Lake District Mysteries

"...a beautifully-evoked sense of the Lake District and an interesting and diverse group of characters. Martin Edwards got plenty of kudos for his Harry Devlin series, and he should get even more for this one. His DCI Hannah Scarlett is a fine creation." -Peter Robinson, New York Times bestselling author Oxford historian and TV personality Daniel Kind and his new lover, Miranda, both want to escape to a new life. On impulse they buy Tarn Cottage in Brackdale, an idyllic valley in the Lake District that Daniel knew as a boy, a place so remote that the dead had to be carried out over the peaks on pack animals along the ancient Coffin Trail. Tarn Cottage was once home to Barrie Gilpin, an autistic youth suspected of a savage murder. A young woman visitor to the valley had been found laid out on the Sacrifice Stone, an ancient pagan site up on the fell. Barrie fell to his death near the crime scene before he could be questioned. All these years later, Daniel retains his belief in Barrie's innocence and questions his own policeman father's handling of the case. When DCI Hannah Scarlett and her squad launch a cold case review, Brackdale's skeletons begin to rattle. The wild geography of the Lakes District plays against local literary references, all backdrop to the lives of villagers and outsiders drawn to this beautiful spot-but for what reasons? The Coffin Trail launches a new series by a master British hand.

"Nearly every page yields new revelations in this delectable village caper." -Publishers Weekly Warren Howe is surprised by a hooded visitor while working in a garden in Old Sawrey, a lovely village in England's Lake District. Soon it is Warren who is dead-murdered with his own scythe. The police identify several suspects but lack the evidence to make an arrest. Years later, an anonymous tip sparks the interest of DCI Hannah Scarlett, who heads the local Cold Case Review Team. Warren's wife Tina is accused of killing her husband, although she had an alibi. Hannah's sergeant, Nick Lowther, involved in the original investigation, seems disturbed by her determination to look again at the old crime. And Daniel Kind, the historian, wants to uncover the secret of the strange garden at his own cottage. Enlisting the help of Warren's former business partner, garden designer Peter Flint, he is drawn into the mystery of the murder. Daniel and Hannah find old sins cast long shadows as they search for the truth. Then there is another horrifying death. Now Daniel and Hannah must piece together the clues that lead to a shocking revelation. But by the time the puzzle is solved, Hannah's life has changed forever.

"Fans of this increasingly popular series will be in line for this one, and it should be recommended to readers of such similar British authors as Peter Robinson and Sally Spencer." -Booklist After ten years, Guy-a drifter with a taste for deception-has returned to Coniston in England's Lake District. Local journalist Tony di Venuto is campaigning to revive interest in the disappearance of Emma Bestwick, and Guy knows what happened to her. When Guy tips off the newspaperman that Emma will not be coming home, DCI Hannah Scarlett, head of Cumbria's Cold Case Review Team, re-opens the old investigation. Her inquiries take her to the Museum of Myth and Legend and to the remote and eerie Arsenic Labyrinth-a series of stone tunnels used to remove arsenic from tin ore. Meanwhile, historian Daniel Kind is immersing himself in the work of John Ruskin, whose neighbors created the Arsenic Labyrinth. A shocking discovery made against the stunning backdrop of the Lake District in winter makes it clear to Hannah that there is more than one mystery to solve, and she turns to Daniel for help in untangling the secrets of the past....

"A thought-provoking examination of serious pastoral issues and a thoroughly entertaining mystery that succeeds on all levels without recourse to bombast or carnage." -Publishers Weekly The Reverend Blake Fisher was ambitious and naïve, a combination that led to his exile to Picketsville, Virginia, where his bishop has named him the new vicar. He's off to a poor start what with a corpse in the sanctuary, his gun stolen, his congregation in open rebellion, and the local law breathing down his neck. Then the Vicar's secretary, Millicent Bass, an incorrigible gossip and snoop, follows Waldo to an early grave. For Sheriff Ike Schwartz, two murders and the unexplained presence of the FBI in his town wreak havoc with keeping the peace. They don't do his romance with the president of Callend College for Women any good either. Ruth Harris is threatened by the murders on the one hand, and on the other by her faculty, who dismiss Ike as just another country cop. If only they knew how overqualified Ike actually is....

"A caper stuffed with comedy and crime...equal parts adrenaline and heart. A completely delightful read." -Gregg Hurwitz, New York Times bestselling author "Smart, sassy, and sizzling with action." -Deborah Crombie, New York Times bestselling author It was supposed to be a simple job: steal the paintings, leave the forgeries... When a helicopter crashes through the skylight of the Asian Art Museum, an audacious heist turns into a tragedy. The only witness to the crash is eleven-year-old Grace, who watches in horror as her uncle is killed and a priceless statue stolen by two men and a-ghost? At least that's how the eerie, smoke-like figure with parchment skin and floating hair appears to Grace. Scared almost to death, she flees into the night and seeks refuge in the back alleys of San Francisco's Chinatown. Grace is found by Sally Mei, self-appointed guardian of Chinatown. While Sally trains Grace in basic survival skills, her erstwhile partner Cape Weathers, private detective and public nuisance, searches for the mysterious crew behind the robbery before they strike the museum a second time. As the clock winds down, Cape enlists aid from some unlikely allies to lay a trap for a ghost who has no intention of being caught-nor of leaving any witnesses alive to tell the tale.

Herman Jackson never thought his past would catch up with him, least of all via a murdered Vietnam veteran named Charlie Victor. Jackson used to run a bookie operation in Detroit, but his bail bond business in St. Paul is much safer. And if Charlie Victor wasn't his best client, he was at least a steady one, paying his bonding fee out of a secret stash he called his frag box. Then Charlie is beaten to death on a public street in broad daylight. Strangely, he leaves behind a will naming Jackson as his sole heir. Jackson wants justice for Charlie, who had become something of a friend. But with plenty of money problems of his own, he also wants the box of cash. Unfortunately, Charlie's killers want it, too, and the race is on. Jackson will traverse the dark alleys of St. Paul's Railroad Island, the snowbound Minnesota Iron Range, and finally an abandoned tunnel under St. Paul. But every step reveals another layer of protection and another set of lies Jackson has told, including the ones he told himself....

"Quite definitely addictive . . . a must-read, written with wit and humor and peopled with multidimensional characters. What more could a reader ask for?" -Mary Balogh, New York Times bestselling author The phone call Rachel Gold received from a nervous CPA almost seemed routine. Rosenthal wanted to meet with her to discuss something confidential about a corporate merger. Hardly an unusual request of a lawyer. But Rosenthal never made it to the meeting-and when his corpse is discovered, it was clear he had died under circumstances too bizarre to believe. Having never even met the murdered CPA, Rachel is willing to let the police try to close the case. But that all changes with the next victim-someone so dear to Rachel that the hunt for the killer becomes her personal vendetta. What lethal facts did the slain accountant find buried in the books of Armstrong Bioproducts while doing the pre-merger due diligence? Was there any connection between that pharmaceutical company and the presidential campaign of Rachel's political hero, Dr. Douglas Armstrong? Armstrong, the founder of Armstrong Bioproducts, is now the junior senator from Missouri. And what was the significance, if any, of the yellowed typewritten lists of names of residents of two St. Louis nursing homes that had gone out of business decades earlier? Teaming up again with her best friend, Benny Goldberg, Rachel seeks her own measure of vengeance. As other corpses show up, her pursuit will take her from the upper strata of St. Louis society to the elaborate network of limestone caves far beneath the streets of St. Louis, where the answers to the mystery-along with the murderers themselves-await her arrival.

1909 Egypt. It's easy to go adrift in the complex political currents swirling through a country that has long been "advised" by the British after the mess it made of its finances, but now swelling with nationalism. And you can't discount the self-interest of the Khedive, the Royal Family, and of the country's pashas. Nevertheless, Captain Gareth Owen, Head of the Cairo Secret Police, has to ask, "Where's the body?" The girl, perhaps a woman of ill repute but one definitely lost overboard, had been glimpsed lying on a sandbank in the Nile. Then she vanished. Why had Prince Narouz hired the dahabeeyah? Surely not just to cruise to Luxor-the man has no interest in antiquities. And why was Miss Sekhmet on the boat anyway? Was it for the Prince's pleasure, or to embarrass him? Under heavy pressure from politicos and his own mistress, the strong-minded Zeinab, Owen steers a difficult course after a murderer....