Sophie Rivers' hopes for a peaceful sabbatical are squashed when she becomes the victim of a terrifying stalker at a literary festival.Sophie Rivers is on a year's sabbatical from her teaching job at William Murdock College, and is enjoying spending time with her fiancé Mike Lowden and volunteering at the Big Brum Bookfest – an exciting new literary festival. But someone is determined to sabotage the event. Phone calls and letters threaten the festival's most prestigious authors and the director mysteriously falls ill. Then, suddenly put in charge of the project, Sophie becomes the victim of a terrifying stalker.It's not long before Sophie is calling her old friend Superintendent Chris Groom to find out as much as she can about the case. But when the stalker turns murderer, it's clear she's in way over her head.

First in a brand-new Victorian mystery series featuring steward Matthew Rowsley and housekeeper Mrs Faulkner as an engaging detective duo. Newly appointed as land agent to the youthful Lord Croft, Matthew Rowsley finds plenty to keep him busy as he attends to his lordship's neglected country estate. But he's distracted from his tasks by the disappearance of a young housemaid. Has Maggie really eloped with a young man, as her mother attests – or is the truth rather more sinister? What's been going on behind the scenes at the grand country estate ... and where has his lordship disappeared to? Teaming up with housekeeper Mrs Faulkner to get to the bottom of the matter, Matthew uncovers a number of disturbing secrets, scandals and simmering tensions within the household. Something rotten is going on at Thorncroft – and it's up to Matthew and Mrs Faulkner to unearth the truth.

Stranded at a house party - when a murderer strikes!May 1861, Victorian England. When Matthew and Harriet Rowsley are invited to a house party at Clunston Park by Matthew's cousin, Colonel Barrington Rowsley and his wife Lady Hortensia, Harriet is nervous - surely the aristocratic guests will snub her? After all, they are but mere servants in their eyes! Her fears are realised on their first evening when the only person who deigns to speak to her is the spiteful Grafin Weiserr and confirmed when she commits a major faux-pas at the cricket match the following day.But there's no escape! The cricket match is abandoned due to a storm, and flooding leaves the house guests stranded. Things worsen when Grafin Weiserr is found murdered and the finger is quickly pointed at Clara, an eleven-year-old maid as the culprit. Convinced that she cannot be guilty, Harriet and Matthew agree to investigate.The aristocratic fa�ade begins to crumble under their...

The arrival of an unexpected guest means trouble ahead for the residents of Thorncroft House in this deftly-plotted Victorian mystery. On a freezing winter's night, with the household in mourning following the death of the dowager Lady Croft, the residents of Thorncroft House are roused from their beds by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. Although Lady Stanton seems reluctant to explain the reasons for her visit, housekeeper Harriet Rowsley would never turn a stranger from the door; she offers Lady Stanton and her servants all the hospitality at her disposal, however secretive and arrogant the new guest might be. But tensions arise over the following days, with both visitors and servants trapped indoors by the snow, and Lady Stanton proving a difficult and demanding guest. The situation worsens on the discovery of the body of a young housemaid lying crumpled at the foot of the stairs. A tragic accident ... or something more sinister? Who exactly is...

Tobias Campion, rector of Moreton St Jude, is delighted to welcome the widowed Lady Chase as his parishioner. Charming and generous-spirited, she nonetheless harbours a secret sorrow: her son is missing, presumed dead, and her loathsome nephew Sir Marcus is desperate to declare himself heir to the estate. Much as Tobias dislikes Marcus, his feelings for another member of the family are rather different - the lovely Lady Dorothea enchants him from the very start, not least because of her kindly ways with the enigmatic governess Anne.Then Anne disappears on the very day that the body of a stranger is found in a local river. Surely she has not had a hand in his death? When it transpires that the man might have been bringing news of Lady Chase's missing son, Tobias is forced to quit the village to uncover the truth. Unfortunately, many of those he encounters in his travels are equally determined to keep the past well hidden...

'Resting' actress Vena Burford is far from idle: she's found work as an interior decorator refurbishing a stately home recently occupied by Hollywood bad boy Toby Frensham, now taking a lead role with the RSC in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon. Not everyone loves Toby as much as she does, however - and maybe someone hates him. Vena also works part-time for her estate agent brother, showing potential buyers around upmarket Warwickshire country houses. She's done this so often she smells a rat when couples who don't fit the usual client profile begin to visit the properties. Vena is initially curious, then indignant, and finally alarmed. Why should these curiously unnerving characters, who patently have no intention of buying, demand to explore every nook and cranny of the houses?It would have been better not to ask questions. When someone starts to tail Vena's car, leaving some silent but deeply threatening messages, it's clear that a very modern crime is being played out...

It's morning service in a quiet village church. Josie Welford, wealthy widow of one of the country s most wanted criminals and now licensee of the White Hart gastro-pub, is daydreaming during Father Tim Martin s sermon. Suddenly the peace is shattered when a filthy Chinese youth flings himself into the church and demands sanctuary.Should the Church accede to the request for protection that no longer has legal standing? Or should it hand Tang over to the authorities? Josie supports Tim s decision to protect Tang, but not all the congregation agree, taking their grievances to the Church hierarchy. But Josie's friend and long-term lodger, the Food Standards Agency inspector Nick Thomas, fears for the boy's life. Tang is almost certainly an illegal immigrant whose gang-masters would rather have dead than able to betray them. It's not long before the media are involved, the subsequent publicity bringing fatal results, not just to the priest and the refugee, but to St Jude's itself.

Spring 1810. Young parson Tobias Campion is settling in at his new parish in Moreton St Jude. Although he loves the quiet village lfe, Tobias has a troubling sense that all is not quite as it seems.The suspicious death of a poacher, the untimely demise of a local aristocrat and a mysterious attack on Tobias himself confirms his previous misgivings; malign influence is at work in the supposedly sleepy hamlet. And then someone close to his heart disappears.

One cold, wet evening in an otherwise unusually dry April, a man falls from the fifth floor window of a hotel in Hythe. Did he jump or was he pushed?Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman is already struggling to juggle her work and private life: she is having difficulties finding a company willing to restore her and her boyfriend's new home and has to put Mark up in her own cottage whilst the work is completed. And now, why did this man jump from a hotel balcony when he had a perfectly good balcony at home?A glitch with the water system and her boyfriend's troublesome daughter add more problems to Fran's lot. Can she find the time to discover what it is that appears not quite right about Alec Minton's death?

When a colleague becomes seriously ill, Chief Superintendent Fran Harman has to delay her impending retirement to oversee an investigation into a recent spate of 'happy-slappings' and minor assaults in the area.The wave of incidents has ignited a media furore and Fran soon finds herself having to spend as much time trying to control the press as trying to catch the criminals. However, the local reporter who initially broke the story may have personal reasons for taking such an avid interest in the case. As the crimes escalate in severity, Fran must call on all her resources in order to resolve the nightmare that has developed around her.

Personal tragedy cut short Kate Power's accelerated-promotion career in the Met. She's lucky, though – Birmingham CID give her a job, and chance to make a new start in the house her great-aunt has given her. Soon Kate discovers that she's trying to fix up the house from hell, with garden to match. Domestic equals professional pressure: though most of her new colleagues are helpful and supportive, some just think she's fresh female meat to harass.Some seem to think Kate's not pulling her weight in their current case of abduction and abuse of young boys. Then personal life starts overlapping with the investigation. Should Kate follow the conventional line of enquiry, or strike out on her own?

Lina has been in care all her life, but when she comes across a page from a rare 16th century book that she remembers from early childhood, she snaps up the chance to buy it. If she can locate the rest of the book, maybe she can find her father. But in the ensuing weeks a series of burglaries and attacks occur. What has Lina uncovered?

Sophie Rivers, inner-city college lecturer and amateur singer, has a satisfying life in Birmingham: a job she enjoys, a close circle of friends. Then, suddenly, things go badly wrong. One of her students is murdered on college premises; worse still, her best friend George meets a tragic end on the site of the newly built Music Centre.Everyone believes his death was an accident – everyone except Sophie. Determined to find his killer, she starts asking questions. And soon she knows they must be the right questions, because now someone is trying to murder her...