The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn are agog with curiosity when the Gazette advertises “A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.” A childish practical joke? Or a spiteful hoax? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, the locals arrive at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out and a gun is fired. When they come back on, a gruesome scene is revealed....

On a quiet morning in St. Mary Mead, a maid wakes Colonel Bantry and his wife to inform them that a young woman is dead in their library. The victim is dressed in a tawdry dress, with dyed hair and heavy make-up. Mrs. Bantry knows that as long as the murder remains unsolved her husband will be the target of suspicion and gossip, so she asks Miss Marple for help. The victim is 18-year-old Ruby Keene, a dancer at the Majestic Hotel, whose body is identified...

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is at a loss: The daughter of her friend Taymullah Azhar has been taken by her mother and Barbara can't really help-Azhar never married Angelina, and his name isn't on Hadiyyah's birth certivicate. The trail a private detective follows goes cold. Then Angelina reappears with shocking news: Hadiyyah has been kidnapped in Italy. The Italian police are investigating, and the Yard won't get involved, until Barbara takes...

In this novel Inspector Thomas Lynley is mystified when he's sent undercover to investigate the death of Ian Cresswell at the request of the man's uncle, the wealthy and influential Bernard Fairclough. The death has been ruled an accidental drowning, and nothing on the surface indicates otherwise. But when Lynley enlists the help of his friends Simon and Deborah St. James, the trio's digging soon reveals that the Fairclough clan is awash in secrets,...

"It's almost Christmas in the small English village of Finch--and everyone is sick. Though many of the villagers regretfully decline their invitations to Emma and Derek Harris's annual Christmas bash, Lori Shepherd has no intention of missing it. When the winter weather takes a turn for the worse, it's agreed that none of the guests will leave until morning. There's general merriment as the Christmas party becomes a pajama party--until a car appears...

"Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway. Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before...

Amateur sleuths Carole Seddon and best friend Jude are drawn into the mystery surrounding human remains discovered in the seaside resort of Smalting. Their suspicion quickly falls on attractive Philly Rose, whose boyfriend has recently vanished in mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, Smalting residents Kelvin Southwest and Reginald Flowers each seem to have secrets of their own. When the bones under the beach hut are identified, the ghosts of the...

"Mrs. Jeffries always keeps her friends close and now must keep an enemy even closer if she is going to catch a killer. . . . Inspector Nigel Nivens is not a nice man or a good investigator. In fact, he's terrible at his job and has always done everything he can to make life difficult for Inspector Witherspoon. But even his powerful family can't help him after he maliciously tried to hobble Witherspoon's last homicide investigation. He's been sent...

When a Member of Parliament shows up at New Scotland Yard requesting an investigation into the suicide of the son of one of his constituents in the beautiful town of Ludlow, the Assistant Commissioner sees two opportunities in this request. The first is to have an MP owing him a favor, and the second is to get rid of Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, whose career at the Met has been hanging by a thread for quite some time. So he assigns Havers to...

"Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley are back in the next Lynley novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George. When a police detective is taken off life support after falling into a coma, only an autopsy reveals the murderous act that precipitated her death. She'd been working on a special task force within North London's Nigerian community, and Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is...