Search Results for: Born a Crime

An inheritance comes with its own sinister dangers…
‘Joan Aiken’s triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others’ New York Times Book Review

Annette, an increasingly amnesiac magazine editor who has inherited an unexpected fortune, leaves London for a new life in a cottage in the country, but falls prey to a series of strange characters who threaten to deprive her of not just her money, but her sanity too. There’s a world-famous artist with a dark secret; a New Zealander on an archaeological dig; and a strange neighbour wheeling an invalid ‘child’ on a lonely road…

Set in the picturesque Sussex town where the author was born and spent her early years in a haunted house, this gothic thriller builds to a terrifying climax as the heroine pits her wits against the sinister forces that surround her.

The standalone novel from the critically-acclaimed Peter Lovesey. Rough Cider was nominated for an Edgar Award.

It is World War II and American soldiers stationed in rural England have made friends, especially with the local girls. After a dance to celebrate the pressing of the apples into cider, the resentment of the local men leads to violence and a murder. Later, a baby girl is born.

Years later, Theo, a university lecturer, is approached by an American girl called Alice. She wants to be told about her father, a GI hanged for murder in Somerset during World War II. As a boy, Theo had been a principal witness for the prosecution.

Alice persuades him to revisit the farm where Theo was evacuated, staunchly determined to discover the facts. The horrors of the past take on a frightening immediacy when long-forgotten jealousies come to the surface and another murder is committed.

V.I. Warshawski’s impossible god-daughter Bernie convinces her to look for August, a young film-maker who has disappeared. The evidence indicates that he has gone to Kansas in the company of Emerald, an older black movie actress who wants to film the story of her life. Her search takes V.I. from the military base Emerald was born on, to the farm where she grew up outside a university town, ploughing up past and present-day secrets as she goes.

What is happening at the former nuclear missile site next door to the farm? What happened at the site in 1983, when students tried to stage their own version of Greenham Common? Everywhere V.I. turns she seems to be finding more trouble – with not a sign of August and Emerald. And then trouble turns to death . . .

PEOPLE ARE BORN. MONSTERS ARE MADE.
Epic, thrilling and beautifully written, AFTER DARK is a twisting masterpiece of crime fiction that fans of Ian Rankin, Tim Weaver, Belinda Bauer and Tana French will love.

A girl held captive her entire life
After a shocking discovery, the police must unravel a mystery that horrifies the nation.

A detective condemned as a criminal
Violently abducted while searching for a missing woman, D.S. Abigail Boone suffered retrograde amnesia – remembering nothing of her previous life. Defying the law to hunt those responsible, she now languishes behind bars.

A monster hiding in the shadows
In desperation, police turn to Boone – who fears a connection to the disappearance of a child three decades earlier…and a mysterious underworld figure whose name is spoken only in whispers.

Freed from prison, what will Boone sacrifice – and who must she become – to uncover the terrifying truth?

A hugely complex and entertaining novel – Star Pick*, The Times Crime Club

Elizabeth George delivers another intelligent, intricate mystery – New York Times

Superlative . . . This is a memorable addition to [the Inspector Lynley] series – Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley are back in the next Lynley novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Elizabeth George.

A Nigerian born detective sergeant working for the Metropolitan Police is found unconscious in her own flat and ends up in hospital where she dies of her injury. The post-mortem reveals that the subdural hematoma is the result of a blow to her head. DI Thomas Lynley, DS Barbara Havers and DS Winston Nkata are called in to investigate a case that touches upon not only the work and the life of the murdered detective but also upon a controversial cultural tradition that damages and often destroys the future of everyone it involves.

An outlaw motorcycle club is a band of brothers like no other. Hidden away from mainstream society behind multiple layers of secrecy, mythology and a sophisticated campaign of misinformation that portrays them as nothing more than loveable rogues, the brutal truth about the biker world has long escaped public scrutiny.

In reality, today’s outlaw bikers are at the epicentre of a violent underworld subculture, enforced by a ruthless code of silence, and control a global criminal empire worth millions.

Spanning the UK, Europe, America, Canada and Australia, OUTLAWS is a compelling, shocking and chilling story of how bikers are born and made, and how and why they die.

This stunning box set includes all four books in Jennifer Lynne Barnes’ bestselling The Naturals series, packaged together for the first time!

Cold cases get hot in this unputdownable mystery series from Jennifer Lynn Barnes, no.1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inheritance Games series. Perfect for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified programme that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realise is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved murders – especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive . . .

Born smart. Born tough. Born FBI.

‘The Naturals is Criminal Minds for the YA world, and I loved every page’ – Ally Carter, New York Times bestselling author

THIS COMPLETE SERIES BOX SET INCLUDES:
· The Naturals
· The Naturals: Killer Instinct
· The Naturals: All In
· The Naturals: Bad Blood

When Cindy Decker finds a new-born baby in a rubbish bin, she can’t imagine who would commit such a crime. Surely abandoning a baby is the biggest taboo of motherhood? The usual suspects – prostitutes, homeless women and drug abusers – aren’t responsible. In fact, the culprit is a woman who appears almost as vulnerable as her own baby. As the case continues, Cindy realises she’s in deep – her own life in danger – and there’s only one person who can help, her father and boss, Lieutenant Peter Decker. They both know the key to a successful investigation is keeping a cool, professional head, but with a father and daughter detective team, can it ever be anything other than personal?

The latest gripping novel in the Polish detective series featuring DI Dania Gorska.

Polish-born DS Dania Gorska is called upon to investigate a seemingly straightforward case of an RTA – a car has crashed into a tree, having first hit a deer on an icy road. But a witness has come forward to say he saw someone fleeing the scene and then the autopsy reveals vicious marks on the head of the dead man. Suddenly Dania is looking at murder.

The dead man, Eddie Sangster, has had an intriguing past – the youngest of three brothers, he inherited the family estate after the oldest committed suicide and the other simply disappeared. But decades on it would seem someone is out for vengeance as murder stones – carved headstones attesting to the brutal murders of both brothers – start to appear on the grounds of the estate.

Clearly the key to the puzzle of the murder stones lies at Sangster Hall, where a calamitous incident in the past is now shaping the present, and it is up to Dania to discover the murderous secret of the Sangster family.

Praise for Hania Allen

‘Nicely nasty in all the right places . . . The story rattles along until bringing the curtain down with an unnerving twist’ Craig Robertson

‘A fresh new find for crime fans … the plot is intriguing, the characters are well drawn, and the end comes with an unnerving twist. Extremely readable‘ Sunday Post

‘Captivating characters and an intriguing plot. A great new find for crime fans’ Lin Anderson

‘Pitch-perfect . . . a witty, tense crime novel written in a highly readable style‘ Russel D McLean

Number One New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown returns with another suspenseful thriller

Born into a fine old Charleston family, Hammond Cross is determined to be the city’s next district attorney – without sacrificing his integrity.

Prosecuting the sensational murder of a real estate magnate could be his ticket into office. Yet, while Hammond anticipates his success, someone near him is plotting his downfall.

Is it Steffi Mundell, colleague, ex-lover and rival? Rory Smilow, homicide detective and Hammonds avowed enemy? Is it the dead man’s widow, wily, beautiful and Hammond’s lifelong friend?

Or is it Hammond’s prime suspect, the mysterious woman who shares the secret that would be fatal to Hammond’s ambitions?

Praise for Sandra Brown

‘Suspense that has teeth’
Stephen King

‘Lust, jealousy, and murder suffuse Brown’s crisp thriller’
Publishers Weekly

‘An edge-of-the-seat thriller that’s full of twists . . . Top stuff!’
Star

‘This haunting supernatural thriller is full of hidden treasure that will delight you long after you’ve turned the last page’ Sarah Pinborough, bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes

Maria King knows a secret London. Born blind, she knows the city by sound and touch and smell but now that surgery has restored her sight, the world seems a scarier place and she doesn’t want to see it.

DCI Jonathan Dark also sees a different side to the city. He’s in the shadows, haunted by his failure to save a woman from the hands of stalker, and he won’t let it happen again.

Now a killer has set his sights on Maria, and Jonathan must find a way to stop him.
But when gathering evidence, you can’t choose your source.
Can you save the living by talking to the dead?

‘AK Benedict is snapping at the heels of Ben Aaronovitch as one of the new stars of the sub-genre of crime with a supernatural twist’ Sunday Express

A young artist is searching for the truth about her past – but does she really want to know…?

With an introduction by A J Finn, bestselling author of THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

Superb classic crime from ‘the mistress of day-lit terror!’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘Psychologically rich, intricately plotted and full of dark surprises’ Megan Abbott

When Amanda Garth was born, a nearly-disastrous mix-up caused the hospital to briefly hand her over to the prestigious Garrison family instead of to her birth parents. The error was quickly fixed, Amanda was never told, and the secret was forgotten for twenty-three years … until her aunt thoughtlessly revealed it in casual conversation.

But what if the real accident was Amanda being returned to the wrong parents? After all, she seems much more like the painter Tobias Garrison. Amanda is determined to discover the truth within her aunt’s bizarre anecdote, but soon is trapped in a web of lies, suspicions and deadly secrets …

‘Shiveringly good suspense!’ Lisa Gardner

THE SECOND BOOK IN A GRIPPING SERIES FROM 30 MILLION COPY SELLING AUTHOR.

Detectives Regan Pescoli and Selena Alvarez have been searching for the Star Crossed Killer for months, never imagining Regan will be captured by the madman she’s been hunting. Regan knows exactly what he’s capable of – and avoiding the same fate will take every drop of her courage and cunning.

As Selena joins forces with Regan’s lover Nate to dig deeper into the case and the body count rises, the truth about Regan’s disappearance becomes chillingly clear.

Something evil is lurking in the snow-covered mountains. With time running out, the only way they can save Regan will be to get inside a killer’s twisted mind and unravel a shocking message that he is revealing.

‘She is one of the best’ Harlan Coben

THE NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES, BORN TO DIE, IS AVAILABLE NOW

Louise Widdows has never been happy in her marriage. From a generation where the woman’s role was one of support and supplication, she provided both in exchange for a secure roof over her head. But her facade of gentility disguises two secrets: a child born in adultery and given away at birth, and a small inheritance she has always kept hidden. But then events align in her favour: her husband abruptly leaves her, and the father of her illegitimate son dies, allowing her the possibility of finding him after all these years.

Abandoning the shabby matrimonial home, she moves into a cottage and begins to blossom in her independence. But things are not destined to run smoothly. Two bodies are discovered near her old home, and she discovers that her husband has absconded with a charity’s funds, as well as the contents of their bank account. Suddenly her new life seems very precarious indeed, putting in doubt that she will ever locate her unknown son.

Fear, revenge and deadly superstition collide in these two exclusive J. D. Robb short stories.

Haunted in Death

Lieutenant Eve Dallas doesn’t believe in ghosts. But when a very recent corpse shows up in a haunted abandoned nightclub, alongside the bones of the famous missing singer, Bobbie Bray, everyone is spooked – especially the new owner.

Did Bobbie’s ghost finally get her revenge, or is there a more earthly explanation?

Set between Memory in Death and Born in Death.

Eternity in Death

When notorious it-girl Tiara Kent is found dead in her plush Manhattan apartment, the murder looks to everyone like a vampire attack – everyone but the ever-practical Lieutenant Eve Dallas. As the hysteria spreads, Eve must act fast.

Discovering Tiara’s secret lover, a Dark Prince, Eve and her team are led on a chase into the darkest corners of the city and deep into their own fears.

Set between Creation in Death and Strangers in Death.

Ruler. Puppet Master. Killer.

Glory. Death. Well-born Athenian cavalry officer, Kineas, fought shoulder to shoulder with Alexander in his epic battles against the Persian hordes. But on his return from the east to his native city, he finds not glory but shame – and exile.

With nothing to his name but his military skills, Kineas agrees to lead a band of veterans to the city of Olbia, where the Tyrant is offering good money to train the city’s elite cavalry. But soon Kineas and his men find they have stumbled into a deadly maze of intrigue and conspiracy as the Tyrant plots to use them as pawns in the increasingly complex power games between his own citizens, and the dread military might of Macedon.

Caught between his duty to the Tyrant, his loyalty to his men and a forbidden love affair with a charismatic Scythian noblewoman, Kineas must call on all his Athenian guile, his flair on the battlefield, and even – he is convinced – the intervention of the gods, to survive.

‘My favourite series’ Val McDermid

DCI Nelson has been receiving threatening letters telling him to ‘go to the stone circle and rescue the innocent who is buried there’. He is shaken, not only because children are very much on his mind, with Michelle’s baby due to be born, but because although the letters are anonymous, they are somehow familiar. They read like the letters that first drew him into the case of The Crossing Places, and to Ruth. But the author of those letters is dead. Or are they?

Meanwhile Ruth is working on a dig in the Saltmarsh – another henge, known by the archaeologists as the stone circle – trying not to think about the baby. Then bones are found on the site, and identified as those of Margaret Lacey, a twelve-year-old girl who disappeared thirty years ago.

As the Margaret Lacey case progresses, more and more aspects of it begin to hark back to that first case of The Crossing Places, and to Scarlett Henderson, the girl Nelson couldn’t save. The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.

After a summer of violent protests in 2020-sparked by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks-a dangerously false narrative gained mainstream acceptance: Criminal justice in the United States is overly punitive and racially oppressive. But, the harshest and loudest condemnations of incarceration, policing, and prosecution are often shallow and at odds with the available data. And the significant harms caused by this false narrative are borne by those who can least afford them: black and brown people who are disproportionately the victims of serious crimes.

In Criminal (In)Justice, Rafael A. Mangual offers a more balanced understanding of American criminal justice, and cautions against discarding traditional crime control measures. A powerful combination of research, data-driven policy journalism, and the author’s lived experiences, this book explains what many reform advocates get wrong, and illustrates how the misguided commitment to leniency places America’s most vulnerable communities at risk.
The stakes of this moment are incredibly high. Ongoing debates over criminal justice reform have the potential to transform our society for a generation-for better or for worse. Grappling with the data-and the sometimes harsh realities they reflect-is the surest way to minimize the all-too-common injustices plaguing neighborhoods that can least afford them.

The East-End stories that inspired the BBC TV series, CALL THE MIDWIFE, in a gorgeous gift box.

London’s East End in the 1950s was a tough place: the struggles of post-war life – bombsites, overcrowded tenements, crime, brothels – bred a culture of tight-knit family communities, larger-than-life characters and a lively social scene. It was into this world that Jennifer Worth entered as a trainee midwife. But docklands life was tough, and babies were often born in slum conditions.

In funny, disturbing and heartbreaking stories, Jennifer Worth recounts her time among nuns, prostitutes, abortionists, bigamists, gangsters and expectant mothers, portraying East Enders’ amazing resilience – and their warmth and humour in the face of hardship. Written with affection and nostalgia, her midwife stories chronicle the lives, traditions and tales of a bygone era.

When it’s in your blood, there’s no other way.

THE LIFE by the ‘undisputed queen of crime writing’ (Guardian) and Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Martina Cole is an unflinching novel that exposes a world that many would rather ignore…

The Baileys are born into the Life.

Brothers Daniel and Peter rule London’s East End with threats and violence. Only a fool would cross them, but there are always those in the shadows who will try.

And when their enemies strike, every Bailey pays the price. But none more so than Daniel’s only daughter, Tania. The Life is in her blood, and now it’s her weapon for revenge.

For more novels that will take you deep into the dark and dangerous criminal underworld, check out Martina Cole’s THE GRAFT, THE BUSINESS and REVENGE

Beautiful, volatile Jessica has long since burned her boats in the village by the sea where she was born. She longs to return, but first she needs to secure the love of the powerful man who has spurned her obsessive adoration.

Sarah Fortune, her older, cynical friend, is keen to distance herself from her usual haunts and welcomes the chance to leave London in the hope that she might she be able to effect a reconciliation between Jessica and her mother. Pennyvale both charms and distracts her with hints of scandal and buried secrets, but it soon begins to disquiet her as cracks of distrust and jealousy show in the polite façades. Sarah is excited when Jessica tells her she is coming home, but she never arrives.

Sarah’s instinctive knowledge of Jessica leads her back to the capital, fearful of what she will find. What she discovers reveals a truth more chilling than she could have imagined, but she has to return to Pennyvale to fully understand how Jessica was finally brought home, and why…

#1 bestselling author Stephen King returns with a brand-new novel about the secrets we keep buried and the cost of unearthing them.

SOMETIMES GROWING UP MEANS FACING YOUR DEMONS

The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

LATER is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King’s classic novel IT, LATER is a powerful, haunting, unforgettable exploration of what it takes to stand up to evil in all the faces it wears.

(P) 2021 Simon & Schuster Audio

The people and businesses of London are quickly recovering from the ravages of the plague, none faster than the Court of Charles II where excess, corruption and debauchery has rebounded at a frenetic pace. In Westminster, in the haphazard corridors of White Hall Palace, plans are afoot for a grandiose ball in honour of a long-dead but English-born Pope. Meanwhile, the markets and coffee houses in the city are awash with rumours of war and portents of a coming disaster, inflamed by uncensored newssheets and the wagging tongues of dissatisfied citizens.

Mysterious killings at both ends of the capital have been caused by the use of an unusually long, slender blade, and Thomas Chaloner is ordered to investigate. The only common thread is the victims’ connection to the Worshipful Company of Poulters, whose members are struggling to keep ahead of London’s enormous demand for eggs. But this leads him into a tapestry of conspiracy, outlandish claims of the Second Coming, the reappearance of a number of regicides and ever more brazen killings.

As the date of the great ball looms closer, Chaloner fears that there is a dangerously credible conspiracy against the throne, and he has very little time to prevent history from repeating itself . . .

‘UK readers, you have a nice surprise coming. No, not Brexit, FEVER, by Deon Meyer. Reminiscent of THE STAND and THE PASSAGE. Great stuff’ STEPHEN KING

I want to tell you about my Father’s murder.

I want to tell you who killed him and why.

This is the story of my life.

And the story of your life and your world too, as you will see.

Nico Storm and his father drive across a desolate South Africa, constantly alert for feral dogs, motorcycle gangs, nuclear contamination. They are among the few survivors of a virus that has killed most of the world’s population. Young as he is, Nico realises that his superb marksmanship and cool head mean he is destined to be his father’s protector.

But Willem Storm, though not a fighter, is a man with a vision. He is searching for a place that can become a refuge, a beacon of light and hope in a dark and hopeless world, a community that survivors will rebuild from the ruins. And so Amanzi is born.

Fever is the epic, searing story of a group of people determined to carve a city out of chaos.