'You'd never believe it to look at me now, but once upon a time I killed a man.' Daniel Kind is finding the long winter months at Brackdale tough, especially as his relationship with Miranda is also going through a dark time. Far from the bright lights of London and beginning to feel isolated in their rural idyll, Miranda has a bad case of itchy feet. The fear that she may just get up and leave isn't far from his thoughts. And Miranda wouldn't be the first: ten years ago a solitary woman called Emma Bestwick left her cottage and never came back. Police at the time were unable to establish whether she left of her own accord or was the victim of suicide, accident or murder. Her disappearance went unaccounted for, and the unresolved case has always irked DCI Hannah Scarlett, who heads the local Cold Case Review Team. But in a small, rural community, someone is bound to know something. And that someone has recently started calling the local newspaper and dropping hints about Emma's death. With the case reopened, Hannah and Daniel are drawn together again, and discover to their cost that one person will preserve the secrets of the past at any price.

June Thomson's Conan Doyle pastiches have been greeted with rapturous praise from Sherlock Holmes aficionados. Now available in paperback for the first time, they will delight anyone who is hungry for more of Holmes and Watson. Here are:
The Case of the Millionaire's Persecution
The Case of the Colonel's Madness
The Case of the Addleton Tragedy
The Case of the 'Friesland' Tragedy
The Case of the Shopkeeper's Terror
The Case of the Smith-Mortimer Succession
The Case of the Maupertuis Scandal

'Among the best pastiches ever written' F.E. Pardoe, Birmingham, Post
'The detection is properly detailed and convincing, the dialogue natural, and the narrative fluent and immaculate.' G.S. Stavert. Sherlock Holmes Society of London
'In almost every respect it might have been written by Conan Doyle.' Anthony Lejeune, The Tablet

June Thomson, a former teacher, has published 23 crime novels, 18 of which feature her series detective, Inspector Jack Finch and his sergeant, Tom Boyce. She has also written 4 collections of pastiches of Holmes' short stories and a biography of Holmes and Watson. Her books have been published in the United States as well as appearing in translation in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Russia and Japan. She was listed in H R F Keating's Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books.

Stephen Larkin is back in his native Newcastle. Working as an agency journalist, he's busy blackmailing the powerful into keeping their campaign promises. But he still dissatisfied which is why he jumps at the chance to track down a child abuser with friends in high places.
Cynical Larkin is automatically suspicious of people like Alan Swanson, the charismatic self-styled Minister for Youth and the man behind the 'Rebirth of the Region' project. But is his interest in the kids a chance for a photo opportunity or something more sinister?
Larkin thinks that, as a reporter, he knows all there is to know about the evil that men do. But nothing has prepared him for this ...