-maker Libertus can think about is getting home to his warm bed. When the guest of honour is found dead in the vomitorium and all fingers point towards the host and patron, Marcus, home becomes the last thing on Libertus' mind.
The union between Marcus and Praxus has never been easy: they're struggling to share power and Praxus has made advances to Marcus's beautiful young wife. Yet before Libertus can find out whether his patron is guilty or not, he is accused as an accomplice.
Forced to go on the run, Libertus quickly realises that he's an unwelcome visitor in the underworld of Roman Gloucester. In the Ghosts of Glevum Rosemary Rowe weaves together the two extremes of a society that were strictly divided. At the top stood the privileged `citizens', but this only included a select few and most ordinary Romans were without the many rights that went with this title. Freed-men were desperately poor and slaves were very little more than the belongings of their masters, beneath them were an underclass of thieves and freaks. It's these `ghosts' that Libertus finds himself desperately trying to escape from.

Sister Fidelma originally made her debut as one of crime fiction's most interesting sleuths in short form. The sharp-witted religieuse captured the hearts of many readers as she successfully tackled the most baffling of crimes in her other role as advocate of the law courts of Ireland, using the ancient Brehon Law system. Whispers Of The Dead is the second collection of these stories to be published in the UK. With its breathtaking range of settings and crimes, it is guaranteed to entertain and intrigue - and is an anthology that no lover of Celtic culture or historical crime should be without.

Peter Tremayne is the fiction pseudonym of a well-known authority on the ancient Celts, who has utilised his knowledge of the Brehon law system and 7th-Century Irish society to create a new concept in detective fiction.