Sarah Hawkswood Midsummer, 1145. Walter, the steward of Evesham Abbey, is found dead at the bottom of a well pit. The Abbot, whose relationship with the lord Sheriff of Worcestershire is strained at best, dislikes needing to call in help. However, as the death appears to have not been an accident, he grudgingly receives Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin.
The trio know to step carefully with the contentious undercurrents at play. As the sheriff ‘s men investigate the steward’s death, they discover that truth is in short supply. With the tensions between the Abbey and the local castle guard reaching boiling point, another killing will force the investigation down a dangerous path.
Sarah Hawkswood April, 1145. Thorgar the Ploughman is found by the bloodied body of Father Edmund, a village priest in Ripple, and is summarily hanged for being caught in the act, despite his pleas of innocence.
When his sister goes to Worcester to seek justice for Thorgar, the lord Sheriff sends Hugh Bradecote, with Serjeant Catchpoll and Under Serjeant Walkelin, to discover the truth. They soon expose strong motives for placing the blame on the ploughman’s shoulders, some unpleasant secrets festering among the villagers, as well as the whisper of a treasure long lost and now rediscovered. The shadow the noose casts is a long one, but the Sheriff’s men will need to plumb the darkness to uncover the true killer.
Leonie Swann The year is rapidly drawing to an end, Hettie the tortoise is hibernating and Agnes, Charlie, Marshall, and the other elderly residents of Sunset Hall are going stir-crazy at home. They’ve had enough of the broken boiler, draughty bedrooms, and Christmas jingles on the radio. And to top it all off, another series of murders is rocking the hamlet of Duck End. It seems like every villager and his dog is trying to make up for all of the thwarted murders of the past thirty years.
Most unpleasant! The residents of Sunset Hall don’t want anything to do with the criminal activities. So when Edwina manages to slip onto Marshall’s computer in an unobserved moment and promptly wins a stay in an exclusive coastal hotel in Cornwall, the Sunset Hall crew doesn’t waste any time in deciding to join her. After all, Edwina can’t be left unsupervised.
But they’ve barely unpacked their bags when Agnes sees something unsettling from the terrace of the hotel: two figures in hoods walk away from the hotel along the cliffs, but only one returns. Worried she’s witnessed a murder, Agnes tells the others. At first nobody really believes her, after all the crew have enough to do working their way through the incredible menu, exploring the hotel’s wellness-landscape, navigating old and new love affairs and adopting a boa constrictor. But when the hotel ends up isolated from the outside world after a storm, it becomes clear that a murderer really is on the loose—and they’re trapped, just like all of the other guests!
Antti Tuomainen A cold-blooded killer strikes at the hottest the head of a sauna-heater company is murdered … in the sauna. Who has turned up the temperature and burned him to death?
The evidence points in the direction of Anni Korpinen – top salesperson and potential successor at Puhti Saunas. And as if hitting middle-age, being in a marriage that has lost its purpose, and struggling with work weren’t enough, Anni realizes that she must be quicker than both the police and the murderer to uncover who is behind it all – before it’ s too late…
Kyle Mewburn It’s winter of 1928, and young German man Wilhelm Erdinger is left stranded in the remote New Zealand village of Falters Mill. Wilhelm purchases a piece of land capable of providing the kind of sustainable, self-sufficient life he craves, and a shack he soon begins to call home. Though he is regarded with suspicion by many in the local community, he soon attracts a small number of friends, each outsiders in their own way.
With a little help from the ecological theories of Steiner and the poetic inspiration of Goethe, Wilhelm survives, at times even flourishes, in a country rocked by the effects of war and the Depression. However, it is the arrival of a new war ― coupled with the sometimes-brutal climate of Central Otago ― that threatens to destroy the utopia he has created.
Sewing Moonlight is a tragic tale of love, loss and biodynamics in a challenging time. More than this, it is a story of one man’s journey from alienation to acceptance. Like the moon, which looms large over everything, each ending is also a new beginning
Jill Johnson Eustacia Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology who lives alone in London with only her extensive collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her garden with meticulous care. Her life is quiet. Her schedule never changes. Until the day she hears a scream and the temptation to investigate proves irresistible.
Through her telescope, Professor Rose is drawn into the life of an extraordinarily beautiful neighbour, Simone, and nicknames the men who visit her after poisonous plants according to the toxic effect they have on Simone. But who are these four men? And why does Eustacia Rose recognize one of them?
Just as she preserves her secret garden, she feels inexplicably compelled to protect her neighbour. But when her precious garden is vandalized and someone close to Simone is murdered with a toxin derived from a rare poisonous plant, Eustacia finds herself implicated in the crime and decides to take matters into her own hands . . .
Robert Lautner Before there was Jaws, there was… QUINT. Fifteen years since I landed on Amity, an island full of rich folks adrift between the Hamptons and Montauk. Got a business and a boat, got me a truck with my name and a pretty shark scratched on the door. Carved it myself. Bad job.
I got ghosts around me, lot of ghosts. Gotta put ‘em somewhere. Can’t drink ‘em all. Ain’t here for company, and I only got two stories for telling company anyways.
Thinking if I get them stories down, on paper mind, then that’s just between me and the ink. You already know the end of his now find out where it all began. So much more than a fisherman, Quint is a survivor, a fighter, a man who has left three wives in his wake.
Alexander McCall Smith In this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi take on an intriguing new case and uncover surprising truths.
In the rolling hills just outside Gaborone, surrounded by a grove of acacia trees, lies The Great Hippopotamus Hotel. With spacious rooms overlooking the Botswanan countryside and a fine and loyal staff, the hotel has served as a refuge to weary travelers for many years. But a sudden string of misfortunes threatens to ruin the hotel’s reputation. Food poisoning befalls an unlucky diner, laundry mysteriously disappears from the drying line, and a scorpion stings one of the guests. Mishap after mishap, until it seems these incidents are more than simple coincidences—something foul is afoot.
Jorn Lier Horst Investigator Sofia Kovic has uncovered a connection between several deaths and murder cases in Oslo over the last year and a half. She tries to call her closest superior, Alexander Blix, not yet wanting to involve anyone else in the police, but before Blix has time to return her call, Kovic is shot and killed in her own home – execution style. And in the apartment below, Blix’s daughter Iselin narrowly escapes becoming the killer’s next victim.
Four days later, Blix and online crime journalist Emma Ramm are locked inside an interrogation room, facing the National Criminal Investigation Service. Blix has shot and killed a man, and Ramm saw it all happen. In the hospital, Iselin’s life hangs in the balance. Blix no longer knows who he can trust. And he’s not even certain he’s killed the right man…
J.A. Baker I am safe here, in my cottage in the woods where no one knows me or my real name. All is peaceful and calm and the real world can’t hurt me – because I know how cruel it can be. But then I see her again. I see her pale, white face. Watching me. Taunting me. And then the notes begin to appear. I know who you really are… I know what you did…
All of a sudden, the walls of my cottage feel like a prison, the peaceful woods around me a maze that will trap me forever. Who is this woman? What does she want? Does she know what happened during that boiling hot summer of 1976 when I made my terrible mistake. And if so, how? So many questions paralysing me with fear. One thing I do know. She must be stopped.
